Garuflo est une grenouille. Une vraie, une bien verte, qui se nourrit de mouches et qui n’est absolument pas un prince charmant ensorcelé… Ce charmant batracien, porte cependant une admiration sans bornes pour l’espèce humaine (on se demande bien pourquoi…), et, ayant entendu parler du célèbre conte permettant à une grenouille de devenir prince, qui de plus est charmant, il se met alors en quête d’une princesse à embrasser…

Notre grenouille commence sa quête initiatique (nous sommes bien en plein conte de fée) par “madame la bonne fée”, un peu défraichie et plus sorcière que fée, mais qui amusée par cet amphibien qui ne “manque pas de gueule” (nous sommes bien dans une parodie de conte de fée), exauce son vœu.

Garuflo, ayant reçu son baiser (a priori, le baiser d’une servante, ça compte aussi bien que celui d’une princesse, si ça transgresse pas les barrières sociale ça ), devient alors un charmant jeune homme, (mais habillé d’un vert éclatant quelque peu hideux) et croyant toujours en la bonté inhérente de l’homme… Je vous laisse deviner ses désillusions, (mais qui mettront un temps à venir, notre amphibien étant persuadé que tout vas de travers car il n’a pas encore épousé sa princesse). En attendant, il foutra quand même un “sacré bordel” dans le royaume de Brandelune…

J’avais envie de vous parler de cette série depuis un moment, du moins depuis mon post sur “Chateau l’Attente“, car Garuflo est un petit bonheur de la même veine. (Et à priori, nos voisins de Phylacterium sont plutôt d’accord). On plonge dans un univers moyen-ageux de chateaux forts, de princesses, de sorcières, d’ogres, de lutins, de chevaliers … et de grenouille. La série joue avec les codes des contes et les références que l’ont connait tous par coeur pour en tirer répliques et jeux de mots tout en soutenant un rythme continu de l’action. Si on rajoute par-dessus les mimiques des personnages, (en particulier de la grenouille) on obtient une très très bonne BD que l’on a envie de prêter ou d’offrir à tout le monde. (Et, pour moi, vouloir faire partager une BD est un gage de bonne qualité, en fait …)

Le premier cycle ayant été un succès, les auteurs ont renchainé sur un deuxième, pour notre plus grand plaisir : contrairement à beaucoup de suites, celle-ci est une vraie réussite : encore plus drôle, des répliques encore plus pertinentes, des situations encore plus alambiquées qu’avant… Cette fois-çi, Garuflo est redevenu humain, car Romuald, prince de son état et sacré égoïste, véritable propriétaire du corps dernièrement emprunté par notre grenouille dans le premier cycle, a encore besoin d’une leçon ! Histoire de lui apprendre que les privilèges de naissance, tout ça, c’est pas forcément fun pour le petit mendiant, et sa marraine la bonne sorcière lui en a donc remis une couche : il restera grenouille jusqu’à ce qu’une princesse l’embrasse… (et donc Garuflo restera prisonnier de sa condition humaine, loin de sa mare et de sa rainette … *pleurs, je vous en prie, merci !) Les deux compères se retrouvent donc bon gré, mal gré à la poursuite d’Héphylie, la princesse de Brandelune, déjà bien malmenée par la dernière visite de Garuflo.

La série est maintenant finie (Tome 6 paru en 2002), vous pouvez vous y plonger sans craindre d’être frustrés par une “non-fin” !

Pour plus de détails :

Cycle 1 :

• “De mares en châteaux”:
• “De mal en pis”

Cycle 2 :

• “Le prince au deux visages”
• “L’ogre aux yeux de cristal”
• “Preux et prouesses”
• “La belle et les bêtes”

Du même scénariste : “De cape et de crocs”, mais j’y reviendrais plus tard, soyez-en sûrs !

.Garuflo, de Ayroles, Maïorana et Leprévost, éditions Delcourt, collection “Terres de légendes”.

Arriving in Bern Switzerland I met up with my couchsurfers’ (from Zurich) cousins’ friend named Beat. A nice young man with good knowledge of the city. We waited at the train station during a downpour for our bus back to his apartment. We chatted for a bit and I was fortunate enough to write a bit on my blog. Once the rains subsided enough he took me for a tour of Bern. A beautiful city with a lot of history and gorgeous buildings. There were several funny statues around, including a pair of legs and a fountain with an ogre eating children.

While waiting in the Train Station I took a picture of their “Royal with Cheese”. Right after I took the picture a polite French speaking McDonald’s employee yelled at me.

One of my favorite signs

There were many great viewpoints along the way to the “Bear Gardens” an area where bears are kept for public display. Fortunately their original concrete prison was being renovated to be a much more pleasant living environment closer to the river. We stopped in at the resturant for a drink and headed home. Luckiliy for me he really enjoys cooking, and I was fortunate enough to eat another fantastic meal.

In the morning I headed for Zermatt, gateway to the Matterhorn.

Ogres pilsētas nosaukums ir cieši saistīts ar Ogres upi, par kuras vārdu ir vairāki nostāsti. Ogres apkaime ir bijusi apdzīvota jau pirms 3 – 5 tūkstošiem gadu un tas konstatēts pēc izrakumos atrastajiem akmens cirvjiem, keramikas lauskām u.c. priekšmetiem.

Par pieslēgumiem kaut ko var apskatīt šeit: interneta pieslēgums Ogrē.

