Tuesday 18 December 2012

Closing Time

Or, alternatively, I could have gone with "The Final Countdown" for the title, but I think that's a bit overdone... And Closing Time is a good song too.

Anyway, with the "End of the World" approaching quickly, it's around about the time to start thinking about what our last days will consist of.

To pass the time till the zombies inevitably eat our brains, a release date has been announced for the 7th update for Minecraft 360. It's tomorrow!

And if that weren't enough, Borderlands 2 DLC information has been leaked. Apparently we can look forward to a campaign featuring Sir Hammerlock and his awe- inspiring moustache. Still no date for this, but we will be seeing this before the world ends at least.

So, it's up to you, will you be enjoying the new features of Minecraft, breeding animals to complete your farm and brewing potions, or will you be exploring new lands, searching for new weapons and driving a new vehicle under the tutelage of Hammerlock?


Of course, you could spend your time preparing for the apocalypse. But still...

Anyway, if you're reading this after 21st December, then congratulations on surviving the zombies.
Good luck Nerds!
Oli


Also, before I forget, you must watch the Yogscast live streams on Twitch.tv. They're always hilarious, and it's for charity, so give what you can. But it's not as if they need me to do any advertising.

Friday 23 November 2012

Too Many Guns!

The most infuriating things have been happening with Borderlands 2 today, for my friend as well as myself.

For reasons unknown, my friends level 45 Assassin, whom he had spent a considerable amount of time with, farming guns, experience and just having fun, had been corrupted. It's Zer0s own fault. we warned him against taking those pills, we told him it was a gateway into murkier areas of life, but he just didn't listen, he went ahead and just like that, he was corrupt, and without even leaving a note with a simple "Goodbye, cruel w0rld!" he sadly died...

Almost the same thing happened to my newly created Mechromancer. The compatibility pack failed to load properly and killed her... It was a very sad time for all involved (just me mostly), but I'd only just brought her to life, and I didn't even have a chance to meet Death-trap!

Luckily for me, my Mechromancer rose from the dead! It involved deleting and re-downloading everything, but she lives. Not so lucky for my friend though, because his assassin is still no longer with us, no matter what my friend tries...



Another short post, but still...

Cya Nerds!
Oli

Tuesday 20 November 2012

Timesplitters HD... Possibly

Time for a bit of news.

For those of you wondering where Timesplitters went, you may not have to wait too long.. Not for a new game, but for the re-release of Timesplitters HD onto XBLA, PSN, PC etc.

The CEO of Crytek said that if the petition picks up, then we'll all be one step closer to Timesplitters.

But this all depends on the kindness of Nerds. The petition is still relatively low in numbers, and could use a boost. There are other articles about this, but the one I found the news from is laserlemming.com.

Anyway, it's only a short post today, but I am writing something else at the moment, I just thought you should hear about this before it's too late. Don't forget to tell your friends about the petition, it's important.

Here's the link to the article:
http://www.laserlemming.com/2012/11/14/crytek-ceo-300k-signatures-more-timesplitters/


Oli

Friday 2 November 2012

Because 7 8 9

So... I read in some news article today, I forget which... But it's been announced that Disney has bought the Star Wars franchise, or something to that effect.

They are planning to make Star Wars VII by 2015 and then VIII and IX in later years. Let's just digest that for a moment... Consider the implications... Doesn't look good, does it?




Anyway! We have just over 2 years to wait before that happens, let's focus on more immediate things.

Like... It's almost the End of The World, if you believe the Mayan calendars (personally, I think they're just hinting at a new one for Christmas and it just got blown out of proportion).

Assassin's Creed III has this as part of the main story-line, not having the game you are in no danger of spoilers, but I can say this; there will be Assassins on a boat. I know, it isn't quite Snakes on a Plane, but it'll get there, don't worry.

I've heard good and bad things about the game, mainly about the simplified controls, which no one can seem to agree on, and the sometimes poor frame rate. But the mini- games, side missions and naval battles are all quite intriguing, and I really want to try the new Co-op missions... I have no doubt I will get this game eventually, but when that will be, with all the new games coming out, I don't know...

If the world doesn't end by 21st December, maybe I'll get it for Xmas, but Desmond can solve that problem.



Finally, to our small audience and chance readers; Yes, I mean you! Hopefully starting soon, Cam will begin writing again, maybe some things about Dota 2, who knows?

So, look forward to that, and I'll be writing something new soon.

Happy Nerdings!
Oli

Wednesday 17 October 2012

Dropping Some Crazy Updates!

While the PC version of Minecraft is finished with the Beta portion of it's life, the XBLA version is still trying with all it's might to be just like its older brother.

And I can confirm it is doing a great job so far.

I have spent most of today on the Creative mode of my map building, destroying and re-building my newest project, Nerd Tower, and the surrounding village, originally named... Nerd Village. (Naming it didn't occurred to me until just now..) I will try harder with the names...

Of course Creative mode isn't the only thing featured in the update, there is a multitude of items, both new food and new blocks to play around with.

