Archive for the 'Geek Raves' Category
In no particular order :
1. [ Watchman ] movie will be pushed back and will end up being a Christmas blockbuster instead of the summer blockbuster starter they were hoping for. Thanks Fox for taking something beautiful and trying to crap all over it. Just one more, in a long list of reasons to despise you as a company.
2. Nothing excitingly new will come from this years, and Apple’s last, MacWorld. By the end of the year, Steve Jobs will have stepped down as CEO and will fill an emeritus roll of some sort.
3. [ Twitter ] will be overrun by malware, spam, and hackers making the service useless and a thing of the past. We have already seen the start of this, and unfortunately the twitter API is full of security holes, and the twitter dev seems to have reactionary view of security instead of a precautionary view. Since Twitter is finally starting to make it stamp in histories timeline of the internet, it will draw far too much exposure from unwanted forces.
4. Net Neutrality will finally get the political backing that it needs to become an actual reality, and yet somehow, the US gov’t will still think that they have the ability or the right to control content on the intertubes.
5. [ Wolverine ] will kick so much ass, that it will make us forget, at least for a little while, how pissed we are that [ Watchman ] still hasn’t been released.
First of all.. WOW! This is by far, the most awesome item ever covered from the desk of Awesome.
What you are looking at is a 5 foot by 10 foot lego recreation of the battle at Hoth, from Empire Strikes Back. Created by the extremely taleneted [ Mark Borlase’s ], the entire display consists of nearly 60,000 pieces and has cool features such as 50 real lights and a remote controlled mechanism that deploys troops from the AT-ATs. The entire creation took over 4 years in the making and consumed about $3000 (that’s a lot of white bricks!). This creation won the recent Star Wars building challenge and was featured in the official LEGO Magazine. Mark, you are AMAZING, and seeing this makes me teary..
Here are a couple of pics from the Mark’s flickr page, but there are a ton of SUPER cool pics, so go look at them : [ Mark's Flickr Page ]
The interior of the hoth base, complete with the Millenium Falcon, and X-Wing hanger.
The seriously awesome outside of this includes a snow speeder that is in process of taking out an AT-AT.
Another amazing aspect of this creation is the side view of the mountain that has windows into the medical bay, the command center, and even the hallway that Han strolls down…
Any lego creation is pretty cool, and something of this magnitude is especially amazing, BUT, what makes this truly awesome is the amount of detail all the way down to the footprints in the snow that Luke leaves in the snow running toward the base. (seen in the first pic).
Mark, you are AWESOME!
On September 16, “The Force Unleashed” was unleashed upon us and wow, this game is amazing. The storyline is epic, and the game play is awesome. After the jump, we will discuss in more detail.
First let’s deal with the story. For me, this story is better then any of the prequels, and far superior to the Clone Wars movie from this summer. You are code named “StarKiller” but your given name is Galen Marek, a young sith who is trained secretly by Darth Vader, who discovered you during the Jedi purge that occurs immediately following Revenge of the Sith. After killing your father, Vader takes you and the story jumps about 13 or 14 years into the future where Vader is now using you to be his secret assassin with the goal of enhancing your force skills to the point where you can help him kill the Emperor and take over the galaxy. I won’t go into any more then that at this point, since I don’t want to spoil anything.
The voice acting is considerably better then the Clone Wars movie provided and it really feels cinematic in quality. The cut scenes are fantastic and are engaging enough that watching them over and over doesn’t get annoying.
The game play is ultimately what makes this game made of pure win. First off, you begin the game playing the prologue of the story as Darth Vader on the planet Kashyyyk, the Wookie home world, and you are hunting a Jedi that is hiding out there. You battle Wookies, and have a collection of Storm Troopers with you that you can feel completely comfortable killing as well. In fact, you get a pretty cool, and funny, achievement for doing so. I am going to say that this level alone, makes the game worthwhile. Playing as Darth Vader is just every geeks dream come true.
