One thing that I don't think was mentioned is how the gigantic day 1 patches have killed renting games. I had to stop using Redbox because renting a game at 8pm and not being able to play it until midnight is terrible.
Loved the discussion today. Everyone voiced their opinions and there were lots of good arguments. Glad they spent so much time talking about day 1 patches. Regardless of who's fault it is, be it the publisher or developer, no other retail product can get away with a situation like this. Stop putting games out that aren't 100% in a finished state at launch.
The Giant Bomb Game of the Year Drinking Game: Take a shot every time someone says the word hang, and take a shot every time they add a nomination that they know won't win, and then explain why they added it. Be aware, you will get alcohol poisoning.
1 shot - Anyone says: 'It doesn't hang'. 2 shots - Alex says: 'I just wanted to say my peace'. 3 shots (ding, ding, ding!) - Whenever Dan says 'If we had to pick just one of these two similar things', immediately followed by the rest of the group saying 'Dan, that's not how this works, it could be that both of those games make the list'.
The day one patch issue is really important to me because it's one of the reasons that has stopped me from getting in to the current gen in games. The GB staff have unlimited internet, so I don't think they truly understand how shitty it can be. I'm in Canada and Shaw is my ISP. We are paying $75 a month for 30 up/5 down and 300 GB of monthly data. I simply can't buy games now because of the ridiculous download sizes, given our data cap. This shit fucking sucks. EDIT: You guys really do care! ;~; I'm glad it won the category.
Really surprised Call of Duty Modern Warfare remastered didn't make the best remaster list...in 4K with the updated visuals and textures it's a brilliant spectacle. Playing that campaign again was awesome too.
I still buy most of my games on disc because it is always cheaper to do so. Maybe game prices are not as big as a concern to you guys but until PSN and Xbox Live reduce prices for digital games i will continue to keep buying discs.
Doyker Games There's a huge discount on a lot of games for PSN right now through till the end of January and is way better than the deals in stores right now. I mostly buy games on sale on PSN unless it's a game I need to play as it comes out and it works it cheaper for me.
Doyker Games - I pretty much always buys discs because you can resell them. There have been multiple times this year that I bought a game for $48 brand new, beat the game and then sold it to someone for $40. Being able to play through a game for $8 is a hell of a lot better than $60.
bearate - I only replay around 5% of the games I purchase... so I can always buy a game later when it's on sale for $20 or less if I really want to play it again. I replayed Rayman Legends and Bloodborne this year. Bloodborne was $20 with the DLC and Rayman was $9.
I've probably saved over $1,000 over the last 4 years by buying the physical discs for new games and reselling them when I was done instead of buying digital. What I saved would pay for the next 20 games I purchase (Basically every new game I would buy over the next 2 years)
My most surprising thing in 2016 was how Pokémon Go became such a phenomenon. It's a really crap game but somehow it got people to interact with each other outside and be nice to each other which is pretty fucking insane and cool. Also, as with the "please stop", this year has been the year I've realized that it's just not worth buying games when they release. It's been confirmed even further by FFXV with its story patches. I've come to the realization over the last 2 years that it's just better to wait for GOTY editions and just get the final completed whole product later on. I'm done with unfinished games and DLC content that doesn't live up to prepurchasing a season pass. And I prefer all the bug fixes and extended content to be completed before starting a game.
I actually though the discussion about the large patches for games was really interesting. I have not really thought about it for several years because I pay for unlimited internet and I don't buy physical discs - but yeah someone who goes to a Walmart and buys a game wanting to play it that night, having to wait several hours for a patch to download would piss me off royally.
Personally would be 1 in my book but im glad odin sphere got some love, i hate remasters for the most part, but it was a lesser known PS2 game that is 10 years old that improved on the original
The problem: Insert Disc and Play doesn't exist anymore. The end game: Insert Disc and Play comes back. The solution: The game content streams whilst the game is installing so that install progress is seamless and the user's perception is that they Insert Disc and Play.
Lol Jeff said around 10:40 he would just take the bottom three on this list (which includes DOTT), then after Dan persuades Brad about the Twilight Princess remaster, he speaks negatively towards day of the tentacle 12:40?
