The Simpsons: Stark Raving Dad and Worms

I've been watching Vuzu (channel 123) on DSTV a lot recently, and for the past while, they've been showing The Simpsons reruns, right from season 1, which is awesome. The other night I watched "Stark Raving Dad", the first episode of the third season (debuted way back in 1991), which had a special guest appearance by John Jay Smith, which actually turned out to be Michael Jackson (RIP). The singing voice was provided by Kipp Lennon though.

What does this have to do with Worms though, you ask? Well, this episode was special in many ways, but one which I have thought about a lot in the past was this thing about Worms. In Worms, the first game in the series, you were able to have the worms speak in different accents and such, and one of the themes was "The Simpsons", and it was one of the best. At least a few of the samples used for this theme were taken from the episode, "Stark Raving Dad".

A few you may notice:

"Oh, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme!"

"It's all over!"

"I'm Bart Simpson. Who the hell are you?"

Whether they were taken directly from the episode, or recorded by some one else, I don't know.

The Simpsons: Stark Raving Dad and Worms

The Dark Mod v 1.0 Released

I only talked about this the other day when I read an update on the official site of the mod, and when I followed a link from The Dark Mod discussion thread on the ttlg.com forum, I saw that it had indeed been released today! I thought it would take at least another two months or so.

The bad news: this sucker is 1.4 GB to download. That's more than twice as big as T2X was. The Dark Mod is free though, in a way. BTW, I've read so far that to download the thing is a b*tch.

Anyhow, to play this mod, you're going to need Doom 3. Now stop whining- you can get it in a lot of places if you know where to look. There's Amazon and Steam. I managed to pick it up at BT Games for about R 100, 2 or 3 years ago. So if you look around, you might get a good deal. Doom 3 isn't a bad game either, so it will be worth it. You also need to get the 1.3.1 patch for Doom 3, last time I checked. See here for more installation notes and stuff.

And I will try to get NAG magazine to put this on one of their next cover DVDs, because as much as I want it, and I have data to spare at the moment, this is a bit too big.

http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88654&page=80
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1918675#post1918675
http://www.thedarkmod.com/

The Dark Mod v 1.0 Released

Steam's NO-L4D2 is No More

Like others have said, it was a pointless exercise in trying to persuade Valve to meet their demands because Valve was going to support Left 4 Dead as well as release Left 4 Dead 2 anyway.

The steam boycott group is officially no more- at least that's what the leaders of the group say. The rest of the group (currently 40,670 members), are not satisfied, and are calling the two leaders sell outs. I guess either the group will be deleted, or new leaders will rise up. It's bound to happen.

I have Left 4 Dead, and I still haven't even played it yet.

Left 4 Dead 2 does look good from the screens I've seen though, I must say.

Steam's NO-L4D2 is No More

Possible World War 2 Setting and Female Lead in Assassin’s Creed III

Okay, we haven’t even gotten Assassin’s Creed II yet, and their talking about the sequel to that game, Assassin’s Creed III. The only thing is, the guys are talking about making the third game set during World War II, and having a female assassin as the playable character.

This is just talk, and I don’t think it’s anything official yet, but I would NOT like to play this game. Why? Well, we don’t need another World War II game. That much is clear. There are nearly 200 of these and we don’t want another one. It would probably end up like the failed Velvet Assassin that came out earlier this year.

And about the female assassin thing: I don’t mean to be sexist or anything, but that might and might not work. We’ve seen from the Tomb Raider series among others that a female lead can indeed make a game, but so far we’ve had two male assassins in the Assassin’s Creed series (three if you count that Ben Stiller lookalike, Desmond Miles), and I’m not sure of the switch to using one of the opposite gender would go smoothly. The devs say they are looking for a time period where a female assassin would work, and WW II just happened to come up. But unless it’s something completely original, and it likely won’t be, it’s going to fail miserably.

Still, I can’t wait to get a hold of Assassin’s Creed II! The console versions should be out by the end of November, and the PC version only next year.

Possible World War 2 Setting and Female Lead in Assassin’s Creed III

The Dark Mod Might Be Released by the end of the Year

There's a mod I've been following on and off for about the last the last two or three years, and that's The Dark Mod, a thief-inspired mod for Doom 3. The beta is going to be released possibly this year, but you never know, there were mutterings about that last year too. There will be 3 FMs that will come with it, but I'm not sure if these will include the two missions that were put online at one point, "Thief's Den" and "The Tears of St. Lucia". If it does, then there's at least one other mission, and from what I've read on the site, this might be the training mission talked about.

