Monday, March 28, 2011

Top Five Countries United States Should Invade Next, Eye of Sauron, McDonalds Oatmeal Statistics, Fire Fox 4 Statistics, Child Who Knows His Presidents


Sorry for the lack of blogging over the weekend. I was busy and not feeling well. I’ll try to get back to daily blogging, my side isn’t allowing me to concentrate well. Anyway, here is some news I meant to post. I had a lot to report on but its all too old to now.

Top Five Countries United States Should Invade Next

Okay, I had no problem with this article until I read the first country. Thisorthat.com has Canada as the first country to invade. This is what they said about us, “This one's a complete no-brainer. They've got no armed forces to speak of, we don't even have to use ships or planes to get our troops there, and dammit, they've got oil! They've also got this crazy national health plan that's got to be quashed immediately before the American citizens get wind of it, so that'll be the first thing. And then we'll jack up the prices on those cheap pharmaceuticals. Oh yeah, we'll give 'em democracy right up the maple leaf.” Yeah sure we have oil, so quit bombing countries for no reason. Yeah we have free health care but maybe instead of invading us over it, Americans should take note and implicate it there. Also, we’re the only country that will follow you into battle willingly, knowing it’s the stupidest idea in the world. This was obviously written as a joke but still. The other countries are Australia, Tuvalu, Ireland, and Iceland. The writer wants to put different superstores in the middle of Australia because “almost all of the people live on the coastline, leaving a huge central section just sitting there doing nothing” as well as “we’ve got our top scientists and engineers working out how to build a bridge from Honolulu to Sydney.” In Tuvalu, they want to use the country as a place for troops to rest during their down time. It would also be a good spot for drivers to have a stop during their drive on the bridge from just said idea. Ireland is next to be invaded as the United States needs to “put in their government to keep things cool as a fool” as well as “have access to leprechaun pots of gold, to help them pay off their national debt.” Last is Iceland, which may be a good spot for a Disneyworld or even the winter Olympics!


One article is all for today. I have a picture from space that looks like the Eye of Sauron from Lord of the Rings. I also have statistics for McDonalds Oatmeal and Fire Fox 4. For a video, I found an older but funny video of a child who knows quotes of certain presidents





Thursday, March 24, 2011

Duke Nukem Forever Delayed (“Never Comes Early”), Animals In Star Wars Costumes, China Starts Censoring People Through Phones, Canadian Statistics, Troll Dad Comics, Rooster Teeth: Rage Quit: QWOP, Nice Peter Sings With Danny Trejo For Brisk


Hello everyone, hope you had a good day today. I did, because I won twenty dollars on Poker Lotto today. Finally after putting so much money into the OLG, I am getting some back! I am also going to go price capture cards and may start recording game walkthroughs and achievement guides, possibly some videos just for fun as well. Anyway, here is tonight’s news and I also posted an interview with Hallows Die you can click here!

Duke Nukem Forever Delayed (“Never Comes Early”)

Duke Nukem Forever has been delayed, once again, but only for one more month. Yeah it annoys me that this has happened, but I’d rather wait one month more than not have it released at all. It will now come out on June 14th and there has been a video uploaded from Gearbox President, Randy Pitchford, who seems just as angry as the fans. He also reminds us, “Duke never comes early.”


Animals In Star Wars Costumes

Walyou.com has a humorous article up of cats and dogs dressed up as different Star Wars characters. It is very cute and funny, so check out the link above for all of the pictures. I will post my favourites down below:



China Starts Censoring People Through Phones

China has begun what may be a very privacy invading, paranoid act by censoring the word “protest” from phone conversations. It all started when an entrepreneur was on the phone to his girlfriend when he was cut off for saying the word while quoting “the lady doth protest too much” from Shakespeare. Apparently the conversation was cut off as soon as he said protest. This has been happening to both those who are speaking the word in English and Mandarin. China seems to have begun tightening their communications, especially like how they have blocked Gmail as well.


That’s it for today I leave you with  statistics of Canadians and some funny Troll Dad comics, you can see all of them at RuntoftheWeb.com here. For videos I have Rooster Teeth’s new Rage Quit video of the Olympic runner game QWOP and Nice Peter’s video with Danny Trejo for the iced tea company Brisk. I don’t know if I’ve posted it before, but if I did here it is again!