Internets ir publiski pieejama vispasaules savstarpēji saslēgtu datortīklu sistēma, kas pārsūta datus ar pakešu komutācijas palīdzību, izmantojot standartizētu Intertīkla Protokolu. Tas ir veidots no tūkstošiem mazāku komerciālu, akadēmisku un valdību tīklu. Tas ietver dažādu informāciju un servisus, tādus, kā elektroniskais pasts, tiešsaites tērzēšana un cieši saistītās tīmekļa lappuses un citus Globālā tīmekļa dokumentus.

Sīkāk par internetu, interneta pakalpojumiem, interneta pieslēgumu un ātrāko internetu Latvijā – optisko internetu stāstīšu citos rakstos,bet ja interesē internets tad lasi rakstu: internets Ogrē.

What a shitty couple of weeks this has been.

Resident 4D1

Last week I was very stressed out.  I think it was mostly because of my schedule, I was still in the process of getting adjusted to it.  Lucky for everyone that I feel much better. Hopefully I won’t be storming off and chewing out some poor girl upstairs because she is moving furniture at 11 at night.  I can be a very cranky bitch when I’m having trouble sleeping.  I bet she doesn’t do that again, however, after I went all Ogre-like on her.  Point in fact, it’s been very quiet from the room above me since that night.

I feel compelled to also point out that sometimes if my blood sugar is out of whack, like it can be when I’m sick or stressed, I can be very cranky.  I also sometimes have insomnia, which makes going to sleep worse than a chore.  It’s nothing personal.  It’s best to just avoid me until I feel better most of the time.  Just be thankful that you don’t have to live with me!

My much-hated Government Class today dealt me a surprise: The  professor actually called out some students for their idiotic behavior, and told them that from now on she’d bounce them from class for any disruptions.  It was a quiet, productive class today. That’s a good thing, since we have an Exam on Friday that covers 10 chapters, and it would do those little bastards some good to shut the hell up and listen for a change.

Speaking of Exams, I have two this coming friday.  One in that Government class and the other in the increasingly difficult Astronomy.  It’s amazing that I like that class at all, considering it is a hard science.  The math throws me a little, but I think overall I’m doing well. Or at least, I’d be doing better if he didn’t constantly ask trick questions.  Shame on me for not reading the question more closely.  I’ll not do it a second time.

It’s also been made official that I’m transferring out of UT next semester and into USF’s Anthropology Department.  I received my acceptance last friday in the mail. I’m quite looking forward to actually doing work in my major for a change. I just don’t like the curriculum at UT for Cultural Studies.  Maybe if it dealt with more culture and less bullshit I’d be happier, but I doubt I could ever be happy paying as much in tuition as I am here.

Work is work.  For the past two weeks I’ve been playing file auditor, which entails a lot of data entry.  I’ve gotten much much faster at it though; previously I was able to do one box every 4 hours. Now I can do one box in 2.5 hours, as long as the program we use isn’t going ape-shit because so many people are using it at once.  My first paycheck made any complaints I might have had about the mundane reality of my job vanish.  For that amount per paycheck, I will sit quietly and enter whatever crap they want, as often as they want.

My boss (the lucky bastard) is in Brazil and Argentina for the next 3 weeks. Must be nice! I look forward to next summer when I can take a trip somewhere, anywhere and have a real vacation for a change. Maybe a cruise. We’ll see how much money can be funneled into such an endeavor after I get my tax return next year.

That’ll do it for the night. I’ll write some  more tomorrow about my Astronomy Observation Night on Clearwater Beach.  That should provide plenty of interesting things to say about my classmates.

Busy, busy week!!! Prep work for AFM is keeping me REALLY busy but I wanted to let you all know that I plan on blogging daily from AFM, so please check back regularly to see what’s going on in the independent film world! I’ll also keep you up to date on any exciting Narrow Road news.

I’ll leave you with some Narrow Road graphic novel concept art by the super-talented Jayaraj Paul! You rock, buddy!

-Erik

Material:
http://www.bleachkitty.com/downloads/…
http://downloads.sourceforge.net/ogre…
http://www.codeblocks.org/

Recently I created a series of products for sale on zazzle.com using a fantastic photo I took last winter, forest “troll” in the snow #2.   Like something out of a fantasy novel, this tree stump resembles a mythological woodland creature such as a troll, ogre, or gnome guarding the forest. Branches dangle overhead shining in the sun like a chandelier from a castle ceiling, and ferns cascade downward illuminated by the winter sun as the snow casts a light carpet across the forest floor.

forest “troll” in the snow #2 by dlmtleArt
See more Forest Magnets

forest “troll” in the snow #2 by dlmtleArt
Make your own bumper stickers on zazzle.com

forest “troll” in the snow #2 by dlmtleArt
Shop for a different greeting card on zazzle.com

forest “troll” in the snow #2 by dlmtleArt
Browse Forest Postcards

forest “troll” in the snow #2 by dlmtleArt
Browse other Forest Mousepads

forest “troll” in the snow #2 by dlmtleArt
create an apron online using zazzle.com

forest “troll” in the snow #2 by dlmtleArt
Make canvas bags from Zazzle

Dawna’s Gallery of greeting cards, Matted Prints. and T shirts

Dawna’s Fine Art Prints at

Dawna’s Zazzle Gallery of items featuring her Art and Photography

New image in the wood closeup photoshop contest

Only source picture used. …
Ogre fighter photoshop picture

Hace algunos instantes me disponía a subir un post sobre una de las mejores bandas que he escuchado en mucho, mucho tiempo. En alguna parte escribiría acerca del monumental disco que grabaron en el 2008 y como su sonido asciende estrepitosamente en un torbellino de refinamiento con cada nuevo material ¿hasta dónde chingados van a llegar?

