Another highlight: Vinnys kid asks him about the illuminati before bedtime
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Is Giant Bomb having a midlife crisis?
- Thread starter blitzblake
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Nah, I think they just have their ups and downs and can't be everything to everybody (and I'm sure they know that). Their content is as good as its ever been, IMO, and their "attempts to appeal to young people" have always came off as tongue-in-cheek to me.
I do think Jeff really needs another funny person to bounce off of, though, or just someone who can really pull that out of him like Dan did.
I do think Jeff really needs another funny person to bounce off of, though, or just someone who can really pull that out of him like Dan did.
Wait, so GB can be super cynical about video games but the fans can't dislike where the site is personally right now? And hey, I am just complaining as a paying subscriber. My year is up at the end of next month and I am not going to renew. I am not saying, "HEY, CHANGE IT!" I am merely stating that I do not enjoy what it is currently. Others clearly do still. It's almost like there are differing opinions or something.
33 and been GBing since APD.
Things won't reach the highs of the earlier days again, but I don't feel like there's been some sort of downwards trend recently, just regular and irregular ups and downs.
I don't have some sort of issue with any of the staff. But I agree with the sentiment that East has generally been more appealing.
West tends to do what they do while East is more actively doing new stuff, some of which I appreciate quite a bit.
Demo Derby and Game Tapes are the stalwarts of the West that I feel I can always rely on to deliver that high quality content I crave.
Things won't reach the highs of the earlier days again, but I don't feel like there's been some sort of downwards trend recently, just regular and irregular ups and downs.
I don't have some sort of issue with any of the staff. But I agree with the sentiment that East has generally been more appealing.
West tends to do what they do while East is more actively doing new stuff, some of which I appreciate quite a bit.
Demo Derby and Game Tapes are the stalwarts of the West that I feel I can always rely on to deliver that high quality content I crave.
It would be insane to stop now.
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26 and have been watching consistently since around when Dan joined and I enjoy East's content. Every once in awhile they might play something I'm not into, but it's usually not long before they pull me back. West I find to be pretty lacking. I really felt it when Dan left because it seems everyone left is pretty low energy. I feel like a lot of the stuff they do is either thrown together without much thought or comes out way to inconsistently. I love Game tapes and Demo Derby, but they released like four of each of those last year. I liked the idea of the Tony Hawk series, but they've done five in the last year. On the other hand I kind of got excited when I saw they were doing an Asura's Wrath playthrough, but then it's just Ben and Jason, nothing wrong with those two but I feel like that's something that would have been enjoyable to have more of them there to react to it. I had about the same reaction to The Bouncer playthrough initially, but it was saved purely through Jan's enthusiasm which leads me to believe they should try having him in front more; which reminds me that I find it a crime they haven't tried to return to Kingdom Heartache now that they have someone that has some enthusiasm for it instead of that trash fire they had before.
Podcast wise though, I haven't cared about listening to the West Bombcast since Dan left I guess. I think the main thing I dislike, that others may disagree with, is that it's to damn orderly. I feel like they used to talk about other stuff, like off the top of my head Vinny and Jeff watching a Fast and Furious movie in Texas a decade ago and just other non-video game releated. I know there are people out there that will whine about non video game related talk, but i listen to podcasts because I enjoy the personalities, so I like hearing them talk about non-video game related thing sometimes.
Podcast wise though, I haven't cared about listening to the West Bombcast since Dan left I guess. I think the main thing I dislike, that others may disagree with, is that it's to damn orderly. I feel like they used to talk about other stuff, like off the top of my head Vinny and Jeff watching a Fast and Furious movie in Texas a decade ago and just other non-video game releated. I know there are people out there that will whine about non video game related talk, but i listen to podcasts because I enjoy the personalities, so I like hearing them talk about non-video game related thing sometimes.
Doubt it tbh. I know at least some mentioned that they dislike this forum and/or the GB talk about here lol. I remember Jeff, the guy specifically mentioned here as the one people like the most, stated he stopped reading the GB stuff on this site. There's a reason for it all.
The state of GB is a lot like the state of video games.
We all like to reminisce about the good old days, but with todays standard in content and variation we wouldn't last a week with the old ways.
Ryan was the best, but we used to pay the same price as now to just get a video review, the bombcast and TNT in a week.
GB is not the same thing now as it was in the start and i understand if some people has fallen off. But for me it's never been a better time to play video games.
We all like to reminisce about the good old days, but with todays standard in content and variation we wouldn't last a week with the old ways.
Ryan was the best, but we used to pay the same price as now to just get a video review, the bombcast and TNT in a week.
GB is not the same thing now as it was in the start and i understand if some people has fallen off. But for me it's never been a better time to play video games.
No, been a fan of the site since it's foundation and still think it's going strong. E3 in particular would be half as interesting to me if it weren't for GB's after hours stream during E3.
I've been sad about almost every change in staff so far but I've never actually felt that the quality went down as a result of any of it.
I've been sad about almost every change in staff so far but I've never actually felt that the quality went down as a result of any of it.
Ya I don't think so. When you have Huber gasping at every announced game it's tedious and I roll my eyes every time
Hardly ever listen to the giant bomb podcasts anymore and I used to be a big fan.
I still listen to the beast cast weekly though and love their podcasts. Huge fan of Vinny, Dan, Abby and bakalar. One of my favorite recurring things is when Vinny will make an awful dad joke and Abby will be the only one who cracks up.
I still listen to the beast cast weekly though and love their podcasts. Huge fan of Vinny, Dan, Abby and bakalar. One of my favorite recurring things is when Vinny will make an awful dad joke and Abby will be the only one who cracks up.
I'm 25 and was a big fan of the site for like 5 years but ever since Drew left, Dan moved East, and Ben and Abby joining I just haven't been feeling the site and let my sub lapse for the first time since 2014. It's nothing personal, but I just don't like Abby and Ben and they put me off the site entirely.
This thread has been an entertaining read and I agree with many of the points here. I've subbed for several years and continue to pop in for UPF and then I almost immediately turn it off - I don't know why I keep watching it, but it's... not entertaining. Yup, I've seen Gang Beasts. No, I don't want to see a random garbage steam game.
The podcasts are what initially grabbed me, but they have been difficult on both coasts. I know everyone loves the Beastcast, but, as someone metnioned earlier, this is an improv show. They lean a little too heavily into My Brother, My Brother, and Me.
The Beastcast is the exact same as the WTF podcast: you can easily skip the first 15-20 mins.
And this is obviously a personal preference, but I never listen past the news. The email sections suck.
The podcasts are what initially grabbed me, but they have been difficult on both coasts. I know everyone loves the Beastcast, but, as someone metnioned earlier, this is an improv show. They lean a little too heavily into My Brother, My Brother, and Me.
The Beastcast is the exact same as the WTF podcast: you can easily skip the first 15-20 mins.
And this is obviously a personal preference, but I never listen past the news. The email sections suck.
It's funny to read some of these impressions because GBWest has actually done a lot better in Jeff's absence than I expected. At least in terms of video content. Ben has better chemistry with Dave, Rorie, and Jan than he does with the rest of the West crew. It's actually been nice to see him freed from having to be paired with Jeff or Jason all the time. His Mario Maker series with Dan has been really good.
And there's a lot of posts from early 2014 here that missed GB's 2nd golden age after Dan's hire and during Austin's run out East.
And there's a lot of posts from early 2014 here that missed GB's 2nd golden age after Dan's hire and during Austin's run out East.
Been following these folks since the GameSpot days and the new additions have only made the site better. Dan and Abby are superb and we love everyone else too. You're never going to be perfect at everything you do, but the majority of the material is great and you always get four-five series a year that are brilliant.
And they're not a bunch of neckbeards.
And they're not a bunch of neckbeards.
I subscribe and will continue to do so but I don't really have time to watch the video content sadly. I listen to the two podcasts every week without fail, really enjoy both.
Hes just an excitable dude who loves loving things. Nothing wrong with that.
Jeff's absence has certainly been felt recently but the output overall is fine. There's dry spells where none of the games or personalities line up with you right and you bounce off and that's okay every so often. One thing i hate is the website redesign though, i'd never felt like not having premium left me as a 'have-not' before but now like 4 out of 5 videos at the top of the page are always premium and i've never been more confused about what their weekly schedule is or just how much of what content they're putting out when and I feel like i always need to scroll a page and a half to figure out if there was even any point to clicking the bookmark today, which makes me want to click on it less and less often.
I think a 'formula' like GB's is probably necessary at this juncture right before a new generation, sites like this forum always exhibited such a strange trait of 'let's get so over the top excited at new console launch' but also spend every other year absolutely trashing everything else.
This permeates modern content creators like podcasts and Youtubers as well.
If anything, more sites need to adapt more of what makes GB work. The cynical stuff is easy to criticise but the truth is most other outlets cannot find a balance between those cliched meme photos of the games journalists at E3.
And another thing, if anybody has earned the right to get off this merry go round it's the guys who created the site in the first place. Fatherhood should make you want to change things up no matter your day job.
I'm not saying new generations aren't exciting, but the industry has probably contributed to the way you might feel about GB, not just GB itself.
Personally I have never felt 'belonging' to the schtick the site pushed for so long, and don't get me started on the E3 couch stuff. I've tried to enjoy 'em.
This permeates modern content creators like podcasts and Youtubers as well.
If anything, more sites need to adapt more of what makes GB work. The cynical stuff is easy to criticise but the truth is most other outlets cannot find a balance between those cliched meme photos of the games journalists at E3.
And another thing, if anybody has earned the right to get off this merry go round it's the guys who created the site in the first place. Fatherhood should make you want to change things up no matter your day job.
I'm not saying new generations aren't exciting, but the industry has probably contributed to the way you might feel about GB, not just GB itself.
Personally I have never felt 'belonging' to the schtick the site pushed for so long, and don't get me started on the E3 couch stuff. I've tried to enjoy 'em.
I love the segments where they don't talk about video games. And it feels odd to say, especially since it's a video game website, but the segments on both coasts where they talk about what they are playing is so boring to me. I just don't care, even if it's a game I have enjoyed myself. I mainly listened for some friends shooting the shit and talking about the latest gaming news.
Towards the end of my listening tenure I started doing this. Most of the time they only read emails from imbeciles asking yet another "would you rather" question. Enough.
i love the crew, not a big fan of abby or ben. They both sometimes burn me. But i understand they bring different eyes on their site. Will continue to subscribe.
No offense but I feel your dislike for Ben might be coloring your perception of him a bit because he's definitely better informed than Vinny and Brad at least. Vinny is going hard on his tired dad routine and Brad seems to learn most gaming news on the actual bombcast when he's reading it.
I think this is a fair view, and it's what I stay at the site for too, but I think it has the problem that it's hard to come in to for someone that isn't already on board with Giant Bomb. Unless you know them, it's probably not entertaining. But the game discussion and analysis is no longer very deep to bring in new people either.
So it's a bit of a catch-22. You're either already a fan and want to wallow in the fandom, or you're not and can't find a foothold. To an extent, I think Dan and Abby have been pretty good at offering people footholds. But overall the site isn't great at it.
This is a great point I hadn't really internalised but makes a huge amount of sense now I see it expressed.
I wouldn't say that they're having a midlife crisis, but I'm also not really interested in the vast majority of their premium content anymore. At this point I'll only sub for a month whenever a new Game Tapes/Demo Derby drops.
I'm a fan of super long podcasts so the more they produce of that the better. It gets me through the work week
honestly I pretty much never watch any West videos besides the bombcast while I'll enjoy from time to time the content of the east coast, I do wish they did more short terms let's play that don't feel like they're gonna take an eternity to finish. Stuff like the Contradiction and Life is Strange runs is what I'd like to see more, especially to avoid videos where they're just wandering around without making any significant progress.
I used to listen to the giantbombcast but when they added Ben I could never get over his nasally voice, its a very stupid complaint but its just a bad voice for a podcast, also he doesn't bring much to the content for me unfortunately.
Now I mostly just listen to the Beastcast and thats it, love Abby but she has terrible taste.
Now I mostly just listen to the Beastcast and thats it, love Abby but she has terrible taste.
My wife used to work at CBSI. There was recently an merger there. A lot of uncertainty is going on there due to Viacom. I think GiantBomb will be ok, but the people at their parent company is a little nervous.
I don't think Viacom has much of a web presence in games at least - the only thing that comes to mind is that MTV Games thing that Patrick worked at for a while and that's basically dead so I assume they won't have much to worry about there.
38, premium since a year in.
I still miss Ryan. He was such an important part of the "package".
I still enjoy the same amount of content I always did - and the banter. I think they struggled for a long while after splitting the team, but they're in a good place creatively right now. I've definitely felt Jeff's absence though, so I guess I feel the west team is a bit vulnerable. I'm watching more East things these days.
I never got into twitter and I cancelled my Facebook account many years ago, so I'm usually totally out of the loop. I feel like a big part of their "eco-system" is social media. Am I wrong? I really can't be bothered getting in to all that stuff.
I still miss Ryan. He was such an important part of the "package".
I still enjoy the same amount of content I always did - and the banter. I think they struggled for a long while after splitting the team, but they're in a good place creatively right now. I've definitely felt Jeff's absence though, so I guess I feel the west team is a bit vulnerable. I'm watching more East things these days.
I never got into twitter and I cancelled my Facebook account many years ago, so I'm usually totally out of the loop. I feel like a big part of their "eco-system" is social media. Am I wrong? I really can't be bothered getting in to all that stuff.
Pauly D gonna be the next hire.
Not really. Most of them have abandoned Social Media since GamerGate and Trump (not due to that, but those are the two times I noticed them slowing down). Basically only Abby, Ben, and Alex use Twitter and rarely talk about the site.
My only complaint about GB is that Beast will quite often get the most basic shit wrong on the BeastCast. Stuff that even I know from looking at just Resetera. That's always been a frustration for me.
