I don’t think we have done this in a while (or ever) so lets talk about our favorite podcasts, snline series and LP’s. I’m mostly doing this to see what you guys like, because I’m probably missing out on some good stuff that is out there.
These days I have scarcely any time to devote to long podcasts, especially educational stuff. Most of the stuff I follow are review shows with interesting commentary, or just pointless entertainment.
The only LP I follow right now is Spoiler Warning, mostly because I have been reading Shamus’ and Rutskarn’s blogs for a long time now. It is great to hear them rage at bad game design, bicker and joke around while playing a chaotic stupid character in every game. They have a really good ratio of hilarity to interesting commentary, and I highly suggest checking them out. So far they have done both Mass Effect games, Bioshock, Fallout 3 and are currently complaining their way through Fallout New Vegas.
I love most of the Escapist Magazine video lineup. I always watch Zero Punctuation but then again who doesn’t. Yahtzee is a bit infamous on the internets, and if you haven’t heard of his rage fueled reviews in which he habitually rips apart every single game you love, then you probably have been living under a rock for a while. So yeah, check him out.
I honestly believe that the Extra Credits team delivers the most insightful, intelligent and well researched commentary on the stat of the video game industry you can probably find on the internet these days. And they do it in a compact 5-10 minute humorous video segments. They are not as irreverent and hilarious as Yahtzee but they do make very interesting points. They tackle a variety of subjects such as current events, issues that plague the video game industry, and especially game design. This is a group of people who truly believe that video games are a genuine form of artistic expression – that’s sort of the common basis for all their analysis. I highly recommend checking them out.
I absolutely love the skits done by the Loading Ready Run. It’s basically sketch comedy made by video game geeks who are also hopelessly addicted to Magic the Gathering. How can you not like that? The same team is also responsible for other two Escapist shows: Unskippable (Mystery Science Theater style commentary for video game cut scenes) and Feed Dump (3 people in a room making fun of wacky world news while wearing silly hats) which are also hilarious.
I usually get my reliable movie reviews from Movie Bob who not only has an excellent grasp of the medium, but is also a comic book and video game geek. His taste in cinema seems to align with mine very well. He also usually has some interesting stuff to say in his random rant series The Big Picture. Bob also has a blog where he expands upon his reviews, and posts interesting news. Oh, and he makes a video game review series as well.
I’m also rather fond of the That Guy With Glasses nostalgia reviews, including the stuff by the Nostalgia Critic, and his distaff counterpart Nostalgia Chick. Most people are familiar with the Critic, but if you have never watched anything by Nostalgia Chick, definitely check her out. It is kinda refreshing to see a joke movie review series done from the point of view of an outspoken feminist who frequently tackles serious gender issues while at the same time cracking dick jokes or rapping about rape (yes, that happened). She has a Masters degree from USC, and her documentary won actual awards at film festivals so unlike amateur internet reviewers like me, she actually seems to know what she is talking about when she trashes bad movies.
So those are the things I tend to follow somewhat closely. What about you? What are your favorite online shows, podcasts and/or LP’s. Let me know in the comments. Keep in mind that the spam plugin is configured to auto-spam anything with more than four links in it. So if you have a long list, just make sure you can give me some googleable keywords that I could use to find each item.
Nothing new to share here. You pretty much described about 99.99% of my “online time”. :P
@ Mart:
LOL. Great minds think alike I guess.
So what’s the remaining 0.01%? For me that would probably be pr0n… Actually, who am I kidding, I spend way more than 0.01% of my internet time on that. :P
Luke Maciak wrote:
Remember, fools seldom differ too! :D
Weeelll….. I reserve the 0.01% for things I’m too embarassed or would-land-me-in-legal-troubles-ish to declare openly. The web is public after all. Like pr0n & usenet. And MMOs.
Also, most fools consider themselves to be brilliant because they just don’t know any better so the shoe fits either way. :)
You should definitely check out the seminars of the Long Now Foundation. The audio is free, and quite long. There are loads of them.
