Giant Bombcast 686: Baby Yogurt

Much respect to Jeff for bringing up Palestine and shouting out Tam and the other outlets who have been working to try and highlight charities and relief efforts, and for Danny helping out with that conversation.

@thej6m: That's an opinion piece by a couple of people working for an Israeli think tank, and doesn't actually say anything about what caused the current round of violence.

Here's some actual reporting that explains it rather well.

Really interesting to hear about old E3 experiences, haha. It is a little sad in a way that those events probably won't ever be the same again.

I'm loving this combination of people on the Bombcast. Long may it continue (with Jason!)

@frytup: thanks, and agreed, that's a much better article to start with.

I got my PS5 delivered to me, in Hawaii, on launch day, because I was part of that email deal that Sony did. I've been in the PS ecosystem since the first one, but I don't play online, or have any influencing power, but I have a decent amount of trophies, so I wonder what it was that got me in the gate to buy a system?

I recently watched some episodes of the Sesame Street crew heading to Hawaii, and it featured a lot of Oscar running around with his legs sticking of his can. It's as weird as seeing Alf run.

@larkjury: Weird how people were predicting the end of e3 each year and how it was kinda better just watching it and how they just liked it as a chance to see friends from work and shoot the crap over beers while laughing at corporate speak trailers. Now people look at it fondly, as if those years of saying it's overrated and crowded and germ-infested all go away to rose-tinted nostalgia. Like the trend of people saying superhero movies were dead or gonna die cause they squeezed it dry and they would all stop watching after marvel's endgame movie. Then the movies really did stop, and people are begging for them back, nostalgic about the good old days of a new blockbuster every few months.

Like people who get nostalgic over college and high school, overlooking the hours of boring classes, boring conversations, awkward interactions, etc. No point in all this, just reminding myself how funny it is that we can all feel nostalgic about a time in life we use to make fun of or take for granted.

Sexy Pokemon and Pokemon theories come up. No mention of how Mr. Mime in the anime was definitely tapping Ash's mom.

@thej6m: That's an opinion piece like all the rest. The publishing source should not lend credence to the opinion.

@xavis00: no kink shaming, she's an adult and can do whatever she wants. Pokemon anime was always weird about stuff like that.

@purpington:

Legitimate news publications have editors and fact checkers regardless of what section their published in; that’s why they’re better resources then Giant Bomb or IGN. Someone posted another article from the WSJ which is also a much better analysis of what’s going on then Danny’s account.

@thej6m: love to link an op-ed (from the WSJ no less!) as an unbiased source lol

Even when fact-checked, op-eds are still inherently biased articles. If you're going to suggest a more objective source of news at least cite the AP or the BBC.

If you're pro-Israel just state that rather than pretending an op-ed is unbiased info.

Some more context for the Palestinian issue: [1] - [2] - [3]

Still incapable of timestamps. Can Red force them to do it please?

Also - Fcuk Israel.

I don't know why but my favorite line this week is from Jan "I used to think I was the anti-Christ"

Not only that, the dude opened with "Rather than getting your current events coverage from gaming pundits" to discredit their own valid criticism and assumes we cannot discern worldnews for ourselves. lol

Ah, the Insult Everyone approach.

Another good show, guys. It looks like the GB Podcast at least is still in good hands.

As far as this latest round of violence in Palestine right now: I will only say this. One of the problems people seems to have today, is that they want to put politics into everything. Not everything is gray. Somethings are just right and wrong. What Israel is doing right now is wrong.

@mayor_mccheese: I clicked on their profile yesterday, and I saw that the majority of posts they’ve ever written on their site were in response to the BLM protests, the Capitol insurrection, and Marvel’s Avengers. I don’t think a good faith discussion is what they’re aiming for.

For the Bombcast itself (oh right, that), the E3 tales made me weirdly nostalgic for that time, despite never having been myself and ignoring most of it each year. I guess it’s a thing that happens every year that I can at least use as a marker, and the lack of any real equivalent last year was disappointing. Sounds like it was tough on all involved, but they got good stories out of it at least.

LMAO, here's some good unbiased news from the WSJ.
Opinion/Commentary..... Get outta here.

I'm in the Xbox Insider program and have that Hub thing installed on my Xbox. I've been in that program for more than a year, though I'm not super active.

I don't have any offer to get in a lottery for an Xbox. I've been checking since last week, but nothing appears. I guess I'm not in the pilot program?

Comments going back and fort between Palestine and fuckable pokemon is something to behold.

Great episode! :) Thanks everyone!

What about a Las Vegas type city for GTA VI? It seems like the heist possibilities would be interesting in that kind of setting, if they can differentiate it enough from GTA V

Why is Bakalar buggin about fluoride? I’m Jan’s age and we had chewable tablets during much of my early education and we have no fluoride in the water here because people voted stupid.

Me either. And I've been in the Omega ring with that app installed for years.

I don't have an active Game Pass sub. Maybe that's a requirement.

@frytup, I don't think that's it. I'm a Game Pass Ultra subscriber, and have been since they started that. Maybe you have to be Omega and Game Pass together or something. Or maybe it was random who got in.

Man, I feel like Jeff might want to revisit Mass Effect 3. His opinions are 100% valid, but I feel like if he looked at it now with fresh perspective he might feel differently. The way he talks about the story in that game and how they wrapped things up is just so different from my own experiences and those of everyone else I know who played through that game. I remember being really jazzed about at least 80% of the story beats that went on during my run, and nothing ever hits 100%... But Jeff just sounds like his experience was just a total train wreck from start to finish and I wonder if some outside factors are playing into that memory, and a fresh playthrough now might be more enjoyable.

