Ginger, on Costume Quest

If you don't know about this game, shame on you and move out from that rock you've been living under. But seriously, this game is amazing. Developed by Double Fine Productions and released October 20th 2010, Costume Quest is a Halloween themed adventure role-playing video game. While that might sound dumb as a box of rocks and just about as fun, they did a really good job. This game is a blast. The main character, who you play, is a child who's trick-or-treating with their twin on Halloween when they encounter a monster that kidnaps your sibling. Afterward you travel around the local neighborhood collecting candy, costume materials and other children as companions in order to face the bad guy and save your sibling. All before curfew.

The really cool thing about this game is the costumes: the costumes are used in battle segments, where the player character and companions are transformed into the monsters and creatures they are dressed as to fight other monsters. (You get to watch a cool little action movie for the creature you're dressed as at the start of each fight, so you might want to switch it up a bit to see all of them.) Each costume also has a special ability used in fights or for exploration, or if you're really lucky, both. The costume you start with for example, The Robot, has these wheelie shoes that boost your speed way up for ramps and stuff as well as a special missile attack for battles. I really dig the transformation part for battles - it's just like pure kid imagination run wild, like this is what the kid was thinking when they made that costume and this is what they feel like waring it. I remember feeling like that when I was a kid, so it's nice to see other people remember what it felt like too.

Seriously dude, you're giving us a bad rep.

There are three different worlds (stages?) for you to complete are really well developed and planned. The art for the game is really well done too. A little on the cuteys side, but I actually like that. I'm not a fan of super scary things, like large spiders or elementary schools. Since there are no voiced parts, there is a lot of reading in some sections of the game - but it's cool 'cause that kind of gives it that old school RPG feeling.

As far as replay ability, I think it's something you'd only play a few times a year. But if you're like me and you love Halloween, it's still pretty cool other times of the year too. If you have younger kids, I think this would be an awesome game for you to bond over too - especially if you like video games more than they do. I think the subject matter would be more accessible for them than a classic style RPG, and it's a lot less complicated. It's also challenging enough for you not to get bored helping them but easy enough for them not to get super frustrated a want to quit either.

The secret cave is totally secret. Totally. (From expansion.)

Currently, it's available for download on the XBox 360 (the verison I played) and Playstation 3. The is an additional down loadable chapter, "Grubbins on Ice", that was made available in December 2010 alongside a free patch to correct some of the game's performance and gameplay problems (I didn't have any so I'm not sure what the patch fixes). Taking place some time after the events of the main game while winter falls upon the kids, they find a portal to the monster's world, Repugia, where Lucy (a companion from the first game) is captured by the monsters during a revolution. The other three kids don their costumes to help save Lucy. While many of the core game's features carry over into the add-on, new costumes and abilities are available in the expansion. (Yay!) And the expansion is just as fun as the original.

"Cheapass" Games with Anacronus Kspaz

Not swimming.

I love pool, no not swimming pools. They're cool too. I mean billiards. Anacronus told me about a pool game for X-box live.

The number one problem billiard games have in my opinion is that no controller ever replicates the feel of a cue. The wii got closest and it wasn't even really that good. This game, still doesn't but it does a lot of other things very well.

Let me get my nits out of the way. First off is the name, Balls. Seriously, I can't think this will help sell your game accept for someone who looks it up based on it's weird name. Next, your players don't actually play, your X-box avatar stands there and watches a cue float through the air, and play for you. Also your in a juice bar, I can't take the place seriously if it doesn't serve alcohol, like I said these are nits.

Dogs playing poker in the blurry background. Awesome.

On to things this game does well. The decor is beautiful, if only too bright to be a pool hall. (Right it's a juice bar, I forgot.) The dogs playing poker on the wall is one of the very nice touches. Strangely enough why they don't have the dogs playing pool I'll never know.

The background blurs out so your not distracted. The music is nice and tranquil.

Floating cue makes the shots,
maybe you use you mind to shoot

When you make a shot the meter actually displays where the ball will end up based on the power you are using. I hope this can be turned off in the full version of the game.

Also it's an indie game so it's only 80 points, but this also means the trial period for the game is super short. I didn't get to finish my first game.

It also has a variety of games you can play. Now if I can only find a controller which actually feels like a cue, I'll be all set.

