December 24, 2019 • 44 mins
Ify does the Decade in review!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, y'all. It's December by now. If you waited
a while, you might not have gotten what you wanted
for Christmas. So how about you head over to te
public dot com slash Nerdificent and use the code nerd
Treat thirty because from December you have thirty percent off
(00:20):
so you can get all that Nerdificent gear that you want.
So that's nerd Treat thirty at the checkout. You can
even use that across the whole website. Feel free to
use it by as much stuff as you want, and
you know, just treat yourself. Hello, Hello, how's it going everyone?
(00:47):
Welcome to another episode of Nerdificent. And it's only me
in the studio because we're doing something special, So Danny's
very busy and getting ready to travel and you know,
it's down to the wire here, so there's no guests.
It's just me and you talking to your ear. And
not only is the year ending this year, but so
is the decade. So I wanted to take a big
(01:08):
look back at the best and nerdiest of this decade
and really break it down with y'all. So this one's
gonna be a real fun one, I mean, but you know,
to keep tradition going. What I'm nerding out about this
week just the end of not only the decade, but
the Star Wars trilogy. At this point, I uh, the
newest trilogy. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm excited
(01:30):
to see what's in store there. But I will say,
you know, whether you loved it or hate it, at
least it's over all right, y'all. Well, without further ado,
speaking of sci fi, I want to kick off the
first thing. Actually, I'm gonna shelve that because part of
me wanted to go in chronological order or jumping around.
(01:53):
And of course, the first thing I want to talk
about that came out this decade that I was super
excited about was on July fifth, two thousand, fifteen, dragon
Ball came back with dragon Ball Super. So of course
we had the movie that came out before that, but
the season officially started in July fIF two fifteen. It
was off to a rocky start. People weren't feeling the animation,
(02:15):
but soon enough it kicked off. People loved it, and
before you know, we were going into super dope arcs
ending with the Last Battle of the last arc where
we met Juren and everyone's just freaking out and then
we're like, psych we were not doing anymore for a bit.
We're gonna give you the Broly Movie, which came out
in November fourteen of two thousand and eighteen, and was
(02:37):
just left you hungering for more. So hopefully in we'll
get some more Dragon Ball Super. But I will say
that was probably the biggest thing. The first thing I
thought about when doing this episode was Dragon Ball Super
because that was the wildest moment we thought we were
done when z happened and Super came back and blew
us away. Of course there was g T after Ze.
(02:58):
I don't want to fully erase it, but y'all, y'all
saw a G team. But after that, I do want
to talk about kicking off this decade, which you may
it seems so long ago now that I'm like kind
of like looking at it. But in January of two
(03:19):
thousand ten, kicking off the year, BioWare went ahead and
dropped Mass Effect too. Now this is this, This was
like the second installment of Mass Effect would would end
up being a trilogy, but this was the game that
kind of I think solidified Mass Effect as the best
sci fi experience. Mass Effect one was a good time.
(03:40):
I didn't come in until two. Actually, no, that's that's
not true. I actually did play one before two because
I remember liking that there weren't any Mako missions, and
if you don't know what the MAKO is, it was
a kind of like a driving mission on the planet.
And it was bad and some people like it, most
people hate it. A Mass Effect two came out, continuing
(04:02):
the story of Commander Shepherd and creating more options to
have sex with more aliens and eventually leading into the
third one, which will not make the list. I enjoyed it,
but it did have a huge hickup. Not the ending
was so bad for Mass Effect three that they had
to release a DLC where they did a different ending,
(04:22):
which wasn't that different. I was fine with it, but
you know I was. I don't think I was ready
for the Shepherd's story to end, but it did in
in a neat way that I liked. Most people did not.
But that was that was truly a good time. But
two thousands ten wasn't wasn't just about that. RPG two
(04:43):
thousand ten also brought us Red Dead Redemption, which was
released in May eight or two thousand ten. Red Dead
Redemption was the spiritual successor to rock Stars Red Dead Revolver,
which was a Western game that kind of came and went,
but Red Dead Redemption was a moment. Red Dead Redemption
was when rock Star I think fully settled in and
made a huge cinematic experience. And I think that's what's
(05:05):
cool about it coming out the same year as Mass
Effect Too, because Mass Effect Too, I often at the
time said it was the best set sci fi UH
TV series slash movie that I've ever played. And these
are two games that were cinematic and true to the genre,
and Red Dead Redemption truly had you following James Marston
down his path to outlawed them and him trying to
(05:27):
move past his past. But as we all know in
the wild West, past always catches up to you. It
received rave reviews across the board and then led to
some really cool DLC that came out in One Game
of the Year from v g X and uh Best
Original Score, Best Song in a Game, and Best Original Game.
And I remember Red Dead Red Dead Redemption. I keep
(05:50):
trying to say Revolver. I had the soundtrack for it.
That's how into it I was. Is the soundtrack was
fired and it was by Jose Gonzalez, if I remember correctly,
it was just looking at it. Um, yeah, Jose Gonzalez,
he had he won Best Song. But it was a
beautiful soundtrack that complimented the truly cinematic experience in video
(06:10):
games and I truly, truly, truly, truly, Uh, if you
haven't played it one or two, I definitely would suggest
you go check it out. This one's gonna be a
more personal one because I think across the board and
not everyone was as big of a fan of this
as as I was. In two thousand ten, Halo Reach
(06:31):
was released. It was a prequel to the Halo series
that kind of showed the invasion that led to complete decimation.
And it's my favorite type of story trope where you
start off. It's kind of like Rogue one where you
start off and you know these heroes won't make it,
but you want to see how they go out, and
it would do. It was truly, um a beautiful experience.
(06:54):
I don't want to say cinematic again, even though it was.
I feel like I'm saying cinematic too many times times.
But it was a beautiful experience that I truly, truly uh.
I hope everyone gets a chance to play now that
Master Chief collection is out on PC. Now let's talk
about some movies here. In two thousand ten, we had
the release of Kick Ask, which who the comic was
(07:18):
fired and so was the movie. The movie I think
really tightened up some parts of the comic that you know,
just weren't I guess you could say kosher. And I
think now the movie doesn't hold up as well, but
I truly did enjoy it, and I think that was
a big moment for superhero movies because it also kind
of invited the idea of superhero movies outside of the
(07:40):
now successful m c U formula. I gotta put some
respect on Scott Pilgrim's name because that also came out
in two thousand ten, which was truly a fun movie,
and the comic is super fun. If you haven't checked
it out yet, might I suggest you do it too.
Thousand and eleven was a big year. I was talking
(08:02):
about the m c U, and I think this was
the one that solidified the formula because on July nineteenth,
two thousand and eleven, we had Captain America, the first Avenger,
good old Chris Evans stepping up to the plate and
solidifying himself as Steve Rogers. I mean he had the body,
he had the I mean he really This was the
(08:24):
watching Captain America was truly the first time I I
knew it was gonna work because Captain America was a
tricky character to do because he's very much like Superman
in the sense that he's corny, he's easy. He wants
the best in people. But if you can get someone
who can get you to believe in that, who can
get you to believe in justice, faith and not be
(08:45):
jaded about it, then you have your Steve Rogers. And
I think Chris Evans nailed that. And you know in
this you know it's good to revisit it because you
know he he ends the mantel this decade, you know,
as as we got to the end of the end game.
But ut this was this first pay and that wasn't
two thousand eleven. Also in two thousand eleven we got
(09:06):
Thor which honestly, I'm not it was great, but it's
it doesn't hold a candle for me. Um. But if
we want to talk about things that really stunk, then
I'm definitely gonna have to say Green Lantern also came
out in two thousand eleven. However, I will give a
shout out because I'll always put respect on the Fast
(09:26):
series name. Fast five also came out in two thousand eleven,
which really was the one that kind of revitalized the series,
and I gotta say, truly, it deserves to be on
this list. I mean, it's not necessarily the most quote
unquote nerdy thing, but I feel like the Fast series
is truly turning into a superhero universe when you're watching
(09:49):
kind of the way that the movies are going, so truly, uh, truly,
I'm gonna hold a point. I'm gonna say it's nerdy,
and I think you can be nerdy abou about it.
So yeah, Past five two thousand eleven. So in the
world of video games, two thousand eleven led to the
release of Dark Souls, which Dark Souls has solidified its
(10:13):
place as the super try hard if you're really serious
about gaming. It's created its own genre, which is now
referred to as a Soul's type, which is adventure games
that required tight controls, quick reflexes, and is completely unforgiven
and without Dark Souls coming into the foray, the sequel
to um Demon Souls. Uh, we wouldn't have our Secu dos.
(10:35):
We honestly wouldn't even have Jedi Fall in Order because
Jedi Jedi f Jedi Fall in Order borrows a lot
of things from the soul's type genre. So shout out
to Dark Souls in two thousand eleven, unknowingly creating a
whole new genre of video games and really blown onto
the scene in a exciting way. Also, we had another
(10:55):
bio ware hit in two thousand eleven with Dragon Age two.
