Brad Takes On The Darkness

@radioactivez0r said:

There is a pretty big difference between not playing a game well and playing to that, and having no idea how to play a game and not bothering to find out.

That's my issue. Brad playing the game badly wouldn't be half as irritating if it weren't for the fact that he is constantly having childish hissy-fits about it and acting like it's 100% the game's fault, and never once even slightly considering that maybe there is something he's missing. Other Giant Bomb members making mistakes isn't as annoying because they aren't at the same time getting incredibly angry about it.

People like him are the reason video games lead you by the nose all the time.

@radioactivez0r said:

There is a pretty big difference between not playing a game well and playing to that, and having no idea how to play a game and not bothering to find out.

That's my issue. Brad playing the game badly wouldn't be half as irritating if it's weren't for the fact that he is constantly having childish hissy-fits about it and acting like it's 100% the game's fault. People like him are the reason video games lead you by the nose all the time.

@yoshimitz707: What does incessantly mocking Brad's game-playing accomplish exactly?
 

@kuddles

said:

@radioactivez0r said:

There is a pretty big difference between not playing a game well and playing to that, and having no idea how to play a game and not bothering to find out.

That's my issue. Brad playing the game badly wouldn't be half as irritating if it's weren't for the fact that he is constantly having childish hissy-fits about it and acting like it's 100% the game's fault. People like him are the reason video games lead you by the nose all the time.

@yoshimitz707: See? That can't possibly seen as mean or hurtful... Oh wait.

@MrKlorox said:

@yoshimitz707: See? That can't possibly seen as mean or hurtful... Oh wait.

I don't see how I'm being mean. Every single member of Giant Bomb will make simple mistakes playing games because they aren't paying attention or too busy talking. But it's only Brad who has a non-stop tantrum about it, and at the same time refuses to either take a step back or even take advice from other people.

These are video games, and they are supposed to be fun, for crying out loud. If he doesn't want people to mock his playing style, then maybe stop making so many video features of him trying to beat hard accomplishments while bitching the whole time? Look at how in both this video and the Modern Warfare feature the other members eventually just ignore him because he's such a downer.

@Abendlaender said:

The only problem with Brad seems to be that he likes to play very meticulously when he plays on his own, but wants to show stuff in videos so people don't get bored with him scouting every small area for collectibles, and that's why he seems to die a lot because he rushes into encounters.

It's exactly that. He reviewed and loved Super Meat Boy, but when he gets to showing videos, he's worried we'll get bored. Especially during the Breaking Brad episode of Modern Warfare, where he's doing the exact same thing for 4 hours.

@mrfluke said:

@MrKlorox said:

@yoshimitz707: What does incessantly mocking Brad's game-playing accomplish exactly?

@kuddles

said:

@radioactivez0r said:

There is a pretty big difference between not playing a game well and playing to that, and having no idea how to play a game and not bothering to find out.

That's my issue. Brad playing the game badly wouldn't be half as irritating if it's weren't for the fact that he is constantly having childish hissy-fits about it and acting like it's 100% the game's fault. People like him are the reason video games lead you by the nose all the time.

@yoshimitz707: See? That can't possibly seen as mean or hurtful... Oh wait.

they check the comments, notice the storm of bitching when they did the farmville thing, and notice that we havent got a conclusion to that thing, and jeff has stated on formspring that they have no intention of continuing that thing also everyone used to complain about the comic vine segments on happy hour being boring, where was the comic vine segment on the latest happy hour?, people complained during the chrono trigger endurance run that they were not reading the text, lo and behold they are finally start reading the comments, people hated brad Nicholson news stories, wheres that dude now? if i was running a business like whiskey where a majority of the income comes from membership fees, and a good majority of said members are complaining (i think people canceled their subscriptions when the farmville thing was happening), id listen and make changes, that doesnt mean drastically change what you do, but to make smart changes

Yeah, in all seriousness, I wouldn't be a happy subscriber if not for how good WM are at listening to their members. You can tell that they listened to the feedback at the end of last year with the RPG and moar Vinny / Drew / Dave in videos so far this year. As cynical as people can be in the comments, it's only out of our love for Giant Bomb.

