Author Archives: Steve Murray
Doctor Who: Deep Breath Review
Given the recent explosion in popularity that Doctor Who has seen on this side of the pond, it seems as though that Deep Breath might be the greatest test of the revived Doctor Who. Sure, this is the fourth incarnation of the series but it with Doctor Who becoming more and more popular during Matt Smith’s tenure at the controls of the TARDIS, this will be many fans’ first regeneration.
While Deep Breath won’t go down as the greatest Doctor Who adventure ever, it certainly worked well at showing that the show is changing pace and themes with the new man in the blue box.
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Geek Links of the Week
It’s been a well-known fact for a while now but just in case you didn’t know, women make up almost half of all gamers and adult women outnumber under-18 boys. [Wall Street Journal]
Phil Fish is leaving gaming and selling Polytron and Fez after being hacked by people who claimed to be 4chan and wanting to shut down “social justice warriors.” I’ll try to get an article up next week but in case I’m covering something else, I’ll leave you this link. [Develop]
Blizzard’s promised World of Warcraft tribute to Robin Williams has been spotted in the data for the Warlords of Draenor expansion. [Eurogamer]
I might have called IEM ESL’s flagship tournament series but I’m not so sure any more. The ESL One series is looking like the real flagship after peaking at over 400,000 for last weekend’s $250,000 Counter-Strike: GO tournament. [ESL Gaming]
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This Fan-Made Intro is the Basis of the New Doctor Who Title Sequence
You might not know the name Billy Hanshaw but you’re going to know his handy work very soon. Hanshaw created his own mockup of a new title sequence for Doctor Who’s 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi. The result went viral and got so much attention that Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat saw it and commissioned the BBC graphics department to use it as a basis for the title sequence that you’ll see tomorrow.
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The Full Lineup for IEM Toronto is Announced
The first visit of ESL’s StarCraft II flagship series to Canada looks to have nothing short of an all-star lineup. We already looked at the twelve qualifiers and invitees to IEM Toronto which includes seven of the top ten players in the World Championship Series points standings.
With a week until the tournament starts, IEM and ESL announced the group drawings for the tournament and the sixteen participants in the Dual Tournaments for the last four spots in the Round of 16. The lineup is one of the most stacked tournaments of the year outside of the WCS and a must-watch for SC2 fans.
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eSports Weekend Calendar: August 22 – 24, 2014
If you’re a StarCraft II or League of Legends fan, there is a lot for you to watch this weekend. The road to the Red Bull Battle Grounds Grand Final in Washington continues with their second 128-player open tournament of 2014. The winner will be the final qualifier for the $50,000 event so there’s a lot at stake this weekend in Detroit.
Meanwhile, League of Legends continues the road to the World Championship with the finals of China’s LPL and the start of the North American LCS playoffs.
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A Sordid Affair: Of Zoe Quinn, Privacy and Integrity
In a fourth year human resources course, we were posed a question about what we would do if an employee was sleeping with someone from a customer business. I responded with the old Trudeau-ism of “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” What is personal is personal and it stays that way as long as it doesn’t affect my business.
That was the wrong answer according to the professor and whole rest of the class. The implication of the scenario was that my hypothetical employee was sleeping that person to make sales. They couldn’t be using each other just to use each other. She was obviously using him to reach another end.
Gaming is going through this same scenario right now. Zoe Quinn, the developer behind Depression Quest, is mired in scandal after her ex-boyfriend outed her as sleeping with a number of people in the industry, including a writer for Kotaku, which blew up into accusations of Quinn using sex to get positive coverage from the gaming press.
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Ubisoft Interested in EA Access-Like Program
When EA announced their EA Access subscription program for the Xbox One, you knew that it was a matter of time before another publisher decided that this was a good idea and took it for themselves. Naturally, it’s EA France- I mean, Ubisoft who are the first to express interest in the subscription model. In an interview at Gamescom, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot expressed interest in launching a Ubisoft version of the service.
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YouTube Music Subscription Service Leaks
I’d imagine that the only reason why YouTube isn’t blocked at my day job is because a bunch of people use YouTube to listen to music during the day. Based on the popularity of Psy, Justin Bieber and all those official Vevo channels, I’d hazard that there are millions of people around the world who use YouTube for the same purpose.
A leaked YouTube subscription service appears to be targeting just that group of people. The YouTube Music Key service will give users ad-free playback of YouTube music videos with the ability for offline and audio only playback.
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EA Not Issuing Advance Review Copies of The Sims 4
There are certain things that we have learned are major red flags over the last few years. One is major game releases that set a review embargo at such a late time that you can’t cancel your pre-orders. The other is major game releases that don’t even issue review copies of a game to game reviewers and journalists.
For the second time this year, it looks like a major EA release won’t have review copies. Back in March, EA didn’t issue review copies of Titanfall on PC and only allowed Xbox One reviews at a closed event hosted by EA and Respawn. Now, EA is not going to release review copies of the upcoming Maxis title The Sims 4.
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Comic Book Pull List for August 20, 2014
This week, I think we should look at some anthologies in the pull list recommendations this week. Dark Horse brings you a multitude of stories in each issue of their revived Dark Horse Presents anthology series. Alternatively, DC and Marvel are doing various characters and stories in a series rather than in an issue. DC launches Multiversity which will at characters and stories across the DC multiverse. And Marvel wraps up the Original Sins series in Original Sins #5.
et geekera 