This episode features: Zombietron, Kill-Tacular-Tron, Arse-Bot, Mexicus Prime, Proletaria-tron, and special guest and Founding Contributor, Clang! Boom! Steam!

The the February edition of the Big Shiny Podcast we give you a run-down of the piles and piles of television and movie news including Cap casting, reboots, LOST, and The Walking Dead! Zombietron gives us the skinny on recent video game releases – including one game he is already calling “Game of the Year” – while Arse-bot calls out all the pussy cheaters on Call of Duty. Clang! Boom! Steam! shows up to class this whole cluster-fuck up and give us all a great run down of what’s been going on, currently going on, and going to… go… on… in Marvel comics!

February Big Shiny Podcast

• iTunes – Be sure to subscribe, rate and comment!
• BSR mp3

Swank-mo-tron: Wow. That might be one of the best words to describe this movie. This movie was unsettling to me in all of the right ways right off the bat. It was haunting and beautiful and I even shed a few tears. I think a lesser filmmaker would have botched this story rather badly, but the fact that Martin Scorsese has such an even hand was greatly to this films benefit. The construction of Shutter Island was flawless and I want to see it again, just to confirm that statement. What do you think, Doctor?

Doctor Cyborg Robot M.D. Attorney at Law -5: I couldn’t disagree with Swank-mo-tron more. The film was hard to sit through. I was constantly fighting the urge to get up and walk out of the theatre. The only good things about the film were the directors control of the information, the story itself, the acting, the score, the best use of flashbacks and dreams that I’ve seen in a film for a good long while, and well pretty much the whole thing was really good. Shutter Island literally reignited my faith in cinema. Although as I started off saying it is hard to sit through. It isn’t the feel good movie of the year, so if your one of those idiots that needs to feel good, go get yourself a foot massage.

So I guess Smank-mo-tron and I actually agree on this one, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still wrong. I think he is understating this movies greatness. Whereas he isn’t likely to throw out phrases like, “best film of the year!” and “Thrilltacular roller coaster ride!” I am. And that’s what separates us from the humans…

Swank-mo-tron: Ummm… I’m a bit lost, Doctor, but I will agree that the construction of the film and the language of cinema it used were second-to-none. And It’s been fun debating the ending with you in person… It’s really open-ended and I appreciate the fact that we are left to make up our own minds about the film and the nature of the ending.

And I would also like to point out how much I loved the scene between the Warden of the Shutter Island facility and Leonardo DiCaprio’s character. I think that scene stood out among an entire film’s worth of stand out scenes.

And I loved Scorsese’s use of incredible actors for even the most bit parts, like Jackie Earle Haley, Patricia Clarkson, Emily Mortimer and Elias Koteas. They all stood out in a film with lead performances so strong they made my head spin. Literally, my stomach was turning over in knots.

This is one I’m going to have to go back and see again and again.

Scorsese did it again.

Want to win a copy of a movie chock-full of Nazi Zombies?! Well, here’s your chance! Big Shiny Robot is giving away a copy of Dead Snow! You know you want to watching yards and yards of intestines ripped from bodies by a bunch damn Hitler-lovin’ undead Nazi bastards! So enter to win this copy now!

We are making it simple for you! Simply let us know what celebrity you would eat if you were a zombie! On Facebook, update your status to “I would eat [insert celebrity] for a copy of Dead Snow from Big Shiny Robot!” – of course, make sure you’re a fan of BSR! on Facebook! After you have done this, post a comment on our Facebook post for this story letting us know you have entered (or e-mail Arse-bot at tyson@bigshinyrobot.com) and you are good to go! Alternatively, you can post “I would eat [insert celebrity] for a copy of Dead Snow from @bigshinyrobot !” on Twitter!

The winner will be drawn at random this Friday and we will contact you to get your info and drop you your very own copy of Dead Snow in the mail to you!

Good Luck!

Be sure to follow all your favorite bots on Twitter!