@mrfluke: It is ingrained in your DNA to behave a certain way. Everyone plays games differently, if I want to have hissy-fits at a game because I'm not bothering to play it the way it wants me to, I'm allowed to do so. Games mean something else to everyone, and if a game doesn't do what I want it to do, I will yell at it.

@mrfluke said:

@MrKlorox said:

@yoshimitz707: What does incessantly mocking Brad's game-playing accomplish exactly?

@kuddles

said:

@radioactivez0r said:

There is a pretty big difference between not playing a game well and playing to that, and having no idea how to play a game and not bothering to find out.

That's my issue. Brad playing the game badly wouldn't be half as irritating if it's weren't for the fact that he is constantly having childish hissy-fits about it and acting like it's 100% the game's fault. People like him are the reason video games lead you by the nose all the time.

@yoshimitz707: See? That can't possibly seen as mean or hurtful... Oh wait.

they check the comments, notice the storm of bitching when they did the farmville thing, and notice that we havent got a conclusion to that thing, and jeff has stated on formspring that they have no intention of continuing that thing also everyone used to complain about the comic vine segments on happy hour being boring, where was the comic vine segment on the latest happy hour?, people complained during the chrono trigger endurance run that they were not reading the text, lo and behold they are finally start reading the comments, people hated brad Nicholson news stories, wheres that dude now? if i was running a business like whiskey where a majority of the income comes from membership fees, and a good majority of said members are complaining (i think people canceled their subscriptions when the farmville thing was happening), id listen and make changes, that doesnt mean drastically change what you do, but to make smart changes

Yeah, in all seriousness, I wouldn't be a happy subscriber if not for how good WM are at listening to their members. You can tell that they listened to the feedback at the end of last year with the RPG and moar Vinny / Drew / Dave in videos so far this year. As cynical as people can be in the comments, it's only out of our love for Giant Bomb.

the controls for The Darkness ARE kinda shit. c'mon, people.

@Vitor said:

@Oni said:

@AlisterCat said:

This video really made me appreciate how good The Darkness 2 is. This game was amazing at the time though.

Ditto.

This quickly became a Breaking Brad, which was funny and infuriating in spots, I don't think I've ever seen the chat "yell" so loud at Brad, not realizing having The Darkness out gives him more damage resistance etc.

Which is why I can't watch more than 20 minutes of these videos. Really dislike Ryan/Jeff's attitude towards criticism like this also. They enjoy troll-ing the chat and are happy to let us know that. Which is fine, it's their site. But it makes me thoroughly uninterested in watching stuff like this.

I don't mind people not knowing the minutia behind a game, but ignoring basic mechanics makes these videos un-watchable. Since when was it OK to be proud of your ignorance? They get way more shit for this than is probably fair but, come on, we come to this site for informed game discussion and the occasional buffoonery, but certainly more so for the former.

I mean, when more than half the comments are people COMPLAINING about the content of the video, you're clearly fucking up.

I agree that their attitude to criticism is far too dismissive and self-indulgent, like "this the content we make and we don't make games srs business", but that doesn't mean it's cool to have a video where there are two people loudly talking about stuff unrelated to the game while story events are happening that OSTENSIBLY the person playing is interested in, except he was also impatient as all hell and not paying attention in the slightest. Which certainly wasn't helped by the environment he was in, but still.

This, in my opinion, is the worst video Giant Bomb has produced in a long time. It's just getting to the point where some of their videos are pleasing no one, because they aren't entertaining, nor informative, because they just aren't grasping basic game mechanics that even viewers could figure out (The Shadows of the Colossus HD quick look is the worst offender in my mind). They need to figure out a better balance for playing games on camera, especially this long-form stuff.

There's such a world of difference between this and Load Lour Last Save, it's incredible. Similar situation: Vinny and Brad starting up a game they haven't played in years towards the end. But Vinny and Drew actually bother to take the time to learn how it works and end up having fun and progressing, which is more fun for the audience to watch. Then we have this video, with an impatient Brad, in this case, jumping in, not knowing basic game mechanics (ie. Darkness gives damage resistance), not learning them, and having 2 co-pilots who are doing almost nothing to help him, and in fact are doing the opposite by distracting. I don't see how that's fun for anyone. It certainly didn't seem like Brad was having a great time, and that's too bad, because in different circumstances he might've been.

