NEW LOOK SITE!

Whoop!

So I’ve given the site a small overhaul. New header… new template… the usual …. nothing to glam though… let me know what you all think!?

Enjoy!

Muppets Win!!!!

To be honest the Muppets were always down to win… They started it all and are as polular as ever even after 20 + years of being in the limelight.. They are the Hensons breadwinner and still pull in huuuge revenue. They are still making films! Without the Muppets there would have been no Fraggles, Farscape, Dark Crystal etc….Muppets Win!!! Hands down!!…. no contest!!!!

Muppets VS Fraggles

The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson. Individually, a Muppet is properly one of the puppets made by Jim Henson or his Company’s workshop – though the term is often used erroneously to refer to any puppet that resembles the distinctive style of The Muppet Show and Sesame Street characters, the term is both an informal name and legal trademark linked to the characters created by Henson.

The word “Muppet” itself was said by Henson to have been created by combining the words “marionette” and “puppet”; however, Henson was also known to have stated that it was just something he liked the sound of, and he made up the “marionette/puppet” story while talking to a journalist because it sounded plausible.

Muppets are typically made of softer materials. They are also presented as being independent of the puppeteer, who is usually not visible – hidden behind a set or outside of the camera frame. Using the camera frame as the “stage” was an innovation of the Muppets. Previously on television, there would typically be a stage hiding the performers, as if in a live presentation.

The Muppets’ popularity has been so expansive that Muppet characters have been treated as celebrities in their own right, including presenting at the Academy Awards, making cameos in Rocky III and An American Werewolf in London, and being interviewed on the newsmagazine 60 Minutes. Kermit the Frog was interviewed early on in Jon Stewart’s run on The Daily Show, guest hosted The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and an April Fool’s Day edition of Larry King Live, and has served as Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade. Michael Parkinson once famously interviewed Miss Piggy on his UK chatshow. Rosie O’Donnell interviewd Piggy on the first episode of her talk show. They also appeared on such sit-coms and dramas as The Cosby Show, The West Wing and The Torkelsons.

Famous Muppets include Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo, Rowlf the Dog, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker, Scooter, Statler & Waldorf, the Swedish Chef, Sam the Eagle and Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem. The most widely known television shows featuring Muppets are Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, and The Muppet Show. A recurring adult-oriented cast of Muppets (in a setting known as The Land of Gorch) were part of the first season of Saturday Night Live. Other less-popular series have included The Jim Henson Hour and Muppets Tonight. The puppet characters of Farscape, The Storyteller, The Hoobs, and Dinosaurs, as well as from the films Labyrinth, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and The Dark Crystal, are not considered Muppets, although they were also made by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. The Star Wars character Yoda was voiced by Frank Oz, one of Henson’s regular voice actors, and was initially presented in the Star Wars films as a Muppet-like puppet and is often referred to as such in media and reference works; he is not, however, a Muppet and Henson’s organization was not involved in the character’s design.

Fraggle Rock (Fraggles) is a children’s television series with a total of 5 seasons and 96 episodes running from January 10, 1983 to March 30, 1987 on HBO in the United States and CBC Television in Canada. The series was created by Jim Henson, primarily featuring a cast of Muppet creatures called Fraggles, with music by Philip Balsam and Dennis Lee.

The vision of Fraggle Rock articulated by Jim Henson was to depict a colorful and fun world, but also a world with a relatively complex system of symbiotic relationships between different “races” of creatures, an allegory to the human world, where each group was somewhat unaware of how interconnected and important they were to one another. Creating this allegorical world allowed the program to entertain and amuse while seriously exploring complex issues of prejudice, spirituality, personal identity, environment, and social conflict. Fraggle Rock generally refused to over-simplify any individual issue, instead simply illustrating the consequences and inherent difficulties of different actions and relationships.

The show was a worldwide hit, like Sesame Street and The Muppet Show. The “Theme song from Fraggle Rock” was a top 40 pop hit in Britain during the phenomenon.

