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Giant Bomb #9 | More Dan Meets The Eye

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F

funkystudent

Member
Have they said if they plan to steam and watch the Gamescom shows?

Sony is streaming for sure which should be a fun weird time. Is Microsoft?
 
B

bigwinnerx

Member
Mushroomer25 said:
Alright, I'll elaborate on The Walking Dead. I can agree that the adventure elements of the game are, for the most part - uninspired, and forgettable. None of the puzzles are particularly clever, and the increasingly felt like filler as the series went on.

But there's a brilliance to TWD that I think will resonate throughout this industry for a long time to come. First, there's the script. It's strong - some of the best character work I've ever seen in a videogame. Multiple smart, memorable characters held up by damn good voice performances and great art direction. The first season eclipsed anything done in the show (I cannot speak to the comics) in terms of exploring the unique concepts afforded by its' zombie setting. Episodes 2, 3, and 4 are all top-notch standalone stories, with moments that shocked and left me with an immediate sense of regret.

Which gets to the real brilliance of Telltale's game. It was the first of its' kind, in episodic cinematic storytelling. The knowledge of what choices may prove relevant, and which were irrelevant - perfectly hidden within the narrative. As the events in the story accelerate, it truly felt like anything could happen at a moment's notice - and that the moment you currently found yourself in may have been caused by previous choices. The tricks that Telltale used to keep this structure manageable were smart, and may ultimately explain why both Season 2 and The Wolf Among Us have felt like a bit of a letdown. Like any magic act, the tricks have diminishing returns. Once you compare your experience of TWD with another persons, it loses some of its' luster. But in the moment, as you're not entirely positive if
a character's abrupt murder in Episode 3
was predestined, or the fault of your actions - that's revolutionary.

The episodic structure also lends a great hand to making TWD stand out. For the first time, it made sense for a game to be parsed out over time. Each episode seemed to learn from the sins of the last, with the structure of Episode 5 feeling significantly different from that found in Episode 1. The time in between episodes left the audience to speculate, ponder, compare, and worry about the consequences to which they have committed.

Which brings it to the "It's not a game!" arguement. Ultimately, that assumption is petty & short-sighted. TWD has less interactivity than a lot of other games in its' genre, but that doesn't necessarily change the experience. As I've said, playing TWD forces you to consider the reality that present events have been caused by previous decisions. Your actions have weight, infrequent as they can be.

And that's what I think TWD's legacy could be. That simple illusion, of a written script whose player-driven fluctuations are successfully hidden - could be revolutionary. Maybe calling it the biggest evolution of the generation is presumptuous. But I genuinely hope I am right in making that call.
Click to expand...

Sorry dude. You spent more time typing this post than I'll ever bother playing that movie.
 
M

Megasoum

Banned
I was a bit too old for POGs but we were WAYYYY into marbles and it was INTENSE.

We had a very strict set of rules. There was a chart of value for the different types and sizes of marbles. We would count how many paces there was between each marbles after each shots and it would dictate what the next shot would be (we had one type of shot for 1 pace, another one for 2 paces, etc etc). There was basically a marble racket going on at my school haha. I remember one of the dude was the biggest player and he had like a huge drawer full of "king kong" marbles wich were the biggest ones.

Ah memories.
 
H

Hot Coldman

Banned
Fried Food said:
Honestly I'd say replace that stat with something else. Looking back, the only person who's capacity to learn stat makes sense is Dan's
Click to expand...

I just removed it completely.

My original concept was some horrendous Dan Fusion Dance shit with the other duders, but after I realised I'm bad at editing images the OP concept kinda just ended up as it was, about 3 pages before it was due. So it turned out kinda half-assed. I'm actually annoyed that the last thread was as clever as it ended up being :lol
 
L

Lijik

Member
Just read the original capacity to learn version right before it was edited out
limited edition stat knowledge motherfuckers
 
R

Rapstah

Member
Walking Dead is great. I'm not sure how you would have had your choices in the game actually affect stuff in another form than an executable file on your computer or console which shows graphics and has you click stuff to make choices. It is what it is exactly because it is a video game. I normally hate it when people don't want other people to dislike something, but in this case it feels like an extension of people being really sensitive about people implying Giant Bomb could ever be wrong about anything.
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
Rapstah said:
Walking Dead is great. I'm not sure how you would have had your choices in the game actually affect stuff in another form than an executable file on your computer or console which shows graphics and has you click stuff to make choices. It is what it is exactly because it is a video game. I normally hate it when people don't want other people to dislike something, but in this case it feels like an extension of people being really sensitive about people implying Giant Bomb could ever be wrong about anything.
Click to expand...

Nah, it's just me being sick of seeing people oversell it as the greatest game that all games should emulate.
 
R

Renpatsu

Member
Hot Coldman said:
I just removed it completely.

