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Here at USDN, we try to bring you all the latest news and rumors from around the world of nerds, and we try to bring it all right here into USDN into one happy little place for you.
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It's still a new year.
I haven't figured out all my buttons yet.
Thank you.
all right welcome back ladies and gentlemen i hope you like that new intro big props to our guy elvin for rocking that out for me come on with that beat bro all right though dude i've been grew i was grooving from the time it starts so after it finishes come back from the break and all you see is that's how you know it's funky
All right, ladies and gentlemen, tonight I have two of the members of the Council of Nerds with me.
I have Mac, a.k.a.
your boy, and Gibbs, the Mendo-Aid.
Mendo-A-D.
Yeah.
Appreciate y'all coming on and helping me close out 2023 because I don't think we can move on into 2024 properly without really talking about 2023.
And honestly, 2023 gave us some good stuff in the nerd department.
And we're going to take a little bit of time and discuss all that stuff.
Can't wait.
So we'll just jump right on into it, man.
What are you talking about right now?
This show is PG-13, man.
What you on about?
Go ahead and scream.
I don't go that way, man.
You cut out for that life.
You know where I live?
We getting into the animated section, baby.
Let's go.
I love this show.
Let's roll into the anime.
All right.
I see what you gave us.
So, Scavenger's Reign is the first one.
Yeah.
Yeah, that one was recommended by Jen.
So, shout out to Jen for shouting that out.
Yep.
It was a bad transition, Tay, okay?
It was a bad transition.
I was in the moment.
The transition didn't go as well as I thought.
Because as soon as I said it, I was like, that is how I knew he fucked up.
It's all good.
So Scavengers reign.
So you've seen, you watched the whole season, right?
Start to finish, man.
Was it one of those, like, once you started, like, bro, I'm hooked.
No, it took me.
It took me about a week to get through it.
I had to power through.
And it's not the story or anything.
I don't know.
It just is one of those where it didn't grab me.
It pulled me in like some of them do.
But overall, once you got into it, probably those last three episodes, I was committed.
I was in it at that point.
But it took me a little bit to get into it.
But overall, though, I mean, I really enjoyed it.
It had that old-school anime feel to it, so I really liked that about it.
So...
The animation reminded me, you meant when adults would have those one-off weird-ass cartoons and shit.
It'd be like from 12 to 12.15, this show, and you're just like, yo, what the fuck is this shit?
The Max.
Right?
You're just like something, the mayor of whatever town.
You're just like, yo, what the fuck?
Bro, where's Toonami at, bro?
Just give me my fucking anime already.
Fuck all this shit.
Where's Samurai Jack at?
Exactly.
But I watched about four episodes and I kind of fell off of it.
Not because it was bad.
The animation kind of threw me off.
And there was a lot of things that
I don't know.
There was other shows that were competing with my time to watch, so I haven't finished it.
I will finish it based on Jen and Eric can talk about it.
Black, who's in the comments, was like, bro, this... Black was just like, this shit is lit.
Yeah.
And I'm all for, you know, everything is for everybody.
You know, like it may bring some people in.
It may take a while for other people to get in.
Some people are just like, it's not for me.
But I'm kind of in the middle with that.
So I'll finish it.
And then I'll get it right here, man.
It was different.
And it like you never knew what way it was going in.
That is true.
Because it didn't end the way I thought it was.
Bro, there are episodes I'm watching.
I'm just like, what the fuck is happening right now?
Yeah.
It's not the way you think it does either, so just prepare yourself.
Did you watch it, Rob?
No, I'll have to put that one on my list.
It's on Max, so watch it before that goes away.
Everybody listening, everybody watching the video, if we say a show is on Max, I don't know how long that bitch going to be around.
Tomorrow.
Hey, DC already taking shit off of there.
They're just like, ah, Batman's off that bitch.
So who knows what's going to be on there for how long?
So if it's on max right now, if you're thinking about watching it, go check that shit out.
You better watch it now.
Pretty soon, the only thing that's going to be on there is The Suicide Squad, the second one, and Peacemaker.
That's it.
And Dr. Commandos is going to be on there, I think.
The Dr. Pimple Popper.
Yes.
The Dr. Pimple Popper.
If you into that.
If you into that.
But yeah, so I know you got a, so we were talking about the last quarter of, in a side chat, the last quarter of 2023 and how like Netflix really came out the gate.
They came out swinging that last quarter.
I noticed one thing that's not on here for the animated section, and we'll talk about it slightly, is the Castlevania... Was it Nocturne?
Nocturne.
Bro.
It's on my list.
I've seen the preview for it, and I immediately pulled out my notebook and wrote it down.
I don't know if you've checked out the previous two Castlevania series.
The first one.
I haven't seen the second one yet.
With Alucard?
Bro.
get on that.
Yes.
Oh my God.
Nasty.
Bro.
Bam.
like well done i know you haven't seen it it is well done i love it because as a kid and you're just playing like the game you're like you're not worried about the lore and yeah no shit i'm gonna be straight up honest i'm playing that shit and i'm just trying to beat the game i'm not trying to learn the lore nothing i'm just like i just got to beat this boss as i get older you start looking back and you're just like man there's a whole lot more to what was going on behind the scenes
That's like the Resident Evil games.
You didn't play the Resident Evil games for the story, but then you catch the anime and you're like, damn, that was in this?
That was part of part one?
How the hell did I miss it?
It is officially on the list.
Blue-Eyed Samurai.
Phenomenal.
You seen it, Rob?
Yes.
What do you think?
Phenomenal.
It was one of the better ones that I've seen this season.
Best.
Best.
It was dope.
I didn't know if I would like it at first.
I'm going to be honest.
The first episode, I was like, okay.
Then I was like, yeah, okay.
I watched episode one.
Episode two was like, you ain't moving for the next four hours, bud.
And it was true.
And I really got into it.
And that was surprising.
The little guy with the nubs, the chef dude.
Chef, yeah.
Very surprising at how much of a factor he was in everything.
It was one of those that really blew me away that the side character was just as important.
As the main character.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, I thought it was a great story.
Now, the premise of it, I think I've seen it done in other things before.
Well, I kind of had an understanding, you know, like, you know, it's feudal Japan.
Shoguns are running it.
Here comes technology.
The Western comes in here, tries to bring in all this other stuff.
I do like the fact that
for what like she's just trying to find I guess she's trying I don't want to ruin it but she's chasing after somebody for a particular reason and as the show goes along you kind of you kind of get on her side like the people that she's after their portrait is like very despicable motherfuckers and shit you know what I'm saying don't read the history book they were that bad they were that bad
It's not your regular daddy issues.
But yeah, the cast of characters is great.
The voice casting is amazing.
The animation itself is... Yeah, it reminded me of Arcane type animation.
No, no, no, not Arcane.
I just watched Arcane and I actually enjoyed it.
uh what what is it like the anime that's more like cgi like i think the the latest one was like berserk right edition of berserk right which is like widely hated uh based on the animation and and how it was the way it was done though the way it was presented and it may have been the story too because i mean because it was a hundred percent cgi i think
I think the way they did it, this is how it's supposed to be done.
If you want to use CGI to animate a very anime-ish themed show, this is how you do it.
The animation didn't distract me like it did in Berserk 2018 or whatever that 2016, whenever that one came out.
The animation flowed nice.
The story went well.
Voice actors killed it.
Written well.
I have no complaints about Blue-Eyed Samurai.
I watched it in two days.
Killed it.
It's a must.
Nice.
Yep.
They didn't pull no punches on BES.
They brought in big names, big guns, and knocked it out of the park.
I know this next one we're going to talk about is Willie was all over it.
The moment it dropped, he's like, Scott Pilgrim takes off.
You got to watch that shit, man.
