Nerds Without Pants

Welcome to the Halloween spectacular of Nerds Without Pants! Fear not boys and ghouls, the Pantsless Ones always hand out full sized candy bars. We’ve got tons of podcasting goodness to fill your sacks with as well, so have a listen, won’t you?

We kick things off with what we’ve been playing, including Happy Wars, 007 Legends, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown. We also have a moment of silence and pour one out for Patrick’s dearly departed PS3. Hopefully he doesn’t bury it in an ancient Native American burial ground…we know how that ends.

After that, Rob guides the crew as we discuss our deepest and darkest fears. Look into our souls as we talk about irrational fears of sea monsters (that damn giant eel in Mario 64!), feelings of hopelessness, abandonment, and failing to amount to anything in life. It’s an oddly deep episode, but we keep things light as we weave video games into our personal fears, running the gamut from Super Metroid to Silent Hill 3 to Closure.

We had a lot of fun with this one, and enjoy all of the spooky music, as well as a guest appearance from a clown that enjoys Dancing Mad, if you know what I mean. Let us know your biggest fears and what games invoke them in the comments below, or at our Facebook fan page. Stay safe out there, and if you’re going to TP a house, make sure it’s two ply.

Featured Music:

John Carpenter- Theme from Halloween

Nobuo Uematsu- Cry in Sorrow

Bobby “Boris” Pickett- Monster Mash

Wednesday 13- I Walked With a Zombie

Mike Oldfield- Tubular Bells

Nobuo Uematsu- Dark World

Koh Ohtani- Demise of the Ritual

Mao Mamamoto- Corpse Party Chapter 5 BGM

Nightwish- Scaretale

 

Welcome to NWP at the Movies! This week, the pantsless ones are joined by film critic, actor, artist, and all around good dude, John Gholson. Movies are the topic of the day, but as always we begin with what we’ve been playing and listener mail. This week, we talk about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD, Patrick’s intro to iOS games, XCOM, and Julian’s existential gaming crisis.

John attended the Fantastic Fest movie festival in Austin recently. This particular film fest focuses on quirky horror, action, and sci-fi movies, and John clues us in on Dredd, Cloud Atlas, and My Amityville Horror among others. We get deep into recent films as well, such as Argo and Seven Psycopaths, along with Rob’s recent trip to the Hamptons International Film Festival.

We close out this episode talking about movies based on video games. Yeah, they all kind of suck, but there’s some fun to be had, as well. Enjoy Rob and John as they sit as polar opposites on nearly every movie! Thrill to Rob condemning Patrick and Julian’s favorite gaming flicks! Try not to fall asleep as we talk for far too long about the Resident Evil films!

We hope you enjoyed this movie-centric episode. Join us in two weeks for our Halloween spectacular. Tell us your favorite scary games on our Facebook fan page and we’ll work them into the show.

Featured Music:

Hans Zimmer- Theme from The Critic

Brendan Small- Jazz Fight

Tomoyasu Hotei- Battle Without Honor or Humanity

Utah Saints- Utah Saints Take on the Theme From Mortal Kombat

After weeks of teasing and scheduling conflicts we finally bring you the Femme Fatales episode of Nerds Without Pants! Games and tech writer for the International Business Times Lisa Eadicicco joins us to talk about our favorite polygonal ladies, but we start off with what we’ve been playing. This week the crew covers Tekken Tag Tournament 2, FIFA ’13, FTL, Borderlands 2, and Resident Evil 6 among other things.

We begin the conversation with our thoughts on female protagonists in media as a whole. Can women be strong and still be sexy? Is the tendency to sexualize women in video games any different than the way they are portrayed in film? These questions lead us to a discussion on our favorite female leads and supporting roles in video games. The selections may surprise you!

We take a detour into some more serious talk, bringing up male harassment of female gamers, with examples like the Street Fighter x Tekken Cross Assault fiasco and the vitriol over Anita Sarkeesian’s “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” series. We also bring up the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot and that controversial attempted rape scene. Things go to a dark place, so we wrap things up with the female characters we’re embarrassed to admit we love.

We hope you enjoy this episode, and we really want some feedback on it, especially from any ladies in the audience. Comment below or head on over to our Facebook fanpage to participate.

