Giant Bomb Bomb-All

Vector wrote:

I like The Very Online Show. A big part of that is it's edited very well and the length is short. There's a snappiness to it and they get just deep enough into the subject matter to be interesting.

Agreed. The deep dive from familiar faces is quite fun, especially in the premier episode.

Vector wrote:

Got 35 minutes into Albummer and closed my browser. It's not for me and I disliked it. Didn't find anything creative, interesting, or endearing about it. It's 5 people being continuously mean about a popular band. There's also a few jokes I found really crappy.

Completely fair. Zero relation to GiantBomb and none of the known GB crew were involved, just another show they're throwing at the wall to see if it sticks. While I (mostly) enjoyed it, I felt like the self-plugging was overdone; we get it, you've got your own show, let it go. You're doing a GB show, not just something to plug your own stuff. I'm interested to see what episode 2 and 3 look like.

trueheart78 wrote:
Vector wrote:

Got 35 minutes into Albummer and closed my browser. It's not for me and I disliked it. Didn't find anything creative, interesting, or endearing about it. It's 5 people being continuously mean about a popular band. There's also a few jokes I found really crappy.

Completely fair. Zero relation to GiantBomb and none of the known GB crew were involved, just another show they're throwing at the wall to see if it sticks. While I (mostly) enjoyed it, I felt like the self-plugging was overdone; we get it, you've got your own show, let it go. You're doing a GB show, not just something to plug your own stuff. I'm interested to see what episode 2 and 3 look like.

That bothered me too. I think a big part of it is none of the people liked Weezer with most of them actively disliking Weezer. So it's 5 people who already don't like, or seem to understand why others like, the band and then crapping on the album. Maybe the album is terrible? They already don't like Weezer so it makes no difference. I might tune in for something historical where a band/artist is generally well loved and made something truly awful in the middle of their success.

Vector wrote:

Maybe the album is terrible? They already don't like Weezer so it makes no difference. I might tune in for something historical where a band/artist is generally well loved and made something truly awful in the middle of their success.

Yeah, U Talkin’ U2 To Me? and R U Talkin’ R.E.M. Me were great podcasts because they were obsessive superfans, so when they start talking sh*t about a tour or acknowledge a single sounds like a half-assed cash-in, the criticism feels earned.

I have to agree. If it were another topic I might have liked them but in this they came over as pretentious snobs shouting if you like this band you're an idiot who doesn't understand "real" music over and over again.

Welcome to a 12 episode show about Dan not knowing even more things. IMAGE(https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/240/apple/285/man-supervillain_1f9b9-200d-2642-fe0f.png)

Mermaidpirate wrote:

I forget which episode this was but I'm surprised pancakes came up as a snack that quickly gets less good as you keep eating. Although I don't eat packet mix fast food pancakes very much and I guess that's appropriate for those. I have friends that are in to Pancake Parlour, and like, why.

My pick is pretzels, because the bags I recently bought were good for the first handful, then were just dry wheat. A dry cracker you can't even put anything on.

So I got a completely different brand of pretzels from the supermarket. Non-healthy ones that weren't just dry. After the first couple they had a real bad stale taste to them anyway. Looked at the packet, Made In USA. *shrug_emoji*

trueheart78 wrote:

Welcome to a 12 episode show about Dan not knowing even more things. IMAGE(https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/240/apple/285/man-supervillain_1f9b9-200d-2642-fe0f.png)

Of all the new shows, this is the one I am the most interested in. Not sure it's worth a subscription though...

Has anyone here been keeping up with Borne to Run? I'm not a premium member currently, so I've only been watching the highlight reels, but I browsed the comments on the last couple full episodes and it sounds like Danny has been doing something meta with the editing on the last two or three shows... like weaving in lore for the show itself.

Dyni wrote:

Has anyone here been keeping up with Borne to Run? I'm not a premium member currently, so I've only been watching the highlight reels, but I browsed the comments on the last couple full episodes and it sounds like Danny has been doing something meta with the editing on the last two or three shows... like weaving in lore for the show itself.

Very much so. He first started off looping in some of Brad's old run, but it's going in a weird tangent now. Very curious what he has planned. It's interesting since I'll always stupidly watch a Soulsborne game (because I'm addicted), I'm curious what sort of alternate reality thing he wants to tell.

My guess? It's all a dream, and he's an actual character in the Soulsborne universe. Maybe he's a Monumental from Demon's Souls? Who knows.

I am really liking Grubb Snacks. It goes on a bit long at times. But the one-man format is fun and packs in lots of information. It also is able to go in-depth or give a different perspective on news that is only mentioned on Giant Bomb.

