Now that it’s out there, here are the deets on Saturday’s streams. Each one should last somewhere between 30-45 minutes, with the potential for the GTAV stream to go a little over since we’re going to try and tackle some heist missions. But, as such, here’s a breakdown of who will be on and when:
Stream 1 – Bioshock Infinite
Platform: PC
Playing: Kupka
Commentating: Valley
Stream 2 – Drawn to Death
Platform: PS4
Playing: Batch & Valley
Commentating: Kupka
Stream 3 – Madden 17
Platform: XBONE
Playing: Batch & Valley
Commentating: Kupka
Stream 4 – Grand Theft Auto V
Platform: XBONE
Playing: Kupka & Valley
Commentating: Batch
These streams will later be cut into Binge GameCast Plays videos, but we’ll stream them all live on Twitch.
TV Round Up, GTA Online, Leto-Joker and Summer Music
I’ll admit it guys, last week I was very light on the content and that Kubrick documentary was a late-game Hail Mary pass. Hopefully some of you found it enjoyable, as I, being the fan of Kubrick that I am, absolutely did. However, you wanted more content, well you’re getting it this week…
Louie season 5 is picking up exactly where last season left off, providing us with the laughs and life-lessons that have pervaded throughout the show (even if we have no idea where those lessons are coming from). The first episode hooked me right away by diving back into Louie’s world as a dad/comic just trying to get by. I’ve always found it absolutely hilarious the way in which Louie weaves stories about his life into these absurdist tales about his place in the grand scheme of things. I’ve always felt like this show is heavily influenced by David Lynch, and the cult dinner party scene is straight out of Lost Highway. But, as this show always does, it has taken us through a complex range of emotions, from the absurdity of the surrogate mother’s depression to the hilarity of Louie not being able to hold in a shit while shopping with his daughters to the touching third episode with a really great Michael Rappoport (an actor I usually hate) giving the performance of his career in the span of twenty minutes. Honestly, hats off to that guy and the way in which he characterizes Louie’s old not-friend Lenny because we all know that type of hopeless asshole. If you aren’t watching Louie, simply put, you’re doing it wrong.
On this week’s BingeCast, it seemed like the guys were pretty lukewarm on the second season of Silicon Valley, and I totally get where they’re coming from. Yeah, the story is pretty simple and seems to hover around the same themes, and it’s relatively unclear what the ultimate endgame is for these characters, but after watching these first two episodes I’m just in. Admittedly, the absence of Peter Gregory is a shame seeing as he was by far the best character on the program. Despite all of that, I love this show. It’s not the funniest show I’ve seen, and it’s not doing anything shows like Entourage or The League have done better, but there’s a heart to the proceedings in this show that I don’t typically see in other programs. I know this is a show that at its core spent an entire season setting up one of the greatest dick jokes in history but I just get this show in a way I don’t with most others. While Office Space is the anthem of middle-American cubicle dwellers, Silicon Valley is a testament to what the country thinks Mark Zuckerburg must have been like, sans The Social Network. I’m loving Silicon Valley and look forward to seeing it through to at least the end of this season.
Guys, GTA Online is in full swing. Aren’t you playing? You should be. While I haven’t been into the GTA Online aspect of the game at all, with the inclusion of the heists it’s finally, in my mind, playable. Before the heists, grinding for money was a chore that took FOR-EVER. Now, you can complete a heist and net a minimum of $100000 on the reg. The disadvantage to this, to anyone who has played them, is the connectivity to the heists themselves. They tend to be a real hassle because of the trial and error involved in the more advanced ones. For instance, the second heist finale involves a prison break. One guy drives a prison bus, one guy is a fake inmate, one guy flies the getaway plane and dodges missiles from the military jets and one guy pilots a helicopter to attach the jets and try to save the getaway plane. If that all sounds complex, it is. It’s also the most frustrating aspect of the game. I played that mission nine times before completing it and with a multitude of different combinations of people. While the chaos of the heists makes the thrill of completing one that much better, it is difficult to get a competent team together to do so. This online aspect of GTA V is an evolving thing and I’m sure it will only improve going forward.
While Nick covered some of my thoughts on the Leto-Joker image, I wanted to chime in on it as well. While I know Nick “McPickle” Spears is a fan of the design, I’m not as enthusiastic. I like the physicality and color scheme as well as the fucked-up teeth, but if those tattoos are staying I’m not into that. At this point, I think someone involved with the production said this is not Joker’s final look, but that “Damaged” line on his forehead is incredibly douche-chilly. I know people doubted Ledger at first but as soon as the production photos started leaking I got excited. I remember seeing Ledger dolled up as Joker for the first time and getting the sense that we were going to see something really special, and we absolutely did. Here, this feels like it needs to be workshopped a little bit further. Joker is not a sympathetic, Latin-King-esque gangbanger, which is unfortunately the exact feeling this photo gives me. Fingers crossed they patch this up and have something more grand in store for us. I know this is a lot of judgement off of one photo but I have an aversion to inked nipples on men, but maybe that’s just me.
Finally, it’s summer music time, and for me that means a whole lot of Van Halen. I notice that every year when it’s time to start rolling the windows down and let the world experience some serious tunes while cruising to/from work there are a handful of groups I always default to. Van Halen (not shitty Van Hagar) is one of them. Dance The Night Away is easily my favorite Van Halen tune and I love blaring this out at 6:30 in the morning when I roll into campus. It really gets the day started off on the right foot.
