Cane and Rinse - No episode specified in the nomination. Sampled Episode 197 from 10/11/2015 covering Halo 4.
Can and Rinse reviews various video games. They had been reviewing the entire series of Halo games. Previously, my primary experience was with Halo CE which I enjoyed a great deal.
The hosts did a great job of sharing the "air time" and providing individual perspectives on Halo 4. They were entertaining and informative.
In fact, I went searching on their website for podcast commentary regarding a couple other games as a result. Unfortunately, either they have yet to cover those games via podcast, or the GUI for their search results is cluttered to the point of obfuscation.
Were I spending more time playing games, I would definitely subscribe to this podcast.
The Rageaholic - No episode specified. Sampled:
- Jessica Jones Review
- Cinema: Sudden Impact
- Skyrim Online: Tamriel Unplayable
- B-but Everyone is Corrupt: The Downfall of Gaming Journalism
The Rageaholic appears to be a persona of a stereotypical person that lives in their parent's basement known as RazörFist. The presentation style is borderline hyperventilating and spittle flying rage; hence one supposes the "Rage" in Rageaholic.
Surprisingly, he loved Jessica Jones for the most part. He had little use for flipping one manipulative male character into being a manipulative lesbian character. He thought Carrie Ann Moss' acting salvaged that change to the plot. His general perspective seemed to be along the line of suggesting that people should worry more about telling a compelling story and less about the supporting/non-critical elements that get incorporated.
He also loved Sudden Impact. That was unsurprising based on the persona.
In the review of Skyrim Online, his chief complaint was that the software publisher had taken everything that was interesting about Skyrim and chucked it aside in order to make something that was played online.
The gaming journalism was the weakest of the four episodes I sampled. Central to his argument was that the percentage of magazine pages dedicated to promoting the products being reviewed was significantly higher in gaming oriented publications.
While I would not want a steady diet of this persona, these videos were entertaining and engaging. I can understand why someone would subscribe to them.
HelloGreedo - No episode specified. Sampled:
- Star Wars: A New Hope - Deleted Scenes
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer
- Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace
The podcast features a presenter named Greedo wearing a storm trooper helmet(!) who discusses various aspects of the Star Wars franchise. In general, his presentation is lucid and passionate without going overboard. Greedo has a speaking style that conveys his interest in a clear and measured speaking style. It is clear that our host is thoroughly invested in the Star Wars 'verse.
In the first episode I sampled, Greedo breaks down a series of deleted scenes and why (or why not) their omission from the final film served the interest of telling a compelling story. It was an interesting look at some of the editorial decisions that were made in putting the story together.
The second episode was a fannish treatment of the trailer for The Force Awakens that could be best summarized as "I love Star Wars and this trailer designed to appeal to people that love Star Wars appeals to me a great deal". The substance of the commentary wasn't all that great. But the presentation was good.
The final episode I sampled broken down all of the issues surrounding the plot...or lack thereof...in The Phantom Menace. Given the megabytes that have been written excoriating this installment of the franchise, none of Greedo's were all that surprising. But again, his presentation was excellent.
Tales to Terrify - No episode specified in the nomination. Sampled episodes 164 and 204.
Tales to Terrify is essentially a reading of selected short horror stories. Episode 164 wasn't really terrifying, but one story was definitely disgusting. I'm not sure if the characters were supposed to be self-aware zombies that were subjected to all manner of abuse, or people held captive for zombie food that were subjected to all manner of abuse, or just people held captive that were abused. But there was a lot of abuse going on. I bailed on episode 164 after the n-th iteration of "arseholes leaking shit, blood, and cum".
Episode 204 was much better. The two stories presented were Angela Slatter's Sourdough and Patrick O'Neill's Underwriting Department. Both were well written and well read. While not necessarily terrifying, they fit within the horror/fantasy spectrum quite well.
The presentation in both episodes was good but not great. Having a couple more readers to create more of a radio theater experience might have improved things. The editorial decisions for Episode 164 certainly weighed into my ranking for the Hugo Awards this year.
NO AWARD
8>4 Play Japan Game Panic - No episode specified in the nomination. Sampled Happy Little Cloud from 11/13/2015.
Quite frankly, this podcast was a mess. All four (?) of the hosts were talking over one another and none of them really had much to add to the conversation.
This episode seemed to focus on classic/older games from the 1990s. Mostly it was a case of "I own this, you own that, how neat is that". I was neither entertained nor informed by this podcast. It reminded me heavily of last year's Galactic Suburbia Podcast; the eventual winner for 2015 that I put below "No Award".
