Unprofessional Fridays: 10/25/2013

The empire and the rebellion are both fighting a proxy war between the candy boxes and the cookie clickers

Cool episode. Sometimes need a quieter one to balance out the FMV stuff. Also have to love the fear that GB won't be into the new consoles given how much they geeked out over a new control pad.

The difference is enormous. Between the eight-year console cycle, the emergence of the phone and tablet markets, and the omnipresence of Steam on PC, there's never been a generation of consoles that has ever looked more superfluous.

When the 360 and PS3 launched, PC gaming was a different beast altogether. Back then nobody would've dreamed of saying that they planned to skip the consoles in favor of the PC (an opinion I'm seeing a ton of right now), because there was almost no overlap on the software side. Now most third-party console games get excellent PC ports, and with the agonizingly long console cycle I really think the console manufacturers are going to be surprised at how much market share they've lost to PC and mobile in the last eight years.

Hell, I'm 34 years old, I've owned at least one console from every generation going back to the NES. Sure I dabbled in PC gaming here and there, especially in the early and mid 90's. But I am definitely not one of these PC-master-race guys -- hell, from about 1998 to 2012 I went completely without a gaming PC, and I was perfectly happy. But recently there's been way too much interesting stuff on PC for me to ignore, and frankly I just got sick of waiting for the next console generation to come, so last year I built myself a rig. I'm about the last person who would typically do that sort of thing. And guess what, I'm not going back. I really don't see any reason to buy any of the next-gen consoles. I'm out.

Download DS3Tool and use your PS3 controller normally. Saying "clicking "options" is doing more work than needed" is just borderline insane lazy and or stupid.

@kevin_cogneto: But all of this doesn't really touch on what makes this slate of consoles themselves any different from the last. The games that come out this year, and most of the next, aren't going to look dramatically different than what we've seen, and getting hung up on that is forgetting all of the lessons of the last cycle. Are things surrounding the market right now different than in the past? Sure, this happens to a varying degree each generation, though certainly things have splintered in a lot of weird ways these days that are super crazy, but that really doesn't have much to do with this specific point.

A new slate of consoles may be superfluous for people who have the money to build and maintain a stronger gaming machine than the new consoles, but again, it's losing perspective completely to think that that is in any way a widespread or mainstream feeling. On dedicated gaming sites? You'll see those people. The tens of millions of people who don't pay much attention to them and aren't interested in dropping a grand on a gaming PC? To those people, this generational shift isn't really that different than the last, or the one before it either.

Well-off people who have been spending their time and money in the PC space aren't going to be blown away by the first couple years of this new generation. And you know what? Maybe never. PC gaming is less obtuse and has more development talent than in the past. But that has nothing to do with the consoles. The hardcore gaming audience changed. The generational leap didn't. You don't have to convince me that this generation went on way too long, but getting upset at how the launch games look is just having wacked-out expectations.

Not to completely undermine your point, but Rorie worked at Gamespot years ago and worked at Obsidian during the development of Alpha Protocol I believe, so it's not like videogames are exactly a foreign subject to him.

Personally, I find Rorie is best taken in small doses, much like Alex.

Man, the first two Early Access games they showed seem really promising.

Could you actually please play Tie Fighter?

I bought Space Engineers purely from what I saw in Drews segment I can't get enough of that shit. Legos in space? Yes please!

You guys complaining about Rorie sighing during games he doesn't like, if you'll notice he does that a lot even with nothing is going on. I think it's just a thing he does out of habit.

@alkusanagi: Lasers can't even penetrate navigational deflectors, so no

This. And Matt Rorie has also written several guides at Gamespot, so videogames are very, very familiar for him.

I played the first Dead Space on PS3 double-fingered up on the triggers like that. I found that my finger was slipping off of the shoot trigger after rotating the plasma cutter so I just doubled up to avoid that from happening.

I am a fan of Matt Rorie, but I have to agree that his loud yawning whenever they're playing a game he's not interested in is a bit aggravating. It's really obvious and unprofessional which, given the title of the show, might be appropriate, but it's still frustrating. Even if he's not doing it consciously, it still comes across as rude.

And, a note to the Giant Bomb community: Criticizing a staff member does not mean that we hate the staff member. It is also not just cause to tell someone to get out of the community. I like everyone who works at Giant Bomb, but that doesn't mean they're flawless human beings. Sometimes Jeff is overly dismissive and negative, Brad is stubborn and doesn't listen to advice when playing games, Vinny is... Well, okay, maybe Vinny is flawless. Anyway, criticism does not equal hostility. It can, but it can also mean you really care about what you're critiquing.

I love when they give Brad a hard time over his over the top declarations he makes like his "Won't be 10 games better than Brothers" and the old school Left for Dead 2 "I'm calling it..."

@sharpless: Yeah, couldn't have said it better myself.

@kevin_cogneto: What you said was pretty much my experience. Mine was different based on the fact that I was a high school kid/college kid with no money and so were my friends. So we all had $400 consoles and we were fine with that. One of my friends since high school had a PC and would always brag about how it was better. It was annoying as shit. Somehow during that experience I had convinced myself that PCs were only good for FPS, which at the time was sort of the case. 2010 rolls around and I have a well paying internship and I decide to purchase a gaming-competent PC. Bought a game or two but still mostly stuck to console, I just liked controllers more. Once I realized I could plug my 360 controller into my PC that was basically the death of my Xbox. Now I've really only touched my PC, PS3, and the Wii U (and of course handhelds) and I have no reason to go back to my Xbox. There's no exclusives worth playing, and most of the games look better and are moddable on my PC.

I just don't really see a need for an Xbox if you already have a PC. They need to either get more exclusives in the bag or do something else. Even though it took me the entire generation to warm up to the PS3, it has the exclusives on lock down which eventually drove me toward it. Everything else is on PC and the consoles and if you have a PC there's really no reason for the others. I'l still probably buy an Xbox One and a PS4 but once you're on the other side of the fence you see why everyone likes it over here.

@marokai said:

I don't know where this perceived notion that you will drop a grand on a competent gaming PC comes from. Of course you can spend that much but you'll be good for way longer than the next cycle of consoles. I've converted a lot of my friends to PC and most of them spent ~$600 for a rig that can play anything currently out.

@xmatatatx: If you're starting from scratch, you're going to pay a decent amount for a good-sized 1080p monitor, and people who tally up the costs of these amazing sub-600 dollar machines also often leave out the cost of an OS. I don't want to get into a PC-part-picker-price-fight or something, I'm just pointing out that if you're already deep into PC gaming, it's obvious that nothing from these consoles is going to blow you away. If you have more money than time you're always going to be able to brute force your way past the power of whatever consoles are on the market.

But if you're not into PC gaming already, you're not going to get a machine that surpasses the Ps4's power for 600 dollars, let alone 400 dollars. (There's also no telling how next-gen console development is going to affect spec requirements for PC versions of those games, if Watch Dogs is any indication of things to come.) I'm not trying to disrespect PC gamers, because I totally get where you're coming from, but consoles are a different beast and the markets serve different kinds of individuals.

But the nature of consoles and how these consoles are launching aren't really any different. Crysis came out in 2007. PC gamers always could get something that blew consoles out of the water. The only thing that's different is that more people in-the-know, such as enthusiast gamers and those in the press, have more access to capable PCs than they did before, so things don't look as impressive to their eyes anymore. But I don't place the blame for that at the consoles' feet. Simply in terms of the nature of the console launch, things are going pretty by-the-book.

@marokai: True, you will need a monitor and an operating system and can spend around $200 even for a cheap version of Windows and a decent 16:9 monitor. But one thing that offsets that cost is the absurdly low prices that games drop to on the PC. Sure you can find some great prices on Xbox 360 and PS3 games but nothing beats getting a recently released game for $20 when it's console counterpart will only see a $40 pricetag for a while.

But even still there is always a strong console market (in the US at least) and I don't think it's purely a money issue. My girlfriend's brother has a well paying job and is more than capable of buying a PC, but he just likes the ease of buying a console, plugging it in, and putting in a game disc. He doesn't have to fiddle with drivers, running executables as admin, and compatibility modes that you occasionally have to struggle with as a PC gamer. He's not that technologically savvy and doesn't want to waste his time dealing with that BS. He's also not alone in this situation. Rich or poor, some people just like the ease and will sacrifice other aspects for that alone.

It's hard to see why consoles are necessary once you've gone PC, but I agree there is a melancholic attitude among the staff concerning consoles. I think they know this but if you were a console person I could understand it's a little disheartening to hear their enthusiasm (or lack thereof).

Corporate Jeff at the start.

@sharpless: Exactly. Constructive criticism can be the most appreciated comments in the Staff's eyes

Spacetruck: The Video Game.

Make it happen.

Don't they still use lasers in Star Wars?

What an intro, needed that laugh.

Enjoyed the show as always but I have to say I am getting a little tired of the games being selected for Unprofessional Friday's.

It is fun when the occasional quirky or odd title is covered but I am starting to feel like they are trying to out do each other with who can find the dullest or worst game to watch.

The most fun I have had from this show in a long while was last week watching that multiplayer running game, I could have watched that for hours!

If any of the crew are reading, please pick some more recent games competitive games and have a bash at each other, there are so many great games that I would love to watch you play.

These dudes are CRAZY if they think this launch is different and graphics have "plateau-ed" and this gen is different. Come on, did you think games like the Last of Us could be done on these current consoles when you saw Perfect Dark at launch? Graphics improvements never change, just like they haven't been the "only" changes over the years (think of the leap to make Assassin's Creed crowds work).

That crazy dubstep beat that starts at 1:07:12 is stuck in my head. I need to know the name of it.

NOTES to SELF:

• Bullshit opening shot
• Multiple false starts
• Vinny smuggles bottle in his shirt
• Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit