The Giant Beastcast: Episode 35

Team 1% checking in.

You're a little harsh on Nicholas Cage's current status, Alex. He does a lot of terrible films now, some which if you like riffing bad movies are comedy gold, but whats really weird is he still also does really good movies in which he turns in phenomenal acting. Joe, being one example of that.

It's possible he doesn't get paid much in the roles he's done for the last 10 years, I'm not sure. Since I don't know him. He does seem to just accept everything and shows up in like 10 movies a year (some which do still come out in theaters and others that are direct to video).

I'm not entirely convinced he's in a position he "has" to be in. In a lot of ways he seems to be in a position he wants to be in. Maybe he's making ok money this way, or he's making workers wage and that's why he shows up in so much. It's hard to say. Either way he does seem to enjoy what he's doing. Or maybe he's just become numb to it now and can't actually feel anything anymore so he just does whatever. I don't know.

He does still do the occasional good movie, though.

I grew up on a farm where we drank milk straight out of the neighbor's cows until the government and the milk companies cracked down on that in the mid 90's. Fun fact of the day: there was a group a few years ago who tried to take a case to the Supreme Court of Canada to argue for their right to buy and sell raw milk.

Dat Alex hyperbole loop.....

"I hated Birdman but-"

Wait, wait, wait. For real?

OT for this comment section but, after reading 5000 articles with different opinions, is drinking/using raw milk actually healthier than pasteurized? of course actually getting and consuming it within an appropriate window of time is another thing

Even with the glitches, VR porn sounds totally hot.

1% milk woo!!!

The HTC Vive was in an episode of Chicago Med a few weeks ago.

Team Skim Milk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I grew up on whole milk but now I go from 1% or 2%. I'll drink whole when I'm reading a book to chill.

forecast.weather.gov, unless you think that their weather reports are all part of the conspiracy.

New York weather

Fun episode this week, feels like the Beastcast is starting to settle into a nice groove.

Ugh, you guys had to say popcorn lung didnt you? its taking everything in my fiber to not type up a diatribe that no one will read or care about right now. I'll just say this, there is no evidence to support popcorn lung from vaporized diacetyl, its from inhaling vastly larger particles of powered diacetyl in factories where things like popcorn were made because the chemical is used in artificial butter. Most respectable juice companies dont use diacetyl, and havent for years. The research that showed diacetyl in high levels in ecig juice were actually the closed tank systems produced by the cigarette companies, like Blu, Vuse, etc. Go figure, Big Tobacco is adding shitty unneeded chemicals to their products, and muddying the waters for the smaller companies who are doing things the right way. Whoops, i went on a diatribe that no one will read or care about, sorry.

All I want is a translation of Japanese games. I want the product exactly how it is in Japan, but with English. I don't understand why that is so hard. Was this FE thing going to actually alienate customers? Probably not because most people playing an FE game are going to know more about current anime storytelling. They know what they are getting into unless they just oblivious to all the waifu stuff in Awakening. Where did Nintendo decide that this was the breaking point culturally and not the huge portion of the game that is waifu stuff? How are they going to bring something like Gen Ibun Roku over when it's all about idols? Do they see how much they alienate people that want all that stuff in the game and factor that in too. I just always feel they lose more sales over these debacles than they gain. All they do is satisfy one group that may or may not buy it while alienating the group that was going to buy the special edition day one.

@jesushammer: I highly doubt they lose too many sales over it. The people who both know enough about the context of this change and actually consider it a Big Deal are probably the smallest fraction of the audience there is.

Plus unlike a lot of these changes that only anger people when it's different in English this was pissing people off way back when it was just the Japanese script so I bet the portion is even smaller now.

@brandondryrock: Regardless of the work that goes into it, millions of people both in and out of the industry dream of attending in any fashion whatsoever. The curmudgeon & grumpiness that jaded vets have over E3 is a bit ridiculous.

@jesushammer: I think you underestimate how well FE: Awakening did with people who are normally not into Strategy RPGs or Waifu stuff, at least over here in the west. It's not quite niche enough anymore to get away with stuff like that support conversation and not raise some red flags, maybe have some games writers use the term "problematic" and in general cause a much bigger stink than a small-but-vocal handful of localization purists who consider the original Japanese text sacrosanct. Also, this is Nintendo we're talking about, a company that has a Disney-like MO to avoid controversy in any way possible.

Now, if you want to have a conversation about the weird otaku-pandering waifu-filled direction that Fire Emblem is going in and what that means for people like me who like the strategy stuff without the marriage and face rubbing, that's something I'd be willing to engage in.

@cornbredx: We might well have a Nicholas Cage career rejuvenation in a few years - Look at Michael Caine, an actor who freely admitted to doing movies just for the paycheque.

That said, Caine didn't do that Wicker man remake...

When I told my mother about That Dragon, Cancer she didn't hear the comma and asked if dragons get cancer. She seemed more affected by that than when I explained the game.

I think the reason Awakening did as well as it did was that people now understand Japanese anime nonsense more. There was the 1000 year old loli in the firsr one, but that didn't stop people from buying. So how is this the breaking point on this? I can at least guarantee they lost a sale from me on this one. Not just for this one reason, but I'd say it was the last straw on this whole thing which sucks because I've bought every Fire Emblem that's come over here. I just hate that Nintendo keeps giving me reasons to not buy their products that have nothing to do with the actual games themselves. It's really telling that the only companies that have made me feel like that are EA and Activision.