I honestly can't believe they put "Unfinished games on disks" over "PC ports not working." I'll take one day out to download 40gb of patch data if it means that when I'm done installing the patch the game is going to function. Several PC releases this year just straight up didn't work for weeks afterwards. Dishonored 2, XCOM 2, Hitman, Dark Souls 3, Obduction, all games with severe performance issues or fatal glitches that rendered the game unplayable. PC gaming is beginning to feel like an afterthought and it's a damn shame.
Feel when they were talking about patches. I think companies should have more depth of detail on detail deep spread coverage of what patches do. Just so we have an idea of what the patches are actually doing. Like see how many more games day one patches or them patching huge chunks of the games in. The going direct digital thing would be fine. But have be some safeguard on being able get the content always even as the years go on. Think biggest thing is fear of having digital bought products and then for some reason not being able download it.
Another reason for Day 1 patches are that discs are 50GB and they don't put the online multiplayer into the disc because they don't want to use 100GB discs.
My personal choice of Please Stop for 2016 is the release-date embargo murdering that gets worse over time. If a game doesn't make it out 1-2 weeks before release it's a rarity.
wow, i had to stop myself to listen to them argue their points before i said my own ( i guess to myself embarrassingly) because there is something about a game that they didn't convey or didn't mention
Worst trend: When the US gets RTJ in their Watch_Dogs 2 trailers and Europe got Kanye. Also missed talking shit about the Forza Horizon 3 E3 trailer where it was an "Epic" Chris Isaak Cover. For a car game. FOR A CAR GAME.
Kinect was a bad product that didnt have enough fidelity or support from developers. As a piece of technology VR is head and shoulders superior with developers that are going to support it for at least a couple years. They just need to figure out pricing and make more better games for it.
I like the Arby's twitter account. And find it the complete opposite of "soulless". For one, they don't just make tweets about video games; they also tweet about tv shows and movies. I love they way they promote by using original artwork. The detail in the cardboard Trico from The Last Guardian was amazing. The marking approach is a lot more fun than just "Here is our sandwich. Eat it." Every corporation tries to use an angle to get you to buy their product and I find it less egregious than say, "Carls Jr "who uses supermodels eating cheeseburgers.
The overwatch loot box thing is hands down my "please stop" for the year. During the winter event EVERY SINGLE BOX I opened had a duplicate, usually of sprays and player icons. I have around 15 unlocks for each character, on average, so there's still so much out there to pull from that I see no reason why duplicates are a thing I should be getting so consistently. The progression in that game is trash. TRASH.
I honestly don't care if you get review copies late. Review games when you can. It is not a requirement any of your users would have to have a review for every game available for the day of release. That's not possible and your audience accepts that.
I'm kind of with them a bit on big patches vs physical/digital. like the dudes are gushing over Doom....a fucking 100 gig game I'd have to buy on disc and still download at best another several dozen gigs OR buy digital and still sit there and download 100 gigs, most of which is useless since from all accounts, the MP sucks yet thats what eating up all that space
But this only became a problem recently. Patches on 360/PS3 era were bite sized and sizes of games were small at best and negligible at worst. Now games can be 80 gigs and require 12 gig patches and oh if you want better space, spend more money. This isn't about "hey I live in LA or NY or I make more revenue than you so I get to have a better experience than you, suckers" it's "how does the consumer have an enjoyable experience". Having huge game install sizes plus huge and likely multiple patch sizes is fucking stupid.
of course it's emotional cause thats the reality of how people are living now. As for that last part, are you referring to "hey it's okay to put your games out early and have day one 15 gig patch sizes because hey, people in highly developed countries dont give a shit cause of broadband etc?" What about data caps? Or slow ass download speeds? Or outrageous pricing? Sounds like a big fuck you to everyone else who enjoys games but dont have these luxuries. And this is exactly what that whole discussion is talking about: companies are getting more lax because of the fact broadband's becoming a thing. "But sir, what about our customers that dont live in these areas and have to download 100 gigs just to play Doom or the 80 gig Elder Scrolls Online?" Well long as those 80% of people are jammin, who gives a shit right?
