Sorry for the delay. I was finally able to work out my YT issues through much beating of fist upon chest and the useful tips of my fellow YouTuberians. For the time being, we are back in swing of things which swing.
EPISODE 3 of our show is now online and features one of the grossest opening skits we did along with a bizarre tribute to ACTING!! in M Night’s sure-to-be classic “bad movie night” flick. All can be seen at our YouTube Channel where comments are encouraged.
I Love Zombies Ch.2 is coming this week. I was too busy working on this other stuff to get it in shape.
There’s nothing else to say. Coraline is awesome and if my wife Takako hadn’t loved it as much as I did it would have been grounds for divorce. Believe me she feels the same way. We especially liked the audience of barking scottish terriers, which is both creepier and funnier than it sounds. CG has come a long way but real stop motion puppetry still feels more like home. That garden scene is right out of a dream I had as a child.
Ever play Katamari Damacy? Well the loopy designer of that game has a new game called Noby Noby Boy out now on PS3 and downloadable for $5!!!
In the game you play BOY, who, in his original form, looks more like a gummy dog than a “boy.” BOY’s body is split into two orbs each with two legs that are controlled individually by the two analog sticks. It’s very slick. When BOY’s two halves stretch beyond their elasticity limit he grows into a kind of multi-colored worm-like tube sock. The designers have provided you a constantly shifting playground in which to run (or fly) your BOY around; wrapping his lengthy torso around trees or steeples while snacking on pigs, cows, over-sized basketballs, or school girls and then pooping them out your rear all in an effort to increase the length of your body. If it sounds crazy, that’s because it is. There is no end game and no way to die, although if you break or shrink it can drastically alter the way BOY controls in subsequent play sessions.
This is yet another charming game built around a fun play mechanic and little else but I’m not here to harp on that again.
I’m here to praise the element which elevates this game to a grand romantic gesture:
As in you ought to plan on buying Scribblenauts for the DS when it releases this Fall. A game in which you solve point n’ click like graphic adventure puzzles by writing words which then materialize as usable objects in the game. Skeptical? Think this thing will have a third grader’s vocabulary and nothing else? From the developer’s interview with Joystiq:
Here’s the obligatory question: are these five items (basically just five nouns off the top of my head): Library, tailor, nutria, ebelskiver pan, pantsuit, summonable in-game?
I thought nutria was some kind of food, but I looked it up in our list and it’s there. Alternatively, it’s called a coypu. I mean, honestly we have so many words in the game now, without checking our database, there’s no way I’ll know what’s in there. But everything you said is in the game already. Though ebelskiver pan is a great try!
Think of all the great puzzles that can be solved with an ebelskiver pan? Click on more to see WTF an ebelskiver pan looks like and continue reading.
Grrr. This post is about why F is for Film is late this week. It gets a little technical.
Imagine playing a baseball game wherein, from the third inning onward the bases are now invisible and the third baseman has a high powered sniper rifle. It would seriously change the face of America’s greatest pastime. Now imagine, that same game from the fifth inning onward; the pitcher’s mound a twenty foot high mini-mountain and the grass replaced by lava, whee.
This is what it feels like to work with YouTube if you want to get any kind of quality out of your uploaded videos. If you’re like me, you’ve found the perfect formula time and time again, only to have the rules suddenly rewritten and your hair suddenly go grey.
“Have you ever tried to clean a slate? You can still see everything that was written there.” (Echo pre-Dollhouse)
I never got to play with dolls. Sure I had “action figures,” which are basically dolls for boys, but the key difference is that GI JOE doesn’t ever change his or her outfit. From the moment they come out of the package they are dressed and equipped for combat. A dude named Cobra Commander in painted on military garb wearing a reflective helmet isn’t suddenly going to put on an apron and open a bakery. Although I think this very thing happened in GI JOE’s second animated iteration.
Dolls, however, are chameleons. They can be anyone depending on how they’re dressed and the needs of the person playing with them. They’re kind of creepy in that way. This is the central and equally creepy premise of Joss Whedon’s sexy new serial Dollhouse, which combines the kinky wadrobe changes of ALIAS with the memory wiping shenanigans of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
The good news is… I didn’t burst into flame upon reading it. The bad news is… there’s a lot of “terminal bugs” that need a fixin’ before I can recommend the product safe for public consumption.
I live right down the street from Fountains of Wayne (the actual Fountain emporium from which the alternative band snatched their name) and I like to think all those adorable fucking cherubs did a spit take when they heard this.
Yes, Christ (in the form of APOLOGETIX!) has stepped in and stuck a big crucifix into “Stacey’s Mom” claiming her as his now and forever.
What once was a geek chic salute to your friend’s hot mom “Stacey’s Mom has got it going on.” is now about the Virgin Mary “JC’s Mom has got a growing son.”
I knowingly purchased a game in which the sum total of the experience appears to be blowing petals over a virtual lawn (albeit with rolling hills.) I bought a big steaming plate of hype.
Not that FLOWER is a bad game, the art direction and fluid intuitive controls are top notch. It’s just… it’s more like one mechanic of a much more interesting game. I’ve played this before (including the interactive musical cues) when it was called Rez, and it was better. To use the parlance of our times, restoring greenery to a fertile land is quite satisfying, but between Prince of Persia and Okami, I think I’ve done this enough too.
… I purchased both FLOWER and the vastly superior World of Goo (but can they even be compared) out of an allegiance to the creative spirit, however misguided it may sometimes be.
For those looking for a Karmic realignment following marathon murder sprees in Grand Theft Auto IV, FLOWER’s relaxing escape to paradise may be just the thing.
Also, not to spoil but the game really gets compelling in its later portions.
Just picked up Lily Allen’s new album It’s Not Me, It’s You. It’s kind of fucking brilliant. On one level it’s the sounds of a reformed party girl settling down, making ammends and working her way painfully through the 12 step program and yet, the more you listen to the “serious tracks” like “Everyone’s At It” and “Back to the Start” the more you start to hear the cheeky wit and sarcasm of a 22 year old girl who truly believes “It’s not Her, It’s You.”
