The Giant Beastcast: Episode 235

I've never related to a human being more than Ron Funches in general but ESPECIALLY Beastcast Funches. And not just because we both love weed, wrestling, and video games.

Okay maybe just because we both love weed, wrestling, and video games.

Awesome! Love Ron and his podcast. Great episode as always. Ron is welcome back anytime.

@knoxt: Jedi Fallen Order ran like complete and utter shit on PC for me. And not just the performance, I had a myriad of bugs and glitches throughout, including getting my dude stuck in the environment numerous times, enemies t-posing or suddenly walking away for no apparent reason, and a lot of really janky animations that are too many to list off.

Thank you all for not embarrassing me in front of Ron.

Never heard of Ron before, but I'm a fan now and will be seeking more Ron content.

Some of the folks who got their e-mails read were probably not expecting to get dunked on as much as they did in this episode, which is both hilarious and a little sad.

Ron Funches was a riot though! I love the alternate universe where they actually do bring him in for GOTY deliberations.

Ronald Funches is for the children.

I was not familiar with Ron, but he could not have endeared himself to me any faster than by giving the crew shit for their GOTY choices :)

I don't think they're afraid of the Internet Defense Force getting mad if they trash a game. I think the staff just doesn't really often completely shit on a game or developer because as Vinny likes to say, making games is hard. The reality is that game development is a competitive field and most of the people who worked on the games we play daily are very good at what they do, even on the games that turn out kinda bad or unremarkable. And to the public/press, it's often nebulous if a game is bad due to publisher meddling, developers who maybe just never had a clear vision for what the game's "hook" is to set it apart, developer being given less time or money than they expected at the outset, feature creep that just spirals out of control so the game is an unfocused mess, etc.

Ron was a great guest on this episode, but one or two times I think he went in a little hard on disliking a game/product and the people behind it. Maybe the GB staffers have just met more developers personally and keep in mind that developers are very passionate and pour their heart and soul into projects, even the bad ones.

@bisonhero: eh, he’s in show biz. I’m sure he gets it hard as he gives, if not harder. He knows it takes hard work and he clearly appreciates gaming. This is just what comedians do, make fan of things, get laughs. I think he knows what he is doing and he means no disrespect.

Good job on the series vs franchise answer guys. 👏👏

Ron is always fun and I enjoyed this episode a lot. I have to say, I'm not surprised, but I am shocked (lol) that we talked about a release date for Factorio and spent 10 minutes on Dan's incomplete knowledge of Mario.. and utterly ignored every single thing from X019.

Like, I get that GBEast doesn't care for Xbox. I also get that lots of people in the industry didn't care much about this - West's response was muted sure. But to not even acknowledge a new Rare title, a new Obsidian title, some awesome Game Pass additions (I honestly just came because I was hoping for some Yakuza talk), nor the re-release of Age 2.. Eh. I will say it feels bad to feel as though things that I find really exciting aren't even worth mentioning even in an incredibly slow news week.

I don't expect anything to change, but I'm just saying that as we wound through the news section and I heard "Finally.. Factorio has a release date!" (a game I love and am happy has done well).. it just didn't feel good.

Fantastic episode! Ron razzing them a bit about goty things really had me laughing. I had no idea he was such a fan of the site! Anybody who dug him should def check out his podcast; https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXnPrHKoWDB1x2qStGQ-9ag

@cyrribrae: It had to have been an oversight. Whoever collected the news this week wasn't on it. But honestly, I forgot it myself. But they like the Xbox just fine. Ppl always feel like the 2nd place console is hated by the press. It's just because the dominate console becomes the workhorse in their work. Nothing to do with preferences or biases.

@pyide: "I see".

That's interesting. I've run through a lot of comparison time between platforms and I guess from the last couple of years it has been my experience that from PC to console the performance with games using unreal has been so universally night and day comparatively that I may be giving PC too much benefit without mentioning that yeah the engine can present problems everywhere- like in Absolver's case for example, the game engine is often struggling to keep up with input etc. A bit of overstatement on my part for sure, but also the 1 to 2 quality differences are almost always significant enough that I'll stick by the first part of my statement that between the two it's hard to agree that the hardware limitations/handling of assets don't make a big difference- because they do. It is a case by case basis for sure and I won't get into Jedi too much because, bugs are bugs, developers can often forget to optimize for...well any platform, so while I agree the Engine has asset streaming issues on some level everywhere, it is always, much much less pronounced on PC, and there is a reason. Appreciate the reply because again I probably over-blanket-statement-ed there.

