The ROFLstomp Episode

[fishbang]

This week’s episode can be found dangling from a gargoyle at the following link (http://ingamechat.net/audio/IGC20090811.mp3).

The Batman demo, as you’re sure to have heard by now, or discovered for yourselves, is quite the thing. There’s bound to be some disagreement on the finer points, and there’s no telling what shape our opinions will take during the final moments of our final play-through, but right now we can’t imagine anything we’d rather do than pay good money to wade through a legion of our favorite psychopaths, sociopaths, and their attendant goons.

In the meantime, we’ll occupy ourselves by having special feelings toward whoever is responsible for the Borderlands box art, by gasping in awe at the beauty of the IL-2 Sturmovik flat-spin simulator, suffering the anguish of having spent real earth money on G.I. Joe, or by considering how much we already love our Worgen rogue in the as-yet-unconfirmed WoW expansion.

Yeah. That last one’s all mine, I suppose. Big surprise.

Also, some forewarning. The Mark Hamill interview is forthcoming, and it’s not, like, short or anything. Man knows how to bring the story-telling, and we figure it’s worth mentioning that it all adds up to more than 4 hours worth of shit for this week.

[Iron Past]

That's the best title ever. The interview comes later, though, right? I haven't gotten a chance to listen to see if it's attached here after all.

[Spigot]

I wonder if you can do a ROFLcopterstomp...

I wish I had a chance to snag this before I headed into work tonight. I'll have to grab it tomorrow and listen to it overnight then.

And I'm interested to hear your take on G.I. Joe. I saw it on Friday (work paid, which might have meant something about my mood going in) but I really enjoyed it. It's big and dumb and loud, but it does a lot of stuff that I've been wishing action movies would do... ie. no (or at least, very little) shakey cam and realizing that you don't have to have 300 quick-cuts in a 40 second fight sequence.

Of course, I went into it with my expectations being so low as to be non-existent, so I was very pleased with what I saw... esp. compared to Transformers, which gets worse as I look back at it.

I hope you all get out to see District 9 by the next episode. It's next on my to-watch list!

[Doogie2K]

I hope you all get out to see District 9 by the next episode. It's next on my to-watch list!

Yes. Having just seen it, I'm itching to hear what your take on it is.

[Psykoboy2]

The interview comes later, though, right?

Yes. The interview is a standalone episode. It isn't a part of this episode.

I hope you all get out to see District 9 by the next episode. It's next on my to-watch list!

Saw it today, so yeah, we'll be talking about it.

[Wayward_Son]

THERE'S MORE STUFF? I will conquer you dammit, old.ingamechat.net it is. At this point though, my very name has sparked an entire conversation, I'm slowly taking over the Internet.

And for the "Princess in Another Castle" comment--- might be a pain in the ass, because I thought I'd accomplished something, but enjoy that thought while you can Jeremy, I lost the battle but I shall win the war :D

Actually I'm kinda glad, you guys don't get old.

[lucklesswonder]

Damn! The FM transmitter for my iPod chose a bad time to give up the ghost. I've got another shipping from Amazon, but it'll be a few days. In the meantime, no podcasts during my commute.

[Iron Past]

Damn! The FM transmitter for my iPod chose a bad time to give up the ghost. I've got another shipping from Amazon, but it'll be a few days. In the meantime, no podcasts during my commute.

You can just be that asshole driving with headphones... which I do more often than I care to admit. Got a cheap Car Pack for my Zune, though, so not so much anymore. :)

[Doogie2K]

Damn! The FM transmitter for my iPod chose a bad time to give up the ghost. I've got another shipping from Amazon, but it'll be a few days. In the meantime, no podcasts during my commute.

Your name proves apt.

Me, I actually have a stereo jack to plug my iPod into my van (hooray for new vehicles), so no worries.

[lucklesswonder]

You can just be that asshole driving with headphones... which I do more often than I care to admit. Got a cheap Car Pack for my Zune, though, so not so much anymore. :)

Yep. Did that last night. Supposed to be illegal, because you can't hear emergency sirens or car horns. But how is that different from listening to the radio in general? Or talking on the phone?

