Author Archives: Steve Murray
Doctor Who: Flatline Review
How many times has science fiction explored other dimensions? We’ve explored alternate dimensions with revised histories, good people turned evil and more. However, how many time have we explored the second dimension? Well, not only do The Doctor and Clara have to deal with creatures from the second dimension but The Doctor has to deal with a shrinking TARDIS. All in a day’s work.
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Geek Links of the Week
The next campaign to protect the internet will likely be focused on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Its intellectual property agreement is going to tighten up intellectual property laws to US levels. [Open Media]
Polygon created another controversy over the content of a game that the reviewer felt compelled to focus on over every other aspect of a game. The problem is that many reviewers are using reviews as makeshift opinion columns and are harming consumers and developers by standing on their soapbox. [DualShockers]
I get a feeling that people don’t like big corporations. Often, though, they do something to deserve it. For example, Microsoft won’t get love for declaring itself the sheriff of the internet. [Wired]
Halo: The Master Chief Collection on the Xbox One is going to take up 45 GB on the Blu-Ray disc and require an additional 20 GB update download on release day. Yes, that’s a 65 GB game collection. Hope you weren’t planning to download this game. [Xbox Wire]
The PlayStation TV hit North America this week. It’s not exactly going over too well. [Gizmodo]
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Crimes and Punishments: Sherlock Holmes Review: Elementary
There are many licenses that I wouldn’t want to be put in charge of but Sherlock Holmes would likely be at the top of the list. There is a great disconnect between the cognitive abilities of Sherlock Holmes and me, for example. He can look at a person and some clues and quickly deduce what happened as new evidence arises. Translating that ability to video games has apparently been quite a challenge for developers who have only seen mixed reviews, at best, for their Sherlock Holmes adventures.
For their latest trip to 221B Baker Street, Frogwares takes mysteries in the style of the classic Conan Doyle adventures and updates them with some of the tricks that have become popular on BBC’s Sherlock. Is that enough to make Sherlock Holmes a hit in the video game space to go with the recent explosion of popularity on TV and the silver screen?
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eSports Weekend Calendar: October 17 – 19, 2014
If you’re a League of Legends fan, the whole year comes down to Sunday. It’s Samsung White vs. Star Horn Royal Club for the World Championship on Sunday in Seoul. You’d probably peg Samsung White as the favourite heading into this match as they’ve won 12 of 13 maps played during the World Champion tournament (that one loss was to Team Solo Mid in the quarterfinals). It’s been a bit closer for SHRC who cleared the group stage with a 5-1 record but scraped through their playoff matches in two 3-2 victories.
Elsewhere, Hearthstone has a pretty big tournament as TakeTV hosts SeatStory Cup II this weekend. StarCraft 2 is taking a bit of downtime before the WCS World Finals at BlizzCon but BaseTrade is filling the gap with a 32-man tournament. And The Summit 2 and Synergy League continue with their group stages.
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Resident Evil is Getting a TV Series
Once the sixth entry into the Resident Evil film franchise is released next year, the franchise will have banked over $1 billion at the box office. So where do you go with the live-action adaptation of a popular video game franchise once you’ve wrapped up on the silver screen? Like so many other stars of film, Resident Evil will be making the move to television.
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Comic Book Pull List for October 15, 2014
There are scads of licensed properties getting debuts this week on the comic book pull list. There are #1 issues for Sleepy Hollow and Doctor Who (featuring the Twelfth Doctor). There are also a pair of video game adaptations with Titan launching a The Evil Within series and IDW getting their hands on Skylanders.
If more traditional, superhero based comics are your thing, DC’s Trinity of Sin get their own series after last year’s Trinity War and Forever Evil crossover events in Trinity of Sin #1. More importantly, The Death of Wolverine miniseries ends in issue #4 which is out today. And Marvel is already trying to spin this story off to make more money with Death of Wolverine: The Logan Legacy #1.
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Robert Downey Jr. Signs on for Captain America 3
Remember those short-lived rumours that Robert Downey Jr. wanted to leave the Marvel film universe so he could work on other projects? They didn’t seem to last long did they?
If you’re a fan of RDJ as Tony Stark / Iron Man, he won’t be leaving any time soon. Downey has signed up for two more Marvel films after his current deal which runs through Avengers: Age of Ultron. He’ll be back for The Avengers 3 and get a big role in Captain America 3.
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Haven: The Old Switcheroo Part 1 Review
What happens when you write an episode that, at first glance, is a way for all of the actors to blow off a little steam while spending their spring and summer in rural Nova Scotia? It turns out that not only is it a good bit of fun for everyone, actors and viewers alike, it gives the writers a chance to explore the various relationships between the characters from a different perspective.
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Netflix Adding 4K Streaming for an Extra $3 per Month
Netflix is looking to expand their 4K viewing offerings but it’s not going to come solely out of their own pockets. After launching the most recent season of House of Cards in 4K, Netflix will now be charging a premium to access 4K content. The popular TV and movie streaming site will now require a $11.99 premium subscription.
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Doctor Who: Mummy on the Orient Express Review
If you’re The Doctor, there’s no such thing as a quiet vacation. You can’t just TARDIS into a quiet little corner of time and space to relax. Something always goes wrong. Often it’s homicidal robots. Sometimes, it’s homicidal aliens. This time, it was a homicidal mummy that could only be seen by the intended victim. For not getting any time to relax, The Doctor doesn’t look too bad for 2,000 years old.
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