Addendum, I re-read my comment from earlier, and it comes off a bit....rude maybe, I get worked up because the negativity around games is something I'm somewhat exhausted by, so while I won't walk back much, I do appreciate the cast and everything they do.

I loved Ron before this pod and love him more after. Such a joy of a human.

EDIT: and I have to say, I loved his Outer Wilds take lol

awesome guest

Dunno how Ron can talk about GB "choosing pretentious games" for goty and then on the next beat talk about how he's enjoying Death Stranding.

Kojima's entire oeuvre is built on the back of pretension.

Ron is so right that every year GiantBomb picks a pretentious game for game of the year!

Edit: Hey, I don't get the Chromecast either.

Why did Vinny pre-order Stadia? Why didn't Vinny cancel his Stadia pre-order?

Listening to this episode was a truly joyful experience.

Holy crap the VR discussion was painful to listen to.

@violent_cop: cause one doesn’t really exclude the other. Maybe you just don’t “get” Kojima games, they’re pretty complex, definitely not left trigger right trigger, experiences. I suggest reading some Plato or Aristotle to get a better understanding of how something can have two meanings - like a strand being a connection AND a rope!

@humanity: Whole lotta Poe's law in your reply right now.

Re: the Ph.D discussion - to my knowledge most honorary degrees bestowed on entertainers or celebrities or famous alumni of an institution are not PhDs, but a “Doctor of Letters.” These honorary uses are the most common of that degree, but some places do have courses of study for them.

Ron! I know this awesome laugh from lots of podcasts. Wow this is a fun one!!

I thought Jeff was doing a really good Ron Funches impression for the first few seconds before realizing it actually was Ron. He's basically like the angry commenters here.

No DBZ talk with Ron on the show? Shocked that Dan didn't get Ron going on that.

Ron fucking rules, hope he comes back for other stuff too!

Yeah, I feel as though Chromecast holds more appeal with people who are okay with using their phones or tablets as TV remotes or something. I hate using my Chromecast with my phone or tablet, but I'll often stream stuff to it from my PC, since I can see my TV from my desk, as well. I'd probably use Chromecast more if it had its own built-in UI, though.

I’ve never heard of Mr Funches before but holy shit, the guy is hilarious!

Ron Funches is fuckin awesome, would love to have him on more of these.

Never heard of this dude before but he seemed to mesh well with the crew. Would love to see him again in video form.

James Woods is a conservative Republican so he "fucking sucks"....You guys really need to grow up. I have been here since Arrow Pointing Down and it seems the utter hatred of opposing political opinions has really gotten out of hand. Get out of your bubbles.....

@mathematics: If you want to play the 'treat others the way you want to be treated' card: James Woods treats people with "opposing political opinions" like shit, and blindly supports Donald Trump, so he deserves any and all hate he gets, in my opinion. You might want to practice what you preach and "get of your bubble".

@mathematics: Have you seen James Woods' Twitter? He's a reprehensible bigot.

@mathematics: Grow thicker skin.

@violent_cop:

On Conan's podcast Ron also said that wrestlers don't get hurt and that's one of the reasons why he likes the sport....

@dweep: I'm pretty sure he was in attendance when Hiromu Takahashi was injured, so that's disappointing to hear.

@mathematics: Republicans fucking suck ass. I thought this was common knowledge by now.

As far as I know Valve already failed a couple of times at making a proper HL3 and the development on HL: Alyx started independently only 4 years ago. Anyway I'm a huge HL fan and I'm not thrilled to find that HL: Alyx is VR only either. And I agree with Alex that it would have been cool to see In the Valley of the Gods release.

James Woods has a habit of hitting on underage girls.

I loved Ron Funches in the podcast! I didn't even know him until now, but what a breath of fresh air. More like this please!

Wow I can't believe you guys hate him just because he has an opposing opinion about the age of consent.

Ron opening up on their GOTY with both barrels (while being obviously playful/joking) was so goddamn funny. I love the duders, I adore GOTY, but funny's funny, and he set a perfect tone right outta the gate. Really put the FUN...................................in Giant Beastcast Guest Spot.

Shenmue 3 is not a better game than Death Stranding.

@bikedog: "blindly supports Donald Trump, so he deserves any and all hate he gets"...and there you go. Stay classy.

No, he was banned because Twitter is a political one way street, just like these forums.

Get a job, have a kid, own a home, pay some taxes. Your tune will change.

Know Bill Clinton? Google Juanita Broddrick, then get back to me.