Springsteen also has a special place in my heart when the days get longer. There are few anthems that sound as powerful on a hot summer night as Badlands, or even the happy-go-lucky Waitin’ On A Sunny Day. The Boss brings it like few others do, and I love the guy for it. Of course, there’s one group that absolutely defines summer for me like no other, and that group is none other than…
…AC/DC. When I started playing guitar I got myself an Epiphone SG because I wanted to play just like Angus Young. AC/DC has been playing the same song for almost forty years but I can’t stop loving it. Their live “If You Want Blood…” album is in my top ten all-time favorites and always announces that the weather is starting to turn for me. I’ll never not love AC/DC, deal with it.
So there you are, Binge readers. I made up for last week with an overlong ode to all things I like. Is it narcissistic? Definitely, but that’s why I have this blog and you don’t. Deal with it. Check in for some GameCast, GoTCast and our daily blogs as well as Fuckin’ Bob’s week-by-week script for the upcoming DOG SPIDERS, and as always, Binge On!
I’ve been a gamer for as long as I can remember with my earliest consoles being the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. I remember sinking countless hours into games like VR Troopers (which was a Mortal Kombat knockoff before I knew what Mortal Kombat was), Super Mario World and Donkey Kong Country, beating the SHIT out of my brothers in anything that was multiplayer (they may still be butthurt) and enjoying every minute of it. I’ve always been the kid that hated going outside. To me, the worst thing you could do to me as a kid was tell me to “go play outside” the day after I got a new game. It’s not that I wasn’t sociable, I just didn’t see the value in running around in the sun playing sports that I never had any inclination to get good at. Throughout my gaming career, there have been ups, downs and some glaring omissions. I went the Sony route as a young kid and never really dove into N64, have never touched a single Zelda game and missed the Dreamcast. However, if you mention Crash Bandicoot or Spyro waves of nostalgia start kicking in and I’m reminded of the good old days when I was first being introduced to this world.
Games like Heart of Darkness, Wild 9 and the fantastic (and newly remastered) Oddworld: Abe’s Odyssey all started moving me into a new world of gaming, but honestly as I got older games became less and less of a focus. I think there comes a time in gaming for every gamer worth his/her salt where things get stale. It’s happened to me in every iteration of console I’ve had and I’m sure it will continue to happen, but throughout the years there has always been one franchise that keeps on bringing me back. I don’t know if it’s the perspective, the humor or the chaos (probably a bit of all three), but every time I need to get a new console, it’s because of Grand Theft Auto.
My most fond gaming memories absolutely start and end with GTA. From the mundane, like reaching top speeds on Grove Street in San Andreas and whipping around the neighborhood trying to hit as many pedestrians as possible, to getting a tank to fly via the proper cheats and skill in Vice City to the very first time you pick up a hooker in III, this franchise, to me, is what gaming is all about. GTA presents the ultimate escape from everything, transporting you to a world you could never be a part of and giving you free license to do whatever you want.
GTA IV upped the ante with the incorporation of a truly impressive style of cinematography previously only hinted at in the GTA series, telling the story of Nico Bellic and his experience coming up in America as an immigrant in Liberty City, but truly each incarnation of the series has innovated in its own way. For instance, the brilliant property ownership and side-quests of building up your criminal empire in Vice City gave the game a more grounded RPG feel which to this day stands as the one feature that I hope comes back in future incarnations. In San Andreas, the fantastic gang-warfare and territory aspect keeps the area fresh and seemingly “alive” throughout your playthrough, and enough can not be said about the amazing jet pack in San Andreas (fingers crossed it comes back soon, the GTA world needs it).
It comes as no surprise to me that, yet again, Rockstar did something totally unique in GTA V. Granted the triple-lead character angle is stunning when used on the heist missions, but I’m actually referring to the genius current-gen first-person mode. I’ve played the story mode of this game twice through already and am already salivating at first-person mode, experiencing the iconic moments I’ve already experienced with a completely different perspective. In an odd way it actually makes the action more real which is both good and bad. I have read reviews from different gaming sites like IGN and Gamespot stating that the first-person mode actually makes them re-think their choices as to who they murder in broad daylight. That’s pretty impressive for a game that employs BJ Smoove as a self-help guru.
While GTA V is what I’m playing most these days, My PS4 is not even three weeks old, and I’ve been catching up on a lot of stuff. Here are some of my initial thoughts on the platform:
– The Last of Us has to be a contender for greatest game of all time
– Rayman Legends is the closest thing to Super Mario that I’ve played in years
– Helldivers > Destiny (but I’m still enjoying Destiny)
– Any game that lets you manipulate an elephant to do your killing for you is a-ok in my book (Far Cry 4)
– Dragon Age Inquisition re-iterates that if you want to complete a game 100% these days and it’s an RPG, get the guide lest you fuck something up
In movie/TV news, I’m rewatching Party Down and might do a recap of that this week, but I REALLY wanted to mention my brilliant hottie team this year. Quite simply, despite missing out on Star Wars and Avengers 2 points, I’m astounded that I got the picks that I did. I have to give props to Kupka, my brother in Binge, for reasoning out a few things for me, which was of course reciprocated throughout the process. I, like him, did have Angela Kerecz on my board last year, he just beat me to the punch on it (well played). Between Lizeth Hutchings, Lisa Ann Smith and Tamika Shanell Johnson, I don’t see how it will be easy for anyone in the BABADIIICK conference to touch me. I say this with confidence because I, much like my New England Patriots, know how to draft, and all y’all fucks are basking in my glorious benevolence at this point. Some afterthoughts:
– Pete MC, you chose correctly by taking Judy Greer first overall, I had her at #1 as well. Smart pick, I applaud you for it.
– Mike Scull, you will be my bitch this year XOXO.
– TM, I will take you down. So long as I beat you in the draft this year will have been a success.
That’s it everyone. Stay tuned for some sweet Better Call Saul commentary and, as always, Binge On!