11. Tech Fetish (IGN)
Scott Lowe hosts an informative tech podcast that does a great job of covering many subjects in consumer electronics and sharing the information in an understandable way. What is more surprising is that the show remains good in the face of major overhauls over the last two years with the departures of Gerry Block and Mark Bozon. The show doesn't seem to follow a reliable release schedule, which is highly disappointing and keeps it out of the top 10. Scott brings other editors from different IGN sites that are usually funny. Scott Lowe is the epitome of the hyper-intelligent host who can struggle to maintain control his co-hosts.
12. Podcast Beyond (IGN)
This show is IGN’s PlayStation centered show hosted by Greg Miller, Ryan Clements, Colin Moriarty, and another editor they can find. They cover news, releases, and of course, the PlayStation. They do a good job, but seem to have lost control recently. Jeff Haynes and Greg seemed to have fantastic chemistry and the show took a big hit with Jeff's departure. The show took another hit when former host Chris Roper left IGN. Greg and Ryan are still following an old format where they were featured personalities that could change the subject, however there is no one to get the show back on course.
These are issues a new host with good control should be able to straighten out. The show has many procedural and sound issues a producer could easily fix. Podcast beyond is going through growing pains but is still a fun show to listen to. If they lose the vocal segues (random noises) they will gain listeners. The sounds are childish and are a relic of the show it once was.
13. Nintendo Voice Chat (IGN)
Craig Harris fights for control of a not-very-entertaining show. The subject matter may be the problem but with the recent departures of Mark Bozon and Matt Casamassina the show fights for an identity. Adding Scott Bromley is the right thing to do, but Nintendo fanboys will never be happy with him because he is brash and honest. Sam Clayborne and Jack Devries may be knowledgeable, but they remain nearly as dull as Craig. With Nintendo's recent return to relevance, they should go the way of TRL and talk about entertaining subjects.
14. Buzz Out Loud (CNet)
The show is great until you realize these are not entertaining people covering the most entertaining tech subjects. They cover the news well but become virtually unlistenable after 10 episodes. Tom Merritt recently left the show and his intelligent rants will be missed. Hopefully he can be replaced.
Molly Wood may be the only person that I find to be offensive while covering the news. Her constant cliches are annoying to no end, and will likely make you punch yourself in the most painful place you can find. (examples, "Jack-booted thugs", speech impediment/accent impersonations, fake laugh, repeating anything intelligent someone else says, over-enunciating to make point). Listen when Molly is not on.
15. Joe Rogan Podcast
Imagine your favorite comedian on drugs talking about his paranoid fantasies and NOT BEING FUNNY. Don't listen. It should be removed by next week.
16. The HotSpot (GameSpot)
GameSpot creates a weekly audio podcast that does a FANTASTIC job of covering the most popular news in the video game industry. The podcast features an assorted weekly cast of very thoughtful and intelligent writers and is worth listening to.
Sadly, the show takes on the identity of host Brendan Sinclair who is negative and argumentative by nature. When frequent contributor Tom Mc Shea is on the show the instances of annoying arguments about pronunciation, technicalities, and obscure nerd angles seem to double. Combined they contend most points other editors make, sounding like nerd banter and derailing the show.
The podcast follows a consistent format of news discussions, release updates, "10 years ago this week (covering past news)," “corrections, clarifications and apologies”, emails, and homework. The routine offers the listener a great chance to avoid the worst parts of the show -- you can easily skip to the parts you like.
GameSpot has some of the most experienced, likeable, and intelligent writers covering video games and many times they follow their leader into juvenile banter. They should cut out the constant ranting, as this show does the editors a disservice.
Understand that I love all genres of podcasts. Suggestions are welcome. If you want to contact me my spam safe email is mrdurden58@yahoo.com.
If you suggest something, I promise give it a shot for at least an hour. If it fits into the ranking system, I will add it. Please be patient until this is sorted out.
