Saturday, July 3, 2010

Podcast dedicated to Japanese gaming


A short while ago the sixth episode of ‘WARNING! A Huge Podcast is Approaching Fast!’ came out, and I just finished listening to it today. Without question, everyone who enjoys the kind of output Hardcore Gaming 101 does, should listen to this fortnightly podcast. It’s brought to you by Casey Loe, Nick des Barres, and Eric Patterson, all former PLAY magazine staffers, so has a good pedigree.

I’m really excited about this series, because so far it stands as one of only a few pivotal creations which in some way defines my enjoyment of videogames - it’s that incredible. Others included Digitiser, Super Play magazine, Diehard GameFAN magazine, discovering InsertCredit, and discovering Hardcore Gaming 101 itself.

They cover things which no one else, whether printed magazine or website, comes even close to covering. My favourite is “mutter watch”, where they translate the Twitters of Japanese developers, often with hilarious/amazing results which you would otherwise never know about. They also cover a myriad of Japan-exclusive releases which, again, is impossible to get good information on since few other English sources exist. And if you know of any, please post in the comments. The whole podcast is rich with an infectious enthusiasm I find missing from a lot of modern discussion on games - these guys love what they're discussing and aren't ashamed by it. Oh, and their pixel art was done by an artist at SNK.

I wouldn’t be surprised if big magazines like EDGE or EGM actually start listening to these and basing their news on them, because WAHP is that ahead of the curve. God, I hope so, because I subscribed to EGM, despite their first issue seriously lacking in obscure Japanese information (they have Casey Loe on board, I can only hope Nick and Eric end up contributing as well).

With what must be over 15 hours worth of backlog now, anyone who hasn’t jumped on this bandwagon should do so RIGHT NOW. And trust me, every minute of those past 15 hours is totally worth listening to (except maybe the FFXIII themed episode, since it’s dated a bit - Episode 0 is essential though).

So grab it, grab it right now, and if you have a spare moment over the weekend, revel in the vanguard of unashamedly supergeek binary worship.


//Stage 006
//Main Topic: Online Import Shops
//Now Playing: Deathsmiles IIX, Xenoblade, Lost Planet 2
//Subtopics: E3, Nintendo 3DS, Ni no Kuni for PS3, Chiyomaru Shikura disses the PS3 as a gaming device, Final Fantasy VII HD would take 40 years, Marvelous nixes new IP, Masaya Matsuura says War Is Not The Answer, Final Fantasy XIII new for 500 yen, Just Cause 2 heavily censored in Japan, Fire Emblem without permanent death, your Loveplus+ girlfriend wants you to live, Twitter Watch, upcoming releases, we talk about making the podcast shorter, and we beg you to follow us on Twitter.
Posted by Sketcz at 12:55 PM
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7 comments:

  1. Edge and alot of other groups do listen to popular podcasts in order to report news and sometimes promote indie stuff (I think, they used to anyway)

    Also, twice-monthly? Fortnightly if the word you're looking for my sexy naked friend.
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  2. I wish more people would take what they know or what they want to say and make websites like this. I have personally never understood the allure of podcasts. Maybe it's just because I don't like voices? I dunno, but I do know that if HG101 was podcast only I would have never discovered it.

    Also it's harder to find what you're looking for in a podcast, unless they give you litle HH:MM:SS bookmarks.
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  3. Is there any chance to see text-version of this podcast?
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  4. I agree. I'd rather have this (and HG101) in paper form. But it's a case of cost mechanics and effort. Paper form is only for the real dedicated, since The Gamer's Quarter spent a ton of physical effort designing PDFs to be printed, and being mostly text it was easy.

    Websites meanwhile take a lot of effort to code up into HTML. It can take a few minutes to screengrab, resize, make multiples of the same image - it's a nightmare.

    Podcasts you can just talk and go, do a little post-editing, and Bob's your aunt Wendy.

    I agree, but I can see why people go the podcast route. For these WAHP podcasts, I keep a notepad with me to jot down stuff I want to look up later - since it's kind of an information overload.
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  5. That's a good idea, I will try that! Thanks! :3
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  6. I don't usually listen to podcasts, but I listened to the Deadly Premonition-themed one recently, and it was very enjoyable. I should check out the others at some point.
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  7. I've never listened to a podcast but you're close to convincing me to start! :P
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