Fraggles are tiny humanoid creatures, about 22 inches tall, that come in a wide variety of colors and have tails that bear a tuft of fur on the end. They live in a system of caves called Fraggle Rock that are filled with all manner of creatures and features, and which seem to connect to at least two different worlds that exist in different dimensions of time and space. Fraggles live a very carefree life, spending most of their time playing, exploring, and generally enjoying themselves. They live on a diet of radishes and “doozer sticks” (see below). Fraggles have the ability to “share dreams”; if they touch their heads together before falling asleep, one can enter the dream of the other Fraggle. More than one Fraggle at a time can enter a single Fraggle’s dream, provided all the participants’ heads are touching.

The series focused on one group of Fraggles in particular; Gobo (Jerry Nelson), Mokey (Kathryn Mullen; voiced in the second Japanese dub by Aya Hisakawa), Red (Karen Prell), Wembley (Steve Whitmire), and Boober (Dave Goelz). They form a tight-knit group of friends, and each has a distinctive personality type.

Within Fraggle Rock lives a second species of small humanoid creatures, the pudgy green ant-like Doozers. Standing only 6 inches tall (knee high to a fraggle), Doozers are in a sense anti-Fraggles; their lives are dedicated to work and industry. Doozers spend much of their time busily constructing all manner of scaffolding throughout Fraggle Rock using miniature construction equipment and wearing hardhats and work boots. No one but the Doozers themselves seem to understand the actual purpose of their intricate and beautiful constructions. Often their building is accompanied by marching songs and various doozer chants. To ensure that they always have a steady stream of work to do, Doozers build their constructions out of an edible candy-like substance (manufactured from radishes) which is greatly enjoyed by Fraggles. They actually want the Fraggles to eat their constructions because “architecture’s supposed to be enjoyed” and also so they can go on to build again. This is essentially the only interaction between Doozers and Fraggles; Doozers spend most of their time building, and Fraggles spend much of their time eating Doozer buildings, which they think taste like marshmallows. They thus form an odd sort of symbiosis. The symbiosis was part of an episode where Mokey called upon the Fraggles not to eat the Doozers’ constructions - because they spend so much time making them. Fraggle Rock was quickly filled with constructions and the Doozers had no space left to build. After running out of space the Doozers finally decided that it was time to move on to a new area because the Fraggles would not eat their construction, and there was even a tragic scene with a mother explaining to her daughter about how things don’t always work out but that they would find a new place to live where their construction would get eaten. Overhearing this convinced Mokey that they didn’t mind that the constructions were eaten, because this enabled the Doozers to build ad infinitum. As a result, Mokey frantically rescinded her prohibition and encouraged the Fraggles to ravenously eat the structures just in time to encourage the Doozers to stay.

The series had several episodes that featured a Doozer as a main character, a young female named Cotterpin

At one point, there was a series of Fraggle Rock books, one entitled “The Legend of the Doozer Who Didn’t.” This book details the story of a Doozer who went against Doozer tradition when he stopped working and going to school. According to this book, a Doozer who doesn’t Do in fact becomes a Fraggle.

Outside another exit from Fraggle Rock live a small family of Gorgs, giant furry humanoids standing 22 feet tall. The husband and wife of the family consider themselves the King and Queen of the Universe, with their son Junior as its prince and heir, but to all appearances they are really simple farmers with a rustic house and garden patch. The second episode of the first season reveals that the Gorgs have never actually met anyone besides themselves (”I’ve never met a subject before!”), suggesting that King and Queen of the Universe are self-imposed titles. Fraggles are considered a pest by the Gorgs, as they steal radishes. In one episode it is revealed that the Gorgs use radishes to make “anti-vanishing cream” that prevents them from becoming invisible. Thus, the three main races of the Fraggle Rock universe — Fraggles, Doozers and Gorgs — are all dependent on the radishes for their own particular reason. While the King and Queen consider the Fraggles disgusting vermin, Junior enjoys chasing, catching and imprisoning them, much like a boy would lizards and bugs (”Look, Maw! I caught a Fwaggle!”).

