ConCal Site Update

Some of you may have noticed that there has been a lack of regular news updates on Constantly Calibrating over the last couple of weeks. The reasoning for this is that trying to work on my first book and summer travel plans have eaten into my schedule. Have no fear though, for regular updates will be happening for most major upcoming events such as E3 and San Diego Comic-Con. Starting this week I will also be instituting a series of new columns on the site each and every weekday. Here is a rundown of what to expect from this point out:

Mondays – Starting today I will be writing a weekly column called “Creative Day” (Seriously, if anyone has a better name for this just recommend please.) “Creative Day” will be focused on whatever random thing I feel like writing about in that moment. This week’s article will likely focus on my opinions of cruises, seeing as I’m currently on one. Then again I haven’t written it yet, so maybe my opinion will change in the next few minutes.

Tuesdays – Tuesdays will be weekly editions of “Shut Up and Take Our Money!”, which will focus mostly on Kickstarter campaigns I’m currently fond of, but may transition into any other awesome nerdy items I happen upon in my internet travels. If you see a Kickstarter you would like me to discuss you can post it here.

Wednesdays – Comics are the focus of Wednesdays. Coming up with a name for Comics is also a goal I’m working on. My wife and I started reading (rereading in my case) the Marvel Ultimate Universe of comics last week and I thought it might be interesting to write-up a combination review, commentary, rantathon each week for what we’ve read.

Thursdays – Thursdays will switch off each week to every three weeks between two columns. The first is our incredibly popular “RetroRewind”. For those not familiar, in “RetroRewind” I take a look at older games and do a bit of commentary and review. You hopefully are familiar with my Leisure Suit Larry series I did last month. If you would like to recommend a game for me to play, let me know in the comments, on Facebook, or Twitter.

All other weeks we will feature a column called “Active Play”. In “Active Play” I will simply discuss what I’m actively playing. Funny how that works. Any topic related to video games may be featured, so we’ll see what I think of for this week.

Thursdays, starting again June 7th, will continue to be the release day for new episodes of “Constantly Calibrating” hosted by myself and the lovely and talented Steven Needham.

Fridays – “A Week(ish) in News” makes its semi-triumphant return! I’m not dropping news all together, but instead moving it into a variety column of sorts for Fridays. All news related to all things nerd culture can, and will, be featured from the prior week.

That about covers the upcoming changes to Constantly Calibrating; more is still to come so stick around for news and announcements as we think of them!

RetroRewind: Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out!

Welcome to another installment of RetroRewind. Today we bring you the sixth installment in our tales of Larry Laffer. RetroRewind is a few days delayed this week due to the unfortunate, cruel mistress that is real life. We do have a huge announcement on the subject of Leisure Suit Larry to bring you! Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards: Reloaded is officially funded! As of this morning the Kickstarter campaign has concluded with Larry raising over $655k. What does this mean for Mr. Laffer? Well it means that the upcoming game will have assorted updates to the story, including a new “conquest” for Larry with her own storyline. Now with that news out of the way we take you back into the sixth of Larry’s journeys: Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape up or Slip Out!

Larry Laffer is journeying along Venice Beach, checking out all the body-builders working their stuff. Suddenly a comically large limo pulls up with a producer in-tow looking for a gentleman to become a bachelor on a new dating show. Larry, being the superb example of male-perfection obviously accepts the gig. The show is Stallions hosted by Leisure Suit Larry 2’s Biff Stiff. Over the course of the game show Larry ends up losing out on his previous cruise ship dating show glory, but he does win a most-expenses paid weekend at La Costa Lotta Spa & Resort. Now Larry’s latest journey can begin!

Leisure Suit Larry Playathon donates to a good cause, or causes

Hey guys, wife and I are prepping to head out soon, but spotted this on the Leisure Suit Larry Kickstarter page and thought I would link it all to you:

OOPS!!! Ok, so maybe I should be shot for this because I feel like this should have been at the TOP of the list of things to tell you about. Please don’t hate me!!!

Tomorrow, one of our fans, John A., is hosting a special marathon session where he’s going to play through the entire Leisure Suit Larry franchise starting at LSL 1 and ending at LSL 7. He’s doing this to raise money for the campaign and to also raise money for charity. 50% of the money raised will go directly to the “It Gets Better Project” (www.itgetsbetter.org) and the other 50% will go to our Kickstarter campaign. All of us here at Replay can not think of a kinder thing to do for such a special charity that is 100% altruistic and giving directly from his heart.

As an added bonus, Al Lowe, Josh Mandel, and myself will make guest appearances throughout the marathon and chat / interact with you guys. We obviously can’t stay in there the whole time, but hopefully you’ll be in there when one of us are there so you can catch us and ask us ALMOST anything. 🙂

Hopefully we can raise enough money to make a difference in these kid’s lives. Below is a video John put together to talk about the event and here is the direct link where you should go tomorrow, Saturday, from 10am Eastern time until midnight: http://www.twitch.tv/JohnnyPhantom

See you online!!!

