This.
And I really have to push this particular episode with Bruce Shelley. He talks about being the first person to play Sid’s first builds of the first Civilization! And why he left Microprose. Plus the whole history of the Age of Empires franchise. And lots more. Anyone interested in the history of PC gaming should give it a listen.
So the “mystery” of why Dan Ryckert has to pee so much was solved this week and it turns out it’s not even remotely a mystery. Apparently he was drinking two full mugs of espresso (under the impression that it’s only a little stronger than normal coffee) and an average 10 diet sodas every day. Every time I think this man cannot shock me any more with his eating habits, obliviousness to basic general knowledge and human norms… Money quote “I could feel my eyeballs pulsating”. Oh, and the first thing he did on being diagnosed as pre-diabetic was have a Taco Bell.
Or his lack of common sense.
Jesus Christ, now he’s being taught, apparently for the first time, that gravity is related to mass, and that the fact that two animals don’t look like each other doesn’t mean they’re not related. How does he even get through the day?
RickH
4985
In other news, the Games Radar+ podcast has started up again. Ludwig appears to be out, and Susan Arendt is a now a regular (as are her dogs, occasionally). I think having a more stable lineup is an improvement.
jsnell
4986
Austin Walker and Patrick Klepek now have an unnamed podcast at Vice. I really didn’t need to have more gaming podcasts in the rotation, but damn have I missed Austin on the Beastcast.
The time has come!
Soren Johnson published the first part of his interview with Sid Meier on his Designer Notes podcast.
This is the first time I got to hear the voice of the man responsible for the best game ever (Pirates!, of course). I was personally very moved, amongst other emotions I won’t describe.
Beat me to the punch. I was listening to it on my way to get lunch this afternoon. Also, relevant to the Civ VI thread: “There’s no point building a brilliant AI because people will just assume it’s cheating.”
That’s precisely what has been happening on the biggest thread in Steam’s Offworld Trading Company forums. Always should listen to your Sensei! :D
They don’t believe you even if you release the source code!
While this thread is bumped, here’s this week’s Ryckert news. Apparently he thinks that if you have a bubble of air under water a la Sonic, and you push a pin into it, it will pop like a soap bubble.
So, Dan is from Kansas. All his family are farmers. So surely this is the one subject on which he has a basic understanding of how things work, right?
Wrong.
Highlights include referring to chaff as yeast and harvested wheat as “sprinkly bread”.
kentdog
4993
Any recommendations for podcasts with in-depth game discussions made by folks completely unconnected to the gaming media and/or development? I find myself getting somewhat tired of some of the recurrent conversations that people “in the biz” seem to have. I cringe whenever the topic of reviews comes up anymore.
I want to hear some detailed talk about, for example, Dead Rising 4, that might be somewhere in between YouTube-style gushing and mainstream dismissal due to average review scores.
It may help to know which ones you already listen to, so no one starts recommending the very podcasts you are trying to avoid?
kentdog
4995
Unfortunately, I may have podcasted myself into a corner by listening to and trying pretty much anything that has come up in this thread. Basically, though, I’m looking for something that doesn’t feature someone whom does, or has at one time, worked for any of the most popular game sites: IGN, Polygon, Giantbomb, Gamespot, etc.
Anyone have an unknown nephew that does an unpopular but brilliant and funny podcast that is yet to be discovered?
You don’t really get that sort of quality amateurism outside of game-specific podcasts. Not least because if you run a generalist gaming podcast, you become part of the gaming media by definition.
That said, I would suggest you won’t find much of what you seem to dislike in Gamers With Jobs, One Life Left (literally every game gets 7/10, so no worries about review scores!), Idle Thumbs, or Daft Souls, though all of them feature people with past or present connections to games journalism or development.That said, I’m still a bit confused about what exactly you dislike, since I can’t think of many quality podcasts that would dismiss a game because of review scores. They might dismiss review scores, though. I guess you just don’t want industry navel gazing?
kentdog
4997
Yeah, probably this. Maybe I’m just burning out on game talk, in general, and should take a break.
My comment regarding review scores is about how a game that gets 7/10 is sometimes “universally” regarded as not worth talking about, but every single podcast will then say the same things about the latest 10/10 game. As another example, I just bought Age of Decadence (more of an 8/10, I guess?), and I don’t know where I might go to hear people discussing it after I’ve played it a bit.
That said, I’ll check out One Life Left and Daft Souls, which I had not heard of. Thanks.
In that instance, I don’t think that has anything to do with review scores so much as it’s just a relatively obscure indie game in a super niche genre (at least in the West) . I mean, you don’t get a lot of coverage of Greenlight games in general. Also it’s over a year old, so you’re probably not going to hear discussion of it anywhere now.
I’d agree it can be a bit frustrating to hear the same, mostly mainstream, games discussed over and over again, but the solution to that seems to be to listen to a wider range of podcasts, not to arbitrarily shut yourself off from “industry” ones. Frankly I think the whole review score question is orthogonal to your concern about certain games being widely ignored. AAA games get talked about more. Games in certain genres get talked about more. New/upcoming games get talked about more. Games from, for want of a better word, trendy developers get talked about more.
jsnell
4999
I think the solution is probably genre-specific podcasts, rather than general gaming ones. For example Three Moves Ahead does a great job of covering both popular and obscure strategy titles. (And generally devote a full one hour episode to just the one game). Likewise I don’t really care for Roguelike Radio, but the one thing they sure seem to do is cover just about everything in the genre.
Though it probably wouldn’t help with finding Dead Rising 4 discussion, unless there’s a podcast dedicated to B-list action game sequels.
Huh, I thought I was the only one, for as much as I love roguelikes, I couldn’t get into this podcast. The biggest reason was their audio quality…it’s just usually so bad that it’s just tough to enjoy listening to.
