Saturday Morning Friday Blog

Sorry for the next day post, we were exhausted yesterday. Thursday night, we got back to our domicile and played way too much Eschaton (back the Kickstarter here).

After a hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravy (thanks, Jake), we went back to the Con to do more Con things. 

Great games from Friday:

Two Rooms and a boom: this party game is similar to One Night Werewolf in that everyone has a role that everyone else has to figure out. In this game, two groups are trying to discover who is the assassin and who is the president. If the president survives, Blue wins, if not, Red wins. It's a fun game with lots of other win conditions and variables. 10/10 would recommend.

Deathfear: Archon Games has all the great games. In this game, the players are trying to assemble the parts of a demon in order to gain its power and kill their friends. It's a blast and we bought it immediately. 

Epic Roll: this quick, 3-Player game from Summon Entertainment is like a dungeon crawl wherein the players are trying to get through a horde of monsters and be the first to kill the Lich. Maybe 15-20 minutes to play. 

Zombies: another great game from Twilight Creations, in this game, players try to survive a zombie apocalypse by racing to be the first on the helicopter. A mean game that turns friends against one another, Zombies is a lot of fun. The base game will set you back only $30 and there are about 14 expansions that can be combined or played separately, so the game will always stay fresh.

More later: look forward to our reviews of BattleTech by Harebrained Schemes and Giant Killer Robots by Cryptozoic, Evolver, and Weta Workshop, both of which we will be demoing today.

Saturday Morning Friday Blog

Sorry for the next day post, we were exhausted yesterday. Thursday night, we got back to our domicile and played way too much Eschaton (back the Kickstarter here).

After a hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravy (thanks, Jake), we went back to the Con to do more Con things. 

Great games from Friday:

Two Rooms and a boom: this party game is similar to One Night Werewolf in that everyone has a role that everyone else has to figure out. In this game, two groups are trying to discover who is the assassin and who is the president. If the president survives, Blue wins, if not, Red wins. It's a fun game with lots of other win conditions and variables. 10/10 would recommend.

Deathfear: Archon Games has all the great games. In this game, the players are trying to assemble the parts of a demon in order to gain its power and kill their friends. It's a blast and we bought it immediately. 

Epic Roll: this quick, 3-Player game from Summon Entertainment is like a dungeon crawl wherein the players are trying to get through a horde of monsters and be the first to kill the Lich. Maybe 15-20 minutes to play. 

Zombies: another great game from Twilight Creations, in this game, players try to survive a zombie apocalypse by racing to be the first on the helicopter. A mean game that turns friends against one another, Zombies is a lot of fun. The base game will set you back only $30 and there are about 14 expansions that can be combined or played separately, so the game will always stay fresh.

More later: look forward to our reviews of BattleTech by Harebrained Schemes and Giant Killer Robots by Cryptozoic, Evolver, and Weta Workshop, both of which we will be demoing today.

Saturday Morning Friday Blog

Sorry for the next day post, we were exhausted yesterday. Thursday night, we got back to our domicile and played way too much Eschaton (back the Kickstarter here).

After a hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravy (thanks, Jake), we went back to the Con to do more Con things. 

Great games from Friday:

Two Rooms and a boom: this party game is similar to One Night Werewolf in that everyone has a role that everyone else has to figure out. In this game, two groups are trying to discover who is the assassin and who is the president. If the president survives, Blue wins, if not, Red wins. It's a fun game with lots of other win conditions and variables. 10/10 would recommend.

Deathfear: Archon Games has all the great games. In this game, the players are trying to assemble the parts of a demon in order to gain its power and kill their friends. It's a blast and we bought it immediately. 

Epic Roll: this quick, 3-Player game from Summon Entertainment is like a dungeon crawl wherein the players are trying to get through a horde of monsters and be the first to kill the Lich. Maybe 15-20 minutes to play. 

Zombies: another great game from Twilight Creations, in this game, players try to survive a zombie apocalypse by racing to be the first on the helicopter. A mean game that turns friends against one another, Zombies is a lot of fun. The base game will set you back only $30 and there are about 14 expansions that can be combined or played separately, so the game will always stay fresh.

