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dead head fred is a third @@ person action @@ adventure game that incorporates a variety of gameplay styles including combat platforming and puzzles the core gameplay of dead head fred revolves around fred 's missing head and his ability to switch heads by defeating certain enemies decapitating them and collecting their heads ( referred to as headhunting ) as fred explores the city of hope falls he can collect an assortment of heads each of which has unique abilities examples include the stone idol head which fred can use as a battering ram and the corpse head which can be used to suck up and spit out water gasoline and other materials fred uses these heads to navigate the city of hope falls and certain parts of the city are not accessible until certain heads are found the high level of radiation in hope falls has led to a proliferation of grossly mutated worms which the player can collect and use to upgrade fred 's heads and temporarily increase his fighting abilities among other benefits also collectible are money and special items which can be earned by defeating enemies or completing various side @@ missions there are several minigames unrelated to the plot such as pinball and fishing scattered around the city
in combat players have several attacks at their disposal depending on the head fred is equipped with these attacks include combos head @@ specific counterattacks and ranged attacks during a counterattack the player can complete a quick time event to instantly kill an enemy by removing its head which gives fred rage points rage energy builds up over time and the player can use it to unleash powerful attacks on multiple foes dealing a large amount of damage to an opponent will stun them during which time fred can remove their head collected heads can be traded at head shops for a usable version
there are several types of environmental puzzles that the player has to solve in order to progress through the game each one requires a specific head the bone head gives fred sharp claws which allow him to climb on the sides of buildings while the <unk> head decreases his size dramatically and lets him navigate platforming levels such as a saw mill there is also a mannequin head that fred must use to socialize with the residents of hope falls because they are terrified of his other heads there are nine available heads seven of which are suitable for combat

= = plot = =


= = = setting = = =

dead head fred takes place in hope falls new jersey a once @@ prosperous area based on american cities in the 1940s the city has steadily fallen from grace since a business mogul named ulysses pitt began accumulating power pitt has a background of petty crime and there are allegations that he was somehow responsible for the disappearance of vinni rossini an influential hope falls businessman pitt 's new nukular plant has recently finished construction and has caused a high level of radiation in the city leading to strange phenomena like mutated wildlife and undead monsters
hope falls is composed of several areas the first that fred has access to is dr steiner 's castle the ancestral home of the steiner family where fred has been resurrected outside of the castle is a large cemetery that borders the forested area of creepy hollow in hope falls proper are the urban areas of downtown uptown old hope falls and <unk> downtown is the home of pitt 's headquarters and fred 's office is found in old hope falls <unk> as its name suggests is overrun with zombies and most of its residents have fled the neighborhood or barricaded themselves in their homes two other rural areas border the city freak farms where fred owns a small cabin and the <unk> a highly irradiated area where the nukular reactor has been built each area contains several teleporters in the form of sewer manholes which fred can use to quickly move from one area of hope falls to another

= = = characters = = =

the protagonist of dead head fred is fred neuman ( voiced by john c mcginley ) a private detective fred is the only playable character but since each head gives him a different set of animations he could be considered nine separate characters as he does not have a proper face fred 's mood is portrayed by the tone of his voice and by face @@ like expressions formed by his eyes and frontal lobes fred has a wisecracking sarcastic personality and occasionally breaks the fourth wall such as heckling the player when he dies ulysses pitt ( jon polito ) the game 's primary antagonist is a small @@ time hoodlum turned racketeer pitt employs many henchmen throughout hope falls the most prominent of which is his lieutenant lefty whose right leg has been amputated and replaced with a tommygun fred makes several allies throughout the game including dr steiner who resurrected him his girlfriend jeanne rossini ( kari wahlgren ) and his former partner benny salazar fred 's enemies are generally employees of pitt like the skeletal bone thugs or creatures created by hope falls ' radiation like zombies and animated scarecrows

