Empire Business

“I’m not in the website business, I’m in the empire building business” – Not a quote by Walter White, from Breaking Bad.

My mum launched her new website last week, with a little help from your ordinarydecentgamer, over at newforgetherapies.com. This is not a shameless plug, by the way, but I found it funny that my empire is starting to grow. I feel like I’m heading up the “Newforge Group”, consisting of the original Newforge Studios, Newforge Computers, and now as of this week, Newforge Therapies. We can provide for your film, computer, and relaxation needs! A Newforge Bakery or Café isn’t impossible, so perhaps it will continue to grow. If that is the case, I’m going to go ahead and dibs CEO of the Newforge Group. Or perhaps I should follow Homer’s example and become Junior Vice President. It does have a certain ring to it. Junior Vice President of the Newforge Group.

The Completion of the Curse of Monkey Island

Yes, it is indeed finished, though the ending was not quite as I expected. As far as games go, it was a challenging one for a number of reasons, not to mention the slower pace that I found it difficult to get used to. It’s as though we are conditioned to want instant results and gratification, rather than looking at the bigger picture and working steadily to achieve our goals. It’s probably not helped by the achievement systems, giving us something to aim for constantly, rather than enjoying the game for what it is. The Curse of Monkey Island is a thoroughly enjoyable game, and I found myself really laughing quite frequently in the middle of the game. Sly references to earlier games, or other franchises including Grim Fandango (you encounter Manny Calavera, the protagonist of the game, dead with a bread knife in his back for complaining about the chicken) cracked me up. It is nice to play a game without actually killing anyone for once and still be entertained thoroughly. Violence is an option, but it shouldn’t be the only option if you can help it. The highlight of the game for me, easily, was the battles at sea. “You’re wit must be twice as sharp as your blade” was the motto for combat in the first game – meaning you fight the battles with your repertoire of insults. But this time, you are battling on the sea, so your insults have to rhyme. At first you only know a few, but many more can be acquired during fights with other pirates. I’m on my second playthrough now, though it is not nearly as challenging when you know what you are doing (expect occasionally complex puzzles).

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Dirk Gently is a detective. Not just any old detective, no. A holistic detective. He views the whole situation, the web of interconnected events, and follows seemingly insignificant events to find out how they relate to larger crimes. It is a Douglas Adams book that was recently made into a four episode TV series, but unfortunately cancelled after the first series aired. It was a great shame, as I really enjoyed the show, and Stephen Mangan was excellent as Dirk Gently. He is like a quirkier, more morally questionable (at times) version of Sherlock Holmes. Some of his explanations are just bizarre, and just hilarious. Along with his new partner, MacDuff, Dirk takes on a wide variety of cases, at times even working for clients and the person being investigated at the same time. If you’re looking for a TV series to watch, I would highly recommend this one.