I'm a Scott Pilgrim fanboy.
I'm not going to lie.
I watched it one day.
loved it it's pretty short too right like it was short yeah yeah it was they took it they took scott pilgrim takes on the world flipped it and it worked brilliantly yep um so i got the books uh obviously uh they were written by uh i think brian leo malley
Canadian comic dude.
There's six volumes.
It's a graphic novel.
Edgar Wright then picked it up.
So shout out Edgar Wright.
Amazing director, if you don't know.
Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz.
A lot of the things with Simon Pegg.
Simon Pegg is a genius, dude.
I love him.
Baby Driver.
He directed that as well.
That one surprised me right there.
Baby Driver, I did not expect it, but it was good.
I loved it.
Yeah.
But yeah, so they direct the movie.
It's kind of like a cult following now.
So it still travels.
They still play it at midnight showings places.
Crowds show up cosplaying the characters and stuff.
I think they like it because of the throwback to a lot of the 8-bit Nintendo because a lot of that was paying homage to that in Scott Pilgrim.
So now you get the Scott Pilgrim takes off and they take the characters and they kind of redo the story.
So instead of
The several even exit like evil exes where Gideon is the master.
He loses a battle to the first dude that Scott beats the fuck up in the movie.
Right.
Matthew Patel.
So now even though I read the books and watched the movie, I'm watching this like, I don't know what the fuck's going on.
Right.
They bring back.
Yeah.
Yes.
From the movie.
Every single one of them was there.
right uh chris evans came back to the lucas lee i'm just like oh chris evans is hot in hollywood right now for him to come back to the boys that's what's up so um i just love the direction it's going the end of season one they easily segued into a potential season two i haven't heard anything confirmed from netflix yet but i mean i'm just like bro if uh
A lot of these shows you're putting out, Netflix, you're giving Adam Sandler a lot of movies, bro.
You can kind of not do one of them and put that money to it.
This next movie that Adam Sandler has coming out may be his last on his Netflix contract.
What?
He's voicing the lizard?
No, he's got that space movie coming out.
Oh, yeah.
He's got mouths to feed, man.
Bro, no disrespect to Adam Sandler.
He was groundbreaking.
Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, you know what I'm saying?
Killing it.
Yes, it's Adam Sandler, but in space.
Say, get out of here.
That's funny.
That's hilarious.
Worst advertising for a movie ever.
The only thing that could be worse is co-starring Anthony Mackie.
You know, and I'm just like, I can't watch it.
He's going to show up in that movie and ask us for you.
Stop it.
He is.
With Kevin Hart and The Rock.
Stop, bro.
Kevin Hart has that fucking new movie out that people are just trashing.
Is it Lift?
The one where he's trying to hijack an airplane?
If you like Money Heist, you're going to like, bro, Money Heist is amazing.
Money Heist is good.
Don't tell me everything that was built up in Money Heist to make it great.
You're saying this fucking hour 40 minute movie with Kevin Hart is equal to Money Heist?
Stop it.
I will fight people on the internet.
I got two more on here.
I put Skull Island on there.
I don't know if y'all watched it.
What's that on?
Skull Island is on Netflix.
It's King Kong on the island.
It was actually pretty good.
It was.
I was not going in with high hopes.
I came out on the other end with high hopes.
They got to give me a season two.
They got to.
Hopefully.
But
I mean, you get all kinds of kaiju that show up in this show.
It was great.
And then I got to hear Japanese Tales of the Macabre because that was... What's his name?
The Japanese horror guy.
Don't know.
Let me ask Google.
And they animated his books.
And it was pretty good.
It was okay.
Is it like an anthology?
It is an anthology.
Oh, bro, I know exactly what you're talking about.
Previous year, they did Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities, 2023.
The minute I typed it in, I know exactly what you're talking about.
Yeah, but it wasn't bad.
I mean, it wasn't great either.
If you want Junji Ito, read the book.
That's my take on it.
Got you.
But that's all I got for anime because like.
Now, animation, that that was pretty much where I'm at.
Obviously, you got, you know, JJK season two.
Yeah.
I think Chainsaw Man was earlier this year.
So Chainsaw Man on there because I did enjoy Chainsaw Man.
Yep.
So, I mean, you got that.
But we were just trying to hit on some of the things that I want to say flew under the radar because, you know.
I think they did.
I think Blue Eye Samurai deserved more than what it got.
Yeah.
Scott Pilgrim.
I mean, I'm just a fan.
I'm a Scott Pilgrim fan.
I appreciate you throwing it on the list, man.
You know that was my shit.
So let's do this.
Let's transition to video games.
2023 was a good year for video games, in my opinion.
And that may be because I finally broke down and bought a PS5.
I finally stepped up to the next-gen console.
I was walking through the BX, and they had it on sale.
They had the one terabyte with the disk drive.
I was like, I walked by it.
I stopped.
I backed up.
I was like, yeah, let me go ahead and get this shit.
It's like if I leave and I come back, this shit is not going to be here.
And I'm going to be sad.
Dude, there was like eight of them.
Yeah.
And I grabbed one.
I go to check out.
I saw a bunch of swimming coming.
And one of the guys I work with is right behind me with one, too.
He's like, couldn't pass it up, could you?
I was like, you neither, huh?
With our PS5s.
When I walked by, this was back in March of 23.
It was like when it was bundled with God of Valhalla.
I'm just like, I'll wait.
And then I was walking to the register and I seen like six senior airmen walking back towards electronics.
I'm like, they about to take all these hoes.
Let me go get one right now.
Cause I already know what they was doing.
Hey, the senior, senior mafia call went out.
Oh, yeah.
They sent that text.
They got PS5s at the BX.
Like, hey, hey, oh.
Let me get this shit.
You're sitting in the office and all of a sudden all the cell phones start going ding, ding, ding, ding.
You better run your ass over to the BX.
Something going on.
Yeah.
So, I mean...
Obviously, you have Boulder Skate on here.
That's the one everybody's talking about.
Let's save this for last.
Can we talk about Boulder Skate?
Let's save that one for last.
I'm going to give the other ones their love before Rob comes on.
Let's just jump straight into Spider-Man 2.
Because that's really what brought me back.
Well, not Spider-Man 2.
Diablo 4 is what brought me back into PlayStation.
Okay.
Diablo 4 was my first kind of...
delve into the diablo world um it was my first time since diablo 1 on pc oh damn yeah um i've always been a console baby i never had a computer made for gaming back then you didn't really have to have a console for that but uh well like my dad it was my dad's work computer so it's like we he wouldn't let us just upload stuff on there right enjoy so it was one of those yeah um but uh
I saw the hype it was getting.
I had a couple people in Arizona who was, like, when they were developing, they were telling me about it, telling me about it.
So when it came out, I was looking at, like, visually, it's a beautiful game.
The World of Sanctuary is very dark, very, like, bro, there's a lot of fucking bad shit going on out here.
Three days.
That's how long it took me to get into the server the first time.
Oh, you got it all out?
Huh?
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you've got it day one launch, like a lot of these games where you have to get on the server, bro, it crashes.
Even still now, when I go to get on, I have issues getting into the server.
Bro, I will tell you right now, I haven't really been on because I got it for Xbox.
So I've been playing Diablo on that.
Then I stepped away when Spider-Man 2 was like, October's coming, Spider-Man 2.
And I jumped on Spider-Man 2 and it's been a while since I looked at my Xbox.
I ain't gonna hold you.
I got on Spider-Man 2.
I was like, this is what gaming is about.
I got Spider-Man Day 1 edition.
I had it online.
Woke up.
It was downloaded.
Ready to go.
I was just like... I told my wife, I was like... I'm a horrible gamer.
You watched me play before, Willie.
I'm horrible.
That's still fun as hell.
It's the story.
