MAN- A True Canadian Hero

MANdate: June 29, 2011.  These are the voyages of the MANship Enterprise, his mission? To boldly go where no MAN has gone before!

So as per usual, Wednesday was Mensday on MANvsGAME, and that means that the great Ezekiel_iii (Zeke) joins MAN in the MANcave for some 2 player gaming.  Now MENsdays are always really great, I love it when Zeke is over, he adds so much to the show and personally, I think MAN is funnier when he's got Zeke to play off of.  This MENsday was special though.. This Mensday was the single best MENsday (and one of the best casts) I have had the pleasure of watching.  All highlights were done by the archivist himself, Duffmana. I highly recommend watching the entire cast, my stomach and face were sore from laughing so hard at the end of it, but I've included highlights for those that don't want to view the whole 4 hour cast.

The Sandy Times of MAN

Not only was MAN TERRIBLE at golf, but Zeke showed his winning prowess on quite a few occasions, here's one of them!

A Tale of Three Shots

So, after this wonderful game of golf, (which for the record, MAN lost terribly), the boys decided to move on to a game which favoured MAN quite a bit more, Super Tecmo Bowl.  Now, Zeke had not played this game much as a lad, while MAN had, and this led to a bit of frustration on Zeke's part, let's watch a little bit. ^^

Zeke Rage Part 1

AHHHH you can SMELL the Zeke rage!  At this point I was in tears from laughing as the two continued to play and rage.  Zeke lost these games quite badly, so the two moved onto a game which neither had every played before (and MAN doesn't even know the rules to) Blades of Steel! (hockey).  

Now, hockey being a Canadian game, and of course, the chat and MAN having to dig at all us Canucks, there were some high stakes to these hockey games!  MAN started out playing with the Montreal Canadiens, while Zeke played the first game as the LA Kings.  Sadly, even though we cheered out hearts out, MAN brought great dishonour by losing to the American team.  I think Zeke felt badly for us, and asked me to pick a Canadian team for him to play, I chose the Vancouver Canucks, while MAN chose a different American team.  Alas.. it was not to be, for Zeke now dropped the ball, and handed the Americans yet another win.  Blades of Steel was not without its glorious moments however, as it let us see yet more Zeke rage.

Zeke Rage Part 2

Now all the Canadians in the audience were threatening to riot, and we had our battle plan in place to burn Billings to the ground! But then, a light in the darkness, MAN once again answered our call, and took up the Toronto Maple Leafs to try and win back our honour!

Game 3!

And that ladies and gentlemen, is why MAN is TRUE CANADIAN HERO!

MAN- A True Canadian Hero

Review: The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom

I know I normally review games which I've played on stream, but I've played this game over the last couple of days and I'm finding it to be a lot of fun, I think you should try it out. Big thank you to Dravenos who gifted me this game the other day! Also the highlight in this review are from his cast of this game (his first cast, check him out and support a new caster).

The game is set way back, possibly in the early 1900's (forgive me, I don't know my history well) and you are a guy who really likes pies. He likes pies so much in fact, that it's all he thinks about, which causes him to constantly pilfer them. His sticky fingers are not without consequence however, as the pie heists cause general chaos in his town, such as the burning down of the bakery, and stopping of the town clock. This is a puzzle action game where the whole point is to collect the pies in every level by using clones of PB Winterbottom. Every level has a limit to the number of clones allowed, thus creating the challenge to the game. As you progress, you are actually going backwards in time, fixing the havoc that PB Winterbottom wrought with his pie thieving fingers.

PB will do anything for dem pies!

The graphic style of the game is the first thing that sticks out. The whole game is in black and white, with the exception of the pies that PB is chasing and the clones. You would think that this would make the game visually boring (especially for someone like me who generally likes vibrant colours in a game), but the effect is done so well that it definitely enhances the game experience. When you are recording actions for the clone to perform, old timey film roll effects appear, giving the appearance that you really are being recorded. Tips appear at the bottom of the screen, and once these run out, quirky notes replace them, such as “this space for rent” etc. I truly do enjoy the visual style of this game, and highly recommend checking it out simply for its visual style.

The graphical style is the first thing that sticks out

The audio in this game is also really well done. There isn't much in the way of variety of music, but the music that is there fits in perfectly with the game, though I wouldn't listen to it outside of the game.

The challenge in The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom is at quite a nice level. You will probably fly through the first world as it functions as more of a tutorial than a real stage. When you reach the second world the difficulty jumps quite significantly, but not to insurmountable levels. So far I've played about halfway through the third stage, and I'm finding the difficulty curve has leveled off somewhat. There are also bonus stages associated with each world you complete which have both time and “recording” challenges. These are linked to the steam network and have leaderboards (which do not seem to suffer the same failings as the SMB leaderboards), giving hours of extra play once the main story is done.

