Giant Bombcast 590: Ice Cube Is Our Coworker

perfect timing!

Rorie on the Bombcast, the perfect crew arrangement is back baby!

(Well as perfect as it can get on one given coast)

Doesn't Rorie have warranty for that M.2 drive (old and new ones)? Or is that not a thing in the states? My Samsung EVO has like 60 months warranty and I'm pretty sure they'll replace the drive if it breaks. They certainly replaced broken SSDs without any issues in the past for me. So really, he should be in the clear either way (data loss aside).

FFXII and Tactics world is Ivalice, not Eorza. Smh

@humanity: I'm with you mate, best crew for the west coast!

What is the deliting(?) thing they talk about? Can’t find it on google. Some way to make your pc quieter?

My vote for season two of the Masters of Doom series is Gunpei Yokoi developing the Game & Watches and the GameBoy.

Somebody @ James Franco for me. k thx bye

I had the opportunity recently to try crayfish at a street festival in Portland (Maine). I turned it down because I discovered in person that crayfish are too far visually on the wrong side of the "bug or shellfish?" divide.

@indigozeal: Best thing to do is just close your eyes and suck.

Thank you Brad!

Hurray! I've been disappointed with the recent lack of Rorie. I guess he was "helping his extended family" and "doing his job" instead

@zffxvr You will have more luck searching for delidding. The idea is that the thermal compound inside the processor itself is not of very high quality so people will physically pry the lid off the cpu to apply their own. There seems like there's some contention whether that's the only thing going on that causes better cooling but that sort of thing is wayyy out of my wheelhouse to talk smartly about. I'm not convinced it's worth the hassle, but that's partially because as a non-enthusiast computer parts consumer anything that has do with physically fucking around with the CPU seems scary, intimidating, and a Bad Idea.

Here's the site Rorie was talking about that'll do it for you, in any case: https://siliconlottery.com/

Great to get our Rorie/MMO update. Lots of great info and insight into an area that just doesn't get a lot of coverage here.

I really can't

@humanity: Always gotta make it a coast thing eh?

Having been a contractor and fulltime in numerous companies in my own industry, some organizations are very inclusive of external parties, invited to meals and drinks out, included in activities with full time employees ect. Thing is, as a contractor I never expect those things, the recompense for contracting is that you are earning far more than your full time counterpart, this never seems to be discussed in context, also for this very reason many contractor deliberately avoid offers of full time positions, and chose to remain independent. Yes it can be unpredictable and less secure and sure moving around and perhaps not feeling fully invested in a company can be tough, but it can also be a profitable one if approached correctly.

So yes, you weren't invited to the company barbeque, but you made your full time colleagues yearly salary in 6 months.

There's a huge disconnect between what the community seems to want out of Mario Maker 2 and what I enjoy. These fucked-hard levels people are making with sub-25% completion rates--I'm looking at you too, Jeff--are difficult in a way that just isn't fun to me. And because Nintendo's curation is virtually non-existent, finding more traditional Mario levels is stupidly hard.

@scherzo: The last expansion was heavily influenced by 12 and tactics so I can see how it could be confused.

Decaf Rorie is best Rorie.

The Giant Fuck! My favourite podcast. :)

You should consider following people who make levels you happen to enjoy, as I'm sure they'll continue making similar levels. Obviously, it may be difficult to find these levels you really enjoy with the random shuffle of levels coming your way, but it might pay off.

Anyway, it's funny (and maybe kind of sad, actually) how much Jeff's experience with Super Mario Maker 2 mirrors my own, right down to ordering one of those Hori left Joy-Con replacements that I'd previously passed on (since I rarely used the Switch in handheld mode prior to SMM2's release). The Switch has some great games, but the Joy-Con are fucking terrible. Also, if what Jeff said about co-op mode requiring that you each use a single Joy-Con is true, then that's even worse. Nintendo's take on alternative control options is terrible, because you never know when you'll actually be able to use the other controllers you bought. It's a mess.

