The clock is ticking away as Season 4 is headed to HBO and fans prepare their brains and bodies for what’s coming. I can’t keep more than one eye open at the moment thanks to my long day, so I’ll just let out a squeaky “Yaaay!” from the back of the room and fall over in a heap to sleep. Good night, people. I’ll be back and in better shape tomorrow… I think. Zzzzzz.
Tag Archives: Humor
Groan, Creak… What A Loooong Week…
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Ay carumba! Me bones are weary bones, arrrr! Or something like that. “My neck, My back, My ass.”* Wow, I’m pooped after waking up too early (5am) and getting to Toy Fair too early, but at least they had coffee and some stuff to snack on. Anyway, updates will be slower than usual for a few days. I’m taking Monday off to do take care of some personal stuff and then it’s back to Toy Fair Tuesday and Wednesday. Now, if you’ll excuse me… I’m going to keel over and sleep for a virtual week… Zzzzz.
*(yeah, that line’s stolen/paraphrased from Matt Groening’s awesome Life in Hell collection)
Random Film of the Week(end) Quickie: Dreamgirls
While I’m a huge fan of the classics, I don’t like most modern Hollywood musicals or biopics because they try to hard to be entertaining and just feel as if they’re baked from the same stale mold. I can’t put my finger on anything other than a certain soullessness thanks to a few factors seen as “necessary” to whatever formula makes a “hit” these days.
Anyway, moving on. Despite some fine acting and singing, primo Oscar bait like Dreamworks’ big 9and massively hyped) 2006 film Dreamgirls didn’t do a thing for me either. Still, I’ve watched it in its entirety twice and one part at least two dozen or so times because it made me fall off the couch laughing the first time and stuck with me to the point that whenever the film pops up on cable, I will turn to it just for that single scene.
If you know what I’m talking about, then good for you and you’re chuckling already. If you don’t, well here you go. Mister Jimmy Early… do your stuff! Um… you may want to have a seat there, kiddo. Oh, and don’t drink anything while watching this clip if you’ve yet to see the movie (spoiler alert? I guess so):
I had to leave the room for a few minutes, as if I have to see this clip again, I might pop something inside. Heh. Gets me every time. As for the rest of the film? Meh. I have my Motown and Stax memories and the actual music from that era to keep my ears, brain and (if I feel like shaking a tail feather) hips occupied. So I don’t need any expensive (but nice looking and well intentioned) films that want me to “feel” something for the people in it when all I care about are the old tunes and memories those classic songs bring forth. That said, Eddie Murphy kills it dead here. “Jimmy got soul” indeed. Heee.
BOUND BY FLAME: Spiders’ New RPG Seems Quite Witcher-iffic. This Is A Good Thing.
A-ha. I was wondering just what developer Spiders was up to, as they last teamed up with Cyanide Studios for Of Orcs and Men and Cyanide is now busy with the follow-up, STYX: Master of Shadows. Spiders is working on BOUND BY FLAME, an upcoming fantasy action/RPG set to hit PC, PS4 and “last” gen consoles later this year (although there seems to be no Xbox One version? Hmmmm…). Casting such a wide SKU net usually means a drop in quality somewhere unless you have a developer who knows their stuff, and I think Spiders can pull this off if they’ve learned from proper criticism of previous games. I like the visual style here (although the faces on the characters look a bit… “off”) and the gameplay and mature time seems similar enough to CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher games that the game may find an audience among those who like European-style RPGs as much as they like the games made here and elsewhere. That crafting system looks pretty fun as well and I hope it’s as flexible as noted in the trailer above.
Like Focus Home Interactive other RPGs, I’ll be keeping an eyeball on this one. I still get use out of my PS3, so I may go that route for the final just because I don’t need to connect it online in order to play stuff. We shall see, as usual…
Strange Love: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle
Namco Bandai seems to be conducting a little experiment and I’m gathering they need your assistance. For a little while the company has been releasing digital versions of popular Japanese anime-based fighters available overseas as retail and digital purchases, and now they’re trying out a limited edition physical release to go with the (to some) more convenient downloads.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle is coming sometime this Spring via PSN (digital) and as a limited edition physical disc (ClubNamco.com and Amazon.com). No price has been announced just yet, but I think it’s a good idea as even niche games have fans who want them who can’t buy digital only product. Ever busy developer CyberConnect2 shows once more they’re the master of making anime fighters look as close to their source material as possible, as you can see above and in the screenshots below.
As for what’s on that disc or download, below the jump is some cut ‘n paste press release work plus those eleven screens… enjoy!