= = = story = = =

the game begins with fred waking up in the castle of a dr <unk> steiner an employee of ulysses pitt fred soon learns that he has been murdered and subsequently resurrected and his head is missing in its place is a liquid @@ filled jar that contains his brain and eyes steiner explains that fred is a private detective who had been investigating pitt but pitt had discovered that fred was on to him and had him murdered many of fred 's memories are missing as a result of the trauma to his brain and before steiner can explain further pitt and several of his henchmen arrive as fred hides in steiner 's lab pitt 's thugs apprehend steiner and announce that he is to be taken to the horseman a minion of pitt 's who resides in creepy hollow
fred leaves steiner 's castle and meets a blue @@ skinned hunchback in the cemetery outside the hunchback introduces himself as sam spade a gravedigger and head merchant who can help fred by providing him with quality interchangeable heads fred continues to creepy hollow where he defeats the horseman and rescues dr steiner steiner however has little information regarding fred 's investigation and suggests that he question the residents of hope falls to learn more about his demise fred begins exploring hope falls meeting many strange personalities along the way he reconnects with his old girlfriend jeanne who is the daughter of a prominent hope falls citizen vinni rossini fred learns that mr rossini had been reported missing by jeanne and jeanne had subsequently hired fred to find him fred had eventually followed the trail to pitt who had bribed fred 's partner benny salazar into betraying him fred was promptly caught by pitt 's henchmen and shot to death by his right @@ hand man lefty
armed with the knowledge of his death and the events leading up to it fred continues his investigation and recovers a videotape of vinni rossini 's murder that incriminates pitt pitt learns that fred is still alive and kidnaps jeanne to use as leverage against him fred confronts the mobster at his headquarters after shutting down the centerpiece of the his criminal enterprise the pitt nukular plant and defeating lefty lefty however was exposed to nuclear waste during the fight and subsequently mutated into a huge beast who comes to pitt 's aid in the game 's final battle fred ultimately defeats both pitt and lefty atop the pitt building pitt is killed during the battle but lefty manages to escape and retreats to the remains of the nukular plant after the battle fred 's head which along with jeanne had been held hostage by pitt is shown tumbling into an open manhole near the pitt building unbeknownst to fred the final scene of the game shows fred and jeanne having dinner at a restaurant to celebrate with fred lamenting the loss of his head

= = development = =


= = = geo = = =

dead head fred uses the vicious engine a game engine created and maintained by game design company vicious cycle software considered middleware in the video game industry the engine was designed as a simple set of creation tools that could be used across multiple consoles the game was originally conceived as a platform game based on the character geo vicious cycle 's president eric peterson and some of his staff developed a conceptual world called prime where geo lived geo had the ability to switch his head between several different shapes ( a cube sphere cylinder and pyramid ) that would help him solve puzzles fight and move around prime in his quest to stop the evil king <unk> who was trying to destroy prime each of geo 's shaped heads had unique properties that gave him different abilities the sphere head allowed him to roll around very quickly for example
the geo concept was described by the development team as similar to other platform games like rayman or spyro and skewed towards a younger audience when the concept was complete the development team presented it to several publishers who stated that they liked the idea but its geometry @@ based core too strongly resembled edutainment and that they were interested in developing a more edgy adult premise the nintendo gamecube had been an early choice for hosting the game before the psp was chosen