@kevinski: That's been my strategy so far. Sadly I'm far from drowning in fun levels. :/

I'm with you on the Joy Con front. For me though it's not so much the D-Pad (although I'm not fond of it) but rather the face buttons. They're so tiny and weak I feel like my gorilla hands are going to break them.

@humanity: Agreed. Keep Rorie on the Podcast! Otherwise it's nothing but Ben talking for the whole show.

@ripelivejam: it’s not a coast thing I was merely pointing out that this is the best possible crew on this coast because we all know that the absolute best Bombcast is when BOTH coasts get together once a year. You just can’t beat that Jeff/Vinny dynamic.

Jeff's frustration about the Mario Maker 2 UI changes to better fit a controller is bitterly amusing to me, because I've had that feeling for quite some time - over a decade, probably - about PC games. So many game UIs were created specifically for controllers, and keyboard/mouse on PC suffers for it. Some examples of this changing mid-series that I can think of are Oblivion to Skyrim, or Borderlands to Borderlands 2. Oversimplifying UIs because of console limits, but then not undoing that/reworking that on the PC version, has been my bane.

Also, Jeff dismissing the fact that GB streaming Mario Maker increased their enjoyment of it - I still think that's true. I didn't get much mileage out of the game, personally, because I didn't have a circle of friends who had the game or an audience to share levels with. I'm not saying that's the only reason they enjoyed the game, but I feel it certainly had an effect.

@kevinski: Haha, me too. I almost did it with Celeste but finally broke down after playing some Mario levels and ordered both the joycon replacement and the Satisfye grip. I only play my Switch handheld so I should've done it sooner. It's a HUGE improvement in user experience. Makes it so much more comfortable. The grip makes making slightly awkward because it's a little too heavy to hold with one hand now, but that's a minor drawback to massive improvements.

I love ff14 dearly, it's easily the best storytelling in an RPG that I've seen in a long time, because it takes MMO hours to get through the story so they can have things like good, detailed character arcs and small interactions that give more depth to side characters. The rest of it isn't bad, but the idea that you would pay money to skip the story to get to the new content, especially because Stormblood is not great, is insane to me. Its like skipping all the movies leading up to Endgame, sure the story gets more interesting but if you skip everything leading up to it then you aren't going to enjoy the new stuff, because it's built on the old.

I'm already uncomfortable holding the Switch with just one hand, because I don't want to put much pressure on the Joy-Con rails. I may look into the Satisfye grip, as it looks like it at least makes the overall setup much more stable-feeling, since it effectively makes it feel like one big piece.

On the subject of the Joy-Con rails, I also think it's dumb that Nintendo doesn't have the Switch slide down into the Joy-Con, as it seems like an odd decision to have have the Joy-Con supporting the weight of the system itself when you're holding it.

@kevinski: I highly recommend the grip if you play handheld a lot. The Switch is one of my favorite consoles, but its form factor is definitely weird because of how many contexts it needs to work in. The grip makes it feel like a well-designed handheld instead of like you're awkwardly holding a little TV screen. It's super comfortable. I like the thumb pads it comes with, too, although I only use the left one because my thumb hits the right one because of how much taller than the default it is.

Yeah, I've never had any issues personally but there's definitely a slightly flimsy feel to the connection between the joycons and Switch that makes me a little nervous.

@charongreed: The constant need to speed through everything cause you have no time for everything curse people put on themselves as they age past 25. Everyone's in a rush to see everything with their limited time that they end up seeing nothing or have a paralysis of choice and choose to just play a game of overwatch or another short game session that totals 300 hours that could be put into enjoying a rewarding rpg with slower build up. IDK sometimes people forget you get no more or less time 80+ years on earth. It doesn't just fast forward cause you have kids and a job. You just manage your time more or make choices to keep your time. Anyway yeah long story short people will pay to skip most things. Sometimes its fair like skipping the 3 hours to grind a few levels. I do that on repeat plays of dark souls since...I'm there for the action not hitting a boss i figured out the pattern to 1000 times instead of 100. I just gain 3 hours to play more by skipping lvls for example (levels i could get hitting trash mobs repeat.) Rushing stuff like good content is another question.

