We’re back with an extra show this week because when this episode is/was posted, it is only two days to Free Comic Book Day 2009! So the panel put a show together while we were at Buried Under Comics on the Saturday before FCBD. We preview a little about the upcoming event and what the store will be doing. Check your LCBS (Local Comic Book Store) to see what they are doing. Most importantly, get out and support this great event. Most stores will be doing something special to mark the day. Also in this show, Marc has one of the funniest Marc of the Beast rants you will EVER hear, Luke has a brief Anglofile, and we have some Listener Mail.
Monthly Archive for April, 2009
Yes, we’re late, but there have been things that have kept us from a regular schedule. Like Free Comic Book Day which is later this week! So here’s the preview show for the April 2009 book. Also we have Chae’s new segment called Flippin’ Out. Plus, Luke has an Anglofile, Dave has a Euro-horror DVDave, and a bunch of e-mail in, what else, Listener Mail. Plus, there will be another show posted tomorrow: a sort of Free Comic Book Day preview, and Marc’s funniest rant to date!
Check out this awesome commercial one of our listeners made for us!
Thanks Helder!
Originally, I was going to do this segment on the podcast, but it just wouldn’t work without the appropriate visual aids.
In case you hadn’t noticed, today I’m taking about Flower. It’s a downloadable title released back in February for the PlayStation 3, and has done remarkably well for itself since then. However, popularity doesn’t always equal quality, so how does Flower fare as a game?
What immediately sets Flower apart from other titles is that fact that there is no main character. In fact, there’s no characters at all. You’re not even controlling the titular flowers when you play the various levels! What you are controlling is the environment, specifically, the wind and other air currents. In a nutshell, you direct the wind to blow petals from one group of flowers to the next, which will not only bloom them, but execute other changes in the environment. This could be shutting down broken electrical towers, moving large rocks blocking your path, and so on. Sometimes, you’re not even trying to bloom flowers; you might just be tracing a path around a certain area, and that will alter the level instead. While this may seem more like a puzzle game, Flower’s actually got a story to back it up, believe it or not. However, I can’t really tell you what it is without spoiling it.
Oh, and did I mention the game’s entirely motion-controlled? People may have bitched about the SIXAXIS controller in the past, but in Flower, it’s put to very good use. Tilting the controller gives you fluid control over the wind’s direction that no mere button or analog stick could provide. The only time you’ll be using a button is to increase wind speed, and even that’s not completely necessary. (It only helps if you’re in a rush to finish an area.)
On to graphics and sound. Flower is a game that truly requires an HDTV and surround sound system. (In fact, I purposefully refused to buy the game until I bought my new home theater! SDTV and stereo wouldn’t have cut it, kids.) The razor-sharp graphics, use of color and light, and atmospheric audio are nothing short of amazing. When you’re flying around the fields, so to speak, they truly look realistic! (For all you “graphics whores” out there…how does 200,000 individually animated blades of grass sound? Let’s see an FPS pull off something like that!)
Most importantly, though, is that Flower may be one hell of a audio and video showpiece, but it’s a damned fine game on top of that; it succeeds without all of the generic over-the-top violence seen in so many other games these days.
Still not convinced? Check out the trailer below. We rarely get to see truly innovative games like Flower, so don’t let it go to waste! If you’ve got a PS3, then you owe it to yourself to shell out the ten bucks and treat yourself to one of the finest games created in recent years.
Some of our panelists are fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the hot new animated series airing on Cartoon Network. The first season wrapped up a few weeks ago, so Dave, Lita, and Cross are here to share their thoughts on it. (If you haven’t watched the entire season yet, consider this your spoiler warning!) Does Dave have a crush on Ahsoka? Does Lita want to dress up as Asajj Ventress next Halloween? Does Lee Van Cleef return from the grave in order to appear in the Star Wars universe? Listen, and find out!
(Errata: Cross mentioned that the battle droid who screamed “Whyyy?!” as he fell to his doom was blasted out a window. This is slightly incorrect; the droid was Force-pushed off a cliff by Asajj Ventress for stating the obvious. Hey, it was still hilarious! Oh, and Tom Kane is the voice actor who portrays Admiral Yularen and the narrator.)
Hey, after the tech problem we had, the panel is back with a full episode. With the Watchmen film being out now for about a month, the team sat down to hash out what we thought about it. What did we like, dislike, hate? How does the film compares to the original source material, and what was changed? But be warned; if you haven’t seen Watchmen yet, don’t listen to this show, because we talk about it in depth. Also, a Watchmen-related Clerk’s Top 5, and one of the most furious Marc of the Beast rants you have ever heard. Like Scott said, “I’m not locked in the podcast with you! You’re locked in the podcast with me!” ‘Nuff Said!
What do you do when you do a podcast and your equipment fails? You wing it!
And that’s what we did as Luke, Lita, Marc, Scott, and Dave pull a show out of their…errr…well, you get it.
We talk about our new site ninepanelnerds.com, a squirrel attack, how much Marc hates Tron, and a few other things. So join us, won’t you?
Luke traveled to the first New England Webcomics Weekend late last month, and boy, what a time to be a fan of online comics! Northampton, Mass., was packed with web cartoonists and fans, and Luke gives you a taste of what it was like to be there, meeting his favorite cartoonists, promoting his own strip, and being surrounded by some of the most excited and happy fans he’s ever seen in a comics gathering.
Don’t forget to visit us at ninepanelnerds.com!
Nintendo launched their much-heralded upgrade to the DS in the US yesterday…the DSi. For those of you that might be unfamiliar with the new console, it’s basically a more powerful DS, with the addition of two small digital cameras and an SD memory card slot. (Also, the GBA backwards compatibility slot has been removed.) All DS software still works fine on it, though, so it’s not like it’s a forced upgrade.
However, unless you’re one of the very few people who don’t already own a DS, there’s absolutely no reason to buy a DSi. There are no DSi-enhanced games out yet, nor are there any titles that are DSi-exclusive. (Nintendo has said these are in the works, but a long ways off.) Even the system’s shiny new DSiWare service, where you can download games online, is lackluster. There’s only a few quick action games available at launch; even though you get a thousand free Nintendo Points with which to purchase stuff, none of the titles are worth it!
Adding insult to injury is the fact that the DSi retails for $169.99, whereas the DS Lite is $129.99. For an extra forty beans, you’re not even getting any new cartridges that take advantage of the DSi’s upgraded hardware! (Sorry, the crappy DSiWare titles don’t count.)
Sadly, we’ve seen this kind of behavior from Nintendo many times in the past. For example, the Nintendo 64 was hyped to high heaven…and it only launched with two games, Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64. (To be fair, Super Mario 64 still ranks as one of the finest video games of all time.) While I’m in no rush to buy yet another handheld—the DS replaced the GBA far too quickly, in my opinion—it would’ve been nice to see Nintendo avoid jumping the gun for once.
(On an unrelated note, make sure you’re following us on Twitter!)
To commemorate the launch of our new site, www.ninepanelnerds.com, we present to you a montage of clips taken completely out of context. Of course, that makes them ten times funnier! Enjoy!
