Well, here’s a headline that I never thought that I’d write but that’s the Streisand Effect for you.
A number of websites are reporting that they’ve been contacted by Sony Computer Entertainment PR to remove images of Ellen Page’s character nude during a shower scene from the recently released Beyond: Two Souls.
Well, I learned something last week. Apparently, DC Comics completely underestimated the number of 3D covers that would be ordered as part of Villains’ Month. The clerk at my local comic book shop said that they didn’t have enough 3D covers to fill file orders let alone put them on the new release shelves. That wasn’t just the case here but at every other store where he had a contact. Poor planning by DC but it saved me a dollar an issue. Their loss.
Anyway, this week’s picks are all new series making their debut. From the gang at DC is the all-ages (read: for kids) Batman comic called Beware The Batman #1. Meanwhile, the gang at Marvel have gone the comedy route for a new series that brings together all of their heroes in Marvel: Now What #1. And we round out this week’s lighter fare edition of the picks with the comic book adaptation of the Cartoon Network’s Samurai Jack in Samurai Jack #1.
After last month’s failed attempt to roll out their reasonably popular BlackBerry Messenger app on Android and iOS devices, BlackBerry announced yesterday that they were rolling out the apps all over again. However, to prevent the supposed server problems that crippled September’s launch attempt, BlackBerry is doing a phased roll-out of access to the service.
Indie game Dark Matter has been the subject of recent controversy over its abrupt ending. The game ends abruptly after about four hours when the player enters a door and a black screen with white text tells you how the game plays out from that point. The game isn’t in early access nor was it advertised as episodic. Sounds like getting your $15 worth.
In response to the controversy and the false advertising about the game and its ending, online retailer GOG.com is offering users the opportunity to get a refund on their purchase of Dark Matter.
As has been well established, I’m not a big fan of censorship. I’m not a fan of the press trying to censor developers and I’m even less of a fan of developers trying to censor the press.
The developers of indie game Day One: Garry’s Incident have done the latter and opened themselves up to the Streisand Effect. Developer Wild Games Studio filed a copyright claim under the DMCA on a critical impressions video by popular YouTube personality TotalBiscuit and it’s all hit the fan.
Well, that escalated quickly. I was settling in for a week of Nathan being bitter that Lexi was Lexi rather than Audrey and Jordan slowly seducing Wade to get him to do her dirty work and instead the rug was pulled right out from under me. While I like surprises, I’m not exactly sold that shifting Haven from about third gear straight into seventh is a great idea.
As much as I love going on Reddit, this news doesn’t surprise me. As popular as the site is, it still operates in the red. [Business Insider]
Speaking of sites in the red, IsoHunt is very much in the red after a lawsuit judgment that will see the BitTorrent search engine pay the MPAA $110 million and shut the site down. So when does the MPAA go after Google for allowing us to search terms like “Game of Thrones S3 torrent.” [Ars Technica]
While this technology is likely a long ways off from hitting the market, I think it’s cool. Chinese scientists are using lightbulbs to transmit wireless internet signals through light rather than radio frequencies. I’m sure my terrible wireless card would still drop a signal during every SC2 ladder match I try. [ZDnet]
Eleven years later, Star Wars: Jedi Outcast still stands up as one of the all-time great Star Wars games and one of the great melee combat systems. [Eurogamer]
The Sun isn’t even reputable enough to deserve to be called a newspaper but it’s still funny to see what slips by their editors. The recently published a piece about artificial implants including an artificial eyeball implant by Serif Industries. There’s just one problem with that story… [Kotaku]
We’re officially four weeks from the launch of the next-gen consoles (five weeks if you’re outside North America). While you’re unlikely to get your hands on a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One any time soon if you haven’t already pre-ordered one. Still, that doesn’t mean that the console wars are going to cool down anytime soon.
Today, to mark the final month before the next generation of the home console gets well and truly underway, here’s an infographic comparing the two consoles.
Blizzard All-Stars is dead! Long live Blizzard All-Stars!
Okay, it’s not actually dead. The Blizzard All-Stars of the name is dead though. Because you can’t have enough popular games with the acronym HotS, the not-so-secret Blizzard MOBA project has been rechristened Heroes of the Swarm.
The latest point of contention between PlayStation 4 and Xbox One fanboys has come courtesy of a Sony event in Spain. A PlayStation 4 unit showed a red LED line on the top of the console where there is normally a blue LED line. Many people are jumping on this as a major potential issue with the PS4’s hardware but Sony is saying not to panic.
et geekera 