The Giant Beastcast: Episode 94

AWH YISS #awhyiss #memefriday #memes

That's a great ending.

Dark Jeff on the Dark Bombcast?

Awww yiss!

@grimluck343: I don't know if I would go that far, but they do seem to be focused more on the negatives of the game. But whatever, no biggie. I get why it happens. The game does a lot right, it's almost easier to focus on the few things it does that are off.

So, I recognise that I'm being oversensitive here, but I'm 50 minutes into this podcast and I've already heard how many dungeons are in BOTW, which to do first and a pretty clear hint about what you get from doing so.

I think I'm usually pretty relaxed about spoilers- especially with regard to the mechanics or structure of a game- but I'm finding that playing BOTW is such a wonderful experience, built around surprising you, that it really bummed me out to hear that much.

Okay but that's when you stop listening as they say 'Alright we're gonna talk a bit more about this'.

Any talks about Finland need to include this reference.

@sethmode Oh yeah it's definitely not a callout but I would like to hear what they actually enjoy about the game.

@grimluck343: Totally. Jeff in particular leaves me feeling like "Okay, you say you like this game, but boy it doesn't really sound like it."

@efesell: I went back and checked, and apparently they do say that at 36 minutes in. I just somehow missed that.

Sorry, nevermind.

@solobbos: TORILLA TAVATAAN

I guess but I think Jeff is pretty clear on that also?

I dunno at this point I think Zelda is a game with such effusive praise that it is more valuable now to zero in on the problems that are there, because they do exist.

Hearing them talk about cheap Pro bundles is weird, at least here in the UK no one has done any bundles at all, and it has only recently been back in stock consistently after being regularly sold out for months.

It's a sea of quality game releases and my dingy free time boat is taking hits. Thank god I have double the Jeff to help weather the storm.

It's telling just how gross a statement "I could eat 6 tuna subs" is considering the source (Vinny) and the simultaneous reaction by everyone. This is a podcast that has talked about popped eyeballs and this somehow tops even that.

Also, it was hilarious.

I'm glad someone at Giant Bomb is giving Nier: Automata a real chance. That game is real cool so far. I was worried we'd just get a quick look with the conclusion of "this seems neat, I guess" before moving onto the other big games and never hearing about it again.

You do need to go for the other endings to get the full experience though, (calling them alternate endings is probably a disservice even, given how important those paths are), which is not a brief experience, so hopefully it keeps Alex's interest long enough.

I maybe have to go in and drop a bow or a shield like once every 30-60 mins so I've never really found it to be such a big deal. But the guys sure make it sound like a deal breaker!

Double Jeff? DOUBLE FREAKING JEFF???? The nerve of these people.

Why not? Maybe he wants to hear opinions from both podcasts. I understand it might be annoying to hear the question twice but I wouldn't call it "not cool". He's not doing anything terrible. If they want to make that policy, though, I understand why.

The Zelda timeline is great and I love it. I'm the guy. The guy who loves that crap.

At my point in Zelda I am literally throwing away awesome weapons because I have so many great ones. So when people say the durability is annoying I don't get why people are so focused on it because after the first ten hours or so I never have a problem with it and have a ton of great weapons that I always use and when they break I have a ton of replacements. I understand it being a little bit annoying but I'm tired of constantly hearing about that one aspect that hasn't been a problem for me. Maybe I've just gotten lucky with all the weapons I have? That must be it right? Everyone complains about it so I have no clue lol

I had to look up the word "cromulent" that Alex used to describe Wildlands. Found out that it's a made up word used on The Simpsons.

yeah it's cool he's bringing up valid criticisms, but they aren't deal breakers in the slightest and i think there's only a tiny contingent of people who won't like this in any way/shape/form. i think the games media gets a little (often way) too caveat emptor nowadays, and kind of forget that we're here to enjoy games and have fun with them in the end.

Playing GR: Wildlands with my brother and wife has been incredibly fun. I can't imagine trying public matchmaking though, it's fine single player as well but that game really shines in co-op.

One big difference is in Horizon and Zelda compared to GR: Wildlands is that I can't play it with my friends/family. It's entirely focused on that, and it's incredibly fun to play with other people. I know the story isn't good, but I haven't paid attention to it at all, and it IS difficult on harder difficulties. Normal is quite easy, Hard is really hard, and expert is incredibly demanding.

I haven't heard @jeff laugh that hard in a long time. Happens during the wrestling discussion.