But I honestly cannot stop playing creative mode. My houses no longer suffer the wrath of having a lack of resources! I don't have to use a pick to re-design my house, I just punch it if I don't like the way it looks.

edit:

So since I started my project I have had a new idea...

I want to make my map a community map, full of buildings and creations from all of my friends. I'm writing this as I watch the first of hopefully many friends build... something castle-like with vines and such. Kudos to her, because even though the exterior design is quite simplistic it does look quite brilliant next to Nerd Tower.

I'm thinking of uploading photos to Facebook of all these buildings as they are finished. But more on that once I actually get a few people to contribute.



So I think that's it for now, I will be writing again in a couple of days I hope, with updates on the creation of the village.

Happy Minecrafting!

Oli

Tuesday 2 October 2012

The Trouble With Trolls

In the years I have been using the internet, I have noticed a growing phenomenon, which we should all be ignoring.

Trolls

From their hovels underneath 'Ye Olde' English stone bridges, Trolls have been harassing Internet users for as long as there have been Internet users. Having studied these mythical creatures I have found that they feed on the negative energy generated from the comments they leave on Blogs, YouTube, and other such social interaction websites.

Do Not Feed The Trolls

Now, the best way to banish a Troll is to starve them of attention on your pages. If there is no negative energy to harvest, there will be no more Troll. Alternatively, blocking them works just as well (if not better).

If that doesn't work you could always try a circle of protection surrounding your computer, or is that for Witches... Might be worth it either way.

Since Nation of Nerds is a small blog, with barely any readers, we haven't had any trouble with Trolls, so I have no first hand experience, but all the time I see Trolls on YouTube, and various forums, and the people just feed them unknowingly.

This is what they want. They want to annoy you, and bait you into an argument you can't win. The trick is to burn them.

Burn them with Comments! Or don't, it may just make it worse.

But yeah, go with the blocking thing.. That'll work.




Oli

Wednesday 26 September 2012

The Finale

I have just watched the final episode of Save the Supers, a show created by Sandeep Parikh and uploaded to YouTube.

If you couldn't tell from the title, the show is about a team of Super-Heroes, who battle evil and tackle budgetary problems on a weekly basis.

Since the first video I have really liked the show, and while the videos themselves aren't that long, you still get to know the characters, and the storyline is easy to understand yet still manages to be funny within a 5 minute time limit. But I think the best part for me are the Super Villain cameos, made by well-known Nerd Icons (I won't spoil it, you'll have to watch them yourselves).



Anyway, just a short post today. I wanted to get something posted about Nerdy things (not that Korean Rap isn't Nerdy).

So, Share with your friends, Comment and watch the Yogscast.

Oli

Monday 24 September 2012

Oppa is Gangnam Style

I know I said I would be writing more often, but I've been busy so I thought today as a bit of a break from the Nerd, I'd write about a certain Korean Artist, which after watching his video I just couldn't pass up.

So, hopefully you've seen the Korean music video by Psy, called Gangnam Style.

For me, it was arguably the best thing to happen to Korean Rap since the... other good things which happened in Korean Rap...

Ok, so you may have worked out that I'm not an expert in Korean Rap, but even I know that if it's good enough to be shown on television and YouTube around the world then it has to be brilliant, because I have not seen any other Korean songs in my relatively short life.

And the dance...

I had seen the dance before, but I had no idea what it was until my friends started dancing the Gangnam Style in a rock disco we go to sometimes, it was the first and only night so far that I have danced at that disco. (But that's usually because they play Metallica and Avenged Sevenfold... Not many opportunities to dance really...)

In any case, Psy has to be the coolest guy I've seen all week, partly because of the song but mainly because he Suited Up!


In related news, Psy also released the... well, the same song, but with another artist by the name of Hyuna singing with him. Even though it's pretty much exactly the same, it's had a much worse reception. I'm not sure why the people don't like it, but then again, a few days ago I saw a YouTuber berating his fellow commentors who like Minecraft, by saying that they weren't true gamers because Minecraft has bad graphics.

It's unexplainable. (And in the case of the Minecraft Commenter , infuriating)

But I still like both versions. And Minecraft.



I will write again soon, so in the meantime, share with your friends, comment, and read Game of Thrones.

Oli

Saturday 15 September 2012

A Nerds Lament

So a couple of days ago I decided to venture into Birmingham, in search of a new, hopefully luckier, dice set. Sadly, the only place I know of to get dice is a tiny shop hidden away in a dark little alley in the city. People walk past this shop all the time, for example, when I was walking up to it, I was behind a group of about 20, none of whom paid any attention to it, much like that pub in the Harry Potter books, it must only be visible to Nerds...

I'm not sure if there are other shops like this in England, I haven't seen one anywhere else, and to me, it's depressing, I mean, sure, Nerds do seem to buy everything we need right off the Internet, but still... I like the journey to the city, walking around the "Nerdy" shops, always saving the best for last, that quiet little shop in the centre of Birmingham, unnoticed by the masses. There should be more shops like this, where Nerds can go to meet their kin.

Sure, you could argue that we have video-game stores, but since the creation of games such as Modern Warfare, they've become increasingly mainstream... I suppose, inferring the need for Nerds to shop online...

