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[Giant Bomb] Would you vape Hedgehog?

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Posts

  • cooljammer00cooljammer00 Hey Small Christmas-Man!Registered User regular
    Yeah, in a recent episode of Waypoint Radio, Austin talks about how he wants people to write about what they felt about a game at the time because so many games are being patched after release to a nearly unrecognizable state, that writing "this game looks great" won't mean anything in 10 years.

    Kotaku now has their writers on "game beats", following a game and writing about it for several months/years after release, to keep up on their changes. Giant Bomb does their Unfinished series, where they theoretically are supposed to go back and check out more updated versions as time goes on. Polygon has had their provisional reviews and their changing review scores as games get changed and become better/worse.

    It's certainly something that outlets are already preparing themselves for. Why write a review about a pre-release, pre-patched, often unfinished game when you can just cover it in a way that serves the audience and yourselves?

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  • Knight_Knight_ Dead Dead Dead Registered User regular
    I finally installed Titanfall 2, so I'm excited to knock that out before GotY.

    Why is PSN so slow, I started the download in the early evening and on my 150 down connection it downloaded 3 gigs in 5 hours. Whyyyy.

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  • AistanAistan Tiny Bat Registered User regular
    The Division was actually better than I expected. The plot was trash-garbage, but the shooting was fun and the missions were enjoyable, and I liked the setting and all that. I even spent some time in the dark zone against all expectations. Never grouped with anyone at any point.

    I should go back to it and see what the DLC is about, since I do have the full package with everything.

  • OneAngryPossumOneAngryPossum Registered User regular
    Knight_ wrote: »
    I finally installed Titanfall 2, so I'm excited to knock that out before GotY.

    Why is PSN so slow, I started the download in the early evening and on my 150 down connection it downloaded 3 gigs in 5 hours. Whyyyy.

    That network seems to vary wildly. I started downloading Hitman last night and its early guess was 7-8 hours, but about 30 minutes in it updated to a much more reasonable time. Bout an hour and a half total. It's not blazing fast, but not unreasonable.

    Other cases it stuck with that horrible first prediction and rode it to hell.

  • CenoCeno pizza time Registered User regular
    edited December 2016
    Knight_ wrote: »
    I finally installed Titanfall 2, so I'm excited to knock that out before GotY.

    Why is PSN so slow, I started the download in the early evening and on my 150 down connection it downloaded 3 gigs in 5 hours. Whyyyy.

    Putting it in rest mode sometimes helps for some reason and definitely go wired if possible

    Ceno on
  • KreutzKreutz Blackwater Park, IARegistered User regular
    Knight_ wrote: »
    I finally installed Titanfall 2, so I'm excited to knock that out before GotY.

    Why is PSN so slow, I started the download in the early evening and on my 150 down connection it downloaded 3 gigs in 5 hours. Whyyyy.

    I've found that using a wired Internet connection improves my PSN download speeds, and only my PSN download speeds. Happens with both my PS3 and PS4.

  • OneAngryPossumOneAngryPossum Registered User regular
    As a Hitman first note: My wife and I decided guns are off the table for our playthrough, but a fire extinguisher goes a long way. Even if you can't carry two at once the way we want to.

  • Knight_Knight_ Dead Dead Dead Registered User regular
    Yea, I use wired, I'm lucky to get 100kBps over wifi through PSN. I tried the rest mode thing, it didn't seem to help but I'm hoping it sped up overnight, I haven't checked on it since I went to bed.

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  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    Ceno wrote: »
    This is kind of long-winded and apropo of nothing, but I was re-listening to the excellent episode of the Beastcast that Gerstmann guested on and thinking about game reviews, or more accurately, the problem that a lot of people tend to conflate "reviews" and "criticism".