You're playing that shit through, man.
I told my wife, I was like, hey, babe, October 20th is coming out.
Don't expect me to come to bed until about 2, 3 o'clock in the morning.
I start gaming at 8, and I'll be playing, and it'll be like, do this one mission.
You finish the mission, and it just teases you into what's happening next.
You're like, well, let me run this next one real quick.
Well, let me run this next one real quick.
And next thing you know, I'm looking, motherfucker, it's like 5 o'clock in the morning.
So I just put the controller down and fall asleep in the recliner downstairs.
I'm like, I'm not even trying to go upstairs.
People have other issues.
I ain't even trying to go up there because like, bro, let me tell you, when I go up there and the reason I'm going upstairs is late because I'm gaming.
Like, I get in the bed, and she'll, like, reach over and look at her phone and see, like, it's fucking 4.15 in the morning.
Oh, yeah.
And she, huh.
So you finally decided to come to bed.
I'm like, I don't want to hear all that.
Come on, man.
It's time for sleep.
You know I'm tired.
I've been gaming since 8 o'clock, and six hours later.
Black said it had him up like he's 23 again.
Bro.
It's bad.
Single-player story-driven games?
Get my ass, bro.
Let me get this one in.
Let me confess.
I haven't played Spider-Man 2 yet.
That's fine.
Have you played Spider-Man 1?
Yes.
Have you played Spider-Man Miles Morales?
No.
Oh, my God.
Dude.
When you get a chance.
I mean, it's free on the PlayStation Plus.
I don't know if you have that.
Right.
Yeah.
Give it a shot.
My son has my youngest one, Gerard, the second half of Comic Wars, as he has told me that if I don't play Miles Morales, he will disown me because he's like, listen, dad, you you're lame.
You're late.
You need to get on it.
And he's been playing Spider-Man 2 on his off days of work.
And he's told me, Dad, you're lame.
You're late.
You need to get on it.
Yeah, get on it, man.
It is.
There's some missions in there that will have you fucking throw in your controller.
Bro, the way they do Venom in Spider-Man 2.
I love it.
There's a lot of people that hate it because you're in the comics bullet.
When it comes to the world of comics and fiction, bro, take whatever artistic liberty you have and you just take that risk.
If the story slaps...
so it was also like issues with the video game in the comic book too right i will put that out there that's why they did it the way they did do it in this instance but it's still it worked at first i was like man i don't i don't know but then i was like you know what all right ad take care bro
It worked for me.
I love how fucking dangerous they made Kraven.
Because everybody was seeing the Kraven movie trailer.
He had me fucking pulling hair out.
This motherfucker.
People were seeing the movie trailers for Kraven like, this ain't it.
Legit, Kraven in the comics, he was a fucking issue.
Bro, and the game got him.
The game got him as an issue.
Yeah.
You're going to spend some time on Kramer, brother.
Okay.
You're going to spend some time on him.
Let me finish my first playthrough of BG3, and then I'll get on Spider-Man 2.
Your fourth playthrough?
My first.
My first.
I thought you already beat it.
No.
No.
Dude, I'm on that side.
You're lying because I'm going to download it for PlayStation this weekend and we're going to play.
Okay.
Let's do it.
I'll start over again because I've got... Hold on.
We're not there yet.
Stop dropping me in.
He said I would play... We talked about Spider-Man 2.
Listen up.
This is Star Wars Jedi Survivor.
I don't know if y'all played it.
I did.
This is one of the main reasons why I bought a PS5, to be fair.
And I enjoyed the shit out of it.
I'm assuming you played... I'm still playing it.
I love this.
I would like to see this be brought into the... There's a lot of Star Wars games.
I want to see Starkiller on the small screen, if not big screen.
I do.
That one's a touchy subject.
I want to see Starkiller.
I want to see... What's his name?
Cal?
Cal Kestis?
Cal Kestis.
I want to see him on there.
The biggest thing I want, and this is not like... They keep doing all this weird shit with Rey and shit.
I'm just like, can we get some Old Republic shit on here real quick, please?
We're about to.
Similar.
Something close to it anyway.
Can we get some Mallory?
You know what I'm saying?
Can we get some of that?
We're about to get to Acolyte, which is set before all that stuff happens.
That's in the original Empire of Thane.
That's all I'm asking.
Acolyte is being killed tight-lipped.
We don't really know anything about it yet.
So, we'll see what that brings us.
I got a feeling that one's going to change the scope.
Hopefully.
Yes.
But, uh,
Survivor was dope.
Obviously, I have it on console.
I heard the biggest complaint was the PC port was buggy.
People couldn't play it.
It was damn narrow playable.
And I'm sitting here with my Xbox fucking Series X like, sucks to suck.
I thought you guys were the master race over here.
What the fuck's happening with y'all?
You know what I'm saying?
It's been fixed on people.
They can stop complaining now.
Yeah.
But it pays for them now.
Let's hit BG3.
Because this motherfucking game, man.
Hold on.
There's one more that deserves talk before we get into BG3.
And that's Hogwarts.
Oh, yeah.
So let's talk about Hogwarts because I did share today.
Thank you, Rob.
Because Hogwarts was the top selling video game of 2023.
It beat out Modern Warfare 3.
And it's the first time since 2009 that a non-Cod or
Rockstar Game has been the top game of the year.
Bro.
Four key games.
What's the band game called?
What?
Where you play the drums and the guitar and shit.
Rock Band?
Huh?
Rock Band.
Rock Band was the last time.
So...
But that game was amazing.
I loved it.
I dabbled in Harry Potter stuff, but I got the game.
being able to just fly around and explore that world was a joy for me to do.
Learning the spells, being able to, you know, you get your house and figuring out what kind of magic you want to be, what kind of wizard you want to be.
I ain't gonna lie, Avra Kadabra, you know, that was in my spell book.
Like, it's a dark art.
I ain't tell nobody I had it.
You know, I was still out there trying to be, yeah, I'm gonna save the world, but I'll kill a motherfucker.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, don't fuck with me.
Like, I'll...
I dabbled in the dark arts.
I had a couple dark arts in my bag.
I ain't going to hold you.
But yeah, that just opened my eyes.
And like I was saying, when the Queens were doing their Wizarding World deep dive, to me, as this dabbling in the Wizarding World, the only schools I thought existed was Hogwarts and the other schools that came for the Goblet of Fire tournament, right?
The tri-series, yeah.
Yeah.
And then when we get there and old girl's like, oh, yeah, I went to the wizarding school that's in Africa.
I was like, oh, what?
Yeah.
There's schools and different content.
Like, what is and they're like, bro, the wizarding world is wide the fuck open.
So I'm just like, there is so much possibility.
Like, there has to be a sequel game or like some downloadable content or something to this game.
The game is amazing to play.
I loved it.
I enjoyed every minute of playing it.
You played it, Rob?
Oh, I know you played it.
Yes.
My first playthrough.
Yo, my first playthrough, I played a goody-goody.
I did not pick any of the unforgivable curses.
What house were you in?
I just didn't.
Hufflepuff.
And you answered honestly to the questions?
Yes.
I am a Hufflepuff.
Jen, you got another badger over here.
You got another badge.
But it was crazy because still to this day, every now and then, I will just put the game, I'll turn the game on and just fly.
All I'm doing is flying around.
Fighting random people.
Yeah, I'm just flying around.
It's relaxing, but the lore that they go into is
in the depth that they go into with this game is amazing.
It is, I mean, it touches.
Yes.
And it was very well done.
I just loved everything about this game.
I found out I'm not the best.
Yeah.
I'm not the best duelist.
I found that out.
But, you know, I could do pretty good.
You know, I was all right.
But it's everything else that ties that game together that really does a great service to the Harry Potter world, which I'm a Potterhead.
