Developed by: Double Fine Productions, Inc, 2005 Difficulty: Medium-Hard Rating: A+ Trailer:Click Here!
I’ve been wanting to blog about this one for a while. “Psychonauts” is the brain child of game-maker legend, Tim Schafer, responsible for creating such games as “Day of the Tentacle,” “Full Throttle,” and “Grim Fandango.” You play as a kid at a summer camp for psychics, and have to build up your awesome psychic arsenal to take on an evil counselor who’s stealing children’s brains.
So far, this is probably the best and funniest PS2 game I’ve played to date. Aside from running around the camp fighting telekinetic bears and setting squirrels on fire, you also get to astrally project yourself into the brains of other campers where each mental realm becomes a whole new game on it’s own. One minute, you’ll be fighting against Napoleon’s armies, another you’ll be soaring through a psychedelic disco dance club, and in another brain, you’ll be a 100-foot tall monster destroying a city of fish.
I could go on forever about the billions of things this game has to offer, but I think this guy named Yahtzee can say more about it in four minutes than I ever could.
It’s seems like at one point in anyone’s life, a person is going to use the word “funner” - and be promptly reminded by someone that “funner is not a word.” Who decided “funner” isn’t a word? It’s like when they were writing adjectives for the English dictionary, they happened to gloss over the page with “fun” on it. Then one day, someone accidentally says the word, thinks it sound odd, and checks out the dictionary only to find out they’ve sinned against the almighty Word Bird.
In today’s age of Lol, Omg, and Roflmfao, you’d think the Webster’s people might get off their butts and try to invent some new words to appeal to the younger crowd. You know - just to remind them that speaking proper English can still be cool. If they can add Homer Simpson’s “D’oh!” to the dictionary, it’s clear we’re not finished inventing the English language just yet.
Think I’ll switch back to thinking nice thoughts now.
You’ve seen him on the big banner, now get to know everyone’s favorite kitty. This is Billy. The family found him about five years ago while camping. He was half-dead and his ear was frozen off when we found him (I guess we were camping in winter… I can’t remember.) So anyway, we take him home and he adopts us and we all lived happily ever after until I moved out.
So what makes Billy so cool? Well, unlike all those other dick-hole cats (like Skittles), Billy is an awesome dude. You can walk up to Billy and be like “Hey, Billy!” And he’ll meow at you and come see what you’re doing BECAUSE BILLY ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT YOU (unlike Skittles.) And he doesn’t shed everywhere (like Skittles.) And he’s always hanging out in the best places to pet him (just like Skittles, but you don’t have to pet Skittles because Skittles is a dick.)
One time, Billy went outside and got stuck in a tree for five days. I have no idea what he ate to survive, but when he got back in the house, he smelled like a car freshener.
Sorry for the 2 and a half month hiatus. Work’s been crazy, I’ve been dealing with some personal stuff, and I’m having a hard time finding any time to do anything these days. But with summer rolling in, I figure I better pick up the pace before anyone thinks I’m dead. Plus, in about three weeks, my Indy post is going to be pretty outdated too.
So, eh-nee-wayz, here’s the beginning of 30 days of unplanned blogging about whatever. I can’t promise quality of any kind. So we’ll start with that and see where things go from there.
And leave comments. I like comments.
To kick it off, here’s a couple short Grand Theft Auto 4 sketches from Conan O’Brien.
It’s another crusty-eyed Monday morning as yet another fine weekend comes to close in my otherwise dull and routine-filled life. On Saturday, me and Brit went out to see “Juno,” but ended up taking in the late show after getting side-tracked by some fun trips to Hooters, Chapters, T&T supermarket, and a tattoo parlor. The movie itself was pretty good and not at all what I expected, so I highly recommend it.
I’m still waiting out the winter so I can get out and ride my bike again - and maybe even take in some night classes. At the moment, I’m consistently swamped with work from my involvement in “The Silver Lining” which, if I’m lucky, I’ll be done with before the summer.
In the meantime, here’s a video from Lasagna Cat to brighten up your morning.
