Garfield: The Search For Pooky (Part 2)

Part 1 can be read here.

Hello, and welcome back to this review of Garfield: The Search For Pooky! Guess what? The torture continues with the second half. So far, we've had a few scenes of Garfield searching for Pooky... and many scenes where he completely forgets his goal. You know, Garfield... if you want to save your teddy bear, maybe you should at least give a damn.

This Monday, I share your pain, Garfield. Can't
tell about the next Mondays, but... Just for
this one, it's a certainty. I hate it.

When we left off last Friday, Garfield had been brought to the farm by Jon, who had no idea Garfield was on a quest to retrieve his prized possession. And now, Garfield wants to go back home. What is a grumpy cat to do when he wants to get his point across? Well, wreak havoc around, of course! Garfield's plan is to destroy as many pieces of furniture as possible in the house, to annoy granny and make her toss him out. And for damn sure you're gonna do that! By the way, this level has the biggest offender in comic drawings turned into sprites: Garfield is here pretty much as tall as Jon's mom. She patrols the rooms, spying on Garfield while he's trying to destroy armchairs. And he's almost as tall as she is! What the Hell! However, the level is simple: Just stay on the ground and claw at the armchairs you see. Easy breezy. Do that in all three parts of the level, reach the end, and you've completed this level! Jon eventually grabs Garfield and puts him outside.

Garfield: The Search For Pooky (Part 1)

 Hey, you know, I love comics. Especially web comics based on video games. But before I started reading comics on Internet, I used to read comics the good old-fashioned way: In books. And of course, I wasn't all about superheroes; Hell, no! I was all for comedy. Which is why some of my best childhood memories are the Asterix series, and the Lucky Luke series...

...and Garfield. The famous lazy, lasagna-munching, dog-kicking, prone to sleeping, all-eating, snarking cat. We all remember him fondly. He's like one of those icons that cannot be tarnished.

Except by this.

No, no, no, I didn't mean the movies! I meant the games! (Although they sure don't help...) What I'm trying to say is, Garfield pretty much never exercises. Unless it's to send Odie flying across the room, Garfield doesn't like spending energy doing stuff. Which is why it's really strange that a game would star him as a hero chasing villains who stole his most prized possession: His teddy bear Pooky. Knowing the orange cat, I really wonder what kind of action can be in this game. This is Garfield: The Search For Pooky, everyone, and be ready; it's as lame an idea as you (probably) expect it to be.





Mario's Castle Calamity

Another Web series!

Mario has defeated the Koopaling at the end of the castle. Now, as he did every time, he intends to blow up the castle thansk to that here detonator. However, the castle doesn't want to be destroyed. As a result, all of Mario's attempts are failures.

This series s a rapid-fire comedy, with all the attempts being barely a few seconds long. The series is available on Newgrounds and Youtube, although lots and lots of fan versions were made as well.

If I can make one point of criticism, sometimes the comedy dares going into dirty comedy... but overall, the series is still fun. Of course, it could get tiring after a while... The concept stays the same all the way through. Luckily, the Mario uiverse is complete enough to provide a few hundred possibilities for jokes. And sometimes, just add stuff from other games, and the problem is solved!

The first video can be seen here, the second one can be seen here. The series was so popular that it spawned lots and lots of imitators. Among others, one that has Luigi trying to crash the castle. Two collaborations were made with different animators.

Last but not least, a contest of Mario's Castle Calamity was made with a program called GMOD. The result? A LOOOOOOOOOONG video.

Enjoy this slapstick series!

Internship!!!

No, I'm not offering an internship for my blog. Duh.

I've finally gotten an internship in journalism! Yeah, talking about myself on my blog; big news, huh? Finding an internship in my home city in journalism is extremely difficult. The biggest journal only takes interns during the summer vacation, due to the regular journalists taking their summer break. The other journals either refused me for not coresponding to their expectations, or just weren't responsive.

Where will I be working next semester, starting in January? Well, I'll work for my university's online journal/blog that relates the news around the campus. In other words, I'll be an on-campus journalist who'll write real articles, then publish them online, in French, for the benefits of all the people not just in university, but to whoever can access the site.

This isn't an Intranet site or blog; it is available for anyone to visit it. I'm so hyped, I can't wait to begin this internship!

Also, don't worry: My blog will continue. However, instead of posting three articles per week, one reflection on gaming, one fun stuff article, and a review, maybe I'll shorten it to two articles per week: One reflection OR a Fun Stuff article each week, and a review. If a review is spread over multiple parts, only one part of the review will be posted per week, instead of continuing a review the next Monday.

I'll work there 35 hours a week, so you can understand that I'll have a bit less time to work on my blog. But like I said, don't worry. The schedule might get shaken up, but Planned All Along will not go away. (In fact, since I'll now post a review part per week, maybe it'll last even longer.)

Why Is Easy Mode So Despised?

I'll admit. I'm an Easy Mode user. Start throwing your tomatoes.

What's Easy Mode? Some video games have chosen to incorporate a difficulty selection into their programming. You can pick betwen Easy, Medium, Hard, Childish, Intense... Whatever. The whole point behind this is to offer numerous possibilities depending on the player's own abilities with the game. That way, everyone can enjoy the game by playing it at their level of capability. However, among groups of gamers - the kind that is too stubborn to accept other people's opinions - don't hold Easy Mode in high regards. Who wants an easy game?

In fact, some games straight-up MOCK you if you play in Easy Mode! Really, I'm not kidding! In other cases, some of the game's content are unavailable if you play in Easy Mode (probably to encourage you to try the harder difficulty levels). The final parts could be removed from Easy Mode, which means you have to beat the game on harder modes if you really want to get the whole thing. I really have to ask: Why is Easy Mode so despised?