I got a copy of Skylanders for my kids on Black Friday. The reviews have been good, and I was personally impressed when I played around with the game at PAX Prime 2011, but I've recently started to wonder where that technology will turn up next.
And there's no doubt that we'll be seeing this tech turn up somewhere else--we're talking about Activision here. The company that milked Guitar Hero until the teat fell off.
What's effectively been done here with Skylanders is convert DLC into a retail store purchase. Will we soon find ourselves going to Toys R Us to buy a new avatar for COD? Maybe even buying prime gear at the same time? Or maybe the next stinker of a Spider-Man game will encorporate the tech somehow.
Is this even something that we as gamers want to see happen? For single player and couch co-op games like Skylanders, it's not a huge problem. But, would that change if you're online getting smoked by someone who was just lucky enough to find the most powerful action figure in stock at the toy store?
These are the questions that we need to explore, because like I said earlier, this is Activision: they can't NOT milk this idea dry. All we can do is hope that the next implementation makes sense.
Friday, December 02, 2011
Walking Dead Spoilers...
It has been a LONG time since I have seen an episode of Television that really blew my mind. Lots of shows are great - and I enjoy them. However only one episode of one show is THE show; that show is Season 1 Episode 5. If you have seen it you hopefully know what I am talking about - if you have not then do yourself a favor watch Dexter Season 1.
How does this relate to The Walking Dead?
Because I had that moment again on my couch this week - She was in the barn - Season 2 Episode 7:
Mind = Blowed.
The show has been dancing around the central problem of the main character which is that he is an optimist beyond all reason. Weaving an intricate portrait of a reality where human resources are so scarce that the waste of them is the only true remaining capital crime. Rick (our fearless leader) is simply not connected to the reality of this as he attempts to search for a little girl in the woods. All the while the camp they are staying in -which seems so safe - is teaming with walkers.
Painting Rick as trapped in a safe bubble of reasonable days and insulated from madness while taking the time to paint Hershel with the only true remaining insanity - That Walkers are "Sick People" - was genius. In one scene of the complete full circle of madness Hershel attempts to garner Rick's understanding by supporting a Walker capture. Hershel tells rick to "Lead it"; literally telling Rick to use HIMSELF as bait...
It all serves to set you up for the climax: a pressure drop that has only been replicated one other time for me - but I will tell you this - it was riveting.
The Walking Dead is HOT this season - make sure you are up to date!
Thursday, December 01, 2011
DCUO Revisited
So, I've recently jumped back into the world of DC Universe Online on my PS3 after leaving a while ago after I determined that I just wasn't playing enough to keep paying a monthly fee. Of course, the game is free now, so that's no longer a concern.
I'm not totally sure why I came back after all this time. Sure, the whole "free" aspect probably had something to do with it, but the bigger factor was probably the fact that I had just beat Arkham City, and I wanted to extend my stay in the DC Universe.
Whatever the reason, I'm back and I'm having fun with the game. The Krizzle (or Kris D., grizzled MMO veteran that he is) will probably still say that DCUO is junk, but nobody really likes him enough to pay him much attention. After all, it's a free game--what's not to like?
I still haven't done any of the raids, but this time around I'm going to put in some work toward getting the right gear so I can check them out. I'll report back later on my progress toward that end.
I'm not totally sure why I came back after all this time. Sure, the whole "free" aspect probably had something to do with it, but the bigger factor was probably the fact that I had just beat Arkham City, and I wanted to extend my stay in the DC Universe.
Whatever the reason, I'm back and I'm having fun with the game. The Krizzle (or Kris D., grizzled MMO veteran that he is) will probably still say that DCUO is junk, but nobody really likes him enough to pay him much attention. After all, it's a free game--what's not to like?
I still haven't done any of the raids, but this time around I'm going to put in some work toward getting the right gear so I can check them out. I'll report back later on my progress toward that end.
Monday, October 17, 2011
The Walking Dead Season 2 Has begun!
Watch The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 1 on AMC's Streaming portal
I am not sure how long each episode will stay up on the site - so I will be streaming mine tonight to make sure I see it. If this Movieweb Article is any indication it looks like the show drummed up enough interest - lets hope that it delivers on the expectation!
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Marvel, you really do love me too!
If you love comics just for their stories and characters and are not necessarily caring about having a physical collection of comics, you just want to read them. Have I news for you. Venture on over to Marvel.com and go to the Digital Comics section. Now this is a section I had seen on their site on past visits and just assumed it was for buying comics for ones kindle or nook or something where you would by the individual comic much like you would at a comic book store.
My assumption was completely wrong. What this is, is either a monthly or annual fee to view thousands of marvel comics uploaded from their paper pages to digital format. And you get to view all of the comics you want. Allow me to break it down for you numerically. For the year subscription to this service it costs you $59.88 which is on a reoccurring charge so remember to cancel before the year is over should you pick it up but decide not to continue with it. For this $59.88 which equates to $4.99 a month. You get the roughly 9,000 comics already uploaded at your finger tips, as well as the ones that are being uploaded on a daily basis. They roughly upload 25 comics a week (5 per business day), thus 100 comics or more a month. Just the 100 comics in a month for the price of $4.99 is awesome to me where the norm for comics these days for a single, what 28 page comic? is $3.99.