Dragon Age two was the second installment of the dragon
Age series and still going good. I mean, this was
well if you know where Dragon Age kind of ended up.
Even though I am a fan of Inquisition, even though
it was critically kind of panned. Uh, dragon Age too
really elevated the series in a big way. Beautiful story
(11:19):
in the same way that they were telling this artful
sci fi masterpiece, they were doing the same thing with
Dragon Age in a fantasy setting. And I truly put
so many hours in this game, and if you have origin,
you should pick it up and give it another replay
because it was I think it definitely was one of
the breakout games of that year. But speaking of finishing
(11:40):
trilogies and so on and so forth. In two thousand eleven,
we did have the End of Years of War three,
which finally which was the final chapter of that first trilogy.
We found and found out we happened with Dom and
his wife and we saw it was kind of a
heartbreaking into that, but it was a It was a
beautiful game, and if you're Gears fan, you really enjoyed it.
If you weren't, you did. I mean, I feel like
(12:01):
Gears are hit and missed for people, but I did
enjoy the trilogy. I thought it was phenomenal, and Gears
three definitely is gonna be up there for me. As
far as game releases. Also, I do want to shout
out some smaller games that came out in two thousand
and eleven, which was Bastion, which is an artful indie game.
It truly if you haven't played Bastion, it still holds up.
(12:24):
You can pick it up. It was developed by Super
Giant Games, released on July twenty and it was it's
kind of like a fantasy floating themed environment where you're
kind of like doing like light platform or work. And
I mean the art of this game is just truly gorgeous.
It almost uh, it's it's right up there with It
(12:46):
reminded me of Braid a lot, which was a puzzle
platform er that kind of used a lot of um
beautiful backgrounds and such. So if we move forward into
two thousand and twelve, we can finally start talking mug
games like Dishonored, which was truly so fun. I can't
I found Dishonored pretty late in the game, and Dishonored
(13:08):
was a game that you could complete it anyway that
you wanted it. It follows, you know, it's kind of
has the Steam punky you know, vibe. It's by Bethesda,
and you can either be stealthy and and like totally
go through the game without killing anybody doing non lethal takedowns,
or you can do kills, and based on how you
(13:30):
do it, uh, it changes the ending. So you're following
the story of Corville Atano, who was a bodyguard of
the Empress and who was framed for the Empress's murder
and now with the exchange of power in the fictional
city of Dunwall, it forces him to fight his way
to redeem his name and you know, restore the rightful
(13:52):
power into the rightful air into power, I guess is
what I'm meant to say. And then of course in
two thousands welve is where we have the mass Effect three.
But you know, like I said, um not wasn't the
biggest fan of of that. I mean I was. I
guess what I'm trying to say is everyone wasn't the
biggest fan, but I was a huge fan of it.
(14:13):
I hope you know, let me know. Were you a
fan of mass Effect three? Yes? Or no? I know
we got a lot of mass Effect heads and the
nerd fan so just let me know. In this year,
Blizzards and kind of weird hot Water due to the
kind of issues that it's kind of having with its
support of certain regimes. But in two thousand twelve, Blizzard
released Diablo three, and this was interesting because as someone
(14:37):
who loves Diablo three didn't really play the prior Diablos,
this one was one that you know, kind of was
hit or miss for some fans. They did not like
how different. It was. For me, I fell in love
with the game and just played through it, and then
it only got better as time went on, because eventually
it led to having its season system and really just
(14:58):
pushing the game. I think to new how Nights in
the long chevity of that game, just kind of being
able to live on definitely got a shout out. In
two thousand twelve, Counterstrike Global Offense launched. Uh. I mean
before this, people were playing counter Strike Source before that
one point five. But Global Offense is the newest iteration
(15:18):
of counter Strike and kind of the kind of platform
that a lot of e sports used. You know, the
s L has been uh, the counter Strike Go League
is still alive and well. And I'm still a Fanatics fan,
you know, even though they've they've kind of fell off.
But back when I was watching seriously Fanatics, we you know,
(15:40):
we we were great. So in two thousand twelve was
a very big moment for movies because two thousand and
twelve is when we got the first Avengers. This was
when it all galvanized. This is the moment we've all
been waiting for. This is what built that strong MCU
foundation and what we would eventually revisit to see how
(16:02):
many Easter eggs we can pull out and reuse from
this moment. But Avengers comes out. It's a smash hit,
a home run, and I I wish I can forget
the feelings I felt up until now. It's just to
witness Avengers for the first time again, because I remember
being so blown to blown away because I didn't think
(16:24):
it was possible, yet they pulled it off. Little did
I know in about six more years they're gonna blow
my mind yet again. But Avengers solid point. And you know,
I'm gonna do a quick shout out in two thousand
twelve to the Hobbit, even though you know, I'm not
the biggest Tolkien fan and you know I I dabbled,
but not the biggest Tolkien fan. But the Hobbit did
drop and people were messing with that. So two thousand
(16:49):
thirteen movies were We're interesting because two thirteen is when
we got a Man of Steel. Two thirteen was when
we got Iron Man three. So as far as like
nerdy movies, uh, you know, it was it was. It
was rough. We had the Wolverine. Um, yeah, it was.
(17:11):
It was a rough year for movies. I will say
the g I. Joe movie was pretty solid, and of
course wow, yeah, two thousand thirteen was a rough part
of the nerd dom in decade because you have Buckle up,
Man of Steel, Iron Man three, four, Dark World. You know,
these were all kind of movies The Wolverine that the
(17:34):
nerd community just weren't really rocking with, and um and
those all came out in two thousand. Even like Kick
Ass two wasn't as exciting as Kick As one for me,
so it truly truly seemed kind of bleak. But then
we had bright spots like movies like Uh, snow Piercer
which came out and was pretty dang solid and uh
(17:59):
and that was pretty much the breakout for me that year.
But it truly it was. It was Hansel and Gretel
two thousand and thirteen in in in movies, well, it
was something we're gonna look back and be like, yep,
that was a thing that happened. However, in video games
(18:21):
it was a breakout year because in two thousand and
thirteen was when we got Grand Theft Auto five, which
was a phenomenal. I can't speak highly enough about how
much Grand Theft Auto Five raised the bar. Not only
doesn't introduce three main characters, one of them being black,
(18:42):
which was you know, we haven't seen a black protagonist
since San Andreas. I will say Nicole Belck was fun.
I really did enjoy the story of four, but being
able to play a black, you know character in a
Grand Theft Auto is something that I enjoy. Maybe with
six will get some women in there, but five, you know,
we're following three protagonists. It's a beautiful story about three
(19:06):
three people in crime at in different points of their
crime career. So you have Franklin, who's kind of like
a newbie to the game. He wants to get involved
in big crime stuff, but you know, he's, uh, he's
he's he's just trying to figure his way. Then you
have Michael, who's like old school, he's in witness protection,
knows the game like the back of his hand, but
he's trying to stay out of it. And then we
(19:28):
introduced later into the game, Uh, Trevor, who's this wild
card who just really is is just you can't you
can't figure out what he's up to, so much so
that even when you switch to his character in the game,
you'll end up in random places, sometimes on an island
way off from the city, trying to figure out where
you're gonna go. And Grand Theft Out of Five also
(19:50):
introduced the Grand Theft Auto Online, which is still going
strong till this Day. This was released in two thousand
thirteen and it's still going strong right now. And Grand
Thought and Grand Theft Auto five because you know they
it eventually launched like the RP community, so you have
g t A r P and like I said, once
you put g t A and PC, all the mods
(20:13):
give longevity to the game, so even if you wanted
to buy it by the game now, you'd still have
a community to play with online. Another game that came
out in two thousand thirteen, when that's interesting to talk
about now because we're going to get the next installment
very soon was the Last of Us. Naughty Dog came
through and gave us just the most phenomenal video game
(20:35):
experience with the Last of Us and UH it truly
um It's it follows you know, uh to to uh
two main characters, Ellie being escorted by Joel, a smuggler
who who who has taken in Ellie and they it's Joel,
you know, early in the game, loses his own daughter,
(20:56):
so it kind of leads to this father daughter relationship
and it just if you haven't played it, definitely pick
it up now so you can be ready when part
two comes out, which is currently scheduled to come out
in a so just just check out Last of Us.
It's truly a piece of work of art. And then
(21:17):
we also had BioShock Infinite, which I truly enjoyed. It
was a very interesting take on the BioShock franchise in
the ending. Really, you know, some people like felt some
type of way about it. I actually truly loved it
because it took something that kind of uh was a
constant in in the in the series and flipped it
(21:41):
on its head. So definitely, definitely, definitely please check out
BioShock Infinite as well. But if you have to choose
between that and Last of Us, of course Last of Us. Uh.
And we also have The Stanley Parable, which was an
indie game that is another game that plays with the
format of video games. Check that out. We had the
(22:01):
drop of Dota two, which you know, if you listen
to our Mobile episode you heard uh Me Danny and
producer Dan talking about that, and Injustice God's among Us,
which actually was a solid fighting game. The community couldn't
really the fighting game community really couldn't build off of it.