Garth wrote:

I am really liking Grubb Snacks. It goes on a bit long at times. But the one-man format is fun and packs in lots of information. It also is able to go in-depth or give a different perspective on news that is only mentioned on Giant Bomb.

I like it quite a bit too. It's very similar to the news segments that Patrick and Austin used to do but with more insider and rumors stuff. I like that he keeps the show running at a quick pace as well. he also endeared me with his dislike of Blippi. I also greatly dislike Blippi.

Vrikk wrote:
Dyni wrote:

Has anyone here been keeping up with Borne to Run? I'm not a premium member currently, so I've only been watching the highlight reels, but I browsed the comments on the last couple full episodes and it sounds like Danny has been doing something meta with the editing on the last two or three shows... like weaving in lore for the show itself.

Very much so. He first started off looping in some of Brad's old run, but it's going in a weird tangent now. Very curious what he has planned. It's interesting since I'll always stupidly watch a Soulsborne game (because I'm addicted), I'm curious what sort of alternate reality thing he wants to tell.

My guess? It's all a dream, and he's an actual character in the Soulsborne universe. Maybe he's a Monumental from Demon's Souls? Who knows.

Yeah, it started out with some quick cuts to Brad's past run. Then started added in semi-relevant gameplay of other games. But the last one had a nonsensical cut of Flower and then the ending. It's interesting and a good nod to the esoteric and vague storytelling by From Software.

trueheart78 wrote:

Welcome to a 12 episode show about Dan not knowing even more things. IMAGE(https://emojipedia-us.s3.dualstack.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/thumbs/240/apple/285/man-supervillain_1f9b9-200d-2642-fe0f.png)

This will land for me if Dan is being genuine in his attempts to learn and understand. I can handle his questions if they are from a place of actually wanting to learn. It's when he refuses to learn and revels in his ignorance. Really curious to see how his interplay with Bakalar will work.

At this point, Giant Bomb has no real video game content. The last Quick Look with more than one person was Chicory with Jan and Danny on June 16th. Beyond that it's the Friday show and a random assortment of solo streams. I understand that they are severely understaffed, Jeff is moving and going on a rather lengthy paternity leave shortly, Jason moved across the country and then had a toe amputated, Danny is only part time, and Jan is having to handle everything else. It's a big ask of the supporters to stick around while they build the core team back up.

Vector wrote:

At this point, Giant Bomb has no real video game content.

Giant Bomb is becoming a content mill, which was probably its destiny in the long run, given the economics of entertainment sites in general.

It makes me thinking back to when Hipster Runoff was parodying this trend in content farm websites. Some sites hold out longer than others, but it seems like most get there eventually.

DSGamer wrote:
Vector wrote:

At this point, Giant Bomb has no real video game content.

Giant Bomb is becoming a content mill[…]

When I think of a “content mill”, I probably don’t think of the same thing as you. This pace won’t be kept, which is what I think of when I think of that term.

As a reminder (and to be 100% clear), Jeff prefaced all the new content with the fact that they were gonna throw a lot of ideas at the wall and see what sticks. He’s had ideas that are now achievable, with CBS out of the way and Red Ventures actually giving them the time of day.

Right now, there are a lot of content creators that have grown to love GiantBomb, so they’re tapping into those resources while everything is in flux. I can’t blame them one bit, especially with the life events taking place in the core crew over the past 6 months, as well as the coming months (see Jeff’s paternity leave). So, give them time. Enjoy the shows you can, if you want to.

I still don’t blame people that want to move on from GiantBomb now that Alex, Brad, and Vinny have moved on. It’s a new chapter, and there were will be many that move to support NextLander instead, or some other creators. That’s fine.

They’ve built a supportive community, and while we bicker and banter here, they’ve provided me with some of the biggest laughs I’ve ever had.

trueheart78 wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
Vector wrote:

At this point, Giant Bomb has no real video game content.

Giant Bomb is becoming a content mill[…]

When I think of a “content mill”, I probably don’t think of the same thing as you. This pace won’t be kept, which is what I think of when I think of that term.

I don't, of course, mean a content mill like Forbes.com. I mean something more like The Ringer. It's perfectly fine, but I could see how it might turn some people off.

I don’t know if Madden has seen it’s shadow yet, but video games!

I am perfectly happy to have Giant Bomb experiment with new shows and formats and bringing new voices in. I haven't loved much of the new stuff yet, but I'm gonna give them time to figure it out, and I'll keep up my sub.