More later: look forward to our reviews of BattleTech by Harebrained Schemes and Giant Killer Robots by Cryptozoic, Evolver, and Weta Workshop, both of which we will be demoing today.

Saturday Morning Friday Blog

Sorry for the next day post, we were exhausted yesterday. Thursday night, we got back to our domicile and played way too much Eschaton (back the Kickstarter here).

After a hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravy (thanks, Jake), we went back to the Con to do more Con things. 

Great games from Friday:

Two Rooms and a boom: this party game is similar to One Night Werewolf in that everyone has a role that everyone else has to figure out. In this game, two groups are trying to discover who is the assassin and who is the president. If the president survives, Blue wins, if not, Red wins. It's a fun game with lots of other win conditions and variables. 10/10 would recommend.

Deathfear: Archon Games has all the great games. In this game, the players are trying to assemble the parts of a demon in order to gain its power and kill their friends. It's a blast and we bought it immediately. 

Epic Roll: this quick, 3-Player game from Summon Entertainment is like a dungeon crawl wherein the players are trying to get through a horde of monsters and be the first to kill the Lich. Maybe 15-20 minutes to play. 

Zombies: another great game from Twilight Creations, in this game, players try to survive a zombie apocalypse by racing to be the first on the helicopter. A mean game that turns friends against one another, Zombies is a lot of fun. The base game will set you back only $30 and there are about 14 expansions that can be combined or played separately, so the game will always stay fresh.

More later: look forward to our reviews of BattleTech by Harebrained Schemes and Giant Killer Robots by Cryptozoic, Evolver, and Weta Workshop, both of which we will be demoing today.

Saturday Morning Friday Blog

Sorry for the next day post, we were exhausted yesterday. Thursday night, we got back to our domicile and played way too much Eschaton (back the Kickstarter here).

After a hearty breakfast of biscuits and gravy (thanks, Jake), we went back to the Con to do more Con things. 

Great games from Friday:

Two Rooms and a boom: this party game is similar to One Night Werewolf in that everyone has a role that everyone else has to figure out. In this game, two groups are trying to discover who is the assassin and who is the president. If the president survives, Blue wins, if not, Red wins. It's a fun game with lots of other win conditions and variables. 10/10 would recommend.

Deathfear: Archon Games has all the great games. In this game, the players are trying to assemble the parts of a demon in order to gain its power and kill their friends. It's a blast and we bought it immediately. 

Epic Roll: this quick, 3-Player game from Summon Entertainment is like a dungeon crawl wherein the players are trying to get through a horde of monsters and be the first to kill the Lich. Maybe 15-20 minutes to play. 

Zombies: another great game from Twilight Creations, in this game, players try to survive a zombie apocalypse by racing to be the first on the helicopter. A mean game that turns friends against one another, Zombies is a lot of fun. The base game will set you back only $30 and there are about 14 expansions that can be combined or played separately, so the game will always stay fresh.

More later: look forward to our reviews of BattleTech by Harebrained Schemes and Giant Killer Robots by Cryptozoic, Evolver, and Weta Workshop, both of which we will be demoing today.

Post Lunch Day 1

After lunch, we swung back into the Convention to play Eschaton, a tremendous game by our friends at Archon Games.

Eschaton is a deck builder and area control game in which the players are cultists attempting to spread their religion before the end of the world/game. We had a load of fun playing it and ended up backing it on their currently running Kickstarter.

We also had an interesting time playing Gauntlet Legends on an arcade game that we found in a hallway. You can see our play-through and a short interview with out man at Harebrained Schemes, Mitch Gitelman, on our Facebook by searching Geek Cast Live.

Gen Con 2016-Morning 1

After a grueling morning of walking around the Con, we're currently refreshing ourselves at the Tilted Kilt.