@bigshinyrobot

@swankmotron

@proletariatron

@BSRZombietron

@tysonhuber

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@examinerDaine

Proletaria-tron: Well…what to say about last nights episode? There was a whole hell of a lot of this episode dedicated to Kate. Kate just so happens to be my least favorite character. So much so I don’t even think shes hot anymore, and she used to be sexy. Sometime around the beginning of last season she just got really boring. Its nothing but pouting from her. Not only did we have to deal with her “Never Crashed” story but we had to deal with her “I still want Sawyers Southern Ass” story.

Sidenote: I hate the alternate timeline and think its a waste, I dont care about whats happening to them because they are not the people I’ve been watching for years, they are the people that never met and never crashed and never did anything.

I did like the “Sayid is some sort of Zombie” story line, because its the only thing that seems to actual be going somewhere. Sayid is infected and is going to go crazy. There is nothing about that not to like. He is going to fuck shit up. It seems like there is a whole lot of build up going on in the past 3 hours of show so I’m hoping stuff actual happens real soon. I’m slightly optimistic. Slightly.

Arse-bot: Shit! I forgot to watch it! Uhm… Kill-tacular-tron, what did YOU think?

Kill-Tacular-Tron: I enjoyed last night’s episode. It is moving a little slow, but it is the beginning of the season. After it gets some steam everyone will start complaining that too much is going on and there are too many questions. Lolz.

Kate is awful. If she would have died instead of Juliet I would be a happy man-bot. Although, unlike my counterpart, I am really enjoying the alternate time line. Showing how the characters would have intersected and how their lives are still intertwined is interesting to me. I like Kate and Clare living through a very similar experience while Clare gives birth. My money is on the two stories intersecting about two-thirds of the way through this season.

Sayid actually really frustrated me. Its cool that he’s back from the dead and ready to kick some ass, but he seemed like kind of a pussy while he was getting tortured. He kept screaming and yelling, “I don’t know anything!” If I recall, the last time he was getting tortured he didn’t scream like a girl or spill his guts.

Best part of this episode:

Super cool that they poked fun at his original role as an extra. I kinda wish it would have been Charlie. Oh, and did I mention the “cliff hanger” for this episode? Oh, that’s ’cause it wasn’t that memorable. We all knew Clare was chilling on the island somewhere. And we all figured she went bat shit crazy. This was more of a “retaining wall hanger”.

Spoilers Ahead! – Only read on if you have already watched the two hour premier of LOST!

Proletaria-tron: Its been a while since we’ve had something to be really excited about for Lost, sure we’ve had some tid bits of info here and there but nothing really got me all too excited. The premiere of the final season didn’t excite me either. A lot has happened since that last episode of season 5, for me at least. Through the glory of the internet, cable, and my new god Netflix I have been exposed to some really good TV; Mad Men and Dexter topping my list. I have kind of forgotten how much I loved Lost. How excited I was to watch every week, speculating about what was going on and being pissed about what just happened.

Tonight after the episode was over all I could think was ‘Meh, that was decent but fuck nothing really happened.’ Sure Juliette is dead but a damn bomb blew up next to her I kinda figured she’d be dead, plus this is Lost nobody stays dead. Case in point; Sayyid comes back to life right at the end. So I guess I’ll go back to the beginning or at least the first hour of last nights 2 hour premiere.

Nothing Happened. Juliette was pulled out of the rubble and died, Sawyer was pissed. The End. Oh all the stuff about the alternate reality where everyones on the plane and fine? Yeah I don’t fucking care because thats a different group of people, a group I never cared about, the ones I care about are still on the damn island.

Hour 2? A little happened. We learned that Locke really is dead and that the Smoke Monster is actually a who and can inhabit a zombie Locke, but not who he is. I forgot how annoying that is. Two steps forward, one step back. Hey we found some more Others, an angry Japanese guy and the Temple. That was pretty cool but man what a lackluster premiere. Of course I’m tuning in next week though, so I can be upset that I still don’t know what Locke is.  Arse-bot are you somehow less cynical than me?

