Giant Bombcast 657: The Content

I need a hint! Is Ryu a magician?!

No Amnesia: Rebirth talk this week? Oh well, it's still a bombcast and I am most definitely here for it!!

Japanese Press: huge Xbox lol

Now: huge PS5. daijoubu

Cool rock!

people on chat were saying he looks good 🤷‍♂️

@bathala: if you’re gonna try and tell me aesthetics are subjective I’m just gonna go ahead and leave now.

I’m balancing out his negative criticism for a positive one

What are you saying with this? Because if you're saying what I think you're saying it's a really, REALLY shitty thing to say.

I personally feel, that even doing a Beat-em-up "right", it wouldn't be something I would want to ever play. Last few years there's been a couple of attempts to rehash that genre, but none of them look any good. Obvs that's just an opinion.

@julmajuuhan: I mean, ironically, I think the Yakuza series is a pretty good example of where that genre ended up evolving towards

@humanity: I'm relaxed, I just think mocking someone's appearance that you don't know, even in jest, by likening them to a pedophile or kidnapper is shitty. I am not saying malice was intended, I'm just saying it's shitty.

If it were me, and I was dressed like that because I thought it looked awesome, I'd think the a person was being really shitty if they jokingly said I looked like a pedophile or kidnapper, joke or not?

Jeff time to get a new LG OLED.

if we could just let everyone have whatever kinda facial hair they wanna have and not make demands of people making content that be rad

Amen! I'm so sick of people mentioning it constantly, and i cant even imagine how annoying it must be for the person who gets these comments from total random asshats online. Luckily it seems like Ben can brush it aside.

I don't even think Sony can do something that Microsoft did.

@asylumrunner:Yeah, totes, and Yakuza is pretty awesome at that. Mostly was thinking about the Indie reneicance of the 2d brawler from the 90s.

Folks used to crank it at work all the time - nowadays they're all wanking from home.

The Super Grafx looks like H.R. Giger gave birth to it.

Why is Jeff defending Sony so much? as soon as someone brings up something negative about the PS5 he is there to defend it.

Glad Jeff brought up Riot’s disgusting promotion with the whole Seraphine shitshow.

The sad thing, as much as I want to stop supporting Riot, I can’t stop playing League since there isn’t any other game that scratches that itch. Thier eSports scene is also incredible.

I'm with Jeff, I'm excited about the new consoles, mainly the PS5 for me, because I have only the base PS4 and haven't upgraded to the Pro version. So the 4k and improved performance of some of my PS4 games will be something I will look forward to as a new gaming experience. The console not having a lot of launch games doesn't bother me at all, and I can wait. I also don't have a fancy 120 fps, 2.1 HDMI television, but you don't need that for the new consoles and the other stuff my television can do like HDR and 4K at 60 fps is good enough for me, since 120 fps will not really be a thing until 2-3 years from now when developers will have a handle on how to use it for their games.

Microsoft is the "Rich Kid" who can't compete, so they simply outspend their competition, to "buy" wins.

And Apple, Google, Amazon, and every other global tech giant is paying very close attention to the purchase of Zenimax / Bethesda, as a "road map" on how to buy said wins.

The future of video games is gonna be a sh*tshow of streaming monopolies that will make Netflix vs. Hulu / Disney + (both owned by Disney), vs. Amazon Prime vs. Apple vs. the dozens of other streaming services, look quant.

Market consolidation / monopolism is bad for consumers, it: reduces competition in the market, reduces consumer choice, reduces innovation and creativity, and prices stagnate or rise.

All the people championing Game Pass as "such a good deal," I wonder if they'll feel the same in 5 - 10 years, when you're spending 15, 20, 25, 30, 35+ dollars per month, per streaming service? Or games have unskippable ads? Or when everything follows a games as service model? Or when "AAA" video games get shorter and "cheaper" to keep costs down and make streaming services more profitable? Or when consumers have no other gaming options, because tech giants have monopolized the market?

It's like what Steve Jobs talked about with Xerox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlBjNmXvqIM

Thanks, Microsoft! (slow clap)

P.S. - And all the people / fanboys who justify Microsoft making everything Zenimax / Bethesda exclusive by saying "Sony would 100% make it exclusive, if they bought them," are overlooking the simply fact that Sony (which is 1/10 to 1/15 the size of Microsoft) doesn't have the money (even if they wanted to) to buy Bethesda, or EA, or Activision-Blizzard, or Take Two, or 2K, or Ubisoft. It's an entirely moot point.

Microsoft has the money. Apple, Google, Amazon, TenCent, NetEase... THEY have the money to monopolize the entire 3rd party video game market.

Things i disagree with :P.
I'm with Ben, the graphical upgrade of a new generation is minimal, lighting is better, resolution is higher, frame rates are better (so far), i haven't really seen anything the previous gen can't do, it would do it slower but it can do it, i was very surprised to hear Jeff say the opposite, i wonder what game he's thinking of cus i haven't seen it.
I'm also against Ben :P the hint system on the PS5 is atrocious, "you can ignore it", ok, did the guy in the video ignore it? All he did was turn on the console and it pre-loaded the game and put the hints in his fucking face, every time he was in the menu hints were all over the god damn place. Yes the entirety of a game is spoiled online instantly, but to see that i'd have to go to youtube and search for the game, or be unlucky and see a thumbnail, or frequent a spoiler heavy web page or forum, now you don't even need to leave the console they've got it all right there at the press of a button!
Personally i don't care about being spoiled or having hints or walkthroughs handy, i do it all the time, my gripe is with the PS5 menu as a whole, there doesn't seem to be a logic to which direction you should navigate, he scrolled past fucking 9 hints to join a friend in a different multiplayer game... what the fuck is that about?
It's probably not as bad as it looks, but that video is insane.