I get, yes, I'm low-key a real Potterhead.
Say what?
It's legal in my state.
In the wizarding world.
But it's one of those things that I took a lot of joy in playing that game.
Yeah.
I got to check it out.
It's one of those where I keep hoping I'll turn on the PlayStation and I immediately go to the game store.
Keep checking the store.
I'm sure it'll be on a discount soon, man.
It'll be about to be a year since it's been out.
Black.
I remember Black saying, these movies are ridiculous.
Once you watch... The greatest thing about the movies is she created them and wrote them to age with her audience.
So people that are saying, I can't get into the Sorcerer's Stone, which is the first one, it's because it was made for kids around Harry's age.
But by the time you get to the Deathly Hallows, and it's so deep.
It was tough watches until Prisoner of Azkaban.
Once I saw that PG-13 rating, I was like, let me see what it is.
Oh, shit.
Prisoner of Azkaban is probably one of my favorite Harry Potter movies.
The minute Harry Potter with the PG-13, I was like, hey, so we about to check this Harry Potter movie out?
Hats off to the queens for delving into the Potter universe.
Yes, the deep dive.
But I'll tell you, it's one of those things that a character, and it's not often that this happens, but a character that I thoroughly reviled
became probably one of my favorite, most favorite literary characters ever.
And that was Severus Snape.
Yes.
You talk about character art.
That circle.
Well, not just the character arc, because when you've realized that and I know we're going off here, but just this little quick from the moment he met Harry.
He was dropping dimes.
Like he said that he asked him, do you know what you get when such and such, such and such happens?
When you translate that into Latin, what he was saying, the flower that he mentioned was a type of lily.
Lily was Harry's mother.
and the way that it happens when you pour absinthe on it or wormwood it's a state of remorse he was in the first moment he met harry he told him i deeply regret your mother's death bro what that's some deep right there my mom what dude before she met his dad yeah and when he went when he got my dad
Oh, he hated his dad.
And when he did his, whatchamacallit, and it was the stag, and Dumbledore said, he said, oh, Severus still?
And he goes, always.
Bruh.
The depth of his, and then when he was dying and he looked at Harry and he says, you have your mother's eyes.
Dude, what?
If that didn't put a tear in your eye when he said that shit, you ain't human.
Yeah.
Dude, the eyes you most love set in the face of a guy that you absolutely hate.
Fuck out of here.
I'd beat Harry's ass too.
He'll come back.
Mortal Kombat 1 before we roll into Baldar's Gate when Rob comes back from his break.
Are you a fighting game dude?
I'm a Mortal Kombat guy.
I love the story that plays out in Mortal Kombat in story mode.
Yeah.
But that's basically it.
I don't get on there and fight other people.
I just like the story mode of Mortal Kombat.
Yeah, I'm not a big online player when it comes to fighting games because I know there's people who take that shit to a level that I will never get up.
The motherfuckers that go to EVO championships and shit and compete for... Those dudes playing in Tekken tournaments for half a million dollar purses.
And I mean, if I'm trying to get a half, you know, like I put some time into the practice, too.
But I mean, when I'm coming from a nine to five and sit down and be like, let me just jump.
Oh, no.
All right.
Fucking certainly.
I've got the Mortal Kombat, the last edition.
So we're at GameStop.
Yeah.
And I was like, hey, you getting it was day two drop.
So is that like the day after it dropped?
I was like, hey, do you have any more of those day one editions?
And the guy was like, hang on.
I got you.
He opens up the counter and hands me the day one edition of Mortal Kombat 1.
It was like, there you go.
I'm like, dude, are you serious?
He's like, yeah.
So he's like, I ordered the Deluxe Edition.
He downloaded it, but he also pre-ordered it through GameStop.
So he literally sold me his copy of the day one edition.
So that's how I ended up with Mortal Kombat 1 day one.
Nice.
I loved it.
I loved the story mode.
But that's just me, but now that Gibbs is back, let's roll.
Sorry about that.
D3.
Man, you might drop this so hard it wasn't even funny.
I should have beat Harry's ass.
Like, literally, we were silent for a second.
Harry, watch out.
Harry, watch out.
I wanted to go get Harry.
Harry, he coming.
You got a flip-flop.
You in trouble, boy.
Let's hit that BG3.
All right.
Talk to us about Baldur's Gate, boy.
OK.
Baldur's Gate 3 is probably one of the greatest RPG games that I've ever played.
And I go back past Zelda, before Zelda, all of that stuff.
It is just so immense.
The only way that you can power through this game, and I mean power through it, if you were blowing through this game, you were cheating and you have help.
You were looking at everything that's online and finding out answers because, hot damn, that game has so much to it.
Literally.
Every twist, every turn, everything you do, everything you touch will fuck your party mode the fuck up.
It is, I mean, from characters, the character creation.
Let's start there.
Talking about that rated R character creation?
Look, look, look.
That would have been nice on that one.
Sorry about that.
I was trying to tell, Mac was like, hey, you can do this?
And then he goes, how do you?
Whoa, hold on.
That was hilarious.
Because, you know, the character creation would be like,
genitals i'm just like bro like i'm wearing i'm wearing pants i can't like what's the difference between shit here go rob there's an option for you to remove clothes like i don't see that i don't and then i scroll down it's like remove clothing and then it was like bloop and then it was just a fucking big old dick
with gray pubes on the screen.
I was like, oh, shit.
Why you ain't tell me?
What do you think is going to happen when you remove clothes?
I'm building my character.
My daughter walks in and there's a big old dong on the TV.
I'm trying to get... She's like, dad, I'm a teenager.
I don't know.
I'm trying to get it fucking atomically correct to, you know, the guy.
To the guy!
No, I'm asking now.
I'm asking you, Rob.
Yeah.
Why is that even an option?
Like, don't they have romantic scenes?
Yes, and there are romantic scenes where... P3 is a sophomore porno, dude.
It has...
No, they don't show the... I'm going to tell you this.
I'm going to tell you this.
I hooked up with Karlak, the tiefling barbarian chick.
Well, first of all, fuck both of y'all.
Because when I tell you that
That story right there, her part of that story, I've got to see that through the end.
So that's my boo thing in the game, right?
You wasn't trying to talk to anybody else?
I was trying to talk to... Who else was you trying to holler at?
Man, I was going to try to holler at all of them.
You got to.
Spit that game.
But I'm gonna tell you, for my first playthrough, I'm being the goody-goody guy, right?
You know, I'm not doing bad shit, you know?
They call me Dirt Diggler for a reason.
But when I heard her backstory and started talking to her, I was like, okay, this is my character's boo.
Okay, I'm gonna see this through.
And right now, I don't think we're going to have a good ending.
Like I said, I haven't finished my first playthrough yet, but I just don't think that that romance is going to be one that's going to have a happy ending.
But yeah, there was a romantic scene where, let's just say, I don't think in my real life I've ever been manhandled like that before.
I'm sure you have.
You just refuse to remember that part of it.
No.
I will tell you if I was banned.
Rob, you were for the streets in Baldur's Gate.
I was trying to be for the streets, but then after talking with her, I picked one and I hooked up with her.
There you go.
Now you monogamous.
Now I'm monogamous.
That's my boo time.
She changed you.
Okay.
Good for her.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Good for her.
So I never made it to that level with any of the others.
I was putting in work and I was trying to tiptoe the line between the gift Yankee and the priest girl.
What did you say?
Said the friend zone.
No, I put them in a friend zone.
Oh, you you do the friend zoning.
Yes, I do the friend zoning.
You know, I'm the pimp.
You don't put baby in the corner.
I'm going to tell you this too for you guys that are playing through.
Have fun and watch out because some shit's going to grab you.
You're going to be like, wait, hold on.
Hold on.
Wait, how did I get to this section?
