family guy
Latest
Family Guy the Quest for Stuff has a new cameo filled Comic Con-themed update
The yearly Comic-Con International is happening this week and, to celebrate this gathering, a brand new con-themed update has been released for iOS game Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff. Your feud with the evil chicken will have to wait, because a comic book convention has come to Quahog. Stewie has become an evil monster, wreaking chaos on the city and a bevy of big name cameos. How big are the one-liners? How about Bryan Cranston, Stan Lee, George Takei, Nathan Fillion, Patrick Stewart and other surprises? In the game, you have to help the Griffen's become superheroes, save the city, fix the baby, and presumably build new attractions in your cartoon sandbox. Having spent some time with the Comic-Con add-on, we can confirm this update is well worth playing if you're already a fan of the game. The new jokes are funny, the art is beautiful, and did we mention Patrick Stewart plays a role? You can download Family Guy: the Quest for Stuff for free in the iOS store. The title is a blast, though it can be a bit of a time commitment if you're not willing to invest some extra funds. You can read our review of the game here.
Family Guy: The Quest For Stuff is well written but expensive
Family Guy is an easy target for snobs who think their personal tastes are universal. Despite its often maligned reputation the show has been a major part of American pop culture since 1999, spreading dark jokes across the airwaves with a gleeful lack of concern for the offended. Now the show has hit the iOS store with a new game featuring some familiar gameplay dynamics. To paraphrase Family Guy's own reference formula "remember that time you played Simpsons Tapped Out?" Family Guy: The Quest For Stuff starts off with a beautifully animated sequence that explains why the town of Quahog has been destroyed. It's your job as Peter Griffin to help rebuild the city house by house, resident by resident, and sight gag by sight gag. Building the city and completing quests unlocks new characters, all of whom can gain new powers by gathering experience. These quests are all built around the show's mythology so be prepared to help Glen Quagmire score unmentionables while getting Peter blacked-out drunk. The sheer number of references to the show's fifteen year history is staggering. If you're a loyal viewer all of your favorite characters will make an appearance, be it in the background or via controllable quests. Along the way you'll collect money and golden clams to help speedup gameplay. Accomplishing goals takes time, unless you're willing to use the in-game currency to speed things along. Here's where my major issue with the title comes around. The developers were kind enough to include a large amount of money and golden clams along with my review copy. I've played the game as both my normal poor blogger self and as one of the 1%. There is no comparison between the two games. One literally asks you to watch two dudes take a nap for six hours, the other allows you to pay a little scratch to laugh at the joke for the appropriate twenty seconds and move the heck along. Still those little transactions add up. Building/quest time can be cut in half by purchasing golden clams. These will run you anywhere from $1.99 for 50 to $99.99 for 3,500 clams. New houses/items are bought with money which ranges from $1.99 for 500 coins to $99.99 for 35,000 coins. Doing the math if I'd been playing with my own money, instead of supplied "review" in-game currency, my optimal in-game experience with Family Guy would have cost roughly $100. Now granted I sat down to play in blocks of ten to fifteen minutes as opposed to playing for five minutes every six hours. For some players, the game's pace will never require them to pay out of pocket. For others, it will be a nightmare until they lay down some cold hard cash. It's possible to earn golden clams within the game itself by sharing on Facebook and accomplishing tasks. Thankfully money is generously handed out with each completed task, while buildings give out small monetary gifts every few hours. Building your own version of Quahog is a blast when you can properly fund it. I still get a palpable sense of joy from seeing each beautifully animated character living their life in my own odd little creation. Long time fans will love being able to have their own Crippletron behind their house, until they do the math and realize the 750 golden clams it costs adds up to roughly $25 in real world currency. That's just one item in the game's store. There's tons to buy, but who exactly has the money to throw this kind of scratch around in a iOS store game? If Simpsons Tapped Out is any indication there are plenty of people willing to shell out to rebuild their favorite game worlds. That title passed the $100 million mark in revenue within its first year of existence. If you have the money to throw around or the sort of staggered work day where you'll only be playing for five minutes every six hours anyway, Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff is a blast. The graphics are gorgeous, accurately recreating your favorite characters down to every idle butt scratch. Most importantly it's funny with the same sense of "morals be damned" darkness that brought the show back to TV after it was canceled the first time. You will laugh regularly and feel terrible about it just as often. Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff makes me long for a proper world-building game using these characters. This is a fun sandbox to play in, one that could easily be expanded into a full game that doesn't require constant in-app purchases to make progress without waiting hours. It's frustrating, but only because it's a good game. If you have the time/patience/money to make progress there's a lot to discover within. Just remember to bring your wallet, and leave your morals at home.
Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff destroys Quahog next week
Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff is due out for iOS and Android devices on April 10. It's free-to-play and comes from FOX Digital Entertainment and TinyCo. The story (yes, there is a story) follows Peter and other Quahog residents as they attempt to rebuild the city after Peter destroys it in a fight with the Giant Chicken. You can make a living in Quahog and send characters on "ridiculous adventures," TinyCo says. Given it's a Family Guy game, the "ridiculous" part is a tad redundant.
Apple expands Tumblr ads to other sites, and other news for March 14, 2014
Apple has expanded its iPhone 5c ads first seen on Tumblr to other sites. The campaign is called "Every color has a story," and comprises five 15-second videos with color themes corresponding to the iPhone 5c and its colorful cases. The ads feature animated dots, which represent the dots of the iPhone 5c cases, moving to regional or period music. Visitors to Yahoo.com and The New York Times will see the ads. As MacRumors reports: Apple has approximately 17 different animated iPhone 5c ads that are being displayed on the web, both on Yahoo's properties and on The New York Times site earlier this week. According to a Times representative, Apple's grid-based ad was a customized format offering "a transparent overlay to depict a rich brand experience" that was indeed designed by the company though it featured a Sprint logo.... It appears that the campaign on the Times website may have ended, but it is likely that Apple will expand the animated advertisements to other websites as well in an effort to further market the iPhone 5c to a wide range of consumers. In other news: Apple has seeded the second build of OS X 10.9.3 to developers. TinyCo has released images of the first screenshots from the upcoming Family Guy game. Apple has added a "selfie" section to the App Store.
Free-to-play Family Guy game coming to mobile in 2014
A free-to-play Family Guy game is coming to iOS and Android devices, GameSpot reports. This is just like that time that ... uh ... somebody did ... something. Look, there's a reason we're not Family Guy writers. Actually, it's kind of like that time Fox released The Simpsons: Tapped Out. The Family Guy game is being developed by TinyCo. and will feature in-app microtransactions which will allow players to "control the speed of their progression." GameSpot describes it as an "adventure/simulation" game, but what there is to simulate in the Family Guy world is a little more questionable. Fighting giant chickens, maybe? The as-of-yet-unnamed Family Guy game will be (probably) farting and bringing edgy humor to your mobile device sometime in 2014.
Family Guy Online to shut down next month
Get your Quahog gaming fix soon because Family Guy Online is not long for this world. The game announced that it will be shutting down next month on January 18th. Family Guy Online is currently in open beta, which means that it will have never officially launched before spinning down. The game will refund any cash purchases made during the last two months (from October 22nd through December 21st). If you're curious how this interactive version of the TV animated series performed, you can check out Beau's Rise and Shiny expedition. [Thanks to Matthew for the tip!]
Fox Broadcast app now available to Xbox Live customers with Dish and FiOS subscriptions
Xbox Live frontman Larry Hryb (aka Major Nelson) took to his blog on Tuesday to announce that Dish and Verizon FiOS customers can now download the Fox Broadcast app for Xbox 360 to stream next-day Fox programming. In order to use this free app, you'll need a paid Xbox Live Gold subscription. In addition to keeping you up to date with recent episodes of Fringe and Family Guy, this new app also includes access to legacy series such as House and 24. Like most things Xbox, the Fox Broadcasting app features Kinect integration, because everything is "better with Kinect," right?
