It’s going up later than we’d like mostly due to lame computer problems (I’ve now been working on this file for 6+ hours), but enjoy the third episode of Reb’m (that’s what the cool kids are calling it…somewhere. Maybe.). It should sound noticeably better thanks to all sorts of new audio toys, though we’re still working on making it sound like we’re not recording in Anthony’s living room. Give us another week…maybe two. And to more personally thank those of you who helped us directly with donations towards that equipment, we read out everyone’s names (first name, last initial, don’t worry) at the end of the show. And as always, thanks to anyone to takes the time to check it out, subscribe, Digg, etc.!
Show description:
This week we’re joined by Geekbox.net’s Ryan Scott and Italy’s Giancarlo Varanini, as we discuss what we’ve been playing recently, the ups and downs of the reviews process, and answer some more letters from a recently closed magazine. And stick around for a very thorough shout-out to those who have helped us thus far.
Also, if you haven’t yet seen it, here’s the EGM Metaphors video we mention.
P.S. Our first episode received tons of Diggs, but didn’t make the front page because it was considered spam, due to so many of those Diggers having new accounts. We’d still love to hit the front page, so if you have a second please Digg this one. Thanks!
W00t, stoked! This is gonna make my commute easier today!
Dugged. I was one of those that finally created a Digg account, just to give props to the show. Hopefully I did it right.
Thanks for the hard work guys, Nick esp if this was that big of a pain in the ass to finish.
Now I have to stay up for however long this thing is. You know its 1AM right?
Kidding Holy Balls can’t wait.
Digg this also:
Co-Up the new 1upshow has yet to make front page,
I submitted 1ups News story (hopefully get some traffic too)
Here is the link:
http://tinyurl.com/bkq67z
Hopefully a bunch of new accounts wont get the story burried for the 4th time!
Its called Dome of the rock.
RE: The 15-years-old crappy anime comment.
So, you would say that the game is just like one of your japanese animes?
for the game ratings, i say if you do any thing it should be very loose and there should be no letter or number attached. look into what gamerevolution.com has minus the letter grade, just a little recap of what the main review.
or say scerw it all and just post 4 reviews from 4 different people and have no score at all.
Good choice on RX Bandits for the intro music. Great band, especially like the drummer.
Yes! Staying up late was worth it.
Try this for a quick and easy way to fix your living room acoustics:
http://www.palmcitystudios.com/timobrien/music/soundbooth/simplesoundbooth.html
Giancarlo was invaluable here
[...] (Rebel.fm) Related posts [...]
Most would complain about the wait, but when you upload minutes before I have to leave for a night shift I can say nothing but, “Excellent timing gentlemen.”
Firstly, great podcast. It’s all love. Remember that during what I’m about to say…
Is anyone else starting to find the CONSTANT Paypal and Digg petitioning SLIGHTLY dirty?
Seriously, if people want to support they’ll support.
If constant “Digging” last time resulted in the show being considered spam that should say something to you. If you’re getting Diggs on the back of petitioning here, on Twitter and on your friend’s sites, from people who wouldn’t normally Digg, then there’s a reason that’s considered spam. It IS spam. You’re spamming the Digg site to try and get on the front page and Digg is RIGHT to not count the votes, because they defeat the fundamental purpose of Digg.
Diggs should come on the strength of your content because people WANT to Digg what you’ve written or what you’ve put forward, not because you rally together some push for votes. Earn your Diggs legitimately and maybe next time you wont be labelled spam. And that can TOTALLY happen. Obviously the content you generate is of good quality. Rely on the work and I think you’ll go far. Rely on Twitter to rally popularity and you’ll sink.
Anyway… love the show guys. Hope you believe that.
Chris –
The Diggs on the first episode DID come from people enjoying the content. So many people, apparently, that Digg didn’t believe it wasn’t artificially inflated. We’re just trying to get a spot, once, on the front page, that we legitimately deserved last time. So I don’t mind asking.
And I really don’t think we’ve EVER petitioned people to donate, we’ve just mentioned that it’s there, because people requested it.
Regardless, thanks for listening.
