Geekly Speaking About… “The Commander Shepard Challenge”

Does a Shepard by any other gender kick as much ass? We're about to find out...

If you’ve been listening to our “Geekly Speaking About…” podcasts, you’ve probably heard co-editor Jillian Pullara and me talking about Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect series of games from Bioware. While she’s mostly played the PC game version and I rocked the Xbox 360 version, we both have a similar sensibility towards the main character in that we think she totally kicks ass. Lowell Greenblatt also loves playing Commander Shepard and thinks that he’s got a real compelling story to tell.

But the problem between us is that our Commander Shepards are different genders. And that got us to thinking: Could playing the character in the Bioware game as the opposite of your preferred gender change your perception of the game?

Reference links and show notes, after the jump:


Continue reading “Geekly Speaking About… “The Commander Shepard Challenge””

Geekly Speaking About… “The Star Wars Blu-Ray Conundrum”

It’s time once again for another edition of “Geekly Speaking About,” which we recorded on September 14, 2011. Joining myself and co-editor Jill Pullara are two of our newest contributors, Lowell Greenblatt and Jonathan Cherlin. We really do hope to get these going on a more frequent basis, and your feedback is always helpful. Show notes are right after the jump:

Continue reading “Geekly Speaking About… “The Star Wars Blu-Ray Conundrum””

Geekly Speaking About… “Top Gear USA” Episode 3

Adam Ferrara attempts to jump a $1,000 used Cadillac over a ramp

Thanks to a recent bout of insomnia, I finally finished leveling out and editing the second of the two audio podcasts that Kara Dennison and I recorded while we reviewed the first three episodes of “Top Gear USA.”

The reason why I had to do a lot of editing work on this one is that while the audio tracks for Kara and myself were just fine, the one for our our special guest amateur autocross racer Rob Lantz was considerably quieter, and so I had to splice out and amplify almost every part where he was speaking.

Originally recorded live on December 5, 2010, I hope you enjoy this blast from the “Geekly Speaking About…” past:

Luckily, “Top Gear USA” has been renewed for a second season, so there’s a chance we could do another podcast like this again to see how it has improved over the first episodes of its inaugural season. If you’d like to download the audio, you can do so by going to our page at TalkShoe. And despite all the audio problems, it really was fun doing this, and I hope to be able to do more live podcasts soon.

Geekly Speaking About… “The Geek Chick Backlash”

Behind the scenes, co-editor Jill Pullara and I have been recording podcasts while we work on something fun for our upcoming vidcast series, the first installment of which will be up in an hour. This particular one was recorded on May 7, 2011, and thanks to us finally getting some technical details worked out, it’s ready for public consumption. After the jump, I’ll give you the show notes:

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Geekly Speaking About… “Top Gear USA” Episode 2

I still say the blue Aston Martin is prettier

My ongoing technical difficulties have persisted, but now that I’ve finally got a clue and later edited out the parts with the poor audio, I’m happy to say that the analysis and live commentary on “Blind Drift,” the second episode of Top Gear USA is ready for your listening pleasure.

You can check it out below or in the right sidebar:

Please join us next week on Sunday, December 5 at 10:00 pm Eastern, when Kara Dennison and I (and perhaps a special guest) will be concluding our three-episode test and hope to answer the question: “Is this show actually any good?”

COMING SOON: “Geekly Speaking About…” goes live!

Due to my ongoing microphone problems, U.K. TV expert Kara Dennison and I are testing something new out tonight, courtesy of TalkShoe.com. Tonight, starting at/around 9:45 pm Eastern Standard Time (GMT – 5:00), we’ll be launching the “Geekly Speaking About…” live podcast series with our viewing and discussion of the second episode of “Top Gear U.S.A.” on the History Channel.

We’d love for you to join us, and to do so, all you have to do is sign up for an account, and after you’ve logged in and right around 9:45 pm Eastern tonight, click on the “Join In” button to hear the call and participate in the text chat room. The best part is that once we’ve finished recording the show and our afterthoughts, the show website will be automatically updated with a file you can download to listen to if you were unable to join us tonight.

If all goes well, we’ll be doing more live podcasts on a regular basis, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Geekly Speaking About… the Original Saw movie

In a wonderful bit of synergy, the last movie in the Saw franchise was released in 3D right before Halloween. Having never seen any of the movies before, Lyssa Spero and I decided to watch the first one a while ago and recorded the results for all of you to hear.

I must warn you that the audio in this is terribly NSFW if you don’t have headphones on because there were just that many moments of WTF going on. Also, it goes without saying that this commentary is full of spoilers for not only the first Saw, but a few of the others, and has casting spoilers for Saw 3D.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as we enjoyed recording it.

https://www.geekingoutabout.com/wp-includes/Podcasts/GSA_Saw-1_Commentary.mp3

Geeking Out About… presents: Twilight: New Moon the Commentary and Discussion Notes

As of this posting, you have a little over 15 hours left until the deadline to submit your answers to the trivia questions posed in our very first contest ever here at Geeking Out About.com. The trivia questions are here, the rules are here, and if you’d like a little insight into what we thought of the second movie and the Twilight phenomenon as a whole—although by now, I think you can hazard a guess that our thoughts are not in favor of it—you can download our commentary and discussion notes, below:

https://www.geekingoutabout.com/wp-includes/Podcasts/New-Moon-Commentary.mp3

https://www.geekingoutabout.com/wp-includes/Podcasts/New-Moon-Discussion.mp3

Over the weekend, we’ll be busy busy choosing the finalists and recording yet another podcast; good luck to all!

Geeking Out About… presents: Twilight the Commentary!

As of this posting, there are a little over 48 hours left until the deadline to submit your answers to the trivia questions posed in our very first contest ever here at Geeking Out About.com. The trivia questions are here, the rules are here, and if you’d like a little insight into what we thought of the first movie, you can download our very first podcast ever, below:

https://www.geekingoutabout.com/wp-includes/Podcasts/Twilight-Commentary.mp3

Tomorrow (because it’s still about 15 minutes to midnight over here!) I’ll post up our shorter commentary to Twilight: New Moon, and over the weekend, while we’re busy choosing the finalists and recording yet another podcast, you’ll be able to listen to our thoughts about the first two movies.

Good luck to all!

Fun and fabulous prizes in store at the end of June

In the interest of being responsible reviewers, there are some times in which we here at Geeking Out About.com will read, watch, or experience something that’s outside of our comfort zone in order to provide the most coverage. For example, in preparation for her “First Night Flicks” review of Twilight: Eclipse, lead movie reviewer Lyssa has decided to watch both Twilight and New Moon back to back in one day.

Being the loving, and caring editors we are—and just because we’re into the idea of doing some MST3K-style commentary on two potentially horrible movies—co-editor Jillian and I decided that she shouldn’t have to do this alone. So, we’re going to join her for the first two parts of this epic saga of a human-vampire love that was never meant to be.

“But what is this thing about fabulous prizes?  I want fabulous prizes!” Well, we’re glad you asked… Continue reading “Fun and fabulous prizes in store at the end of June”