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Giant Bomb #7 | Hey There, Small Business Owner!

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Zero315

Banned
I think they're fine most of the time. We don't really mention it when they are playing a game with competence; it's only when they are being terrible that we talk about it. That said, I agree that them saying Quick Looks are replacing reviews for most games kinda puts some more obligations on their shoulders. If they intend on quicklooking a game and not reviewing it, they need to at least play the game correctly. That Mercenary Kings quicklook did a complete disservice to the game. I thought for sure that the game played like shit and had tedious and broken designs. After watching that video, I was dead set on never touching this game. Only later did I discover that the game is not broken and it was simply Brad who did not understand how it played. I sincerely hope that every person who were put off by the game because of that video eventually came around.

I must have been playing it wrong as well. The experience that Brad had in the quicklook was pretty much the same one that I had playing about 4-5 hours of it before watching the quicklook.
 

Archaix

Drunky McMurder
I didn't watch the Polygon Spiderman 2 video, but were they just using the "LB For AWESOME!" where Spiderman just flies across the screen automatically? It's the Uncharted of web swinging, it looks cool but it feels just dreadfully boring when playing. The swinging itself isn't completely awful, but it's not great either. The traversal is serviceable, the rest of the game is the problem.

(The GB Mercenary Kings video was just terrible though)
 

Haunted

Member
I don't get the Barkerville thing.

tumblr_mtegzpIGTE1shva4to1_1280.jpg
 

sixghost

Member
Alright, not to harp on the whole "bad at games" trend, but legit, I think Giantbomb might just be bad at games in general.

Someone linked a Polygon overview video earlier so I've been watching some stuff with Griffin playing.

I remember Amazing Spiderman 2 and Mercenary Kings looking like pretty rotten games (and being talked about as such) when the GB crew quick looked them.

Then, when watching the Polygon Overview, the games looked waaaaay more fun, fluid, and interesting.

Jeff mentioned in AS2 how the web swinging was sort of janky and it was just difficult to really pull off anything you wanted to pull off. Meanwhile, watching Griffin play it looks totally smooth and fluid, he's moving around swiftly, doing cool acrobatics, fighting effectively and dodging and everything. Overall, the game just looked WAY better, and even though they didn't love the game either, they did show off the goods and the bads.

I thought maybe the issue was just that Griffin had played a lot longer, but in the video he said that the recording was from about 1:30 of playtime.

Similarly with Mercenary Kings, with Brad playing the game just looked like a colossal chore to play. Not really fun at all, and nothing to the game except "make new gun." On the other hand, I was watching Griffin play and he was doing really well, executing active reloads effectively, mowing dudes down, playing around and showing off really cool guns, and the game suddenly looked like a total blast.

I didn't watch many videos yet, but I did see those two and thought "These totally look like different games all together."

I feel like GB should try and invest a little bit more time before hand into a game to try and get better at it before showing it off, because with Jeff saying Quick Looks are a stand in of buying advice replacing reviews, I'm getting a completely different picture of what the game is, and I don't think it's just Griffin cherry picking the best of the best video.
Didn't someone say that those videos are done MST3k style where they talk over gameplay recorded earlier? I'd say that has a lot to do with it.
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
I tend to take it as a learning experience, (like Patrick and Vinny with Etrian Odyssey IV QL), and I show them the way positively: "Scoops, put the tank in the back, grinding's the hard way out!"

Beneficial and gets everyone's minds right
[/I]

I can see the good in that, but to be fair, Etrian Odyssey is a significantly denser game than Spiderman or Mercenary Kings. For example, when I watched the Demon's Souls quick look I wasn't particularly surprised by their lack of knowledge or ability because, hey, it's a souls game. The early ones were really thick in terms of explanation.

But something like Spiderman it seems (I haven't actually played the game so I can't speak from a literal experience) like it just takes you actually putting effort into doing it right, rather than just trying to brute force through.

