Yes indeed, we finally did it. A podcast. Well, half of us did. Kieron and John got together in John’s squalid bedroom and recorded 45 minutes of the highest quality PC games-based banter you’re ever likely to hear (if you can understand Kieron’s hyper-speed Midlands-twang). They only made one mistake. They recorded it on a toaster.
So, be warned. What we’re linking to here is of utterly abysmal sound quality. No one in their right mind would be willing to put out something that sounds like two broken robots being drowned in a bathtub. Fortunately, there are no right minds here, so you get to hear it. But you’ve been warned. (And it’s all perfectly audible). So NO complaints about sound quality. Not one. We know. We know. We know. Anyone who complains will be put to death.
Below the jump is a running order of the inanity. Plus links to the potential RSS feed. This is all highly experimental at this point, and we’ve no idea whether it will all work. Definitely post if you’re having trouble getting it. BUT NOT ABOUT THE SOUND QUALITY.
Running Order
0:00 Pointless Rambly Embarassed Intro
2:29 John Walker loves that World of Goo.
7:02 Kieron spoils a World of Goo puzzle just to illustrate how amazing it is.
9:12 Kieron Gillen loves that Warhammer Online.
13:25 Kieron realises that he’s ranting, but it doesn’t seem to stop him.
17:00 John finally gets a chance to tell some anecdotes about Warhammer and visiting Mythic.
19:35 And that’s enough about Warhammer. Now, Multiwinia!
21:30 Kieron segues into the joy of Chaos on the Spectrum, before going back into Multiwinia.
23:30 John tries to get Kieron to say something about Subversion, but he doesn’t know nowt. Well, nearly nowt…
25:30 Kieron releases a new and ill-thought out theory: the renaissance of the puzzle game.
29:55 John tells the story about the Audiosurf Moneyhat.
32:25 The PC Gamer podcast, the PC Gamer showdown and slander about the PC Gamer staff.
36:10 The Eurogamer event – and a possible RPS event in London. Involving drinking.
37:20 Insulting readers 1 and 4, but loving 2 and 3. And the joy of the RPS TF2 server and guilds.
39:10 Kieron’s off to see LOTR:Online: Mines of Moria. John’s in Private Eye. And John explains Private Eye.
42:10 Our favourite podcasts.
43:55 John Walker tells a story involving incest and a major industry PR man.
44:40 And we decide to stop.
The RSS feed is here. Although there will obviously be a gap while we figure out how to record it so it doesn’t sound this poor. Direct mp3 download is here. We’ll be on iTunes in a bit – that’s just processing at the moment. Will edit in the link. EDIT: And here’s the link!
So, as well as complaints that it doesn’t work, please post your thoughts and feedback below. BUT NOT ABOUT THE SOUND QUALITY. Let us know if it’s too long, not long enough, too funny for your mind to cope with, that sort of thing.
And while you’re at it, don’t forget the One Life Left podcast, which we love very much.
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RPS Podcast Ate my Hampster
The headmaster of my school wanted ideas for a weird school radio thing. I submitted a tape.
I was very sternly told “no”.
Can’t imagine what the problem was. With such articles as “Jack the Nipper and why this kid is my idol” and “Starglider – Fact or Fiction? Imagine if spaceships shaped as giant eagles attacked tomorrow! That would be SO COOL”.
Not bad, sound quality has something of an old, lost WWII recording to it.
And yeah, when asking about complaints I don’t think RPS meant posting arguments about why podcasts in general would suck (nothing is perfect of course but you can easily say the same about written articles).
I think the best parts in podcasts I’ve listened to (PCG UK, GfW, IGN Command Prompt, etc.) are dev appearances, memorable in-game stories or little newsbits you haven’t heard about yet, sometimes spoken words are just better to get a message out (English isn’t hard to understand I think), even when there are some bad language habits (American “you know” casts, I am listening to you).
It is now my ambition to be name-checked in every RPS podcast.
