“May contain awkward silences and uncontrollable laughter.”
That’s from the description of GFG episode 100, published roughly three years ago. The episode’s subtitle was “How did we manage this?” Now, three years and one hundred episodes later, we’re left asking, “how did they do it AGAIN?”
If you listen to the newest episode, you’ll likely be impressed with the relaxed professionalism of Paul, Kieran and Mike. They’ve been doing this for a while. Paul’s production is slick. They have good microphones. They’re relaxed in each others company. They sound like they want to be doing this podcast. Like they’d be talking about this stuff – in this way – even if they didn’t have an audience. It wasn’t always like this. They started off rawer and shakier, but the most impressive thing about GFG isn’t their production quality or their knowledge or enthusiasm (though they have all those qualities too) – it’s their resilience. They just keep going, and they just keep getting better.
Anyone can do a podcast for a week or a month; not many can sustain longer than that, and the ones that manage often don’t retain their enthusiasm, or keep to their schedule. GlitchFreeGaming improves on every measurable axis, every week. Kieran’s encyclopedic gaming knowledge and his dry, detached enthusiasm has grown over the years to encompass more and more esoteric genres and fandoms. Mike’s boardgame collection has grown, but so too has his confidence on mic, alongside his sarcastic jokes. Paul’s grown more confident in his own opinions too, and his work on producing the podcast has made it as slick as it is interesting.
GlitchFreeGaming has grown. It’s about more than just videogames now, pivoting towards boardgames not because it was ahead of the curve, but because Mike, Kieran and Paul have a genuine love for gaming that crosses different mediums. Their latest episode about Fiasco, a light role playing game, is relaxed, funny and interesting, and even if you’ve never heard any of the previous 199 episodes, you can start here.
GlitchFreeGaming is the best games podcast in the country. I know that because after listening to an episode of these three good friends talk about games, I don’t want to listen to any other gaming podcast. I just want to hear next weeks episode of Glitch Free Gaming.