That was a fighting game that Sonic Fox was actually
(22:23):
dominating it, but the community just wasn't there, so it
kind of fell off. Also, I want to shout out
war Frame, a free to play game that came out
in two thousand, probably one of the best free to
play games ever just that period, point blank. We're gonna
go through the rest of the decade, but right now,
(22:43):
we just need to take a quick break. So why
don't you just uh go grab a glass of water.
I'll see you in a bit and we're back doing everyone.
How's it going. It's your boy if he and we're
(23:06):
going through the best of the decade, and we've been
going through the best things and nerd them. We've been
primarily talking about video games and movies, so I'm probably
gonna have to go back towards the end of this
to really talk about stuff that happened on TV as well.
But but that's gonna be more Hopscotch Hopping. Around two
(23:26):
fourteen released one of my favorite game franchises at the time.
It was rocky, but eventually it came around to be
a solid game, which was Destiny. Uh Destiny dropped and
it and you know, like I said, it's it was
kind of rocky year one and then, but the excitement
was there. It kind of fell off. And then year
two when Taking King was released, everyone was hyped about
(23:49):
the game. It was great, and then we ran into
Destiny too, and it seemed like it was the same
kind of issues. But you know, it'd be like that
sometimes truly a good time time. But two thousand and
fourteen I definitely got a shout out tighten Fall. Titan
Fall is a solid if you like Max and you
like shooters, titan Fall was that franchise, But titan Fall
(24:11):
was one of those franchisees that were that was plagued
with like being smushed between too many games and it
kind of fell by the wayside. Uh. Actually, titan Fall
one actually I think had a good push, but it
just really kind of had trouble finding its footing. But
it had a strong community that wrote it out, and
I think truly is one of the most innovative games
(24:35):
that have that came out because it really did kind
of take shooters and kind of want to go in
a different direction with them. And then, of course in
two thousand and fourteen, we also got Divinity Original Sin,
which is probably one of the most solid RPG franchises out.
It's good and if if we want to talk about
(24:55):
solid RPG franchises. I'm also going to give a shout
It's a Banner Saga, which so came out in two
thousand fourteen. Good times all around as far as movies go.
We had this was this was we were back to
the hits because we had Lego movie come out, which
was phenomenal, Captain America Winter Soldier, which is on a
(25:16):
lot of people's lists as the best Captain America. They
really like that, and then Guardians of the Galaxy, which
which was great. So you had Captain America, Winter Soldier
and Guardians of the Galaxy coming out, truly dominating the
year as probably some of the most talked about movies.
I mean, Winter Soldier reintroducing Bucky. It was so fun
(25:40):
and got all the hubbub excited because we knew that
Bucky eventually becomes Cap in the comics. And we'll get
tomorrow on that later. But it was truly an exciting
time for movies, which led us to two thousand fifteen,
and you know two there were lots of you know,
I could I could talk about some some good and
like we said, we had you know, um, Dragon Ball,
(26:03):
super Roly, but the breakout film of I mean, in
two thousand fifteen, we had Dragon Ball Super coming back out.
The breakout film of that year was mad Max Fury Road,
a movie that I saw in the theaters probably three times.
It was so solid and it was interesting because in
the world of all these different you know, uh, reboots
(26:24):
and what have you. You know, we had Jurassic World
come out and it really didn't hit like it wanted to.
I feel like Mad Max Fury Road nailed it, like
just top to bottom, and then Pepper. Throughout the year,
we have things like ant Man coming through, and then
we had the second Avengers movie, Age of Ultron, which
some people felt some type of way, and then we
(26:45):
had Creed as well, which this is very important because
I feel like Creed was the movie because we already
had Fruit val Station, but Creed was the movie that
solidified Googler as just a undefeated director, and that I
feel like it is what led to him being the
director of choice for Black Panther. So very great, super exciting,
(27:08):
good year, you know, and just reminder, we're going through
the best of nerdy things. So just I know you
might be listening to what why aren't you talking about
this movie? In this movie, I'm talking about the nerdy stuff.
You know. There there have been great movies besides that,
but I'm I'm sticking to the nerdy things. But in
two thousand fifteen, and video games was very important too,
(27:29):
because we had h one z one released their Battle Rayal,
which would be the thing that leads to both Player
Unknown Battlegrounds and Fortnite. This is this is this is
the beginning. It's very buggy at this time. It's not
really popping off like that. But h one z one
did release, and it becomes it's gonna be it's it's
gonna be something new, uh to watch out for when
(27:50):
you when it gets when it gets polished. But the
other games we also had that year was Fallout four,
which I truly enjoy. But oh boy, I think the
game of the year that kind of took over in
two thousand fifteen has to be The Witcher three Wild Hunt.
This was the third entry, third and I think final
(28:12):
entry to the Witcher trilogy. Truly beautiful story, fun game play.
It was so solid. It's such a solid entry. It
took me a re visit to really understand how good
it was because it kind of was like it's kind
of difficult if you're not if you're not really on
your stuff. But which are three Wild Hunt really knocked
(28:33):
it out, ended up taking home so many game of
the years. But you also had the release of Rocket League,
which was such a simple yet innovative concept which was
just soccer with cars, and that took off and still
to this day has a large community. We also had
dragon Balls Universe, but there's another dragon Ball game that
(28:54):
kind of I think takes the place of the dragon
Ball game. So but you know, that was at the
time we thought it was great. As far as the
indie game shout out, I definitely want to shot up
bro Verse bro Force, which was an indie game side
scroller that lets you play as these kind of classic, uh,
these classic like action heroes. Two thousand sixteen is a
(29:18):
wonderful time to be a nerd because we got not
only Doctor Strange, not only Captain America Civil War, not
only Rogue one, but we also got Deadpool. But we
also did get Suicide Squad in Batman v. Superman, which
you know, some some people might be into it, me
not at all. Uh. We had the Warcraft movie Come
(29:43):
and Go. I mean it did well in China. I
necessarily didn't hate it that much, but that's because I
knew enough about the warcraft lore that it filled in.
But we also had the Assassin's Creed come and flop
as well. You know, lots, I think there were lots
of hits and misses in two thousand six Um X
Men Apocalypse, you know, it really was all. Two thousand
(30:05):
and sixteen was one of those where it's all over
the place because the highs were high, but the lows
definitely were low. I mean Deadpool. I think it's the
biggest one to talk about here because, like I said,
at this point in in the m c U, they're
established as hits, Like we know they're gonna be good.
We know what to expect. We didn't know what to
come from Deadpool. There was a lot of fan outcry
(30:28):
when people passed on the animatic that was going around online.
The fans went crazy. Till this day. We don't know
if maybe that was part of the plan, maybe they
leaked it on purpose to see if there was, you know,
a want for this. But either way, Ryan Reynolds becomes
Deadpool and you know, not the version that we saw
in the Wolverine and It truly did show us that
(30:52):
not only are we in an era where we can
enjoy nerdy comic book movies, but we can make some
stuff just for the adults and Deadpool. We It was
highly anticipated, it came out, did well, and everyone got excited.
It truly was a fun time to be a nerd
and thinking back, I was like, yeah, two thousand and sixteen,
(31:13):
that was a great year in video games. We had
titan Fall two, which unfortunately came out during the releases
of Battlefield one and I think a new Call of
Duty and just unfortunately it was looked over. It was
a solid game until this day, I still uh, I
still still still am very angry that it didn't get
(31:34):
the respect it deserved. But that led to them eventually
making the uh eventually making the the game Apex Legends,
So you know, through the dust and fire, we did
get something great. You know. Verse two also came out.
Uh so yeah, so we had the release of battle
Born Overwatch and then one other Overwatch style game that
(31:59):
also did not do as well as Overwatch in two
thousand sixteen, and I can't believe we almost missed it
for some reason. Whoever made this uh, this Releaseless put
some disrespect on Overwatch his name. But yeah, Overwatch definitely
came came out and crushed. As far as television, I
gotta put some respect. My hero Academia came out and
(32:20):
this was on April third of two thousand and sixteen.
We had my hero Academia or book you know, hero
depending on who you're talking about, which you know, I
am late to the game on but man, oh man,
am I loving it now? Speaking of heroes, two thousand
seventeen was another great year for heroes. Why because not
(32:41):
only do we get great Marvel movies like thor Ragnarok,
but also we had Wonder Woman which knocked, which showed
us that DC can in fact create dope movies, you know. Uh.
We also had The Last Jedi, which rocked my socks.