My favourite ones are by Daniel Suarez, Ed Burtinsky, Craig Venter, Will Wright, Wade Davis, David Eagleman, Alan Weisman, Daniel Everett and the Dysons.
Most things Escapist are already subscribed to, but I don’t quite understand the point of Spoiler Warning. Is it exposition? Analysis? I watched them do HL2 recently and they kept talking over dialog in the game, about the dialog in the game. I would have had no idea what they were talking about if I didn’t remember HL2’s iconic train station NPC quips.
@ Dileep:
Interesting. I might check that out.
@ Karthik:
I think Shamus explained that they were basically going for a “bunch of friends sitting on a couch and discussing a video game one of them is playing” feel to it. So they do whatever feels natural. Sometimes they over-analyze games to death, other times they just crack jokes and bicker.
The Half Life episodes are sort of weird because of several reasons:
– They are missing Mumbles who is I think adds a lot of dynamic to the group
– They are playing a game everyone loves, so it is like a smarmy love letter to Valve
– The fan boy gushing over HL2 is sort of done as a response to people complaining that they usually mercilessly trash every single game. They shot these episodes to show that they are capable of giving credit where credit is due. But they are not the best example of their usual “complain about all the things” attitude
– They usually have subtitles on in their regular games so you can read the dialogs if you want to follow the plot of the game – I think they haven’t done that for HL2
– Because of how linear the game is, Josh is actually playing it straight for the most part. His usual mode is to pick only the stupidest options, and try to break the game as much as possible.
I recommend watching some of their regular stuff rather than the specials. It’s usually more amusing.
I follow This American Life. They have one up this week about software patents that will make your blood boil. As always, fascinating and immaculately edited. TAL producers have mastered the audio form.
I follow Radiolab as well. It is an NPR podcast about science where they talk to real scientists doing real work, and yet make it more interesting than an interview. It has a conversational approach, but it is every bit as good as TAL.
I listen to most of NPR’s Planet Money podcasts. They’re nice jargon free economics. I listen to some Econtalk podcasts, but they can be a bit more dull, and they’re 60 minutes long. I’ve just started listening to “Surprisingly Free” which has really bright people from all walks of life on. And Global Prosperity Wonkcast is a new addition too.
EDIT: Spam filter didn’t like all the links, so I removed them. You can google the show names.
I would also highly recommend adding the Nerdist podcast to your list. Great geek and nerd podcast with a wide variety of guests.
I really like LPs. The two LPers I watch the most are GetDaved and quill18. However, I tend to stick to only watching LPs of games I’m already familiar with. In the past, I’ve skipped an LP, later got into that game, then went back to watch the LP because it now interested me.
And I’ve mentioned them before, the Yogscast Minecraft LP is really fantastic. It starts as an LP, but turns into a sort-of meta roleplaying thing.
I have a hard time adding sources, as you cover most things I watch online. I do however recommend checking out the Escapist’s video archive (go to end of linked page), as there are a few great video series that have now ended. Both doraleous and associates, and forgotten realms are worth checking out if you like that sort of humor, and Rebecca Mayes Muses have some beautiful and nerdy songs about games.
Also, if you can find them in a media/format useful for you, the Ricky Gervais podcasts are hilarious. (They have since been re-imagined as a cartoon tv-series, which is a great format to watch them in, but I’m not sure if this counts as a podcast :) )
However, for people who, like me, watch much Escapist material, I recommend paying for their subscription. It isn’t so expensive ($20/year) and not only gives you non-drm:ed HD videos, but more importantly you get them through full-content rss feeds, which works great with modern rss viewers and podcast players. Not to mention that it is nice to support things you like. Note: I have no affiliation with the Escapist, I’m just a happy customer.
@ jambarama & @ StuartB:
Thanks for suggestions.
@ Chris Wellons:
My brother is actually a big fan of the Yogscast. I somehow never actually watched any of their stuff. I probably should. :)
@ Tino:
Hmm… I was almost tempted to shell out the $20 bucks just to support all the wonderful shows they have there but then today I heard that Extra Credits crew got royally fucked over by them, and they ended their relationship so I’m having second thoughts now. :P