Podcasts: The Giant Bombcast

Had been really stressed out at for for pretty much all of June, during which time I missed the deadline for a writing submission to get published at Gamers With Jobs and also started a writeup of Magic The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers, but that also never made it to the "Publish" button. Tonight I'm not going to try and pen some essay about Japanese gaming culture or the story about how i swore off collectable card games when i was 18 years old, this is because i've realized that recovery from being overstressed is a slow road and that I need to use some baby steps.

Tonight i'm going to keep it as irreverant and silly as I can, and thus i'm going to talk about the Giant Bombcast.

The Bombcast is Giant Bomb's weekly podcast, and about the closest thing to an humorous radio show like Opie and Anthony that you're going to find in gaming podcast circles.

Giant Bomb consists of Jeff Gerstmann, Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, and Vinnie Caravella, all ex-Gamespot employees who (with the about-to-become-obvious exception of Jeff) left the site following the controversial firing of Gerstmann. The latter having been axed after giving a negative review to a game that had advertized heavily at the site (aka: Gerstmanngate).

It would seem that the group quickly realized when they started putting that site together, that a small company like theirs can't hope to compete with massive sites like Kotaku and IGN in terms of how much content they provide or how quickly they can provide it. So what they provide is pure personality. Just like every other gaming podcast out there, they talk about the games they play, the news, and new releases, but what sets them apart is that the group is genuinely funny and has chemestry that keeps the conversation flowing.

If that flavor of humor appeals to you, then you'll feel right at home listening to the Bombcast.

Podcasts: Out of the Game

I realized recently that I listen lot of Podcasts, so much so that I think I've become either an expert or an addict. To that end I decided to shed a little light on some of the shows that have been occupying so much of my time.

Out of the Game

OttG is a podcast featuring ex-game journalists (enthusiast press or whatever) Jeff Green, former Editor in Chief at Computer Gaming world, who has moved onto development at EA; Luke Smith, formally of 1up, now employed by Bungie; N'Gai Croal, once mainstream media's most prolific gaming voice, now a freelance game design consultant, Robert Ashley freelancer, musician, and creator of the fantastic internet radio show, A Life Well Wasted; and hosted by Shawn Elliot, who now hangs his hat alongside Ken Levine at 2K Boston. For those who have been following the gaming media, this is something of a dream team. With the exception of N'Gai, every one of these guys is a legend in gaming podcast circles.

On would think that getting a group like this together would lead to some sort of mega-gaming podcast, but the kicker of OttG is that they rarely discuss games at all. Instead this show's topics range spans books, movies, the internet, family, and even the occasional game, everything is open to discussion here.

Out of the Game serves to remind listeners that personalities can be far more important then topics.