Looking at movies, SUPERQUICK

SUPERQUICK Reviews

Any chance you wanted to know if a film was any good but could not be bothered to read those really loooonggg reviews from nonsense people? Well I've cleared the nonsense and given it to you straight in some short paragraphed reviews! You may discover some films you've not yet heard of!

I've teleported all of the reviews and more to this location http://superquickreviews.blogspot.com

'The Darker Side' of Tomothy and Pals

'The Darker Side' of Tomothy and Pals

Sorry about the image sizes

The comic some of you all know and love, or have possibly heard of and would like to check out. OR you've never heard of it and such a thing will never interest you... Has always been surrounded by a dark mystery. One so DARK.. even GHOSTS have to turn the bed-side lamp on.

Tomothy and Pals began at some point in 1999. Developing and breaking off of an earlier creation of mine, 'The Freckled Face Kid and Shouty'. Maybe I'll tell you about them one day, or maybe I will not.

Anyway!
It all started with a young Tomothy and his best friend Simon.. hold on.. I'll do a quick sketch.

There you go. You MAY or MAY NOT have noticed the first problem here... they have GIANT SHOES. No.. but seriously now, if you are familiar with Tomothy and Pals currently, Simon looks exactly like VINNIE, the kid in the bubble.
But at this time, little Vinnie was not born yet. No SIRRY. and then he was...
Anyway, something amazing happened and both, Tomothy AND Simon grew up... to become.. say .. 13 years old. While Yo and Vinnie stayed the same age in the comics.
I'm talking about this as if you'll be able to look back and see these little adjustments. But unfortunately they are in little drawing books I took to school, which are.. well I'm not quite sure at this point in time.

But when I discovered animation, Tomothy and Pals came ALIVE. And Simon was there, and Vinnie was there, and everyone was happy.

Shot from (Tomothy Live 3) Avaliable to watch here

Then, due to voice acting issues and other things I was slowly deciding to GET RID OF HIM. In 'Tomothy and Pals episode 1' Simon mentions to Tomothy that he is moving away!! OH NO

And so unfortunately for Simon, he not longer appeared in most of the next Tomothy related cartoons. Although occasionally there would be a split second shot of him creeping in there.

Simon appearing for a split second in 'You can't handle the Knowledge' 

But what is this? He is smoking??? Yes, I didn't really want to show this very GROWN up character in my cartoons but the idea was that Simon, (Tom's best friend that moved away) was actually a bit of a smokey alcoholic party goer. Interesting huh? Hmm..

Anyway, 

soon enough I was making silly comics and Simon was BACK. Well, as an old favorite of the massive fan base he had to return, right? 

Yes, apart from the bad spelling and everything else, the story goes on and Simon comes back to where ever Tomothy lives (Penny Lane)

and Tomothy is a little jealous.

and SUDDENLY it never was a kids comic.. it was just a comic :O 

Anyway, I got tired of Simon and so did the imaginary fan base. He is just a BOTHER!

This is where things change.
Tomothy and Pals was getting reborn! I wanted to rebornitize it and make it kid friendly and lovely and funny and colourful and all that! And guess what, it already WAS kid friendly! Because I made it, and I am a kid... Simon was the only problem.

The fact that he looked almost exactly like the now world wide famous bubble boy character, 'Vinnie' meant he just... had.... to..... go......

So on paper, while searching for ideas on what to do for the new strips, I thought I'd give Simon a fitting ending.

Simon was a smoker, and according to the archives I've collected from 2012, Jerome (the dog) dislikes smokers. This may or may not be this case, but for this moment of paper drawn sketches, Jerome was coughtastic.
So whilst Simon was leaning on a wall with his bud, Tom, Jerome decided to push him over the side.

Jerome was never charged because he's just too adorable. 

If it was not clear, Simon fell to his death. I didn't take a picture of that panel because frankly, it was very badly drawn.

Of course, this may not have all happened, it may have all been a dream. But the fact is, Simon is not more. No more in the comic and no more in the animations. 

