Though gaming blog comment sections may lead you to believe otherwise, there are lots of gamers out there who don’t play old games. Sure, re-releases on Nintendo’s Virtual Console or HD collections on the PS3 help to remedy this, but young, up-and-coming gamers are much more likely to be focused on the newest Pokémon, Assassin’s Creed, Mario, or whatever else tickles their fancy than the games that said recent iterations were built upon. The reality is, there’s plenty of gray area between hardcore and casual gamers, and some folks simply won’t have the time or interest to go back and learn their history. And as time passes, this will become more and more difficult to do comprehensively. Sure, if you’re dedicated you can play every Zelda released over the series’ 27 year history in a few months, but what about at its 50th anniversary. Or 100th?
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Have you ever heard of K-Pop? Maybe not. Have you ever heard of PSY?
Probably. His out-of-left-field 2012 megahit "Gangnam Style" is the most
played video in Youtube's history by a massive margin. The Korean
rapper, who was unheard of in the west until about six months ago, is
now a household name in America. I can't think of any Asian musical
artist who has had so much success in the USA, and this is after just
one single. So back to my first question - what is K-Pop? K-Pop, or
Korean Pop (inventive name, I know) is the musical genre from which PSY
hails. The genre is dominated by Girl Groups and Boy Bands and combines
all manner of sounds from other styles, from R&B to dubstep,
bubblegum pop to disco. The genre has been regionally dominant for some
time now, with K-Pop idols being massive celebrities in Japan and China.
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“Tell me… Do you ever feel a strange sadness as dusk falls?” And so begins Twilight Princess, the swansong of the GameCube and in many ways one of the more intriguing entries in the Zelda series. To those critical of Wind Waker’s cartoonish charm, Twilight Princess was a return to form, shedding the childlike cuffs of its predecessor and delivering to fans the classic, larger-than-life Zelda sequel they’d been yearning for ever since Ocarina of Time. I quite liked Wind Waker, but that didn’t stop me from getting all teary-eyed when Twilight Princess was first revealed at E3 in 2004. I think the response of the crowd in the below video says it all. In terms of fan reaction, if Wind Waker was like a Miyazaki film, then Twilight Princess may as well have been a new Lord of the Rings. I’ve been replayingTwilight Princess this past week, and it’s immediately apparent that a lot has changed since it hit store shelves in 2006, both for me personally and for the series as a whole.
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We have more video content! Thanks to the masterful filming and editing skills of sage Cooper Vacheron , we have a wonderful unboxing of the new(ish) Wii Mini. For those who don't know, the Wii Mini is post-mortem reincarnation of the Nintendo Wii in a cheap, compact, and adorable package. I won't bore you with more writing. Just check out the vid.
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The HE-400s! These are a pair of headphones I've thought about for a long time, for a variety of reasons. First off, they use planar-magnetic drivers. I won't dive into the scientific nerdery behind them, but I will say that some of the most detailed, most loved, and most expensive headphones in the world are planars. This, of course, has always led me to steer clear - I may be crazy about this stuff, but not paying-over-a-grand crazy. Recently, HiFiMan figured out a way to mass produce the drivers and other parts required to assemble planar headphones with such impressive sonic capabilities at a lower cost, and the HE-400 was born. And then I bought them. And now they're here. So let's dive in!
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It's here. It's. Finally. HEEEEEEERRRRREEEEE!!!! Alright.... I'm gonna be ok. Ahem. Yesterday, Nintendo released its much touted and highly anticipated Hyrule Historia, an "in-depth encyclopedia" of all things Zelda. What that essentially means is that it's a large, absolutely gorgeous, hardcover coffee-table book, teeming with never before seen art, a fully fleshed-out series timeline, and all kinds of other marvelous goodies. The book has been out in Japan for a while, so the beans have already been spilled on the timeline bit, but for me it's less about the new information and more about just having the thing in my hand. Though you can't really un-box a book, it did come sheathed in a fair bit of shrink wrap. After savagely tearing the wrapping off with my bare hands and swallowing it for dramatic effect, I finally held the book out in front of me. As mentioned, it's hardcover, with a lovely green matte finish and kick-ass triforce design emblazoned on the front (seen above). Then, I opened to the first page.
