Gamer Podcasts

+1 for Triple Click.

Tasty Pudding wrote:

One or more of the hosts is a hot-take jackass who keeps interrupting everyone else, etc...).

Hot Take Jack-Ass is my new band name.

Seriously though, this, or a general vibe of self-consciously ‘wacky’ banter, has been the prime cause of me binning most of the podcasts I’ve tried. I get that that kind of presentation style or caricature hosts who are playing ‘Grumpy guy’ or ‘edgy guy’ can develop over a long time and become something that the audience wants, but so many podcasts (not just gaming ones) are wildly impenetrable and hard to get into for new listeners.

Okay, my one line reviews for the recommendations above!

  • Game Informer - good length, good banter, well paced and ticked all my boxes. Subbed.
  • DLC - too much of a drivetime radio vibe, couldn’t get into it. No sub.
  • Minnmax - good vibes but looooong, most episodes are closing in on 2hrs. Shame because the topics and format look good. No sub.
  • Triple Click - excellent, exactly what I wanted and I clicked (pun intended) with the hosts. Good length and format. Subbed.

Thanks everyone again for the recommendations.

Glad you found some stuff you liked!

I think IGN's Game Scoop checks a lot of those boxes.

Seeing it written down, the hot take jackass/"edgy" dude is definitely why I've dropped a few podcasts that I've tried and otherwise seem well received. On Game Scoop the regulars stop when they interrupt each other, are generally really good about letting each other talk and checking in on people making points, but every now and then they'll have a guest host (because, you know, someone is taking time off or something) who is a bro and those episodes suffer for it. So episodes when Tina Amini is taking a week off, for example, are some of the low points.

I've been listening to Crate & Crowbar, and it doesn't have that type of negative energy at all, IMO. Although the two hosts are so soft-spoken I legit have trouble hearing them sometimes. One of them teased the other for having a calm wizard voice in the last episode I listened to and it made me laugh it was so on point. Episodes are usually 1:45 (an hour and 45 minutes long) however.

LastSurprise wrote:

Definitey co-sign on many of your criteria. Beyond about an hour, a show really starts to lose me. And I definitely can't keep up with a show that runs more than weekly.

I think it comes down to what you want from a podcast - are you there for the information and actually need to pay attention? Or are you there for the friendship simulator, where you're just hanging with hosts that are friends and/or have good chemistry and occasionally talk about video games?

I dunno if I could focus on say Revolutions or Opening Arguments for more than an hour, but I can listen to sh*t like Let's fight a Boss for hours.

(I chose a particular word there advisedly.)

Alien Love Gardener wrote:

I think it comes down to what you want from a podcast - are you there for the information and actually need to pay attention? Or are you there for the friendship simulator, where you're just hanging with hosts that are friends and/or have good chemistry and occasionally talk about video games?

I think it's a little of both.

If all I want to do is get a rundown of the Latest! Gaming! News! there's more efficient and effective ways to do it than to listen to journalist swap opinions for a tight 45 on a podcast. A lot of purely news-focused podcasts leave me cold as a result.

But on the flip side, big rambly messy shows that are just 90% people doing bits I find equally as annoying. Especially when said bits are only funny to intensely narrow demographics.

That's why I end up really enjoying shows that are somewhere in between - a bit of what's new, a solid crew of regulars plus guests that don't wildly change the tone, good discussions and a slowly building body of shows that help me understand whether the hosts have similar tastes and inclinations as I do. I don't solely depend on podcasts for games recommendations (I mean, there's this place) but I really like to try and find people who are into the same sorts of games as I am, on the same sorts of systems, so I can get insight into what's coming (or things I may have missed) that I won't get from straight reviews, gaming news or (heaven forbid) the depths of Reddit.