I I was a fan of it once again. It's
one of those that it you know, some people in
(33:01):
our miss But we also did have Spider Man Homecoming,
which was a big moment because all this time we
didn't have any Spider Man's, no Spider Man's but we
did see Spider Man in Civil War and now we
got our movie and then Guardians of the Galaxy volume
two dropped as well. All around, it was definitely great,
and of course the second john Wick came out, which
(33:22):
really did heighten from the first john Wick and take
us to a whole new level of killing people. I
guess that's the best one we could say. We also
got Logan as well, so not only are we getting
good Spider movies, good good DC movies, but finally some
good X movies. And once again it followed the same
formula of Deadpool, of being like, Okay, we're going to
(33:44):
take something and uh make it. We're gonna take this
comic book property and make it adult, and it kind
of followed that old man Logan style and it really
did nail it, so good job for them. We also
got the Chumaji movie, which was a surprise breakout hit,
and of course, if I'm gonna talk about john Wick two,
I definitely want to talk about Charlie their own an
(34:06):
Atomic Blonde, which was so solid. It was basically Lady
john Wick, and I was all for it. It was
so good. I if you haven't seen Atomic Blonde, definitely
check that out, because I did. I definitely think it's
worth checking out if if if you're into that, some flops.
We had Dark Tower UM and uh Bright. Oh man,
(34:29):
I almost forgot about Bright. There was there was a
world I lived in before reading that where I thought
where I forgot Bright even existed. But then we also
got it as well. So all in a two thousand
seventeen was a solid year. Two thousand seventeen and video
games too was very interesting because we got uh Fortnite.
(34:49):
Fortnite Battle Royale was dropped, you know as a fluke
alongside uh, alongside you know, the the Save the World version,
which ended up becoming a huge hit. As far as
other video games, you know, we had the Legend of Zelda,
Breadth of the Wild, drop phenomenal Horizon zero Down, Destiny
(35:11):
to which ran into the same first year issues as
the first uh Destiny hell Blades, soon as Sacrifice, which
the sequel was just announced at the Video Game Awards
a few weeks ago. And uh we also had the
uh Dishonored DLC, which featured a woman of color, uh,
which was cool. You know, so some people are like, oh,
(35:32):
if you're it's cool to me. Star Wars Battlefront two
had a shaky release, but now once again that's another
game that kind of came out now and is pretty
solid and worth checking out now because they definitely did
a great job of fixing all the issues that people
were having with it. We had Red Dead, Redemptions to
come out in video games this is last year now,
Spider Man, Marvel Spider Man the video games Solid, God
(35:55):
of War Solid. These are all hits, Smash Ultimate and
then of Horse, the definitive Dragon Ball Z game, Dragonball
Fighter Z, which you know is super fun. You heard
me whining about it, but you know it's there were
there were issues, but in the end, I think it's
a solid fighter flops Fallout seventy six. You also have
(36:19):
Sea of Thieves, which is up going pretty strong too.
I mean, I'm not really into it, but I definitely
see y'all in the discord talking about it, so I'm
gonna shout it out just for y'all, but though, but
I think the big, the big games worth talking about
is gonna be Dragonball Fighter Z, Spider Man, Red Dead,
Redemption to uh and of course for me, Monster Hunt
(36:40):
a World. As far as movies go, I'm just gonna
give a moment of silence because on February six, my
life changed. Black Panther was released It was a film
that captured my favorite superhero and ran with it and nailed.
Shout out to Ryan Coogler, shout out to Chadwick Boseman,
(37:03):
Shout out to everyone making this beautiful thing come to life.
And I mean two thousand and eighteen was we got
Avengers Infinity War, which left everyone just in shambles after
the snap. We had Incredibles to come come through. We
(37:23):
had Spider Man into the Spider Verse. We had Aquaman
which not as bad as people say, same thing with Venom,
yes they did blow their load and not you know,
and and like tease Carnage even though we kind of
saw like a version of carnage in there. And then
we had Deadpool two. You know, so all these things,
(37:44):
yet somehow green Book one, I was taking all those
things over. Green Book winning Solo came out as well.
It was. It was truly, and we had the ant
Man in the Wasp. Truly, this was a solid year
for Nerdy movies. It probably out of all the years
that we've talked about, beyond like a lot of the
(38:05):
kind of intro stuff that came through, I think two
thousand eighteen might be the most solid year of Nerdy movies,
because it's just like the strong entry of the strong
entry of like you know, Black Panther, and you had Aquabam,
which isn't that bad. I'm gonna jump with some respect
(38:27):
on Aquaman ant Man in the Wasp, you know, and
and Avengers Infinity War which lobbed everyone up, and then
of course into the Spider Verse. Solid solid. I need
everybody to know how solid it was. This year in
movies was interesting for because we did get Captain Marvel,
which was amazing. We got In Game which was amazing.
(38:48):
Far From Home also amazing. You know. Unfortunately we had
Dark Phoenix, but Shazam also came out this year. Wild
Sorry it blows me away that Shusam came out this
year in April. I we went through the whole there's movie,
(39:09):
so many movies that came out this year. Detective Pikachu,
you know, the Angry Verse two movie, which I will
still to this day say, was surprisingly extremely funny. Like
I I challenge you now that it's probably out on
video and all that, check it out. Tell me tell
me if I was right, you know, Like, what do
you think Lego movie too? Yeah? This was such a
(39:33):
solid movie year. Um, just as far as nerdy movies go,
but in game, you know obviously probably is going to
have the crowd. I mean, I wouldn't even movie. I
wouldn't movie the Year, and maybe I wouldn't because Far
from Home I think really did uh elevate I mean,
in game wrapped it up, but Far from Home I
(39:54):
think elevated the series to a point that gets me
excited for the next one. And I'm glad they worked
everything out. But also we had in video games Death Stranding,
Jedi Jedi, Fallen Orders, Sword and Shield, Borderlands three, shinmu Uh,
like so many solid games, Second Oh, Shadows, Dietract, Kingdom
Hearts three came out this year, Gears five, like so many.
(40:16):
We are at the point where, like I think we've
caused a snowball of nerdy stuff, that so many nerdy
things are coming out that it's gonna be hard. I
think you have to find now Apex Legends came out
this year. You have to find your favorite thing and
rock with it, because now we're in a wealth of
(40:36):
of delicious nerdy things. I truly, I I truly am excited.
But you know, we're gonna take one last break and
then when we get back, We'll go through some of
the best television of the decade. Uh, and and and
and wrap it up see all in a bit and
(41:03):
welcome back. So we've been going through the best of
the decade. But man oh man, we have a whole
We have so much more time to talk about stuff,
but we don't have much time left. So I'm gonna
try and fit as much of the best TV of
the decade as I can into this segment, which is
(41:24):
Game of Thrones. Even though we didn't like the ending,
it was a great ride and great experience. Breaking Bad
came out this decade, which was probably the best TV
viewing experience I had. Or yeah, on, let me see,
maybe it ended this eve. Yeah, Breaking Bad end at
this decade. It started outside in in January two thousand
(41:45):
and eight, but it ended in two thousand thirteen, which
probably was the best ending of a TV series quite
some time, because it's kind of a lot of people
can't dismount. I feel like Parks and Rex started a
little bit outside of the decade, uh, starting in April
nine of two thousand nine, but ended February two thousand fifteen,
(42:08):
which was one of the greatest comedy television shows. I
think that has been out. We got Rick and Morty
this decade, Black Mirror started in two thousand and eleven, Fargo,
True Detective, there were so much, so much. We had
the Expanse, Start Ships, Creek, Brooklyn nine nine. These are
(42:29):
all phenomenal shows that I can't really get too deep
into because I'm just wrapping it up. Mr Robot, Crazy
Ex Girlfriend and uh, you know, Glee ended in two
thousand fifteen, so and Bob's Burgers started. There's so many
amazing television shows that started in this decade and ended
(42:51):
in this decade. Stranger Things, So that was the best
of the decade. I think I got most of it.
I'm sure I missed some stuff, but definitely what I
want to hear your best of the decade? Uh, just
tweet at me. Let's do um hashtag for this. Let's
say uh hashtag Nerdificent decade. And I'm gonna make it
harder for you. What do you think is the best
(43:14):
nerdy thing that came out this decade? Nerdificent decade? And uh,
you know, at the top of the year when we
get back, we'll read some talk about it for a
bit before we jump into the episode, But thanks for listening.
It's been super fun. I you know, we we went
through the TV, we went through you know, there's there's
just so we are in probably the golden age of
(43:36):
being a nerd because there's so much media coming out
for us. There was a fun thing piece that came
out that said nerds are no longer the underdog, and
I truly believe it. I think there's so much space,
so like, go forth, make nerdy stuff and just nerdy stuff,
and of course stop all gatekeepers. Nerd them is for everyone,
(43:56):
so always make space for everyone to fit. And if
you see anyone trying to exclude anyone, stop it. Like
they said, p J Mask, it's time to be a hero.
Step up. Let's get rid of the gatekeepers. All right, y'all,
thank you so much for listening. And like I said
at the top of the episode, please please please head
over to t public dot com forward slash nerdificent and
(44:17):
use the code nerd treat thirty to get off your
order on te Public so you can finally treat yourself.
This has been an amazing decade. Oh my gosh, I
forgot to tell you the most important thing that happened
this decade. At least for me, we created nerdificent. So
thanks for coming on for this ride, and like we
always say, stay nerdy. Have a wonderful, wonderful Merry Christmas,
(44:43):
Happy New Year, and I'll see y'all later
What's up, y'all. It's December by now. If you waited
a while, you might not have gotten what you wanted
for Christmas. So how about you head over to te
public dot com slash Nerdificent and use the code nerd
Treat thirty because from December you have thirty percent off
(00:20):
so you can get all that Nerdificent gear that you want.
