Pop culture updates and plans for the weekend
Well, for starters, new promotional artwork for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End has appeared online.
You can check out the rest of the pics right here.
There’s a nice little feature over at Gamespot on Jade Empire: Special Edition, an Xbox RPG that has been ported to PC, and will be released at the end of February. What’s exciting about Jade Empire? Well, it’s from BioWare, the team behind Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, and Baldur’s Gate. Plus, with an unconventional setting in the feudal Far East, the game’s emphasis is on kickass, customisable martial arts action.
Hooray, an RPG not set in an unimaginative medieval Western fantasy world!
While browsing Gamespot I also came across this jaw-dropping game: a Christian strategy game called Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Yes, that’s right. It’s a religious RTS, where, post-Rapture (God taking all the deserving to heaven), you have to convert the neutral masses of New York to Christianity, or lose the War to Satan and his minions.
Your units include gospel-singing musicians, missionaries, healers, and medics, while Satan’s forces feature college-trained secularists, devils, and foul-mouthed rock stars.
Eternal Forces official site can be found right here…
Apparently the game is pretty buggy, sexist and overall crap, but I admit I have a cynical curiosity about it. It’s a million miles away from the Christian video game I conceptualised a while back – and which would make me so much money I’d be able to retire by 30;)
Anyway, on a personal front, I installed the drivers for my Wacom tablet yesterday and briefly played around a bit. As a drawing tool it is insanely powerful (and sensitive), but now I have to learn to master that power and mould it to suit my uses.
Most likely for the moment I’ll stick to my usual Girlz ‘N’ Games creation process, and then use the Wacom for touch-ups and colouring, before integrating it more fully into my routine.
One thing is for sure now; I definitely need a flatscreen monitor to make more space on my desk.
I also hooked up my PlayStation 2 last night to my PC so I can play games on the PC monitor (I never get a chance to play on the big TV in the lounge). I had a blast revisiting Abe’s Oddysey, a fantastically stylish platform puzzler from the days of the PSOne.
More importantly, I gave Family Guy a test run. I’ve been on a Family Guy binge as of late (rewatching the box sets), and the game is a cherry on the cake. Family Guy received only average to mediocre reviews on US gaming sites, but I’m not so much playing it for gameplay gratification as I am for the cult animated series’ unique brand of humour.
And believe me, with the original cast and TV series creators involved, it’s all there. Favourite series characters make cameos (even the monkey in Chris’s cupboard), Stewie insults the player from the moment he appears onscreen, and there’s a hilarious puzzle early on involving a vacuum cleaner and Brian’s cynical intellectualism giving in to his doggy nature. The abstract ‘Remember the time’ cutaways that the TV series is famous for also feature in the game in the form of mini-games.
From what I’ve seen so far, Family Guy offers a lot of fun for diehard fans – I had to get it simply because the box features the a screenshot of a minigame involving the 'wild' red fire engine hunting impala (from the Petarded episode). Plus, the gameplay is surprisingly challenging.
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Otherwise, in terms of the weekend, I’m still considering a birthday-related activity for Saturday or Sunday afternoon (traditionally lazy, do-nothing times). At the moment I’m leaning towards an early dinner at Taco Zulu, depending on when it is open. I’ll be sending out last-minute invites, and if the Durban crowd could make it, it would be great. ;)
You can check out the rest of the pics right here.
There’s a nice little feature over at Gamespot on Jade Empire: Special Edition, an Xbox RPG that has been ported to PC, and will be released at the end of February. What’s exciting about Jade Empire? Well, it’s from BioWare, the team behind Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, and Baldur’s Gate. Plus, with an unconventional setting in the feudal Far East, the game’s emphasis is on kickass, customisable martial arts action.
Hooray, an RPG not set in an unimaginative medieval Western fantasy world!
While browsing Gamespot I also came across this jaw-dropping game: a Christian strategy game called Left Behind: Eternal Forces. Yes, that’s right. It’s a religious RTS, where, post-Rapture (God taking all the deserving to heaven), you have to convert the neutral masses of New York to Christianity, or lose the War to Satan and his minions.
