Star Spangled Beasters: Part 2: L.A. Noire

@tr0n:

Nationalism is shitty and my hate for it vast, if the series is meant to be a piss take its not really clear. I am only watching because its seems Dan and Abby came up with a dumb idea to frame a series because of other holiday themes they've done, which can mostly be ignored once they start playing. Does leave me thinking boy America sure is a terrible place.

What are the odds Metal Wolf Chaos XD is released before 4th July? I know they wanted to play it for this feature but if it comes out later I hope they revisit it anyway.

I haven't watched either of these episodes because both of these games are incredibly boring to watch, so I don't know what this feature is about, but surely we'll see Mafia 3 and something like Wolfenstein 2 (or Papers Please like mentioned earlier) in the next two episodes?

This won't just be a patriotic circle jerk all the way through, right?

@curiosus: It’s patriotism not nationalism and it’s tongue in cheek at that. I mean Abby is dressed as Uncle Sam and Dan is Lady Liberty, it’s pretty silly. I totally understand people who might not want to watch this with all the news in the US, but I do not think Abby or Dan are some crazy nationalists who believe their country is objectively superior.

I never comment on videos but wow, this comment section is a mess. Abby and Dan, keep doing what you're doing. You know what they say, if you've got haters you must be doing something right.. Not the series' fault people inject politics into a fun set of videogame videos.

@boonsong: I don't think anyone in the comments believes that. Its just an unfortunate reminder of the people that do think like that, who are very insistent on all the news being about them.

@curiosus: Fair enough. I’m not very into this series myself mostly because I’m just not very interested in video game Americana, but I would be a liar if I didn't say it also feels a bit weird to watch at this time specifically.

Soo... did they get the right guy?

Focusing on how 'great' the USA is right now is a bold choice to say the least...

I still contend that this is an extremely tone-deaf and insensitive idea for a video series given the state of the world right now (though for some of us the idea of being patriotic for America at any time is ill-conceived). Folks here can push back on that all they like, calling us "offended" or "salty", but it's simply a desire for Giant Bomb to be a little more self-aware about this stuff. We all know it's touch-in-cheek but that doesn't mean revelling in this kind of iconography can't be harmful. It can alienate the part of the audience who has an uncomfortable history with America, and to an outside perspective who don't know who Dan or Abby are, it can look like solidarity for the patriotic bigots who actually do get this "fuck yeah" about nationalism.

Just because the idea for this series was intended to be lighthearted doesn't mean that's how it will appear to everyone. Intent ≠ impact. I wish the GB folks could see that.

This is just the equivalent of dressing up as Santa and playing Christmas-themed games in the lead up to the holiday itself. The comments for this series are kind of mind-boggling to me.

Heh, nothing about this series is harmful. One can be proud of his or her country, people and heritage despite the current political climate in said country that changes every 4-8 years anyway.

It's a site about video games, try to relax a little bit and enjoy the show. :)

My guy, if you don't think this "current political climate" isn't reflective of a history of bigotry, prejudice and colonial violence, all of which helped establish the country this video series is celebrating, I don't know what to tell you. But sure, it's just a site about video games. No need to engage critically with my entertainment. :)

these comments wow wow that is all.

@lordofultima: it’s really not. Nobody thinks Father Christmas is a hypocrite or a murderer or even a little bit unkind. Father Christmas is a symbol for all that is good in the world. The USA is not.

Well, this comment section is a nightmare.

Dan, Abby, please keep doing this. It's a fun series that is in no way reflective on current events.

@fledeye: But Lady Liberty, definitely a murderer. Christianity? Definitely not full of hypocrisy and murderers. Nope.

Oh good the comments are completely insane again.

yeah- given state of things (just this week alone), it's getting increasingly difficult to just take this at 'haha videogames!'

we all know the beasters' intentions are in the right place- but draping yourself in the iconography of a nation evokes the good and the bad- and this week (among many others) has had a looot of fucking bad.

"inject politics" lol how long are people going to keep pretending this is an honest statement?

Anyway props to all the accounts calling out the "its just fun" crowd for what this actually always is ffs.. Done with all this.

Jesus Christ these comments. I'm not even American and I feel like I like America more than most of the people who are commenting here. Just because you like your country, want to celebrate Fourth of July and make some seasonal content doesn't mean you are some crazy white supremacist or whatever people here are even trying to say. I don't understand. Of course there are bad aspects about everything. Nigh every country in the world has rough patches in their history. The fact the origins of the US might not be all smiles and some things being rough even today doesn't mean you can't celebrate everyone living there today and the idea of trying to work together to make a better tomorrow.

Abby and Dan are both clearly decent people given their values and they celebrate and promote THEIR idea of America where everyone is welcome. People's ignorance concerning the intent of this content is almost as bad as people these days getting mad that people are waving their country's flag in an international sports event. You can root for your country without it somehow implying you agree with every single aspect of it and hate everyone else.

Oh my gosh, thank you for mentioning the flag code @ybbaaabby! It's annoying enough seeing it done wrong on shoulders (Guile in SF5) but it's even worse when it's hanging.

Guile is interesting because in the old games where the sprite was just mirrored for different sides, the flag was always correct. But now, since they aren't sprites, it's wrong.

I was a avid Bernie supporter in the primaries (still am to this day), I believe in $15 an hour min wage, medicare for all, and all the other "free" stuff which isn't free, we just tax properly and balance the budget like we supposed to. I also believe in not just sending Trump and his cronies to jail, but also Bush for getting us to a war he lied about.

