GeekOut Bristol Meet – March 11th Gallery

The third GeekOut Bristol Meet is over for the year – Not bad! Time to go ahead and see what were the common themes and have a look at this months gallery. Were you there? Let us know in the comments!

The third GeekOut Bristol Meet is over for the year – Not bad! Time to go ahead and see what were the common themes and have a look at this months gallery. Were you there? Let us know in the comments!

Continue reading “GeekOut Bristol Meet – March 11th Gallery”

Top 10 food and drinks in gaming

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Since time memorandum men and women have been living in a constant state of war, conflict and trials.

The burning question which has kept us all awake at night is finally going to be considered here on GeekOut… What are the top 10 food and drinks in gaming!?

Let’s find out, shall we hungry viewers? Pull yourself a smooth beverage and here we go!

 


Top 10

10. Curry – Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Who’s up for some hot stuff?

Seriously, this is some ridiculously hot curry. The best thing you can do is go to the settings and put yourself to “Curry” mode in the gameplay settings. Oh yes, watching your fighters run around literally breathing fire along the way – It gets silly, it gets rather hot and bothersome… And it’s downright funny.

Don’t believe me? Go boot up Brawl, set everyone to “light” weight, with bunny ears and curry. Good luck holding your breath to that one!

 

9. Chupa Chups – Zool

An unapologetic game which was ridiculously tough, Zool: Ninja of the nth Dimension is one of these games that you would have heard of in nightmares if you owned an Amiga. The thing is, however the first three levels have some of the most blatant product placement in existence!

That’s right, we’re on about Chupa Chups being absolutely everywhere in those first three levels. You certainly can’t forget a game like Zool when all you see are delicious sweets everywhere! Great, now I wanna get me some Chupa Chups.

 

8. Sweet-Rolls – Skyrim

Let me guess…

Skyrim took the immersive level of their classic franchise up a notch when they gave us the opportunity to actually assemble dishes out of the random foodstuffs we used to stuff raw into our virtual faces, giving extra bonuses. There are also the really cool unique foods, like Alto Wine and Elsweyr Fondue that add more depth to the already colossal world. We also can’t help love the attitude towards alchemical ingredients: “I wonder if this is poisonous.”

But we are so sick of being asked if someone stole our sweet roll. Who exactly do the guards think are taking them all? We’re the PC here, our first reaction when finding a new place is to steal its’ entire contents, especially the confectionary. SO STOP ASKING! And we don’t care about your previous careers or knees.

 

7. Wall Dinners – Castlevania

Ever wondered what eating chicken from a dirty old castle would be like? I’d imagine not tasty. Now try and picture that same chicken dinner being stuffed inside of a wall which crumbles upon whipping.

Now it’s a lovely chicken roast dinner covered in the rubble and ash from a whipped up wall. Delicious!

 

6. Rare Candy, Moo Milk, Lemonade – Pokemon

I am constantly reminded of the first time I played Pokemon Red. The game was so devoid from the real world, it was beautiful!

Then suddenly you see a vending machine selling Lemonade. This was the first time I questioned: What other similarities are there between Kanto, Johto, Hoenn etc and the real world?

Further to this, in later games there is a ranch that sells milk… From the Cow Pokemon – Miltank! Now I’m picturing that this world keeps Torchics to lay eggs! Yikes!! But don’t worry; all of this “realism” disappears when you realise Pokemon level up to some Rare Candy… Wait, how did you all get so buff looking?

 

5. Nuka-Cola – Fallout

Now in more varieties than ever before! Nuka Cola was the favourite beverage in the Fallout series, water being basically undrinkable in post-nuclear-apocalypse America. If you’re willing to drink the glowing variety there are some rather cool perks, including a bonus fruit flavour, and glowing urine. Nuka Cola adverts are everywhere in the Fallout universe, all of them looking strangely familiar.

Nuka Cola is iconic, and the brand may very well be as recognizable as the brand it’s designed to parody. It may very well have as many varieties and related merchandize as the original these days too.

4. Grog and root beer – Monkey Island

It’s pretty obvious that grog will feature heavily in a series about pirates. From it eating through several metal tankards before staging a jailbreak across town, to shutting down sushi boat canals in the local Japanese restaurant, this drink not only quenches your thirst (and burns your throat to pieces) but is useful in many a situation. One of the friendly pirates in the Scumm Bar will even give you a recipe if you ask him nicely.

But what could be better than grog? Well, root beer of course! In the first game of the series this fizzy drink is shown to have special powers that rival the extremely rare voodoo anti-root, enabling Guybrush to thwart the evil ghost pirate Le Chuck after grabbing a can from the vending machine at Stan’s Used Ship Emporium. You’ll never look at a carbonated beverage in the same way again.

3. The Cake – Portal

Seven years on we still aren’t certain whether or not the cake is a lie. Was GLaDOS ever going to give us the cake? Was it even real, or just some hallucination brought about by hurling yourself through amplified gravitic space? We know that it drove former test-subjects to write on the walls, and inspired many of us to perceive a far deeper philosophy in Portal.

The game that spawned so many over-used internet jokes and memes at times still feels like the gift that keeps on giving. The sequel also delivered us the Aperture Science Incendiary Lemons! Who knows, if Valve ever work out what comes after 2, we may see another food to add to the list.

