It seems that the Austrians have two great loves: The National Football League and Game of Thrones. The two were combined into what is simply the greatest intro in sports TV history. Austrian channel PULS 4 combined the two for their intro for last weekend’s Super Bowl. Too bad none of the sports broadcasts on this side of the Atlantic are this cool.
Monthly Archives: February 2014
Watch Dogs Trademark Reinstated After Fraudulent Abandonment
Just four days after it was abandoned, Ubisoft’s trademark of Watch Dogs with the United States Patent and Trademark Office was reinstated after a petition for reinstatement was granted and upheld by the Director of the USPTO.
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Critics Corner: Dungeon Keeper (Mobile)
No, I’m not letting this go. I’m not sure what the worst thing about the free-to-play mobile edition of Dungeon Keeper is. The denigration of a much heralded franchise for a quick buck is pretty bad. The fact that the game isn’t so much free-to-play as it is fee-to-play with microtransactions that are hardly “micro” isn’t any better. Maybe it’s the fact that the game is likened to Clash of Clans in Dungeon Keeper clothing after we talked about King ripping off and being ripped off by other games.
The 2014 mobile game purporting to be Dungeon Keeper might not be the worst free-to-play mobile game ever made. It may not even be the worst free-to-play mobile game released in the last couple of months. Dungeon Keeper represents much more than itself. It shows how broken the mobile market is. Whether it was called Dungeon Keeper or Crypt Master or Confrontation of Demons, it would still be an abomination of a game when it’s not there to entertain but to panhandle.
But enough of what I think. Let’s see what the critics have to say.
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World Cyber Games Ending World Finals Tournaments
One of the longest standing and most prestigious tournaments in eSports has quietly shut its doors. The World Cyber Games, designed as a sort of Olympics equivalent for eSports, will no longer be running any tournaments and is not holding the annual WCG final going forward.
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Marvel Comics Legend John Romita Jr. Moves to DC Comics to Draw Superman
Normally, the movement of artists and writers from one publisher to another isn’t big headline news in the comic industry. However, most days don’t see the movement of a near 40-year veteran of the industry from one major player to the other big player.
John Romita Jr. has been working for Marvel Comics since 1978 with long stints drawing Iron Man, Spider-man and the X-Men. Now, he’s going to get a chance to draw the most iconic comic book superhero in the world. Romita is making the jump to DC Comics to draw Superman.
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All 32 NFL Teams in the Star Wars Universe
While Disney might be gutting the Expanded Universe, who knows what the rebuild could result in. Given that Disney’s ESPN channel pays NFL rights fees in excess of $1 billion, Disney’s propensity for cross-promotion and the inclusion of various sports in the prequel trilogy, a Star Wars-ized football league wouldn’t be out of the question for the Disney trilogy.
So what would the Star Wars equivalents to the current crop of NFL teams look like? Reddit user IlliterateGenius dreamed it up. Go Rancors!
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Ubisoft Loses Watch Dogs Trademark to “Fraudulent” Abandonment Request
UPDATE: The trademark has been reinstated.
Ubisoft is finding itself in a rather unusual position just a few months away from the anticipated release of their new franchise, Watch Dogs. It seems as though the publisher has abandoned the trademark for the upcoming game but Ubisoft bosses claim that the abandonment of the trademark was not of their doing and that the game is still going to come out.
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It’s Not Free-to-Play but Mobile Gaming That Is Broken
The big story in the games news world right now is EA’s mobile release of Dungeon Keeper. The original Dungeon Keeper was released in 1997 and was an instant cult hit. Gamers loved it and game designers were influenced by it. Even today, Dungeon Keeper is often among the top sellers on GOG.com.
The mobile version of Dungeon Keeper pretends to pay homage to the cult classic and instead bastardizes it with the worst free-to-play microtransactions system that many people have seen. While we’re used to free-to-play cash grabs, this might be the most blatant attempt to stop gameplay at every possible turn to squeeze the player for more money.
I don’t think, however, that the problems with Dungeon Keeper Mobile aren’t a result of the free-to-play model. If you go looking for free-to-play games, not all of them are blatant cash grabs. However, when you look at it more closely, you find that so-called games designed to print are really a mobile gaming problem.
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Comic Book Pull List for February 5, 2014
Robocop was on TV this weekend in Canada. And by Robocop, I mean the original 1987 movie starring Peter Weller not this year’s reboot/remake that I have rather low expectations for. And that reboot is where we start this week’s pull list. If you’re interested in that movie, Boom! has a prologue for the upcoming release with Robocop: Hominem Ex Machina.
And to make up for that, here are a pair of comics from each of the big two. DC ends their Batman: Black and White miniseries in Batman: Black & White #6. Elsewhere, Lex Luthor (not the Jesse Eisenberg one but the real Lex Luthor) makes a big move with big consequences in Forever Evil #5. On the Marvel side of things, we have a pair of debuts. Loki gets his own series which isn’t shocking given his popularity. You can check him out in Loki: Agent of Asgard #1. And Ms. Marvel is back with a new series that Marvel promises will be epic in Ms. Marvel #1.
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Could Lightning Returns: FF13 Be Teasing a Final Fantasy VII Remake?
Julian Kluk of Clever Noob has found some interesting patterns with Square Enix’s marketing of next week’s Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII. Square Enix has a spent a lot of time marketing the game’s tie-ins with older Final Fantasy titles through DLC attire for Lightning and including a number of FF7 Easter eggs in LR:FF13. Could this all be a sign of Square Enix getting people ready for a Final Fantasy VII remake?
et geekera 