@Javes said:

I love Giant Bomb but I hate Giant Bomb fans.

@Superfriend said:

I like how you interpret "times have changed" as "games used to be better"

and "Modern FPS" as "Modern Warfare/ CoD"

My comment was about the Increase in handholding and "streamlining" of story segments. This is a trend in gaming overall and not just Call of Duty. Metro is a perfect example of the opposite. Of course games like this still exist. But I was talking about the general audience (read: "the masses"). These People would have a real tough time with a game like Metro, since they seem to be unable to handle just a few minutes of downtime/ slower paced story.

From where I stand, your post derails several logical steps before it actually begins, so this may take a bit of a detour. Bear with me.

First, do not be disingenuous about the implications of your posts. Everything about your wording says that you rank those slower paced experiences higher than the "modern FPS" experience, from the quotes around "streamlining" to calling players getting bored "being unable to handle just a few minutes of downtime".

Second, you'll have to introduce me to these People who are in this situation. From where I stand, most if not all gamers keep complaining about linearity and streamlining (and yet buying every iteration of Modern Warfare and Gears of War regardless).

Third, and most important, you seem to mix up at least two concepts here. One is "slow paced" and the other is "deep". You're probably also passing "obscure" for "complex" as well.

See, old games did not hand-hold as much in that they were pretty bad at... well, being games. Good games, new and old, are good about exposing their mechanics without having to spell them out. Case in point, Assassin's Creed great control scheme that maps things based on the area of the body that is involved, which is just an evolution of Zelda's contextual button. All of that comes from the same design spirit that makes the original Super Mario Bros. self-explanatory: character appears to the left of the screen, moving to the right must mean "progress".

And then there's, say, Wizardry, or Castlevania II, which could keep you running around in circles for a decade without stumbling upon the way forward. That's not in the interest of avoiding "hand holding", that's bad design, which we all forgave back then because games were young, so were we and we only got a few three hour long games a year, so any excuse to replay them was valid.

That's one thing, one concept. But you're blending that with being overly linear, or being scripted in an obvious, immersion-breaking way, which is a real thing and can also be bad design, which only is a problem in some games and by no means a trend.

I mean, your statement about the "mass" rejecting slower paced stories or games just doesn't hold up. How many copies did Red Dead Redemption sell, with its longing, lonely horse rides across the desert and extended scenes involving farming and doing chores? How about Heavy Rain, Catherine or the Ace Attorney Series, which are nothing BUT story and managed to sell well enough? How about the runaway success of Demon's/Dark Souls? You may argue that those games moved one or two million copies while Call of Duty sold ten or twenty, but not that "the masses" ignored them. They were well covered in the media, reviewed well, sold enough to make their money back and then some.

I won't belabour the point, this is long enough as it is, but this is my impression: that you are perpetuating a sense of hardcore gamer elitism that is founded on false premises about the good old times and about how things are done these days.

I just realized Patrick had a Scott Pilgrim shirt on :)

What I found most frustrating and the reason I stopped watching it live yesterday was the wilful ignorance and complete lack of interest all the parties involved had in the game. Dave and Patrick clearly weren't interested in anything related to the game and Brad ignored all the instructions the game gave him then complained about not knowing what to do, because it seemed he didn't want to be playing and just wanted it over with. I enjoy the majority of content Whiskey produces, but I'd rather watch people do something they want to be doing rather than not.

@chaiHazuki said:

Can we start a petition to remove the comment section?

ITT: Klingon haters.

I almost forgot how painful it is watching Brad play video games, not paying any attention and then complaining he has no idea what's going on, running around like an adhd kid but not actually putting effort into figuring anything out, and then saying the game is messed up. XD

Christ, Brad's impatient.

But, I'm pretty similar in the way I play games too.

@Ferros said:

What I found most frustrating and the reason I stopped watching it live yesterday was the wilful ignorance and complete lack of interest all the parties involved had in the game. Dave and Patrick clearly weren't interested in anything related to the game and Brad ignored all the instructions the game gave him then complained about not knowing what to do, because it seemed he didn't want to be playing and just wanted it over with. I enjoy the majority of content Whiskey produces, but I'd rather watch people do something they want to be doing rather than not.

