Posted August 23rd, 2009 in Gaming, Internet
Escape from the Makeover Horde
The main protagonist is the unsuspecting victim of several of those dreadful makeover reality shows on TV, and the main objective of the game is to get the hell out of there. This is most likely a third-person action platformer, where you have to avoid getting caught by the crazy horde of so-called makeover experts and their assistant and fans. Each level ends with a huge boss fight with bosses such as Dr. Garth Dorfchester III, plastic surgeon extraordinaire, and Cy Fennington, carpenter turned philanthropist. “..and the renovation of your face starts right now!”
Incomprehensible Robot Destruction
The name just says it all, really. Will feature robots. And possibly destruction thereof.
Hardcore Squirrel of the Blood God
Already a legend in the gaming industry for his contributions on such classics as Biblical Mutant Troopers and Big-Time Yak of Fury, game designer Filbert S. Shameneux turned some heads when he decided to open up his own game studio consisting entirely of employees named Steve. Hardcore Squirrel of the Blood God is their first game project.
Skippy the Squirrel used to be an ordinary squirrel living in the peaceful forest of Evergreen. But one day when Skippy was out looking for nuts, like he usually does, he came across a horrible sight. There probably was some ominous chanting by robed individuals involved, and some sort of ritual sacrifice. Either way, Skippy was never the same. The cultists who were responsible for this ritual were trying to summon Rasthor, the God of Tormented Souls without any greater success Skippy, however, experienced a rather different story. The ritual the cultists were trying to perform was missing one vital ingredient; a vessel for the blood god they were trying to summon. As it were, Skippy just happened to be there at the exact moment that Rasthor manifested in this realm of existence, thus becoming that accursed vessel. The cultists, of course, didn’t notice this, expecting the blood god to appear in all his unholy glory. After much anticipation, followed by disappointment, followed by despair, followed by disinterest, they ate up the marshmallows, threw away their robes and went home, back to their ordinary, dreadful lives in suburban hell.
The player plays the part of Horace McFarland Jr., an unsuspecting retired squirrel hunter that gets recruited and sent on a top secret special mission by an underground segment of the National Park Service. His only objective: to hunt down Skippy and his growing number of mutated squirrel-human followers before they destroy the natural habitats and molest campers and hiking enthusiasts in the fragile Evergreen National Park. This is probably a first-person shooter with delusions of storytelling genius, and probably involves a marketing campaign that involves things like “revolutionary AI” and “has way more pixels than that other game that comes out soon” and sports “the tactical shooter experience of the year”, and will probably win every E3 award ever because of the awesome press kit (which includes a live squirrel) that gets handed out to very impressed games journalists from obscure but well-respected websites. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted August 23rd, 2009 in History, Life
So yeah. There is this conference on Norwegian-Russian relations in the Arctic that is being held on Svalbard next week. When I first heard about it I thought it would be cool to attend, but I forgot to ask my thesis supervisor/professor if there was any opportunity for me to go. (He is the leader of the project that is arranging this conference, and my thesis is also attached to the same research project.) Enter the summer vacation; by the time I came back to the university, I had completely forgot about it.. until I happened to read about it this week. I sent an email to my professor, and he told me that, unfortunately, they couldn’t afford to invite me, but if somebody couldn’t come I might get their ticket. I thought that this was it, and was resigned to reading summaries about the different lectures and discussions when they came back home again.
This Friday I got the good news. I’ve never been to Svalbard before, so it’s certainly going to be an exciting experience. We even get to go to Pyramiden, a Russian ghost town not that far from Longyearbyen, where the conference is being held. That’s going to be an interesting trip, especially since I love urban decay and “contemporary” archeology. It might also provide some inspiration for something I am working on. I might post more about that later.
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Posted August 21st, 2009 in Music
It’s been over a month since the annual Tromsø Open Air Festival, Bukta 2009, so I thought it’s about time to formulate some thoughts about it. This was my fourth year at the festival since they started up in 2004, and probably the coldest one yet. It wasn’t raining though, so that’s got to count for something. One can’t control the weather, but I am starting to think that the first weekend in July isn’t the best time to have a festival each year. Later in the month tends to be warmer and sunnier, even though Festival Weather is becoming a dreaded phenomena up here. This year’s headliners were Roky Erickson, Ray Davies (from The Kinks), The Wombats and the Kaiser Chiefs. Other big names included Eagles of Death Metal and Fu Manchu. I thought I’d give a quick roundup of the bands I got a chance to see. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted August 15th, 2009 in Life, Meta
So I finally made the effort of setting up a blog again, after years of absence. For those who for some reason don’t know me; I’m a 24 year-old guy that finds himself in the norwegian town of Tromsø. I like long walks on the beach, video games, role-playing games, movies, books, music & general geekery. Since I am nearing the end of my Master’s Degree in History, there is bound to be some history-related stuff that ends up being posted here.
For those who care, the site is built with (mostly) compliant xhtml and css, and was written entirely in notepad. It’s been a while since I did any web development, and I had a lot of fun fiddling with this during the last week or so. This time I have chosen to go with WordPress, and so far I have to say I like it a lot. Template editing was easy enough once I had the css and xhtml in order, and there’s a plethora of plugins that do the things I want; both Twitter and Spotify/Last.fm integration, as you can see from the sidebar. There is bound to be a few things I’ve missed though, but I’ll sort those out as they appear.
A few acknowledgements:
I have given myself an open license in regards to content, so it will be about whatever I feel like writing. That means no general overlying theme, but I’ll try to not write any stupid entries about what I had for breakfast. One classic genre is of course Interesting Things I found on the Internet, as well as reviews or comments on games, books, movies, music and TV shows I have consumed or encountered recently. We’ll see.