[Ravenlock]

Well, depending on your headphones, listening to the radio or talking on the phone won't block nearly as much outside noise as listening to headphones will. I can see the logic behind saying it's more dangerous.

I've been using a tape adapter for my iPod for a long time and it works great; there's a little bit of rattle from the tape deck but it's easily covered by the sound of whatever I'm listening to. Of course, nobody has tape decks anymore, so that may not work for you either. ;) If you do, though, they're not exactly expensive (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001IJYLL6/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=304485901&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0001YXWNM&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1G7VGHNW7FFSM7CB2ASM). :p

EDIT: Or this one (http://www.amazon.com/Coby-CA-747-Position-Cassette-Adapter/dp/B00006JPFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1250537023&sr=1-1), which is a tiny bit pricier but has better reviews. On mine, I did have to take it apart after a few months and remove the "auto-reverse" gear as one of the reviewers mentions. Works fine after that, though.

[hunterx280]

Yep. Did that last night. Supposed to be illegal, because you can't hear emergency sirens or car horns. But how is that different from listening to the radio in general? Or talking on the phone?

It's funny because in WA and CA it is mandatory to have some sort of headset for cell phone if you plan on talking on it while driving. What's the different between an iPhone wired headset and a wired iPod headset? A microphone. Get one of those and pretend you have an iPhone. I'm sure you can convince a cop that it's a wired headset for your phone.

[Doogie2K]

It's funny because in WA and CA it is mandatory to have some sort of headset for cell phone if you plan on talking in it while driving. What's the different between an iPhone wired headset and a wired iPod headset? A microphone. Get one of those and pretend you have an iPhone. I'm sure you can convince a cop that it's a wired headset for your phone.

...so long as you only cover one ear. And have a mic on it.

[hunterx280]

...so long as you only cover one ear. And have a mic on it.

Yeah, for a podcast that shouldn't be an issue. Music is a whole other subject. I actually listen to my iPod in the car so much that I have a stereo designed to have an iPod plug in. It's great but it limits me to an iPod. I'm thinking that when I have more money I want to get one that just does straight USB and finding an MP3 player that will work with it. My iPod is ok, I just not sure how much I want to stick with Apple, they tend to be a bit more expensive than most other MP3 players.

[Doogie2K]

Yeah, for a podcast that shouldn't be an issue. Music is a whole other subject. I actually listen to my iPod in the car so much that I have a stereo designed to have an iPod plug in. It's great but it limits me to an iPod. I'm thinking that when I have more money I want to get one that just does straight USB and finding an MP3 player that will work with it. My iPod is ok, I just not sure how much I want to stick with Apple, they tend to be a bit more expensive than most other MP3 players.

Fair enough. Like I said, my van has a stereo jack, so I'm not even limited to MP3 players. I could bring an old boom box in and listen to the mix tapes my dad made in 1988 through the car stereo if I wanted.

[hunterx280]

Fair enough. Like I said, my van has a stereo jack, so I'm not even limited to MP3 players. I could bring an old boom box in and listen to the mix tapes my dad made in 1988 through the car stereo if I wanted.

Yeah, I considered that but there were three reasons why I didn't do that. A) My stereo charges my iPod. B) All my music is in digital format in some fashion or another. C) Nearly everyone I know that has an MP3 player has an iPod.

The only reason why I want to get away from the iPod is that I am getting sick of iTunes. It's a clunky mess. When I first started using it, it had a great interface and wasn't much worse than other MP3 players I was using at the time. These days it's a whole other story. I guess I'm stuck until things start breaking.

[Ravenlock]

The only reason why I want to get away from the iPod is that I am getting sick of iTunes. It's a clunky mess. When I first started using it, it had a great interface and wasn't much worse than other MP3 players I was using at the time. These days it's a whole other story. I guess I'm stuck until things start breaking.

People have claimed over in this thread (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=10441) that MediaMonkey is an excellent iTunes replacement, but when I asked them how good it is at managing lots of podcast subscriptions, they were silent, so I haven't gone and tried it yet.