Featured Music:

Shivaree- Goodnight Moon

The Hit Girls- Bad Reputation

Bjork- Army of Me

You were probably expecting a really entertaining discussion about our favorite female video game characters with a real life lady guest. Sadly, this episode of Nerds Without Pants is another sausage fest. We hope we can bring that topic to you in the future, but for now please enjoy this free form episode.

It’s only been a week since we last recorded, and Rob and Patrick haven’t gotten up to much in the gaming department. Rob brings some movies and books to the table, and Patrick got Child of Eden for his birthday. Julian’s got you covered though, with Way of the Samurai 4, Mutant Mudds, and Double Dragon Neon.

After that, we go into some news. We rarely talk about the headlines, but there was some big things in gaming since our last episode, including the announcement of the iPhone 5, the Wii U launch details, and the oddly timed sacking of the creator of Plants vs. Zombies…right after a sequel is announced. Sit back and let your pantsless newshounds give you the straight scoop.

We wrap things up with a question from a listener that leads into Julian’s personal story of failure with the ladies. Thanks for listening, and please comment below or at our Facebook fan page.

 

Featured music:

Selections from the Double Dragon Neon soundtrack by Jake Kaufman.

Nobody’s perfect. We all have our inner demons—those things that we do even though we know we shouldn’t. That’s what this episode of NWP is all about: vices, and how they work into our video games. Since this is technically the second part of episode 5, we skip what we’ve been playing and jump into the discussion.

First up, Patrick brings up the subject of gambling, and how prolific it is in our games. Even at a young age we’ve been exposed to this vice in gaming, and we look at how it’s affected us, even without our knowledge. We gamble all the time, including crafting in MMOs or just taking a chance on a game we’ve never played. We also look at the insidious rise of “mystery items” in games—random virtual goods that cost real world cash.

Next, Rob takes us into the slippery slope of substance abuse. We look at games that glorify drugs and alcohol, such as Narc and Catherine, and Julian tells a personal story about how GTA IV ensured he would never drink and drive…ever. Then we get onto an amazing discussion about how technology is the new dangerous addiction, especially since it’s totally legal.

Last but certainly not least, Julian makes us atone for our sins and talks about death in video games. Does the fact that death is used as a failure mechanic take away from the impact of story related character death? What about that Aeris death, anyway? When we lose a character in a game are we sad because a friend is gone, or because we lost a valuable battle asset? What are the benefits of permadeath?

We hope you enjoy this episode, and that it was worth the wait. We have another topic you’ve been waiting for in two weeks, when our special guest Lisa Eadicicco comes on to talk about our favorite ladies of gaming. Let us know your favorite digital femme fatales either in the comments below or at our Facebook fan page.

Featured Music:

Grand Theft Auto Vice City- Theme

Kenny Rogers- The Gambler

Third Eye Blind- God of Wine

Melissa Williamson- Room of Angel

Kavinsky- Nightcall (featuring Lovefoxxx)

Well, we goofed. Due to circumstances beyond our control, this episode of NWP is woefully lacking a second segment. Worry not though, true believers! We’ll be bringing you the intended topic of this episode (vices and video games) next week. So sit back and enjoy what we’ve been playing and some bloopers.

Julian can’t contain his inner fanboy for Transformers, and even though Fall of Cybertron isn’t his idea of a perfect TF game you get to hear him discuss it at length. Patrick vents his frustration over the ending of Dead Space 2 (no spoilers) and talks some Starhawk, while Rob manages to rave about Counter Strike: Global Offensive without yelling “BOOM! Headshot!”

And that’s it! Check out the work of Ken Knudtsen that Rob was talking about here, and be sure to follow us all on Twitter, since we didn’t get the chance to beg for new followers this week.

Rob is @robertottone

Patrick is @someboss

Julian is @julian_titus

Join our Facebook fan page, and tune in next week as we go to some dark places with our vices.

Featured Music:

Stan Bush- The Touch

Vince DiCola- Autobot/Decepticon Battle

N.R.G.- Instruments of Destruction

Lion- The Transformers (theme)

We may have missed an episode, but we’re making it up to you this week with a bonus episode that gets us back on track. Even though we only recorded a week ago we have some games to talk about, including Sleeping Dogs, Final Fantasy VII PC, and Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance.

It’s a pretty loose episode this week, with a little bit of everything. Rob talks about watching the Will Ferrell movie The Campaign and Julian gushes all over The Expendables 2. Is a Statham Sighting in your future? All signs point to yes. Rob gives us a peek into the depths of his soul, and we close things out with a rant about a recent shooting that leads into a brief discussion on that whole “violence in video games” debate that keeps popping up.