I've been playing it the past few weeks and I can honestly say it hasn't aged as good as everyone thinks. Yes, it's boots to the ground, but at its core it's multiplayer is still just straight up unbalanced (grenade spam, noob tubes, crutch perks such as stopping power and juggernaut)
Paying more to play early is crappy, but you'll play the game eventually so whatever. Remasters are mostly unnecessary, but they are mostly delegated to b teams and third party studios and you can just not buy them. Releasing Broken games and 20+gig day one patches are the worst thing I can think of.
It's too bad you guys don't have more insight into how the industry works. You should hire someone who has experience shipping to help you understand better.
Thank you Bombers for getting me all set for this week. loving every bit of these discussions.
Agreed! These videos have been awesome!
Chief Beef (AKA Charles A. Beefelstein) was arrested for cocaine possession last night.
One thing that I don't think was mentioned is how the gigantic day 1 patches have killed renting games. I had to stop using Redbox because renting a game at 8pm and not being able to play it until midnight is terrible.
Loved the discussion today. Everyone voiced their opinions and there were lots of good arguments. Glad they spent so much time talking about day 1 patches. Regardless of who's fault it is, be it the publisher or developer, no other retail product can get away with a situation like this. Stop putting games out that aren't 100% in a finished state at launch.
The Giant Bomb Game of the Year Drinking Game: Take a shot every time someone says the word hang, and take a shot every time they add a nomination that they know won't win, and then explain why they added it.
Be aware, you will get alcohol poisoning.
1 shot - Anyone says: 'It doesn't hang'.
2 shots - Alex says: 'I just wanted to say my peace'.
3 shots (ding, ding, ding!) - Whenever Dan says 'If we had to pick just one of these two similar things', immediately followed by the rest of the group saying 'Dan, that's not how this works, it could be that both of those games make the list'.
The day one patch issue is really important to me because it's one of the reasons that has stopped me from getting in to the current gen in games. The GB staff have unlimited internet, so I don't think they truly understand how shitty it can be. I'm in Canada and Shaw is my ISP. We are paying $75 a month for 30 up/5 down and 300 GB of monthly data. I simply can't buy games now because of the ridiculous download sizes, given our data cap. This shit fucking sucks.
EDIT: You guys really do care! ;~; I'm glad it won the category.
Really surprised Call of Duty Modern Warfare remastered didn't make the best remaster list...in 4K with the updated visuals and textures it's a brilliant spectacle. Playing that campaign again was awesome too.
They finished the first two categories in the first 30minutes, 1,5h to go.... this is gonna be amazing
Jeff with the Billion Yard stare during Overcooked talk.
2:23:00
My face whenever they start masturbating over Doom.
I still buy most of my games on disc because it is always cheaper to do so. Maybe game prices are not as big as a concern to you guys but until PSN and Xbox Live reduce prices for digital games i will continue to keep buying discs.
Doyker Games There's a huge discount on a lot of games for PSN right now through till the end of January and is way better than the deals in stores right now.
I mostly buy games on sale on PSN unless it's a game I need to play as it comes out and it works it cheaper for me.
Doyker Games - I pretty much always buys discs because you can resell them. There have been multiple times this year that I bought a game for $48 brand new, beat the game and then sold it to someone for $40. Being able to play through a game for $8 is a hell of a lot better than $60.
Rob Smith I never resale games that I buy...I like to go back to certain games one day.
bearate - I only replay around 5% of the games I purchase... so I can always buy a game later when it's on sale for $20 or less if I really want to play it again. I replayed Rayman Legends and Bloodborne this year. Bloodborne was $20 with the DLC and Rayman was $9.
I've probably saved over $1,000 over the last 4 years by buying the physical discs for new games and reselling them when I was done instead of buying digital. What I saved would pay for the next 20 games I purchase (Basically every new game I would buy over the next 2 years)
My most surprising thing in 2016 was how Pokémon Go became such a phenomenon. It's a really crap game but somehow it got people to interact with each other outside and be nice to each other which is pretty fucking insane and cool.
Also, as with the "please stop", this year has been the year I've realized that it's just not worth buying games when they release. It's been confirmed even further by FFXV with its story patches. I've come to the realization over the last 2 years that it's just better to wait for GOTY editions and just get the final completed whole product later on. I'm done with unfinished games and DLC content that doesn't live up to prepurchasing a season pass. And I prefer all the bug fixes and extended content to be completed before starting a game.
