Giant Bomb Bomb-All

Anyone else that listen to the Fire Escapcast annoyed that they created their own rating scale and then every time they rate something they just it give a number?

Mermaidpirate wrote:

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

Nothing more frustrating than thinking I'm supporting some new local place during lockdown and later discovering it's a side project run by some garbage chain I already swore off.

That's a harsh way to rehash that Dan is the worst.

EverythingsTentative wrote:

Anyone else that listen to the Fire Escapcast annoyed that they created their own rating scale and then every time they rate something they just it give a number?

Nope. I think it's a great bit. Largely because it's just tossing a number at something, and there's rarely, if ever, any explanation for the number. It's easy to ignore, or just laugh at, because it's not quantifiable. I feel like it's a perfect analogue for the tendency for everyone to assign a number or stars or grades or whatever to everything when they review it. Scores are dumb.

NSMike wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

Anyone else that listen to the Fire Escapcast annoyed that they created their own rating scale and then every time they rate something they just it give a number?

Nope. I think it's a great bit. Largely because it's just tossing a number at something, and there's rarely, if ever, any explanation for the number. It's easy to ignore, or just laugh at, because it's not quantifiable. I feel like it's a perfect analogue for the tendency for everyone to assign a number or stars or grades or whatever to everything when they review it. Scores are dumb.

I agree. I'm just annoyed at myself for memorizing their system which makes me the butt of the joke.

Welcome Giant Bomb's Newest Member: Jess! (aka Voidburger)

IMAGE(https://www.giantbomb.com/a/uploads/original/36/366200/3324257-8288142941-vb1.j.jpg)

She seems like a great fit, and I’ve enjoyed her content quite a lot.

So the team seem to be lukewarm to cold on Guardians of the Galaxy. The main complaint seems to be that it's a linear adventure game. However, they also complain about open-world games being too full of filler. General response to the game seems to be a lot more positive.

To me, it sounded like a lot of people were pretty surprised about it, except for Jeff... who tends to hone in on one thing that bugs him about a game to the point that it cancels out any other feelings.

Granted, I've not played the game, but "they talk too much" seems to be a silly reason for saying the game is bad. Is the voice acting horrible? I could see that as being something that could grate very quickly.

I am on Chapter 4 and so far Loving the game. Is pretty, i enjoy the banter, and the story is fun. Combat is fairly meh, but it is more like an interactive movie. I recommend mucho.

For Jeff it’s that he doesn’t care about the characters too much, finds the banter annoying, and thinks the early combat is boring. Danny likes the game a lot. Bakalar is in the middle.

Nextlander really likes it. They agree the banter can be too much but enjoy the story a lot. Biggest issue is the design is very old; it’s basically Uncharted.

Can anyone TL;DR this? It's some kind of a show, like some YouTube episodic content or something? I'm so lost on where Giant Bomb is going these days -- anything that goes beyond a podcast and Quick Looks really makes me scratch my head

jamos5 wrote:

Can anyone TL;DR this? It's some kind of a show, like some YouTube episodic content or something? I'm so lost on where Giant Bomb is going these days -- anything that goes beyond a podcast and Quick Looks really makes me scratch my head

The first episode is up. I haven't watched it yet. It seems to be some sort of joke or bit riffing on very serious film critics.

Every time Jeff talks about food on the podcast, I'm bewildered. It's like the day he turned 13, his palate hardened and became permanent.

kuddles wrote:

Every time Jeff talks about food on the podcast, I'm bewildered. It's like the day he turned 13, his palate hardened and became permanent.

He's gotten better, at least. The food he truly loves never truly evolved beyond the kids menu but since getting married he's been far more willing to eat other food. On one of the E3 Live segments, Jeff was talking to Eric Pope and Xavier Woods (Xavier Creed, Austin Creed, Austin Watson) and all three talked about they have "baby mouth" and really like just cheese and meat. For whatever reason that's stuck with me.

Relevant to the Giant Bomb Extended Universe, how are you all feeling about Waypoint Plus?

I subscribed on day one because I wanted to support them, and I am glad that the success of that program is allowing them to hire new people, but... I don't watch them stream, am not interested in revisiting STALKER, and I don't really care about the oeuvre of Michael Mann, so...what am I getting out of this? I looked through the Plus podcast feed and the only episode of it I've listened to since July was Austin's sort of exit interview discussion in September. Comparing it to my Giant Bomb premium, which I realize now is actually substantially cheaper? ($35/year vs. $5/mo.), it's no contest, though even something as simple as an ad-free Waypoint Radio feed would make me feel like I was getting something out of it. I'm leaning strongly towards canceling my membership until I see a more concrete benefit.