Come back in two weeks when we talk about video games and vices. It’ll be a nice gritty look at the seedy side of gaming, as well as your pantsless nerds. Join the Facebook fan page and also weigh in on the violence discussion in the comments below. STATHAM!

Featured Music:

Streets of Rage 2-Slow Moon

Castlevania- Bloody Tears

Mega Man 2-Intro (Over Clocked Remix)

And we’re back! Scheduling problems and technical difficulties can’t keep your favorite nerd trio from removing their pants and talking about some awesome video games. We kick it off as always with what we’ve been playing, including PlayStation All-Stars, Little Big Planet Karting, Dyad, and Robot Rob’s hatred of Batman: Arkham City. Julian confesses his new nerd addiction: table top games!

The topic this episode is everything trophy and achievement. Gamers have been addicted to these little pieces of digital flair for years now, and Patrick wants to know how we feel about them as a group. Rob spends the episode in complete denial of his achievement lust, while Julian and Patrick completely admit to their addictions. We talk about our first achievements, the ones we tried the hardest for, and the ones that seemed particularly lame. We also talk about Rob’s atavistic fear of Disney’s Cars before closing things out with some shameless self-promotion.

Join our Facebook fanpage and let us know what you want to see in upcoming episodes. We’ll be back next week with a free-form bonus episode, and after that we hope to have a very special guest for you all.

Featured Music:

Survivor-Eye of the Tiger

Joe Cafferty-Hearts on Fire

Joe “Bean” Esposito-You’re the Best

Sex. Now that I have your attention, why is it something that gaming podcasts don’t talk about very often? Sex sells, and game developers have used it more and more in their games over the years. Your favorite nerdy trio takes off their pants, turns on their mics, and talk at length about sex in vidya games. But before that we talk some recent games, including Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy, Slender, and Unchained Blades.

We kick things off with a little of our sexual histories, and pontificate for a bit on just who would make it onto our Freebie Five lists. Things then turn to how sex impacts our games and the industry. Did Hot Coffee destroy the potential for sex in games? Did BioWare lose their nerve after the Fox News Mass Effect debacle? Can gamers even handle sexuality in video games in a mature manner, or can we just not have nice things? We explore games that handle sexuality in interesting or subtle ways, as well as highlight some of the inherent problems with trying to tackle these issues.

Throughout the show we take some of our listener’s Kinsey Report questions, and Rob continues his desperate advances towards Patrick. Enjoy all of this and more in this (surprisingly) mature look at getting it on in the virtual space. And don’t worry ladies: unlike Christian Grey we can give you more than a paragraph’s worth of pleasure.

Liked the episode? Hated it? Want to submit ideas for topics? Join our Facebook Fanpage!

Featured Music:

Marcy Playground-Sex and Candy

P!nk featuring Peaches-Oh My God

Paula Cole-Feelin’ Love

Friendly Fires-Strange Love (Depeche Mode cover)

Greetings, true believers! Welcome to the first episode of Nerds Without Pants. Do join us for some generally nerdy talk about games, movies, and comics...sans pants.

We kick things off with a quick discussion about what we've been up to since ending our run on PixlTalk, including Ghost Recon, Final Fantasy XI, The Amazing Spider-Man movie, and entirely too much talk about Spec Ops: The Line. If you listen carefully, you can catch a very rare Statham Sighting, as well. Julian asks the listeners for some help with his backlog. Check it out here, and let him know what you think he should play!

Then we move on to our special comic book themed topic, wherein we share with you our video game origin stories. We each talk about our earliest gaming memories, what game first made us realize that this was to become our hobby of choice, and why we still game today. We also wrap up each story with a comic book pick, just for you, and at no extra charge.

Patrick closes things out with a story about his recent trip to Europe, in typical metaphysical Patrick style. We're excited to have you on board for this new edition of our special kind of madness. A reboot, if you will. Let us know your gaming origin stories in the comments section, and come back in two weeks when we talk about all things sexual in gaming. It's sure to be saucy, and you definitely won't want your pants on for that episode.

-Excelsior!

Featured Music:

Nobuo Uematsu- Zanarkand

Danny Elfman-Theme From Batman: The Animated Series

John Williams-Main Theme (From Superman)

Smashing Pumpkins-The Beginning is the End is the Beginning