{"id":646,"date":"2011-08-14T21:36:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-14T12:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oc-gamer.moobaa.com\/?p=646"},"modified":"2011-08-14T21:36:44","modified_gmt":"2011-08-14T12:06:44","slug":"reach-revolution-podcasts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oc-gamer.moobaa.com\/?p=646","title":{"rendered":"Reach Revolution Podcasts"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week in The Moobaarn? Reach<\/em>, and plenty of it. Up to Brigadier Grade 2 now, 59% Commendations. And, apart from mentioning that Grifball is my new favourite cRedit whoring method, that’s all I want to write about that.<\/p>\n

There’s a new addition to the family this week – my first new PC since 2004. Sure, I’ve bought a couple of laptops since then, but I’ve got no hardware newer than my pre-unibody MacBook Pro. And bugger me if hardware hasn’t marched along… sure, that’s hardly an astute observation, but there’s such a massive leap in performance from my last PC that it actually makes me feel like my new mid-range video card was actually an overspend. Where the old graphics card used to cough and splutter under the Shader 2.0 efforts of my most recent PC game acquisition – Gridrunner Revolution<\/em> – the new video hardware barely raises a sweat under Shader 3. And Gridrunner<\/em> really benefits from the extra grunt; running it full-screen at (essentially) 1080p is akin to serving up a visual feast. Delightful, and I’m looking forward to spending some more time with Minter’s work.<\/p>\n

But, in the absence of any game-progress-related talk (I’m saving all the best Reach<\/em>-related stories for later), I thought I’d tap out a few words on a topic that has been sitting on the back-burner for a while now – gaming podcasts. And when I say “a while”, I’m talking years<\/em> – I’ve got a note from July 2009 that was meant to act as a post-prompt that was conveniently ignored.<\/p>\n

Now, I listen to a lot<\/em> of podcasts – probably up around twenty hours a week. Music, current affairs, tech, politics, and – yes – gaming. But of all those topics, of all those podcasts, the gaming field has proven to be the one with the biggest turnover… because, quite frankly, a lot of them really suck.<\/p>\n

Or, worse, are borderline offensive.<\/p>\n

I realise that there’s a large element of personal taste involved in any podcast selection; after all, you’re essentially making new friends. You’re inviting new people into your ears. It’s like a more intimate extension of the old Zzap!64<\/a> philosophy: provide consistent personalities that the listener can learn to recognise and identify with. So when I listen to a podcast for the first time, and hear nothing but testosterone-fueled conversation which wouldn’t feel out-of-place ensconced in a date-rape joke, then you’ve lost me almost before we’ve started.<\/p>\n

I usually give podcasts a fair bash before deciding that they’re not for me; my most recent rejection received a good dozen episodes – nearly twenty hours! – before I decided that these people just did not deserve the ear-time. Well-meaning – and even pleasant – in their own circles, I’m sure, but me and them were just never going to get along. But some gaming podcasts struggled to make it through one<\/em> episode; they were people I’d be ashamed to share the same air with, as laden with narcotic fumes as it would appear to be.<\/p>\n

But when you do<\/em> get a podcast that works for you… well, it’s like a little reunion every episode. A great example of that is the Giant Bombcast<\/a> crew; when I first started listening to their two-hour-plus ramblings, full of discussions on energy drinks and cooking and – hey – a little bit of video gaming<\/em>, I initially thought that they’d be heading to the Reject pile. But a few episodes was enough for me to get a feel for the regulars, and their insightful gaming commentary shone through. And their recent E3 episode featuring David Jaffe<\/a> is amazing<\/em>, featuring a wonderful, heartfelt discussion on the interactions of design and development, with Jaffe weighing in as only he can.<\/p>\n

I’ve tried really hard to stay positive here by not naming any podcasts that I simply don’t get along with. But here’s a list of those that are still in my RSS feed, including a few that are sadly no longer with us…<\/p>\n