BOTH TEAMS ARE VERY STRONG…WHO WILL WIN??….. FIGHT!

Heroes WINS!!!

Well lets face it… when you have the ability to turn yourself into a nuke at will you’re gonna come out on top.. no amount of body tattoos are gonna help you there…

I’d have like to say that Prison Break would have won as i’m a big fan of it… but Heroes has a Cooler bag guy and a hot chearleader…. what more do you need….

HEROES WINS!

Heroes VS Prison Break

Heroes is an American science fiction drama television series, created by Tim Kring, which premiered on NBC on September 25, 2006. The show tells the story of several people who “thought they were like everyone else… until they realized they have incredible abilities” such as telepathy, time travel, flight and spontaneous regeneration. These people soon realize they have a role in preventing a catastrophe and saving mankind. The series emulates the writing style of American comic books with short, multi-episode story arcs that build upon a larger, more encompassing arc. Kring said “we have talked about where the show goes up to five seasons.”

When the series premiered in the United States, it was the night’s most-watched program among adults aged 18–49, attracting 14.3 million viewers overall and receiving the highest rating for any NBC drama premiere in five years. The second season of Heroes will consist of 24 episodes, and the first season of a new spinoff, Heroes: Origins, will include six episodes. The second season premiered on September 24, 2007 with Heroes: Origins expected to air in April and May of 2008.

So that’s the back story and a few facts, but what about the show itself?? I like the idea of one superhero who inherits the abilities of every other “Hero” he comes into contact with. It leaves the possibility of an Uber Hero who never gets boring. To be honest though they need to do something extra special with Season 2 as in my opinion the end of season 1 was a huge anticlimax with a very lame fight at the end.

Prison Break was premiered in the US by the “Fox” Broadcasting Company on August 29, 2005. The story revolves around a man who was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit and his brother’s elaborate plan to help him escape his death sentence. Created by Paul Scheuring, the show is produced by Adelstein-Parouse Productions in association with Original Television and 20th Century Fox Television. The current executive producers are Paul Scheuring, Matt Olmstead, Kevin Hooks, Marty Adelstein, Dawn Parouse, Neal Moritz and Brett Ratner. Its theme music is composed by Ramin Djawadi, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2006.

Currently, two seasons of the show have been fully aired. Due to its immense popularity in its key demographics, the show was renewed by Fox for a third season (currently being aired at the moment), even though it was originally conceived to have only two seasons. The uniqueness of Prison Break is attributed to its serialized story structure, a similar format used by Lost and 24, and to its setting, as very few television series were primarily set and filmed in a prison. Its success and recognition as a prison drama revived interest in the genre.

The original concept of Prison Break—a man deliberately getting himself sent to prison in order to help someone else escape—was suggested to Paul Scheuring by producer Dawn Parouse, who wanted to produce an action-oriented series. Although Scheuring thought it was a good idea, he was initially stumped as to why someone would embark on such a mission or how he could develop it into a viable television show. He came up with the story of the wrongfully accused brother, and began working on the plot outline and devising the characters. In 2003, he pitched the idea to the Fox Broadcasting Company but was turned down as Fox felt nervous about the long-term possibilities of such a series. He subsequently showed the concept to other channels but was also turned down as it was thought to be more suited for a film project than a television series. Prison Break was later considered as a possible 14-part miniseries, which drew the interest of Steven Spielberg before his departure due to his involvement with War of the Worlds. Thus, the miniseries never materialized. Following the huge popularity of serialized prime time television series such as Lost and 24, the Fox Network had a change of heart and backed the production in 2004. The pilot episode was filmed a year after Scheuring wrote the script and five months later, the show was picked up as a series.

I’m a huge fan of Prison Break… more so than Heroes as the program seems to keep going down different directions and always seems to deliver that OMG! factor that few shows are able to recreate.. this is also something I feel Heroes has done to some level but not to the degree that Prison Break succeeds.

