Category / History

by WetheGeek

The Soviet Avengers

Black Widow 2020 Part Two

In my last post I talked about the Red Guardian and his ties to the Black Widow and the movie coming out next year. In this post I’m going to talk about his team, the Winter Guard.

The Winter Guard was Soviet Russia’s answer to the Avengers. The team has had a rotating roaster since it’s creation that has mostly been a force for good. The team has been backup and help for the Avengers and other superheroes multiple times over the years.

The team first appeared in Iron Man #9 in October 1998. The team was created by Kurt Busiek and Sean Chen. They created a team that believed in doing good and helping others unlike other soviet superhero teams like Soviet Super-Soldiers or the Supreme Soviets.

The team has a rotating roster but it’s three key players are the Red Guardian (Soviet Captain America), Crimson Dynamo (Soviet Iron Man), and Darkstar (Super Mutant). Every time one of the three heroes dies another citizen is chosen to take up the dead heroes mantle. Thus Russia is never without a hero.

The team has also had members.

Ursa Major who is a mutant who can turn into a bear (a cross between Wolverine and Hulk).

Vostok who is a robot who can control machines (like Vision).

Chernobog who is the Slavic god of chaos and night (a cross between Loki and Cloak)

Perun who is the Slavic god of thunder and lightning (like Thor).

Fantasma who is a sorceress (like Scarlet Witch).

Powersurge who is a nuclear fueled giant (like Hulk).

And Sibercat who is a catlike mutant (like Cheetah from DC comics).

Hopefully we will see the three mainstays of the Winter Guard in Black Widow next year. Maybe if we are lucky we can see more Russian heroes.

-RytheGeek

#blackwidow #redguardian #crimsondynamo #darkstar #russia #sovietunion #marvel #wethegeek #wethegeekry

by WetheGeek

Cowboys ride again

The third installment in the ​Red Dead​ series dropped on October 26th and gamers everywhere were freaking out, including me. For those who aren’t familiar with this title, the original ​Red Dead Redemption​ was released in 2010 by Rockstar Games and is the second in the series following ​Red Dead Revolver ​from 2004. This series overall is a Western-themed, open-world, action-adventure with an easy-to-follow story that lets you live your dream of being a cowboy/outlaw in the late 1800s to early 1900s. To be honest, it’s ​Grand Theft Auto​ with horses.

The premise for ​Red Dead Redemption 2​ is similar to the previous titles, in that you play as an outlaw trying to choose between the gang and himself, killing as many (or as few) people as it takes to achieve mental clarity for your character. ​Redemption 2​ plants the protagonist, Arthur Morgan, right in the middle of Dutch Van der Linde’s outlaw gang, which was the same group John Marston left and was tasked with taking down in ​Red Dead Redemption​. Due to the presence of Marston as an active member of Van der Linde’s gang, ​Redemption 2​ is actually a prequel and not a sequel, as the number “2” would imply. Enough about the story, let’s get into the mechanics.

I’ve been playing every day since the release, and I can safely say that this game is outstanding. The graphics are phenomenal and the environment is beautiful. Not many games can pull off different climates and weather fronts well, but wow, these developers put forth some intense time and effort to perfect the environment. Not only is the setting majestic, it is more than deadly. Your character and horse will take damage if you get caught in extreme weather which makes it even more immersive. It takes the ease of traversing an open world and makes the player have to think about how they proceed in the environment, which increases the challenge. The weapon wheel, inventory menu, and pause menus are easy to navigate and separate every aspect of your character’s needs appropriately. Another mechanic Rockstar does well in all their games is assisted targeting. I will admit that I am terrible at aiming in-game weapons with my console controller, so I rely heavily on assisted targeting when provided to me. ​Redemption 2​ delivers four assisted targeting options for a wide spectrum of gameplay options.

All in all, ​Red Dead Redemption 2​ has lived up to the majority of the hype. It was a long-awaited addition to the ​Red Dead​ franchise that will become a classic, as did the previous two titles. I give this title an 8 out of 10 rating, taking the lack of fast travel into account. Unfortunately, this is as close as we will come to Westworld…for now.