His friendship has been replaced by the marvelous, 'Peter' who fills the role with his head held high. 

As I say, the drawn up stuff may all have been a dream and Peter just moved away! That COULD be what happened.

Although, I ponder about that gravestone in the right hand corner... look closely....

The other possible answer to it all is that the new comics from 2012 onward have all been a prequel to those Simon events, this would explain why there is a cartoon somewhere online, set on christmas day where Tomothy dies.

We try and forget about this. In fact, it is forgotten! 

So long.

and so long Simon. You just looked a little bit too much like Vinnie.

Vinnie and Yo in new Tomothy and Pals comics

Simon Minool 

1999-2012

Trivia: Simon was actually the only character to ever get a last name.. o_O

- The Daily Crumb

The Daily Crumb's world of drawing

Dear friends, and enemies, and people that I have yet to meet but slide into the friend category anyway. 

Here are some drawings I have done recently

The two images above are from an E4 ident I produced with Rainy Day Blues

You can watch the 10 second animated short here

Not sure what is up with the quality though, hopefully it is just my internet. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isFL6Sr6rDQ

More pics will be released soon

- The Daily Crumb

Dennis (The Menace) & Gnasher S2 Episode 1 Review 2013

Dennis (The Menace) & Gnasher Episode One Review 2013

~This article will also talk about the comic that stands beside the series 

I have previously written a few articles based around the evolution of Dennis the Menace. One in 2009 explaining the characters developments up until now.

Well things have changed once again in the mighty year of 2013, (Well maybe a bit earlier but I'll talk about that in a bit)
In the previous article I mentioned how Dennis' look had changed through the years. It was always a constant that he should remain a child with childish wants and feelings.

"As the eighties progressed, Sutherland's Dennis began to take on a life of his own. He became taller and stockier, his nose more bulbous and his chin ever broader. As the nineties dawned, Dennis was looking like a thuggish teenager, some way from the cheeky, if surly, youth Law had created and nurtured. In 1993, editor Euan Kerr stepped in. As he later explained to me:

"It was felt that Dennis had become just a bit too elongated and consequently older than he should be. A more active look was also sought for. Another reason behind the change was to make him easier to animate for the Beano Video which was then being planned. ... To be honest, the artist probably went a little too far and made Dennis too young and cute. However, some readjustment [was] made, and we feel he is now just about right.""

- paulmorris.co.uk

This is obviously an old quote and one about 'The Beano' comics, the still weekly home of Dennis and Gnasher. It also referred to the first animated cartoons of The Beano characters in Beano Allstars. The point was that the aim was to always keep Dennis as a child, with a childish spirit. 

Let's all admit Dennis has never really had the typical 'child' look...

After this came the 1996 TV series, 'Dennis the MENACE'. Unsurprisingly Dennis had his 90's design (and he was a menace)  Image to the right >

90's Dennis from The Beano

So in 2009 the 90's figure of Dennis the Menace, this reckless hooligan kid who, every week ruined peoples lives was watered down to become 'Dennis'. This happened both in comic form and in his 2009 Animated series. 

His look changed, he gained individual eyes and mouth and his personality was that of a kid just wanting to have fun. Rather than deliberately causing havoc, he'd cause it accidentally trying to help someone. Actually most of the time 'Walter (used be the Softy) was tricking Dennis. 

Sophie Aldred, (Ace from Doctor Who) did the voice of Dennis. Personally I think it was fine, a great casting choice, great performer and sounded perfect for Dennis in this series.

"We chose to alter Dennis’s character to give him a wider appeal.

With plans to air the Dennis animated series in new territories (for him), it was felt we could maximize his appeal by giving him a broader character."