Apart from that I enjoy most things that the guys put out and have almost too much content to enjoy. I'm happy with my premium sub.
Apart from that I enjoy most things that the guys put out and have almost too much content to enjoy. I'm happy with my premium sub.
Hardly. The only one's active on social media is Abby and maybe a little bit of Jan but they are usually not about work.
There is no video feed of the Beastcast.
That does not exist sadly. Only the bombcast does video. As far as I know, there are no plans to add it anytime soon.
I only listen to the two podcasts and of the two, the Beast is easily the best. The most entertaining thing about original GB are the ad reads, Brad actually shows some personality there. the cast needs an overhaul.
this is another big factor. West focuses on too many multiplayer shooters and will talk about them for hours. I like Ben, but don't care about DOTA or fighting games beyond a casual interest. I don't care for most of the games Jason likes outside of MHW. Brad and Jeff get too fixated on multiplayer games or "weird dumb things" that I have zero interest in.
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hmm, thats a bummer. Thanks!
For some reason, I find harder and harder to maintain focus on audio-only podcasts.
I'm still pretty happy with my subscription, but I'm definitely not consuming every bit of content they put out on the site anymore. Things change, people get older, and things can't stay the same. That applies to both the site and my tastes as a viewer, and I'm always wary of throwing too much credit towards "The Good Old Days" when I remember how much lukewarm content there was during the Whiskey era (for as hit-or-miss as UPF is on a weekly basis, Whiskey Media Happy Hour was always consistently bad outside of some breakout segments) and the kind of shit I'm into versus what I was into in 2012. I dunno, I feel like my excitement for Giant Bomb content very much comes and goes in waves, but there's also not another set of games writers I'm interested in following.
That said, I'd be lying if I didn't agree with some of the critiques leveled here. There is a notable enthusiasm gap between the two coasts. I still listen to the Bombcast, but sometimes the whole thing feels like it's on cough syrup. I still like everyone involved (Jan and Ben are great additions,) but more than ever it feels painfully obvious that half the regulars on that podcast are in or near their forties with tastes in games that have seemingly narrowed as time has gone on. I think that's less of a problem than some people are dramatizing, however. I think the bigger problem is that Giant Bomb is sort of a bad place to go if you would like to obtain actual information about a video game. It's never been the best place for that stuff, but I barely watch Quick Looks anymore because I feel like they're never a great representation of the game in question. I could go to an OT for any given title on this forum and get a more comprehensive picture of it in 5 minutes than I would watching the GB staff fumble around for 30-60 while constantly getting basic information wrong.
That said, I'd be lying if I didn't agree with some of the critiques leveled here. There is a notable enthusiasm gap between the two coasts. I still listen to the Bombcast, but sometimes the whole thing feels like it's on cough syrup. I still like everyone involved (Jan and Ben are great additions,) but more than ever it feels painfully obvious that half the regulars on that podcast are in or near their forties with tastes in games that have seemingly narrowed as time has gone on. I think that's less of a problem than some people are dramatizing, however. I think the bigger problem is that Giant Bomb is sort of a bad place to go if you would like to obtain actual information about a video game. It's never been the best place for that stuff, but I barely watch Quick Looks anymore because I feel like they're never a great representation of the game in question. I could go to an OT for any given title on this forum and get a more comprehensive picture of it in 5 minutes than I would watching the GB staff fumble around for 30-60 while constantly getting basic information wrong.
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This is so weird because its stated so confidently and yet its not true at all. Ben and Alex are way more active on twitter than Abby and Jan
I still like the personalities on beast cast, despite the one person who I wish was less flippant.
West coast though, it has really become a chore to listen to. They are so cynical and unenthusiastic about seemingly everything that it makes me feel bad about the gaming industry. Beast cast is the opposite where I am excited about games after every listen although even they are deceasing overall in their positivity. Not to name drop but I cannot stand the host of bombcast anymore. A large part of that is I don't like "dynamic" exploration of open worlds without objectives and that is all he seems to care about in video games now.
Goty is still fun to listen to, although the Tetris effect thing blows my damn mind.
West coast though, it has really become a chore to listen to. They are so cynical and unenthusiastic about seemingly everything that it makes me feel bad about the gaming industry. Beast cast is the opposite where I am excited about games after every listen although even they are deceasing overall in their positivity. Not to name drop but I cannot stand the host of bombcast anymore. A large part of that is I don't like "dynamic" exploration of open worlds without objectives and that is all he seems to care about in video games now.
Goty is still fun to listen to, although the Tetris effect thing blows my damn mind.
no one is trying to replace Ryan. good lord do you people come out of the wood work every time GB gets mentioned?
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