Hallows Die Interview By Wheeling Rampage Productions


Who, what, where is your band? What is the origin of the name?

Hallows Die. From Mississauga Ontario. Origin of the name is kind of a tongue in cheek reference to a couple of religious belief. Plus having the word "Die" in our name will help account for any badass-ness lost in our music.

What genre do you consider your music?

Really depends on the song or album. Primarily Melodic Death Metal but recently we've kind of been crossing more into the Progressive Death Metal end of things. It changes pretty frequently.

How did the band form? Is there any early history of the band you would like to note?

I'd love to say it was something grand and spectacular, but the reality is that it started in a high school lunchroom. Several years, lineup changes and one cliche beginning later here we are.

Are you signed to any record label? If not, do you wish to sign to any label in particular?

We've been constantly working with as many labels as possible, however, these are mainly just contra deals and small transactions. Should an exclusive deal come along in the near future that we feel will fully benefit the band as well as fulfill the labels vision then we'd be willing to negotiate a serious working relationship.


Do any of your band members have any brand loyalty when it comes to gear? What does each member play brand-wise?

Dylan (Drums) is currently endorsed by Pearl, and they've already sent him over a couple custom made kits, so he's rocking their stuff all the time. The rest of us have our preferences but would experiment if presented with the opportunity.

Who writes the lyrics to your songs? Is there any main theme when it comes to the writing process?

We all have our individual contributions but as of late its been primarily Gabe and I. As with the music the lyrical content is constantly changing, lately we've kind of been focusing on how deception is such a integral part of how we live today.
Your band seems to have travelled country wide, where have you been in North America that you are proud of?

We're pretty proud of anywhere we get to go. It's always a good feeling when you get somewhere new and are able to interact with people who seem to genuinely believe in what we're doing. Plus there are so many cool places we get to go ti's hard to pick which would be labelled the best.


What is your favourite venue and crowd?

Again, there have been too many of both to pick one that tops as the best. Pretty unique experience was in Sydney NS, they didn't have a bar or anything in town to put us up so they threw a party in one of the dudes apartments. It was kind of like an office space turned living area. They couldn't offer us a guarantee because they weren't charging people to come, but a ton of people ended up coming out and the dude putting it on ended up walking around with a box for "donations". We ended up making just as much as we usually charge, met a shit ton of amazing people, and had an overall amazing time. Its cool to see that in people are making it work in places where its more difficult and we wouldn't think twice about going back.

What is planned for the band this year?

Well we've got a west coast tour kicking off in May (check www.hallowsdie.com for details). Besides that we're focusing really hard on getting this new album out, hopefully by the end of the summer.
Beyond that It'll just be trying to book as much as possible again for the fall and make as much noise about the record as possible.


If you could play one single gaming console for the rest of your life which console would you pick?

For me, original Nintendo bar none.

Any final comments?

Hallows Die Penetrate the Pacific 2011, May-June all across western Canada. Show up and be obnoxious. Stay groovy.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Missing Child Is One Of The Best Hide And Seek Players Of All Time, Student Suspended For Bringing Acne Medication To School, Brain Trapped, Funny Divorce Letter, Charlie Sheen Kisses Jimmy Kimmel On JKL, Trick Shot Ping Pong Kid

Hello everyone today is a little short due to me not really being up to blogging as much as I want to today. Here is today’s news anyhow!

Missing Child Is One Of The Best Hide And Seek Players Of All Time

A Stoutland, Missouri child by the name of Bryce McCraken is now on of the world’s Hide and Seek champions. The four year old was playing with his brothers last week and took the game to a new extreme. He ran into a forested area to hide and even better he was wearing camouflage. After a while of not being able to be found by his brothers, a manhunt involving two-hundred-fifty volunteers on foot, in trucks and on horses was set out to look for him. It took the team ten hours before they had found him. Some kids just do not understand the area boundaries involved in the game Hide and Seek and then end up running off. This is one of those cases.

