Sunday Is A Slow Boat to the Bottom of the Internet Sea…

Posted on June 29, 2014 by geelw

Ah, the best laid plans of ice and men. Bleh. Between waking up a bit late and the HORRIBLE connection I have today at both Starbucks I’ve been to and my computer still acting a bit funky (well, it only made that tattling noise once for about a half second, but I’m still worried), I’m not getting what I need to get done DONE. Boo. The connection here keeps dropping, meaning my downloads aren’t completing properly or at all, a few drafts need some fixing thanks to losing the connection before an autosave and so forth and so on. Now I know why they play all that calming new age music here – so people frustrated with the crappy wi-fi don’t go berserk and start slamming their laptops and tablets to the floor. Meh, I’ll need to drag myself out of bed bright and early, I guess. My stupid virus scanner just stopped working after a reboot, which means I need to re-download and install it. Niiiiiice. Okay, that’s it – off to drown my sorrows in whatever ice cream like substance is in the freezer and maybe finish playing a game I need to review…

Death Rattle or Rather Atonal Finger Cymbals? Oh, Let’s Find Out Now, Shall We?

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Ruh-Roh. Turned on the laptop not too long ago to post some stuff and maybe a half hour later, I hear a short, sharp rattling sound that made me jump. I thought it was from one of the phones or computers of the people sitting nearby, but then it happened again and nope, it’s me. More specifically, my not so new laptop. Eeek. Well, it hasn’t happened again, but I’m going to shut it down for the time being and see what happens when I reboot in about an hour. Crap. I have a ton of stuff to do and a quick proofreading job to complete, so this definitely stinks. And I just installed iolo’s wonderful System Mechanic, too!

Back in a bit… (Eeek!)

CE Week Madness Of A Sort…

Posted on June 25, 2014 by geelw

Short post today, as I’m at CE Week seeing some pretty cool stuff I’ll be covering over the next few weeks. I shoule be posting from the show floor or something, but it’s too loud and distracting and I can’t write with people yammering away around me. Oddly enough, I can draw just fine, as you may see in a bit after the folks from one booth I dropped by send me an email of the intentionally blurry tree I drew using their nifty app and drawing tool…

Anyway, back in a bit – I’ve been up since 4:45am and still have about two hours here to go. Eeek. Well, the coffee is free at least…

The Toys of Summer: World Tech Toys Joker 2CH IR RC Helicopter – “Fly So Serious?”

Posted on June 12, 2014 by geelw

I’ll have to admit, I let out a hearty chuckle when I opened the box from HobbyTron and saw that World Tech Toys DC Comics Licensed World Tech Toys Joker 2 Channel Infrared RC Helicopter inside leering at me suspiciously. I wasn’t laughing AT the Joker-shaped chopper, mind you… but the fact that it was him inside that box and not Batman or Superman as I’d expected.

I also laughed because it being the Joker meant I was probably lucky to be alive after opening that box. As not a whiff of Smilex Gas poured out of the box and I was still breathing, I cracked the package open, took everything out and in less than two minutes (most of which was spent trying to recall where I put the bulk package of batteries I bought a few weeks ago), I was about ready to fly… Continue reading →

E3 2014: Sony’s E3 Experience: Greatness Inbound, Warts & All…

Posted on June 10, 2014 by geelw

SO much good going on here, it’s hard to know where to begin, although this presser’s a bit long and has some snoozy moments. Then again, unlike Microsoft forgetting ALL about it’s “last-gen” consumers, Sony gets in nods to the ps3 while expanding the base with that lovely $99 Vita TV, coming sooner than many thought. I’ll shut up now and let you watch it all, but expect some commentary later on individual titles as I find time to talk about them… enjoy!

Homefront: The Revolution Trailer: Crytek Finishes The Fight (Maybe)…

Posted on June 2, 2014 by geelw

Warts and all, I rather liked defunct publisher THQ’s Homefront for what it was. original (and also defunct) developer KAOS Studios cooked up an interesting alternate future where some very well-armed North Korea soldiers managed to overrun America and you played as one of a group of resistance fighters trying to drive them away. It was a LOT more serious than either Red Dawn movie, but the campaign was a wee bit on the brief side thanks in part to multiplayer modes I felt took too much away from the story.

Anyway, now that new publisher Deep Silver and seasoned developer Crytek are on the case, Homefront: The Revolution is coming in 2015 to PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and I guess we’ll see how the gameplay reveal is at E3 this year, as this trailer looks okay but a bit generic in its storytelling. I do believe those may be in-engine visuals, as if there’s anything Crytek is well-known and respected for, it’s making some mighty amazing looking games using their proprietary tech.