= = = noir setting = = =

vicious cycle went back to the drawing board and produced a new concept that they felt was darker and better suited to an older audience the head @@ switching game mechanic had been praised by the potential publishers and was kept but this time the cartoonish childlike geo was replaced by an angry vengeful private detective named fred neuman the world of prime was replaced with the bleak film noir @@ esque city of hope falls where fred would seek revenge against those who had wronged him vicious cycle presented the new project to sony who promptly approved the game for the psp despite it not having secured a publisher shortly afterwards the project was picked up by d3publisher
vicious cycle then submitted the concept to art company massive black studios to develop initial character sketches massive black 's artists were allowed to use their imagination while developing fred but the one stipulation vicious cycle made from the beginning was fred 's head the developers wanted it to be a liquid @@ filled jar with the detective 's brain and eyes floating around inside massive black came up with several different versions of fred including some with guns which lead designer adam cogan had already decided the game would not include after receiving the sketches vicious cycle chose several that portrayed fred with a squat childlike appearance that retained some of the youthful focus of the scrapped geo project the publisher d3 decided to present all of the concept art to a test group to the developers ' surprise the test group was much more interested in a darker more intimidating portrayal of fred than the cartoonish playful look they had chosen the developers decided to flesh out the concept and took the chosen sketches back to massive black this time the art came back darker with similarities to dirty harry and the matrix and the evil dead and a norman rockwell @@ inspired look that would influence the game 's art style towards a more violent theme

= = = further testing = = =

d3 provided the development team with more focus groups and as a result the game slowly incorporated more combat and less platforming and puzzles fred 's combat capabilities were revamped to give him more attacks counterattacks and combinations d3 also gave vicious cycle more time to develop the game with the hope of receiving better reviews and potentially turning dead head fred into a franchise the delay pushed back the game 's release from january to august 2007 d3publisher bought vicious cycle two months before the game 's release but the company 's headquarters remained in north carolina and the staff was retained

= = audio = =


= = = soundtrack = = =

the music of dead head fred was composed by rod abernethy and jason graves and recorded at abernethy 's studio <unk> audio abernethy and graves had worked on previous games by vicious cycle like curious george the composers were interested in developing a sound for dead head fred that was retro @@ futuristic and borrowed from other death @@ themed pieces like stubbs the zombie and beetlejuice the development team did not have any substantial ideas for the game 's music beyond the theme and mood of hope falls giving the composers free rein on the soundtrack 's direction

= = = voice work = = =

a crucial area of development was the formation of the game 's mood theme and story to give it a dark yet humorous quality hiring a hollywood screenwriter to create the script was proposed but ultimately vicious cycle designer dave ellis was given the task of writing the game 's cutscenes and voiceover script while cogan focused on the in @@ game dialog ellis referred to several noir films for inspiration especially miller 's crossing and who framed roger rabbit during this time eric peterson cast several voice actors including john c mcginley from the tv show scrubs and jon polito from the aforementioned miller 's crossing mcginley was cast as fred because of his scrubs character 's sarcasm and wit while polito was cast in the role of mob boss ulysses pitt which was very similar to his role of johnny caspar in miller 's crossing
the development team then set about recording the game 's dialog which proved to be challenging because of vicious cycle 's location on the east coast all of the recordings were done over the phone at a studio in hollywood despite this and the fact that fred alone had over 1000 lines of in @@ game dialog the recording went smoothly with the exception of one unidentified actor who walked out in the middle of a session the original script had only one instance of the word fuck but several recording sessions with mcginley resulted in a great deal of colorful improvisation the design team liked the recordings and the script was modified to permit mcginley and other actors to curse more mcginley focused on portraying fred as pissed off and having a chip on his shoulder because his head was missing
no this guy was unique because well his head was gone with him you could really just open up your imagination and roll out a cavalcade of eccentricities and see what makes sense to you it was pretty much unlike anything i ve ever done before

= = promotion and release = =

dead head fred was first announced at the electronics entertainment expo ( e3 ) video game convention in may 2006 where a trailer was shown to the public following this little was heard about the game until cogan started a developer diary on vicious cycle 's website in march 2007 three diary entries were written by cogan and ellis which provided details about the game 's pre @@ production conceptualization and voice work in may 2007 d3 announced that john c mcginley would be voicing fred and the next month the company issued a press release stating that the game was finished and ready for mass production however the game was delayed allowing d3 publisher to show it at e3 2007 it was eventually released on august 28 2007 in north america after nearly two years of development it was released on october 26 in europe november 2 in australia and march 19 2008 in japan in december 2007 d3 reduced the price of the game and in october 2008 it was made available for download on sony 's playstation network the soundtrack was released on itunes by lakeshore records on september 18 2007