Well I joined digg just to digg the first episode, and i’m sure there were many other people who did the same thing so thats probably why you got flagged. you guys are just too large a force to handle… lol anyways great podcast and a crapload of names at the end along with some chuff supper I could hear in the background.
When you guys put reviews up on the site I would pass on the score. Maybe just a bullet point list of pros/cons at the end. Then again I’m just a freak who actually likes to read reviews :/
looking forward to sitting down with the significant other tomorrow night and listening to episode 3. good work guys. look forward to more great things to come.
Something is wrong with the iTunes feed, I think.
When Ryan Scott was talking about reviews and how many words should be used, he ended up using the word “concise,” which was exactly what I was thinking during his statement. The length of the document/review doesn’t matter (unless in print) as long as all of your points can be construed in that amount of words. Not a big fan of the lettering system, but I will forever have respect for telling his co-workers on the review crew to be concise.
Absolutely awesome!
Metal Gear Solid 4′s story is full of shit? This coming from the man who is totally in love with Mirror’s Edge and it’s horrible mechanics? Mmkay.
I just player through Gravity Bone, and it was very unique and cool. It reminded me of a film school movie. Thanks for the heads up about this games. I would love to hear more indie PC game pics from you guys. Indie games are becoming so prolific that it is really hard to find a good one without spending hours wading through crap. Also where is the best place to comment now?
My favorite part of either Condemned game is when the hobos with backpacks and fatigues show up which I have dubbed the “Homeless Special Forces”.
I could have sworn I just heard a cat. LOL!
I love the way RebelFM is going, good luck overall guys. Could you guys please discuss the direction you plan on taking eat-sleep-game? Is it going to be mainly about the podcast or(in the future) could I come here for gaming news?
Gravity Bone is much more fun and interesting to talk about than play, imho. I think it was over hyped for my tastes, but it was definitely an interesting play.
I like the idea of giving a game a (review) score in the form of a dice (scoring it 1-6). The reason I like this is that the average of the 6 sides of a dice is 3,5 which means the reviewer can not give a game an average – he has to choose a 3 or a 4. Another thing I like about scoring games this way is that a dice is always a whole number (you can not roll a 5+ on a dice). And displaying a dice with one side up on a website is a nice, easy to understand way of displaying the score.
that egm metaphor video was hilarious, Evan Grant Mondesanto, HUGO DõTCOM, Ulysses Prance…. the first
i almost died when I heard Ulysses Prance
i think it might be a good way of reviewing games if you ended the reviews with a few examples of similar games, say something like “if you liked these games, you’ll probably like this game.” that is a way around attaching a letter or number to the game, and it could be pretty effective
Wow at Arthur completely shitting all over Shane. Doesn’t seem right coming from him. The MGS4 criticism and the massive dump he took on Shane over his enjoyment of MGS4 and his love of the story seems like complete nonsense given the HUGE fan base of the MGS series that likes the story, and the excellent reviews that MGS4 received from the press.
Somehow Arthur thinks only he is right, and he can’t imagine how anyone would enjoy it despite all of the fave reviews and millions of fans that do. So you don’t like Arthur, and you dislike it enough to mock Shane, but millions disagree with you.
Also, don’t listen to the guy telling you not to ask for donations. He ultimately doesn’t have your best interests in mind. If we like this content, they NEED to ask for money since we know ads alone won’t support this content. So please, ask away. I will be upset if you DON’T ask and then you stop doing the show because it’s too time consuming and costly to do.
As a gamer, the number or letter score attached to a review is pretty irrelevant to me. What matters is the text of the review, where I can actually get a description of what the game is like, the experience the reviewer had with it and comparisons and contrasts to other games. That’s what helps me figure out whether I might like it, totally regardless of the number or letter attached.
So, personally, as long as your reviews are thorough and articulate you are golden, and you can install whatever meaningless number/letter rating system you need to to satisfy the demands of publishers and the industry at large.
February 10th for the Tomb Raider DLC.
About the whole Digg thing being spam. I am sure there was a whole lotta people just like myself who have looked on Digg but never took the time to open an account. When I saw Rebel Fm start I felt it was something worth registering an account for to digg. Shame that was seen as spam..
Hell Rebel Fm also made me start a twitter account that I have been using ever since.