Already...

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Toobin

Everytime I hear the "graphics cant get much better" conversation I roll my eyes. People said that about PS3 games, go look at those games now. Until it looks like real life folks, it can get better.

During the email segment I'm over here yelling "BRAD SAVE US! BRAD! BRAD PLEASE!"

@zinkn: LOL I was going to say Jeff was too negative on Sony this episode, regarding the new guide system.

@drew327: "Can't get much" just implies diminishing returns. We're pretty close to that singularity I think. Anything above 8k is inpreceptible to the eye. RTX natural lighting is already here. I'd rather stylistic shifts more than realism but that's probably another discussion.

Top hat talk not featuring Top Hat Gaming Man, this feels strange.

I'm in agreement with Jeff regarding the PS5 hints system.. it's a good idea, but I have doubts about how well/widespread it will be implemented. Also would be shitty if Sony "forced" devs to add it for every game. I don't think they will do that, though. Historically, Sony's been very much like "hey devs, this is here if you want to use it" to the point that a lot of their unique features go unused.

The big thing about the PS5 UI that I think wasn't even mentioned in this podcast was the Activities thing. Sounded like you can select predetermined spots in the game (levels, chapters, or maybe fast travel points) to start from before you even boot the game up. Or, for multiplayer games, you can select a mode and jump right to the matchmaking lobby. Combined with super-fast loading, this is really exciting stuff (of course, if it's implemented well, and is used by 3rd parties).

Also, wow it's so nice of them to put a "recent screenshot" card there. Having to load up the Capture Gallery to see the screenshot I just took was super bad. (and I think it's really funny that GB never seemed to use Capture Gallery.. I remember watching them go all the way to Settings -> Storage to find screenshots)

Something I *hope* is there is the ability to customize what type of activity cards you see. Some people won't want to see hints, or multiplayer stuff, etc. Also would be nice if you could change the order, like "always put trophy cards first". Otherwise it could get messy really easily.

@drew327: As someone who is 40+ years old, graphics jumps were huge deals on consoles. HUUUUUGGGGEEEEE. But since PS3 it's been very incremental and doesn't really change the type of game that is possible. The current generation and the next generation are more like refinements than truly a next step from what was before it. The only thing the new generation offers is decent 4k and/or 60fps and a guarantee of a shit load of microtransactions.

@av_gamer: seems like the 120 fps 1080p mode is common for shooters with mp modes on the new consoles. So it's at least as common as those games will be. For someone who's played modern warfare at this res/fps on my pc hooked up to my tv i'm pretty excited. seeing 120 fps on a big screen is pretty cool

It’s odd that 2k basketball unskipable ads news story was not talked about even though Jeff tweeted about it last week.

As someone who is 50+, I also find I care about graphics far less these days, pretty much stopped caring during the current generation. For example, I never had the "wow" moment with HDTV. I've seen some impressive demos on TV's in stores, but nothing that says "gotta have it" to me. My current platform of choice is my Switch, despite having a RYZEN 7 PC with 32gb Ram and an Nvidia RTX 2080. At this point, I don't care about either of the new consoles.

On the discussion of communities working together to figure something out... I think Jeff is even more right than he's arguing. I don't even think it's an issue of whether or not someone pops into the community to spoil the secrets. I think the mere presence of the answers being available, whether people choose to look at the answers for themselves or not, prevents that community from forming. Discovering the unknown just doesn't have the same sense of purpose when the unknown isn't actually unknown.

Why was FEZ being used as a the standard in the tips and tricks argument?

How many games do the FEZ thing, and is anyone expecting another one to come out or something?

@diamond_lime: I think it's less about a game doing what FEZ did in game, and more about how the community really took to it and it kind of became an "event" among people playing it. Other games have caused it, but FEZ, to many (myself included), is the most recent gold standard.

I find it incredibly rude to comment on peoples appearance below their published work. There are places to offer your two cents that aren't extremely likely to be seen by the very people you are talking about.

Good ep everyone, thanks for the cast.

PC Engine looks > TG16 looks

I agree with Jeff here re: hints ruining games day 1 for communities. Frankly it shouldn't be front and centre in UIs in general. From an individual perspective as well, I feel like the 'inconvenience' of getting out your phone/opening up a browser tab provides enough of an obstacle for you to try and solve a puzzle/section yourself. And Ben's argument that 'some people will ruin it for themselves' places entirely too much stock in people who know better — who can say what counts as a 'spoiler' for some?

This isn't like a knock on people who can't solve puzzles btw — I'm dumb as a sack of bricks and reach for puzzle solutions often. And I can see how this would be a good accessibility feature for some. But I just don't agree with the idea of making this a part of the console interface.

Gotta love the comments. I remember when the bomb crew were accused of being Xbox fanboys back in the PS3/360 days because they didn't give Sony's console a fair shake. Now they're Sony fanboys. Amazing.

While there is something to be said for bespoke content I imagine that we've only seen the beginning of randomly generated 3D worlds like Minecraft or No Man's Sky that are the only things that can offset the modeling/texture armies required for Assassin's Creed or GTA aside from techniques like photogrammetry or Machine Learning enhancements.

Games are supposed to be interactive so I'm always disappointed when people measure visual fidelity in static screenshots. We're not anywhere near plateauing in real life visual fidelity in games until the hardware can model voxels the size of sand grains in real-time and support full raytracing for any dynamic light source.

Guess I learned a new word "concomitant" hehe.

@newfangled: They comment on that every now and then too. Turns out when you talk about things like it's your job to weigh pros and cons everyone will think you hate it.