So that's nerd Treat thirty at the checkout. You can
even use that across the whole website. Feel free to
use it by as much stuff as you want, and
you know, just treat yourself. Hello, Hello, how's it going everyone?
(00:47):
Welcome to another episode of Nerdificent. And it's only me
in the studio because we're doing something special, So Danny's
very busy and getting ready to travel and you know,
it's down to the wire here, so there's no guests.
It's just me and you talking to your ear. And
not only is the year ending this year, but so
is the decade. So I wanted to take a big
(01:08):
look back at the best and nerdiest of this decade
and really break it down with y'all. So this one's
gonna be a real fun one, I mean, but you know,
to keep tradition going. What I'm nerding out about this
week just the end of not only the decade, but
the Star Wars trilogy. At this point, I uh, the
newest trilogy. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm excited
(01:30):
to see what's in store there. But I will say,
you know, whether you loved it or hate it, at
least it's over all right, y'all. Well, without further ado,
speaking of sci fi, I want to kick off the
first thing. Actually, I'm gonna shelve that because part of
me wanted to go in chronological order or jumping around.
(01:53):
And of course, the first thing I want to talk
about that came out this decade that I was super
excited about was on July fifth, two thousand, fifteen, dragon
Ball came back with dragon Ball Super. So of course
we had the movie that came out before that, but
the season officially started in July fIF two fifteen. It
was off to a rocky start. People weren't feeling the animation,
(02:15):
but soon enough it kicked off. People loved it, and
before you know, we were going into super dope arcs
ending with the Last Battle of the last arc where
we met Juren and everyone's just freaking out and then
we're like, psych we were not doing anymore for a bit.
We're gonna give you the Broly Movie, which came out
in November fourteen of two thousand and eighteen, and was
(02:37):
just left you hungering for more. So hopefully in we'll
get some more Dragon Ball Super. But I will say
that was probably the biggest thing. The first thing I
thought about when doing this episode was Dragon Ball Super
because that was the wildest moment we thought we were
done when z happened and Super came back and blew
us away. Of course there was g T after Ze.
(02:58):
I don't want to fully erase it, but y'all, y'all
saw a G team. But after that, I do want
to talk about kicking off this decade, which you may
it seems so long ago now that I'm like kind
of like looking at it. But in January of two
(03:19):
thousand ten, kicking off the year, BioWare went ahead and
dropped Mass Effect too. Now this is this, This was
like the second installment of Mass Effect would would end
up being a trilogy, but this was the game that
kind of I think solidified Mass Effect as the best
sci fi experience. Mass Effect one was a good time.
(03:40):
I didn't come in until two. Actually, no, that's that's
not true. I actually did play one before two because
I remember liking that there weren't any Mako missions, and
if you don't know what the MAKO is, it was
a kind of like a driving mission on the planet.
And it was bad and some people like it, most
people hate it. A Mass Effect two came out, continuing
(04:02):
the story of Commander Shepherd and creating more options to
have sex with more aliens and eventually leading into the
third one, which will not make the list. I enjoyed it,
but it did have a huge hickup. Not the ending
was so bad for Mass Effect three that they had
to release a DLC where they did a different ending,
(04:22):
which wasn't that different. I was fine with it, but
you know I was. I don't think I was ready
for the Shepherd's story to end, but it did in
in a neat way that I liked. Most people did not.
But that was that was truly a good time. But
two thousands ten wasn't wasn't just about that. RPG two
(04:43):
thousand ten also brought us Red Dead Redemption, which was
released in May eight or two thousand ten. Red Dead
Redemption was the spiritual successor to rock Stars Red Dead Revolver,
which was a Western game that kind of came and went,
but Red Dead Redemption was a moment. Red Dead Redemption
was when rock Star I think fully settled in and
made a huge cinematic experience. And I think that's what's
(05:05):
cool about it coming out the same year as Mass
Effect Too, because Mass Effect Too, I often at the
time said it was the best set sci fi UH
TV series slash movie that I've ever played. And these
are two games that were cinematic and true to the genre,
and Red Dead Redemption truly had you following James Marston
down his path to outlawed them and him trying to
(05:27):
move past his past. But as we all know in
the wild West, past always catches up to you. It
received rave reviews across the board and then led to
some really cool DLC that came out in One Game
of the Year from v g X and uh Best
Original Score, Best Song in a Game, and Best Original Game.
And I remember Red Dead Red Dead Redemption. I keep
(05:50):
trying to say Revolver. I had the soundtrack for it.
That's how into it I was. Is the soundtrack was
fired and it was by Jose Gonzalez, if I remember correctly,
it was just looking at it. Um, yeah, Jose Gonzalez,
he had he won Best Song. But it was a
beautiful soundtrack that complimented the truly cinematic experience in video
(06:10):
games and I truly, truly, truly, truly, Uh, if you
haven't played it one or two, I definitely would suggest
you go check it out. This one's gonna be a
more personal one because I think across the board and
not everyone was as big of a fan of this
as as I was. In two thousand ten, Halo Reach
(06:31):
was released. It was a prequel to the Halo series
that kind of showed the invasion that led to complete decimation.
And it's my favorite type of story trope where you
start off. It's kind of like Rogue one where you
start off and you know these heroes won't make it,
but you want to see how they go out, and
it would do. It was truly, um a beautiful experience.
(06:54):
I don't want to say cinematic again, even though it was.
I feel like I'm saying cinematic too many times times.
But it was a beautiful experience that I truly, truly uh.
I hope everyone gets a chance to play now that
Master Chief collection is out on PC. Now let's talk
about some movies here. In two thousand ten, we had
the release of Kick Ask, which who the comic was
(07:18):
fired and so was the movie. The movie I think
really tightened up some parts of the comic that you know,
just weren't I guess you could say kosher. And I
think now the movie doesn't hold up as well, but
I truly did enjoy it, and I think that was
a big moment for superhero movies because it also kind
of invited the idea of superhero movies outside of the
(07:40):
now successful m c U formula. I gotta put some
respect on Scott Pilgrim's name because that also came out
in two thousand ten, which was truly a fun movie,
and the comic is super fun. If you haven't checked
it out yet, might I suggest you do it too.
Thousand and eleven was a big year. I was talking
(08:02):
about the m c U, and I think this was
the one that solidified the formula because on July nineteenth,
two thousand and eleven, we had Captain America, the first Avenger,
good old Chris Evans stepping up to the plate and
solidifying himself as Steve Rogers. I mean he had the body,
he had the I mean he really This was the
(08:24):
watching Captain America was truly the first time I I
knew it was gonna work because Captain America was a
tricky character to do because he's very much like Superman
in the sense that he's corny, he's easy. He wants
the best in people. But if you can get someone
who can get you to believe in that, who can
get you to believe in justice, faith and not be
(08:45):
jaded about it, then you have your Steve Rogers. And
I think Chris Evans nailed that. And you know in
this you know it's good to revisit it because you
know he he ends the mantel this decade, you know,
as as we got to the end of the end game.
But ut this was this first pay and that wasn't
two thousand eleven. Also in two thousand eleven we got
(09:06):
Thor which honestly, I'm not it was great, but it's
it doesn't hold a candle for me. Um. But if
we want to talk about things that really stunk, then
I'm definitely gonna have to say Green Lantern also came
out in two thousand eleven. However, I will give a
shout out because I'll always put respect on the Fast
(09:26):
series name. Fast five also came out in two thousand eleven,
which really was the one that kind of revitalized the series,
and I gotta say, truly, it deserves to be on
this list. I mean, it's not necessarily the most quote
unquote nerdy thing, but I feel like the Fast series
is truly turning into a superhero universe when you're watching
(09:49):
kind of the way that the movies are going, so truly, uh, truly,
I'm gonna hold a point. I'm gonna say it's nerdy,
and I think you can be nerdy abou about it.
So yeah, Past five two thousand eleven. So in the
world of video games, two thousand eleven led to the
release of Dark Souls, which Dark Souls has solidified its
(10:13):
place as the super try hard if you're really serious
about gaming. It's created its own genre, which is now
referred to as a Soul's type, which is adventure games
that required tight controls, quick reflexes, and is completely unforgiven
and without Dark Souls coming into the foray, the sequel
to um Demon Souls. Uh, we wouldn't have our Secu dos.
(10:35):
We honestly wouldn't even have Jedi Fall in Order because
Jedi Jedi f Jedi Fall in Order borrows a lot
of things from the soul's type genre. So shout out
to Dark Souls in two thousand eleven, unknowingly creating a
whole new genre of video games and really blown onto
the scene in a exciting way. Also, we had another
(10:55):
bio ware hit in two thousand eleven with Dragon Age two.
Dragon Age two was the second installment of the dragon
Age series and still going good. I mean, this was
well if you know where Dragon Age kind of ended up.