- Alan Digby 

2009 Dennis from Animated Series, 'Dennis and Gnasher'

As you can see, Dennis had a much more friendly, child-like look as well. This series apparently went down very well with audiences and critics and got good ratings.
The problem for me with that series was only this, the writing. The first series was mostly a bore for me unfortunately. I used to tune in just for the animation, just to see Dennis in motion. And see the cool intro.
Some of the themes, activities and friendships were brilliant. But nothing ever felt FUN or, realistic. (I only say I want it to be realistic because I could not relate to it. The world was not believable enough and the personalities not interesting enough.)
I know what you're thinking, "It's a cartoon! It's all pretend! ALSO, it's for kids! Not 23 year olds!"
But I can back this up with the fact that I was and still am emotionally attached to every Mike Pearse Beano special comic back in the day. All of the comedy and strong character personalities.

I am also emotional attached to the new Dennis and Gnasher comics from the Beano. The 2013 ones. These weekly Dennis comics are written by Nigel Auchterlounie (What a name) and Nigel Parkinson (One of the hardest working comic artists alive since I was born). The comics are both funny and mostly have good story lines. It also seems very important to the creators now that Dennis DOES act and talk like a kid.
There is no doubt reading the weekly strips that Dennis is a child, not wanting to go to school, do his homework, have fun. And because he is a menace again, he'll do ANYTHING to get what he wants. But not in an evil demon-like fashion. In the way a sneaky, but clever kid might get around it. And he talks like a kid, everything he says, and it is funny. As well as the new parents. The only lacking I can see at the moment is Bea, hopefully she'll shine in the TV show.
This picture kind of says it all, in true Calvin and Hobbes fashion.

So if the comics could do it, the TV show should be able to do it even better right? Let us see.......

So Series 2, episode 1 broadcast today and this brings me onto 2013, the year of the menace.
It looks like a lot is going on around this new series. The Beano has scrapped 'The Beano Max' monthly comic magazine to release this alongside the TV show.

It honestly only just occurred to me the connection between this new MEGAzine and the new series...

See I was mostly looking forward to this new magazine due to the fact that the Dennis and Gnasher comics have recently been so good.
The announcement of this had me in HOPE that the series would reflect it's recent, dialogue driven comics.

Just before I move onto the review itself I'd like to mention that strange occurrence of Dennis looking different everywhere.
The 2013 TV series has changed the design of Dennis' parents to fit the comic strip and so when the comics changed Dennis' design back to the 90's style Dennis (As shown above) I thought they might change the TV show's style as well. As it happens I am happy they did not but it MIGHT be strange for people that Dennis looks one way in the series and looks different in the comics.
But I am very happy it is this way. Nigel Parkinson's Dennis looks super and always has done and the TV show one also looks pretty great.

Den's hair looks awesome in the show with it's curved edges.
If you'd like to read about crazy mental new parents designs and all of the plot holes that surround it please go ahead to this link. 

'Dirty Deeds' The Review

The Script:
I just finished watching the first episode of 'Dennis (The Menace) and Gnasher series 2. One thing I was hoping for when it came to this series was some really interesting scripts and great character dialogue. (Similar to the recent Dennis strips)

In this episode Dennis is shown with his pals, Pie Face and Curly in Den's tree house. Walter soon comes along and they show him some full on menacing with home alone traps and gadgets set up all around the tree house. It is safe to say Walter got 'Menaced'.
Walter wants to get his own back and so sidetracks the gang using his underpants and a girl (Will need to watch this again I think) while Walter gets the deed to the tree-house and makes it his own.
Dennis and the gang come back, notice this and then with the help of Gnasher they gain the tree-house back and all is well!
That was the story, it's foolproof and I think if there was more time it could have been stretched out quite well. But there WERE some problems with this episode on a first viewing.
I know they wanted to go crazy on the menacing aspect, proving Dennis still has the menacing skills that were once taken away from him. But this episode was way too busy for 15 minutes. It was mostly menacing with tiny in between bits of plot. The first series, even though sometimes it was a bore, still had a dialogue based build up before the story goes somewhere and then concludes.
This episode had too many things to notice as a first episode, new voices, new animation, new characters. It was action all of the way through without a breath. I'm sure the rest of the series will expand on Dennis and his parents new personalities but in this case there was no room for them. Everyone was pushed aside for loads of action.
The episode was fun though and the story did make sense (Although I'll have to rewatch the whole underpants thing, why did Angel Face have Walter's underpants? O..kay)
I was looking for fun and more menacing with this series and I've got it, but I want the menacing to work with the personalities and stories and want a good pace.
It was entertaining but just too fast. I look forward to seeing more though and the expanding of characters personalities.

