Archive for July, 2009
Vacation Photos: Round Three!
What did I do today? … Well, after breakfast I attempted some more fishing. While I didn’t catch any fish, I did manage to see a whole family of birds flying back and forth, into and out of the water, catching small fish for the babies. That was pretty cool, took some photos of that.
After that, went out on the waverunner with my uncle, took a bunch of photos of a couple parts of the island. I wasn’t able to take some of the “out in the middle of the ocean” photo’s that I wanted, but I was able to take a bunch of photos of some of the crazy-insane-super-expensive houses on one of the island’s peninsulas. From what I am told some of them are worth over $20,000,000!!!
I also saw the new Harry Potter movie. It was pretty good, though I’m not really a fanatical fan like some people. I would have been happy seeing ‘The Hangover’, since I missed out on that when it was released. Now we have to wait 10 years for the next HP movie I guess. That’s what I don’t like about them, frankly I don’t see why Harry won’t just use that evil killing spell that I know he must know by now and get rid of the bad guys. The same way they use it then to a “Gollum Happy-Dance” afterwords. :\
Finally, as I am writing this I am downloading “The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition” via Steam to my MacBook in a VM. I hope it will run. If not I’ll just have to wait until I get home from vacation to play. 🙂 Make sure you buy your copy of SMI:SE!!!
As for this batch of photos, I took over 60 photos in all. Sorry for the lame captions this time. Maybe I’ll update them eventually, for now I just wanted to post them to the site. 🙂
Here they are:
- A plant!
- A dragonfly! I think…
- Birds!
- More birds!
- More birds again!
- Bird in a tree.
- The fish that don’t want my bait… 🙁
- Fishing!
- More birds again!
- Bird in a tree, again!
- More birds again!
- More birds again!
- More birds again!
- Flying bird!
- Another flying bird!
- More birds again!
- More birds again!
- A bridge crossing the lagoon/river..
- Wider shot of the bridge.
- Out on the waverunner.
- Out on the waverunner.
- Harbour Town
- The Harbour Town lighthouse.
- Funky angled shot of the lighthouse.
- Out on the waverunner.
- Out on the waverunner.
- Backyard of some of the insanely expensive houses on the island.
- A shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- I think that’s one of the Marriott hotels or some other big name one.
- Another hotel, near the bridge.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- Another shot of one of the crazy-expensive houses on the island.
- A boat in the harbor.
- Another boat in the harbor.
- More houses…
- More houses!
- More houses!!
- Another boat in the harbor.
- Two boats in the harbor.
- More houses…!
- A bridge, yay!
Vacation Photos: Round Two. …Fight!
/playspunchoutmusic
Did some fishing today for about 3-4 hours. Didn’t catch anything though. I did see some alligators, maybe they scared the fish away! 🙁
Went shopping and bought some new sandals which I needed, then bought some new Tee-Shirts.
Here are some more random photos.
- A photo of some new tee-shirts I got, that go with the ‘Plunder’ shirt.
- Some cool new tee-shirts I got.
- Close-Up photo of my “Plunder” shirt, that I’ve had for years.
- Close-Up of a new shirt I got today.
- Close-Up of another new shirt I got today.
- Close-Up of yet another new shirt I got today.
- Snagged this kinda-sorta-ok photo of a bird in a tree. I think there’s a nest there.
- The left side of the waverunner.
- The front of the waverunner.
- The right side of the waverunner.
- The deck that leads to the front door, from inside behind the window.
- The bed in the room I was staying in.
- Furniture adjacent to the dining table.
- Furniture adjacent to the couches in the living-room area.
- Partial shot of the study.
- Partial shot of the study from an opposite angle.
- Funky angled shot of the living-room area.
- Partial shot of the kitchen.
- The kitchen tables.
- The bathroom in the bedroom I am staying in, tiled matching shower to the right.
- Partial shot of another bedroom two-beds. Large closet and bathroom/shower to the right.
- Partial shot of the two-bed bedroom from the other side.
- Partial shot of the living-room area.
- Another partial shot of the living-room area.
- Thumbnail
- Thumbnail
- Thumbnail
Here are the first few photos from my vacation, day 1.
I plan on doing some fishing in the lagoon a few times this week. I’ll have to watch out for alligators though, cause they are in there!
REVIEW: Tales of Monkey Island -Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
When I first heard about a “New Monkey Island Game” I was extremely excited. I scoured the interwebs looking for all the information I could find. Luckily I didn’t have to scour for too long. Which was good, because I always get blisters afterword and it chafes. You know like when… um.. Ahem. Anyway as I was saying, Telltale Games had now officially announced that they were making an all new 5 part episodic Monkey Island game!
“Hooray! It’s about damn time! Finally!” I exclaimed. Then, I saw the trailer and some of the screenshots they had available. At first I had some misgivings about it. I felt the textures were of low quality, they had no new music yet, and basically it was not a finished product.
But, after Telltale’s seminars*, motivational lectures*, and audio books on parrot*, I’ve become a vicious devoted fan!
I thoroughly enjoyed the game! For me it completely captures the essence of Monkey Island.
The Good:
- It’s an all new Monkey Island game! What more do you need to know really?
- The game immerses you into the world of Monkey Island well enough that you want to know what types of other adventures Guybrush has been on, or relive them if you’ve played the previous games.
- Some of the in-jokes are designed well enough to be obvious to an MI fan, while not degrading to the game continuity to pirate wannabes.
- The humor was spot on and only a touch more sophisticated. After all, it has been almost ten years since the last game!
- Dominic Armato totally nails Guybrush in the new adventure! Every line is just as great as I expected, as if there were any doubts.
- I daresay that the voice acting overall in this game is some of the finest I’ve had the pleasure to play through since probably Grand Theft Auto IV.
- I daresay that the voice acting overall in this game is some of the finest I’ve had the pleasure to play through since probably Grand Theft Auto IV.
- The artwork, models, and locations all look fantastic.
- The animation is also quite well done, comical and over the top, or pretty natural looking depending on what’s needed.
- The music, well it’s new Monkey Island music composed by an artist who has worked on music for every previous MI game!
- You want the short version?
- The music is really great!
- You want the short version?
The Less Awesome:
Well, I suppose now you want to hear some of the things I didn’t like eh? I mean, this can’t be all happy pixies and fairydust can it? CAN IT?? OF COARSE NOT! NOW! SOME OF The — I’ll stop yelling now —
Some of the things about the game that annoyed/bothered me or I felt could have been done better are as follows:
- First, I now have to wait for the next episode to be released! 🙁
- Second, there is a classic joke used in the MI games by which you are presented some dialog choices and no matter what one you pick, Guybrush will say something else.
- Usually, this is a dialog choice along the lines of something like: “I can’t think of anything I would hate more!” or “For the love of god, NO!”. See? something like that.
- Now the funny part of this joke is that no matter which of those two dialog options you select, Guybrush will actually say something like: “Perhaps, later.” It’s like you get mock a character or insult someone, only not. Pretty funny right?
- Moving right along, the problem I have with this in ToMI is that it was overused within a single conversation.
- When this is done more than once sequentially within a single conversion with a character, it makes the game feel cheap.
- Don’t get me wrong, I still find it funny, but these things really should be spread out!
- If they’re not spread out, it makes me think: “Hmm, maybe they were trying to save money/time during voice-over and are trying to cover it up as intentional?” or “Maybe Dom couldn’t get those lines how they wanted, no that’s not possible, everything else is gold!”.
- When this is done more than once sequentially within a single conversion with a character, it makes the game feel cheap.
- Usually, this is a dialog choice along the lines of something like: “I can’t think of anything I would hate more!” or “For the love of god, NO!”. See? something like that.
- Another thing I didn’t like is that Telltale didn’t use any of my book titles or kinds of wind!** I thought they were pretty good!
- Last, I miss Earl Boen’s LeChuck. The new guy is quite good, but it just wasn’t quite the same initially. I’ll just get used to it though, no big deal. Especially since I will be hearing Earl in the MI1 Special Edition on the 15th! 🙂
Looking to the future:
Some things I would like to see done in the future for this series: Enable you to play through all the episodes in succession without having to ‘launch the next program’, perhaps this is being worked on. Fingers crossed.
Note: This post will probably be updated from time to time. So check back later!
Signed,~Blokebroom Pluckplank – a Really Fearsome Pirate
* Substitute: The ‘Privite Pirates Club’ on Telltale Games website forums. Also: Yes, I did steal that line from MI3, it fits doesn’t it? 🙂
** See ‘more’ to see more! Below…
Voodoo Monkey Image Gallery AKA Some Screenshots I Took:
- Holy Monkey Bladders! It’s Tales of Monkey Island!
- Guybrush Threepwood, to the rescue! (He’s in the background dummy!)
- Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate! No really, he’s quite mighty!
- “Elaine! My beautiful butter-“
- LeChuck is pleased with the monkeysational level of detail put into the game.
- Guybrush is upset that he cant aurally articulate some of his funniest thoughts.
- Guybrush is distracted fawning over Elaine.
- Behold! Flotsam Island! Where new citizens flots in, but they don’t flots out!
- “Just close your eyes and pretend it’s all a dream, mate. That’s how I get by!”
- That’s the second bearded Guybrush I’ve ever seen!
- By these items combined, I made Dark Ninja Dave! Also visible is the surprisingly unpopular U-Tube.
- Even the menu screen looks really cool!
A Pirate, I was meant to be! Trim the sails and roam the sea!
Sitting here anxiously awaiting the Tales of Monkey Island release today.
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The Sloganizer currently has a limited list of slogans to produce. Help me expand it by submitting some of your own as comments to this post! I’ll be sure to leave your name as the originator of the quote. 🙂
PS: I know they are not really slogans, but damnit! Sloganizer 3000 is a cool name, I think! Also, if you are lucky the Sloganizer 3000 will tell you how to view it’s own individual page where you can refresh it quickly to your heart’s content!
The Legend of Zelda II: Medley by JHarris01; Remastered
A fellow member of the QuestStudios.com forums sent me a MIDI of an old medley he did of themes from the second Zelda NES game. I remastered it in style using the XV-5080. Adding a couple small things and changing a few others. Overall, re-balancing each instrument track. Oh, you can also vote on this song on newgrounds.com
Edit 7/6/2009: MP3 Updated. 🙂
Here is the result:
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Download: Zelda2Medley_XV-5080_Final2
All new theme for the site!
Installed and slightly customized a really cool Windows Vista-esque theme for the site called Inanis-Glass. What do you think of it?
It took me a while to get the background in the banner at the top to look right belive it or not. I still need to optomize the style code for it from inline css into the real stylesheets, but it works for now.
Next, I need to figure out a way to have the Twitter widget not pause the loading of the rest of the site. I could use an iframe but I really don’t want to. Any ideas?