I know that every other social clique has their own place to socialise, and even though we do pretty much Own the Interweb, and even with the creation of games such as Guild Wars, where you can buy Guild Halls and hang out with friends there, I still think that there isn't any substitute for time with friends IRL.



In other news, I will be trying to write for this blog more often than the last few months, I haven't really had any inspiration for posts recently, but I'm getting back on track.

Share, Comment.. Play Minecraft,
Oli

Wednesday 6 June 2012

The One Where I Run Out Of Ideas

While I'm sitting here with my laptop, watching Slither (starring Nathan Fillion from Firefly no less) and I thought that I would be kind, and give you all something to read. But then I found I had writers' block. I want to write, but I don't have anything to write about. Well, I have one thing. So, they decided to call one of the characters on Slither Grant Grant. Really? Grant... Grant? You can't see me, but I'm shaking my head in disappointment.

And that's me all out of ideas.

So, E3 hmm? I watched the Microsoft and Ubisoft presentations on YouTube (To be brutally honest, I only watched the Ubisoft show because Toby Turner was co-hosting) and this year of upcoming games looks quite interesting. I think the new game to watch in my opinion would be Watch_Dogs from Ubisoft Montreal. A sandbox game, where you have the ability to hack into any electronic device, which you can use to your advantage, and by doing so, literally use the city as a weapon (I recommend watching the video, it does a lot better job than I just did of explaining, but I'm just going to blame that on the writers' block)

The other game that really interests me right now is Assassin's Creed 3, now set in Colonial America, spanning 30 years between 1753-1783. New game mechanics, such as Naval battles, and not just that, but also navigating ships through storms, while avoiding unfortunate swells (Makes for difficult sailing). Even though I think that this will be brilliant fun, what I really want to do is use the bow and arrows, while hanging out of a tree. But of course, that's just me. Anyway, I'm looking forward to October 31st this year. You won't see me trick or treating this year.

That's all I got. Considering I didn't know what I was going to write, I think I did quite well, don't you?

Anyway, I'll start thinking about my next post right... after Slither finishes.

See y'all next time! (That's my American typing, pretty good, right?)

Oli

Sunday 3 June 2012

At The End Of All Things

Ok, ignoring the grossly over-dramatic Lord Of The Rings reference for my title, it is the end of an Era (oh yes, with a capital "E"). I am going to be moving away from friends for a while, and I'm terrible at Goodbyes, so I thought instead of stumbling my way through, I should write something infinitely better than anything I would say IRL (I already have a movie reference, so I know I'm doing better!).

I know this isn't what we at Nation do, apart from the title it's not Nerdy at all, but I felt I had to write about what's important to me. It would be easier to write a status on Facebook, but that's not how I roll. I don't think I'd be able to fit everything in anyway (hmm, I believe that's what she said).

Anyway, to my friends, (and of course, my sister) even though I don't spend as much time with you as I probably should, you should all know that I will miss you. It was brilliant hanging out with you, and drinking with you, not so much the part where you made me dress-up, but still... I wouldn't change it for anything, unless you'd be willing to delete some of those photos... no? Nevermind, I had to ask.

I hope you know that you're all bad influences on me, I hardly ever went to clubs before I lived here. But apart from the inordinate amounts of money I spent, it was always good times, so thank you all for making me drink. It's not often that I meet so many people that are as brilliant as all of you are, which is obviously why we were all put into Awesome-Block, as if that were a question.

I've made a promise to Bryan that I will see you all again sometime, so it's not my fault if I just show up at some point.

So, I'll end this post with a cliché.

As I said, I don't like goodbyes, so this will be a See You Later. (See? All that cliché-y goodness. Was it worth it? I don't think so)

Oli

Saturday 2 June 2012

Staying On Topic Part 1 (Dungeons and Dragons)

Welcome to Staying on Topic. This is a new idea I'm going to try for my blog posts, where I attempt to talk about the same topic throughout the entire post. It's actually quite hard for me, so we'll see how I do and I'll try to have a new topic every few days. It may or may not work out...

So, if you've been reading our posts from the beginning, you'll know that we play Dungeons and Dragons. I, of course, take full credit for introducing Cam to the game a couple of years ago, but I've been playing for the better part of a decade now, and I like to think of myself as a 3e/3.5e player, but I have dabbled in 4e as well. I think in those eight years, I have experience playing almost every 3.5e PHB classes, even some from supplements (Gotta love the Dwarven Samurai!).

I listen to Podcasts and watch YouTube videos of people playing DnD, and I spend about an hour every other day trying to write Campaigns, designing characters and sketching villages. I consider DnD to be a brilliant way to spend a day, but I don't know whether 5e will be good or not. Obviously, I want it to be, and just as I gave 4e a chance, I'm sure as hell going to try 5e, because I'm an optimist at heart.

Sadly, I haven't played as much as I'd like recently, but I'm prepared! Like I said, I have started writing, and it's not looking so bad at the moment. My campaign so far involves Pirates and a market town. There are some other elements I'd like to incorporate into the world, but I haven't written any of it yet...

