Geek Proud, GeekOut.

Legion - Seek television that breaks concepts down to dust, a story of the mind that tinkers with perception, deception, time and personality, every bit as warped and alien as a dream. All of those arguments you’ve ever had about what a superpower should be capable of are great fodder for a creative mind, but it’s so […]
Infinity Train - A few years ago I stumbled across a pilot for a possible cartoon series to star Ashley Johnson in the lead role. That pilot became a series, that series will be getting a follow up some time next year, and there’s a handful of short episodes somewhere that I haven’t seen. The series takes place […]
The GeekOut UK Story - Yo, this is the story all about how my geek group got flip turned into a meetup, I want to take a minute just sit right there, I'll tell you all about how we became the coolest geek group in the UK:
GeekOut Shrewsbury Meet – November: Away Team - Merry November everyone! A quiet GeekOut this month, and a relaxing one at that, I even managed to play some games for a change… Premeet – The Hole in the Wall Might have forgotten to take photos in the Hole in the Wall, after a while that may have proved a conscious decision due to… […]
Top 10 – Elves - Elves are a strange category to cover, when you think about how much difference there is between the term. Some people just see the pointy ears and immediately call them an elf. Other people believe there must be some innate magical property in order for them to be elves. Whatever you believe, today we’re going […]
NaNoWriMo 2019 Officially Finishes Tomorrow - Take a guess at how busy I was last month? You know, before NaNoWriMo? Not very; I was just typing up a lot of words at an alarming rate. I will probably need to invest in a new keyboard at some point; I reckon I’ve done so much typing that the membrane inside of this keyboard is weakening, but enough about the problems of my keyboard! We’re here to talk about NaNoWriMo, how the event has gone and my progress - After all, tomorrow is delivery day, so how well did I do?
Those Bad Creative Habits - While Tim brings a close to his NaNoWriMo efforts (well done man), and as the year heralds the end of GeekOut, I’m coming to realise that a few of my bad habits have reared their ugly heads. Perhaps it’s brought about by the sedentary lifestyle of a self-employed writer and entertainer, destined to only travel […]
GeekOut Bristol Meet December 31st: The Final Countdown - 18+ Event It's the final countdown! *Insert trumpet noises here.* Our last ever event will take place on December 31st, in case you're crazy enough to spend New Years Eve in a pub with some geeks.
Review – Eberron: Rising From the Last War - Hmm… ok… Eberron is certainly the first and may be the only campaign setting to see a physical print in fifth edition. While the edition as a whole has held up Forgotten Realms for campaigns, and of course draws a great deal upon Dragonlance and Greyhawk to build a “core” of information, cosmology, gods, and […]
Being Unable To Start in Game Development - Last week, I went into a couple of articles talking about how next year, I'll be getting back into game development. I'm currently in the midst of NaNoWriMo, but yet I've found myself some time to start practicing my Unity skills once again. It's been a very long time since the last time I used Unity and Blender, however I hear from a lot of people that they don't have the skills to make video games. I always challenge people on that; we're in an era where we have the resources at our fingertips. So today, for anyone who says they're unable to start in game development, I'm going to share a few channels I've been watching, as well as a few quick tips to get started in game development (and how you can apply this logic elsewhere).
Top 10 – Virtual Pets - What strange beings these humans are, to designate species of their own planet – seemingly arbitrarily – as beloved companions to be invited into their homes, tended to and cared for, for no solid reason other than “they’re freakin’ adorable”. And when we can’t do that… or even if we can’t cram enough creatures into […]
Getting Back Into Blender - So on Wednesday, I told you all that I was getting back into Unity as my goal for next year. Naturally, this has led to me going onto using Blender as well. If you're not aware of Blender, this is a free and open-source 3D graphics application. You can create simple models, or even fully fledged complex ones. You can create textures, animations and much more through Blender. Using Blender and Unity together makes perfect sense; Blender is in fact fairly easy to use, once you've given yourself some time. However in the time I've been away, a lot has changed.
Pyst – There Aren’t Enough Parody Games - I’m sure this can’t just be me. The games design industry is getting ever better at metacommentary and self reflection, we’ve developed a pretty wide array of habits and design fallbacks that we’re aware of our own foibles and the like, and it’s not like we don’t have parodies of games on YouTube, gods there […]
Returning to Unity - In the new year, I decided I needed to get into a new hobby to keep myself occupied. Naturally, my mind immediately went "Well, I'll just play a lot of games". That doesn't really sit well with me. I'm always wanting to tinker, to explore and create. So I decided that I would have to go back to Unity, something I dabbled in quite a bit when I was younger. Having returned to the software, it's amazing how much was foreign to me again... But I find the unknown to be pretty exciting. Here's what my gripes have been since returning, as well as what I found still so intuitive and fun.
