Podcast Update!

It’s been a while since I last talked about which gaming podcasts I listen to and since the list has changed a bit I figured a quick update was due.

Rebel FM – Still one of my favorites. The show’s format is largely the same as the last time I mentioned it with Anthony Gallegos and Arthur Gies typically being joined by Tyler Barber and Matt Chandronait. They discuss what they’ve been playing, sometimes getting into a topical discussion, and then read and answer letters from listeners. Unfortunately they haven’t been doing very many relationship letters or anything else all too controversial recently, but it is still an enjoyable listen. Sadly they killed off their Rebel FM Game Club episodes quite a while ago.

The Comedy Button – After my last posting The Gamespy Debriefings changed quite a bit, first with the introduction of “The Brians”, Brian Miggels and Brian Altano, two comedy writers who drastically changed the focus of the show to be much less on-topic and much more humorous, then by the introduction of the hilarious Scott Bromley which pushed those elements into overdrive. Over time The Debriefings really became the Brian Altano and Scott Bromley show, with Anthony mostly serving as a kind of moderator, while Ryan Scott was mostly there as fodder for Brian and Scott’s jokes. When Scott Bromley got laid off from IGN The Comedy Button was born. The Comedy Button is largely the same show only with the addition of Destructiod’s Max Scoville and the now absolute absence of any pretense of needing to censor themselves or even approach sensible topics. This show always has me laughing like a maniac when I listen to it though be warned: it’s crude and usually over-the-top humor will definitely rub some people the wrong way.

Game Scoop! / Knockin’ Boots – I got into Game Scoop! after Anthony Gallegos (and the rest of Gamespy) and Arthur Gies both got picked up by IGN and started appearing on some of their podcasts but soon found the IGN regulars to have a lot of appeal of their own. Daemon Hatfield is a great host with a very likable personality and Greg Miller is (usually) fucking hilarious. Daemon and Greg’s friendship comes up often and is pretty genuinely endearing and itself a big source of laughs. The other IGN regulars fit into the formula well too. The podcast stays pretty on-topic covering mostly gaming news across all of the major platforms.

Knockin’ Boots is a spin off show which takes the same cast and has them answering relationship letters. It’s a little rougher around the edges thanks to the fact that the crew often drinks while recording it and they (especially Greg) can get a little out of control. I’ve also noticed that they tend to focus a lot more on silly sex and teen dating questions that have been answered over and over again rather than ever focusing on more serious relationship topics. If that’s what they want to do, fine, but it seems like the well might be running a little dry…

Gamers With Jobs Conference Call – As I mentioned last time, these guys remind me a bit of Idle Thumbs. Since Idle Thumbs is no longer around I started listening to the GWJ podcast regularly once again. The regulars seem to come from different perspectives than most of the gaming podcasters I’ve run across, being older gamers and often focusing on more obscure, PC based games and indie titles. They often get into lengthy discussions about topics related to gaming as well. While it is often pretty funny, it does a great job of staying on topic and being interesting and informative most of the time.

The Indoor Kids – This is a relatively new podcast that I feel needs some love as it has quickly become one of my favorites. It is hosted by comedian Kumail Nanjiani and his wife Emily Gordon and every episode features at least one guest. The guests are always pretty unique people, mostly other comedians and comedy writers including some pretty big names such as Tom Lennon from The State and Reno 911! fame. This podcast is always hilarious and has an amazing habit of immediately running off the rails into lengthy and sometimes deep discussions about the more emotional side of gaming, such as sentimental childhood memories, gaming as escapism, etc. Highly recommended!

Paradise Burns!

After wrapping up Space Marine I started playing through Burnout Paradise on Xbox 360 which I had been interested in finally giving a shot for quite a while now. I’m not a huge racing fan but I Lovvveeeedddd Burnout 3: Takedown and Burnout Revenge on the original Xbox so I was really looking forward to Burnout Paradise. I tried the demo when the game was still relatively new but couldn’t really get into it too much. Still, I know that it can be hard to judge an open world game from its demo alone, so I ended up buying it anyway but shelving it while I played through some of my more anticipated games… since then it has been pretty buried in my backlog.