Student Suspended For Bringing Acne Medication To School

Hayley Russell, a thirteen year old student at Rachel Carson Middle School of Fairfax County, Virginia is being suspended for bringing her acne medication to school. Since she was afraid of her acne flaring up, she had her pills in her locker. The administration had confronted her about the pills because other students were telling them about it. She was suspended for seven weeks and was even banned from visiting the school without permission. She was forced to transfer to a different school to continue her education career. Many bullied her about the pills as rumours started and false statements flew around. It even went as far as the words “preggo” and “druggie” to be tossed at her. This is what the Washington Post said about the situation:

“Hayley’s experience -- as reflected in interviews and school records provided by her family -- follows a pattern reported by parents in at least 18 other cases in Fairfax: Students get ousted from school for a month, two months, or longer if an appeal is filed. They go to disciplinary hearings expecting impartial reviews and find instead what they consider an adversarial process. For many, consequences include school transfers that cut off social connections and upend academics. The Fairfax discipline system is under increasing scrutiny after Nick Stuban, a 15-year-old football player, committed suicide on Jan. 20 amid the fallout of an infraction at W.T. Woodson High School. The school board will begin a review of discipline policies Monday. Fairfax schools spokesman Paul Regnier said the school system interprets state law as requiring Hayley to be suspended and recommended for expulsion because she possessed a controlled substance, which includes prescription medication.”

Hayley’s case went into a court session hearing and because it happened near the end of the school year, the suspension was prolonged. It was also due to the fact that the hearing office was too busy to have it heard. It is a law in Virginia that school boards “shall expel” students if they have controlled substances, marijuana or any drugs that imitate it at school or a class trip. It does say that depending on the circumstance it may be considered that other consequences are given by school board employees. Administrators at Hayley’s hearing back in May declared that there was no proof she had distributed the medication and no apparent abuse or charges filed. The ruling that arrived in the middle of June had said that Hayley "willfully and deliberately possessed and consumed prescription medication at school, knowing that her actions were in violation of school rules. She put the safety and well-being of other students and staff at risk." Hayley was suspended for seven weeks and was then transferred to a new school. Hopefully the high school that she did go to is under a lot of discussion as it was a very wrongful decision to suspend her based on false accusations and incorrect investigation.


To conclude tonight’s blog I have a funny comic of a man calling 911 pretending to be his brain. Also is a funny picture of a man’s cruel yet comedic divorce letter. I also have a video of Charlie Sheen on Jimmy Kimmel and Sheen kisses him. As well as a trick shot ping pong kid video I thought was awesome.




Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Al-Qa’ida Magazing Advises Women To Cover Up An Marry A Martyr, Louisiana Middle School Student Suspended For Having Long Hair, Best Bollywood Action Scenes, Dead Island Logo Censored In North America, Cool GIFs Made 3D With Twitch Effect, Effective Retirement Age Versus Official Retirement Age, Take Two With Phineas And Ferb: Jack Black, Andy Samberg, and Seth Rogen, The Game Station: Duck Hunt 3D Trailer (2D version)

Hello everyone, it is Tuesday and I have done three posts today including this blog. So after you’re done reading today’s news you should go checkout my review on the movie Paul as well as my interview with Orillia band, Like Animals. I hope everyone had a good day today and are looking forward to the possible snow day in this area that may occur tomorrow. Now for tonight’s news!

Al-Qa’ida Magazing Advises Women To Cover Up An Marry A Martyr

A magazine for women, similar to Elle or Cosmopolitan is giving advice on how to find the right man or “marrying a mujahideen”, how to achieve perfect complexion by standing inside with your face covered and also gives tips on first aid and etiquette. The magazine did interview with martyr’s wives and praises religious Islamic individuals, saying “From martyrdom, the believer will gain security, safety and happiness.” The magazine also goes over the pros and cons of honey face masks and influences women against “towelling too forcibly.” The editor said this when explaining their thinking: "Because women constitute half of the population – and one might even say that they are the population since they give birth to the next generation – the enemies of Islam are bent on preventing the Muslim woman from knowing the truth about her religion and her role, since they know all too well what would happen if women entered the field of jihad... The nation of Islam needs women who know the truth about their religion and about the battle and its dimensions and know what is expected of them." It is being said that the idea is to market global jihad with the writing style of any beauty magazine that is forced on younger women. The United States security is very disturbed by the publisher’s thoughts. The magazine is basically trying to influence acts of terrorism and is believed to be edited by an American citizen by the name of Samir Khan, who is in hiding in Yemen. The man released a series of jihadi magazines which went under the name Jihad Recollections before he fled the States.

