Rod, Karen, Aaron and Shanna discuss listener feedback, entertainment, lay-offs in the gaming industry, MIO developer closes, EA Lays Off Unknown Number Of Individuals In Fan Care And Recruitment, Xbox To Lay Off 3,200 In ‘Most Significant Restructure’ In Its History, Xbox Spins Off Compulsion Games, Double Fine Productions, Undead Labs, And Ninja Theory While Blade Maker Arkane Reviews ‘Potential Strategic Options’, Microsoft Expected Game Pass Would Have 77 Million Subscribers, The Elder Scrolls 6 Will Suffer Because of Xbox Layoffs, Bethesda Staff Say, Id Software co-founder John Carmack has responded to the news that the Doom and Quake studio has been struck with significant layoffs as part of Xbox’s big business ‘reset’, Sony Confirms ‘Significant’ Bungie Layoffs, Xbox Hikes X and S Consoles Price by More Than $100, Discontinues 2 TB Model, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma named as adviser to US Federal Reserve on ‘Jobs and Productivity’, Xbox Has Frozen 3rd-Party Game Pass, Xbox Has Frozen 3rd-Party Game Pass, PlayStation Will Continue To Push Live Service Games Despite Evident Challenges, There Are ‘No Plans’ To Ever Print GTA 6 Discs, PlayStation PC Retreat Is A Mistake, As 18+ Months Late Ports Made Money Without Costing a Single Console Sale, PlayStation ‘No Disc, No Buy’ Boycott Breaks Down For Black Ops, Apple raises prices of MacBooks, iPads as memory costs skyrocket, Assassin’s Creed Devs Celebrate Black Flag Remake Launch With Layoffs, Xbox testing disc-to-digital feature that digitizes a physical game collection, Xbox testing disc-to-digital feature that digitizes a physical game collection, The Steam Machine Costs $1049, Obsidian sued in class action lawsuit over alleged “systematic pattern of wage and hour violations”, OpenAI, Microsoft Sued by Publishers for Scraping Articles, Sony Settles With Fired Marathon Game Director Who Sued PlayStation and Bungie for More Than $200 Million, Adds Name to Credits, Ubisoft’s co-founder Claude Guillemot dies in plane crash, RAM manufacturers have been sued for allegedly fixing prices and supply, Capcom Keeps Winning as Onimusha: Way of the Sword, EA Sports College Football 27 Locks Single-Player Content Behind Microtransactions, Card Shop Suspends Yu-Gi-Oh Tournaments Over Smelly Players and Fighting Game Player-Turned-Sumo Wrestler Bodyslams Knife-Wielding Apex Legends Fan.
The Nerd Off: (Protected Content)
What it do Nerd Off Crew,
I hope all is well.
Back when EA announced the return of the College Football series, one of the lead designers said they’d need about three years before the game truly felt new. And since that mention in 2024, I can say after several hours of playing that EA’s College Football 27 is the most fun I’ve had playing this game in years. Obviously I enjoyed the earlier versions upon release, but I can feel the improvements upon the previous iterations. The game actually feels fair and not heavily tilted towards offense (despite many improvements to the UI, simplifying pre-snap choices and adding a metric fuck ton of new plays and formations) nor heavily tilted towards defense (despite adding like 30 new defensive playbooks). I led James Madison University (I like the color purple) to 13-1 campaign and blew lead at Ole Miss in the first round of the playoff *and had a fucking blast the whole way through*. Losing sucks but it was fun and that’s what matters the most to me.
Me and my girlfriend watched Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender and it was a dope movie showing Team Avatar as young adults and has me hyped for that new Avatar series, Avatar: Seven Havens. Shit, I think I’m due for Legend of Korra of Korra rewatch.
I read a fantasy book called “Katabasis” by R.F. Kuang and it’s a wild ride about 2 grad students who have to go to Hell to get their advisor back after accidentally killing him. It’s an engaging read and might cause psychic damage to anyone that has been to grad school!
I hope y’all have a wonderful weekend and stay nerdy!