The Force Unleashed completely re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force by taking advantage of new technologies, Digital Molecular Matter (DMM), by Pixelux Entertainment, and euphoria by NaturalMotion Ltd. Paired with the powerful Havok Physics™ system, these new technologies create an amazingly realistic feel to the game play. DMM incorporates the physical properties of anything in the environment so that everything reacts exactly like it should - wood breaks like wood, glass shatters like glass, and people who get picked up react like people would thanks to a revolutionary behavioral-simulation engine, euphoria enables interactive characters to move, act and even think like actual human beings, adapting their behavior on the fly and resulting in a different reaction every time.
It really does bring a whole new dimension to this type of game. The end sequences when fighting “Boss” type enemies (at-at’s, and other Jedi) are pretty cool, and have a cut-scene feel to them while allowing you to interact at the same time.
Finally, the concept as whole is epic. The scope of what this game attempts is impressive, and even though it is being billed as the most expensive video game ever, it is completely worth it. It is a bit violent so I would not recommend it for the under 13 age group.
What I like most about this game is that it did what none of the prequels could do. It made me excited to be back in the Star Wars universe, and reminded me of everything good about the Star Wars franchise.
Are you excited for this game? Have you started playing, if so, what do you think? Let me know in comments.
On August 15th, Lucasfilm will unleash the seventh big screen Star Wars movie, this time in cartoon form. Star Wars is quite possibly the most well-known and loved Science Fiction franchise of all time. Just about any 30-something has a story about the first time they saw Star Wars in the theater, and can recount the confusion of seeing Episode 5 scroll across the screen when Empire Strikes Back played for the first time, and the absolute thrill every teenager got when they first saw Leia in her Jabba’s Palace outfit.
Then came the spring of 1999. After years of anticipation, and having waited in line for ten hours for tickets we got to see the back story for the three most beloved sci fi movies in history, and they sucked! I refuse to go into a rant about the prequels, but I think the first movie should have been edited down to this :
This was the only good part of the first movie.
Now, three years after the Revenge of the Sith, which I will admit had redeeming qualities to it, we are again forced to wonder if another attempt by George Lucas is worth our 11 dollars.
I have heard positive and negative things about this movie. One huge positive is the artwork. This will be a cartoon, but the images that have been leaked online are crazy and certainly have more of an anime flair to them. Here are a few :
Obi Wan looking awesome with his saber. Oh yeah, come and get some.
I am not sure if this is just a concept peice or an actual scene from the movie, but WOW. The artist that did this is amazing.
Here is [ Asajj Ventress ]. I am a fan of this character, and actually enjoyed her role in the Clone Wars TV series. I liked that she considered herself a Sith, even though she was “untrained”. I really hope her role stays strong in this film, and again the artwork is phenomenal.
Ok, so I am pretty sure we can all agree that one thing Skywalker Ranch excels at is creating amazing visuals, but plots seem to be an issue these days, and unfortunately, I think this will be the case in the upcoming movie. Here is the “official” plot synopsis.
The Clone Wars takes place between Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The eponymous Clone Wars rage between the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Galactic Republic. When Jabba the Hutt’s son, Rotta the Hutt, is taken by a group of renegades, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi depart in search of answers: where is the Hutt’s son, and who is controlling this mysterious renegade group? Yoda sends Ahsoka Tano along as Anakin’s apprentice. Count Dooku will unleash his minions, including Asajj Ventress and General Grievous, to cause havoc for the Republic and to make a three way war between the Galactic Republic, the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the Hutt’s.
OK. First of all, Rotta the Hutt… really?!? Rotta the Hutt? Does anyone else out there remember Lumpy? Chewbacca’s kid from the infamous Star Wars Christmas Special. Haven’t we learned our lesson about creating random family members for the Star Wars universe? I am also trying to imagine a distraught Jabba wondering where he son his and thumbing through family photos to give to Anakin to help find little Rotta. Oh, and seriously does any one else really want to think about two Hutts mating and creating a child in the first place? Ugh.