Arse-bot: Actually Proletaria, I am less cynical than you this time around. I actually agree with you that it was kind of a lackluster premier, but I didn’t think it was bad. A lot has happened over 5 seasons and this was a good way to ease everyone back into LOST that has once again been off the air for almost a year.

As is par with LOST, I am confused as hell after two hours, but I’ll start with the first hour. Again, not a lot happened, but it seems that the creators are easing us back in. After all, our characters are all reeling from an atom bomb explosion (as far as we can tell from Juliette’s post-death message) and are trying to figure out what to do now. Their plan didn’t work, Sayid is dying, Juliette is dead, and Sawyer is toying with the idea of killing Jack for this mistake – it was supposed to fix everything. As far as this alternate reality we are being shown, I find it kind of depressing. I think we are going to experience a big twist (obviously) with this reality though because many characters are not acting like the people we have been seeing on the island, even in season 1. I 100% agree with Proletaria with that I don’t care as much about this alternate reality right now because it’s the Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Sayid and company back on the island that I have been watching for 5 seasons that I care about.

For the second hour we did get a few answers, but again, in typical LOST fashion, twice as many questions to go along with it. Who is “Locke”? Who is Jacob? Who are all these Asian dudes in the Temple our castaways have come to? I think LOST fans all over have suspected the existence of a Lazerous (sp?) Pit on the island, so it was nice to have that revealed. Again though, not a lot happened. I’m not concerned though, JJ Abrams hasn’t let me down as long as this show has been around and I’m sure the whole creative team is just ramping up for an incredible final season!

Lackluster or not, I am glad to have LOST back on the air – even knowing that this is going to be it for the series. Be sure to check back every week for mine and Proletaria-tron’s recap and reviews of each episode! Most importantly, feel free to sound off in the comments about your ideas, disagreements, theories, etc!

Finally, make sure you check out our new weekly LOST web comic, ‘Previously on LOST’!

A Zombie’s Perspective:

Capcom’s latest addition to the vs. series puts their wide line-up of characters against an anime company that I have never heard of. Although the Tatsunoku side consists of a good group of interesting character’s I’m sure American sales of this title will be hurt by the lack of recognition.
Upon booting this game I didn’t think too much of it, pretty standard intro (although their theme music is MUCH better than SF4). Basic character select screen, and away we go picking our two and beginning the combat. Round 1, Arse-Bot vs. a beginning Zombietron. Needless to say I lost several times, but slowly began to pick up on the combo system and how fluidly the game allows you to move from point to point.
Playing on a standard Wii-mote the folks at Capcom have given a very easy control scheme, forward and 2, forward and 1, and the list continues with all directions.  This for most learners was pretty easy, but I gotta say, when the battle gets intense, it’s hard to make sure you’re hitting the correct combos when you only have six button choices. Taking these and add few combos like the usual DFP for Ryu’s Hadoken, and the game quickly falls into the standard fighter category with mostly solid controls. Using a classic controller it then begins to play like the Capcom fighters from the SNES days, which once again is easy to adjust and just as fun to work with.

Where I think this game shines as opposed to some of the other members of the vs. group, is the attentiveness to balance the game has. Every character has a strategy, and every character has a weak point you can exploit to win. (ask Mexicus about the upper-cut super counter). That being said through the hours we battled, Tatsunoku seemed to have the advantage in speed, power, and over-all character quality. It simply felt that taking a Capcom character against the futuristic weapon-toting Tatsunoku crew could be considered a mistake. But I still found myself pulling out the wins when it really mattered.  It was nice to see even the giant characters namely px-40 and Lightan (also known by the BSR crew as “The Waffle Iron Dude”) were limited in speed, and you could choose only them, instead of your usual two choices.  AND THEY WERE BEATABLE, unlike the sentinel MVC2.
All-in-all, Tatsunoku is a solid line up of good characters, interesting arenas, and a great time blasting away at your friends.  It has a good technical side for the hardcore fighting kids.  This game is worth a buy, it will even be featured in Evo this year. I say high-five to Capcom for giving Wii owners a game to compete on!

