If I remember correctly, last week Ryan was complaining that it was impossible to 100% towns and bases because of the crate requirement. So I’m not sure he’s having too good a time with the game, but I’m also not sure that it’s not because he’s not paying a lot of attention.
If that’s his primary complaint then he’s wrong. The crates are easy to find with the cell phone hot/cold meter. It’s the weirdly hidden generators and other destroyable stuff that makes 100% an area a challenge.
mtkafka
3083
wanted to add another podcast i discovered this last week.
http://www.aeropause.com/
non journalists, pretty good. one of the guys, Joe Haygood has a hardcore pc gaming background. kinda cool to hear a podcaster talk about oldie games like starflight or might and magic once in awhile… in context to recent games that is.
Ryan gave 4 stars to Just Cause 2 so it’s pretty safe to assumed he liked it. From the podcast the impression I got it’s that it’s not necessary to achieve 100% in bases and that it’s not fun to so you should continue to move on.
My reading on that was that Ryan was trying to set Vinnie up for the tired “Just 'cause!” joke. Which, admittedly, is actually a little lamer.
So yesterday was Jeremy Parish’s last 4 Guys 1up. That’s too bad. Hopefully, the upside will be an extra Active Time Babble. If Frank, Scooter, and Barnholdt are going to be on whatever they name 4G1u’s replacement, then it’ll have much the same tone to it anyway.
I never really expected Parish to carry the flagship podcast. He tends to wilt in the limelight. Hell, he took a long sabbatical from Retronauts in the past. I got the impression that he regarded being left with 4g1u as a burden, not an opportunity.
I think it’s a shame Parish isn’t going to host anymore. He acts like he can’t possibly do it but I think he under-estimates himself… or perhaps over-estimates what is required.
The bottom line is that the people who used to do the show are gone, the podcast can become whatever the current cast wants it to be but instead 1UP is allowing the past to define the present and I think it’s holding the show back.
Maybe they’ll finally start something fresh with the next iteration.
I actually like the current format of 4G1U. I get plenty of the “personality plus” podcasts with Bombcast, Weekend Confirmed, and Idle Thumbs. But I think that this recent 4G1U format with the various pre-recorded segments has the best news analysis of anything in my current rotation.
Gamespy Debriefings has been great with IGN’s Scott Bromley on it. Anthony Gallegos and Ryan Scott are other stars on it. As a plus, they don’t actually talk about the news much, which you must get enough of from other sources.
Idle Thumbs’ Conviction talk made them the highlight of the week.
“We missed you at the state fair, Fisher!”
“Remember me from Iraq, Fisher‽”
I enjoyed the talk about the fight with a black politician in front of the Lincoln Memorial.
“He was some kind of government official, anyway, maybe not a politician.”
“Okay, so you beat up Martin Luther King in front of the Lincoln Memorial.”
God that was hilarious. The entire riff on Splinter Cell Conviction was fucking awesome. Remember the airfield!
Best episode yet of the new Idle Thumbs.
I had a long complaint I emailed to them about Steve’s somewhat confrontational/aggressive style, which he uses to shut down Jake a lot, and which I find pretty limiting to the enjoyable goofiness of the show. But this last episode it really wasn’t an issue.
tromik
3094
Once again the Giant Bomb guys nearly cause me to die on the drive home. PooPoo Pocket!
The Gamespy Debriefings is slowly becoming one of my favorite shows. The addition of Scott Bromley has made it become less and less about games, but more and more about hilarious tangents. Of course, to most this is probably even more reason not to listen, but I’m enjoying it.
“Boom! Send it to Threadless.”
I am also enjoying it’s slow transformation into some sort of weird comedy podcast. I never really listened to it for the game related content anyway (I started listening when Sterling and Patrick were still on and I always enjoyed Patrick’s crazy Star Wars rants).
Me three on this. The eastern European accents and the Threadless guys had me cracking up. I would seriously listen to an entire podcast of just that.
Downloaded the Gamespy Debriefing based on this thread. Pretty funny, though it’s almost as bad as Idle Thumbs for inside jokes. Is the eastern European guy meant to be your average European reporter who shows up at trade shows and asks bizarre questions?
_Poe
3099
I don’t recall it ever being explained that much. Actually I think it only came up a few episodes ago, the one you’re listening to could easily be the first one it comes up in.
When Bromley first joined the cast he seemed like a dick, but he seems to have moderated himself quite a bit, or maybe I’m just getting used to him. I’ll add my voice to the chorus of “the debriefings are awesome”.
The eastern European guys are explained in episode 122.
