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[BocoDragon]

OoT isn't a perfect game. But, it is a 10/10 game.

I totally agree.

But Jeff kind of asserted that his Gamespot reviewers had let him down by saying that Chrono Cross was 10/10, but yet they later said "Oh it wasn't a perfect game". He took that to be a potential misapplication of the meaning of 10... Even if 10/10 clearly needn't mean "perfect".

Personally... I don't think Jeff actually believes that 10/10 means "perfect". I take it to mean that Jeff has old anxieties about that experience. He didn't know what Chrono Cross really was, not having played it, and had to rely on second-hand accounts... but he had to be the one in charge of overseeing the final verdict. That's stressful. You don't want to be the one who signed off on misleading people.

Ironically in this episode, he details how Gamespot higher-ups "grilled him" on his 10/10 review of Ocarina... and now he expresses anxieties about his approval of the 10/10 for Chrono Cross. The two experiences are the same situation from different perspectives. He doesn't trust that 10/10 for Cross wasn't a fanboy gush, just as his superiors didn't trust that his 10/10 for Ocarina wasn't a fanboy gush.

My verdict is that people in general thought Chrono Cross was a 10/10 game in 2000. EGM gave it 10/10/10/9.5. All retrospective analyses are worthless. His Gamespot reviewers were right, and his doubt is unwarranted.... even if a modern letter-writer could find faults with the game.

 

[firehawk12]

I'm actually surprised that no one on the crew went and saw the NFS movie. It's about as close to the game as you could get in movie form. Nothing but car porn and a shitty, far too serious plot.

I'm actually glad they discuss it on the bombcast because I can get whatever updates I need on Destiny without actually booting back in to the game. I kind of share the same opinion as Jeff at this point except that I'm sure Bungie couldn't really do anything to drastically improve the quality of their DLC this late. I am hopeful most of the glaring issues get sorted by their next major expansion.

It will never change, because it can't. All they can do is shift the end-game grind around, so you are now grinding for drops. They even made multiplayer a form of grind, but I guess the people into MP find it more interesting because you are guaranteed to run into a team of three and the only way to get the best rewards is to basically win 7 games in a row.

 

[Yaboosh]

I cannot believe Brad read a fucking Le-a email.

 

[close to the edge]

Jeff really likes E-40, huh? I should probably give him a listen sometime (I only know that one song from GTA 5).

 

[MiniBossBattle]

Don't like skin on my fries either Jeff.

 

[partyphone]

I cannot believe Brad read a fucking Le-a email.

right? brad is the worst at picking emails.

 

[Kusagari]

The thing with Chrono Cross is that while it got high marks, including some other perfect scores, from the vast majority of reviewers the praise hasn't held up.

OoT is still probably the most frequently mentioned game when talking about the best of all time. I barely ever see Cross mentioned among the best JRPG's of all time and even when talking about its era games like FF7 and 9 have held up far better in terms of acclaim.

 

[THRILLH0]

I thought people grew out of the "x/x = perfect" thing when they were 13 but here we are.

Jeff never said OoT was perfect and he was being sarcastic in his "guess there's another perfect game in the world" email.

 

[Data West]

I thought people grew out of the "x/x = perfect" thing when they were 13 but here we are.

Jeff never said OoT was perfect and he was being sarcastic in his "guess there's another perfect game in the world" email.

He was being sarcastic. That's why he said that story stings for him still?

 

[FluxWaveZ]

I thought people grew out of the "x/x = perfect" thing when they were 13 but here we are.

Jeff never said OoT was perfect and he was being sarcastic in his "guess there's another perfect game in the world" email.

I just listened to that part of the podcast and I have no idea how you got sarcasm out of that story at all. Clearly, Jeff was quite adamant about a 10 score meaning that a game is perfect. It seemed very much like a miscommunication between Jeff and the reviewer, and perhaps what the meaning of "perfect" actually is to them.

 

[Wensih]

I should bring up that the reason Jeff attributed the score of 10 with "Perfection" is because under the old gamespot scale a 10 had a subtitle under it denoting "Perfect".

Standards and definition of what a 10 is have changed over time, and I'm sure Jeff's personal definition of the score is different.

 

[danm999]

I should bring up that the reason Jeff attributed the score of 10 with "Perfection" is because under the old gamespot scale a 10 had a subtitle under it denoting "Perfect".

Standards and definition of what a 10 is have changed over time, and I'm sure Jeff's personal definition of the score is different.

Yep, it was a bad system and I think they were wise to change it.

 

[Houndi101]

Lordi shoutout

 

[Houndi101]

But then we wouldn't have gems like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-TIrS7ukyk

What does "They were ingretulous for us not playing the game" mean?
Mainly the word ingretulous (sic) ?

 

[MonsterDunk]

It doesn't fucking matter what I thought about it. The word under the 10 at that time was "perfect." Go back and dig up pre-2007 versions of that site's "about our review system" page if you care about what the wordy justification for perfection was.