    I agree with Jeff that the traditional review is dead, at least for the GB audience. Save for serving as some sort of bug report (which is the only reason I even open an eye towards them these days), something that's capturing a locked moment in time in an industry that has abandoned the concept of locked moments in time doesn't really stand on its own. I think that, contrary to popular opinion, the conversations around specific games is actually much longer than it used to be. Reviewers used to be able to take a game and put a stamp on it (good or bad) and then hold that up as some sort of definitive statement. Now, the typical support lifespan for a game seems to be around a year. The initial release, patches, free updates, DLC, multiplayer... these things keep a game alive for its audience. Lots of people, including myself, only get a few games a year, so this trend towards extended support is actually a positive for me. The great caveat of all this support is, of course, pricing - but that's something that's subjective to a lot of people so I don't have much to say about it.

    I'm basically looking for continual coverage of games these days, and that's something that no "traditional" review sites are really willing or able to deliver (which has kind of naturally led to the propagation of YouTube channels that focus on a specific game/franchise). Criticism divorced from the need to have something out at a game's release is always welcome and I'd love to see more of it, but it's hard to come by on games that aren't the big watershed moments that everyone expects (OoT, FFVII, etc). I think Waypoint is doing some interesting things in this regard and I'm happy about their decision to abandon the concept of reviews wholesale (though Patrick was on Twitter earlier today griping about how FFXV is getting updated missions and dialogue in a patch, which is pretty much the exact locked-moment-in-time problem I just mentioned).

    Mostly, I just want to see Giant Bomb revisit games more than they do. Check in with 20XX's releases three times a year to see what's changed, what's been added, stuff like that. I understand that it's a hard mentality to switch over, especially when you've been covering games in a "burn through them" kind of way for your entire career, but it'd be content I'd be interested in reading or watching. I know I'm in the minority though, because most people want to hear about the new thing all the time and that's the kind of thing that sells ads and all that frustrating business stuff.

    Agreed. I was talking about this just recently with a friend but I'd love to see games journalism (or at least a corner of it) become a bit more narrative in nature and maybe take on stories more akin to Playboy, Rolling Stone (old RS), or even just long form journalism. Embed a reporter in with a studio for a year and let them write about it, get back to exhaustive non-technical post-mortems on games, etc.

    I have high hopes for Waypoint but I haven't seen much of it materialize yet (though Patrick's story on glyphs and such was in the ballpark). With such a small writing staff @ both GB and WP it would be tough to execute on. And don't even get me started on NDAs, etc.

    Too much of games journalism is just commercial in nature. It's all about what are the reviews, the latest releases, or what's rumored (or leaked) to be happening. It's honestly barely journalism oftentimes. Give me some creativity in writing once again.

    Journalism and Enthusiast Press are not the same thing. Most videogames writing is the latter.

  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    I'm guessing Steam's flood of bullshit games wins "Please Stop" this year.

    I can't think of anything else as bad. Well, in the video game industry, at least.

  • MaddocMaddoc I'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother? Registered User regular
    I'm guessing Steam's flood of bullshit games wins "Please Stop" this year.

    I can't think of anything else as bad. Well, in the video game industry, at least.

    What makes this year worse than the past like three years or something in that regard?

    Like yeah, there's that bit about 40% of all games blah blah blah, but that's literally a trend that has been going every year, year on year

    If anything it feels like less of a big deal because we're now resigned to that just being how Steam is

  • JarsJars Registered User regular
    edited December 2016
    the actual number of games released is much higher this year than the other years, by quite a bit

    Jars on
  • Genji-GlovesGenji-Gloves Registered User regular
    Doom, Hitman and Titanfall 2 in a three way match for GOTY.

    Personally for the entertainment and the amount of fun, I would like hitman to win it.

  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    Maddoc wrote: »
    I'm guessing Steam's flood of bullshit games wins "Please Stop" this year.

    I can't think of anything else as bad. Well, in the video game industry, at least.

    What makes this year worse than the past like three years or something in that regard?

    Like yeah, there's that bit about 40% of all games blah blah blah, but that's literally a trend that has been going every year, year on year

    Except that the 40% number gets more obscene every year because you're compounding the number annually. That 40% number isn't a 40% over last years numbers; it's 40% over the entirety of Steam's lifetime, which includes last year. That's an exponential growth; not a linear one.
    If anything it feels like less of a big deal because we're now resigned to that just being how Steam is

    There was just a big rant one of the podcasts about how cluttered New Releases is, to the point where Drew has to spend like an hour a day trying to parse the new releases list to see if there's anything worth covering.