Louisiana Middle School Student Suspended For Having Long Hair

It seems that this day in age, teachers and principals can suspend you for just about anything. This is proven by the suspension of Lousiana student Seth Chaisson. The student is an American Indian and he was suspended for two days because he refused to cut his hair. He keeps his hair long for cultural and religious reasons. The ACLU demanded that Chaisson be allowed back into the school permanently and that the suspension was erased from his record. They are disputing that the suspension and even asking the student to cut his hair is a violation of his religious freedom. The executive director of the ACLUE, Marjorie Esman, said that the incident is similar to allowing  a Jewish student to wear a yarmulke or asking a Christian student to take off their cross. Esman stated that Chaisson "is becoming more in tune with his own religious beliefs.  Just as a junior high school student might decide to wear a cross that they had never wanted to wear before, he has now decided to grow his hair out in a way he had never decided to do before." Religious beliefs or not, I think it is ridiculous that an educational employee would suspend a student for simply having long hair. If this is so then suspend all the metal heads as well!

Best Bollywood Action Scenes

UnrealityMag.com did an article on the best Bollywood action scenes. I thought it’d be a nice idea to share with you a few of my favourites. If you would like to see all of the videos, click the link above.



Dead Island Logo Censored In North America











Above you see two logos of Dead Island. On the left is a logo with the “I” in Island replaced with a hanging corpse and on the right, a logo with the “I” replaced with a walking zombie. The change is due to the ESRB restrictions and the game box will have the altered logo on it. The original logo will still remain the same in the actual game. In Europe both logos will remain as the normal logo. The last time the ESRB censored a game cover was in June of 2009 when Left 4 Dead 2 developer’s Valve were forced to add more fingers to the zombie hand on the front of the game case. This is ESRB’s statement on the Dead Island logo: “The video game industry has set guidelines about the types of content that are appropriate in advertising and marketing materials, which includes game box art. According to those guidelines the depiction in the logo was not compliant. We never censor or dictate in any way what type of content can be included within a game. However, a game's marketing materials are seen by an audience that is much broader than that which actually purchases the game itself, so we enforce industry-adopted guidelines as to what is suitable for inclusion in these materials.” This censorship must be because of suicide rates in the continent.

Cool GIFs Made 3D With Twitch Effect

An art director by the name of Matt Moore has been able to create 3D effects on pictures by taking to pictures of the same thing but from different angles that are just a few centimetres apart from each other. TheCreatorsProject.com has his pictures on their site and I thought I would share them with you. You will probably have to click on these thumbnails to get the twitch effect as I doubt that the picture uploader will animate GIFs.





That’s it for today everyone I hope you enjoyed this day filled of posts! I leave you with an informative picture that pits when the ideal age to retire is with the age that people tend to retire at. I also have for you a video I found interesting as actors Jack Black, Andy Samberg, and Seth Rogen have all been interviewed on the little television spin of Take Two With Phineas And Ferb. To finish off this blog, I have a new trailer from the Game Station of Duck Hunt, which is also available in 3D if you go to their channel. I just posted the 2D version to save you the headache of watching the 3D version.



Like Animals Interview By Wheeling Rampage Productions


What is your band name? How did you come up with it?

The band name is Like Animals. We actually had a few stupid names before this one. Basically we think of it as an attitude... Animals are very free, uncontrollable, artistic in a way.We feel that it sums up our style perfectly. You listen to us and say "that's Like Animals". Once we came across this name, it instantly clicked in as "the one".

Who are the members and what do they play?

We are a 3 piece band, which a lot of people are surprised when they hear. I guess its the huge sound and the way we use each other in our songs. My name is Will, and I'm the drummer. Jamie is our guitarist/lead vocalist, and Jesse is our bass player/backing vocalist.


How did the band form? What inspired the formation?

