Giant Bombcast 02/26/2013

Scoops 2.0: BACK FOR REVENGEANCE!

Man MGS4 was awful. It really killed the series for me and really all the sequels have been worse. I enjoyed the gameplay of rising, but man all the story shit was terrible and its because they still feel the need to tie into a cannon that's tired. I kind of wish the series would die or at least reboot fully.

I can't really fault them for being cynical at the moment, because the majority of what's out there is mediocre and deeply uninspired. There simply isn't much to get excited about around just at the minute. The announcement of new consoles is huge for obvious reasons, but what we really need are great new (as in actually new and not sequels, reboots, remakes etc etc) games. And we need them like yesterday.

The promise of more sequels and some as yet unproven new franchises that won't arrive for ages yet, isn't doing anything to salve the generally humdrum fare that abounds right now. Its clear that the guys just want something new to fall in love with. This gen, next gen, whatever - just a game that blows them away, so they can't wait to tell everyone about it. Preferably, it would also come out of nowhere, with no warning at all, even to informed insiders like themselves. And that kind of thing, has been very thin on the ground of late.

You can't manufacture enthusiasm (or at least if you do, you end up sounding like PR spokesmen). You either feel upbeat and positive about the way things are, or you don't. Everyone knows that this gen has gone on too long. Regardless of whether you feel the consoles need updating (I'm not sure I do, for example), the fact is that towards the end of the cycle, the fresh new ideas and games dry up, and developers start to play it safe. That period has been dragged out terribly this time, and the strain is starting to tell.

If they still feel this way when the new consoles have been out for a few months, and if there still isn't anything to genuinely look forward to (as in actually cannot wait, want it this minute or will explode), then there will be a problem. Basically, if the PS4 and Xbox 720 (or whatever) go the same way as the Wii U has, then its wave the white flag time.

Indeed, the best thing that could possibly happen right now, is for the Wii U to suddenly surge to prominence, with a game (or games) that nobody saw coming and which grab everyone's imagination and restore everyone's faith in this hobby's ability to surprise and delight. I'm not holding my breath, but that would be worth a quintillion Metal Gear Risings, or dmcs or Tomb Raider reboots etc.

I hope Patrick finds a copy of Valkyria Chronicles. It's such an amazing game, and I'd love to hear what he thinks of it.

even now his soothing dulcet robotic tones are encouraging me to destroy humanity :|

E: SOMEBODY NEEDS TO PHOTOSHOP KLEPTOK ON RAIDEN HOLDING A SPINE NOW IF IT HASN'T ALREADY BEEN DONE

looks like it's nice and cheap and available on amazon

Love me some Bombcast. Where's Ryan's absurd laugh? At least there is Vinny's sultry voice.

@Brad@patrickklepek They explain in the background a lot why Lara knows a lot of what she knows. Like she was on hunting trips and has handled guns and bows before. Also you do get better bow abilities and gun abilities which allow her to do new things. So she does learn new stuff and gets cockier.

Also like Jeff said, if you don't become ruthless after seeing all your friends getting shot and a guy almost rapes you, then you'll die. Just imagine if you got trapped on an island with a bunch of other psychopaths. It's kill or be killed.

@sarumarine: aaaaaaahhh...that makes more sense. thanks!

How do i get these to show up on my itunes again? Last one I got was the PSA.

I'm on the east side, and I say hella.

@patrickklepek I feel like you're putting words into Crystal Dynamics' mouth by saying "we're going to fuck her up!" I don't ever recall the team talking about hurting Lara for the sake of hurting her. Every interview I've read or watched has always stated that she is going to go through a difficult time which will forge her into the iconic character that people recognize. And that is exactly what happens.

I mean from what I've played of it so far, granted I'm only an hour and a half in, she hasn't taken much that Drake hasn't suffered through. Drake got stabbed in pretty much the same area. The difference between this Uncharted and Tomb Raider is in my opinion Uncharted is a little more pulpy, where as TR is trying to set a more realistic tone. Which is why when you die in very specific scenes, you get those bad kill animations. It's like Dead Space in that way.

I just feel like you guys are playing this up because it's Lara Croft.

I had to unsubscribe then re-search for it on itunes and subscribe again

I missed you, old Bombcast theme.

best intro song!!!

how do you spell that iso game they talked about real quick.

Hmmm, classic bombcast theme.... It's great obviously. But i LOVE the new one. Synths forever.