Thanks for the advice everyone! Soon to be rated:
- Geekbox (Hammersuit)
- Cheap Ass Gamer (CAGcast)
- Pixel Revolt (Bitmob)
- Joystick
- A Life Well Wasted
- Dead Pixel Live
- Drunken Gamer
- The Freelancers
- The Game Informer Show
- Irrational Behavior
- My Brother, My Brother, And Me
- Player One Podcast
- Radio Free Nintendo
- Sophist Radio
- Squadron of Shame
- Talk is Cheap - (LevelFortyTwo)
- TeaBagRadio
- The Vault
- Weekend Confirmed
- World 8
- 1UP Whiteboard (1UP)
- Retronauts (1UP)
- Active Time Babble (1UP)
- Four Guys (1UP)
- The History of Rome (only non-gaming. I will check it out after the rest.)
I could list about 10 video game podcasts, but a good non-video game podcast is The History of Rome.
And ranking the Mobcast anywhere but number one is pretty ballsy.... ;)
I listen to at least 18 other podcasts but ranking them all is really hard. There are so many good podcasts. These are the ones I listen to the most. Some of them are also TV/Radio shows, some I have only heard a couple times and don't feel comfortable ranking.
Mobcast is great! I love listening to them. Recently the others were better.
I'm all for giving podcasts their due (especially now that I have one of my own,) but I think ranking them using only one person's opinion is a little unnecessary.
Podcasts can fit into so many different categories and can fill so many different needs. Why do we need to decide which one is the absolute best?
This isn't communist China or a little girl's soccer game. Being the best is beneficial. Welcome to America. ;-) Why rate anything (games, movies, music) unless you plan to say one is better than another?
Power Rankings change from week to week and show what shows are worth listening to. I may remove the sports ones (to keep it to one category, gaming) but at this point they are damn good and they are a good placeholder for someone to guage a show against. Some of these podcasts are much better than ones produced by much more experienced professionals.
If you planned on listening to something you had never heard would you want to pick something good or lame? Do you want to learn from and compete against the best?
I'm with Chase on this one -- this is really just one dude's opinion, so it is far from authoritative. That said, there are a couple here I haven't listened to that I'll now check out -- so maybe it has some value.
Sorry to be nitpicky, but you spelt some names wrong. It's "Anthony Gallegos," "Jeff Gerstmann," "Vinny" Caravella (I know you didn't include his surname, but the first name was wrong), and "Game Scoop" (two words).
Three gaming podcasts not listed that I'd recommend are Weekend Confirmed, Retronauts, and The Freelancers
Thanks for the spelling help. I will check these podcasts out.
Lol. Thanks for taking my authority card. I won't go through my resume but I am pretty well qualified.
Giant Bomb is ALWAYS my first choice. But I listen religiously to many of the others that you have listed here.
I can not stand Giant Bomb. I respect the site and the guys seem incredibly informed...I just can't get over how much they ham it on on the show. The whole thing feels so artificial, I may as well be listening to a morning show on a local station. I've tried listening to it three times now and I really would not be surprised if they started using some kind of fart joke or some hyper-mixed voice over intros.
I much prefer shows like RebelFM where the hosts feel genuine. You feel like they are real people and do it because they want to. I don't always agree with those guys but I respect that they are personable on the show.
GameSpy debriefings are great too, but while I started off loving Scott Bromley I'm beginning to see the formula to his humor and he's quickly growing old.
Finally, I'm SHOCKED A Life Well Wasted doesn't at least get honorable mention. It's not very frequent, but it's easily one of the best shows out there. Not to be missed.
Even though it's a sister podcast to Bitmob, I can't listen to Rebel FM anymore. I honestly just don't think they're very funny, I mean they try, but it just never does anything for me. I've also come to realize that I have completely different tastes in games than all 4 of them. There's just no value in it for me.
I recommend Player One Podcast to everyone as well, that's been a staple in my library for awhile, and those guys are always entertaining. Also recommend My Brother, My Brother, And Me, those guys rule.
I love podcasts too. Gaming podcasts that I like but weren't mentioned are Geekbox, Irrational Behavior (Irrational Games podcast), A Life Well Wasted, and Dead Pixel Live
As for non-gaming podcasts, I like Night of the Living Podcast (hilarious show about horror movies and sometimes games), Adam Carolla and everything on his network, Hometown Tales, Diggnation, and The Nerdist.
I think I have a very diverse taste.
Irrational Games podcast hosted by Shawn Elliot is pretty freaking awesome, they talk about some hilarious and interesting stuff. Though the infrequency of them kinda sucks.