So what would happen if we pit Peter Petrelli and Co. VS the best problem solving mind (Michael Schofield) in the US and a ragtag group of ciminals…….???? FIGHT!

Fallout Wins!

I’d like to say i’m with the Halo fans on this one and find it hard to see how Fallout 3 would beat Halo 3 .. NOT …….in all fairness having weighed up the previous games from both trilogys and the content/use of emerging technology I can clearly see that Fallout 3 will be a crowd pleaser compared to Halo 3. It may not sell as many copies but will own it in both gameplay and atmosphere.

FALLOUT 3 WINS!

HALO 3 VS FALLOUT 3

VS

So I thought i’d stick with the new games facing each other off. So i’ve gone for Halo 3 VS Fallout 3. Both are successful series and both have been egarly anticipated.

HALO 3

Halo 3 is a first-person shooter developed by Bungie Studios exclusively for the Xbox 360. The game is the third title in the Halo series and ends the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued with Halo 2. The game was released on September 25, 2007 in New Zealand (which due to its midnight release made it first available for official retail), Australia, Singapore, India, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, and the United States; September 26, 2007 in Europe; and September 27, 2007 in Japan. GameSpot reported that 4.2 million units of Halo 3 were in retail outlets on September 24, 2007, a day before official release, a world record volume release. Halo 3 also holds the record for the highest grossing opening day in video game history, making US$170 million in its first 24 hours.

The game features new vehicles, weapons, and gameplay features not present in the previous titles of the series. Halo 3 focuses on the interstellar war between 26th century humanity and a collection of alien races known as the Covenant, who after a decades-long war have begun the invasion of Earth. The player assumes the role of the Master Chief, a cybernetically enhanced supersoldier, as he wages war in defense of humanity.

The gameplay of Halo 3 largely builds upon the previous iterations of the franchise. It is a first-person shooter that follows the character Master Chief and his struggle against the Covenant and the Flood. The game’s action takes place largely on foot, but also includes segments focused on vehicular combat.

Halo 3’s campaign encompases nine levels, which complete the storyline of the Halo trilogy. Players can play through by themselves, or play with the help of other players via Xbox Live or System Link. For plot reasons, instead of having each player be an identical Spartan as in previous Halo games, the first player plays as Master Chief, the second player the Arbiter and the other two players newly created Elites; N’tho ‘Sraom and Usze ‘Taham, each with their own backstories. Each player has identical abilities, although the Arbiter and his Elites have different starting weapons.

FALLOUT 3

Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game, currently under development by Bethesda Softworks. It will be the third major game in the Fallout series, which has also spawned the spin-offs Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel.

Similar to previous Fallout games, Fallout 3 takes place in apocalyptic United States. The player character is a member of Vault 101, a fallout shelter serving Washington D.C. One day, the player wakes up finding that his father has left the vault and ventured into the wasteland for unknown reason. Wishing to uncover the mystery behind his father’s departure, the player leaves the protection of the vault as well in search of his father’s whereabouts.

On June 5, 2007, Bethesda released the Fallout 3 Teaser trailer. The press kit released with the trailer indicates that Ron Perlman is on-board with the project, and cites a release date of Fall 2008. The trailer also features the Ink Spots song “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire”, which the previous Fallout developer Black Isle Studios originally intended to license for use in the first Fallout game. The trailer, which was completely done with in-engine assets, closed with Ron Perlman saying his trademark line as the narrator of the first three Fallout games: “War. War never changes.” The trailer shows a devastated Washington, D.C, evidenced by the partially crumbled Washington Monument in the background.

