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  1. Control Point

    Monday, February 6, 2012

    [Play this little tune while you read the intro.  Much obliged, pardner.]


    Hey look buddy, I'm a blogger.

    That means I write posts.  

    Not posts like '10 Tips for Burning Sage & Contemporary Inter-Office Clarity,' because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of spirituality.

    I write practical posts.  

    For instance, how am I going to tell some big, mean mother-hubbard that he's missing out on some of the best noise that can be poured into a human hear-hole?

    The answer?  Write a podcast review.  

    And if that don't work, write more podcast review.  Like this review of Control Point...

    authored by me,

    tweeted by me, 
    and you'd best hope, read by you.

    Relevant Links:
    Control Point Main Site!
    Get the podcast here!
    Twitter!
    Community!
    Streaming Site?
    YouTube Channel!
    TF2 Servers!

    Long, long ago, back when the Internet was still awash in the primordial soup of MySpace and Napster downloads, a Team Fortress 2 podcast began, and it was good.  A group of young, intrepid men came together with a song in their heart, a microphone set up in someone's computer room, and the dream to share their wishes and dreams with an audience that longed to hear them.

    There were one hundred episodes that flowed like milk and honey across the land.  For years there were fan contributions, heated discussions about "honey pot" servers, and lots and lots and lots of inside-jokes.

    And then they went away.  Some say they ascended into the aether, never to be seen again.

    Five hundred and forty-one days later, they came back!  And it was around this point I realized I should probably write a review about them.

    Average Episode Length:  Mercy, there's a lot of episodes to looks at.  I say...approximately an hour and fifteen minutes, as the crow flies. 

    Brent "Chaos" Copeland, Wes "WesWilson" Wilson, and Eric "Nailhead" Fullerton. Spencer "Devilturnip" Williams (source: TF2 Wiki) are your proud-and-loud hosts for your Control Point experience.  Fans and players of  "America's #1 war-themed hat simulator" these guys know their way around TF2 like a Mola mola knows where to get its meals.  Episodes feature discussion about game play techniques, updates, recent changes to the game, community information, nitpicking over play-styles and damn near every facet of the game that can be talked about.   

    Y'all, these guys run a tight ship of a podcast.  There are topics!  There is a number you can call and leave messages for the hosts!  They have bumpers to put in between topics!  There are returning guests!  Each episode is polished and professionally delivered straight to you with clear quality and good editing.  They host a chat room as they live-stream the podcast!  I think there are even a few dramatic episodes, people.  These guys mean business. 

    Music:  A banging little intro that I enjoy, as well as a good outro.  Sometimes they play 1950s-esque music, and that makes me happy. 

    Content Rating Mildly Explicit.  I believe that these gents keep the swears to a minimum, but I am not listening through the whole backlog (again) to make sure, so I'll hedge my bets.

    Release ScheduleAccording to their site, you can listen live every Sunday at 5.  New episodes posted each Wednesday.  I believe that when their schedule is awry, they throw out supplementary podcasts, so keep in touch with their site to see what's up. 

    Unintentionally Good Part:  The fan-contributed content.  Most of it is mediocre, but every once in a while there is a true gem of awesome.

    Unintentionally Bad Part:  God bless this community, because they really seem to support this podcast, but sometimes what they send in?  It hurts the ears.  I have had to mute this podcast on more than one occasion.  Fortunately these bits are super-easy to skip over and then you get back to the goodness! 

    Team Fortress 2, podcasts, and hats.  Hats, hats, hats.