Whiskey Media videos waver from informative to downright silly (in a good way) but this one hit neither area.

Don't just follow a FAQ and play by the book, that would be equally boring as hell. But neglecting basic mechanics (like the fact that you take less damage with the Darkness out and to always SHOOT EVERY DAMNED LIGHT) is just frustrating for everyone involved.

I like the crew and I admire them for what they do most of the time but please, if a segment of your userbase is constantly complaining about the same issue (however much of a 'vocal minority' you may deem them to be), please be willing to at least address the concerns instead of the outright dismissal we so often hear in the Bombcast.

I don't why everyone is complaining... I just spent an hour watching this and I regret none of it. Thank you Giant Bomb team for something to watch while stuck in bed and hungover.

Giant Bomb community is slowly becoming a bunch of entitled asshats who take everything too seriously. It's kind of depressing. Seriously, people. If you're really that interested in the story, then go watch a Let's Play on YouTube or something and stop bitching that this video isn't serving your needs.

I feel like this was really just an unfortunate confluence of bad events. The gameplay in The Darkness is esoteric, even for its time period. It's a game that spends its first few hours slowly introducing you to mechanics and gameplay concepts (you are basically told to go to a payphone the first time you get a page, thereby establishing how this particular game system is supposed to function). Picking up any game you haven't played and trying to finish a late save is difficult, but the already strange nature of the gameplay in The Darkness just made it even harder. I mean, the game doesn't convey to you in any graphical manner that having The Darkness out at all times functions as a health regenerating shield similar to Halo 2.That information is conveyed in the first thirty minutes of gameplay and at this point it should just be common knowledge. But Brad was never informed of these strategies, and Patrick forgot to tell him. It's an honest mistake, really. If the game is still fresh in your mind, its hard to remember the vital bits of information that need to be conveyed to a new player that aren't immediately obvious.

And in the end, it kind of snowballed into angry frustration, which in turn made it so that there was even less enthusiasm for playing the game than when they started.

So I guess, all I'm trying to say, is stop blaming people and getting angry. It wasn't anyone's "fault". The concept of starting a game as weird as The Darkness this far into the game's plot was kind of a hard sell to begin with.

I found the aiming and level design in parts of this first game to be pretty poor. Maybe I was just an idiot. Can't wait to find out.

This video starts rough but otherwise, this was fine and people are (as always) making a huge deal out of nothing.

@EchoEcho said:

Giant Bomb community is slowly becoming a bunch of entitled asshats who take everything too seriously. It's kind of depressing. Seriously, people. If you're really that interested in the story, then go watch a Let's Play on YouTube or something and stop bitching that this video isn't serving your needs.

Agreed.

I'll never harp on someone playing a game. It's them playing, not me, so who knows what they're thinking as they play. It's always easier to bash someone for being "bad", but then again that's because you're watching them play it not actually playing it. It also doesn't help that most of the times that these guys are playing it they have other people telling them to do 10 different things, which just makes things more confusing. I know I've gotten pissed off at someone telling me to do something that has absolutely nothing to do with the game when they don't know what to do either. Frustrating.

@EchoEcho: It's not entitlement when it's content produced for paying subscribers, and that content is kind of crappy.

@EchoEcho: It's not entitlement when it's content produced for paying subscribers, and that content is kind of crappy.

What I found most frustrating and the reason I stopped watching it live yesterday was the wilful ignorance and complete lack of interest all the parties involved had in the game. Dave and Patrick clearly weren't interested in anything related to the game and Brad ignored all the instructions the game gave him then complained about not knowing what to do, because it seemed he didn't want to be playing and just wanted it over with. I enjoy the majority of content Whiskey produces, but I'd rather watch people do something they want to be doing rather than not.

I think Brad does pretty well, all things considered.

So someone help me out as I must have missed this whole thing: what is all the complaining about? The usual "I demand you do things the way I want them" or something more....solid?

I enjoyed the tangential chatter and seeing the end of this weird game.

@Scrumdidlyumptious said:

I wish Patrick would get out of Ryan's chair.

WELCOME TO THE CRYPT GIANT BOMB AUDIENCE!

Dave, Patrick. I love you guys both, but if you are sitting in on a show that's about Brad playing The Darkness, then make sure that's the fucking point of the conversation.

