Giant Bombcast 06/21/2016

I wish the guys would explain stuff more. I have no idea what they're talking about with the "dumb EA booth" stuff other than that it involves Snoop Dogg I guess, and Jeff goes on about how amazing the new Superhot is without explaining why. I'm super curious to know what he was talking about when he said that the story stuff is "crazy."

@tikicobra: Well they don't always cover things that they've covered in videos (they're still up if you want context) and Jeff isn't going in-depth with the Superhot story stuff because people'll whine about spoilers (honestly avoiding spoilers has really hindered actual discussion on their podcasts, something that can be corrected via a simple tune-out warning). If you feel so strongly about it, just go search for it (or play the thing; it's solid, cheap, and the narrative twist they allude to are pretty well done) rather than complain that the guys are fulfilling your personal needs.

@eggheaded: I can't play Superhot VR; it isn't out yet and I don't own a VR headset. At any rate, I looked up the Superhot thing and couldn't figure out what he was talking about. I didn't look for the EA stuff and I'm sure I could find it, but when I'm listening to the downloaded podcast and I'm in a place with no internet then I would like to know what they're talking about.

I'm not sure I'd said Ubisoft are stretching Grow Up into a giant thing. They're billing it as a $10/8 hour game, which seems reasonable to me.

As well as BUD’s main mission, there are 150 crystals to find and 40 challenges to complete – with the average player taking about eight hours to do so.

I played P.T. the day it came out and have shown it to friends and family alike. I did the same with the Resident Evil 7 demo. Everyone felt the games were scary and entertaining. Seeing as P.T. never became the Silent Hills title it was meant to be I don't see how having a large studio carry that idea forward is a bad idea.

Nowhere in my post did I indicate that I was mad because the crew didn't share my opinion. When people feel negative toward an overwhelmingly positive thing it's natural to wonder why. As an example there is Jeff's dislike of Resident Evil 4 and Red Dead Redemption. I find that opinion truly baffling, but I don't get mad over something like that. I'm just left confused.

Just give your opponent a "well played" a "good game" and leave the game. No need to throw a fit.

The Mass Effect showing was very light indeed, but some information of substance has come up in interviews/tweets since the press conference--though it's been more of a trickle than a deluge, or even a babbling brook:

1. The protagonist's name is Ryder - named for Sally Ride, as Shepard was for Alan Shepard - and that was her waking up at the end of the trailer.

2. Ryder will have a family - likely siblings/parents rather than children or a spouse - and that famiy has been hinted to play a much more significant role in the plot than, say, Spacer Shepard's mother, Hannah.

3. They're moving away from the Paragon/Renegade system in favour of a more 'shades of grey' approach. Quote:

“I think now we’re moving away from that. We’ve been looking for other ways to engage more of those shades of grey; less about it being obviously being right or wrong and more about giving people a sense of choice.”

4. The game will not address Mass Effect 3's ending in any significant way, with the implication being that, while the game is set several centuries after the original trilogy, the Andromeda expedition/ark left before the end of Mass Effect 3.

5. Ryder is going to be substantially less experienced than Shepard was at the start of the original trilogy. While Shepard started out as a proven soldier, who'd already either survived against impossible odds, won a battle that should've been unwinnable, or demonstrated the ability to be utterly ruthless, Ryder will still be relatively 'green'. More 'zero-to-hero' than 'hero-to-legend'.

I think that's everything significant? I'm probably missing something.

I really liked what Sony had to show. Looking forward to Forza Horizon 3 on PC as well

The "dumb EA booth" stuff refers to GB content, their Talking Over the EA conference video. The Superhot stuff refers to the trailer of the new Superhot VR game (which I believe he says), which is on the site.

I was unimpressed by the Mafia 3 gameplay. Love the setting, I like the main character.... But fuck did that shit look boring and lifeless.

(Dan is loaded huh.)

Boondock Saints is 10 times a more believable and heartfelt story about a brotherly bond then Brothers a Tale of Two Sons. As someone with a brother who is very dear to me (and has been with him in shaky situations) the scene at the start gets me every time, because of how close it hits to home and nails it.

Nor do I share GB's condescension towards it's tone and style, it has many merits and levels on which it works that I feel can be easily argued. In fact I've recently watched it with my 50+ year old parents, who even seeing it for the first time absolutely appreciated it's layers, both the fun ones and the macabre.

