The SomethingSomethingCast

♫ Happy Birthday to us… ♫
♫ Happy Something dear Something… ♫

That’s right – the Somethingcast has made it to Year 8, and with that comes a month of a little something we call: More Episodes

That’s right, we’re celebrating Year 8 in style with a theme this month.. you’ll figure it out.  That said, this week we went live on Twitch to party with a crew of folks and recorded it to become this week’s episode. We’re talking movie quotes, which is one of those topics that feels so remarkably part of who we are, it was a surprise we never actually broke down some of our favorites.  Not the world famous, but OUR favorite. 

So settle in and let us know what your favorite quotes are… we’re all ears – and cheers to Year 8!

Full Episode

As we inch closer to being able to go hangout places again, there is one thing that I can’t wait for.  It isn’t parties or going to the movies, although those will be nice… it’s sitting down with a few friends, or even a couple of strangers, and playing some board games.

Tabletop Simulator has done a little bit of scratching the ‘board game’ itch, but an afternoon around a stack of cardboard and dice legitimately sounds like a dream I once had, and I can’t wait to get back to it. Sometimes the games are laugh riots where everyone is just having a great time, others its deep strategy while you pour over dozens of little chips that represent armies or spaceships or elemental beasts…

No matter what your game dujour is – here is a brief list of the games that I am looking forward to cracking open, hopefully sooner than later. And, mind you, it also acts as a list of ‘great games you might not have played’

– Betrayal At House On The Hill – Arguably my favorite board game of the last decade, it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve played Betrayal… when someone suggests it, I am always first in line to choose my character.  The premise, is that a group of thrown together folks are searching a house. Every game, the house is revealed randomly, so it is never the same look twice.

Eventually, some bad things happen and – this is where the magic happens – the game /changes/. More often than not, someone becomes the villain, and a plot is revealed.  Whether it is a mysterious wedding the players have to stop or a rocket missle that is about to launch itself from the basement – Betrayal isn’t always a well-balanced game… but it is *always* a fun one.

– Werewolf/Mafia/One Night/Resistance – I put all of these games in the same pile because they all fit the same genre: Social Deduction Gaming.  Someone (or ones) are the baddies, and through a mix of logic and unfettered arguing, it is up to the rest to reveal who it is before time is up.  These games tend to do better with quite a few people, but when you have the right mix of sneaky players, meta players, loud players, and quiet players.. all with a little bit of knowledge, but nobody with all of the knowledge; add in a couple of drinks and you have yourself hours of some of the most fun deductive bickering a group can have.

You may have noticed I have a thing for games with traitors, or at least us vs them dynamics.. I do. A lot. So instead of listing nothing but traitor-oriented games, here are a few that don’t involve someone being an asshole.  (But first, to add to those, there’s also Shadows Over Camelot and Letters from Whitechapel with are both worth your time)

– Charterstone – I was given Charterstone as a Christmas gift a few years ago, and my wife and I played it weekly until we had completed the campaign. I have been patiently waiting to have forgotten the strategy enough to play it again.  You see, Charterstone is a ‘Legacy’ game, where along the journey, you draw/sticker/and edit the board as you go, guaranteeing that your end results of the 13 or so game series is drastically different than another set of players.

At its heart Charterstone is a ‘build a resource to trade a resource’ game, but the strategies you lay out in the first games become the lifeblood of your country in later games… and with the players, you build a world together.

– Love Letter – They don’t all have to be grand adventures… sometimes the best game is the one you can play a dozen times before you move on to something else.  Love Letter is a game that has 16 cards, and takes about ten minutes from beginning to end. You have one card in your hand and take one card, and then play one of the two. It is remarkably simplistic, but the strategy can become fairly intense even in its short playtime.  Perfect as a pick-up game between marathon sessions of any of the other games on this list.

So what boardgames have you been staring at on your shelves and swearing you are going to dust eventually? Let us know in all of the usual places and have a safe and healthy Fourth.

– Hatton

Doesn’t it feel like we just had one of these?  Well, that’s because we did back in March… which, as far as the world is currently, could have been last week or yesterday. 

But that’s fine, because we’re back with another 5th Week Free-For-All – the ‘we didn’t plan for it’, ‘what’s going on with the boys’, ‘look, how much content do you expect from us a month, geez?’ episode where we just talk about the things we’ve been doing to keep from going insane inside of our thankfully, slowly disintigrating bubbles. 

So settle in as we talk about what we’re up to, watching, playing — and ..whoa.. actually interacting with living fleshbag humans!? 

Ok, yet again, here we go!

Full Episode

Hey folks, PCR here with some more TV that went under the radar (at least in the US)

I stumbled upon this first one on Netflix a while ago, and while they only had 2 seasons listed, there are a whopping FOURTEEN seasons available on Youtube.  I’m talking about “Canada’s Worst Driver”.  This show is equal parts hilarious and terrifying… hilarious in the way that, for those of us who drive (and have common sense) it’s crazy that there are people out there that have the thoughts and beliefs about driving (and driving laws) they actually have.  it is also terrifying in the way that….    or those of us who drive (and have common sense) it’s crazy that there are people out there that have the thoughts and beliefs about driving (and driving laws) they actually have.  8 people get nominated by friends and/or relatives as “Canada’s Worst Driver” and are sent to a “Rehabilitation Centre” where they learn driving skills.  Each episode, the driver who has improved the most… gets sent home… until there are only 3 left, and one of them end up getting named “Canada’s Worst”, complete with trophy and all.