In the interest of writing an informed unbiased(lol, If you know me, you know I'm never unbiased when it comes to Marvel) opinion of the service I must admit there are 2 distinct drawbacks or should I say let downs to this service.1. Of the 9,000 comics there is not many complete series. Let me give you an example of I mean by this. Lets take say The X-Men, specifically the series now known as The Uncanny X-men there are 534 issues I believe at the time of writing this, maybe 535 or 536 stop nitpicking nerds. Point is there are a lot. What you get in the digital comics is Uncanny X-Men #1(1963) - #66(1970) then it jumps to#94(1975) - #153(1982)(this includes the Phoenix Saga!) skips a few more to #167(1983) and this is where it started to get really spotty.
See its not like they upload huge sections at a time. What they seem to do is almost randomly pick a 5 comics a day from the past 50 years and upload them. Now they are starting to keep the randomizing down and doing chunks. They also are making certain days for certain series, I.E. Monday is Spider-man day, Tuesday is Iron Man day, Wed is X-men day and so on. Although this still does not completely take out the randomness because sometimes they still throw in a comic that has nothing to do with that series.
My example will be "X-MEN WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21" they uploaded 4 Deadpools which is very much a X-men character but then for the 5th comic uploaded Avengers #5(2010). Which obviously has nothing to do with the X-men in general except Wolverine is an Avenger again, but come on, Ironman, Thor or Spider-man day could have worked just fine, give me more X-men comics! .. Oh sorry, got a little ranty there.and2. They don't upload the Very most recent issues. I.E. its 2011 and they are starting to upload 2010 comics now. If this horrible? No there are obvious sales reasons for this, and there are so many past comics they still have to upload it will take years to catch up if it at all can be.
Conclusion: If you are just getting into comics, this is a must have service to get, or If you are an old fan but have stopped buying comics, pick it up and catch up and read back, adventures await. Its also worth noting they have a free preview to see how it works and what it looks like. So if you are on the fence check that out.
My assumption was completely wrong. What this is, is either a monthly or annual fee to view thousands of marvel comics uploaded from their paper pages to digital format. And you get to view all of the comics you want. Allow me to break it down for you numerically. For the year subscription to this service it costs you $59.88 which is on a reoccurring charge so remember to cancel before the year is over should you pick it up but decide not to continue with it. For this $59.88 which equates to $4.99 a month. You get the roughly 9,000 comics already uploaded at your finger tips, as well as the ones that are being uploaded on a daily basis. They roughly upload 25 comics a week (5 per business day), thus 100 comics or more a month. Just the 100 comics in a month for the price of $4.99 is awesome to me where the norm for comics these days for a single, what 28 page comic? is $3.99.
In the interest of writing an informed unbiased(lol, If you know me, you know I'm never unbiased when it comes to Marvel) opinion of the service I must admit there are 2 distinct drawbacks or should I say let downs to this service.1. Of the 9,000 comics there is not many complete series. Let me give you an example of I mean by this. Lets take say The X-Men, specifically the series now known as The Uncanny X-men there are 534 issues I believe at the time of writing this, maybe 535 or 536 stop nitpicking nerds. Point is there are a lot. What you get in the digital comics is Uncanny X-Men #1(1963) - #66(1970) then it jumps to#94(1975) - #153(1982)(this includes the Phoenix Saga!) skips a few more to #167(1983) and this is where it started to get really spotty.
See its not like they upload huge sections at a time. What they seem to do is almost randomly pick a 5 comics a day from the past 50 years and upload them. Now they are starting to keep the randomizing down and doing chunks. They also are making certain days for certain series, I.E. Monday is Spider-man day, Tuesday is Iron Man day, Wed is X-men day and so on. Although this still does not completely take out the randomness because sometimes they still throw in a comic that has nothing to do with that series.
My example will be "X-MEN WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 21" they uploaded 4 Deadpools which is very much a X-men character but then for the 5th comic uploaded Avengers #5(2010). Which obviously has nothing to do with the X-men in general except Wolverine is an Avenger again, but come on, Ironman, Thor or Spider-man day could have worked just fine, give me more X-men comics! .. Oh sorry, got a little ranty there.and2. They don't upload the Very most recent issues. I.E. its 2011 and they are starting to upload 2010 comics now. If this horrible? No there are obvious sales reasons for this, and there are so many past comics they still have to upload it will take years to catch up if it at all can be.
Conclusion: If you are just getting into comics, this is a must have service to get, or If you are an old fan but have stopped buying comics, pick it up and catch up and read back, adventures await. Its also worth noting they have a free preview to see how it works and what it looks like. So if you are on the fence check that out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)