Also lawl at all the MGS rage. I agreed with him for the most part. But I am just one of those people who thinks cut scenes take away from game play so MGS is horrible in my eyes.
I don’t see why reading out last names are a problem…? Is it a mark against you if you’ve donated money to something you like? I even use my real name on the site.
Thanks for working hard to bring the show to us. I can’t wait to listen!
And yeah, ever since 1up broke up, I’ve been making more accounts on more places than I can keep track of. I didn’t even have an account on iTunes before, even though I use iTunes all the time. I never even visited twitter before.
You guys discussed the problems with a Skip/Rent/Buy system for reviews.
If you mean to imply that Rent means “try before you buy” why not have the tiers be Skip/Try/Must-Own? Many (most?) titles would fall under a “Try-Before-You-Buy” category, and it’s open-ended enough that one would have to read the text of the review to gauge the reviewer’s opinion for oneself.
Nice episode… even though I am pretty sure you either screw up my name or didn’t say it at all. It would be Marco van P, not Marco V :@
IMHO that just makes a perfect episode flawed. I would give it a Nick Suttner score of: B- ( And that is low for nick’s standard.)
How about using a price scale for reviews; $60 being the best $5 being the worst. Scale it on its value $60, $50, $40, $30, $20, $10, $5
Suggestion on what I’d like to hear on the podcast: BACKLOG!
The backlog segment on 1up FM is what got me to subscribe to that podcast in the first place. When I first started listening I would just skip to the end and listen to the backlog and eventually started listening to, and liking, the whole podcast. So please do backlog, that was always really entertaining to listen to, and got me to buy and play a few games I wouldn’t have otherwise. Interactive media is tough to do on podcasts, so you had something special with backlog IMO.
One more point on the Backlog thing, I think the reason that was so interesting is that you were talking about a game that nobody else was, and you almost always played games with strong narratives, making the discussion more interesting. So for someone like me who listens to a lot of podcasts, yours was interesting because everyone is talking about Fable II, Gears 2, MGS4, but only you were talking about Indigo Prophesy.
Hi, guys. I’m in the midst of the podcast but wanted to ask you a question. Have you ever considered why losing the 1UP podcasts generated more outcry about the recent changes than anything else?*
The podcasts were full of personality with an interesting, entertaining and often intriguing conversation among friends. Sometimes deep, sometimes frivolous but, most importantly, dynamic and frequently thought-provoking.
With a few exceptions, the 1UP site was nothing like the podcasts, nothing: thin, flat, shallow and insubstantial, not to mention at least two years behind in web design and with some of the most annoying advertising conventions.
Word count doesn’t matter, because an author can be stimulating and concise in a 300-page novel. Voice matters. Content matters. Simulating or stimulating a real conversation with your readers matters (see gamerswithjobs.com for some good examples).
One of ZD’s many mistakes was trying to make 1UP an IGN/Gamespot on the web and the “Atlantic Monthly” of gaming podcasts at the same time. Jack of All Trades, master of none. Don’t get me started on what UGO might do to compound this problem…
Bottom line, the podcasts did drive many people to the site, and a lot of that audience was subsequently repelled…from and by the content, because the site was a country cousin to the podcasts. Hell yes, it was better than most others but still didn’t thematically match the podcasts or much of their audience.
*Most expected to attend the EGM wake sometime soon, so I’m not counting the nostalgia factor. And, the 90-word reviews were too short.
The place where you host the downloadable version is blocked here at work as “Internet Radio”. I don’t suppose you could host it where you were hosting the e-s-g podcast before could you? If not, it just delays me a day to listen because then I have to go home and download it, stick it on a flash drive and then take that to work. No biggie. >_>
I liked backlog even if it’s just to discover great games I’ve had to pass over (if not because of money, then because of lack of time for all these great games). I liked hearing about games that I just wouldn’t play because I didn’t really like the gameplay. I got to hear about the game from the perspective of someone who really enjoyed it, and learn what they got out of it. Sometimes I would even feel like playing a game that would frustrate me or that I never would have bought just because of some cool moments you talked about. Or I would want to go back and play a game that I didn’t finish. It’s also interesting to see the different ways you would tackle a game’s objectives, or ways you could break the game if you did certain things that I would never have thought to try.