= = = future = = =

dead head fred was designed specifically for the psp and vicious cycle intended it to be their flagship title for the system however the game 's designers have hinted that the game could potentially be ported to the playstation network or xbox live arcade with a few months ' work as of march 2009 d3publisher has announced a sequel but the designers have stated that subsequent titles were discussed during the game 's development john c mcginley has expressed interest in reprising fred namco bandai games ( the parent of d3 ) were impressed with the game and wanted to publish the sequel because they ' wanted ' to test out vicious cycle 's gameplay on the psp

= = reception = =

dead head fred received generally favorable reviews from critics the game 's writing and dialogue were considered the main strengths of the game with gamespy 's reviewer stating that in the vast sea of psp titles dead head fred stands ' head and shoulders ' above the rest ign said the tale of revenge in a dark world is twisted [ and ] unapologetically humorous other publications were not as impressed however with one reviewer stating the overused profanity just makes it feel like it 's been designed by teenagers desperately trying to be edgy the game 's supernatural themes elicited comparisons to the darkness and grim fandango gamesradar included it in their list of the 100 most overlooked games of its generation editor jason fanelli felt that psp games often lacked creativity and that dead head fred was the exception
many reviewers were pleased with the game 's premise and setting variously describing it as weird wacky and silly hope falls especially the area of creepy hollow was compared to the work of tim burton dead head fred 's graphics were warmly received with gamespy noting the game looks simply phenomenal on the psp screen pocket gamer uk said graphically the game won 't blow your head off but it is undeniably stylish pocket gamer also felt that the game 's level design with its emphasis on changing heads to solve environmental puzzles made up for the mediocre combat system the character design was praised gamespy said fred is one of the most interesting and entertaining characters to ever hit gaming and gamezone said fred s freakish form is like looking at a car crash you really don t want to stare but you just can t help it
the voice acting in particular john c mcginley 's portrayal of fred was widely praised as was the rest of the game 's audio gamezone 's natalie romano said there s also some great music in the game and the sound effects are wonderfully detailed
the sound for the title however is fantastic the majority of it is centered around the voice acting which is anchored by john c mcginley of scrubs and office space fame mcginley expertly brings his dry sarcastic delivery to fred 's lines and consistently delivers humorous lines across the entire game
the focal point of reviewers ' criticism was dead head fred 's gameplay specifically the combat it was generally considered tedious and repetitive australia 's pal gaming network described the combat as one of the poorest elements of the game and game informer called the combat mechanics awful the performance of the camera was also criticized with ign noting considering that the camera will sometimes choose some horrible angles for you in battle or during puzzles it 's annoying to have to fight it as well as mutants that want you dead gamezone said i just wish the camera wouldn t be such a hindrance sometimes reviewers were also unhappy with dead head fred 's loading times eurogamer considered them excessively high and ign said the only downside that crops up when it comes to the visuals are the continual loading times on just about every single area

= = = awards = = =

dead head fred was nominated for several awards including the writers guild of america 's first award for video game writing which it won during e3 2007 the game was nominated for the best of e3 2007 best handheld game award by the game critics awards a group of prominent media journalists dead head fred lost to the legend of zelda phantom hourglass for the nintendo ds but was notable for being the only new intellectual property nominated in the handheld category the audio was nominated for two awards at the game audio network guild 's 6th annual ceremony best soundtrack of the year and best handheld audio dead head fred lost to bioshock and syphon filter logan 's shadow respectively