If you choose to do so, please let me know how it is. ;)

[hunterx280]

People have claimed over in this thread (http://www.colonyofgamers.com/cogforums/showthread.php?t=10441) that MediaMonkey is an excellent iTunes replacement, but when I asked them how good it is at managing lots of podcast subscriptions, they were silent, so I haven't gone and tried it yet.

If you choose to do so, please let me know how it is. ;)

I may actually do that. Podcast management is very important to me as well. I tried using Song Bird or whatever it was and it didn't support my model of iPod and the podcast management was shitty. Hopefully this will be better.

[Count Elmdor]

I haven't played Fallout 3 yet, but this Dunwich building that Arjay and James are talking about sounds a lot like a reference to the H.P. Lovecraft story The Dunwich Horror, which was pretty damned freaky. Can't wait to get to Fallout 3 at some point...

[Doogie2K]

Through Hour #1, and as a fresh owner of a 4870, I must say, the thing that bothers me the most about ATI cards isn't the anti-aliasing fail (I actually found that AA gave me a headache in Civ IV -- I need to try it on darker and/or moving games, but I think it might cause subtle flickering that does me in), but the fact that I can't control my fan for shit. Seriously, I actually needed to download a different toolkit in order to gain any control over my fan, and I actually have to manually open the fan control from the tray icon in order to get the fan to even start. I mean, once that's done, it's fine, and I can turn the thing up to 100% fan speed for games, and my GPU stays cool, and it's great, because I can play real games again, but Jesus Christ is that ever annoying.

And yes, I'm having the exact dilemma James is with Borderlands. What would be nice is if you could play co-op with the 360 people on the PC; somehow, I doubt that'll happen, unless it's a GFWL game and I'm not aware of it, but it would be cool if you could.

[kyrieee]

There's too much to say about starting out in EVE that I'm afraid to even try. I'll try to keep this short and just give some broad advice

First of all, download:
EVEMon (http://evemon.battleclinic.com/) and EFT (http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=548883)

Those are two tools that you really can't play the game without.

Secondly, if you're going to play the game then you owe it to yourself to at least get into a corp and give PvP a try, because if you don't then you haven't experienced what the game is about. The thrill of PvP in EVE is really quite unlike any other game because you risk your ship every time you engage in combat. A friend in my corp who's fought in big wars says that he still get 'combat shakes' when he goes on roams (and I certainly do). If you stick to PvE content then you will get bored and wonder what all the fuss is about because most of the PvE content isn't all that great.

EVE is a game about playing with and against other people, and that's not just blowing people up. Because it's such an open game stuff just happens, and you will gets lots of memorable experiences. It could be something as simple as some pirates camping a system and you forming up a fleet to go kick their ass, but it's dynamic and much more fun than scripted PvE encounters. The combat may seem very simple, but when you get into your first fights you probably won't be able to keep up =) it's also a lot about picking the right fights and avoiding the ones you don't think you can win

This is getting long =(

Anyway, it's only a game and most people treat it as such. If you're nice to people they will be nice to you, and that doesn't mean not blowing you up because blowing you up is part of the game. Since it's one big universe you also want to be careful about pissing people off, because people in EVE don't forget :p

Don't rush into big ships because big ships aren't 'better', they're just different. They're better at making money in PvE but you fly them very differently in PvE. Frigates have their use just like every other ship and if I'm in a battleship I sometimes have more reason to fear a frigate than another battleship. You will fly them eventually, but it's better to wait a bit because you actually need a lot more support skills trained to be effective in them.

Also, make sure you train some of the learning skills because it will really pay off in the long run, and be careful with your respecs!

You could try applying for EVE-University. It's a corp dedicated to training new people, and if you have any questions about the game you can hit me up ingame (if I'm online). Finally, never go to Rancer

[Count Elmdor]

Thanks for the tips!

Speaking of EVE, did you guys see this (http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=24886)?

I trust I am not alone in thinking that could be fucking sweet?

I expect much speculation on this on the next show.

[lucklesswonder]

I haven't played Fallout 3 yet, but this Dunwich building that Arjay and James are talking about sounds a lot like a reference to the H.P. Lovecraft story The Dunwich Horror, which was pretty damned freaky. Can't wait to get to Fallout 3 at some point...

