Steef Christmas card curtasy from OWI!

[paramiteabe]

Happy Holidays everyone and well this years Christmas card from OWI is a very special card with a picture of Steef and the gang signed by Alf. I love OWI with their many many surprises every year.

Take a look. The Salimanders creatures are actually pretty small. It looks to me that Steef belongs to this family of crazy messed up Oddworld styal hicks or hill billys. And who is that guy in the center with the big hat? He looks like the ring leader of this messed up hick family. hmm! Can we say Odd! I wounder if OWI plans on putting in a lot of news for December? hmm. Here is what it says in the card.


"Twas the night I saw stranger....
He was covered in shadow, from his head to his boot, and his cloths were all tarnished with crossbow soot. A bundle of ammo he flung on his back- I swore I heard voices from inside that pack!


His eyes how they squinted, his nostrils they flared. His cheeks were like mince meat, his bounty was scared.
His droll upper lip was drawn up like a bow. As he sniffed a musket then gave it a throw.

His breath was like fruit-cake from holidays past. One whiff of that odor and I thought he'd just gassed! With the flick of a wrist and the hawk of a loogie. He prepared for his journey and, "Lets boogie."


He jumped in his boat and the oars gave a moan, And away they paddled, like sinew and bone. And I heard him exclaim as he rode out of sight "Happy Holidays to all And to all an Odd night!"

Paramiteabe...

[Esus]

I think the guy with the top hat is the "other" hunter seen in the Stectrum 10 book... look at the shape of his jaw.

[Fez]

this is starting to look like Rayman. I'm not happy.

[Mac the Janitor]

I've attached a nice big scan of it.




I'm extremely excited for this game. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new mechanic guy on the far right. Also, the salamander and karate blob designs are looking much better now, but sadly I can't say the same for the Hickens. Hell, who cares about the hickens. Everything else looks absolutely awesome.



Oh yeah, and looks like I was right about his name being The Stranger. So there.

[Al the Vykker]

Well hopefully my card comes in the mail soon enough. I hope my new email will be up and ready for the time if they send out more email cards like they did last year.

[oddguy]

Oh baby, I just love this card and OWI! Karate blobs look really cool, but that buck toothed guy in the middle doesn't give me warm holiday feelings. Salamanders look better and I've changed my outlook on them. I still don't like Hickens though.


-oddguy

[sligslinger]

bitchin!!!! i hope i get one soon.

the grub hunter looks bitchin like a thought, but the frog/gator guy looks very gay, i hope that top hat is something he wore only for the card. it makes him look like a retarded gator/frog/cat in he hat fag.

but the Stranger aswell the others are ubercool!

BIG EDIT: the guy on the far right is defineately that orc we saw in the xfactor trailer, the one that was knocked out by the crossbow in the first person preview.

[lindsey]

oddworld is going to western crap

[sligslinger]

whats wrong with western, i think its great to take a break from the other aspects of oddworld. although i dont like the look of some of the characters.

[TheKhanzumer]

I got this card. Thanks OWI.

The character designs all look a lot better than before. The "hunter" looks like he might be some species related to the glukkons. The guy with ears is sort of dull, the dude with the hat looks dumb, but the hickens, salamanders and blobs all look cool. But I think the hickens looked better without nostrils.

Did anyone else notice the small crab/spider creature in the bottom left of the card?

[sligslinger]

hey i didne notice that. THANKS KHANZ!

[Al the Vykker]

Originally posted by lindsey
oddworld is going to western crap

Well if you would have read about the whole steef thing on the forums, you would know already that oddworld is taking a break from Abe and Munch, and giving them a nice vacation, and make a game with a different feel, and genre, as well as a bunch of new characters and creatures.


So who so far has gotten their card? I have not gotten mine yet. So I'm expecting it monday, being there will be no mail tomorrow.

[Esus]

For some reason Im lovin' those karate blobs... I dunno why, they just look cool, and now I've seen the card, i really wanna know who that guy next to Steef, on the right of the card, is....

[CarboN]

I haven't still got anything from OWI...
and I signed in the club long time ago...

[Xavier]

can't wait for the card...
I do have some aprehensions for the overal desing of the next game, lets hope that at least the spirit from the firsts games come back

anyway, thanks for the scans of it

[Max the Mug]

I haven't got my card in the post yet, but I have mixed feelings about what I can see. Firstly, I am incredibly grateful, as I know we all are, for OWI's and Alf's work in dispensing another card to the fans. What's more, it is a very beautiful image, very realistic, with very plausible patination.