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With the recent announcement of Pokemon X and Y,
I've resigned myself to the fact that I will be purchasing a 3DS within
the year. With that in mind, I've been browsing the web, looking at the
other 3DS games that I will inevitably end up buying. New Fire Emblem -
check. 3DS Mario - check. Ocarina of Time remake - check. And then there's Animal Crossing: New Leaf.
I paused when I saw this title; I didn't even know it existed.
Apparently the game, set to release in America this spring, has already
made a huge splash in Japan - 39/40 from Famitsu and over 2 million
sales already. This is a game I will certainly buy, most likely before
any others. I've never played any of the sequels, but the...
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Last week, Nintendo announced two new main-series Pokémon titles to be released for the 3DS this October. The titles are Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, respectively, and will feature fully polygonal graphics in both the overworld and in battle, as well as a “behind the character” third person view which will replace the top-down bird’s eye perspective the series has traditionally used. If you somehow haven’t heard this news already, I’ll give you a moment to walk outside the room and scream like a twelve-year-old girl. All set? Trust me, I’m not making fun - that was essentially my reaction upon hearing the news too, the difference being that after screaming I took three laps around my building, doing back handsprings while simultaneously singing the lyrics to the original Pokémon anime theme. Younger readers or relative newcomers to the series might not understand why this news is so amazing; sure, Pokémon transitioning to 3D is great, but is it really so special? It’s about damn time!
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You may have noticed in recent weeks Sam and I delving and re-delving into Middle-earth in light of the recent release of
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Now that we've looked over all three LotR films, though, wouldn't it be nice to get the entire retrospective conveniently in one place? Fear not! We have answered you plea! Without further ado (and with respect to short attention spans), here is a present-day look at Peter Jackson's now-ten-year-old cinematic achievement.
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In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, Quentin Tarantino says, “Almost all of my characters are really good actors. They’re always playing a role. They’re always doing some sort of weird undercover thing—they’re pretending to be somebody they’re not. They’re putting on an act of some sort to get what they need done…And they pull it off with complete aplomb.” Django Unchained, Tarantino’s latest piece of exaggerated historical fiction, is filled with characters of this nature: wanted murderers and thieves hiding out as farmers, overseers, and even sheriffs; poor slaves forcing smiles and laughs for their masters; bigoted southerners masking their faces with hilariously inadequate white bags; a bounty hunter masquerading as a dentist, and a freed slave pretending to be a black slaver—all of them using their roles to achieve an end goal.
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Remember the Gameboy Micro? If you’ve read anything about it recently, odds are it was a glowing editorial about how elegantly small and stylish the device is, or a fond remembrance of its lovely screen, fantastic library of games, and nifty hot-swappable faceplates. And that’s all great – I’m a big fan of the Micro, so any positive attention it garners is fine with me. I’ve even got one sitting right here on my desk. Let’s not be too quick to forget, however, the Micro’s initial reception. It wasn’t all nostalgia boners and unicorns. There were plenty of people who found the device to be pointless, or felt that Nintendo had fallen “out of touch.” Much of this criticism stemmed from the newly announced DS portable, a hulking grey blob sporting two screens and a stylus. According to some, Nintendo was mad for releasing such a gimmick-laden device, abandoning its iconic Gameboy branding that ought to be stepping into the ring for a battle royal with Sony’s haughty new PSP.
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The concept of instant messaging on mobile has always intrigued me. For years the best option was without a doubt RIM’s Blackberry Messenger on its smartphones and PDAs. It offered a modern way of communicating that trumped texting in speed, reliability, and features, and you could use it to chat friends and family to your heart’s content. Sounds like a killer app, right? In a way, it was. But once your pool of Blackberry-using peers has dwindled to your dog and your friend’s grandma, it becomes markedly less compelling. Even as Blackberry devices have faded into obscurity and inferiority, you’d be hard pressed to get an excited RIM fanboy to shut up about how wonderfully convenient and intuitive BBM is, so the idea is definitely sound. But what can you use in its place? I’ve tried Kik. I’ve tried GroupMe, and WhatsApp too. I’m sure iMessage does a nice job. After all of this experimentation, though, I’ve pretty much settled on one solution: Facebook.