We have all known each other for a very long time. The 3 of us have also been in different bands with each other before this, so once those bands were finished, it was such an easy and natural move to start Like Animals. We always had a goal to write music that was different and knowing each other from previous bands made it easy to start writing. We already knew what each of us brought to the table.

What genre do you consider your band to be?

That's a tough one... We are not metal..we actually hate that term. So not metal, but heavier than most bands. We have elements of hardcore/melodic music. We really don't like to be pigeonholed into a certain style. Doing that will simply limit us. We take pride in having that open palette and when people ask what style we are, we simply let them decide for themselves.


Who writes the lyrics? Is there any main theme?

Our guitarist Jamie is the lyricist for the band. Everything he writes is personal experience. There are a few songs that we sat down and came up with ideas for, but ultimately he writes all of the lyrics. The themes just depend on life experiences.

What gear do you user? Any brand loyalty or model preference?

Well our bassist owns a music store, so gear and brand loyalty is important to us. Jesse is a loyal Warwick user. His bass,head, and cabinet are all Warwick. Jamies rig consists of Cort guitars and a Mesa Boogie Head, along with Marshall and Punch cabinets. My kit is a Mapex, along with Sabian, Paiste and Wuhan cymbals. We use fairly simple setups, with Jamie having a few effect pedals.


Where have you played? What if your favourite venue?

In our 3 years as a band, we have been lucky enough to play almost everywhere in Ontario. We were fortunate enough to go on a few tours last year and play outside of our province as well. I think if we had a favorite venue to choose, it would be our hometown venue in Barrie, The Foxx Lounge. Killer lighting,killer sound, and really awesome people. Definitely the coolest venue we have played at, and bands love coming there. Its an awesome atmosphere.


What are the bands plans for 2011?

Well we are currently finishing up our brand new record. Everything has been recorded, and we are now in the mixing/mastering stage. We once again went to One Star Studio in Barrie with our producer/manager Shane Heath. This CD has surpassed our expectations so far, and everyone is going to love this when it comes out. The exact release date hasn't been finalized yet, but we are aiming for an April release. We also will be touring a lot more than last year, we already have a may tour lined up with our good friends in The Isosceles Project, and we will be organizing a tour with our hometown buddies in Adrenechrome for this spring/summer.

Any final comments?

Just wanna say thanks for doing the interview, we will hopefully be hitting the Cobourg area in the near future! Thanks to everyone for the support.

Spotlight: Paul (Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen)




I saw Paul on Saturday evening and I have to say I very much so enjoyed it. The plot was very well thought out and the cast was amazing. This movie was directed by Greg Mottola and produced by Nira Park, Tim Bevan, and Eric Fellner. It was written by main actors, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost

 









I do not want to spoil it but I will just give you who the actors are, so you have something to know about it before you decide to go to it or not. Our lead actors are Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as they embark on their nerdy road trip in the United States while on vacation from Europe after their attendance at the annual Comic-Con convention. Our alien in the film is voiced by Seth Rogen and must say, although it is mostly just a voice lending role. Seth did some of the CGI work for is character but it was Joe Lo Truglio who was the stand-in actor for Paul. Saturday Night Live cast member, Kristen Wiig plays one of the main female roles as a creationist Christian and did a very good job at it. Some of the agents were played by Jason Bateman(ex-Arrested Development, Juno), Bill Hader(Superbad, Tropic Thunder, Adventureland), and Joe Lo Truglio(Reno 911!, Pineapple Express, Role Models). Blythe Danner plays the person who was first in contact with Paul as Tara when she is older. The last cast member I want to tell you about is Sigourney Weaver. As always she plays a big mean bitch, like in Be Kind Rewind and Holes, but she is a very well known actor as the main role in the Aliens series.

 
This movie is one of my new favourite movies and is definitely my favourite movie with Seth Rogen. I know all you people are going to say, “What!?” but the fact is I find this movie his most serious movie. I’m just tired of some of his roles; I think it’s just that one can only endure so much of his stupidity. Of course as in all his movies, he does light up a joint in this movie but I am sure that this is his most intellectual role as an actor. So sue me!

All in all this is an amazing movie and I hope to see more of this success from Pegg and Frost. I hope everyone goes to see it and I hope you enjoy the review. If you have any suggestions as to how I could make movie reviews written better please comment below and tell me, as I would love your advice!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Interactive Map Of Japan’s 572 Latest Earthquakes, CBS Wants Charlie Sheen Back, Microsoft Word Error Line To Help Target Mainstream Audience, Lean Pockets Thief, Everything You Need To Know About Sleep

Hello everyone, I apologize for the shortness of this blog but I did upload a Spotlight on the video game developer Visceral Games. I do have topics lined up but I am just so exhausted that I cannot type anymore. I also promise you a review on Paul soon as well as many interviews on the way. Here is today’s news!

Interactive Map Of Japan’s 572 Latest Earthquakes


 There have been many earthquakes in the past eight days in Japan, all of different magnitudes and deepness. There have been five-hundred-seventy-two earthquakes and we have all seen the results and the impact on the country. If you click here you will be able to see the earthquakes in chronological order. This is a good map for geologists and others in Earth sciences, For people like you and I, it is just a reminder of how bad the last month has been for Japan.

CBS Wants Charlie Sheen Back

It seems as if the people over at CBS, mainly President and CEO Les Moonves has been in talks with the top people over at Warner Bros. Television about rehiring Charlie Sheen. He has talked directly to the co-creator and executive producer of Two And A Half Men, Chuck Lorre, who was the target of Sheen’s anger and Moonves wants to create a solution that would bring Sheen back to the show. A source says “Moonves told Chuck Lorre that he should ‘let us hand Charlie.’” Lorre is also the producer of two other television hits on CBS in The Big Bang Theory and Mike & Molly, as well as many more projects on the way. The source also adds: "Moonves wants to get the show back on the air. He's all for it. He says certain people need to forget anything and everything Charlie's done recently and just move on with the business at hand. The core issue is, as he put it, the volatile relationship between Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre. He believes that if CBS and Warner Bros. TV honchos can find a way to get Chuck and Charlie to speak again, cooler heads will prevail." It turns out Sheen is suing Lorre and Warner Bros. Television for a large $100 million.


That is all for today and I promise a lot more for tomorrow. I leave you with a picture that I do not know if it is real or fake, but it funny as it is apparently a picture of Microsoft Word’s new error line in which shows you words that your mainstream audience might not understand. Next we have a picture of a person’s message to whoever stole his meat pockets as well as the thieves’ reply. Last but not least is a video in which shows you everything you need to know about sleeping.


Spotlight: Visceral Games


Hello everyone, I have decided to spice up this blog I would start a little segment called “Spotlight” in which I review and give a little talk about different companies. I think I may mainly do video game companies since that is probably one of my best areas. I could do movies as well, but we will see what happens. I won’t do daily spotlights, but they will be here every so often just to give me some more to talk about. The first gaming company I would like to talk about it Visceral Games. This company, when I really started caring more about certain developers, was the first to catch my eye as unique. I will run through their history as a company, as well as their developed games and my opinions and reviews on them and even the company as a whole.


 Visceral Games was first known as EA Redwood Shores and is part of EA Games. They got this name due to their location in Redwood Shores, but have since then branched out to Melbourne, Ausralia. This company has come pretty far in terms of graphical design and actually made games I have played through growing up. What really stands out in Visceral Games’ games is their musical style, especially as of late. I noticed it first in Dante’s Inferno and even more so in the Dead Space series. They know how to get a player sucked into the game by keeping them on edge with orchestral soundtracks. I usually get bored, trying to get a lot of a game done at once, but with Visceral Games, they know how to keep me entertained.
 
The first game Visceral Games released was James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire in 2001. It came out for GameCube, Playstation 2, and X-Box. In many magazines EA had stated that Bond would be going “back to its roots.” This game was originally supposed to succeed GoldenEye, which Rareware released in 1997. The game’s engine is based on a modified Quake 3 Arena engine.

It was three years later that Visceral Games released a new game, and in 2004 they released another James Bond game, Everything or Nothing. This is the second third-person styled Bond game to be released but is the first to incorporate a two-player co-op mode. Pierce Brosnan was the voice of Bond for this game and the character model is designed to look similar to him. Visceral Games did the third-person levels for this game. This game uses the same engine as Agent Under Fire but the driving was based off of the Need For Speed engine.
 

Reverse one year to 2003 and we have the last installment of the movie trilogy of the Lord of the Rings as Visceral Games developed this one. It was the only game out of the three that had multiple storylines, fighting for good or evil. This game was my favourite out of the three and the graphics are outstanding. The character models are almost completely accurate to the actors in the film. This game received positive reception, although many criticized the camera control. Such is Visceral Games’ only problem but we will get to it later.

Going back to 2004 we have a new Lord of the Rings game, The Third Age, which follows a different path of story which isn’t in the movies. This game came out for the same system that all these games have came out for as of yet. It is a role-playing game and it allows characters to travel and gain experience. Unfortunately this is one of the only Lord of the Rings games I have yet to try.  Many people disliked this game because of the storyline and because EA Games only had the rights to the movies and not the books, they didn’t have much to go off of. The combat style is turn based and is similar to Final Fantasy X.

In 2005, Visceral Games developed their third James Bond game entitled From Russia With Love. It is base off of the novel and film of the same name, which came out in 1957 and 1963 respectively. This game features more of the early filmed Bond elements like the jet pack from Thunderball and the Aston Martin DB5, which debuted in the 1964 movie Goldfinger. This game also included the voice acting of Sean Connery. This Bond game was the last to be release by EA Games as they lost the rights to Activision in the next year. From Russia With Love is made with the Havok engine which has been used in many games as of late and is one that Valve modified and uses in many, if not all, of their games.

The Godfather video game was Visceral Games’ project in 2005. It was the second game of the series. It was originally released on Playstation 2, X-Box, and for PC but has been rereleased on the newest generation of consoles in the Playstation 3, X-Box 360 and even the Nintendo Wii, even a version is available for the Playstation Portable. The game features many of the original 1972 film’s actor’s voices for their in-game characters. James Caan, Robert Duvall, John Martino and Abe Vigoda we able to lend their voices, but Marlon Brando Richard Castellano, John Cazale and Al Pacino were absent because of death or copy rights.

The next game for development by Visceral Games is The Simpsons video game which was released in 2007. This game features an original storyline that was written by Tim Long, Matt Selman, and Matt Warburton, who are writers for the television series. A main focus of the plot is that the family find out they are forced to partake in yet another video game. Critics gave positive feedback but did not enjoy the shortness of the game or the camera system, which is beginning to be a continuous down fall with Visceral Games. It uses the engine from The Godfather’s video game from the previous year.

Visceral Games started getting into next generation game development in the next year, as they released the first game in the new popular third person survival horror series Dead Space in 2008. Players take control of an engineer named Isaac Clarke who battles an alien infestation of Necromorphs on the mining ship, USG Ishimura. This game is very unique in the style of game play as it does not feature a HUD and that looking at your inventory and objectives does not pause the game. In order for players to see health, suits you wear have a health meter on the back of them and to see your ammo you can aim in with a weapon. The game’s combat involves “strategic deismembement” when dealing with enemies, which inflicts more damage and slows down their movement, and statis which lets you slow down moving objects or enemies as well as kinesis which lets you move objects. This game was developed with the Godfather engine.

Visceral Games developed a second Godfather game in 2009 which is based off of the 1974 film, which was directed by Francis Ford Copolla and co-written by himself and Mario Puzo. It came out for the newest generation systems, excluding Nintendo Wii, and also came out for PC. This is a sequel to the game that Visceral Games developed two years ago. It is play in the third person view and players try to battle rival families and take over businesses to become a “don.” Robert Duvall returned for his role for both voice and likeness but Al Capone did not. This game has fair ratings but critics disliked the easy playthrough which had glitches and bugs, as well as poor AI.

To continue their developing in 2009, Visceral Games developed Dead Space: Extraction. This is a prequel to the first Dead Space game that came out a year before. It was originally for the Nintendo Wii but has now moved to the PlayStation 3, as they have incorporated a motion sensored controller in the Playstation Move. It was then included when you bought Dead Space 2 for the system and is also purchasable from the PlayStation Network. As well as being a prequel, it is also played out during the time period in which the animated film Dead Space: Downfall is in. Players use their WiiMote and PlayStation Move controller to shoot at enemies as well as other combat options.