Bro, I'm going to just tell you right now.
There was one room when I was in the, I guess the sarcophagus.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
The booby trap room?
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you walk in and be like, oh, there's grease over here.
You're like, what the fuck?
But my dude, since I got a rogue, it was just like, you know, hey, there's some traps over here.
Like, watch out.
You know, you rolled.
You noticed a trap.
But then there was somewhere it was just like you rolled and you didn't.
You know, and I'm just like, so now I'm like on my P's and Q's.
I'm looking around like, what the fuck going on out here?
It is... You go to the tomb and you hit the thing and you're just like, all right, I collect this shit.
And then something else triggers as you're leaving.
And that whole room... Everything you do, everything you touch.
Bro.
Everything.
For those listening, for those watching, quick save is your friend in Baldur's Gate 3.
Quick save.
Always save.
If you were not saving every five minutes, you were...
You were wrong.
Bro, I start a conversation, quicksave.
I select one option, quicksave.
I select another option, quicksave.
Like, you ain't about to fuck me up in this game.
That's why I'm going to create a new one.
My PlayStation said, you are running out of space.
I saved so much.
My first story is so fucked up because I made so many bad decisions in the beginning.
Within the first 20 minutes, I was like, man, I done fucked up on this.
The best thing about that game is even if you fucked up in the beginning and you have mangled stuff, you can keep playing and the game will go through.
Though they affect the story, you just have to live with your fucking consequences.
Like, I've talked to people that never picked up The Wizard, that never got The Wizard from the initial.
And I was like, how the fuck are you in Act 2 and you never got The Wizard?
What the hell?
And so that whole story doesn't exist for him.
Yeah.
They're just playing through, or maybe they're just... You just gotta take the time to just... You bring up the map, look at the areas you haven't explored, be like, let me go look over here real quick.
Let me go erase the black clouds, the cover and everything, and hope I don't step into something that's gonna whoop my ass.
Quick save, bro.
The story in itself delves into a lot of the lore and the mechanics...
that makes Dungeons & Dragons great.
And I'm in Act 3.
I'm close to the end.
And some of the reachbacks to the first two games, Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2, are amazing.
I love the reachback to them.
But you don't have to have played the other games to get any level of understanding.
Which is good, because I ain't going back to play them.
No.
I hit Rob up.
I'm like, bro, I'm flying on this fucking seashell fucking octopus, people.
Like, what's the backstory?
I was like, yo, what the fuck is happening?
Like, bro, we went from 0 to 100 real fucking fast.
I'm just like, what's happening right now, bro?
It was like 1 o'clock in the morning, and I was like, damn, let me hit Rob up real quick.
And I was like, fuck, it's 1 o'clock in the morning.
Let me Google this shit real quick.
Man, dude.
I need to play the other games to understand what the fuck is going on right now.
It's a little throwback.
You'll be fine.
Then the plane is crashing, right?
The octopus dude looking at me like, why you do this to my fucking plane, bro?
And I'm just like, what?
And then we fall and then we stop and levitate.
I'm just like, I feel like I need backstory, but I'm going to just keep running with it and we'll see what happens.
Oh, yeah.
There's a whole list.
Let's see what this plays out to.
I love how it goes through when you're talking to the different characters that are out there and you see the prejudices that they have.
Like the druids in that village really don't like the tieflings.
And the Tieflings, well, I'm not going to spoil anything for anybody that's out there, but they've really had a bad time.
Yeah.
And then you've got all the other stuff.
And both of you guys are still early in the game.
So it's a lot of things that are going to happen and it's going to come at you.
This is really probably... I love Hogwarts.
And I've heard so much great shit about Spider-Man 2.
But for me, Baldur's Gate 3 is the best game because...
If I go through... I did something in between Act 1 and Act 2.
I totally changed my main character's class.
There's a way in which you can do that.
And that's neither here nor there.
Talk about old buddy in the coffin that you wake up and take him back to your camp?
Yeah.
And so you talk to him and he's...
There's some lore about him, too.
But he'll help you, you know, if you want to redo stuff or any of that stuff.
So my original guy, well, my guy who's now he originally when I started was just a fighter, you know, and he was a pretty kick ass fighter.
But I had to get the Yankee girl with me.
She's a fighter.
And I was like, oh, OK.
So I switched them to a monk.
Totally changes the story for me and how I play the game and how I have to do everything because it changed my party dynamic.
So it was one of those things that just those different things is out there.
And the path that I chose for my monk, my specialization was,
I played around with it a little bit, too, and chose one of the others.
And I was a goddamn airbender, you know.
I was like the fucking avatar out in this motherfucker.
But I changed it back because I really liked what I was doing.
Right.
Hang on.
So there's... Copy right there.
Oh, copy.
There's so much with that that it's...
It's just one of those things.
I love everything about it.
And yeah.
I'm enjoying it.
Like I said, I'm on, like, literal day three, like, doing the long rest.
You know what I'm saying?
Right.
Get out the sarcophagus.
I found an old buddy that can do all the reclass and this stuff, so I'm about to move forward.
I'm just trying to find time to sit down to actually enjoy and play for, like, longer than a couple hours.
Because I want to do a whole lot.
Like I said, I'm the dude, when I bring up the map, I'm just like, ooh, what's over here?
You know?
And I just see what just happens, right?
I'm also a quick save dude, where I will quick save, run over somewhere, and if I get jumped, I go back and quick save, and I go to sneak mode, and I plot my people and plot them all over the place.
I'm the one that does the jumping.
I do not get jumped.
I got jumped once and it threw me all the way off.
People were getting fucked up.
I was struggling.
I'm just like, I can't do this no more.
Quick saving is key.
depending on what... And I got it on the balanced one, the middle difficulty.
I don't have it on the ridiculous one.
No.
I saw somebody on YouTube do that, and I'm just like, that does not look like it's enjoyable at all.
No.
It did not look fun.
I think on my third one...
On my third or fourth playthrough, and I'm already planning three or four playthroughs with this.
I think that I will try that whatever it's called, the Iron Man, the hardest one where your people die and they're just dead.
They don't revive.
They don't revive.
They don't do all that stuff.
Yes.
That's just ridiculous.
You...
If you don't resurrect them, then they die.
Because you can still, like in Dungeons & Dragons, you can resurrect people.
But it is really real.
I played a game like that once.
I used to play XCOM, XCOM 2.
And they have an Iron Man challenge where your guys die.
And this is a game where you literally scrap to build the guy up.
And then he dies, and the rest of your guys suck.
So, yeah, no, I'm not looking forward to that.
But BG3, that's going to be probably my swan song for that one until they come out with the DLC.
Another thing to note is they only let you go to level 12.
Really?
Yes.
There's a reason for that, though.
because they level capped it at level 12 because the wizard starting at level 12 starts to become... OP?
Oh, he's seriously OP.
The spells and stuff that you get at level 12 are just ridiculous.
And they, they, you don't have, they have a, if you're a wizard, you have a lot of spells that you can choose from, but even then they've kind of only put so many that are in there.
Um,
when you start going above level 12, you, you start really facing to where you can, uh, like say if you have a level 16 wizard and all your other people up there too, you can pretty much start facing those God level deities and, and characters.
And yeah, you know, this, it will break the game.
Basically.
I will say, um,
because Xbox has the Series X and Series S, and PlayStation got it first because they just have the PS5.
The thing with Microsoft, they were trying to make it available for both the S and the X, but the developers for Baldur's Gate 3 is just like, bro, we're not going to take shit out our game.
We're not going to skimp on anything to make this able to play on the lesser power Xbox Series S. So at that point,
The powers that be at Xbox was like, fuck it, it'll just be a Series X game.
Sorry for the people on Series S. You know, poor people problems, I guess.
