Giant Bombcast 601: Chief Daedra Officer

@typhy: Yeah, it actually makes me kind of gives me anxiety cause I never know when he's gonna do it

The thing is that everything in the core loop of Borderlands 3 is fine to good. I like the loot that drops and its frequency. The shooting is generally good with maybe the exception of horribly bullet sponge-y enemies. I don't know what Jeff's problems with the mech is, but I've been playing the Irish dude and I find his skill tree interesting and fun. The core of the game is actually very well done.

The issue is everything that surrounds that - every time you get into a groove where you are enjoying the game, it has a way of yanking you out of that with some frankly inexcusable design choices. For example:

-- The lack of a loot as junk option is a major oversight, and is a thing that has become otherwise common in this genre.

-- The map for some reason centers on fast travel stations rather than the player when you open it up.

-- The menus are by far the worst in the series. They're confusingly laid out and the performance is terrible. As Jeff mentioned, the challenges aren't on their own separate tab and can't be tracked. I actually had to look online about where to get in game mail because for some reason you need to pause the game and go into the "Social" menu, where I never would have thought to look for it.

These are all things you have to interact with all the time in the game, and it's nails on chalkboard every time you have to do it. I've started to actively avoid picking things up to experiment with them because I don't want the hassle of organizing my inventory, and that sucks in a game about a bunch of weird guns.

It's frustrating because these are all issues that other games have "solved," so it isn't like the devs were working without precedent.

@toxin066: the jokes are the good part of the writing. The story is straight garbage and all the characters involved are highly forgettable. I didn't come in with a high bar for the story and it met my expectations, it is nothing but a driving force for some jokes and getting bosses introduced for you to shoot which is fine. I find it odd how in love they seem to be with remenant when some of the criticism they levied at BL3 could just as easily be applied to Remenant.

I think BL3 is great! Bummed that the GBWest crew (save for Jason) don't really care for it. If BL3 dropped and incorporated a bunch of things from Destiny and other 1PS's of the last decade, it would have been a really strange game. Borderlands knows what it is, and not only stays in its lane--it runs all other loot shooters off the road.

@asmo917: It's a Moxxi gun, that's par for the course. Let's not forget the Bad Touch and Good Touch in BL2 you can get from her that constantly vibrate the controller.

@cikame: Then you should scroll back three posts before yours for a great list of what I'm talking about. (Also stop and ask yourself if it's healthy to become enraged over video game opinions.)

Really sad to see Gears 5 get buried by this mediocre ass game

I learned about switch emulators when youtube started recommending me videos of a Mario Odyssey mod that converts the whole game into a rom-hack style nightmare game. I think the mod is called Superstar? An example of how messed up superstar is: the sand in that day of the dead desert level becomes lava.

I haven't followed Borderlands 3 news because I didn't care for BL2 at all - I can't believe they still have the golden keys and Shift codes.

They were one of the main problems with BL2. The golden key guns were always way better than anything you got in drops and completely ruin any sense of progression or satisfaction from the drops. When you've subverted a player's desire to care about loot drops in a loot game, ya done fucked up.

BL3 seems... fine. More of the same really. After watching people play it: I really think this could be a decent buy next year when it (hopefully) launches on Steam with a slight discount and all the bug fixes (heard about the save deleting bug). I like beastmaster/summoner characters so FL4K looks like a fun romp for a playthrough compared to Gaige the Mechromancer that felt more like me watching a pet win fights than me helping in a significant way. At this point I'm hoping Randy's vindictive nature doesn't arise and cause him to try and never release it on Steam (he doesn't have THAT much power, right?).

Paradise By The Dashboard Light is the absolute worst karaoke song. Do not sing it. It is like 7 goddamn minutes long and everyone will hate you while you stand around awkwardly listening to the baseball section and then apathethicaly sing the last 3 minutes.

BL3 sure seems like it is made with the core audience in mind. The fact that it doesn't change too much or bring in more current trends is a part of the appeal that they're consciously going for, and that'll either work for you or it won't. Not surprised that that's a more divisive approach. But it seems to be doing well for them if you believe Pitchford's claim of the game doing better at launch than BL2 did at its peak. I don't have a take on the game itself yet, but I think their approach is valid and even a little refreshing in today's GaaS dominated climate.

Hell yes to chip out kills only from supers. Anything else is a bummer.

While i enjoyed the conversation about BL3, I would liked to heard more from Jason and Ben. There was too much talk about what Borderlands 3 isn't, which is only useful to a point, and wished there was more about what it is,especially from people who like the Borderlands series.

I'm not surprised by Jeff and Brads take on the game given their opinions (or lack thereof) on the previous games, so I would like to have heard a little more from people who do like them more. I'll be interested in Abby's take if she has played it as I believe she likes the Borderlands as well. I am glad there are more diverse opinions and tastes on Giant Bomb now which has really restarted and kept me on premium these days.

I personally am not planning to play soon as I tend to try and avoid buying many new games, especially with potential substantial DLC releases following, for value/budget/time/backlog reasons. But, I have been replaying the older games, from the new enhanced edition of 1, just finished the Pre-sequel and now 2 for the recent DLC. I have always enjoyed the games for the most part, but I have realized that in each I always am at least a little frustrated and annoyed the first time through, and have a far more enjoyable time after replaying it. The Pre-Sequel for example, I was really annoyed by the O2 thing, never used things like slamming, and was confused and annoyed by the story and dialogue the first time through. But my recent second time I knew not to be to concerned about O2 as it really isn't that much of a worry and only really a thing and the beginning part of that game, I used slamming to get me out of some tight spots, and as with all the Borderlands game I could deal with the good and bad parts of the story and dialogue better. It seems BL3 will be the same or similar.

