Squid Grip Unboxing

First Full Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer

The first trailer for Avengers: Age of Ultron was supposed to be released during next week's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. However, an unexpected leak has now resulted in Marvel releasing the trailer officially in its stunning HD glory. "There are no strings on me!"

Full trailer

Halloween ComicFest

STL Scatter Jam The Rise of Balthazar

The Rise of Balthazar is finally here! This is the results of our 5 man team at STL Scatter Jam a few weeks ago. Going into this Scatter Jam only 1 of us had created a game before and that was done awhile ago. 

We loved this project and have learned so much. I personally can not wait to make another game and keep building on what we learned.

Checkout the video and let us know what you think in the comments!

Checkout some of the art we created for this project.

Intro title slides

Sprite Sheets

Game pieces

Thanks for everyones hard work on this! 

Ethan Weber, Phil Freeman, Nic Weber, Zach Cavarretta, Ryan Dampf

Destiny: Iron Banner

Weekend Pickups!

STL Scatter Jam Part 2

We only have 4 hrs left! Here is a little something to hold you over till we show you the final game this evening!

STL Scatter Jam Part 1

Me and 4 other amazingly talented guys are going to make a game this weekend come watch us on twitch www.twitch.tv/iamryzn and learn what its all about!

Ever wanted to make a video game? HERE'S WHAT YOU DO.

1. Grab a friend. Or several! This is your Crew — the people you'll be making your game with.
2. Invent a name for your Crew and register here
3. Bring your Crew to the opening ceremony, get pumped, and get the theme.
4. SCATTER! You and your Crew go somewhere to work together, and crank out a game over the next 48 hours. 
   Non-WashU participants may not work in WashU facilities during the event, as per policy..
5. Return to the closing ceremony and show it all off to the roar of the crowd, including local developers from Butterscotch Shenanigans, Graphite Lab, Pixel Press, Happy Badger Studio,Riot Games, Simutronics, Upheaval Arts, Speedbump Studios, as well as musical guest Fat Bard, who will be playing live covers of video game tunes.

Strange Folk Festival

This weekend me and my wife amanda had a great time at the Strand Folk Festival! Check out 2 of my favorite artists and give them some love.

Mario Mora

You can get ahold of Mario's work at www.theartisanrogue.com

Jeffery Johnson

You can get ahold of Jeffery's work at lifewithgirls.net

FlamingToast.com

I found out about FlamingToast.com while watching one of my favorite YouTube channels IGN. The segment showed a brief shot of a DualShock 4 controller and it had writing in the light bar. I was instantly interested and wondered how they could make their light bar display text? After some more looking into it I found a link for FlamingToast.com. 

When I first found the site, I'd say right at the beginning of 2014 they had one thing and that was custom light bar decals. Also, due to the fact that they were featured in so many big name magazines and YouTube channels there turn around time was quite long. As a matter of fact my first order was for 2 custom light bar decals. 1 was "iCON" which was the name in all of my characters I made in DC Universe Online and the other was "JapAmAda inc." which was the name of our league in the same game. As I mentioned the turn around time was quite long, well it took nearly 5 weeks to get my first set of decals I ordered from them. Which was understandable and I wasn't in much of a hurry for them. 

Well I decided to order another set of them to help promote both my blog and our website here livingthenerdlife.com and here are a few pics of what I had done.

This time the turn around was fast, less than 5 days. Plus, when I went to the site I found that they have add more than just custom light bar decals. Now you can find great skins for you consoles, headset decals and of course new custom light bar decal options. 

So like I said if you haven't yet you should definitely go check them out at FlamingToast.com right now all of their custom decals are on sale. Both of my custom decals even my custom logo for Thee.Social.Nerd were just $2.75 a piece.

Thanks for checking out this post I hope you like what you see. Come back for more nerd in the future!

PixelPop Festival

PixelPop was allot of fun I check out a ton of different game here are 3 of my favorite!