And I appreciate that, because that was the fucked up part with Cyberpunk, is they were just trying to make it available for everything, and it came on Series S, and people were just like, bro, this shit is trash.
Why are you putting...
My whole thing is Microsoft should have just been like, look, this is our next thing.
They shouldn't have did this two-console thing.
Yeah, I didn't like that.
Yeah.
That's why I got a PS5 right now.
Yeah.
So I'm glad because, like, the possibility... I don't think any two playthroughs will be the same.
Nope.
Like, the amount of...
Customization for characters, because with Diablo, you get a rogue, you either do a melee rogue or a distance rogue, like a penetrating shot, like a ranged rogue.
With Baldur's Gate, you get the rogue.
There's so many different other... Because you get a rogue, but it could be an elf.
It could be a human.
It could be a fucking tiefling.
It could be so many other different things.
And it also has a unique ability.
Yes.
So that on top of...
You don't have to find everybody in order to play through.
You can go straight through.
You can take your time and take as long as you want to go through.
The size of this game, which is why I'm glad they didn't skip back and go to Microsoft and be like, okay, we'll do X, Y, and Z. You either take this whole game or you don't have it on your system.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Calm down.
We'll end this section with this.
Yes.
Recently, I think it was the guys who do Assassin's Creed.
They were like, oh, you might as well just get used to not owning your games.
We're going subscription service.
Who's that?
Ubisoft?
Ubisoft.
And the lead dev over at the guys who made BG3 was like,
dog.
You fucking up.
We ain't never going to do that.
You buy our shit.
It's yours.
Phil hit him up.
It was just like... What they wanted to do was on the Game Awards, be like, Baldur's Gate is on Game Pass.
So they were trying to purchase the rights to put it on Game Pass, and Baldur's Gate was just like, nah, bro.
As much as we put into this game, this is a $70 game.
You paying $70 fucking dollars.
And it's worth every dollar.
It's worth it, man.
It is definitely worth it.
We may not see another Baldur's Gate game in years.
And if we do, it has to be done by Larian.
These guys have set the benchmark for turn-based RPGs, period.
The story is...
The story is just so top-notch, too.
I think I've only found maybe one or two small hints that I didn't like in the story so far that I was like, eh.
But other than that, it is an epic video game.
Without a doubt.
With that, though, it is epic.
Let's roll into something else pretty fucking epic.
And something that I really like.
Comic books.
Yes.
Okay.
Talk to us, Jeff.
We know you do.
I got back into comic books in late 2021, I think.
And it's been an uphill climb.
Like...
And I've never been much of a DC Marvel guy, although there were some stories that came out of 2023 that were phenomenal from DC and Marvel.
Both of them related to zombies.
I won't get into them too much, but I wanted to really focus on some stuff that people may not put attention on because it's not mainstream.
Right.
So with that, my first one I have on here is Worldtree.
It's from Image Comics, and it's based around the dark web.
But not the dark web.
What's behind the dark web?
The dark web.
It's been a good series so far.
The first compendium should come out soon.
Highly, highly recommend.
Do a Powerbomb is another one from Image Comets, I believe.
And it's exactly what it is.
It's based about a Rasslin family.
A luchador family.
For all the wrestling fans out there.
8 Billion Genies.
I'm not really following this one, but I've heard nothing but great things about it.
Void Rivals was one that they used to introduce Transformers.
They did crossovers with Spawn.
And also so did Killadelphia.
Killadelphia is another one that I would highly recommend.
2022, we got The Last Ronin.
which I showed y'all the book.
Then 2023 gave us the Lost Years, which is what happened in between events that happened in The Last Ronin.
2024 is going to give us the next generation of The Last Ronin, and it's going to be the new Turtles, which is going to be pretty dope.
Then we got Star Wars Dark Droids has been phenomenal.
Come out in 2023.
Vader is a vicious motherfucker in this comic book.
Vicious.
I'll put it like this.
Vader sucked in another AI.
I think it was artificial intelligence that was trying to take over human bodies.
And Vader was like, you want to come into here?
You stuck with me, dude.
This droid's conscious within his own body with the force.
It's fucking nuts.
And it's fantastic.
And then we got our homeboy, Drew Moss, who brought us Gargoyles Dark Ages.
He was the lead artist on that.
That's been a good one.
I'm not going to lie.
Dynamite Comets has been a phenomenal year with everything they've done from Darkwing Duck, Gargoyles,
They got Disney villains rocking right now, so if you're a big fan of Disney villains, they got a whole comic book line for them.
What's another one they're doing right now?
Ah, shit.
What's the publisher?
Dynamite Comets.
Hit them up.
Dynamite?
Yep, Dynamite.
Just like a regular stick of dynamite.
Boom goes the dynamite.
And they are doing big things.
Big.
2023, to me, they come out the door swinging and they haven't stopped.
And then Transformers came out at the end of 2023 under Skybound and Image as well as G.I.
Joe.
Which they're going to be in a combined universe eventually.
They're going to be coming together as you've seen at the end of what was it?
Beast Wars.
Beast Wars, yes, thank you.
And then, so another one, if you're a fan of John Constantine and stuff like that, there's a book out called Damn Them All.
It's John Constantine-esque and it's phenomenal.
Highly recommend.
And then Ghost Rider had three iterations in 2023 from Danny Ketch to the original
to the one that's in outer space.
I can't remember his name.
There's one other one, too.
There's Danny.
There's Johnny Blaze.
There's the one that's in outer space.
I think that there's yet one more Spirit of Vengeance.
There is one more.
The three primaries got big runs in 2023.
We also got new editions of Aliens from Marvel, new editions of Predator in Marvel.
The stories, it started out good, but I recently stopped it because the story was just getting out of hand.
It took a left turn somewhere, and it just couldn't correct itself.
So I've recently stopped that one.
However, in saying that, Predator versus Wolverine.
Outstanding.
I saw a cover.
To Predator Wolverine?
Yes.
Phenomenal.
It's one of those things where I love comics because any kind of mashup can happen.
You know, out of left field and you're just like... Here's another one for you.
I didn't list it.
I should have.
Justice League versus Godzilla versus Kong.
It's currently out right now.
And it is dope as hell.
No lie.
Dude, they had covers that had a sound disc in them.
You push the button on the cover and it sounded like King Kong.
And the Godzilla version sounded like Godzilla.
Wow.
Okay.
I've ever seen on a comic book.
Had to buy on both.
Okay.
That's a collector's item.
Dude.
That's a collector's item right there.
I was like, what the fuck?
Because it came in a cellophane bag.
I was like, what the fuck?
I'm like, what the hell is this?
And Sky over at Atomic Comets was like, dude, it's a sound disc.
You push it and it sounds like the character.
I'm like, man.
Let me go ahead and get that.
I've never seen that before.
That's what's up.
That's all I got for comic books.
There's tons more.
Spawn got spinoffs.
Spawn has more spinoffs coming in 2024 with Rat City and a couple of others.
Rat City is going to be a first ever female written, female drawn, Spawn spinoff.
That's going to be pretty dope.
That's all I got for comic books.
Y'all got anything for comic books?
nah like for me you know i'm i'm i'm the turtles dude man so like um when they when they came up they're like bro lash ronan i was like i gotta get in because i mean you just think about something as iconic as the turtles who are always a group of four then there's one left because three died and
When you find out who the last Ronan is, it's the last hurdle that you think it would be.
You know what I'm saying?
You're just like, oh, no, no.
All of them, I thought.
Michelangelo.
Because he's the youngest.
He's the most playful.
He doesn't take shit seriously.
He's the battle nexus champion.
Bro, so that's what I'm saying.
You see if you watch the shows and you follow him since the 80s, like he's Michelangelo is a party dude.
You're just like, he don't take shit seriously.
