Jul 052011
 
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As nerds, we’ve all been there before. We find ourselves engrossed in something — be it a television series, film franchise or comic book storyline — and it is fantastic! We enjoy every second of it, waiting with baited breath for the next installment. This joy, however, is short-lived. Maybe the network assigns a new executive producer to the project, someone with “exciting new ideas” about where the series should go. Maybe a writer comes on board who feels the need to raze the world his predecessors have so carefully created to the ground, so that he, in his infinite genius, can rebuild it by his own design. Whatever the cause, these awesome series turned into the ultimate disappointments, mere shadows of what they once were. In this episode, we tackle several of our favorite awesome disappointments, along with a brood of mind-controlling lava worms. So join the Rag-NERD-rok crew for a blitz expedition deep into the catacombs of good stories gone bad, where creative hijacking, network interference, and sometimes just plain hubris take the most excellently told tales and drive them face first into the ground!

(Show Notes after the break.)

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Jun 202011
 
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Join the Rag-NERD-rok crew for an in-depth discussion of this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo! We cover the major announcements of the show, such as the hotly anticipated new gaming platforms from Nintendo and Sony, as well as the new titles you can expect to see in the upcoming year. In addition, we touch upon the current state of portable gaming, Microsoft’s emphasis on new Kinect games, and the practice of franchise milking. Finally, we each reveal our Game of the Show, and talk about why we’re so excited.

Show notes after the break.

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Jun 092011
 

Massive destruction. It’s something that every driver undoubtedly yearns for at least occasionally while they’re on the road. Whether it be the idiot who runs out into the street while your car is hurtling towards them or the fossil who decides that it’s prudent to attempt to merge lanes through your vehicle, every driver has briefly (or not-so-briefly) considered vehicular homicide. It’s basically an unwritten law at this point: Applejacks don’t taste like apples, nothing can kill the Grimace, and every driver secretly wants to brutally slaughter somebody who interferes with their driving. While we can’t do it in real life for very obvious reasons, “Road Kill Rally” gives players the opportunity to not only simulate it, but get rewarded for it.

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May 202011
 

I’d like to talk a bit about A Dirty World, a roleplaying game I recently picked up in which players can “explore the rain-slicked streets of film noir.” Before I begin the review proper, I should point out that I have yet to play in or run a game of A Dirty World, and as such, the following is based purely on the sourcebook itself and my speculations about how the system it describes would work in practice. That said, I’m highly looking forward to playing this game, not only because I indulge in the occasional hard-boiled detective film, but also because the mechanics of the game itself are designed to push dramatic conflict and character development.

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