Y me entero de que se disuelve. Un nomames involuntario se me atora en la garganta. Pienso en la banda como un héroe caído, pero recuerdo inmediatamente que nunca se trató de ello. Por el contrario, Ogre es un villano, nacido para aplastar a los presuntuosos paladines de la música actual y mantener un poco el equilibrio en la balanza.

El mundo ya no necesita más héroes, géneros impronunciables, rapidez, tecnica, o pseudo complejidades intelectualoides.  Necesita música hecha con pasión, honestidad y huevos.

Ogre cumplió 10 años y tranquilamente ha anunciado su separación. Y desde lo profundo de mi resignación me alegro por ello. Me alegra no tener que verlos caer en la mediocridad.  El suyo fue un discurso de 10 años y 3 discos que retumbará mucho tiempo más.

Gracias Ed Cunningham, Will Broadbent y Ross Markonish.

————————————————————————————————-

Si quieres escucharlos:

Plague of the Planet (2008)

El siguiente texto está tomado de StonerRock.com y es el discurso oficial de despedida de la banda:

From OGRE:

After much band deliberation and discussion, OGRE has decided that our tenth Anniversary show (September 12 at Geno’s in Portland) is going to be our final US gig and, essentially, the end of the band. This decision to dissolve the band was not an easy one to come by, but we feel it is the right call. At this point, there is too much going on in each of our lives to sustain OGRE at the level of quality that our fans expect and deserve.

And, before people decide to jump to conclusions (as is often the case when these things happen), we want to make clear that this decision was entirely mutual, all three of us agreeing that this was the right time to bring things to an appropriate conclusion. We have accomplished a lot of great things during our ten-year run, playing with too many amazing bands to mention, recording three well-received albums, and of course, touring Japan last year. We are proud of what the three of us have been able to do (especially considering how little we started with!), and we thought it would be better to end things on a high note, rather than fizzling out, as so many bands do.

With that in mind, we have decided to turn the tenth anniversary show into something of a “last waltz,” giving the band and our fans one last chance to jam out and celebrate together. We have a lot of surprises and special treats planned for this show, and if we can pull everything together in time, it’s going to be a night to remember. Suffice to say for now, it’s going to be an entire night with OGRE, including three (yes, three!) full sets of fan favorites, cover songs, and OGRE rarities. We really hope that as many OGRE fans, past and present, near and far, will come out and celebrate with us on the 12th, so please make sure to keep checking our MySpace page for more details as the gig approaches.

Even though we have decided to make this our final US show, that doesn’t mean you’ve heard the last from OGRE. We will continue to work on the deluxe vinyl reissues of our three albums, which are slated for release by Iron Kodex Records (Germany) in the fall and are going to be absolutely killer. In addition, before we made the decision to dissolve the band, we were in the process of planning some European shows in 2010, and we fully hope to honor those obligations. Clearly, the OGRE is a tough beast to slay.

Finally, we just wanted to say thanks to everyone, world-wide, who has supported OGRE over the past ten years. We hope to see some of you at Geno’s on September 12!

]]> http://ogre3despanol.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/porque-ogre3d/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:02:16 +0000 moscoquera http://ogre3despanol.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/porque-ogre3d/

escogimos ogre3d, por su facilidad en uso en cuanto a programadores natos en c++ se refiere, los que han visto xna apesar de que es muy facil de llevar es complicado debido a su estructuracion de clases.

yo tambien soy nuevo en esto, pero quiero compartir mis experiencias con ustedes y viceversa, con el animo de consolidar un fuerte tutorial en español e impulsar la creacion de videojuegos.

el unico requisito para empezar con este curso es conocer a nivel medio c++ y ya haber creado aplicaciones con graficos.(opcional)

Yeah, yeah, I know my next post was promised to be happy. But this isn’t too bad. And besides, this one was a Creative Writing assignment due in about 10 minutes. I think I get some slack for that.

Background: The prompt this time was to write a dialogue-heavy piece where a couple deals with a possible infidelity between them, but without explicitly mentioning an affair. Thought this was a fun write.

—-

Munch. Munch. Munch. “Damn, Regga. This halfling tastes pretty damn nasty.”

“Aw, thanks, sweetheart,” the female ogre responded and continued to tear into ear into the meat with her bare hands. Juice dripped from her green hands onto the table.

Das took a deep gulp of the moonshine they had created a week ago. “Well, it’s true. He tastes tough. Hard to kill, was he?”

Regga still did not look up. “He had an elven companion. By himself he would have been easy pickings.”

Das shook his head. “Well, you could have at least bashed him against a tree or something to tenderize the tough fellow. You know I don’t like halfling anyway.” When Regga didn’t reply, Das looked up at her. “Why did you get it, then?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Probably because I knew I was the only one going to hunt for dinner, and I like halfling, so I got halfling.” Regga replied with an impassionate tone.

Das growled. “What do you mean, the only one hunting? I was out there just like you were.”

Regga nodded, lifting her eyebrows. “Sure you were, Das. Hunting. But as for what you were hunting for…” she responded with a sarcastic lilt to her voice.

There was silence for a while as Das tore viciously his leg of halfling and fumed, and Regga continued to shred her meal with her razor-sharp teeth.
“So how was work today?” Das asked between his gritted teeth.

Regga shrugged. “The usual. I dealt with that total whore Shelia today,” She looked up for a fleeting instant to see Das’s expression at this. And for an instant, Das’s eyes widened. Then he recovered his facial expressions, but his tone revealed a tinge of worry.

“Oh really. How’d that go?” Das asked, trying to feign disinterest.

