Half-Life projects, Comic-Con program guide, Playstation Factory & Esports Mental Toughness

First, Dev-i-boy found a list of Valve games that never came out. These games were created in the dark times before Half Life: Alyx was announced, and include some interesting looks at what Half Life 3 could have been.

You can't go to Comic-Con this year, but you can watch it online. There's a great program with tons of shows including comics, television and gaming news. It's also probably the most accessible Comic-Con ever, since you don't need to leave your house and the shows are free.

First the robots came for the car factory jobs, and I said nothing. Then they came for the Playstation 4 assembly jobs, and I said "Cool, that's some nice tech". Sony has almost fully automated their assembly line and only use four people on the ends of a single assembly line that makes one console every 30 seconds. It's awesome.

Esports are stressful, and high skill players show the same signs of stress as their analogue counterparts. This doesn't surprise the Nerds at all, but it's an interesting study.

This week, Professor played a chaotic real time dice rolling game, DJ kept the peace in Agents of Mayhem and Dev-i-boy got distracted by job applications. Wish him luck.

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Pokemon Snap, Apple Lootboxes, Super Collider & Cyberpunk 2077 featuring Stephen from Sigmate Studios & Comics2movies

This week, Deviboy returns from his exile, and Stephen from Comics2Movies and XCT joins us to discuss a new comic.

Devi brings news from the far off land of Nintendo. It's time to get your cameras out for the New Pokemon Snap. Apart from Nintendo's hopeless naming, it's shaping up to be an expanded photography game for the new generation. We all hope they fit in the fun easter eggs and interactions.

Oh no, Loot Boxes! Apple are being taken to court for exploiting children via the App Store. We think we've got a solution to the problem too, so be ready to send us your opinions on the system.

Supercollider? I hardly know her! CERN are designing a 100km collider almost 4 times the size of the Large Hadron Collider. The LHC failed to open a portal to hell and lead to a demon invasion, but maybe the Future Circular Collider will. Somebody get Doomguy on speed dial.

Cyberpunk 2077 is delayed again, but to tide us over until the release a comic series titled Trauma Team. This also gives it the accidental honour of being the first piece of Cyberpunk 2077 to release. Until then, keep working to create a hyper corporate dystopia so we can all live out our Cyberpunk fantasies.

In gaming, Professor went up against space card sharks in Star Realms, Deviboy relived his childhood in Raze 2 and Stephen fell in love with Hearthstone.

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Space Movie, Space Cement & PokeCoin

Nanoo Nanoo.

Ryan Gosling is going back to space for Andy Weir's next book, which isn't even out yet but is already casting actors. This one has a working title of Project Hail Mary and features a lone scientist on a spaceship trying to save the world. Slightly higher stakes than The Martian, but Andy's books are always great.

Astronauts are also going to use pee to build houses on the moon. Let's hope NASA has a large surplus of air fresheners to send up with them, because this cement is probably the most useful way to use human waste on the moon, but it's going to smell.

Back on Earth, Niantic are trying to deflate the Pokecoin economy by severely lowering the minimum wage. Nobody seems to be happy with this, but Australia is just the test site, so it's coming to a phone near you soon.

This week Professor took a trip to a far away planet to care for slimes, and DJ found out what happens when you swim with the cardsharks.

Check in next week for probably less pee jokes. Probably.

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Virtual meetings, Wonder Woman, WarriOrb & Autism Studies

Welcome, to the World of TOMOROOOW!

What does listening to a podcast have to do with listening to your boss? Science is now showing benefits to virtual meetings. Which means one day, even your boss might be replaced by a voice over the wire. This still doesn't mean you can get out of wearing pants.

Wonder Woman's director thinks DC shouldn't follow the tried and true MCU formula. Sure, it worked for them, but can it be pulled off twice? Let us know if you have a good argument for there being room for two comic cinematic universes.

WarriOrb is a new game that's just been released on Steam. But following a highly popular demo, WarriOrb's initial sales have been disappointingly low. The devs have posted their own analysis on Reddit, and they're understandably confused.

Wrapping up, we have a discussion about scientific studies involving Autistic people.

We played Crysis and Legends of Runeterra this week. Professor's computer didn't melt playing Crysis, and DJ isn't any better at counting cards.

Wait around to hear from us next week with another great episode.

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Robin Hood, Bohemia Interactive, ESRB & Mathematically perfect steak

Welcome back. We've been expecting you.

We have a bit of a longer episode than usual this week because we just had so many interesting people to talk about, including a liar who looks like Hugh Jackman, and one of the most prolific Astronomers to ever live.

But, first up, the Nerds discuss the rumoured Disney Robin Hood remake. In live action. With photorealistic CGI. This sounds terrifying. This is a terrible idea. This will haunt your nightmares forever.

