The Giant Beastcast: Episode 255

The image totally reads.

Video Beastcast is one of the few positives to come out of this whole situation... Love that Beast!

this image is some CSI analysis

Gotta say I'm with Abby on this one

I think the days go faster as well cause your probably spending more time doing things you enjoy because you have the time. And you know what they say about time flying when your having fun.

Alex is referring to Li Ziqi on YouTube, very very popular in China as a channel that brings Chinese culture and traditional country living, some would argue a propaganda machine for the Chinese government, but her videos are well shot and the countryside is beautiful.

took me a minute but can confirm: it reads

I'm always googling "good Mass Effect legs," too, if you know what I mean.

@madbootsy said, “Video Beastcast is one of the few positives to come out of this whole situation... Love that Beast!“ Agreed.

The more I look at it, the more it looks like Batman's face.

So it either reads, or is a portal into my slowly degenerating mental stability.

I love Animal Crossing, but that customized drum set story that Alex told broke my brain a little bit.

Agreed my friend. What a gift.

My god Alex is so loud on everything. I don't know if it's the quality of his mic or his distance to it but with his propensity for raising his voice, even when I put all the volumes down to bare minimum, it's still ear-piercing, and constantly peaking. Same with stuff like the drumming streams.

That image made me think I was on reddit for a second.

this is the greatest

I haven't watched the drum stream but, yeah, I just watched the Euro Truck multiplayer stream before this and Alex's mic started peaking after about 45 mins/1 hour in and it wasn't doing it before. It wasn't as prominent in the Civ VI video but Alex wasn't as loud or shouty in that video (but it was still kinda there).

@alex, could it be that raising your voice and/or moving closer to the mic is messing with whatever auto-levelling you have set? If that's the case, might be worth setting some of that stuff manually (if you haven't already).

Outside of that, I thoroughly enjoyed the aforementioned streams but, sadly, had to drop the volume and miss most of the music (which was most of the discussion) in the second half of the Euro Truck Sim video to make it bearable.

Appreciate that you're still finding your feet with the home streaming set-up but I would be very thankful if you were able to look into it! The Sensitive Hearers thank you in advance - and, no, that isn't the name of a State of Decay 2 NPC community enclave but it should be.

biggest disappointment with that controller is the doubling-down on the extra features. The mic is bleh (surprised no spying complaints but I guess that isn't a thing anymore), the speaker doesn't add much, the touchpad is still useless, the lightbars...., and the left joystick placement. The haptic feedback sounds cool on paper as a buzzword feature but I feel like I hear that all the time and rarely see it used to its full potential. And I generally turn off most if not all vibration to ease the strain on my wrists. At the end of the day it just feels too gimmicky with things that won't actually improve the gameplay experience. It makes a different experience but not an improvement. Biggest example comes from the use of the six axis in Infamous with the spray can thing. A fun novelty at first that quickly became tiring and something I wished I could just move around the left stick holding a button to do instead. It was a detriment to my time with that game rather than a boost.

The paint job makes it look flashy but it's a paint job, you can design a ton of different ones on the xbox design lab and both companies will have a plethora of color options and design options to make it look cool.

One thing I noticed is, this thing looks a lot like a Stadia controller. And looks like the dualshock had a one night stand with the xbox controller and this is the result of it.

THUMBS WAY UP

what is vinny's mic and camera? he is crystal clear and looks good

Lol Vinny overlaying his local video recording over his quadrant to make everyone else looks like they have shit webcams.

I've said it before.. but only a complete sociopath would actually sit down and watch a podcast, especially a 3 hour podcast.

Good on ya guys for putting out a great product now in video form.. even if it is fueling monsters..

What video conference software is Vinny using here?

@cikame: We get it! Mass Effect!

Poor Vinny only has one thing on his mind..

1:10 in for the weekly Jeff roast. #LeaveJeffAlone

Also this exchange should be in the Best of Giant Bomb compilation:

Jeff: Give them what they want, Caravella.

Vinny: I can't give them what they want. This is a PG thing.

@bathala: enhance...