The Zombie Score:

• Graphics: 8.5
• Audio: 8
• Controls: 9
• Replay: 9.5
• Zombie’s Overall : 8.75
• The Composite : 7.75

The Doctor’s perspective! (In other words the correct perspective!)

Dr. Cyborg here, Just got done with a bout on the newly released Tatsunoko Vs. Capcom! The new fighter from Capcom exclusively for the Wii. I found this to be a game that needed to be done for a long time, as this is the first fighting game I’ve purchased for the Wii. (Excluding Smash Bros. which doesn’t count at all, you idiots!)

To preface, I’m a big fan of both Street Fighter in general, and all the Marvel Vs. Capcom games. TVC, is a sort of blend of these games, but not really like either. Thankfully it has the same type of look as SFIV, but the dual battle system of MVC. The biggest variation from both titles is the controls. You can play with a Game Cube controller, the classic controller, or with the Wii remote itself. I’ve found I like the classic controller the best. But that isn’t what separates the controls, it’s that they’ve designed a whole new system. Now rather than having 2 or 3 kick and punch buttons, they’ve combined the buttons. So now your light, medium, and hard buttons throw different types of attacks in different situations. For example, if Ryu is in the air and you press your hard button, it will be a kick, but on the ground holding forward it might be a punch.

It sounds complicated, but in all actuality it simplifies things. I think it makes the game playable to a larger audience, but it’s still complicated enough that if you aren’t skilled, you are going to get your ass kicked. I find myself sentimentally attached to the old system, but I like how easy it is to learn a new character with this decrease in controls. Honestly it’s intimidating to try a new fighter in Street Fighter IV, but in this game every character has their own strengths and weaknesses, but has basically the same controls as everyone else.

To wrap things up for doctors, I’m just going to spout off a few sentences! There’s plenty of playable characters in this game, but I wish there were a few more. (Most notably Ken.) I’ve only played through the arcade a few times, and the computer can be pretty challenging. All of the characters endings seem to be pretty ridiculous. The online play seems awesome if it isn’t lagging out too bad. I find this to be highly enjoyable, but easily not the best Capcom fighting game on the market. (I’m now much more excited for Super Street Fighter IV.)

Overall I’d give it a 7.75/10 (Completely different than a Zombies 7.75)

P.S. Q: What do you call a lame brain that couldn’t think their way out of a super market? Give up?

A: Zombies!

Dr’s rule suckas!

It actually seems like the first ten years of this new millenium have been absolute heaven for all of nerds and geeks out there. Whether you are into comics, superheroes, movies, books, television, or music something awesome has happened in the last decade that has just made you absolutely exstatic. As much as we would like to give you a “Best Nerd Stuff of the Decade” list it would just take too long – that, and we are a group of surprisingly lazy robots.

Instead, a few of us bots have compiled an extremely abbreviated list of what we consider to be our favorite “nerd goings ons” of 2009. Of course, this is just simply our opinions and events that stuck out to us over the last year in the world of comics, television, movies, etc. Sound off in the comments section and let us know what YOUR favorite nerd thing/event of 2009 was!

Zombietron

• Borderlands – This was a huge sleeper hit of 2009 in video games.
• Batman Arkham Asylum – Best. Batman game. Ever.
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – Does this really need an explanation?

Proletariatron

• Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5 – Simply put, the best book/graphic novel of 2009.
• Better off Ted – Best new sitcom of 2009. Funny, smart, and only 30 min.

Swank-mo-tron

• Cad Bane – This has been perhaps one of the most interesting and amazing contributions to both the nerd world and the Star Wars universe.
• JJ Abrams’ Star Trek – The new movie has helped introduce an entirely new generation to the world of Star Trek and did it in perhaps the most entertaining way possible.
• Avatar – I haven’t seen it yet, but the process of HOW they made the movie will change the way movies of this size and spectacle will be made forever.