This entry is from The Vault, a Fallout wiki (or weekee ;)):

Much of the Dunwich Building refers to H.P. Lovecraft's "Cthulhu Mythos".

The area, especially the company Dunwich Borers, is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's masterpiece "The Dunwich Horror"[1][2], although many of the other references are from other Lovecraft works.

The Alhazred mentioned in the final audiotape is the "Mad Arab" Abdul Alhazred -- author of the imaginary book Kitab al-Azif (the Necronomicon)
The mysterious book that drives its holder/reader mad has been used as a plot device; both as the fictional "Necronomicon" as well as in stories contemporary to Lovecraft (particularly "The King in Yellow").

Lovecraft used a type of radiation as the villain in one of his most famous stories, "The Colour Out of Space", foreshadowing the radiation induced transformations of the Ghouls in the Dunwich Building.

A computer terminal talks about Ug-Qualtoth returning, whose name would fit well in the way Lovecraft named his creatures.The name Ug-Quagloth is reference to H.P. Lovecraft's creature Yog-Sothoth which is released using ritual in the Necronomicon.

At the one-way entrance to the underchambers (from the ruins), there is a desk set in the center of the room like some kind of altar, below a huge circular hole towards the sky.

The final audio tape also mentions G'yeth which may be a reference to R'lyeh, an undersea city where Cthulhu sleeps in H.P. Lovecraft's stories.

[Spigot]

I remember being disappointed in the Dunwitch Building because it didn't end up being more than it appeared. It was a nice nod to Cthulhu and Lovecraft, but I kept expecting to find something super scary inside and was left kicking some stuff around in that final hidden altar room before sauntering back outside.

[lucklesswonder]

Yeah, they could have thrown in some twisted, slobbering, pus-eyed hulk to spice things up. Ghouls are creepy, but I was hoping for something more. Kinda like the Uderfrykt from the Blood Moon expansion of Morrowind.

[Count Elmdor]

Awesome.

Lovecraft is just so amazingly rich. His influence is so ubiquitous in modern genre fiction that you couldn't escape it if you tried.

An amazing true story: I used to date a girl who was a real cheap-ass, dumpster diver and all. One day she'd heard that the public library in Conway, Arkansas, where we went to college, was having a book sale, so we went to check it out. Rifling through the stacks of old-ass, yellowed paperbacks, I found a tattered book called The Philosopher's Stone for a quarter. Interested, I bought it, and months later when I finally got around to reading it, I got 3/4 of the way through the book only to realize it was a part of the extended Cthulhu mythos, referencing "The Shadow Out of Time" and, if memory servers, the Necronomicon of Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. My mind has never been the same since.

[astranoir]

Awesome.

Lovecraft is just so amazingly rich. His influence is so ubiquitous in modern genre fiction that you couldn't escape it if you tried.

An amazing true story: I used to date a girl who was a real cheap-ass, dumpster diver and all. One day she'd heard that the public library in Conway, Arkansas, where we went to college, was having a book sale, so we went to check it out. Rifling through the stacks of old-ass, yellowed paperbacks, I found a tattered book called The Philosopher's Stone for a quarter. Interested, I bought it, and months later when I finally got around to reading it, I got 3/4 of the way through the book only to realize it was a part of the extended Cthulhu mythos, referencing "The Shadow Out of Time" and, if memory servers, the Necronomicon of Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. My mind has never been the same since.

UCA? Hendrix?

[Count Elmdor]

UCA, graduated 2003. You?

[Iron Past]

Referring to Spigot's email, you know what would happen if there were a year with no new games? There would be massive sales filled with deals I wouldn't be able to resist, meaning I'd go even more broke and have a larger backlog than before. :)

[Dostoyevsky]

Just to chime in with some podcast recommendations, here are my favorites, ranked in order (because things need to be done this way):

Gaming

Idle Thumbs
Giant Bombcast
In-Game Chat (Hi!)
ListenUp
Gamers with Jobs
Rebel FM
Joystiq
CAGcast


Infrequent, But Awesome:

Out of the Game (Jeff Green, Shawn Elliot, Luke Smith, N'Gai Croal)
A Life Well Wasted


Non-Gaming, But Awesome:

Smodcast (Kevin Smith)
Radiolab (Science & Human Interest)
This American Life
Filmspotting
B.S. Report (Sports)


And yeah, I listen to all of these each week. I work as a technical writer and may spend a week editing and formatting a 200+ page manual for an industrial motion control card or automation controller. Most of the time I'm just on autopilot and daydreaming of gaming. :cool:

I haven't listened to any of the other CoG network podcasts yet, but I'll give them a shot.

