Shared posts

07 Aug 19:46

Remap Radio 10 - Behind the Video Store Curtain

The crew is back with a veritable bevy of games. Rob and Cado checked out The Banished Vault, a resource management game that pulls heavily from board games in that same genre. Patrick checks back in with Final Fantasy XVI and finds the game becoming more and more uninteresting as the focus moves away from the story it started to tell in it's opening hours. After the break, Ren's been playing Blood West, a solid immersive sim set in the Wild West that unfortunately (but not surprisingly) falls afoul of some problematic usage of Indigenous folklore. Rob and Cado talk about their time in The Expanse: A Telltale Series. And finally we end in an extra beefy question bucket full of stories about that velvet curtain at the back of the video store.

26 Mar 17:09

Halo Series Episode 1 Review - Unmasking The Pilot's Highs and Lows

by Alex Stadnik

For the last decade-plus, the failure to launch a Halo show or movie has been as synonymous with the series as Needlers and energy swords. That all changes this year as Paramount Plus has finally released the first episode of the long-awaited series but does it live up to the hype? Join the Alexes, Reiner, and Shea on this bonus episode of The Game Informer Show, where they SPOIL and recap everything from episode one of the new Paramount Plus show.

Today's bonus podcast episode marks the first in a new series for The GI Show. Stadnik, Van Aken, and a rotating crew of your favorite editors will be watching the Halo series every week and breaking down what they liked and didn't like for the week's new entry. This bonus show is an experiment for us, so we welcome all constructive feedback for the latest addition to the pod. If you like the bonus content, we're open to the return of spoilercasts, game clubs, and more long-form discussions, so please reach out and let us know what you want to see in the future!

If you missed this week's show, be sure to check out our review discussions of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Ghostwire: Tokyo, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land! We also discuss the big news of the return of the Witcher series and what the switch to Unreal Engine could mean for the future of one of gaming's most popular RPGs.


The Game Informer Show is a weekly gaming podcast covering the latest video game news, industry topics, exclusive reveals, and reviews. Join hosts Alex Stadnik and Alex Van Aken every Thursday to chat about your favorite games – past and present – with Game Informer staff, developers, and special guests from all around the industry. Listen on Apple PodcastsSpotify, or your favorite podcast app.

31 Jan 17:22

#129 - Rawdogging A Podcast

New games are right around the corner, but while we wait for those to come out, the crew of After Dark catches up on TV, anime, sleep, and learning how to cook.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

03 Oct 15:02

107: The Kick-Ass Stamp of Approval

by techpod@content.town (Will Smith, Brad Shoemaker)

Will Smith, this is your life! Or at least one month of it, specifically November 2009, when you published an issue of Maximum PC that included a review of Windows 7, speculation about ray tracing in video games, a breathless report about absolutely enormous 160GB SSDs, and other historical curiosities. With Windows 11 looming, we thought it would be fun to reach back into the vault and check out some coverage of a previous Windows launch and all the other fun and/or embarrassing stuff that came along with that particular issue.

Here's a PDF version of Maximum PC November 2009, the issue we covered in this episode: https://web.archive.org/web/20160618072632/http://dl.maximumpc.com/Archives/MPC1109-web.pdf

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

25 Jul 09:30

96: National Ground Beef Day

by techpod@content.town (Brad Shoemaker, Will Smith)

We enjoyed Will's birth-year episode so much a few weeks ago that we're back with a look at the notable events in tech, science, and culture of 1979 now that it's Brad's turn. Slap this tape in your Walkman and listen to us prattle about CompuServe's origins in the life insurance industry, C++, events in nuclear energy (and weapons), the debut of the compact disc, the founding of Pixar and Sierra On-Line, the first Daytona 500 broadcast, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the rings of Jupiter, and more!

NOTES

Here's the Vice feature on the fall of Sierra On-Line: https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3vem8/inside-story-sierra-online-death-cuc-cendant-fraud

Support the Pod! Contribute to the Tech Pod Patreon and get access to our booming Discord, your name in the credits, and other great benefits! You can support the show at: https://patreon.com/techpod

06 Oct 02:20

News Post: The One-Body Problem

by Tycho@penny-arcade.com (Tycho)
Tycho:

I'm playing it now too, trying to put in enough time to access the multiplayer, where I can only assume the trap is truly set. Because this whole first part is basically like somebody forgot to tell them they were making a freemium game - you see the lure so often you become inured to it. The elemental systems are old school JRPG brain snacks. He's played it for God knows how long at this point, not spending a dime, and Not Spending A Dime while Getting Maximum Time out of it seems to be the game for him.

Because Squadrons unlocked at 9pm last night, the vast majority of the time between then and now was spent sleeping. So I haven't had very much time yet to figure out why my machine, which was manufactured by Clovis Bray on Mars in the Golden Age, is having a hard time keeping track of my head inside all my pretend spaceships. By the end of three missions I was literally sweating inside the HMD, like I was a test pilot for an experimental near-Earth craft as opposed to a wholly terrestrial, almost spherical grub trying to play with a toy.