Rise and Shiny: Family Guy Online
Let me just say this, right off the bat: I cannot stand the Family Guy television series. I know, I know, it's full of shocking, edgy humor and wacky character like the elderly child molester and the sex-crazed neighbor, so why shouldn't I love it? But I've seen the style of humor many times, and it's always, well, non-funny. I've said this before and I still mean it: Seth MacFarlane is this generation's Adam Sandler. They both do one voice and have made millions of dollars from it. So when I decided to see whether Family Guy Online is a real MMO or just a vehicle for the new movie The Watch, (it's plastered throughout much of the game), I was ready for plenty of potty humor, jokes that tried to offend me, and essentially a horrible time. Oh, I found the horrible time easily enough (and forgave much of it because of the game's beta state), but I also found some pretty cool gameplay. Some, I said.
Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse coming this fall
Looks like that Amazon listing we caught wind of a few days ago wasn't some insidious plot by an ineffectual practical joker, but rather an actual video game that Activision now acknowledges the existence of, if just barely.Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse is a console title that will leverage the show's "source material, including the talented voice cast and writers, authentic humor and subversive spirit." Beyond that, and the fact that it's set to launch sometime this fall, we nothing else is known about the MacFarlane tie-in. Inferences can be made from the game's title, however, which is surprisingly close to the name of the first episode of season eight, Road to the Multiverse, which saw Stewie and Brian travelling to parallel universes via remote control.
Fox unveils Family Guy Online... really
This week's edition of I-can't-believe-they're-making-that-into-an-MMO comes courtesy of Fox and the Family Guy. Yes, Family Guy. The MMO. We're not kidding. Details are pretty scarce at this point, so the wisecracks we're dying to make about history's worst IP-to-game translations will have to wait until gameplay footage, screenshots, or trailers are available. As it stands, Family Guy Online was announced via its official website, and Fox has also set up a Facebook presence as well as the usual social media suspects. Interested parties can register on the official site, and while said registration doesn't guarantee you a beta slot, the site does say that registration will put you "among the first in line for the closed beta." Stay tuned to Massively for further Family Guy MMO news as it happens!
New Spider-Man game coming in 2011, Acti prepping two TV license titles
That future where Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions dev Beenox will be Activision's go-to studio for Marvel's franchise we reported on last month? It's officially this year. The publisher revealed during its Q4 2010 financial call that a new Spider-Man game is in development and will be released by the end of the calendar year. No further details were divulged. It was also announced in the call that 2011 will see the release of licensed titles from Activision based on Family Guy and Wipeout. The latter's the "obstacle course" style game show, not Sony's futuristic racing franchise.
Family Guy celebrates the jump to widescreen, shows viewers what they've been missing
While Family Guy's first widescreen 720p episode was the premiere over a week ago, this week's episode was the first to show off the new widescreen intro sequence, but not before kicking things by poking fun at an old classic. Just like Joe Buck and Curt Menefee did for Fox's new 16x9 football broadcast, they highlighted how much extra you can see in the new widescreen format with a revisionist look at the Brady Bunch. Check the episode we mentioned during this week's podcast on Hulu (embedded after the break) for the clip and a quick laugh.
Family Guy gets pwnd in Modern Warfare 2
Hey, did you ever want to see what it would be like for your fat, obnoxious uncle to take a stab at "the Call of Duties?" Well, you're going to have to undertake that quest on your own. But we've got the next best thing: Family Guy's Peter Griffin trying to play Modern Warfare 2. It's like every single stereotype about those 'rents that just don't get it rolled into one minute-long segment, which you can check out past the break.
Microsoft ditches Family Guy special... for being Family Guy
Face? Meet palm. Microsoft's decided to pull out of its co-sponsoring of "Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show" after execs attending the taping came to the sudden conclusion that Family Guy-caliber jokes were to be told, tackling such topics as "deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest." We're not sure how 10 years and over 120 episodes of offensive precedence bypassed Redmond's radars, but man, that's gotta be some strong personal bubble. A Microsoft representative said of the taping, "it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand." The show will still air November 8th, pre-recorded Microsoft references in tow, but with a new as-of-yet unnamed sponsor. All we have of the now-doomed partnership is this brief video from the Windows "741" student site -- it's after the break. [Via The Raw Feed]
Windows 7-branded 'Family Guy' special to air November 8th
Of all Microsoft's advertising moves, this certainly falls in more clever side of the spectrum. Redmond et al. have announced they'll be "sponsoring" a November 8th variety special on Fox, "Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show." The episode'll be a mix of live-action musical performance and animated shorts with the usual celebrity cameos you've come to expect. This show will be commercial free, so long as you don't count all the Windows 7 that'll somehow be integrated -- and that's the most interesting mystery of all, how Microsoft will get its brand recognition without too many jabs from showrunner Seth McFarlane and company. If you don't recall the last time McFarlane teamed up with a big company to enliven its image, check out video from "Burger King presents Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy," a venture also done in tandem with one of the ad agencies responsible for this new deal, Crispin, Porter & Bogusky. It's just after the break. Update: As commenter Zebb reminded us, Bill Gates pulled off a cameo in Frasier "answering caller questions" about Windows XP. We couldn't help but add it to the post just below, jump to the 2:20 mark for the relevant scene.