Abby is dressed up as Uncle Sam. Dan is still wearing the Statue of Liberty costume. If you know follow the giant bomb crew, you know where they stand on things. What's going out there sucks and needs to be fucking stop now, but can we just keep our rage on what actual matters?

Ah, sure, because if there's one thing bigots are known for it's their rational & logic. It's not like this site has a history of hate groups finding meaning where there is none, to the point that Jeff had to come out against it.

Come on y'all, is it really so hard to see why this series is distasteful or uncomfortable for some folks? And even if it isn't for you, if your reaction is "lol look at these jokers getting angry over nothing", what do you think that communicates? That we can't ever be critical of the things we enjoy? That we should either like it or shut up? I'm not a subscriber for no reason, I do genuinely enjoy Giant Bomb's stuff. But they're not infallible, and folks should be able to voice their concerns when they have them. The constant need in this community to jump to the defence of the GB crew over the slightest bit of criticism is so exhausting.

And yet Rorie is the one who received a stern talking to from HR, after making an offhand comment about Ben during UPF.

For a series featuring two people dressed up in ridiculous clothing, it's oddly serious. I wouldn't have a problem with them taking the piss out of patriotism and goofing around, but the discussion about flag ethics and how America is the greatest country were far to serious, which given recent events also seemed tasteless.

Video has been up for 4 hours and already 77 comments so I'm sure this will be great

America has a gross history and a gross present and people getting all ra-ra about it even ironically makes me deeply suspicious and uncomfortable. As an English dude I don't really see it as any different than "ironic" nostalgia for the empire.

EDIT: Dan and Abby are pretty good though and I know they obviously meant this to be a lighthearted feature. I just think maybe some thought didn't go into it that should have.

There is an odd amount of sense of patriotism in the US that unless heavily dunked/goofed on comes across as tacky to me, but that's just me. I'm also not American and understand it's a different culture.

@elwaldorf: Exactly. I share similar political beliefs to you. I'm not American but the current state of the the US and the world is concerning to me. I have no attachment to nation states and broadly support increasing globalisation and supranational democratic government. I support progressive redistribution of wealth and policies intended to combat social and economic inequality as it exists today.

But the current trend in left wing circles towards identity politics, an unhealthy obsession with historical injustices, emphasis on subjective offence rather than objective offence is all driving people like me away from engaging in left wing politics.

One is meant to be satire , the other is Rorie making an offand comment which is he is known for.

Two things;

1. The timing of this otherwise harmless series couldn't be worse, what with recent events.

2. Why play a game like LA Noire if you're going to skip the cutscenese and don't care about the story ?

Not being from the USA (like a lot of people on this site I presume) I wonder why this even started, who thought it would be a good idea to create a series that only 70% of your user base would maybe like? Patriotism is cool and all but with the current political climate and how the USA is seen negatively from around the world, this is probably not the best of ideas.

International commentors boiling America down to only the worst aspects of its history and culture, completely ignoring any good the country has done in the world, is ridiculously naive and depressing. There is no country in the world without horrible crimes commited in the name of nationalism. Relax, no harm was meant here, at all.

The next episode could feature Grand Theft Auto 5. A game where you steal from, kill, kidnap and torture people.

@ape_dosmil: Don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't think their heart is in the right place, and I am one that believes we need to look into historical injustices, otherwise we are just going to repeat the same mistakes as we did before with far worse consequences. (For example, those cages just didn't show up overnight, it was a bipartisan effort in the Obama years to create those camps, but one side wants to exploit it and another doesn't want to talk about it)

End of the day though, social media doesn't help. We amplify a bad minority that either exploits to make someone else look worse or better, it's tiring. Best advice is look for people that actually show they are getting things done (at rallies, meetings, showing off candidates that look to get things done instead of talking about candidates of the pasts)

@wrecks: The bad outweighs the good to the point where the good is hard to focus on.

Seeing a lot of excuses using the phrase "current events". This is not about current events. America was always bad and nationalism is as well.

Holy shit. It's a video with 2 of Giant bombs goofiest personalities doing holiday themed content. That is it. Whatever baggage you bring to it is your own.

I suspect the sentiment of "This series offends me to the core....but Dan and Abby are ok" will drastically shift to "Dan and Abby are Nazis!" when they do a third episode.

Famous mo-cap actor Dan Ryckert

There's room for nuance in this discussion that neither side seems to be terribly willing to look for. I think it's fair to say that, yeah, this is a rather sensitive time for our political discourse and obviously not everyone's gonna be willing to engage in patriotism, even in jest. These symbols have hurt a lot of people, so this is understandable and worth respecting.

I think it's also fair to say that Dan & Abby are definitely not white nationalists, neither are people who happen to find this imagery innocuous/funny. Even though the far right glorifies these symbols to the point of perversion, they don't own them. There's lots of reasonable people who celebrate the flag and don't want to surrender it to the awful folks of the country. This, too, is understandable and worth respecting.

This is kind of general and not specific to this thread: everyone should try harder to not have knee-jerk reactions about each other, or turn thoughts/feelings into battle-lines. Polarization is a bad thing, and unhelpful for improving our currently-poor level of discourse. Consider each other's ideas, debate, disagree ... but try not to hate. Enemies will never be able to come together and get anything done. Fighting just leads to more fighting, when what we need are more friends. Friends listening, understanding, and compromising for each other.

That's my cheery two cents. Carry on.

I recommend Factfulness by Rosling et al.