Secondly, I believe the characters have improved - the salamanders and blobs (which actually look like shell-less turtles) are much better, the picture actually makes me look forward to seeing them. I think it's because primarily they both now have emotion in their faces (the salamanders looking pathetic and pleading, the blobs sort of reverent and mystic - hard to describe), but also because they now have much more detail and intrigue. The former are much improved over the wiggling tubes we saw in the X-Factor video, so I have to congratulate OWI there. The first hunter still looks great, I'm not sure I like his jowels, but they make sense, and help give him an egotistic/megalomaniac undertone.

However, there are bad points, mostly related to the design, and I'm glad I'm not the only one to be airing such an opinion. The Hickens look terrible. They are big fat chickens with almost no artistic liscence or imaginative design that I can see. What the hell is that Mother Hen wearing? It's a dress stolen directly from an Earth Western, and I'm not happy about seeing it on Oddworld. I'd be even more devestated if I saw a Western swing door. That would totally suck. I like the central guy's tall hat, although he himself looks pathetic. Now excuse my language, but what the fuck is that in the top right hand corner? Have the Vykkers been pissing about again?

That's really all I think. It strikes me as being odd (no pun intended) that the salamanders look like Mudokons and the hunter looks like a Glukkon. It could be symbolic of the rivalry/competition between the two races that does indeed go back millennia and has followed several evolutionary routes. Or it could be that the original creatures were representative of their respective sides so much it's difficult to break away from those characters. I don't know. I'm not looking forward to the overall character design in the new game (although like I said I am pleased with a couple of aspects), and I'm not looking forward to the heavy drawing off of Western themes. I don't buy everyone's "they're taking a break" excuse. Yes, they're taking a break, and no there's nothing wrong with making a Western as long as it's an Oddworld Western, and not just a Western that happens to take place on Oddworld. I hope the distinction is clear.

Anyway, we'll see. Thanks again to OWI for this new and fresh peak into the next game, rest assured I am happier overall, because no new disappointments have come about.

Did anyone notice the mountains in the background, the barbed wire frame, or that the Hickens and Hunter are now the umpteenth characters to have nostrils above and between their eyes? And does anyone know what a 'loogie' is? I can't see anything in dictionary.com nor by using Google. A species name, perhaps? I have got observations about the card which may provide spoilers and theories about what will be in the new game, but I've spoken enough.

EDIT: To hawk is to clear the throat of phlegm, and loogie is another word for phlegm. I'd say that their context doesn't make grammatical sense, but then neither does anything else in the text.

[Xavier]

Wow Max, you are amasing, you are transcripting exactly my feelings

Some elements in it definatly do have the Oddworld touch: barbed wire frame, and Steef and the Hunter does look better than ever.

[sligslinger]

but what the **** is that in the top right hand corner?

1. how'd you manage to swear like that without the forum dubbing it.

2. that guy is that orc! no doubt about it! go look!

[Esus]

eww... just noticed his... uhm.... ear.....

By the looks of the card, it seems the salamander thing-a-ma-bobs are the 'weak' race who are to be protected... or have a main part as that type of race in the next game. They are like the mudokons in the way that they are not 'developed' or industrialised, as shown in x factor when they were dancing in primitive clothes, and shown on the card with their clothes and what they are holding. Their faces also cry out pain and possibly supression.

Back to the card, I like the way they have designed it, with the old paper pinned to a piece of wood, with the creases and the barbed wire... and of course the holly leaves which seem to be placed over the wood... looks more real.

[Cloverfield]

Wow, that looks awesome!!! I love the whole old fashioned look to it ... and the new CG is amazing.

*goes to wait patiently near mailbox for mail to arrive to Australia*

Abe Babe...

[sligslinger]

by the look of those mountains, i'd say it's snowy

I hope some of the game takes place in a snowy-like paramonian trees and such, kind of a canadian or alaskan feel to it. That would be awesome.

[Xavier]

Originally posted by sligslinger
2. that guy is that orc! no doubt about it! go look!

an Orc? On Oddworld? oh, I pray not!

anyway, those weapons does look quite good!

[Al the Vykker]

don't buy everyone's "they're taking a break" excuse. Yes, they're taking a break, and no there's nothing wrong with making a Western as long as it's an Oddworld Western, and not just a Western that happens to take place on Oddworld. I hope the distinction is clear.

