Author Archives: Steve Murray

PSA: Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Ops are Done

A quick FYI for Mass Effect 3 fans: As implied by a post on the BioWare blog and later confirmed on the BioWare Social Network forums, the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer weekend operations have come to an end. They had been weekly since last fall’s release of the Retaliation DLC and bi-weekly prior to that.

Read the rest of this entry

The 2013 Worst Company in America Tournament is Underway

ea-golden-poo-worst-company-in-america-2012

With the start of the NCAA Men’s Basketball championship tournament, also known as March Madness, comes a deluge of bracket tournaments to determine the winner of every competition imaginable. One of the more noteworthy is The Consumerist’s bracket to determine the Worst Company in America.

We gamers might have heard of this because the Mass Effect 3 ending and day-one DLC controversies powered EA to victory last year. Well, the tournament is underway for 2013 and EA is in with another chance to repeat.

Read the rest of this entry

The New Star Trek Into Darkness Trailer Features More Cumberbatch, Plot

We’ve gotten plenty of trailers for this summer’s reboot sequel Star Trek Into Darkness but, for the first time, we have some clues as to the plot of the movie.

The newly released international trailer for Into Darkness gives a bit more insight into Benedict Cumberbatch’s still nameless character and how Kirk and the Enterprise get involved.

Read the rest of this entry

There’s Still Time to Pledge to Rogue System

Just a quick reminder/heads-up that epic looking space sim Rogue System is in the final hours of its Kickstarter campaign. We profiled the game briefly a couple of weeks ago and came to the inevitable conclusion that this thing will be absolutely epic. However, it still needs your money to make it happen.

Click here for the Rogue System Kickstarter. You can pledge until about 11:00 PM EDT (about nine hours after posting).

This Week in PBS Documentaries: The Rise of Web Comics

I have to give PBS’ Off Book credit. They’re putting out some pretty good short documentaries about web culture. It sure shakes the stereotypical image of PBS of kids shows, imported British programming and fundraising drives.

This time out, Off Book looks at the rise of the web comic.

Bastion Developer Supergiant Games is Working on a New Sci-Fi RPG

transistor-screenshot-01One of the greatest indie games of all-time is Bastion. That’s not an opinion. Consensus among both gamers and critics was that Bastion was absolutely amazing. It won numerous awards for the narrative, music, art design and overall RPG and indie game awards.

Naturally, when Supergiant Games announces that it’s making another game, everyone is going to take notice. This week, Supergiant unveiled their next game, Transistor.

Read the rest of this entry

Was the Death Star’s Destruction an Inside Job?

Is it possible that it wasn’t Rebel Alliance pilot Luke Skywalker didn’t destroy the Death Star with a perfectly aimed torpedo from an outdated X-Wing fighter? Is it possible that the destruction of the Death Star was an inside job that went all the way up the Empire to Darth Vader?

YouTuber Graham Putnam examines the possibility in this Loose Change style documentary. Even though it has several factual errors, it’s still a pretty neat video.

The Showdown Effect Review: Yippee-ki… Ah, Screw It

the-showdown-effect-bannerHave you ever wondered what would happen if Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Bruce Lee and Liam Neeson did battle in a giant battle royale of action movie superstars? I’m sure a drunken conversation has resulted in a battle between movie heroes but nobody’s really gone beyond the argument over pints.

The Showdown Effect, a new game from Magicka devs Arrowhead Studios, tries to answer the question of which action star would win if placed in a battle to the death. If Super Smash Bros. dropped the more family oriented direction for the comically clichéd action ripped out of 80s and 90s action movies, it would be The Showdown Effect.

Read the rest of this entry

Social Media Explained with Cats

Admit it, the internet was created to share pictures and videos of cats. The sooner you accept that, the sooner you can enjoy all the wonders of the internet. To help you figure out what kinds of cat pictures and videos you can find around the internet or just to help you figure out what various social media sites are about, we have this comic that describes the internet using cats.

(more…)

Building (Critical) Consensus: Gears of War: Judgment

For the second time in as many weeks, another GoW game was released. However, this isn’t a new God of War but a new Gears of War. Judgment is a prequel in the lore of the Gears of War story. This one doesn’t focus on the exploits of chainsaw-wielding, steroid-using hero Marcus Fenix but Damon Baird who was a secondary character in the previous trilogy of games.

Were the critics tired of another game in another franchise that might just be getting milked to death or was something special done with the 4th (Microsoft) GoW game? Read the rest of this entry