Giant Bombcast 529: POLICE USE NUNCHAKU

Too bad they recorded right before the Pokemon Direct was announced.

It's Bombcast time!

If there are God of War spoilers, I'm gonna have to skip that section.

I really wonder how Activision is going to sell the value of buying a new CoD at full price if it ships without a (very expensive) sp campaign.

I was surprised how not into God of War Jason was.

@hassun: I mean it worked for Rainbow 6, there is no single player campaign in that game beyond some situation tutorials. However Ubisoft is selling that game as a platform not an annual release.

Happy Birthday to you is public domain. Also for the call of duty talk, I'm surprised people aren't angry about no campaign because it's seen as taking something away.

I'm surprised how they complain about all the stuff that makes God of war such a great game. I'm playing games for more than 20 years and it's one of the best games I ever played.

Thought most of the God of War takes this episode were pretty bad. Especially their thoughts about the combat. Seems like Jason especially just wants it to be more like other action games, which I dont get at all. A large part of how much I’ve been enjoying the game has been due to the combat actually being unique and interesting.

The best thumbnail in a while.

Wow, for some reason, its actually somewhat refreshing to know Jeff is aware of the existence of Tubgirl.

Jason mentions something that could be considered a spoiler so I'd skip it for now

I’m absolutely loving god of war and the combat is super fun for me. It’s kinda crazy how different the opinions are on this site when the majority of people love it. Not to say their opinions are invalid or incorrect it’s just surprising especially considering Dan loved it. I think jeff might come around on it eventually but I’m worried he’ll just drop it because he’s already made up his mind on it. I think Jason just expected more because of the crazy good reviews and that’s fair. I’ve been weirdly good about holding back hype for stuff so I “usually” don’t have that happen.

What's the ECT on that corrugate?

@sirpsychosexy: I really don't think the spoilery bit I said was all that bad? I think it was pretty vague.

@hassun: That's a really good question. I think that they have an almost captive user base that will buy it anyway.

@nickfoley: Jason drops a spoiler. A cool moment that you should discover on your own.

@dizzyhippos: Yeah I think Siege is a bit of a special case, I'm sure Activision is still planning to release a CoD game every year.

@todomachi: I wonder... The brand is not as powerful as it once was (although Big Red One 2 did seem to be big success). I think they will need to at least make the perception of value better and not just go "Here is what you're usually getting minus the campaign, oh and it's still full price."

@vrjosh: I had a laugh at that. I found out about tubgirl from Shane Bettenhausen on the 1up forums back in the day. That was an educational web search that day.

Jan's reaction at 2:58 is the best thing of the year.

**EDIT: Jason, Dan is in to trying new things these days... And he might even do it on a roller coaster if you challenge him.

@nickfoley: Yeah there's a spoiler-ish thing. They start talking about the next game around 28 minutes in.

If you're concerned about privacy on the internet, check out the Privacy Badger addon. Also enable privacy.resistFingerprinting in about:config in Firefox.

@how92: Happy Birthday to You is public domain, but its only been that way for around 12 months. It never used to be.

80 seconds in and I'm already shaking my head.

E: 140 seconds in and Brad and I are making the same face.

Now that I've seen it I can't not intently watch Jeff tighten his mic knobs every thirty seconds. And now you too are cursed.

I have a hard time with GoW. The raw gameplay seems so dull. Seems better to watch than to play.

Fuck I wish I read these comments beforehand. Can’t believe they spoiled a part of God of War with no warning. It’s been out for 4 days guys

Boy! maybe someone can timestamp the God Of War thing to avoid :)

I was watching it live, and was bummed out. Actually reached that part last night shortly after. Sucks but what can you do.

Yeah, that's a bit of a bummer, if only because I spent that entire section very stressed out and excited. Anyone who isn't comfortably into the core loop of God of War should stay far away from the first half hour of this podcast. If you're anything like me, you'll be far more interested in the experience of the moment they casually talk about for a few seconds about than the actual result.

That said, I'm surprised every one on this pod is so down on the combat and the enemies in particular. I found the Revenants and the Dark Elves frustrating, but in the sense that they just got my goat. I never felt like it was the game's fault, just me fighting those enemies in ways they weren't designed to be fought. I also find it super interesting that Jeff completely missed exploring the lake; I totally have Vinny-itis in that you tell me I can go do a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with the main quest, I'm going to do all of that to ensure I'm as overpowered as I can be during the main quest.

@robertspeedwagon: was it the Return to the House and the scene after or is it much later?

@elwood: Not sure when it happens; haven't gotten to it myself.

If you guys are taking about getting another weapon oh god why am I even bothering to spoiler tag this that felt so removed from spoiler territory to me as to be in another timezone. I mean, to me it seemed an absolute given? Other stuff they talked about seemed a fair bit more spoiler-y in the classic sense (though it didn't bother me at all coming from someone still pretty early in the game). Listened to the whole bit and nothing really irked me as super spoilerly even the thing that was announced as a spoiler so feel free to prove me wrong.

I'm quite liking it myself but like Jason I get the same feeling of quasi-dread every time I get in a fight. Maybe more cause I'm being stubborn and insisting on playing at give me a challenge difficulty so nearly every fight is a half hour to an hour war of attrition. I feel I've gotten a bit more adept at handling it, though.

