Glitchfest: Oblivion's Nose-Picker

Glitches? In a Bethesda game? Don't be silly.

While playing through Oblivion for the 2nd or 3rd (I don't remember) time, I snapped this pic of an amusing situation. Not a glitch, per se - but as the entire world freezes as you enter a conversation - we've got this Dunmer guy in the background who looks like he's about to start picking his nose. :)

Have you ever had anything funny happen in the background of Oblivion, Fallout or any Bethesda game for that matter, when the screen freezes? Let me know in the comments below. :)

Ash's Birthday Cards: Animal Crossing

In August of 2013, Shelly bought herself a pink 3DSXL, and thanks to a promotion that Argos was running at the time, she bought Animal Crossing: New Leaf and received a code for a 2nd person to download the game - obviously, that person was me - and we spent months playing the game together - actually, we still do dip into it from time to time - I'm only missing the scorpion from the bug collection and I have a completed museum...

Anyway, the following October, for Shelly's 25th birthday - Ash drew her this lovely Animal Crossing: New Leaf card, complete with the iconic birthday cake. :)

Video Game Anagrams I

I'm a fan of anagrams - well, any word puzzles really. I'm an absolute beast at the XBLA title Quarrel - and can kick arse at any in-game puzzles that are based around words. Of course, I never figured out the "Memento Mori if the nineth lion ate the sun" anagram in Virtue's Last Reward, but what can you do.

So, I chose a few games, and anagrammed them - admittedly with a little help from the amazing website Anagram Genius - then re-made their logos by scrambling the letters in Photoshop. I may make a few more in the future... :)

Left 4 Dead, Guitar Hero, Condemned 2: Bloodshot, Overlord and Alan Wake - enjoy:

Fallout 4 Beer: Thoughts of a Cynical, Teetotal Brit

If you've even remotley interested in following the news about Fallout 4 - you've no doubt seen the many special editions, limited runs of merchandise, the collector's edition strategy guides and store/site exclusive deals and bundles - personally I'm getting the PC version from Amazon, with their limited edition artbook and stuff, and the collector's edition of the survival guide.

But have you seen this?

This is Fallout beer - and as far as I know, it's exclusive to us gamers here in the UK. The beer itself is made by Carlsberg, comes in crates of 12 and you need to be over 18 in order to purchase it - 18 of course, being both our legal drinking age and the PEGI rating for Fallout 4.

But I shan't be buying it. Why? Well, there's a few reasons.

1. I don't really drink - and when I do drink, I drink peach schnapps with a mixer, or just plain fruit cider - beer is fucking awful, I would rather drink cat piss - and I could get that for free.

2. The crate retails for £30 - which is £2.50 PER BOTTLE. Beer should not be that fucking expensive. I've seen some single bottles of ciders retail for around that price - but unless we're in some skanky bar, beer shouldn't cost that much. They're also only 330ml - the same amount that's in a tin of pop - not the standard 500ml! (And again, 500ml is the same as a bottle of pop, for those who aren't metric-ally minded.)

3. Even if I was going to keep them as a collectable - how long will it be before the beer goes off? I know beer itself is fermented - but it seems more likely that the empty bottles will become collectables, rather than the full ones - and there doesn't seem to be a really limited supply - so they won't be worth much for a while anyway. Also, how am I supposed to keep them safe? Everything on my collectables shelf is at risk of being knocked off by cats - most of the things are plastic or metal, and won't break if knocked. Keeping full glass bottles safe would just be a massive pain in the arse.

4. Fallout 4 beer has NOTHING to do with Fallout. Remember the beer bottles in Fallout? They're plain brown, and most likely brewed by Wasteland survivors. There is no branded beer available in the Wasteland - so why didn't they market a product that actually IS? Nuka Cola is the obvious choice of course, but some argue that that isn't possible due to the blatant parodying of Coca-Cola - OK fine, then what about Sunset Sarsaparilla? That's a unique Fallout product. What about their brands of scotch and whiskey? They have labels. Admittedly, a bottle of scotch or whiskey would retail for far more than beer - but I still bet people would buy it.

And why does it have to be a drink? Market some Fallout snacks - fucking Sugar Bombs, Radioactive Gum Drops, Bubblegum that comes with a pirate tattoo - fuck, even some real branded food products - I'll bet Kraft would do a deal and make real Blamco Mac N Cheese, Heinz could cash in with Pork N Beans - there's so much wasted potential here. 

And let's not forget, Fallout have included a REAL WORLD product in their games before. Bawls Guarana - a real-world energy drink that comes in blue glass bottles was featured in advertising and as a pick-up item in the spin-off game Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. I bought some bottles to try just because of that game. It seems bloody standard for games nowadays to be filled with product placement - would it be too weird to have a dusty old bottle or irradiated package of a real-world product? Probably not.

Rareware VS Microsoft VS Nintendo - Comic!

Do you remember when Rareware (now known as simply 'Rare') were bought by Microsoft in 2002? They used to be in cahoots majorly with Nintendo and thus were responsible for some amazing N64 games, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Jet Force Gemini, Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, to name a few.

But, around the time of the 5th console generation (PS2/Gamecube/Xbox/Dreamcast), Rareware were bought by Microsoft, and they started making games for the Xbox - including a remastered version of Conker's Bad Fur Day, the amazingly underrated Grabbed By The Ghoulies and later on, when the Xbox 360 was released, the Viva Piñata series and quite possibly the shittiest Banjo-Kazooie game ever, Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

Anyway, I made a comic. I was doodling one day and basically drew the scene below - so I decided to squeeze out a comic using my very limited Photoshop skills.

So here it is, my interpretation of what happened when Microsoft bought Rareware: