@gyratyne: Agreed. This show was a smash hit in the US and probably wouldn't be quite as insanely popular were it not for its international success. The dub in this case is the way it was consumed. It's by no means invalid to enjoy the subs, of course, but trying to depict the dub as inferior in this case is definitely not an opinion the fandom holds. It's a niche take that is perhaps interesting for a deep dive with a bunch of hardcore fans, not a podcast devoted to letting someone experience something HUGE as it was experienced by the original NA/UK fans.
Telling a newbie to watch Bebop with subs is a hot take. I'm almost exclusively a dub watcher and have seen the series in both formats many times, but the dubbed version is pretty much what the fandom prefers and I would say it's very appropriate for this anime that is such a love letter to the West.
The best advice you can get on AP is that shooting a gun is stat based and not skill based. So spreading your points around in different gun types is not a good way to go. Otherwise, it's not so hard of a game that you have to be too worried about wrecking your Mike.
Also, as much as I love the podcasts and other features, I think GB's best work has always been multi-creator Let's Plays. Endurance Run, Beast in the East, even Sonic 06, ha ha. I'm glad to see more stuff like this.
Oh geez, you can always tell someone who doesn't know The Beatles very well when "No Pakistanis" comes up. The Beatles had literally just come back from living abroad in India and absorbing a ton of their culture and beliefs. I can totally understand how a band that was so closely tied to India would not exactly be making a ton of Pakistani fans already. Then by singing a song that Lennon was obviously crafting to be a commentary on the current British backlash against immigrants and using Pakistanis as the "main characters" so to speak, that would just make things worse. Obviously he never got the song right, because Get Back never became a song about the immigrant backlash. Those supposedly "revealing secret tapes" are recording sessions, not secret performances for some shadowy cabal of racists that gathered to hear the "real" Beatles songs, ha ha. John is literally riffing on things from the newspaper, trying to make a protest song. It never panned out.
Outside of science fiction, people don't devote their entire lives to globalist culture, marry a Japanese immigrant, and refuse to play in front of segregated crowds all to just "win over" the left so they can then play secret racists songs to them later. That's bonkers.
Remember, the Beatles were counterculture. Rock and Roll wasn't taking off to preach the things your parents were in favor of. It is admittedly hilarious that it only really takes a single generation removed from the protest and rebellion of rock music to produce intelligent young men and women that think the most popular rock band in history was just itching to jump on the establishment sentiment of bigotry. And I do love Tam, Lucy, and John but none of them can probably even remember the era when rock was a thing. It would be insane for the most popular rock band ever to be like, "Oh geez guys. Let's get grandma and grandpa conservative on our side by writing a song about those pesky immigrants stealing our jerbs!"
As to John's point about "if they don't say it's satire then it's not" (I'm paraphrasing there). That's, frankly, nonsense. They have a song called "Run for your Life" that is about an awful, controlling man telling a woman that he'll kill her if she is unfaithful. It's sung in an upbeat, poppy way. It's satire. I'm just imagining *peace and love* George Harrison telling his lovely wife Pattie Boyd that he was going to MURDER her for ditching him for Clapton. Ha ha. Peace babe, but also never leave me or I'll kill you. There's also the little tune "Happiness is a Warm Gun". The Beatles, not surprisingly, were not big gun nuts and the title of the song was supposedly taken from a line on a NRA pamphlet. But wait....if they SAID the bad thing, it must be that they BELIEVE the bad thing...right? Nah, it's satire. Trust me.
The Beatles had a ton to say about society's ills from racism to sexism. You can hate them all you want (and lots of people totally do), but they're not secret racists. Sorry.
Maybe I'm an optimist but I love being able to watch Nextlander, be a Jeff patron for what is clearly going to be some gonzo shit going forward, and also experience what this absolute A-Team of personalities is going to bring us.
Things change. That's the nature of life, and if Jeff was disappearing forever I'd have different feelings on this. But Jeff's voice talkin' games every week and a possibility of some great colabs with all these guys makes me think this isn't the end of the world.
@mondels: I agree. I missed Dan's chaotic energy. Everything tells me that him and Jess would be dynamite together. We may need to see Metal Gear Voidburger (not to step on Drew's thunder)
Giant Bomb was always about creating a brand out of personalities instead of big site names like Gamespot and IGN. Ironically, it became it's own big brand eventually (as things do). Things change and things end. I hope this doesn't mean the Jeff is leaving the world of entertainment. That would truly be a loss. I still enjoy watching "the old men" Brad, Vin, and Alex have fun over on Nextlander. It is a channel that truly captures their vibe. I still love keeping up with that crazy Dan Rykert and seeing glimpses of Abby and Austin doing their thing out in the wild.
These amazing people are still out there doing what they love, and I love that I can still partake. It is said to see the core Bombers gone, but I think Jan, Jeff B., and Jess are amazing and ol' Jason and Rourie and still holding down the fort. I'm not gonna jump ship just yet, but I'm definitely hopeful I have a way to keep enjoying the madman that is Jeff Gerstmann.
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