Dan’s whole shtick is making people play games that he likes and other people don’t but as soon as anyone plays anything he isn’t interested in, he completely checks out. Very fun dynamic.
EDIT: Ok, you know what, nevermind. Dan made up for it at the end. I apologize.
This was great obviously but Jeff was so right in all his complaints. The quality of life additions are legitimately smart but the complete lack of any variation in this map is insane. They don't even change the items! Mario Party is terrible.
I did this last year and figured I'd do it again for fun this year. Here are Giant Bomb's top 10 games of the year based on science (i.e. putting all the individual staff lists together as a weighted list).
1. Tetris Effect
2. Dead Cells
3. God of War
4. Marvel's Spider-Man
5 & 6. Red Dead Redemption 2/Into the Breach
7. Hitman 2
8. Return of the Obra Dinn
9. Monster Hunter: World
10. Dragon Ball FighterZ/Destiny 2: Forsaken
The numbers were extremely close this year. Tetris ended up edging Dead Cells by just 1 point, which in turn beat God of War by just 2 points.
And now seeing what the list actually ended up being, this is shockingly accurate, which is very surprising considering how different last year's was.
For what it's worth, that is not Vinny sneaking up on people in this video. This is before Vinny worked at GameSpot.
This was maybe a year or two before I started following GameSpot (I'm the same age as Abby) but seeing these old videos is always so fun. Seeing Ryan looking so young is both great and sad. Game of the Year stuff with the whole crew together aways makes me think about him. Miss that guy.
Also, Def Jam Vendetta AND Fight for the NY are both great. What the fuck you guys talking about?!
Brad talking about Red Dead honestly helped me realize just how much I loved my time with that game. The way he lays out why the game was so effective for him completely reflects my own experience with it. When Brad really loves something, he's better than anyone in explaining why he loves it so much.
I guess I’m late but that God of War discussion...woof. If you want to have the conversation, have the conversation.
The thing is Abby is definitely right about Freya’s turn at the end of the game. Not necessarily the part with her son trying to kill her but her turn from such an in control, knowledgeable character to a hysterical shrieking mother is very lame and definitely something worthy of criticism. It’s really a tone problem, more than a character problem. Freya being willing to sacrifice everything including herself for her son is a fine character trait and something that directly speaks to the themes of the game but the way it’s accomplished at the end feels clumsy and rushed.
But maybe it’s a product of there simply being too many people on this podcast but it feels like the discussions here just devolve into a lot of unintelligible yelling. So a conversation that could potentially be pretty worhwhile instead accomplishs nothing and ends with “well I don’t fucking care.”
The stuff about the dead mom being a trope is true but just because something is a trope doesn’t automatically make it bad and I don’t think I really understood the Valkyrie criticism at all. I get that in the heat of the moment being put on the spot to defend your opinions can be tough but these are the kind of discussions that make me miss Austin.
Not that they asked for suggestions but since everyone is talking about it, going back to OG Dragon Ball after would be a terrible idea. All the characters that they've grown to like over these episodes would be gone. No Vegeta, no Mr. Satan, no Buu, no Trunks but a lot more Yamcha. Just move onto Super. It's got everything they like about Dragon Ball.
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