Archive for Podcasts

1 February, 2009 | No comments

New Saturn has put me in orbit.

I have acquired a new child in the orphanage of game consoles that I run. I was really happy to stumble into the opportunity to own a Sega Saturn and I look forward to checking out many of the unique titles it offers. However, this console came at the price of handing over my Atari Jaguar. It was a little hard to let go of a console from my collection, but I know that it was going to a loving home. I also realized that the Sega Saturn is a console that speaks much more to the style of gamer that I am. So far I have Virtua Fighter 2, Daytona USA, and Street Fighter: The Movie. I will stop to comment on each of these titles later this week. For now know that Street Fighter is awesome in that B-movie way, and Daytona USA has this weird vibe as if this is NASCAR according to someone who has only seen about 30 seconds of the sport.

6 January, 2008 | No comments

www.1up.com Best in Podcasting

Podcasting requires little more than a microphone, Internet access and an ability to ramble on and on. Good podcasting however is quite a skill, one that unfortunately few possess among the droves that attempt to both entertain and inform us in a digital format. Here at langaming.net we have even thrown our hats into the ring with LANcast, which I am happy to say has hit episode 6 and is always improving. In the attempt to continue to improve LANcast and to simply keep abreast of all the happenings in the world of gaming I regularly sample many of the offerings of the podcast buffet. Today I would to point you to some of the best of the entrees, the 1UP Radio Network.

The first great thing about 1UP Radio is the one stop shop selection. Everything from World of Warcraft to Retrogaming has its place on 1UP Radio. Additionally, not having to deal with amateurs to electronic entertainment is a real treat after scraping together the majority of gaming podcasts in hopes to get one informed view. Now lets take a closer look at a few of the individual shows and see where they stand in their own hierarchy.

GFW Radio, by the crew from Games for Windows Magazine, is easily the most entertaining gaming podcast on the Internet. The show lead by Jeff Green (GFW Editor) contains an almost gourmet mix of humor, general geekdom, and gaming information focused around PC. Most shows open with an original bit of ongoing humor involving one of two characters that usually bust the most immaculate and hilarious nerdcore raps that even M.C. Chris should give respect. Beyond all of the geekiness and humor GFW radio has easily one of the most mature and well spoken casts you can find. The shows only fault, by no error of the cast, seems to be a recent string of technical difficulties affecting everything from sound quality to outright losing a large chunk of an episode. These are all trials that I will easily endure in order to continue getting my weekly dose of GFW. If you never listen to another podcast do yourself a favor and give GFW radio a try.

Retronauts will always hold a special place in my heart as the first podcast to which I ever listened. If it were not for the always solid performance in this show my interest in the entire medium would have quickly waned. Retronauts is a show headed by Jeremy Parish (1UP editor) that is a rarity in the podcasting ring since it tackles retro-gaming. This is a subject near and dear to me, and seeing it treated with such respect and knowledge does an aging gamer proud. Each Retronauts focuses on one main topic such as “the games of the C64” or a deep look into a single title such as Diablo, added to this is a short review of the retro downloadable titles released each week. While Jeremy is certainly an expert on classic gaming he is never afraid to take the show out of his comfort zone and tackle subjects to which he is quite novice. Being focused on classic topics allows an episode of Retronauts to have a replayability uncommon to the podcast format feeling more like a good book than the most recent newspaper. The only flaw I ever found in Retronauts was when Jeremy took a break and did not record an episode for over a month, but a new episode is up this week so check it out.

1UP Yours is the best option for coverage of all the latest news and games for whatever your modern console of choice may be. Simply put if you rely on your gaming podcast to keep you up to date on all of the goings on in the industry 1UP Yours will not let you down. A cast including a variety of 1UP network editors and any number of guests allows for some healthy discussion of the topics at hand. I really cannot find a flaw in the 1UP Yours show, only that GFW radio is more entertaining and I already read more gaming news than any sane person should.

EGM Live is a podcast that is complimentary to Electronic Gaming Monthly Magazine. The cast includes numerous editors from EGM. Really it is hard to find what to say about EGM Live, for the longest time it felt like a bland version of the other shows on 1UP radio. Recently though the show has undergone a new format which has helped tremendously. Now EGM Live is broken up into smaller pieces that seem to take advantage of most of the casts strengths. I can only say most of the casts strengths because even I felt embarrassed listening to Jennifer Tsao’s obvious lack of ability to interview Ted Price from Insomniac. I would like to make it clear that I have no grudge against her and in general Jennifer does a fine job on the show and as managing editor of EGM, but hands down that was the most unprofessional interview I have ever witnessed. That aside the new format is really working for the show and seems to just keep getting better.

In addition to the shows mentioned 1UP radio has Legendary Thread a podcast devoted to World of Warcraft, and Sports Anomaly which specializes in sports video games. Since neither of these topics mean much of anything to me my opinion would be useless. Considering the batting average of 1UP radio I doubt you will go wrong trying either of these shows if the subjects are appealing to you.

1UP radio is a wealth of great information and entertainment that should not be missed in this sea of modern Internet talk radio. 1UP radio is not where I stop in my podcast listening and next time I will cover some other podcasts worth checking out and maybe a few worth avoiding.