All in all, The Misadventures of PB Winterbottom is a quirky, lighthearted game, which is worth every penny on steam. You will get your money's worth on this one for sure. I give it 3 deliciously pilfered pies out of 5.

JTV a Week in Review!

Hello again everyone, it's time for my first JTV week in review! Here I will try to list all the important events/fun stuff that happened on my cast and JTV from the past week, just in case you missed some of it!

Chatia's Nostalgia Network 

It was an exciting week for me! I participated in Psychotic Gaming's (PG) marathon in support of autism research, and made a ton of progress in Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (TTYD). The marathon was the first time I have done a cast outside of my channel, and it was definitely a different experience. After a myriad of technical issues (including the chat being split), I finished my 6 hour shift to an audience of around 300 people. I started with Ratchet and Clank, but unfortunately the disc froze, so I moved onto Sonic 1 and 2, and then finished with Onimusha 3. I had a great time, and as of me writing this, PG had raised over $3,400 for Autism Speaks.

Lots of progress was also made in TTYD. I completed Glitzville, with the highlight of the night being RAWWWKing the HAWWK. Highlight Also, Oclac was kind enough to make a gif of my level up dance! Enjoy!

Level UP!

Psychotic Gaming's Marathon

PG's marathon to raise money for Autism Speaks was a huge success! They raised over $3400 and created many memorable moments. Teh_Ferret made a promise that if the viewers donated $2000 he would eat a habenero pepper on stream. Well, they hit that total during on of GQ's shifts, and hilarity ensued! Watch Here! Another milestone was hit when the viewer count reached 2000 people during one of GQ's shifts. Now GQ had made a longstanding promise that if he ever reached 2000 viewers in a single cast, he would have a swear cast; in other words, GQ would actually swear repeatedly, on cast! What follows is one of the most awkward moments in JTV history Watch here! 

Teh_Ferret reached 2k followers this week, grats Ferret!! He hasn't decided what he's doing to celebrate it, but I'm sure it will be a blast.

Also in GQ news, while he was playing VVVVVV, Souleye, the creator of the music for VVVVVV stopped in to watch.  Not only did he stop in, but he gave away 5 copies to the game while he was there.  It's really nice to see developers coming to the streams where their games are being played and interacting!  So far we've had Team Meat and now Souleye come to streams.

GQ is known for his faces, VVVVVV gave us some great ones!

Twitch TV and The MAN!

There were some major updates to TwitchTV this week as well. Viewer lists and chat options similar to JTV were added, along with new emoticons (which are hideous imo). There are still a lot of bugs to be worked out with TwitchTV, but hey, it's in Beta, I'll reserve my final judgement (and a blog post) for when it officially launches. And of course, the BIG news of the week, MANvsGAME will be returning to JTV on Monday,at his regular time. Personally I am really glad, he's my favourite caster, and I missed him dearly, plus.. I was really starting to get the shakes from withdrawal.

He's BAAAAAAAAAACCK!

Have news, important events or funny stuff that you think I should have in my week in review?  Email me!

Follow Friday Featuring King Foom!

Follow Friday! This week !King Foom 

         Hi everyone, I'm stealing an idea from twitter and making every Friday a follow Friday, however instead of twitter follows, I'm doing JTV follows! Every Friday I'll profile a caster I like, and think you should follow! (I'm going to keep it to not super well known casters).  No, I'm not crazy, I realize that today is not Friday, however I am going to be out of town with no access to internet, so I'm releasing this now. 
        
       The first follow Friday goes to King Foom (or Foom as I'll call him).  I find Foom to be a really great caster, and a great person to boot! He has very rapidly become one of my favorite casters on JTV.  Foom has me in stitches on most of his casts, he truly is a funny guy.  He generally plays newer games such as Alice: Madness Returns, LA Noire etc.  He also sometimes runs MK9 lobbies, however he hasn't lately due to the online being unstable.  He is a very laid back caster, and doesn't take things (including himself) too seriously.  He is very open about the fact that he is more about chatting and having a great time than excelling at video games.  That is one of the great things about Foom, he really concentrates on interacting with his chat and making sure everyone is greeted and feels welcome.

       
      Right now he's having a WWE contest.  Viewers from his stream pick a wrestler, and then he plays WWE, but lets the AI control the fights.  The tag team winners receiving $20 each in Steam, Xbox live or PS3 money!  It only took a couple hours for all 60 fighters to be chosen, so I'm sure he'll do it again! Here is a link to the forum post regarding the contest.  Foom is also very community minded; at the end of his casts he shows highlights of other casters to try and get them exposure.  If you are interested, Here is a link to the forum post where you can suggest casters and post highlights for him to check out. 

        
     Every other Wednesday (I believe) Foom does a WTF Wednesday, where he plays either super weird or super bad games.  WTF Wednesdays is one of my favourite features, as even (or especially) when Foom plays terrible games, he makes it a great time!  The WTF Wednesday I caught he played ragdoll volleyball (a free flash game), and it was a hoot!  Foom also has Flashback Fridays (I believe every other Friday as well, but not sure), where he plays retro games. Here is a link to suggest WTF Wednesday and Flashback Friday titles.  This Friday Foom is playing Willow for the NES, should be a great time! 

       Now for what you've all been waiting for, highlights!!

Let's take a joyride

Foom "stays alive"

Foom gets trolled by his poster

Foom has a brilliant idea

Foom needs to poop!

That's all for this Friday, please check out King Foom, you'll have a blast '-' !

A funny video

I was tweeted this video and found it hilarious, enjoy everyone!
Mario meets his Agent
Also, this
Link doesn't need a sword!

Super Meatboy Review

Alrighty guys.. I know I finished this game eons ago, but I've finally gotten around to writing the review for this awesome game!  Although I didn't end up 100% it on stream, I still completed the game, and was able to 100% the first four worlds, both light and dark, which I thought was quite an accomplishment!  Now, on to the review.

Super Meatboy is a very challenging platformer that requires Meatboy (you) to navigate through various mindbending and harzardous levels to rescue the love of his life, Bandage Girl, who has been kidnapped by the nefarious Dr. Fetus.  This is an Indie game and is available on Steam, and Xbox360.  I played the Steam version.  The games are the same in each version, except the unlockable characters are different and the player added content is handled differently.  Also the Steam version has extra achievements not available on the Xbox version.

Meatboy, Bandage Girl and Dr. Fetus

                                       

I'm going to come right out and say it, I LOVED this game.  Everything in this game has been done very well, from the overall game design, to the environments, even the soundtrack is phenomenal!  Each world has its own theme such as the Forest, the Hospital, or even Hell!  The levels within each world stay true to the overall feel of the world, and the environments are just phenomenal.  Each world also has its own set of hazards, with the Forest featuring sawblades prominently, while Hell features lava and fire on multiple occasions.

Little Horn wants to smash Meatboy to pieces in Hell!

                                 

One of the draws of Super Meatboy is its extreme difficulty.  The levels can be incredibly punishing, however you never feel frustrated.  To me this is the mark of a truly great game; when you can die 100's of times on the same level and want to just keep playing!  There are two versions of each world: light and dark.  The light world is the standard levels, and although still challenging, are beatable by most gamers.  The dark world levels are harder versions of the light world levels, and are where the truly skilled/tenacious gamers will be separated from the rest.  The different difficulty levels is one of the charms of Super Meatboy however, as it allows the gamer to choose how far into the game they want to progress.  If a person only feels they can beat light world, they can do that and still feel they've accomplished something, where the more skilled gamer will attempt both light and dark worlds, and perhaps the achievements as well.

I loved this game so much that I arranged for a Meatboy race to take place on JTV (with tons of organizational help from Lady Annette).  It was hosted by the Retro rockstars, and MAN vs GAME, Retro Inferno and I were commentating.  Liteyear, Nailorecords, Brooks2000 and Jhnnycrwsh were the racers.  Well, someone in the audience sent a tweet to Team Meat, and all three of them showed up!  First Edmund, then Tommy joined us in skype, then Danny came into chat and gave away free copies of the soundtrack.  Needless to say, all three of us on skype (but especially MAN) were totally blown away that these guys would come to our race and onto skype with us.  They answered questions from us and the chat, and made it a night to remember.  In the end, Brooks2000 just squeezed a win out over Liteyear in front of the entire game developer team.  Here's the cast, in its entirety (Thanks Duff). Super Meatboy Invitational

With that, a final score for this glorious game could not be higher, I give thee Super Meatboy, 5 deliciously squishy meatboys out of 5!

My viewers are Punies!!

I thought this was quite a neat coincidence, Mario has his 101 punies and I have my 101 viewers, neither of us would be where we are without the support! Thanks to Mournless for the screenshot, it was quite hectic to try and get everything out of the way while I still had 101 viewers Haha!

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone!

I'm starting up this blog as a way to get my thoughts, ideas, and crazy opinions out there, for people who care! I originally planned to do this on the website, but it was way too much work to upkeep, and frankly too expensive! I will put my game reviews up here as I do them (Yes I've been lazy about it lately), as well as just articles about general goings on at JTV and my cast! So please follow the blog if you're interested, feel free to comment and whatever! Talk to you guys later.

Future Home of Chatia's Rantings...

This is all pending Chatia's approval and yadda yadda yadda blah...