2. Super mushrooms – Super Mario Bros.

In real-life you really shouldn’t pick and eat red mushrooms, but that doesn’t stop the famous mustachioed Italian plumber known as Mario – he’s such a risk-taker. Devouring these vivid fungi will cause him to double in size and strength (and his clothes to do the same!), allowing him to smash through bricks and take an extra hit from enemies before returning to his normal short-and-pudgy size.

Also be sure to keep an eye out for the green 1-Up version; you might put our hero’s well-being in danger when attempting to grab one but a successful attempt will earn lucky players an additional life. Mushrooms are obviously so super that they have an entire kingdom named after them in Mario’s world, so we think they deserve to go high on this list. No pun intended… well, maybe.

1. Peperami – Animal

So here’s something that should never have happened, a computer game to advertise a “meat” snack, peperami. Some of you (if you were in Britain at the time) may recall the adverts of the 1990’s, an angry sausage voiced by Adrian Edmondson with a foul attitude. Well, the computer game based on that character was…. actually hilarious! Graphically average for 1996, reasonably tough puzzles at times, but the voice acting and the terrible comedy made the game something truly spectacular.

Ade Edmondson shines through this prolonged, interactive advert, and makes this game not only playable, but an absolute joy. Awful puns, loud abuse, slapstick, and the ability to attack whatever you like. I cannot rate this game highly enough for sheer comedic value.


Honourable Mentions

Sometimes even the best of foods just can’t quite make it to the top of a list. As such, we thought we couldn’t forget about these games where food is the main focus!

 

Everything – Kirby

Kirby is one hungry little pink ball and he intends to make an example out of anything he eats! Be it a Waddle-Dee or a dog that likes to freeze Kirby, the little pink ball will eat them all. Not only does he eat his enemies/”everything”, he also manages to make it look cute in the process and copy the powers of his enemies! As the phrase goes; you are what you eat!

Alas Kirbys eating habits makes it a bit hard to pin-point a specific food, hence he doesn’t quite make it to the Top 10. Hang in there, little pink ball of Kirby awesomeness!

 

Everything – Pac-Man

Pac-Man Power-Pellet

Yep, we’ve copped out a bit by having the exact same thing as the honourable mentions. Pac-Man is another character whose only purpose in life is to eat everything within his sights. Unlike Kirby, Pacman likes to eat Pac-Dots, Power Pellets and ghosts. Yum, all of that ectoplasma-y goodness! Pac-Man also likes to remind its viewers to eat a portion of fruit every day!

At least he’s harmless to us people…… Right?

 


This week we were blessed to be joined by the lovely Kim of 1001-Up who did the Monkey Island and Super Mario Bros. sections – Thank you, Kim! Everyone else, please go ahead and check out her works over at 1001-Up today!

Well, that’s it for another weeks worth of Top 10 goodness! I hope you’ve not stuffed yourself too silly on our gourmet meals and finest drinks. But don’t worry, Top 10 will be back sooner than you can spell out a French recipe with many “hors d’oeuvre”. Hey, would you like to take part in selecting our next Top 10 (and special mentions)? Why not hit us up by clicking this link and dropping us an e-mail? Whether you’re an avid reader of the site or a new fan; Come take part!

What did you think of our mouthwatering selection this week? We were quite happy with our selections, Timlah was especially chuffed at being able to include Zool in a list! What foods and drinks are most memorable to you in gaming? Until next time, take care!

Next GeekOut session

 

Hello fellow geeks,

Next Friday, the 29th November, is the next GeekOut session! Horray!

Come along one and all, fellow geeks and just fans of geeks even if you don’t feel you’re one! A night of drinks, merriment and a tale. Or ten. Of how we enjoy being who we are and what it is that we enjoy!

We’re simple a group of geeks based in Bristol, UK, who enjoy going out for a nice quiet drink, a few games of pool and just want to meet similarly minded geeks. So, whether you’re a full blown geek or just bordering on the geek line, we need you!

We really do want you to come and join us!
We really do want you to come and join us!

We’ll start the night upstairs at the King William ale pub on King Street. GeekOut will officially start around 7pm, however I’ll likely be there before then. The drinks at the King William are exceptionally good, it is a Samuel Smith’s ale pub and some of the beers there go really cheap (My favourite pint there is just £2.40, a soverign bitter! If you’ve not had this and enjoy a good beer, I’d recommend it!)

Whether you just want to pop by and see some geeks gaggle about geekly goings or if you want to stay the whole night and make some friends, we’d love to see you. Don’t have much to say? Don’t worry, the conversation is going to carry itself!

Tasty

Let the good times roll and the drinks be poured. We brought the date of this one forward to allow people time to enjoy Christmas and then we’ll return properly in the new year.

If you come along and decide there’s a better place for us all to be, we certainly won’t object to going to other pubs with people. Just come by, come chat, play some pool and enjoy some drinks with new friends and if you still want to go elsewhere and take us with you, just say where!

If you want to come along, why not pop me a quick message via the comments below? I’ll see to it that if anything changes, you’ll be kept personally informed. We’re not going to stop doing the day at any point, but you never know if something might happen to say, a venue or if people decides there’s another place or another time to try. I’ll be sure to keep this updated as well as Twitter will be posted on regularly to ensure anyone who wants to come along can do so.