The second show I’ll mention, “Canada’s Worst Handyman” (which has all 6 seasons also on Youtube) is the spiritual sister show of CWD.  In CWH, there are only 5 competitors, and no one goes home each week… instead they all stay the whole season.  The worst each week “hangs their head in shame” (hangs an actual portrait of themselves on the wall of shame), and the most improved becomes “The Foreman” for the group challenge they all work on throughout the season.  It’s a bit less scary (at times) than CWD, although watching someone take over 170 swings to hammer a nail is like watching a car wreck.

The thing these shows have in common is their host, Andrew Younghusband.

This man is destined for Sainthood.  The patience he has with people who either can’t learn, or are too stubborn to learn because ‘they know better’ (yet… here they are…) is something most of us should surely aspire to.  To balance the job of ‘being host of a show that is… for all intents and purposes.. comedy’, and yet still honestly want to teach these people to ‘be better’, is not an easy thing to do, and Younghusband does it with ease.  Even as the seasons of CWD continued on, and you watch him transform from ‘spry young host’ to ‘older and wiser’ (and could be bitter) host… he doesn’t.  As Chris Rock once said “I’ll never hit a woman.  I’ll shake the shit out of one tho…”  it’s amazing that Andrew never even comes close to that with any of the contestants based of the people he interacts with.

That being said, do yourself a favor and check out at least an episode of each, and I assure you that you will almost certainly feel better about your own skills.

– PCR

Carry On My Waayyyywarrrd Sonnnn….

Well this week we are carrying on about a show that went wayward quite a few times and yet never went too too far awayward. Dean and Sam have triumphed in Star’s Hollow, they’ve defeated the Harlem Globetrotters, they’ve taken down Galactus, twice, and now it’s time for them to hang up their monster-hunting boots. 

A show with a legacy of fandom, a legacy of marching on beyond the end of the parade, and continuing to go on even after the Energizer Bunny said ‘..look, I’m taking a nap’ – Supernatural is going to stand as a testament to a lot of wonderful things about television, but also… you know.. some other things. 

So did the last hurrah for the two men that have fought Satan, God, Nethercreatures, Demons, Angels, Archangels, and LARPers leave the imprint the show deserves?

…my guess is you are aware of the answer to that.  OH! Before you listen ~ go click the survey button above.

So let’s get going with, shall we?  Ok, here we carry on…

 Full Episode

Since the most recent episode is the Somethings revisiting EverRealm, I was thinking about some of the other reality shows (some gameshow types, some not) that I’ve enjoyed. When the big trend on television followed the Survivor trend of ‘put people in places and just record them’ – there was a lot out there, and because of that, some just didn’t make the cut longer than a season or two… others though, went on forever.

With an honorable mention to The Quest for being the inspiration for this, here are some of the reality shows I found myself glued to.

– The Real World – The grand-daddy of them all, MTV changed the game when they took a handful of twenty-somethings and threw them together in a loft in New York and told them to live with their differences. I know I’m not alone when I say that the Real World exposed me to people, cultures, sexualities, and types of people that I had never met before. As time went on, the show seemed to lose itself to a more party-oriented ‘who will hook-up’ type show, but the first half-dozen seasons or so is some of the most beautifully not-crafted television I have ever seen.

– The Joe Schmo Show – This one is almost a gimme, and was one of the big reasons we were so excited to interview Ralph Garman a few years back. The twist on the reality gimmick, one (or two) players, the rest are scripted actors. Can they run an on-the-fly narrative around these people while the craziness keeps amping up? Season One was one of the most must-see pieces of television around my house and over the years it may be one of the only DVD Boxsets I’ve cracked open to revisit.

– Whodunnit – This one is the silliest on the list, but I would most certainly watch another season if it existed. Framed as a Clue-esque murder mystery, each week another competitor was “murdered” off the show, and added to the narrative. At its best, it was a puzzle to unravel with its tongue planted firmly in its cheek, it wasn’t a great show by any stretch, but the premise was so out there, I was hooked to see how it finally ended.

– Scream Queens – Obviously, as a lover of horror movies, I’d love to see more reality shows that focused on doing creepy things. Sadly, it’s hard to make reality as scary as movies. Giggling twenty-somethings walking with GoPros strapped to their heads just isn’t scary… but Scream Queens was as close as its come. Part acting, part horror – it was a season long screentest to try and find a new Final Girl for an upcoming horror movie. It was a great premise, if only it dipped even deeper into its scary roots.

