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Giant Bomb GOTY 2015 - Metal Gear Meets Its Mario Maker

I know this is mostly about GotY stuff, but since the other thread is closed right now, can anyone help me remember something that Giant Bomb looked at on an Unprofessional Friday? It was some kind of weird console or personal computer that was supposed to be "the future of video games," but was a massive flop. They ended up watching a bunch of documentary videos about the console creator, and it all was really depressing considering how hopeful the developers all seemed.

If anyone remembers the name of that system, or just the video it was featured in, I'd really appreciate it.

Edit: Nevermind. Found it. The Halcyon.

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/unprofessional-fridays-020113/2300-7008/

I think it's this one

Edit: I'm too slow
 
I can't understand why Jeff had any expectations of Bethesda improving under this generation of consoles just because the hardware they were working with had.

Bethesda have long demonstrated they don't really give a shit about doing anything but what they've been doing, which is make the same sort of game to widespread commercial success; Brad sort of tried to point out to him by referencing Dave Lang's assessment, but it sort of fell on deaf ears.

What about the E3 or pre-release material, which Dan as the unexpected voice of reason referenced, gave anybody pause to think it'd be any different.

Don't get me wrong; I'm super critical of Fallout 4. Check my posts in Fallout 4 threads on this forum. But how could you be disappointed at this point? They've been on a downward slide in terms of roleplaying elements, open world jank and the like since Morrowind. And the market has been rewarding them more and more for it each iteration.

Why expect them to do better? Seems idealistic in a way that Jeff rarely is. I'd hold this up to any criticism Jeff is burnt out or doesn't care about video games. He cares a whole fucking lot, and you could hear it during that segment. He wants these games to be better.
 
Just got done with fallout 4 gate. I'm with Jeff. I consider Fallout 3 my favorite game of all time, and they really could have done better. It's a real disappointment after all this time. That's not armchair game design, that's reasonable expectation.

I have 50 hours in Fallout 4 and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I totally agree with Jeff.

They fucking failed miserably at the new things they implemented: voiced protagonist, bigger focus on guided narrative, base building.

All of it was complete garbage in the game.

If they can't fix their jank, then they should at least design their games with the jank and randomness in mind. Don't try to do a game with a voiced protagonist who has a fixed background and goes on a more linear story if you know your game's systems and engine cannot support doing that well.

Massive disappointment, but still enjoyable.
 
I know this is mostly about GotY stuff, but since the other thread is closed right now, can anyone help me remember something that Giant Bomb looked at on an Unprofessional Friday? It was some kind of weird console or personal computer that was supposed to be "the future of video games," but was a massive flop. They ended up watching a bunch of documentary videos about the console creator, and it all was really depressing considering how hopeful the developers all seemed.

If anyone remembers the name of that system, or just the video it was featured in, I'd really appreciate it.

Edit: Nevermind. Found it. The Halcyon.

That was a great episode. This is the one, in case anyone is curious.

Edit: Robotrock beat me to the punch.
 
Took me a while to finish up this mammoth 4+ hour podcast, but I have now done so. A true classic episode.

Alex's argument for Splatoon for best music with this song was super clever. Really happy it won best music.
 
Music segment was really, really good this year.

I know its subjective but everybody gave much better reasoning behind their picks, and everything was given a much greater context of how it fit into their respective games.
 
The podcasts are so long this year because Austin is such a great addition. Really great insights and way of him to carry the Fallout 4 is Great torch.

Him and Brad could make a strong MGS5 for GOTY offensive.
 
The podcasts are so long this year because Austin is such a great addition. Really great insights and way of him to carry the Fallout 4 is Great torch.

Him and Brad could make a strong MGS5 for GOTY offensive.

For Brad, Austin could be the ultimate ally or the ultimate enemy.
 
The podcasts are so long this year because Austin is such a great addition. Really great insights and way of him to carry the Fallout 4 is Great torch.

Him and Brad could make a strong MGS5 for GOTY offensive.

Austin seems like a smart thoughtful man.

Ill be real disappointed in him if he thinks MGSV is something worth rewarding as GOTY
 
I have 50 hours in Fallout 4 and I enjoyed it quite a bit, but I totally agree with Jeff.

They fucking failed miserably at the new things they implemented: voiced protagonist, bigger focus on guided narrative, base building.

All of it was complete garbage in the game.

If they can't fix their jank, then they should at least design their games with the jank and randomness in mind. Don't try to do a game with a voiced protagonist who has a fixed background and goes on a more linear story if you know your game's systems and engine cannot support doing that well.

Massive disappointment, but still enjoyable.

It's so weird that they simplified so much of the game and then decided to add the new dialogue system.

Fallout 4 feels like a game developed in a bubble. But then someone at Bethesda peeked out into the rest of the industry for a second and decided to rip the Mass Effect dialogue system, and transplant it into their game even though it doesn't mesh at all with their style or the Fallout series.
 
Again the groundswell enthusiasm for Witcher 3 amongst the Beast crew convinces me it will make the top 10.

For Brad, Austin could be the ultimate ally or the ultimate enemy.

Austin has been very very impactful. I can't wait to see how he influences things going forward.
 
For Brad, Austin could be the ultimate ally or the ultimate enemy.

tumblr_mrxpibxxSc1qzp9weo2_500.gif
 
Alright, I just finished SOMA. SOMA is goddamn fantastic.

Fuck SOMA. Fucking great sci-fi making me not sure how to feel about humanity and the human condition, fucking being perfectly-toned science fiction. Fucking fantastic game with a fucking perfect post-credits sequence. The whole last hour-ish or so, starting with looking at yourself in the mirror and leaving Omicron and ending with you stuck at Tau is by far the best moment/sequence this year, Goddamn.
 
I still would have given Necromancer the win, but I do have like forty hours in that game...

