The Rumble Pack

The largest annual gathering of industry personalities is underway in San Francisco this week, and our very own Nicolo Accordino is in attendance. Our resident King of Fighters is checking out hot indie games, hobnobbing with other game journalists and attending panels until sundown tomorrow, so be sure to follow his Twitter feed for the latest.

Between the “ApocalyPS3″ and the Infinity Ward scandal, it may be hard to take your attention away from Kotaku, Joystiq and the like today. However, if you have a few minutes to spare every now and then, you should do yourself a favor and mosey over to Jeremy Parish’s GameSpite blog. He recently asked his readers to help shoulder the promotional duties for the print version, GameSpite Quarterly, and it only seems right for our site to answer his call to arms. After all, Mr. Parish has been hugely influential on how the five of us discuss and appreciate video games.

For the past 10+ years, the 1up editor and his cohorts have been writing thoughtful essays on games new and old. While some may visit for his musings on Mega Man 10’s Sheep Man and those brutal roguelikes that Tony enjoys so much, we’ve always been more impressed by his retro analyses; it takes real insight to find something new to say about a game that came out more than a decade ago. We’re not necessarily asking you to go purchase all four issues, but we do urge you to browse the site and express your appreciation. The books fill a niche that even venerable publications like EGM and Edge never could.

It only took us a few years of inaction, but The Rumble Pack podcast is officially available for download at the Zune Marketplace. Be sure to stop by our Zune page to review our show and help us climb the charts.

If you’re wondering why iTunes isn’t downloading your latest Rumble Pack fix tonight, don’t fret. We’re running a little bit behind schedule thanks to some post-Christmas responsibilities, but we’ll be back to normal next week. We’ll try to get a few blog updates up in the interim.

Attention listeners! We have a huge announcement. If you mosey on over to the GameHounds web site this Wednesday, you may notice their midweek Humpdate. These episodes are showcases for other video game podcasts to strut their stuff with brief original segments, or “pods.” And starting this week, we’re proud to say that we’ll officially anchor these podcasts with closing salvos of news, pop culture and poop jokes. For current fans, it’s a great way to get an additional Rumble fix, but this will also be a wonderful opportunity to bring in new listeners who have, up until now, somehow eluded our grasp. We’re looking forward to our partnership with the GameHounds, and to your valued feedback as well.

UPDATE: Our Humpdate debut is up!

If you’re a frequent visitor to our site, then you probably know that we have blogs, but did you know that we sporadically update them? It’s true! Since some of us are infrequent posters (putting it kindly), we’ll be highlighting future entries on the front page. Feel free to drop us some comments on our blogs or below to tell us what you think, or to beg Tom and Tony to write that oft-promised Aegis Shield Lemon. Here’s what’s noteworthy right now:

• Kaz talks about Gamestop apathy and a Gran Turismo packaging switcheroo.
• Nick cries for his wallet in the midst of a Rocktober celebration.
• Justin keeps everyone up to date on his Brooklyn adventures while failing to mention video games at all.

No podcast this week, gang. Our very own Nicolo Accordino is getting married in Columbus this weekend, which means that the show is taking a backseat. But don’t fret! While the self-proclaimed King of Fighters will be honeymooning next Monday, the rest of the Pack will assemble to record another action/Noid packed episode.

The 100th episode is a major milestone for any podcast, and we want to make sure we do ours right. Yeah, we know the two week hiatus is rough, but be aware that we’ve got some fun stuff “planned” for y’all.

-The Management

Howdy, Rumble Pack fans! We interrupt your irregularly scheduled programming to encourage everyone to pick up Battlefield 1943. Preferably for the Xbox 360, as that is the version that Justin, Kaz, and Nick play. Apparently, our mission statement says something about “a celebration of the social aspects of gaming,” and we’d like to live up to that pretentiousness. So gather up some Microsoft funbucks and look out for announcements about upcoming matches both here and on the show. We would really like to get some epic, 12 versus 12 matches underway within the month. Be sure to post your Gamertags on the message board.

Also, we’d better not see you camping on the aircraft carrier for respawning planes.