Like to me, when they first announced Lashman, when I was like, it's Raph.
I thought it was Leo.
It's like either Leo or Raph.
Either of those two.
The original concept art, which I have in my
Was it Michelangelo?
No.
The original concept art, when they approached the artist to do a concept for The Last Ronin, there's the primary turtle in the middle, but you don't see anything.
You don't see his face.
You don't see the color of his bandana.
That's what I'm saying.
And then you see the other four turtles.
There's four more turtles, so you're like, what the hell?
And when I was talking to the artist who... One of the artists that represents the artist that...
did the original cover for this.
So he was like, yeah, so when they approached us, they were like, we don't want you to know who it is, but make us a concept art piece.
Wow.
And it's a phenomenal piece of art.
I got a... When it came out...
Eric Henson who did one of the covers was at Surprise Comics literally across the street from my house in Arizona and I had him sign I don't know the dimensions of it I'll be right back the thing about it it's just black and white and the only color that shows is like the blood on the sword of the last Ronin Turtle so you don't know who it is so you go and you read the comic and you're just like
All right, then.
Yeah.
Mikey, let's see what you got, my boy.
Yeah.
You got the quad on your back now.
And throughout the comics, there are breaks where, like, he has delusions or, like, just his brother's talking to him and he's talking.
You know what I'm saying?
It's heavy.
And me as a Turtle fan, bro, it just –
It was kind of hard reading it because I'm just like, man, dude, I can't imagine.
And they show the fights that Raph got in with Karai and all that other stuff that ended up with him passing.
It's just like, man, they was getting my boys like this?
Like, come on, man.
Look, if they would have had him going out any other way than fighting against Karai or... Talking about Raph?
Yes.
Yeah.
Because Karai...
Karai gets little to no love and not nearly the respect that she deserves.
Facts.
So I was – because I was like, okay, how the hell are they going to take out Wrath, right?
I was just waiting for that.
And I kind of – when I read that, I was – I nodded my head.
Uh-huh.
Took a little shot and said.
Take a little shot.
Because Ralph Madu, you know.
Yeah.
That's one of those that, yeah, it got me in a place, you know.
Right.
I'll tell you another thing that got me is, uh, you know, when April picks him up, takes it, well, am I, am I fucking this shit up for people who haven't read the comics?
But like when you see April and you hear about the shit April went through, you're just like, y'all motherfuckers got it rough in this moment.
Like fuck.
So the next iteration.
of uh the last ronin yeah i forgot what the name of it's going to be but it's april and casey's daughter daughter who has basically become the new april and then i think it's donatello's kids who are the nest iterations i think of the ninja turtles if i'm not mistaken i haven't researched a whole lot into it but i think from a comic book perspective donatello
You're the only one that had kids.
The last Ronin has me wanting to just start collecting the Turtles comics again.
Yeah.
My love for... People don't understand.
1989 Ninja Turtles, me and my older brother, we were acting like... I'm Leonardo and you're Raphael and we would act out the scenes.
The whole show.
You're my little brother, man.
And my mom is sitting there like, would y'all just sit down somewhere?
Stop acting like that.
That was the phrase.
Stop acting like the TV.
She's like, just sit down.
You ain't got to repeat the TV.
The TV got volume.
Sit down.
And I'm just like, bro, me and my brother was like turtle heads.
Like the arcade came out.
Oh, yeah.
We had paper routes all the quarters winning that motherfucking machine.
We beat it one time.
We came back the next weekend.
My mom was just like, why y'all beat this already?
I'm like,
Don't matter.
We gotta go again.
What are you talking about?
It's Ninja Turtles.
What do you want us to play?
It's the hardest video game.
Yeah, really though.
That's what quarter munchers is, quarter munchers.
You put a quarter in there, they give you one life in this life bar, and a foot soldier punch you, two lines is leaving.
You just like, God damn.
I need some pizza!
I need some pizza!
And one person be on the screen, and motherfucker, you had two people on the screen, like, who needs it more?
And the motherfucker with more life accidentally get it, bro.
Oh, you want to fight.
You want to fight.
Because you're looking at him going...
but yeah man um i i jeff we still got to hit up atomic comics uh so i can get done already brother so i can get my hardcover and uh and start my my turtle collection i'm not gonna like kovid saved the comic books it did kovid gave a lot games and the card games
COVID did... It was horrible.
Don't get me wrong.
COVID was like the worst fucking thing you can think of.
But it saved the comic book industry.
It turned it back into this billion dollar industry again.
Yeah.
Fucking sucked.
I hate it being stuck at home.
But it completely transformed comic books.
That's good, man.
Props to COVID for that.
I saw a video somebody was complaining about
how he hates how nerd culture has now become mainstream.
So dude was pretty much gatekeeping.
He was like, man, it sucks because they weren't there when you got teased for it and it was hard to get.
You had to search to get this stuff, and now it's just easily accessible everywhere.
And a part of me kind of understood it, but at the same time, if I was in that struggle to where it was hard to get...
the stuff that i was trying to get after or people were giving me a hard time for being after it but now everybody likes like wouldn't that be the world you want to live in it is world it it is here's what's great about that take um take action figures for instance todd mcfarland meets the dc universe stuff
I've seen like so many people, like they'll be at Target and you'll see them posting in the Todd McFarlane toy Facebook page like, hey, my Target has like 15 of these figures.
Does anybody need one?
And people are like, oh, yeah.
Hey, watch your cash out real quick.
Let me get that for you.
Let me send out.
And these people will legit get figures for other people and actually send it to them.
They're not trying to rob them.
They're just trying to help a bro out, get a figure that they need.
That's legit.
And you don't see that very often.
Most people are like, oh, yeah, make 25 bucks, man.
I got that.
Yeah.
And then you don't see that shit show up.
So, yeah, there's some positivity there.
But don't gatekeep the fucking culture.
Like, who the fuck do you think you are?
Well, that's because they, you know, that's kind of like a...
They're turning nerd culture into bloods and crips.
They're like, we died for this shit.
I had homies who died for this shit.
It's real shit.
Nerds versus geeks.
I understand what they mean.
Because we didn't before.
Yes.
You think 10 years ago we would have a D&D movie?
Yes, we did.
It was a long time ago and it was not good, bro.
It sucked.
Are you talking about that Vin Diesel movie?
No.
It was back in the 80s, bro.
I remember it was done.
No, it wasn't in the 80s.
It was in the early 2000s.
What was it?
It was called Dungeons and Dragons.
Oh, I've never seen it.
Oh, with Marlon Wayans.
With Marlon Wayans.
Oh, fuck.
No, I did see that.
There was one in the 80s, though.
I remember.
I don't know if it was Dungeons and Dragons or was it like Gauntlet?
Let me search.
I didn't realize that was like the same thing.
No, it was legit Dungeons and Dragons.
It had Marlon Wayans in it.
No, I've seen it.
I went to the theater and seen it.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, I know.
The dedication of youth.
Another?
Bro, what are you doing?
Are you going to sleep?
Are you going to go to sleep?
What are you doing?
No.
My wife is the best.
If you just make it, then we're going to go back to Starbucks.
You want some more Starbucks?
Look, I don't know.
She's, you're the best!
No shit.
Every time she enters the room, that shit automatically play.
But, uh...
It came out, and it didn't do well.
And it set the fantasy genre for movies back down.
Now, in the 80s, they had several D&D-esque movies, but they never had one that was D&D.
Yeah.
The one that you might be thinking of was the Tom Hanks one, Mazes and Monsters.
Yeah.
I just brought it up.
It's based off of a D&D.
It's actually based off of a true story, which is really kind of crazy.
But yeah, and that was during the whole big early rise of the D&D is for devils and Satan and all that stuff.