Gaming Until 4AM - Have you ever been on a serious gaming holiday? You and a bunch of friends in a caravan or a rented house or something that has some combination of beds and a table that gives you space to just play some games, somewhere that isn’t home. It sounds counterproductive, what’s the point of going somewhere […]
GeekOut Bristol Meet – December 7th: The Secretest Santa - 18+ Event In what will be our last monthly GeekOut Bristol Meet. Come join us for a festive fun competition, the return of Super Secret Santa and great company!
NaNoWriMo 2019 Update – I’m Over Halfway - You know, a lot of the content that you’re reading this month was prepared last month… No, really, I spent a few weeks ramming through as many words and as many interesting articles as I could. Hopefully you’ve been kept entertained, but we’re not out of the woods yet, as we’ve still got another half of NaNoWriMo to commit to. Today’s post is a quick update on how the event’s going, how my novel’s going, how many words I’m at and more.
Top 10 Reborn Characters - Rebirth, resurrection, metamorphosis, here assembled are characters who undergo transformative experiences, generally involving some period of death, or at least dormancy (at least one cocoon). While we ourselves undergo a time of great change and transformation, here is our Top 10 list of characters who have been reborn.
Spend Your New Years With Us: GeekOut Bristol Meet – New Years Eve 2019! - It’s now close enough to Christmas to where we should be able to talk more about our New Year's Eve 2019 event. We held one of these New Year’s Eve events in 2017 going into 2018. We were going to come back to for the 2018 New Year’s Eve, but circumstances dictated otherwise. Now, we’re back for another New Year’s Eve event filled with geeky fun. Want to know more? Good, read on and we’ll give you a summary of what’s happening, how you can join us and more!
Taking the Tarrasque Seriously - The highest challenge rating in D&D, dropped into every monster manual, the fantasy Godzilla, has become something of a joke. Everyone who’s been in the game long enough has a “Tarrasque plan” or a story of how they one-shot or would one-shot the Tarrasque, and every DM has thrown the word around as the monster […]
Bot Games in League of Legends - I’ve never had a huge understanding of League of Legends, but it’s a lot of fun to watch. I remember being at a gamer pub in London, where they hosted what I presume would have been the World Championship at the time. It was all new to me, so I didn’t pay it too much mind, except for the fact that people were genuinely fascinated by it… And I found there were lots of quirks that made it a lot of fun to watch. Naturally, this has led to me trying a number of games, but… I’m a big scaredy cat and like my safety.
Oswestry Library 2020 – Shropshire DM - At the time of writing, I’m about an hour away from publishing the dates for next year’s games at Oswestry Library, currently my most dependable source of income, and at this point places are so hard fought for that I am going to be disappointing more people than I will be entertaining… which is nice… […]
GeekOut UK Is Closing In 2020 - Hi everyone, Tim here. I've run this website for over six years and today's the article I never wanted to post. Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end at some point, so I have to thank each and every one of you who've made this journey so enjoyable. I didn't want to just suddenly disappear with no reasons for it, like many a website does. No, I feel that everyone deserves to hear the reasons why we're disbanding the group and the mission, especially after all this time. I'll also talk briefly about future ventures and the likes. So yeah, let's get this sombre post done.
GeekOut Bristol Meet – November 8th: Boldly Going to GeekOut Summary - Another month has passed us by and another GeekOut Bristol Meet has passed. This month, we were graced by the presence of a few people who hadn't been to GeekOut in a while, so that was nice to see. We also had a Star Trek quiz that saw me marking 19 entries, so that was pretty ridiculous. Good job to everyone involved in the competition and to everyone who wanted to share their passion for Star Trek, or simply for board games. It was a casual affair, but it was a fun night filled with geeks and games. As ever, here's our roundup of the events of GeekOut Bristol.
Top 10 – Hidden Content in Games - From Easter Eggs, through to incredible whole ARGs, video games are constantly amazing us. From the downright bizarre to the extremely eye-opening, video games are the most interactive form of media out there. So now, let’s take a closer look at some of the following games, in hopes that we can uncover a list. Should […]
My Magic: the Gathering Commander Pet Cards - Guest contributor Murray Butler is back once more, this time providing us with an explanation on Pet Cards in Magic: the Gathering:
Godzilla – New King of Cinema - I watched King of Monsters the other day as part of a larger kaiju-based binge, specifically the new Kong films too, as we’re only a few months away from the big showdown. Godzilla versus Kong has been teased since the first of the new Godzilla films way back in ’14, was made official in ’17 […]
Mobile Game Review – The Powerpuff Girls: Monkey Mania - Fighting crime, trying to save the world, they’re now on android, The Powerpuff Girls: Monkey Mania! Would you believe it if I said that this is a decent game? Probably, because the people who made this game also brought us Knightmare Tower and Burrito Bison. A well crafted, beautifully presented game in the city of Townsville? It sounds like a match made in heaven… So here’s a bit of information for those who’ve seen it around but haven’t taken the dive into the world of sugar, spice and everything nice.
