The Giant Beastcast: Episode 52

Let's do this

I'm either up too early or I stayed up too late. I can't tell which.

The beginning of this episode made me feel real nice.
No, thank you.

Happy one year anniversary, Beastie boys!

It's been a great year for video games.

See you space cowboy.

BANNER YEAR FOR THE BEASTCAST FAMILY

3 and a half mins in and there's been kissy noises and a low-key Jesus Christ Superstar reference. It's gonna be a good one.

@clairvoyantvibrations: This time is the right time!

i am not okay with this asmr intro

\m/

Love the new email song. ^_^

Speaking of modern driving infrastructure, I love Bostons Zipper Barrier lanes.

I personally welcome self driving cars just for the possibility of more efficient use of the space on our roads.

Listening to this makes me want a Cyberpunk audiobook narrated by the BEastCrew.

I was listening to the second Giant Bombcast, actually. I've got a long way to go.

New beastcast whoo whoo.

Learn to love the BEAST.

Edit: Oh my god, that email music. Please keep it.

The new email music is so good!

Overwatch shorts have had the positive effect that I have been re-watching the TF2 shorts and reading the TF2 comics. People saying the Overwatch characters have more depth and personality have no idea!

sweeet

It's interesting just how electronic the new DOOM soundtrack is.

What a season, what a season.

I'm incredibly excited for Overwatch after that open beta. I actually was expecting the wait to feel much longer but it's almost upon us already! Did give me the chance to play through Uncharted 4, though.

EDIT: "Thirsty" is such a good word for the maelstrom of enthusiasm Overwatch has whipped up. Not a day has passed since the open beta where I haven't reblogged or retweeted fanart for the game that has popped up on social media. Blizzard have done such a great job of creating striking, memorable characters that people can't stop thinking/talking about them even when they can't actually play the game.

Also, while I was a little sad that the Overwatch discussion got sidetracked (I could listen to them talk about it for an age) the places it went to as a result reminded me why I get so excited for Fridays. You four are the absolute best; no other podcast causes me to laugh out loud (often in public spaces) quite so consistently as the Beastcast.

Don't joke about leaving, Vinny. My heart dropped a bit. Don't.

@alistercat: just reading your comment made me sad and I haven't listened yet. Vinny can't leave.

\m/

Sweet! New Beast!

@austin_walker In terms of what game "switched teams and turned out okay," I'd say Metal Gear Rising turned out alright.

If there is anyone who should be paid 3 times as much as everyone else to keep them around it's Vinny.

Even without that context I still don't get why people have been saying that about Overwatch characters.

Nothing like constant joint pain to keep you up all night for a new beastcast! :(

Oh yeah.

Sigh... More Overwatch talk? I'm glad the game comes out soon so people can stop talking about it on every piece of content, a few weeks after it comes out. Hurry up E3!

I'm with you, I like the TF2 shorts way more. They do their own thing instead of falling on the Pixar-wannabe trap like Overwatch does.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance turned out OK if we consider that it's it's own thing. I think the original project, "Metal Gear Solid: Rising," was way more interesting. It was going to use the Fox Engine and it would be the story of Raiden between MGS2 and MGS4, more grounded on the Metal Gear lore but still with the slice mechanics. Revengeance went balls-out crazy, even for a Metal Gear game, feels more like another random asian hack-n-slash, like if they already had a game and just changed a few things to make it part of Metal Gear.

I wonder how well does Batman: Arkham Asylum really hold up. A lot of the GB staff and users tend to talk about that game super positively, as the best game in the series, their favorite to be precise.

And while I agree at the time it was a phenomenal game. Looking back at it a lot of it was pretty basic, combat encounters were very small and simple with little enemy variety, lackluster boss fights; both of these aspects were criticized in reviews, on this site included. Predator stuff too, it just wasn't very robust.

That game lay the groundwork for super sleek gameplay systems, but these systems were never really fully explored or utilized in the first game. Not until City (my personal favorite). You'd have to go back to that super basic and simple stuff after having experienced their true potential.

I guess my fear would be that I would just find it boring to "play" despite the story and tight setting.

PS: those early batman games still look great on the PC.

NO ALEX! Don't go in there! You don't have to die! No one has to die at 30! You could live! LIVE! Live, and grow old! I've seen it!

Love this cast. <3

EDIT: That quick Brad impression had me laughing like a maniac at work. Great job guys..! :p

OK, I have no idea what "manspreading" is, and I am terrified to google it. This is a thing? Is it just a New York thing? I am confused and scared and sort of curious...