But the Marlon Wayans D&D movie, and he wasn't even the lead, but he played snails.
Yeah, bro.
There were some aspects of that that really tapped into with D&D, some of the mechanics of D&D, but it sucked.
I mean, it was horrible, and it was bad.
And we didn't get another movie, too.
Jeremy Irons was in it.
I'm just like, man, he just wasted fucking.
Yes.
He just wasted Jeremy Irons in this bitch.
Yes.
And it set us back.
It set us back.
Yeah.
And it set us back.
Listen, I felt that.
And I was like, God, we'll never get another D&D movie again.
Not a mainstream because they had several part twos and threes to that movie series that one of them was good.
It was decent, but they were just, my God, and I hated it.
Nerd culture for what we do and who we are.
And I say geek culture to encompass everything because nerds are good with math.
I'm a geek.
I can't stand math.
But one of those things of it is...
growing up with it back then and seeing that i understand where he's coming from because you know we you know a lot of us was underground with that you know that's why i like stranger things they actually showed that was my childhood in every step of the way
you know going through that and then you know they're playing dozen dragons and one of the greatest scenes that i had you know watching that show was them fighting uh vecna and all that stuff but we were underground and we weren't liked you know people picked us i was a black kid playing dozens of dragons in the 80s double whammy
Exactly.
The thugs and gangsters that lived around my neighborhood, they'd be like, what y'all doing in there?
They'd be like, nothing.
Hiding this shit.
Put your dice away.
Put your dice away.
Pulling the big ass dice?
Yeah, you get your ass beat for being weird.
Stop playing that kind of shit.
But it's one of those things.
So I understand what he means, you know, by, you know, he hates that it's cool for everybody.
Where were you guys when it wasn't cool in the end thing?
But again, like you, Mac.
Yeah.
And Jeff is where we always wanted the world to be.
You know, we like, hey, y'all need to come over and see how dope this shit is.
Yep.
You know, this shit is dope.
You know, we it's great.
It's cool.
Come join us.
I mean, even if it's not your bag, like, don't shit on it.
Don't shit on it.
Yeah.
And I think that that's where we're at is, like, not only is it popular now, but now it's acceptable.
Like, you see grown people playing fucking a Yu-Gi-Oh or Magic the Gathering.
Dude, you see Henry Cavill playing a fucking Warhammer.
Yes.
That's ridiculous.
Superman, he's a fucking nerd.
Good luck, dude.
Right.
And that's just it.
You're seeing a lot of stars playing it and everybody's like, oh, that's cool.
One of my favorite YouTube channels is what's his name?
He was the werewolf in Joe Magliana.
Yeah.
Magliana.
Celebrity D&D games.
are like phenomenal if you look it up on youtube we're talking the big show um see who else man it's like who's who with celebrities are in his basement playing dnd in his dnd layer like his entire basement is dnd layer yeah with full up sets and everything like it is ridiculous
And this dude was married to Sofia Vergara.
She talks so much trash about it.
She's like, he's a big nerd.
Hey, it is what it is.
He's smashing.
He was smashing.
You bringing him sandwiches in the basement while he playing D&D with the homies.
He a nerd, but you letting him smash.
You getting that nerd.
What was funny is when I was at Shaw, there was one of my airmen, he was getting picked on because he was talking openly about Dungeons and Dragons and all this stuff.
And they were like, they were giving him what for?
I mean, just letting them have it.
And he goes, y'all don't pick on Sergeant Gibbons.
Sergeant Gibbons is the biggest nerd I know.
And I said, yeah, but I'll beat the ass.
He's sitting up there like, he's like, well, that's true.
And they're like, yeah, we ain't gonna fuck with Simon Gibbons.
But it's one of those things.
I love the way that it's come full circle.
Yeah.
You know.
That's a whole other show.
We could do a whole show on that shit.
We sure can.
And I think we will later.
Rise of the nerds.
Rise of the geek.
I'll throw the link of that video that I saw in the group and, you know, we'll discuss.
But I just thought it was weird.
This dude was just like, nah, it's not cool.
Because y'all weren't, you know, you weren't in the gym shooting with me.
You wasn't there when shit was tough for us.
And now everybody just want to jump in on it like,
I think that's what you want, right?
It is.
You want this culture to be more accessible and more accepting because now your community of people you can talk to and interact with has grown.
You know, it's not a secret society anymore.
But that's neither here nor there.
Like Jeff said, we'll talk about it later.
Mack, what you got coming up, man?
Tomorrow, we got episode 126 of The Smoke Pit.
And ladies and gentlemen, the dynamic duo will be reunited.
My partner, Black.
It feels so good.
That's all I got on it.
He hit that hard ass snap.
I was waiting for you.
I was supposed to take over.
Then bread like a king made his coming.
Kaylee is back and we'll be back at it with Smoke Pit episode 126 tomorrow.
That'll be on Patreon and then it'll be released everywhere Monday.
So if you're not a Patreon member, time to sign up.
If not, catch us Monday.
Monday evening, 8 Eastern.
Make it make sense.
The DFPN Patreon exclusive will get its first episode of 2024.
It's a rebranding of the I Said What I Said.
So stay tuned for that.
And then, of course, I think while we were doing our podcast, episode 61 of No Gimmicks.
Just dropped.
Well, the newest episode of No Game Makes No Shit.
So check that out wherever you get your podcast at.
Outside of that, that's all I got.
What's the future looking like for USD and Jeff?
I will be back next week.
I don't know what day yet.
I don't know with who yet.
But I am probably three quarters of the way through on a script for Echo.
So we're going to come back with some echo action.
And we're going to hit that one hard.
I'm really going to tear into the difference between the comic books and the TV show.
Okay.
So we're going to hit that one hard either next week.
Hoping next week.
Fingers crossed next week.
We'll see what's going on.
See who else has shows planned for the upcoming week.
And then I'll schedule around them on that one.
Other than that, Gibbs.
You got anything coming up?
Comic Wars?
Anything?
Shout out to Comic Wars, G2, Gerard.
Yay, yay.
Check out Comic Wars YouTube, by the way.
All the episodes on YouTube, Comic Wars.
Look it up.
Yeah.
I'll tell you what.
this sometime this year i'm not gonna say when uh don't you i'm gonna deal i'm gonna delve through some stacks and i'll give you guys some lost episodes of comic wars there's still some that uh there's very few that didn't air was that a comic war scoop it that's that that i'm not promising anything but ladies and gentlemen you heard it here first ladies and gentlemen
Let's go ahead and drop that.
But what I've got coming up next is your boy Gibbs will be doing a lot.
I have a couple of competitions coming up for barbecue.
Ooh.
You're speaking my language.
Yeah.
It's my first official barbecue competition.
What?
February 23rd, she is telling me.
But I'm getting, yeah.
Chantel, come through for your boy.
Let him know.
Where's it going to be at?
It's going to be at the Dilly Dally and Dooley.
That's what it's called.
Dilly Dally and Dooley.
Yes.
That's the whitest thing I've ever heard.
My God.
It's where they hook.
What meats are you smoking?
OK.
So with the GBA, we do three categories.
And it's pork loin, pork shoulder, and ribs.
Ooh.
Yeah.
And on my LSS, that's the name of my barbecue team.
It's Let's Smoke Something Barbecue.
And I'll be dropping some more pictures and some more stuff from my practice cooks.
And then...
next month be be on the lookout for me placing and and hopefully winning you know getting a first in the category but uh at this point with it being my first if i get a hollow which is 10 on down i'm going to be happy so with that ladies and gentlemen thank you for everybody tuning in i don't remember what episode i'm on anymore so with that
We'll figure it out.
Stay tuned.
Watch for the update.
I'm going to be dropping that here soon.
On behalf of myself and the counseling nerds, this podcast is USDN approved.