[astranoir]

UCA, graduated 2003. You?

U of A Fayetteville 2009

[Chris_D]

Wow, you guys loved talking about GI Joe. I must admit, I'm far more interested in hearing your, hopefully relatively spoiler-free, thoughts about District 9 (did I get the title right?). Not sure when I'll get the chance to see it.

[Psykoboy2]

I must admit, I'm far more interested in hearing your, hopefully relatively spoiler-FILLED, thoughts about District 9 (did I get the title right?). Not sure when I'll get the chance to see it.

Fixed that for you....unfortunately.

[Spigot]

I was about to say, I don't want spoiler free commentary on D9. I want to hear you guys rip that thing apart and dissect its entrails. It deserves no less... and of course, I mean this dismemberment and evisceration in a good way.

[kyrieee]

One podcast I'd recommend that's not really game related, even though they talk a bit about videogames at times, is Out of the Game:

http://mexicutedbyhepitacos.libsyn.com/

[Uno Ill Nino]

One podcast I'd recommend that's not really game related, even though they talk a bit about videogames at times, is Out of the Game:

http://mexicutedbyhepitacos.libsyn.com/

I second! GFW fans know what this is.

[Count Elmdor]

Just to chime in with some podcast recommendations, here are my favorites, ranked in order (because things need to be done this way):

Gaming

Idle Thumbs
Giant Bombcast
In-Game Chat (Hi!)
ListenUp
Gamers with Jobs
Rebel FM
Joystiq
CAGcast


Infrequent, But Awesome:

Out of the Game (Jeff Green, Shawn Elliot, Luke Smith, N'Gai Croal)
A Life Well Wasted





I listen to all of those save the Joystiq cast, and I can vouch for all of them. Well, except for Rebel FM, which I just unsubbed to due to lack of time (and Anthony Gallegos comes off as a bit of a dick).

Idle Thumbs and is great for PC game talk and deeper In-Game Chat-like discussion from time to time. Bombcast for general console stuff and laffs, CAGcast for the same, and Gamers With Jobs is just a well-put-together cast for PC/board games and "high concept" discussion topics.

[Spigot]

I unsubbed recently from Rebel FM too, which made me feel bad but I guess since Phil isn't there anymore, I don't feel THAT bad. It just seemed far too rambly for my tastes. At least when IGC goes off topic, it tends to at least stick to issues of general geekiness. Rebel FM was just too long with far, FAR too many instances where they'd just ramble about sex, dick jokes, etc... I guess that's just a sign that I'm getting old. I wouldn't have minded if the show wasn't something like 3 hours long every time, most of which tended to be the asides rather than the good game/tech/geek discussion.

[Doogie2K]

I unsubbed recently from Rebel FM too, which made me feel bad but I guess since Phil isn't there anymore, I don't feel THAT bad. It just seemed far too rambly for my tastes. At least when IGC goes off topic, it tends to at least stick to issues of general geekiness. Rebel FM was just too long with far, FAR too many instances where they'd just ramble about sex, dick jokes, etc... I guess that's just a sign that I'm getting old. I wouldn't have minded if the show wasn't something like 3 hours long every time, most of which tended to be the asides rather than the good game/tech/geek discussion.

Actually, exactly the week Phil left was the week I unsubbed. I got halfway through the next episode, and decided that without Phil and Nick, it wasn't 1UP/Rebel FM anymore (and 1UP FM was my favourite podcast, period, for most of its run), and was done.

[Dostoyevsky]

Yeah that's strange, I've also been losing interest slowly since Phil left, mainly because it was never explained. I always felt there was some bad mojo there. And Anthony and Arthur's banter is increasingly and annoyingly negative.

