I'm not nearly as much of a fan of the Dave Lang crew as a lot of other people (he seems completely exhausting), but I have to admit that them being such a close-knit and active group of friends (especially at their age) makes me more than a little jealous
Houk the Namebringer on
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
My favorite part about Dave Lang's personality is the part of him that acts utterly unflappable, mostly because it's all the funnier when something happens where he becomes, well, flapped
I'm not nearly as much of a fan of the Dave Lang crew as a lot of other people (he seems completely exhausting), but I have to admit that them being such a close-knit and active group of friends (especially at their age) makes me more than a little jealous
Probably easier to be an active group of friends if you're rich executives.
Also I saw that apparently Lang and Boyes did some sort of crowdfunding thing for the tank excursion, which, if you're a bunch of rich executives blowing a ton of money on a surprise birthday party, you'd think they could afford said tank excursion on their own without getting fans to pay for it.
man, they must've received a TON of feedback on GOTY for Jeff to mention it in the newsletter. I think it's the first time he has addressed it so...directly?
man, they must've received a TON of feedback on GOTY for Jeff to mention it in the newsletter. I think it's the first time he has addressed it so...directly?
man, they must've received a TON of feedback on GOTY for Jeff to mention it in the newsletter. I think it's the first time he has addressed it so...directly?
I can't get GB at work. Anyone have the text of Jeff's note?
Jeff Gerstmann
Editor-in-chief, Giant Bomb
I ordered a copy of BMX XXX today. It feels bad, giving $12 to some smut peddler who will ship this sleaze directly to my home. The listing didn’t say anything about “discreet packaging,” but I sure hope it comes in a plain brown wrapper instead of some brightly colored envelope that says “100% FILTHY TRASH FOR TRASH PIGS” on it. My intent is to “show it” on a future episode of Jeff Gerstmann’s Pro Skater.
I was prone to getting bloody noses as an adolescent, something that I guess can come along with growth spurts or something. At one point it was so bad that the pressure change from opening my bedroom door was enough to get one going. The bloody noses tapered off as I got into my 20s, but I’d still get one here and there. The last one I remember getting was while a producer and apparently a writer on BMX XXX were in the office, giving me a demo of a preview build. I had to excuse myself from the demo for a bit—which was awkward because I was the only person there to see it—to go clean up. I assume what I always assumed whenever I’d get a bloody nose in mixed company: these people think I’m a total coke fiend. I suppose that’s fitting for.a game like BMX XXX, which had its launch party inside a Scores strip club in New York. I was invited, but having just reviewed the game for GameSpot, I wasn’t really feeling like going out and “partying” with the people who worked on the game. I’ve told this story before, but I guess they must have had trouble getting journalists to attend, because the PR rep for the game desperately called the higher-ups and pleaded with them to make me or someone (anyone!) attend the event. I can’t imagine anyone getting that invite and thinking “aw hell yeah, let’s go to Acclaim’s strip club party for this awful game they’re shipping!” Well… I guess if one already lived in New York, maybe that wouldn’t be that much of a hassle. But imagine getting on that plane and flying across the country specifically to go to a party at a rented out strip club. Tragic!
It’s a new year, and with that brings another year of games. We’re fresh (well, fresh off of it posting, anyway) off of our Game of the Year proceedings, which were a lot of fun to record this year. It’s been interesting to see some people not enjoying it. Some of that’s normal; at this point we’ve got feedback of all sentiments about every single move we make. I tend to take it all in. Some of it was from people who didn’t expect us to maintain a similar format as last year, which I didn’t expect to see quite as much of as we got. That’s interesting, because from our perspective, we came out of 2018 feeling that, if anything, we’d move further in that direction. We came into this year knowing we’d have a week to work together, planned out the exact format you received, and executed on that plan. Save for the extremely unfortunate audio issues in a couple of the videos, of course.
I’m not especially interested in regressing to the old way of doing things just because it was the old way of doing things. Celebrating the year in games and walking through the games that stuck out to us feels a lot better than setting up a bunch of pitched battles around which parts of a game are the worst. Considering I only really get to see the people from the New York office around two or three times a year, being able to have a good, long talk with them feels like a significantly better use of time than focusing on hyper-specific, hyper-negative arguments. That said, I think the whole format is probably in need of more dramatic change.
Hottest Mess, for example, doesn’t make sense anymore. What started as a fun “look at how many times this company had to issue an apology about their already-bad video game” took a turn as the world did. The real world surrounding video games is messier than the games could ever be, and people saying things like “wow, can’t believe they didn’t talk about Anthem or Fallout 76 this year” are forgetting that the conversation would probably be something as awful as “what’s worse: Anthem, emotional abuse, suicide, union busting, or China?” It’s a distasteful way to handle the year’s news. If we were ever to go down that road again, it’d probably be as something like “Messiest Game” to keep that part focused. But the real world stuff, obviously, is important. Back in Ye Olden Days we used to do something like a year in review for news, much like the way we handle the year in game releases. It’s important to look back on some of those serious issues, so if we find ourselves producing a lot of podcasts to wrap up the year next year, I’d probably want to put in something that acknowledges those moments, too.
But it’s all up in the air, of course. The Game of the Year event is largely shaped by the year it’s covering. Most of the old joke categories are worn out and/or only relevant in their particular years. With this being a console launch year, it may prove to be fertile ground for that type of material. Or it might not! That’s something we’ll likely spend some time thinking about in around nine months or so. In the meantime, I have to decide if I’m going to “show it all” in BMX XXX or not. I’m thinking yes? I mean, it’s a premium stream, we’ll be up front about the eventual nudity… if you feel strongly about us NOT showing it, hit me up, I’m curious to know what people think. From my perspective we are Providing A Service by showing off those polygonal boobs.
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
edited January 2020
Thanks for posting.
I do miss the old joke/lighter catagories but understand why they were cut. Seems like some of them like Best New Character could continue.
*Wavy Tube Man for Best New Character of the Decade.
Thanks, @Undead Scottsman I guess I am fine with a continuing evolution as long as they leave some time for some fun and nonsense. GB is really a site from gaming pundits for the well to medium educated game audience. This means some of the messy hot take stuff is actually fun because we know there is nuance. We get it. You can hate Death Stranding and still spend 20 hours building roads and ziplines.
It is funny to me that the thing that will most likely kick Rival Schools out of the top spot is the game it was a spin off from.
I’m surprised SFII didn’t break the top 10. Though it seems like when they get around to championship edition that will
Change. But wooo Rival Schools continues to reign!
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It's gonna be like a Tiger Electronics version of SF2
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It might be due to AGDQ that my mind goes to a DOS version of SF2?
Edit:
According to Wikipedia, there are Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64 ports...
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
Good lord I hope they do the Commodore 64 version
Commodore starts at 3:45
twitch.tv/Taramoor
@TaramoorPlays
Taramoor on Youtube
Speaking of which:
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
He's in Stamford.
Probably as easy as camping the local Taco Bell, he'll show up eventually.
Probably easier to be an active group of friends if you're rich executives.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
But you do by spending someone else's money!
I mean, Jason already showed it all during a stream.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
Newsletter?
https://www.giantbomb.com/newsletter
Apparently it's been going on a year now. Someone on staff writes something and it comes to your email each Monday.
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I do miss the old joke/lighter catagories but understand why they were cut. Seems like some of them like Best New Character could continue.
*Wavy Tube Man for Best New Character of the Decade.
from the Best Of creator:
Change. But wooo Rival Schools continues to reign!
Awww yes.
The few times I've attempted SM2, I've quit after world 2. That game is just real cruel.