And so there were ten.

Today on the Northern Geekcast, Bryan and I discuss Tony Hawk Ryde and it’s crazy controller, the Gears of War movie, the possibility of David Jaffe making a new Twisted Metal game, and BioWare’s decision to make a Dragon Age: Origin paper and pen RPG.

Oh, and we also say good-bye to Duke Nukem and 3D Realms, on this relatively short podcast.

 

 Northern Geekcast: Episode 010 [70:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Oh, I’m just kidding… well, sort of. Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, I made the decision to return to college in the fall in order to improve my drawing skills. Starting this September, I’ll be taking Media Studies at NBCC – Miramichi. Yes, for those of you who have been following our various updates, that is the college that Darren works at, that Eva and Bryan are attending, and the one I graduated from in Electronic Game Design oh so many years ago.

I’m really looking forward to going back to school. I feel that the atmosphere that you can only get from going to college or university will refuel my love for drawing, and will, of all things, allow me to bring Northern Geeks to even greater heights.

Of course, all of this costs money, so I’ve come up with a few ideas on how you, if you feel so inclined, might be able to help out! :)

Firstly, I added a donation button on the right hand side of the site. I was a bit weary at first about putting it up, but figured that a lot of the people I respect in the webcomics community make use of them, so I thought to myself, why not?

For those who would perhaps like to contribute a little bit more – and would like something in return ;) – I’ve gone and added the option to buy signed, high-res prints of the strips. That button is also located to your right. The system might be a tad convoluted, but I hope it works out. If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve the “storefront” – and I use the term loosely – I’d appreciate any advice on how to do so.

Finally, if you’d like to help out, but you’re unable to do so financially, the best thing you can do is spread the word about the site. Tell your friends to come and check out the strips! I’d be awfully grateful. Also, be sure to “check out” the “Deal of the Day” ad to the bottom right. Game Access offers some pretty sweet deals, and there’s a new one each day. Both Game Access and I would be pretty grateful if you’d click on over to have a better look. (Well I would be. ^^;)

Oh! And before I forget, if you happened to be enjoying the “Dungeons & Dragons” storyline, don’t worry, it’s not going anywhere. I’m actually planning of making this a pretty lengthy story arc, so there will be more D&D goodness on Monday. Just expect to see a few “gag of the day” type strips to show up now and then, as I still really enjoy giving my 2 cents on day-to-day geekeries, both video game related, and not.

With that said, live long and prosper, and let’s hope the new Star Trek movie opening this week-end turns out to be as awesome as some people are claiming it to be.

On this episode of This Old House… Oh, wait. Wrong show.

But, if you’re here for the Northern Geekcast, you’ve come to the right place!

On this episode, we revisit our discussions about Blockbuster and PETA, we get “controversial” with Six Days in Fallujah, and we share our thoughts on (and dread of) the Shadow of the Colossus movie. In Designer’s Corner we go over what we’d like to see in the new Square MMO, and during General Geekeries, we talk about our failed attempt at a 24-Hour Comic Day. (Go us!)

 

 Northern Geekcast: Episode 009: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

A few weeks ago, I came across this article by the lovely Colette Bennett featuring some awesome footwear by Puma. Now, I’ve got to tell you,  I’m not usually the type to splurge on something as frivolous as shoes – most of my sneakers have cost me less than 30$ – but when I laid eyes on these beauties, I knew right then and there why I had been born with feet!

(You can click the images to make them bigger.)

My sparkling slippers arrived in the mail today:

Here they are in action~!

Speaking of shiny, my copy of Scott Pilgrim VS The Universe finally arrived in all it’s shiny foil cover glory!

SO SHINY~! *___*

So you might have noticed while visiting the site this morning (although probably not, because it’s Sunday – Easter Sunday at that – and almost no one ever comes here on Sundays) that the Forums have disappeared. Well, there’s a good reason for that: I took them down.

I didn’t find there was much interest in the forums; most of the posts were provided by me and by spambots. In fact, I woke up this morning to find that a good dozen possible spammers had joined. Sometimes it would be easy to tell who the spammers were; they would have names like CialisOnlineWeekEndSpecial or AdobePhotoshop4Sale. Sometimes, however, they would have names like kievorsopolous or vlakdivierge, so I would never be quite sure whether I was kicking a spammer or simply some Scandinavian fellow who just so happened to have a name I’ve never heard before. In the end, I’d always tell myself that, if kiev or vlak were real people, and had actual interest in joining the forums, they would  have posted a quick “hello world” message in the intro section.

With that said, I’m still very much interested in forming a NG community, which is why I’m kicking around the idea of allowing comments. The reason I chose to go the forum route originally was because I didn’t want any spam or junk on the main page. By entering the forums it was like saying “This is a place you can come and share your thoughts on things, but understand that this is a DMZ, and you are entering in here by your own free will.” whereas the main page should be somewhere safe, where anyone should be able to venture without having to worry about what they’ll see or read – other than my sporadic nonsense, of course.

But forums require that little extra bit of effort: you have to load the forum page, create a login and sign in, and only then can you say what’s on your mind. With comments, it can be as easy as writing down what’s on the top of your head, then and there. Sometimes that’s all people want.

So let’s try that out. I’ll leave the comments section open for about a week to test the waters. Let me know what you think. Do you like the idea of letting people post comments? Do you think it’s a bad idea? Have I doomed us all by opening up the floodgates? Let’s find out!