“Word on the street says she’s been whoring herself around the males of our clan. She came up to me as I was cutting open the bats for our gut-gravy tonight. And asked me how the children were doing. I told her to can it.”

Das growled again. “That was rude, Regga. You should treat her better. How do you even know she’s whoring, anyway?”

Regga caught the slip in the question. She swallowed the urge to beat Das over the head with the arm of halfling she was munching on. “Bat gravy, Das?” she asked as innocently as she could, passing the stone bowl across the table to the ogre.

“Yeah. This meat is so damn tough I need it.” Das grabbed the bowl roughly and dropped a huge glob of the thick black stuff on his leg of halfling and buried his face in it.

“Well, we don’t know if she’s really doing it. But ALL the ladies are talking about it, and quite frankly, that worries me. What do you think of it all?”

Das burped. “Yargh. That bat gravy tastes like bat guano. And I think it’s rubbish.”

Regga didn’t respond, but rather sat and waited. She nibbled on her food, much too excited to devour it. “Well, I did spend quite a while working on that gravy, Das. I do wish you would realize the time I spent.”

Das burped again. “Whew, gassy today I am. And bah, you just sit around all day.”

“Well, this batch took a long time. I had to mix the right ingredients just the right way. For you. Because I want you to know how much I love you,” Regga said.

“Right now all I want to love is going to the bathroom. This gravy didn’t agree with me,” Das said, and bolted out of his chair. He wasn’t three steps away from the table when he suddenly stopped, turned, and looked at Regga with a confused and chalk-white expression. “You…”

And then he crumpled to the ground.

Regga shook her head, sighed, and continued eating her halfling dinner.

Lange ist es her, dass ich mir diesen rechteckigen, grauen Kasten namens Playstation gekauft habe. In meiner persönlichen Auswahl möchte ich Ihnen die Spiele vorstellen, die mir in besonderer Erinnerung geblieben sind.

Der König des Prügelspiels

Die durchschnittliche Bewertung von Tekken 3 liegt bei 96 % (Quelle: metacritic.com).

Tolle Spielbarkeit, hübsche Grafik und viele verschiedene Kämpfer, das sind die Erfolgszutaten für Tekken 3. Bei der großen Charakter-Auswahl ist für jeden Spieler ein(e) passende(r) Kämpfer(in) dabei. Nehme ich Eddy, der wie ein aufgekratzter Sportler nicht ruhig auf der Stelle stehen kann und die wildesten Verrenkungen vollführt? Oder lieber Hwoarang, der mit seinem langen Beinen Gegner zurück auf den Boden der Tatsachen holt? Oder, oder, oder… Die Grafik war damals sehr hübsch und bestach vor allem durch flüssige Animationen, bunte Effekte und aufwändige Rendersequenzen. Wer fleißig gespielt hat, schaltete zudem den sogenannten „Tekken Ball Mode“ frei. Darin stehen sich zwei Spieler gegenüber und schlagen oder treten auf einen Ball ein. Der fliegt dann zum anderen Spieler, der den Ball im richtigen Moment zurückschlagen muss. Der Clou: Je öfter der Ball einen Treffer kassiert, desto schneller wird er. Ist das Tempo am Anfang sehr moderat, geht es später um schnelle Reflexe. Wer dann zu spät oder zu früh auf die Tasten haut, wird vom Ball getroffen und hat die Runde verloren. Extrem simpel, extrem spaßig.

Runden-Strategie-Schwergewicht

Front Mission 3

Es gibt da ein Spiel, mit dem man sich locker wochenlang beschäftigen kann: Front Mission 3. Das Spielprinzip erinnert an den Klassiker Battle Isle. Sie kommandieren rundenweise eine Handvoll Mechs (hier Wanzer genannt) auf kleinen oder großen Schlachtfeldern. Erst dürfen Sie ihre Einheiten in Stellung bringen und feindliche Truppen angreifen, danach ist die künstliche Intelligenz an der Reihe. Nun, was ist so besonders an diesem an sich bekannten Spielprinzip? Erstens: Ihre Einheiten verbessern sich im Kampf. Sie lernen neue Fähigkeiten, wie etwa höhere Treffsicherheit, die anschließend zufällig bei Angriffen eingesetzt werden. Außerdem dürfen sie von Zeit zu Zeit neue Ausrüstung für ihre Wanzer kaufen, was zum Weiterspielen motiviert. Zweitens: Die Geschichte dreht sich um einige zentrale Figuren, die sie während der strategischen Kämpfe befehligen. Die Charaktere sind dabei nicht austauschbar, sondern wachsen einem während der „über 150 Stunden Spielzeit“ (Zitat von der Packungsrückseite) ans Herz.

Rollenspiel mit innovativem Kampfsystem

Die durchschnittliche Bewertung von Vagrant Story liegt bei 92 % (Quelle: metacritic.com).

Denke ich zurück an Vagrant Story, kommen mir solche Dinge wie „packend-inszenierte Geschichte“ oder „tolles Kampfsystem“ in den Sinn. Das Rollenspiel ging in vielerlei Hinsicht neue Wege. Die Geschichte wurde in tollen Zwischen- sequenzen erzählt – und das, obwohl sie ohne Sprachausgabe auskommen. Mit dem Helden fieberte man bald mit, wurde doch seine unschuldige Familie umgebracht. Auch das Kampfsystem bot Neues: Traf man auf einen Gegner, fror die Zeit ein. Nun konnte man in aller Ruhe ein Körperteil anvisieren (ähnlich wie heutzutage in Fallout 3). Doch es ging auch um schnelle Reflexe. Im richtigen Moment galt es, die Angriffstaste zu drücken, um einen weiteren Schlag auszuführen. Nach dem ersten konnten Sie einen weiteren Treffer landen, haben Sie das passende Zeitfenster erwischt und so weiter und so fort. Doch viele Treffer in Folge hatten auch ihren Preis: Die „Risk“-Leiste füllte sich, sodass die Wahrscheinlichkeit sank, Gegner bei folgenden Attacken zu verletzten. Da hilft dann nur, einen Trank zu sich zu nehmen, der das „Risk“-Level wieder senkt. Neben diesen Alleinstellungsmerkmalen durften Sie obendrein noch eigene Waffen zusammenbauen.