I never thought I'd see the day where nearly every new release causes me to weep bitter tears for my lack of time.

@efesell That's kind of my point, Jeff is very clear on how he feels about the game, but the conversation sounds like no one at that table liked it. This isn't a "why are they saying bad things about a game I like" post, it's "they all keep saying it's an awesome game but don't really get into why they like it," which is a bummer because I think there's a lot of really neat and interesting things in BotW to talk about and a lot of different angles to start that conversation. Instead we had a 45-minute rehash of the bombcast segment about how much they hate the inventory and cooking systems while occasionally saying "game's great!"

Really I'm just bummed because I wanted to hear how Alex, Vinny and Bakalar were enjoying/not enjoying their time with the game. And I was kind of surprised that Dan's still playing it after putting like 100 hours into it.

@mikelemmer: I feel like everyone reaches this point at some time in adulthood. Eventually supply outpaces capacity.

Hoping a big ol' party sub appears at the PAX panel.

Have we ever had Nightmare Jeff and Cat hating Jeff on the same cast... this will get interesting as Jeff has a cat!

@grimluck343: I think it's because it's very, very hard to put into words why this game's so good. Especially when its systems are similar to many other games like Skyrim, Assassin's Creed, etc. It's easier to explain things you hate than things you like. I've been thinking of writing an article myself about it, but running into a similar writer's block.

@mikelemmer Sounds like it would be more suited for a podcast discussion!

*cries*

I lived in las vegas for six years and for 2 of the years I had a scorpion infestation. You can't get rid of them unless you spray every month and the scorpions walk directly on top of the poison. My girl friend and I would find a scorpion every few days in some cases 10-20 a month. Sometimes she would find them in her clothes or in the closet. It was horrible and FUCK SCORPIONS

oh man i could listen to jeff doing the voice chat guy impression all day.

Please, God, someone cartoon up the Subway/nugget discussion.

@grimluck343: Don't tempt me. I bought Breath of the Wild and Hyrule Warriors at the same time and was sorely tempted to troll people by arguing that Hyrule Warriors is better.

I haven't seen any bundles or discounts for the Pro in the US either. The guys often seem quite wrong/misinformed about the actual retail market situation for consoles and games. Case in point, on the call in UPF and Bombast they fielded questions about whether it's worth it to pick up a "cheap" Wii U at this point for the few good exclusives - except that the cheapest reliable way to get a Wii U is still buying a $200 refurb from Nintendo's online store. They were already completely gone (I suspect recalled) from retail stores before Christmas and already people are charging a ridiculous premiums ($380+) for the few new ones still out there.

@sweetz: Nintendo stuff never really drops in price!

I only just bought into the ps4 last month. Was considering a Pro but £350 with no games (as well as stock problems at the time) was too much when a slim goes for £200-250 with games.

I guess Argos (kind of like a weird physical version of an catalogue retailer, where you give the staff the code for the item you want and they get it from a warehouse) did have a Pro bundle of sorts but it was just 20 quid off For Honor.

Are we going to get video of Beasters 4manning in Wildlands? Would love to see that.

To add to this, I feel like Jeff got an energy bump from this podcast in general with the BEast crew that he doesn't exhibit in the West. Beast podcast is just more fun in general and it's cool to see that it can bring out the best in Jeff as well.

@solobbos: Näin tehdään!

Man, I'd love it if everyone in the main office migrated over to New York City.

But Jeff's roots grow deep into Petaluma.

So Jeff Gerstmann doesn't like the inventory management or modifications in BOTW but didn't seem to have much of a problem with them in the Horizon Zero Dawn Quicklook?

@lanechanger: vinny, dan and jeff are basically the closest we're getting to jeff, ryan and vinny.

I love these big podcasts. It's the best part about GOTY too.

I have no idea what Jeff is talking about regarding Horizon. The Pro version runs in 4K at 30 fps just as the non Pro version does. And according to Digital Foundry they run on par in terms of smoothness, meaning they both hold 30 fps the same way and one doesn't dip more then the other.

Well I don't think that's fair. It sounds like some of the things he was saying are very much deal breakers to him. Not necessarily in the sense of these small things make this whole game bad but enough of these small things mean that he'll probably just end up walking away at some point.

Also as consumers maybe we're here to enjoy games and have fun in the end but I think maybe the media is actually probably better suited to taking a finer comb to things.