Has a week gone by already? I can’t believe that February is over and that we’re already into month 3 of 2009. Been far too busy for my own good! Anyway, here be me blog, my hearties!

Ahem, I somehow feel I’d be a rubbish pirate.

Nat’s Gaming Week

I want to talk about some old games that I’ve dusted down and given a play this week. When I was a kid I spent most of my time playing as many Point n’ Clicks as was humanly possible. I was so upset that the genre gradually dwindled away until it was really no more. Great games such as Monkey Island, Sam and Max, Full Throttle, The Longest Journey, Broken Sword and Day of the Tentacle were no longer feasible as new graphics took over and the pixelated wonderlands that I used to disappear into became fictional themselves. This was nothing short of devastating to me, and I found myself scouring the internet for any Point n’ Clicks that I had missed, but found them to be increasingly sparse.

So you can imagine my joy when I realised that Nintendo’s DS game collection had a number of the strategic games beginning to blossom. It wasn’t long before I got my hands on a copy of Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Trace Memory/Another Code. But the games which really caught my eye and my interest were the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney games, of which I believe there are now 4 (if you include the Apollo Justice game in the mix) with a 5^th one getting ready for release. I’m not sure how popular these games are with the average gamer, but if you were a fan of any of the aforementioned PC clickers, I would suggest getting your hands on a copy of the Feenie games. They’re a lot harder than you would think – providing you don’t cheat or use a walkthrough – and I realised, upon playing them for the second time, that I was still finding the riddles quite puzzling. I could remember most of it, but there were bits which left me scratching my head slightly.

I think what I love most about Point n’ Clicks are the fact that they make you feel intellectual. Don’t get me wrong, running around with guns shooting up the landscape is nothing short of satisfying. But there is nothing which is quite as satisfying as following an intriguing storyline whilst getting driven mad on how to progress the story; it’s definitely an interesting balance. I’m really hoping that they bring more of the genre back, because it’s a shame that it’s disappeared and that it’s only the minority who remember the old PC ones. You can’t even have a good old Insult Sword fight without people looking at you strangely.

Nat’s Filmic Week

Well, I’ve lacked in furthering my filmic knowledge this week – Guillermo would frown on me – but with the addition of other projects, I’ve found my time has not been on my side. However, I wanted to instead talk about what I have managed to watch this week – in half hour spells, which is handy – and that is none other than Family Guy. I’m sure many of you will be fans of the series, and I myself was converted about 6 months back. I was always a huge fan of The Simpsons and had this gripe that Family Guy were plagiarising the series. However, I started to watch it and immediately renounced my decisions. I found myself amused – and I also learnt recently that Seth McFarlane and Matt Groaning are on great terms, they make fun of each other on purpose, along with the other huge animated series South Park.

This week there was a new episode of the most recent series released. I’ll try not to give too much of the story away, but Bonnie finally gives birth. The episode is called Oceans Three and a Half and I would recommend you watching it if you can manage to because it is one of my favourite episodes ever. I would think that the jokes would be getting stale by now, but my love for the Griffins only seems to grow. They, of course, retain some of their brilliant satirical jokes, such as poking fun at the recent Batman rant from the angered Christian Bale, by dubbing Peter over the background. Obvious, but hilarious nevertheless.

But my favourite character so far? The Ostrich. Look out for him!

News Chat

I’m actually just going to briefly talk about Nerdles and our development this week. We are planning to do a second episode to our Nerdcast – Nerdles official Podcast – which is much belated due to technical difficulties and our terrible time management. But we’ve finally managed to get our act together and set a date, so please keep your eyes peeled for our future developments.

The second piece of Nerdles-News is that we are getting a forum! That’s right; you can voice your opinions, geek out or yell at us and tell us what we’re doing wrong. Can’t guarantee we’ll take any notice of you, but the choice is yours. Seriously though, we hope that you’ll all come and take part in our growing community. It’s always great to hear what people think about the site, and hear about any improvements you think we could make as well as telling us what you love.

Anyway, things are changing at Nerdles. Be sure you don’t miss out!

Until next week,

xNx

Related posts:

1. Nat’s Nerdles Blog – Sunday February 15th 2009
2. Nat’s Nerdles Blog – Sunday February 8th 2009
3. Nat’s Nerdles Blog – Sunday February 22nd 2009
4. Griff’s Nerdles Blog – Saturday February 7th, 2009
5. Griff’s Nerdles Blog – Saturday February 14th, 2009