It was mindblowing to hear you two rattle on and on about horror movies and some klingon joke while Brad, the main event of the feature, is left to mutter silently to himself while he struggles to play the actual game without any help, and without any opportunity to get a single word in because you two are too busy high-fiving eachother and joking it up.

I'd love to hear all those anecdotes and silly conversations on the Bombcasts or on the Whiskey Media Radio Show, but I felt it almost ruined the entire feature here. That said, I still managed to enjoy the video, just try and keep your focus next time.

@smitty86 said:

So someone help me out as I must have missed this whole thing: what is all the complaining about? The usual "I demand you do things the way I want them" or something more....solid?

"why didn't they spend hours on the internet looking up things about this game/replaying the early part of the game to figure out how to play it how to play it like experts? GOD, I HATE YOU BRAD," is basically what I got out of it.

I don't think it's that big of a deal. Dave was hilarious, and the game seemed awesome in spite of Brad dying a bunch.

@Thor_Molecules said:

Dave, Patrick. I love you guys both, but if you are sitting in on a show that's about Brad playing The Darkness, then make sure that's the fucking point of the conversation.

It was mindblowing to hear you two rattle on and on about horror movies and some klingon joke while Brad, the main event of the feature, is left to mutter silently to himself while he struggles to play the actual game without any help, and without any opportunity to get a single word in because you two are too busy high-fiving eachother and joking it up.

I'd love to hear all those anecdotes and silly conversations on the Bombcasts or on the Whiskey Media Radio Show, but I felt it almost ruined the entire feature here. That said, I still managed to enjoy the video, just try and keep your focus next time.

I agree with this. I was actually taken aback by how long they kept going with it. They ruined a good 45 minutes of the show completely.

@smitty86 said:

So someone help me out as I must have missed this whole thing: what is all the complaining about? The usual "I demand you do things the way I want them" or something more....solid?

Yep, people thinking they have an entitled right to demand content.

I find it bogus how much people call out others simply for giving criticism. Not all of it may be constructive, but at least address the video or something relevant rather than bashing the comments section or other members.

Other than Brad's impatient jumping around during a part that I remember being somewhat impactful to me in the game 5 years ago, and Patrick and Dave's constant rambling during the "embrace the darkness" bit, this video is fine.

Everybody just needs to chill the fuck out. This game was a pain in the ass, control-wise(especially during the WWI stuff).

Edit: Also, it's a shame to see that nobody found out that the black hole power was a game-ender, and made the end of the game stupid easy.

@TheCableKid said:

@smitty86 said:

So someone help me out as I must have missed this whole thing: what is all the complaining about? The usual "I demand you do things the way I want them" or something more....solid?

Yep, people thinking they have an entitled right to demand content.

People are absolutely entitled to complain about whatever they want, even if they sound like crazy people complaining about how someone plays some unremarkable game from like four years ago or whatever.

What?!  They're talking during a cutscene?!  My godddd, I'll never ever visit this site if they keep this up! 

I really enjoyed the first hour of this!

Unfortunately, my head started hurting and my stomach felt queasy; so, I had to stop. Might try watching the rest later. Not sure if it's just the game or something. Call of Duty makes me feel that way, too.

Still just glad to see Brad finally starting to embrace the darkness in his soul. Once he fully unleashes it, we will see gaming like none has ever gamed before. :)

@damnable_fiend said:

I think Brad does pretty well, all things considered.

Yep, this game is not particularly easy to get into due to the loose controls. Starting somewhere near the end after several years is no easy task.

I really hate watching brad play.

I think some of the more distressed parties would probably be best simply cancelling their subscriptions, allowing the rest of us to consume the content without such a cesspool of a comments section.

Dicks all around over here. I voiced my distaste for the endless Star Trek talk on the first page, mainly for that part where Brad was begging for help and only got "hey Klingon movie !" as an answer, which was awkward and frustrating, but guys calm the fuck down...

That goes for both "sides". Some people here gave an honest and respectful opinion on a video they simply didn't like. People defending everything are just as bad as people hating on everything.

LOAD OUR LAST SAVE RIP-OFF! just playing

Brads short term memory is so bad lol

Edit: Not as bad as Patrick trying to be funny. Now I see what everyone was complaining about.