Splatoon shop theme would win track of the year though. Actually I'll probably argue it for track of the generation if we reach that point
 
So, what wins Best Debut this year? Their definition of "debut" has always seemed completely arbitrary so I'm not actually sure which games will qualify this year.
 
So, what wins Best Debut this year? Their definition of "debut" has always seemed completely arbitrary so I'm not actually sure which games will qualify this year.

It's Splatoon. It has to be.

I could almost see them giving it to Life is Strange if they'd finish it, but they haven't.
 
Alright, I just finished SOMA. SOMA is goddamn fantastic.

Fuck SOMA. Fucking great sci-fi making me not sure how to feel about humanity and the human condition, fucking being perfectly-toned science fiction. Fucking fantastic game with a fucking perfect post-credits sequence. The whole last hour-ish or so, starting with looking at yourself in the mirror and leaving Omicron and ending with you stuck at Tau is by far the best moment/sequence this year, Goddamn.
Yup, I'll be very, very disappointed if SOMA doesn't get any nods for best moment.

Fuck man, when the credits hit in SOMA I just sat in stunned silence. It's the darkest shit in any game I've ever played.
 
Probably things like Splatoon, Until Dawn, Contradiction, etc.

I think Splatoon takes it.

Splatoon definitely has it in the bag. In fact it probably has a really good shot to crack the top 5 just because no one really has anything bad to say about it. The big complaint was that it was pretty barebones at launch, but that's mostly been solved.
 
Splatoon is the new IP from this generation of consoles that's going to live the longest. This thing is going to have Smash Bros. level legs. It's time you welcome your squidy overlords.
 
Man just started the Day 2 podcast.

Love the way Alex was fighting for the Hotline Miami 2 soundtrack <3

It was the best this year for me, really outstanding selection of music to go with gameplay and story.
 
Didn't Bethesda say at the E3 that the game is pretty much finished and the team is polishing the game?
I know guys at GT took that as FO4 will be less glitchy than their rest of the games.
 
Austin Made me buy this sweet zaku kit, what a jerk.

51yJ%2Boij0ZL._SY300_.jpg

Assuming you've built a RG before? If not, you're in for some fun.

They are cool as shit, but also really damn fragile. Make sure to pre-bend all the joints as you pull the frame free from the runner. That allows them to get all loosened up and breaks the excess plastic holding them, so you won't break it after assembly.
 
Yup, I'll be very, very disappointed if SOMA doesn't get any nods for best moment.

Fuck man, when the credits hit in SOMA I just sat in stunned silence. It's the darkest shit in any game I've ever played.

So I definitely want to play SOMA soon, but there's no way I can play it in the next week or so. I guess I'm not listening to tomorrow's podcast for a good while, then.
 
It's so weird that they simplified so much of the game and then decided to add the new dialogue system.

Fallout 4 feels like a game developed in a bubble. But then someone at Bethesda peeked out into the rest of the industry for a second and decided to rip the Mass Effect dialogue system, and transplant it into their game even though it doesn't mesh at all with their style or the Fallout series.
And then someone peeked out the bubble, saw what all the cool streamer kids were playing on Early Access, and thought, "Hey wait a minute. We can just bolt on a bunch of pointless crafting and building shit."



At this point, despite all of the "Yep, it's more Fallout!" type comments the game's gotten, it's barely a Fallout game. I don't even mean like the whole "____ is a good game, but a bad _____ game" thing, I mean like this is some Ship of Theseus situation where Bethesda is replacing each part of Fallout incrementally until Fallout 5 comes out and it's straight up Borderlands 3 or a survival game on Steam but with a Fallout skin.
 
So I definitely want to play SOMA soon, but there's no way I can play it in the next week or so. I guess I'm not listening to tomorrow's podcast for a good while, then.
I'd wait to see if it's nominated. While many on GAF are extremely high on SOMA, very few of the GB crew played it to completion.
 
And then someone peeked out the bubble, saw what all the cool streamer kids were playing on Early Access, and thought, "Hey wait a minute. We can just bolt on a bunch of pointless crafting and building shit."



At this point, despite all of the "Yep, it's more Fallout!" type comments the game's gotten, it's barely a Fallout game. I don't even mean like the whole "____ is a good game, but a bad _____ game" thing, I mean like this is some Ship of Theseus situation where Bethesda is replacing each part of Fallout incrementally until Fallout 5 comes out and it's straight up Borderlands 3 or a survival game on Steam but with a Fallout skin.

If we want to take a ride on Theseus' ship, it was Fallout 3 that wasn't a fallout game. It's weird it's called Fallout 3, but it might as well have been its own thing. Like, atleast Oblivion was kinda like Morrowind. Skryim went farther away from Morrowind than Oblivion...I figure the next Elder Scrolls will be some sort of space shooter.
 
Someone put it well earlier, but Fallout is much harder to change game-to-game than Elder Scrolls is. There's only so much you can do to irradiated America and it doesn't seem Bethesda was even willing to do that much, so they bolted on weird stuff like base building and an unnecessary dialogue system and a robot that can call you Fuckface.

Fallout 3 was huge for a lot of people because, even if they had played the other Fallouts, this was a different take on the same world. Fallout 4 was the same take on the same world, years later and without the leap in graphics people hoped for.
 
Fallout 3 still, despite all my problems with it, still feels fairly Falloutish in comparison.

Meanwhile, there's an alternate timeline where Fallout 4 was released on PC in 2001 as Fallout: Boston Gunrunner, sandwiched between X-COM Enforcer and Command & Conquer Renegade as yet another weird janky spinoff with neat ideas, but soon fades into a status as a flawed cult classic. A fan remake is attempted in 2009, but is abandoned, and people are excited to see this odd experiment when it releases on GOG in 2014.
 
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