I guess we’ll see how well this plays soon enough and whether it separates itself from other shooters in such a supremely packed market full of them. My fingers are crossed for the moment…

Weekend Update (Kinda Sorta)…

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For some reason (or all the updates this week), it took THREE days to download one game from Steam and I still have to get another one. Boo. Anyway, The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II will get some playtime, but the new chapter of The Wolf Among Us will have to wait for a bit. In the interim, I did read a Fables collection a friend lent me to help supplement Bigby’s episodic adventures in The Wolf Among Us, so I’m glad I got that done finally. I also have an APP review to write, but not for an app, exactly. That’s the name of a pretty cool horror flick that uses a downloadable app to inform you of a few things as you watch the movie and guess what? It’s actually quite good and nowhere near as annoying as I thought it would be. So that’s also going to get done up in a review. Yeah, yeah… E3 is right around the corner and yeah, yeah, I’ll cover what I see and like as the show progresses. I also have some peripherals on the way from PDP, but I missed the Fed Ex truck by about ten minutes on Friday, so I’ll need to haunt my doorway come Monday like a vulture waiting for a not so fresh meal.

Anyway, that’s it for now. I can’t believe I did over 150 posts this month (which went by too quickly), but I think I’ll have more as June rolls out thanks to so many games being announced and my poor brain doing back flips over stuff that grabs my attention. I’m not quite sold on everything “next gen” consoles have to offer, as much of what I’m seeing on the indie front can be done on the PS3 and Xbox 360 and a lot of the newer games are disappointing like most launch and launch window titles tend to be. At this point, it’ll be best to scoop those up when they’re marked down considerably, as I’m not exactly rolling in disposable income these days (as aren’t a lot of gamers in this current economy). Er, I think that’s it for the month… see you in June (or tomorrow, for at least a post or three)…

Surprise! Nintendo Gets The Jump On Super Smash Bros. Wii U Fans With A Game Cube Controller Adapter

Posted on May 29, 2014 by geelw

Well, this is quite cool. Earlier today, Nintendo dropped a little video about the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Invitational Tournament they’re holding at (or near) E3 this year and at the end of that video, BOOM! you’ll see that there’s a Game Cube Adapter coming for the Wii U, price and release date TBA.

Of course, Nintendo went and posted a picture of this soon to be hot seller on its Twitter feed… and pretty much anyone who still has a Game Cube lying around in a closet somewhere (or hey, still under their TV!) probably fainted dead away, woke up to pinch themselves HARD and promptly fainted dead away again. I think it was that sexy music playing when the Adapter was shown, but that’s probably just me…

Yeah, I want one of those AND more Game Cube games coming to the Wii U on the eShop… which according to rumor, MAY just happen. I’d gather this rumor is true as making that adapter for ONE game is just insane and I know a LOT of people want to buy and play some of those classics from the GC era and have at it for old time’s sake. I’m in that crowd although I still have a Game Cube here and a big stack of games to play on it. That said, I’ll snap this thing up in a heartbeat…

More Star Wars Day Madness? Hokay, Knock Yourself Out, Fans!

Posted on May 4, 2014 by geelw

One: The folks at mimoco are running a Caption Contest that ends at MIDNIGHT! Th prize? Your choice of One (1) 16GB retired Star Wars MIMOBOT from the #MIMOVAULT (if available, at their discretion) or one (1) of their 32GB USB 3.0 current series MIMOBOTS. Woo! Time is running out, so go HERE and enter to WIN! You can also boogie on over to the mimoco shop and get 20% off any Star Wars USB drives you buy for 24 hours PLUS free shipping for U.S. orders over $50!

Two: Chronicle Books is doing their May 4th up a few ways today, starting off by announcing a fun new kid’s book available for pre-order, Goodnight, Darth Vader by writer/artist Jeffrey Brown.

Yes, it’s TOO cute, but according to those folks at Disney who now own everything Star Wars, most likely NOT at all part of the new canon they’re creating (boo!). Chronicle also has a free activity kit you can grab PLUS a cool facebook contest for an excellent Star Wars prize set that includes books and some really cute maquettes!

Three: Her Universe is offering up a 40% off sale on SELECT Star Wars items, three new items in their SW line and a $10 Star Wars Mystery Tee (what could it be?). Well, you’ll just need to buy it and find out, correct? Everyone loves surprises, right? Well, unless it’s Jar-Jar Binks staring at you when you open that Mystery Package… Eeek.

Anyway, there’s a lot more going on allll over the internet to-day, but I’m tied up in a few other things and just cobbled together some of what but busting my inbox’ back. Anyway, go consume mass quantities or something and… oh, you know how the rest of that goes!

You’d Think Reliability Was A Crime These Days…

Posted on April 30, 2014 by geelw

The nice thing about owning old stuff is finding it still works when new stuff no longer does. Case in point, my Vectrex console. I’ve had three of them over time and own one now, but not because I had to replace them at all. The first one I gave to some guy who was going through some hard times and needed something to do while recuperating from an operation. The second I sold off to someone who wanted it and paid me well for it and a bunch of boxed games. The third one (pictured) I bought about 14 years back and it gets some use every now and then, but not as much as I have time for. It’s heavy and built like a tank, unlike most of today’s consoles that break down from all sorts of stupid internal and external issues… Continue reading →