[Spigot]

Actually, exactly the week Phil left was the week I unsubbed. I got halfway through the next episode, and decided that without Phil and Nick, it wasn't 1UP/Rebel FM anymore (and 1UP FM was my favourite podcast, period, for most of its run), and was done.

Yeah that's strange, I've also been losing interest slowly since Phil left, mainly because it was never explained. I always felt there was some bad mojo there. And Anthony and Arthur's banter is increasingly and annoyingly negative.I was wondering about that. I remember the episode when Phil was no longer there, but I think I ended up deleting the file when I still had about half of the ep to go (I was a little overzealous in my tidying of the iTunes subscriptions that day) and I just figured that they talked about it near the end of the show.

I didn't mind either Anthony or Arthur, in fact, Anthony's pieces on 1UP FM were a highlight of the show, but as mentioned earlier, the blather overwhelmed content. The only thing remotely '1uppy' about the show was the fact that they seem to NEED to clock in at least 2.5-3 hours per show, content be damned.

[Iron Past]

I finally got to the GI Joe review, and while I usually agree with most everything you guys say... that was totally unfair. I mean, you spent a lot of time talking, when all you had to say was, "It wasn't like the cartoon/comic," and been done with it. I watched GI Joe as a kid too, but I wasn't sitting in the theater trying to see how different it was from what I felt it should have been. Not that I have a whole lot of credibility with movies, but it didn't really deserve to cast off like that (especially considering you like Transformers 2--or were entertained by it).

[Psykoboy2]

(especially considering you like Transformers 2--or were entertained by it).

Speaking only for myself, and I didn't speak much during the GI Joe movie talk, I had very little connection to the cartoon/comic, but I didn't like it either.

As for Transformers 2...none of us liked 1, and since we were being given a 2, we already knew going in not to associate it with our past, but our previous experience with the first film. We knew what we were getting.

Should GI Joe get a sequel, and it likely will, you'll probably hear us say the same thing about it that we did for Transformers 2.

But again, I'm only speaking for myself on this one.

[Iron Past]

Yeah, I just went in with that expectation already, I suppose. And really, really low expectations in general. To be fair, I think the movie you guys would have made (a more literal translation) would have been much more interesting, and Hollywood absolutely dose suffer from that "make it mine" syndrome.

[tacitus]

A little background, I have been using ATI cards ever since EGA Wonder and possibly before (about 2 years) so I am clearly used to their idiosyncrasies. The several times I have attempted to investigate nvidia cards I have just gotten confused; and franky being the internet I see the same pissing and moaning about every product and how awesome their new board is no matter what brand. Currently own a 3870.

When it comes to the ATI vs nvidia issues - I have wondered what problems are drivers, what problems are developers and what problems are middleware/engines. I have had anti-aliasing work fine on everything except the arkham demo. Is the actual problem they decided to test with an ATI card too late in development to fix it? I don't know. The fog problem has been around since thief deadly shadows which used unreal.

One unreal question, do we know what happened to the Silicon Knights vs Epic lawsuit which I think started in 2007?

[Chris_D]

I actually liked Rebel FM better after Phil and Nick left. It was definitely a different show though. I still listen to it and some of Anthony's stories can be classic on the Shaun Elliot level.

[bulletfood]

Great episode guys. I saw G.I. Joe for free at the base theater and lets just say that I'm glad yhat I didn't have to pay for that crap. My connection to G.I. Joe is like Jeremy's to Transformers.

[Uno Ill Nino]

I'm going to sound like a total asshole here, but my main beef with Rebel FM was that I couldn't help but get this "we're so fuckin' cool because we're insiders" kinda vibe from the show. The only reason it saw any success is because it had a short stint as the new "kids table" podcast, but then it lost those people and we were left with Anthony (who I like) and his negative buddy who I almost never agreed with. And then they'd have Jade on sometimes and again, I'm a total asshole for saying this I'm sure, but Jade comes off as one of those girls who realized that if she embraces gaming, she'll get a lot of attention from young men. I'm not going to blame her for that, but I sure don't care about her opinion on stuff the way I would about Shawn Elliot's or Jeff Green's. Even Garnett Lee is an asshole at times, but at least he's been around for a while and knows a good amount about gaming, y'know?