That whole review system was a perfect example of something that was well-written and absolutely understandable if you worked there, but anyone who didn't live and breathe it daily could easily come away confused. I feel like re-writing the review system ended up being one of the more important things I did there, even if it did sort of directly lead to the site giving lower Metacritic scores, which in turn indirectly led to them booting me outta there.

 

[danm999]

What does "They were ingretulous for us not playing the game" mean?
Mainly the word ingretulous (sic) ?

I think he means incredulous.

 

[Houndi101]

I think he means incredulous.

Thanks, I was so wrong with the spelling google didn't even suggest a different search term.

 

[SPCTRE]

I really enjoy the Destiny rants, though I imagine it is frustrating for fans to keep hearing. As someone in agreement with Jeff though(having given up on the game long ago), I don't find it tiring and rather enjoy the continued perspective with updates.

That said, it would be nice to hear a proper counterpoint though. All these rants over the months and Brad sort of steps up but mostly ends up limply agreeing with the core issues.

That's because "fans" even wouldn't argue with the core issues. The staunchest proponents of that game wouldn't argue against these criticisms because they share them.

 

[BreezyLimbo]

That's because "fans" even wouldn't argue with the core issues.

It's true. I play the hell out of Destiny and I agree that game has issues.

 

[Alo81]

Oh god, Drew wasn't kidding when he said the sign language interpreters were half-dancing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPl3mjTd9u0

Is this legit? The Conchita Wurst one seems too ridiculous to be real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzmXf1e--JU

It's so weird watching a video that includes two languages I don't understand.

 

[Lethal]

I miss Jason :/

Yeah this bombcast needed some Jason.

To be honest, I've never been a fan of Drew's stories. I like Drew. Just not really on the cast.

 

[so1337]

It just occured to me that Dan's Paul Ryckert impression is exactly the same as Danny's Dan Ryckert impression. They both lead off with that distinct "AAAAH" sound.

 

[Houndi101]

It just occured to me that Dan's Paul Ryckert impression is exactly the same as Danny's Dan Ryckert impression. They both lead off with that distinct "AAAAH" sound.

And Danny doing it by habit last week was hillarious

 

[so1337]

And Danny doing it by habit last week was hillarious

It was pretty fucking spot on too.

 

[Curufinwe]

I feel like Dan's dad being OK with having wasps in his house is much wackier than anything Dan has ever done (that we know of.)

 

[chogidogs]

We got Dunk'd! Hi Jeff!

 

[FluxWaveZ]

It doesn't fucking matter what I thought about it. The word under the 10 at that time was "perfect." Go back and dig up pre-2007 versions of that site's "about our review system" page if you care about what the wordy justification for perfection was.

That whole review system was a perfect example of something that was well-written and absolutely understandable if you worked there, but anyone who didn't live and breathe it daily could easily come away confused. I feel like re-writing the review system ended up being one of the more important things I did there, even if it did sort of directly lead to the site giving lower Metacritic scores, which in turn indirectly led to them booting me outta there.

Oh, nice. So it was really about the GameSpot scale and its labeling of the score. Out of curiosity, I checked for the system description you mentioned:

10.0: Perfect This exceedingly rare score refers to a game that is as perfect as a game can ever aspire to be. Such games could not reasonably be improved upon in any meaningful way.

 

[Myggen]

Oh, nice. So it was really about the GameSpot scale and its labeling of the score. Out of curiosity, I checked for the system description you mentioned:

I would say that when you're on a 100 point scale, labelling your perfect 10 more or less "perfect" actually makes some sense. You can give it 9.9 or 9.8 if it isn't. 100 point scales are dumb and arbitrary of course, so that in and of itself makes no sense, but I can see why old Gamespot thought it made sense to write "perfect" under that score if they were still operating with a 100 point scale at the time.

 

[Emarv]

Oh, nice. So it was really about the GameSpot scale and its labeling of the score. Out of curiosity, I checked for the system description you mentioned:

Wow. That description seems super crazy. Good job fixing that. A game can be perfect unto itself and what it's going for without being "beyond any improvement".

 

[daydream]

i was surprised jeff remembered nfs carbon

talk about forgettable nfs games

 

[Lijik]

i dunno i feel like that ones easy to remember because it was out around the ps3/wii launches.

 

[daydream]

perhaps, yeah

it's the one i always forget about and i was wild for nfs at the time, underground 2 and most wanted were incredible. following that up with carbon was a letdown.

i'm with jeff, though, i'm almost always willing to listen when they're talking new nfs

 

[NightmareTrigger]

perhaps, yeah

it's the one i always forget about and i was wild for nfs at the time, underground 2 and most wanted were incredible. following that up with carbon was a letdown.

i'm with jeff, though, i'm almost always willing to listen when they're talking new nfs

I remember carbon because of the drifting challenges, like going down a mountian drifting the whole way