So good luck and don't get hustled or if you do. Call Uncle Phil.

Warren Zevon: A Quiet Normal Life

WARNING: Songs in this article has NSFW LANGUAGE and subject matter. Do not play Warren Zevon around kids, he will totally blow their minds, and they will learn phrases that will get them in trouble with their parents.

With that out of the way. Today I tell you about one of the albums I love. Warren Zevon's A Quiet Normal Life. If you don't think you know Warren Zevon, you totally do.

Wow! Look at that video remember when music videos could mostly be about the band playing...neither do I, I was born in the 80's.




Mr. Zevon was a songwriter whose songs got famous when other people did covers of them. Widly respected by other artists, but unknown to a huge chunk of the population aside from Werewolves of London*.  This next video is hopefully going to rectify that for you. Probably my favorite Zevon song. I'll admit it, I originally picked up on this song, because I was obsessed with the Dark Tower novels, and their hero (another gunman named Roland).

This album is full of mostly dark songs that will get stuck in your head. I could rant about how awesome this album is from beginning to end, but you can find out for yourself. Amazon sells the entire album for 5 dollars via mp3 downloads. Go now, and get this album. Unless you can't handle songs, about a headless bounty hunter, and werewolves that mutilate little old ladies**. After all these are not werewolves of teenage fiction.

*Some may feel the need to mention Kid Rock. Don't. He will be forgotten soon, as Ronnie Van Zant, and Warren Zevon will rise from the grave, and fix the problem that has besmirched their musics' great names. Or they may just hire Roland to do the deed (once he's done in Libya).

**Fair warning, the song Excitable Boy is about a psychopathic rapists. He's not idolized in the song he's just the subject matter, but if that's a sore spot feel free to delete this song after downloading.

Hey. Sorry I haven't posted...yet. You know what I mean. We here at Geek Labs had a busy day. I'm planning on posting tomorrow, so I'm just going to post twice. So sorry for no article. I'll make it up to you.

Sincerly
Kurt

Flick Picks 16: Prom Night (2008)

Prom Night. A Movie to sleep through...

 Hello again, Streakers! Boog here, with the 16th Flick Pick: 2008's Slasher kinda remake Prom Night. I say kinda remake because there was a 1980 slasher film by the same name, starring Jamie Lee Curtis, in the tail end of scream queen heyday brought on by John Carpenter's Halloween, and Leslie Nielsen, of all people, as the killer. However, plotwise, I Know What You Did Last Summer, the borefest of a slasher starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, is closer to being a true remake of the 1980 film than this. Not that that helps this film any. Most of the plot elements remain intact, the only changes are the number of teens in the main cast, and the killer's motivation. SPOILERS! Although, if you watch the first ten minutes of this film, most of it's already spoiled for you anyway. Counting the credits, this film comes in at just under 90 minutes, although to get to the beginning of the movie, we have to sit through 3 minutes of opening credits, just to go through a laughable opening sequence, setting up the plot of Donna, played by Brittany Snow, who you might have seen in the 2007 musical Hairspray, or heard while playing Kingdom Hearts 2, where she voices Namine, as she comes home from the movies to find her father and younger brother covered in ketchup, which greatly distresses her. I guess she was really looking forward to an after movie hot dog or something. Then she hides under the bed just in time to see her mother get liberal amount of ketchup applied to her stomach and chest, and the crazy ketchup man leaves the room. Did I mention the blood in this sequence is terrible? She gets out from under the bed, only to have ketchup man find her, and apparently begin her application process, only to have it turn out to be a flashback, Donna reliving the murder of her family some three years prior. The killer was caught and put away "for good", just so we know he's coming back. But none of that apparently matters, as we Donna being incredibly well adjusted while living with her Aunt and Uncle, played by Jessalyn Gilsig, or the crazy ex-wife from Glee, and Linden Ashby, who will forever only be known to me as the actor who played Johnny Cage in 1995's Mortal Kombat. None of the five other teens are all that memorable to me, but, for the sake of completeness, one of the girls is Jessica Stroup, who I believe at this time is still? in the current incarnation of 90210. One of the guys is Collins Pennie, whom I only know from watching 2009's movie reboot of 80s TV show Fame.