Blizzcon Trailers 2019 - It seems like picking on Blizzard right now is the geek-culture bloggers equivalent of kicking a dead horse, but that horse knows what it did, and while an apology has been issued for the political controversy, it comes across has a rather hollow token, to say nothing about the mass-blocking of comments on YouTube videos […]
Board Games Focusing on Set Collection - Recently, I was talking to a colleague who agreed that it would be a fun concept to have a board game similar to Pokémon. In other words, a game where you have to collect a large number of objects, or creatures, or something. It could be that you had to collect a large variety of gems, or as mentioned, creatures. Whatever it is, we couldn’t find many board games out there that filled this strange niche. As such, I thought I’d look into it and this is the best I could find.
GeekOut Shrewsbury October ’19 – Bad Cosplay Party - Happy Hallowe’en! Ok, we’re now at the Sunday after Hallowe’en but still, it was rather nice to distribute sweets instead of the standard disappointing prizes. That’s not to say that people weren’t disappointed with the sweets they got, honestly I never asked, but assume that they shared. And my gods did a lot of you […]
Top 10 – Effigies - I have travelled far and wide to find the object, the one object that will destroy my arch-nemesis. But I really never imagined the effigy that I must destroy would be… A plushie? Well, effigies come in all shapes and sizes, along with varying degrees of strangeness. Nevertheless today we’re going to look at our […]
NaNoWriMo 2019 Starts Today! - Oh dear, that arrived rather suddenly, didn’t it? NaNoWriMo is here once again, which means that this year, it’s my turn to give it a go. I mentioned a while back that when NaNoWriMo came around, the articles will mostly be pre-written, so I do apologise if you see lots of pre-written content for a while… But hey, I thought I’d at least give you an idea about what my story’s about and of course, you’ll get an update in December when my story is complete and ready to be edited!
Happy Halloween 2019 From GeekOut UK - Let’s chat a little bit about Halloween and the significance it has on geek culture. After all, this is a night that many geeks revel in. So today, I thought I’d talk quickly about a few Halloween episodes from TV shows that I thoroughly enjoyed - And yes, there’ll be at least one Treehouse of Horror episode. With that said, let’s buckle down, get the popcorn and snuggle on the sofa with these spooky specials.
Halloween As Celebrated in Video Games - For how much I love to discuss video games, it’s weird that I’ve not gone into greater detail about this. Halloween is really such a geeky celebration these days, as we love a good chance to get in our favourite cosplays, or to watch horror films (which, in its own right, is a huge niche that sorta sits neatly with us geeks). In truth, geeks and horror go hand in hand and today, I’d like to show how video games like to collaborate in their own way to the celebration of the spookiest season.
Sci-Fi – What The Future Holds - When I was growing up, the science fiction I watched painted a fairly clear picture of how the creator thought humanity should be. Star Trek and Babylon 5 showed versions of humanity who were united in a universe full of creatures who showed us that we were not so different to one another compared to […]
Camdrome, the greatest ARG? - In the spirit of the Halloween season, I guess it’s only fair to talk about a few potential horror stories. This may be one of them, as the greatest horror here is that the game has gone silent on us. Nevertheless, I wonder how many of you know about Camdrome, the mysterious computer that appeared at PAX13 in 2013? Is it still going, or has it finally gone to sleep and most importantly… Is it watching us? Here’s the story of Camdrome so far.
A Colossal Discovery – A Paid Pokémon Go Event? - Controversial perhaps, Niantic have been selling tickets for Pokémon Go’s latest event. Until this point, events in Pokémon Go have been fairly straightforward and open. You can either get a EX Raid Pass, which allows you to go for a much rarer Pokémon. The first was Mewtwo, where EX Raids were the only way to get the hard hitting Psychic legendary. There have also been Pokémon Go Fests, which is where inspiration for these paid events come from. Here are the facts of the event.
Top 10 Terrible Horror Tropes - Ah it’s the Halloween season, which means that we’re going to get the popcorn on. Let’s turn on a movie and… Oh no. Oh dear, oh my. These horror villains are so scary! No, not because they’re shocking, murderous and altogether evil beings. No, they’re so scary because even the most psychopathic of villains succumb to the most terrible of horror tropes, which is what we’re investigating in today’s Top 10!
