PixlBit

Holy crap this sounds really good. Historically Patrick's end has always sounded the worst of anyone in the cast and in this even Patrick's sound is crystal clear. This is a significant leap foward in sound quality overall

YESSSS!

I loved the look of that pirate game Rare is making. It has a stylish look to it but the gameplay seems like it's pulling the best parts out of Black Flag. I actually played Black Flag all the way to completion, but it was mostly for the boat stuff and I just had to put up with the things about AC that I don't like. This game looks like it's bringing the parts of Black Flag I like but finally not having it in an AC game.

About the XCOM 2 news, I think I remember the developers talking to the Giant Bomb guys and they said the reason they are making it on PC was because they want to make the systems a little deeper and present more information to the player on screen, like you would in other PC strategy games or RPGs. When they make a game for console they have to assume everyone is on the couch sitting across from a tv, so UI design always dictates that things have to be huge and simple. The XCOM they're making seems like it'll be a little more harcore than the previous game, maybe. They never said that specifically but that's what I got from it.

I bough and played a lot of Ground Zeroes because it was on sale on XBL last month. I really didn't like it at first. I played the main mission 3 times and messed around with the mechanics and the feel of the game and was iffy on it all. But I played one of the side missions where you have to blow up 3 anti-air guns during a daytime mission and for some reason that mission hit the sweet spot for me and got me to understand the gameplay in a new way.

I'm totally going to get Phantom Pain and I'll probably enjoy it, but I can already tell it's not my ideal MGS. I much prefer the feel of MGS 3 in the HD collection. When you hop into Ground Zeroes you can immediatly tell it's not at 60fps like the games in the HD collection are, and it hurts the experience of Ground Zeroes for sure. I also like the CQB in MGS3 better and I loved the ability to crawl, and the ability to press the d-pad and creep your way up to enemies silently. The shooter mechanics certainly feel much better in Ground Zeroes across the board, but the fact that left and right trigger are no longer "equipment" and "weapon" menus bugs me. Even though it's super dum, unintuitive, and goofy as hell I would still rather have the triggers be menu buttons instead of "aim" and "shoot", and be left with the terrible first person aiming in MGS2 and MGS3.

I'm torn, I really like the way the shooting feels, but I don't want to have to use it. In MGS games I try to play stealthy and only take out the people that are the most likely to discover me and set off alarms. I also don't like Hayter not being the voice, I can't get use to it now, especially after playing so much MGS back to back and falling in love with that voice. Sutherland doesn't sound bad, he just doesn't sound like Snake. He'll never be Snake.

I'm gaga for Fallout so that'll be my main game this fall. I can't wait to see more of Horizon, we still don't know what that game really is. I think Colin Moriearty said it's an open world action RPG after he got some time to see it, but I might be remembering wrong. Hopefully it's single player and it's not a big multiplayer H1Z1 Rust type of survial game, or a Monster Hunter type of multiplayer where you really need a team in order to play the game right.

No Mans Sky was incredible. I was super skeptical, rightfully, about that game last year. But now that he showed actual gameplay I'm on board. All puns intended.

Just take a gander:

http://www.navalaction.com/#ageofsail

https://www.youtube.com/user/Navalaction/videos

I agree.  In the car, I normally have to crank the volume in order hear Patrick, but no more.  The audio is fantastic.

Holy crap, Patrick's voice so clear!  He usually sounds like he's hiding in the background somewhere.  Had no idea hhis voice was that sooth.  Nice work guys. Still listening to this episode.

Thanks for all the kind words about the audio, folks! We have been trying to get this thing to work for the past, oh, 5 episodes or so not counting the E3 specials, and there has always been a wrinkle. I think we finally have the kinks worked out, though, so look forward to our shows sounding like this moving forward!

I've got a question for you podcast experts.  What kind of microphone would you recommend if say, I wanted to do a podcast?

It really depends on how much you spend and what you want to do. I started using my laptop mic. Eventually I bought this handy little mic from Samson : http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001R76D42/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1435414083&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX200_QL40&keywords=samson+go+mic&dpPl=1&dpID=41PnZwr0rWL&ref=plSrch

I recently upgraded to a Yeti Snowball. I got a swivel mic stand that I mounted to my desk and a pop filter. I like the sound better, but I have to sit very close to it because the gain of the mic is a little lower. I also take it over to John Gholson's house when we record Slam Masters in the same room together, and I find it to be very versatile.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006DIA77E/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1435414440&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX200_QL40&keywords=blue+yeti+snowball&dpPl=1&dpID=515fibBsBPL&ref=plSrch