@ripelivejam: Yea, I'm playing on the harder difficulty as well and it sometimes just feels a little unbalanced. You can get 1 or 2 shot by yellow enemies easily and it can be pretty frustrating because the combat is really good, but it's not 'Bloodborne/Dark Souls'-good. It also makes Kratos sometimes look like the God of Paper instead of the God of War.

Having said that I really enjoy the game and the fights can be absolutely awesome looking and feeling. Good game :)

I think that's what differentiates reviewers/critics from gamers they can't look at games from pure fun perspective.i don't want to break game in to parts and be critical about them. I love approaching games like I did before internet and media bulshit. You either feeld the game or not. Either the game is good for me or not. And I can say it after playing most of the games for half n hour or so. don't get me wrong I still love the crew and listen to them every week. It's just i don't like today's gamers aproach to games. Most gamers acting like critics and forgot about joy of games. Reviewers and industry journalist's job is to be critical and that's fine but gamers started thinking the same, when I'm reading some forums I noticed that some people thinking about games like they need to find a flaws and forgetting how to get fun out of the games.which is sad really. Get a headphones on, turn off the lights and forget about the rest.

Sounds like Jeff and Jason need to slow down with God Of War's main storyline and take time to explore a little.

Looking forward to hearing Brad's musings on Windows Mixed Reality. The support for Steam VR can be kinda janky at times, but once you get it ironed out, there's plenty of fun to be had.

@dussck: I am also playing on the harder difficulty the one below the hardest, and yeah I was surprised to find how hard it was in the early stages of the game. That being said though I'm now a good chunk into the game and feel it has actually flipped the other direction. After opening up my moveset and specing in a direction I like I'm ripping trough groups of enemies in a way that feels super empowering.

That doesn't look like 100 players riding the wings of a plane over an island to me

Oh dear why does it sound like the team is so bummed out over God of War? Seemed to be so much negativity in this podcast around it. I just had such a blast playing through it, surprised it made the guys frustrated.

I feel like this year will be the first one, where I’ll root for Dan in the GOTY talks, if Jeff and Jason continue to be sour on GoW. To each their own, obviously! For me this is very likely going to be my favourite game of the year, unless Spider-Man really manages to blow me away.

This is also the second time I’ve heard people asking ”There’s side stuff?” which is kinda crazy to me. Thought it was fairly obvious, though I guess some might assume that all of it is just ”Kill three x type of enemies in similiar locations” type of stuff without any story to them.

With regard to the questions Jeff has on combat, what I've found is that as you go further and further in the game does a brilliant job of pummelling into your brain the different effects and uses of your moveset through its enemy design. Later enemies will block and shield and suddenly those fist and shield blows become important to undermine an enemy's guards and not just one or two attacks like Jason is saying.

What I will say about GoW's combat is that while it isn't as technically deep as a Bayonetta it has one of the least flabby combat arsenals I've seen in a game of that genre. I'm not complete yet but I feel like it's done a great job at justifying its moveset and giving reasons to explore combat possibilities. Firstly by making you fight 'soft' enemies and giving you the feel of movement and closing space quickly between enemies as well as using ranged attacks. Then later on by throwing enemies at you that don't hitstun to your axe as easily as your stun attacks. Then later still by throwing enemies which require you to parry constantly and use those evade+throw axe attacks you might have bought but didnt really understand the application for.

It hits a balance between its moveset and enemy design and paces itself in such a way that I haven't seen maybe since the original Devil May Cry. Its looping environment also calls back for me memories of that game, though this is more intensely MetroidVania.

I had no real interest in the reboot when it was announced other than "Oh, it looks neat that they are doing this". I found the original series kind of laughable past the first game. But this new one is such a shock and a wonderful case of eating crow and being thrilled by something you had negative hype for. It is up there as one of the best in its genre I feel and it's found again that neglected niche in character action for these more vicious, brutal lumbering action titles that sits neatly alongside the more quick, fast-paced Ninja Gaiden stuff.

Absolute top-drawer stuff so far. I don't know my playtime but I'm reckoning 30~ hours or so.

Also, with regard to the stance-change stuff. Best thing is to pick a moment after an attack that will stun a group of enemies (that hold R1 attack, or the hold R2 & press R2 to beat your shield with a shockwave attack) and then take that second when enemies are laid up on their ass for a bit to get Kratos to change stance.

It doesn't work well if you try to change stance between standard melee type stuff. You need to exploit the knockback effects of certain attacks which is where unarmed combat is really really useful sometimes. Or that charge in and slam with an ice smash move.

Such an intelligently designed system imo. Could gush about this all day.

Anyone else get the impression that Serious Sam 4 is going to be a Battle Royale style game?

Yea with the guys on god of war, the variety of combat methods the items allow is great, but the combat itself is pretty basic and shallow. Awful lot of times you can sit back and just ping your axe throw off enemies and wipe a lot of em that way.

Definitely am dumbfounded on how this is the "game of the generation"

I'm sorry to call you all out on the carpet like this, but man, chat was disheartening to see during the livestream. I won't paint a broad brush, but there was a big enough chunk of the chat, to where it annoyed me, that puts fandom in a bad light. The Giant Bomb crew discussed their opinions on God of War in a calm, thoughtful way, and you'd think they set some nuns and puppies on fire. We need to do better as a community to tolerate minority opinions. (I don't mean minorities in regards to race, I mean opinions outiside a mainstream consensus.)