Angry Video Game Nerd Halloween Specials - Most years, James Rolfe, also known as the Angry Video Game Nerd, puts out at least one Halloween Special and each time, they’re some of his most adventurous videos. They’re always amongst his most memorable, so I thought today I’d pay homage to The AVGN by sharing three of his Halloween Specials and talking briefly about them. I’m gonna take you back to the past (and present) - To watch some Video Game Reviews. Though as a forewarning, the Nerd’s content is Not Safe For Work! Okay, warned now? Let’s do this and drink plenty of beers and watch amusing videos.
Kickstarter Highlight – Kingdoms And Warfare - The oft-promised followup to Matt Colville’s Strongholds and Followers began it’s Kickstarter campaign on Monday, and simply put it’s a prime example of a creator with a great relationship with his fan/customer base. Strongholds and Followers gives options for players to build fortresses and bases of operations for their party complete with class-specific annexes, a […]
UK Geek Events Spreadsheet - I’ve been trying to think of a way to get our UK Geek Events page to be, you know, better. It was fine for a little while, but constantly updating it has become tedious and if I’m being honest, clunky. So I got thinking about how to make this better, how we can do something as a community and how we can catalogue all of the great events that take place across the UK. I figured we might as well turn it into a Google Spreadsheet, as at least everyone will get access to the data this way.
Geeky Comedy on YouTube - Now, we’re all familiar with the likes of Funny Or Die, and College Humour – who started doing D&D games online last year, Brendan’s a decent DM – and before I even start I can tell you that you almost certainly recognise a name or two from the short list below. YouTube has been a […]
GeekOut Bristol Meet – November 8th: Boldly Going to GeekOut - Space, the final frontier. Whilst we don't have the means to go there ourselves right now, it's okay, because the penultimate frontier is GeekOut Bristol Meet. Join us for a night of games and a Trekky-themed competition!
Riot Games Go All Out For 10 Year Anniversary – New Games! - Riot Games have gone all out for their 10 year anniversary, which is a pretty exciting thing to be able to say. Riot Games made the Free-To-Play giant, League of Legends, which is a major title in the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre. For years, they’ve run just the one game but this year, they’ve decided to throw caution to the wind and show how much progress they’ve made in their world.
Top 10 Heavy Metal Acts in Media - Going hand in hand with film and video games, metal. Before GeekOut South-West was formed which later turned into GeekOut UK, Timlah and Joel stood around and had a conversation about... Metal! You can't kill the metal, but you certainly can build the foundation for a good thing off of it. So together, we've decided to strike a power chord and hammer on down these points, as we look at our Top 10 Heavy Metal Acts in Media. Grab your neckbraces, we're about to go headbanging!
My Hero Academia Is Back for Season 4! - The astute among you, or at least those who read this site regularly, will know I’m a bit of an anime nerd. I love a good anime series; some of the emotions you get, some of the stories, the intensity, ooh it gets me going! Naturally then, I quickly heard that Boku no Hero Academia, or My Hero Academia, has returned for season 4 on Crunchyroll. If you’ve never seen the superhero themed series before, then read on, for this series is truly a blast! Even if you’re not an anime fan, I reckon you’d get a kick out of this series - It’s truly phenomenal!  Plus Ultra!
The Dungeon Master’s Curse - Ok, so we have another late article, but for once it’s not because I have very little to talk about, I have a great deal of RPG things I would love to be discussing right now. I’ve started a new home campaign, I have a Hallowe’en game coming up, and I’m staring at a list […]
And I OOP: Object-Oriented Techniques and the Struggle to Understand Them - Bit of background on me, I’m currently in my final year of a programming-based degree. It has a more specialised focus on using what is taught and applying it to game engines & programming, but at its core is teaching good practice and technique within programming languages.
Review – Joker - A Spoiler Warning is in effect throughout this whole article, I want to do a deep-dive as best as I can, and it can’t be done without discussing some huge plot points. Todd Phillips’ Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck, a mentally ill man trying to be happy in the 1980’s at a time […]
GeekOut Bristol Meet – October 12th: GhoulOut - They came, they saw, they spooked the regulars at the Old Market Tavern. On Saturday, the geeks of Bristol were back for another day and night of shenanigans and fun, combining board games, lots of drink and chats and of course, costumes. You can never celebrate Halloween too early in October, right? ... Right? Well, we think so anyway, as we got our geeks together to celebrate the spooky month. The Old Market Tavern came to the rescue, bringing us excellent decorations to the conservatory and plenty of warmth and spirits in the main bar. So how did the event go?
Top 10 Cold Characters - Don’t you just love it when the temperature begins to drop? You get to stay indoors, snuggle in with a loved one, or just put your feet up by a warm fire… Or, y’know, whack on the central heating or just a radiator. The point is, feeling warm on a cold day is lovely. These characters however, they might not agree, as it turns out their coldness is their speciality. So come and check out our Top 10 Cold Character.
