Listening to Graham Linehan's commentary on the I.T. Crowd

I listened to one of the commentaries the other night while watching the DVD and he revealed that he loved computer games and recommended Shadow of the Colossus! So yeah he's definitely a lover of the classics when it comes to games.

Finally got the I.T. Crowd DVDs

For those who don't know The I.T. Crowd it's a hilarious sitcom we have over here that's written by one of the writers of one of our favourite sitcoms, Father Ted.

The show is set up quite nicely and although it has some references to video games and I.T. centric stuff it's not it's main focus at all. This post though is to celebrate the wonderful video game tributes the DVD menus feature.

There's a lot of them! Some too good to spoil. I will say though that the episode selection screen shows a scene that's reminiscent of classic isometric platform games like Head Over Heels, Monster Max and Solstice. It features the show's characters wandering around the maze playing out a scenario that lasts quite a few minutes! There's some other nice tributes like old computer style loading screens just for fun and a subtitle track that's done entirely in l33t speak. It's a DVD made amazing to fans of things like that to be sure.

I was getting it myself just for Graham Linehan's commentary but everybody else can still see the whole series for free online on Channel 4's On Demand streaming service. Try it out, it's a solid good old fashioned sitcom!

Playing RPGs when you're sick

I often hear stories of people who play RPGs when they're sick. One famous example is Shigesato Itoi who played Dragon Quest when he wasn't well and it helped inspired the creation of the Earthbound/Mother series.

Just what is up with people playing RPGs when they're sick? Well when I was sick recently I was playing Mother 3. I'm not sure what it is but it is kind of therapeutic playing RPGs when you're feeling under the weather. There's something comfortable about playing them. Another thing I can imagine is that they're good distraction therapy.

I suppose most people know about it already though. People who've done this always felt a special bond with the game they played too, even if they never really want to play it again.

It's just a very interesting concept to me, RPGs being like chicken soup.

Different versions of Super Mario All Stars for Wii

There seems to be two different versions of Super Mario All Stars for Wii - one is the normal one you see in shops that has Mario in a Top Hat. The other seems to come in a wider pure red cardboard box that comes with the soundtrack CD. I saw this one in a glass display in an Xtra Vision in Clonmel.

Maybe I'm just slightly misinformed. A lot of people seem to be.

Cave Story finally available for WiiWare in Ireland and the rest of Europe!

I bought this as soon as I could! I've been waiting for it for so long... I'm really glad it's finally available here. I'm going to play loads of this!

Satirical Review of Super Mario Bros.

http://kotaku.com/5710531/a-disappointing-console-debut-for-nintendos-plumber

This one's very interesting. A review written nowadays may miss the point of the game entirely. This review of Super Mario Bros. pokes fun at this thing that happens a lot when you come across popular game review sites.

Shigesato Itoi appreciates fans of MOTHER/Earthbound series

http://earthboundcentral.com/2010/12/a-message-from-shigesato-itoi/

I really like the Earthbound/MOTHER fan community as well. I even made my own contribution to it one time and they were very appreciative of it. Someday I'll buy a t-shirt from them or something! This past while as you may have noticed I've been playing the series from start to finish. I played the first two games and loved them and now I'm playing the third. I'm also looking forward to the unofficial fangame, Mother 4. I think everyone is. NGamer Magazine even interviewed the developers behind it in this month's issue.