  • Houk the NamebringerHouk the Namebringer Nipples The EchidnaRegistered User regular
    Doom, Hitman and Titanfall 2 in a three way match for GOTY.

    Personally for the entertainment and the amount of fun, I would like hitman to win it.

    Titanfall 2 will definitely be in the running for Moment of the Year, but I don't think enough people feel strongly enough about it as a whole to push it that high.

    I would not be at all surprised at DOOM #1 Hitman #2 though.

  • GrundlestiltskinGrundlestiltskin Behind you!Registered User regular
    Was going through my list of games I played at least a little bit this year to try and remember what came out. Think Salt & Sanctuary, Ratchet and Clank or Dark Souls 3, get any discussion?

    Tokyo Mirage Sessions was definitely one of the biggest surprises of 2016 for me. Battleborn, I am Setsuna have to rank among biggest disappointments. XCOM 2 and Deus Ex are sort of...games that came and went?

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  • PikaPuffPikaPuff Registered User regular
    edited December 2016
    new to hitman, an elusive target comes up, the angel of death. so I grind through paris for the suggested handgun, and grind through marakesh for the suggested throwable rubber duckie explosive.

    anyways marakesh was annoying, and so was the challenges used for mastery. I got annoyed enough that shot through a whole building of army men just so I wouldn't have to sneak around to complete certain objectives

    also also, I failed that elusive target later

    PikaPuff on
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  • MaddocMaddoc I'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother? Registered User regular
    Sure, but until someone threw out that number how would you even tell

    Once you hit a certain amount of bullshit garbage flooding the front page every day, numbers become kind of indistinguishable

    The Steam front page has been a disaster for years now, there could be a hundred games releasing every day or ten thousand and I wouldn't even notice a difference

  • lionheart_mlionheart_m Registered User regular
    Holy shit, now I wanna hear Jeff B's take on 2016 this friday. He just posted his list and I'm a bit surprised by one entry:
    Final Fantasy XV?! Damn, this is his first FF right? Gives me a bit of hope that just like TW3 maybe FF15 might get a mention?

    3DS: 5069-4122-2826 / WiiU: Lionheart-m / PSN: lionheart_m / Steam: lionheart_jg
  • SniperGuySniperGuy SniperGuyGaming Registered User regular
    Maddoc wrote: »
    Sure, but until someone threw out that number how would you even tell

    Once you hit a certain amount of bullshit garbage flooding the front page every day, numbers become kind of indistinguishable

    The Steam front page has been a disaster for years now, there could be a hundred games releasing every day or ten thousand and I wouldn't even notice a difference

    I've definitely noticed it's been worse this year.

    For one, the sheer number of risque images of anime graphic novels has skyrocketed.

  • TaramoorTaramoor Storyteller Registered User regular
    SniperGuy wrote: »
    Maddoc wrote: »
    Sure, but until someone threw out that number how would you even tell

    Once you hit a certain amount of bullshit garbage flooding the front page every day, numbers become kind of indistinguishable

    The Steam front page has been a disaster for years now, there could be a hundred games releasing every day or ten thousand and I wouldn't even notice a difference

    I've definitely noticed it's been worse this year.

    For one, the sheer number of risque images of anime graphic novels has skyrocketed.

    Hmm?

    I guess I haven't visited Steam in a while...

  • VeagleVeagle Registered User regular
    edited December 2016
    When did they change their video player? Nothing is loading for me anymore.

    Edit: Seems the answer is just now, and the solution is to turn off adblock. Thought I already had whitelisted them.

    Veagle on
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  • SyphonBlueSyphonBlue The studying beaver That beaver sure loves studying!Registered User regular
    Holy shit, now I wanna hear Jeff B's take on 2016 this friday. He just posted his list and I'm a bit surprised by one entry:
    Final Fantasy XV?! Damn, this is his first FF right? Gives me a bit of hope that just like TW3 maybe FF15 might get a mention?

    Wow Inside as number 1. But I thought brad was the only person who liked that game and was gonna shove it down our throats!!!!!

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  • I needed anime to post.I needed anime to post. boom Registered User regular
    Jeff Bakalar is not a Giant Bomb employee.

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  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    edited December 2016
    Maddoc wrote: »
    Sure, but until someone threw out that number how would you even tell

    But that number WAS thrown out there. They literally discussed it during a news segment.

    Undead Scottsman on
  • HardtargetHardtarget There Are Four Lights VancouverRegistered User regular
    FYI regarding Jeff B's list:
    It's in no particular order (he has no #1, etc) and it's a top 12

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  • cooljammer00cooljammer00 Hey Small Christmas-Man!Registered User regular
    Hardtarget wrote: »
    FYI regarding Jeff B's list:
    It's in no particular order (he has no #1, etc) and it's a top 12

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  • GMaster7GMaster7 Goggles Paesano Registered User regular
    Knight_ wrote: »
    I finally installed Titanfall 2, so I'm excited to knock that out before GotY.

    Why is PSN so slow, I started the download in the early evening and on my 150 down connection it downloaded 3 gigs in 5 hours. Whyyyy.

    @Knight_ PSN download speeds can be garbage, but one thing I've realized is that having a game or app suspended in the background cuts speeds to an absolute crawl - as does allowing multiple downloads at once (obviously). I always think this is too obvious and dumb to mention, but I'm telling you here in case you (like me) hadn't really realized that closing all open games/apps can really boost speeds.

    PSN: SKI2000G | Steam: GMaster7 | Battle.net: GMaster7#1842 | Twitch: twitch.tv/SKI2000G
  • HardtargetHardtarget There Are Four Lights VancouverRegistered User regular
    GMaster7 wrote: »
    Knight_ wrote: »
    I finally installed Titanfall 2, so I'm excited to knock that out before GotY.

    Why is PSN so slow, I started the download in the early evening and on my 150 down connection it downloaded 3 gigs in 5 hours. Whyyyy.

    @Knight_ PSN download speeds can be garbage, but one thing I've realized is that having a game or app suspended in the background cuts speeds to an absolute crawl - as does allowing multiple downloads at once (obviously). I always think this is too obvious and dumb to mention, but I'm telling you here in case you (like me) hadn't really realized that closing all open games/apps can really boost speeds.

    that is fucking stupid. no reason it should work like that, the XBone and PCs certainly don't have that problem.

    god sometimes you can really tell Sony is a hardware company and not a software company.

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  • fRAWRstfRAWRst The Seas Call The Mad AnswerRegistered User regular
    edited December 2016
    I live in Toronto Canada (in theory close to a PSN data center?)

    and the best way for me to download stuff is to put Ps4 in sleep mode. Shit downloads mad fast (1-2mbs)

    fRAWRst on
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  • Knight_Knight_ Dead Dead Dead Registered User regular
    GMaster7 wrote: »
    Knight_ wrote: »
    I finally installed Titanfall 2, so I'm excited to knock that out before GotY.

    Why is PSN so slow, I started the download in the early evening and on my 150 down connection it downloaded 3 gigs in 5 hours. Whyyyy.

    @Knight_ PSN download speeds can be garbage, but one thing I've realized is that having a game or app suspended in the background cuts speeds to an absolute crawl - as does allowing multiple downloads at once (obviously). I always think this is too obvious and dumb to mention, but I'm telling you here in case you (like me) hadn't really realized that closing all open games/apps can really boost speeds.

    I had actually just plugged it in for the first time in almost a year, so it def didn't have anything running, but that is good to know in the future since I to tend to suspend stuff.

    I just did the rest mode thing and waited, made it faster. It still took over a day and a half to download the whole thing, it's almost offensive how bad PSN's speeds are when I could have probably downloaded the whole thing on steam in an hour at most.

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  • lionheart_mlionheart_m Registered User regular
    Hardtarget wrote: »
    FYI regarding Jeff B's list:
    It's in no particular order (he has no #1, etc) and it's a top 12


    That didn't stop Jeff from recycling his list last year.