I've tried both episodes of Albummer, and though I think it has potential, it also has a lot of problems. I think my biggest issue with it is, through two episodes, they aren't really talking about these albums very much? The Weezer episode was a lot of just generalized dunking on Weezer and Rivers Cuomo. Some of it funny, some of it just lazy pile-ons. But not much of it actually about the album! And most perplexingly, at the end, they all agree it's actually kind of a listenable album. Hearing them admit that they liked some of it and talk about why some parts of the album were actually pretty good despite all the marks against the album seems like more interesting grounds to explore to me than just another anecdote about Rivers being weird. The second album was better, and I think it helped that some of the hosts were fans of Danzig, whose album was discussed. Still, it was mostly talk about how weird Danzig is, and that was funny, but the album was not much of a focus. The lack of audio clips really hurts this podcast. I was hopeful that, after the first (publicly available and on youtube) podcast, the subsequent ones would have clips, since they're behind a paywall, but no. Really hard to have an interesting discussion about different tracks on an album without playing anything of them. I wonder how much it is legal concerns (using clips to discuss and analyze is a strong case for fair use, and a lot of podcasts do this stuff, but RV's legal folks could still not wanna mess around with it), or how much is the hosts just don't want to do the work to put clips into the show (I guess they'd have to select stuff ahead of time and figure out a way to play them so everyone can hear, and they do seem to have some audio issues among the hosts). Anyway, I find this show kind of frustrating, in part because I think it could be good with some big changes.

The Very Online Show was disappointing to me. As a Reply All listener it seems to be a copy of Yes Yes No, a great segment on that show (RIP), where two of the hosts are internet weirdos who know all about the memes of the moment and the third host is clueless and confused. My main issues with the first episode tho were a)Bakalar doesn't really seem like he is all that much less 'online' than the other two hosts, so the dynamic doesn't seem quite right and b)the topic of the first episode felt like a not very mysterious mystery with not that much depth to it. The examples of the meme were funny, but the promised deep dive by very online people was just "M. Night Shamylan is a corny dude who people like to make fun of," which I don't think you need to be a twitter power-user to suss out. Maybe with a better topic it'll work better next time.

I like Jan so much I am tempted to watch an episode of Power Rangers to listen to his show, but I only made it through one or two Dragonball episodes when Jeff and Dan were doing that podcast, so it's probably not gonna happen.

mrlogical wrote:

The Very Online Show was disappointing to me. As a Reply All listener it seems to be a copy of Yes Yes No, a great segment on that show (RIP), where two of the hosts are internet weirdos who know all about the memes of the moment and the third host is clueless and confused.

Reply All is still around, just so you know. they finally have released a few new episodes after their hiatus. Or maybe you are referring to Yes Yes No...that segment is probably gone, but who knows.

Right, my RIP was for the segment, not the show, as I think it's pretty unlikely Yes Yes No makes a comeback.

mrlogical wrote:

I think my biggest issue with it is, through two episodes, they aren't really talking about these albums very much?

I felt like I knew less about the album after watching them not talk about the actual album.

Now that I am gainfully employed again, I started subscribing to Nextlander on Patreon. For those who want the energy that Brad, Vinny, and Alex used to bring to Giant Bomb and find it lacking in their free pod, let me say that it is all over their Ramblecast and their Question Podcasts, so much so that I wish that they would give one or two away in their public feed to entice people in.

But if you have the cash and the desire, the private feeds are worth it.

Listening to the latest Bombcast and they just pronounced Fido Dido as Fee Do Dee do.

I damn near smashed my phone.

I LOVE BRAD!

That is all.

Mermaidpirate wrote:

I LOVE BRAD!

That is all.

Why do people in 2021 own and use clock radios?

Their simple time displays still tend to be the most readable clocks under the variety of lighting conditions a room can have, and from almost any angle. Mine has a tape player built-in, and I use neither that nor the radio, nor even the alarm.

Because I've had one for 30+ years and it works for me.
Because I hate always having my phone with me; bedtime is off limits for that dumb thing.

They can also function as last resort home defense devices because they are built like bricks.

I wanted to like Albummer, but I wish they'd gotten some real fans of the musical career of Bruce Willis instead of just knee-jerk hating.

Combination today's 99% invisible and an old Bombcast episode where they talk a lot about food and it's turned the protein shake that was supposed to be my dinner into a big Vietnamese order.

Episode 702 where they talk about big name restaurants labelling themselves something different on delivery apps. And other food crimes.

Speaking of food crimes on my real non-diet day I'm going to get this https://twitter.com/VOOK64/status/14...