Apple Announces the iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C and iOS 7

iphone-5s-headerThe worst kept secret in the mobile world was made official yesterday. The next phones in Apple’s line-up are the iPhone 5S and the budget-conscious iPhone 5C. Both will be running on the latest mobile operating system from Apple, iOS 7.

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Comic Book Pull List for September 11, 2013

mars-attacks-judge-dredd-1So construction in front of my local comic book shop last week meant they didn’t get last week’s comics on time so I haven’t seen the 3D covers on the DC Comics villain issues but I’ve heard good things about them. I’ve also heard good things about the villains issues themselves so if there’s a villain you like, check this week’s pull list and pay your local comic book store a visit.

This week, Marvel launches a couple of tie-ins with their Infinity miniseries. You have your choice of Infinity Hunt #1 which involves a contest of champions between the various schools of the Marvel-verse and Mighty Avengers #1 which sees a new Avengers team rise up to defend the Earth while the Avengers A-team is off doing their thing with Thanos.

Elsewhere, IDW has my favourite new series of the week. It’s Mars Attacks Judge Dredd #1. Mars Attacks was a great B-movie ( I don’t care what critics think) and I’m a huge Dredd fan so this one is a no-brainer. I’d imagine this one won’t be for everyone. And let’s throw Dark Horse some love for the debut of their new series with Brain Boy #1.

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Good News! G4 Won’t Die to Make Room for Esquire

g4-headerWith the growing power of geek culture, it came as a bit of surprise that NBC would kill off geek culture cable channel G4 to be replaced with the planned quasi-men’s issues focused Esquire Network. However, only two weeks from the official launch of The Esquire Network, NBC gave G4 a stay of execution.

The Esquire Network will instead take over NBC’s Style Network when the new cable channel launches on September 23rd.

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Sony Announces PS Vita TV for Big Screen Vita Experience

ps-vita-tvGoogle has Chromecast. Apple has Apple TV. Now, Sony is getting into the world of TV plug-in devices but their’s will have include a feature more interesting than Apple or Google has.

Sony announced the PS Vita TV, a small device that plugs into your TV that allows you to access online streaming services, social media, surf the internet and more. More importantly, the PS Vita TV also lets you play Vita games right on your TV.

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This GLaDOS Cosplay is the Best You’ll Ever See

glados-cosplay-athena-coleIf you’ve been to a convention, you’ve probably seen a cosplayer or two as GLaDOS. Usually, they turn out roughly the same. A black and/or white bodysuit with a GLaDOS mask.

Cosplayer Athena Cole, also known as the cosplayer Enayla, took her GLaDOS cosplay at PAX to the next level. She spent four hours suspended by wires to cosplay as the villain of the Portal series.

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EA Says They’re Working on Six to Eight New IPs Including Mirror’s Edge

ea-logo-headerI think I gave away the kicker to the article in the headline but it’s too good to pass up. In a recent interview with industry publication MCV, EA Games Executive Vice President Patrick Soderlund addressed the criticism that EA is just recycling the same old intellectual property every year. Soderlund contends that EA is currently working on at least six new IPs and isn’t planning to stop developing new franchises.

However, Soderlund’s idea of what constitutes a new intellectual property is different that what the rest of the world considers to be a new idea.

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Geek Links of the Week

Think that your data is safe because it’s somewhere with a reputation for being secure? Well, the NSA can get at most of the data on the internet. [New York Times]

Sony has big plans for their vision of the future of gaming. While Microsoft is going big on Kinect, Sony is going ahead with their own VR headset. [Games Industry]

Instead of being a Sony exclusive developer, Quanitc Dream could have been making games for Xbox consoles. However, Microsoft wanted to make a massive change to Heavy Rain that drove David Cage away from them. [Digital Spy]

Total War: Rome II has been getting a lot of praise from critics but gamers have found a lot of bugs in the game that conflict with reviews. One anonymous developer explained the process of design and checking for bugs and proceeded to eviscerate Creative Assembly for failing to adequately test their game for bugs. [Total War Forums]

Hotline Miami’s devs are willing to reconsider including the rape scene that was in HM2’s demo. They say there’s context for the scene in the game as a whole but are willing to compromise narrative because of the criticism. I’m dumping the link here because I don’t want to have to do the artistic integrity diatribe again because this pisses me off. Dennaton thinks the scene works in the narrative and we shouldn’t try to censor their artistry. [RPS]

I’m Commander Shepard and This is My Favourite Cosplay at Dragon Con

I saw some pretty good Mass Effect cosplay at Fan Expo (including FemShep, Zaeed, Kaiden and Ashley grabbing dinner at Chipotle) but it was nothing compared to the scores of folks in amazing Mass Effect cosplay at Dragon Con.

This gathering of Mass Effect fans included a volus and Blasto the hanar Spectre on the right side of the picture, Dr. Chakwas on the far left and Mark Meer and Rana McAnear up front as Shepard and Morinth. That doesn’t mention the scads of other Shepards, Talis, Liaras, EDIs, Mirandas and more who dressed up for Dragon Con.

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Building (Critical) Consensus: Diablo III (PS3/Xbox 360)

diablo-iii-box-artI nearly forgot that Diablo III was released this week. Okay, it’s already been out for PC for almost a year-and-a-half but it’s now out for the current generation of consoles with a PS4 version planned for release next year.

What’s interesting about the console port is that many critics prefer it to the PC original. Noted improvements were the addition of offline play and the removal of the auction house (which was blamed for the necessity of always-online DRM in the PC version Diablo III). Critics also liked the addition of local co-op and the new control scheme which I would have thought would be the thing Blizzard would be most likely to struggle with given their PC development background. It’s good to hear this is a well done port and not a blatant cash grab.

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Divekick (PC) Review: Kick It

divekick-logoCan a fighting game only have two buttons? It doesn’t seem to be a necessary question. Any game can use any control scheme the developer chooses so long as it works.

Don’t tell that to some vocal members of the fighting game community who consider Divekick to be a joke. How can a fighting game only have two buttons, no combos and only one-hit kills via jump kicks? It clearly doesn’t belong in the same category as multi-button, combo-laden games like the Street Fighters, Tekkens, Soul Calibers and Mortal Kombats of the world.

So does having only two buttons make Divekick a sick joke or is it so well put together that it actually pulls off the adrenaline rush of a fight game with a simple facade?

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