This is about as animated as some of them get, too.

Now, with all that out of the way, we start seeing the cliches and idiots come out of the woodwork. You see, PROM is coming up, so all anxiety about watching her family die takes a backseat to being with a boy! Three couples, Donna and her boyfriend Bobby included, are going all out, renting a limo, getting a ginormus, and very awesome, hotel room, the works. This is of course overshadowed by the fact that they mention in conversation that the prom itself, went $10K OVER budget. I don't know about you, but my high was relatively large for a small town. It had a larger graduating class than this fictional one does, by about 100 kids, and I don't think we spent five grand on the senior prom. It only gets more implausible from her folks. They get to the prom, and when you see it, you wonder where the ten grand went. They start partying, and we see the killer for the first time, as a completely ridiculous level of coincidence happens, letting the killer know what hotel room Donna will be staying in. As the teens get their groove on,  Ketchup Man heads upstairs, and kills a housekeeper by applying some jelly to her stomach. The now named Jelly Man then pockets her Master keycard. Things get more ridiculous as only now do the police find out he's escaped, as it apparently took the MAXIMUM SECURITY facility he was locked THREE DAYS to notice he was missing, and report it to the local authorities. This makes even less sense with explanatory scenario the audience gets shown, which involves him slitting the throat of another inmate, and climbing into the ceiling through a loose grate. Of course, now is where the film falls apart, if it hasn't for you yet already. Now, the main police detective, played by Idris Elba, who was 28 Weeks Later, RocknRolla, and the yet to be released Thor, explains the killer's motive. He's a stalker. He, as a teacher, fell into psycho love with Donna. Her family put out a restraining order on him, and in response, he committed the opening flashback. Despite the very real threat, there's "no evidence" he'll come back to try again, and so the only things the police do are precautionary measures in case he does come back. Oh, and when the hotel manager is given a picture of Jelly Man, who he only checked in maybe an hour before hand, he doesn't recognize him.

Not really hard to miss, what with the obvious killer face...

So then we get treated to the cliched bit of teens from the group getting offed by Jelly Man, one by one. One of them even gets the long, drawn out cat and mouse type death, while an award she would have won gets announced elsewhere. Oh, and the worst hotel manager ever gets a room service man killed by sending him up to find the missing housekeeper, despite being tipped off by the police presence that something might be wrong. The death of the third teen friend is the first one in this film that has somewhat realistic looking blood in it, but it is also very darkly shot, making a lot of the tension disappear simply by making it hard to see. Jelly Man starts getting real annoying here, pulling out superpowers from the cliche slasher villain playbook. He can teleport, or at least use semi-super speed, as he gets around far too quickly. He can move as silently as ninja at those speeds, too. He can kill damn near anyone he wants to silently as well, as no less than five deaths, counting the opening flashback, happen without raising any kind of alarm or suspicion. and considering that three of those deaths are throat slits, that's just too damn hard to believe.

Also a bit like a steel jalapeno pepper.

They try so hard to make him this iconic evil, giving him a specific look(brown blazer, dress shirt, ball cap, slacks, and new patent leather loafers, that squeak, a lot), giving him an admittedly wicked looking knife, albeit one that looks a bit like a larger cousin to those wildlife picture knives all boys get from an uncle or other father figure when they turn 13(mine was a buck). But I will say this. Jelly Man is by far the best actor in this piece. He comes as genuinely creepy, the script giving him plenty of chances to ham up the the sleaze and danger of the character, and he does it well. The pacing of the film is almost exact, averaging a death every six and a half minutes. The problem there is that half of those deaths are in the first and last ten minutes, so most of the middle of the film is padded with jump scares(10), and fake outs(5), meaning, at end count, there are moments trying to be scary then actual deaths and tension.

She just realized what kind of film she's in.

So, in closing, 2008's Prom Night to me encapsulates everything wrong with post-Scream slasher genre. The cast is either unlikeable, idiotic, or too bland to give a crap about. The villains motives are too shallow and undeveloped, and a few of the deaths don't even fit into the killer's motive until the editor wakes up and realized the plot has written him into a corner. This film isn't terrible, but it sure as hell isn't good either. Avoid it if you can, unless you can find a group that wants to watch it and tear it to shreds. On a side note, the sets were quite good, and the film opens with a rather good cover of The Zombies' "Time of the Season", played by Ben Taylor. But those aren't enough to save the film. If you get invited to Prom Night, do yourself a favor and just stay home.