My original concept was some horrendous Dan Fusion Dance shit with the other duders, but after I realised I'm bad at editing images the OP concept kinda just ended up as it was, about 3 pages before it was due. So it turned out kinda half-assed. I'm actually annoyed that the last thread was as clever as it ended up being :lol
Click to expand...
Just keep adding new stats and skills as the weeks go by. At this point Jeff has already leveled up his skills to include 'Pogshark'.
 
H

Hot Coldman

Banned
Antiwhippy said:
Nah, it's just me being sick of seeing people oversell it as the greatest game that all games should emulate.
Click to expand...

It's probably less a function of TWD being so good, and more just that there's not really a lot else to point to in that field of games and interactive narrative. Nowadays, anyway.
 
T

Tucah

you speak so well
TWD is okay. The story's solid for the most part, the characters are very hit or miss for me (but pretty much all voiced well) and the choices you make (well, illusion of choice) are, at the time, sometimes difficult to make. It's just not very fun when you're actually playing it. I enjoyed my time with it but I still haven't had the urge to check out season 2 and it wasn't even close to my GOTY that year or anything like that.

The Wolf Among Us is better anyway.
 
B

binhoker

Banned
The praise heaped on the walking deads junky airport novel writing and first year ethics class moral quandaries was truly something to behold. I don't think the medium is best served by presenting a mannequin theatre simulacrum of trashy genre tv as a huge step in the right direction.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
binhoker said:
The praise heaped on the walking deads junky airport novel writing and first year ethics class moral quandaries was truly something to behold. I don't think the medium is best served by presenting a mannequin theatre simulacrum of trashy genre tv as a huge step in the right direction.
Click to expand...
S1 came at a time when the TV show was shit, so people were if nothing else captured by a decent zombie story.
Throw in a little girl into the mix, and people can't help but feel sympathetic to the story (TLoU says hi).

I think it's telling that there hasn't been the insane hyperbole surrounding S2 though. The magic is completely gone.
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
Dan spouting trolly opinions is fine (it's boring if everyone agrees, Jeff hating Yoshi has fueled this thread for weeks at some point), but where he loses me is when he's taking pride in being ignorant about something. I don't know if that's just some sort of defense mechanism when he's being called out or if that's a real character trait.

Some of the things he said on replay (I watched a couple episodes recently, it's not a bad show) were truly ghastly.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Haunted said:
Dan spouting trolly opinions is fine (it's boring if everyone agrees, Jeff hating Yoshi has fueled this thread for weeks at some point), but where he loses me is when he's taking pride in being ignorant about something. I don't know if that's just some sort of defense mechanism when he's being called out or if that's a real character trait.

Some of the things he said on replay (I watched a couple episodes recently, it's not a bad show) were truly ghastly.
Click to expand...
I like how he's a film major who refuses to watch black and white movies. One wonders how he even graduated from his program. lol
 
D

demidar

Member
Hot Coldman said:
It's probably less a function of TWD being so good, and more just that there's not really a lot else to point to in that field of games and interactive narrative. Nowadays, anyway.
Click to expand...

Not sure if it's directly comparable, but I enjoyed 999 far more than TWD on almost every level, characters, story/premise, plot framing, setting, atmosphere,
interactivity :p
. Only bad thing about it is skipping dialogue is still too slow and the dialogue itself may be long-winded or too verbose.
 
H

Hot Coldman

Banned
demidar said:
Not sure if it's directly comparable, but I enjoyed 999 far more than TWD on almost every level, characters, story/premise, plot framing, setting, atmosphere,
interactivity :p
. Only bad thing about it is skipping dialogue is still too slow and the dialogue itself may be long-winded or too verbose.
Click to expand...

Yeah, 999 is excellent too, but being portable and being anime is generally a bad look if you wanna grab attention, sadly.
 
C

Curufinwe

Member
Haunted said:
Dan spouting trolly opinions is fine (it's boring if everyone agrees, Jeff hating Yoshi has fueled this thread for weeks at some point), but where he loses me is when he's taking pride in being ignorant about something. I don't know if that's just some sort of defense mechanism when he's being called out or if that's a real character trait.

Some of the things he said on replay (I watched a couple episodes recently, it's not a bad show) were truly ghastly.
Click to expand...

His twitter outburst on the day of the World Cup final (that he had to delete and apologize for) was like that.
 
S

Sectus

Member
People have probably already talked about this, but what people's feelings on Giantbomb with the recent changes (Dan and Jason being hired and Vinny goes to the east coast)?

I like Dan, although his reaction to every game seems to be "Wow, this is cool, I kinda like it!", but well, he seems cool. I don't think I've heard Jason beyond a couple of rare times during quick looks so I haven't gotten a sense of how he's like. Quick looks and livestreams haven't exploded so it looks like he's doing a good job at least.

I'm still bummed about Vinny though. Vinny's quick looks are great, but I'm no fan of Alex at all. No offense to Alex, but his sense of humor really clashes with mine. I wonder if they'll try to get more people hired for the east coast office, or if it'll just be Alex and Vinny there all the time.
 