Hooray – a podcast that is pleasant to listen to! Third time’s the charm, eh boys?
Great podcast guys. Sound quality improvement was just the ticket.
Hey Guys
great 3rd show, continues to improve.
just wondering. I’m a Zen man, creative Zen that is. Whats the address so that I can subscribe to the pobcast via my Zencast organizer?
Keep it up
Just a thought on your review conundrum. What if you were to take an idea of a thumbs up thumbs down system.
Now I’m not sure how you are planning on doing reviews on the site (I get the feeling your not really sure either) but say for example you had multiple people reviewing each game. Each editor has two thumbs that they could use to rate the game. One thumb up would simply mean that the editor enjoyed playing the game. If they put two thumbs up then the editor really enjoyed the game. Thumbs down were used for games the editor honestly just didn’t have fun playing.
Two thumbs down, well that’s reserved for the likes of Barbie Horse Adventure.
This scale works for a few reasons, first off having multiple people look at each game would allow visitors to the site to look at editors that have similar gaming views and put a higher rating on the score. For example, an editor who knows FPS games might rate a Halo two thumbs-up while a RPG loving editor might only give it one-thumb.
Also this system has no middle, no average point, if a game is just so so the editor is forced to give it thumbs-up or thumbs-down depending on his or her personal view.
Lastly, this scale is difficult to convert to a XX/100 scale, while still being easily understood by not only the intelligent internet citizens who view your site but also understood by just about any idiot the internet could (and likely will) produce. Because there are six thumbs total thumbs its virtually impossible to just assign it a numerical value.
Just some food for thought, Very interesting conversation on the podcast, I fully enjoyed it.
Nick~
Hint for enjoying Blazing Angels for Wii: Put the controls on classic.
[...] brothers-in-arms at Eat-Sleep-Game.com have released the third episode of their Rebel FM podcast, and the ex-1UP Show guys over at Area 5 (formerly Talking Orange) have released the debut episode [...]
Did Chuff call out Rydogs WOW PvP? Now this has to be filmed. Maybe if he wins and cannot find a job soon Rydog can turn pro in Korea.
http://www.gomtv.net/nameds1/
Hey you cats, I actually had a suggestion for the show and I’ll post it here to see if you’re at all interested, since Nick said to do so.
One of my favorite segments of 1up FM was the backlog, but what I think would be really cool would be a “frontlog” for lack of a better term. I would really love to hear the same sort of in depth discussion of a new game that the overlooked backlog games get. Not done for every new game of course, just for games that seem like they could generate quality discussion, and I think games like Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge, and Fallout 3 would generate said discussion.
Dumb idea?
Great Episode this week. The sound was a lot better too.
I must agree that the sound quality is getting close to perfect. Keep up the good work.
Sound much better, I can still hear a high pitched whine though, possibly a hard drive or laptop type fan noise.
The cat made me laugh they all have the habit of making noises just when you are doing something important – ours does.
More seriously, I’d have to second the fact that the podcasts drove me to the 1up site. Mostly because the personalities and gaming tastes of the people involved came across and established a trust level.
I never got EGM mostly due to being in the UK…
Thanks for the hard work at a time when others might just stop and give up.
I’m definitely looking forward to hearing this. It’s the right way to start the weekend…CONFIRMED.
On review scores, I like scaled descriptors, a standardized set of words that can be easily converted to scores should those various aggregation sites require, but leaves nothing to the imagine. Example: terrible to mediocre to average to good to great to instant classic, or something along those lines. Just a thought, seems obvious to me, and I don’t think it’s done enough.
No offense Arthur Gies, but you’re kind of negative. You almost come off as a bully. I don’t think that’s what most folks are looking for in a podcast.
I think the LittleBigPlanet method of reviewing a video game would work pretty well… just attach a collection of adjectives you feel are apt to describe the game’s experience. Of course, the body of the review itself should be just as important… people looking for just a score don’t really care about the game that much anyway and just want some bubblegum to chew on.
BTW Nick – pics of your haircut for proof or it didn’t happen
That is very sweet of you guys to read the names of all the peeps who donated. I listened to a few names before tuning out. Next week, perhaps Anthony could create a lovely melody with guitar backing for the names to sung to? That would be wonderful.
I listened to them all… they took the trouble to thank us and I wanted to recognize all the other fans that helped bring back one of my favorite podcasts. So thanks to you guys from me too.
Hey, I recognized one of the songs used for once (Rx Bandits yay)!
Anyway, I just wanted to say don’t use grades/scores on reviews if you can chose not to! People should be smart enough to recognize a negative, positive, or passive review when they read one.
For my personal blog I share between internet/real life friends, I review albums. The only indicator I use is a short “why you’ll like it – why you’ll hate it” blurb at the top for quick glance, and I’m really happy with it. It’s nothing written in stone, but enough to satisfy those too impatient to read the full review.
@Nick and everyone else on a Mac that wants to try out the game Gravity Bones, check out Crossover Games. It let’s you play most windows games using DX9. Sure that cuts out games like Fallout3/etc but atleast you can play other games other then Photoshop. (fyi, I’ve been using it to play TF2)
Oh and more Fail Letter (ghost of heroes of the web?). Maybe not everyweek, but those were enteranting and a nice reminder of of Hereos of the web.
I guess I’ll be the dick here… but hopefully this will be constructive criticism. I also realize that this is only the 2nd episode, and that the podcast will evolve and change as you all figure things out. But on with the dickery…
The name of the show is Rebel FM. I thought, when I first started listening, “Oh yeah, this is when they’re finally going to let it all hang out! No more Big Brother Ziff Davis controlling them, they’re going to go ape shit like no other gaming podcast out there!”
But instead I get more of the same “can’t break the embargo”, “can’t talk about that”, “I’m going to be nice and not say who the developer was who treated me like shit” and blah blah blah. Then, yet ANOTHER inside baseball segment about how the review process operated for a magazine that NONE OF YOU ARE EMPLOYED BY ANYMORE. Then, reading old letters addressed to a magazine that NONE OF YOU ARE EMPLOYED BY ANYMORE.
What’s the point? Why call it Rebel FM? It’s like you’re all treading water with this podcast, hoping to keep your name out there until you get employed by some other site/magazine/whatever.
I think you all have an opportunity to do something totally different with this new podcast/website, and find a way to do it that excites people while not turning away any future employment opportunities. Please don’t settle for another “Segment 1: Whatchu’ Playing, Segment 2: Boring Shit, Segment 3: News we’ve already read about on Joystiq/Kotaku” gaming podcast. I think you all are better than that.
I appreciate it when grownups acknowledge the awfulness of video game stories. I really enjoyed MGS4 for the gameplay but its story really was juvenile, ridiculous and poorly written.
Hi,
Regarding your talk about reviews. What do you think of Ars Technica’s review system of simply:
Buy
Rent
Skip
thnx, bye…
Just do what they said on GFW radio, forget numbers and letters in reviews, give it a random object. Trust me, it would fly.
[...] Rebel FM, now at its third episode, the spiritual successor of both 1Up Yours and 1Up Fm, the cast and crew [...]
Love for Mirror’s Edge and hate on MGS4? I am so confused by Arthur right now.
@Ryan (no63)
most game company make journalist sign a confidential agreement before previewing. Unless you want to front their legal fee and the damages, I doubt anyone would break embargo.
This podcast sounds SOOOO much better, your new equipment was well worth it!
Great episode.
About your reviews section, I would personally like a no score system. With scores,you might as well not waste your time writing about the game, just post the score, and be done with it. Without the scores, the reader is left to actually read your review, leaving the door open for them to interpret it themselves. Besides, you guys are great writers, and that’s what I want to read, great writing.
What are the chances we will get Shawn/Sean/Jeff/Max Chill over Skype? Assuming Ryan Scott is a regular guest, the brodeo, or at least part of it, could be reunited!
If possible, I’d live to have “Anthony Gallegos on…” segments on every episode. It was one of my favorite parts of 1UP FM and would love to see it continue on Rebel!
Grrr… *”love” not “live”…
THis was my favorite episode so far. Great job guys!
