Giant Bomb Bomb-All

Wait, he was in cover? He gives up that habit somewhere between 7 and 12, apparently.

I have started skipping the bulk of the scanning and combat sequences in Mass Alex because, much as I love Mass Effect 2, those parts just aren't particularly interesting to watch.

I have linked this mod in the comments of the videos before, but Alex likes scanning too much to probably ever use it:

No Minigames

On a random whim, I watched the video version of the Bombcast for the first time ever this week. It didn't really add anything to the experience, but watching/listening to the conversation unmodified, as opposed to listening to the podcast at 1.2x speed with silences trimmed, made me surprised to realize how much those little tweaks change things. It felt so much slower! Normal speed made me feel so impatient. It's kind of hard to imagine I listened to podcasts at normal unmodified speeds for years and years until whichever podcast app I was using first added these kinds of tools.

mrlogical wrote:

On a random whim, I watched the video version of the Bombcast for the first time ever this week. It didn't really add anything to the experience, but watching/listening to the conversation unmodified, as opposed to listening to the podcast at 1.2x speed with silences trimmed, made me surprised to realize how much those little tweaks change things. It felt so much slower! Normal speed made me feel so impatient. It's kind of hard to imagine I listened to podcasts at normal unmodified speeds for years and years until whichever podcast app I was using first added these kinds of tools.

Can't comment much on the speed of the show, I haven't tried changing the speed but the best benefit I find from watching the video version is seeing Jeff get angry. It's just so fun.

Wait til you get your playback speed up to 2x. Everyone sounds stoned when I listen on normal speed now.

Chaz wrote:

Wait til you get your playback speed up to 2x. Everyone sounds stoned when I listen on normal speed now.

For a while I was listening to the show exclusively at half speed (I have an hour+ drive to work each way) and when I went back to normal speed everyone sounded hyper.

It’s funny what you get used to.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

For a while I was listening to the show exclusively at half speed (I have an hour+ drive to work each way)

Of all the ways to entertain myself on a long commute, slowing my favorite podcast down enough that it wouldn't end before I reached my destination has genuinely never occurred to me as an option. You could listen to it twice! Or find other podcasts! Or...do just about anything else!

Why are people in a rush to finish podcasts to the point they need to speed them up? I didn't realize this was a thing people did? O_o

I can't speak to people who opt for speeds like 2x, which I don't find comfortable, but at 1.2x and with silences trimmed, everything still sounds normal but it just feels like it has been edited very well. I think, if you just started listening at the speed that I do, you wouldn't even notice the difference, and yet you'd get through many more episodes of podcasts (and I do listen to a whole lot of podcasts, so it strikes me as a bonus that I can get through 5 hours of podcasts per 4 hours of listening, if I'm doing that math right, which I'm probably not). For the silence trimming alone, my podcast app tells me that in the year and a half I've owned this phone, the feature has eliminated over 168 hours worth of pauses. That's a lot of dead air to listen to!

JeremyK wrote:

Why are people in a rush to finish podcasts to the point they need to speed them up? I didn't realize this was a thing people did? O_o

If you don't have too many podcasts that are worth listening to on a daily basis, I don't even know where to start explaining.

Personally, I'm not a fan of silence trimming, unless everything you listen to is purely dry, informational content. While I certainly understand that increased speed settings also have an effect of comedic timing and dramatic presentation, I feel like when I've tried out silence trimming features in various apps the damage it did to my ability to enjoy what I was listening to was much more significant, whereas I'm so accustomed to using a speed modifier that I barely notice it at all.

Also, continuing a conversation from the Questions You Want Answered thread, one of the many features I like about PocketCasts is that I can configure speed settings on a per podcast basis when I want them to deviate from my default. Music podcasts play at normal speed, and my favorite comedic or dramatic podcasts get a lower increase in speed than others.

Honestly, I used to do 1.5x, then got up to 2.2x on some podcasts, but eventually I found that I wasn't really processing or enjoying as much as before and I was really just "consuming". I've reverted back to 1x or 1.1x, and I'm enjoying them much more. I feel like before I was just inhaling my food and barely breathing, now I'm taking the time to enjoy each bite.

Isn't it funny though that when you do listen sped up? You don't notice much until music plays. Like our brains can adapt to voices going faster, but music just sounds weird because we have different expectations.

zeroKFE wrote:

Personally, I'm not a fan of silence trimming, unless everything you listen to is purely dry, informational content. While I certainly understand that increased speed settings also have an effect of comedic timing and dramatic presentation, I feel like when I've tried out silence trimming features in various apps the damage it did to my ability to enjoy what I was listening to was much more significant, whereas I'm so accustomed to using a speed modifier that I barely notice it at all.

Also, continuing a conversation from the Questions You Want Answered thread, one of the many features I like about PocketCasts is that I can configure speed settings on a per podcast basis when I want them to deviate from my default. Music podcasts play at normal speed, and my favorite comedic or dramatic podcasts get a lower increase in speed than others.

Same here. I tried trimming silence for a while, but I found that it ruined the natural flow of conversations. Small moments of silence can be surprisingly important for providing context or making jokes work.

I also use PocketCasts and the per-podcast settings for speed. My default is 1.2x. I use 1x for shows that are related to or heavily feature music.