Pie Face was funny

The Voices:

The voices!
Whoa there is the big one. Well first off, it seemed a bit weird that the title sequence was the same as the previous series when the animation was so different but I guess that is for the animation section. Believe it or not, Dennis was my favorite voice in this episode.
I loved Sophie Aldred but with all of these series changes it was okay to bring in a new voice. When I first heard Chris' new interpretation of Dennis I just thought of it as a slightly more grown up Sophie Aldred. Which is good, it meant it sat comfortably with me.
There was some things that were a bit off putting in this episode, some of the animation, the speed of it all but Dennis' voice was always a constant joy. He was always excited and it fitted him perfectly, this is the voice I hear when I read the comics.

Onto the other voices...
Pie face was great, I'm not sure whether he is the same voice as the last series but still great. The character was brilliant as well, I think he had a bird on his head at one point pecking him, that's my kinda lol stuff ya know? ahem...
CURLY!
Is Curly scottish now? Sorry, I am bad with accents. I maybe so wrong there but at first his accent was like "Whoa, that was an unexpected change, that was not needed".... but eventually I liked it and I'm happy to hear more of Curly and his new voice!

Walter's new voice is okay, comparing it to the previous versions I don't like it as much. But it was okay,  nothing too spectacular (Apologies to voice actors)

Den's dad was a bit of a disappointment for me unfortunately. It is going to be purely personal but the voice that was recorded was not the voice I have in my head when I read the comics. I have a more dopey deeper voice in my mind. But that is just me. Also the Dad did not seem to come off as well as Nigel Parkinson's drawings, his belly was not quite big enough....

Angel Face's voice was good but I cannot recall Den's mum as she did not really appear.

The Animation:
Well the series has a whole new look! The first series had a very traditional look, frame by frame art work and all very beautiful. I would tune in for just the animation.
But as an animator I was personally surprised that the animation studio managed to produce 52 short episodes in this beautiful frame by frame style.

So when this new series trailer came out with it's very digital puppet like tween animation I was... not surprised. This sort of animation will go down okay and take a lot less time to work on. So if they are doing 52 animated episodes for this series, this style is most likely the best choice for speed and cost.

The new animation is mostly reusing already drawn parts of characters bodies like arms, legs and eyes and moving them around instead of redrawing whole body movements.
You see this look in a lot of kids cartoons and online webtoons. It is absolutely fine to work with but was a bit distracting on my first viewing (kind of not in a good way but I don't mind). I'm also certain that some kids will notice this big change as well. As mentioned above it was weird the titles were the old traditional look.
But saying that, most of the action stuff was animated drawing by drawing of course and I personally loved Gnashers animations. He was a very convincing dog.



That is about it, really. It was a bit of surprising shock, in both good and bad ways for me. But a second viewing may change my opinion and I hope future episodes will dive deeper into this 15 minute world.
I'm looking forward to what gets dished out next.

- The Daily Crumb



Edit:

To be fair, here are my online comments about Episode 2: Last Day of Summer, broadcasting on the 9th of July.

"Really enjoyed today's Dennis the Menace, the second episode had a way better pace than the first ep and great dialogue"
"Bea played a huge part in both this episode and the development of Dennis, Gnasher and his parents. She was so important and I loved that."
" If i wrote a review of ep2 i'd say one of the best episodes since 2009!"




Go and support my own comic strip! Tomothy and Pals!
LIKE my Facebook page! Or go and check some of the strips and character bios out here! I'm working on a book so need all of the support I can get!