I'll keep this one short, simply because these four paragraphs have taken me a whole day. Staying On Topic is a challenge, but the next one will be much better. It'll be a while before my next On Topic post though.

Feel free to Comment, Follow and Share us with your friends.

Stay tuned for more Off-Topic goodness soon.

Oli

Monday 28 May 2012

You Don't Have To Be A Nerd To Play Minecraft

It's been a while since my last post, so instead of going outside and enjoying Sol I figured I should write about what I've actually done over the past few days.

Sometime in the past week, I decided that I was going to design a new world for Dungeons and Dragons complete with sketches of the towns and cities. I got distracted by a TV show I used to watch as a kid, Avatar: The Last Airbender. I thought that if I could adapt this idea to DnD somehow it would be kind of cool to play... It's a little more difficult than that though, partly because everyone would want to be the Avatar, but I don't think getting rid of the Avatar altogether wouldn't fix the problem either. Then, of course, there's the elemental manipulation problem... And the six-legged, flying Bison...

So yeah, that's what I've been trying to do.

I have also noticed a spike in Minecraft activity in my friends list. It mostly seems to be girls who play it though, either that or guys just don't want to tell anyone about it. It seems that you don't have to be a Nerd to play Minecraft anymore. But I have seen people openly against the game, and I think I understand why. Its probably because of the graphics of the game are intentionally... blocky. But what I don't understand is why that should matter. Anyone who plays any game should be playing games because they have good stories or the gameplay is good. Ok, Minecraft doesn't have a lot of story, but it's fun to play, and I for one would much rather play Minecraft than most games out at the moment.

I'll keep this post short, and I'll try to post again soon.

As always, Comment on this post, tell us what you think, and Share us with your friends, we always appreciate new readers.

Oli

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Lord of The Strings- Igor Presnyakov

I wanted to show you what a Guitar God looks like. Turns out He's Russian. And infinitely better than I could hope to be. I came across one of his songs that I just had to hear, the Skyrim Theme. This wasn't the first time I saw his videos though, he also does covers of many, many songs, from Maroon 5 to Lady Gaga... But, don't worry, they're good. If you like guitar you'll definitely want to watch this brilliant guitarist.
Honestly, first time I saw him, I had to stop watching because, and this is a true quote, "No ...He's too good... Just no". I understand if you prefer Sungha Jung to Igor for some reason, but in my opinion, no-one can match Igor for skill, or the sheer amount of video hats (seriously, watch his videos, and you'll see that he has a different hat in almost every one).

If you haven't played, or seen Skyrim, first of all, where have you been for the past 6 months, and secondly, Igor has an answer for that as well, in the form of a Super Mario guitar cover. Because a true Guitar God is diverse in his musical teachings.
So, if you have an interest in Guitars, or you just like to listen to music every now an then, try watching a few of his videos, he has an album out on iTunes, and a load of covers on YouTube all ready and waiting just for you.

Happy Nerding!
Oli

Thursday 17 May 2012

Team Fortress 2 Celebrity Match

As you could probably guess, I am not into many sports. The last time I watched a football match it was the World Cup, unless you count playing FIFA [whatever number they're up to now]. So when I saw a celebrity match of Team Fortress 2 being commentated much like a game of sports, I just couldn't resist watching.

I already knew before I started watching that Notch (creator of Minecraft) and the guys from Yogscast (a YouTube channel for gameplay videos and brilliant commentary), Simon and Lewis, were playing so I was looking forward to half an hour of gameplay, seeing the skills of the people I watch play games daily. As the video started playing, I saw that it wasn't just these celebrities playing, Freddie Wong (YouTube channel: Freddiew) and many other gamers of note were playing.

I remember when I was younger, there used to be a whole TV channel, just devoted to competitive games, I think they canned it though, anyway, it was showing matches from Unreal Tournament, and other FPS games, live, and they were talking to the teams between games, and I loved that. It opened up a whole new world of "competitive sports". This was something to aim for, instead of football, you could find a team of gamers, train them, and enter tournaments all over the world. I'd like to do that, I'm not nearly good enough, and when I originally wanted to do this I was too young.

I'm going to keep this post short and sweet, because I can see this evolving into something not even close to my original point. Here's the first video of the game, introducing the players, and the first match. As always, comment on our blog, doesn't have to be this post, and share us with your friends.

Happy Nerding!
Oli

Saturday 12 May 2012

Adventures in Minecraft 360

It's been a long time since I last posted, so I wanted to write about the most recent game I found on XBLA.

Minecraft!

I have been looking forward to this, ever since Tobuscus started making Minecraft gameplay videos (His first video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVAcd-ffIMg) where he has adventures in WorldBuscus. Anyway, that's how I started learning about the game, and it's a good way to waste an hour or two. And also a good distraction from writing this post.

So, I just started playing Minecraft, this being my first time actually playing, and I want it recorded for future generations so they can learn from my many, many... many mistakes. Seriously, at one point I left my house and I fell onto Creeper (I fell down the ladder to my house) and his friend caught me by surprise, killing me, and destroying my poor house in the process.

