Yearly Archives: 2014
New Format for The International 4 Announced
The biggest tournament in the history of eSports is getting a new format to reflect the bigger scale of the event. To win the first place prize that is closing in on $5 million dollars for the winner, the winning team will have to go through each of the 15 other teams en route to the championship.
Share this:
DreamHack Summer Hearthstone Tournament Ends in Controversy
The biggest tournament in the short eSports history of Blizzard’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft card game should have been a landmark moment for the game. Instead, the tournament’s final duel resulted in a controversial finish to the event. While RDU won the tournament with a 3-0 win over Amaz, the fans certainly weren’t happy with how the final played out.
Share this:
Democrats Working on Bill to Ban Internet Fast Lanes
If the FCC won’t do anything to save Net Neutrality from the corporations, some lawmakers will. Democratic congressmen from both the House and Senate have unveiled a new piece of legislation that will ban the creation of the so-called internet fast lanes by prohibiting the prioritization and speed of certain content over others.
Share this:
Comic Book Pull List for June 18, 2014
There doesn’t seem to be a very long pull list this week. I guess we’re still waiting for the big explosion of big summer storylines to begin at the big two publishers. I’d imagine that we’re just weeks away from that happening. For now, it’s a quiet week.
I do have a couple of recommendations this week. Marvel has the final issue of George Romero’s Empire of the Dead: Act One in issue #5. And over at IDW, they pull a page from Dark Horse’s playbook and bring an original script to print as a comic. While Dark Horse had the original Star Wars script to print, IDW is taking the original screenplay for the legendary Star Trek episode The City on the Edge of Forever in an IDW miniseries of the same name.
Share this:
Watch Dogs Mod Brings Graphics to E3 2012 Levels
For all the talk that the E3 2012 teaser for Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs was a complete lie after the graphical downgrade for the game’s retail release, it turns out that it may not have been a lie at all. Well, at least not completely.
Watch Dogs hasn’t been out three weeks but an early version of a mod has been released for the PC version of Watch Dogs that reintroduces the graphical tricks that made the original Watch Dogs videos look so amazing. What’s the most shocking is that the files needed for the mod were included with the game all along.
Share this:
Game of Thrones: The Children Review
Episode Tens are usually quiet episodes in Game of Thrones seasons. The big moments from the last couple of episodes are very neatly tied up with some new plot threads dangled to keep you interested in the next season. While those fresh threads were teased in this episode, a lot more than just quick little tie-ups happened this week. Yeah, I can see why the producers submitted this for a writing Emmy.
Share this:
Steam Machines are Going Portable with the SteamBoy
While SteamOS and the Steam Controller have gotten a bit of interest from gamers and developers, the Steam Machines, Valve’s attempt at bringing Steam and PC gaming to the living room, haven’t exactly set the world on fire.
That may change with a new Steam Machine that was unveiled at E3. It’s definitely not your standard Steam Machine. The new SteamBoy is going to take your Steam experience out of the living room and on the road with this portable gaming device.
Share this:
GameTrailers Bought by Defy Media, Half of Staff Reportedly Laid Off
Last week was a busy week for employees of the gaming arm of Viacom Media. On Monday, right as E3 was getting started with the E3 media briefings, Defy Media bought Viacom’s gaming-focused websites, including GameTrailers. Defy ended the week by laying off a number of GameTrailers staff one day after E3 came to a close.
Share this:
Geek Links of the Week
Warp speed, Mr. Sulu. NASA has released a concept design for a faster-than-light spacecraft. [Washington Post]
Total Biscuit recaps the success of his recent ShoutCraft Invitational SC2 tournament and what other tournaments can do to mimic his success at hosting online tournaments. [Team Liquid]
Austin Wintory, the Grammy-nominated video game composer and the best in the world at what he does, is facing a $50,000 fine from a musician’s union for doing his job. [PC Gamer]
In the midst of the current controversy over the lack of playable female characters in Assassin’s Creed Unity, an anonymous game producer explains why Ubisoft likely isn’t including a female character in this game. [/r/AssassinsCreed]
E3 might be happening in Los Angeles but that doesn’t mean that the LA Times knows anything about gaming when they cover it. [Destructoid]
Share this:
Game of Covers: A Collection of Game of Thrones Theme Covers
We’re down to the last episode of the season on Sunday night. On the one hand, this means I can start reading A Storm of Swords without having to worry too much about spoilers. On the other, that means we have to wait another ten months for more episodes of Game of Thrones. After this season, I’m not sure I can wait that long for more GoT.
And waiting is a good enough segue to bring us to the final Friday of Ice and Fire of the season. Many of my GoT watching friends aren’t big fans of sitting through the nearly two minutes-long title sequence. I, on the other hand, love it. I love the guided tour of key locations in Westeros and Essos. I like that we’re not stuck with only a title card like so many other shows. And I love the theme song.
So for today’s Friday of Ice and Fire, I found a whole pile of great Game of Thrones theme song covers for you to listen to.
et geekera 