Dr. Simulcast

• “Cheap Geek” – Bad economy makes for good geek times! Why? Because companies that cater to a nerd crowd recognize that they pay for what they can afford in really hard times. Even the most hardcore collectors, when left with ten bucks to buy a comic or ramen noodles, will buy the ramen to stay alive and read old issues. A lot of items went down in price this year, and we’re not just talking average DVD sales. Two of the most prominent of the year… The Playstation 3 (once originally priced at $700), now just $299. Where most stand-alone BluRay players are around $250, an extra fifty bucks gets you a top line game system with it. So what if there’s no clock on the front? And the second… the standard iPhone becoming just $99. Originally priced at $300 just last year (before the bug fixes), you now have a multi-purpose phone with thousands of free applications ready for download at an affordable price. Other objects that went down in price from January to now… flat screen televisions, the Wii and 360 (although minor), graphic novels, storage devices and media players.
• “Gooferine” – I’ll keep this one simple. Make all the horrible jokes that you want, Disney buying Marvel was probably one of the best decisions the company could have made, and in turn will probably benefit Marvel as a whole more than vice versa. My only case in point… Marvel’s 90’s cartoons. Finding an audience after the animated Batman series became big, Marvel went all out and made several series into cartoons. X-Men, Spiderman, The Hulk, Iron Man, Silver Surfer… and they were somewhat ideal… but the quality lacked. If you think I’m full of shit, please, do me a favor, click pause on this podcast and go sit through an episode from any of those series in full, and then come back and tell me it was golden. Many were thrown together in haste, chopping up footage and using every animation trick in the book to stretch a 1960’s ten minute read into twenty-two minute 1990’s update. Now for a brief moment, Family Guy joke aside, picture the Disney animation department doing the work instead of Saban. How good would that old X-Men series be? Forget the films and the merch and everything else Disney probably bought them for. I believe a new dawn is on the horizon for Marvel and animation, where an actual effort will be put behind the content. …Now if only Marvel could hire some good writers to adapt the stories for television without pulling random material out of a hat. (I’m looking at you Wolverine & The X-Men)
• “The Great Internet Crash” – While not viewed so much as geeky on the surface, delve deeper into these two subjects and you’ll find greater value for the tech savvy. The death of Michael Jackson and the Iranian Riots. The internet, while a valuable tool for millions, has been viewed more as a “play thing” over the years (insert porn joke here) than a mainstream source of information. One look at a Wikipedia article can tell you that. But over the summer two events changed MANY opinions. Jackson’s death, started as a simple text message, brought many search engines to a screeching halt within hours and forced many providers look at how they not only delegate service but examine what improvements the US (and the world in general) needs going into the future. While Iran’s election and subsequent revolution was documented in full… on Twitter. With updates and information coming in faster than some news organizations could keep up with, and continued to provide info long after many news crews were threatened with being shot if they didn’t shut down their reporting. While much more could be said on these subjects, in the ideal of keeping it short and sweet we’ll leave it at this. I believe its fair to say that 2009 was the year that the internet finally grew up, came into its own as a major source of information, and officially became a necessity as opposed to a commodity.

Botasaurus

• Zombieland – Because life with zombies is epic. Woody Allen killed it and Bill Murray is hilarious.
• Ontario Math Scholars – Writing a mathematical thesis on the chances of the world surviving a zombie apocolypse using older zombies that are slow, not the new super zombies.
• Jim and Pam Get Married – I’m a girl and I was waiting for it for what seems like forever.
• Dexter Season 4 – Holy cow!!! That was so freaking amazing. Quite possibly the best season yet.

Kill-tacular-Tron

• Ghostbusters – Ghostbusters merchandise, Ghostbusters anniversary, Ghostbusters videogame, Ghostbuster 3 movie news! It was a great year to be a fan of Ghostbusters!
• Netflix on Xbox 360 – A great addidtion to the Xbox 360 dashboard. Sign up and stream TV shows and movies straight to your TV via your gaming console!
• Saberforge Lightsabers – Best lightsaber replicas! You can actually hit stuff with them and they don’t break!

