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Sierra On-Line games hit iPad via web app, those old enough to remember them rejoice
You may or may not be old enough to remember Sierra On-Line, makers of such fine games as Leisure Suit Larry, the King's Quest, and Police Quest, but none of that matters anymore. Thanks to the folks over at Sarien, you now have access to these glorious titles via your iPad's web browser. The entire catalog has been ported over, and the games which were previously available via the web only are now there on your Apple tablet! The whole shebang is now hosted on Amazon's content distribution network, and the games have been extensively tweaked for that multitouch interface. Sarien hasn't apparently been issued a cease and desist from Activision -- owners of the catalog -- yet, so get these free gems of yesteryear while you can.
Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust trailer riffs on Gears of War
If any of you didn't get a chance to see the incredible trailer for Gears of War featuring Gary Jules and Michael Andrews' version of the classic Tears for Fears song "Mad World", then you missed out on one of the best video game advertisements to date -- as well as the source for the parody above. Nearly shot for shot, the debut trailer for Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust clowns on Epic's tear-jerking commercial, with obvious nods to John Hughes' classic film, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".We don't know whether we should be incensed or amused. On one hand, the whole Happy Madison brand of humor doesn't really appeal to us -- but on the other, we have to admire Sierra's chutzpah for alluding the sleazy series to the 2006 Game of the Year. We can't help but wonder -- could LSL:BOB be the "Scary Movie" of the video game realm?
Leisure Suit Larry Box Office Bust coming everywhere Fall '08
It's time to prepare for dirty puns and pleb humor as Sierra announces the return of Larry Laffer to the digital screen in Leisure Suit Larry Box Office Bust. Although Sierra finally made the announcement official today, Artie Lange already spilled the beans late last year that a new Larry was on the way.Box Office Bust will see Larry in "mission-based exploration, platforming, racing and puzzle-solving" and the script is penned by Happy Madison Productions' Allen Covert -- LSL series creator Al Lowe isn't mentioned anywhere. The game will be developed by Worms studio Team17 and is expected on Xbox 360, PS3, PC and mobile phones. Hopefully, a new game with fresh blood will get Larry standing at attention again after being flaccid for the last ten years.
Artie Lange provides voice in next Leisure Suit Larry game
According to the unofficial Artie Lange blog site, Lange will voice the role of "Big Al" in an upcoming Leisure Suit Larry game. Lange is best known for his work on the Howard Stern Show. Very little is known beyond the statement made on the Stern show and an official announcement of a new Leisure Suit Larry hasn't been made.It would be nice to see Larry back on top considering he's been quite, erm ... flaccid for the last decade. The last Leisure Suit Larry game, Magna Cum Laude, didn't even star the original character and was an amateur-hour Larry adventure. Thanks to games like Sam & Max showing life in the adventure genre, perhaps there is hope for a well-written quality adventure game starring everyone's favorite lovable loser.
The chilling effect of the AO rating
Game|Life's Chris Kohler has written a feature for Wired about the effects of the Adults Only rating on not only Manhunt 2, but the development and marketing of all mature-oriented games. He contends (accurately) that because the AO rating reduces to near zero the ability of a company to sell games, and because more attention has been paid to adult content in games since "Hot Coffee," publishers are trimming back the adult content of their games out of fear of the AO. This, of course, means that the rating that was nominally put in place to remove any need for censorship is instead creating that need.The most shocking example is the Leisure Suit Larry Collection for the PC, which is incomplete because of concerns that Leisure Suit Larry 7: Love for Sail!, which contains a single scene of brief nudity, would push the collection into AO territory, despite the fact that the game had already been given an M rating in 1996. Well, that's not the only omission. The collection also doesn't include the original EGA version of the first Larry game, nor does it appear to include The Laffer Utilities or Leisure Suit Larry's Casino, but we chalk that up less to censorship and more to Vivendi just being lazy.
Happy belated birthday to (Leisure Suit) Larry Laffer
Larry Laffer, better known as Leisure Suit Larry, turned 20 years old yesterday. Sadly, like many child stars, he didn't have a huge celebration. It merely passed with a statement by his father, Al Lowe, in his daily joke.Lowe writes, "Today is the 20th anniversary of Leisure Suit Larry. On June 4th, 1987, LSL1: Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards shipped ...to the lowest sales of any game in the history of Sierra! I assumed I had just wasted six months of my life and immediately started work on Police Quest I with Jim Walls and Greg Rowland. We worked long hours while, unknown to me, each month Larry's sales doubled. A year later, Larry was in the Top 10 and soon after that was number one. So lift a glass with me to my dear departed friend, Mr. Laffer! Together we had one hell of a decade of great times."Although Mr. Laffer will be appearing in some upcoming mobile games, it'll be hard to recapture his glory days where he taught young boys around the country lessons about the opposite sex. Oh well, although Lowe thinks Larry is dead, we do hope that one day -- and soon -- a Leisure Suit Larry game will return the series to raunchy greatness.
Leisure Suit Larry gets mobile love
Leisure Suit Larry, the original guy, not his Magna Cum Laude nephew, is back and he's gone mobile. Vivendi Games Mobile says that the first title won't be the original Land of the Lounge Lizards, but Love for Sail, which was actually the seventh installment in the series. Europeans can get it in June and the North Americans will have to wait till September."Larry fans worldwide have a strong allegiance to the classic LeisureSuit Larry adventure game format, and we are delighted to be doing just that with the mobile version," said Paul Maglione, president of Vivendi Games Mobile. "We have kept the iconic Larry humor and attitude intact while adapting the graphics, language and controls for a mass-market, global audience."It is funny to think back to the original 1987 (or 1991 remake) version of Leisure Suit Larry in this era of insane parents, government regulations and the ESRB. The original Leisure Suit Larry was the first time many of us learned about safe-sex practices. Remember kids, if you don't put a rubber on with a hooker your joystick will explode. That'll teach you![Via Press Release]
Classic Sierra adventure games re-released
Point and click adventure gamers rejoice! If you've been struggling to (legally) complete your collection of Sierra classics, Vivendi Universal is finally ready to give you just such a chance. They are releasing "compilations" of King's Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry, available March 30th through Amazon, Target, and who knows where else.There is almost no other information about the compilations, except that they run on Windows XP. Have they been ported or are they running through an emulation layer like Sarien? Does the compilation include all the games in the respective series? At $20 each, this could be a great way to build that collection. Then they'll just need to release Gabriel Knight and Quest for Glory... then maybe LucasArts will get in on it...[Via digg]Read - King's Quest CompilationRead - Space Quest CompilationRead - Police Quest CompilationRead - Leisure Suit Larry Compilation