Pokémon Sword & Shield Designs Look Great! - I'm going to preface this with "this is a short article". Literally, I was sat up with Joel last night chatting about the new Pokémon designs and for the most part, we agreed that most of them looked fantastic. There are a few highly questionable decisions, but overall, I really am digging the way this new generation is turning out. The Galarian forms of old Pokémon look fantastic and I'm glad it's a trend we're continuing from the Alolan regional variants from Sun and Moon. As more gets announced, I'm going to be keeping my eye on Sword & Shield, because I think the Pokémon Company know how to laugh with their fans - and that's a beautiful thing.
In The Tall Grass vs. Triangle - Stephen King never really goes out of style in the film industry, he waxes and wanes like the moon, his work is prolific, and readily adapted for film, although it can be a little variable in quality. Certainly with IT Chapter 2 forefront in everyone’s mind, now is definitely the time to adapt some of […]
Bring Back Tamagotchi’s (and Virtual Pets)! - Let's preface this with, yes I am a 90's kid and yes, I had a couple of Tamagotchi in my life. It all started I believe with one from 101 Dalmations. I also then had a Pikachu one and I had a few smaller ones along the way, from monsters through to just ordinary pets. For the unaware, a Tamagotchi was a small device which you could carry on a keychain. On this device was a little virtual pet, or creature that you had to take care of, from feeding, playing with and even sometimes "cleaning up" after your pet. I, like many kids from that era, loved Tamagotchi... But why hasn't it translated so successfully onto mobile?
Gloomhaven on PC - You may remember I chatted about this one, and about a year or two before that it was all over the board game social groups. In short it’s a leviathan board game in a box the size of a couple of breeze blocks, it has a foot firmly in the RPG camp in the same […]
Ampharos VS Luxray: A Strangely In-Depth Comparison - Shinx, which evolves into Luxio and then Luxray, for Diamond. Mareep, which evolves into Flaaffy and Ampharos, for Soul Silver. How do these two evolutionary lines compare? Guest contributor Murray Butler is back to give his verdict on these two shocking Pokémon.
NaNoWriMo 2019 – Less Than A Month To Go! - Genuinely exciting for writers and aspiring writers alike, NaNoWriMo is a huge challenge for anyone looking to complete a novel. Whether they're experienced writers, aspiring novellists or just a hobbyist, NaNoWriMo is a set goal to work towards throughout the month of November. Now that we're less than a month to go, I thought I'd talk vaguely about the story I've been working on the details for, as well as a bit of a general chat about writing in general and how I'm feeling leading up to the massive endeavour... Also about how Discord is helping me prepare, so there's something! Excited ramblings may be contained within this article, so don't say you've not been warned!
Top 10 – Elephants - Bah, we’ve been doing these Top 10’s for years – For peanuts. Nevermind, if it can make these giant gentle beasties happy, then I’m sure these peanuts must be delicious. Don’t take this out of context, because today we’re going to be celebrating the huge, floppy-eared creatures with their trunks and tusks. So buckle up, […]
Mobile Game Review: Mario Kart Tour - The first Mario Kart title, Super Mario Kart, was released back in 1992. In this time, we’ve seen many iterations, spanning many different consoles. Since the success of Pokémon Go, Nintendo has become a lot more interested in utilising mobile technologies. Super Mario Jump was great, but today, we’re going to check out Mario Kart Tour, which came out fairly recently. I managed to snap the game up on the day of release and hey, it's another free title!
World Building Is Just Window Dressing - So What Could Be More Important? You’ve been struck with inspiration for a wonderful idea for a tabletop RPG campaign. Deities, pieces of landscape, ideas for brand new races – all of these are flashing through your mind at breakneck speed. The inside of your skull is now an incubation chamber for a continent, a […]
Tabletop Gaming Live event – London - Before we get into the article, I just want to say a huge thanks to Tabletop Gaming Magazine for issuing us Press passes for the event. Despite the drizzly London weather, I turned up to what I believe was the second year that Tabletop Live took place. The location was the beautiful Alexandra Palace in North London. I thought it might be a smaller and more intimate version of UK Games Expo, and I was not wrong.
Three Horror Reviews - It’s October, and there’s things I have found on Netflix and simply not talked about. Actually a lot of my watch list and to-watch list is horror films, and while I’ll get round to From Beyond, Troll Hunters, and maybe even Errementari at some point, there’s also a few new favourites. Time to get into […]
Level Up! Re-animated – Bristol Cosplay Clubnight Returns October 19th 2019 - Our friends over at Level Up! are back again, another huge Cosplay Clubnight is happening on October 19th, so be sure to check them out. If you're not sure who Level Up! are, or what they do, then read on for some more details, including the where and when of the event. If you're a fan of cosplay and in/around Bristol and the surrounding areas, then be sure not to miss this night of cosplay, dancing and fun. Sounds like your sort of party? Yeah, mine too - Here's a bit more information about the event.