Err. Yes, it's a racing game...
“Err. Yes, it’s a racing game…”

I admit that I might have missed the boat a little bit since all of my friends have long since put away their copies of Paradise meaning I wouldn’t get a great experience with the drop-in multiplayer nor all the fun to be had with the “Road Rules” score fights. Still, I hopped in, so long after the game has been heavily patched and supplemented with tons of DLC, and played through the core single-player experience. That is to say, doing races and events to unlock more cars and eventually getting to my final license as well as working to satisfy a few achievements and whatnot. The racing itself, at least after you start unlocking better cars, is the same old tight, fun, arcade racing that I love about Burnout. It took me a bit of time to get into it but once it clicked, I really found myself enjoying the hell out of it. The open world structure of Paradise doesn’t really add a whole lot to the game for me, in fact in many ways I think I would have rather had the old style tracks, and having to travel to find new events, make repairs, and swap cars is kind of a drag, but generally speaking it works quite well.

Expect to rack up millions of dollars in property damage in your time in Paradise City.
“Expect to rack up millions of dollars in property damage in your time in Paradise City.”

The removal of “Crash Mode” is sorely disappointing and the dismal “Showtime” mode is absolutely no replacement for its absence. Speaking of crashing, I wish take downs could lead to massive pile ups instead of only getting credit for the one car you take down first and then having the game more or less put you on autopilot (even leading you to avoid potential crashes yourself!) while it is showing you the wreckage. Relating to that, actually, my main complaint about the game is probably all of the oddities about the user experience – the way the music/radio system works, some of the odd little animations, cut-scenes, and screens the game forces you to watch all of the time, the map being almost useless, the fact that they had to patch in a “retry event” option and as a result it is in a semi-stupid place, etc.

Still, all this time later is it a good game? Definitely! I’m betting that if Criterion have taken some of the valuable lessons from Paradise to heart the next game in the Burnout series could very well be a total masterpiece!

(Oh, and while I didn’t absolutely hate it and some of the seemingly random music selections are pretty fun, I find the whole concept of “Crash FM” to be hilariously dumb. The more I think about it, the more absurd it is. Can’t someone from the FCC shut this shit down before DJ Atomica inspires yet another traffic related fatality? Christ!)

Per usual, screenshots totally stolen. Probably also from the PC version instead of the 360 version, I’d guess, but you get it. 😉

CoD Off Guard

So I bought Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on Xbox 360 at launch with the intention of playing the multiplayer a lot. I generally really enjoy the CoD:MW and it’s descendents’ fast, fluid, progression laden multiplayer, so like Space Marine before it I figured I’d hop into this one and have a ball with it online for a month or two. So far I’ve been enjoying it, despite me 1. sucking and 2. being a little surprised at how damn similar it is to Modern Warfare 2.

Looks shocking similar to other recent Call of Duty games, eh?
“Looks shocking similar to other recent Call of Duty games, eh?”

So anyway, random observation: I got into a lobby last night – nothing special about it, Standard Playlists>Team Deathmatch, etc. This game was different though – everyone was using like… teamwork and tactics? People were moving in groups, securing and holding areas before advancing, using covering fire and other suppression tactics, moving slowly instead of running around like morons, etc. It was totally alien compared to what I usually run into in Call of Duty, including in MW3 up until then. I’m really not sure what the fuck was going on… it was like I somehow ended up in the middle of a clan match or something, only that did not appear to be the case by looking at their clan tags. Anyway, having played a fair share of “serious” tactical games and clan matches, I actually found my niche and ended up doing quite well in that match, though afterwards I continued to reap the rewards of my curse of usually doing fair to excellent in my first match of the night and getting utterly slaughtered for the rest. *sigh*

In other news: OH MY FUCK SKYRIM IS OUT!!! 😀