Hive Jump

This game has great art and the action never stops coming at you! I kickstarted this game and can not wait to get my hands on the final version. The only thing I had trouble with is that it was very easy to loose your character on screen and then to also be left behind as your crew moves on. I really enjoyed this game though and can't wait to play the final version.

Pixel Press's Adventure Time Game Wizards

I have always been a huge fan of Adventure Time so when I heard pixel press was making this game I was super excited! After playing a few levels I can not wait to get my hands on the final version of this game! My favorite character was Bimo. In the game is he much smaller then everyone else and there are special areas that only he can get to because of his size. Great game and can't wait to play it more!

Cards and Castles

Cards and Castles was a new game that I discovered at the Festival. It was easy to pick it up and start playing right away it has a chess slash ccg feel. I wish the battle field had better art and would change from level to level. I think this game is interesting and has potential but after playing 10-15 levels I started to realize that the game play and cards are all very similar. It was a good time waister but I wouldn't spend any money on this game. 

Let me know what your favorite game is in the comments below!

Gotham: Premier

My thoughts on Gotham: thee.social.nerd

Being a Batman fan from when I was younger I have been looking forward to this premiere since I heard of it being announced. Now I must admit my knowledge of Gotham and its residents isn’t the best. I grew up with Keaton, Kilmer and Clooney as my Bat”Men”. I never dove deep into comics until recently and even now I collect comics for the cover art and nostalgia. So Gotham was appealing to me to help get some background on the city and villains before Bruce Wayne dawns the cape of Batman.

All of that being said what a great series opener. Even if I wasn’t a fan of Batman I’d be extremely interested in this show. It’s pretty apparent from the get go that Gotham seems to be pretty corrupt, not only in the streets but within the GCPD as well. Without giving away any spoilers (which I do further down in the post but you will be warned prior) Gotham introduces us to many classic characters such as James Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Fish, Falcone, Oswald Cobblepot, Bruce Wayne and Alfred. Other characters are there as well but being the first episode there is plenty of time to build their story.

Do I recommend someone to watch this? Absolutely  

PLEASE KNOW IF YOU CONTINUE READING BELOW THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN FACT THE ENTIRE EPISODE IS WRITTEN OUT FOR YOU BELOW

Gotham opens with what appears to be Catwoman on the rooftops of Gotham.

She jumps down into a marketplace where she proceeds to steal some milk and a wallet off a man who notices and takes chase. She escapes to an alley where she feeds the milk to a stray cat when she sees the Wayne family exiting the theatre into the same alley.

The Wayne's are approached by a man armed with a gun that demands money and Jewell's but decides to shoot them even though they complied. The mystery girl sits watching everything take place. Little Bruce screams us into the next scene.

Next scene is in Gotham PD where we meet Jim Gordon who is trying to calm a crazed detainee. He goes all Bruce Lee and subdues the bad guy and that’s when we meet Harvey Bullock when they are called to the scene of the double homicide of the Wayne family. Harvey proceeds to inspect the bodies while Jim goes to console Bruce.

Bruce replays his story of the incident to Jim where he was blaming himself for the incident because he should have done something to stop the bad guy. Jim promises to Bruce that he will find the guy that did this and that’s when Alfred is introduced to the show. Bruce sees Alfred and runs for his comfort.

Gotham introduction

Bullock & Gordon are at a dinner discussing what they just found out when the major crime unit comes in offering to take over the case. Tensions flare a bit and Bullock decides to handle the case himself although he was looking to hand over the case when he first arrived on the crime scene.

Back to the PD where Bullock is trying to take Gordon off the case because he is a rookie in the force, but to no prevail. Bullock said you're a nice guy this city is no place for nice guys. Bullock says fine lets go catch us some muggers. Bullock and Gordon are now on the streets catching, bringing in and questioning multiple bad guys.

