Yo all, I've decided to start doing a weekly podcast review to get my thoughts out there on some podcasts. Anyways, I just did my write up for the latest Bombcast, and I feel the urge (perhaps to everybody's detriment) to post it up immediately, mainly because I loved Apocalypse, and hearing Jeff and Ryan talk about it for sixty seconds made this rank among one of my favorite shows.
The last recording from the Sausalito bomb shelter sees the Bombcast place its entertainer’s hat squarely on its head. In cases where the game talk isn’t always the strongest, the funniness and greatness is drawn from this show’s greatest depths, always, I feel, to great acclaim.
Three parts of this episode shone out. The first occurred when the discussion had transgressed slightly into how times have changed, and how, back in the classical era, PCs used to have hard drives of approximately five to eight gigabytes. At one point, Davis did an old-timey voice at exactly the moment while I was knocking back some water; I could not help but spit the water out across the carpet with laughter. Allow me to bypass the second while I briefly cover the third: I am one of the ten people who know exactly what Gerstmann and Davis were talking about over their discussion of Apocalypse, for it is a PlayStation title beloved to me, and I have fond memories of playing it in my younger years. As a result I now yearn to play it again. (It’s worth noting that this sixty second retro game flash was better than all the previous year’s worth of Retronauts episodes combined.)
The second moment is perhaps the most notable, though nothing is more notable than Apocalypse. That is, the new releases segment, headed by Gerstmann. Last week I predicted there might be greatness in this revolution, and there surely is. Gerstmann is fantastically entertaining when he dons a different voice and a different tone, as is brilliantly illustrated here. Regardless of whether he will be able to keep it up or whether this feature will continue on the show, this episode is definitely one for the books from it.
You can’t claim that this episode tossed up some incredible epiphanies about video gaming, barring perhaps the fleeting fireside chat about Apocalypse. Chalk it down to the quality of games and news they had to talk about or some other factor, but the game talk in this particular Bombcast is a bit shallow -- it makes its mark but it’s fluently simple to wipe away. Is this to the Bombcast’s detriment? No. There's more than enough left over to compensate. Never once did I feel bored. I was always entertained. I was left wanting more. That’s because this episode captures what is best about this show: talking. The four men just sat around and talked, and they are affable, and they are fine companions to have for some two hours. Few other shows can manage such a feat. I rest convinced that there would be nothing wrong with the Giant Bombcast if it contained a half hour of game talk and ninety minutes of personal reflection.
N.B. Shoemaker drafts gratis points for name-dropping Akira Kurosawa in a video game podcast.
Also, it allowed me to diss Retronauts over how it's been no good since the 1UP exodus. As I say, part of what I think makes the Giant Bombcast special is that here's a show where four individuals could just sit around talking about anything and I would listen to them, because I think they're interesting. Is there a bit of a red herring going on in this thread over here, where a lot of people are saying they like a free-for-all? That's easy to say when you're talking about the Bombcast, but, honestly, I don't think many other shows could achieve this kind of thing and still be worth the sixty to one-twenty minute commitment.
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