The Giant Beastcast: Episode 238

Beastie time.

Can't wait to listen to this but also wish we could hear some fresh hot takes on the game awards.

Damn, was hoping against hope that Gamespot had talked with their GB brethren about the new Xbox while they were all in SF.

That classic spec ops convo where everyone seemed to not know that classic spec ops has been in since launch (and was even in video on this site) was very confusing

I guess next week we’ll get VGA talk

@bathala: West Coast will probably talk a little about it during UPF also.

@Alex Small correction, re: A New Hope. The change making Han and Greedo shoot at the same time was added into the version of A New Hope on the Blu-ray box a good while back. The one change in the Disney+ version--which was made a few years ago by Lucas himself for a possible 3D release--is Greedo yelling gibberish.

Necrobutcher is the bassist for Mayhem.

These guys being convinced that Disco Elysium is 4 days long is pretty funny. I finished on day 7.

Sonic X is in fact an anime, it's entirely Japanese made and dubbed. It's about Sonic being transported to the human world (just like the movie!).

And yes, the English opening for it is where "Gotta go fast" is from.

My girlfriend recommended it, so I'm reading the His Dark Materials series right now. I'm on the final book, The Amber Spyglass. The series is very good, it goes in some really cool directions.
I'm looking forward watching the HBO/BBC series. And even though everyone seems to hate it, I want to check out The Golden Compass movie as well. The Special effects look good in the movie at least.

Dan somehow missing what mother! is about will never not be incredible. And then he uses the fact he has a 'film degree' to say what movies are good and bad. Never change Dan

@maxxcanti: As a heads up, the author has started a second trilogy. Only the first one is out so far - a prequel, featuring Lyra as a baby. Not as good as the first trilogy, but I have such a soft spot for the series that I still enjoyed it a great deal.

I'm guessing Dan probably hasn't seen Parasite.

Should probably stick to game talk.

The white checks in Disco Elysium are not as important as you think. Most of them just unlock a short dialog tree, you never need to pass one to progress. There's a ton of them and you need to make peace with the idea that you aren't going to see all of them.

I think the best way to play that game is to decide early what kind of character you want to be and just spec in that direction and let the dice fall wherever. I think if you spend a ton of time trying to minmax in order to get as many checks as possible you won't have fun.

Also don't the white checks also unlock again after a certain amount of time passes? Even if you haven't leveled that skill? I thought so but I might be wrong.

I have. It's very good.

Well... yeah. They record the podcast Thursday afternoon. The VGAs ended around 10:30pm EST.

I'll give you my smoking hot take instead. Bad music, good winners.

Jeff, I'm with you. I don't think my wife has ever seen Star Wars either.

I don't think Clive Cussler sounds especially porny - but he did name his son Dirk Cussler, which kinda does, after his book protagonist Dirk Pitt - which is about as porno as a name can get.

The joys of recording a podcast right before big news drops.

@fedallah: That's The Book of Dust series? Apparently the 2nd book just came out in October of this year.

I legit don't understand how Dan doesn't know what a battle pass is by now.

I always thought the holiday family big fight thing was some sort of collective joke. You people seriously invite family over that you fucking hate? What is wrong with you? If you hate someone enough to fight them every year, don't go to the same goddamn event! Geez! My family get-togethers are always very pleasant. If we had an asshole, that asshole wouldn't be there next year.

Dan, your dad should make an appointment to get a colonoscopy.

I don't see the contradiction. I think we can all agree that the urinal pooping incident was actually "performance art".

I have no idea what the Modern Warfare Battle Pass is, it keeps popping up in the game but it's nonsense to me.
It gave me the option to buy the battle pass or the bundle, couldn't really figure out what the difference was so i used the CP the game gave me at the start on the pass and unlocked... nothing?
No idea.

The most "Heated Gamer Moment" I've ever had in my life was my friend eating food on mic over PSN while in a Destiny raid. We were struggling and I couldn't handle the noise-rock genre of ASMR.

It's such a weird series. I think if anything it could try to be a little less metaphorical or referential to older literature because I constantly felt like I was missing obvious allusions.

the golden compass is allright

Alex: "Wink Martindale is no longer with us."

*correction horns fires off*

87 percent isn't 100 percent, same thing with XCOM, you're gonna fail percentages like that sometimes. I don't understand how people can blame the game for that. That's how math works.

@maxxcanti: yup that’s it. I’m about halfway through it and the second book takes place after the original series.

Also I read dark materials for the first time last year and absolutely loved it. Immediately rose to one of my all time favorites. The tv series is just ok.

The Orville came into its own a full 2 seasons before either TNG or DS9.

The first season is great, the second one is INCREDIBLE. With how badly Fox marketed it (STAR TREK WITH WEINER JOKES!!!!!!11!!!11!!), I'm shocked its lasted this long.

@neocalypso: that's when you pay money to a Fortnite and get a bunch of pretty but useless crap right? Like jewelry but without the resale value.

@undeadpool: To be fair Seth was making some of his trademark jokes during that first season, so the marketing wasn't completely undeserved. Getting things like Beyoncé jokes in the context of that show felt bizarre. Thankfully it got way better in the second season.

I get the sense he knew what it meant -- but not just how crazy it is when you unlock one. (Which is something I bet a lot of us don't really know.)

don't worry, i always skip the emails.

Disco Elysium's RNG is big on you can do ANYTHING not EVERYTHING.

Besides, the failure states are often more interesting than success!

@vinny you might enjoy this behind the scenes with Mrs. Maisels cinematographer David Mullen. He knows his stuff:

@stanek1: I don't think Mother! is necessarily super obvious in what it's doing. Parts of it are pretty obvious hints, like the name of Javier Bardem's character in the credits, and it's clear that there's more to it than what's happening on the surface, but I didn't catch all the mother earth/God stuff while watching it the first time.

@aktivity: True, but even then it felt like a production note. Like someone up the chain wrote "JOKE GOES HERE" as even MacFarlane didn't feel like his heart was in it.

Not like when they slobber all over old musicals, that...that felt like it was MacFarlane being a taaaaaaaaad indulgent.

Even if it's not true, even if he wanted to bring pop culture jokes to space, it felt like that was ALL the marketing was focused on. As opposed to the fact that it's actually a pretty epic, straight-laced space story.

A New Hopes the best Star Wars film. Jeff is objectively wrong and should feel bad about it!!!

Just kidding. But seriously, it's the best Star Wars film. Its editing is impeccable.

Bakalar couldn't have been more confident when he said Bioshock Infinite came out in 2011.

"Yeah there are pictures on the wall covering all the holes because of Christmas fights" to "Yoshi can't be a knight in chess if he's always running straight ahead." within minutes of each other. My Goodness.

"Oh get yourself some real problems"

That was....amazing. Absolutely amazing. XD XD

@maxxcanti: Oh really? Sweeeeet.

Great pod - very much enjoyed, more hot star wars takes plz!