One of Professor's favourite game studios has had a great year, and Professor wants to talk about their future. Bohemia Interactive has some great projects in the works that are well worth checking out, so we've got a summary for you.

Dev-i-Boy has brought us the ESRB's disappointing attempt to resolve the Lootbox debate. He and Professor agree that this is a poor response. Maybe one day there will be a solution, but not today.

Dev-i has also found the algorithm for creating the perfect steak. It involves dozens of factors and complicated equations. But don't pull this paper out next time you go to a barbecue, or everyone will go home before you start cooking.

As usual, we bring you the games of the week. Professor and his girlfriend are finding out why they shouldn't have kids in Think of the Children. DJ and Professor are still playing Generation Zero. Professor is better at surviving the robot apocalypse than he is at raising kids. Dev-i is playing VR chat again. We wish him luck in his quest to become an anime girl.

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Indiana Jones, Youtube, C.O.D Humvee & Lizard Eggs

This week the Nerds invited Dev-i-Boy on again. He'll be joining us for the next while.

First up is a discussion about Indiana Jones 5. Can Indy swing himself back into relevance for a new generation? Not if COVID-19 has anything to say about it. Indiana Jones 5 has been pushed back again due to the pandemic. The Nerds are hoping Actual Cannibal Shia LaBeouf doesn't make another appearance as Indy's son, but we'd be ok with him appearing as a cannibal tribesman. This of course leads into a discussion on Disney's other properties, including the notorious Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise. This looks like a rough year for Disney.

Dev-i-Boy has heard that Russians are behind everyone's favourite YouTube channel, Five Minute Crafts. In a story reminiscent of bad Cold War fiction, Russian propaganda is slipped into innocuous seeming YouTube videos. Now we just need a team of teenagers to sneak into the secret Russian video studio lab and uncover their plot.

Activision has pulled off a major win in court against the maker of the Humvee. Modern warfare needs modern weapons, and the US courts have ruled in favour of realism over licensing fees.

Finally, DJ and Dev-i-Boy can't handle the knowledge. An Australian lizard joins the tiny group of reptiles that both lay eggs and give live birth. This revelation is too much for them to handle though, so we move on to the games of the week.

Professor and DJ play Generation Zero, a game about Swedish battle mechs and robot dogs that want to kill you. It's buggy, but generally a good experience. Dev-i played LoZ: Wind Waker again but breaks into a new dimension in VR Chat. Of course, he picked an anime girl avatar. Of course.

On to the usual shoutouts and remembrances, and DJ refuses to wrap up the show by performing Waterloo. Maybe next week.

Stay safe, and we'll see you all next week.

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Outback, Chucklefish & Terminator

IT’s that’s time again, yep, the Nerds are here with another fantastic episode of random pop culture news. So please ensure your seats are in the upright position and trays are folded away as we are expecting to experience turbulence. This week we are taking a look at Western Australia with Buck. Apparently NASA and the European Space Agency are spending time there in preparation for their upcoming missions to Mars. Apparently it is as close as you can get to Mars conditions without going there. Just with super spikey Spinnefex grass to poke holes in your clothes, body, and anything else you put near it. This stuff is more painful than a cactus. But the main reason why NASA and the ESA have scientist out here isn’t for an all-expenses paid holiday. No, they are here to work. What is that work, well it is the first topic so listen in.

Next we hear about a bunch of dead beats who didn’t pay a kid for his hard work making an awesome game. That’s right, a gaming studio has actually shown themselves to be a bigger bunch of scumbags then a politician on the campaign trail. Apparently they only have a small number of employees though, so it was all just some misunderstanding. Wait a minute, hold on, Buck hit’s a sore point here and makes sense in regards to what the dirtbags are up to. Of course this is utterly outrageous, particularly if he is right; my goodness, if he is we’ll never hear the end of it. But if he is, oh the humanity, oh no, this is devastating. But if you want to know more of what I am rambling on about then you know what to do, that’s right, listen in.

At the sound of Tinker Bell waving her magic wand please turn the page… ohh, um, wait a second, are you still here? Dang nabbit! Well in that case We have the DJ for you with a story about a new spin-off for the terminator. James Cameron has announced his plans to reboot the series and is planning to do so after he finishes the Avatar series. So it is a race to see what comes out first, the new reboot of Terminator or Star Con, um, Star Citizen… Well I think we will all be old, even the Rolling Stones won’t be touring anymore by then. Perhaps One Direction will be back together for a reunion tour…oh the humanity, the torture, please stop. On a better note check out our friends at “Off With The Fairies” another outstanding TNC podcast. After this we have the usual shout outs, remembrances, birthdays and special events. As always, stay say, look out for each other and stay hydrated.

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