Let me walk you through my unfortunate first few hours of the game.

So I started on Peaceful, because I wanted to get a feel for the game. And it was good, for a while. But, it turns out, that I picked the only mountain in the game which was nowhere near a single block of coal or iron. And. as I found out in a very unfortunate accident, very close to a pool of lava. Seems I wasn't ready for peaceful...

Sometime later, after mastering the controls, and my urges to swim in lava, I had built another House on the highest point of the map, it was intended to be my own version of Mount Olympus, I even brought water and tilled earth to grow my own crops up there. I was, and still am proud of my creation. From there, I could see most of the Surface-World and the lights of the random torches I placed across the world.

It was going well. So I got bored...

I decided that moving up to easy would be a good idea to help keep my interest. You have to take your time on things like this. I started a new World, and built a new house before nightfall, (complete with windows!) still unable to find coal once again, probably because I was cooking some windows, instead using cacti as a barrier vs. Creepers and hid in my dark and lonely wooden hut. What fun that was, but we've all done it, right? The cacti were effective though, at times they were even keeping me away from the house. And for the first few days I felt kind of safe. This is where I decided to move houses, and I built one above ground, so that I needed a ladder to reach it. That's where it started to go wrong. I should have stayed with my friendly neighbourhood cacti friends, because this is when I fell from the ladder and met my new Creeper friend...

For any beginners out there, I have three basic Rules that I hope will help keep you alive longer. Just a shame I forget about them...

Rule One: Check your surroundings before you open the door. I cannot stress this enough. It may be that I'm just unlucky, but it seems that everytime I leave the safety of my house, there is always a Creeper, or a skeleton just hanging out by the cacti, waiting for me. Granted, it did get better once I made torches, but still, I think the game is out to get me.

Rule Two: Never underestimate the power of shutting the door behind you. I won't go into that, just trust me.

And finally, Rule Three: Make sure it's definitely Day Time before leaving the house. No amount of torches or cacti defenders will help if a Creeper decides he doesn't like your face.

If you ever thought before that you wanted to see what all the fuss was about with Minecraft, the Xbox version is great, but as development started months ago, Notch (the creator) and Mojang (the developers) haven't been able to keep the Xbox version the same as the current PC version, so there are some differences. I do recommend this game for Xbox though, as there will be updates soon, and even though it isn't fully up to date yet, I've still wasted most of my last few days playing Minecraft. There's always something to do, and it can keep even the most easily distracted occupied for days at a time.

Happy Gaming!
Oli

Monday 7 May 2012

Trials Evolution: A Review

Hey guys, Cam here and I am going to be doing a review on....... Trials Evolution. I know this is a little late and it did come out a month ago but after playing multiplayer I think it is still worth talking about, because this game is .... AWESOME!!!

I've never felt such a range of joy an anger in a game, it is hilarious but frustrating, however it's not annoyingly difficult. It's hard to explain but I do think this game is the best XBLA game on the marketplace at the moment.

It has online multiplayer where you and three friends can compete in speedway and trials maps, to see who can get the most points over the set amount of track (maximum of seven) or there is also an awesome looking local multiplayer where four people can play speedway tracks against each other on the same Xbox with much fun to be had, a great example in the link below.


However, the jewel in the crown of this game may be however the insane map editor allowing custom created maps to be shared. There has already been some insane maps being made in the first month of the games release, imagine how awesome these tracks will be in a few months time!!! We already have loving recreations of Valve's Portal and James Cameron's T2.

So guys, if you haven't got this game you are missing out on some seriously fun gameplay, and if you do have the game comment below, let me know what you think of it and please follow, much more reviews and rambling to come.

CAM OUT!

Wednesday 2 May 2012

Will Do Zombie Stuff For Brains

With the release of The Walking Dead game, we must once again start thinking about how we would survive the seemingly inevitable zombie-infested apocalypse. It's not enough to have a 'solid' plan, you can never be sure if something will happen to change the plan for you. So, do you raid the supermarkets, find a good defensive area and hide out until it passes (if it ever does) or try your hand at being a hero, save everyone you can and risk your life for the safety of strangers?

I'm pretty sure that our audience, being Nerds, have many, many plans to do with this already, I know I do. But, because of Hollywood zombie films, I imagine some people are starting to think that it will be easy to survive with little or no help. I mean, a World of Warcraft veteran, with a double-barrel shotgun who had trouble with a single zombie-girl in his own apartment just randomly meeting a zombie killing machine? That's just not going to happen. And the victory scene at the carnival, complete with bright lights and a cacophony of music? There wouldn't have been time for a make-out session with the surprisingly hot girl you randomly found in a country at least 5x the size of the UK (I mean, I'm assuming they wanted to live, and considering the WoW vet's state of virginity, I think he definitely would) there was a whole town of zombies out there, and I'm guessing Tallahassee doesn't have the infinite bullets he would have if he were playing Left 4 Dead. Of course, I'm not saying that they definitely would have been overrun with zombies, I'm just saying that it's unlikely that a few weren't lagging behind, or maybe, had lost limbs and couldn't run as fast as their other zombie-friends... poor legless zombie... all alone... without a brain to munch on... "Don't give him your brains kids, he'd only use it for drugs!"
Will Do Zombie Stuff For Brains!
Not bad for Paint, while being continually interrupted by fire alarms!
(Speech Bubbles: "What's Zombie Stuff?"
"Dont Look At Him Kids, If He Wants Brains, He'll Have To Get A Job Like The Rest Of Us!")