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Last week, prog-rockers Coheed and Cambria released their latest album, The Afterman: Ascension, the first volume in a double-album set (Descension comes out early next year). The album itself stands as my current favorite of the year; I've already racked up about 40 plays since last Monday. The other day, after a much-chagrined shipping delay, I finally received my physical copy deluxe edition box set extravaganza. Coming in at around $60, the set was a bit expensive, but C&C is my favorite band, and they released The Afterman independently, which I wholeheartedly support. Because of all this, I didn't mind shelling out for the deluxe edition. While a bit expensive, the set does come jam-packed with goodies. There're are the CDS themselves (of course), a medallion and certificate, a Fan VIP card, and an illustrated coffee-table book detailing the inspiration of the music. Before getting into the details, I'll say a word on the concept of the album. C&C have released all of...
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2012 has been a nostalgic year of videogaming for me. Back in March I grabbed EA Canada’s fantastic revival of the SSX franchise and played it nonstop for about six months, and now I find myself partaking in the renaissance of yet another classic arcade-style franchise. That’s right-NFL Blitz! Most people my age seem to associate the Blitz name with either the 2000 or 2001 renditions from arcades and the N64, or the 2003 edition for the GameCube, PS2, and Xbox. Unfortunately, though gamer types seem to be aware of the new version’s existence due to its reveal in Electronic Gaming Monthly last October, it seems that most fans of the originals (you know, people who don’t obsessively refresh IGN every half hour) have no idea. That’s where I come in. Blitz is back baby! Tell your friends!
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I don’t dislike the iPhone 5. Really! I think it looks like a swell device. Thinner, lighter, a larger screen, and of course Apple’s renowned bleeding-edge hardware design. That said, I think we all felt a little sad inside when the company’s keynote came to close on September 12th. Was that it? No groundbreaking new features? No Steve Jobs style “and one more thing?” Though the iPhone 5 is certainly a striking device, and one that will likely sell by the bucketload, it is also an evolutionary device. An incremental upgrade. Nothing more, nothing less.
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"I believe in Gotham City." These words, spoken by Carmine "The Roman" Falcone on the first page of Jeph Loeb and Time Sale's The Long Halloween
, lay bare the heart of the work. It is a tale of four men fighting for
the city they love, though each has markedly different methods and
goals. Falcone, the big boss of organized crime in Gotham, struggles to
maintain his dominance of the underworld in a city more and more
infested with psychopaths and serial killers. Police Captain Jim Gordon
attempts to clean up the streets of the place he now calls home, doing
everything by the book. Billionaire Bruce Wayne dons the mask of the
Batman rid his father's city of darkness. And DA Harvey Dent...
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I wasn't always obsessed with battery life. Years ago, when I was rockin' a svelte new LG Dare "smartphone," I never thought twice about it. The battery icon in the top right of the screen was divided into four segments, and I either had full battery, three quarters, half, twenty-five percent, or... well, you get the idea. The battery lasted me anywhere from one to two full days, depending on how heavily I was using the device, and that was that. Unfortunately, there has been a sinister new development with the rise of modern smartphones (specifically those of the Android variety), and it goes by a single name: the battery widget.
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Earlier today, Coheed and Cambria officially
announced the release date of their next CD, a double album titled “The
Afterman.” This record marks a turning point for the group. On one hand, it
will be their first without original bassist Mic Todd, who left the band last
year after grappling with a drug problem. On the other, it will be the first
Coheed album with original drummer Josh Eppard since 2005’s Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV. This
album will be a rebirth for Coheed and Cambria, as well as a return to form. In
honor of the impending release of album six, I bring you a brief discussion of
the band’s last record with Josh Eppard.
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October 26th is probably not a date that many people have marked on their calendars, but it's been circled on mine for weeks. Why? October 26th is the release date of Windows 8, and while that's fairly exciting on it's own, it'll also be around that time when Microsoft finally makes its beautiful, sexy Surface tablets available to the public. Though the reception to the device thus far has been mixed, I'm dying to get my hands on one, and I'm not afraid to say so. Even if I can't exactly pinpoint why.
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Rumors have been kicking around about Google’s ridiculously fast, 100% fiber optic, absolutely-destroys-every-other-option internet service since 2010, but it all kind of seemed like a distant pipe dream; something amazing that would come eventually, but nobody really knew when. We’d all love to live in a world where a company built on the mantra “don’t be evil” sells us cheap, gigabit internet service, while the price-gouging cable companies of old die a slow, painful death because there archaic download speeds can no longer compete. Okay, maybe the bit about the slow painful death is just me being sadistic, but there’s no arguing that the idea of Google Fiber sounds awesome.
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