A cover story in the magazine Game Informer revealed that:

1. The game can use both first-person and third-person perspective.
2. Main character creation is implemented by specifying the character’s childhood. The character’s mother dies in labor in a Vault hospital, after which the player chooses the character’s Traits and general appearance during the father’s DNA analysis. Afterwards, the father removes his surgeon’s mask to reveal a face much like the one chosen by the player for the character.
3. As a child in the Vault, the character receives a book titled “You’re Special”, whereupon you’ll set the character’s 7 primary aptitudes. The character receives training weapons and a PIP-boy during childhood, and the player’s performance in various tests determines the rest of the attributes. Additionally, there will be quests inside the Vault that influence the pc’s relationship with his or her father.
4. Skills and Perks are similar to those in previous games: the player chooses 3 Tag Skills out of 14 to be the character’s specialties, and the character will gain a Perk every other level. 4 skills have been cut out from the game (Fallout and Fallout 2 had 18 skills) but it is unknown what skills have been cut off.
5. Max level will be 20.
6. There will be a definite end to the game, with many possible endings based on good/evil/neutral events you trigger.
7. The Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System, or V.A.T.S. will be implemented. Various actions cost action points, and both the player and enemies can target specific body areas for attacks, inflicting specific injuries. While using V.A.T.S., real-time combat is paused creating a combat system that the Bethesda developers have described as a hybrid between turn-based and real-time combat.
8. The game will maintain the same level of gore. All gory deaths in the game will be shown in slow motion. One of the featured screenshots (above) is of a super-mutant’s head exploding in great detail.
9. The game will feature a new health and radiation system. The player can measure an object’s radioactivity and gauge the effect it will have on the character.
10. Karma titles, similar to those from previous games, will grant Xbox Live Achievements on that platform.

Both look really good. I’m going to dig up a bit more on them and hopefully focus on them a bit more over the coming days!

FIGHT IS ON!

WARCRAFT WINS!

After a long battle Warcraft is victorious… although i suspect the 9 million players would have been reduced to about 900 by the rock hard dudes and monsters from the land of Norrath (EQ/EQ2). My reasoning behind the Warcraft vicotry is it has a much bigger community and caters for most type of game player.

But please remeber to not go overboard with it….! Gaming can be addictive. Only last week a chinese guy died in an internet cafe after playing an “unnamed” MMORPG for 3 days solid… hmmmm i wonder what that could have been.

Remember peeps….. Everything in moderation…………………………………..Except Alcohol!

Bosses and Gods: Warcraft and Everquest!

All bosses in Warcraft require each class of character to know what thier individual role is in the fight. Some summon extra dudes to annoy you. Some heal themselves they are all very tactical fights.

Illidan Stormrage is a major character in the fictional Warcraft universe. He was featured prominently in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its expansion The Frozen Throne, and has more recently reappeared in the World of Warcraft expansion, The Burning Crusade
He was, at a time, a member of the Night Elf race and is one of their most ancient, influential and infamous figures. He has also become one of the most popular characters in the Warcraft universe.

llidan is a transformed corrupted Night Elf.

He began life as a relatively normal male of his species, tall and muscular with sharp features, glowing eyes, purple skin and long, pointed ears. The only abnormality was the color of his eyes, which were a golden amber instead of the silver eyes more commonly found among Night Elves. Amber colored eyes were said to prophesize greatness, which is one reason Illidan felt pressured to succeed. When Illidan was in alliance with Sargeras, the titan burned out his eyes and replaced them with glowing green flames, which Illidan hides behind a blindfold. The new orbs allowed Illidan to see magical energies in the environment as well as allowing him to see minute details in his surroundings. The Skull of Gul’dan eventually imbued him with demonic power (as well as some of the essence of the dead Orc warlock), granting him an entirely new form. Illidan now resembles one of the Nathrezim more than one of his own race, although his skin remains purple and his ears are still long and pointed. He has wings, horns and talons and his skin is covered in green, glowing arcane runes, the latter also a gift from Sargeras. He wields 2 crescent-shaped weapons known as the Twin Blades of Azzinoth.

Ragnaros the Firelord is an incredibly powerful Elemental Lord, and master of all fire elementals. He rules over his minions from deep inside the fiery core of Blackrock Mountain.

