I'm fairly certain that nobody is going to see this on here, because even though I have been a big follower of Giant Bomb since the guys were just a wee little blog page for news and a podcast, I have never been all that active in the community. The last bit of that is regrettable for me, but quite honestly, I have never felt like I have all that much to contribute to the site as a whole. Then again, I tend to think that way about the internet and my relationship to it as a whole, which is why the next part of this post is a bit silly, and really just a complete contradiction.

I recently just started doing a podcast with a few friends, and we are in desperate need of listeners. Ultimately, it really doesn't matter to us if we have almost any listeners as we are mostly doing the show for our own benefit and for the fun and experience of creating something. But obviously I would be lying if I said that we wouldn't get any enjoyment out of the idea of us having a few people listening to the show we put out each week.

So here it is, this is me asking any of you Giant Bomb folks out there if you would at least check out our show, and hopefully come back each week, as well as spread the word on it. If you don't, that is totally cool, and no hard feelings. Like I said up there, if only a few of our friends are listening to it and that's it, we will most likely keep doing it anyway. The main reason I am even writing any of this is that years ago, the very first podcast I started listening to was the Hotspot, right after Jeff and Ryan left Gamespot. And after listening for a couple of weeks, I noticed a comment on the post that said if I liked Hotspot, then I should go check out the way better podcast Arrow Pointing Down, and have been a rabid listener ever since. The Bombcast was what got me super into the medium as a whole, and ultimately the reason I wanted to do a show of my own. We are having a really good time making it, and so although we are only 11 episodes in, none of us intend on stoppin' anytime soon.

The show is called It's A No-Brainer!, and its a comedy show that my friends Josh, Geoff, and myself have put together that is mostly just us reading stupid news stories, competing in challenges, and any other weird shit that we think might be funny/amusing for both ourselves and for any other ears that find themselves listening.

Here is the link to our listing on iTunes:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/its-a-no-brainer!/id452544529

And here is another link to our Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/nobrainershow

If you are still reading this far, that hopefully means that you are open minded enough and willing to give us a shot, at which point I would recommend that you start somewhere in the middle, maybe around episode 7 or 8. I think that we are just starting to hit our stride with the show and figuring out what seems to work and whatnot. The audio quality isn't the greatest, especially for the first few episodes, but considering that we are actually recording the show on Rock Band USB mics (they work surprisingly well, and were both cheap and readily available) I actually think that it sounds pretty decent. It helps that Josh edits the show quite well, and adds a lot of stuff in post. We aren't professionals in any way, with no other background in this sort of thing, but rather just big fans of the medium who thought that they might take a crack at making something on their own.

I know that for a post that is asking for people to check out our show I'm not talking it up too much, but quite honestly that just sorta would feel lame. I just have a great deal of respect for the people in this community, and even though I don't make a lot of contributions to the site, I still watch my quick looks, read news and features, and listen to the Bombcast every week. In fact, out of all the podcasts I listen to each week, the Bombcast is still my most anticipated show to listen to after all these years. If our podcast got to be half as funny as the GBC, I'd be both amazed and excited. So again, if you made it this far, thank you. And if you check out our show, let us know what you think!

After a fair amount of waiting, its finally here!! I am pumped, as I am sure all of you are as well, so enough of that.. Lets get to what this is all about, Games.

So lately, I have been on this huge gaming frenzy. It is partially due to the fact that I just got my Xbox back from a friends house after about a month of not having it, and it is also from all the the big (sorta) news in the past week that has gotten me pumped to be playing some older stuff that i had in my collection that i hadn't ever finished. In the past 2 weeks i have burned through God of War (finally) which didn't disappoint, gotten half way through Shadow of the Colossus, played through Portal for the first time, and finished campaign in Call of Duty 4. That mixed with some achievement whoring in Geometry Wars and Hexic, and the ever addicting CoD4 online multiplayer (just prestiged and am already at Lv. 35) i have been pretty busy. I also picked up No More Heroes for my dusty Wii, since it took a price drop and it really looks intriguing. After only playing through the first level, i am pretty impressed. Technically its not the best game ( the grafics at times look like a dated GameCube game) but the insanity of the story and interesting gameplay are pretty sweet.  I look forward to getting into it a bit more and seeing how it all unfolds.
Then there is the Electronic Three that took place just this past month.. Although over all it was a tad underwhelming in the way of new and unexpected announcements, there were some truely great looking games displayed there, and even more that looked to have great potential. As one of the many who had to rely on such sorces as Giant Bomb, Joystiq, Kotaku, and yes, even Gamespot, i was fairly impressed by the flood of content that immerged out of what was expected to be a slow and trite convention. I tried to keep up with as much of the major announcements as i could, but i still am finding myself sifting through trailers and game footage from what has already taken place close to a week ago. I plan on sorta giving my 2 cents on some of the stuff i have been seeing, but i suppose i should wrap this up right now.
Its great to see this site finally up, and i cant wait to explore and see all it has to offer. I will try to post blogs fairly consistantly, as well as remain an active member of the Giant Bomb community..

-Zach AKA BurningStarIV