Review: China Illinois

A show that I really would recommend to fans of adult cartoons is the stoner classic, China Illinois. This show is relevant to college students, as it is based on an inner-city community college filled with DND, man children and trippy animation. The show follows a group of misfits who are trying to get though the worse college in America and its humor is something that only tech school students will get. Filled with nerdy humor, evil demons and lonely freaks trying rise above the crop and getting lost in their nerdy adventures while under the influence. This show is something anyone who grew up in the 90s will enjoy and its animation is surreal. The show really depicts college life in a real but meta way. I would highly recommend this series.

-- By Grant Nelson

Video Game Review: Doom Eternal

A game that I have started to play and love is Doom Eternal. This game is as metal as it gets. Taking place in an apocalyptic war between humanity and demons from hell, this fame is as brutal as it is fun. The game is very much like Halo on steroids and is filled with so many ways to fight your way through demons with a massive array of guns and power combos. The game take you on a platforming warzone across hell and you battle to save Earth and explore the lore and history of hell with great amounts of world building. Doom captures the best aspects of games like Halo and Metroid Prime and is just so alive with action, great multiplayer option, and a very fun story. It just dropped the last story DLC pack and with everything together creates an amazing world so high on metal and creative plot and call backs to the original Doom from 20 years ago. It's worth the money.

-- By Grant Nelson

Review: Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss

A show on YouTube that I think every nerd and goth would love is the Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss series. This adult cartoon is heavily inspired by classics like invader Zim Billy and Mandy, with dark fantasy and humor that is often a call back to older early 2000s goth kids shows. The stories takes place in hell and follow the misadventures of demons in hell going about their immortal lives filled with sex, drugs and guns. The humor is something that makes South Park blush and goes just as far in satires if not more. The shows create a very sin city like world filled with all sorts of creatures and demons and cartoon characters filled with flaws, but also reading quotes even wanting to make things right in their relationships and undead lives. The show really hits home with everything from abuse of sex workers to broken families in hell of all places. The show depicts a very bleak, dark, cruel, funny and even sweet world filled with demons that are still trying find the answers for their faults even in hell. Ironically, the show spreads the Christian message of hope and redemption to the worst of beings that a lot religions could learn. 

-- By Grant Nelson

Review: Forerunner trilogy

With the next Halo game around the corner, I spend most of my time emmersing myself in the Halo universe. A book  series that really stands out as a sci fi classic would be the Forerunner trilogy. These books cover the rise of the Forerunner Empire, its war with other alien nations -- one being a prehistoric human empire -- and the spread of the flood and the creation of the Halo weapons. The world building in these books feels like Greek mythology. The books are very much a space opera with the building and breaking of trust and broken families that impact the universe. The books have primitive humans as major characters and their stories are something out of the Hobbit. The books build upon much of the lore from the games and takes Halo to narratives that are very refreshing. The books deal with technology and view of the universe that borders on magic. The books open up plot threads that are very tied to the new Halo games and for anyone wanting to read a good space opera, I recommend these books.

-- By Grant Nelson

Review: Jedi book series

A comic book series that I grew up loving, is the classic tales of the Jedi series. These comics cover the old wars between the Sith Empire and the Old Republic. The series follows ancient Jedi heroes as they battle against the forces of dark, both in wars against other armies and their own souls. The series really captures the soul of what it means to be a Jedi and the choices they make, the bonds and love they share with others, and how it all falls apart. The books also capture the nature of the Dark Side and Sith, their evil magics, and the lore for them, which is far more chilling than the Disney series. The books cover massive wars and it feels like the stories of the Trojan wars and other aspects of mythic epics. These stories also feature strong female Jedi masters, and did so long before Disney tried forcing cut out characters like Rey.  They are both nuanced and kick ass all at once. The comic books really deliver on the history of the Jedi and Sith. If you are done with Disney, give this a shot.

-- By Grant Nelson

Review: Pokemon Generations

A fresh take on Pokémon animi I would highly recommend for those that grew up with the old games and got tired of the endless adventures of Ash and Pikachu is the more mature Pokémon Generations. This animi covers the stories of many generations and is much closer the lore and story of the games than the main series. It has the many legendary Pokemon and realistic portrayals of the world in that Team Rocket is more like the Taliban than cartooned bad guys. The show has very good artwork. It captures the feel of the stories and adventures we grew up with, way more than the endless show that stays from the feel and interweaving threads in the game's stories. For anyone who is now an angsty college student, give it a shot.

-- By Grant Nelson

Game Review: Warhammer 40k Dark Heresy

A pen and paper role playing game that I love is Warhammer 40k Dark Heresy. This grim dark gothic space adventure takes us to the far future where there is only war and chaos. You take on the role in the base game as an imperial witch hunter who hunts down cultist demons and mutants across the human empire. You can trace it to vast hive cities to wild alien jungles. The game is much like Dungeons and Dragons in that you have a party and a game master who is the cruel god of the world you play in. The game is very dark and filled with gothic themes and rolen playing. The setting is very much based in cosmic horror and sometimes you can hear the brass as you slay demons and cultist. The main faction you play as the game are not good guys in any sense of word as you destroy entire worlds to stop the forces of chaos. For anyone who like role playing and playing the bad guy, give it a shot.

-- By Grant Nelson

Video Game Review: Black Desert Online

A game worth the look online is Black Desert Online. This game is a massive open world massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) on console and PC.The game is a huge open fantasy sandbox made in South Korea and is filled with many differing classes and races to play as. The game is a world to escape into, with massive wars over resources and land between rival guilds and players, as well as managing towns and areas across the world. The game feels very much like log horizon or final fantasy and is free to play for the most part. The world is vast and just feels alive with all the things you can do in it and is less of structured story line and more like Skyrim than anything else. I highly recommend it.

-- By Grant Nelson

Review: Warhammer 40,000

One book series that I love to death for its brutality, mythology, debauchery and all together mockery of everything that I hate about Star Trek is the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. This book series is the dark -- the heavy metal side of science fiction that beat Gene Rodenberry in high school. This universe is set in the far-off future where humanity and all other races, for that matter, have not achieved some utopia with spandex but a brutal universe with emo poetry and sex cults. It's where the vast host of space is ruled by a cruel neo-Nazi galactic empire that enforces a Dark Ages space Catholic church that worships the worst father and god in human history and makes the Sith look like hippies. The worst part is that these are the good guys that keep the order in a universe under assaults by hordes of demons that want to rape, kill and infect all of creation for its entirety. The universe is so brutal and over the top with war and every kind of nerdy extreme possible that it becomes funny. This franchise can rage in narrative and story type form gothic horror to space opera to Lord of the Rings in space and everything in between. Hell, there are even space orcs. So if you want to try something new and have gotten tired of Star Wars soap box movies give it a shot.

-- By Grant Nelson