New Website Launch and Batman Arkham Gaming

You're tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek Unlimited Hello and welcome to Altered Geek

I'm your host Steve Megatron Phillips and in

this episode of the podcast it's 2019 people

that's right get motivated get excited get geeky

So with this announcement of 2019 not that anybody

should be surprised by this by now because it's

like 10 11 days in We launched the new Geekcast

Radio website So if you haven't been to geekcastradio

.com in a while, I suggest that you go there

The benefit of going there is that you'll get

to see all of the new changes because let's be

honest here the old site sucked like literally

sucked I put it through a bunch of speed tests

with the new site and the new site destroys the

old site not to mention the mobile version of

the website is much friendlier and There's a

lot of new features so This episode is not going

to be entirely all about geekcastradio .com After

I talk about this I'm going to talk about something

else Pertaining to gaming that I was able to

acquire over the Christmas break and be able

to play. So that being said, going back to GeekCastRadio

.com, we, myself and Blanchard have been working

tirelessly on this. It started out as like a

pet project of mine in April of 2018. Because

I knew we were getting close to the 10 year anniversary

of GeekCastRadio, I originally built the first

geekcastradio .com in April of 2009. So I figured

it was fitting to kind of start it around the

same time. Although it did get to launch earlier

than our 10 -year date, it more so had to do

with we have a lot of things coming between interviews

that are going to be scheduled for next week

that I am going to be block recording with people.

for future episodes of the podcast and I also

wanted for when those people promote it to show

a good geekcastradio .com not to mention that

but we're gonna have the top 100 wrestling countdown

unfortunately all the people that said that they

would submit lists have yet to do so So if you

haven't yet go to my my Twitter page, and I might

just embed that tweet into this post But The

the thing about it is is we need people to submit

lists, so if you're a podcaster if you're a wrestling

aficionado with a blog You write you do a podcast

do a video show you do YouTube Whatever the publication

may be We're asking that people submit lists

of 25 to 100 of these wrestlers that they think

are the most prolific and kind of important in

their genre. So with that being said, that's

another thing that's coming down the pipe. We're

gonna do the GCRN Awards again. However, it's

gonna be in probably March. More so so that I

get more time to tweak and work the bugs out

of geekcastradio .com now that the new site is

launched Blanchard and myself are going to be

going through the back catalog of Pretty much

every show and redoing all the mp3 linkage So

we will be able to listen to every episode of

every show on the entire network again I don't

know if anybody remembers but back in like 2009

through I want to say 2014 we had the entire

catalog of everything on the site and then Problems

arose. We constantly had bandwidth issues. We

constantly had space issues where there just

wasn't the room We're no longer hosting our own

mp3s anymore. So this makes it infinitely easier

on the bandwidth side and The website and in

the hosting So it's just gotten a lot better

as times progressed. Things that we should have

realized earlier, but again, it's a learning

craft. So it's one of those things that we'll

eventually kind of learn and get right. But the

whole process is we wanted a really good revival

of GeekCast Radio. We wanted to kind of bring

it back to its roots. We wanted to have everything

back in. There's new pages that I'm still currently

building out where you'll be able to click, say,

Altered Geek or Geekcast Radio or Future Imperfect.

There'll be a banner, the pod art, who's in it,

how many current episodes there are of whenever

the last time I edited that page will be, a little

bit of a description, and then every way to subscribe

to it. followed by the most recent posts and

then the archives. So you'll be able to kind

of get a nice mixture there. So that's one of

the nice features that we're building out. I

didn't really see any podcast networks or any

sites doing this and I thought that this would

be kind of something that was unique to us and

We'll also have like I said our old catalog on

the website We also have a mailing list that

people will be able to stay subscribed to With

various other things so like if there's new articles,

and it's only going to come out once a week I

myself hate it when I get those daily emails

and You get a lot of the recycled stuff from

previous days We want kind of a weekly roundup

so every Friday at, I wanna say noon, a email

will go out if you sign up for it. We're completely

GDPR friendly on the website. There's no security

issues. We've got SSL, we've got a lot of security

built in, a lot of new features. We've got a

subscription -based service which we'll flesh

out more later on. However, the key elements

of it, and I'm still tweaking some things, are

we're going to do away with advertising on the

website. I will have advertising on there, but

if you're a paid subscriber, you won't see it.