At one point I sent an e-mail to NAG magazine to try and get them interested in the mod so that they might one day put some FMs (fan missions) and such on their Cover DVD. They promised a preview in their October 2007 issue, but that never came to pass. If they don't bite, then I'll have to try PC Format, one of their chief rivals.

The Dark Mod Might Be Released by the end of the Year

Wolfenstein PC Demo Available, Full Game on Direct2Drive and Steam

I read recently that the Wolfenstein PC Demo is now online and ready to download off of the usual places, like FileShack. It’s 685 MB to download and if you’re in South Africa, you can go over to the NAG forums and beg them to put it on the Cover DVD if it’s too big for you to download yourself.

In the resources section on my review page for Wolfenstein, I’ll soon have the links to places where you can download the Wolfenstein PC demo.

The full game is also available on digital distribution sites like Steam and Direct2Drive.

It’s running at a price of $49.99, and if you need to know whether it’s any good, I have a review up of the game which I published recently over on my HubPages profile. A lot of people say it’s mundane and other such stuff, but it’s not a bad game. I’ve played it through twice. It’s likely the best game in the series, in my opinion, although comparing it to a classic like the original Wolf 3D isn’t really fair.

Wolfenstein PC Demo Available, Full Game on Direct2Drive and Steam

Dan Marshall: Game Journos Should Make Games Themselves for a Change

Someone's bitter because game journo's ripped in to one of this games. Dan Marshall of Zombie Cow, in an interview with Gamasutra recently stated: "I think all games journos should be forced to make a game somehow, see how they get on. It gives you a more rounded perspective."

Now he does have a point, but you know what I think? I think it's fanboys who should be forced to make a video game themselves. See how they get on. They often bitch all the time about games, and they even rip into the video game journos. I mean, I may be but a humble (pfft) blogger, and not one of these corporately owned news websites, but I think that game journos take out their bitterness on games, and for a reason.

This is how it goes: fanboys hate on games, hate on game reviews, hate on game articles, and so the game journos rip into the fanboys favourite game to hit them where it hurts. And unfortunately the developers suffer from this too, and not just the fanboys, and so they blame the journos. If you ever go on to Destructoid, you should check it out. There are often articles, I think by Jim Sterling, where he makes plain his loathing for the terrible creatures.

I tried to make video games once. I fooled around with different small game creation tools like AGS (Adventure Game Studio) among others. I did this while I studied a programming course at college, but after a year of doing this I thought, no, I don't think this is for me. And since then I've focused more on my writing efforts.

I like playing games, and I like writing about them, among other subjects, but making them- that is hard.

Dan Marshall: Game Journos Should Make Games Themselves for a Change

Megadeth's Endgame: Their Best Album Since Countdown to Extinction?

I posted about it yesterday, and today I published that review about Megadeth's latest album, Endgame. You can check it out here.

It took me a few hours over a period of a couple of days until I was happy with how it looked, and I finished it this afternoon.

Megadeth's Endgame: Their Best Album Since Countdown to Extinction?

Not Another List: 7 Best New Horror Games for Halloween

It's been a while since I've done one of these, but I thought since it's October and it will soon be Halloween, I'd have a look at a list on GamePro, called "7 Best New Horror Games for Halloween".

As much as I'd like to slap one of the dudes for using "FAIL" in his comment, he's right in a way, this list isn't really good at all. Half of these games I wouldn't consider to be horror titles, and some of them are only coming out next year, never mind October, this year. Aliens vs. Predator is probably one of the only title on there that I will play, and that's coming out in February. I still wouldn't necessarily label it as horror as much as "thriller" or "sci-fi". It'll likely have some scary moments in it though. There are a couple of no-brainers on there like Left 4 Dead 2, which Valve says is going to outsell Left 4 Dead by a mile, even despite the whole boycott business.

BioShock 2 isn't a horror title.

Maybe I should talk about some of my favourite scary games sometime. They would be games from the past though. Clive Barker's Undying would be in there for sure.

Not Another List: 7 Best New Horror Games for Halloween

Classics I'm Playing Now: Redneck Rampage, Marathon 2

I just downloaded ProAsm's Redneck Rampage port the other day- at least I think it's a port. It allows you to play Redneck Rampage on a modern OS, like Windows XP. So I got Redneck Rampage out and put the necessary files in the folder and started playing it.

What urged me to do all of this was an article I read in NAG magazine lately. There was a "Looking Back" feature which had a write-up and pictures of the game, and I just thought, Yeah, I'd like to play this now. It's been a while.

So, I'm sure eventually I'll get a Classic Games article up on my HP profile sometime about it. At the moment I'm about 90- 95% done on a review/article about Megadeth's latest album, Endgame.

