We are Game Crunch a weekly podcast about video games! Tonight we record our 100th episode! Ask us anything!

Hey haven't gotten to harass you guys in awhile. :p. So it seems like we're seeing a shift in the preferred method of "games journalism" as it were from traditional stuff like Kotaku (bleh) to YouTube, Twitch, podcasts, etc. What are your thoughts on the shift and how would you guys suggest the medium go forward to prevent some of the problems we've seen with large sites? Do you think small indie groups like yourself are more likely to go for the infamous ethical disclosures?

Personally, I like the shift towards YouTube/Twitch/Podcasts! One of my things with podcasts has always been that they come off as more personal. You can connect with the people you are listening to more like a conversation and there is a familiarity there that you cannot get in text alone.

Ethicality though is always going to be an issue regardless of the platform. I think it all depends on what the end goal of the group is. If your goal at the end of the day is clicks and controversy I feel like you are more likely to fall down the ethical black hole. We do this for fun and while I don't think we've been put in a position yet to truly test our ethicality I believe that at the end of the day we would make the right decision to be upfront and honest.

How do you guys feel about the whole situation with Nintendo and their amiibo?

One of my favorite podcast topics! I think this has been a discussion for us nearly every week since the things released. I, personally, love them to death, but the inability to purchase them freely is irritating at best. Nintendo recently has admitted to their short comings, but I don't know if that is enough. They really need to show good will to their fans by doing and that is what I think I need to see the most.

Although I have stopped losing sleep over Jigglypuff at this point and decided that if it happens it happens.

it won't happen lol

You gotta have faith! I feel like the fact that preorders have been selling out in less than an hour for the most recent wave has to be hurting them more than helping. They honestly are on a dangerous path at the moment though. They can't flood the market or it will kill demand, but they can't keep things like they are right now or demand will die as well and result in a lot of negative customer reactions.

why isnt't Amazon doing preorders :(

I think they are waiting to actually receive the product first. One of the biggest issues that has happened with them is overselling and then Nintendo unable to meet demand. Which leaves the seller in a bad position with their customer base. I'm sure that they will pull through!

What makes your podcast better than all the other gaming ones out there? Why should I listen to yours?

Serious question, been looking for podcasts

As someone who listens to a lot of podcasts, gaming ones in particular, I have to say that this is a hard question to answer! I love my podcast, of course, but the thing I know personally is it doesn't matter how great a podcast is, but do you like the format and the crew?

For us I think we have a great crew, a fun format and I think we tend to touch on everything. We enjoy our derails and can get a bit crazy and over the top too, but I've been told that is what makes us awesome. Listening to us each week is like coming into a great conversation with friends. We like to mix things up with our game debate episodes, which are generally every 10th episode. In those episodes we forgo our normal format and go into themed gaming discussions, which gives some nice variety and some interesting discussion you won't hear in many podcasts.

At the end of the day though I think the best thing to do is give us a listen and see if you enjoy what you hear! Good or bad I'd love to hear your feedback!

Do you guys believe in a 2nd videogame crash? What are your thoughts on this matter?

I personally do not because at this point I think that there are enough platforms to gaming that are not at risk at failing out in the immediate future. However you will see a lot in each new generation of consoles that the shift to bigger, crazier games leads to developers not being able to make the shift and we've definitely seen enough examples of that since the 360/PS3 era. The great thing that we have seen since then though is the huge resurgence of indie games, which have really let the great developers that we have known to come back and reach out to the audience directly. So overall I think we are in line for more of a evolution of what we know then a collapse.

How do you guys feel knowing Nick has an unknown number of days left to live before all the dicks that have slowly accumulated in his mouth over time kill him?

Well, we enjoyed knowing him. At least we will now know definitively that he will never actually finish a video game.

So what do you guys think about what's going on with Kojima and Konami? First we get screwed out of Silent Hills and now Konami has allegedly filed a false DMCA takedown of the video by Super BunnyHop discussing the issue.