Next, since when does Anakin get an apprentice? He is not a master and still an apprentice himself in the third movie. Granted, I am sure they will address this in the movie, but why add this into an established character history.
The final issue that I have with this movie is the lack of Ewen McGregor and Hayden Christensen. As much as I hate Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of Anakin, we all must face the fact that he is Anakin now, so how are you just going to get two different actors to play the MAIN characters. If this were a straight to DVD, or TV movie, I would not care as much, but this is a feature film, get the original actors or don’t do the freaking movie.
This movie is meant to be the precursor to a TV series, which will no doubt see a change in the voices of all the characters, which for a TV series, I am not too concerned about that, but ultimately I just think that this movie should have been a prime time special on the channel that will be airing the TV series and that’s all. Aside from the visual elements, I just don’t see anything about this movie being worthy of big screen play, or 11 dollars of my hard earned money.
In the end, I wish I could love Star Wars as much as I did in the Spring of 1999, before seeing episode I. The anticipation of that movie, the idea of new Star Wars content and the thought that a whole new generation of Star Wars fans being created just doesn’t exist with this movie. It seems an after-thought and in my opinion will be the final insult to what I considered to be a defining story in my childhood.
So let me know what you think, will you see the movie? Are you looking forward to it like you did the originals? Leave a comment.
As initially irritated as I was to see that there was going to be a prequel Star Trek movie made… the press that has been coming through the interwebs have successfully gotten me more and more excited for its release.
Now the Trek movie poster has found its way online …. Awesome!
The first 3rd party instruments for Rock Band are going to be available for purchase starting June 22nd. [ Mad Catz ] was given official approval from Harmonix to become the officially licensed 3rd party manufacturer of instrument controllers for Rock Band, and it looks like their wired Bass controller for the Xbox 360 is the first out of the gate.
The wired bass will be available on June 22, for the Xbox 360, and will be priced at $69.99. The bass will include the Mad Catz dual-strummer which is basically a split strum bar that allows the player to use to fingers to strum up and down simultaneously, which should help to get some of the faster solo sections down better.
Complete list of features for the bass:
- Licensed Fender Precision bass styling
- Custom finishes for enhanced realism
- Comfortable thumb rest
- Whammy effect via volume knob
- Split strum bar for fast finger action
- Oversized tuning keys
- Durable plastic construction
- Wired USB connectivity
A wireless version for the Xbox 360
Mad Catz also offers a wired mic, that integrates the controller buttons as well, and for me, this is huge. Having to use a separate controller to navigate during game play was always a little annoying, especially if you are singing and playing an instrument at the same time. Apparently this is already available for the Xbox 360, but shipments are still forthcoming. The street price for this gem is $59.99.
Here are the mic features:
- Built-in controller - easy navigation through all in game menus
- High quality soft-touch finish
- High profile pop / wind screen
- Convenient lock/unlock button
- Wired USB connection
The Rockband guitar has always kind of annoyed me, so much so that I actually went out and bought the wireless Gibson guitar to use for Rockband instead of the official one. However, if you are looking for a more unique guitar to use in your band, Mad Catz has that solution too.
Fender has officially licensed this guitar and it is a replica of the Telecaster, and looks pretty awesome. So far, this is only available to Xbox 360 users, and will come at a price of $79.99 and it is wired. Hopefully a wireless version will be avialable soon, but nothing official has been said about that.
Guitar feature list:
- Licensed Fender Telecaster styling
- Perfectly scaled with high detail
- Built for speed - new, improved strum bar and quick response fret buttons
- Programmable strum
- Telecaster Bridge Plate used for Whammy
- Smooth Hot-Rod Red finish
Finally, the best for last.
Mad Catz has created two different drum kits that truly make Rockband a better experience. The first is a portable drum kit. It will be available on the 15th of July, and will run $49.99.