Durchbruch der Stealth-Actionspiele

Die durchschnittliche Bewertung von Metal Gear Solid liegt bei 94 % (Quelle: metacritic.com).

Was hier 1999 in Deutschland erschien, sollte die Spiele-Landschaft nachhaltig beeinflussen. Metal Gear Solid machte nicht nur den Schöpfer Hideo Kojima zu einem der berühmtesten Spiele-Entwickler, es folgten auch viele weitere Spiele, die das Prinzip ums Schleichen und Austricksen der künstlichen Intelligenz aufgriffen. Als Solid Snake sollen Sie eine Terroristen-Basis infiltrieren, so viel zum Ausgangspunkt der Handlung. Dafür schleichen Sie sich an allerlei Wachen vorbei, lenken Sie ab und überwältigen Sie. Natürlich kommen auch Schusswaffen zum Einsatz, doch die Munition ist meist knapp und daher ist eher subtiles Vorgehen gefragt. Die spannende Handlung und das durchdachte Spielprinzip sorgten für so große Begeisterung, dass weitere Nachfolger und Erweiterungen erschienen.

Hervorragender Ego-Shooter

Die durchschnittliche Bewertung von Medal of Honor: Underground liegt bei 86 % (Quelle: metacritic.com).

Die bekannteste Ego-Shooter- Marke heutzutage ist wohl Call of Duty mit dem demnächst erscheinenden Modern Warfare 2. Im Jahr 2000 war eine andere Reihe bestens bekannt: Medal of Honor. Damals erschien der zweite (Playstation-)Teil: Medal of Honor: Underground. Als französische Widerstandskämpferin sabotierten Sie die Achsenmächte. Auch wenn Sie manchmal als Fotografin verkleidet feindliche Lager ausspionierten, waren Sie die meiste Zeit mit dem Gewehr im Anschlag unterwegs. Die abwechslungsreichen Levels führten sie durch Frankreich, Italien, Griechenland, Deutschland und Afrika. Der hervorragende Soundtrack sorgte für eine intensive Spielerfahrung, die Gefechte machten einfach eine Menge Spaß und die grafische Qualität war für Playstation-Verhältnisse sehr gut.

Hack and Slay

Die durchschnittliche Bewertung von Diablo (PC-Version) liegt bei 94 % (Quelle: metacritic.com).

Diablo ist eine der Spielmarken überhaupt. Inbegriff der Sammelwut. Wegbereiter für das BattleNet. Erfolgsmarke von Blizzard. Glücklicherweise haben die Entwickler auch an die Playstation-Besitzer gedacht und eine angepasste Version für die Konsolen-Spieler herausgebracht. Natürlich musste die Steuerung des Action-Rollenspiels für das Gamepad angepasst werden. Kurios: Während das Spiel auf dem PC nur in englischer Sprache erschien, wurde die Playstation-Portierung übersetzt. Das Spielprinzip blieb aber unberührt. Am Anfang entscheiden Sie sich für eine von drei Charakter-Klassen (Krieger, Jägerin oder Zauberer) und erforschen nach und nach jedes der 16 zufallsgenerierten Levels. Dabei treffen Sie auf Horden von Monstern, die sie bekämpfen. Sie erhalten Erfahrungspunkte, steigen im Level auf und dürfen die Attribute ihres Helden verbessern. Außerdem lassen manche Gegner wertvolle Items fallen, etwa Rüstungen, magische Ringe oder bessere Schwerter. Das Prinzip ist simpel, lässt Sie aber nicht so schnell wieder los. Auf dem PC dürfen Sie im BattleNet mit anderen Spielern die Dungeons erforschen, die Playstation-Version dürfen Sie immerhin zusammen mit einem Freund/einer Freundin spielen. Manche Spieler dürfen es doof finden, dass man stets zusammen auf einem Bildschirm die Gegend erkundet. Ich finde das gerade besonders gut, da man stets zusammen unterwegs ist und sich so ein starkes „Wir-Gefühl“ entwickelt. Diablo wurde von Blizzard vorbildlich auf die Playstation portiert, einzig die langen Ladezeiten nerven etwas.

Witziger Worms-Klon

Frontschweine

Frontschweine greift das Spielprinzip von Worms auf und reichert es mit einer netten Einzelspieler-Kampagne an. Rundenweise bewegen Sie ein Schwein aus ihrer Truppe über die dreidimensionalen Schlachtfelder, entscheiden sich für eine Waffe, zielen, legen Winkel und Feuerkraft fest und hoffen, dass sie möglichst großen Schaden beim gegnerischen Team anrichten. Sind alle feindlichen Truppen erledigt, ist die Mission gewonnen. Die Kampagne ist witzig präsentiert und motiviert, denn Sie dürfen ihre Truppen später auch aufwerten. Das Ganze macht zusammen mit Freund enbesonders Laune. Auch wenn der Schwierigkeitsgrad im Verlauf der Kampagne etwas zu stark ansteigt (Stichwort: Treffsicherheit der künstlichen Intelligenz), so wurde mit Frontshweine ein bekanntes Spielprinzip gelungen adaptiert.

