Giant Bombcast 716: Homeopathic Indiana Jones

Hail Bingo

QHU (Quick Heads-Up): We had to run with the backup audio this week.

BIWY: Bingo Is Watching You

@unastrike: Does thatmean no video?

@chamurai: Video is processing.

Just because Jan didn't post this does not mean I will stand for not getting other possible show titles!

"Who cares about the story in Halo?!?" Enough people to have 34 books and now a big-budget TV show? We get it already, jeeze! haha

@doncabesa: I won't acknowledge those books as canon until they admit that the suit cranks him off.

@bisonhero: Pretty sure master chief in the books (i had the first two as a kid) is sterile or has something to make him really only focused on missions. His bones have metal plating and he's mostly cyborg...that said it hurt when I read all this cool stuff then he gets shot once and keels back in pain yet I'm playing the game taking rockets near to the face and surviving lol. Just chalked it up to the story in books being legendary mode...hence why they feared a room of like 2 grunts and an alien commando and in-game your dancing on them.

The books seemed quite good thou I wasn't a big serious SciFi reader as a kid or now. I'm guessing most of the bad reviews on say good reads is from people who think more nuanced and crazy deep SciFi gets overlooked for halo but halo books do a lot and flesh out the story without talking down or being written poorly. There's a review online by a guy who likes SciFi and does a harsh but fair critic after reading all the halo books without playing the games. He mostly thought they were good to fine. So I'm not sure why people generally think the games and books are so bad story-wise there suppose to be fine. That said maybe the stories arent presented well enough. I barely got through to the opening up of halo infinite and skipped cutscenes for the most part since people said the story was so bad...the one cutscene I did watch got me straight on track of what we were doing, so I didn't get the confusion. Activating a halo is bad...we knew this since the twist in the first game...they wipe out organic life to kill off the flood's food source. Maybe I'm missing something...plan to watch the story on youtube later since im hearing the story isnt as bad as people say.

Can't wait to hear how much "doesn't shut up" means. I'm gonna guess less than two minutes.

@depecheload: I assume they meant Gerstmann, because Bakalar chimed in for maybe a whole five seconds during the discussion. Jeff did say he doesn’t care much about the story, while also saying that it’s an incredible game, but I assume the person went into a state of blind rage before that and ignored it.

Good to see the ”Jeff Gerstmann only likes Call of Duty” tradition hasn’t died off yet, even when I can’t remember him say anything about Vanguard after the launch week.

Guess I’m out of the loop, but what was Bakalar talking about in regards to a “disappointing content creator” associated with Janina? Can’t find anything on the forums/subreddit/various comment sections.

@banefirelord: They are talking about the Reel Layers show that debuted one episode a while back which is a mocumentary/satire of these deep, long format movie analysis essays you find on YouTube. They are just continuing to ham it up for the cameras so to speak. If the second episode is going to follow the exact formula as the first then thats going to be very disappointing.

Also.. Danny.. et tu Brutus? I thought finally someone would step in and say "Quantum Break wasn't that bad" but sadly no. I'll be the hero to say I had played through all of Quantum Break AFTER beating Control and it's an absolutely fine game to play. The entire TV show thing surrounding it sucked although I ended up watching all the episodes, but the game was actually fun and clearly a precursor to Control. I even wrote about it OVER HERE

@depecheload: Enough that it is a bit annoying. Glad Danny stepped in and explained why it's sad we do not have a good story again.

I thought the Ryan thing was a joke.

Quantum Break is a good game. People should give it a shot nowadays, the gameplay is great and imo in some aspects better than Control. The story is enjoyable as well, it's a great time travel story.

Ads in Premium Video feed it looks like. :-(

Glad I am paying for this premium, ad-laced content. /s

I liked Conviction more than any of the other Splinter Cells, haha. But at the time old fans lost their minds and hated on it for months before it was even released.

@humanity: Ah, okay, thank you. I thought it might have been some sort of sex pest thing so I'm glad it's just bad content instead.

I'm not quite sure why Jeff was hung up on Tom Holland being 25 as the main reason he shouldn't have been cast as Nathan Drake. That's prime franchise starting age.

But I guess that's this podcasts thing now, to have a good old moan.

Sorry about the ad kerfuffle! Jan's out this week and I haven't done this type of upload (where there's multiple video versions) before, so I messed it up! Fixing now, my bad!

@derfeef: Was that what happened? I saw it as Danny stepping in to tone down Bakalar's wholesale discounting of a fairly large group of people who are invested in Halo's lore (many of whom DID enjoy this story). I think Jeff G is right both that there are major holes in this story, but also that they made a smart choice to focus on a more personal story.