I have not looked at Waypoint in a long, long time. I originally supported them since I will pay whatever it costs to continue to hear Austin's caramelized voice in my earbuds, but when he left? Eh. It was just another gaming podcast to me.

Good people with good intentions, but it was noise at some point. There's only so many multi-hour podcasts I can listen to in one day.

What does Waypoint+ give you? Seeing them talk about my dark horse favorite game (STALKER, and no I will not spell it right) does give me interest to peek back in.

Honestly, I've started to fall out of both of them.

Interest in Waypoint waned on me quite some time ago when Austin started getting less involved, and it seemed to eventually suffer in the same way as Polygon (stories become more generic as the creative writing fails to pay the bills).

But I'm also coming to the end of my interest in Giant Bomb as well. Their attempt at reinvention seems wise, but as an old fuddy-duddy, watching what is essentially a Teams meeting for an hour while people discuss things I do not care about (slagging some album I already had no interest in listening to, explaining basic concepts to Dan, etc.) is not within my realm of interest. The tangents on things like fast food, wrestling and mid-90s rap that I merely tolerated before has now started to become the primary subject matter. Add to that my disinterest in gaming news (really don't care that there is a rumour about a reboot 3 years from now) and I think it's just a natural seperation.

I think if I was going to sign up for something now, it would be the Patreon for MinnMax and/or Nextlander. A few people talking about the most recent release and their opinions, and the occasional video of someone playing a classic CD-ROM title, is basically all I'm looking for these days.

I paid for Waypoint Plus for a month until I realized I was giving money directly to the company that was not letting the people I like produce interesting content for free. And then Austin left, so I have even fallen off there. I instead subscribed to A More Civilized Age and haven’t looked back.

Giant bomb has been middling for a long time, and is worse now that Brad, Vinny, and Alex are gone. It feels like a content mill for people adjacent to when GB was good.

Next lander is good, and I subscribe at the level that gives me the extra pods. It really has the old GBE energy that everything else lacks.

If I only had time for one podcast, it would Nextlander, with the Ramblecast.

GB is dying, let's be honest. It's a shambling zombie of itself. They're trying, so props to them, but it's fallen way off and hasn't quite reinvented itself yet.

I still watch pretty much just the Bombcast and maybe UPF. The new content is not something I’ve enjoyed much, if at all. That includes Waypoint and Nextlander: just not for me 99% of the time.

If there was a website that was just Vinny trolling Abby while she played scary VR games five days a week, I would totally subscribe.

I'm more positive on GB New Formula than most of you all. I feel the Bombcast is on a bit of an upswing (I've even liked having Ben back), I like their new hire, and I'm feeling more positive on the newer shows they've announced. I like the Nextlander podcast, and catch some of their videos/streams but I do feel that trio is missing some spark... Both Austin and Abby always brought out a playful side of Vinny that I don't feel as much with Brad or Alex. I can't imagine them adding a fourth member to their crew, but I'd like them to incorporate guests more frequently. Oh, and I am keeping all of my fingers crossed that Austin joins forces with them around Christmas for a successor to the annual Beastcast roleplaying session. Surely Nextlander negotiated a way to retain the IP rights for Hard Markinson!

For the first time since it launched, my GB premium has lapsed. And I am ok with that.

Has anyone said if/what GB is doing for GOTY this year?

UpToIsomorphism wrote:

Has anyone said if/what GB is doing for GOTY this year?

Sounds like it will be similar in structure and timing to last year.

Does anyone use the Giant Bomb app with their AppleTV? I can't get the videos to sync for the life of me. The audio will be going on while the pictures just halts...not even buffering or anything. It is pretty much unwatchable.

I'm really not digging voidburger. Oh well.

Also, first ad on Nextlander being all about "your balls" made me think I'm going to have to pay for it, after all. That was a real ad right?

Mermaidpirate wrote:

I'm really not digging voidburger. Oh well.

Jess is probably my favorite addition since the east coast office.

As for NextLander, I haven’t bothered to keep up. I’ve quite enjoyed the restructuring of the GiantBomb family. I feel like Bakalar, Danny, and Jess have all been wonderful contributors. The west coast crew used to feel less fun to me, and I have appreciated the changeup.

Mermaidpirate wrote:

I'm really not digging voidburger. Oh well.

Also, first ad on Nextlander being all about "your balls" made me think I'm going to have to pay for it, after all. That was a real ad right?

Yeah she rubs me the wrong way too. Kinda like Ben... I unsubscribed a week or two ago.

Still hanging on to Nextlander, but probably going to give that up too.

I've been keeping up with both the Bombcast and Nextlander podcastbas my only gaming podcasts. I find it's very similar to having the Bombcast and Beastcast.

I really miss Idle Thumbs.