Zusammen stark

Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles

Zugegeben, Star Wars: Episode I: Jedi Power Battles gehört nicht unbedingt in eine Bestenliste. In dem Actionspiel schnetzeln Sie sich als Lichtschwert-schwingender Jedi durch Unmengen von Feinden. Eigentlich ist das nichts besonderes. Doch es gibt eine Sache, die das Spiel aufwertet: der kooperative Mehrspielermodus. In dem dürfen Sie zusammen mit einem Freund/einer Freundin durch die Levels rennen. Das macht noch einmal deutlich mehr Spaß, als das Spiel alleine zu bestreiten. Als nervig sind mir die Sprungpassagen in Erinnerung geblieben, bei denen man schnell wertvolle Credits verlor.

Ein schönes Wochenende und viel Spaß beim Spielen wünscht

Felix

Le mercredi 7 octobre, à 15h, nous serons heureux de vous accueillir avec vos enfants à notre deuxième rendez-vous cette saison, pour un conte, proposé en collaboration avec le festival Bruxelles Ca Conte, qui se déroule dans une multitude de lieux bruxellois du 7 au 11 octobre. Le programme complet est ici !

Chez nous, ce sera : Les yeux plus gros que le ventre, par Odile Burley.

Pas facile pour le loup d’avaler trois biquets plein de cornes et de sabots ! Et le gros chat ventru, pourquoi dévore-t-il tout ce qu’il voit ? Et l’ogre ? Va-t-il engloutir ce bébé qu’il convoite tant ? À avoir les yeux plus gros que le ventre, on finit par ne rien manger du tout ! Surtout que la chèvre, le forgeron et la mère veillent…
À partir de 4 ans – Durée : 45’

Accès gratuit, réservation souhaitée sur passage44@lamediatheque.be ou au 02 218 44 27.

De plus, à cette occasion, la zone Enfants de la mBxl met à l’honneur les histoires d’ogres. Bon appétit !

———————————————————————————————————————————-

Prochains rendez-vous de la médiathèque de Bruxelles :

• Vendredi 23 octobre, 19h30 : « La médiathèque de Saule », auteur-compositeur-interprète, dernier album en date : « Western »
• Vendredi 13 novembre, 19h30 : « La médiathèque de Benoît Mernier », organiste et compositeur.
• Vendredi 27 novembre, 19h30 : « Gros plan : le cinéma burlesque », par Michel Verbeek
• Vendredi 11 décembre, 19h30 : « La Médiathèque d’Abel et Gordon », comédiens et réalisateurs (« Rumba, l’Iceberg »)
• Vendredi 18 décembre, 19h30 : « 2009, c’était une très bonne année », l’équipe de la mBxl fait le bilan de ses coups de coeur

Jean-Grégoire Muller

My wife and I just got back from seeing “The Informant!” Wow, that was a really funny movie, with a very unexpected twist. Go to see it.

Anyway, the blog, yeah, blog stuff, blog stuff…the big blog…el blogorino. Yeah, I guess you’re expecting to read something interesting here.

OK, how about stickers. I collected stickers when I was a kid, you know. There’s nothing wrong with that. Plenty of sturdy, athletic, he-man type kids collected stickers. I wasn’t one of them, of course. I was a kind of squirelly kid who tended to fall down and cry alot. Still, even at that age, I knew that there were worse things than spending time with a bunch of girls.

It was great, too. I traded all the lame “Hello Kitty” and glittery rainbow stickers with the girls for cool super-hero or monster ones, like the ones I am displaying below. I’m calling these guys the Monster Rockers. I don’t know if they ever had any name, or ever had any merchandising other than these stickers, but I think they are swell, and I’d rather have them, than have made any dumb ol’ soccer team any day!

I’m kind of tired, so I won’t make snarky comments about them, if  you don’t mind. You can do that yourself. Just look at these stickers and absorb the wonderfule 70’s vibe.

Anyway, for your pleasure and edification, the Monster Rockers:

I’d arranged to meet a gamer passing through the area at a nearby Starbucks. This turned out to be an excellent place to game– there’s an entire room partitioned off from the main area so it is generally pretty quiet. While the drinks will run you five or six bucks if you hang around for a while, I’ve noticed that gamers that aren’t already close friends are more likely to get a game going if they don’t have to worry about imposing on each other’s hospitality. Even though my opponent was a long-time gamer, he’d never played any of Steve Jackson’s classic Ogre family of microgames. In a single afternoon and evening, we played three of these games that Steve had published in black pocket boxes in the early eighties back when he’d first started his own company.

For the first game, we broke out Ogre on the extra large miniatures edition hex map. I used counters from my ragged G.E.V. set and secretly took a substantial handicap for my defensive forces. The Ogre trudged onto the map and I sent my fast moving G.E.V.’s to meet him. I rolled poorly and the Ogre came out unscathed. (Heavy tanks seem to do a lot better in these initial engagements, in my opinion.) The Ogre struck back with his missiles and batteries and fried several of my units. In a particularly nasty turn, he trounced my forces by rolling several fives and sixes while I “whiffed” in return. He annihilated my defense force and took little damage in return.

For our second game we broke out my war-torn G.E.V. pocket box. The map is warped from an ancient drink spill. We set up the “Ceasefire Collapse” scenario and reviewed the more complex rules for spillover fire, overruns, and terrain. “Breakthrough” just doesn’t seem to go as well for new players as this one does, in my experience. Having played this one before, I concentrated my tanks in stacks as far forward on the road as possible and moved everything towards the enemy town hexes and command posts. My opponent had wisely chosen to forego howitzers, but was still spread out behind the road in a long line. I had high hopes of crushing his force in detail.

