Drew Returns from North Korea

yeey missed this Yesterday! :D

Can't wait for the next flight club now!

Posted already! I missed part of it last night. Thanks!

Godammit, 27 seconds and I'm already giggling at Vinny making dumb faces.

Vinny making faces in the beginning cracked me up.

This was so interesting live, I'll watch it again :p

DREWBERT !!!!!!!!

He has done good work for his country.

Was this promoted yesterday? Do I need to join Twitter to keep up with live events?

Relevant: I would love if there was to ever be a HD rerelease for Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Complete with Drew Scanlon skin.

This will be great!

Im currently living in south Korea (have been for a little over a year now) and to hear people back home(amurrica) expressing the amounts of concern regarding recent events is slightly insane. If only because as a current resident in s. Korea, I can say that there seems to be little to no concern by the people about their irate northern neighbors.

F*cking fascinating stuff. Not game related but screw it, loving this content.

Man, wish I'd crossed the border during my time in Seoul. Seems crazy.

These guys did a pretty good documentry about taking almost the exact tour Drew did, but they managed to film a lot of it. Its creepy how much of it is planned out and similar.

@Residentrevil2 said:

Was this promoted yesterday? Do I need to join Twitter to keep up with live events?

It was listed on the main page in the "Coming up on Giantbomb" thing near the bottom right.

Totally missed this live. Could we get some updates on the front page about when these types of streams are happening?

@Residentrevil2 said:

Was this promoted yesterday? Do I need to join Twitter to keep up with live events?

It was promoted on the banner at the top and with its own icon, and talked about on the forums.

Watching this live was a surreal, crazy good time. Probably the best part of Premium Giant Bombage so far. Good stuff.

Stay weird, Giant Bombsquad.

@nervesnormal said:

These guys did a pretty good documentry about taking almost the exact tour Drew did, but they managed to film a lot of it. Its creepy how much of it is planned out and similar.

Definitely recommend people check this out too. Watched it recently and it makes for some great viewing. Highly interesting, and it's also very well edited simply speaking as a documentary.

Yay.

@heartlessomen said:

Im currently living in south Korea (have been for a little over a year now) and to hear people back home(amurrica) expressing the amounts of concern regarding recent events is slightly insane. If only because as a current resident in s. Korea, I can say that there seems to be little to no concern by the people about their irate northern neighbors.

The way things are reported here in the states about NK is that they are ready to strike any minute. Glad to hear from someone who actually lives in Korea. America Paranoia!

Here's another great little documentary about an American who left his post in SK to live in the north.

if peoples want to see what exactly is to visit north korea and not just a bunch of pics, i suggest to go see this 3 parts extremely good and weird documentary http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3

@DSale said:

Totally missed this live. Could we get some updates on the front page about when these types of streams are happening?

I stumbled upon the live cast last night. The thing is, I don't think they actually know when these will get made. I think most live shows are decided the same day they are done.

But yeah, it would be noce with some kind of notification.

Drew in a video? ON CAMERA?!! Is it GOTY time already?!!

@Christoffer: They had it on the status update box for a long time.

" ...they're very little people." Oh, how I missed Vinny's racist jokes.

"Dig deeper into North Korea" - I don't think you could go deeper into North Korea without being killed for being a spy.

@Residentrevil2: You should join Twitter because it's 2012, and you're already 5 years late to the party.

I have such a fucking man-crush on Drew

No homo of course

As excited as I already was going into this while it was live Drew's story blew my mind. Exceptional photography and a very insightful take on everything he saw. The time flew by so quickly it was crazy. Everyone was very good about asking questions and remarking on interesting bits, often verbalizing things I wanted to know too. I am so glad you did this and gave it the space it deserved. I can't even quite believe these are subjects you're willing to explore with the subscriber content but I love every minute of it. Classic case of "If you told me this would be a thing when I signed up for this I wouldn't have believed it". Outstanding job and mad respect Drew for your unique travelling ideas!

Need a mp3 file....

This was great, one of the highlights of the year.

Really enjoyed watching this last night live. Great work.

@Max_Cherry said:

" ...they're very little people." Oh, how I missed Vinny's racist jokes.

they are in general shorter than even south korean's so he's not wrong

That was the fastest 4 week wait ever. :P

Hey so is this a regular Friday thing?

This was really great stuff, enjoyed it alot.

I love how quickly they're putting out the live stuff, it just seems faster than ever.

Absolutely loved it.

@Christoffer said:

@DSale said:

Totally missed this live. Could we get some updates on the front page about when these types of streams are happening?

I stumbled upon the live cast last night. The thing is, I don't think they actually know when these will get made. I think most live shows are decided the same day they are done.

But yeah, it would be noce with some kind of notification.

It was on the front page all week, look for the "COMING UP ON GIANTBOMB" section, people seem to miss it.

There's also a countdown at the top of the website all day and failing that there's a twitter account @Giantbomblive that goes out automatically when the chat opens for a stream.

Why are they interviewing the guy from Dexter?

Watched it live and thought what other video game site does this and it not seem like an attention grab. Really fascinating stuff.

Amazing feature. A pretty diplomatic description of a tour to a place most of us will probably never see. Well done, thanks Drew!

Awesome video!

ryan is going to fast on the pictures

Absolutely fantastic, thanks a million for this Drew and GB.

I've realized what (visiting) North Korea reminds me of; Disney World. Everything is carefully constructed to create the absolutely perfect experience. Nothing is real, everything is for show, everything is made out of plastic, and everyone is forced to smile.

The scary thing is, the ordinary people look legitimately happy. Are we wrong to want to put an end to the regime and their "false god" to end their blissful ignorance? It doesn't look quite as terrible as previous impressions gave me, but then you have to remember all of the things that you don't see on these "tours".

It's such a strange existence. I really don't know what to make of it all.

There's a new book out about a guy who grew up in a North Korean prison camp who managed to escape when he was around 20 years old named "Escape from Camp 14": http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0670023329 . I highly recommend it to anyone with any interest in this subject; it's well-written, disturbing and hugely interesting.

Another report that partly builds on that book can be found here, with a short intereview of the author of that book: http://www.economist.com/node/21553090

Needless to say, it's pretty horrific stuff. You can be imprisoned for the most minor things, the guards learn to dehumanise the inmates (rape and murder won't get a guard in trouble, the book tells about a six year old girl who got beaten to death by a guard because she brought a tiny amount of food into her class) and people are executed "to set an example".

I really liked this video, so good on GB. But we have to keep in mind that most people outside the capital are dirt poor, have little to no electricity and are completely brainwashed. It's hell on earth.

edit: For some reason, I'm not able to create hyperlinks on here...

This is why we love Giantbomb! Awesome, awesome stuff.

@AMyggen said:

edit: For some reason, I'm not able to create hyperlinks on here...

The DPRK are onto you!

OH GOD YES