I feel like GTA 6 almost has to be set in Vice City, at least as the 'main' map. The GTA Americas rumour seems to be quite persistent, so I'd expect at lest 2 other, probably smaller, maps as well (Cuba/ Mexico?)

I'm in the same boat as Jeff with Mass Effect. 1 still remains my favorite because of the story that is told, the sheer amount of world-building and how it feels more like Star Trek. I just didn't care for the tonal shift and some of the plot beats in 2. While the opening of that game is pretty awesome I saw no value in "killing" Shepard - it as something they never explore. But it's all moot because if I played them the 3rd game would be in my mind and I'd know how all this good stuff ends. I wish they'd just retcon that garbage game out of existence. The multiplayer was hella good and only worth it for that and Tuchanka.

Concerning GTAO and RDO: put a ton of hours into Red Dead Online. It's a really great "unwinding" game where I can just ride around in that world, do some dailies, get into some gunfights and feel satisfied with my time in it. Everything GTAO does, it does better. GTAO is great for just the chaos of mucking around, but all those jetpacks, flying cars, penthouse housing and whatnot cost obscene amounts of cash and the reason why it does better than RDO is because the shark cards they sell directly translate to in-game cash. Gold in RDO, on the other hand, can be generously earned in-game. The economy is just flat-better, which unironically means that people are less inclined to spend real money on things.

If you try to do anything in GTAO, like buying a warehouse to do the trade good stuff, just about the entire server will attack you because they know exactly where you are and what you are doing and because they probably have jetpacks and jets, they can get to you easy and destroy everything you spent a lot of time building up. In RDO, your location is mostly unknown to others and you can opt to not allow for PvP. It's just better designed for people who want to engage with the world rather than letting the chaos bleed into it.

Funny that Danny mentions having a gamer quiz to get a console as Linus Tech Tips was doing that for graphics cards for a while.

Highlight of the working week. Just managing to listen to it now. I'm still looking forward to E3 this year and some 'talk over coverage' from you guys.

@topcyclist: I listen to a few gaming podcasts outside of GB and GB and its community seems to be the only one that really talks about how E3 is dying or if it'll "even happen next year".

If I'm having sleep paralysis I try to make my self spin in a circle in my dream. It wakes me up the majority of the time.

No mention of Israel genociding Palestinians in the show description? Glad you talked about it on the show, but please mention it in the description as well

DANSWERS! DANSWERS! DANSWERS! DANSWERS!

Stopped visiting GB over 2020 for a variety of reasons both site and non-site-related, after hearing the news decided to stop back by and see what it was like and just see politics in the comments. Yep, I think I'll pass.

GOOD

CAST

THANK YOU

@jimbot: (as for your GTAO sentiment; I treat GTAO like pubg in a city and welcome the 31 person insta-wars myself, but I'm weird.

Fun story: I have, for every GTAO iteration across platforms, head-cannon'd my character as son or daughter of Claude. I don't know why, and certainly don't know why Claude made an impression other than a place and time of 'look at this game' for a number of years around that GTA3 era. It probably is why I still play GTA:Online, the basic loop of just causing a ruckus and customizing cars still feels as fun as it did...though that said I also would love to see a 6.

@mrwakka: So what does the politics chat in comments have anything to do or any reflection on the quality of the Bombcast or the site?

There can't be a talk about those kinds of Pokémon without bringing up Gardevoir.

People love the protecc type!

@mrwakka: politics? Bahahaha. This isn't NPR. Last I heard Terry Gross isn't Giant Bomb's newest hire. Whatever amount of politics they talk is secondary to what I come to GIANT BOMB for.

@bobtoad1: I think the experience varies wildly depending on what choices and conflicts you cared most about. Tuchanka and Rannoch are great but things like the Rachni Queen, Cerberus, the council, many squad members from 2, and a number of other things just end up getting tossed by the way side with a brief side mission or racked up as readiness points. Readiness points which aren't reflected all that well in the final mission at all really considering what participation allies have in the mission is largely off screen.

I still like ME and can still enjoy it, but I can see where Jeff is coming from and I don't think his issues with it would seem lesser to him today. Some things would probably be worse to be honest like the turret rail sequence and a few other "AAA action" sequences that every game back then did at the time.

Yall stop engauging the trolls.

Anyways, Jan "Antichrist" Ochoa was a plot twist I shoulda seen coming.

I was terrified by the troll doll on the shelf in the bedroom I would sleep in at my grandparents’ house. I would throw a fit and not sleep until it was out of the room. Decades later the whole family was fairly certain that house was haunted so maybe there’s something to Jeff’s poltergeistian theory.

Edit: Also, I have woken up to giant spiders on the wall in my adult life much like Jeff B’s wife.

@shiro2809:Yeah I see on second thought, most other websites I frequent, they are positive on e3 and think its all-around a nice time of the year. The crew always seemed stressed around that time and spoke about how the luster wore off after going there a lot, all the while people like me were wishing we could go once XD now we never will, possibly. Thou other sites I find are more excited about new things while GB runs more on the side of jimqusition, worth a buy, angry reviewers, thou I'd even split it and say the community and GB is in a near center of excited and pessimistic of the gaming future. So not Youtuber screaming reactor or jaded gamer. A weird mix lol. Generalizing unfairly of course.