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  • FencingsaxFencingsax It is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understanding GNU Terry PratchettRegistered User regular
    edited December 2016
    I'm pretty sure Alex was joking.

    Edit: I mean, these lists are silly to begin with, but having two completely different top 10 lists would be a farce.

    Fencingsax on
  • GlalGlal AiredaleRegistered User regular
    This should make Jeff happy, someone made a Super Puzzle Fighter II romhack for color-blindness.

  • RisenPhoenixRisenPhoenix SUPER HOTRegistered User regular
    A question posted about half way up was Hi Austin! What was the most valuable lesson you learned while working with Giant Bomb?
    Good (and difficult) question, so let’s start with this one!
    I learned a ton from my time at GB—I cannot begin to overstate the wisdom that was imparted on by everyone there. Really, really hard to push So here's a lesson I from everyone:

    Vinny taught me the value of of a backup plan—and how to face the fact that sometimes, even your backup’s backup fails. I remember when Vinny told me that our quick look system had three redundancies. I laughed at how surreal that was. Less than a week later, the initial recording and two of those three backups totally failed. I was very grateful for that third one.

    Alex taught me how to push forward on a shitty day. Alex and I both have a great deal in common in terms of our, uh, cloudy demeanors, let's say. But Alex was an incredible professional, and even on the days where things were rough as hell, he managed to put his nose to the stone

    Jeff taught me that it’s less about perfection, and it’s more about cadence. Every swing you take will not be a home run—both as a creator and journalist and also as a person—but if you can consistently, reliably do solid work, people will follow you.

    Rorie taught me the value of prioritization. Matt is just… super busy over there, and he constantly has to decide what challenges are things he needs to address immediately and which things need to be saved for tomorrow.

    Drew showed me the courage (and the deftness) it takes to bring really, really esoteric interests to a wide audience. Things like the Crusader Kings 2 stream or the Twilight Struggle Quick Look (which I did with Drew) never
    would’ve happened if he didn’t prove that if you bring a fun personality and a lot of patience, you can share your weirdest interests with people.

    Jason is a living example of grit. Long nights of setup were worth it, because tomorrow it meant that things would be that much easier. And longer nights of breakdown were worth it because hey, you were done. If I’m every a tenth of the professional Jason is, I’ll be able to get a ton done even on the hardest nights

    Dan and I bonded over our social anxiety. His ability to step out into a crowd—but also to know that it’s okay to step away when you need to was a very important lesson for me.

    Brad taught me how to deal with criticism. That’s not a joke, either. There were weeks where I saw fans of ours pile onto him unfairly—unaware of whatever really difficult task he was hard at work at accomplishing—and he was just fucking head down on what had to get done. But he also listened when people had real, important, constructive critique. Super important lesson

    While I was there, I also worked with a dude named Stan who you probably don’t know, but Stan absolutely taught me the value of working with people who understand the big picture. I’m a humanities dude, you know? I resist stats and charts and all that. Stan showed me how those things could inform my work without forcing it to change in a way I wasn’t happy with.

    Patrick was obviously gone by the time I arrived, but watching his whole career (and now being lucky enough to work with him on a daily basis), he’s taught me a ton about the value of being curious. Dig deeper. The story isn’t the obvious thing, it’s the next level down. Always take that next step.

    And while I was never lucky enough to know Ryan, as a fan, I was keenly aware of his amazing way of bringing a room of people together. In prepping for our huge 72 hour livestream, I thought a lot about how well Ryan was able to find common ground between people who had very little to do with each other. He was a master MC, and I aspire to bring even a fraction of the joy he brought others.

  • lionheart_mlionheart_m Registered User regular
    Damn; wonder what this means for tomorrow's Beastcast.

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  • MaddocMaddoc I'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother? Registered User regular
    Damn; wonder what this means for tomorrow's Beastcast.

    Probably not a whole lot

  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    They probably recorded the Beastcast in the morning.

This discussion has been closed.