Your units include gospel-singing musicians, missionaries, healers, and medics, while Satan’s forces feature college-trained secularists, devils, and foul-mouthed rock stars.
Eternal Forces official site can be found right here…
Apparently the game is pretty buggy, sexist and overall crap, but I admit I have a cynical curiosity about it. It’s a million miles away from the Christian video game I conceptualised a while back – and which would make me so much money I’d be able to retire by 30;)
Anyway, on a personal front, I installed the drivers for my Wacom tablet yesterday and briefly played around a bit. As a drawing tool it is insanely powerful (and sensitive), but now I have to learn to master that power and mould it to suit my uses.
Most likely for the moment I’ll stick to my usual Girlz ‘N’ Games creation process, and then use the Wacom for touch-ups and colouring, before integrating it more fully into my routine.
One thing is for sure now; I definitely need a flatscreen monitor to make more space on my desk.
I also hooked up my PlayStation 2 last night to my PC so I can play games on the PC monitor (I never get a chance to play on the big TV in the lounge). I had a blast revisiting Abe’s Oddysey, a fantastically stylish platform puzzler from the days of the PSOne.
More importantly, I gave Family Guy a test run. I’ve been on a Family Guy binge as of late (rewatching the box sets), and the game is a cherry on the cake. Family Guy received only average to mediocre reviews on US gaming sites, but I’m not so much playing it for gameplay gratification as I am for the cult animated series’ unique brand of humour.
And believe me, with the original cast and TV series creators involved, it’s all there. Favourite series characters make cameos (even the monkey in Chris’s cupboard), Stewie insults the player from the moment he appears onscreen, and there’s a hilarious puzzle early on involving a vacuum cleaner and Brian’s cynical intellectualism giving in to his doggy nature. The abstract ‘Remember the time’ cutaways that the TV series is famous for also feature in the game in the form of mini-games.
From what I’ve seen so far, Family Guy offers a lot of fun for diehard fans – I had to get it simply because the box features the a screenshot of a minigame involving the 'wild' red fire engine hunting impala (from the Petarded episode). Plus, the gameplay is surprisingly challenging.
---
Otherwise, in terms of the weekend, I’m still considering a birthday-related activity for Saturday or Sunday afternoon (traditionally lazy, do-nothing times). At the moment I’m leaning towards an early dinner at Taco Zulu, depending on when it is open. I’ll be sending out last-minute invites, and if the Durban crowd could make it, it would be great. ;)
Comments
After the long cancellation period before Season 4, I felt they lost all their good writers and the series degenerated from the most intelligent cartoon to mere toilet humor!
Anyway, my ex-favorite for sure.
The new #1 all-time best cartoon? Why, Monkey Dust of course! British based, dark and ironic... beautifully wicked. Check it out if you have access to some broadband and a few gigs of bandwidth to spare for a torrent download!
Cheers
Mark
Anyway, there's some confusion on Wikipedia about what episodes belong to which seasons. I've seen pretty much everything up to and including Jungle Love, which I think is the middle point of the US's 4th season.
And I'm still loving the series. Perhaps it is a bit weaker in terms of storyline overall, but its arbitrary pop-culture and cut-away moments are still absolutely hilarious.
Family Guy just makes such a nice, nastier break from the tameness of The Simpsons.
BTW, cool website you have there. And I'll keep my eyes open for Monkey Dust.
Family Guy was cancelled after Season 3, ended with "Road To Europe", and "Stuck Together, Torn Apart".
In 2005 it was revived by Fox due to extremely high DVD sales "North By North Quahog" was the first of Season 4... and the beginning of the downfall, in my opinion anyway.
Good to know there are other hardcore SA fans out there ...
Mark
As for Family Guy, I agree that the first half of the fourth season wasn't nearly as funny as the previous seasons. But the second half of the fourth season was much funnier. The fifth season has been great so far, too.
Anyway, we're super keen to get our paws on the rest of Family Guy Season 4 now. Like I said, we actually thoroughly enjoyed the first half of the season, although a new darker, nastier streak is definitely there.
Mark, according to Paul, apparently we got most of the earlier seasons (1 & 2) via YOU;)