QQ News - March 2016

A fire hose of geeky news headlines for the month of March, 2016.

Headlines

  • EverQuest Next has been canceled (Polygon)
  • Microsoft Ceases Development on Fable Legends (IGN)
  • Final Fantasy XV Gets Release Date Plus a Lot More (Rpgamer)
  • Final Fantasy XV Gets A Five-Episode Anime Prequel (Kotaku)
  • Final Fantasy Movie Coming This Year (Kotaku)
  • J.J. Abrams: Portal, Half-Life Movies Still Happening (IGN)
  • Indiana Jones 5 Announced With Ford and Spielberg Returning (IGN)
  • Sony stops short of committing to Xbox One cross-platform play (Polygon)
  • Report Says Nintendo Is Ceasing Wii U Production This Year (IGN)
  • Nintendo Denies Wii U Production Set to End Soon (IGN)
  • New Report Says 'PlayStation 4.5' Is Real (IGN)
  • Court Rules Valve Broke Australian Consumer law (Polygon)

Quest 41 - How did Star Trek storytelling change over the decades?

There are 726 Star Trek television episodes, and Zach and Tom talk about each of them for 10 seconds...yes, it IS as boring as it sounds!

Minutes

  • 00:00 - Mic Check and Introductions
  • 09:15 - What else can we say about The Original Series?
  • 21:00 - Could The Next Generation do no wrong?
  • 44:15 - What was Deeps Space 9's effect the franchise?
  • 63:30 - Did Seven of Nine take over Voyager?
  • 86:00 - Could Enterprise do no right?
  • 117:00 - Wrap up!

Music

QQ Review - Deadpool

Tom and Zach don't break any fourth walls, but they do review Marvel's hit smash, Deadpool!

Minutes

  • 00:00 - Mic Check and Introductions
  • 02:30 - What preconceptions did we have?
  • 05:10 - What surprised us the most?
  • 08:00 - What was good?
  • 17:30 - What was bad?
  • 23:00 - The verdict!
  • 26:40 - Wrap up

Music

QQ News - February 2016

A fire hose of geeky news headlines for the month of February, 2016.

Headlines

  • Nicholas Meyer Joins New Star Trek Series (Startrek)
  • Star Trek Creator's Son Rod Roddenberry Joins New CBS TV Series (IGN)
  • Star Trek: Bryan Fuller Named Showrunner of New CBS Series (IGN)
  • HTC Vive is $799, Ships Early April And You Can Answer Phone Calls In VR (Uploadvr)
  • Valve Sells 15,000 Vive VR Headsets in 10 Minutes (Gamerant)
  • HoloLens Development Edition Available for Pre-Order (IGN)
  • Tesla Preparing To Charge Into Affordable Car Market (NPR)
  • Scientists achieve perfect efficiency for water-splitting half-reaction (Phys)
  • Amazon Lumberyard is a free AAA game engine deeply integrated with AWS and Twitch with full source. (AWS)
  • A Message from the Assassins Creed Team (Blog)
  • Zelda, Metroid, EarthBound, More SNES Games Headed to New 3DS Virtual Console (IGN)
  • Final Fantasy 9 Available Now on iOS and Android (IGN)
  • Hideo Kojima and Guillermo Del Toro Confirmed as DICE Summit Keynote Speakers (Dicesummit)
  • Conan O'Brien Lands in South Korea, People Freak Out (Kotaku)

Quest 40 - What should all software developers want in their applications?

Tom and Zach go all geek this week, with a conversation about software development best practices.

Minutes

  • 00:00 - Mic Check and Introductions
  • 03:55 - Why isn't your application logging?
  • 06:15 - Where is your configuration coming from?
  • 11:00 - Can we talk about Unit Tests for 18 minutes?
  • 29:00 - Is continuous integration necessary?
  • 30:30 - Does automated deployment speed up development?
  • 38:00 - When should you use inversion of control?
  • 49:30 - How intrusive is error reporting for end users?
  • 59:00 - Do you remove user impersonation from production builds?
  • 63:30 - Why is continuous deployment so controversial?
  • 72:15 - Wrap up!

Links

Music

Quest 39 - What is agency, and does it matter in video games?

Tom and Zach try to prove that their life has meaning by escaping into a podcast...oh, the irony, it burns!

Minutes

  • 00:00 - Mic Check and Introductions
  • 01:15 - Does agency matter in video games?
  • 11:10 - Which game genres have the most agency?
  • 23:30 - Randomization, does it reduce agency?
  • 33:00 - Does agency add to escapism?
  • 42:20 - Are binary choices cop-outs?
  • 47:20 - Why is Chrono Trigger the best fake out ever?
  • 53:30 - Wrap up

Links

Music