Giant Bombcast 03/15/2016

Great episode, love the 8-4 guys.

He's the real life brother of Goldust who prior to being Stardust went by his real name.

You can also find him here and here:

Loved hearing the 8-4 guys.

About 1/3 of the way through the podcast. Still waiting for it. Has Jeff described why he likes The Division more than he was an endless pouty angry man about Destiny?

I feel like my thoughts on how to improve The Division are the exact opposite of Jeff's. It really sucks to me that the only really profitable endgame progression system in something I've been enjoying as a purely pve experience with rare co-op is the cutthroat pvp zone where you need a team to survive. It feels like most of the game was made for me but the bit at the end is for someone completely different who wants hijinks, trolling and ganking.

@comradesolar: Well metal gear has never tried to ground itself within the parameters of reality the same way Tom Clancy games historically have. Tho ironically, the enemy troops in MGS react in a far more satisfactory way to being shot than the hoodlums tanking bullets to the face in the Division.

The whole discussion about getting exclusives was fascinating.

That podcast image threw me for a second. At first I thought they were flipping gang signs from the neighborhood I grew up in.

Also, I always really love hearing the 8-4 folks with GB.

What was the side scrolling Dark Souls Jason was talking about? I wish they would mention the title of the games they were talking about more often.

Slashy souls??

Great episode. Always a pleasure to hear Mark "Gamma Jeezy" MacDonald.

I'm addicted to Stardew Valley thanks to Dan.

SEND HELP

Hurrah, someone on the staff is into Salt and Sanctuary. Game's fantastic.

@scott ster: Salt and Sanctuary most likely, although I'm yet to actually listen.

Jeff's idea of a "twist" in The Division would probably have opened the game up to an entirely new line of criticism where people say "They go and make this grounded, real-world setting and then throw aliens/zombies/monsters into it? Pfft."

The side content *is* repetitive, butI honestly don't mind it because it is usually pretty quick. It's basically "go here, kill dudes for two or three minutes, get XP and loot, leave". Honestly the side stuff in Destiny was MUCH worse than this because I remember it taking much longer to do AND was repetitive.

And I've played maybe 10 hours of this solo and I've been really enjoying it, so I don't necessarily think you NEED to play in a group. I have played a few story missions with randoms and that's been good too.

@gradris said:

I've occasionally seen people sincerely say Well Played if I do something clever in a weird Tavern Brawl ruleset, or just a really weird rules interaction in regular play.

Other than that, start of match Greetings are sincere, end of match Well Played is often sincere, but any other emote at any time in a match is generally BM or trolling. That Mage voice actress can fuck right off, she's not sorry at all.

700 hours? Pffft soft. I have over 1000 in Destiny.

Break music outro?

@bisonhero: That'd be Laura Bailey, and she is lovely (and also super talented).

I'm curious about the Gamestop / Game Informer relationship.

What makes them different to the Windows 98 / Internet Explorer debacle that pinged Microsoft?

Dan has a new waifu? Anime is dead.

Hopefully Hitman talk next week, it's fantastic.

In many ways, Harvest Moon is better than Stardew Valley. In Harvest Moon you get to be creative in how you craft food. You can add better ingredients to increase the quality and the amount of energy it gives you. Stardew Valley's recipe system is completely flat and boring.

HELL YEAH 8-4!

@quicklier: It's because The Division is a much better game out of the gate than Destiny was at time of release, and arguably.. even today.

dan getting further ingratiated with pro wrestlers via clash of clans was strangely endearing. Hope he doesn't muck it up. :D

(dan's actually really been a delight lately, not that he wasn't already but it's really shown the past few weeks. stardew valley is probably to thank for that.)

Nice gardening pun Brad, didn't sound like the others caught on.

I am getting sooooo tired of "its just a dude in a hoodie"-argument when it comes to Division.

I'm not sure if the Street Fighter V tutorials really matter. People just look that stuff up on youtube, getting the lessons straight from real people. Skullgirls had very good tutorials, but I don't recall that helping the game a lot saleswise.

Like, you can talk about the game "needing" tutorials all you like, but if you were interested there are helpful people all over the internet, including this site. Who's going to say "Finally, now I am going to buy this game because it has tutorial mode"?

PS. I love listening to Dan talk about his Stardew Valley life, he sounds so happy.

I also watched the E3 2013 Division reveal trailer and it totally is that game. I even think the game looks better now then it did in that vertical slice. The only thing missing is some details, like some destruction is less impressive and when you open a crate there's no weapon lying in there.
Love playing the game, very impressed by its presentation as well (first Ubi HUD I actually dig), but also agree about the negatives Jeff mentioned!

Jeff saying "eat the booty like groceries" is the highlight of the show imo

Jeff saying The Division didn't bring up the Dark Zone until you hit 30 didn't mesh with my experience at all. I think around level 5 or so, the game mentioned the DZ after just about every mission I did. Only reason I went into it was because I figured that'd make it stop.

woo

@redhotchilimist: It doesn't matter from a sales perspective, but if they want to get more new blood in to the series they need to be able to introduce all the techniques and concepts in an easily accessible way in-game, without the extra steps needed to search youtube/srk forums and filtering etc. Skull girls and Blaze blue (And even modern MK games) were far more enjoyable due to the tutorials which meant even newcomers could feel at least some sort of base competency in the fundementals to have a good time.

I agree with the guns not feeling different enough complaint in the Division. Making it so the gun perks only work if you meet a stat requirement, only makes things worse. I have some sweet perks on my guns, but half of them don't work because I specced too much into electronics and the perks require stamina.

Honestly I could throw $1000 at one VR thingy or other but I can't really justify it beyond the "ooh shiny thing" factor.

JUST--

er,

BACKBLAAAAAZE!!!

A show where someone tastes amiibo, you say? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaDrN74SfdT5huM_hsSXESlFzdzY2oXzY

LIKE

No Hitman talk? I had a ton of fun over the weekend and was hoping to hear their impressions.

Warning: Stardew Valley Spoilers!

@comradesolar: The difference is Quiet is a mutated boss in a setting that has always played fast & loose with realism, while these are average mooks in a game that swears it could be ripped from the headlines.

The Division would probably be a better game if it had Kojima's attitude instead of Clancy's.

@llubtoille: Possibly nothing, aside from video game magazines don't attract bureaucrats' attention. Microsoft couldn't slide the IE stuff under the rug because Windows is everywhere, while Game Informer is a secondary holding of a used game chain. If a consumer agency had beef with GameStop, it's probably focus on its used game policies instead of its magazine.

Way way too many "like"s in this podcast. Had to take a break at one point, was driving me crazy.

market share.

gamestop/GI are only a fraction of the video game retail market. Windows 98 was something on the order of 90%+ of the OS market in its heyday

Wrestling/Clash of Clans talk starts at 20:20

The Anatomy of Kirby

The most disrespectful thing is a"well met" at the end of the game.

I enjoy being a part of fighting games and I can kind of agree, but there are plenty of people who don't want to go online to have guided tutorials like that. As Brad pointed out, having a tutorial in the game where the game itself can clarify what you need to do and if you are doing it right is really important. I learned my main games through the internet, yes, but it would have been easier if that stuff was included in game. And there are a lot of people who are new coming into the series who understand the depth of fighting games, but don't know where to start. There is a very large audience of people who watch FGC, but don't really participate, so I'm glad to see tutorials come in to help newcomers start up.

I think I've developed a mental counter for how often the word 'Cadence' has shown up recently. I don't understand why it has stuck out to me.