= al wistert =

albert alexander ox wistert ( december 28 1920 march 5 2016 ) was an all @@ pro american football tackle in the national football league ( nfl ) for the philadelphia eagles he played his entire nine @@ year nfl career for the eagles and became their team captain he was named to play in the nfl 's first pro bowl as an eagle during most of wistert 's career there were no football all @@ star games although he was named to the league all @@ pro team eight times
wistert played college football at the university of michigan he is one of the three brothers along with whitey and alvin who were named all @@ american tackles at michigan and later inducted into the college football hall of fame he was the first michigan alumnus to be selected to the national football league pro bowl the wistert brothers all wore jersey no 11 at michigan and are among the seven players who have had their numbers retired by the michigan wolverines football program their number will be put back into circulation starting on november 10 2012 before a michigan home game against northwestern as part of the michigan football legend program

= = early life = =

wistert who was born in chicago illinois was from a lithuanian family his father <unk> wistert was a spanish american war veteran who was later killed in the line of duty while working for the chicago police department the story of the wistert brothers at michigan began when whitey 's carl schurz high school classmate john kowalik was invited to visit the university of michigan at the time whitey wistert had a factory job where he was involved with building majestic radios kowalik took whitey with him on his visit to ann arbor and according to alvin that 's how it started the <unk> of michigan

= = college football = =

after graduating from foreman high school wistert became the second of the wistert brothers to play for michigan where he wore number 11 like his brothers and played from 1940 to 1942 he was a consensus all @@ american and team mvp in 1942 he played in the 1943 east west shrine game he is well remembered among other things for his exploits in a 1942 game against the notre dame fighting irish football team and he was inducted into the college football hall of fame in 1968 one year after his brother francis in 1981 he was named to the university of michigan hall of honor in the fourth class of inductees alongside his brothers only five michigan football players earned this honor before him
michigan posted a 20 5 1 record during wistert 's three years on the team in 1940 the team 's only loss in its eight @@ game season was to the eventual national champion minnesota golden gophers football the wolverines followed that season with 6 1 1 and 7 3 marks in the next two years wistert served as captain of the college all @@ star team that beat the sammy baugh @@ led national football league champion washington redskins 27 7 in chicago he was the only one of the three brothers not to play on a national championship squad at michigan

= = professional football = =

after being drafted in the fifth round by the philadelphia eagles and signing for $ 3800 ( $ 51 @@ 965 today ) he encountered animosity from veteran players for having signed such a large contract ( though they thought he signed for $ 4500 ) he earned all @@ pro honors in eight ( five by consensus ) of his nine seasons as a two @@ way player he played his entire nine @@ year career for the philadelphia eagles ( who operated as a merged team with the pittsburgh steelers for one season during world war ii ) the national football league had no all @@ star games between 1943 and 1950 thus although wistert was a perennial all @@ pro selection it is difficult to compare him to more modern players who are often measured by pro bowl invitations he served as eagles captain for five consecutive seasons from 1946 to 1950 and was named all @@ pro in each season in wistert 's next to last season he was selected to the first pro bowl in his final season he recovered three fumbles the eagles won the 1948 and 1949 national football league championships with wistert these were the only consecutive national football league champions to win by shutout his number 70 was retired by the eagles in 1952 according to his college football hall of fame biography during his career he started every game the eagles played except for the 1950 season opener against the cleveland browns however according to other statistical databases he only started about 2 / 3 of his career games his is one of only seven retired eagles jerseys wistert lamented not having been enshrined in the professional football hall of fame and on philadelphia eagles honor roll
wistert was inducted into the philadelphia eagles honor roll on september 29 2009 along with randall cunningham in 2003 he was named to the pro football researchers association hall of very good in the association 's inaugural hovg class

= = later life and family = =

after football wistert became a successful life insurance salesman he sold insurance for 40 years among the places he has lived since retirement are california and grants pass oregon he was married to his late wife ellie for 61 years and has three daughters ( pam dianna and kathy ) and three grandchildren at one point he was both coaching football at riverside high school in riverside township new jersey and playing professionally according to brother alvin their father was born <unk> <unk> and he anglicized it when he came to america to wistert
wistert died on march 5 2016 in grants pass oregon at the age of 95


= si una vez =

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