Giant Bombcast 530: Olympic Uno

My body is ready!

I'm ready for that God of Boy talk

I got the morning off and then this pops up. Awesome!

I'm ready for those Lunchable eating strategies

Any God of War spoilers? It’s only been out for a week and a half kinda seems early for late game talk

Oh great, now I'm remembering the flute lessons from middle school.

none of you guys were ready, we will be having none of this 'first' business

7:31 - "Especially if urine a situation..."

GoW talk is roughly 16:30 - 32:30. Probably best to skip all that if you're spoiler sensitive.

Any spoilers in this one?

@hassun: I was second to last chair in band I was "playing" the flute as well in reality I was faking it unless there was a test which I would tank on purpose.

Uno!

Spy Party Party?

googling soaps and this came up

hell yeah motherfucker

oh man will we see splatoon battle royale in the near future?

Jeff was ruthless in 2008. Wow.

36:00 - Jar time with Jeff

If you're wondering whether certain key characters survive the end of God of War this is the podcast for you.

The only Lunchables I heated up were the little pizzas.

Go to 32:45 if you wanna skip the God of War talk like me!

Using the visual format to bring up the clips/trailers they're talking about is a stroke of genius and I love it.

What energy bars are they talking about? I have a horrible time getting lunch regularly at work and I could use something that doesn't taste terrible that also has a decent calorie spread with some caffeine.

@juxjuxjux:

Taken from the other thread.

GoW talk is roughly 16:30 - 32:30. Probably best to skip all that if you're spoiler sensitive.

So loot boxes lead to kids gambling in real life...I guess that means violence in video games make kids violent? Someone get Jack Thompson on the line.

Hey! Thanks for checking out Muffled Warfare! It's actually 9.99USD with a 10% launch week discount! - Not 20. :) http://muffledwarfare.com/steam

The talk about Advance Wars reminded me that Wargroove still looks cool as shit. I really hope it comes together.

We need whomever runs the @E3HamDuet twitter account to be a guest on the night show.

Damn 55 mins in they already doing the news not much video game talk here but the more monster hunter I hear about the less I wanna play it on pc it just sounds so exhausting of a grind

Thank.

God.

The more important information is, when it starts. 15:40!

@sushix2100: There's always someone with the flute stuck up their nose.

Does killing in video games give the same feeling as killing someone irl? Cause that is exactly what happens with loot boxes and gambling.

is this the new ben's lens?

Sorry no video but what pair of Adidas is Jeff wearing?

@arawk: Also, you're making a false equivalence between real-life gambling and real-life hurting/killing people.

seventeenth

State of Decay 2 dev said in the comments that you can pause the game if you're playing singleplayer.

i need the hat ben is wearing.

I skipped that God of War talk. How did Jeff find the endgame?

@dasakamov: I know...the point is I don't expect/trust anyone in a government position looking to get re-elected not to try and draw the same conclusions.

Well having not actually killed anyone in real life so I wouldn't know. But, I have been to a casino and it didn't feel like opening a virtual loot box to me.

The discussion about the *potential* of games, what games do and what games can do, Ben's defense of GoW as a significant thing, was really strained. I think everyone believes in the spirit of what was being discussed there, still.

I grew up in the era of 3D games & polygons and saw a lot of 'pure genre' games being released. First Person shooter. RTS. RPG. Sports. Racing. It all felt very sectioned off from eachother.

So when games like Sacrifice, Deus Ex, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, Warcraft 3, GTA & The Sims started to blend certain genres, it felt real exciting because those games were doing something that was unlike any other games i heard of. A new engine could immediatly showcase how a game was attempting to be important for that genre. Red Faction for instance. Or a novel perspective change. Hello C&C Renegade. Those games might not all have turned out great, but the premise of those projects immediatly showed what the main draw was supposed to be. I certainly remember asking myself stuff like 'Why don't they make a mix between a RPG & RTS?' and see a game like that becoming a reality later on. It felt like there were a good amount of possible genreblends possible and ripe for experimentation. Not all of those experiments were successes, but a lot of those games offered something unique. Playing GTA to experience an open world game was a novel experience because you couldn't get a similar experience from many other games.