I dont know, but this just in. I found some live footage of employees escaping http://i.imgur.com/SsSdUaM.gif

I'm fairly certain this GIF is from a recent meeting where they talked about the future of Konami as a gaming company:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3wBC3RS9BXk/T6VUfOr5whI/AAAAAAAABG8/EGULByvyshE/s1600/jumping-out-of-window.gif

There is a lot going on there! I've definitely been on the side that Konami is trying to get out of gaming for good. Gaming isn't a big business for them anymore. They have their casinos and health related businesses that are really driving their revenue. Meanwhile you have Metal Gear Solid, which I am sure will do financially well for them, but it's a huge investment and video games are a risky investment. It's gotten too expensive! I think they are just hedging their bets on a safe future.

If you want to hear more we did talk a bit about the Silent Hills debacle here:

http://doublegaming.com/order/game-crunch-98-janky-kang/

I feel the same way I've felt for a while now and that is fuck Konami seriously they think they can just remove things and make everyone forget about it and that is the worst kinda mentality to have when it comes to business. Also I don't think they'll be around much longer.

i just want kojima to be freed, he should make games he wants

I think this more than anything! Kojima I think could do great on his own. We've seen a bunch of former big names do well recently from projects like Yooka-Laylee or the Igavania game that was announced this morning. He's just been burdened with Metal Gear for too long!

Have any of you read the halo novels? If so, which ones, and what did you think?

I never have, but I have enjoyed novels that expand the universe of other games. Some games have such great universe that they've created that it is so nice to be able to see that explored even more theroughly.

You should check them out then! If you want advice on where to start let me know.

Sure! I'd be willing to give it a go. What would you recommend?

The Fall of Reach is the best place to start. It's the first novel that was released (It actually came out before the first game!), and covers the origins of Master Chief and the SPARTAN 2 Program.

From there, you have two options, you can either read The Flood, which is a retelling of Combat Evolved and is tFoR's direct sequel, or skip it and read First Strike, which takes place directly after that.. (The Flood is one of the more boring novels, so if you've played CE it's skippable, hence why I say you have two options). The direct sequel to FS is then Ghosts of Onyx. If you haven't played all the games I highly suggest you play CE, halo 2, Halo 3, ODST, and Reach prior to continuing after ghosts of Onyx.

After that, you can read the following in any order: Contact Harvest (covers the start of the human covenant war and the origin of Sergent Johnson), The Cole Protocol (Takes place at the same time of a lot of the Fall of Reach, but in other locations, goes into Captain Key's and the Arbiter's histories more) or Halo Evolutions, which is a anthology of a variety of stories.

You could also start the Forerunner trilogy (Cryptum, Primordium and Silentium), or the Kilo 5 Trilogy (Glasslands, The Thursday War, and Mortal Dictata), but I recommend saving both of these trilogies till after all of the other books I have mentioned since they require a great deal of familiarity with the universe to really understand and reveal a lot of stuff that would spoil you for the other books. The Forerunner trilogy explains the origins of the Forerunners, The flood, and humanities ancient history, whereas the Kilo 5 Trilogy is a sequel to Ghosts of Onyx and covers the events after Halo 3 that leads into the current trilogy of halo games.

There's also Broken Circle but I haven't read it yet and as such can't say much about it, as well as a variety of comics, but this post is long enough so I'm not gonna cover those. If you want to look up more info I recommend using Halopedia as your source of info rather then the wikia site. Be careful of spoilers!

EDIT: I totally forgot that there was also the recently released New Blood Digital only Novella which goes over what happened to the Squad in ODST after the events of that game and Halo 3. Read it after the kilo 5 trilogy. I also updated the post to include some better info and better wording.

Wow! Thank you for the very thoughtful and through response! Not only did you offer up the best options, but I appreciate you explaining why to start there and the best order! It definitely gives me a great place to begin! I will check these out soon!

why did jon leave the game crunch?

I'm not sure who Jon is, but if you can find him I'd love to have him on the show! We always are open to having new guests!

Why don't you get a haircut and get a real job?

I even tried that 9 to 5 scene I told myself that it was all a bad dreamI found a band and some good songs to play And now I party all night, I sleep all day

What he said!