Max, I never said that was an excuse. I was just explaining to Lindsey, why Abe and Munch arent the stars in this new game.

I will make my final decision when I play the game. I agree with you on this, hopefully the Oddworld feel everyone loves stays intact with this new game, I just thought the comment of a crappy western was a bit uncalled for especially since we havent even seen any truly recent screenshots or footage, besides the rough cut stuff from X factor.

[paramiteabe]

I think those Salimanders might actually be more of an aggressive natural species. If you notice the one on the right looks like he is holding some sort of blow gun that would shoot out poisonous darts by simply blowing threw the wooden pipe. Remindes me of Voodo. Hmm Intresting! And just by the look of their faces I don't even think they talk but talk in a different manner like useing different sounds to communicate among each other. Like makeing clicking noises to communicate with each other. If Oddworld 4 is about bounty hunting and hunting in general then I believe we are just simply going to be seeing all kinds of hunting species Industrial and native.

Also as for those blobs I don't think they talk eather. I think communicate through their body movement or dance. Intresting But I dunno its only a theory.


Paramiteabe...

[sligslinger]

Originally posted by Xavier
an Orc? On Oddworld? oh, I pray not!

anyway, those weapons does look quite good!

you dont understand when the Steef's Oddysee thread came out and we dicussed the xfactor video, we dubbed those arrow shooting guys "orcs". because that's what they looked like.
i didn't mean there were actuall orcs running around. i was just saying that that mechanic guy on the right is the same kind of species as that orc guy we saw on the xfactor video.

EDIT: im trying to make out the logo on that guy's hat, i think it' a W, wonder what the W stands for.

[Xavier]

ah, sorry, that's what you mean...
and yeah the logo looks like a W, but I can't tell where it comes from

but why do you keep saying it's a mechanic guy, he simply holds a gun, no?

[Max the Mug]

1. how'd you manage to swear like that without the forum dubbing it.

2. that guy is that orc! no doubt about it! go look!

Sydney has already explained how to do that, so I needn't repeat the procedure. And I knew the creature was what we called the orc because you'd said so earlier. I can't get a clear enough image of the creature in the video to support dispute, but I trust that you're right. What I meant by that was merely to display my utter disgust that such a thing could exist. I don't like it at all, but its suit does intrigue me. The hat looks like a grubby garage-worker's hat, sort of a box-like baseball cap.

I think it's snowing on the card because it's Christmas. No? There's been snow on most other Oddworld Christmas pictures, so why not this one? But you're right, a snowed-over environment would be fun - I can just imagine seeing all the odd footprints in the snow.

PA's right, the salamanders do look more like pygmies or headhunters than Native Americans, which is what you'd expect in a Western. Doesn't it also make sense that the spider/crab is also an Oddworld scorpian? I'd like to know, in a game about hunting, what other wildlife we'll be seeing. We know about the wartslog and the skunks (which apparently can talk), but that's it.

I also just really noticed the female Hicken for the first time. That certainly blows my queen theory out the window, since Hickens are clearly more closely related to Mudokons than Mudokons are to Glukkons. A shame. What's more of a shame is that she's got breasts. Why would a bird need mammary glands? All will hopefully be explained. Hands up all those looking forward to tomorrow's updates (assuming they're on time).

[Mac the Janitor]

Originally posted by Max the Mug
I can't get a clear enough image of the creature in the video to support dispute, but I trust that you're right. What I meant by that was merely to display my utter disgust that such a thing could exist. I don't like it at all, but its suit does intrigue me. The hat looks like a grubby garage-worker's hat, sort of a box-like baseball cap.

I think he's absolutely magnificent. Totally fits in with all the original Oddworld species. You're whining about getting an unique, original, odd character, and when you get this, you whine about how ugly it is. You're being very picky, Max. Now, I understand that this is your opinion, but can't you just let up and recieve this game with an open mind? Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking for a fight or trying to offend you or anything, I just think you should back down and maybe wait for more info before you shoot this game down any more.

[Esus]

Now you mention it, the salamanders do look as though they're wielding weapons, such as the dart shooting thingy...

Do we have any specifics on tomorrows update, or is it just a general one?

[Xavier]

Originally posted by Esus
Do we have any specifics on tomorrows update, or is it just a general one?

well they promised us lots of thing last month for December, so we expect at least some infos in a Daily Deception