Arse-bot

• LOST Season 5 – This show has been absolutely addictive and this was a great season leading up to the finale season.
• DC Feature Length Animated Movies – DC release two really solid feature length animated movies in 2009, Green Lantern: First Flight and Batman/Superman: Public Enemies. Both of these feature Bruce Timm involved to some degree and are great animated flicks to check out.
• (500) Days of Summer / UP – My two favorite movies of 2009. Joseph Gordon Levitt and the cast of (500) Days of Summer execute a great script and story perfectly and Pixar does it again with another amazing entry to their library of films with UP.

Budgetron

• 70 Minute Phantom Menace review – Your heart knew the Phantom Menace sucked as soon as the “new car smell” wore out and you were left with nothing but a 3 year wait for Attack of the Clones, but you never knew exactly why you hated it so much. Well, don’t worry, you’re about to give your brain a blow-by-blow of why your heart was right about the Phantom Menace. You may be thinking, “Yeah, it might be fun, but 70 minutes?”, yeah, I thought that too…but if you’re any kind of Star Wars fan, this uber fan’s review of the film is a thoroughly entertaining and insightful MUST WATCH.
• Swank-mo-tron’s Reaction to the 70 Minute Phantom Menace – And as much as I loved the 70 minute review of Phantom Menace, nothing, and I mean NOTHING, could have prepared me for the level of seething hatred Swank-mo-tron had for the creator of said review. Without even WATCHING the review, Swank furiously hit the internets with a purpose; oh yes, he was going to take the whole internet to task with an eye single to the glory of George. You would have thought the murderer of his children was getting set free, but no…someone just made fun of Star Wars. It was great.

There’s our list for 2009! Tell us what your favorite Nerd/Geek thing/event of 2009 was in the comments section below!

Also, be sure to check out our December Big Shiny Podcast where we break down some nerd news from December and highlight some of the items from our “Best Nerd Stuff of 2009″ list!

It’s that time again! It’s the end of the month so once again some of us nerds from BSR! felt compelled to tell you what we thought about some of the nerd goings ons from the month of December!

In this episode we cover more shitty Spider-Man 4 rumors, spend some time talking comics, and wrap up a few videogame releases as well as look ahead to what will be released in 2010! We also spend some time at the end of the podcast talking about some of our favorite (”best of”) nerd events of 2009! There is a corresponding “BSR Best of 2009″ article that will be going live this weekend, so be sure to check back for that full list!

Be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes and rate us if you like (or hate) what you hear!

December Big Shiny Podcast

• iTunes
• BSR mp3

We bots are back with another monthly installment of the Big Shiny Podcast! This month we cover more movies, games, and comics! Including the latest Spidey 4 casting rumors, Blackest Night, and Modern Warfare 2! We have a big roster of bots on this one, featuring: Zombietron, Jukebot, Budgetron, Proletatia-Tron, Arse-bot, Mexicus Prime, Dr. Cyborg, Swank-mo-tron, and Kill-tacular-tron! So have a listen as all nine of us robots try to hash out all the nerd news and goings-ons that happened in November!

Also, be sure to check out our awesome nerd holiday gift guide and it’s short corresponding podcast!

You can check out the November Big Shiny Podcast via the iTunes link below! Be sure to rate us and/or leave a comment whether you love it, like it or hate it!

November Big Shiny Podcast on iTunes!

If you haven’t checked out Big Shiny Robot’s Holiday Gift Guide, you should! It’s a pretty comprehensive list of some great ideas for the nerd guy/gal in your house!

To coincide with that list, we have put together some “staff picks” (if you will) in a brief, 5 minute, Holiday Gift Guide Podcast! Take a listen and be sure to check out our full-length November Big Shiny Podcast coming later this week!