-Paul T.

Both causes are worthy of donating to and it looks like it will be a fun event, so if you have time or just want to see the full LSL story, then tune in now or at some time today. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to make a donation; just a thought.

An Extremely Brief Hiatus

I’m sure by now you all have noticed that I didn’t post the sixth issue of RetroRewind dealing with Leisure Suit Larry 6: Shape Up or Slip Out. Why is that you might ask? Well I became extremely busy dealing with real life stuff and while I was able to finish the game; I was not able to write-up a review. This Monday is my wife and my one-year wedding anniversary, and tomorrow we leave for a trip to Disneyland; which also happens to be where our wedding took place. (At the Disneyland Hotel, not in the park mind you.) I will finish the RetroRewind series during this trip, but probably only releasing the last two parts over the whole trip in some fashion. No matter how awesome you all are, the simple truth is that my wife is far more awesome. That also is proven by the fact that she is going to drive the last third of the journey to California tomorrow so that I can write a review and maybe play a bit of Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail. So look forward to that.

On that note, we will be going through a bit of a communications blackout both here and on the Facebook page. As I’m the only active writer for the site, the site sort of hinges on my ability to post news. Well this weekend that will not be possible, which is also evidenced by the fact that I haven’t written a new issue of Week(ish) In News in, well a week…ish.

This brings me to another topic:
We need your help! If you’re willing that is. To help prevent future blackout periods during the rare trip we are looking for some skilled, or semi-skilled, content generators. What are content generators?

• Writers – We need writers of a decent quality to write for our growing community. Anyone was interest in nerd culture, whether that be games, comics, movies, TV, or even specific or niche topics can apply. If you have the passion and drive, and hopefully talent then we are certainly looking for you.
• Visual Artists – Do you have a way with a paint brush, pen, pencil, or graphic design program? Well we are interested in getting some high quality art for the site. Spruce the site up a little bit.
• Anything Else – Honestly we would love for anyone to submit any content to the site. If we like you’re work, we’ll feature it in some fashion. If you’re work is of a high enough quality we might even make you a regular contributor.

Now I have to stress this point: None of these positions will be paid, for now at least. Maybe in the future if we start making money off the site we will be able to look into this, but for now this is solely for the experience and your own enjoyment.

If you are interested in any of these “positions” then contact us on Facebook or via email.

Stick around, because come next week we shift into semi-overdrive with the site.

More episodes of the podcast!
More articles that you love!
More projects finally getting announced!
Many Some other things!
A Fifth Thing!

RetroRewind: Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work

Well, that was quite the interesting detour that RetroRewind took earlier today. Apparently we’re now covering fictional, poorly written and halfassed games as well. But, enough about my creative skills; we’re here to discuss Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work. The year is 1991 and Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards has just been remade and re-released with new up-to-date, modern adventure game stylings. Larry’s last numbered out was Leisure Suit Larry III: Passionate Patti in Pursuit of Pulsating Pectorals in which Larry finally found the true love of his life on Nontoonyt Island. He also stumbled through a magical temporal schism onto the backlot of Sierra Entertainment becoming, along with Patti, game designers for the company. Their job being to design games based on Larry’s life.

Sometime after this they begin work on Leisure Suit Larry 4, but sometime after this something happens and Patti and Larry part ways. Larry suffers amnesia and gets a job as chief rewinder and sterilizer of the Betamax division of PornProdCorp, a company specializing in semi-pornographic television and video. Patti however goes back to her pianist (hehe) ways and starts working in a summa lounge. That is until she gets visited by the FBI and asked to investigate the possibility of subliminal messages being implanted into music throughout industry. Larry is given the task of tracking down, and secretly taping, three beautiful woman around the country in the hopes of giving them a job (if you know what I mean). Thus begins Leisure Suit Larry 5: Passionate Patti Does a Little Undercover Work.

Calibrating Episode V – The Striking of the Calibrations

Wow, it’s already time for Episode #5 of Constantly Calibrating. Can you all believe it?! In today’s episode we finally go into some more detail about Josh’s love of Leisure Suit Larry, and the ongoing Kickstarter campaign. Skyrim Kinect also gets some discussion time; as well as Halo 4. Good conversations were had by all!

This episode is available on iTunes.
Also, feel free to add our RSS feed to your choice aggregator.
You can try this direct download link as well, if you wish.

 
We’re going to try something new by offering you the ability to listen directly from our site. Let us know what you think:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/constantlycalibrating/5_-_Calibrating_Episode_V_-_The_Striking_of_the_Calibrations.m4a%20

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