The Giant Beastcast: Episode 178

Ahh good. Podcast time.

Jumping right into video game talk within like 5 minutes... what the fuck is this

A game within a game email.

It just gets recycled from Bombcast to Beast

I've my Gmail account registered on my Microsoft account. I don't know if they have changed how that works, but it worked just fine a decade ago.

As an Austinite, I'm really curious as to what tipped you off to those billboards I've been seeing for years, lol

@pirata: ditto. He has a couple newer tamer billboards but that’s the one I used to send to people and they thought it was a joke

David Komie! That billboard was up around the way from me for years.

Space alien John Travolta became a lawyer? Now I have seen it all.

Re: Dans CIV talk:

Make him play Crusader Kings II and watch his head explode.

The cod people are probably aware that a lot of their audience is not people over 18. Though the gore thing, I'd imagine is just a preference?

ditto, I did a double take when I saw the thumbnail, wasn't sure if he was nationwide or something.

“That fucking garbage mode” should be my new go-to descriptor for anything I don’t enjoy.

@pirata: Same here but I'm like a month behind on the podcast. Whats the reference?

Hearing the Civ conversation is fascinating because I completely fell off the Civ franchise with Civ5 because it felt to me like it streamlined out a lot of the tactical micromanagement of cities and workers and instead made it more board game-like.

The Battlefield sp campaigns have been pretty bad actually, and have always felt very obligatory, the only exceptions being the Bad Company games.

I've passed that sign hundreds of times over the years, did not expect to see it on here. Excellent.

Now if you'll excuse me, gotta jump into my new Mitsubushi Luncer and drive away.

Dan is not going to like Civilization, it is not built for him at all.

Video Games?

Star Citizen isn't vaporware it's plasmaware. Not a game and a game under certain circumstances.

Dan might like the Total War games more. Everything you do is towards conquest, even diplomacy. Shogun 2 is probably the best to start with - it's really good!

man, Beyond: Two Souls was horribleeeeeeee, in terms of gameplay and story stuff. In contrast, Detroit was super by the numbers but it at least felt functional and the android cop guy's story at least has had some decent moments and weird shit.

@cyrusraven: Video. Games.

You could say that there has never been a better time to play games.

Man I really want to get Obra Dinn.

@no8axel: Yeah, the Civilization discussion is such a good distillation of Dan's inability to adjust his viewpoint when something doesn't match his preconceived notions. Like yes, we get it, Dan likes C&C and Fire Emblem and tactics RPGs, but that doesn't mean he should go "fuck this, I don't understand it" and give up when a game turns out to have more management elements than JUST tactical combat. Civ does have a bit of a learning curve, but Civ 5 and 6 are soooo much more streamlined and self-automated compared to previous entries.

Oh John Rhys-Davies and Gary Oldman are in Star Citizen? Good thing my excitement for that game was already killed years ago.

I used to work in the same building as that goddamn attorney and I never once saw him in person :(

what the hell can I never escape david komie

If Abby put a nickel in a jar every time she asked someone on the beastcast to buy something for her, she'd be halfway to owning a new tv by now.

@autechresaint: yo same. i assume it was an image search but no less surprising to see it

@anarchovelo: So I'm aware of stuff John Rhys-Davies has said, and I thought that might be the point of your comment. I just googled Oldman and holy shit. That's a winning pair right there.

So Alex and Jeff are for sure playing Red Dead 2 right now. They both kept saying “I’m playing a thing... can’t talk about it til next time,” and things like this. Lucky bastards.

Astral fishers and Metallica scales, eh?

Don't OLEDs have a relatively short life compared to regular LCD panels? I seem to remember reading their color will slowly shift over time, and they have a propensity for burn-in.

Ryan's avatar.

Dan & Alex play a game of Civ! Make it happen!

I know he doesn't like talking about things that he doesn't know about but the 15 minutes of silent Dan in this episode where unionisation was being discussed irritated me. There gets to be a point where you are wilfully not learning about things that are slightly challenging, and this isn't some random subject. It's a subject directly related to his job. It might be time to stop claiming ignorance and learn something about the industry that you work in so you can offer an opinion.

If Dan knows he isn't well informed on a topic, I would watch much rather he politely remain silent, rather than barge in with some ignorant opinion or say "I don't understand what's going on but I am vaguely pro-unionization because my colleagues are." In a perfect world he would have an opinion on the topic, but if he's not there yet, I don't see the point in raking him over the coals for it.

Also, I think it's really debatable whether it's "a subject directly related to his job." It's not his job that is possibly being unionized. Yes, because of the podcasts the GB staff strike a weird balance between editor/reviewer/video producer/industry commentator due to the podcasts having a news section, but no one on staff is currently what I would call a journalist, reporter, or even an opinion columnist. Their output is almost entirely video that is games coverage, not games industry coverage.

I expect writers on Kotaku, or Waypoint, or whatever the fuck to have well formed opinions on games industry unionization and other games industry hot topics, but as for the GB staffers, I appreciate if they put in the time to be informed on the topics but I don't expect it of them. They're a news source/aggregrator for about 45 minutes a week during a podcast, and for the other 99% of the week they're playing games for review or Quick Look or on a live stream.

I have to admit, I'm getting a bit exhausted about the complaining about going to the West Coast for GOTY now that it is becoming an annual tradition to complain about it for the second year in a row.

To the average person, especially one who gives these people money to watch and listen to them play games, it seems like the very definition of complaining from the position of privileged. I'm not trying to be mean, but to 90% of the audience who work normal jobs where they work all but 1 or 2 weeks total of vacation/holiday pay (if that), hearing someone complain about working until Thanksgiving, then flying somewhere to play and talk about games for a couple weeks before getting the last 3-4 weeks of the year off is a pretty obnoxious thing to listen to complaints about.

Most of us get one or two days off for Thanksgiving, and go to work for the next month as usual, and then get maybe a few days off for Christmas/New Years. If they really hate it so much, maybe they should be given the option to stay in New York and work entire the month of December like normal people with only a few days off for each holiday instead. I have a feeling they wouldn't really like that better.

@loktarogar: I think it's just a millenial humor thing. I don't really get it either. A lot of my students will make jokes like that about me buying them things. Even after I give away prizes, they joke about me giving them better ones instead. I used to find it a bit insulting, to be honest, but I've learned they don't really mean it or see it those kinds of jokes the same way I do. It's a generational thing, but it's certainly not limited to Abby.

If anyone cares, the most combat orientated / supported Civ game is the third one. Man the death stacks, and combat is relatively interesting and can be fast paced.

And if Dan wants combat orientated -- well he should play some Hearts of Iron ;)

I remember the Wilson thing, he did not call Al Wilson. Y’all need to pay attention if you’re gonna try and correct the podcast.

Dan's Top 10 Games of All Time list has to be up to like 30 games at this point.

I feel like Alex was the only one that legitimately answered the question about what video game character abilities they'd like to have, lol.

Maybe everyone does this all the time and i'm discovering a sense I never knew I had...

i just woke up and started listening to this and suddenly all I can hear is the word 'like' being repeated dozens of times, and, like, makes me appreciate all the times people, like, can, like, get through a sentence, like, clearly

love ya guys and talking for two and a half hours is not easy, just kidding, like everything you want to like, like