@ripelivejam: i think its a case of SOME parts of a bombcast they "complain" and "whine" about stuff, and its such a common thing to expect in some part of a bombcast, that it overshadows the good for people, seems like some people just come here for the nonsense talk on the bombcast.

i go back and forth on where i stand, cause i see where both sides are coming from. (one side being those 2 guys, and the other being the staff and their "complaining")

I'm surprised no one on the podcast knows console emulation has stopped at the PlayStation2. (The Wii is technically a Gamecube) From the Xbox onward, consoles have too much complex CPUs and GPUs to be read or de-capped for reverse engineering, the only way to make a Xbox emulator would be for Microsoft to release their design publicly, which will most likely never happen.

@cheddartyme: the horror 2d game is year walk, and the minesweeper-rougelike mix is called dungelot.

Sony probably can't/won't spend their resources on fixing PS4 back compatibility for discs. I think we'll be lucky if they can scramble to get all the existing PSN stuff compatible in time.

Most game collectors (well, those who actually want to play their stuff) would pay a lot for hardware backwards compatibility. For my part, somewhere up to $200 on top of the base console, since that's roughly what getting a refurbished launch PS3 would cost.

Unfortunately, even without firm numbers about them, we can guess that the combined cost of a Cell, an Emotion Engine, and a PS1 chip might still cost something approaching $200. Most people wouldn't pay more than an extra $50 for the deluxe model PS4. That's the problem. Also everything you add to the system draws more power.

Collectors wouldn't want to pay a recurring rental fee for the privilege to stream rotating portions of the PS1-3 library. We'd probably just stick with old machines or turn to PC emulation if that's going to be the offering. And how else can Gaikai really set it up? Offer the entire library to PS+? At that point they'd just be cannibalizing PS4 game sales.

Convert discs to digital licenses? Hard not to be pessimistic about it. Considering how the UMD to Vita passport program didn't happen outside of Japan, despite being way more possible.

The problem is the GB guys see the writing on the wall, as evidence in what Ryan said last week...It's hard to get excited when you know the next hot shit console of the hour will be DOA in a couple years and wind up outliving its welcome as the industry tries to milk every penny from outdated hardware...I'm as cynical as they are now about game development

MS and Sony waited waaaaaaaay too long for this next gen of consoles and the PC has advanced leaps and bounds above anything this gen or the next gen of consoles will be capable of putting out due to cost constraints of targeting both the hardcore and mainstream gamer..I haven't bought a game for my consoles except for Halo 4 in the last 2 years...meanwhile my Steam collection has progressed geometrically...

Amazement or "seeing was has not yet been seen" will not come from this next gen of consoles - they are simply going to mimic the latest of a mid - to high end PC and barrage the consumer with their "take over the living room" gimmicks...ie Kinect, The XBOX Metro UI (aka the ad billboard from hell), Social Media App tie ins, PS Share, and on and on

Meanwhile the Steam Box will be waiting in the wings to clean up the mess hopefully succeeding and capitalizing on the ALREADY established userbase of hardcore gamers. Once developers are brought back into the loop with the prime focus away from pleasing the console giants, advanced development and creativity can once again flourish. Hopefully.

The console has both advanced and destroyed the next gen in a weird catch 22 sort of way. It needs to get out of it's own way in order for serious lethargy to die off.

They also didn't seem to know there are a bunch of emulated PS2 titles available on to buy and play on the PS3.

Electric Mowers/Weedwhackers (or Whipper Snippers as well call them in Oz land) are FUCKING USELESS!!

I love the dialog between Raiden and the final boss. I'm always so tired of hearing that capitalism and freedom of speech is the best thing EVER. Kudos to platinum for their guts!

i think you are right about some of the stuff youre saying, i dont think the console guys waited too long, especially considering where our economy was years ago,

but im terms of next gen being destroyed, i dont think thats the definitive ruling yet.

considering the large install bases of those consoles and the likely high percentage of people that own those consoles that never touch pc games, i think there will be people that look at some next gen games and be blown away, maybe not the launch games, but like next year, i wont be surprised if we see some kickass stuff.

as a test i showed my friends who only do gaming through consoles but were jaded and fed up of their consoles, the next gen stuff like destiny, the project deep down tech demo, and watch dogs , and they are now stoked for next gen.

granted my friends opinions dont equal the worlds opinions, but those guys spend 0 time on gaming sites , so i think outside of forums and games sites i think there could be a reignition of interest once devs have time to create games. and people see the next gen stuff more prominently

and also ,(correct me if im wrong),

keep in mind, i believe the details of the steam box are that its just a streaming device, that streams from your pc to the living room, so people will still have to pay a good sum of money to get a good pc to use the steam box efficiently.

