viddyviddy

Games, game, video games. Who likes to talk about video games?

EVERYONE AND THEIR CAT.

Which is not a bad thing! I've reviewed and listened to (and still listen to) loads of podcasts that do nothing more than discuss video games, and you know what? Each one is a unique little beam of sunshine. Differing viewpoints, gotta love 'em.

I like to listen to a set of friends sitting around and recalling the arcades they haunted in their youth, I like it when people flip their lids over the next generation of consoles, I like hearing the funny bugs and the stories of how people have accidentally written-over hundreds of hours of game play.

So let us go once more into the breach, together, to discover and admire The Crate & Crowbar podcast.

That's a great question that you just didn't ask but I'm thinking in my head.

Relevant Links:
Main Site!
RSS Feed!
Get the podcast via iTunes!
Twitter!

First off, to make sure this is your bag, The Crate & Crowbar is a PC gaming podcast. Let it be known that they will not be touching on subjects that involve your precious console-related hijinks. Your hosts include Tom Francis (@pentadact), Graham Smith (@gonnas), Marsh Davies (@marshdavies), Tom Senior (@PCGLudo), Chris Thursten (@cthursten) and the cool part, the part that made me nod at my monitor in appreciation, is that they all have experience within the PC gaming realm. That's neat, right? That's what drew me to the podcast in the first place, and I was not disappointed with what I had downloaded.

Content Rating: Explicit because of swear words.

Average Episode Length: Each episode is dang near TWO HOURS. That's a tremendous podcast length!

Drinking Game: Pick a drink that catches your eye from Drunken Moogle, and then Google a stupid drinking game that relates to the game your drink is themed on.

The Crate & Crowbar podcast is your weekly, ramble into the wide world of PC gaming. And I don't mean ramble in the way of an unfocused monologue, but more like walking out of your front door and heading out in whatever direction pleases you that day. After about two hours, you'll return to your front porch, open the door, and feel satisfied with how you spent your time.

If Valve continues to be right about this and they keep working at this there will be some future where everything is free, but everyone is also rich, and no one understands why!

The focus of the hosts' discussion is both wide-and-industry-savvy as well as the narrow-what-I-played-last-night zoom. For instance, in one episode they go from discussing Steam and Valve, to the overall play style of DOTA 2, to one hosts experience and recollection of how and why he plays. It's fun to listen to and the hosts are engaging and charming.

Release Schedule: Weekly release on Friday.

Music: None that I've noticed.

Unintentionally Good Part: I'm a sucker for foreign accents.

Unintentionally Bad Part: With the pace of a longer podcast such as this, you might find that when a topic you're uninterested in crops up it will last a lot longer than you'd please.

Unrelated rating: Five out of five levels of Dagon.

Portmanteaus, a combination of at least two words, are fun!  Here are some examples:
 

• Breakfast + Lunch = Brunch
• Smoke + Fog = Smog
• Short + Pants = Skort
• Pregnant + Angry = The dumbest word, it made me mad to read it
• Obnoxious + Replacement for a Sense of Humor = Snark
• Gamers + Comedians = The Gamedians Podcast

 I like that last one!  It's got a ring to it.  Let's look into these Gamedians, shall we?

Relevant Links:
Gamedians Main Site!
iTunes Download!
Libsyn Download Site (for Android and Non-iTunes users)!
Gamedians YouTube Channel!

The long and short of the Gamedians podcast is that you download it and subsequently listen to comedians talk about video games for a while.  Hosts Andrew Dewitt, Dan Bialek and Asterios Kokkinos are here to delight and entertain you with their crippling video game addiction that they've turned into fodder for a podcast.  You like the Xbox?  Some Skyrim?  Maybe you want to throwback to Grim Fandago?  These are your guys.

I remember the first time it hit home that the things I thought were awesome were actually the lamest, loser-y things.

Unsurprisingly, many of their attempts to talk about video games end up in wild tangents.  The conversations on the whole are hilarious and often include the hosts getting riled up about whatever topic they land on. 