Go is a key example of how marketing and social interation can carry a product to success
I actually though the discussion about the large patches for games was really interesting. I have not really thought about it for several years because I pay for unlimited internet and I don't buy physical discs - but yeah someone who goes to a Walmart and buys a game wanting to play it that night, having to wait several hours for a patch to download would piss me off royally.
Surprised Jeff did go to bat for Titanfall 2's campaign being best surprise at all.
alex navarro "over watch is my most surprising game of the year .... American truck simulator is my most surprising game of the year"
I have never heard Jeff sound so anti-consumer as he did in that day one patch/disc discussion.
Personally would be 1 in my book but im glad odin sphere got some love, i hate remasters for the most part, but it was a lesser known PS2 game that is 10 years old that improved on the original
The problem: Insert Disc and Play doesn't exist anymore.
The end game: Insert Disc and Play comes back.
The solution: The game content streams whilst the game is installing so that install progress is seamless and the user's perception is that they Insert Disc and Play.
how is dragon quest VII not on best remake,how much work into re-making it and going 2d to 3d
Dan said it best in the first seconds of video.
Lol Jeff said around 10:40 he would just take the bottom three on this list (which includes DOTT), then after Dan persuades Brad about the Twilight Princess remaster, he speaks negatively towards day of the tentacle 12:40?
I know this is redundant to say now, but Sound of Silence by Disturbed wasn't created for Gears 4, that song was released in 2015.
1:58:30 everyone at the table agrees that Overwatch was a big suprise, except Brad
I honestly can't believe they put "Unfinished games on disks" over "PC ports not working." I'll take one day out to download 40gb of patch data if it means that when I'm done installing the patch the game is going to function. Several PC releases this year just straight up didn't work for weeks afterwards. Dishonored 2, XCOM 2, Hitman, Dark Souls 3, Obduction, all games with severe performance issues or fatal glitches that rendered the game unplayable. PC gaming is beginning to feel like an afterthought and it's a damn shame.
Feel when they were talking about patches. I think companies should have more depth of detail on detail deep spread coverage of what patches do. Just so we have an idea of what the patches are actually doing. Like see how many more games day one patches or them patching huge chunks of the games in.
The going direct digital thing would be fine. But have be some safeguard on being able get the content always even as the years go on. Think biggest thing is fear of having digital bought products and then for some reason not being able download it.
Another reason for Day 1 patches are that discs are 50GB and they don't put the online multiplayer into the disc because they don't want to use 100GB discs.
1boshow Examples of games that does this please?
Uncharted 4 & Halo Masterchief Collection
My personal choice of Please Stop for 2016 is the release-date embargo murdering that gets worse over time. If a game doesn't make it out 1-2 weeks before release it's a rarity.
How come Shenzhen IO wasn't in best computer?
HOW IS TITANFALL 2 NOT ATLEAST ON THE LIST OF SURPRISES!?
THIS IS KILLING ME
Cos they liked the first game a bunch.. so it's not really a surprise? Besides the SP campaign.
well exactly. its all about the SP. who expected it to be that fucking good?!
Just wanted to point out the Disturbed cover of Sound of Silence isnt that bad.
No mention of Darksiders Remaster?
What? That Arbys stuff is great!!
wow, i had to stop myself to listen to them argue their points before i said my own ( i guess to myself embarrassingly) because there is something about a game that they didn't convey or didn't mention
They've narrowed it down to the top 3 of Best Remasters and still not even a mention of COD4. I thought they really liked it?!
Worst trend: When the US gets RTJ in their Watch_Dogs 2 trailers and Europe got Kanye.
Also missed talking shit about the Forza Horizon 3 E3 trailer where it was an "Epic" Chris Isaak Cover. For a car game.
FOR A CAR GAME.
The "leave VR alone its going to be great" thing is giving me some Kinect flashbacks.
Kinect was a bad product that didnt have enough fidelity or support from developers. As a piece of technology VR is head and shoulders superior with developers that are going to support it for at least a couple years. They just need to figure out pricing and make more better games for it.