I like that I can be excited about Sony's announcements and, generally, where they're headed and still get a bunch of "DURRRRR SO CYNICAL FANBOY DURRRR" responses in these comments.

I suspect that some of the folks here suffer from very selective hearing.

omg you mean you're DISCUSSING the intricacies of videogames on a VIDEOGAME WEBSITE!!!!

thanks for your thoughts and great podcast as always!

No Ryan? Cue Dave's impersonation.

Aouwwghh...

@jeff:Indeed. I got the impression that you were excited for the PS4, so I am not sure what some people are taking about.

@Jeff You can totally overclock the shit out of corsair vengeance RAM. Do it. It's basically not worth it at all, but you can totally do it.

Jeff's thoughts/rant on digital games sums up perfectly my problem with PS4 not supporting BC.

I am fine with the PS4 not having BC for disc. Not having BC for digital, on other hand, is BS.

Makes me feels like a complete fool for ever buying digital games.

And nothing of value was lost

Good Bombcast, guys. A little on the dry side, but I enjoyed hearing Jeff's thoughts on the PS4 event. Apparently people are acting like it was all doom and gloom or some shit, but it sounded mostly positive to me so I don't know what the deal is.

Best podcast I've ever listened to. There was some super intelligent and enlightening conversation that went on this week.

@game_pad: PSN games are made on the same hardware as retail games, if one wouldn't work without PS3 hardware, what makes you think the other one would?

Ryan Davis come back now! Ryan and Jeff should be mandatory on the podcast!

@hef said:

yeah i remember wasting $200 on fancy led-laden RAM before

managed to return it almost a year later and get $60 basic corsair instead, worked fine ever since

@hef:

I understand that. I also understand it's technically impossible for the PS4 to support BC. I listen to the Bombcast as well.

Still does not mean it's not BS.

Alright. I'll listen to this. I don't always listen to these, but I was actually looking forward to this one.

I appreciate the more freeform discussions of the Jeffcasts. Got a lot of good discussion about what the next gen consoles need to do and about games industry labor issues. Bombcasts don't always need to be rigidly structured all of the time.

I absolutely hate the assertion that the new Tomb Raider is "too graphic". What the fuck? This is from the same group of guys that think MK is great when it's all over the top gore, but for some reason when it's Tomb Raider, which is established to be a realistic/pretty violent game, it goes "too far"?

Stupid to think that. It's supposed to be pretty gritty in that respect of graphic "torture porn" (for lack of a better word). That's what it is, that's exactly what it's trying to be. It's supposed to be really fucked up like that.

I'm glad it's violent because I'm sick of pussyfooting the idea of death with over the top action heroes ala Nathan Drake. It's not perfect, but at least it revels in more consequences than that.

Real life, and death, can be super fucked up and I'm glad that the game goes into some of that. "Shock value" aside, come on, it's media, it does that shit. It's a violent game, this shit will happen.

And yes, it's a little disappointing Lara adapts to stuff quicker than she should, but that's a gameplay mechanic. The whole Lester the Unlikely style of unfit hero in an action role is a great concept, but to be playable she needs to be able to use weapons and make jumps or else it's a terribly frustrating experience. I'm glad this is even being toyed with, I'm tired of games with heroes who are totally fit for the situation and unstoppable in their quests of shooting dudes. At least it's a step forward.

Are the death animations in Dead Space games also gratituous or just a gnarly approach?

Try "body horror".

By the way, Sony does not own Blu-ray. That's a myth. Sony is one partner/member of many who are part of the BD association.

Otherwise, Sony was also a partner/member of the CD and DVD formats, and Microsoft used both of those formats, so why people seem to think BD would be any different, I have no idea.

Never trust Neogaf. People get paid to promote there.

GiantBomb is my favorite homeowner podcast.

There was a Tomb Raider game where you start out as young Lara in the tutorial with some old dude leading you through teaching you to tomb raid. Might have been like the 3rd or 4th game. So, pretty sure the new one is a reboot.

HOLY SHIT THE OLD (BEST) BOMBCAST THEME IS BACK.

Loving the Fire Emblem talk. :D Also, lol at the Level comments and such. If only he knew that those levels were totally random.

@legion_: HA!