Pulse: Resident Evil 5 and Family Guy top PSN downloads
What are PlayStation fans downloading these days? Resident Evil 5 tops the free game demos of 2009 so far, beating out the PS3-exclusive Killzone 2. What's up PS3 owners? You don't want to check out the best looking game on the system? Top 10 Game Demos of 2009 Resident Evil 5 Killzone 2 F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin Afro Samurai Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. Skate 2 Wanted: Weapons of Fate Watchmen: The End is Nigh The Lord of the Rings Conquest MLB 09 The Show Check out the top 10 TV shows after the break.
The Queue: The word
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Family Guy is one of the best shows on TV. Begin the flames if you must, but it's the truth and there's really just no arguments that can be made against it. The final question in the Queue today is the reason I've subjected you all to that awesomely annoying song of an ornithological nature.And to continue the polls we've recently been doing...%Poll-27151%Ganesh asked..."Which battleground (including Wintergrasp) can provide the most honor for the least time spent? I guess the short answer is whatever battleground the faction on my server usually wins, but any other ideas?"
Zune gets a smackdown on Family Guy
As if the Microsoft Zune didn't have enough bad publicity, now the Fox Show Family Guy is beating up on the iPod competitor. In last night's episode, called "Ocean's Three and a Half", Carter Pewterschmidt asks Bill Gates for some help programming his Zune. Then Carter remembers he has an iPod, "like the rest of the world." Zing. Pow. Of course Apple doesn't escape the sharp scalpel of satire either. In American Dad, a Fox show from the creator of Family Guy, Roger the Alien thought he was facing certain death and said: "I'm going to be dead, and I have two more years of AppleCare." Rim shot. Clank. Here's a Hulu link to the clip from the show last night, and you can also watch the entire episode from the same link. Thanks to Nick and John for the heads up. I've just got to start watching more television.
Seth MacFarlane takes on Mario for Burger King
Boy, that's kind of a weird headline, huh? Sort of sounds like a dream you'd try to describe to your friends for a few minutes before they'd start getting bored and asking if you, in fact, brought the Mike's Hard Lemonade or if you just came to jibber-jabber.OK, you got us, we're stalling. We just don't have a lot to add here: Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane made a cartoon for Burger King about Mario. That's the whole story. But, hey, it's really funny and a lot of you guys tipped us to it, so we thought we should pass it along. Check it out after the jump.
Rumour: Fox to include iTunes files with DVDs starting 15th Jan
We heard a while back that Apple and the movie studios were in negotiations over movie rentals, and there were mentions of iPod compatible movie files being shipped with DVDs. Of course, to be able to legitimately import DVDs (without resorting to Handbrake) has been a pipe dream for consumers. But not for much longer, it would appear -- that is, if you're a buyer of a particular Fox TV animated series on DVD. Tipster Stewart sent us a note saying he'd received a Family Guy (Blue Harvest) DVD ahead of the January 15th release (coincidence?) and that an iPod-compatible version, branded as a "Fox Digital Copy file," was included on the disc. The only downside was that the disc "requires iTunes version 7.6." We were both sceptical and interested, naturally, and he was gracious enough to send over two shots of the offending article, possibly lifting the lid on some of the iTunes news we can expect next Tuesday. Check the shots out after the jump, keeping your eyes peeled for the (over-zealous) "serial number" that appears to be required to access this digital copy as with existing Fox titles. Thanks Stewart!