And the guys at IGC for example. THEY are gamers. Those guys know their shit and they don't front. Ever. I love that about the show. I'm not so sure I could make the same claim for a bunch of the other casts out there, Rebel FM included.

Anyway, rant over. I'll be expecting my "Asshole Certificate" in the mail sometime before the end of the week. Thank you.

[Doogie2K]

I'm going to sound like a total asshole here, but my main beef with Rebel FM was that I couldn't help but get this "we're so fuckin' cool because we're insiders" kinda vibe from the show. The only reason it saw any success is because it had a short stint as the new "kids table" podcast, but then it lost those people and we were left with Anthony (who I like) and his negative buddy who I almost never agreed with. And then they'd have Jade on sometimes and again, I'm a total asshole for saying this I'm sure, but Jade comes off as one of those girls who realized that if she embraces gaming, she'll get a lot of attention from young men. I'm not going to blame her for that, but I sure don't care about her opinion on stuff the way I would about Shawn Elliot's or Jeff Green's. Even Garnett Lee is an asshole at times, but at least he's been around for a while and knows a good amount about gaming, y'know?

And the guys at IGC for example. THEY are gamers. Those guys know their shit and they don't front. Ever. I love that about the show. I'm not so sure I could make the same claim for a bunch of the other casts out there, Rebel FM included.

Anyway, rant over. I'll be expecting my "Asshole Certificate" in the mail sometime before the end of the week. Thank you.

I don't have a problem with Jade on Geekbox. Maybe it's just Rebel FM?

[Spigot]

Again, I think a big part of Rebel FM's problem is that they seem to feel a need to have a podcast that goes 2-3 hours without actually having 2-3 hours of content to fill it... and they just don't have the same, I don't know... chemistry that the IGC guys have. If Rebel FM had trimmed their length down to about an hour and axed most of the superfluous chatter, it could be decent.

I like Retronauts, well, because I like old games and also because even though the guys there DO come off as knowing TOO much and trying to measure their e-peens by seeing who has the most obscure game or hardware, it's a little more genuine. Plus it also just seems like they don't have to try as hard to know the latest and greatest, so they can put a certain passion into their subject matter that a lot of shows that have to follow the news and trends just can't.

I also like What They Play's podcast because it looks at the more casual/mainstream side of things, which is a part of gaming culture that most of us ignore for good or ill. And I like Jon Davison.

[lucklesswonder]

I mentioned a while ago that my iPod's FM transmitter had died. Well, the new one is doing the same thing. So I did some reading. Turns out, it doesn't cut off because of no feedback, it cuts off due to 50 or so seconds of silence. So I started comparing. It only cuts off during In-Game Chat. And sure enough, IGC runs at a MUCH lower volume than any other podcast I listen to. The transmitter is registering it as silence, even when my iPod's volume is turned all the way up.

[Spigot]

I mentioned a while ago that my iPod's FM transmitter had died. Well, the new one is doing the same thing. So I did some reading. Turns out, it doesn't cut off because of no feedback, it cuts off due to 50 or so seconds of silence. So I started comparing. It only cuts off during In-Game Chat. And sure enough, IGC runs at a MUCH lower volume than any other podcast I listen to. The transmitter is registering it as silence, even when my iPod's volume is turned all the way up.50 seconds of silence? I know there was at least one instance of that during the last ep (when James had to use the potty) but it's usually not THAT bad.

I agree with you about the podcast seeming to run quiet though. My transmitter compensates for volume but that just means that I have to actually crank my stereo up in the car.

IGC, start yelling more! Though maybe by recording quieter, they don't pick up all of the hillbilly music and squeaky chairs in the studio :)

[lucklesswonder]

Though maybe by recording quieter, they don't pick up all of the hillbilly music and squeaky chairs in the studio :)

Ha, yeah. That had occurred to me.

[Iron Past]

IGC, start yelling more! Though maybe by recording quieter, they don't pick up all of the hillbilly music and squeaky chairs in the studio :)

But it doesn't stop the damn sirens that have me looking wildly around the road every five minutes. ;)