Speaking as someone who has been on a few different ill-fated podcasts at this point: I can't stand listening to myself without silence trimming. I have the most maddening Shatner-esque long pauses in my speech pattern, and it makes me happy that there's an option out there to make me actually listenable for the end user.

hbi2k wrote:

Speaking as someone who has been on a few different ill-fated podcasts at this point: I can't stand listening to myself without silence trimming. I have the most maddening Shatner-esque long pauses in my speech pattern, and it makes me happy that there's an option out there to make me actually listenable for the end user.

I spent many, many hours cutting blank space out of the podcasts I've done in Audacity before I found out about Audacity's "Truncate Silence" feature.

I listen to most podcasts at 1.2 on pocketcasts. The parts of giantbomb and other podcasts that aren't relevant to my interests don't keep me engaged. Then I drift and lose focus on my long commute and it means I miss good stuff or get sleepy if its been a long day.

Blinking white guy strikes again.

I was ready to pull that Drew vid apart but it picked up steam in the last 1/3.

Those opening cut-away edits were pretty cringe though.

Still love's ya Drew! (I know he didn't produce the video)

Aaron D. wrote:

I was ready to pull that Drew vid apart but it picked up steam in the last 1/3.

Those opening cut-away edits were pretty cringe though.

Still love's ya Drew! (I know he didn't produce the video)

Agreed, lots of real standard issue video production "Thing Was Said, Find Stock Asset" stuff at the start.

Man, I know it's not logistically feasible, but I wish Austin could be on the Beastcast every week.

Hell, if I'm being honest, I wish Austin could be on just about every podcast every week. I'm pretty sure there's not a single conversation on any topic that would be improved by him as a part of it.

Which is why I am a waypoint listener now.

Ok, that's not true. I pretty much love their whole staff.

Yup, right there with you.

Like I was saying a few days ago over on the non gaming podcast thread, they are far and away the best thing going in podcasting right now for my tastes, on par with (or perhaps surpassing) the glory days of 1up podcasting (GFW Radio, 1up Yours, etc) and the best of Giant Bomb times.

They've got a crew of people that are wonderful in so many ways individually, and even better in combination, and I will listen to them talk about anything. Honestly, I'm a bit gutted that Vice seems to have shut them down on the deep dives on non gaming stuff, because holy sh*t, they found something magical in their epic analysis of Pride and Prejudice, and that really should have been the start of something rather than the end of it. Oh well, though -- I suppose you just have to enjoy these kinds of lightning in a bottle moments while they last.

Still, though, 5 star podcasts, 5 star runtimes for life, am I right?

I dropped off Waypoint. I’ve never liked listening to Patrick much, like Rob well enough, but Natalie is a poor replacement for Danika. Neutral on Danielle.

Natalie was a ball of nerves when they first brought her on, but she has found her footing and then some since then. Cado is also great, and I wish they'd bring him in more often, but at the same time he plays the "producer who can't help but chip in" bit very well. And again, more than just their individual qualities, they've also really found that special level of comfort and rapport with each other that makes for podcasting gold.

As for Patrick, I mean, you're totally welcome to your very wrong opinion.

zeroKFE wrote:

Natalie was a ball of nerves when they first brought her on, but she has found her footing and then some since then. Cado is also great, and I wish they'd bring him in more often, but at the same time he plays the "producer who can't help but chip in" bit very well. And again, more than just their individual qualities, they've also really found that special level of comfort and rapport with each other that makes for podcasting gold.

As for Patrick, I mean, you're totally welcome to your very wrong opinion.

I love Natalie so much. I think she may be funnier than Danika. Natalie has been just killing it since all 42 hours of the KH lore reasons.

Yeah, early on Natalie irked me with her constant "ums" but she's gotten a lot better about that lately, if only because of doing so many podcasts.

But I also genuinely loved Scoops & the Wolf when that was happening over on Giant Bomb, so I'm not on the same wavelength as anyone who wants less Patrick.

I always felt like Austin was better on the Beastcast because he had great chemistry and timing with those guys and they tend to do a lot more bits and just goof off in ways that the Waypoint crew never does. Which, thinking about it, is a big part of the reason I dropped Waypoint despite generally liking the people on it -- every episode just reminded me how absolutely sh*tty everything is and, well, that's not something I need to be reminded of constantly.

I ended up falling off of Waypoint just because it became too much with 4 GB podcasts a week, at the time, and 2-4 Waypoint Radio as well. I just don’t have the time to listen to that many podcasts.

And I’m not speeding up the podcasts you mongrels.

billt721 wrote:

I always felt like Austin was better on the Beastcast because he had great chemistry and timing with those guys and they tend to do a lot more bits and just goof off in ways that the Waypoint crew never does. Which, thinking about it, is a big part of the reason I dropped Waypoint despite generally liking the people on it -- every episode just reminded me how absolutely sh*tty everything is and, well, that's not something I need to be reminded of constantly.

Yes--this is exactly why I sometimes can't do Waypoint--they don't shy away from the reminder that the world is on fire. Not to mean that I want to live a life like where I ignore the world being on fire (like I'm guessing Dan might), but a break sometime is needed.

Austin on the Beastcast last week was a rare treat, though!

I am watching their Quick Look at Rage 2, and I have watched a few other videos of their's. And I have to ask - is there a game they like?

It always seems to be kind of jaded guys talking about games with little enthusiasm.