I said this about Mario maker when it got on goty that year and got a handful of comments that I was wrong etc. Hindsight is twenty twenty. I brought mario maker instead of xenoblade chronicles 2 due to the crews fascination and fans saying how good it was. (wish i got xenoblade chronicles 2 since the game would have lasted longer and kept me coming back every once in a while). I enjoy mario levels in 2d. That said i brought the game for a family member's wiiu and expected i could get the fun of making levels and seeing people play it in excitement that jeff and crew got. Never happen. All i got was simple short levels made from the nintendo official in which id rather just finish up the wii and other Mario's i had. I never really got to show off my creations (family member played it for 2 min got bored never played it again). Although i understand the fun of seeing people play your levels since i played rpg maker ps1 back in the day and let pals play levels (real joy seeing them break my game). Lastly the rest was auto levels which get dull after the first 5 or so. And super hard levels. The mid easy stuff is hard to find and I just gave up since it was an endless gauntlet anyway. I think the game is incredible for an idea and want tons more. Like creator stuff. Just think the game isn't for me or needs more curation or tweeks and didn't deserve the endless praise. Much like Hitman and PUBG i think the crew playing together bumps the game and they have the perfect setting for getting the max out of the game. Like having power stone 2 with 4 buds who know what their doing vs playing solo vs a computer, infinitely more fun with consistent and interested friends.

PS i think jeff mentioned during GOTY that year that the big reason Mario maker is so fun for them is cause they have the perfect culture and setting for it. He basically said without the setting he didn't know if others would like it as much. instantly put down thou since it's their GOTY and they don't care what others think unless it affects their choice in GOTY (bad PR, practices,etc.)

The thing that people are forgetting about the tariff scuffle is that most products coming into the US are duty free or a very very low % while the other way around the VATs are around 15-20%. I believe what Trump is doing is trying to level the playing field for US products going out to other countries while at the same time reducing cost of the customers here. Not saying what he is doing is a good thing but it's been a long time since a president has at least tried something to reduce cost for us while putting pressure on other countries.

Agreed completely. One of my friends bought a story skip to play Shadowbringers, and it's super apparent how much that hurt his enjoyment of the expansion. The big "oh shit" moments have little-to-no affect on him. And he obviously has no emotional reaction to even the simple things like meeting Alisaie early on or seeing Haurchefant's face when you go to Norvrandt for the first time. And the story back on the Source is completely lost on him.

Anywho, I'm about halfway through it and it's amazing so far.

None of it was ever actually endearing - people need to get over the whole "Aww, I grew up with Nintendo, so..." logic (if it can be called that) they use. In the second half of this decade, there is also now the PlayStation version, and were soon into the time when there will be the Xbox version.

These are large companies, especially MS, so a "what have you done for me lately" attitude is better. Especially from the press, and youtubers and streamers. What they did, good or bad, should just be ignored, because was actually counts, is what they are doing now and what they are likely to do in near-enough future.

@puppymehard: Yea. I fully agree. You essentially lose all context for the story if you use the skip potion. It's like starting a book mid-way through. In addition, the overabundance of skills and enemy/boss mechanics that get thrown at you later on can be quite overwhelming for a new player.

Also... it's a little insane to say FF14 is designed for controllers. Mouse+Keyboard is the best way to play. Those who say otherwise are either people who started on consoles, or who have never played an MMO before. On top of that, PC players have access to a suite of useful tools, such as DPS meters.

@rorie HEY ran in here after hearing you talk about all the Dragging you have to do in FFXIV.

When an NPC asks you for an item, just right click the empty slot in the window the NPC opened for you. You will be presented choices (often just 1) to give that NPC!

