Giant Bomb Bomb-All

I think Giant Bomb focuses on providing two experiences, one focuses on observation, the other on participation. The PAX panels do a great job of serving the participation angle but aren't great for people only interested in being observers.

They do a great job of making entertaining video and audio content for the people who want to consume that content. Some of those people (like me), enjoy hearing what they have to say and thinking about it by myself. They produce content that is often interesting and that is difficult for many to get elsewhere.

The other thing they do really well is providing a place to participate in a community. They encourage their community with inside jokes, featuring user content, supporting the forum, engaging with live chats, posting videos of gifts they receive, etc. This is there for people who want to participate in a community and feel a part of it, not just an observer.

PAX and their panel is for the second group of people. The show is all about audience interaction whether it's making jokes for them or taking community questions. Being part of the audience at the panel is the chance for people to be a part of the community in person and asking questions is the in person equivalent of sending in reader mail and chat messages. Whether those questions are good or not is not the point. I'm sure a lot of people enjoy that people were allowed to ask questions, to have a personal connection at that event even if it wasn't themselves doing it.

At the end of the day, these shows are not for me (primarily an observer), but I'm happy they exist and that people seem to enjoy them so much. I've sent gifts to podcast creators in the past and was happy to get a mention over the air so I can imagine what it's like to be at those shows and enjoy what to someone else may seem incredibly boring and poorly planned.

Luckily, they did so many audio interviews at the same time which I found very well done and interesting in all the ways the panel was not.

cyrax wrote:

The DOTA2 TNT was utterly fantastic. If you don't have the patience to sync them for dual commentary, stick with the commentary feed. The caster does a fair enough job, and both Patrick and Jeff had entertainingly opposite approaches. FYI, the gameplay feed has audio issues until a fair ways in.

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/thur...

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/thur...

Damn. I'm strongly considering signing up for a 1 month membership so I can watch those. I did that when Ryan put up his 2 hour Dark Souls stream in 2011

Dyni wrote:
cyrax wrote:

The DOTA2 TNT was utterly fantastic. If you don't have the patience to sync them for dual commentary, stick with the commentary feed. The caster does a fair enough job, and both Patrick and Jeff had entertainingly opposite approaches. FYI, the gameplay feed has audio issues until a fair ways in.

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/thur...

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/thur...

Damn. I'm strongly considering signing up for a 1 month membership so I can watch those. I did that when Ryan put up his 2 hour Dark Souls stream in 2011 :cool:

Additionally, earlier this afternoon they also did a full 5-man DOTA game with Brad, Drew, Jeff, Vinnie, and Patrick in what I assume was a custom lobby with 5 community members. If you enjoy watching a team of players fully embracing their complete ineptitude, then this is the show for you.

Dave is gone! Matt Rorie is taking his job!

TheCounselor wrote:

Dave is gone! Matt Rorie is taking his job!

Link for those interested: http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/sni...

TheCounselor wrote:

Dave is gone! Matt Rorie is taking his job!

I like Rorie, but I really liked Dave and his love of the pc.

Imma miss Dave.

That's a damn shame. I really liked Dave too. But it looks like he's still going to show up to do videos of Eastern Bloc games and whatnot so I'm glad for that. It's cool they have Matt Rorie back though, even in a very different capacity than before.

Thin_J wrote:

Imma miss Dave.

Ditto. One of my favourite personalities. I hope he pops up more frequently than he has been.

I like Matt Rorie. He fits in well. I think this is also further proof that CBSi is letting Giant Bomb be Giant Bomb.

garion333 wrote:

I like Rorie, but I really liked Dave and his love of the pc.

Rorie is plenty into the weird PC stuff.

But I'm so torn! I always knew there was a possibility, someone I can't imagine Giant Bomb being without. Here we are. All I'm left thinking is that the rest of them better stay put for a long while.

Ugh. I hope his appearance on Giant Bomb video content is minimal. Nothing drains any and all charisma like Matt Rorie.

kuddles wrote:

Ugh. I hope his appearance on Giant Bomb video content is minimal. Nothing drains any and all charisma like Matt Rorie.

The few times I've seen him, I've enjoyed him. He's a lot better than Alex Navarro.

Yeah, I also feel for Dave's departure. I share alot of his PC gaming tastes, and really respect his positive attitude. I like Rorie fine, but he's no Snider. GL to both.

Tangent: If you're a subscriber, and haven't already, the last ~20min of this Unprofessional Fridays is not to be missed. I was losing my head.

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/unpr...

Unprofessional Fridays has me considering becoming a subscriber. The little bits of content I've seen looks like the best stuff they've done. Reminds me of the 3DO TNT.

Vector wrote:

Unprofessional Fridays has me considering becoming a subscriber. The little bits of content I've seen looks like the best stuff they've done. Reminds me of the 3DO TNT.

It's fantastic. The best recurring bit is Jeff reading Space Jam: The Novel aloud, although he's most of the way through by now.