Even though I am a fan of Inquisition, even though
it was critically kind of panned. Uh, dragon Age too
really elevated the series in a big way. Beautiful story
(11:19):
in the same way that they were telling this artful
sci fi masterpiece, they were doing the same thing with
Dragon Age in a fantasy setting. And I truly put
so many hours in this game, and if you have origin,
you should pick it up and give it another replay
because it was I think it definitely was one of
the breakout games of that year. But speaking of finishing
(11:40):
trilogies and so on and so forth. In two thousand eleven,
we did have the End of Years of War three,
which finally which was the final chapter of that first trilogy.
We found and found out we happened with Dom and
his wife and we saw it was kind of a
heartbreaking into that, but it was a It was a
beautiful game, and if you're Gears fan, you really enjoyed it.
If you weren't, you did. I mean, I feel like
(12:01):
Gears are hit and missed for people, but I did
enjoy the trilogy. I thought it was phenomenal, and Gears
three definitely is gonna be up there for me. As
far as game releases. Also, I do want to shout
out some smaller games that came out in two thousand
and eleven, which was Bastion, which is an artful indie game.
It truly if you haven't played Bastion, it still holds up.
(12:24):
You can pick it up. It was developed by Super
Giant Games, released on July twenty and it was it's
kind of like a fantasy floating themed environment where you're
kind of like doing like light platform or work. And
I mean the art of this game is just truly gorgeous.
It almost uh, it's it's right up there with It
(12:46):
reminded me of Braid a lot, which was a puzzle
platform er that kind of used a lot of um
beautiful backgrounds and such. So if we move forward into
two thousand and twelve, we can finally start talking mug
games like Dishonored, which was truly so fun. I can't
I found Dishonored pretty late in the game, and Dishonored
(13:08):
was a game that you could complete it anyway that
you wanted it. It follows, you know, it's kind of
has the Steam punky you know, vibe. It's by Bethesda,
and you can either be stealthy and and like totally
go through the game without killing anybody doing non lethal takedowns,
or you can do kills, and based on how you
(13:30):
do it, uh, it changes the ending. So you're following
the story of Corville Atano, who was a bodyguard of
the Empress and who was framed for the Empress's murder
and now with the exchange of power in the fictional
city of Dunwall, it forces him to fight his way
to redeem his name and you know, restore the rightful
(13:52):
power into the rightful air into power, I guess is
what I'm meant to say. And then of course in
two thousands welve is where we have the mass Effect three.
But you know, like I said, um not wasn't the
biggest fan of of that. I mean I was. I
guess what I'm trying to say is everyone wasn't the
biggest fan, but I was a huge fan of it.
(14:13):
I hope you know, let me know. Were you a
fan of mass Effect three? Yes? Or no? I know
we got a lot of mass Effect heads and the
nerd fan so just let me know. In this year,
Blizzards and kind of weird hot Water due to the
kind of issues that it's kind of having with its
support of certain regimes. But in two thousand twelve, Blizzard
released Diablo three, and this was interesting because as someone
(14:37):
who loves Diablo three didn't really play the prior Diablos,
this one was one that you know, kind of was
hit or miss for some fans. They did not like
how different. It was. For me, I fell in love
with the game and just played through it, and then
it only got better as time went on, because eventually
it led to having its season system and really just
(14:58):
pushing the game. I think to new how Nights in
the long chevity of that game, just kind of being
able to live on definitely got a shout out. In
two thousand twelve, Counterstrike Global Offense launched. Uh. I mean
before this, people were playing counter Strike Source before that
one point five. But Global Offense is the newest iteration
(15:18):
of counter Strike and kind of the kind of platform
that a lot of e sports used. You know, the
s L has been uh, the counter Strike Go League
is still alive and well. And I'm still a Fanatics fan,
you know, even though they've they've kind of fell off.
But back when I was watching seriously Fanatics, we you know,
(15:40):
we we were great. So in two thousand twelve was
a very big moment for movies because two thousand and
twelve is when we got the first Avengers. This was
when it all galvanized. This is the moment we've all
been waiting for. This is what built that strong MCU
foundation and what we would eventually revisit to see how
(16:02):
many Easter eggs we can pull out and reuse from
this moment. But Avengers comes out. It's a smash hit,
a home run, and I I wish I can forget
the feelings I felt up until now. It's just to
witness Avengers for the first time again, because I remember
being so blown to blown away because I didn't think
(16:24):
it was possible, yet they pulled it off. Little did
I know in about six more years they're gonna blow
my mind yet again. But Avengers solid point. And you know,
I'm gonna do a quick shout out in two thousand
twelve to the Hobbit, even though you know, I'm not
the biggest Tolkien fan and you know I I dabbled,
but not the biggest Tolkien fan. But the Hobbit did
drop and people were messing with that. So two thousand
(16:49):
thirteen movies were We're interesting because two thirteen is when
we got a Man of Steel. Two thirteen was when
we got Iron Man three. So as far as like
nerdy movies, uh, you know, it was it was. It
was rough. We had the Wolverine. Um, yeah, it was.
(17:11):
It was a rough year for movies. I will say
the g I. Joe movie was pretty solid, and of
course wow, yeah, two thousand thirteen was a rough part
of the nerd dom in decade because you have Buckle up,
Man of Steel, Iron Man three, four, Dark World. You know,
these were all kind of movies The Wolverine that the
(17:34):
nerd community just weren't really rocking with, and um and
those all came out in two thousand. Even like Kick
Ass two wasn't as exciting as Kick As one for me,
so it truly truly seemed kind of bleak. But then
we had bright spots like movies like Uh, snow Piercer
which came out and was pretty dang solid and uh
(17:59):
and that was pretty much the breakout for me that year.
But it truly it was. It was Hansel and Gretel
two thousand and thirteen in in in movies, well, it
was something we're gonna look back and be like, yep,
that was a thing that happened. However, in video games
(18:21):
it was a breakout year because in two thousand and
thirteen was when we got Grand Theft Auto five, which
was a phenomenal. I can't speak highly enough about how
much Grand Theft Auto Five raised the bar. Not only
doesn't introduce three main characters, one of them being black,
(18:42):
which was you know, we haven't seen a black protagonist
since San Andreas. I will say Nicole Belck was fun.
I really did enjoy the story of four, but being
able to play a black, you know character in a
Grand Theft Auto is something that I enjoy. Maybe with
six will get some women in there, but five, you know,
we're following three protagonists. It's a beautiful story about three
(19:06):
three people in crime at in different points of their
crime career. So you have Franklin, who's kind of like
a newbie to the game. He wants to get involved
in big crime stuff, but you know, he's, uh, he's
he's he's just trying to figure his way. Then you
have Michael, who's like old school, he's in witness protection,
knows the game like the back of his hand, but
he's trying to stay out of it. And then we
(19:28):
introduced later into the game, Uh, Trevor, who's this wild
card who just really is is just you can't you
can't figure out what he's up to, so much so
that even when you switch to his character in the game,
you'll end up in random places, sometimes on an island
way off from the city, trying to figure out where
you're gonna go. And Grand Theft Out of Five also
(19:50):
introduced the Grand Theft Auto Online, which is still going
strong till this Day. This was released in two thousand
thirteen and it's still going strong right now. And Grand
Thought and Grand Theft Auto five because you know they
it eventually launched like the RP community, so you have
g t A r P and like I said, once
you put g t A and PC, all the mods
(20:13):
give longevity to the game, so even if you wanted
to buy it by the game now, you'd still have
a community to play with online. Another game that came
out in two thousand thirteen, when that's interesting to talk
about now because we're going to get the next installment
very soon was the Last of Us. Naughty Dog came
through and gave us just the most phenomenal video game
(20:35):
experience with the Last of Us and UH it truly
um It's it follows you know, uh to to uh
two main characters, Ellie being escorted by Joel, a smuggler
who who who has taken in Ellie and they it's Joel,
you know, early in the game, loses his own daughter,
(20:56):
so it kind of leads to this father daughter relationship
and it just if you haven't played it, definitely pick
it up now so you can be ready when part
two comes out, which is currently scheduled to come out
in a so just just check out Last of Us.
It's truly a piece of work of art. And then
(21:17):
we also had BioShock Infinite, which I truly enjoyed. It
was a very interesting take on the BioShock franchise in
the ending. Really, you know, some people like felt some
type of way about it. I actually truly loved it
because it took something that kind of uh was a
constant in in the in the series and flipped it
(21:41):
on its head. So definitely, definitely, definitely please check out
BioShock Infinite as well. But if you have to choose
between that and Last of Us, of course Last of Us. Uh.
And we also have The Stanley Parable, which was an
indie game that is another game that plays with the
format of video games. Check that out. We had the
(22:01):
drop of Dota two, which you know, if you listen
to our Mobile episode you heard uh Me Danny and
producer Dan talking about that, and Injustice God's among Us,
which actually was a solid fighting game. The community couldn't
really the fighting game community really couldn't build off of it.
