Author: Steve Murray

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Sunday Link-Off: Taking Control

nina-agdal-nicholasroutzen13-02It’s the end of the week. It’s been a busy one at Lowdown HQ too with all the work we did for Canadian Gaming Week. Maybe we’ll do that again in the future but for now we’ll resume normal programming. So let’s start today’s links with Nina Agdal.

The week before last was about two things: Terrorism and gun control. At first, those were two separate issues. Now, you can actually link the two as bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on an FBI watch list but was still able to buy high-powered firearms. (Bloomberg)

Midterm elections in the US Congress is still a ways away but gun control could be the biggest issue in 2014. (The New Republic)

Australia banned all semi-automatic and automatic firearms despite concerns over the effect it might have over people’s safety. Almost 20 years later, Australia is one of the safest places in the world to live. To be honest, I felt safer in Australia than I did in Toronto or Ottawa. (Uproxx)

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Humour

Caption This: April 20 – 26, 2013

Inspired by the Globe and Mail’s caption writing person, we waste our time writing funny picture captions for some of the more interesting photos we come across when blogging. So here are some of the best pictures from the past week with a funny (-ish) caption. Continue reading →

3 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

Canada is a Gaming Powerhouse

canadian-gamingOne thing that I’ve realized as working on our Canadian Gaming Week is that the Canadian gaming industry is currently in great shape. Sure, Vancouver could use a little bit of help and the once great BioWare has been on a down swing but to parrot a Don Cherry line about Canadian hockey, we are the best.

If you look at last week’s Canadian Videogame Awards, the nominees and winners lists look like most major year-end awards lists. Three of last year’s biggest triple-A games, the best-selling sports game in the world and two of the best reviewed indie games of 2012 were all developed on Canadian soil. Canadian gaming isn’t just a powerhouse but is thriving hotbed for the games industry.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Montreal’s gamesbymo Needs Your Help to Make A.N.N.E

anne-logoEvery once in a while on our sister site et geekera, we cover some of the more interesting offerings on Kickstarter. For Canadian Gaming Week, we thought that we would do a Kickstarter preview of our own.

Montreal indie studio gamesbymo is the one-man operation of developer Moise Breton. He’s taking to Kickstarter to get funding to complete work on his latest project called A.N.N.E.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Canadian PSN Users Can Get Freebies Thanks to a Class-Action Lawsuit

playstation-network-logoIf Canadian users on the PlayStation Network or with Qriocity or Sony Online Entertainment accounts thought they had gotten all the freebies they could out of Sony after the 2011 PSN hack, think again. A recently settled class-action lawsuit in Ontario means that Canadian PSN/SOE users can get some more free stuff from Sony.

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1 Comment Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

Despite Its Faults, I Still Love Mass Effect

I couldn’t go the whole of Canadian Gaming Week here on the blog without writing one more Mass Effect column. The reason that I write so often and at such length about Mass Effect is that the series is what brought me back into proper gaming after years of spending my time in a rut of playing sports and music games.

I’ve written a lot about the game over the last year. I’ve dug into that terribly unsatisfying ending. I’ve decried the horrible DLC practices that saw parts of the game cut out to sell separately from the main game. I’ve even promoted the Indoctrination Theory which might be my greatest sin against the franchise and common sense.

And despite how disappointed I was in the ending of the trilogy, despite how angry I was at having to pay for an on-disc “DLC” that was locked out behind what was effectively a $10 paywall and despite the fact that I have to make the conscious choice to end my playthroughs at the Citadel DLC to get the ending the trilogy deserves, I still love Mass Effect.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Preview: Fez Comes to PC Next Week

fez-box-artNext Wednesday, the critically acclaimed indie platformer Fez will make its way from bring an Xbox 360 exclusive to multiplatform with a PC launch through Steam.

Fez is a Canadian developed game by Montreal-based Polytron Corporation. Gamers may have heard of the outspoken Phil Fish who was one half of the game’s two-man dev team. Fish and Fez were profiled in the popular documentary Indie Game: The Movie which also featured hits Super Meat Boy and Braid.

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1 Comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Papo & Yo Review: A Game in a Metaphor

papo-and-yo-bannerWhat make a video game a game? That’s a question that is being asked with increasing frequency. It’s also a question that one could ask about Papo & Yo. It’s a game with a story and a message hidden behind a metaphor but the actual “gameplay” is fairly thin. So does that mean it’s a game or a metaphor?

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Wednesday Link-Off: The Investigation

elyse-taylor-victoriassecret13-01It’s the middle of the week but more importantly, it’s the middle of Canadian Gaming Week here on the blog. Hope you guys have enjoyed yourselves so far. There are still reviews, columns, news and more coming your way this week. However, the plug got pulled on our review of Star Trek: The Video Game but I’m hoping to have a different Canadian game that came out this week reviewed this week.

For now, it’s time for our traditional set of Wednesday links. Let’s kick this off with Australian model Elyse Taylor.

Catching the Boston Marathon bombing suspects wasn’t just a case of police detective work but a combination of police work, citizen tips and modern technology. (The Washington Post)

The NRA’s domain over gun lobbying impacted the Boston bombing investigation because they’ve impeded technology that can trace gunpowder which would have helped the investigation. (The National Memo)

You’re just as likely to be killed by your furniture as you are by a terrorist attack in America. So why does America make a big deal about terrorism when an average of 18 people are killed each day by guns? (The Guardian)

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Help Vancouver’s Gaming Industry with The Indie Gala

indie-gala-logoDo you love video games and supporting small developers? The latest Indie Gala sale allows you to do both. While that’s not unusual for Indie Gala sales, what is unusual is the different way that you can support indie developer and the Vancouver gaming scene in particular.

This week’s Indie Gala is The Mass Effect Bundle. While Mass Effect isn’t exactly an indie production, the proceeds allocated to charity will help the indies. The Mass Effect Bundle supports the Launch Academy and the BC Member of Legislative Assembly campaign of Matt Toner.

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