Here's a link to the channel Alex is refering to:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQG_fzADCunBTV1KwjkfAQQ

They're great!

Solitaricia sucks, holy shit. One of the most frustrating roguelites I have ever played. Even when I was winning most of the time, I had to keep one or two rewinds on hand because sometimes you could go dozens of cards without getting a match, while the enemy pinned you down and shit down your throat with poison and damage. It is so wildly random in the worst way possible.

Oh my god why does everyone hate animal crossing so much, vinny talks more than everyone else, jeff doesn’t even play it anymore, i’ve been playing it and have no problems with it and clearly their experiences are invalid and they are forfeit at video game players and my armchair analysis says they should seek a therapist

/s

For anybody interested in Rocksmith, Ubisoft has repeatedly re-released more of the 1/4" to USB connection cable so you should be able to find them online at places like Amazon.

@acormon: here is a very similar channel that I was obsessed with for a while

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1oFFqFMlvI

Oh hah, I totally have that San Andreas poker chip too. I think they sent them out with issues of EGM?

@cammy: Alternatively, he might be talking about Dianxi Xiaoge (there's a couple of channels exactly like this), who specifically shows off the culture of China's Yunnan province. At first I thought she was also some kind of Chinese propaganda thing, but the fact she specifically refers to different ethnic minorities in her province (some of which not entirely recognized by the Chinese government), and iirc Buddhism at one point makes me thing probably not.

Is it just me or did Jeff seem to be in a certain mood this time? He just seemed a little off. Angry is the wrong word, but a little bit like he was in a bad mood or something?

Just now noticed Abby's Port of Call cup! I love that place!

Ever since they started the home casts, there's been intermittent tapping. I'm assuming it's Alex, due to him saying he does stuff like that in the past. It's quite annoying when it gets picked up by his mic. I feel like it was more frequent this episode.

I keep seeing speculation that office work won't return to normal after this because people and businesses will learn that a lot of those jobs could be done in emails and from home. I think what's actually being proven is that working from home is really not productive or mentally healthy.

People are different and working from home suits some jobs and people more than others. I'm guessing Jeff's job (all due respect to GB) isn't directly translatable to starting a game and turning on a stream. As mentioned Alex has been through something similar already and I think a growing number of online media staff (mostly covering tech) work from home.

That said, there's a big difference between working from home when shops, restaurants, gyms and sports facilities are open and social gatherings are still allowed vs. being ordered to stay at home. As far as I can gather from following the news and numbers, the situation is BAD right now in New York and might not have peaked yet.

Most humans (not counting submariners or astronauts) need some daily exercise, sunlight and social interaction to keep going on a basic level. I'm glad I can still get the first two regularly also made easier by the weather warming up. The third one is mostly dependent on internet, work and family but that's nothing new. Hope everyone is considerate of each other in the trying times ahead.

P.S. Watch the movie Moon if you haven't already if you get anxious about working from home/alone.

EDIT: Also thanks for the explanation about Pinball tilt and plumb bobs. I wondered why the tilt was so sensitive on a Guardians of the Galaxy table I played and I guess it was just adjusted that way.

I'm shocked Playstation is keeping the touchpad despite nobody using it. What is the point of including it? Just replace it with 1 or 2 buttons since that's really the only thing anyone used it for outside of a very few exclusives. It's a neat thing that can be used for several different actions but it's been shown that developers don't want to implement that functionality.

These Beastcasts are proving a ray of sunshine in these times. Thanks for keeping me positive.

thank god! I was just wondering what I'd do if one of my cables stopped working. my wife and I have played Rocksmith basically every Friday or Saturday night since it came out. it's probably my favorite game... ever?

I hope video Beastcast continues forever

Some further tweaks to everyone's vocal audio balancing would be appreciated! Thanks Beastcast

Rocksmith was a really cool game but as someone who learned to read traditional tabs back in the 90's I just couldn't learn to read their style. Maybe if you could pause a part and just read them or practice a part on loop it would help. But the game it way cool cause you learn how to play real songs on a real guitar.

Yeah, my assumption is it's Alex too. I started noticing it from the previous episode but yeah there was a lot in this one.