Also I listen to a bunch of podcasts and audiobooks (working remotely, doing a lot of design work) so while I have more time than many, I've got a pretty full audio roster. 6+ hours of rambling games-related conversations and in-jokes just doesn't fit, and I have a bad completionism instinct that makes it tough for me to just... not listen to things that show up in my feed. So it's a self-preservation move more than anything.

ccoates wrote:

I've been listening to Crate & Crowbar, and it doesn't have that type of negative energy at all, IMO. Although the two hosts are so soft-spoken I legit have trouble hearing them sometimes. One of them teased the other for having a calm wizard voice in the last episode I listened to and it made me laugh it was so on point. Episodes are usually 1:45 (an hour and 45 minutes long) however.

Second this. I've been listening to them for many years, and love the entire gang. They did lose some of the feel good vibe when forced to move to a remote setup but this also made the shows shorter and less rambling, so maybe more to your taste!

Only downside is the self imposed focus on PC gaming, but that doesn't stop them from diving into noteworthy console games now and then (I particularly liked their specials on Animal Crossing last year). Just a lovely mixture of insight, warmth and humour, whoever happens to be hosting each week.

Only just spotted this thread so apologies if they've been mentioned before, but I'm loving Into the Aether.

https://intothecast.online/

They have 2 main points:

1) They don't want to adhere to the release schedule of games, instead talking about stuff they've been playing. It could be an old Xbox game, it could be a new release, or it could be a mod from a game that came out 2 years ago.

2) They avoid negative talk - they talk about games they love, and celebrate the good in the hobby

They're 2 guys who just love to chat games and their positivity is so infectious. I've almost finished binging all their older stuff, and excitedly tune in each weak for the new episodes.

They're just so goddamn happy, I adore them. Lots of laughs, genuinely interesting opinions.

I’m lucky in that I paint watercolours during the day, when not teaching folks how to paint in watercolour. Listening to podcasts doesn’t interfere with my painting as the latter is purely visual work so I have tons of time to listen. My problem tends to be running out of gaming podcasts I click with rather than any particular podcast being too long. I can certainly see very long podcasts being a problem if you have other things you want to get on with (I’m stuck painting anyway) or limited time to listen.

The recommendations here are tempting me to try Triple Click, but I really don't need another sub D:

This episode of How did this get Played? is great and a fantastic entry point to try out the show. Highly recommended

Giving some of these recent recommendations a sampling: The MinnMax Show, Triple Click and Fire Escape Cast

Despite the presence of Dan Rykert, I'm warming up to Fire Escape Cast the most out of the three. I wasn't a fan of Dan when he was with Giant Bomb and Fire Escape is reminding me a bit why that's the case. It's still really perplexing how unknowledgeable he is about random things about this world. The chemistry among the show's cast is quite good though and I've been enjoying the banter and the games talk when they eventually get around to it.

Maclintok wrote:

It's still really perplexing how unknowledgeable he is about random things about this world.

He is on a new giantbomb podcast with Jeff Bakalar called "Bak 2 Skool" where Jeff Bakalar teaches him basic stuff. There are 2 episodes so far, one about Electricity and another about Space. I haven't listened yet. It is a premium show.

Maclintok wrote:

Giving some of these recent recommendations a sampling: The MinnMax Show, Triple Click and Fire Escape Cast

Despite the presence of Dan Rykert, I'm warming up to Fire Escape Cast the most out of the three. I wasn't a fan of Dan when he was with Giant Bomb and Fire Escape is reminding me a bit why that's the case. It's still really perplexing how unknowledgeable he is about random things about this world. The chemistry among the show's cast is quite good though and I've been enjoying the banter and the games talk when they eventually get around to it.

Rykert has guested on a few other podcasts I was trying out, and he always brings that exact energy I'm not interested in that y'all brought up before of "hot-take jackass grumpy edgy guy". So I haven't been able to give things like Fire Escape a chance because something he's a regular on just seems like there'd be, well, even more of that.

Describing his lack of knowledge on a wealth of subjects as perplexing also captures his vibe in a way I hadn't been able to express before.

I've given the main Giant Bomb podcast a few tries now, and my takeaway is that it overall falls under the hot-take jackass umbrella. Only it's four edgy grumpy dudes instead of just one. Just not for me.

