To my knowledge, Abby was right about Lara. The rest of the guys were doing some weird combo between Laura and saying it quite right that they invented right there. It was funny but weird to listen to.
As Vinny said there are probably different regional variations on how to pronounce the name, but Lara Croft`s name is definetly pronounced La-ra with a "soft" British English a, not Lair-a like Abby thought.
At least no one tried to seriously call her Laura. There was someone on the bombcast in the past (I think it was Patrick) that always said Laura and it drove me insane.
Paul is so great! It`s always a joy to listen to him talk. Hearing him talk reminds me of that legendary E3 podcast and now I really miss hearing from Carrie Gouskos. What is she up to these days? GB needs to have her on something again sometime soon!
I was hoping For a more in depth talk about Hellblade but may that's coming on a future podcast.
It's a shame everyone is getting hung up on the perma death thing & it not working rather than focusing on why it's mentioned in the first place.
It just feels like everyone is missing the point & just want this game to be another god war. But to each their own.
I don`t think this is fair. The guys have mentioned the things they liked about the game and thinks it does well like story and atmosphere. They also talk about things they think the game does poorly (or at least not as well) like combat and puzzles. The combat and puzzle elements had more of a focus this week, but last week they talked about the atmosphere and story. Other than Dan it also seems like they mostly like the game. Their criticisms are definitely not just based in them wanting it to be another God of War and while it might not have been your intention accusing them of that feels like you are trying to dismiss their opinion and tell them that they are wrong for not loving the game.
Also, from when I read the quote by the producer of the game or whoever it was, I got the impression he was trying to say Shelob was the "hero" because she was manipulating Gollum into preventing Sauron from getting the ring, because she didn't think Frodo had the fortitude to actually succeed (and she turned out to be right). I also read him saying Gollum was a "hero" in the sense of a tragic or accidental hero, rather than being actually heroic. Gollum becomes the "hero" of the story because he accomplishes the necessary deed to defeat Sauron and end the war, even if it was accidental.
It`s been a while since I read the books, but as far as I remember the stated reason for Shelob and Gollum cooperating is that Gollum will bring her food and there is nothing hinting at her having any deeper reasons for doing what she does. If I remember correctly she and Sauron were also on good terms, so I don`t know why she would want to help bring about his demise.
Edit: From the LOTR wikia:
"Sauron was known to be somewhat fond of [Shelob], and in a rare show of humor, was even known to refer to her as his cat. Like a pet cat, Sauron would sometimes give her food in the form of prisoners that he had no more use for or servants who had displeased him."
Gollum is a somewhat sympathetic figure, but I think calling him a hero is really weird and the wrong term. If you end up doing something good accidentally while doing something bad does not make you a hero. Especially when that thing you ended up doing was the opposite of what you wanted to do. Gollum ended up destroying the ring, but he didn`t want to and he didn`t mean to do it.
I had seen the shadow of war human Shelob before and thought it was extremely dumb then, but I hadn`t read their justification for it. Holy crap! Who do they think they are fooling with that explanation. Why even try to explain it if that`s what you`re going with. You will just seem like a total shill or completely insane.
I am not a big LOTR guy, so them changing the lore does not really bother me (though having a giant spider as an ally is way cooler than having a generic goth lady, so that`s a bummer), but them trying to justify it so poorly it just feels insulting. It reveals that the story writers apparently did the research on LOTR by drunkenly half watching the movies 17 years ago. Shelob the character that tries to eat Frodo (which would stop him from destroying the ring) and cares for nothing but herself is the "unsung hero" of LOTR...
And I agree with Vinny that LOTR and Game of Thrones/A song of ice and fire are kind of and apples and oranges thing because they are on completely opposite sides of the fantasy spectrum. I definitely prefer ASOIAF, but that has more to do with my personal taste than with it being better than LOTR.
At this point i can't tell if people are genuinely thinking this looks terrible or are just having some fun riling up the KH fanboys.
Having to trigger the right cutscenes was the only thing that truly looked bad to me in this video. Apart from that, this 15 year old game generally does what Ben wants it to do. And didn't punish him for not saving.
People love to hate Kingdom Hearts and this whole videos series is about shitting on Kingdom Hearts, so people want in on the "fun".
