Otagan
4682
Often moreso. It’s a love-it-or-hate-it sort of thing.
Yes. Always. I don’t get it either. I’ve listened to many episodes now, and though there’s quite a few funny moments in some of them, it’s surrounded by hours of boring stuff. A more edited down version would be a godsend.
Just take the PS Vita for example. On the Giant Bombcast, all the Vita talk was by one guy (I think it was Jeff Gertesman, or Brad Shoemaker) who just went on and on and on and on in a monotone voice and almost put me to sleep several times. Contrast that with the Qt3 Games Podcast that week, where Tom and Jason had Jason Cross on, and Jason Cross summarized in a few minutes all the same points that were mentioned on the Bombcast, but in a much more interesting and concise way.
To be fair though, there are some really funny moments in there too sometimes. It’s just surrounded by a lot of talking about nothing in particular. Sometimes the magic happens, but mostly it’s just talk that’s rambling and uninteresting.
Someone in the idle thumbs kickstarter thread pointed out a “this year” podcast that edits together episodes of podcasts, and they do an incredible job. The “This Year” podcast for idle thumbs is really insightful, funny and entertaining throughout its four hours because it takes only the best moments from all the episodes. I’m sure a “This Year” podcast for Giant Bombcast would be pretty funny too.
xahlt
4684
I’m in the “love” camp, myself, but I can see how it is not everyone’s cup of tea. I think when it comes to certain subjects, they’ve already done a lot of coverage of the subject in other forms - like Quick Looks and such, so they are basically repeating things they’ve just talked about. For instance, with the Vita they did some multi-hour live streaming covering just about all the launch games, so talking about it again on the bombcast doesn’t have the same energy.
The rambly bits are what make it what it is. Not everyone’s cup of java–and it took a while to click for me, too–but once it snaps to you it’s great.
I don’t hate it, but it’s definitely going to stay lower in my listening priority list.
What bothers me a little more is that in at least one conversation they’re pretty spoilery about games they played, which just came out recently. I can see why they’d do that, they’re basically just talking to each other and happen to be recording, and I’m not particularly spoiler averse, but it was pretty noticeable.
The Giant Bomb crew are funny and knowledgeable enough to sustain the fluff and non-game talk, in my opinion. It helps too that each of them have fairly distinct interests, personalities and voices that I feel like I am getting to know them and appreciate their perspectives. I’ll contrast that with the PC Gamer podcast where I care about the content the are discussing but find the speakers kind of mumbly and monotone.
This is a very legitimate complaint about the Bombcast. They do indeed stray into some pretty bad spoiler territory more that most.
I love the rambly nature of the Bombcast (and favour long podcasts in general) but I do have one complaint that is partly a result of that nature. It’s by no means limited to the Bombcast, but I do find it frustrating when they’re talking about a game for an extended period of time and keep referring to it only as “this game” or something else generic. A lot of the time I’m listening to a podcast while doing something else, and I’ll partially tune out until I hear something that catches my interest. Yet by the time I realise it’s interesting, I’ve forgotten what the game is called (obviously I’m not talking about, say, Assassin’s Creed news but some new indie or iOS game). So I end up having to rewind and find the part where they start talking about it, then fast forward to where I left off.
So, podcasting types, don’t do that! Make a point of referring to the game by its name every so often.
Quaro
4690
I can’t figure out how to subscribe to this – anyone have the working rss feed?
It shows up as One Life Left if you search iTunes. Or you can try the RSS: http://onelifeleft.libsyn.com/rss. Can’t guarantee the GDC casts are on the RSS, but I assume so.
LMN8R
4692
Giant Bombcast makes me happy I got used to listening to podcasts at 2x playback speed years ago :-P I basically finish it in a day’s worth of commuting + doing dishes
I don’t play Roguelikes (or RPGs in general) but I enjoy hearing about them. I don’t think I quite want to listen to 26 podcasts about them; do you have some favorite episodes in particular?
Wolff
4694
I actually wish more podcasts would have lengthy spoiler discussions. Not the day of release but a week or two out I’d be happy, just label the section/cast as such.
Qwijybo
4695
Oh my, 1000x yes. I thought I was the only one!
I’m going to go ahead and agree with you on that. I usually just keep listening and try to piece together from the points they make what they’re talking about.
Guys, it’s not that hard to figure out what game they’re talking about at a given moment. They list the games in the show description.
I have the same problem, but keep in mind I’m listening to it at work in the middle of the night using an mp3 player. There’s no show description available, and the ability to go backwards and forward is severely limited and inconvenient. Basically, if I miss something, I miss something and try to figure out what it was. And Ginger Yellow is right, Bombcast is particularly egregious in this area. I’ve also had it happen to me on occasion in other podcasts, but never as often as in the Bombcast. For some reason, those guys really don’t like repeating the name of the game that they’re talking about.
I disagree. On podcasts that discuss a large number of games in a given week–those that do a “what are you playing” thing–it absolutely is easy to get lost about what game is being discussed, especially if you’re listening in a car or traveling and stop the podcast for a bunch of hours while you’re at work or something.
Add me to the list of “I thought I was the only one” but yeah, podcasts like the Bombcast, Gamers With Jobs, etc. could sure do their listeners a solid by referring back the game they’re discussing when the talk goes over 15 minutes or so.
I’ve had this happen to me on multiple occasions, I’m also glad to see I’m not alone - it’s something that wouldn’t hurt (or be hard) to address.
