In my recent post on games writing I made the assertion that podcasts will overtake text as the preferred source of news and opinion online. Over the course of each week I spend an entire day’s worth of time listening to podcasts. Not with my full attention, mind — I multitask. I listen to podcasts while playing games, while I browse the web, and while I eat. Listening to podcasts is, for the most part, an auxiliary activity. There are a few select shows for which I make an effort to devote special attention; I’ve decided to share.

Buzz Out Loud is a daily technology news podcast from CNet.com. Each episode is thirty to forty minutes long and is hosted by Tom Merritt with two or more others from a rotating group of regular guests. BOL has become a part of my routine; I listen to or watch the show with my morning coffee while I scroll through my RSS reader. As such, it’s my first stop for tech news and opinion. I still subscribe to the news feeds of sites like Engadget and Arstechnica, but much of what’s discussed on BOL every day is picked from their headlines anyway; it’s like a tech news “best of.”

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It’s justice, and it wants to eat your brains.

Ah, so it’s “BRINK.” I’ve been saying it wrong. There’s a lot of technical language in this interview with Splash Damage’s Technical Director Arnout van Meer. In summary: BRINK is building upon the Quake Wars tech; these revisions should, among other things, allow BRINK to take advantage of multi-core processors on PC. Finally, there’s talk about things that Splash Damage isn’t doing, such as moving from OpenGL to DirectX 11.

“… it says on the box: ‘No Hispanics’.”

The news hit on 1/06/2009 that 1UP.com, MyCheats.com, GameTab.com and GameVideos.com would be sold to UGO.com. EGM has been closed. Many people on the 1UP staff lost their jobs. The 1UP Show is now canceled with the 1UP podcasts (including 1UP FM and the Backlog) likely to follow suit. This news immediately had a profound effect on gamers, not to mention the whole of games journalism. I turned to Twitter just after word of the acquisition hit my RSS feed and watched as the many reactions from both 1UP staffers and other games journalists poured in. I’ve compiled the reactions here in this video:

Okay, so it’s only TWO PAGES, but it’s a start. I was flipping through my copy of the October edition of EGM during some quiet time on the John and I would have crapped my pants were it not for my convenient situation. What do I see? A column by Jeff Green, former editor in chief of CGW and GFW magazines. Apparently it’s a new feature, and one that I think has been a long time coming. I believe that part of the perception problem of the state of PC gaming stems from the fact that so many publications (both online and in ye olde style print) are segregated. I’m so happy to see this happening and I hope CGW-branded columns show up more and more in EGM.

Here’s a photo; I blurred out the text as a precaution. Everybody should go buy this issue and send Jeff an e-mail thanking/congratulating him for having a presence in a previously console-only magazine!