I am a little disappointed about what people have been saying about the story/writing though, given I really enjoyed Tales from the Borderlands, I was hoping that they learned from the writing (or even possibly poached the writer/s) from that.

Sauce.

...

Sauce.

With regards to "PERFECT!" acknowledgements, I like how Ultimate Marvel Vs. Capcom 3 says it right on the winning blow. Gives that immediate sense of satisfaction/ground-kick.

Giant Bomb Extra Life 2019: Urban Spelunking Edition

(With Breaking Brad: He Finishes Spelunky segment)

Can someone spoil (with tags) Konami Picross for me please.

@alternate: After you get 100% in Konami Picross, you can replay all of the levels, but you can't put X marks on the spots you know are going to be left blank. So like if a row has a 0 on it, you can't block that out, you just have to keep in mind that no filled in block go there

Looked up that ICP board game, thinking I'd buy it for my brother as a joke. Game is like $200-600 on eBay/Amazon. Wow.

Holy cow I thought gb had edited the image or picked a bad copy of it for a goof, but billy Mitchell actually put an awful squished pic on an “evidence project” huh

I had to search for it before I even listened to the podcast because it seemed too funny and it is some wild stuff. Peak boomer on the internet sort of thing. Don't forget that it appears like "Table of Contents" appears on the bottom of the cover page instead of at the top of the actual Table of Contents. Just quality from top to bottom.

@beforet: thanks

OK, so if BL3 looks worse in comparison to other, more recent, loot shooters, does that mean, since I never played any of those I'll enjoy it as much as I did BL & BL2? I'm sure the comedy hasn't aged well (and I have to wonder if Mikey Newmann's departure hurt them in that regard) but man I had fun with those games.

PS - There are two types of people who are willing to karaoke Paradise by the Dashboard Light: Those who are very confident in their well developed vocal ability, and those who wildly underestimate the song's difficulty. I sincerely hope e-mailer was the former.

I think there is very much a way to cater to a core audience while no simply iterating the way bl3 did. Each game does it but to an extent that really allows the trappings of it to go overlooked. Do we really need unskippable cutscenes and such a kingdom hearts level intro to each game? Do we really need to neglect vehicular travel and useful map waypoints?

The list goes on and it is simply bad for the sake of being the same

Holy crap why was Ben so loud this episode and constantly talking over everyone. Dude is annoying

The BL3 conversation sounded so unfair. One of my least favorite complaints the crew makes (especially Brad) is saying a game should be more, but then not actually expanding on that point. What do more modern loot shooters do should BL3 have taken? Let's not pretend Destiny doesn't separate it's zones in the same way BL3 does. Customization through armor and such isn't something BL3 needs; all that would do is create more loot to go through which people would complain about. Something like Daily Strikes would be ok, but that pushes BL3 into more a games as service stuff and not just a finished game. Crafting defeats the purpose of the game, which is finding guns.

The whole conversation was just complaining about what BL3 isn't instead of what it is; outside of dialogue/story which is subjective anyway. BL3 doesn't need to drastically change it's formula in order for it to be good; it should keep the core gameplay loop that works and make changes and improvements to it; which it appears to do.

@justabard: Good point, not one I’d really argue with either. Lord knows I had tons of nitpicks with BL2, and probably will with BL3. But I haven’t played enough to find many yet and like how familiar it feels overall. I’m digging it quite a bit.

@dang3rdoom: What's truly annoying is someone who barely posts but finds the need to chime in to shittalk Ben the rare times that he does. You could just say...nothing at all instead of being a jerk.

For reference, see these comments for a constructive way to address Ben being loud. There is one in there that sums it up nicely without being an asshole.

@sethmode: the hell does the amount of times I post even relevant? And what are you gonna do about it bub? I'll just post my dislike for Ben on every podcast from now on just to annoy you.

@dang3rdoom: It means you don't really contribute anything but just willfully being an asshole, so you COULD just say nothing at all. Thought that was clear.

And you seem like a real nice person. Glad you so giddily enjoy being a dick.

Ben saying how he felt that he wasn't getting very deep into the BL3 skill tree, and then admitting that he was spreading points around was weird. That's how skill trees/talent points work in practically every game that has them. You have to focus in order to get down farther. And I think the level cap has typically been between 50-60 pre-DLC in the Borderlands games, so he's not that high. You're supposed to replay the game on the new game+ modes in order to get that high.

If you keep yelling the same jokes repeatedly they become funnier... right?

@dgtlty: Two assholes made for each other.

The performance issues in BL3 is inexcusable. Shame as I was kind of looking forward to another shlooter to play with some mates.

My joke lootgame of the month was Deadly Tower of Monsters. Still some dick jokes here and there and a quite weak A-plot but the DVD-commentary stuff was excellent and brought the game to a higher level. Quite enjoyed the vertical exploration as well as you got higher up the tower. Now that's the battle royale stuff that i can get behind :P

@therealturk: That’s an oblique reference. At best. You’re just getting old and tired of lowbrow toilet/sex humor. Which is fine. Happens to all of us. But it’s still objectively funny and fun — and younger you would have laughed probably.

POP POP

Interesting