Ginger's Soapbox Issues #1: Chick-fil-A

This week, April 25th to 28th, do your friends, neighbors, and community a favor: Don't buy anything from Chick-fil-A*. If fact, you might not want to go there ever again. Why? Because every meal, sandwich, and nugget purchased from this chain directly supports organizations working against marriage equality, such as Alliance Defense Fund and Family Research Council. What is marriage equality? This is the idea that everyone, no matter what their sexual orientation or lifestyle choices, has the right to marry the person they love. Why is it important? It's important because everyone deserves the right to love and be loved in return. It's important because no one should be made to feel ashamed of who they care about. Why should you care? Because the people being denied this right are people you know: you may work with them, you may go to school with them, you may live by them. They might just be people you pass on the street, but you know them. And you should care about the people you know.

*Fact: Chick-fil-A's charitable division has provided more than $1.1 million to anti-LGBT organizations. Please don't add to that number.

Games You Should Know About... Even More Cheapass Games

Wow, I'm surprised that my previous post got over 260 views in one day (on Geek Streak).  I guess you guys must really like getting free games.  Since they were in such high demand, I'll give you the other two games that Cheapass Games put out.  While the previous two games were sort of original (though Strange Adventures in Infinite Space was somewhat inspired by Star Control), these next two are clones of old games with a few twists.

For instance, Plasmaworm, which was the first game Digital Eel created, is just a newer interpretation of the classic game Snake -- you know, the game where you lead this snake around a playing field, trying to eat little dots on the screen that would make your snake longer.  That part hasn't changed, but they did add other things to the mix, such as walls and zones that either increase or decrease your speed.  Your "snake" looks more like some strange organism that you could only see with a microscope and the "food" are little symbols that may look familiar to some (I did see the logo for Kill Doctor Lucky, among others).  You can even create your own custom levels and challenge yourself or your friends (just remember the name you gave the level when you saved it, as that is the password you need to enter in the main menu).  It may not seem like much, at first, but exploring the new features does add some replay value to it.

The extra features on Plasmaworm really does give this game

a longer shelf life than its predecessor.

The next game, Big Box of Blox, is Digital Eel's take on the Genesis game Columns.  While the "match three or more" mechanic isn't exactly the same (you can't match three diagonally in this game, but you can eliminate other matching blocks that are connected to the matching set), the game works, for the most part, identically to Sega's puzzle "classic."  The thing that sets this game apart from the original is the different game modes.  Each game mode has its own theme and extra rules.  For instance, there's one game mode that looks like a Lovecraftian nightmare, complete with squamous blocks.  In this mode, there's question blocks (no, not like in Super Mario Bros.) that, when matched up, turn into slot machine wheels which cause some certain effect, such as eliminating all blocks in a certain row, column, or diagonal, depending on the results.  Other modes slowly raise the bottom of the playing field, making it progressively harder, or have "imprisoned" blocks which have to be matched up twice: once with other prison blocks, and again with the kind of block that was locked in there (they're not all the same blocks behind those bars).  If you like Columns or other cascading puzzle games, such as Tetris, you may enjoy Big Box of Blox.



Well, that's all the computer games that Cheapass Games published.  If you want to download these games, use the link here for Plasmaworm (only available for PC -- sorry, Mac users) and here for Big Box of Blox.

Enjoy the free games and I'll see you next week.

Ginger, on A Boy And His Blob

If you don't already know about this game you're missing out. A Boy And His Blob is a platform-puzzle game developed by WayForward Technologies and published by Majesco Games in 2009. There is an older version somewhere, but I'll be talking about the Wii version (released on October 13th, 2009).

First off, the art of this game is delightful. I've never seen a more adorable side kick than Blob. Even the bad-guy shadow creatures are cute in a way - most of them look far from menacing (except for the bosses).  The stages themselves are very well done to; To me, they kinda of look like a sophisticated Mario-style world. I happen to like the nighttime ones the best myself.

Guys, guys - I just want to pass by here.