Jeff: *reading*
Ryan: Hey could you pass me the...
Jeff: PLEASE!
Ryan:...
Jeff: PLEASE!
Ryan:...
Jeff: *continues reading*

Vector wrote:

Unprofessional Fridays has me considering becoming a subscriber. The little bits of content I've seen looks like the best stuff they've done. Reminds me of the 3DO TNT.

It's like a games-only Big Live Live Show Live every weekend! Of course their Wednesday shows are also kind of like that. As well as TNT...

psoplayer wrote:
Vector wrote:

Unprofessional Fridays has me considering becoming a subscriber. The little bits of content I've seen looks like the best stuff they've done. Reminds me of the 3DO TNT.

It's like a games-only Big Live Live Show Live every weekend! Of course their Wednesday shows are also kind of like that. As well as TNT...

The Wednesday show is going to be a once-a-month thing now and TNT is sometimes great and other times, less so. It's supposed to be about community interaction and I don't care about the Giant Bomb community.

Unprofessional Fridays looks like it is my favorite parts of Giant Bomb: playing games, making jokes, and looking at old games.

I do not regret getting a subscription. I occasionally access the site without singing in and it's tastefully flooded with ads which makes me think they're doing well for themselves, but not having those there and having all those extra videos is great.

Question about the latest Bombcast. Is Brad right about the DS Zelda games?

That they're good, or that nobody considers them as important as the console releases?

Both are true.

But they're just good in the way that all Zelda's of late have been, great dungeons with lots of other caveats.

I prefer the 3D Zelda games myself, same as with Mario and Metroid. I guess I need to turn in my child of the 80s membership card.

Currently replaying LttP and enjoying the heck out of it. I tried Spirit Tracks, but man... I just don't care for noticeable little boy Link - even Wind Waker was hard for me to enjoy, just not liking the art direction, I guess.

And I really hope they give Link a voice some day - just pull it out of the old cartoon!

"Excuuuuse me, princess..."

Blind_Evil wrote:

That they're good, or that nobody considers them as important as the console releases?

Both are true.

That they're good and that they featured some of the largest innovations in the series. I basically ignored them, but now I'm curious.

Also, Jeff is wrong about Yoshi's Island. He was funny, but Patrick showed admirable restraint.

DSGamer wrote:

that they featured some of the largest innovations in the series.

Eh, yes and no.

For one, you can't help but innovate when you're dealing with an entirely new interface. The touchscreen controls were more an inevitability than a breakthrough in design, considering the hardware was too limited for a 3D Zelda game.

Second, I'm 99% sure Brad hasn't played Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword. I don't think watching the SS quick look and talking to Patrick about it gives him the authority to make the claims he did. Twilight Princess was highly derivative of Ocarina of Time, but Skyward Sword I think experimented in more ways than Phantom Hourglass.

DSGamer wrote:

Also, Jeff is wrong about Yoshi's Island. He was funny, but Patrick showed admirable restraint.

I know he has a mixed reaction, but I actually like Patrick's presence if for no other reason than he is the only person willing to challenge Jeff or Ryan when they make snide or dismissive comments, especially when they make them despite having complete ignorance of the subject matter.

How's Jeff ignorant about Yoshi's Island?

I played it for the first time recently on 3DS, and I'm inclined to agree with him. While the courage to step so far from Super Mario World and still call it Super Mario World 2 is commendable, the mechanics just don't work for me.

I pay pretty close attention and to my ears, Patrick is the one most often expressing opinions he's gathered from Twitter or forums rather than having played something. Usually when Jeff rails on something he doesn't know a ton about, he cops to it (albeit in a quieter voice, right at the end).

Edit: I should note that Patrick has been getting better about this lately, but it's still painfully obvious when he's just re-jiggering a headline from a blog post.

Blind_Evil wrote:

For one, you can't help but innovate when you're dealing with an entirely new interface. The touchscreen controls were more an inevitability than a breakthrough in design, considering the hardware was too limited for a 3D Zelda game.

I think that's understating things a little. It wasn't inevitable that they use the touch controls in a meaningful way: they could easily have gone the NSMB route and had the game control primarily with the D-pad and buttons with only the occasional token use of the touchscreen.

And it DEFINITELY wasn't inevitable that the touch controls actually WORK. It could easily have been a train wreck (insert Spirit Tracks joke here, hurr hurr), but instead it was amazing. They were just as precise as they needed to be, opened up new puzzle possibilities in the dungeons, and actually made the sailing fun in a way that it definitely wasn't in Wind Waker.

That said, neither were perfect games. Phantom Hourglass's pacing suffered quite a bit from having to replay sections of the main dungeon (forget what it was called). I never finished Spirit Tracks; I recall not being nearly as enamored of the train as I was on the sailing in PH, and I think by that point I was also suffering from more than a bit of franchise fatigue.

Maybe I am understating it a bit, but if the question is "how do we make the boomerang's path bend?" it doesn't take a genius to answer "How about drawing it on the touch screen?"

Sure, but it would have been easy for them to decide that the touchscreen should control the path of the boomerang and maybe one or two other specialized items and call it a day. And it would have been awkward and terrible, forcing the player to constantly switch between the stylus and buttons. Making the entire game control with the touchscreen and actually play well couldn't have been as easy as you're making it out to be.