Monthly Archives: November 2013
The Xbox One is Also Suffering from Hardware Issues
Well, it should surprise anyone that a new piece of electronic hardware is suffering some issues at launch. Like some PlayStation 4 consoles, the Xbox One is suffering from a few hardware maladies.
While some PS4s aren’t taking the discs into the console, the some Xbox One Blu-Ray drives are not reading discs while others are actually eating the discs.
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Comic Book Pull List for November 27, 2013
If you’re a Marvel fan, you’re going to your local comic book store this week. Marvel’s big summer event, Infinity, comes to a close in Infinity #6 as the heroes of Earth do battle with the forces of Thanos. I kind of wonder if we’ll see parts of this story come up in The Avengers 3 when that comes out.
If you’d rather something a bit more geared towards kids, I’m looking forward to Mr. Peabody & Sherman’s new miniseries that starts this week.
I just realized that I always refer to it as the “local comic book store” because we only have the one comic book store in my hometown. I reckon that a good number of you reading actually have more than one comic book store in their towns. Maybe I should start saying “neighbourhood comic book store.”
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Corrinne Yu, Principal Engine Programmer on Halo 4, Joins Naughty Dog
We don’t often write about employment news in the games industry but this latest bit of news at 343 Industries and Naughty Dog could be massive in the battle between Microsoft and Sony.
Corrinne Yu, the principal engine architect at 343 Industries for Halo 4 and considered to be the most important member of the team in making Halo 4 look as amazing as it did, has left the Microsoft first-party studio and joined Sony’s flagship first-party studio, Naughty Dog.
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Building (Critical) Consensus: The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
Last week was a pretty good week to be a Nintendo fan. Mario had a big release last Friday on the Wii U with the launch of Super Mario 3D World. Meanwhile, on the 3DS, Link was back with a new handheld exclusive in The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. I’d say that the 3DS needs love too but I’m pretty sure that everyone with a 3DS (or 2DS) is still playing Pokemon X & Y.
It seems as though that Nintendo managed to reinvigorate two of their most classic and iconic franchises in one day. Critics raved about both the accessibility of the game for those new to Zelda and the depth of gameplay and story for long-time players. Not everyone felt that way as some critics felt that A Link Between Worlds didn’t try anything particularly new and goes too easy on players.
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Doctor Who: The Day of The Doctor Review
Over the course of 50 years, Doctor Who has come a long way from an old man travelling around in a plain-looking police box in a children’s educational show. Now, it’s a massive worldwide phenomenon that has skyrocketed in popularity since the series was revived from cancellation in 2005.
The 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, a show that was effectively dead for sixteen years, has garnered so much attention that it may be an event that rivals the World Cup final or Super Bowl when all the viewers are counted up. Could The Day of The Doctor live up to the expectations and hype of one of the most hotly anticipated TV events of the year?
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Haven: Shot in the Dark Review
After a few good episodes that filled us in with more information, this week, the folks in Haven, Maine, pass some time until the big season finale. They did the same thing last season. Just a little bit of fun with some new characters to get us to the next step in this season’s story.
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Geek Links of the Week
Sony’s not making money on each PS4 unit sold. Here’s the breakdown of roughly how much it costs to put one of their new consoles on the shelf. [All Things D]
Speaking of the PS4, Sony is still insisting that the failure rate of the console is under 1%. I kind of wonder how much all the reports of hardware problems is down to the fact that this is the first console launch in the social media age. [Kotaku]
It’s no secret that I’m a fan of competitive StarCraft even though my idea of competitive StarCraft is my battles in bronze league. Anyway, here’s a look at the epic Jaedong vs. Dear match from BlizzCon from the crowd. [PC Games N]
If you’ve played a terrible PC port that fans have fixed, you know the name Durante. Here’s a profile on the PC port fixing genius. [Wired]
Is Crash Bandicoot back in the Sony Computer Entertainment fold? IGN thinks so. To hell with Uncharted 4, get Naughty Dog to drop everything and make Crash Bandicoot 4. [IGN]
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7 Best Games of the 7th Generation: Rock Band
When people think up games for lists such as out 7 best games of the 7th generation (or 7 For 7 for short), they think of game of the year winners or critically acclaimed blockbusters. But how many of these lists include games that were just wildly popular and genre redefining?
Rock Band was probably never really in contention for a major game of the year award but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a big game for the current console generation. The mark of a game being among the best isn’t just what the critics think but what the gamers think. I’m hard pressed to think of anyone who didn’t love playing Rock Band.
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Building (Critical) Consensus: Super Mario 3D World
For the last year, the Wii U has been struggling for respect as a console. People have been waiting for the console to get games or at least a must-buy killer app. It may have taken a year but it looks like Nintendo has finally come through thanks to the latest game in their iconic Super Mario franchise.
The latest game in the Super Mario series is getting massive praise from the critics and appears to be the killer app that the Wii U desperately needs. While it may not be quite as great as Super Mario 64 or Galaxy, it’s certainly much better than New Super Mario Bros. U. Maybe that one would have been a system seller if they took the original SMB trilogy and updated it to modern graphics and gameplay tricks.
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WinAmp to Shut Down in December
Having been in high school in the early 2000s, I definitely knew about the iconic WinAmp media player. People had installed that on just about every computer in the school. Along the way, it was slowly replaced by other media players and this thing called “the internet.”
Now, we’re in the final days of WinAmp as the company quietly posted on its website that WinAmp’s web services and website would be shut down on December 20th.
et geekera 