Go and check out the makers of Dennis (The Menace) and Gnasher 

Comic and Creators

http://www.beano.com

Animators

http://www.stickypictures.tv/

http://www.redkite-animation.com/

Editors and Voice recording

http://www.tamborine.co.uk/

Dennis voice

http://www.youtube.com/user/ChrisIsSnowie

PS: why redo the theme song?
PSPS: where were Roger, Minnie, Les Pretend and The Bash Street Kids? :D

The Two Detectives Episode List

The Two Detectives 

By Nathan Viney and Matthew Menhenick

The series came to an abrupt ending but not before filming a 6 episode series for the Web. Michael and Freud did their best to get as many crooks behind bars as possible, but most ended up killing themselves anyway. 

Series 1 (2010) Episode List 

Episode 1: Sweet Murder
Michael and Freud come across a bunch of mysterious deaths relating to the Carnival. Could these drugged up sweets be a clue?
(Improvised Episode)

Episode 2: The Man Upstairs
A grumpy Michael and curious Freud are tipped off something is going on in a local house. Who is the mystery man on the fridge and why is there a dead guy?

Episode 3: River of Riddles
A dark mystery lurks Tavistock. A growth in suicidal bridge jumpers just don't sit right with the  two detectives. What has Michael got up his nose?


Episode 4: The Arch
Copper, Simon Seds has reports of Freud Lo-hurt mugging an innocent. Could Freud really be the attacker and how did he disappear through the archway?

Episode 5: Dead Rich
Michael and Freud investigate a series of deadly killings in town. But how are they all connected?
And whats going on in the rich side of town?



Episode 6: Drowned Passion
A very dark killing dawns on the detectives. One of their darkest, but this won't stop them getting right to the bottom of the grave.

In this closing story of the series, Michael and Freud run off into the distance to their own theme tune

2013 Short

Michael Encyclopaedia Breaks a Window

A personal look at what Michael from The Two Detectives has been up to 

Check out this side episode in the form of a short story! A great read,
'The Two Detectives: Blood on the Railway'

The Daily Crumb

Songs I just came across

1. Spaceships and Moonbeams by Bethan Fanning


2. Chloe by Hannah Peel


3. Just Lie There/ The One by Gabz Gardiner
These are songs that were performed on Britain's got talent. They are not that INTERESTING but they are enjoyable, well written and performed by a 14 year old.

My Top 5 'The Sims' Games

So it is all over the internet, The Sims 4 is out early next year. So with all of this excitement I wanted to look into some of the better games in the series so far. This page will include the top 5 'The Sims' games according to me.

Let's begin



5.
The Sims 3: Seasons

The Sims 3 Seasons is the eighth expansion of the series. Jumping from big mega stardom Katy Perry lifestyle (Showtime) and ghosts, werewolves and magic (Supernatural), back to the simple life of a Sim. Seasons adds a huge element to the base game, weather. Okay, so everyone has said that the base games should include weather (And The Sims 2 base game originally did have weather). But someone up top has obviously made an important choice, (probably to do with more money) about giving weather its own expansion.
So The Sims 3 Base Game is constantly set in summertime. So when Seasons comes along with it's rain, thunder, snow and sunshine, it is a completely different experience. The game now, does not feel complete until you have brought along these atmospheric feelings. Never before has a player been able to dive into The Sims as well as this.
One of the games great features is temperature. With a temperature dial a player can relate more to how their Sims' are feeling when they step outside. Is this a day for warm clothes or a day to sun bathe? And because of this the summer that we have grown tired of suddenly becomes a bit of a gift in the mix of rain and snow. Summer becomes a special time of festivals, swimming and ice-cream!
Our Sims have to withstand the cold and iciness, before the christmassy joy of winter comes for snowmen and igloos time. Just the weather itself adds a great realism to a Sim's story.
Previous Sims 3 expansions have not really focused on family fun (apart from perhaps, Generations), they've all really divided ages. Not this one. As you can see from the screenshot above, every season has something nice for every age to do.
The game also has pie eating death traps and aliens if the rest don't tickle your fancy.