Additionally, it's a way to support the site

without necessarily having to have a Patreon,

and it would be kind of a community builder on

GeekCast Radio. akin to things like IGN or some

of those other services. It's more so to help

support us and kind of do away with the middle

man of IGN, or not IGN, but Patreon. Not that

I have anything against Patreon, I just, why

have a third party manage it for us when we can

do it? I can lock content down the same way that

they can, it's not a big deal. So anyways, we'll

have exclusive content and podcasts that will

be exclusive to subscribers built -in Specific

RSS feeds you only be able to access it if you're

at certain Tier levels the benefit here is Everyone

will have the same access whether you pay yearly

monthly or quarterly You will have the same access

across the board. So just depends on how you

want to pay There'll be opportunities to where

we'll comp people based on like kind of a part

of a Contest you know along with winning physical

items. They'll be you know kind of winning a

subscription It's it's a lot going on kind of

behind the scenes so It's still a work in progress,

but we still have pretty solid plans of what

we're doing with it There's gonna be a lot of

perks in that that regard so Also another feature

that kind of fell by the wayside in 2013 that

we talked about in a meeting When we live stream

on YouTube for Geekcast Radio We had no way of

having it on the website. I Fixed that in this

version still working on the chat aspect But

I mean for the most part if somebody wants to

have the chat aspect they can go to YouTube and

do it there or converse with us on our Discord,

which I will drop later on. So there's a lot

of functionality coming to the site. Roundabout

way of saying this, the new site has a lot more

interactive ability, a lot more content, a lot

more kind of ways to get back to things that

we used to have. Some of the shows will be going

a little bit simpler or kind of reminiscent and

nostalgically. geared towards its early roots

of content, so you'll expect some of that. But

yeah, I'm very, very, very, very excited for

2019 and what it has to offer and what GeekCast

Radio will be able to do for you. And I hope

that, and my hopes are, is that... If there's

something you feel we can do better, if there's

something you feel that we're not quite strong

enough, you'll let us know because we want to

serve you the best that we can as well as have

fun with it. I mean there's no point if none

of us are having fun and that's kind of the way

that we're going to kind of keep the accountability

going here. So now that I've cut like 10 minutes

in talking about keycastradio .com We're going

to have some awesome guests coming to the show

I signed up for podcast guest calm which if you're

not familiar with it It's a paid service for

the most part. There's a newsletter that goes

out weekly and they offer services of promoting

your shows and you Get a special like Google

Doc Excel set up where people can fill out and

sign up for guest hosting position on your podcast

Which is awesome, and I didn't honestly think

that I was gonna get as many interesting people

Asking to be on the show as I did So Being I

can't shuffle it mentally I had to create a Scheduling

plug -in or find one for altered geek calm kind

of a back -end thing So that I could send them

links to schedule with me For the podcast so

I have block scheduling set up for everyone So

that we can we can get all of these people On

the show and I don't necessarily have to have

them all come out weekly The goal is they'll

be kind of a midweek treat while the regular

show was to be on Fridays so I'm backlogging,

I think, eight episodes next week, because I'm

doing back to back to back to back four episodes

in a row, two nights in a row. So this will be

interesting to see how this goes down. And then

I've got schedules weeks in advance for the next

three to four weeks. So it's going to be interesting.

It's going to be kind of fun. We're going to

talk geeky topics. We're going to talk what these

people are skilled at, whether it's marketing,

whether it's people that are tied to the film

industry, whether it's people that are tied to

television, writers, people that just love talking

pop culture and geek culture. So like I said,

it's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to

be kind of different. So it's going to be kind

of the geekcast radio spotlight edition, like

what I did last year or... Want to say no it

was 2017 Where where we conversed With another

actress that that was on the network and so Like

I said, it's gonna be a lot of fun. It's gonna

be interesting So I hope you guys will enjoy

that that spotlight as it goes weekly or bi -weekly

However, it turns out being edited Additionally,

All Things Transformers will return, Future Imperfect

will return. So if you're looking for Star Trek

conversation that's strictly Star Trek, I have

a plethora of topics that is ready for the next

episode. I'm just waiting for the first episode

of season two of Discovery to launch and then

I can talk about that, the Star Trek short treks

and all of the news that's surrounding Trek right

now with the various series coming out and in

my thoughts on the Picard series with the...

the destruction of Romulus taking place and whatnot.

So that'll be a lot of fun. I've got a lot of

thoughts on Transformers as well. So it's gonna

be a fun year getting back into the swing of

things and I'm looking forward to it. 2018 may

have blown chunks, but we accomplished something.

We got the new site going. So I'm looking forward

to 2019. I hope you guys are too. So getting

into the gaming aspect that I was looking forward

to the most. I managed to go on Steam and I found

Batman Arkham City game of the year edition which

essentially was the game I paid 60 bucks for

and then dropped another 40 bucks to get almost

all the add -ons and the Harley Quinn expansion

and all the skins and everything else so this

is basically everything rolled into one I got

it for four dollars Four dollars on my PC I still

haven't gotten through game plus mode where I

can use any skin I want throughout the game but

I'm having fun With something else too that I

bought at the same time So anyways, I beat the

game once through pretty easy to do. I didn't

die at all I think well, maybe I died once but

I that was it and then I still had my Xbox 360

controllers plugged into my computer. The only

problem was that I had with the game was when

I went to quit, I had to control -alt -delete

and end the task to get out of the game because,

for whatever reason, it won't actually quit.

It was the strangest thing. But I'm not disappointed

because I played the game on the Xbox for so

long, like for three years when I had the 360,

consistently, and so... Getting to revisit the

world and kind of play in that realm again is

a lot of fun now. I will say I got Arkham Knight

Which if you remember probably a hundred and

fifty episodes ago It came up on the Xbox one

May have even been longer than that may have

been I want to say somewhere around episode 50

Maybe even 20. I don't know like there was rumors

or thoughts of Arkham Knight coming out. So anyways

Man, that was a long time ago. It came out on

the Xbox One and I refused to buy the Xbox One

just for a game, which I'm glad I didn't and

I'm glad I picked the game up. It was like six

bucks and then I got the 1989 Batman suit and

Batmobile skins for another four dollars or three

dollars or something in that realm. Anyways,

all together I spent 12 bucks, so it wasn't a

bad deal at all. For all three of those things

and so I've been playing Arkham Knight I know

how the storyline goes some people have already

kind of ridiculed me on Twitter for Attempting

to just blast through the main storyline and

then come back in game plus mode and beat the

game To get the more full package of the story

which I get it, but I watched all the cinematics

and and gameplay on YouTube when the game came

out because I wanted to know how the story ended

So I know how it ends, although I've forgotten

some details, I still basically know how it ends.

But it's been a lot of fun. The Batmobile is

a little bit of a learning curve, but I picked

it up really quick because I used to play Podracer

and Fury 3 and games like that a lot, so it's

not that much different. I liked the battle mode,

I liked the blasting through the streets and

all the various add -ons and everything else

that you can upgrade on it. Some of the controls

on the game itself with like Batman and toggling

between his stuff and all the different side

missions can get confusing on the gamepad just

because it's laid out different than Arkham City,

which I'm not used to. But overall, I've enjoyed

the game so far. I've enjoyed the difficulty.

It is much harder in some regards, but it's somewhat

easier. It's more of a button masher in a lot

of regards. I like the tag team battles. I like...

the Batmobile aspects. I like the remote Batmobile

aspects and a lot of the voice synthesizers.

You know, a lot of the new gear that comes in

the game. I like getting into Wayne Manor with

Lucius. There's a lot of fun stuff with it. I'm

not particularly thrilled with Scarecrow because

I hate Scarecrow, but I love the Joker being

throughout the storyline and Harley. Penguin's

kind of there, but it doesn't really matter.

I haven't seen two -face yet But I haven't played

that storyline either. I saw a man bat. I saw

firefly both of which got away Not real concerned

with it But I'm having fun with the game I'm

playing it. I'm just trying to get as much as

I can done I'm to the point where I'm fighting

Harley and her her cronies before you get to

see the the jokers the the final one and the

old man reveal himself can't remember his name

but anyways it reveals himself as another joker

and then you see batman as one of the jokers

so it's it's it's i'm almost at that point in

the game so it's getting a lot more interesting

and it's a lot of fun a lot of kind of rubbing

your head trying to think of things i like that

there's there's some differential stuff between

Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Knight,

and Arkham Origins. So it's been a lot of fun.

I'm looking forward to completing the game and

kind of seeing how it goes. Maybe sometime I'll

do a live stream of it when I get more time.

I have my green screen. It'll be interesting

to try it out and kind of see how everything

plays through. I haven't done a live stream since

I've gotten Comcast back. I'm also thinking about

doing some video podcasts, so I'm not sure if

you guys are interested in that. I know we did

some live streams on this show, but I'm thinking

about doing some Twitter -only live streams of

just some quick 10 -minute podcasts that I'll

repurpose into a short podcast throughout the

week or maybe five -minute podcasts where they're

kind of altered geek bites, like tidbit information.

And so I'm wondering what you guys think on that

concept there. Kind of conversing on some of

the various geek topic Or maybe picking one geek

topic and talking about it for five minutes or

a geek article Something in that regards I do

plan on talking CES next week because there's

some interesting things that I saw coming through

that in it I always have fun with technology

But I think I'm gonna cut this episode short

because like I am sitting in my car recording

this on my break and I'm not sure how much of

the sound from the engine keeping me warm because

it's like 20 degrees out, is getting through

on the recording. But I'm really loving being

back. I'm hoping you guys are pumped for 2019

and all that we're going to have on geekcastradio

.com, among other things. So until next time,

geeks, feel free to contact me on the Twitters

at scp21 and at AlteredGeek. I'm your host, Steve

Megatron Phillips. And until next time, get altered,

get geeky with the Altered Geeks.