@sethmode: Since you mentioned my food comment I just wanted to reply and say that I will be the first to admit it`s not a great analogy. Abbys big point though was not that she didn`t like the graphics, but that the game was bad for women i.e. sexist. Bayonetta is a devise character and a lot of people thing she is sexist while a lot of people find her empowering. To make a decision on what you think I really do think you need the context of the story and the character development though. That was the point I was trying to make. Abby might still find the game to be sexist after playing it, but I don`t think she can make definite statements about the game before she has gotten that context. Especially when she dismisses the opinions of other people (Alex and Vinny) who have played the games and gotten that context. That`s why I think her opinion is worthy of discussion: not because of what the opinion is, but rater how she formed that opinion.
P. S. By the way I am not saying she has to play the game. Just that she should maybe not make such strong statements about the game before she has played it.
lol I think it's pretty telling how much everyone is focusing their attention on Abby's opinion on Bayonetta rather than something else like Alex's dislike of the Metroid series. She dares have an opinion on a game! Scandalous!
Not sure how these are equivalent at all. Alex says a series is overrated and he just never got into them that was it. Abby says she doesnt like a series because the character doesnt fit her political stance then admitting she hasnt played it while also basically shutting down the others when they try to have a discussion.
I have never played Bayonetta and for all i know the character is a step backwards for women in games but if someone feels so strongly about what this character represents i would expect more information other than what can be gleaned from a trailer.
It's equivalent because they both wanted to list a game series that they particularly didn't like despite it being liked by many others. I don't know why Abby's own personal opinion is any different than Alex's (or any less valid, for that matter), politics be damned. All I'm saying is it's sad that everyone concentrates on Abby's one opinion that lasted all but a minute on the podcast - the fact that you responded to me further emphasizes that.
The two opinions are different because one was formed by playing and experiencing a game for yourself while the other was formed by looking in from the outside and making up your mind about something.
It`s like one person tasting mayo and saying "it tastes bad and I don`t like it" and another person reading/hearing about and looking at mayo and saying "it seems like something I won`t like". They might very well be right and they probably have some context/evidence to back up their statement, but without experiencing it you can`t make definite judgments and quality statements about something. That`s why Abby`s opinions are something that are worth discussions while Alex`s opinions are not (to the same degree at least). Again I want to emphasize that this does not mean Abby is wrong for having the opinions that she has. Just that the foundation she built the opinion on is not very strong. Especially compared to the other answers to the question.
I thought this would be a good video to lull me in sleep with.. Instead, i listened to it all.
My god, the stuff that happens in this series. I had no idea! I played KH1 , but some events that turned out to be earthshattering huge didn't even register with me that much when i was playing that game.
Especially Birth by sleep and KH:3d sound impossibly dense with information. I just don't understand how they even go about conveying all that information to the player. This guy said he had to play through Birth by sleep 9 times to make sense of it. 9 TIMES! Pretty funny that he doesn't even recommend people to play that game :D (Said KH 1 & 2 were the best ones, Chains of memories if you can deal with the repetitive cardgame )
Also pretty funny to hear how crazy the story gets , to the point where the speaker can't handle the story neither. And that's before he introduces the idea of timetravel 2,5 hours into this lecture :D.
I guess i can understand KH fandom now. The story is biblically complex, full of anagrams, greek letters and retcons, talks about the essence of human beings (body,soul and heart) and is so far off the rails that you just gotta know what happens next because it's hard to imagine what happens. Story sounds really bad, but entertaining because anything could happen. Since i liked the experience of watching the Room, i hope Ben gets to those games. I'm morbidly interested.
Also learned that KH3 is going to be the end of this saga, but that there will be more saga's with Sora as maincharacter. If Square deems it worthwhile i assume.
I will say that expect for 1 and 2 I have only played through the Kingdom Hearts games once each and knew most of the stuff from the video (though it was nice for refreshing me on some things and connecting some dots I hadn`t connected). For all the jokes about how complex the story in the series is for the most part it`s not that hard to understand most of it. That`s not to say it`s all good. The overarching story got weirder and weirder and worse and worse, but a lot of the smaller and personal stories in those game are for the most part pretty good. That`s the reason I actually enjoyed the story in Birth by sleep a decent amount. It`s not the best writing is not the best the video game industry has to offer, but it`s decent and paired with a lot of charm and some really good gameplay (Birth by sleep is in my opinion at least really fun to play and the one game in the series I would definitely recommend to play other than 1 and 2). Dream Drop Distance was terrible though (in the story department, the gameplay was OK). That`s where they start introducing time travel and all the Xehanorts and goes so far up it`s own ass that I don`t think they can ever get back out.
Even though they are strectched to the breaking point because of game length I also think Chain of memories and 358/2 days have some pretty decent personal stories that I enjoyed.
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