GiantBomb is by far my favorite, every episode is funny, entertaining, informative and interesting, well except for their recent 3rd E3 podcast... that was... painful, to say the least, though it wasn't so much their fualt as it was one of their guests. I'm also a fan of the GameSpy and RebelFM podcasts. Weird that Anthony and all those guys didn't do any at all during E3, suppose they were super busy.
G4's Feedback and Garnett Lees Weekend Confirmed are also pretty good.
I will check these out. Thanks everyone for their advice!
No love for the Cheap Ass Gamer CAGcast? This is by far my favorite video game podast.
I am also a fan of Rebel FM (Anthony G. is the best video game critic in my opinion), Mobcast (of course), the Gamespy Debriefings, and Zero Punctuation (Not a podcast but it should be mentioned because it is extremely funny).
Guys! The History of Rome!!! History!!! Rome!!!! Check it out!
And since everyone started naming their favs:
Pixel Revolt
The Vault
Sophist Radio
World 8
Exploding Barrel
Squadron of Shame
Retronauts
You should definitely check out the Squadron of Shame, the Exploding Barrel Podcast, the aforementioned Weekend Confirmed and the local boys at Pixel Revolt.
Non-gaming: This American Life. I know everyone and their Grandma loves it; but there's a reason for that.
1)Podcast BEYOND!!!!
2)Three Red Lights
3)Game Scoop
4)Four Guys One Up
5)The Hotspot
6)The Gameinformer Show
I trust everything Lance says, despite his intense maple syrup-loving Canadian-ness. Checking out History of Rome immediately.
I feel like you're missing two of the best gaming podcasts:
- Weekend Confirmed (hosted by Garnett Lee) on www.shacknews.com
- Feedback (hosted by Adam Sessler) on G4TV.com
Those two plus the Giant Bombcast and RebelFM make up my weekly podcast diet. I feel like those 4 have some personality, intelligent discussion, and good chemistry between the regulars.
Though I'm still of the opinion that "power ranking" using only one person's view is pretty biased (no matter how objective you might try to be, opinions differ,) I'm glad the comments have turned this into more of a podcast repository. On that note, I'll list a couple I believe deserve mention (even a couple that haven't been talked about previously:)
Active Time Babble from 1up feels like what Retronauts used to be. I'm not a huge fan of Kat Bailey, but she sure knows her RPG's.
Scott Sharkey's 1up Whiteboard is a really unique show. Maybe stretching the definition of podcast, but it's really cool.
Feedback is great, but Sessler's Soapbox might be even more interesting. Super thought-provoking stuff from one of the best minds in the gaming media.
A Life Well Wasted is awesome, but it's not within your parameters (why are there parameters again? Seems restricting when it doesn't have to be.)
The Nerdist Podcast isn't exactly a gaming podcast, but they touch on gaming. Best guests of any podcast out there and their discussions on the ins and outs of comedy are fascinating.
Of course, we can't forget the awsome podcasts from all the great people here at Bitmob. Yeah, there's the Mobcast and Pixel Revolt (both excellent shows,) but the true gems are shows like The Vault. Sure they're a little rough around the edges, but being perfectly produced is overrated. Other examples include the Exploding Barrel Podcast (which sadly, I've yet to download,) and my own podcast (I won't name it, but it's been said earlier in the comments.) It's great that these 'mobbers are taking the initiative and they should be rewarded. I like Rebel FM and Giant Bomb as much as the next guy, but these smaller shows are vastly more interesting.
Seems like the Big N gets little love around here, but for the two Nintendo fans out there, I gotta recommend Radio Free Nintendo. Used to listen to IGN's podcasts, but once I found these guys (and Retronauts, et al. over at 1up) I saw the huge discrepancy in quality. They actually seem to care about what they're talking about. Sort of helps.
And the only Giant Bomb cast I listened to was the E3 one... so maybe I should give it another shot, 'cause it was not my taste at all.
GFW above all else. I still listen to the old ones today.
1. Gamespy Debreifings
2. Rebel FM
3. CAGCAST
4. Giant Bombcast
5. Joystiq Podcast
6. Podcast Beyond*
6. Gamescoop*
Basically the same in my opinion
Where is KOXM? Or TalkRadar?
mobcast is the harvard business review of video game podcasts. i love how professional it always sounds.