Oversharing?.. Anyway...

Regardless of what I have just been saying, small groups do have good points, while smaller groups can remain unseen for longer and don't require as much food they don't really work for a long term plan. And of course, larger groups are the opposite. Larger groups have higher defensive capabilities, can stay in one safe location for longer before moving and can maintain larger stocks of food before having to venture into the unknown to restock.

So, if you remained interested after my partial rant and slight descent into madness, I would like to know what you think. How would you survive the apocalypse? Would you find a group of people you could trust and roam the post-zombie world in search of food and a place to live? Would you stay in one place, using your wits to find and grow your own food, and taking in survivors whenever they appeared? Or would you do something completely different?

Comment and tell me what you think you would do.

Oli

Monday 30 April 2012

D&D: Don't Hate The Player

So, my friends and I have regular sessions of Dungeons and Dragons, once every Friday, we meet up and talk about our week while we set up the game mat and sort out the dice we'll be needing. Now, what should happen here is a short recap on the previous games events, but recently (mainly because of the release of certain new games), we've become increasingly distracted before playing, now I'm not saying this is a bad thing, but we don't really give the game the attention it deserves.

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, Dungeons and Dragons is a role-playing game, which, when you're paying close attention, can keep you and your friends occupied for hours, and thinking about how to escape that trap you fell into last session, or how you took the advice of a certain wizard, let's call him Randalf, who crit-failed his Intelligence check on the secret Dwarven riddle door, it isn't enough that he found it, but he has to be the one to solve it? Anyway, after hours of Bluffing his way through "Yeah, no, Dude, I got this. This riddle ain't no thing" The halfling walks up to him and rolls a 15, just making the cut, but still slightly worried about talking to the man twice his size who could shine a light at him "Hey, I think it's... um... friend? Take it or leave it, just saying, man" (but if you ever asked Randalf, he let the Hobbit figure out the answer to make him feel part of the group.)

History is written by the Wizard.

What I'm trying to say is that, once you get into a story, it's very hard to break free. I didn't mean to write all that, but I got side-tracked while writing and it kind of just happened.

I got into DnD in my second week of high school, when I had just turned 12, and, for me at least, it was one of the greatest things that could have happened, I was reading those rule books for days on end, and because I was new to the school, the group itself was comprised of people I had never met before, some of whom I'm still friends with almost 8 years later (I know it doesn't seem a long time, but I've lost a lot of friends since then and keeping the DnD group together, after several permutations, has been a great achievement).

Characters come and go but The Group stays together.

I've played many characters over the years, even DM-ed my fair share of games, and it's still not enough to satisfy my Experience point cravings. I have spent more time designing characters for this game than I have most other things in life (I mean, if I had spent that much time on my work in school, I would have had my GCSEs in year 8 just from sheer boredom)

I love playing this game, not just for the fact that you can pretend for hours that you can cast spells like magic missile and acid arrow at random villagers, for the simple reason of "Just 'Cuz." Neutral Evil right? But that's the idea, you can do things that you can't in real life, you could wake up one morning and announce, "Today, I shall fly a Dragon!" and you could, all you have to do is find your personal set of lucky dice and your character sheet.

I want you, Yes You, Reader, to find a DM, make him, don't ask, Make Him, design an adventure for you  and some friends, experience the feeling of that first level up, and the first time you kill those pesky goblin bandits who are raiding the caravan with untold riches.

So, grab your dice, print out a quickie character sheet, design that character, and save those Villagers from that Dragon who lives in that Dungeon.

Oli
10th Level Blog Writer


Oh! By the way, don't forget to comment on our posts, and tell your friends about us. Stay tuned, more posts coming soon!

Thursday 26 April 2012

Best. Conversation. Ever.

I was having a conversation with a friend I hadn't talked to in a very long time, and part way through she mentioned to me that she now plays Dungeons and Dragons. While I knew that she some had interest in video games, she never seemed to me to be the type to play DnD. Because, in the area where I live, there are two groups that I know of who play DnD and I'm in one of them (for the most part).

Just for the simple fact that I'm writing about it you should know that by this point I already had a new found affection for my Nerdy friend, and after a while she went on to say that she had almost slept through an exam because she was up late the night before, playing Batman: Arkham City. Now, I have to say that at this point this was already one of the better conversations I have had with a girl (regarding games at least) until her last comments about Arkham City pushed it over the top. It seems that it's not only guys who feel that Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy's new looks are well designed.

That's all I have to say about that.

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Miracle of Sound: A Gamers Virtuoso

Hey Guys, Cam here and I want to talk music...... well music about video games. Ever played a game that was so epic that there should be a song about it, or a game character who you felt deserved some badass theme music as you were awesoming around with them? Then look no further than the incredible 'Miracle Of Sound'. I first heard a 'Miracle of Sound' song about three months ago, and the music captured what I love about my favourite video games so well, I bought his album straight away. I wasn't disappointed.