I also had a look at a PC Format DVD which I "borrowed" from my brother (He was pi$$ed off about it! Ha ha!) and found Aleph One. This is a source port which allows you to play Marathon 2, which was originally available for PC, as well as the other two games in the trilogy, Marathon and Marathon Infinity, which were only for Mac. These games have conversions that were made for the PC.

Once again, I'll likely have an article up about this in the future some time.

Classics I'm Playing Now: Redneck Rampage, Marathon 2

More Oddworld Games Coming to the PC

I remember years ago playing Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee on a friend's Playstation. That game was so weird (hence the name Oddworld), and yet so addictive and fun. That game and Oddworld: Abe's Exodus were ported to the PC way back when, but the last two, Munch's Oddysee, and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath have remained console exclusives until now. I played Abe's Oddysee on my PC as well, but I think it may have been a demo.

A recent interview on bitmob had Toby Davis talking with Lorne Lanning, the co-founder and creative director of Oddworld Inhabitants, about the series, and it was revealed that these two games in the series will be ported to the PC, and available along with the first two games in a pack called The Oddbox. The Oddbox (possibly a take-off of the Orange Box) will be available for download off of Steam, which he mentioned, and possibly Direct2Drive as well as other sites within the next few months. The first two games are all ready available on Steam and GoG.com. These two games will also be available on PSN soon, according to Lanning.

As for a new Oddworld game in the series, Lanning didn't reveal anything, but said: "Regarding new material, we hope to have an announcement soon, but I’ve been saying that for awhile now so I’ll just shut up and hope for the best." From what I read, it seems as though there will very well be something up, and the series may get a revival and renewed interest after all these years.

He also mentioned Hand of Odd, an Oddworld RTS that he says may be still be released some day, but has been on hold for a long while.

Sources:

Oddworld Inhabitant: An Interview with Lorne Lanning
Final two Oddworld games coming to the PC this winter

More Oddworld Games Coming to the PC

Video Games Coming Out in October 2009: 10/11- 10/17

Pick of the Week: Fallout 3 - Game of the Year Edition (for PC, 360, PS3)

This week sees the release of 2008's epic Fallout 3, along with all of this year's DLC packs, The Pitt, Operation: Anchorage, Broken Steel, Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta, for the game, all in one package. If you haven't played Fallout 3, then you must get this pack if you want to continue calling yourself a gamer. And there's no excuse about not having it on your PS3 this time either, seeing as even though the individual DLC packs aren't available for the system yet (but they will be, as I remember reading), this GOTY edition is for PC, 360, and PS3.

Yes, it might not be a true Fallout game, but it is very good.

And there is of course Brutal Legend, the massively hyped game set to be the game that pays homage to metal, and not the efforts that Rock Band and Guitar Hero have tried to accomplish so far.

The links as usual go to each game's detail pages at Amazon (retail), and Direct2Drive or Steam (digital).

PC

Cabela's Outdoor Adventures 2010
Dreamkiller (Steam)
Fate: The Traitor Soul
Fallout 3 - Game of the Year Edition - Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition: Prima Official Game Guide
LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Machinarium (D2D)
Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy
NBA 2K10

PlayStation 2

Cars Race-O-Rama
SingStar Latino

PlayStation 3

Brutal Legend
Cars Race-O-Rama
Fallout 3 - Game of the Year Edition
Midnight Club: Los Angeles - Complete Edition
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Way of the Samurai 3
Where the Wild Things Are

Xbox 360

Brutal Legend
Cars Race-O-Rama
Fallout 3 - Game of the Year Edition
Magna Carta 2
Way of the Samurai 3
Where the Wild Things Are

Wii

A Boy and His Blob
Buck Fever
Cars Race-O-Rama
JU-ON: The Grudge - Haunted House Simulator
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
Squeeballs Party
Where the Wild Things Are
Wii Sports Resort - Limited Edition 2 Wii MotionPlus Bundle

Nintendo DS

Cake Mania 3
Cars Race-O-Rama
Hero's Saga: Laevatein Tactics
Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
Petz Pony Beauty Pageant
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
Squeeballs Party
Where the Wild Things Are

PSP

Cars Race-O-Rama
Half-Minute Hero

Video Games Coming Out in October 2009: 10/11- 10/17

Playing Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising

Yep, I got Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, or OFDR, on Friday afternoon. I must say, it's quite difficult, and I'm only a few missions in. I gave in to all the hype surrounding the game after watching all those trailers and such, especially on The Verge, a local TV show about gaming and such.

Probably this month or next month I might get a review up about it on my profile over at HubPages.

Playing Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising