Other – Page 33 – StuffWeLike

D’oh! Pagans irritated by Homer Simpson

Homer vs. God of Fertility

The large white guy you see to the right in the image above is a great Fertility Symbol for the Pagans, named simply as the Cerne Abbas giant. The large white guy you see to the left in the image above is a great Cartoon Character for Americans, named simply as the Homer Simpson. And Pagans don’t like him.

The figure of giant above is supposedly from the 17th century and is regarded by the Pagan community to be a great fertility symbol. Heck, I can see his great fertility symbol right here, folks. He is located in Cerne Abbas, Dorset (which is in Great Britain) and has been revered for centuries. Well, some time ago he’s got competition.

The image of Homer Simpson armed with a donut and underwear was drawn with biodegradable paint to promote the upcoming Simpsons movie. A fine marketing idea, in my opinion. But the Pagans have been enraged by ol’ Homer.

Ann Bryn-Evans, joint Wessex district manager for The Pagan Federation, said: “It’s very disrespectful and not at all aesthetically pleasing.

“We were hoping for some dry weather but I think I have changed my mind. We’ll be doing some rain magic to bring the rain and wash it away.”

She added: “I’m amazed they got permission to do something so ridiculous. It’s an area of scientific interest.”

Rain magic? Predict that, Weather Channel! The Pagans are further irritated that bringing cascading down will cause a mess as it washes Homer and his donut away. Is it a Church conspiracy? Who knows. But it sure as hell is funny.

[Via The Sun]

Blizzard working on new, unannounced title

Blizzard dropped a bomb when they announced StarCraft II. It looks like Blizzard is doing it again. During a discussion with Gamasutra, Blizzard’s senior vice president of product development, Frank Pearce said that a team of 40 people is working in “team 3”.

The diplomatically chosen revelation was found in the following context, straight from Pearce:

“Our global headcount is 2,700, and most of that is customer service for World of Warcraft! In terms of development staff it’s probably around 350. World of Warcraft is about 135 people, 40 for Starcraft II, 40 for team 3, our cinematics team is about 85 guys. Then there’s sound and Q/A and that sort of thing.”

Pearcesaid further that Team 3 is working on “something really awesome” (they always say that) and that he couldn’t give any hints. Gamasutra has confirmed that this is not the vaporware Starcraft Ghost, though.

Blizzcon starts 3rd August, which is not far away, as your friendly calendar will tell you. Is it possible that this new game, under construction by “Team 3” will be announced there? Most likely. What is this new game? Nobody knows for sure, though most fingers point towards Diablo 3. We’ll just have to wait for Blizzcon.

[Via Gamasutra]

60GB PS3’s to vanish by end of July!

PS3 as we know it, is going.

This news comes like a slap in the face for those who cheered when Sony announced a price cut for the Playstation 3. David Reeves, president of SCEE has announced PS3’s will no longer be available after stocks are sold out. Apparently, the price cut was to sell these remaining stocks out of 60GB PS3’s! Way to go, Sony.

Sony will be releasing an 80GB version of the PS3 on August 1st with a copy of MotorStorm bundled. This new version will be priced at $599, which was what the 60GB version was priced at, prior to the price cut. So the equation works out like this:

Sony makes a $599 console and cuts its price to $499. Then it makes a new version of the PS3, priced at $599 and sells out the original PS3, which should be priced at $499. So essentially, the price cut was nothing more than a practical joke from Sony. Anybody who fell for this joke and wants the PS3, my advice is, grab one while stocks last.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

Halo 3’s packaging revealed!

Halo 3 Limited Edition Lo-Res

Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in-between, behold: the most powerful force in the galaxy (Microsoft, if you haven’t guessed) has unveiled before us the packaging for Halo 3. The box you see above is for the Legendary Edition, and it is quite a beauty. Personally, I like the vanilla Halo 3 box best.

All the images below are high quality and massive resolutions. Oh, and we are not going to buy you a new set of underwear.

Halo 3

Halo 3 Limited Edition

Halo 3 Legendary Edition (the shiniest of the lot)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Prequel announced out of nowhere

STALKER Clear Sky

Right when you thought all the action is at E3, GSC Game World announced a prequel to this March’s well-acclaimed first-person shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. The prequel is titled S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky and will be invading stores in the first quarter of 2008.

The game starts off a year before the events in the first game, in the year 2011. The synopsis is, as penned by GSC Game World:

A group of stalkers has for the first time reached the very heart of the Zone – Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and brings about a cataclysm on the brink of a catastrophe. An immense blowout of anomalous energy changes the Zone. There are no more reliable and relatively safe roads. The entire levels vanish in the outbursts of anomalies. Stalkers and even expeditions die or end up sealed on the lost territories. New areas, which remained unknown since the time of the Zone emergence, appear on the Zone map. The Zone continues to shake with blowouts. The Zone is unstable. The anomalous activity is at its maximum.

Changes of the Zone map known to stalkers shake the fragile balance of forces in the Zone. Among the groupings, there flare up hostilities for the new territories, artifact fields and spheres of influence. There are no more old enemies or friends – now everyone is for himself. The Factions War has started between the groupings.

Our fancy protagonist is a mercenary who appeared “at the edge of the opposition between stalker factions” and is named Strelok. Your character will be responsible for creation of the Zone and laying the foundation for the original game which is too friggin’ long to type.

Clear Sky’s list of features is rather intimidating and will feature DirectX 10 rendering, a new animation engine, inverse kinematics, a very improved DirectX 9 renderer and several other additions and changes. Visit the game’s official site to get the full feature list.