I put a video of his awesome, 'Commander Shepard' song, in my blog entry about the ending of Mass Effect 3. I'm gonna link in some more videos of his at the bottom of this post. Guys if you love video games, you will love this guys music, go to his YouTube page and show him some love. What do you guys think? Comment below let us now and please follow us my fellow nerdmigos.

Cam Out.





Indecision, Thy name is Nerd

Okay, my second official post on this blog should be something important, enigmatic, right?It's been an hour or two, and I've been scratching my head, thinking about how to start something that would interest someone out there, but I couldn't really think of anything, I mean, I could write a few paragraphs on how I only just started watching Firefly yesterday (I know, bad Nerd) but I kept thinking, there had to be something more important to write about.

I was right! In a fortunate turn of events I actually found something to write about which connects to the theme of the title.

I’m going to go ahead and guess that you’ve all heard the well-known phrase "when two grown-ups love each other very much..." well, it's much the same for Nerds, except when two Nerds love each other very much it’s not as sudden. There are always seems to be a lot of equations and variables to be considered before asking the inevitable, if slightly awkward, question. Having been in a Nerd relationship (me being the Nerd) I know the inherent issues that all Nerds feel. I have spent most of my “social life” in front of the computer and games consoles, and this is why I don’t really have much success in social situations.

So a friend of mine, who shall remain unnamed, has been thinking of how to ask a girl out, one of his friends no less. He too, is a Nerd, and it seems to me that the FNGs (Fucking Noob Guy) of the world have it so much easier. I think that because of certain TV shows, Nerds have a much tougher time than someone who is “physically beautiful”. In a world where a high Str or Cha score is considered much more important to a relationship than Int or Wis, how can a Nerd expect to find anyone but a fellow Nerd? Of course, there will always be a select few who actually favour personality over looks, but finding even one person like that is like finding a FNG in Games Workshop, it's difficult, and it’s so surprising that when you see them you have no idea how to proceed. For instance, a month or two ago, when I was told that a girl I knew and hung out with actually liked me, I couldn’t believe it. The idea was alien to me, that a girl would consider hanging out with me even after I told her of my interest in Dungeons and Dragons and video games. I think she may have been a stealth Nerd. By day they have normal jobs, normal friends and social lives, but as Sol slowly sets, they break out the Doctor Who DVDs and paint their newly built Warhammer figures, video calling her Nerd friends on the best methods to paint plastic figures.

I've had this post on hold for a while. It's been about a week since I wrote anything for it. I wanted to write about my friends Success asking his friend out. Since I wrote about my experience with stealth Nerds, my friend has secured a day out at the cinemas! The moral of the story? Ask and you shall receive.


Happy Nerding!


Sunday 22 April 2012

A Choice: Your Favorite Supporting Character

Hey there people, I was debating with a friend today (no self gratitude jokes) over who is the best character in Video game history.... barring main characters. So not Master Chief, not Gordon Freeman, Not Desmond from Assassins Creed (a joke OK .... just a joke), but those awesome characters who are with/against in a game and end up making you just want to be them. I know my choice was easy for me because...
Come on now, is there anyone better.

But then there's awesome characters like Wheatley and GLADOS from Portal 2. Rusty from LA NOIRE. Sergeant Johnson from the Halo Series and Emile from Reach. However these are just at the top of my head and although i could real off 20 names from Mass Effect games (please don't act surprised), what i want to know is what are your guys favorite non-main protagonist character, comment below and let me know, there shall be a video on the horizon from the answers, and you can vote Garrus too... you know you want to.

Thank you for reading, please follow, link us, let people know about us, that would be Awesome.

CAM OUT!

The Nation is Expanding

Because not that many people are able to find our blog right now, we have started a Facebook page, Google+ account, and even a Wizards of the Coast forum account. We are hoping that branching out into these Nerd hangouts will result in higher page views. If you see us online anywhere, don't hesitate to add us and share our name with your friends.

Also, I know that as we have many posts regarding Mass Effect, and more in the pipeline from writers who are due to post soon, it does seem that we are Shepard fanboys, but rest assured that we are going to write about other topics as soon as we can think of something to write about. But in the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading what we have so far, and comment on our posts, tell us what you think of the blog.

Wednesday 18 April 2012

Bioware: Why you no Indoctrinated? (Minor spoilers)

My favorite game series of all time has to be the Mass Effect trilogy, apart from issues with Mass Effect one (another blog for another time) and back in march they released the alleged final much awaited game of the series.

Now, I don't know about you guys but I was pumped, it was all me and my friends would talk about. I was late on the 'how awesome is mass effect' bandwagon, but two to that point was my favorite game i had ever played and the end set it up the third perfectly, we knew that the reapers (if you don't who they are, come on now play Mass Effect) were going come in full force and are going to try to cleanse the galaxy of organic life and it was up to one man to stop them Commander Shepard, cue awesome music.