Notable games this morning:

- Iron & Ale: from our friends at Table Forged, this dwarves drinking game is tons of fun! Check them out and make are you get the expansion and the special Gen Con card!
- Imploding Kittens: the much anticipated expansion to Exploding Kittens is available for pre-order on Amazon, or you can pick it up at Gen Con for just $10.
- Eschaton: the new game from Archon Games, the producers of Geek Cast Favorite--Shindig Machine.

We also stopped by our friends at Harbrained Schemes and Dog Might. More on them this afternoon.

Cartoon Joe's Gen-Con Mostly-Live-Blog!

This year marks the fourth year the Geek Cast Crew will be making the trip down to Indianapolis for the Best Four Days in Gaming™. As Provided in the Press Release:

INDIANAPOLIS (July 8, 2016) Gen Con 2016 will return to the Indiana Convention Center August 4-7 for THE BEST FOUR DAYS IN GAMING™, and current badge sales indicate the show is on-pace for record attendance as well.

Gen Con is the original, longest running, and best-attended gaming convention in the world. Gen Con 2016 will feature more than 15,000 events taking place over the four-day weekend. Last year, Gen Con set an attendance record with more than 61,000 unique attendees coming from all 50 states, every Canadian province, and more than 54 countries. For the first time ever, Gen Con will offer programming in the Lucas Oil Stadium exhibition space. According to tourism group Visit Indy, Gen Con drives more than $67 million in annual activity to the city of Indianapolis. At Gen Con 2016, attendees will have a chance to meet the experts in the gaming industry, play newly released games, and get a sneak peek at the latest developments.

It will be open to the public Thursday, August 4, through Sunday, August 7, 2016. Thursday through Saturday, the Exhibit Hall is open 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday from 10 am to 4 pm. 24-hour gaming takes place at the Indiana Convention Center and at area hotels during the four-day event.
Everyone attending Gen Con must purchase a badge. A badge allows the individual entrance to the show, admittance to the Exhibit Hall, Art Show, Anime events, seminars and any events happening in the public areas that do not require an event ticket.

We will be there all weekend, playing and reviewing games, interviewing friends of the show, and generally Geeking Harder! Cartoon Joe will post updates right here throughout the weekend, and you can look forward to our full take on Gen Con sometime on Saturday at the usual place: gcl.ninja!

Heroes Day

Hello, Internet. Been a while.  Sorry to keep you. Those of us at Geek Cast Live have been doing our best to secure you some fantastic content to listen to on a weekly basis, and well, your eyeballs have been left a little neglected.

Fear not, though! I'm here to rescue you and to tell you a story. Today is June 10.  Perhaps that doesn't mean much to you, but to me and millions of geeks like me (okay, it may only be thousands or tens of thousands, but it's still higher than most of us can count, so shush) today is Nikola Tesla Day. If you need to know why Tesla needs to be celebrated, I'm going to direct you over to The Oatmeal, a fantastic website run by a fantastic human being who happens to also be one of my heroes.

In that particular comic I linked you to, The Oatmeal delineates clearly why it is that Nikola Tesla is the Greatest Geek Who Ever Lived. Yeah, I capitalized it. It's that true.  Basically, Tesla was a man of unparalleled genius who's work went virtually unrecognized during his life.  He was an inventor who created things of such power and beauty that we basically can't replicate much of it to this day.

Today, had he the power of immortality as well as unmatched genius, would have been his 158th birthday.  And today, Tesla Motor Company Founder and CEO Elon Musk decided to celebrate that birthday by donating ONE MILLION DOLLARS to The Tesla Science Center.

Now, in case you're wondering, Tesla Motors is not actually connected to Tesla himself...at least not directly.  However, the motor in their wildly-successful-completely-electric Model S was designed by Nikola Tesla, and they are using his name perfectly legally--and I think--as a perfect homage to a man who was so wonderful his own time was unable to recognize him.

In short, I want to use this post to recognize Nikola Tesla--the future embodied in the past, Matt Inman--the creator of the Oatmeal and an inspiration in his own right, and Elon Musk--a man who, but for his philanthropic enterprises, would be Tony Stark.

I also want to beg you, internet, to please throw a few ducats (if you have such medieval currency laying about) into this fund to support the restoration and rebuilding of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe. You've probably already supported the indiegogo that put the kettle on the stove, now, let's have some tea.



