The Giant Beastcast: Episode 210

Gamepass already exists for PC. It's how I play Forza horizon 4... This whole Microsoft conversation made me twitchy enough to post here.

I played Brothers for the first time earlier this year and I was really unimpressed by it. The story telling is so hamfisted and cliche I was not surprised at all that this team made A Way Out - as the criticism for that game's story telling is pretty much one for one. Also the controls are a novel idea that don't add much outside of sometimes getting frustrated.

I probably misunderstood this, but I believe the Windows32 support is such a great change is because up to now everyone using the Windows Store were hampered by UWP restrictions. Which meant less options for the end user and such. We like to laugh at Nintendo's odd decisions but that was a similarly odd MS decision.

This intro is crazy to me because I just watched Sunshine for the first time last night. Life is a simulation.

Okay... that Dan thing about war not being politics really took me out.

Also, my problem with Kojima is that he peppers in weird, cool and interesting stuff around a plot that has the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

Does Dan just not know what a metaphor is?

I had pretty much the polar opposite reaction to Dan when the Modern Warfare news dropped. I loved the futuristic stuff he loathed. Give me goddamn laser swords, fuck it.

Also, Mads is pronounced kinda like "mass," no D sound.

I'm not done listening to the Podcast but I'm almost certain Vinny didn't actually talk about the Microsoft selling stuff on Steam article until Alex pressed him on it. I was also a little confused when he seemingly skipped to the Win32 stuff, which made it read like something about Win32 meant Xbox games on Steam.

That conversation sounds like he read the part of the article in his head and then was like "So win32 huh? Xbox games on steam"

It's possible he did lead with the games on steam part and I missed it but I was very confused like Alex was until he finally read it out.

@ybbaaabby I just want to say I am also excited for potential Sims 5 news as a Sims fan. I have a whole list of issues with Sims 4 and its criminal lack of story progession and variety in AI with how sims behave (without mods). I would love it if 5 at it's core focused a lot more on having indepth story progression and AI behavior/autonomy and having that stuff be actually meaningful.

I feel that a "base" sims game would have almost endless replayability and potential if you truly never knew how sims were going to behave and interact and what sort of things would happen over time in the neighborhood. In 4 it's just "My sim is tense for 5 minutes which amounts to nothing and he'll generally keep himself alive, maybe he'll say hi to people sometimes or someone will visit" It made 4 feel like it was an ocean wide but about a puddle deep.

Bummed that i found out about the free sims giveaway from this episode.

I share Dan's enthusiasm for Kojima's work but man, he really doesn't think things through a lot of the time.

Also hey, I decided to give Void Bastards a try despite rogue-like fatigue. Glad I did, feels like they nailed a lot of aspects of immersive sims while still using procedural generation. The ships all have that feeling of being a "real place" which is why I go to something like Bioshock or Dishonored, looking forward to putting more time into it.

I don't have time or patience to go back through past Beastcasts, GOTY talk, and whatever else, but I swear I remember him sarcastically agreeing with someone that MGS had aboslutely no politics and it seemed very much tongue in cheek and we were all on the same page. I guess maybe it wasn't sarcastic after all? Or he forgot? or...? I don't even know.

Dan being a huge fan of Kojima is one thing. Having an absurd devotion to the man is ridiculous. This clearly shows that Kojima was responsible for much of the design and directing of PT.

Dan saying that war and soldiers isn't politics is among the stupidest things he has ever said. Saying that literal fucking war isn't political is flat-out stupid and shows that Dan has the political awareness of a child.

I've been so desensitized from the abstract Kojima teasers on Death Stranding over the years that those 9 minutes of reveals just did nothing for me. I'm convinced Death Stranding is going to be the perfect game to watch a streamer play and not purchase myself.

Also A+ Harley impression. Should make that a staple on the show!

That means next to nothing when it comes from a guy that proudly tells others he skips cutscenes/can't be bothered with the storyline.

I agree that Kojima could benefit from an editor though. Not everyone blindly eats whatever he churns out.

@odiv said:

I also seem to distinctly remember that happening, in reference to that one astonishing tweet thread where someone else sincerely made the "MGS isn't political" argument. I almost wonder if we're all just being worked, or if Dan has worked himself into a shoot, or some third wrestling thing.

This episode got wild. I loved angry Alex.

Between hearing his takes/memories on Mortal Kombat and now MGS... I don't think Dan actually pays attention to the things he likes...

I can't believe Dan played a game where you break prisoners out of Gitmo and thought, "This isn't political at all!"

"It's about war, not politics." I think Dan and I have different definitions of politics.

Abby doesn't need to adjust her expectations for Death Stranding she just needs to enjoy it.
Do you think you can do that Abby?

XBox Gamepass has a select few games that are Play Anywhere, including Horizon 4. You can play them on console or PC. The number of games is very small.

Microsoft formally announced yesterday that it is doing a full-scale PC Gamepass.