Now, the story of three is of desperation, of heartache, of suffering and of the brightest hope in the galaxy, Commander Shepard. This game seriously accesses all of your emotions you will laugh, feel despair, be jubilant and cry....... yes i cried, i'm not a wimp, it's sad!

After all of you trials and tribulations comes the ending of the game. I couldn't wait to see what happens, you make choices throughout the whole series that have drastic impacts of the whole galaxy (Genophage anyone?) and couldn't wait to see how my choices effected how the game concludes. The developer Bioware stated that the game had sixteen different endings, OK i expected more due to how many world changing decisions there are, but still SIXTEEN endings!! I was psyched.

THE RANT BEGINS

And then came the ending. WHY! WHY! WHHHHYYYYY!!!!! I won't go into details on how it ends, but most avid fans of the series would agree that when they played, thought it sucked. Also not sixteen endings the same ending no matter what you choose with variation of colour differences that are different. Even the best ending seemed to be crappy (the breath?) . I like a lot fans felt a little distressed and sickened by something that we as fans we invested time, money and emotion into this universe and they end it that badly. I would of taken the Dallas 'Bobby Ewing gets out of the shower and reassures us the ending was all just a dream.

Then a saving grace, 'The Indoctrination theory'. Turning what would have been the worst ending to an amazing story ever, into one of the greatest endings that we never saw. Please watch this incredible video by Youtuber ACAVYOS explaining the theory. The realisiation of all the pieces falling in place hits you like a lightning bolt of hope, making you think this could be one of the best plot points in gaming.

Combine these theories with tweets from the mass effect twitter page like:
“Hardest. Day. Ever. Seriously,
if you people knew all the stuff we are planning you’d, well – you'd hold onto your copy of me3 forever.”
-Michael Gamble's Twitter Account


This sort of post makes believe that the indoctrination theory is correct and seeing these makes me hopeful, however recent news from Bioware and EA states that the ending remains, it just becomes further explained....Bullcrap, why go into further detail into the things we dislike?

If it's not the ending, then fans who subscribe to the theory will be furious that Bioware refuses to see how terrible are the original ending is, on it's own. Even if the indoctrination theory is correct, isn't it sad that Bioware did this, probably to make DLC money. If it was included in the game from the beginning as the true ending, i would have bowed at Bioware and Casey Lynch (Developer of the Mass Effect series) feet and said "I will buy all of your games as you have created the best video game series with the best possible ending", but i can't and it hurts that i can't.

I believe in Indoctrination..... I believe in Shepard.

Tuesday 17 April 2012

My First Post: The beginning, a nerds quest

Hey fellow nerdonians Cam here. Me and my good friend Oli about half a year back started thinking about putting together a site, to include gaming, comics, TV& film based content, which could be short films, machinima web comics and a whole mess of stuff that appeal to the inner nerd in us, as we all have that side within us, it's just the extent of this that varies (level 15 nerd, but i do have a full paragon bar).

We hope this is the first step to this site which we are creating. The site is in it's 'pre-production' phase at  the moment and we hope to provide some good, funny content on here until we sort out the logistics of the site.

You can expect a whole variety of gaming related blogs, being the two video gaming fanboys we are, we will talk on subject ranging from who are the best crew members in the mass effect series (Garrus, Legion and Thane obviously) to why EA hates gamers (allegedly, cause let's not get sued here).

Thank you for baring through this slightly expositional beginning to my blogging, it gets funnier from hear i swear.

When I was a 1st Level Nerd...

I was watching an old TV show earlier today, and I started thinking about all the games I used to play as a kid (most of them are currently residing in the cupboard to my left). Before I started playing xbox games, I played RPGs and MMOs on the computer. An old favourite of mine was Neverwinter Nights, but somewhere between that thought and actually installing the game, I had changed the disc to Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War. I started the first mission, and I was instantly transported to my old room where I spent all my time playing games and being "sociable" (chatting on MSN, and any social networking site that my friends lived on at the time), this was when I was a Nerd-in-training. Since then I have levelled up in Nerd at least once a year, I have tried new games, I try to watch Star Trek and other fine shows, and I enjoy reading about the exploits of Batman and Green Lantern. Even though I am writing on Nation of Nerds, I don't think that I am in fact 20th level Nerd. I'm well on my way, I mean, I just started watching Firefly (I know, bad Nerd, it took me a long time, but it's an awesome show) and three episodes in I'm already wondering how they could have cancelled it. I digress...

I am a Heroic-tier Nerd, and Proud to be!

Monday 16 April 2012

Nerds Assemble!

Welcome, to the first ever post of the Nation of Nerds. Where nerds can come to forget the discriminating world of muggles.

I realise this could be a very cheesy first post, somehow involving real estate in the land of nerds and hoping that you'll come to stay. But thankfully I think I avoided that subject entirely.

Me and my friend Cam are working together on a few things that i think you will enjoy (if you can endure this introduction, you'll have to be richly rewarded) and I'll keep you all up to date on our work through this blog.

So again, Welcome, and I hope you enjoy your stay here, on the Nation Of Nerds.