Or: The Great Final Fantasy XV Debate.
It’s a jam-packed edition of Nerds Without Pants this time. We have Stage Select, we’re Chrono Crossing to 2002, and Patrick and Julian bring out every weapon of kings they can bear to do battle over the quality of Final Fantasy XV. So let’s jump right in!
Remember the Titanfall
The original Titanfall had such an amazing idea: Soldiers who can run on walls with jetpacks summon giant mech suits known as Titans. Normally I play a few matches of multiplayer before getting bored and back to the single player, but I took a gamble in Titanfall’s multiplayer only offering. And despite being too light on content, there was enough depth to keep my 200th match in Titanfall as fun as my second.
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.
Over the Highway
I’ve always enjoyed the early Ridge Racer series. I fondly remember playing the original game over a friend’s house, wishing that I had a PlayStation of my own to play it on. It was very accessible and didn’t take a tremendous effort to make it past the learning curve. And not much has changed here in Ridge Racer Revolution. On the surface, it plays much like its predecessor. It even starts off with a Galaga ‘88 mini-game similar to the Galaxian one in previous game. Some regard Revolution as “Ridge Racer 1.5” due its similarities to the original, which is somewhat understandable since this game went for full price upon its initial release. Even so, Ridge Racer Revolution received a few nice tweaks that made it a decent step up from its predecessor.
Put the turkey down and put your design caps on!
We hope you’re not too full of turkey and shopping deals, because we have a full plate of Nerds Without Pants for you this week! It’s just Julian and Patrick this time, but that doesn’t stop us from delivering a delicious meal of podcasting goodness. So dig in!
Call me queen!
Welcome back to Nerds Without Pants! This week, we are joined by Danny, a former Gamefellas coworker of Julian’s, and a very knowledgeable classic game collector. We have a packed show for you this time, so let’s get to it!
The dark, gritty reboot of Halloween Havoc!
Holy pumpkins, Batman! It’s the 100th episode of Nerds Without Pants! How the hell did that happen? How are we still doing this? How are people still listening to us? That is one of those unanswered questions, like how candy corn is still a thing. Join us for…well, a pretty standard edition of Nerds Without Pants, if we’re being honest!
Take a walk on the fringe!
Welcome to a spooooky special edition of Nerds Without Pants! Okay, actually not that spooky, but Julian is joined by Jordan Bonaparte, the creator and host of The Night Time Podcast. Jordan produces an incredible show that deals with the fringe, the weird, true crime, and more, and Julian has a great time talking to him about a ton of different topics.
Switch vs. Smach
So it's a pretty safe assumption that you've heard about the Nintendo Switch by now. Nintendo is finally combining their handheld and console hardware into one risky gamble for their next platform. With this comes discussions on how it will compete with the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and mobile platforms to carve its own niche, but did you know there is also another dedicated handheld releasing in Spring 2017? Yes, even though Sony may or may not release another handheld, there is a new contender to take their place with the Smach Z, a handheld dedicated to playing Steam games, as well as other PC titles with some troubleshooting. So why not see what new ventures gaming on-the-go will bring us this next year?
The key to the future of Mass Effect is in its past.
We are fast approaching November 7, which in recent years has been marked as “N7 Day” by EA and BioWare, and is usually a celebration of all thing Mass Effect. We’ve done things for N7 Day in the past, and I’m sure we will this year, as BioWare is set to finally show off the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda in a big way. Considering that the game is expected early next year it’s a little worrisome that we have seen so little of it by now. With that being the case, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at my favorite game in the series: the first Mass Effect. That game had some serious issues, but instead of fixing those issues for Mass Effect 2, BioWare’s solution was to throw most of them right out the window. So let’s take a look at some of those problems with the original Mass Effect. I will identify the major issues, explain what BioWare’s solution was, and provide an alternative fix that I hope makes its way into Andromeda.