That's why I think Jeffy B's take is unnecessarily hostile. It's not a BAD story, but it is incomplete. That's a problem for many; not a problem for many others, like me. I personally enjoyed this story a lot and it whet my appetite for whatever else they will deliver after this, because we already know there will be more.

[That said, deliver unto me the promised AI army of Halo 5 at some point, with or without Cortana. Or I shall be very cross. What a cool fucking idea for the state of the universe that would have been - and still could be. They don't even need bodies. Just want to have the experience of trying to counteract a shit ton of super intelligent machine intelligences at some point.]

@ismellyourpajamas: @bpriller: fixed! sorry again for the mix-up!

@voidburger: Thanks!

This was fun! Thank you!

Bingo will be watching

@cyrribrae: I completely agree with this take. Last time Danny's take about it being post 9/11 nonsense was absolutely ridiculous but in this episode he had the same take as Gerstmann had last time that he at least acknowledges theres lore etc but he just doesn't care for the books etc which is perfectly fine. But Bakalar is being so unnecessarily childish and dismissing it for what? To have another weird rag on halo like last time? It's tiring hearing it again so soon after the last time they discussed it especially considering the game is a ton of fun and has at least been generally well received.

They probably won't see this but the Unreal Matrix City thing took a team of maybe 50-70 people around a year to do, just a FYI

@humanity: as someone that doesn't currently have premium this series has been... Strange? Every time it's brought up there's an issue. Like originally Bakalar was saying on the podcast Janina was supposed to be on the show, not a producer role, and there was conflict over that. Now they're talking about the content schedule not being up to snuff. And it just comes off like they're having actual problems with this thing.

@mechanized: While Janina may very well have scheduling conflicts because she actually has a full time job outside of this project, everything else is definitely played up for laughs.

The point Jess makes about Psychonauts 2 and how its art and gameplay are intertwined is so on point. She put my thoughts about the game into words in a way that I couldn’t manage. Truly excellent game design.

@derfeef: Agreed. I super dug the story and setting of Quantum Break, hoped to see some more references to it in Control (I think there's only one).

Exactly as they said - when It Takes Two was announced as TGA's GotY, my immediate thought was they did that because of Josef Fares' previous TGA speech. I guess that's an uncharitable thought, but it honestly does not make much sense as a GotY pick in my opinion.

There was a LOT of crosstalk in this episode, and always involving Jess (either her being talked over or her talking when someone else had already started). Is there some lag on her end or something?

Sooo... still continuing on with the terrible Reel Layers thing, huh? (Pretending it's real.) Ok then...

Jansen Ackles is my fan casting for Nathan Drake.

Does Jessie interrupt a lot or is it just me?

It's just you.

@jezus213: Not just you.

It felt like everyone was talking over everyone, not just Jessie. Something must be fucked with their audio syncing.

Not Jeff G slandering the Sable OST, def in the very least worthy of a nomination 🥲

To be fair, they chim in on stuff for short stakes especially if they dont care for the material. They have to move on and so on. Add to that the crew does have their genre's it would be a lie to say they dont everyone has something they sway towards. Fans can only gain info off what they get from some parasocial relationship like real friends. If you stated you play COD and loved it most times even half the time, and had it on your GOTY list on a professional site that is paid for those critics, reviewed those games and gave them high scores...its safe to assume you like COD. He's also said he likes COD begrudgingly. Jeff has a hard tone to pin down so i get why people thread needles trying to decifer his likes and dislikes, and given he's in tv terms the main character of the site and its history, its safe to assume people have invested interest (subscribers) in learning his taste and comparing it to their own for how they purchase games. Most fans think his takes are golden no matter how much he says its just his opinion. So basically people wanna know his interest and hope he shares theirs not cause their weird but cause they just want someone to bounce off of and share their interest. it would be a lonely world if everything you enjoyed was hated. Many dont think the plot is that bad...and from my knowledge of jeff and crew...their gamers not story buffs, they dont watch every movie that comes out, read tons of books, debate character development in their spare time. So hearing they are meh on a story isnt the end of the world but it is for people who invest in their takes. Cause overall their takes are pretty solid when your invested.

Personally, i learned my investment in movies and stuff goes against most gamers in general who hate that games are turning into interactive movies. So i ignore most takes that a story is bad, (but some how don't) and just play on gamepass.

Count me in the camp of being extremely over people trying to belittle things they don't care about, re: Halo story. It's not fun, regardless of series or whatever to hear someone spend this much time talking about how they don't care about something. Like say how you feel, please! But belaboring the point is just tedious to listen to.

Not really understanding where the Halo hate is coming from. We get it, you guys don't like it. Move on.

I'm obsessed with Jess' glasses.