Giant Bombcast 525: The Chocolate Mystery

Man, I know Jeff has mentioned the dubious endeavors of his former roommate before but is this the first time that he specified that he was in the strip club management business? Many additional puzzle pieces fell into place for me, either way.

@thebunnyhunter: Fans of MGS like to believe there is some kind of hidden or half-finished Chapter 3 out there somewhere, since at one time in development there were plans for it. I think Konami staff/Kojima have acknowledged in interviews the very loose details of what would've been in that chapter (mostly more stuff with Eli), but it sounds like they had to cut it well before the game shipped and it was not even remotely close to finished. Nothing was leaked or could be leaked, because it was never completed; just some hopeful fans that want a more complete ending to MGSV. At this point, it would be crazy for Konami to reopen development on MGSV just for the sake of finishing out the concepts they had for Chapter 3.

I would assume that more expensive motorized skateboards than the "Swagboard" would actually stop once you fall off.

@bisonhero: Ah thanks, i knew about the speculation but not that it had been acknowledged slightly. The email question made it seemed to be more than that and i thought i missed something.

I think part of it is that the initial pitch that Jeff saw suggested that it was going for something more meaningful, and the impression I got from the podcast is that it not only has nothing to say, but goes very deliberately out of its way to NOT say anything. FC3/4 didn't have anything particularly meaningful to say either, but I don't recall either game actively trying to not do so.

On assignment!

Making friends!

Vinny the intern!

Toothless! Dayum. So disappointing. :(

@thebunnyhunter: I double checked, and I think technically no one from Konami has ever acknowledged it publicly because they and Kojima are under NDA forever probably, so the thing I was thinking of is that the special edition of MGSV has a bunch of "making of" extra stuff that shows cutscenes and stuff that are just not in the final game. In reality, it probably represents just one or two cut missions.

Still, a lot of people suspect that there were greater plans for a Chapter 3 at some point in development but things soured between Kojima and Konami, and Kojima probably had to ship the game by a certain date mandated by Konami, so it seems like huge portions of the story were just cut near the end of the game. The Eli stuff really doesn't resolve very well and seems like the one obvious thing that a Chapter 3 would've explored more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metal_Gear_Solid_V:_The_Phantom_Pain#Removed_content

I feel like Konami re-releasing MGSV, without Kojima, is exact the _wrong_ way to go about getting good-will back. Unless you massively reworked it, it would just be seen as a cash-grab, and doing that without Kojima would prompt a certain amount of backlash.

@janman Loving your overlay work. It really adds a lot of value to the viewing experience!

I've seen the start of Ni No Kuni II and played the first one and honestly, when they were talking about the game being more mature or having a more serious tone I was kinda confused. I thought the set up for the original was much more interesting, personal and similarly grim. If anything, I thought the whole nuclear missile bit and you playing the President of the US was pretty silly if anything.

Jeff's camera is too red. It makes their blue walls look purple.

The juxtaposition of their bouncing off Sea of Thieves then Ben's disappointment that the numbers stop getting bigger at some point in Vermintide was just perfect.

Sea of Thieves most certainly has it's problems but I do know I'm getting tired of games that just try to keep you engaged in doing the same thing by giving an illusion of progress through numbers. I played L4D 1 and 2 for bloody days without the need to feel I was achieving anything because the act of playing it was still fun.

*this is more a criticism of the skinner box of a lot of games than a "defence" of SoT, only played it for a couple of hours and it most certainly has problems but does stand out because it's such a departure from what has become the norm*

What was the point of the spoiler block if Jason was just going to spoil it anyway?

