2016: bad for mankind, great for video games.
The Nerds Without Pants return from their (overlong) holiday break to talk about a lot of damn games! No Stage Select or Chrono Crossing this time, because we’re about Consumption Junction and our favorite games of 2016. Let’s get to it!
I am darkness. I am the night. I am Batman!
After spending time wearing the cowl of Batman in four games since 2009, I wasn’t all that interested in Batman: Arkham VR. It had “tech demo” written all over it, and seemed like an easy cash grab for the crucial first slate of PlayStation VR. Now that I’ve played through it I can easily say that it is far beyond what I expected, and while I had thought I had already worn Batman’s cowl it was another thing entirely to put it on myself.
We can rebuild it. We have the technology.
As video game enthusiasts, we tend to want sequels to be these huge shifts from the previous iteration of a series, sporting tons of new features and locations while retaining the core concepts that made the game fun in the first place. It’s a tall order, and obviously some sequels nail this formula while others miss the mark entirely. Then there are games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, which is “just” more of the same mechanics and progression as seen in 2011’s Human Revolution. While there is little to set Mankind Divided apart from its predecessor that isn’t a bad thing, is it?
I channel my inner '90s mascot attitude and explore a recent troubling trend.
At last year’s PAX East I attended a panel hosted by one of the marketing magicians for Sega of America in the '90s, Al Nilson. At that panel I got up to ask a question about the NEMO project he worked on in the late '80s, but before I did I told this quick story about the time I borrowed the first Sonic the Hedgehog game off my friend when it was first released: While I was at home being blown away by the technical achievement of Sonic Team’s new baby, my friend called me and said his mother was mad he lent out his new game and was making him come by in a couple hours to pick it up. Since my time was now limited to how much of this amazing new game I was going to be able to play, I decided to hunker down and try to beat the game before he came to get it. I focused and played as carefully as I could. I ended up beating the game without continuing and with all the Chaos Emeralds. I had the honor of telling Al Nilson it was one of the best "Gaming Zen" moments of my life. He appreciated my story and my love for Sonic.
Don't let the cute article image fool you; this one is filthy!
Welcome to what is easily the craziest episode of Nerds Without Pants of ALL TIME. That’s because we have Tyler and Bob from the TnB Podcast on this week, and Patrick is running the Stage Select segment. Seriously, you don’t stand a chance against this episode. Just surrender now. All your attention is belong to us.
It's an open world. We just play in it.
Welcome to another episode of Nerds Without Pants! We have our first topic episode in ages, thanks to a thought-provoking blog from regular listener transmet2033. Before that, we of course have Consumption Junction.