So far I have achieved it!
I, for one, unreservedly appreciate you taking the time out of your days to add more free content to your free website, RPS. Please feel free to take a jab at my mum anyway, however.
I’m pleasantly surprised today, will be downloading it as soon as i get off work.
More of this, please.
My only suggestion: as a dirty American reader, I have a hard time differentiating British accents, so I would sometimes loose track of who was talking. If you would use each others names more often that might have helped. It might have just been the sound quality, too, so fixing that may alleviate the problem.
Or maybe all pick a comedy voice to use?
What with OLL, the PCG cast and now this – will I ever actually get to listen to music in my ipod?
Well, I’m impressed. That was very entertaining and nothing like as irritatingly self-indulgent or awkward or snickeringly nerdy as most other gaming podcasts. Hooray for this, and also, I hate you all for having played World Of Goo.
My mum liked it too (may be a lie).
The sound quality was fine, and this was much, much better than the PCG podcast. It actually was interesting, and had content worth listening to. Theirs is alright but it’s a bit too self-indulgent and rarely discusses anything in this sort of way. Good stuff.
please submit your Podcast to iTunes.
want to see it make it to the top 10!
cheers
I’m the only person who didn’t even notice the low sound quality, aren’t I?
Well done – I actually laughed out loud several times during the Electronic Wireless show.
Heh I knew my relentless badgering in the GFW thread would yield results. I shall hasten to the listening position directly and absorb the pontificating at length ;)
Very nice, but may I suggest adding ID3 tags and being consistent about them in future episodes? Cluttered media libraries are woeful things.
More of this sort of thing.
I enjoyed that, and oh my Chaos, think thats the first game I ever played with anyone with multiple people using the same computer, and my word, was it class.
In other news, Jack Thompson has just had his disbarment affirmed if http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/09/25/disbarred#comments is to be believed, amusingly the sites getting hammered atm.
Back on topic, I thought the sound quality was quite sufficient actually though I do admit that the chances of a cascade scenario… err, where was I…
Though I do admit that improving the sound quality will certainly help with being able to differentiate between the different speakers.
Quite enjoyable I think, more please!
Brill, cant wait to walk the dog tomorrow as its my dedicated gaming podcast time.
The loss of GFW has left a hole, it’ll be great to substitute it with a UK based discussion.
Cheers chaps
Thumbs up on the podcast. Pretty good stuff overall (you’ve piqued my interest in catching up with the World of Goo news). I remember playing Chaos quite a lot, what a great game that was. I must admit I didn’t realise Julian Gollop designed it, I tend to remember him for Rebel Star Raiders (great game) and the like. Anyhows Huge Success and definitely an exercise to be repeated. GJ.
Top notch, I was laughing to myself all the way home.
Well done.
Good writers writing well is one thing but the danger with podcasts is that it is very easy to slip into hubris.
The Triforce pod cast [and website] is unbearable for precisely this reason.
The Guardian’s Football Weekly podcast is a very good example of a podcast done very well.
Good structure, good humour and it clips along at a very good rate.
Aww, I loved it. I laughed. And you’re both lovely. You know it’s a good podcast when you really want to go for a drink with the … the … podcasters? afterwards. Not like a sexy drink. Just a continuing-the-banter drink.
Oh and I like the lack of anyone to commit to issues. Ha ha. Yes. Quite.
If you’re going to be on iTunes, you should consider getting your way into Microsoft’s Zune Marketplace as well.
What recording device was used for the ‘cast?
And I say that with no animosity.
Just gave a listen to it. The stuff I managed to understand was great, but I’ve just been reminded of the differences between writing and speaking english. Presumably, the difficulty I’m having grasping some of the content is because I do not train spoken english at all anymore – making it hard to grasp a certain level of accent. This was also the reason why I often had to ask people to repeat themselves on occasion during my visit to the UK several years ago. Being the best at writing and speaking English in my class became an epic fail when people in the streets of London were playing guv’em up with poor old me.