#pistolinmymouth
Love you Jeff but you're completely wrong about physical media and patches.
I like the Arby's twitter account. And find it the complete opposite of "soulless". For one, they don't just make tweets about video games; they also tweet about tv shows and movies. I love they way they promote by using original artwork. The detail in the cardboard Trico from The Last Guardian was amazing. The marking approach is a lot more fun than just "Here is our sandwich. Eat it."
Every corporation tries to use an angle to get you to buy their product and I find it less egregious than say, "Carls Jr "who uses supermodels eating cheeseburgers.
Kenneth Shelton - I completely agree. That cardboard Trico was incredible.
The overwatch loot box thing is hands down my "please stop" for the year. During the winter event EVERY SINGLE BOX I opened had a duplicate, usually of sprays and player icons. I have around 15 unlocks for each character, on average, so there's still so much out there to pull from that I see no reason why duplicates are a thing I should be getting so consistently. The progression in that game is trash. TRASH.
first time watching the video podcast (because I was told to)
No one looks anything like I expected.
Not sure what I was expecting.
why didn't palmer lucky win most necessary hd remaster
what unprofessional friday vid has hackmud footage? i would love to see it.
I honestly don't care if you get review copies late. Review games when you can. It is not a requirement any of your users would have to have a review for every game available for the day of release. That's not possible and your audience accepts that.
I am 100% sad that brad didn't say he was doom fan #e1m1
I'm kind of with them a bit on big patches vs physical/digital. like the dudes are gushing over Doom....a fucking 100 gig game I'd have to buy on disc and still download at best another several dozen gigs OR buy digital and still sit there and download 100 gigs, most of which is useless since from all accounts, the MP sucks yet thats what eating up all that space
still doesn't discount that it's a problem and the solution of "pay more money for broadband or just move" isn't an optimal solution
But this only became a problem recently. Patches on 360/PS3 era were bite sized and sizes of games were small at best and negligible at worst. Now games can be 80 gigs and require 12 gig patches and oh if you want better space, spend more money. This isn't about "hey I live in LA or NY or I make more revenue than you so I get to have a better experience than you, suckers" it's "how does the consumer have an enjoyable experience". Having huge game install sizes plus huge and likely multiple patch sizes is fucking stupid.
of course it's emotional cause thats the reality of how people are living now. As for that last part, are you referring to "hey it's okay to put your games out early and have day one 15 gig patch sizes because hey, people in highly developed countries dont give a shit cause of broadband etc?" What about data caps? Or slow ass download speeds? Or outrageous pricing?
Sounds like a big fuck you to everyone else who enjoys games but dont have these luxuries. And this is exactly what that whole discussion is talking about: companies are getting more lax because of the fact broadband's becoming a thing. "But sir, what about our customers that dont live in these areas and have to download 100 gigs just to play Doom or the 80 gig Elder Scrolls Online?" Well long as those 80% of people are jammin, who gives a shit right?
Bought Doom at the BX. Put doom in my xbox. my xbox said fuck off, and that I couldn't fit the game on my hard drive. what.
I actually like all those covers... You're just being cranky old men, which is weird since half of you is younger than me...
Too much of anything is never good, and it's obvious with the gear trailers they're trying to recapture the mood of their earlier trailer.
I've not played it but ... Modern Warfare Remaster? Not even mentioned? What gives?
I've been playing it the past few weeks and I can honestly say it hasn't aged as good as everyone thinks. Yes, it's boots to the ground, but at its core it's multiplayer is still just straight up unbalanced (grenade spam, noob tubes, crutch perks such as stopping power and juggernaut)
my please stop nomination - please stop putting things on your list that you know have no chance of winning
"Just wanted to say my piece for..." presents
Modern Warfare Remastered was robbed
Paying more to play early is crappy, but you'll play the game eventually so whatever. Remasters are mostly unnecessary, but they are mostly delegated to b teams and third party studios and you can just not buy them. Releasing Broken games and 20+gig day one patches are the worst thing I can think of.
It's too bad you guys don't have more insight into how the industry works. You should hire someone who has experience shipping to help you understand better.
Why is everyone on the podcast a man?