GeekOut Shrewsbury September ’19 – Wizard Club - In shadow, we find the light Safely sealed in darkest night So make sure y’all keep it tight Wizards only fools! Do you wanna beef in the eye of Glob? Do you wanna reach the highest initiation of the secret schools? Well too late, we already disbanded Wizard Club and we’re not supposed to talk […]
Top 10 Space-Themed Games - Space: the final frontier that we’re aware of, but among hypothetical frontiers, barely breaks the top 10. Oh and while we’re on the subject of top 10s… Games, be they video or board, are so often inspired by the big black void that engulfs us and the possibilities that may await beyond, opportunities, horrors, exploration and adventure. While we had options beyond counting, we somehow managed to drill down to a mere ten games themed in and around space.
To Meta, or Not To Meta, Is That Every Gamers Question? - Okay, I might have lied, I don’t think many gamers truly put a lot of thought into whether they should or should not follow the meta. All games have a meta for a reason; it’s established and it’s grounded in knowledge from other players. Indeed, some games are geared in such a way that the meta is something easily acknowledged. From Pokémon, to Elder Scrolls Online, meta exists and here’s a few thoughts on what following the meta truly means.
Disenchantment Season 2 - Matt Groening’s foray into fantasy dropped its second season this week. Wow do I wish I had more to say. Usually when I review something I’ll be watching it again on the other screen while I write, but Lego Batman’s on Netflix now, so is the Between Two Ferns movie and those are two things […]
6 Years of GeekOut UK - Not too long ago, I had the pop up to officially say that GeekOut UK has been active for 6 years. In that time, we’ve gone from me and one friend in a pub, to making friendships that will last a lifetime. We’ve gone from two people, to hundreds upon hundreds of different faces, all […]
Shropshire Dungeon Master Events - And Diary XIV Last time I talked about life as a DM for hire was only July, but hotdamn have these last two months been full of stuff! Insomnia 65 shortly after Gen Con, three games a day in which I had to shout over the e-sports stage about a hundred feet away with whooping […]
GeekOut Bristol Meet – October 12th: GhoulOut - Ghouls, ghosts, monsters and foes, no matter what type of horrific creation you are, this month's meetup is for you. For the night of All Hallows' Eve is fast approaching, so let's get together for a night of board gaming and of course, fancy dress.
Melody’s Escape - Throughout my life, I haven’t been the best at rhythm games. I’m able to make a pretty good run at them when I’m in the right frame of mind but even then, my reactions to the on-screen prompts can be a bit off. Which, considering one of my favourite games of all time (The Binding of Isaac) has the potential to train lightning-fast reflexes into you, is a bit odd. Nonetheless, given a flash sale and some Steam Wallet funds laying around - Thanks Joel - I decided to pick up a game that had caught my eye on visuals alone: Melody’s Escape
Top 10 British Myths - Behold, the mighty myths of Britain. Whether they originated in England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales, we’ll be looking at some important myths that have become more well known not just here, but further afield. From simple spirits, through to heroics that have been told throughout the ages, this week, we’re checking out our Top 10 British Myths.
NaNoWriMo’s Website Had A Makeover - For those of you who didn't know, I'm taking part in NaNoWriMo this year. Writers around the world will be trying to complete the first draft of a 50,000 word novel. For some of us, it'll be our first ever attempt at writing a novel and for others, they have multiple books under their belt. In my case, this'll be my first attempt at writing a whole piece of fiction - and I'm excited by the prospects. The organisers of NaNoWriMo appear to be hard at work as well, but instead of working on literature, they've been working on their website - and it looks great. Here's what to expect from NaNoWriMo's website this year.
Unearthed Arcana – Class Abundance - So Wizards of the Coast are busy pouring out Unearthed Arcana articles, their playtest material articles that give us access to things like new spells, rules, magic items, races, and subclasses that allow us to make an ever more diverse cast of characters to bring to the table. And currently subclasses is the key term, […]
Anime Review: Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE! - Magical girl anime is, admittedly, not something I'm hugely accustomed to. I saw a bit of Sailor Moon growing up and never really saw any more of the genre. So then when I was told that there was an anime by the name of Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!, I laughed. I thought it was a brilliant name, albeit a little bit on the nose. So I looked it up, found that it was completely available on Crunchyroll and went "yeah, I guess I can give this a watch". After all, what good is the magical girl genre, if we can't get a magical boy anime?