For more information on any of the topics covered here, please consult these links:

Joe's Someday Mobile

Nikola Tesla Comic

Another Thing The Oatmeal Did That I Really Like And You Should See

A News Article About Elon Musk, Money, and The Oatmeal


As Always, be sure to follow Geek Cast Live on Twitter:

@geekcastjoe
@geekcastry
@geekcastbass
@geekgurljo
@geekgurlles

Check out our website: Geekharder.com

And Listen to our podcast: Geek Cast Live Podcast

Keep Drinking Death Wish Coffee, Fly the Flag, and Geek Harder!

Four Years Later, I'm Still Not Over LOST

*Chshweeaaang* LOST

Those of you who were (let's face it are) fans of the show can probably still hear that hauntingly wonderful gong noise that signaled the beginning of the best hour of your week for 6 years (if you haven't seen it, hop to the bottom for a brief description followed by a spoiler-free #hashtag summary). The adventures of the characters on that mysterious island still haunt my daydreams.  Sometimes, when I'm sitting in traffic, I can hear the sound of the smoke monster.  I like to imagine that it's just around the corner preparing to crush the lousy drivers in front of me that won't just ACCELERATE AT THE DAMN LIGHT.

*sigh*

Anyway, as some of you know, I'm at grad school in Chicago.  I also happen to be unemployed. This means that when I'm not studying (who studies?) or in class (yay learning!) I'm watching Netflix.  If you've been following the podcast, you know that in the last month I've finished Battlestar Galactica, House of Cards, and The West Wing.  Today, for the 20th time, I re-watched J.J. Abrams's TED Talk. This led me to believe that I was finally ready to watch LOST again.  I mean, it's been four years already.  That's four years of new experiences (changing majors, going to Florence, graduating from Purdue) that should have restored my emotional levels to pre-LOST levels, right? RIGHT?

And so, excited, I hopped onto Netflix, clicked the little picture of the LOST DVD art and got ready once again to enjoy the greatest show I've ever seen.  But I made a mistake.  Instead of just starting over, I tried to look for some of my favorite episodes (I've got a paper due tonight, I can't afford to watch 6 seasons of LOST by tomorrow afternoon**), so I started reading the episode descriptions and *Chshweeaaang* every emotion I've ever had for these characters--Desmond, Locke, Benjamin, Sayid, Penny, HUGO!--came roaring back like a tsunami in my heart.  Luckily, I was able to close the browser before my afternoon transformed into a trip to the ice-cream store followed by tears in a dark corner in my apartment.

I'm just not over it.  I love the show. The mystery, the cliffhangers, the characters, the dual-universe thing, Vincent the dog, and Jack closing his eyes as the most perfect TV series I've ever seen comes to an end.  Ugh. So many feels. So little time. Maybe someday I'll be able to return once again to that wonderful Island.  But not yet.

**I've tried this. Watching during every possible waking hour I had it took three weeks to watch all six seasons. Try this at your own risk.


Here's the description I promised earlier
For those of you who haven't seen the show, it's about a group of people who crash land on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  The plan was to go from Australia to California. Instead, they get trapped in an epic battle between two demi-godlike guardians of the island. The themes in the show include the tension between Fate and Free Will, Faith and Reason, and (naturally) Good and Evil. It asks a lot of you, but if you accept the ride, I promise, it's worth every minute.

#HASHTAGSUMMARY
#eyesopened #what  #crashland #pregnantchick #pentracheotomy #thatguysdead #knifeguymrclean #junkiemoth #driveshaft #youareeverybody #others #MICHAEL #waitshespeaksenglish #deadguywalking #islandprovides #polarbears #smokemonster #maninblack #Russeau #sciencenames #island #notpenniesboat #richardhasladyeyes #4815162342 #MisterEkosWackAMoleStick #timetravel #BOOM #alternateverse #Seeyabrotha #HugoRayesEverybody #Iseedeadpeople #Jacob #twobrothers #SmokemonsterLocke #hyrda #darma #swan #fishsong #whydshedieijuststartedtolikeher #poorsayid #miracledoctor #whatsupwiththechurch #Ohigetit #itsametaphorfordeath #epicleftturns #drinkthisbecomelikeme #THEDOGISBACK #eyesclosed


If you liked, hated, or wonder about the show, feel free to share your opinions in the comment section below. 

Be sure to check out our website at geekharder.com.  Listen to my podcast at geekcastlivepodcast.com/podcast.

For more random thoughts be sure to follow me on twitter @geekcastjoe and if you like what I'm doing be sure to check out the other folks at Geek Cast Live: @geekcastlive @geekcastry @geekcastbass @geekgurljo @geekgurlles.

Thanks for reading.

Swing And a Miss

On today's podcast, we reviewed several excellent comics by Wayward Raven. The guys over there are incredibly talented and you should definitely check them out at waywardraven.com. 

Anyway, during the show we talked about their web comic Damn Heroes. Judging the comic solely by its name, I imagined some kind of space western. I was wrong...it's so much better than that!

Damn Heroes is the hilariously entertaining tale of an ordinary man who is en route to becoming a super villain. The comic satirizes everything we love about superhero comics: the fact that the hero never dies (especially if he's basically superman), the super villains are inept, and superheroes in general are complete and utter dillholes. I loved it. I binge read the entire thing in about half an hour, and I cannot wait for more. You can check them out at damnheroes.com. They update every Wednesday.

Oh, hay.

Hey guys.

I could say that I've been very busy, working overtime, slaving away for my spring break beach body, oil painting, learning the arabic alphabet, whatever.  I'm not going to even pretend like I have an excuse for my lack of attention to the geekcast world.  In reality, I've been too busy geeking out and not realizing it to blog. 

So, I'm going to promise you all that I will try to be a little more self aware and blog more.  However, I can't promise that I won't take another hiatus because, as most geeks know, once an obsession takes hold, you must hit geek rock bottom in order to realize how consumed you have been.  I am now on my 3rd consecutive hour of New Girl, in my footie pajamas, drinking a 5 dollar bottle of wine.  I'm not even sure this is the worst of it.  Until season 2 is finished, anything goes.  Any pair of  pajamas is game, any chocolate product=a well rounded dinner.

So, I'll see you all once Nick and Jess finally hook up. Because goddammit, those two are meant for each other.

Fish fingers and Custard, it's gonna be big!

Oh, what day is it again? How long was I gone? Oh. Sorry. All the excitement with Doctor Who's 50th anniversary got me excited for a trip to the future. You're going to love the Christmas Episode, Capaldi is a stud....Anyway, I hope you're all enjoying the new....oh. We haven't done that yet? Oh, well I guess you'll just have to wait a little bit longer for the goodness coming up! 

Basstastic news!

Hey guys, Rob Bass here! I just wanted to take a minute to say sorry for slacking on the blogs and tweets recently. We've been talking here at Geek Cast Live and we've got some great ideas that we want to start implementing! Hope you'll be a jazzed about it as we are! Blog about The Desolation of Smaug coming soon! Until next time, Bass out.

Something About Event Horizons And Whatnot

Well it's been a bit since I've blogged. Hell since anyone from Geek Cast Live has actually.  We've been off the grid as they say, but not unproductive.  We have geared it down in an effort to concentrate on the brand and on the product.  We have a bevy of geektastic goings on about to be released to the public that I think will have made the wait worth it.  Overselling? Maybe. Got your Geek Ticker Tickin? Absolutely! I'd like to leave you with a thanks for tuning in, and a thanks for letting your Geek Flag Fly!

The Magnificent Monstrosity that is Marvel

Hey guys, Bass again, and I've got some updates for you! Now for those of you who have lived under a rock for the last week you've missed some big news. Obviously I'm going to be talking about Marvel, because I love Marvel and it's in the fucking title of this post. So, let's start off with one of the "smaller" gigs: Sony and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Big news? We've got video of Electro, played by Jamie Foxx, and that's chilling as fuck. If you haven't seen it yet...