Not to say that everything from our younger years holds up (heck try re watching Darkwing Duck now, the actual cartoons themselves not just the catchy intro) but I do find the "that thing seems childish now" attitude is highly suspect, considering...

Was pretty surprised that We Happy Few didn't make the list. I thought they/others talked pretty highly about it during their E3 conference. Personally maybe the most exciting game I saw at E3.

Here's the list

1. Zelda

And that's it.

How did Jenga not make the E3 games list?

Brad's comment about Shadow of Mordor and Monolith "still having it" bugs me. Monolith is as much Monolith as id is id. The OG crew that developed NOLF and FEAR left a long time ago. They formed Blackpowder Games. COME ON BRAAADDD!!! :p

That's my take on it tool. The cinematic trailers look cool but then you see it in action and it looks like a generic GTA clone.

Err...really? I thought the "dumb EA booth" talk was about all the weeded out celebs and the cringey host running the Battlefield multiplayer event.

I don't even play Clash Royale and that crying king emoji makes me mad, just knowing the context it's used in. People are the worst.

@kairu_de_large: QQ nub

Yes, that`s what I meant. They talked over that part.

I got the reference Drew :)

The pizza hut in my town did lunch buffets on weekdays. Don't know if they still do it.

I really enjoyed the RE7 demo. It was a proof of concept, simple, and it had a great atmosphere. I can't imagine playing that in VR. P.T. was superior in scary the crap out of me but let's not forget about the awful puzzles P.T. had.

Also there was a picture of an Umbrella helicopter in the demo.

Hey, wait, where are the segment bumpers? I didn't hear no E-Mails jingle music when they started to read E-Mails! I didn't hear the "What have you been playing" jingle when they talked about what they were playing! This is a travesty, an outrage! If you want to stop Brad Shoemaker from stealthily taking away YOUR E-Mails jingle the same way the Giant Bombcast took away Nintendownloads and energy drink taste tests, write your local representative! The people must be heard!

Laughed real hard at how they hate Clash Royale now.

@gunflame88 said:

It's kinda funny, because as much as that post about not allowing muting of emotes was completely full of shit, on the other hand they're actually pretty good about nerfing cards that are clearly very strong and have ridiculously high use rates meaning the playbase has also realized that they're very strong.

Contrast that to something like Hearthstone, where when an OP card comes out, the card is just OP forever until the card is about 2 years old and eventually phased out of the game. Even though it's a digital card game, and the cards are printed on nothing, and there's no good goddamn reason they can't dynamically balance that game a little more actively.

Some people use the crying emote legitimately, when they're sad that a portion of a match just really didn't go in their favour, and they're sad that they're suddenly so far behind.

But A LOT of the time, the winning player will use it when they've just gained a huge lead.

The other really popular thing to do as of late is for the losing player to use the "laugh" emote, which I take to be the game's equivalent of "I ain't even mad", or the "good luck" [because I think you're shit and you're going to need it] emote, because those are basically the two "I think I'm an internet tough guy" ways to end a match. If they were actually trying to end a game by implying "Haha, good match, you got me", there is literally already a "good game" or "well played" (or even a "thanks") emote.

Also, "thanks" is rarely used in response to a "well played", and is usually reserved for when a winning player is using "thanks" to mean that the other player is free.

this was a nice accompaniment to me shitting my brains out while i was sick, thanks guys!

Whoops.

Occasionally I have used the "Oops" word when I screwed up big time, and literally every time the person I've played against immediately interprets it as me being a jerk that they screwed up somehow.

When I inevitably lose that match, they spam "oops" over and over....

@gunflame88: Yeah, I'd like to see a Clash Royale segment from an older Bombcast set next to this one.

It kills me how Dan pronounces stroopwafels :D

It's less like 'strooohpwafels' and more like 'strohpwafels' Like the Oh in Oprah.

@onemanarmyy: I totally pronounce it like Dan as well...

@ichthy: I guess that it makes sense for americans to say it like that. Troop, Hoop, Stroop.

But the dutch pronounciation is Str oh p, like Pope ( p oh p), Hope (h oh p) , Oprah (Oh prah)

If Zelda wasn't Zelda it just another open world game with 5+ year old mechanics.

Whatever.

So true.

It kills me how everyone says "erbs" instead of correctly saying "herbs"

@drewbert, I relistened to the podcast, and your joke about PlayStation Night Moves was still hilarious.