The Giant Beastcast: Episode 308

@vinny There's a typo in the description of this video.

Noted Gamer Man Jeff Bakalar.

hell yeah welcome jeff

JEFF HIGH LEVEL ZOMBIE STRATS GO

@femaletanks: *watched, *Fast'n'Furious
Anything else?

"She's six, he's nine"
Me: Holy shit, I have been on this website for a long ass time.

Ants in the syrup is a thing. Shudders.

Isn't the delorean transformer called gigawatt?

Jeff Bakalar has penetrated the "Games Group".

my wife

Vinny is gonna make me replay Dishonored 2 for like the 4th time with all this juicy Dishonored appreciation talk. Also it should run a lot better on the Series X.

As someone that loves those games, a lot of the issues Vinny talks about are unfortunately just there for most of the ride. Dishonored 2 alleviates some of the chaos stuff and brings about a few cool quality of life changes over form the DLC of the first game. The DLC for the second game, Death of the Outsider, is the ultimate refinement of all those systems. There is no longer a Chaos meter to worry about so you can make use of your entire arsenal guilt-free and also your abilities just have cool downs to further promote power usage. Knowing when you're in or out of cover has always been my pet peeve about these games and they never quite get it right. Maybe Arkane thought that using a light crystal would be too much like the old Thief games or too UI heavy since they're always going for the minimalistic approach - but in this case I think they are foregoing necessary gameplay elements for the sake of aesthetics.

DLC notes for Vinny.

Both Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches are pretty good DLCs that run a parallel story to the events of the main game and contextualize some of Dishonored in a fun way. Daud has a different power set and you get access to his much cooler Blink ability that will become the standard going forward for the series.

For Vinny specifically it is imperative to play these because they tie into the Death of the Outsider DLC and I know how Vinny loves his lore continuity. They are all fun even though maybe Brigmore Witches is my least favorite as it puts you on your backfoot having to scamper and hide a lot more because you're dealing with supernatural enemies.

VInny going off on the shittiness of takara's Hound and accessory bloat gives me life.

So now that Jeff is in the games group, whatever that is, is he actually going to play at least one game a week?

Legit do not understand the ketchup discourse. How are people so against cold ketchup that they're leaving it out for months, or even worse, heat cycling it every use?

I don't think botulism likes the salt/sugar content of ketchup so everyone involved in this is probably safe no matter how bizarre your ketchup practices are, but wow. You think you know some people.

@rocketraccooncmro: Given the very brief description he provided, his new position doesn't appear to necessitate him to play video games because he's not in a role that would require him to actively cover them. The description makes it sound like he is a business strategy coordinator for game related sites and not in an editorial position.

As to the deeper question here of Jeff not bringing meaningful discussion topics to the current gaming affairs portion of the podcast I think it's fine as he brings a lot of fun energy in his own unique way.

After, what, 3 years of most of us wanting Bakalar to join the ship, finally the day has come. Glorious day!

I'm normally a video consumer, but wanted to try the audio version for background while I played a game. Bakalar is so much louder than the others in that version I had to just lower the video quality and go with that. But at least I have this cool story.

Jeff has his game collection publicly available. Vinny needs to make his transformers collection publicly available! Video prefered. Pictures acceptable. Part of having a collection is showing it off.

Also did Vinny start collecting later? Cause it's crazy that he's only had 1 Bumblebee. Unless he got rid of inferior ones once he got his masterpiece.

Godzilla vs Kong is one of the worst movies I've seen recently

I've been wanting a @vinny driven Transformers focused feature for like 5 years, and the last 5 minutes of this podcast is a good proof of concept.

Old Man Yells At Transformer

Cut out the gunpla art and make a colage poster, then throw out the rest. Extra parts should go in sandwitch bags, labled to the mobile suit they go with. I store my bads in a tubaware box.

Cold ketchup is best, it cools down hot food.
I'm unaware of a case of food poisoning from ketchup and i don't care if it's been left out, it often stays out in the staff canteen at work but it's not hanging around for weeks, you wouldn't want mould to grow in it obviously.

Yah I don't get the ketchup thing either. If I'm putting ketchup on like a cold cut sandwich that hasn't been heated up.. then maybe the coldness of the ketchup is a bit of a bummer. If I'm putting ketchup on a steaming hot burger, hot dog, french fries or whatever then it doesn't really matter and is actually a welcome contrast to the super hot food.

The idea of hot ketchup on a hot dog just seems gross somehow.. like it shouldn't be warm - room temperature AT MOST.

Wonder if Jeff will not be as free with keyboard money now that he can't expense it to big daddy CNET anymore.

i cling to nostalgia and consumerism im cool

Finally, a sensible take. Honestly I'm appalled people have a problem with cold ketchup (or any cold condiment really). I'm not even worried it ketchup would go bad out in the open, but warm ketchup just reminds me of sketchy low-quality ketchup I've ate in random places (that didn't have AC).

Welcome to the games group Jeff, whatever that is 🤷‍♂️

@humanity:

Well put. Don't skip the expansions, @vinny

Jeff!!!!!

Can someone explain what a "Games Group" is?

Another in favor of doing the Dishonored DLC's; haven't played the sequel yet, but Knife of Dunwall and Witches of Brigmore are arguably better than the main campaign.

Does Alex know that Shin Ultraman is coming this year. Same Director as well. https://youtu.be/5t6qYNNkVlE

As a Transformers collector (and long time YouTube reviewer), Vinny's salt towards Takara fuels me. Takara has dropped the ball on so many Masterpiece figures in the last few years that I don't even bother buying them anymore.

1000% I would be down for a Vinny and Transformers stream.

Everything Vinny said about Oddwold: Soulstorm sounds like Abe's Exoddus which I loved anyway.

The New Zealand email was spot on. Temperature contrast in food is SO good. Fresh, hot chips (fries) dipped in cool ketchup is one of the most satisfyingly simple food combinations around. Likewise for throwing it on a burger or hot dog, or having hot bacon with cold tomato in a sandwich. The idea that the whole meal has to be a single consistent temperature baffles me.

The thing about Witches of Brigmore and Dishonored 2 that bothered me was that you basically repeat the ending of the DLC with Delilah in the sequel. Just felt like such an odd recycled content moment for me. Never did play the DLC for two and now it feels like it's been too long since I played the main story and I don't feel like going back to it.

Anyway, I sure hope we'll get to know what game Alex's talking about, once we're niering the weekend.

I would kill for a podcast with Jeff and Vinny discussing figures, collectibles, shelves, and setups.

@fedallah: That understated "nice". lol

@ouranou: From what I understand, it's basically the gaming division within Red Ventures, I think? So Gamespot, Giant Bomb, maybe also GameFaqs and any other gaming-related websites. I think that's what it is, at least