That was a fighting game that Sonic Fox was actually
(22:23):
dominating it, but the community just wasn't there, so it
kind of fell off. Also, I want to shout out
war Frame, a free to play game that came out
in two thousand, probably one of the best free to
play games ever just that period, point blank. We're gonna
go through the rest of the decade, but right now,
(22:43):
we just need to take a quick break. So why
don't you just uh go grab a glass of water.
I'll see you in a bit and we're back doing everyone.
How's it going. It's your boy if he and we're
(23:06):
going through the best of the decade, and we've been
going through the best things and nerd them. We've been
primarily talking about video games and movies, so I'm probably
gonna have to go back towards the end of this
to really talk about stuff that happened on TV as well.
But but that's gonna be more Hopscotch Hopping. Around two
(23:26):
fourteen released one of my favorite game franchises at the time.
It was rocky, but eventually it came around to be
a solid game, which was Destiny. Uh Destiny dropped and
it and you know, like I said, it's it was
kind of rocky year one and then, but the excitement
was there. It kind of fell off. And then year
two when Taking King was released, everyone was hyped about
(23:49):
the game. It was great, and then we ran into
Destiny too, and it seemed like it was the same
kind of issues. But you know, it'd be like that
sometimes truly a good time time. But two thousand and
fourteen I definitely got a shout out tighten Fall. Titan
Fall is a solid if you like Max and you
like shooters, titan Fall was that franchise, But titan Fall
(24:11):
was one of those franchisees that were that was plagued
with like being smushed between too many games and it
kind of fell by the wayside. Uh. Actually, titan Fall
one actually I think had a good push, but it
just really kind of had trouble finding its footing. But
it had a strong community that wrote it out, and
I think truly is one of the most innovative games
(24:35):
that have that came out because it really did kind
of take shooters and kind of want to go in
a different direction with them. And then, of course in
two thousand and fourteen, we also got Divinity Original Sin,
which is probably one of the most solid RPG franchises out.
It's good and if if we want to talk about
(24:55):
solid RPG franchises. I'm also going to give a shout
It's a Banner Saga, which so came out in two
thousand fourteen. Good times all around as far as movies go.
We had this was this was we were back to
the hits because we had Lego movie come out, which
was phenomenal, Captain America Winter Soldier, which is on a
(25:16):
lot of people's lists as the best Captain America. They
really like that, and then Guardians of the Galaxy, which
which was great. So you had Captain America, Winter Soldier
and Guardians of the Galaxy coming out, truly dominating the
year as probably some of the most talked about movies.
I mean, Winter Soldier reintroducing Bucky. It was so fun
(25:40):
and got all the hubbub excited because we knew that
Bucky eventually becomes Cap in the comics. And we'll get
tomorrow on that later. But it was truly an exciting
time for movies, which led us to two thousand fifteen,
and you know two there were lots of you know,
I could I could talk about some some good and
like we said, we had you know, um, Dragon Ball,
(26:03):
super Roly, but the breakout film of I mean, in
two thousand fifteen, we had Dragon Ball Super coming back out.
The breakout film of that year was mad Max Fury Road,
a movie that I saw in the theaters probably three times.
It was so solid and it was interesting because in
the world of all these different you know, uh, reboots
(26:24):
and what have you. You know, we had Jurassic World
come out and it really didn't hit like it wanted to.
I feel like Mad Max Fury Road nailed it, like
just top to bottom, and then Pepper. Throughout the year,
we have things like ant Man coming through, and then
we had the second Avengers movie, Age of Ultron, which
some people felt some type of way, and then we
(26:45):
had Creed as well, which this is very important because
I feel like Creed was the movie because we already
had Fruit val Station, but Creed was the movie that
solidified Googler as just a undefeated director, and that I
feel like it is what led to him being the
director of choice for Black Panther. So very great, super exciting,
(27:08):
good year, you know, and just reminder, we're going through
the best of nerdy things. So just I know you
might be listening to what why aren't you talking about
this movie? In this movie, I'm talking about the nerdy stuff.
You know. There there have been great movies besides that,
but I'm I'm sticking to the nerdy things. But in
two thousand fifteen, and video games was very important too,
(27:29):
because we had h one z one released their Battle Rayal,
which would be the thing that leads to both Player
Unknown Battlegrounds and Fortnite. This is this is this is
the beginning. It's very buggy at this time. It's not
really popping off like that. But h one z one
did release, and it becomes it's gonna be it's it's
gonna be something new, uh to watch out for when
(27:50):
you when it gets when it gets polished. But the
other games we also had that year was Fallout four,
which I truly enjoy. But oh boy, I think the
game of the year that kind of took over in
two thousand fifteen has to be The Witcher three Wild Hunt.
This was the third entry, third and I think final
(28:12):
entry to the Witcher trilogy. Truly beautiful story, fun game play.
It was so solid. It's such a solid entry. It
took me a re visit to really understand how good
it was because it kind of was like it's kind
of difficult if you're not if you're not really on
your stuff. But which are three Wild Hunt really knocked
(28:33):
it out, ended up taking home so many game of
the years. But you also had the release of Rocket League,
which was such a simple yet innovative concept which was
just soccer with cars, and that took off and still
to this day has a large community. We also had
dragon Balls Universe, but there's another dragon Ball game that
(28:54):
kind of I think takes the place of the dragon
Ball game. So but you know, that was at the
time we thought it was great. As far as the
indie game shout out, I definitely want to shot up
bro Verse bro Force, which was an indie game side
scroller that lets you play as these kind of classic, uh,
these classic like action heroes. Two thousand sixteen is a
(29:18):
wonderful time to be a nerd because we got not
only Doctor Strange, not only Captain America Civil War, not
only Rogue one, but we also got Deadpool. But we
also did get Suicide Squad in Batman v. Superman, which
you know, some some people might be into it, me
not at all. Uh. We had the Warcraft movie Come
(29:43):
and Go. I mean it did well in China. I
necessarily didn't hate it that much, but that's because I
knew enough about the warcraft lore that it filled in.
But we also had the Assassin's Creed come and flop
as well. You know, lots, I think there were lots
of hits and misses in two thousand six Um X
Men Apocalypse, you know, it really was all. Two thousand
(30:05):
and sixteen was one of those where it's all over
the place because the highs were high, but the lows
definitely were low. I mean Deadpool. I think it's the
biggest one to talk about here because, like I said,
at this point in in the m c U, they're
established as hits, Like we know they're gonna be good.
We know what to expect. We didn't know what to
come from Deadpool. There was a lot of fan outcry
(30:28):
when people passed on the animatic that was going around online.
The fans went crazy. Till this day. We don't know
if maybe that was part of the plan, maybe they
leaked it on purpose to see if there was, you know,
a want for this. But either way, Ryan Reynolds becomes
Deadpool and you know, not the version that we saw
in the Wolverine and It truly did show us that
(30:52):
not only are we in an era where we can
enjoy nerdy comic book movies, but we can make some
stuff just for the adults and Deadpool. We It was
highly anticipated, it came out, did well, and everyone got excited.
It truly was a fun time to be a nerd
and thinking back, I was like, yeah, two thousand and sixteen,
(31:13):
that was a great year in video games. We had
titan Fall two, which unfortunately came out during the releases
of Battlefield one and I think a new Call of
Duty and just unfortunately it was looked over. It was
a solid game until this day, I still uh, I
still still still am very angry that it didn't get
(31:34):
the respect it deserved. But that led to them eventually
making the uh eventually making the the game Apex Legends,
So you know, through the dust and fire, we did
get something great. You know. Verse two also came out.
Uh so yeah, so we had the release of battle
Born Overwatch and then one other Overwatch style game that
(31:59):
also did not do as well as Overwatch in two
thousand sixteen, and I can't believe we almost missed it
for some reason. Whoever made this uh, this Releaseless put
some disrespect on Overwatch his name. But yeah, Overwatch definitely
came came out and crushed. As far as television, I
gotta put some respect. My hero Academia came out and
(32:20):
this was on April third of two thousand and sixteen.
We had my hero Academia or book you know, hero
depending on who you're talking about, which you know, I
am late to the game on but man, oh man,
am I loving it now? Speaking of heroes, two thousand
seventeen was another great year for heroes. Why because not
(32:41):
only do we get great Marvel movies like thor Ragnarok,
but also we had Wonder Woman which knocked, which showed
us that DC can in fact create dope movies, you know. Uh.
We also had The Last Jedi, which rocked my socks.