Published/Developed by: Sierra On-Line, 1995 Difficulty: Medium-Hard Rating: A
A Killer Good Time:
“The Beast Within” is a sequel to one of my all-time favorite adventure games, “Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father.” In the original, the lead character Gabriel finds himself trying to solve the case of the voodoo murders while waging a one-man war against an underground voodoo cartel in New Orleans. In the sequel, he’s moved to Rittersburg, Germany, to stay in his old family home and once again gets called back into action when werewolves start attacking people in Munich. As you investigate the murders, you also get to play as Gabriel’s assistant, Grace, who finds herself trying to uncover a two-hundred year old political conspiracy that may tie into the present murders. The story is wrought with twists and turns and will keep you guessing as the chapters go on.
The Gameplay:
There’s a lot of good things to be said about the game itself. The graphics are all live-action shot against both CG and live-action backgrounds from real locations, making it feel like you’re really touring around Germany. The gameplay has a simple one-cursor interface, requiring you to do a lot of pixel-hunting, but fortunately, it stays within reason. You even get a tape player to play back conversations for clues. It all comes together very well, and the added atmosphere makes it worth turning the lights off during some scenes when your characters find themselves being hunted.
The Final Word:
Aside from all the pixel-hunting and some cheesy CG werewolves, “The Beast Within” is near-perfect gaming experience. The plot itself is more worthy of a feature film than most adaptations. The puzzles are clever, the locations are diverse, the characters are well-acted, the atmosphere is tense, and it’s even a somewhat educational experience. It may not live up to today’s “shoot ‘em up” or “guitar plucking” standards, but it’s still a great mystery by all counts.
I sat down to watch the Superbowl yesterday for the first time ever. Not because I like football, but because of all the controversy and awesome commercials it stirs up each year. Curiosity got to me. Unfortunately, I’m guessing this was an off-season of a year for it since the half-time show featured no full-frontal nudity (which is probably a good thing since it was Tom Petty singing.) Not to mention I watched it on a Canadian channel, which as I later found out, cuts out half the commercials the Americans get to see. Meaning I missed this:
Consistently nauseating, Cloverfield is a non-stop roller coaster of a film, similar to Blair Witch meets Godzilla meets the Bourne movies. CNN’s already done a piece that can tell you more about the film’s side-effects than I can. As for the movie itself, you’ve got a group of friends trying to survive a monster attack on New York City. The pieces for a classic seem to be in place: a giant monster, things exploding, teens getting eaten by spiders, etc. In the end, however, it’s just another Blair Witch story, with a few extra special effects thrown in.
I will admit, the special effects are well done when you can see them, but most of the film’s action sequences involve the camera shaking around while people run and scream, and the ending leaves a little too much open. It also struck me as odd that these teens had no problem running across Manhattan and climbing 50 flights of stairs after a hard night of drinking. You have to hand it to J. J. Abrams though - six months of viral marketing succeeded in polishing a turd where it didn’t help sell the superior Snakes on a Plane. The internet is a funny thing.
It should go without saying that I’ve caught the cooking bug ever since the move. Having access to my own pantry finally allows me to experiment with ingredients and fine-tune those cooking skills I’ve been lacking. If you’re one of those people who relies on canned ravioli and ramen noodles to get you through bachelorhood, I highly recommend trying out “this cooking thing.” Between setting off the fire alarm and catapulting chicken all over the kitchen, you’ll eventually find that sweet spot where cooking is made all the more worthwhile.
My most recent experiment dealt with making pizza, where I took something like this:
And turned it into this:
And it was pretty damn good. Here’s the recipe I used for the dough, and everything else I played by ear. I tried for a standard Hawaiian pizza (minus the peppers) and ended up tossing in some BBQ Pork and shrimp into the mix. The dough itself took about 2 hours (which was mostly waiting for the yeast to rise,) but the baking process itself is a measly 15 minutes.
This blog post is to commemorate one of my more successful experiments. I’m finally caught up to the cooking level of any kid who was lucky enough to take Home Ec in 6th Grade (damn shop.) As part of my New Year’s resolution, I intend to make a least two meals like this every month until I can officially declare myself ready to feed other people.
