Bier #5: Stella Artois

Europe takes their Beer sites seriously. Which isn't too surprising, since the beer tends to be better than most American brews. The last site for the week is Stella Artois.

The site starts out with clips from the variety of video that was created just for the site. An earlier edition of the site has a 2-3 minute movella (like that? i do) that followed a timid beer man trying to get his bottle of Stella from the brewery to his bar in 19th century Paris. (i'm guessing on both the year and the city). This movella would stop at certain parts to allow you access to vere off into a subsection of the site. It was done really well and I'm sad to see it chopped into clips. I wonder if it was the public, or a client who didn't like watching the movie over and over when they visited their site.

Other than the video crafted just for the site, and it's many sections, my favorite part of the site is the games. They're done right.

The first set of games are based around the hardships of making beer in the 13th century. Everything from the literal end of the earth, to the wrath of gods, plagued the poor villagers who only wanted to make a good beer. You play 5 games to see if you could keep the taps flowing. The games are beautifully simple and perfectly contextual. The first one, seen above, has you saving the villagers and the hops from tipping over the edge of the world. The villagers and moving objects in the game are actual video layered on an almost painted landscape. You move the mouse to the left or right to balance the world as it begins to tip.

Another one has you saving the barley fields from warring gods. (hint: when the storm hits, click in the clouds).

I won't go into the other ones, but they're all as sweet looking as the ones above.

The other set of games also have a interesting spin on the "send to a friend" mechanic.

There are 4 visual puzzles involving gears, pulleys, nicks and skizzlewits. Although you can solve the puzzles yourself, the real intent of this is to get you to challenge a friend to solve one. If they lose, they owe you a Stella and vice versa.

All of them seem tough. I wonder if they're fixed to always get you a beer. Crafty.

This site is worth a visit. I don't plan on saying that very often in the course of this blog. Not because everything I see isn't worth it, but because I'm more interesting in reporting/exploring than being a "Hey this is cool go look at it" site (which makes up about 95% of blogs it seems). But this site is something else.

/.cheers.\

Bier #4: Bit and Zoogami

The two fish i've found today are flashy darting things that fly by so fast you're left with only the bright trails burned in your imagination.

Bit beer, a German fish I think is only found in European waters, tells you that if you turn on your webcam and scan the label of your bottle you'll get a music track specific to that flavor, as well as a unique light-video to go along with it.

Light video exhibit A.

Gallery exhibit B.

Unfortunately I can't run to my local store and get the beer (at least not where I'm at). If the store down the block did have it, I might consider it. If the site offered to give me a handful of tracks from the person who created the track, I would definitely revisit the site.

Zoogami is an Italian beer, and the site simply asks you to put in a word or phrase that is contemporary in your mind.

I, of course, put Zombies.

What follows (after you enter the word or words and click drink) is a multimedia show pulling in images, videos and music from the web. My show featured The Zombies "She's Not There" as the soundtrack, and alot of interesting visuals....

As quickly as I chanced upon these fish, they were gone. Good thing I brought my camera.

/.preparetoflash.\

Bier #3: Corona

As I pilot my submarine around the sea of beer sites I'm finding a lot of exotic and colorful creatures. Beer might last the rest of this week.

The Corona Beach site is based on the simple principle of relaxing.

Perfectly in-sync with their advertising, you are placed on a virtual beach that you can click around, and move the camera to the right and left.

There are a few simple activities that garner no award other than to waste time (at least I think - having done them all I didn't find anything new as a result).

My favorite being this one. Where you click and throw your phone into the ocean. KISS.

The content is minimal, except for a section of commercials and wallpapers.

I'm showing this because I'm curious about their presentation of commercials. They offer an embed link, a PSP version, a IPOD version, HD and Standard download versions. For a commercial. I would love so much to see the stats on how many people downloaded these to view later...or forever. I'm being cynical, but if the stats were favorable I'd be overjoyed.


/.tuskan.\