Since they weren't able to get any leads they decide to go see Fish Mooney who works for Carmine Falcone. Fish is found I the alley with what looks like the Penguin plus other thugs beating a man to get her money. As Fish and Bullock talk, Gordon couldn't help himself but to go see what the screams in the back were coming from.

Great quote of "you're the new guy in town huh? How do you like it so far?" From one of Fish' men.

Gordon goes back in to get Bullock when Bullock kisses Fish and proceeds to walk out. This didn’t seem to sit too well with Gordon.

Gordon is back in his apartment where we meet Barbara, who is not ugly. Gordon gets a call from Bullock who said he got a lead and had Gordon meet him. You also notice at this point that Bullock seems to have a drinking problem.

Bullocks lead is for a man named Mario Pepper where his daughter Ivy answers the door saying he was mean. When they begin to question him and ask to search the household with reasonable cause Mario begins to flee. Opening fire on Gordon and running through the streets of Gotham. Gordon catches up to Mario and a fight ensues. Just when Mario gains the upper hand Bullock fires a shot killing Mario, followed by a cheeky thank you from Gordon.

Back at the Pepper household they search a little box for the pearl necklace. They indeed find said necklace. But right after Oswald is shown entering a car with the major crime unit and tells them Fish planted the pearls on Mario with the help of the GCPD. They question his motives for ratting out his boss.

The following scene shows Bruce at the graveyard for his parent’s funeral services and thanks Gordon for keeping his promise.

Major crimes unit goes to Barbara, Gordon's fiancé and told her that the GCPD framed Mario and she admittedly denied it. She asked if she knew Gordon like she knows Barbara. Which she questions Barbara's background.

Gordon goes back to the Pepper household and they know that the GCPD framed their husband and father. Gordon goes to the closet to where he didn't find shiny shoes which Bruce described earlier in the show.

Gordon goes to Bullock to tell him what he found out. Gordon is blaming Fish for the cover-up of the Wayne murders. He goes to question Fish who wouldn't tell him anything said she should ask Bullock. With the entrance of Fish' muscle that answered his question. They proceed to tussle with Gordon and Fish delivers the knockout blow.

The next morning Barbara goes to Bullock and said Gordon didn’t return home last night in which Bullock said he was on a stakeout. Bullock shows up where Fish' men are in a butchers freezer with Gordon strung up upside down. Bullock requested to speak with Fish and Bullock demands to let him go, someone ratted her out. Fish tells her goons to string up Bullock and kill him to for threatening her.

Fish now knows it was Oswald and she confronts him where he denied betraying her. She begins to beat him as she called him her little penguin.

We are back in the butcher’s freezer where a man comes out in full on Texas Chainsaw garb to dismantle both Gordon and Bullock. When the freezers doors open and we are introduced to Falcone and his men killing all of Fish' men except for one who Falcone said "there are rules, Fish does not kill a cop without asking me force."

Gordon talks to Falcone who introduces himself. Falcone said "you can’t have organized crime without law and order" he also declares his love for Gotham. Falcone asks Gordon what it would do to Gotham if he brings down City Hall and the GCPD even if he could.

Bullock and Gordon are seen in a car where Bullock opens the trunk and Oswald is in there. Bullock tells Gordon that Falcone wants him to walk to the end if the pier and kill Oswald for ratting out Fish and to prove he is on board. If Gordon doesn’t do it then Bullock has to kill both of them.

Gordon walks Oswald to the end of the pier where he starts revealing others are looking to take over Falcone’s reign and he can help Gordon. Gordon tells Oswald to never come back firing a shot and pushing him into the water looking like he killed him. Bullock is seen saying "that a boy."

Gordon goes to tell Bruce that Mario wasn’t the right guy. He was framed but promises again to find him and try to clean up the police department in the process. As Gordon leaves the Wayne residence you see Catwoman again for the first time since the intro watching him.

The episode ends with Oswald coming out of the water and approaching a fisherman who he kills and begins eating said fishers food.