@tennmuerti: I've ended up preferring City, too, but they have different strengths. For one, gathering collectibles in Asylum actually feels reasonable, and the overall conflict is focused. It's not just tons of different factions doing their own thing with a "main" villain who only exists so that the setting makes sense. And I like a 3d metroidvania style game more than the U-shaped city. But if we're comparing the generic Titan supersoldier plot and Titan Joker boss fight with the Joker plot and bosses in City, City is a much better game. Those twists with his story in that game is probably more fun than anything in Asylum besides that part in the intro where the lights go out and when they come back on, Batman is grabbing Joker's throat. I also really liked the new flying mechanics.

Depends on what you care about the most I guess. I liked both of them, but the combat system frustrates me because there's hardly any variety to the mooks and it doesn't work at all against single target bosses. Which is why those all either summon mooks or you have to avoid using the system, either by jumping around and throwing stuff at them or do it in predator mode like Mr. Freeze.

This is the main one. I got why some people can't stand it after playing MGS4 and talking about it in the forums, and it isn't as amazing as Bayonetta, but it's still good.

Also, I'm constantly thinking of it when people talk about Doom's glory kills mechanic. Rising would do the same thing, with something like three animations. Certainly got tired of even if it's a 6 hour long game.

I played it much more recently on 360 and I think it holds up really well. I enjoy that the scope is much smaller and that you are kind of funneled into areas and, as you gain more abilities, you can get to more places and see more of the Asylum. I had no nostalgia for the games, and I found the first to still be a lot of fun. But, I'm not really looking for overly complex combat systems or anything. I just like the atmosphere, story and the abilities that you get through the game and how that translates into moving through the environment. I know it's much simpler than the later games, but I like that honestly. I actually need to go back and play more of it. Just talking about it is making me remember how much I liked it.

Except those Scarecrow levels. Those were grade A bologna.

@hobozero: It should be a safe search. It's when you spread your legs out like you own the place at public places where seating is sparse, like in a bus etc.

@baronsamedi: Just the looks I guess.

And because it's Blizzard.

@austin_walker Nice sneaking in those Lazy Wavey lyrics

The multiplayer in Doom is kinda meh. The guns feel imbalanced and the maps are pretty boring. The game is still worth full price just for the campaign. It's that damn good.

@redhotchilimist: I moreso attribute to the fact that Kojima literally went to Platinum and said "We have this mechanic and literally have no clue how to make a game out of it," which leads to Platinum turning out Rising in like a year. Like... that's almost the game that's the most in-spirit of the question.

Freedom Fighters talk! That's a game that needs to be on Origin or GoG.

That Curb Your Enthusiasm theme was on point, amazing stuff.

I like seeing people excited for Overwatch, and some of the jokes coming out of it are pretty funny, but Overwatch hasn't "clicked" for me in the way it seems it has for everyone else, so I'm honestly getting a bit tired of all the Overwatch hype.

Already have it pre-ordered because I'm an idiot though, so I'll give it some more time next week. I really hope I do come around on it.

Do you know those people who need to find new ways to get offended and complaint? Well, sometime ago they decided that guys sit with their legs open not because it's more comfortable or because it's something they do naturally but because they do it on purpose and want to present their genitals or because they don't want people to sit next to them, on purpose. The whole debate became so ridiculous that most people started to make fun of the whole situation. Anyway, it's mostly just a North American thing, the rest of the world has more important stuff to worry about.

It does sound super ridiculous.

Though I vaguely recall reading that chimps as a social behavior do something similar for the very purpose of showing off their junk.And I've been on enough public transport to not be entirely convinced some jerks aren't doing whatever they can to get more room.

Still sounds silly all around.

Manspread sucks. Don't manspread. Have some thoughts for fellow public transit passengers.

@olivaw: manspreading is annoying, for sure but creating arbitrary laws that give cops more of an excuse to harass people is much more annoying.

I should note that I haven't gotten to this conversation in the podcast yet so I'm not sure what the context is but I do know the manspreading laws in New York are mostly bullshit. Sorry if that wasn't what discussed and I'm just yelling into the void about something completely unrelated here.

They talked about it for less than 10 minutes, and only discussed it in one previous podcast two weeks ago to any sort of extent beyond a mention of the open beta releasing the week before that.

Pretty sure you spent more time complaining than they did actually talking about it :P