-KatTheLadyNerd

#wethegeek #reddeadredemption2 #reddeadredemption #reddeadrevolver #geek #nerd #game #videogame #gamer #gamergirl #rockstargames #grandtheftauto #western #adventure #action #reddead #openworld #shooter #wildwest #westworld #hbo #kattheladynerd #videogames #gamernerd #gamergeek #casualgamer

by WetheGeek

Block by Block

So today we break old ground. Not new ground, that would be out of character. No, today we discuss a game that most are quite familiar with: Minecraft.

The result of me saying the name of the independently made voxel-based crafting and survival game will elicit either a quiet smile, or a shaken head. Or, as normal people put it, you either hated that name, or loved it.

Either way, Minecraft is still a game that should be talked about. Many feel like it needs to disappear, the game having been released in “full” in 2011. However, the game grew year after year, and very much is still thriving with an astounding 74 million estimated active players (1). This is especially true since the Microsoft purchase of the game. The purchase itself was even hotly contested, encouraging Microsoft to simply let the team there do what they needed to, and just providing funding (at least as far as we can tell). Since then, there have been many updates to the game, and multiple console releases. Playstation, Xbox, Switch, PC, and Mobile devices now all have a version of the game, and in PC’s case, 2 (3 if you count the raspberry pi edition). With the move to consoles, Mojang, the developers of Minecraft pushed an idea: true cross-platform. Now, one of the first (if not THE first) games to be truly cross-platform with all current consoles and similar devices stands tall (if quietly), at the second-best selling game of all time (1), right behind Tetris.

Alongside the main game, there were many mods, modpack launchers, YouTubers, and spinoff games that pushed it to new popularity, and still do to this day.

Recently announced was a Minecraft dungeon-crawler, which looks to take inspiration from the community, and from games like Diablo, and promises to be interesting at the very least. I await it’s release, and will definitely talk more about it once it comes out.

Until then, as a longtime fan of the game, this is Incensum saying: “Thanks Mojang, for the [redacted] hours of pure entertainment.” And thank you, for reading.

-Incensum

#Incensum #WeTheGeek #Minecraft

(1) according to Wikipedia and PCGamer (2018) https://www.pcgamer.com/minecraft-had-74-million-active-players-in-december-a-new-record-for-the-game/

by WetheGeek

Our Start

In August 2013 an idea came to a young man. His idea was to make a YouTube channel for people who liked movies and geek culture as much as him.

At that time he had directed two short films. The first being a horror suspense film called “Camp Drake Murder!”. The second short film was a heist movie titled “Olympus Heist”. Both films were entered into a small private film festival but received few awards.

Not letting himself be discouraged the young man came up with the idea to share his love of geek culture to the internet.

On October 2, 2013 Hufflepuff Videos went public on Facebook. The name did not last long however. Seeing more potential for the brand, later that month it was officially renamed Hufflepuff Studios. With the help of a longtime friend, Hufflepuff Studios created its first logo. The classic orange and blue globe.

On December 4th, 2013 Hufflepuff Studios released its first series titled “Hufflepuff Files”. The series lasted 18 episodes.

A few months later on March 2, 2014 Hufflepuff Studios released its first short film. Shattered Roses was a drama that won best lead actor and actress, best score, and best editing. Sadly it lost best film.

Content struggled to be produced by the studio till October 19, 2015 with the introduction of a new series call “Corner Coffee Comment”. Hufflepuff Studios quickly redesigned itself and introduced another series called the “Movie Minute”. The summer of 2016 Hufflepuff Studios released its weekly podcast called the “Hufflecast”. New episodes talking about movies were released every Friday.

A test episode of a series called “Super Nerd Battle” had been released March 4th, 2016. The show had two hosts and had over 20 episodes planned. Sadly due to funding only three episodes were released.

At the beginning of 2017 Hufflepuff Studios started a branch YouTube page called “Through a Geek’s Eyes”. Only a polite episode was made before the studio dropped it.

On August 1, 2018 Hufflepuff Studios was rebranded once more and became WetheGeek. With the introduction of a new name also came six new creators. Luna, MKAmethyst, Incensum, TheDoctor, KaytheHuman, and Mabel. Each one helping to bring new content and their own style to the company.

Today WetheGeek has new content daily. Be it reviews, news, memes, videos, or stories one thing has remanded true. WetheGeek has, and alway will be, true to the Geeks and Nerds by making sure our content is always Geek centered.

Thanks for being there these past five years. And hopefully to many more.
-RytheGeek