Now as far as the premise, I don't know if playing the original game would explain anything better, but you get a little epic opening movie that shows Blob crash landing on Boy's world after leaving a jelly bean shaped planet, then Boy and Blob kicking butt and taking names, and finally a glimpse of the top bad dude you ultimately have to fight (?). ( I'm not sure if you have to fight him in the end or not since I haven't finished the game yet...) When the game actually starts you find Boy asleep in his pretty rocking tree house where he gets awakened by Blob's crash landing. Boy (you at this point) will get up and be directed on where to go find Blob and buddy up. Once you guys are together, you'll be zapped back to the tree house and the game will really start. You get different sets of jelly beans to feed Blob on each stage and each jelly bean has different effects - one will turn Blob into a ladder, another will turn him (it?) into a trampoline, another will turn him hole and so on. On the lower levels you'll get three different types of jellybeans, but you'll have more and more as you get further in the game. On each level you will use every type you're given at least once - especially in the boss battles. Though it is pretty straight forward (get form point A to point B), you do have to get creative sometimes to figure out how to get somewhere and the difficulty constantly changes so you're never bored.

Yeah! Squish those baddies flat!

As an added bonus there are two types of stages: the story stages and the challenge stages. The story stages have three hidden chests for you to find that turn into artifacts in your home after you finish the stage (not really sure what they're for yet or if they have a purpose) and the challenge stages help you hon your skills, sort of. The challenge stages are in fact a challenge, and take a little more finesse to get though. I let my husband play those since I don't have the patience for it, but I love the story stages.

All in all, I love this game. It's challenging enough for adults to play but easy enough not to be to difficult for children either. The stages are well thought out and planned. The story is sweet and says a lot about friendships and team work (a good lesson of adults and children alike). It's not overly violent like some many other games out there today (there is some bad guy squishing and bursting, but it had to be done). I's not sure about the replay value on this game yet, but I think it has some potential. Also, I think I might need a Blob plushie. Anyone know where to get one? :)

Tables

This is a geek blog. So after looking at the article title you may ask "What's geeky about tables?" Click on the link below.

Table of Gaming +3

One of the pictures says plans to come soon. So far my searches have turned up nothing. If anyone finds anything let me know. Even if it's a site where they are for sale. This table has everything room for 7 (including DM), a discrete message system in case the DM needs to tell you something without letting everyone know (or vice versa), foot space, and area for your dice. Each player gets a walled off section without cutting into the maps area. Also notice it has room for character sheets or books in between each players area. Oh yeah and it has a built in sound system.

I wish I could post the pictures from the new gallery, but they are protected.

So in order to make it up to you here are some videos of cool tables.



Not specifically geeky, but I'm excited because that is one useful table. Now if only extra chairs unfolded from it.

On the other hand...this is probably the least useful table you'll ever have, but your friends will love it.



So thanks to all of you on the internet who take something like a table and make it awesome. I'm always amazed by the amount of ingenuity I find on the internet.

Flick Picks 15: Epic (Failure) Movie

 Hello again Streakers! Boog here, with the second part of my reviews for this wonderful Friday. Unfortunately, this, 'film' is nothing less than an utter failure from beginning to end. Comedy is supposedly very hard to write well, and spoof comedy even harder, because it requires a least some first hand knowledge on the spoof subject for the audience to make the jokes work, and to make them work well, they have to be written strongly enough to take advantage of the comedy setting. For Good, and some Great examples of spoof comedy films, I direct you to Google the Naked Gun movies, the Hot Shots films, and some of the National Lampoon films made before 1995, like Loaded Weapon Part 1. Hell, even the Zucker classic Airplane! These spoof films work because, inherently, the base components of the films they're spoofing haven't changed, they're just being presented in a funny way through clever writing and the occasional sight gag.
Epic Movie, on the other hand, is just down right awful. So awful, I can't even get the trailer from imdb.com to link here. First of all, from a comedy standpoint, none of the jokes are focused, or drive the story forward, so it fails there, and from a spoof standpoint, well, most of the jokes are sex jokes, with little to no variation from that. There is no real connection to the films being made fun of, other than the writers going 'hey, we should do a bit on that Johnny Depp Wonka movie here! That would be AWESOME!', and frankly, it never is. SPOILERS!, and if you want to find out just how awful, read through the jump....