The album is being released on Saturday. JOIN ME THERE!
Video Game(s) of the Month: X-Wing & Tie Fighter
I very fondly remember back in the early/mid 1990s playing a tonne of these video games in Ryan Roullard’s mom’s basement on the MS-DOS computer down there. And now, finally, you can play them again (PC only). These two games are the best flight simulators I have ever played, and probably my favorite-ever games that take place in the Star Wars universe. There’s something weirdly fun about adjusting shields, shifting where you put your ship’s power (divert all shields to blasters now! and the like), and blasting the hell out of your enemies’ ships. The controls are natural and the 3-D radar is extremely intuitive. It feels like you’re dogfighting in the Star Wars movies.
Tabletop Game of the Month: Bravest Warriors Co-Operative Dice Game
A very funny game in which your team must defeat various obstacles by rolling the right combination of die. Yes, team. This is a co-operative game: either you all win (by scoring enough victory points or by using up all the event cards), or you all lose! It keeps with the spirit of the Bravest Warriors webseries by being delightfully nonsensical yet still very easy to follow. Let’s play (once I get my own set for Christmas).
Webseries of the Month: Bravest Warriors
Created by Pendleton Ward, who also created a little show you might know of called Adventure Time, this webseries offers up a similar vein of creative surrealism. But being on the internet instead of a network in some ways frees Bravest Warriors up to be even more crazy than Adventure Time. Also, the shorter running time means that the craziness is packed tighter into each episode. It’s quite hilarious. And you’ll absolutely love Cat Bug. I know, I know, everybody loves Cat Bug, therefore you automatically don’t because you can’t possibly like something that the majority likes, because then your opinions would be “common.” But you’ll love Cat Bug.
Sorry, that was a weird rant, wasn’t it? Anyway, you’ll love Cat Bug.
Video Game of the Month: Pikmin 3
The third in the Pikmin series doesn’t stray too far from its roots. You’re tiny people trapped on an alien planet (highly implied to be a post-apocalyptic Earth), and the only way you can survive is by utilizing mobs of tiny, plant-like creatures called Pikmin. You utilize them by throwing them at things. *Cough*
Yes, it is a bit of animal slavery, but not really any more than Pokémon. And it is a lot of fun. In this outing you (eventually) control three people (whom you can also throw around) who can split up to do coordinated tasks. There are some clever puzzle-solving elements, and Pikmin 3 seems to be the most epic of them all so far. I’m already about two weeks into the game (as far as in-game time goes) and I haven’t even activated all the colors of Pikmin yet. So I feel like I’ve got a long, satisfying game ahead of me.
TV Miniseries of the Month: Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
Ah, yes, Cosmos. I was only three years old when the original Cosmos aired, but due to repeats I have vague recollections of the dandelion-shaped spaceship piloted by Carl Sagan and our imaginations. Now comes a new, updated Cosmos hosted by the charismatic Neil DeGrasse Tyson. It’s a visual wonderland of sciences, from microbiology to astrophysics. The capabilities of modern special effects dwarf anything that Sagan’s series created, visually. And yet Tyson’s version still has the same warm heart and joyful defiance of the original. It doesn’t shy away from “controversial” topics like evolution and global warming (which shouldn’t be controversial because the science for both is absolutely sound). It draws marvelous chains from history through to possible futures. And it is especially good that for even me, an agoraphobe, it made the infinite vastness of space seem wondrous rather than terrifying. An excellent miniseries that I can’t wait to show to my daughter.
Way back almost four years ago I posted a cartoon short created by Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time, called The Bravest Warriors.
Well, the the last almost-four years Mr. Ward has had great success with Adventure Time, and now he has refined the Bravest Warriors idea a little bit and—guess what? It’s going to be its own series!
Here’s a look at the updated Bravest Warriors. Enjoy!
Julia Massey and the Five Finger Discount: A.L.I.T.E.
X-Wing & Tie Fighter
Bravest Warriors Co-Operative Dice Game
Bravest Warriors
Pikmin 3
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