I'm not putting any stock in it, you know… yet, but I'm at the point of troubleshooting where there's all this dubious information and weird forum prophets are at the very zenith of their power. Some madman was suggesting that the Epic Game Store version, which literally installs Origin and then runs Origin and then runs the game on Origin, has native support for Oculus as opposed to the mere compatibility of SteamVR. I would put a shrug emoji right here in the body of the text if I knew how. Well, not really. I don't even want to ask this dude what he thinks about the deadzone on flight sticks - I assume the conversation would pull the yoke hard in the direction of nanobots or the La Li Lu Le Lo.

There is so much about it that is cool. When the Steam Page said it had Online Co-Op, I assumed that I'd be around the mission briefing hologram with other people in the campaign - what it actually means, near as I can tell, is the game's Fleet Battles mode playable against the AI. Like a Horde, Comp Stomp type thing. Similar to how you can't call Champagne that isn't made in the Champagne region Champagne, I'd love to establish a law - or, at least a norm - that says you can't lobotomize one of your multiplayer modes and call that Co-Op. I was mad about this for a little while after I started the campaign, but man. They got hold of me right away with this one. Halo tried to do this opposing squads thing, and it's a good hook they mostly wasted. I think they might have done it right here. I stopped being mad at the other thing. That's how curious I got.

Star Wars is very a la carte for me these days - there's no fundamental principle keeping me bound to it. Individual excursions really have to make case for themselves. But the interior of the X-Wing, when seen in VR, is an act of such devotion that I stopped breathing for a couple seconds. On PC, there's a lot to fix here, and I hope they do, because if you're trying to take advantage of all its entreaties to the enthusiast it's not there yet. But there's so much love here.

(CW)TB out.

19 May 03:09

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Training

by tech@thehiveworks.com


Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
This comic was written shortly after a nature-identification app decided my birdfeeder was a species of Perching Birds.


Today's News:
04 Sep 19:30

Waypoints 39: Beyonce's Husband

It's Madden season! Which means it's time for Patrick, Rob, and Austin to confront pro football and all its ugly contradictions and compromises. First, they're as shocked as anyone by the "in his prime" retirement of star quarterback Andrew Luck. But should they be? What does Luck's decision reveal about changing attitudes among football players toward the game they play? There's a class element to it as well, but that's even more salient with the crass partnership between Jay-Z and the NFL. The gang discuss how Jay-Z has helped the league "move on" from its embarrassing standoff with allegedly blackballed quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and why it's a move that makes all the sense in the world for billionaire like Jay-Z. Making somewhat less sense is the long fight Antonio Brown waged on behalf of a beloved helmet. It was an odd hill to die on but on the other hand, how important are helmets really to keeping players safe? Finally, Rob and Patrick spent the summer mesmerized by the Chicago Bears' unprecedented search for a new place-kicker.

 

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

04 Jul 19:12

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Kids

by tech@thehiveworks.com


Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
This is the most personal comic I've ever done.


Today's News:
21 Dec 00:57

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Love Hurts

by tech@thehiveworks.com


Click here to go see the bonus panel!

Hovertext:
Anyone who doesn't get the reference receives one automatic punch.

New comic!
Today's News:
22 Jun 18:30

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Filibuster

by admin@smbc-comics.com

Hovertext: THIS IS EXACTLY HOW FILIBUSTERS WORK


New comic!
Today's News:
04 Dec 02:27

Some People Need To Be Put Away

Clothing Store, Retail | MD, USA

(I am finishing up my shopping experience by doing the impossible – putting the things I don’t want back where I got them. A random woman on her phone thrusts a pile of clothes into my arms.)

Me: “What the h***?”

(I drop the clothes on the floor.)

Woman: “What are you doing?! Put those away!”

Me: “Why the h*** would I put your clothes away for you?! Put them away yourself!”

Woman: “What the f*** is your problem?! DO YOUR JOB!”

Me: “I DON’T work here! Why would you assume that I did?! Pick up your clothes and put them away yourself!”

Woman: “Then why are you putting clothes away if you don’t work here?!” *smug that she caught me in a supposed lie*

Me: “Because that’s what you do when you don’t want to buy something – YOU PUT IT BACK.”

Woman: “Oh… Can you still put these away for me though?”

Me: “NO! Do it yourself!”

(She opened and closed her mouth a few times before just walking away. Some people seriously shouldn’t be allowed in stores.)

21 Jan 01:25

News Post: Sweet Streams Are Made Of This

by gabe@penny-arcade.com (Gabe)
Gabe: Today’s comic strip actually came right out of a stream we did last week. I was playing AC and joking with folks in the chat about the shanties. We were all laughing about how a captain might adjust his “playlist”. Tycho and I will be at it again today playing more AC IV. The plan is to start around 2:00pm pacific time. Watch live video from CWgabriel on www.twitch.tv -Gabe Out