Magic: the Gathering – Drafting M20 - So, same as last year, I picked up a box of the latest core set from Magic, because while Throne of Eldarine looks very pretty, I can’t say I’ve seen enough to draw me in past the hydra-turtles. Usually for me that’d be enough, but finances are what they are. M20 has a very particular […]
GeekOut Bristol Meet – September 13th: Knights Gathering - With a "Ni", our knights gathered around for an evening of fun and games, a hugely crafty competition and a lot of games across the board. From our typically large selection of games, through to a special drink presented to our noble warriors, we had a blast. September's a strange time of year; a lot of folk are back to the grind after the summer holidays, the weather doesn't quite know what to do with itself, it's all a bit muddled. Thankfully though, we were there for another month, hopefully allowing people to get some much needed geeky familiarity within the Old Market Tavern.
Ratchet and Clank Original Trilogy Retrospective Part 3 - Ratchet and Clank 3: Up Your Arsenal - or just Ratchet and Clank 3 in other places - was released in 2004 on the PlayStation 2, once again one year after the game before it. The game opens with Ratchet and Clank enjoying life in the Bogon Galaxy, before revealing that Clank is now a Holovid star playing “Secret Agent Clank”, a news story plays showing Ratchet’s home planet of Veldin being invaded by Tyhrranoids under the command of Doctor Nefarious...
Top 10 – Hunters - Shh, do you hear that? It sounds like the trees rustled over this way, quickly, hide in the underbrush. Now, careful, for today we’ve got to keep on the low-down, lest we become prey for them. Whether you’re a vampire, a beast, or even just an ordinary human, today we’re going to check out the […]
My Thoughts on Minecraft PE - A while back I bought Minecraft Pocket Edition (or PE for short), but my phones just could never handle it. Now that I've got a phone that can handle it, I decided to play about with Minecraft PE and I couldn't believe just how far it had come along. I've had a few days playing around with it now and I can see some issues, as well as some areas where it truly excels. In all honesty, I love Minecraft and just about everything about it, so here're my thoughts on Minecraft PE.
Studying Video Essays - I’m a great proponent of the internet as a tool for delivering easy to digest learning materials, and yes, YouTube is awash with exactly the kind of tools I’m talking about. Movies especially have an abundance of video essayists who talk at length about films and the film industry, taking wildly different approaches to the […]
Opinion: Was Free-To-Play Inevitable For The Games Industry? - Throughout history, we're told that change is inevitable. Whether it's changes to your work, or changes in the form of a balance patch in your favourite fighting game, change is inevitable. However some change is a lot more necessary than others. Some change is born out of a need to move from the status quo, whereas other changes are to try and improve and innovate. So in an industry filled with innovation, was Free-To-Play simply inevitable?
Black Blades – Moorcock’s Influence on Fantasy - Michael Moorcock is a big name in fantasy. He tends to fall off the radar a little in the face of Tolkein’s masterful mythologues, Pratchett’s wondrous mirror, and Martin’s political complexity, but Moorcock’s legacy runs as deep as any others. Most famous for the Eternal Champion, a title given to a series of figures who […]
Video Game Review: DragonBall FighterZ - Steam sales means that I get to pick up titles I've sought after at a great price; let's be honest, we've all been extra tempted by Steam sales - And recently, Steam put up a sale for all DragonBall related games and lo and behold, the fighting game DragonBall FighterZ came up in that list. Anyone who's ever read this website before will know that I do love a good fighting game. When DragonBall FighterZ first came out, I was hugely interested. It was a massive success story that was able to quickly rival the other 3v3 or 'tag' style fighting games, especially as it's been a while since the last big one.
Anime Review: Attack on Titan - When humanity is hunted, it’s time to fight back. Living within Walls, humans live a bleak life, living off rations, whilst the Titans come swaming in, feasting on humans - All whilst not needing to eat them to survive. A cruel, bleak world, with a really interesting overall premise, Attack on Titan is a gritty, brutal series filled with interesting characters. It’s been around for a while, but I’ve recently been checking it out for the first time on Crunchyroll.
Top 10 – Rocks and Stones - Hey, it looks like we’re on a roll. Whilst you may be rocking away, things are going to get a little cold, a little stone cold! Ahh, I crack myself up, so whilst we boulder towards this week’s list, let’s get some ground rules out of the way with. This list must at least feature […]
Kickstarter Highlight – Muffin Time: The Random Card Game by Big Potato - Not going to lie, I have to blame Joel entirely for finding out about this. Asdfmovie is a series of random comedy skits by YouTuber, TomSka. Last month, they released the latest asdfmovie, asdfmovie12. These short animated clips always get a chuckle out of us and admittedly, there's little I can do to support the guy except maybe buy some merch. Until I watched asdfmovie 12, that is, as I've now seen that he's been working on his own card game - and considering as of the time of writing there's only 7 days left (6 by the time you read this), I figured it'd be good to share it with you all.