The problem with decrying input complexity as a barrier is that it seems to disavow the importance of, and how intrinsic to the experience, the Kinesthetic aspect of games can be.

I don't think Gone Home works as well without the elegance of wasd and mousleook to put you within a 3d space, its a story that could perhaps be conveyed in a cyoa or object hunt form even but, it would be a very different experience

People who don't play games still don't necessarily play ones with themes that might otherwise interest them no matter how accessible they are, it's always seemed more a matter of how games are percieved and how confident and willing to learn people are.

The problem with lamenting games with traditional controls is that there is a danger of conflation between the games for which those controls were developed and the generic usefullness of those controlls themselves.

This isn't me having a go at That Dragon Cancer, that game/ eperience seems like a deeply moving work.

I think we need an umbrella name, whether that name should be games or not, I don't know, but seperating games, experiences, and if, seems apt to cause problems down the road. I'm speculating here, but I think safely, that the audience for things that would be given terms other than game is largely made up of people who are also the audience for games.

There was an implication that Herzog's Bad Lieutenant is a bad film. This is not acceptable and should be addressed in the corrections next week imo

Same, at least for game-related pods. I listened to this ep almost directly after listening to last week's Bombcast and... it's a real contrast. Maybe it's just the tighter format? Something about the pacing or the apparent lack of interest on the Bombcast really irritates me sometimes

My take on not calling some of these things games is when it appears like the whole gaming part about them seems almost superficially tacked on. Games offer a very unique opportunity to present narrative through player agency. When you have a game like Everybody's Gone to the Rapture where the player agency seems superfluous thats when I start to think "ehhh maybe this doesn't need to be called a game because the one thing that ties it to that descriptor is completely tertiary to the entire experience." If taking away the player agency in a game and turning it into an animated short doesn't have a significant bearing on how you experience that story then thats when I start to draw the line.

Obviously it's different for everyone though.

@blackout62 said:

To this day I think it's a bad title. It's overly melodramatic even if you get it. I know it's a common expression to have a "battle with cancer" that is generally a losing battle, but the title is just a little too much for what that game is trying to be.

Screw Skim Milk!

Condensed Milk FTW!

Ridiculous to the guy that doesn't have to work when he goes to E3 oooooook bud.

Stuff like That Dragon Cancer seems more like digital installation art than a videogame but at some point I suppose it doesn't matter terribly what it's called.

I just wish those sort of art games were able to use the strengths of an interactive medium to create less passive experiences but perhaps that's just not their goal.

I guess I'm weird for not really having an opinion on milk types. Skim sounds gross, but I don't think I've ever had it. I rarely even have milk these days since I only occasionally buy cereal, and that's my only use for it. My mom would always get 2% when I was young, I think, so the few times I do get milk, I just go for that since I know what that taste is going to be. I'm not even sure if that is true! But I have always gravitated towards 2% so I assume that is the reason. I didn't even know 2% meant "this is almost skim" until this podcast and when it was recently brought up on some other Giant Bomb content. (Probably the Bombcast but I don't remember now. It was very recent.)

2% is the only way to do it.

@austin_walker: Thanks for the response! I forgot your 2014 guest list, and I understand your explanation. Part of why I asked the question is that whenever they are brought up, it feels like it's always to say that they are good. But despite that, they don't get discussed very much and I never played them, so I'm unfamiliar with them and what they do to stand out. My wish for 2016 is that there are some more quick looks that cover these sort of games.

Sorry I took so long to respond myself, I wanted to sit down and play through your game and give Nested a shot first. In the end, I don't have much to say. I was more into the story of the cyberpunk corporation building than reading about the thoughts(and arm, and arm, and head etc) of animals and humans, but neither are what I'm looking for. I did bookmark Warp Door, and I'm gonna make an effort to actually play some of the games there from time to time. Hopefully I will find something I really like. At least I'll have a clearer picture of what's actually being made at that level of small independent games. And honestly, I'm most tempted to make some kind of game for a friend.

Halve & pit an avocado, pour hot sauce in each bowl, pepper, and serve with ¾ glass of 1% milk. Perfect.

Jeff Bakalar: Ever the voice of reason.

I stand with Jeff Bakalar - skim or nothing.

I've been placing more importance on staying current with one podcast (Bombcast) rather than listening to both and falling behind. Seems like that was a mistake, this was great. 1% but I'd sooner go the way of whole milk than skim.

oh jesus

I don't really like milk as well. I'll put it in cereal, but that's kinda it. I love everything else made with milk though so I guess I'm just like Jeff. My name is also Jeff so maybe its a Jeff thing.

Wonder if Alex watched "Left Behind" then.

I remember being handed the book at college by some Christian recruiters, which raised my eyebrow and interest. After mentioning it to my friend later, he gifted me the RTS PC games they made based on the book for Christmas. They made like four or five of them somehow...

VR horror porn will be a thing. The PT of pornography.

I am FINALLY listening to this podcast, and I agree with @mr_creeper, Jeff Bakalar is the sane one here. COME ON GUYS. Milk is FUCKING GROSS.

Also, I love you all.

Yeeeee...

Came in to say exactly this:

Just got around to catching up on this now.

Possible one of the greatest ever episodes of the Beastcast.

Funny listening to this in the year of 20 and nineteen. Below will definitely be out this year and Cuphead is meh. Worked out a little differently in the end.