– Solitary – If there is one show on this list you probably aren’t aware of.. it’s this one, and it is such a shame. Framed around a Portal-like narrative where a computer has people in test pods and is running experiments on them, Solitary was an adventure in ‘being alone’. Whether the competitors had to build giant contraptions in their test chambers, or try and sleep with blaring lights and sound as punishment, their computer overlord, Val made this three season Fox show a brilliant experiment in minimalism.

– Hatton

It should be no surprise that the Somethings love the 2014 reality game – The Quest. We were only given one season, but it has kept a rabid cult fanbase begging for it to be revisited. 

Over the years, we have had the honor to become friends with some of the Paladins, so with a new Quest series coming to Disney Plus, it only felt right to head back to Everealm again and make some predictions about what is to come.

We are thrilled to welcome back to the show, Paladins Jasmine, Jim, and Patrick – as we discuss what adventures they have gone on since their journey, and what they are looking forward to when it comes to what a new threat will have to be defeated by a new team of Paladins.  So, sharpen your swords and load up your scorpions – we’re sending messages to the Fates themselves as we talk about The Quest Season 2.

And if you are interested in what the Paladins have been up to – you can find them here:
Paladin Jasmine – Twitter: TolkienBlkGirl – Chaste Treasure : ChasteTreasure.com
Paladin Jim – Twitter: JimTheLibrarian – Facebook: PaladinJimCurry
Paladin Patrick – Twitter: PQHiggins – DeviantArt: PaladinPatrick – War Dragons (IOS)
The Quest Army – Twitter: TheQuestArmy  – Insta : thequestarmy_offical

But now – let’s get to the good stuff – Ok, here we go!

Full Episode

We are in the next era of comic book entertainment. The Marvel mines have been pickaxed so deep that every other funnybook writer is now having their work taken and adapted to the binge-box. 

This month, we’re talking about Netflix’s take on Mark Millar’s Jupiter’s Legacy – a world of heroes dealing with their interpersonal relationships over the span of generations, almost like some sort of… legacy..

What did the Somethings think? Well all you need to do is click on that link at the top of the page that says SURVEY and then listen to the episode to find out!  The survey is there to help us find out who’s listening, what they’re listening to, and really.. why us?  Help us out and give that link a click.

Great, and now that you’ve done that, why don’t you go find your Superdad and go on an adventure with us! 

Ok, here we go!

Full Episode

A Little Bit of Something About Old Gaming Trends…

Over the years, there have been a lot of gaming styles that have come and gone. For a while it was a nonstop litany of Grand Theft Auto clones, and then it was the EA formula of ‘climb tallest spot to unlock area’ games, and crafting games, and MOBA style online games. Lately, as you may be aware, there are a glut of Dead By Daylight ‘4 v 1’ type games.  Trends guide an industry, but sadly, that always means that something gets left in the dust – and what it leaves behind isn’t always as good as it once was.

Here are a few gaming trends that have died down that I really miss.

PUZZLERS
Anyone who knows me, knows that I live for puzzles. I spent many a night hunched over my Nintendo, trying to solve a level of Adventures of Lolo or Kickle Cubicle. There are games out there now that embody the classics of puzzlers of years gone by, but they range from the ‘one concept over and over’ like the many Lighton series of games or the variations of Sudoku – to the infuriatingly hard like the games created by puzzle genius Zactronic.

With exceptions out there like Filament and The Pedestrian, there aren’t many well thought puzzle games that grind your brain into the best kind of dust.

ADVENTURE
Back in the day, we had two kinds of music, country and/or western, rock and/or roll, hip and/or hop. Well in games it was action and/or adventure. Action games were all about running, gunning, shooting, blasting, moving. Adventure games, like the Sierra ‘Quest’ games, 7th Guest, Maniac Mansion, and the best selling game of all time (until 2002), Myst.

Sadly, adventure games, with the ease they can be created with simple engines, a glut of ‘escape room’ flash games and impossible to figure out ‘moon logic’ style games (even amongst the best) have made it really hard to find the gems amongst the trash. The best of recent years is the Sam and Max series by Tell Tale and Life is Strange.

TEXT ADVENTURE
Ok, so I’m sure you’ve caught on that this list is a lot of old genres, and maybe – if you are an old game nerd like me, you’ll go ‘Hatton, there are text adventures coming out every year’ — and the rest of you are utterly confused… but it’s true. Every year, a group of ever-shrinking fans of the old school ‘GO WEST’ ‘OPEN MAILBOX’ ‘READ FLYER’ fans are hiding in their dark basements, fearful of being eaten by a Grue.

There’s a reason though, that the advent of graphics and the much more reflex oriented gaming styles took over and text adventures are more often than not an easter egg or a sly wink in a much bigger game production.  That doesn’t mean they aren’t out there – and I highly recommend ‘Stories Untold’ for blending that nostalgia and modern gaming sensibilities gorgeously.  I just wish there were more like it out there.

So, oldschool computer nerds – what genre’s do you miss?  You know how to tell us. Want to nerd out about Castle of Dr. Brain? Drop a message to @STSTCAST or @REVVOICE on twitter, and we’ll see you next week.