Review – The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - I think I watched the original Jim Henson production a couple of years ago, a double bill with Labyrinth which – to be entirely honest – I never remember watching as a child. But Dark Crystal, the original Dark Crystal, I most certainly saw many years before. One of my earliest experiences of pure fantasy, […]
NaNoWriMo 2019 - Every year, I like to mention NaNoWriMo. It's an exciting month, where writers across the world take up the challenge. Can they get their novels written? Can they do it in just one month? That's the challenge laid before all takers in November, where writers must write at least 50,000 words and submit their daily accomplishments to the NaNoWriMo website. Every year, I've been fortunate enough to watch people take part. From friends and acquaintances, to complete strangers across Twitter and Facebook. This year, I want to be one of the crazy people who completes their novel in November. Here's some more information on NaNoWriMo.
Magic: the Gathering – Different Win Conditions - “How To” videos for Magic are in high demand right now, with Arena being featured as a sponsor for a lot of YouTube series right now. Well here’s one I’ve yet to see, one we’ve yet to address, and one that’s actually quite interesting. The basic rules of Magic are astonishingly easy to learn. Your […]
Ratchet and Clank Original Trilogy Retrospective Part 2 - Contributor Murray is back to talk about the next game in his three-part series, Ratchet and Clank Original Trilogy Retrospective. Come check out Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (also known as Ratchet & Clank 2: Locked and Loaded).
GeekOut Shrewsbury August ’19 – Netflix and GeekOut - This may have been our biggest GeekOut Shrewsbury ever. I’ve given up on counting these days because with people flowing in and out it’s all I can do to keep an eye on the games to make sure the library stays intact – you guys make that job easier, but a jam packed August has […]
Top 10 Characters With Crazy Hair - These characters know how to show off their unique personalities. This list is to celebrate characters who hair is literally an extension of themselves and their personalities. It’s also for if they can use their hair as weapons, or just general talking points. Whether it’s a cultural thing or if it’s just how they roll, we’re going to celebrate hair in all of its ridiculousness. Yes, this list is only for Characters with Crazy Hair. 
GeekOut UK – Front Page Updates and More - Hey all - From time to time, it's nice to talk about some of the changes that are being made on the website and the reasons behind them. The astute amongst you may have noticed our front page banner has been updated; it now finally says GeekOut UK. But along with that, if you're a regular visitor to the website, you'll have likely seen a couple of changes - Not just to the front page. If you're not a regular visitor and wondering what changes have been made, then look no further. Today I'm going to talk about some of the behind-the-scenes and what changes we've made and why.
Retail Rant: The Magic Brother-In-Law - I recently handed in my notice to go full time in the professional Dungeon Master-y gig; it’s going well. And with my new found freedom, there is a rant I have been meaning to share with you.  A simple formula of words that will guarantee your friendly electrical retailer will immediately hate you, with a […]
Video Game Review: Aviary Attorney - Objection! At least that's what I would say, except in this example we don't need to object to anything. Instead, we just need to point out contradictions politely and in the most effective ways possible - With cold hard facts. Thankfully, we have a professional duo to help uncover the facts of these murder cases, in a pun-filled game akin to Phoenix Wright. If you're a fan of courtroom games, then this is definitely one you should add to your list. Before you do, come check out our thoughts on the bird-based Aviary Attorney. Before I continue with this review, a huge thanks to Vivi who sent me this game as a gift on my birthday. You know my sense of humour far too well!
Monstrous Ecology - A quick soapbox moment, August has been a busy month and what little bit of time I have had for myself should not be spent watching mediocre films. So that Netflix had something to suggest when people looked for A Quiet Place, they produced The Silence. The shameless similarities are well documented, it’s practically an […]
Video Game Review – FAITH: Chapter 1 - On an unsanctioned mission, not approved by the vatican, we find ourselves playing FAITH. A pixelated horror game that can be found on Itch.io. In usual fashion, indie games and horror seem to go hand in hand, but how good is this one? What makes this one so thrilling? Does the religious theme have anything controversial thrown into it? I decided to check it out for myself, as I delved deep into the world of FAITH - And who knows? Perhaps if it's requested, we could move onto FAITH: Chapter 2? Anyway, here's what I thought of the first title.
Ratchet & Clank Original Trilogy Retrospective: Part 1 - Ratchet & Clank is a series of 3D platformer/action games developed by Insomniac Games, then known for developing Spyro the Dragon and known nowadays for developing Sunset Overdrive and Marvel’s Spider-Man. In this series of articles, I’m going to talk about the original 3 games, covering off their major features, plot, equipment, control, and how it felt finishing them today. I’m going to be upfront, these games were some of the first I played; I still adore them today 15/16/17 years later, so gushing may occur. With that out of the way, let’s get started.