Hey podcast listeners!
Welcome to dispatch #7 of Video Game Podcasts! If youāre receiving this via email, thank you for letting me in your inbox. If youāre reading this on the web, go subscribe already. Itās free!
Practically missed a week, sorry. I wanted to experiment with sending on Thursdays or Fridays, so I pushed things back last minute.
Last time we dove into the great unknown with Fringe Game Podcast, and this week I took the opposite angle and explored a mainstream āTop 10ā show that Iām checking out for the first time. Hope you dig it.
Any who, thanks for being here,
Tom
You might likeā¦
Whatās Good Games
Before we beginā¦ Iāve only shared podcasts that have been in my heavy rotation for a while. While Iāve known of this podcast, I never listened to it until this week. I checked out 3 episodes total. This is a slightly new approach. Consider it a āfirst play.ā
Whatās Good Games is a weekly video game podcast that began in May of 2017. There are 126 formal episodes, and a bit more in the feed.
Youāll frequently find Whatās Good in the iTunes and Spotify top 20 lists for gaming podcasts. That means itās gotta be good, right? Letās find out!
Runtime?
This wasnāt super consistent. The episodes I listened to ranged from 1 hour and 17 minutes to 2 hours. Expect a runtime between 1 and 2 1/2 hours.
Who hosts it?
Whatās Good Games is hosted by Andrea Rene, Brittney Brombacher, and Kristine Steimer. Theyāre industry vets! These women have worked for/with IGN, Playstation, and Yahoo. Brittney has been maintaining the gaming site, blondenerd.com, since 2011.
Whatās the format?
Of the episodes I listened to, the format was the same. If youāre a fan of video game podcasts, itāll feel familiar.
News: The hosts discuss the news. Seems like it skews a bit towards console gaming and the big news. Nothing wrong with that, especially if you want a show thatāll cover the top industry conversations.
What weāve been playing: The hosts discuss the games theyāve been playing. Because theyāre in the know and they have a big show, seems like they get early access to pre-release games. Also, looks like the major AAA titles are covered. I really enjoyed the Gears of War 5 āspoilercast.ā
Q&A: I didnāt catch much of this, but there are discussion segments prompted by listener/Patreon patron feedback and questions.
Ads! Not really a segment, but there felt like a decent amount of ads in this podcast. Iām sure you could remove them through a Patreon donation, but I didnāt dig too deep.
What was good (or not so good)?
Hereās my hot take:
š· The conversation was loose and funnyā¦
This felt like listening to 3 super knowledgeable women who love video games talk about video games, while having a couple glasses of wine.
I popped over to their YouTube stream of the recording to see Andrea actually was drinking a glass of wine. š
The result is a loose podcast with a ton of laughs and diverging conversations sandwiched between relevant, timely, and intellectual talk about games, the industry, and gaming culture.š® This wild chip-tune intro/interludeā¦
This sounds weird, but, sheesh, this was one of my favorite parts of this podcast. Itās a little intro/interlude produced by video game composer, Dale North.
ā²ļø Took a while to get into the episodeā¦
Iāll be the first to admit I have a personal bias against ābanterā podcasts, so this might not be an issue for you at all! There was a good amount of off-topic conversations and ads in one of the episodes I listened to before any video game discussion began.
Again, thatās me. You might love this style of show.
I will add that there was a āLetās read our latest 1-star reviewā bit at the begin that had me rolling.š° It feels like a mainstream podcastā¦
Is that a bad thing? Definitely not. Itās polished, well-produced, it covers the industry news, it introduces great commentary on new and upcoming games, and it represents women gamers (which we need more of in podcasting!)
For all those reasons, I really enjoyed listening to the few shows I dove into. Iām going to stay subscribed.
But, I will say, there were times where it felt a little too overproduced. The ads were a bit heavy-handed. I read a few reviews that claimed the hands-on impressions from pre-release games felt a bit too promotional. I canāt speak to that because I havenāt heard anything to indicate it!This is a top 20 podcast. Itāll feel like one nothing āindieā about it.
What do others say about it?
Thereās a 4.6 star rating on Apple Podcasts out of 1.1k !
Hereās the first from ājasonsoldoutā
āāāāā āThe only way I listen to video game newsā
The crew is fun and is loaded with personality, so itās a pretty entertaining podcast to leave on while Iām working. Plus I wanted to especially leave a 5-star review after hearing them read out some ridiculous 1-star reviews. But more importantly, because I really, really enjoy the content. Fun way to listen to video game news and commentary without it being served like boring dishes of dry information like some other podcasts Iāve tried.
ā
I agree with that one. šÆ
Hereās one of those 1-star reviews, this one from āRealTyroneJacksonā
ā āGames Podcast ??? More like a Blabbering Podcastā
If you enjoy hearing women rambling on about nonsense like strange noises in their house and husbands opening doors in the room than this podcast is for you!
First 25 min has nothing to do with games out of an hour and twenty minute Podcast!
Yeah, this might be a feature of most video game podcasts, to be honest. Appeaks to your personal preference, for sure.
Is it kid-friendly?
Nope! This a podcast for adults. The looseness of the conversation is part of the charm, though. I think Whatās Good Games would lose its character if you tried to make it family-friendly. (Note: You might not care about thisā¦ I typically donāt, to be honest, but Iām on an epic quest to find podcasts that I can reliably listen to with my kids in the car!)
Final thoughts?
Whatās Good is good. Not mind-blowing, but not awful. It has personality and charm and three hosts with a great, friendly rapport.
They are well-represented across mediums outside of just audio, you can watch streams, VODs, and join their community via Patreon.
There are ads, but, hey, creators gotta get paid!
Iām hesitant to review this podcast, or give it a thumbs up or thumbs down because I only listened to 3 episodes. But that was just enough to warrant subscribing, and Iāll be tuning in next time, for sure.
As I continue to explore video game podcasts, from the top of the charts to the bottom, thisāll be a great example of how to do a āmainstreamā podcast effectively. š§
Where to listen? Whatās a good starting point?
I had a blast just jumping in with the newest episode. Given that they cover the news and recent games, it might be best to do the same.
š Here are your links:
Do you already listen to Whatās Good Games? Have you checked it out after reading this? Love it? Hate it? Let me know your feedback!
Random Spotlight: Google Stadia
Internet juggernauts Google are diving into the gaming scene with Google Stadia, a streaming service that will deliver 720p to 4K gaming experiences without the need for a heavy duty PC or console. Youāll be able to play on different devices, or your TV via a Chromecast Ultra.
You still have to pay to access the games, though. This isnāt a Playstation Now or Xbox Game Pass service just yet.
Stadia made the news this week when they announced their release date - November 19th!
If you want to dig into all things Stadia, check out my friend RunJumpStompās podcast: Stadiacast.
Hereās the link: https://runjumpstomp.com/category/show/stadiacast/
Reader Recommendations
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