Giant Bombcast 02/18/2014

My main problem with Titanfall is that dumb-ass auto-pistol. Who thought giving players an auto lock-on gun was a good idea?

Anarchy!

@phished0ne: My experience with the auto pistol has been that it is really useful for taking out groups of grunts, but with pilots you almost need to sneak up on them to be able to lock on long enough to kill. When I first saw it, I thought it would be super cheesy, but I've rarely been killed by it.

Looking at their promotion and not knowing about the ending of the game I was under the impression that the DLC was based on Ellie and the friend she mentions early in the game. Not sure why elaborating on anything other than that premise was necessary. As someone very sensitive to spoilers I think you understand dropping that landmine in there was not cool considering a good portion of the audiance will get their first chance to play the game later this year.

@drewbert Actually Drew, it would be Lt. Colonel Problems, not Commander Problems, Commander is a naval rank, Major is not.

@phished0ne: That's slowly becoming a meme. You don't like using it or getting killed by it? If you don't like it, then don't use it. If you are getting killed by it, get on the move.

@noizy: I dont like being killed by it. Its not as easy as "be on the move" because there are times i'm mid jump from building to building and being picked off by it. It doesn't happen too often so its not bad. It just seems..like a bad idea to me. Something that may become an issue when the game goes to full release.

He literally says, "IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE LAST OF US, TURN THIS OFF." Then proceeds to give you a countdown from 5. Why are you complaining?

I can read numbers.

Ugh, does brad really need to be super cynical about everything Final Fantasy anytime it comes up in conversation?

It takes forever to lock on though so it's not really overpowered. I've only died to a player using the smart pistol like 2 or 3 times total.

"Dick Jones" is actually disgruntled Beverly Hills police department Captain Andrew Bogomil. He did all the legwork on the Alphabet crimes only to be shown up by a smooth talking cop from Detroit. Cashing in favors and using his connections, he got a job at OCP, all with an eye for vengeance. Using his savvy and new position, he devastated the local economy of Detroit all while ensuring corrupt politicians kept the police departments underfunded. That "Beverly Hills" cop watched all his buddies eat it one after another as the police found the heat [was] on, on the street.

Unfortunately, that success went to Dick's head and he tried to take on Buckaroo Bonzai. We know how that ends. With him flying out a window, his body claimed by OCP, used in cryogenic experiments to keep the Old Man alive. Eventually finding himself thawed by Federation scientists and joining Starfleet.

Not mentioning Bioshock Infinite sales, smoking gun.

I actually thought the Naval thing was what he was going for, but otherwise definitely correct.

Riiiiight Jeff, you totally on accident bought the sexy anime girl mahjong completely by accident. "Uh-oh looks like transactions are final, well I can't let this game go to waste, might as well play it!"

@Jeff The sweet buns are probably lotus seed paste buns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_seed_bun

Or Jeff might be talking about the ones with yellow filling which I believe there are two kind of. They're both egg custard buns I believe but I don't know what the big differences in ingredients are. One is the egg custard bun and the other is roughly translated to leaking sand bun.

That was the best ad ever. If its not already, Lumosity's tagline needs to be "Benchpresses for your brain!"

The new Robocop sounds like horseshit. If you haven't seen the original then you're fucking up. Check out what you're missing, this remake scene is pretty much the spirit of the movie http://vimeo.com/86014703

a twitch plays earthbound run might work until they got to the waterfall.

Lets blow this bomb

I'm pretty sure this is the donut shop in question: http://www.yelp.com/biz/donut-den-the-petaluma

I should go there so see what's up with this place.

In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought - Michael Crichton

Oh damn, Brad's going to be talking about a game I haven't played yet.

Looks like I'll have to skip this week's podcast.

@pyrodactyl: Did you not hear the spoiler warning? YOU ARE LISTENING TO A PODCAST ABOUT VIDEO GAMES! Get the fuck over it.

@demoskinos: Are you fucking kidding me? Final Fantasy has its head so far up its ass.......ah fuck it not worth the effort.

Seems like recording the podcast on a Tuesday actually paid off, with that Levine business. Or... did that happen Monday night? I donno.

Good podcast! Keep livin' the anime dream, Jeff.

Ghastly stool. Vinny is my role model.

The discussion about the spread of misinformation is especially interesting to me as someone who uses an electronic cigarette, the advocates are currently fighting a tooth-and-nail battle on numerous sides about the safety of using them. Its crazy the amount of misinformation that people are willing to throw around just to further their agendas. Its especially crazy considering in the case of E-cigs, most doctors undoubtedly say vaporizing is better for both the user and people in close contact with them.

@nok: If you don't like the series that's fine but going out of your way to show your disinterest in it at every turn like Brad has over the past few weeks is just dumb. And there are those of us who are very still much on board with what SE is doing with the series. Been REALLY enjoying LRFF13.

alright it's game time!

let's hear some titanfall, some nextgen games coming!