Nowadays, you hardly get those pure genre-games anymore. Genres have blended with other genres that have proven before that they fit well together. Naturally, other studio's take notice and make similar games, because they have proven to be fun. Sadly, that also means that you start to see the similarities between those type of games, and see other genres take a backseat. Skilltrees, Character Progression & cosmetic options are expected now. You start to see through the systems. Naturally, this is an annoying side effect of just seeing a lot of games through the years and the mystery slowly dissapearing, but it's compounded by the industry refining their craft, instead of acting on wild ideas and hoping that it turns into a cool game somehow.

On one hand, it's nice to see that the gaming industry is building on past successes and has learned what works and what doesn't. On the other hand, the truly exciting games are the ones that dare to diverge from that path. Games like Spore and Black & White were crazy games that promised the moon and gave you at least a little taste of what the full potential could be. We're more than 15 years away from Black & White and it feels like the only noticeable projects that have attempted to get near that type of game were projects like Viva Pinata, From Dust & Godus. Maybe Astroneer & No Man's Sky as well depending on how wide your interpretation is.

I've noticed that i've mostly stopped playing AAA games over the years. They are still the best avenue to be blown away by the audio/visual spectacle, but they tend to venture in the same realms of gameplay. Which is certainly a lot of fun for a while, but variety is the spice of life and often i have to look back to older games or indiegames to find that variety. And while indiegames are doing a great job to offer different experiences, they are working with limited resources.

You simply don't get many games that feel like they're exploring uncharted territory, because most of the obvious territory feels explored already at this point. Even the new 'booms' of battle royale games & live games feel more like new rulesets that are attached to a familiar type of game, instead of a truly new game concept. That's why it feels like the innovation is lacking at times nowadays. Because the obvious innovations of the 90's & early 2000's have taken place already. I'm at a point now where it's hard to imagine what i want to see from a game studio. I don't see a clear new avenue to experiment with. Unless it's some sort of ultimate game that blends all genre's. Some players planning out a base and taking care of resources, some driving troops around, some people shooting the opposing force and some players engaging in worldwide diplomacy? Or a game where every object behaves like it's real life counterpart?

Please keep giving GoW updates. It just keeps giving in unexpected ways.

@pinballrj: I heard God of War stuff I wish I hadn't. Feeling really salty toward Ben right now.

thank 2 for bringing back the solid framerate.

Theres so much more to GoW then the summer blockbuster tag. Undersells it by a shit load

the game can be beat in a rental of 2 or 3 days i know from experience mainlining the plot without movies whitch take up 6 hours of game time you have about 12 hours if you know where to go. 2 hours a day and most people should be done or close by now. No need for them to hold back now. Id understand +50 hour games thou like witcher or something. That being said i get if you dont have the time and wanna play it leisurely so someone already put where you can skip.

@onemanarmyy: i get what your saying but im more on the positive side. I hate hearing how as games are getting basically less janky and more structured and well following a well worn templet that indies are somehow where to get the GOOD STUFF. Honestly the game you explained you wanted exist. Star citizen. Why dont you probably play it. well obviously its in early access but also cause its not in your face. Indie darlings are always also in your face cause they get pushed for whatever they talk about but honestly you can get the same amazing indie darling story from a B level book and half the time. Indies feel like VR in that a normal game is way more exciting when using it as a back drop. Anyway point is your sure to find games to fit any feeling more than every as were in a golden age that only gets better. just look how everyone raved about zelda last year now god of war is seen as the next big thing in story telling, at some point people thought horizon zero dawn was all talk and their was no way the game actually played the way it showed at E3. I just think people try to put down their excitement to limit their disappointment. But its way more fun to just hope things will get better. As long as people keep making creative ideas (and they should working in a creative industry) we will see creative games if people show they want it. Years ago youd think Call of duty would never change but now it has to back track and throw in a battle royal mode just to keep people interested. The free market will always keep creativity thriving and games should only get better.