I want to say a thank you to The Sims 2: Seasons for coming first

4.
The Sims: Hot Date

It is the game that would soon inspire many different aspects of future expansion packs. This was the first game your Sim, could go to the shops, or even leave their house.
They'd been having parties every day with their neighborhood crew, like the Goths and Newbies, and then suddenly a taxi service enters town.
This be the day your Sim can meet the townies, a bunch of random NPC Sims, Downtown. (And Mrs. Crumplebottom)
Unfortunately a lot of what made this expansion great has been lost in The Sims 3. The atmospheric restaurants and romantic interactions. The whole art style of Downtown was brilliant and the stores were exciting, ice-cream man, flower shop and so many more. There were even parks you could have picnics. It was a huge jump from just staying in our houses all day.
Luckily for us The Sims 2 brought us Nightlife. Although it concentrated more on nightclubs it did bring back restaurants and ordering food, although losing a bit of the Hot Date atmosphere. Then in Open for Business you could actually run your own restaurants!
The reason this game may not be higher on the list is because it is The Sims 1, and although that still means it is brilliant, some of the Sim gameplay is not as fine tuned as later games.
Hot Date IS on this list however because, without it, we would not have various Sims 2 and 3 expansions and more importantly, we would not have The Sims 3, open world.
This game just looks great

3.
The Sims Online

Why did this game fail? Was it not because it was terrible? No one wanted to play with real people, that is stupid. Actually people did, and it was really fun.
I'm not sure what exactly brought the fall of the game but I can only assume it was that no one wanted to pay the crazy fees attached. There was a large amount of money a month expected to play this game online, like things like World of Warcraft.

Here is a possible reason from Sims Forum member, 'Litabelaqua' "It was bound to fail and did so when the modders found ways to gold farm the game, and EA didnt stop them. The virtual world economy collapsed and players no longer wanted to pay $10 a month for a game that modders were ripping off. Whatever else is said about TSO and however much EA want to cover up their embarrasment for the failure of it, it was this simple reason that caused the collapse. "

I played this game for two months. The first month was when I was bought the store copy of The Sims Online. The store copy gave me a free month trial play. So I got to play for a month. Then I returned (I don't know) how long after and downloaded it again when it was slowly turning into EA World (Some sort of failed update). That is when it perished.
Let me get back to why this is on the list. I had a heck of fun playing it both times. In a month I was able to find a friendly roommate, earn some money with friends and build myself a 'detective' office. Then I would go around attempting to solve crimes or... whatever. Anyway.
In another case I built my own house called 'Blur's Country House' where I had a huge band stand with  guitar, drums, piano... (I can't remember exactly).
People built their homes into jails, court rooms, hotels, party houses, hospitals, I don't know what else. You could go to skilling lots, where you... read, and gain skills (Okay, that bit was kind of boring but calming at least) and you could work together to make pizza, or code or in your band. These were where the big bucks were. Then there was earning individually where you'd make gnomes or my personal favorite, make jam.
Later on in The Sims Online's life they added masses of new objects and clothes and pets and robots. It was The Sims but with a super amount of content and it is a shame that all of that is gone, and not all of it was in The Sims expansion packs. You could even get a proper job and go to that job, work for a bit of cash, work with others and then head back to that party you left. Always making new friends.

Since then, The Sims Franchise avoided anything online until they made various terrible Facebook games where players could not even meet each other. Then they tried to add an online element to The Sims 3: Showtime which failed miserably.
The Sims 4 was apparently originally going to be a full online experience, but due to the train wreck SimCity 2013 release and screams of the murdered souls they decided to make it offline. They even used it as a selling point. They did say there would be an online element and I am hoping this is something I can enjoy.
I still agree The Sims should be offline though, due to train journeys and personal story telling.