I didn't watch the Polygon Spiderman 2 video, but were they just using the "LB For AWESOME!" where Spiderman just flies across the screen automatically? It's the Uncharted of web swinging, it looks cool but it feels just dreadfully boring when playing. The swinging itself isn't completely awful, but it's not great either. The traversal is serviceable, the rest of the game is the problem.

Nah they weren't. Griffin showed it off but most of the time it was regular web swinging, as well as explaining how stuff like the slingshot move looked and seemed cool but were totally worthless.

You guys are right, they should hire Griffin.

I would 100% all the way support this. My favorite dude at on the Besties and MBMBAM.

Didn't someone say that those videos are done MST3k style where they talk over gameplay recorded earlier? I'd say that has a lot to do with it.

Yeah they do, and I considered that, but even if that's the case, getting more hands on time to at least understand how the game is would allow them to say "Hey, talking and playing is hard, when I'm not talking I play the game differently than this."
 

Krathoon

Member
Yeah. The segments are not going to be spectacular because they are done live. It is more about those spontaneous comedic moments. Really, Vinny is becoming a good catalyst for it. It is like he is starting to play Ryan's role in the group.
 

hamchan

Member
Yeah. The segments are not going to be spectacular because they are done live. It is more about those spontaneous comedic moments. Really, Vinny is becoming a good catalyst for it. It is like he is starting to play Ryan's role in the group.

I think Vinny has been the main catalyst for random funny moments for the past 6 years. He's always been the one that experiments the most.
 
Yeah. The segments are not going to be spectacular because they are done live. It is more about those spontaneous comedic moments. Really, Vinny is becoming a good catalyst for it. It is like he is starting to play Ryan's role in the group.

Ryan brought a lot of energy to stuff, which i feel Vinny definitely does as well.
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
GB Video out of sync again.

Thought I'd give a tip for those who want to view it with correct audio, but don't want to download the whole thing but stream it instead.

  • Go to the GB video page and click download
    4Mppat8.png

  • Right click the quality you want, and copy the URL
  • Open up VLC, and go to Media > Open Network Stream
    VitSIj1.png

  • Paste your copied URL into the field and hit play
  • Once the video is playing, use the "J" and "K" keys to decrease or increase the audio delay. For example, on the Sunset Overdrive video, about ~200ms is appropriate.
    o3s26ag.png

Hope this helps some dudes out, and if this continues to be a problem, perhaps Patryn can add this to the OP?
 

Nymphae

Banned
I didn't watch the Polygon Spiderman 2 video, but were they just using the "LB For AWESOME!" where Spiderman just flies across the screen automatically? It's the Uncharted of web swinging, it looks cool but it feels just dreadfully boring when playing. The swinging itself isn't completely awful, but it's not great either. The traversal is serviceable, the rest of the game is the problem.

I initially thought the same thing. You kind of have to use it at certain times to get the best use out of it. It totally is boring as hell to just use the Web Rush for all or most movements, but if you use it as another tool in the swinging arsenal, you can make it work really well for you. I use it to zip into the sky in the general direction I want to move, then take over with my swings. And it's obviously really great for indoor sections when you want to get onto a particular pipe near the ceiling or something, or zip to an exact spot on a ceiling.

It's also great if you want to land on a particular wall at the end of a swing, for a long time I was trying to use the wall run button, or the wall crawl button, as I swung myself at a wall, and those are really finicky options. But as you're swinging, if you tap it at the wall face you want on, he just zips to it. It's one of those mechanics that can be used really lazily and take all the fun out of the swinging, but you can also use it sparingly to add a bit of flourish to it, and to make certain movements a bit easier. I'm actually really coming around on this game, it's not AAA amazingness, but for a big Spider-man fan like me, it's a great game, and the swinging is actually some of the best I've seen in a SM game (I still prefer Web of Shadows though). In particular I love how it feels to do the L/R swing buttons, it doesn't make a huge difference really, but it just feels a bit better, it's closer to how you would use your hands as Spidey.
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
@johntdrake 11:38 AM
.@giantbomb premium members- if we hit $300k today for Amplitude, I'll do an acoustic version of Barkerville on a stream. Cc @bradshoemaker
 

Jb

Member
GB Video out of sync again.

Thought I'd give a tip for those who want to view it with correct audio, but don't want to download the whole thing but stream it instead.

That's really useful, thanks a lot! Downloading a 3Go file for every premium stream was getting a little annoying.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
I hope to god that the grinding speed shown for Sunset Overdrive is like the very basic ability and you can upgrade the hell out of it.
 
I'm not sure I've seen a game kickstarter as hungry/desperate as Amplitude. I feel bad for them, but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen. I wonder what shape their studio is at given the push they're giving it : /
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
I'm not sure I've seen a game kickstarter as hungry/desperate as Amplitude. I feel bad for them, but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen. I wonder what shape their studio is at given the push they're giving it : /

I think Harmonix in general is in pretty good shape, but the kickstarter itself isn't. They've put themselves behind it in a big way and don't want to see it fail, but I don't think that reflects harmonix as a whole.
 
I'm not sure I've seen a game kickstarter as hungry/desperate as Amplitude. I feel bad for them, but it doesn't seem like it's going to happen. I wonder what shape their studio is at given the push they're giving it : /

I think what Patrick said on the podcast was right. It being a Sony exclusive is really harming it. I like the concept, but i'd only pledge if i could get a PC version. They should have just gone for a spiritual successor so they could get the PC crowd.
 

rObit

Banned
Initially that Sunset Overdrive footage looks incredibly boring.

Yeah, I wasn't feeling it much for the first 10-15 minutes. I think that there's enough there that if they do great things with the story it could be worth it, but the gameplay alone wouldn't do it for me I don't think.
 

daydream

Banned
So wait, Drake on UPF today? Was hoping for (secret GB member) Danny as a host, hopefully that's not out of the question, yet.

Edit: Never mind, on "a" stream, he tweeted.
 

alr1ght

bish gets all the credit :)
I think what Patrick said on the podcast was right. It being a Sony exclusive is really harming it. I like the concept, but i'd only pledge if i could get a PC version. They should have just gone for a spiritual successor so they could get the PC crowd.
He said Sony owned certain gameplay concepts, so it doesn't seem as easy as expected.
 

Xater

Member
They really are desperate.

Well it's not looking good for the Kickstarter but they seem enthusiastic about the project so it's understandable. I love Amplitude and wish the Kickstarter was doing better. (I backed it).

He said Sony owned certain gameplay concepts, so it doesn't seem as easy as expected.

Yep, that's the big problem apparently. Otherwise I bet they would have done it.
 

Xater

Member
Initially that Sunset Overdrive footage looks incredibly boring.

Agreed. It looks very pretty but nothing of what I have seen looks like I want to play it. Maybe showing of real missions it will change my impression.

Maybe they can try again when PS4 has a bigger install base and get more traction?

The Kickstarter is also already for PS3 so if that doesn't work....
 

Fox318

Member
Is it just me or does the harmonix kcikstarter stuff feel a little slimy.

I'm not sure how to describe it but it just feels weird.
 

Xater

Member
Is it just me or does the harmonix kcikstarter stuff feel a little slimy.

I'm not sure how to describe it but it just feels weird.

Not the discussion for this thread and no not at all. No one wants to fund it so it's the only chance for the game to exist. Also if you are a smart business man you don't invest your own money in a shaky project.
 

FStop7

Banned
Is it just me or does the harmonix kcikstarter stuff feel a little slimy.

I'm not sure how to describe it but it just feels weird.

I love to virtually razz Harmonix/GB over their relationship and all but no, the Kickstarter's not slimy in any way.
 

Jb

Member
I think what Patrick said on the podcast was right. It being a Sony exclusive is really harming it. I like the concept, but i'd only pledge if i could get a PC version. They should have just gone for a spiritual successor so they could get the PC crowd.