G

Grisby

Member
And so the age of Brad podcasts officially begins.

I need to visit the website more to see Vinny. The Velvet Sundown QL was amazing but I hope they get their own podcast up and running some day.
 
F

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Sectus said:
People have probably already talked about this, but what people's feelings on Giantbomb with the recent changes (Dan and Jason being hired and Vinny goes to the east coast)?

I like Dan, although his reaction to every game seems to be "Wow, this is cool, I kinda like it!", but well, he seems cool. I don't think I've heard Jason beyond a couple of rare times during quick looks so I haven't gotten a sense of how he's like. Quick looks and livestreams haven't exploded so it looks like he's doing a good job at least.

I'm still bummed about Vinny though. Vinny's quick looks are great, but I'm no fan of Alex at all. No offense to Alex, but his sense of humor really clashes with mine. I wonder if they'll try to get more people hired for the east coast office, or if it'll just be Alex and Vinny there all the time.
Click to expand...
I (jokingly) hate Dan because he seems to revel is his ignorance and it's hard to tell how much he is trolling and how much is actually some weird deficiency he has (like Taco Bell being the best cuisine). But it is undeniable that having someone new is somewhat breaking up the monotony that was being felt in the last few months.

I do think that they are missing a lot with Vinny being mostly offsite popping up in a random QL. He needs to be on a podcast or some other more consistent piece of content.
 
T

Tucah

you speak so well
Just started the EB, Dan mentioning Incredible Crisis immediately made me want to rewatch that QL. Ryan loved that game :(
 
D

demidar

Member
Sectus said:
People have probably already talked about this, but what people's feelings on Giantbomb with the recent changes (Dan and Jason being hired and Vinny goes to the east coast)?

I like Dan, although his reaction to every game seems to be "Wow, this is cool, I kinda like it!", but well, he seems cool. I don't think I've heard Jason beyond a couple of rare times during quick looks so I haven't gotten a sense of how he's like. Quick looks and livestreams haven't exploded so it looks like he's doing a good job at least.

I'm still bummed about Vinny though. Vinny's quick looks are great, but I'm no fan of Alex at all. No offense to Alex, but his sense of humor really clashes with mine. I wonder if they'll try to get more people hired for the east coast office, or if it'll just be Alex and Vinny there all the time.
Click to expand...

The two hires worked out so much better than I expected it's kind of surprising. Dan's constantly trying to push out new content, especially of the premium kind whereas there was a huge lack of that beforehand.

I'm fine with Vinny and Alex's output for GBEast, but I would like more behind the scenes videos.

Patrick needs to get back on those Spookin' streams.
 
D

daydream

Banned
Sectus said:
People have probably already talked about this, but what people's feelings on Giantbomb with the recent changes (Dan and Jason being hired and Vinny goes to the east coast)?
Click to expand...

I think only good has come of it. We live in the third golden age of GB content, imo.
 
T

The_Hitcher89

Member
Sectus said:
People have probably already talked about this, but what people's feelings on Giantbomb with the recent changes (Dan and Jason being hired and Vinny goes to the east coast)?

I like Dan, although his reaction to every game seems to be "Wow, this is cool, I kinda like it!", but well, he seems cool. I don't think I've heard Jason beyond a couple of rare times during quick looks so I haven't gotten a sense of how he's like. Quick looks and livestreams haven't exploded so it looks like he's doing a good job at least.

I'm still bummed about Vinny though. Vinny's quick looks are great, but I'm no fan of Alex at all. No offense to Alex, but his sense of humor really clashes with mine. I wonder if they'll try to get more people hired for the east coast office, or if it'll just be Alex and Vinny there all the time.
Click to expand...


I only listen to Bombcasts and have a load of quicklooks to ctch up on, so this is subject to change, but far too much of each Bombcast is spent encouraging Dan to revel in his own peculiar taste, and that, along with his joy in being frustrating, is making it less entertaining to me atm. Plus, he has nothing interesting to say about games and the industry on the bombcast afaik

It was always gonna be incredibly difficult to replace Vinny, who is basically my favourite guy in the industry (I know he's still consistently producing video content from NY), but the Bombcast is really suffering from him leaving it tbh. Drew has been better though since Dan joined, seems to contribute more of his thoughts, where before it seemed like he only got involved to talk about his weekend
 
A

Antiwhippy

the holder of the trombone
I honestly love the bombcast since he joined really. Though half of it is because brad started hosting.
 
M

Mike.83

Member
Brads reaction to Dan suggesting that Jeffs pogg throw might have been illegal was my favourite part of this weeks UPF.
 
L

LoganNotABoganYouKnowIt!!

Neo Member
Hadn't heard of Cookie and Cream before. I imagined an Ice Climbers game in a similar vein after playing Animal Crossing Sweet Day in Nintendo Land. Then later found out about Brothers, which is obviously quite different. Now I know Nintendo didn't wanna copy From.

Drew did not wanna hit those buttons after pulling out the logs!
 
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