VID: 

So that's cool. Next we have leaked pictured of who we presume to be The Vulture. Some bald(ish) guy prancing around in Ravencroft Industries shit... Yeah, it's gonna be Adrain Toomes. Then we have Paul Giamatti as the Rhino. Of course this has been known for some time, but I'm just super pumped to see the Rhino go ham on Spidey. 

PICS: 

Next, we've got Fox with both The Wolverine and X-Men: Days of Future Past. I'd like to start by saying... OH FUCKING SHITBALLS SENTINELS!!! Now that that's out of the way, more footage and pictures are leaking for The Wolverine, which is fantastic. Chances are, they can't possibly fuck this one up because I'd like to think they learned something after X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Only time will tell if I still hate Fox. Nextly (cause that's a word now), X-Men: DoFP has had leaks too. Specifically; Wolverine and Old Wolverine, Iceman, Jean Luc Picard, Gandalf, and most importantly a badass Bishop. So that's cool. Can't wait for it, and I'm really looking forward to Tyrion mass producing weapons of genocide. One more time... Sentinels.

Lastly, the Avengers movie universe. So, things to come, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Cap gets a make over and Bucky is a bad guy. Word is they are using the good ole Captain as a springboard for Avengers 2, which isn't a terribly big surprise. Thor: The Dark World, we're so close it hurts. Loki stole the show in Hall-H and we got a new trailer that *spoilers*shows Asgard getting fucked up*end spoilers*. So that's neat. Guardians of the Galaxy brought the whole crew out and let's be honest, it's gonna be fantastic. If you still aren't familiar with GotG, go to the Google and learn yourself asap, because this is gonna be massive. GotG could very easily shake up the entire Marvel movie universe because we're moving to things on a more galactic scale. Duh. Which means villains are gonna start being bigger and badder, the threats more threatening, and the amount of badassery is now unlimited. Finally, we're gonna end this long ass post with this... Avengers: Age of Ultron. Firstly, kudos Joss Whedon, for throwing a massive curveball with Thanos in the last Avengers and leading us on to believe he was gonna be the baddie. Ultron means several things, firstly we may yet see Ant-Man, however rumors are *spoilers*Ultron may be a corrupted JARVIS*end spoilers* which would be a fucking huge throw. More heroes, a super badass villain, being Ultron, and the return of Ironman means that Avengers: Age of Ultron will blow Avengers out of the water. Coming from me, that's saying something. So long, folks, here is a sentinel head, you're welcome.

Get Ready For Genocide

Geek Cast One Shot: Hodor

Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor. Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor, Hodor Hodor Hodor. Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor; Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor. Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor. Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor-Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor-Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor Hodor.

Hodor

Geek Cast One Shot: For The Love Of The Game

After this years Comic-Con one thing has become clear.  I need more buy in.  I , as in me personally, need to redouble my efforts in the Geek Game.  So look out world because I have a feeling I'm gonna be able to rally my troops.  

Pacific Rim Review

So that was a ride. I think Pacific Rim is one of those movies that is exactly as people describe it: good for what it is. The story isn't terribly original, the science isn't sciency enough, and the saucy, more experienced sergeant couldn't pin down his accent. That aside, it was terrifically entertaining. The CG was gorgeous, the effects were tastefully done (no Baysplosions), and the story is really decent. This is a movie that I could watch over and over without becoming disenchanted with the beautiful, bizarre future Guillermo Del Toro laid out for us. It's the kind of movie my dad would watch on TNT at 3 in the morning because it's on. And for that, I rate it a 3.8/5 on the Joe scale of movies.

Geek Cast One Shot: Beta Ray Diesel

According to dailysuperhero.com  the Korbinite race will be included in Marvels upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy.  I don't believe its to far off to assume that Beta Ray Bill will be included somewhere down the line in the MCU.  Now i'm no betting man but ill wager my prized mule they already have him cast.....drum roll please.....ladies & gentlemen in a prediction sure to go wrong Vin Diesel will play Beta Ray in either Guardians or Avengers 2.   You heard it hear first.