Friday, June 28, 2013
Almost Human
The Band is getting back together! The team behind Fringe is returning to Fox with Almost Human. Set in 2048, the show chronicles the lives of two Los Angeles Police Detectives one a human and his partner a robot. Very Asimov The Caves of Steel and considering the team putting it together and the actors Star Trek's Karl Urban, Michael Ealy of Common Law, and Lili Taylor of Six Feet Under; I have high hopes for this show. Here's the first trailer:
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
The Flying Tank
There is a scene in 2010's A-Team in which the titular crew is falling in a tank after having been shot down. They manage to steer the tank into a lake and survive. Now most people chuckled when they saw the scene but others cried foul. Apparently the math and science guys over at Reel Physics, a show that looks at stunts in movies and determines their validity, took a gander at the scene and came up with a surprising result. Here it is:
Link:
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
The Final Frontier
Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship
Enterprise. Her five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out
new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.
– Star Trek Into Darkness
I have always loved the Star Trek franchise. Though I
don’t consider myself a ‘Trekkie’, it was always a series
that made a lot of sense to me. Star Trek at its core was about exploring
worlds and people unconstrained by ‘these mortal coils’ and it was
a show that did it well for many years. These days due to business and
ironically mortal issues, there is no longer a show on television. Still as a
science fiction fan, I hope that one day a Star Trek television series will
return.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
The Nintendo Mirage
Nintendo has had a tumultuous, topsy-turvy year. The Wii U has been
selling poorly behind weak game sales, on the other hand the 3DS and the
original Wii are still selling very well. The 3DS even took the top spot in
hardware sales for May in the US.
Nintendo forsook E3 this year in a concentrated effort to reaffirm itself to
fans and in many ways that may have been a smart move. Nintendo fans buy
Nintendo consoles for Nintendo games; it has always been both a positive and a
negative for Nintendo.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
The Informed Gamer
The big three have
put forth their best foot forward in the new generation and mounting evidence
suggests Microsoft stumbled again, Sony soared and Nintendo was ignored. Sony
dominated on the PR battle, and rightly so. Although many of the same features
derided on the Xbox One were present in the PS4, including but not limited to
publisher-driven DRM and subscription-based online play, Sony managed to come
out of its conference virtually unscathed. Add to the fact that many games that
appeared to be exclusives, but were later shown to be multiplatform, were
announced during Sony’s conference and you have a clear winner.
Sony managed to cut
the Xbox One of at the knees with a $399 price point, but that doesn’t include
the $60 PS Eye. In the short term, failure to include the webcam-esque device
with every console works in Sony’s favor, but in the long-term the Xbox One is
the smarter move. Not only does it remove doubt about Kinect from the
developers mind it also maintains the promise of smart Kinect use. Like the
dual sticks use from Halo on the original Xbox, all the Kinect 2.0 needs is
that one brilliant game that uses the Kinect in a way that others will copy.
Attach rates of peripherals are deemed high when they are around 33%, yet the
Kinect is guaranteed to be owned by every Xbox One owner.
Labels:
Destiny,
E3,
Microsoft,
Nintendo,
Sony,
The Division,
Watch Dogs,
X
Friday, June 7, 2013
Countdown to the Thunder Dome
It’s about that time
of the year again, the Electronic Entertainment Expo, more commonly known as E3
is just a stone’s throw away. E3 is the gaming world’s version of the Super
Bowl, with Titans battling it out for all the glory under the sun. Greatness at
E3 doesn’t necessarily mean success down the road but the gaming industry
doesn’t have many stories of dark horses. A game that wows at E3 usually brings
dividends both critically and commercially, though there are always pitfalls to
success.
E3 has lost some of
its shine the last few years; this year will see Nintendo not attend in any
real capacity. The Wii U is struggling and is seen by most as the lesser cousin
to the PS4 and Xbox One. Nintendo is seeking to cut out the middleman to its
consumers directly with Nintendo Direct. Nintendo Direct is the new online home
for all news Nintendo, almost like the Nintendo Power days of old, whether this
strategy works out for them in the short or long-term remains to be seen.
Monday, June 3, 2013
My Doctor
The news came
down the pipeline that Matt Smith was hanging up his bow tie, as the Eleventh
Doctor, in the classic British show Doctor Who. Smith, the third actor to play
the titular Doctor in the modern series, was my first Doctor, at least the
first one I had watched from the beginning.
It makes me something of a neophyte
but it also makes the news a little more poignant. Smith is ‘my doctor’ as Rose
Tyler once said, and I’m sad to see him go. It’s the end of an era, even though
the timings right. It’s the perfect time for the actor who came in quite
celebrated critically to venture out and start new projects; it probably doesn’t
hurt that he turned the big 3 0 either.
There’s always a bit of nostalgic and bitter
sweetness at the end of something. You acknowledge that you are affected by its
end and it’s a nod to the fact that it was worth your time; we are always sad
to see things we invested much of ourselves end. An ending means that something
new must begin, there’s always the hesitation and wondering if it can surpass
what has come before it. I’m sure I’ll go back to the old episodes and laugh
and cry at the stories that are told counting down to the final episodes of the
Eleventh. After all that, I’ll put them away looking forward to the next Doctor
and new beginnings, but thankful for all the memories, it has been a pleasure.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Chronicles of the Old Republic II
I’ve been focusing on my Sith Juggernaut, Khusrau. She is a pretty badass tank, named in honor of the legendary emperor of the
Persian Empire, the ‘Immortal Soul’ who guided Persia to its golden age. I’m
finally wearing the Thana Vesh gear, something I’ve been lusting after
since I first saw the incredible Thana Vesh. If you don’t know, Thana
Vesh is one of the better known NPC’s in the game. Angry, powerful in the
Force, always good for a snarky one-liner, Thana is the apprentice of the Commander of
the Imperial forces of Taris.
Khusrau is a character I made sometime ago to help me get
into endgame raiding. I have always shied away from anything that can’t
be done solo. I play at all different hours of the day depending on my job,
plus I play on a west coast server; it’s always been more expedient for
me to solo to get the most bang for my buck.
Khusrau is pushing through the mid-30’s and
I’m playing through the two part Revan dungeon quest. A sad fall for a
once great legend, Revan is not the hero you remember from KOTOR. Various
classes give insight on what happened but the last companion for the Jedi
Knight, the former Emperor’s Wrath tells most of the story. Revan came
with his closest general and friend seeking out the darkness he had felt, he learned
too late that he had wasted the Star Forge’s potential on ships,
it’s a sad tale but still is makes for good copy.
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