I know it might damage your “ultra-hardcore” credibility and underground vibe, but just take the hit and go with numbers or letters. If you’re tired of aggregator (sp?) sites misunderstanding the letters, take numbers. If it takes scores for publishers to send you games, then so be it. What’s most important about this is content. You need publishers to get content. Seems simple enough to me.
Anyways, keep up the good work fellas.
Contributing the Digging cause, mates.
Keep it up.
Also…What I do for most of my reviews for Zentendo is I use my Gamefly account to rent games for review.
Negatives: I don’t get games early, and sometimes I get them kind of late compared to release date.
Positives: I don’t have to stress one iota about what the publishers think of my reviews because I had to pay to rent them and actually buy the games I like the most, thus (hopefully) giving my reviews some credence in that I am actually like a consumer.
I know that would cost you money you may or may not have, though. So it’s a bit of a sticky wicket, eh, ol’ chap?
I’m glad I don’t have to review games for a living, because I can’t see that any system would be perfect. After all, how ‘good’ a game is can depend on many different factors. For example, you could rate games like so:
Technically-
A Perfect
B Great
C Acceptable
D Flawed
E Broken
Comparatively-
A Takes the genre to new levels
B Perfect example of what this type of game shoud be
C Acceptable imitation of last year’s no. 1
D Poor imitation of last tear’s no. 1
E A definite backward step
I could go on, slanting lists towards what different people count as important, or what the hell, roll everying together thus:
A Must buy!
unless you don’t like this genre, in which case it’s a B or C
B Excellent!
but if you:
– don’t like this genre, then it’s a C or D
– love this genre or franchise, then it’s an A
C Worth a look!
but if you:
– don’t like this genre, then don’t buy it
– love this genre, it’s a B
– love this genre, and it’s a robust complex tactical sim, and it only got the C because the graphics weren’t in shimmering translucent 3D, and you remember when 4-colour 2-D sprites were all you needed to have fun, it’s an A
– love this franchise, it’s an B
– love this franchise and have the posters on your wall to prove it, it’s an A
D Substandard
but if you:
– love this genre, it’s a C
– love this franchise, it’s a C
– love this franchise and have the soundtracks, it’s a B
– love this genre, and it only got this score because the game sucked but the grahics were amazing, dude, I mean, this is more ART than GAME, you get me, it’s a B
E Do not buy!
but if
– you love this franchise, and have the posters, soundtrack CDs, tattoos and home-made costume to prove it, it’s an A
– the game has caused controversy for it’s gratuitous violence, and you’re under the age of 18, and you want to impress your friends, it’s an A
– the game features gratuitous sexual imagery (and little else), and you lack the courage to buy real porn, and you have no access to the Internet, and no-one understands you, and you live in your mom’s basement, and you’re surrounded by rotting pizza boxes, and even your closest friends never make contact any more, and the chances of any kind of actual social interation (apart from yelling at your mom) are zero, then it’s an A
What was the name of the free game Quake Engine based game Giancarlo recommended?
You guys keep showing why you are the most popular to listen to on iTunes. Keep up the good work!
Boris Said: What was the name of the free game Quake Engine based game Giancarlo recommended?
was it “gravity bone”?
I heard meowing in the backround of the podcast? I demand pictarz of the rebel fm kitty.
This awful i cannot remember the dudes name, who was bash Metal Gear, but i gotta give him props, most media members just go with ebb and flow, and mostly probably feel that way, but it is refreshing when people do say their own opinions not caring what others will say or think.
Great show guys, keep ‘em coming! The ‘Shane is full of shit’ comment was a bit out of line I thought. Truth be told, Arthur is the weakest link in this new podcast but I guess I can put up with his condescending vibe enough to hear the rest of you guys speak.
Any chance of a backlog appearing on the show similar to what was on 1up FM? I think it’s a good way to get the listeners more involved with the show.
Great show as always, looking forward to #4.
Oh..and the sound quality was great this time. Glad those donations went to good use.
Suggestion: Keep doing the Anthony Rants! They break up the podcast a little more than the break music.
What was the name of the game that Phil pimped? He was telling everyone they should play it and then talk about it. If people know, where can i get it?
Thanks!
Giancarlo is Kip from Napolean D. Right?