I know its dumb. But its probably saved me like 8 miles of mouse dragging in the 6 years i've been playing XIV.

Also the thunder god is Rahmuh. Once you beat Ultima Weapon at level 50, just story skip to 'Hevansward'. The Post 50 -> Pre Heavansward content is the worst thing. While Heavansward is AMAZING.

Kinda surprised no one on the 'cast had heard that the new Ghost Recon will have the AI squad from the last game, but it will!

@rorie might have some good stuff in here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ffxiv/comments/5vbiti/good_tips_for_beginners_or_people_considering/

The new tag system should help finding specific types of levels easier. However, Nintendo has made keeping levels up harder. Low rated (not necessarily bad one just not known) and old levels will be deleted forever after a certain amount of time. So if you like a level, but it's not super popular it could disappear forever.

Hopefully some nice technical people will come to the rescue and let you backup your levels. Maybe even save others' levels to play offline.

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As for FFXIV, I'm glad the game is finally getting some widespread deserved attention. I've been playing it since last year and besides the slow start (especially the ARR story) it's a great MMO that's not a full blown WoW clone. They put in enough Final Fantasy stuff in there to keep it going and then some. The story is really good after you get into the Heavensward (2nd expansion) content. Yes, you will get some feels. Also, it's one of the better FF stories in general. You can try out the game for free up until like lvl 35 I think with a trial account to see if you'll like it or not.

I'm there with Rorie on WoW being a full blown crater of bleh now. Blizzard really dropped the ball and can't even pick it up, they keep dropping it, it's sad.

Is there anywhere else I can see that pic from the thumbnail? That was a pretty cool story out of the reader email.

audio mix seems very quiet

Holy shit I miss you, Rorie. Hope you do more casts

@jeff About Black Knight: Sword of Rage...

The Barenaked Ladies guy just does some voice over work as a character or a few.

That said, the soundtrack by Scott Ian of Anthrax is terrible... I mean, as a cover of the BK2K theme it's okay but there is so little variety to the music on the table compared to BK2K. All the music in BK2K changes when you go to the different game modes... in BK Sword of Rage it's basically the same 2 minutes over and over (or if it's not, it sure as hell sounds like it) and gets very boring very quickly. Also, NO LYRICS. (Note: there is a hidden mode that uses some of the original BK and BK2K sounds that does have some lyrics, but that's basically hidden and still isn't as good as just playing BK2K.

As for playing it, it's an interesting enough table, but it doesn't feel like Black Knight, the OPTIONAL upper playfield is terrible, it's basically just a flipper and a ball lock, no pop bumpers, no switches, nothing to keep your interest. My guess is the upper playfield is probably so sparse and lacking any interesting because they designed it to be optional and easily installed or removed.

I say the above as someone who was extremely excited about a new BK table because BK2K is probably my favorite pinball game. When they announced it I was close to getting a job just to be able to afford buying one. So yeah, extremely disapointed.

The 9 character code is faster than looking up things with words though.

@rorie

I haven't seen anyone else mention this for the new FFXIV players. If you run past a blue questmarker with a plus then grab it. Those quests usually unlock something. In the beginning this is how you unlock things like the Golden Saucer, Challenge Log and Palace of the Dead for example. Later it unlocks higher level versions of bosses and dungeons as well as missions required for getting your mounts to fly in Heavensward and later expansion areas.

On another important note there is a questline involving the gentleman detective Hildebrand Manderville. That may be the best line of sidequests in the entire game and it got so popular that it is still ongoing and has several dungeons and boss fights. It starts at level 50 in Ul'Dah with the quest "The Rise and Fall of Gentlemen".

Rorie I hope you come around more often. I was pretty disheartened to hear ya start off your introduction like that!

This was the best Bombcast in recent memory. It was nice to not skip parts. More @rorie for sure. Love that guy. Definitely not opposed to this being the regular line up.