Because it's the internet, and what would the internet be without complaining?

that's my premium bland

so there is the "bad internet" i keep hearing about.

I was just talking to my friend about how much I love this podcast... but... IT NEEDS MORE PREDATOR. Everything in the world can use more Predator... today's podcast... restored my faith in the world. Always the best listening in my week.

I would approve if the giantbomb crew did all the ads I would see/hear/feel for the rest of my life.

Small business man Vinny is my favourite character XD

I really dig the kind of current event discussion at the end, wish they did that more often. Doesn't have to be super political, but its interesting to hear what these dudes have to think about certain things.

Hate to see the political shit once again infesting it's way into the Bombcast.

Yes, Brad. Fox News is a joke and full of bullshit. We all know your view from the many, many times you have mentioned this in the past. Odd that you never mention all of the clowns employed at MSN or CNN in any of these conversational left turns that you keep steering towards.

Better yet, just leave all of this shit out of the show altogether. That goes for Vinny and Jeff as well as when Dave drops by from time to time. More talk about about video games and video game news, please.

The conspiracy talk at the end of the podcast was kind of hilariously useless. "Don't believe in these bullshit conspiracies, they're all nonsense, except when they're not!" "People wouldn't do something so obviously stupid and petty, except when they have!" "Trust the experts, except when they're wrong!"

The unsatisfying truth there is that there is no hard and fast rule about shit like this and a lot of these situations are a case by case basis, but that's very boring and talky and thinky to resolve each and every time. While people do get crazy a lot of the time, and it can be incredibly grating to deal with, bringing up that conversation re: "resolution-gate" still does a rather big disservice to how much of a let down last years coverage of the console launches and various gaming controversies were.

There was a lot of stuff, all year, that the "established experts" of the gaming press gave deference to that they should absolutely not have, and were often flatly wrong about. This is why I take issue with Brad's tendency to defer to any given establishment. There's a danger that in doing so you become a Very Serious Person. The type of person that prefers being conventionally wrong than unconventionally right, that dismisses anything that challenges the conventional wisdom among your social circle as unthinkable and preposterous, and tends not to face any consequence when they're wrong. They become petty and petulant toward their audience, and treat dissenters as radicals or conspiracists who "just don't get it" because they're not "inside the industry" like they are.

These events end up causing both "sides" to become more reactionary to the other, and dialogue between them gets progressively more difficult, which is what has happened in politics, and has happened with respect to the games press and their audience, among other aspects of society. Dialogue is paramount, but most people these days seem more interested in trying to shut down the other side before a conversation can actually begin. It's, sadly, usually easier to accuse one side of being on the take, or the other side of being "The Internet," which only perpetuates these problems.

The only bad part about these spoilers is that they don't put in Time Stamps of when the spoilers end. So yah sure a person can tune out if they want, but how do they know when to tune back in without missing a significant chunk of the podcast or accidentally stumble into the middle of a sentence they rather not hear.

It's a minor issue but if you are gonna bust out the spoilers it would be cool to put that in the description 15:30-24:35 Spoilers for XYZ.

You do know that you're listening to a gaming podcast with only liberals, where they talk about video games and other stuff? Some politics will creep in, like it really always has with the Bombcast. I'm sure you loved the Rush Limbaugh talk about a month ago.

And it's not like they talked about it at length either.

Anyways, good podcast!

He doesn't need to be, but he is. I'm in the same boat as him, and I used to love the franchise. I hope it's just FF XIII fatigue talking, and really hope that FFXV will be a return to form (for me).

@crimsonjesus: And without commercial breaks.

TIMESTAMP ON THE LAST OF US SPOILERS:

Stop listening when Brad tells you to and then start listening again at

46:55

@drewbert If you think the PS4 launching in Japan this late is crazy, remember that the Xbox One still hasn't been released in many territories and there is not even a set date for it either.

You're a good person.

I was bummed about no Brad, then very happy when he showed up.

Who the hell actually sits there and watches the Twitch Pokemon thing? It's a cool concept, but I found it to be excruciating after 30 seconds. I'm not in high school any more, with hours and hours of free time to waste.

In terms of the legality of the pokemon stream, is it really the same as any other stream?

I mean technically they're letting other people play the game. If I buy a game, load that up 100 times, and then pipe that out to 100 people to let them play it on their own. That can certainly not be legal. I don't see how doing it collaboratively would change that from a legal stand-point, but I'm not a lawyer so I could be completely wrong.

I like Brad saying "who takes FOX news seriously?" A majority of the country unfortunately bud. It is the highest rated news channel. People live in their own little bubbles these days and think that the other side is completely misinformed and ignorant. The two coasts are left, the middle of the country is right, and each is disdainful and dismissive of the other.