That's a Texas-sized 10-4, good buddy!
Welcome to the penultimate episode of Nerds Without Pants for 2023! It’s a pretty chill and low-key show, as we talk about a small handful of games and then hop on the Email Banana Boat one more time before the end of the year. Enjoy!
Or: Justin vs google.
Welcome back to Nerds Without Pants! This week we go over what ended up being a really tricky Stage Select, spoil the hell out of Twelve Minutes (check the timestamps in the notes), and have a battle of Odysseys in a steel cage match. Enjoy!
Or: Justin versus Google
On this episode of Nerds Without Pants it’s all about family, for reasons. Turns out there are some really interesting examples of family dynamics in video games, so this is a pretty good episode I think. Tell the people you love that you love them.
Just some nerds on a quest to find their waifus.
Welcome back to Nerds Without Pants! I’m gonna level with you, I don’t even know what the actual heck happened in this episode. Blame Justin and his dating sim shenanigans, I guess. Anyway, Friend of the Show John Gholson™ joins us for a really fun episode, so let’s jump in!
It's a party, y'all!
Welcome, welcome, welcome, to the 150th episode of Nerds Without Pants! We have an amazing show for you this week. So amazing, telling you about what’s in this episode would spoil everything! Okay, you twisted my arm. We’re joined by {REDACTED}, who surprises us all by announcing {REDACTED}. After that, we spend some time talking about {REDACTED} and announcing the winner of the second Great Game Giveaway: {REDACTED}! Then, we jump into the meat of the show.
Though more streamlined, this 20 year old franchise had a better showing with its first release.
I suspect many, like myself, spent long stints in front of their Pentium II PCs constructing a wide variety of amazing theme parks and complex coasters in RollerCoaster Tycoon. Between the base game and its expansions, I clocked countless hours completing scenarios and building all manner of parks, maximizing profits and occasionally, constructing complex death machines for fun. Some of what made the original experience so great finds its way into RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures on the Switch, but it seems that a good bit of the experience has been streamlined and simplified to make it more accessible on the platform. This makes it a less compelling iteration of the series that’s outshined by even the original release.
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Since Portal hit the scene around a decade ago, it’s inspired a variety of other games that have chosen to use the first person perspective for puzzle solving and storytelling, rather than the typical shooting. The Spectrum Retreat is one such game and it does well in both telling an interesting story and providing some great puzzles. However, these two elements rarely coalesce and more often feel like oil and water, separated naturally by the construct of the experience. Though it’s too bad the two don’t come together, what’s presented is still compelling thanks to ever evolving puzzle constructs and the gradual realization of what's going on in The Spectrum Retreat.
You may need a master's degree in literature before you play this one.
Have you ever finished a book or a movie and been left trying to puzzle out the meaning of what you just experienced? Likely it was a frustrating feeling, as if you were on the cusp of understanding what the creator of the work was trying to tell you, but you were unable to make the connection in your head. Such was my experience with a little game called Virginia, which left me feeling mentally lacking at the best of times, and needlessly aggravated at the worst of times.