Content Rating:  Tagged as Explicit.  There is swearing and content that is not work safe, so headphones on!  They aren't so much offensive as they are just vulgar, if that makes sense.  For example, they'll use swear words but there's no inherent vitriol towards whatever party their swearing about. 

Average Episode Length:  You'll get about an hour of fresh-squeezed entertainment per episode.  The shortest episode runs at 34 minutes, while the longest episode tops out at an hour and forty!

When I go to my Ewok market I look for free-range, no antibiotic Stormtroopers that have been treated humanely. 

Drinking Game:  I am going to point you good people over to the Drunken Moogle, where they offer only the finest game themed adult beverages and accessories. 

Release Schedule:  Oh!  We have a bi-weekly release on Gamedians!  Doesn't look like they hold to any specific days to release, so subscribe or check back often to see when a new episode drops. 

Music: Eight bit music!  It's adorable and makes me smile when I recognize the song being covered.

I have eaten mayonnaise because I didn't want to go get food.

Unintentionally Good Part:  These guys have nerd history and their reminiscing is really fun to listen to on the podcast.  There are a lot of sweet memories of their nerdy parents tucked into the episodes that I enjoyed.

Bonus Unintentionally Good Part:  Asterios Kokkinos' name.  It's just rad.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  Makes me want to spend money on video games, when I need to save it for important things. 

Reddit!  It's a thing on the Internet.  I am not a redditor, or one who uses Reddit, because there are already enough time sinks I participate in that if I pick one more up I will literally become one with my computer chair.  And since I don't feel like submitting to a life of wet-wipe baths, I probably won't sign up for an account.

But I did click around randomly, and it's pretty cool!  People post things, other people decide if that thing is cool or not, and the best things float to the top of the screen.  At least, I think that's how it works.  Am I close?

I'm just gonna... keep clicking on things... ha!  Oh, that's a cool thing, lemme click on that... 

Anyways, there's this podcast called Seven Day Cooldown and it came from reddit so let's check it out, shall we?

Relevant Links:
Main Site!
Seven Day Cooldown on Reddit which could also be the main site?
Twittah!
The podcasts!


Content Rating:  Explicit!  Naughty words ahoy, but not particularly foul content. 

Average Episode Length:  Let's say about 56 minutes?  Yes, yes, let's say that.

hah, okay so the /r/aww is super-adorable         
   there's one just for cats?
                       little kitty-cat, gonna pet you with my mouse icon

What?  Right.  Podcast review.

Seven Day Cooldown is a podcast that consists of people who play video and computer games, talking about video and computer games, with people who make video and computer games.  An interview show in format, Seven Day Cooldown provides the Qs while their guests provide you with all the As allowed by their current NDAs.  You like moving pixels around on a screen so that you can score points in an arbitrary system?  This podcast is the one for you. 

The interviews are thoughtful, interesting, and open up a lot of industry discussion that ought catch your attention.  There is an odd sense of decorum in this podcast that I really like:  hosts are treated with respect, and in turn they provides lots of cool words about games they work on. 

Drinking Game:  HEY!  They actually one!  Okay, so technically this is for Reddit, not Seven Day Cooldown.  To make it more relevant, um... take a drink every time a guest has to avoid answering a question. 

Whoops, rage comics!  I'm back.  Let's get the rest of this review over so I can go click on more screenshots.

Release Schedule:  The last podcast was released in May, so I'm going to say this is an occasional release.  This podcast relies on guests, and these guests are of high caliber, so it probably takes a while to schedule shows. 

Music:  Just a tad. 

Unintentionally Good Part: This quote:

If wishes were horses, the Koreans would love us.

Unintentionally Bad Part:  If you are not a child of the Internet, and up to date on your gamer news, than you may not get what they're talking about at some points.  This is "a podcast made for gamers, by gamers" as stated by their Facebook account, and they don't intend to help you play catch-up.

Unrelated rating:  I'd give it an upvote.

They had Gabe friggen Newell as their first guest.  GO LISTEN.  Then go click on things in Reddit.