Protect Dan Ryckert at all fucking costs.

@cikame: Your enjoyment is influenced by your expectations. A lot of people end up disliking perfectly good things because they went in expecting them to be something else.

Dan is a cartoon character.

Also, a Blendtec blender might be my favorite kitchen purchase ever. Vitamix works too but I like the preset programs with Blendtec. As someone who basically never used a blender, I did not anticipate using that blender as much as I do.

I'm 100% on board with Death Stranding after that trailer, probably my most anticipated confirmed for this year so far.

Dan saying "it's about war, not politics" is maybe the angriest I've been at Dan and by extension the American education system.

That Death Stranding discussion reminds me why I stopped listening to this podcast. Listening to them talking about movies and video game stories just felt like pulling teeth.

Never trust anyone who tells you The Tribe is one of their greatest cinematic experiences.

Registry: if you don’t need things tell people to donate to charity in your name. Be an adult, gifts are stupid for adults that have things already. The entitlement of asking for specific things gets under my skin.

I kind of understand Dan's perspective, I mean I think it's silly but I also think I see where he is coming from. You can sort of break the series down like so.

MGS1 - It's a "90's action movie" story

MGS2 - It's about a lot of things but it's also about the nature of sequels and what people expect of them (and also dreams and nightmares if you want to delve into that)

MGS3 - It's a stylish "James bond movie" story set in the 60's

MGS4 - It's about getting older and the various stages of life

I can entirely believe that this is the kind of thing he remembers from these games and not say, the 20 minute cutscene of President Johnson talking to Khrushchev on the phone about America proving it wasn't involved in nuking a lab.

It's the same as action movies from the 90's that may have involved a President of some sort and never touched upon the political climate of the world within those movies. It's ridiculous but I can understand how he doesn't think about those games in that way.

That being said, I think going into Death Stranding thinking that it'll have a sense of humor might be jarring, I mean who the hell knows, but I feel like it is pretty sincere in its tone. MGS was generally more goofy, sincere at times and even heart wrenching, but still generally goofy. Snake was always a "movie action hero".

Whether he makes a bad game or not I will always want follow someone like Kojima into the rabbit hole of concepts, over say... the next yearly Assassin's Creed or yearly Farcry or some other main stream series for "the average gamer" that honestly make me start to feel video games are creatively stagnant, I don't want to see discussions about all the Days Gone's of the world where people sit around nodding saying "It's fine" and that's about the most interesting thing to be said about it. Always embrace the weird and wonderful, even if it falls flat on it's face sometimes.

Dan, I'm with you just about all the way this time.

Dude, honestly I can't tell if the rest of the crew is just giving Dan a hard time, but metal gear is never pointedly political. Everything surrounding these politics is global political commentary with a huge grain of military fetishistic salt, and straight up anime. There are nano machine vampires, and a cyborg who weilds a katana with stilettos, as well as some heart behind the stories all in one saga. But since Abby refuses to know any better, and because the crew is reveling in Dan's anguish (perhaps earned I dunno), it all comes off as intentionally flip and snide. Also, Abby, you played PT, which is hardly Hideo Kojima's signature. That was a project collabo that existed with his talent behind it, not a spearhead project that he envisioned as his platform for weirdness from the ground up. I also think Abby is frankly too young to give metal gear or hideo kojima any real credit for what part it played in video games, and what 'cool' there is in what he makes for many to enjoy.

I also think there is a valid distinction between 'has politics' and 'is political' by setting versus intent. I do not think Metal Gear Solid had any major political agenda to it other than 'nukes are bad, humans are flawed to horrific repeatable degree, history will repeat itself, but in an ever evolving cycle.' I don't see this as the same as 'being political' in the sense of how many expected Farcry 5 to be on the outset. Kojima's actual political statements in his games are largely granted, and or left up to the player's sensibilities of right and wrong. That's what makes the series 'political' toe dipping somewhat meaningful, instead of soap-boxy. In the same breath, one of the best lines from the series is 'DON'T THINK, SHOOT!". This juxtaposition of silly and serious is something perhaps only Kojima has ever done to the relative success that MGS has left a mark on games with.

And listen, I would love for Abby to at least give Metal Gear a little more credit, even if she doesn't give a shit about it. That's fair, but to write it off as stupid bullshit in a bad way without engaging with it earnestly, well that's fairly ignorant. If Abby means she'll go into Death Stranding with a good sense of humor, it more or less means 'high skepticism' and will probably focus on the negatives. I'd love to be wrong, but hating on stuff dan thinks is cool, and yelling about art glasses and Bjork on the weekly (is getting old), is likely going to be what we continue to get.

Also, someone on youtube already pretty much cracked 2/3 of the Death Stranding mystery, and this was before the latest trailer. If you watch them in reverse order in which they were released, it plays out much like a regular series of trailers with more coherance. I don't expect anyone on the crew to actually look this up, but I more or less know what the game is about and it is absolutely fascinating from a science fiction universe built from the ground up, and I am STOKED to see what the end result is as a narrative and game.

Also as for technical performance, no idea, but given the tech they are working with is the same as (near) launch titles for the PS4 (Infamous Second Son) I am pretty sold that it will look unbelievably awesome on current hardware.

I'm gonna put a fat probably not on that, since she is about as rooted in what she says as dan is leading up to a thing. We'll see I guess.

Bloody hell at at that Death Stranding discussion, God bless Alex for that...

Are MGS fans as crazy and ignorant as Dan? I hope to god they are more sensible...

@cikame: What's with the "parent scolding her child" tone? Totally unnecessary.

Vinny, I appreciated your 80s caliber cartoon voice acting.

@wildaggro: You seem like someone who would call others a pleb unironically.

okay? lol, maybe in 2003 i was still using the word pleb. i didn't attack dan's character in any way - i simply said he doesn't know what he's talking about.

i'm not the one going around posting my bad takes on people's character. ironically, you're judging the kind of person i am, ostensibly because you think i'm being judgy of dan, but i'm not that kind of guy. and i have better things to do on friday than roast you, so have a good night duder.

@faridmon

i'd like to earnestly and sincerely echo you. god bless you alex, you are truly the hero we so often need but dont deserve.

If vinny needs help remembering his wedding he should just do like I do and remember the story the told on the bombcast about Brad flying out there for the wedding and finding a mom and pop shop selling streetbroken Modern Warfare 2 and then immediately buying them and mailing them back to SF.

I totally understand where Dan is coming from here. Because to a lot of people before 2016, politics was the boring talking heads on TV. It's the day you show up to every few years to tick the box for the guy you think is the most likeable. Of course everyone here is clever, and knows the definition of politics encompasses more than boring election bullshit, but you're not the average person on the street, you're someone commenting about politics in games on an enthusiast website.

So to someone like Dan, who has one conception of politics, who then plays a game with things like nuclear weapons and special forces soldiers and cool, exciting things like that, I can totally understand why he would say something like "IT'S ABOUT WAR NOT POLITICS".

The Probotector conversions are kinda neat in that the spritework all looks pretty good. Fortunately Konami itself did all that work, not some European operation that was publishing it or something. Problem is that since they're PAL versions they run at 50Hz.

@vinny the best way I've heard the Modern Warfare reboot described was it's like when they rebooted James Bond with Daniel Craig. Captain Price is like Judi Dench's M who was in the films as M before and after the Daniel Craig reboot.

Please make a "cooking with Dan" show

Hey, I'm confused by death stranding, do you get it? Did I do the meme right? I'm confused, isn't that hilarious?!

Again... Alex, just because you don't like or get the draw of simulation based wrestling action doesn't mean the WWE games haven't improved over the years. The core in-ring gameplay is fantastic and 2K19 is the most life like representation of it ever made. Yuke's frustration doesn't seem to be with that aspect specifically, so hopefully they won't stray too far from their strengths. I know I say this every time you mention these games, but just because something isn't your speed, doesn't mean it's bad. I don't know why you even care as much as you do given you're a Fire Pro guy, and Fire Pro guys don't actually play that game from what I've seen. In a world where you have that, why you gotta hate on a title of a completely different style that others enjoy? It's not all about you, let us have and enjoy our things too, man.

Anthem really is dead.

This one was really frustrating.

I get that you don't have to understand the Win32 thing, but it's been such a huge topic for PC software that I was surprised Jeff didn't know anything either. Gabe Newell and Tim Sweeney have in the past been very outspoken about UWP and what it means for freedom on Windows. It took you longer to stumble through this news than it would have to actually look it up.

The Gamepass news was very similar. Just skip it if you don't know anything about it.

And I'm just tired of Dan. By this point he chooses to be ignorant, which is just being an asshole. I'm over it, sorry.

edit:
Oh and give Dan (and Alex or possibly Jeff) his Wrestling podcast! I don't care about wrestling, but this rushed "you got 60 seconds to talk about it" is lame, just let them do it!

I've never used blinking white guy, but that Kojima segment..

This isn't the first time someone on this website suggested we should throw garbage at the sun. There's still time for the murder slingshot!

edit: apparently embed videos don't work? Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujuw9LyJdyU

I try so hard not to be negative in comments but every time Dan gets into his shout-talky fangasms about brands and franchises (which is most episodes) it dampens my enjoyment of this podcast. It wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't so incapable of comprehending art(or politics for that matter) on anything but a superficial level. Instead he just gets louder and louder until he no longer understands how to use the English language. I'm sorry, I realize no amount of complaining will change this so I just sort of have to deal with it. Just saying, this use to be my favorite weekly podcast.

Dan is great when he doesn't jerk off to the things he really enjoys. When he's measured, he's a good listen. The Death Stranding bit was definitely not that.

On something else, wasn't Probotector just the Contra games with robots because of certain regional rating rules? That was always my understanding.