Board 8 > Anyone keeping up with Giant Bomb??

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've tried to watch a few recent videos, and it's SO weird.

There's this new guy, Mike, that maybe in prime Giant Bomb could have been a good fit, but it feels really fucking off that they fired Jason and Jess and then there's a new guy.

I was going to say yes before remembering that none of the people I am following are still at Giant Bomb.

Mike is a weird case of legally not being a full GB employee.

He has a proper full time job at another website, but hes Grubbs best friend and they started bringing him on for individual videos after Fandom laid off Jess and Jason.

hes getting paid for it, but I guess by not being a full time guy he fits into the budget somehow. Definitely seems like hes on a lot of content at this point though for someone whos theoretically not part of the team.

but I like him so whatever. Also he used to be a GameFAQs user, so he gets bonus points.

Yes. Mike fits very well. The way Fandom treated Jason and Jess was horrendous, but not related to Mike (who had been on before then). It is pretty weird that Mike is on so much without being a full employee, but he actually has a full time job for a totally different website. He is basically in the position Danny was in a couple of years ago. Paid and a regular contributor but not a full-time staff member.

Also layoffs are extremely stupid anyway because at the end of the day you either need to hire back up or just undercut your own productivity for short term gain. In the case of Giant Bomb firing 2/3 of their video producers for the site that produces mostly video was always going to be very bad. The crew is doing their best however.

Their Skull Island: Rise of Kong video was pretty special:

https://m.youtube.com/watch/-LFMcVzHZLo

I don't follow along that closely anymore, but I do not enjoy Mike Minotti. His voice is grating, especially when he raises his voice and I feel like he interjects into conversations at odd times? I dunno that could be me just struggling to pinpoint what irks me about him because I don't think it's entirely the voice. Maybe it's his overeager ribbing of people? Hard to say because the only thing I've listened to fully that features him is the Power Bombcast.

If people enjoy him that's fine. Just not for me.

having mostly experienced him via Blight Club and also their Summer Games Fest couch shows, hes grown on me a lot.

The threesome of him, Grubb, and Dan works. Two dudes who are weird in different ways and one straight man with a beautiful broadcasting voice.

I've been thinking about bringing this up somewhere: I'm really enjoying Giant Bomb lately!!!

When Vinny/Brad/Dan left, I had very little hope, and indeed, it was really bad for a while, after that. I really couldn't stay awake for any of their content for many months after that. I was resigned to just enjoy Nextlander's podcasts and Fire Escape.

BUT since Dan came back, GB's been really great! It's not PEAK but it's very good.

Blight Club is the best thing they've got going on right now. It has similar vibes to some all-time great GB video content like Vinnyvania and This Is The Run, where they're laughing and struggling through a hard and/or bad game, saying "ugh are you kidding me??? The game is making me do THIS???" Also the combo of Jeff Grubb, Mike Minotti, and Dan is perfect vibes, they're all really funny to me.

Even UPF has been a lot more creative in 2023, instead of the old formula of "play 4 boring games for 30 minutes each" which got really stale.

But most surprising is the Bombcast itself. This is the best the Bombcast has been since the Ryan era. (I stopped being able to finish Bombcasts after like 2017. It was so dull. And the Beastcast was a million times better.)

BUT, everyone on the Bombcast right now is hilarious and silly, the vibes are so good. Jan's a fantastic host, Jeff Grubb is really fun and brings great industry knowledge. And any episode with either Bailey or Mike Minotti or Dan ends up being A-Tier in terms of comedy (and since they all rotate in constantly, pretty much every episode is an A-Tier). Also Bakalar is a great villain to cause some friction, otherwise everyone would agree too much on everything.

I still listen to the Bombcast and watch most of their videos, aside from the Dumptruck, which I just think is "lazy" content.

All i can get is that GB gets an internal budget for guests and they are just basically spending it all on Mike which basically makes him full time but not technically part of them. And really it kinda saved the site (again) for me as obviously what happened to Jess and Jason was pretty terrible. Just get a vibe of Gerstmann and Ryan Davis from Grubb and Mike as two legit best friends who love video games and are entertaining as hell together.

That said I still expect Fandom to keep doing dumb shit to the site and destroy it long term, but we'll see when it gets there and there is always Remap and Nextlander anyways.

if youre looking for something not at all divisive like Mike minotti, Friday Night Forking is back!

That's the site where Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis, Vinnie Caravella, and Brad Shoemaker do Let's Plays and call them Endurance Runs right

Bombcast has indeed been terrific lately. They recaptured the magic of insane tangents. Would be amazing if Bailey was on every week.

They just announced theyre doing a new regular Friday podcast. Basically a cleanup for games with embargoes after the Bombcast and general topics. I hope this can fill the Beastcast-shaped hole in my heart.

What week would you say is when the Bombcast started ramping back up again? I haven't listened in about half a year.

It wont. The Beastcast was great because it was the East Coast crew.

They already have the Bombcast, Game Mess Mornings, and the Dumptruck. Not to mention so many of their videos that are defacto podcasts with all the talking and not paying attention to the game (Blight Club, the MK story playthrough, etc.).

Granted, this is the first Im hearing of it but it likely to just be more.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

What week would you say is when the Bombcast started ramping back up again? I haven't listened in about half a year.

I dont remember exactly when but probably when they committed back to a minimum crew rather than just two with the rotating guests and Dan became more regular on it. Taking a quick look (pun unintended) maybe 797 is a good point to jump back on as thats where they moved timeslots and then you get the back-to-back 799 (Gollum chat) and 800 (entire current crew there) right after.

Seanchan posted...

It wont. The Beastcast was great because it was the East Coast crew.

They already have the Bombcast, Game Mess Mornings, and the Dumptruck. Not to mention so many of their videos that are defacto podcasts with all the talking and not paying attention to the game (Blight Club, the MK story playthrough, etc.).

Granted, this is the first Im hearing of it but it likely to just be more.

To be honest, a lot of it is being on Friday. The Nextlander podcast is in many ways Continuity Beastcast but being on Wednesday/Thursday just gives it a different vibe. Even though I guess the Beastcast was a Thursday show for the last year and a bit!

Mitch is the best

I know it'll never completely go away but I could do with a bit less of the "let's constantly compare Dan's wrestling obsessions to Mike's Disney obsessions"

just don't work yourself into a shoot, brother

I love it! It's so true! After ten years of hearing Dan relate everything to wrestling, now Mitch is doing the same thing with Disney.

Such a breath of fresh air. I don't care about wrestling nor disney but it's so nice having a new topic.

newest upf was extremely good stuff, anybody check it out if you havent

I have not had the chance to watch it yet but the thumbnail looks incredibly promising.

Otherwise Giant Bombcast REVENGEANCE (yes thats what theyre calling it, amazing) is up now and is a lot of fun. Already getting the GOTY smack-talk in there.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/269a146d.jpg

Watching that UPF now. This seems quite special.

https://twitter.com/giantbomb/status/1724518351249010743

Theyre doing the last part of GotY live and in person with an audience! That could be amazing if it goes well.

They just said last week that Mike won't be at GotY!

That's very early for GotY but apparently they're going to be in LA anyway for the Game Awards, hence why it's happening then.

I know this is a minority opinion but I liked the few years they moved GotY to January.

MacArrowny posted...

They just said last week that Mike won't be at GotY!

Tam said he would quit if Mike was in GotY!

Seanchan posted...

That's very early for GotY but apparently they're going to be in LA anyway for the Game Awards, hence why it's happening then.

I know this is a minority opinion but I liked the few years they moved GotY to January.

To me it always seemed more split opinion, I liked it too but with the caveat that the 2021 one was too late in January. First couple of weeks of the year is the sweet spot IMO. At least this is not as early as when they used to start recording in November!

I don't like January for GOTY, I don't care about 2023 anymore by then (or whatever year it is, its old news)

live audience sounds cool!

I don't see what a live audience adds to GotY. I get it as a source of extra income for the site, but I feel like laughter and clapping is going to be a weird insert into the discussions and potentially distracting if the crew feels like they need to be in performance mode and find plenty of opportunities to pander to the crowd. The whole thing will feel less natural I think.

That's neat

Ive listened to quite a few live with an audience podcasts and as long as the audio is good I enjoy them. Having the crowd reactions makes the jokes and big moments land more, and the audiences are usually pretty respectful. I just hope they dont play to the crowd too much! They did at least one Bombcast with an audience years ago and that went pretty well.

LightningStrikes posted...

Ive listened to quite a few live with an audience podcasts and as long as the audio is good I enjoy them. Having the crowd reactions makes the jokes and big moments land more, and the audiences are usually pretty respectful. I just hope they dont play to the crowd too much! They did at least one Bombcast with an audience years ago and that went pretty well.

I have the complete opposite reaction. I hate live podcasts! What makes podcasts good is that it feels like a bunch of friends just shooting the shit and when they're in front of an audience it loses that aspect. Oh well.

Yeah, when I listened to MBMBaM, the live episodes were always the worst ones.

Seanchan posted...

Yeah, when I listened to MBMBaM, the live episodes were always the worst ones.

Totally, there was nothing worse than when Travis got a good reaction and decided to speak over everyone else until the joke was dead.

Live now on Giant Bomb - for the next 8 hours, Windbag joins Grubb and Mitch at Dan's house in Minnesota to stream for Extra Life! Come on by for fun 'n' games and fork out for the kids! http://twitch.tv/giantbomb

tragic stream issues happening right now

and poor sick Grubb

I'm listening to backlogs to catch up and someone who wasn't Dan said "Tetris isn't a puzzle game".

And nobody reacted!

This would have been an all time moment back in the day, now it's all soft.

JK I'm enjoying it plenty.

I actually agree that Tetris isnt a puzzle game lol, at least in the context they were talking about it (eg the main mechanics). It is definitely more of an action game when you think about it. Was one of those moments when I went wait a minute then oh that actually makes sense.

It's just more proof that game genres are worthless when one of the most quintessential examples of one of them could be argued to not be part of it.

Revengeance was absolutely lovely this week! Nice little 20 minute special.

Reminder GotY stuff begins tomorrow

I guess the live event next weekend is only going to be the final day?

It was always only going to be the final day! But there will be three categories as well as GotY itself. Here is the schedule:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/51c423c4.jpg

So 18 categories in total, nice.

GOTY starts in five minutes!!!

https://www.giantbomb.com/chat/

Or

https://www.youtube.com/live/5hf40FaKJIU?si=FVa-sWHFhO9taSmA

Okay Lucy has a tremendous amount of coffee with her in the pre-stream.

Move over Saints Row vs Skyrim here comes Tenet vs Inception.

Ill stop spamming this topic now until there are other comments.

The Mind Place being a top three mechanic is dumb it's not even one of Alan Wake 2's top three mechanics

Well, it was The Mind Place/Rewriting Reality counted as one mechanic which makes a lot more sense. Although they could have only done it as the latter I think.

Those are two entirely different mechanics! They didn't even try to say why they'd be the same!

Oh, GotY Day 2 (the pre-recorded one) was uploaded to Youtube early:

https://www.youtube.com/live/kAX9fuWat8c?si=aVUp7BgJywGj0oxF

No podcast version yet though!