2.
The Sims 2: Open For Business

I feel bad for not adding more The Sims 2 onto this list but truth is, it crashed so much and had so many slow loading screens it was a nightmare. I also found The Sims 2 Sims harder to take care of than even The Sims 1.
I was extremely hyped about Sims 2 and really enjoyed it on it's release though, there is no doubt about that. Let us move on to why we are all here! Business!
This game is very close to being number 1, if it just had open worlds and the Sims were easier to look after, guh!
The Sims 2 Business was fantastic. Give your Sims, a shop. It is that simple. You can even make your house a shop. You can sell anything you wanted, you could even make a toilet shop. Sims need toilets you know! Seriously.
I made bookshops, bakeries, (restaurants, clothes shops (with Nightlife)) and of course the very popular, toy shops. You could price various objects from low to medium price and then watch+ as the unknowing public came in and browsed.
The browsing part was always very exciting, "Ooo! They are interested in my products! Will they buy or wont they? Should I bug them about how great the product is or just leave them?"
I had a bookshop but randomly put an old sofa out the front to see who would be the first to buy it. You could also hire employees to work for you based on their own building and selling skills. It could be a bit difficult but still a great game.
Sims 3 + this game would have been wonderful. But alas it is not to be. Ambitions was not OFB, there was no 'browsing bar' and you could NOT MAKE SHOPS. I rest my case. Ambitions was good though, don't get me wrong.
Island Paradise, the second-last expansion of The Sims 3 series introduced the owning of hotels. While a great add on it lacked the intricate details that Business included.

1. 
The Sims 3 Base Game

Lets get the bad things out of the way first. No one will ever own a property properly in the Sims 3. I was weirded out when I first got the game about the Gym and Libraries just being open without employees working in them, the Sims 2 base game had employees. This was weird. Then the rest of the buildings were rabbit holes. I know in later games, (World Adventures, Late Night, Seasons, Island Paradise) that they brought in these Merchants, Bouncers and Mixologists, but they have never felt like they've ever really worked there.
The Sims do look a bit clay faced as the fan community have said a lot but I'm going to tell you why I don't mind that, and why I don't mind a lot of the hate. Because for some reason, this game is at my number 1.
When the first The Sims 3 screenshot came out I was like 'Nope, the graphics look the same, maybe with better lighting, I won't be getting this game.' This was it below.

Yeah it looks pretty dull, as well as some of the other screenshots that came out. The excitement of The Sims 2 release was over and this was all there was.
I don't know how many months passed and suddenly the game was coming out, very soon. I was still not interested. The trailers were pretty bad as well! Nothing was pulling me in.
Then I watched a game-play video. The day that would change my Sims playing future forever.  The game-play video showed this very nice looking game, nice lighting and atmosphere, but that was not it. The player made his Sim leave his house, walk along the street, knock on a neighbors door and go inside their house.
WOW
Never before seen in the Sims world. No it was not a huge technological jump in looks like Sims 1 to 2 but this new gameplay was fantastic.
I started to look more into the game and discovered that you could walk around the whole neighborhood and everyone in the town grew older at the same pace as you.

In the Sims 2 we'd have relationships with Sims that lived in the Neighborhood or Downtown but they'd never age (Unless we played as their house) so Sims could not grow old together. You'd have a teen boyfriend turn into an adult in front of their teen girlfriend and she'd scream and be like WHAT YU DOIN TO ME? THIS SUM KINDA JOKE? and then your Sim would have to go on a search for an adult one.

Sims 3 fixed this.
The open world and open aging is not the only reason I like this game. The stuck camera angle and the weird dull look of the sims takes me back to the sims 1. The Sims 1 was wacky yes, but at its core it was trying to mimic real life. The Sims 3 does that really well and because of the camera angle and simplicity going on it feels more like a dolls house than The Sims 2.
In the Sims 2 there are big bold plasticy bodies and basic textured objects flying around with your crazy camera which was PERFECT for movie making. The Sims 3 is terrible for movie making. But the gameplay itself, it works better than 2. I said it.
The Sims are easier to look after, they mostly do everything themselves. They got rid of two needs. They got rid of Sims going nuts all of the time.