Peace,
Dough
Hello Rod, Karen and fellow lovers of Nerdom,
In this summer of Nerdom, the CITY NERDS ARE UP!!! I am loving all the reels and pics from all sorts of cons this season. Sadly, I could not make it to Galaxycon this year in Raleigh, but I will make my way there next year. In the meantime, Karen, to answer your question, it is so wild how in the hottest parts of the summer only 30% of folks shower or use deodorant or barely both. I will never forget the year that I went to the local Herocon in Charlotte and took a pic with Green Lantern Hal Jordan and his pits were HOTT! Honestly, that might be some Guy Gardner behavior, but I digress…
So, I did finish my rewatch of Attack on Titan…..Masterpiece as always.
I did also catch The Oddessey………..Masterpiece as Christopher Nolan does not miss and Matt Damon was acting his ass off!
I got my tickets for Spiderman tomorrow morning. Cannot wait!
So, my new anime watches will be Kuroko’s Basketball while I am on the treadmill at the gym and also trying a new joint called Smoking Behind the Supermarket With You. So far, I love it and not the usual trauma/horror anime I like to watch…LOL!
Also getting back to my graphic novel reads, I completed a story from Ignition Press called Deluge. It’s a horror joint that takes place in a women’s prison where the prison is being flooded with a unusual rainstorm. While trying to escape the flood waters, there is also something else evil that shows up with the flooding. It was a good story and now, that I finished, I am ready to hop into reading Crownsville from Rodney Barnes (no relation…lol!).
So, I have a question for the panel:
I hate the internet sometimes and I believe the ONE movie that I was waiting for in 2027, Haikyu: The Battle of the Tiny Giants was ruined for me. My timeline fed me some dude who was giving synopsis of the manga and ruined the story for me. Imma still go to the movies and watch it because sometimes, movies will take creative liberties, but I have learned my lesson that the internet can’t hold water for shit.
My question is what anime or show that you were excited for that was ruined/spoiled for you? And thank Rod and Karen for laying down the ground rules for the House of the Dragon recaps. It always takes that one person to mess it up for everyone else and you both remind me of Costco. Keep guard at the front of the store, make sure folks have their cards so they can get in and keep the poors (in my Karen voice) and the riff-raff out!
I love y’all and thank you again!
Mizzbarnes
X Of Triforce (X’Avier La’Mar)
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3w
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So, I’ve finally had a chance to listen to The Nerd Off for a few months since capitalizing on the premium sale. Which eventually lead me to hearing Rod and especially Karen talk about Dungeon Crawler Carl so much. My mom and I share and Amazon account and being that I only ever have time to read is through audio book I took Karen suggestion (thank you Karen) and checked out DCC. Respectfully, fuck you guys. I feel like im addicted to those blix sticks carl rejected. I finished book 2 in three days and now im over here itching not trying to use up all of my mams saved up credits. She had 6 and now im contemplating stealing them all for this series alone. Anyway, all that to say when im addicted to anything (show, game, movie, whatever) I like to do some light research and learn as much as I can without spoilers. So here is what I learned. Fresh from a google search I did Thursday night.
Peacock has officially greenlit a live-action TV series adaptation of Matt Dinniman’s hit sci-fi LitRPG book series, Dungeon Crawler Carl. The project is spearheaded by Seth MacFarlane’s Fuzzy Door productions, with Chris Yost (The Mandalorian) serving as writer and executive producer. Dinniman is also attached as an executive producer.
Anyway, thank you for all you do. Ive been listening to yall since 2012 apparently and not even realizing it. And officially been apart of premium (and Gang Gang) since the this year. You guys and 3GO have been literally the only 2 podcast in every version of my podcast list for years and you two have honestly got me through every big change for the last decade. Thank you. So much, you guys have no idea how much you’ve help in my life.
Josh Wong
Attachments
2:46 PM (52 minutes ago)
to me
How it going Nerds
Finally caught up with Maul & really enjoyed it. Thought the animation for the lightsaber duels looked great.