I I was a fan of it once again. It's
one of those that it you know, some people in
(33:01):
our miss But we also did have Spider Man Homecoming,
which was a big moment because all this time we
didn't have any Spider Man's, no Spider Man's but we
did see Spider Man in Civil War and now we
got our movie and then Guardians of the Galaxy volume
two dropped as well. All around, it was definitely great,
and of course the second john Wick came out, which
(33:22):
really did heighten from the first john Wick and take
us to a whole new level of killing people. I
guess that's the best one we could say. We also
got Logan as well, so not only are we getting
good Spider movies, good good DC movies, but finally some
good X movies. And once again it followed the same
formula of Deadpool, of being like, Okay, we're going to
(33:44):
take something and uh make it. We're gonna take this
comic book property and make it adult, and it kind
of followed that old man Logan style and it really
did nail it, so good job for them. We also
got the Chumaji movie, which was a surprise breakout hit,
and of course, if I'm gonna talk about john Wick two,
I definitely want to talk about Charlie their own an
(34:06):
Atomic Blonde, which was so solid. It was basically Lady
john Wick, and I was all for it. It was
so good. I if you haven't seen Atomic Blonde, definitely
check that out, because I did. I definitely think it's
worth checking out if if if you're into that, some flops.
We had Dark Tower UM and uh Bright. Oh man,
(34:29):
I almost forgot about Bright. There was there was a
world I lived in before reading that where I thought
where I forgot Bright even existed. But then we also
got it as well. So all in a two thousand
seventeen was a solid year. Two thousand seventeen and video
games too was very interesting because we got uh Fortnite.
(34:49):
Fortnite Battle Royale was dropped, you know as a fluke
alongside uh, alongside you know, the the Save the World version,
which ended up becoming a huge hit. As far as
other video games, you know, we had the Legend of Zelda,
Breadth of the Wild, drop phenomenal Horizon zero Down, Destiny
(35:11):
to which ran into the same first year issues as
the first uh Destiny hell Blades, soon as Sacrifice, which
the sequel was just announced at the Video Game Awards
a few weeks ago. And uh we also had the
uh Dishonored DLC, which featured a woman of color, uh,
which was cool. You know, so some people are like, oh,
(35:32):
if you're it's cool to me. Star Wars Battlefront two
had a shaky release, but now once again that's another
game that kind of came out now and is pretty
solid and worth checking out now because they definitely did
a great job of fixing all the issues that people
were having with it. We had Red Dead, Redemptions to
come out in video games this is last year now,
Spider Man, Marvel Spider Man the video games Solid, God
(35:55):
of War Solid. These are all hits, Smash Ultimate and
then of Horse, the definitive Dragon Ball Z game, Dragonball
Fighter Z, which you know is super fun. You heard
me whining about it, but you know it's there were
there were issues, but in the end, I think it's
a solid fighter flops Fallout seventy six. You also have
(36:19):
Sea of Thieves, which is up going pretty strong too.
I mean, I'm not really into it, but I definitely
see y'all in the discord talking about it, so I'm
gonna shout it out just for y'all, but though, but
I think the big, the big games worth talking about
is gonna be Dragonball Fighter Z, Spider Man, Red Dead,
Redemption to uh and of course for me, Monster Hunt
(36:40):
a World. As far as movies go, I'm just gonna
give a moment of silence because on February six, my
life changed. Black Panther was released It was a film
that captured my favorite superhero and ran with it and nailed.
Shout out to Ryan Coogler, shout out to Chadwick Boseman,
(37:03):
Shout out to everyone making this beautiful thing come to life.
And I mean two thousand and eighteen was we got
Avengers Infinity War, which left everyone just in shambles after
the snap. We had Incredibles to come come through. We
(37:23):
had Spider Man into the Spider Verse. We had Aquaman
which not as bad as people say, same thing with Venom,
yes they did blow their load and not you know,
and and like tease Carnage even though we kind of
saw like a version of carnage in there. And then
we had Deadpool two. You know, so all these things,
(37:44):
yet somehow green Book one, I was taking all those
things over. Green Book winning Solo came out as well.
It was. It was truly, and we had the ant
Man in the Wasp. Truly, this was a solid year
for Nerdy movies. It probably out of all the years
that we've talked about, beyond like a lot of the
(38:05):
kind of intro stuff that came through, I think two
thousand eighteen might be the most solid year of Nerdy movies,
because it's just like the strong entry of the strong
entry of like you know, Black Panther, and you had Aquabam,
which isn't that bad. I'm gonna jump with some respect
(38:27):
on Aquaman ant Man in the Wasp, you know, and
and Avengers Infinity War which lobbed everyone up, and then
of course into the Spider Verse. Solid solid. I need
everybody to know how solid it was. This year in
movies was interesting for because we did get Captain Marvel,
which was amazing. We got In Game which was amazing.
(38:48):
Far From Home also amazing. You know. Unfortunately we had
Dark Phoenix, but Shazam also came out this year. Wild
Sorry it blows me away that Shusam came out this
year in April. I we went through the whole there's movie,
(39:09):
so many movies that came out this year. Detective Pikachu,
you know, the Angry Verse two movie, which I will
still to this day say, was surprisingly extremely funny. Like
I I challenge you now that it's probably out on
video and all that, check it out. Tell me tell
me if I was right, you know, Like, what do
you think Lego movie too? Yeah? This was such a
(39:33):
solid movie year. Um, just as far as nerdy movies go,
but in game, you know obviously probably is going to
have the crowd. I mean, I wouldn't even movie. I
wouldn't movie the Year, and maybe I wouldn't because Far
from Home I think really did uh elevate I mean,
in game wrapped it up, but Far from Home I
(39:54):
think elevated the series to a point that gets me
excited for the next one. And I'm glad they worked
everything out. But also we had in video games Death Stranding,
Jedi Jedi, Fallen Orders, Sword and Shield, Borderlands three, shinmu Uh,
like so many solid games, Second Oh, Shadows, Dietract, Kingdom
Hearts three came out this year, Gears five, like so many.
(40:16):
We are at the point where, like I think we've
caused a snowball of nerdy stuff, that so many nerdy
things are coming out that it's gonna be hard. I
think you have to find now Apex Legends came out
this year. You have to find your favorite thing and
rock with it, because now we're in a wealth of
(40:36):
of delicious nerdy things. I truly, I I truly am excited.
But you know, we're gonna take one last break and
then when we get back, We'll go through some of
the best television of the decade. Uh, and and and
and wrap it up see all in a bit and
(41:03):
welcome back. So we've been going through the best of
the decade. But man oh man, we have a whole
We have so much more time to talk about stuff,
but we don't have much time left. So I'm gonna
try and fit as much of the best TV of
the decade as I can into this segment, which is
(41:24):
Game of Thrones. Even though we didn't like the ending,
it was a great ride and great experience. Breaking Bad
came out this decade, which was probably the best TV
viewing experience I had. Or yeah, on, let me see,
maybe it ended this eve. Yeah, Breaking Bad end at
this decade. It started outside in in January two thousand
(41:45):
and eight, but it ended in two thousand thirteen, which
probably was the best ending of a TV series quite
some time, because it's kind of a lot of people
can't dismount. I feel like Parks and Rex started a
little bit outside of the decade, uh, starting in April
nine of two thousand nine, but ended February two thousand fifteen,
(42:08):
which was one of the greatest comedy television shows. I
think that has been out. We got Rick and Morty
this decade, Black Mirror started in two thousand and eleven, Fargo,
True Detective, there were so much, so much. We had
the Expanse, Start Ships, Creek, Brooklyn nine nine. These are
(42:29):
all phenomenal shows that I can't really get too deep
into because I'm just wrapping it up. Mr Robot, Crazy
Ex Girlfriend and uh, you know, Glee ended in two
thousand fifteen, so and Bob's Burgers started. There's so many
amazing television shows that started in this decade and ended
(42:51):
in this decade. Stranger Things, So that was the best
of the decade. I think I got most of it.
I'm sure I missed some stuff, but definitely what I
want to hear your best of the decade? Uh, just
tweet at me. Let's do um hashtag for this. Let's
say uh hashtag Nerdificent decade. And I'm gonna make it
harder for you. What do you think is the best
(43:14):
nerdy thing that came out this decade? Nerdificent decade? And uh,
you know, at the top of the year when we
get back, we'll read some talk about it for a
bit before we jump into the episode, But thanks for listening.
It's been super fun. I you know, we we went
through the TV, we went through you know, there's there's
just so we are in probably the golden age of
(43:36):
being a nerd because there's so much media coming out
for us. There was a fun thing piece that came
out that said nerds are no longer the underdog, and
I truly believe it. I think there's so much space,
so like, go forth, make nerdy stuff and just nerdy stuff,
and of course stop all gatekeepers. Nerd them is for everyone,
(43:56):
so always make space for everyone to fit. And if
you see anyone trying to exclude anyone, stop it. Like
they said, p J Mask, it's time to be a hero.
Step up. Let's get rid of the gatekeepers. All right, y'all,
thank you so much for listening. And like I said
at the top of the episode, please please please head
over to t public dot com forward slash nerdificent and
(44:17):
use the code nerd treat thirty to get off your
order on te Public so you can finally treat yourself.
This has been an amazing decade. Oh my gosh, I
forgot to tell you the most important thing that happened
this decade. At least for me, we created nerdificent. So
thanks for coming on for this ride, and like we
always say, stay nerdy. Have a wonderful, wonderful Merry Christmas,
(44:43):
Happy New Year, and I'll see y'all later
Nerdificent News
Hosts And Creators
Dani Fernandez
Ify Nwadiwe
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