The Sims 3 is not perfect, but as a full game I think it is closer to my hopes for Sims 4 than any other for the reasons mentioned above.

The only problem with the open world in Sims 3 is that our family Sims cannot visit or move to expansion towns, this was a step backwards from Sims 2. Also story progression needs more babies.

Enjoy Island Paradise and Timmy's Travel to the Future Expansion.
Oh and of course, The Sims 4 out in 2014

Thank you for reading my Fandom Blog Entry about The Sims. These are the games I think worked really well and changed the series for the better.
Maybe someone should get back to work huh?


- The Daily Crumb

Dennis the Menace TV Series 2013/14

This blog has been quiet for a while, I find other people tell the news and I just read it. But this time I want to give you some news that I am personally excited by!

The Dennis and Gnasher series will be making a return to our screens with some interesting new changes. So, the last series (2009) had Dennis played by Sophie Aldred (Ace from Doctor Who). It also had a new style to it's artwork and a 'nicer' side to Dennis. He was a kid that just wanted to have excellent fun with his friends (Pie face and Curly), but in doing that he'd accidently cause havoc!
This is fine, and made Dennis much more likeable, but unfortunately it meant they had to remove 'The Menace' from the title. Even in the weekly comic 'The Beano' they removed it to match the TV series.

In the last few months The Beano weekly comic has had some crazy changes. For one, Gok Wan Kenobi (Some sort of fashion jedi) changed Dennis' 'well known' parents into completely new PEOPLE!? Pretty much, he is very good, Gok, he did a lot of plastic surgery.

(Later on they then changed the story of Dennis' new parents, giving the readers the impression that Dennis' current dad is actually the 90's Dennis, and his granddad being the 'Dad' character (I) grew up with.
These of course brings up loads of plot holes that have been brought up across this crazy internet universe. 

But oh well! The most important thing is Dennis is Dennis and Bea is a cool sister. Oh and they have parents, that is quite important.
Whether you like the new design parents or not, they WILL be appearing in the new series!

I found this quite exciting, considering the last series, not so long ago had his old parents. They also made Sergeant Slipper fatter. (Though he's probably Sergeant Slipper's son, who lost weight and then gained it again.. gosh the Beano is way more confusing than it used to be). A fellow reader, Harry Rickard related it to the Doctor Who writer 'Steven Moffat's' crazy scripts.

The other important fact is that the new series of Dennis will officially bring back THE MENACE. It seems.
 'will be ABSOLUTELY more menacing…something which will become very clear to everyone when the series is officially publicised.' - M Stirling

So if Dennis' new parents are coming along for the next series WHAT ELSE WILL BE? Will Dennis be transformed into his 90's style design similar to the original series and the current Beano comics? Surely he has to be!

I may miss the sweet Sophie Aldred Dennis living his life, but someone's really got to get revenge on Walter...come on.

Here is what new voice of Dennis, Christopher Johnson (CBBC presenter) had to say about the new series. " I cannot possibly expand on anything EXCEPT how bloody funny the scripts are and how much of a joy 
they were to perform. The other cast members are incredible and flesh out Beanotown with ease. Can't wait for you all to see it later this year"


Well there you have it! 
New Parents
New Dennis

Here are the things I think should be in the new series!
Cameos from Roger the Dodger, Minnie the Minx, The Bash Street Kids and Billy Whizz....
More Bea!
Great stories! (Like REALLY good. Like on the edge of my seat stuff)



UPDATE:

New trailer for the series has been released today. You can watch it below

My first opinion:

"Different style of animation there, not as smooth but the writing looks like a big jump of fun and madness. Just what I was looking for. Although was expecting maybe Dennis to get his 90's style makeover but oh well! with Christopher Johnson as Dennis.

New parents designs"

- The Daily Crumb