The next year 2010, saw the development that caused some controversy. Dante’s Inferno was developed by Visceral Games and is one of my favourites by the company, aside from the Dead Space series. The story is named after the first canticle of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy called Inferno. Players take control of Dante as he goes through the nine circles of Hell to save Beatrice, the woman he is in love with, who is taken by Lucifer. At the E3 in the year before it was released a protest began opposing the game, as protesters held up signs and called the game sacrilegious and insensitive to people’s beliefs. Some people even went as far as to call EA an Antichrist. Unfortunately this protest was a hoax which was actually made by EA to protest the game.  One of the achievements in the game entitled “Bad Nanny” required you to kill unbaptized infants and this led to problems with the International Nanny Association. The INA had no lucky getting any censorship from the ESRB. A professor at Columbia University named Teodolinda Barolini, said this on the game: “Of all the things that are troubling, the sexualization and infantilization of Beatrice are the worst. Beatrice is the human girl who is dead and is now an agent of the divine. She is not to be saved by him, she is saving him. That’s the whole point! Here, she has become the prototypical damsel in distress. She’s this kind of bizarrely corrupted Barbie doll.” Another professor, Arielle Saiber of Bowdoin College simply stated: “Beatrice saves Dante… not the other way around.” I agree with Arielle, but I will not spoil the game for you.

Dead Space Ignition was also developed by Visceral Games in 2010. It was released on the PlayStation Network and the X-Box Live Arcade. It is the midquel to the second Dead Space and is an interquel between to main games. The game was described by the executive producer, Steve Papoutsis, as being an “interactive comic-style game” written by Anthony Johnston who is the official Dead Space writer. This game is a puzzle game and is asks more of the brain than the other games as it doesn’t require gun power, just intellect to complete puzzles. If you complete this game, you receive bonus items on for Dead Space 2, which was released the next year, which includes the hacker-themed suit (15% armor, 15% inventory) and a bonus to the hacking parts of the game. Players would also receive a hacker-themed Contact Beam weapon, extra power nodes, health packs, ammo, and audio logs. These rewards are unlocked with your Dead Space Ignition completed save file and are found in “conduit rooms.”

The most recent game in which Visceral Games has developed is obviously Dead Space 2. It came out a month ago, which was February 28, 2011. It is the sequel to Dead Space and included a multiplayer option. In the sequel, you gain the ability to maneuver in zero gravity with boot thrusters. Wright Bagwell, creative director, said that the game is very similar to Resident Evil and stated: "There's an interesting story from Dead Space and Dead Space 2, which is that when we started building Dead Space, we basically started with a mechanic set that was really similar to Resident Evil 4, the [people on the] team were really huge fans of that game." This game receive a very positive reception from critics as many ratings are that of 4/5’s or 9/10’s and has even been compared to the Aliens move series. The only negative comment I have found is a gamer who could not remap his mouse keys to assist his disability but Visceral Games has issued a statement saying they are working on a patch to help out his situation.

The next game to be released that is developed by Visceral Games is called Ripper. It has been confirmed that it will come out on the PlayStation Network and X-Box Live Arcade. It was rumoured to be based on Jack the Ripper and this has been confirmed. There is not much information, but it was worth saying what Visceral Games is working on next.

All in all Visceral Games is an amazing game developer. They started off with the popular James Bond games for the PlayStation and X-Box in their early years and also developed some Lord of the Rings games and then started to make games that are more popular now, in the Godfather games and the better known series Dead Space and the controversial game Dante’s Inferno. I stated in the introduction that they have a unique way of using soundtracks. This is most seen in Dante’s Inferno, as you travel through the circles of hell and used in a more suspenseful way in Dead Space 2, they make you on edge as you do not know when or where a Necromorph may pop out at you. The only advise I have to the developers is, when making anymore platform games, please please please with a cherry on top fix your camera control. Other then that, I enjoy the games that Visceral Games develops and I hope that they continue there ongoing success. If you would like, please comment and tell me your thoughts on Visceral Games as well as your favourite games by them. Also suggest other companies if you want, I may just put the spotlight on them.