My heavy tanks aggressively entered hexes where they’d be sure to take enemy fire on his follow up turn. After taking my requisite licks, I then moved to strike back and successfully disabled many units. (G.E.V.’s and missile tanks are very vulnerable to the heavy tank’s crushing 2-to-1 attacks!) My opponent sent a group of G.E.V.’s to harass my town hexes– I should have at least left some infantry back there to guard them! (One howitzer screened by some infantry could have been very nasty….) I withdrew my own G.E.V’s from the heat of battle to respond to the attack– a critical mistake!

My missile tanks had improved movement on the road, but could not effectively engage unless I was willing to risk stacking them. My assault fell apart when an infantry unit overran one of my key armor units. To make things worse, on one turn my opponent made all of this attack rolls. I responded my making several risky attacks along his line, but missed with them all. For the first time, I’d not only met someone that was far luckier than myself… but he seemed to neutralize my own luck powers as well!

From there we discovered that his remaining forces could easily eliminate my own defenses– I was down to a lone G.E.V. and fifteen points of infantry. An exciting game: I thought I could crush my opponent but soon learned differently. His infantry units gave him a tremendous edge even though he was short on armor units in the main confrontation! Don’t underestimate them….

(While we were playing, two older ladies came in to chat while they worked on their knitting. I overheard one whispering loudly something about the two Dungeons and Dragons players in the room. It’s good to know that my hobby is still dark, mysterious, and vaguely scandalous to the right people!)

After a quick meal we broke out Battlesuit. This has a large fold-out map with “points” instead of hexes. The counters are extra-large and feature beautiful Denis Loubet silhouettes. We chose to play “Scrap Iron Hill”, which turned out to be a monster game featuring eighteen battlesuits on each side.

While showing my opponent my microgame collection before getting started, I mentioned that I didn’t ever expect to play this one face-to-face with a live opponent. I’d actually played it solitaire five times in the preceding weeks so that I could be prepared just in case I did get such a chance as this. He agreed to play mainly because it is a rather obscure and underplayed game– he enjoyed putting old games through their paces. I was really pleased to get a chance to play it– and my opponent was a hardened Advanced Squad Leader player, so he had no problem picking things up.

He positioned ten of his suits on the north hill. I moved my three rangers (each armed with heavy weapons) into hard cover and immediately began firing on any unit that lacked cover– especially his units had heavy weapons. I brought up my main force on the southwestern corner of the map. This turned out to be a bad idea as he quickly eliminated the leading assault suits that were leading the charge. I pulled my standard suits back behind the hill on subsequent turns and tried to push them forward into the trees in the central valley so that they could actually shoot something. Even though line of sight was usually blocked, I would only succeed in getting three suits into that forward position by the end of the game.

My opponent had moved several units out into the open on the northeastern ridge– they caused heavy casualties to me because they had line of sight to my standard suits huddling behind the southwestern hill. If I had thought of it, I could have used my reactive fire from my heavy weapons units to prevent them from taking their second attacks so often on their turns. After they fired a first shot, I could have responded and had a fair chance of at least putting them into shock and/or damaging them to the point where their attacks would be ineffective. So even though there is no specific rule about covering fire in the game, the concept seems to emerge nicely enough just from the way the reaction fire rules interact with the double fire opportunities that the non-moving attackers get.

I focused my heavy weapons fire on my opponent’s units with heavy weapons. I thought this was a little lame– it is a pretty luck dependent situation. My opponent assured me that the same thing happens in ASL: the heavy machine gun emplacements focus on each other first… and then the real fighting begins once the dust settles.

Drones are really neat, though. They have powerful ECM suites, but almost any sort of damage will take them out of the game: flying eggshells, as it were. They come in three types: bomb, assault, and targeting. I chose two targeting drones and managed to get one of them into a forward soft cover position where it could do some good. With that drone’s ability act as a forward observer, I could eliminate the soft cover penalties for targeting enemy units stationed on forest edges. Even indirect fire from my standard suits could have a chance of doing some damage thanks to the drone.

My opponent aggressively sent his two drones toward my forces and I immediately started targeting them with reactive fire. One of them got pretty close and I focused all of my men’s weapons on it when my turn came. It turned out to be a bomb drone, and if my opponent had thought to activate it with a reactive fire declaration, my detachment of standard battlesuits would have been decimated.

In the course of the battle, I was able to keep my heavy weapons units alive even though my opponent succeeded in putting one in shock at for a few turns. I managed to take out his command suit with a lucky shot and he suddenly had a hard time getting his units back after they went into shock. He’d played really well, though it looked like the battle was going my way after that.

I looked down at my watch and thing realized suddenly that four hours had passed since we’d started the game. I’d been so immersed, I hadn’t been aware of the time passing! I couldn’t figure out where the time went. My only explanation for that unusual level of engagement was that, unlike Ogre and G.E.V., even when it is not your turn you are still playing actively.

The unique thing about the game when compared to the other Ogre microgames is that you call out your moves on a second by second basis: “one, two, into the woods makes four, and six….” At each point, your opponent can interrupt you with reactive fire. On one turn I became terrified when my opponent started wearing down a key unit with a heavy weapon. I immediately declared all of my heavy weapons to fire in response in an attempt to stop that unit from taking his second turn of fire. It turned out that, due to the modifiers, we couldn’t hit him. I’d panicked and wasted my reaction fire on a hopeless shot– much, I imagine, the way real soldiers might.