It touts a small form factor, and quiet pads and will allow you to take your band on the road much easier then you currently can. I am very excited about this, as my nephews constantly have me loading up the band kit in my car to go over to their house to play. The portable kit also features foam tipped drum sticks to assist with the noise dampening.
A little more exciting is the actual Premium Wired drum kit. The kit is based on authentic electronic drum kits, and has an added high hat, with a usable foot pedal, and a crash cymbal. The drum heads can be adjusted up and down and swiveled.
The drums will be available on August 15th and will be a on the higher end price wise at $149.99.
This set of equipment is a very very solid addition to the Rockband game, and may even make it less worthwhile to move over to Guitar Hero : World Tour, since these additions address a lot of the upgrades that GH4 is touting.
Back in 2003 when the trailers for [ "Hulk" ] were being shown in the theaters, I would gleefully clap and was so excited to see the movie, and so the disappointment that was Ang Lee’s attempt to destroy my childhood was that much harder to take. From that perspective I want to thank everyone involved in doing [ "The Incredible Hulk" ] for restoring my faith in movie making and telling the greatest Hulk story ever…
This movie creates a great blend of the original TV series from the 70’s and the comic book origin, so that no matter what your knowledge is of the Hulk character, there’s something that everyone will be able to grab onto for the movie.
First off, the cast is amazing. [ Ed Norton ] as Bruce Banner is sheer genius, and I thought he did an amazing job. [ William Hurt ] as General Ross was great. I know a lot of people do not like William Hurt, but I love his style of acting, and I always love seeing him in a movie. I am torn about [ Liv Tyler ]. I really hated her after Lord of the Rings, but it wasn’t her fault that her character was poorly adapted and given too much of a role in the movie, and after [ The Strangers ], I started liking her again. I wasn’t thrilled with her, but when the overall movie can make me forget the fact that I don’t like a specific actor, and truly appreciate the total entertainment experience, it’s something to smile about.
The story is complex, intelligent, fast-paced, yet easily taken in by non-geeks. Enough references to the true comic, alternate comic, and TV show, that everyone has something recognizable. I loved the cameo with [ Lou Ferrigno ], and especially that they had him do the voice over work. I would like to think that if he were still alive that [ Bill Bixby ] would have found a small role in the movie as well. I also appreciated the [ Stan Lee ] appearance that is the mark of every Marvel movie.
The action in the movie was well spaced and kept the movie going, and the CGI was not overused and kept the Hulk “real” which was one of my major complaints about the 2003 version. I loved the “personality” that the Hulk had and especially the struggle for control. I also LOVED the addition of the Hulks “super powers” such as the Hulk Clap, and the Hulk Smash.
Lastly, the addition of Tony Stark at the end was fantastic. I love that they are setting up the Avengers movie, and that Hulk will have his place there.
Overall, I will definitely spend the cash to see this in the theater a few more times, and it will join my DVD collection as soon as it is released.
Starting Thursday, June 5th, Time Warner will begin a trial program which will impose a monthly consumption cap of 40GB on the internet for it’s customers in Beaumont, Texas.
Users will be given two months to get used to the cap, and then after that they will be charged $1.00 for every gigabyte over the limit that they go.
Time Warner Cable’s plan to test metered service was originally revealed to the public when an internal company memo was leaked in January and later confirmed by the company. The memo indicated that the results of the trial would be used to determine whether to roll out the bandwidth-capping plan to other regions.
Kevin Leddy, Time Warner Cable executive vice president of advanced technology, told the Associated Press that the variable billing model is being adopted to address the disparity in bandwidth consumption among Time Warner Cable users. Five percent of the subscribers are consuming half of the local line capacity, Leddy says.
The caps differ depending on the tier of service paid for by the consumer. The lowest level of service is a 768Kbps connection with a 5GB cap for $29.95 per month. The high-end package will offer 15MBps with a 40GB cap for $54.90 per month. Consumers will pay by the gigabyte for consumption in excess of the established caps. Customers will be able to see how much bandwidth they have left by visiting the Time Warner Cable web site.