The Firelord and his brethren once held sway over the entire world. As Ragnaros was a servant of the Old Gods. The Titans eventually banished him to the Elemental Plane - there to remain imprisoned until the end of time.

In the center of a vast lake of fire in the Elemental Plane stands Sulfuron Keep, the home of Ragnaros. Until comparatively recently, he ruled his underground land with a molten iron fist.

Three hundred years ago, the ambitious and ruthless Dark Iron Clan initiated a war against their dwarven brethren, the Bronzebeard Clan and Wildhammer Clan. During this War of the Three Hammers, the Dark Iron Dwarf leader named Thaurissan lay siege to the Wildhammers’ capital city of Grim Batol, destroying it. Despite this victory, the united Wildhammers and Bronzebeards were ultimately able to push the Dark Iron dwarves back to Blackrock Mountain. Thaurissan, seeking to summon a supernatural minion that would turn the tide of the war back to his favor, called upon the ancient powers sleeping beneath the world. To Thaurissan’s surprise, and ultimately his doom, the creature that emerged was more terrible than any nightmare he could have imagined.

Now, freed by Thaurissan’s call, Ragnaros erupted into being once again. Ragnaros’ apocalyptic rebirth into Azeroth shattered the Redridge Mountains and created a raging volcano at the center of the devastation. The volcano, known as Blackrock Mountain, was bordered by what is now known as the Searing Gorge, to the north, and the Burning Steppes, to the south. Though Thaurissan was killed by the forces he had unleashed, his surviving Dark Iron Clan brethren were ultimately enslaved by Ragnaros and his elementals.

Kerafyrm (also called “The Sleeper”) is a boss character in the fantasy MMORPG EverQuest.

Originally intended to be unkillable, the character caused a stir in the EverQuest community when the developers of the game (Sony Online Entertainment) intervened and prevented a group of nearly 200 players from killing him, in November of 2003. Sony later apologized for interfering, and allowed the same group of players to retry the encounter. After a nearly three-hour battle, Kerafyrm was defeated.

Kerafyrm is guarded by four ancient dragons in a zone called The Sleeper’s Tomb. If all four dragons are dead at the same time, The Sleeper is awoken, and begins a rampage of death across the game’s land of Norrath. This event is particularly unique in EverQuest, because it can only ever be completed once on each game server. Once The Sleeper is triggered, he and his four guardian dragons (with their highly prized “Primal” loot) will never appear again.

Quarm - While not a “true deity”, Quarm is a massive four headed dragon, which is in actuality a manifestation of the four elemental gods (Xegony, Coirnav, The Rathe Council, and Fennin Ro). They manifest themselves in this “ultimate” form in a final attempt to stop adventurers from freeing Zebuxoruk (an impisoned god) in the Plane of Time, for what was to be his prison for all eternity.

So……

The fact that the EQ bosses seem about 10,000 harder to kill than the WoW bosses makes me think that which the Pros and Cons of WoW/EQ weighed up it will be a very close fight!

The Weapons of Battle: WoW and EQ/EQ2

WARCRAFT

Warcraft has it’s fair share of Weapons… the range from:

1. Grey (crappy blunt and old)
2. Green (uncommen and useful)
3. Blue (Rare and highly sought after)
4. Purple (Epic quality a must have for a serious player)
5. Orange (Legendary - very few players obtain these)
6. Red (Artifact - only available to Games Masters)

The dynamic of Warcraft is based around kit and how you play your class. The main focus being on the buffs and bonuses each item gives you. So most of the WoW weapons are pretty nice and shiny!

EVERQUEST

The weapon dynamic seems to be very different in EQ/EQ2 and there is more focus on trained skills and teamwork rather than the brute force used in other games. There are multiple types of weapon and different quality of weapons also, which is comparable to WoW.

The concept of gaining loot of dungeon bosses remains the same however, with groups of players banding together to take down big nasties.