clagnaught

In no particular order: Hitman 3, The Forgotten City, Ratchet and Clank, Tales of Arise, Life is Strange: True Colors.

I think there's something to be said for a tone piece as an initial introduction for a game. That doesn't necessarily equal cinematic trailer. Persona 5's first teaser was basically just harsh text over a couple images of chairs, from what I remember. There's a risk of misrepresenting a game that way, but assuming it is done properly, it could help sell the pitch of a game while it's actively being developed.

There's also something to be said for not hyping games for multiple years that require so many different levels of trailers. Showing a game 6 months before it's release, and show gameplay alongside the cinematic trailer is probably the most ideal way to do that.

Also, while some companies like Blizzard make all of their own stuff, some of that is outsourced. Probably because the developers are busy making the game or how there are companies dedicated to making teaser trailers.

All told, there's probably more benefits to having those type of trailers than not. Some of the main negatives I think of are trailers being deceitful, but that's typically a larger problem with not showing the game off and stuff like that.

I have thought about how JoJo’s would be neat as a type of game you described. One of the really fun things about JoJo’s is the combination of abilities and the unique setups. Having to fight somebody you can’t get close to versus fighting somebody that is very far away versus somebody really small, etc. etc.

I think it’s just how this is a niche thing. Like Sword Art Online and other trapped in a game shows basically write themselves, but from my understanding they are just budget, generic RPGs. Having it be an MMO style world with 100 or whatever unique environments is just too big to make.

It would be interesting to see some more out of the box ideas instead of fighting games and RPGs.

I liked Doom 2016. Some parts felt a little same-y, so I think some more unique levels or spreading out some of the enemies would have made it felt more fresh all the way through.

The parts of Doom Eternal I played felt too self serious and I think the difficulty spike is a bit much upfront. I heard other people say Doom Eternal feels like a straight continuation of Doom 2016, and I agree with that.

Doom Eternal didn’t click with me as much as I hoped it would and I fell off of it. Titanfall 2 is one of my favorite shooter campaigns.

I always pick female. I know so people use character creators to basically re-create themselves. I’m sort of the opposite where I create people who aren’t like me. There’s probably a better name for this, but essentially I want to roleplay, but as somebody who is not myself.

Therefore, I always pick female whenever I have the chance as a starting off point.

I guess here's a rundown for me:

• Albummer: This is one of those things where I need to listen to the album. I listened to the Weezer episode without listening to the album, and it was just people dunking on things I didn't know. For Danzig, I listened to most of that album and got more out of that episode. I just don't listen to entire bad albums for funz though. I'll dip my toes into individual songs that pop up, but an album is too big of a commitment. The show seemed ok, but just not for me.
• Armed and Rangerous: This I've been really enjoying. I did watch Power Rangers growing up but apparently forgot EVERYTHING about it. So it's just been watching a goofy 90s kid's show and listening to a good podcast after the fact. I need to catch up, but I'm digging this.
• Bak 2 Skool: I think this show is hilarious. My one knock is how Bakalar may not always be prepared. Perhaps a more kind take is he's not an expert so can't handle Dan when he goes down 4 rabbit holes in a row. If there was somebody in the field guest starring on episodes, that would handle this issue more. That aside, I've liked the discussions and the editing on this show.
• Borne to Run: This is one of my favorite new show, which is kind of a bummer it got derailed by travel and Tam moving. Really looking forward to this starting up again in December though.
• GrubbSnax: This is my #1 new favorite thing on Giant Bomb. I really hope Grubb sticks around as a contributor.
• Guilty Treasures: I've been digging this show a lot. I know Danny mentioned he was short on time for the Jan episode, but the premise and Danny's editing on this has been really good so far.
• Ranking of Evil: I've only watched the first episode, which seemed ok. Not sure what the longevity of this thing is though. I don't really know who Evil Uno is and if this show is basically, "This game has fire, which is evil", I'm not sure I'll keep watching.
• Reel Layers: This will either be a disaster or amazing. The first episode was really funny to me, but I'm wondering what legs this show will have.
• The Very Online Show: I have not watched this at all. I was looking forward to Tam and Lucy being on something together for Giant Bomb, but I guess the initial pitch didn't seem interesting to me.
• VoidBurger's Hot Takeouts: The "fan booking" element of this site is frowned upon (for good reason), but privately I was hoping they would bring on VoidBurger full-time between how well these turned out, and seeing them stream on Twitch / seeing them appear on other random Giant Bomb things.

So yeah, I guess I like most everything.

I enjoy: Armed and Rangerous, Bak 2 School, Borne to Run, GrubbSnax, Guilty Treasures, and VoidBurger's Hot Takeouts.

I don't care for / haven't watched: Albummer, Ranking of Evil, and The Very Online Show

Reel Layers I'm just going to put off to the side for now.

I do wish they work on hiring new people, so we can get new gaming focused shows, a (possible) return to something like Playdates, and just more people on stuff. Like even stuff like Quick Looks work because there's 2+ people talking. The traditional QL with one person doesn't really have much appeal to me, and I end up bouncing off a lot of "I don't know, I'm just going to stream some stuff" streams.

I know they said they are going to hire more people, but this is one of those things they should have been doing gradually over time--even during covid--so they didn't end up with a skeleton crew like they did. Even with Brad, Vinny, and Alex left all of a sudden like they did, if they backfilled Dan, Abby, or Ben along the way, then you would at least have more than 3 editors on staff.

Anyways, things are definitely better now with Jess being onboarded and I'm enjoying enough of the new stuff. I don't mind Giant Bomb trying some things (in the not so distant future, there was a somewhat regular cooking show and a Dragon Ball Z podcast for god's sake), and some things, in my opinion, have worked more than others. For me, having an extra full-time person or two I think will help add a sense of normalcy to the site and will hopefully flesh out some of the gaming content.

So before 2100. We finally have a window.

In case people missed it, this happened:

It's not a Mario Party Party, but it is a too long stream of Giant Bomb people playing the Mario Party.

But yeah, they should get Brad and Drew back to have a P A R T Y ! ! !

I watched their review of Tokimeki Memorial, and while I did enjoy it (and kinda wish those games came out in English), that review was just exhausting. Yeah, it was long, but the thing that got to me was how it felt like I could just stop at the last 30-60 minutes.

I’ll be curious to see what people think of the Cyberpunk review since this has had a lot of buildup.