Author Archives: Steve Murray

Redditors Engage in Arcade Building One-Upmanship

Relive the Downfall of Rapture in a BioShock Fan Film

So the planned BioShock film helmed by director Gore Verbinski didn’t work out but that doesn’t mean that we’ll never have a live-action return to Rapture.

A group of Vancouver film students did their own short fan film looking at the rise of plasmids and the downfall of Rapture from the prospectives of two brothers who travelled to the underwater city to be artists. I call it a fan film but the sets, props and special effects are absolutely fantastic. You mean to tell me that students can manage this but Hollywood can’t do it without breaking the bank?

The Most Successful Game Consoles (Infographic)

I’ve been thinking about why Microsoft was going more casual with the Xbox One and this infographic gets at the reasoning behind that move. It all comes down to money. When you see what the best-selling console of the last generation was and know what it did best, it all makes sense.

To examine the shifting balance of power in the gaming industry and its growth, we have a handy infographic for you.

(more…)

Mass Effect Invades LittleBigPlanet

A new piece of costume DLC hits the LittleBigPlanet and it’s from a series that we quite like around here (most of the time). If you play LittleBigPlanet 2, LittleBigPlanet Karting (which Sony PR still owes me a copy of) and LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation Vita, you can buy a new costume set based on the Mass Effect Trilogy.

The new costumes for sackboy allow you to play as sackperson versions of Shepard, Liara, Wrex and, of course, Garrus Vakarian. The package will cost you $5.99 US or your regional equivalent.

Read the rest of this entry

Building (Critical) Consensus: Resident Evil: Revelations

resident-evil-revalations-wallpaperIt’s not everyday that a Nintendo 3DS game gets ported over to the major home consoles. It’s also not everyday that a quasi-spin-off game set between two games in the main series is better received than the main series entry that tried to be a triple-A megahit.

So here we are with Resident Evil: Revelations. Rather than an action-oriented game, Revelations goes back to the series’ horror roots. That move away from big action seems to have benefited this game in the critics’ eyes.

Read the rest of this entry

The Xbox One Announcement in 100 Seconds

Okay, I might have come off a bit cynical in my examination of the Xbox One announcement. In fairness, I tried the best I could given the information at hand. There just wasn’t a lot of talk about games. Don’t take my word for it. Check out this short summary of the Xbox One reveal.

Microsoft Launches the Xbox One; Here’s What We Know

xbox-one-console-and-logoMicrosoft didn’t hide that yesterday’s big announcement would be for the next-gen Xbox but they sure did manage to surprise with that name. The third-generation Xbox console is the Xbox One whose name represents that it’s an all-in-one system for the living room.

It was that all-in-one nature of the Xbox One that formed the majority of Microsoft’s presentation. Unfortunately, that emphasis on the all-in-one Xbox came at what was essentially the de-emphasis of games as the core of the Xbox One.
Read the rest of this entry

Comic Book Pull List for May 22, 2013

green-team-teen-trillionaires-1Alright, I may have been a bit optimistic by saying things would be better this week than last. My own personal pull list is busier this week but not by much.

My big three picks of the week include a couple of brand new series and one issue that may as well be a new series. From the mind of video game designer American McGee is Akaneiro #1. DC is finally getting in on the whole economic disparity thing after Chris Nolan did in The Dark Knight Rises. A group of the super rich are funding projects that sounds like it’ll eventually run afoul of some superheroes in Green Team Teen Trillionaires #1. And it all begins again in Superior Spider-Man #10. Did you read SSM #9? It wasn’t as good as some earlier issues but I’m counting on it to set the table big time for future issues.

Read the rest of this entry

Superhero Likes

Lucasfilm Animation Lives Again with Star Wars Rebels

star-wars-rebel-alliance-wallpaperJust when we thought that Disney was hellbent on gutting Star Wars to make itself money, we got a little glimmer of hope yesterday. Lucasfilm and Disney announced that the Lucasfilm Animation division is getting to work on a new series set between Episodes III and IV called Star Wars Rebels.

The series will, obviously, explore the previously largely unexplored two decades between the prequel trilogy and the start of the original trilogy that we all know and love. The story will focus on the Galactic Empire stamping out the last remains of the Republic and the Jedi Knights while the rebellion starts to form.

Read the rest of this entry