This may not, at first glance, seem like a problem, but considering where technology is gong, and the concepts of cloud computing becoming so prevalant, it seems hard to imagine that even the average consumer will be able to subsist on a max of 40GB each month.
If Mr. Leddy is concerned about the 5% of subscribers who are consuming half the local line capacity, then perhaps a plan targetted towards them would be more appropriate. Time Warner is certainly capable of determining who is abusing thier bandwidth, and even if they can’t then at the very least put together a program that is more reasonable. Uncapped DSL is cheaper then $30.00 a month and for that Time Warner will cap you at 5GB ?? I used more then 5GB this month on my iPhone over the edge network…
With the advent of “set-top” internet boxes such as the Apple TV, Netflix and Blockbuster, most consumers will find that they hit these caps after just a couple of movies in the month. Scary that a cable company is able to completely establish a policy that effectively removes the ability to use a product that would be considered a competitor, and no one takes notice.
With just a week to go before WWDC, the 3G iPhone rumor mill is pretty much on fire. Some rumors are just crazy, but most seem likely, so here is your roundup to get you excited.
• It’ll be announced during the WWDC keynote
I buy this one. I don’t think at this point Apple could delay the announcement, even if they hadn’t initially planned on it. Apple would suffer seriously if they don’t announce it.
• It’ll ship on the same day as the announcement
I am not sure about this one. If this were the case, images of the phone would have leaked out, since once the Apple store employees, and more likely the at&t employees open the boxes pictures will appear in about 32 seconds.
• Battery life will be improved
I think this is a must.. I get great battery life off my current iPhone, but I know with all the added features, 3G and GPS being the biggest battery suckers, they will have to increase the life.
• Twice the current memory - 16GB and 32GB
Again, I think this will be an obvious, Apple never releases anything without beefing it up..
• It’ll have GPS
I am not too sure about this. I haven’t seen anything conclusive on whether it will have the hardware inside to support GPS, and while I think it would be nice, the WiFi option has worked well for me so far.
• Front-facing Camera
meh… I don’t care one way or the other on this one. I can see the obvious video calling aspect of it, but it is doubtful that I would ever use it. I think I have used the built i-sight camera on my MacBook Pro once and that was just because my nephew was playing with Photo Booth.
• Stereo Bluetooth support.
The fact that stereo bluetooth (A2DP) support hasn’t been on the iPhone from day one is crazy. Music and wireless are Apple’s thing, now. They go together well, so even though the ruomrs on this have been quieter, this is one of my top 5 most anticipated features and since Leopard comes out of the box with A2DP support, Apple’s at least has proven it is a feature they are interested in.
• 3 megapixel Camera
It should be at least 3 mega pixels. The current iPhone rocks a 2 megapixel camera. The SGOLD3 chipset rumored to be in use on the 3G iPhone supports up to 5. Any thing less than a full megapixel bump would be an under utilization of the current hardware.
• It’ll be 22% slimmer
Steve Jobs is more obsessed with thin then a cracker fed super model blowing in the wind, so I completely believe this. 22% sounds like a whole lot, but it only shaves it down to around 9.1 mm - still a bit thicker than the iPod touch.
Like any good rumor, apply salt liberally, but these are all just a collection of what I think are the most reasonable rumors.
Think I’ve hit them all? Did I miss something? Drop a comment!
According to the Apple rumor mill, which seems to be working more then overtime lately, some specs of the iPhone have been released, by “a programmer at a major software publisher.”
The following should be taken with a grain of salt, because salt makes everything more tasty.
According to [ Cult of Mac ] the iPhone 2 will have:
- 3G
- GPS
- 2 x memory (16GB and 32GB)
- 22 % thinner
- Longer battery life
The tipster says Apple will subsidize the iPhone’s price to better compete with RIM’s Blackberry. The London Times is reporting the same thing — that [ the iPhone will cost about $200 in the UK ] when it goes on sale in July.