Dedicating a decent chunk of the last episode's intro to discussing poop one of the hosts found in his toilet and literally naming the episode toilet crimes would have probably served as a "does what it says on the tin" warning for me, if I had listened to that one first.

ComfortZone wrote:
ccoates wrote:

I've been listening to Crate & Crowbar, and it doesn't have that type of negative energy at all, IMO. Although the two hosts are so soft-spoken I legit have trouble hearing them sometimes. One of them teased the other for having a calm wizard voice in the last episode I listened to and it made me laugh it was so on point. Episodes are usually 1:45 (an hour and 45 minutes long) however.

Second this. I've been listening to them for many years, and love the entire gang. They did lose some of the feel good vibe when forced to move to a remote setup but this also made the shows shorter and less rambling, so maybe more to your taste!

Only downside is the self imposed focus on PC gaming, but that doesn't stop them from diving into noteworthy console games now and then (I particularly liked their specials on Animal Crossing last year). Just a lovely mixture of insight, warmth and humour, whoever happens to be hosting each week.

I absolutely adore the C&C. It's also the second podcast after original run Idle Thumbs where I had to make a rule to not listen to it while driving after the Low Hanging Flute joke in one episode had me laughing so hard I almost ran off the road.

Zona wrote:

I absolutely adore the C&C. It's also the second podcast after original run Idle Thumbs where I had to make a rule to not listen to it while driving after the Low Hanging Flute joke in one episode had me laughing so hard I almost ran off the road.

How did they know the name of my sex tape?

The latest episode of Fire Escape cast where they spend waaaay too much time talking cheese and game rating systems had me laughing out loud a lot, which is rare for gaming podcasts these days.

I think Kish and Mahardy are the perfect carrier oils to make the Ryckert go down easier.

On the one hand, playing Hitman live must be stressful.

On the other, the Nextlander guys are so, so bad at it, that this episode is hilarious.

Again, they are so, so bad that I alternately can't stop laughing and/or screaming at them.

So much white in Brad Shoemaker's hair now. Where has the time gone??

Some people think that coloring one's hair / beard is a sign of vanity, to keep the user from feeling old.

I prefer to think of it as a public service, to keep people who knew you before you started to go gray from feeling old.

I remember Abby getting a bunch of sh*t from the GB community for making Brad's hair gray in 13 Deadly Sims. It seems pretty obvious at this point that she knew what she was doing.

hbi2k wrote:

Some people think that coloring one's hair / beard is a sign of vanity, to keep the user from feeling old.

I prefer to think of it as a public service, to keep people who knew you before you started to go gray from feeling old.

I mean… denial is a fine thing (is it, though?), but time waits for no man.

At first glance, I thought Brad was Ryan Reynolds.

The latest one was even more ridiculous. They got stuck at the end of the first map, but at one point Brad even looks at the briefing, which mentions the answer (3D printer), but he ignores it. He then looked at the 3D printer itself and ignored that too.

Vinny's murder everyone in the level approach is ridiculous but in general he seems way more willing to experiment. Brad's play is so timid that he'll literally be right next to a target and won't kill them, then run away, then get caught, then have to reload. Then try it the exact same way, five more times, with the same results. Or he'll be at the correct door for 15 solid minutes but never try just walking through it.

Arise!!!

Figured with Waypoint Radio on death row it was a good time to check in and see what people are listening to.

The only video game cast I subscribe to right now is Nextlander. But it seems time to give Triple Click a try.

Gonna miss those ***** run times.

I listen to Friends Per Second, Dropped Frames and Play, Watch, Listen. I hit up some of Kinda Funny’s stuff if the topic is of interest. I tend to watch the MinnMax podcast rather than listen to it for no good reason.

Oh I’ve also been listening to Game Maker’s Notebook episodes in the car which has been brilliant. Very interesting.

I listen to DLC every week, What's Good Games on a somewhat-regular basis, and Cane & Rinse every now and then.

The only gaming podcast I listen to every week is Get Played. It’s one of the funniest podcasts out there on any subject. Others that I listen to regularly are Triple Click and Kinda Funny Gamecast