Reflecting on these three games, Ogre appears to be much more linear and chess-like, where the Ogre player must choose hexes to “fork” his targets while minimizing potential damage to himself. G.E.V. is similar, but adds a second dimension to the game play what with each side having a variety of units operating in a more varied set of terrain elements. Infantry become a major factor thanks to the favorable overrun rules. In both games, infantry are expendable, but how they are used can turn the tide of the game.

But what happens when, in Battlesuit, infantry becomes the focus of the game? The most notable thing is the sheer nakedness of your troops. Even if you are a ranger in heavy cover, there is nowhere on the map where you can be safe from enemy fire. Your only hope is to minimize the damage you receive by keeping your head down and using as much covering fire as you can to protect your men.

My opponent’s reaction to the games was to really prefer G.E.V. over both Ogre and Battlesuit. In fact, after completing the Battlesuit scenario, he said, “that was awesome, but… I never want to play that again!” Indeed, it was a grueling and exhausting experience– almost like playing a large team event or Midville scenario with CAR WARS. You end you rolling 2d6 for each of your men, usually… sometimes twice each… and each of the opposing units gets a 2d6 reaction roll. That’s a lot of time spent adding up to-hit modifiers. Line of sight issues can complicate the first turn or so, but after a while it is pretty easy to read the map without hashing that out.

Talking it over, there was a great deal going on in the game and the outcomes of the engagement seemed to fit what little I knew of real infantry battles. We agreed that the game would be more fun if both sides had more drone units. The surprise value of keeping the exact drone type a secret until it is used is just too fun. Also, I conjecture that the best way to have gotten my weaker suits into position would have been to jump up one level at the end of one turn, and then cover them aggressively while I waited for the chance to push them forward. If they can land into soft cover on the following turn, they just might make it. This would have gotten a lot more use out of my assault suits and it seems like it might be an exception to the general rule of “jumping equals shot”.

I was daydreaming with the scene from Shrek 2 running through my mind where the fairy godmother sings ‘Holding Out for a Hero’ while her son, Prince Charming, tries to steal Shrek’s wife, Princess Fiona.  Shrek’s friends break him out of prison and together they come charging to the rescue.  Everyone cheers despite the fact that Fiona’s ‘white knight upon a fiery steed’ is an ogre and a donkey. 

I like Shrek.  Shrek is far from perfect and just wants to live his life in peace and quiet, yet gets put in extraordinary circumstances.  Instead of running away, he rises to the occasion and faces them head on.  He’s still an ogre, and he takes on life’s challenges like an ogre, yet ends up a hero.

I look through the Hall of Heroes in Hebrews 11, and realize the ancient heroes weren’t really different.  One of the great things about the ancient manuscripts in the Bible is they don’t sugar coat one’s life.  The lives of the ancient heroes are reported with warts and all.  Despite their flaws, they rise to do extraordinary deeds because they have simple faith in God, and God honours them for it.  This gives me hope and courage to rise to challenges in my life.

I sometimes look at my flaws and shortcomings and wonder how a pure and holy God can use someone like me, but then I remember the ancient heroes were just like me.  I strive to be better, but don’t have to be perfect.  I just need to have faith to do the right thing knowing God will be with me instead of running away.

I am an ogre.   When the challenges come, I will handle them like the ogre I am.  Yet even this ogre, with simple faith in God, can be a hero.

So there I was logging onto WoW after reaching Level 40 yesterday evening.
I’ve got a near-full set of Plate gear statted for mainly STR/STA, my brother advised me not to bother with Intellect as much as my Judging with Judgement of Wisdom should more or less cover that ground.
I left myself logged into Silvermoon so I headed firstly over to Stranglethorn Vale to complete the rest of the Mastery chains (excluding King B) and a few others I forgot.
This time round I am not bothering with the Green Hills of Stranglethorn quests. Waste of time unless they’re readily available (Auction House was missing quite a chunk of them).

After completing those I decided it was best to head down to the Badlands to get the start of those done, recommended level for this zone is around 40.
Completed the first few quests, died (due to lag I SWEAR) on Overlord Boss Mo’Grugghh or something along those lines. He walks around with his Royal Consort including a small Ogre-Shaman it seemed, ah well I hit 41 from hand-ins here.

Once I completed those it was back to Stranglethorn to hike my way to Swamp of Sorrows, meaning may run into Alliance and OMG guess what I did.
A Draenei Death Knight, not the most unique thing in the world they are one of the more decent looking Death Knights the Alliance has to offer.
He  saw me and ran my way, naturally as he was 80 and I am merely 40 I hit Divine Shield, hit behind a tree and ALT-F4′ed. Bahaha. Pussy I know but hey whatever. DON’T JUDGE ME.

Logged back on 2 minutes later, still alive behind the tree he had taken off it seemed. So I mounted back up and proceeded upwards past the Alliance Base camp and into Duskwood where I ran past two lowbie Alliance toons. Both Mages, one Draenei and one Gnome. So I stopped beside them seeing if they would pull anything they just stood there. I got bored so I continued on.
The rest of the trip to the Swamp was uneventful, got there did the first lot of quests and then SERVER SHUTDOWN declared the end of my grind for tonight.

Sigh, that is fine I had to update here anyway. I really wanted to get to 42 tonight, only 10K~ off.

And that’s me for today, see attached some screenshots of the journey today.

Silvermoon after buying my epic land mount and new gear

The Stranglethorn Raptor Grind!

Slaughter in the Badlands