I doubt it would have made it even with the PC crowd, I just think the number of people that A) have played and have fond memories of that game and B) would be willing to kickstart a reboot just isn't there.
That's something that a lot of devs trying to remake old games like Outcast realized: nostalgia is numerically quantifiable, and if that number doesn't match your KS goals you're boned. Drake even hinted at it when he said RB Blitz didn't do great, that audience is kinda gone.
 

Fox318

Member
Not the discussion for this thread and no not at all. No one wants to fund it so it's the only chance for the game to exist. Also if you are a smart business man you don't invest your own money in a shaky project.

I don't buy that this is the only way for a game like that to exist but the reason I brought it up here is because it looks like Giantbomb will be promoting the kickstarter during UPF.

When does EA have a kickstarter? The premise was originally for smaller start ups to help get money to fund a small project.

Does a company that have working relationships with Disney and Sony not have the ability to fund their own game development? And don't forget that Harmonix just had layoffs in December so I'm not sure I would want to bet on a company that's future games are a F2P music shooter and a Kinect game during a time when Microsoft is getting rid of Kinnect bundles.
 

NIN90

Member
Did they ever comment on the sync issues? I mean, large part of why I subbed is their video content and this stuff has been going on for a few weeks.
 

Xater

Member
Just like our boi Shaq.

Exactly.

I don't buy that this is the only way for a game like that to exist but the reason I brought it up here is because it looks like Giantbomb will be promoting the kickstarter during UPF.

When does EA have a kickstarter? The premise was originally for smaller start ups to help get money to fund a small project.

Does a company that have working relationships with Disney and Sony not have the ability to fund their own game development? And don't forget that Harmonix just had layoffs in December so I'm not sure I would want to bet on a company that's future games are a F2P music shooter and a Kinect game during a time when Microsoft is getting rid of Kinnect bundles.

It doesn't matter who they have relations with if those people don't believe in the potential sales of the game. In this case only Sony would be able to fund it because it's their IP. They don#t believe in it. Only alternative is Kickstarter because like I said you never want to use your own money.

Looking at how the Kickstarter is going it seems like Sony might have been right in not believing in it.

BTW You could have also asked why Obsidian needs a Kickstarter, or Double Fine. Yet you probably didn't.
 
Did they ever comment on the sync issues? I mean, large part of why I subbed is their video content and this stuff has been going on for a few weeks.

They've merely said it's not their fault, so I'm guessing it just hasn't been fixed.

THOUGH IF YOU WANTED TO ENGAGE IN CONSPIRACY it probably benefits their bottom-line for people to be fed-up with archived content and watch everything live.
 

Patryn

Member
GB Video out of sync again.

Thought I'd give a tip for those who want to view it with correct audio, but don't want to download the whole thing but stream it instead.

  • Go to the GB video page and click download
    4Mppat8.png

  • Right click the quality you want, and copy the URL
  • Open up VLC, and go to Media > Open Network Stream
    VitSIj1.png

  • Paste your copied URL into the field and hit play
  • Once the video is playing, use the "J" and "K" keys to decrease or increase the audio delay. For example, on the Sunset Overdrive video, about ~200ms is appropriate.
    o3s26ag.png

Hope this helps some dudes out, and if this continues to be a problem, perhaps Patryn can add this to the OP?
Done.
 

rudds

Name 10 better posters this year
They've merely said it's not their fault, so I'm guessing it just hasn't been fixed.

THOUGH IF YOU WANTED TO ENGAGE IN CONSPIRACY it probably benefits their bottom-line for people to be fed-up with archived content and watch everything live.

holy shit my eyes rolled so far back into my head i think they're stuck i can't see anything help
 

Curufinwe

Member
Do we have a gif of that time Brad was checking & posting on GAF on his phone during a live stream? It might have been from the Xbox One stream in November.
 
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