X-Men 97 has been good as well.
Really enjoyed the new Spider-Man movie. Might see it again this weekend.
Started playing a game pass game called Planet Crafter. It’s a fun game so far that you wander around collecting materials to terraform a planet.
Lastly, I’ve been setting up a room for me to build & display my Lego in & recently finished the painting & am now planning to set up the tables. I painted the walls Lego colours & put a black strip in each corner to sort of look like the gap between Lego pieces.
I added some pics of the paint job & my unbuilt sets
Have a good 1
Wonga
What up, Gamers?
So, finally got on the Absolum high & while I’m really early with, I’m liking what I’m playing. I’m not really a Rogue-like person, but I’m a fan of the developer & I like beat-em-ups, so it’s an enticing pairing. I like it. I’ll probably die a lot, which is frustrating but I’m learning how to be a better defensive player, so I’ll be prepared to block moves.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is another Marvel Studios/Sony Pictures masterpiece. Won’t say anything else other than they’re 4 for 4.
The Odyssey – Hot damn. Nolan Does it again.
Motor City – A “silent” good film, with an ending that’ll explode your lungs.
On the subject of Superheroes, I revisited an old three-part that was first introduced as a feature-length movie in 1997 called World’s Finest. And it’s super impressive how the DCAU holds up compared to the cartoons of today. Long story short, I’m chronicling shows like Static Shock, Batman:The Animated Series, Superman: TAS & more because they’re all programs in one way or another are defined uniquely by their subject matter. And as someone who didn’t understand nor cared for Static, at first, the show’s really fucking good. Been watching the first season & I’m impressed how for a kids show, they didn’t hold back on the racism, particularly on the Sons of the Fathers episode, dealing with Ritchie’s dad. The animation in the first season is fine, but definitely not defined until S2 on, where the show finds itself amidst the core Justice League. These shows incredibly hold up & then some.
Peace.
Hello!
Have either of you watched The Elusive Samurai? I just finished episode 2 of season 2 and it was one of my favorite episodes of an anime in a while. It’s got palace intrigue, witty banter, coming of age emotions, clever action. Some of the episodes can be talkies but I have a feeling that if you’re a history buff and can retain that kind of information that’s a bonus.
Oh and I’ve been playing Absolum. I gotta get a new xbox controller because any bit of stickyness or hesitation can be the difference between a perfect combo and losing too much health unnecessarily! Great recommendation!
Also, the voice of Princess Donut in the DCC audiobooks is going to do the voice in the live action, so that’s pretty cool! Seth Green (Dr. Evil’s son) has talked about wanting to play Mordecai! I’m getting activated!
ugh.. replying to your own reply.. how cringe. Anyhow, “Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games ” is great! The price is on the can! High school goes to an all-girls finishing school, video games are not permitted – she finds another girl as aggro about playing Street Fighter 6. The funny in this anime is absurd and hearing someone talk strategy about a fighting game is pretty interesting.
So the way that isekai is about people going to another world, the mechanic behind Solo Leveling is also a genre, where the dungeon comes to earth. I read this great webtoon called “Auto Hunting With my Clones” which is like that, and I’m currently watching an anime called “Tomb Raider King” which is only slightly above mid, but it’s scratching that itch. This genre also seems to mostly center itself in Korea, although I refuse to look up the significance of that.
As someone who also uses their gaming console for watching movies, I need a console with a disc drive otherwise it’s not worth it.
That being said, I’m more and more worried about a crash coming up as AI runs out of fools willing to throw venture capital on ever-losing ventures.
Crypto’s on the decline, and now with the combination of people opposing having their taxes, water bills, & electricity bills fund giant data centers which will likely be abandoned in less than a decade when people figure out that the LLM AI systems only need about 1/100th of the processing power if they are streamlined rather than brute forced.
This all points to a huge bubble burst which is be exasperated by the lack of competence in the US government.
That being said, when that bubble bursts, the price of gaming systems may be brought under control, hopefully. Probably not, but hopefully.