Sea of Thieves has to be played with others to be worthwhile. Preferably with headsets voice chatting, though the game has a bunch of pre-set dialogue buttons that make communication possible without them. I've only played with randos and it's been fine most of the time. It's probably the best co-op experience I've ever had. One person can sail a full galleon all by themself, but more make it easier, so you can easily tolerate a person who may not be as good as another. Taking down another ship, especially one filled with loot, is the ultimate goal of the game. It's pretty satisfying. Just today I was in a sea battle on a galleon with a full crew of four, in the middle of a raging storm, being attacked by two separate sloops manned by a crew of two each. The battle probably lasted 10 minutes. Spent half the time in the water trying to board one of the other ships, shooting them from the water while the ships circled around me, in the middle of a raging storm with swells rising and falling, and trying to avoid being eaten by sharks. We eventually exhausted our stock of 60 odd cannonballs, and were sunk, along with one of the sloops. No loot was lost. We had just dropped it all off at the outpost, and wanted to pick a fight before calling it a night. And what a fight it was! I was skeptical going in to Sea of Thieves with all the talk of lackluster content and poor progression, so I merely signed up for the Game Pass free trial in case I didn't care much for it, but I'm definitely going to be playing this for quite some time. I probably won't buy it. I'll just keep my Game Pass subscription until I play through some of their other offerings. Kept wanting to buy Gears 4, but didn't want to upgrade to Win 10 yet. Sea of Thieves finally pushed me over the edge. That's $130 I saved right there. 13 months of Game Pass. I'll probably try a little Halo Wars, too. Why not? Really diggin' Sea of Thieves. If you're on the fence, I'd jump in.

Seems like he took it serious because of a first trailer. If the trailers after that were more loony, then are we mad we got a loony game? Something Farcry has been known for for 6 years now. Story hasnt been any worse then 3 or 4. 3's story was laughable as fuck, but it seems like thats forgotten. Gameplay is still fun so thats good.

hot take: MGSV is totally wrapped up fine. yeah I guess they could have a scene where Eli fucks up cos hes an 11 year old or w/e and gets Sahelanthropus vaporized or whatever but eh I never earnestly cared about that.

Jeff, fix that window... I'm concerned about your energy efficiency.

Not sure when they started putting the game's name on screen when they talk about them, but it is awesome. Good going, whoever did these.

Would people say the game's plot is less empty than those of the previous Far Cry installments, or on-par? Because I always found them to be forgettable excuses for militias to fight in the wilderness. Granted, the previous games *could* have said something more serious about piracy or southeast asian politics, but chose not to. They also featured protagonists that questioned their morals even while fighting against unambiguously evil mini-empires.

Did people just expect it to be a more serious story, because it takes place in America? From what I understand, Ubisoft is a largely European and French-Canadian developer, often making games about America from an outsider's perspective. On that context, I have as high expectations from them to offer "serious" American political commentary as I do Hideo Kojima- that is, very little. Their perceptions of America are formed almost entirely by Hollywood and newsreels- which also do a great job of reducing Americans down to caricatures, factions, and stereotypes.

I also noticed that Austin took issue with Far Cry 5 having "good militias". But the previous games also had 'good guy militias' that you fought alongside. But he's more concerned about whitewashing American militia movements, despite most third-world militia movements having far worse track records on avoiding human atrocities (including many of the US-supported "pro-freedom" militias, many of which seek to topple dictators in order to replace them with a theocracy or narco state)

Dead or Alive has had great tutorials for a while now.

@11111110: it's the same. It's just mindless fluff to tape all the action together. The game is incredibly fun if you're into far cry games.

@11111110: I don't see what the problems with Far Crys previous have to do with the one he's reviewing now though? Especially considering how the game was pitched at announcement. In America now it clearly means something different to Austin than perhaps the previous ones did at the time he played them (did he even review or critique them?) and I think he sets his position well. The militias of previous games are kind of not the point, IMO.

As for he and Jeff and their overall opinions on the story, I am still not sure why so many people (not you necessarily) seem to take their frustration with the lack of to bad story as a means that the game can't be enjoyed. I have seen it in multiple threads as this like "Far Cry has always been bad story and fun gameplay what are they talking about!?" And like, it's okay...in most things I read or listen to they praise the batshit gameplay so no one is judging because the story stunk and thus made the experience less enjoyable for others. Just a weird thing I've noticed over the past week.

Vinny is correct, Sonic All Star Racing Transformed is better than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I like both games a lot but SASRT is just better in all the ways he listed.

Differing opinions are fine, but I do feel most people are super biased toward anything named Mario Kart thinking it must obviously be the best in the genre without giving anything else enough of a shot.

@thepotatoman: I think your excitement to get in on MK vs. Sonic Racing feud has you in the wrong comment sections, friend!