Thirteen Minutes of South Park: The Stick of Truth: Obsidian Nails It Quite Well Indeed…
While I’m not what I’d call a regular viewer of South Park, I’ve seen enough episodes of the show that I have to give veteran developer Obsidian huge credit for getting it right. I love how the game pokes at some traditional RPG/JRPG tropes (gotta love that main character with amnesia and no speaking voice!) while also nailing the rhythm of the show in the editing and other bits. It’s a good thing Ubisoft picked this up after original publisher THQ went under, as it’s got hit written all over it (provided you’re a fan of the show, of course). How this will do outside the show’s base is tough to say, as I know some folks despise the art style and limited animation the show uses. I’m not one of those, by the way. Anyway, March 4 is the big day for this one, so keep an eyeball peeled if you haven’t placed a pre-order yet. I have the feeling this may sell out in a few spots and be one of those overpriced eBay titles if it scores highly with the critics and people make it a surprise sleeper hit. Yeah, it’s NOT supposed to be for the kids, but you know how THAT always goes with South Park games, right?
CD Projekt RED Wants You To Spend The Weekend With Geralt of Riva…
Got a Steam account? Good. A decent to killer gaming PC? Even better. Now, all you need is time and a lot of coffee or something else to keep you away through Sunday, as CD Projekt RED is letting you play both The Witcher Enhanced Edition Director’s Cut and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition for FREE until then. Yikes.
That’s a LOT of ground to cover, even if you’ve already played both games and know what to do, where to go and which dialog choices to make (as the game changes based on your decisions. If that’s not enough time for you, BOTH titles are on sale for 80% off ($1.99 and $3.99 respectively) until February 18, 2014, meaning you can keep playing as much as you want after that freebie ends and not pay much money for two great adventures.
Of course, it IS Valentine’s Day, so if you have that special someone who’s not a gamer in your life, and you want to tackle these games this weekend, you’d better spill the beans now or else it’ll ONLY be Geralt getting some action. Of course, this is one of those well written mature fantasy experiences that may draw in someone who thinks games are still for kids, so who knows. Just be gentle with whatever you do. We wouldn’t want to see you all cranky and weird come Monday morning…
GOG.com Shows EA How Free-To-Play SHOULD Work With Dungeon Keeper…
Okay, so it’s probably being done with EA’s approval partly to appease fans of the original and new players ticked off at the recently released mobile/tablet remake that’s been seen by some as a wallet draining arrow to the heart, but hey, gog.com is doing it up right.
You can boogie on over to gog.com NOW and get the original Dungeon Keeper Gold (which contains the Deeper Dungeons expansion pack) for FREE this weekend. In addition, you can grab Dungeon Keeper 2 for a paltry 1.49 (!), making this quite a sweet deal on Valentine’s Day. Amusingly enough, I snapped up this as soon as I saw it earlier this morning and got the following message:
BIG SUCCESS MY MINION! You’ll get your game soon! Minion, due to high demand, we will tell you when your free copy of Dungeon Keeper is ready via email in a little bit.
So, yeah… like the remake that has you wait HOURS if you choose not to pay your way into the game, it seems that it’ll take a bit of time before I can see the fruits of my clicky labors. Still, at least I’m getting an entire game and expansion for nothing here and not a grumpy face because some pay wall popped up and wants my credit card number. I guess this also shows that the classics never die (which is always a great thing) Thanks, gog.com!
Oh, there’s also a VERY nice sale happening, but you’ll see when you hit that front page…
Comcast/Time Warner Round Two: Let’s Get Stupid…
So far, no one but business news folks and analysts like this Comcast.TWC “deal” and I’m still ticked off by it to post something that’s not going to be laced with profanity. So, I’ll letting the famous and fast Taiwanese Animators (formerly or perhaps still known as NWA World Edition) have at it with a hilarious take on this stupid and historical kick in the behind a few too many millions are going to be negatively affected by. Yeah, this is going to be nothing but bad news for anyone but investors looking to make some bucks and some executives who will be rolling in more loot from irate consumers who currently use either service and get stuck with whatever fee increases come from this merger. Mark my words, folks…
Larian Studios Makes Marriages Merry With A Bit Of Divinity: Original Sin
Well, this is a pretty neat Valentine’s Day post for you warm-hearted Kleenex-carrying freaks out there who get all weepy at the drop of a hat. I’ve heard of like-minded gamers proposing in all sorts of online only games and I think I even recall proposals given by game developers for fans of certain titles. However, I believe this is one of the first proposals I’ve seen made by one person for another using a game editor. I still haven’t gotten around to buying or playing Divinity: Original Sin yet (hey, my backlog is killing me!) Okay, I’ll admit it… I’m a kind of (shh!) hopeless romantic at heart (shhhh!), so this stuff makes me grin inside (I can’t let the world see me smile much – it hurts my curmudgeonly image a bit).
Okay, I’m not THAT cranky and this is pretty sweet. LESSON: video games aren’t all about running around and killing each other dead and some are even wonderful at allowing players the freedom to pull off super cool stuff like this. Well, congratulations and best of luck to the happy couple and everyone else who’s going to be hitched because of their love for Larian Studios and their excellent game!
