Author: Steve Murray

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The Cave Review (Or A Domain of Evil It Is. In You Must Go.)

the-cave-wallpaper-01The second-to-last week of January had a game I was very excited about. Strike Suit Zero was a gorgeous looking space sim. Having grown up on space sims, I was looking forward to a great space flight combat game. Then I actually started flying the titular Strike Suit ship and found myself quickly underwhelmed by twitchy controls and combat mechanics that didn’t work as advertised in the tutorial which resulted in a massive and frustrating difficulty spike.

Fortunately, there was a second big indie game release that week. Double Fine Productions released their much-anticipated The Cave. The developer is best known for their work on Psychonauts and they got a hand from popular games director Ron Gilbert whose resume includes the cult-hit Monkey Island series. Better than the team behind it was trailers promising puzzles, stories and dark humour. In other words, it ticked off most of the items on my checklist of things I like in games.

Continue reading →

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Wednesday Link-Off: Super Bowl Hangover

nina-agdal-aerie13-04Well, since I’m travelling this week, it’ll be a shorter linkdump than usual today. I’m hoping to have that that all fixed by Sunday. To make up for it, here’s Nina Agdal. Did you read my SI Swimsuit Issue cover odds post yesterday? There’s a reason why I’ve featured her today.

Rick Reilly’s column about Colin Kaepernick was pretty bad but the Times-Picayune’s write-up of the Playboy Super Bowl party might just top it. (Deadspin)

What is Fox’s Gus Johnson going to do now that the football season is over? He’s off to Europe to be groomed as Fox Sports’ new voice of soccer ahead of the 2018 World Cup. (Sports Illustrated)

Speaking of soccer, they’re once again in the midst of a massive match-fixing scandal. Well, if they’re willing to accept bribes to host the World Cup, which is the biggest sporting event in the world, why not accept bribes for everything else. (National Post)

After the jump, CBS’ big fail of the Super Bowl, some very Canadian sports kerfuffles, and The Walking Dead as a sitcom. Continue reading →

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SI Swimsuit Issue 2013 Cover Odds

We’re back with this year’s edition of our trademark breakdown of the favourites to make this year’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover. The 2013 SI Swimsuit Issue is a milestone as it marks the 50th edition. There have been forty cover models over the first 49 issues starting with Babette March back in 1964.

Continuing with our annual tradition of Swimsuit Issue prognostication, today, we give you the official unofficial examination of who will make the cover of this year’s SI Swimsuit Issue. Continue reading →

3 Comments Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

What to Expect from Mass Effect 3 Reckoning Multiplayer DLC

mass-effect-3-promo-05-koa-reckoning-armorBetween description leaks and datamining the 1.05 patch, we have some idea of what to expect when BioWare eventually launches their upcoming Reckoning DLC for Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer. Unfortunately, BioWare has gotten better at not tipping their hand in their patches. Continue reading →

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Sunday Link-Off: Supe-Har Bowl Sunday

beyonce-gq13-04You know what? Fuck the Harbaughs. As a Lions fan, fuck that disrespectful Jim Harbaugh. Coach Schwartz could kick his ass. And John I don’t mind as much but fuck Ray Lewis. He’s hiding behind god so he doesn’t have to answer about that homicide charge and that deer antler spray. 

Right, as today is the Super Bowl and since she is performing in the halftime show, let’s start this post off with Beyonce.

Did you know that the NRA has an enemies list? Chances are that someone you like is on that list. (Daily Kos)

January wasn’t a good one for Faux Fox News. The right-wing “news” channel had its worst primetime ratings in twelve years last month. (The Week)

Speaking of the right-wing media, the Breitbart network of blogs has added a sports blog. Naturally, its most popular post is about a homophobic football player. (Vice)

After the jump, all of our Super Bowl links, a bunch of NHL links and oppan flipbook style. Continue reading →

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Entertainment Link-Off: Written in the Stars

halle-berry-vanityfair13-01Good news, folks. If everything goes according to schedule, Jackie is back in two weeks. So you only have to put up with my take on the ELO today and next Saturday.

And even better news for you guys is that there are some decent movies this weekend. If you’re looking for a Twilight parody or a zombie movie parody, you’ll be looking for Warm Bodies. It’s actually been well reviewed. If you just want to watch a bad 80’s action movie, there’s Sly’s new Bullet to the Head. It’s Sly doing an action movie. Can it be anything other than campishly bad? Okay, Cliffhanger was just bad.

Anyway, Vanity Fair did their annual Hollywood issue again. I don’t quite know why but Halle Berry was in it. Has she been in a good movie since X-Men 2? Continue reading →

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Caption This: January 26 – February 1, 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 →

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Lowdown Monthly – January 2013

It’s time to once again take a look back at the past month here on the blog with Lowdown Monthly. Considering the amount of content we’ve pushed out over the 31 days in January, I thought now would be a good time to bring it back. So here’s our look back at our favourite and the most popular posts of January. Continue reading →

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Fails of the Week

Every so often (and usually more frequently than the two months since the last edition), we take a look at the most epic fails from the week that was in the Fails of the Week. This week, we have five pictures, GIFs and videos that we think are the most epic fails of the week. Continue reading →

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Wednesday Link-Off: Fight the Good Fight

lily-aldridge-victoriassecret13-05It’s Wednesday which means it’s time for links. It also means that we’re seven days from unveiling our SI Swimsuit Issue cover odds list. Maybe I should get started on that… Okay, while I do that, here are the links and here is the return of Lily Aldridge.

As he heads into his second four-year term as President of the United States, TNR interviews Barack Obama about his plans for the next four years. (New Republic)

In that TNR interview, the POTUS says that the Republicans won’t change their obstructionist ways until they are made to pay the price for being obstructionist. You know, he’s right. (Washington Post)

Now that he’s lost the fight against ObamaCare, Papa John wants to pretend that he never fought the fight against ObamaCare by getting any ObamaCare related comments he made scrubbed from the internet. (National Confidential)

After the jump, the history of Deadspin, a profile on one of BioWare’s exiled bosses and an epic trombone quartet. Continue reading →