The HotSpot - Episode 361

Nice!

no video this time?

Video version is still processing. Should be up soon. Thanks for listening.

@vinny: thanks vinny!

hot!

Alright! I love this show.

i cant believe these mfers are really doing the hotspot again

This is really great - but I keep jumping to the end to see if Jeff reprises his insane Hotspot finales from the Gamespot days. Maybe next time!

This is the most rested Alex has looked in his life.

Marathon was awesome. Frog blast the vent core!

I feel old. I remember tuning to the hotspot on my slow Windows 98 I had because I didn’t have an iPod back then

These are really special

I love that freaking intro, so much nostalgia <3

There seemed to be some sort of tapping/vibration-like sound in the background.

This show is great!

I'm now at the point where I'm looking forward to this like I was UPF

Something about this super chill hang out speaks to me

That square tapping game Jeff mentioned ~6 mins in is called JuBeat and it's dope as hell. It's a favorite at Games Done Quick events in the arcade room. It has a bunch of anime songs and jpop and jrock I've never heard of along with a few random game songs (buncha Konami stuff from what I remember, definitely played Simon's Theme a lot).

This gameplay trailer thing really came back into view for me this week with the reveal of that old Prince of Persia pitch video.
(I was gonna insert it, but apparently the video inserter doesn't know this service?)
https://youtu.be/nHbRCd8yzaw
It looks like gameplay, right? That's what I figured it was, some cinematic AAA game with the menus taken out. Then on Twitter, a former Ubisoft dev(Jonathan Cooper) said this:

"Amazing work from animation director Khai Nguyen (For Honor) and team," Cooper wrote. "This target game footage (pre-rendered game pitch) inspired our own pitch for Assassin's Creed 3 as they did such a great job making it look like real gameplay."

And while that's good for a pitch video, it's like the most damning thing ever in terms of trailers. Imagine if this thing went ahead and we got served that trailer at E3 instead. That already happens with plenty of games, and it just feels insulting and underhanded.

I was honestly going to let my membership lapse before these started up again. Back in for another year! Hopefully next week the three of you and Brad are able to get together.

I really want to play Unreal Championship. Does anyone else here feel my pain?

I am LOVING this new/old series; Jeff's intro especially.

@vinny: Thanks for your hard work!

Happy to see Alex join in. Really nostalgic to GameSpot days. Also switching people up every week is nice.

Want to just check-in and see how the audio quality has been for these on the audio only version, not the one with video. Mix fine? Audio quality fine? Background noise fine? If you get a chance, let me know. Thanks.

I like this. Any GB podcast that keep it to the elder statesmen of the site, is worth savoring. This is the dry aged Kobe Filet mignon of Giant Bomb.

@vinny: audio was great except for that noise in the background I couldn’t ignore in parts of the podcast.

Great retrospective podcast!

I'll say this if there is a generation where two console will meet head to head and succeed on merits, it will be PS5 and Series X. But, I don't think, on merits, Microsoft is as strong as it thought it would be.

It seems like Microsoft though their 52 CUs would just crush Sony's 36; that their 12 Teraflops would matter. Then Sony just said, "Meh, we just worked on the other side of the bottleneck. Good day, sir." I think MS thought Sony would be concerned, but that does not seem to be the case. These system are philosophically different; yet, well matched all thing being equal

Either way I think this upcoming generation will be two companies with even footing. So, it will come down to:
1) cost
2) how quickly people are 'sold' on the advantages/philosophy
3) rate of 'desirable' games appearing
4) long term perceived value - which becomes "the gift choice"

Try as they might I don't think those will be perfect;y equal at launch, nor stary equal past year one.

@vinny: Sounded good the whole way through to me.

This is the best feature Giant Bomb has come up with since Game Tapes and Demo Derby. Keep em coming boys!

I'm really curious to hear how Warcraft changed game reviews.

Sweet! This is a brainstorm session for "President: Shaq" being greenlit, right?

College LAN Halo...bringing me back!

These are really good! One of my favorite things about GB is the years of perspective you guys have.

If y’all ever go to Japan again (in a post-corona world) I highly recommend checking out Sega’s Chunithm. It’s not the newest, shiniest rhythm game on the market, but I still think it’s one of the most satisfying takes on the note-highway concept without being overly complicated or too reliant on crazy peripherals.

I love ya Jeff but thinking Last Starfighter looks better than modern games is wilddd lol. Even saying its close is crazy. Looks like shit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmPGuMGs8cg

What framerate is that even at? Doesn't match the rest of the action whatever it is. can't believe he said that seriously... Hopefully its been a while since he's seen it.

It's 24 fps, what makes it look weird is ironically enough the lack of motion blur - the same effect everybody instantly turns off on PC because it makes things look bad in video games.

What he really said was that it doesn't look polygonal though, even CGI that old looks smooth - as in the model, not the animation - and that it seems to have a sense of mass that is missing in games today, and I can kinda see what he's going for even though I definitely don't think it's a great example of the difference between even outdated CGI and the best video game graphics we have today.

So, where can I find the previous 359 episodes?

I LOVE this.

Here: https://archive.org/details/gamespot_thehotspot

The amount of anger out there about the lack of PS5 news is weird. If GDC had happened and Cerny's talk was there and not streamed we'd be in the completely normal spot of waiting for E3 for news.

Microsoft pulled ahead when Sony messes up with the PS3 for numerous reasons. Sony pulled ahead when Microsoft messed up with the Xbox One for numerous reasons. The reason why Microsoft won’t pull ahead of Sony this time is Sony is not going to mess you in such a colossal way like those previous examples. Maybe Microsoft has hardware that’s a little stronger or their services or more solid it won’t stop Sony’s momentum with the PS4 and people wanting to stay in the same ecosystem. Microsoft will definitely do better next generation but I think they are going to be stuck in third place for awhile, Nintendo and Sony being ahead of them with market share.

@gameroulette: as some who played games through the era, I definitely noticed that Warcraft changed game reviews for the worse because it was the first time that game reviewers started dictating what games should be made, that I noticed. Before War raft, most strategy games were turn based. After Warcraft, reviewers started demanding ALL strategy games be real time, even marking games down for NOT being real time. This is the climate that forced X-Com to go from turn based to real-time in X-Com 3: Apocalypse despite nobody asking for it or wanting it. It took until the Xcom remake just a few years ago for the industry to even try it again in turn-based form, which is the right design for the game.

Love these Expanded Jeff Stories podcasts!

Funny, I figure Sony's thing now is what was touched on: they're kinda flatfooted as they seem to be...less people there? It's like Cerny and...uh...um...

No Arrogant Sony but alot of nothing.

I love these, please keep doing them.

For the love of god please keep doing this. I love hearing these stories so much. This deep dive into the industry is endlessly entertaining for me. Love the whole Giant Bomb staff!