Also, I wasn’t expecting John to have such an effeminate voice… Even moreso than mine! Oh dear. I hope that’s a side effect of the bathroom’s acoustic properties ;)
As for the text versus audio stuff, I have no qualms against audio. Of course, if some kind soul could also provide a textual component, I wouldn’t mind. But I certainly don’t need it as much with the RPS podcast as I’d need with, say, Zero Punctuation.
Zuffox: The dictaphone I had with me.
Yes, I know.
KG
I downloaded the podcast and have yet to hear it because it is fairly late here in Sweden but I just read the majority of these comments and have been laughing for ages. Please make more podcasts.
Podcast, god yes!
And: It’s… A… TOASTER!
For everyone who’s seen Scrooged, I hope you recall the scene.
That is all.
Edit:
@Mr_Day: “this makes me some kind of Pioneer. But of what?”
The yawning indignity of man?
YAYS. New podcat to listen to on the bus!
Now, how does it compare to PCG? Only my brain will tell..
Haven’t listened to it yet, but will. Good to see the mighty RPS empire expanding.
Also, another podcast that I listen to seems to use the microphones from Singstar to record their podcasts.
Please do not call them podcasts. I neither have nor want an ipod. I will instead listen to your funny accents on my PC. You know, the same place I game.
I want an RPS t-shirt!
This is awesome :D
Oh yeah, sound quality is good! Try transcribing an interview Will Porter’s (PC Zone ed) dictaphone, that was really poor quality. This is good!
I demand more, now :D
Ahhh, Midlands twang! Bedworth for the win!
This colonial really enjoyed the podcast, for one. Well done, well done. I’d love to hear the audio version of RPS Verdicts – comments about tea and masturbation included.
More! More!
I’ll wait until it goes up on iTunes, but I look forward to listening to this on the bus. I hope it becomes a regular thing!
Great job guys! Kieron, to my American ears, you are nowhere near as hard to understand as you made out.
Thanks for doing this, and I look forward to both of you announcing your new positions as associate producers at large game companies.
@Brokenbroll
Hell, i’m not a native english speaker, nor do i use english in my daily life, but i had no problem understanding them.
It was a nice podcast, i hope you keep it up.
Personally, I really enjoy this. I like to hear the fun as much as I like to read it.
I listened to this on the train and found myself nodding sagely/guffawing enough to terrify other passengers. I thoroughly support this “podcast” technology.
There’s no gooey blob in Multiwinia? :(
PLEASE buy a MacBook and use GarageBand for the next one.
I’ve got one. But they didn’t invite me, the cads.
Post updated with the Itunes link.
We actually did have a MacBook there, but it wasn’t working for some reason.
KG
I ejoyed it quite a bit, although Kieron almost sold me on WAR with his arguing for the combat not being shit like WoW. The Bastard.
Hmm. I kinda like it.
Got a nice ring to it.
Gillen: What model? Just curious since I myself have an Olympus DC-30 and thought that it would do well for such a purpose.
And the quality isn’t nearly as bad, as people seem to paint a picture of; use any type of static and noise reduction processing filter, and the quality would already do great. At any rate it’s better than the abhorrent quality of Skype or phone participants seen in podcasts such as Gamers with Jobs.
I do, however, think the colloquial and brit-speedtalk with no aforechosen topics puts you at a disadvantage – with the static making it that much harder to decipher the words. Of course, the colloquialism and chit-chat seems to be an obvious point of the podcast, but it’d be fun with an In Our Time-esque formal psedointellectual parley at one point.
Olympus VN4100. It’s entirely possible I was recording it at too low fidelity – it’s a new one which I haven’t mastered yet.
KG
This was much better than I expected.
Shows what low expectations I have really.
I’m ready for episode 2.
Good podcast. One PCG Podcast a month doesn’t satiate my appetite, so this is helping fill the spot. Could you just steal the studio PCG use to make their Podcast. They’d never have to know.