Author: Steve Murray

Leave a comment Posted on November 6, 2015November 1, 2015 by Steve Murray Entertainment

Doctor Who: The Zygon Invasion Review

Thanks to giving out candy, I was late to the start of this week’s episode of Doctor Who. Thanks to the magic of a DVR, I was able to rewind to the start but I came in at the point where Clara was non-chalantly watching an abduction in a barely lit apartment. It was a pretty good scene to start on when you consider that it was aired on Halloween.

So was this week’s episode a proper Halloween episode? I’m not sure I’d go that far but I would say that it was a promising start to the Zygon two-parter.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 5, 2015November 1, 2015 by Steve Murray Video Games

Life is Strange – Episode Five Review: Time of Your Life

It’s so seldom that I play a game that really moves me. Sure, there are plenty of games that I play that I think are really good or have their poignant moments but I can’t remember the last time I played a game that stuck with me quite the way that Life is Strange has. I came into it expecting to be underwhelmed but Dontnod exceeded all of my expectations and made the best episodic point-and-click adventure game on the market.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 4, 2015November 3, 2015 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Wednesday Link-Off: Insane in the Brain

Happy Wednesday, interwebs. I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m having one of those weeks were happiness is but a fleeting moment. Just when I think I can be content, BAM, something hits me and tries to convince me otherwise. Monday started terribly and snowballed. Tuesday went well until the end when one unhappy interaction put a pall on my afternoon and evening. Let’s see how today goes though I hope yours is better than my week.

Anyway, enough deep-rooted self-loathing. We’re here on Wednesdays to do the links. Let’s kick things off with Allison Williams.

A new study suggests that extensive media coverage of mass shootings causes more mass shootings. (CNN)

Ben Carson might be one of two Republican frontrunners but for every bit as good as he is at medicine, he’s bad at economics. (Fortune)

And then there are the views held by his church. His denomination believes that the US government will bring about the Antichrist or some such like that. Does it still happen if Carson is President? (The Daily Beast)

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Leave a comment Posted on November 3, 2015November 2, 2015 by Steve Murray Video Games

Star Wars: Battlefront Beta Impressions: Pray I Alter It Further

So we have a new Star Wars trailer and many, many people have tickets to an early showing of The Force Awakens. Exactly a month before the earliest showings of Episode VII, the next chapter in the Star Wars video game franchise will hit shelves.

Both the announcement of J.J. Abrams as director of Episode VII and the appointment of Electronic Arts as the publisher of Star Wars games were met with excitement. While EA did cause a bit of trepidation, the appointment of DICE, BioWare and Visceral, three of EA’s top guns, to develop the games got gamers excited. First up for EA and LucasFilm is DICE with their take on Battlefront. The early results aren’t exactly awe-inspiring.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 2, 2015November 1, 2015 by Steve Murray Humour

Fails of the Week

Every so often, 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.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 1, 2015November 1, 2015 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Sunday Link-Off: My Time is Now

Does everybody know what time it is? I’m serious. That’s the one thing about time changes that I hate. I’m trying to watch F1 this afternoon but is it on at 2:00 PM EDT or 2:00 PM EST when it’s scheduled for 1:00 PM local time. And there’s StarCraft to be watched this afternoon too but at least I think that’s scheduled in Pacific Time. Time changes make sense but you always feel like no one else knows what they’re doing.

Anyway, it’s Sunday so it’s time for us to do the links. Since last night was Halloween, it’s only appropriate to kick off with Jessica Lowndes as what I would assume is Harley Quinn.

Wiretaps in Italy suggest Toronto is on the verge of a mafia war breaking out. (Canada.com)

The two frontrunners for the GOP Presidential nomination are amateur politicians. Everywhere else, people look to professionals. Why is politics so different? (Vox)

The latest Republican debate was another edition of the GOP versus the media. The media should be criticized but it should be for seldom holding anyone accountable. (Washington Post)

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Leave a comment Posted on October 30, 2015October 28, 2015 by Steve Murray Entertainment

Doctor Who: The Woman Who Lived Review

While Doctor Who is a sci-fi show that evolved out of something that was originally intended to be a science and history show, it’s always been at its strongest when it’s a character study. Just look at the difference between last week’s episode and this week’s. The Girl Who Died was largely a comedy episode. The Woman Who Lived was a study of Ashilder and the downside of immortality.

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Leave a comment Posted on October 29, 2015October 26, 2015 by Steve Murray Announcements, Video Games

Lowdown / et geekera Tales from the Borderlands Giveaway

Our sister site, et geekera, has managed to get an extra code for Tales from the Borderlands. Since I already have one, there’s only one logical thing to do: Give it away!

We’re running the contest through gleam.io which will randomly draw one winner from the entries. You can earn up to five entries into our contest. The giveaway starts now and closes at 11:59 PM EST on October 31st. We’ll contact the winner with the code on November 1st.

Click here to enter our giveaway.

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Leave a comment Posted on October 29, 2015October 28, 2015 by Steve Murray Video Games

Tales from the Borderlands – Episode Four Review: The Bravo-Team

If you were to ask the critics, Tales from the Borderlands is the hidden gem of Telltale’s slate of episodic adventure games. I’d hazard that those critics are also going to be fans of or at least have played the Borderlands games at some point in time. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’ve never put much more than five hours into Borderlands.

When you take that into consideration, it’s probably not that much of a surprise that I haven’t rated Tales from the Borderlands as well as most critics. And while a number of critics saw the penultimate episode of TFTB as the best episode in the series and called the series the best thing out of Telltale since the first season of The Walking Dead. I saw it as just an episode.

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Leave a comment Posted on October 29, 2015October 28, 2015 by Steve Murray Randominity

Amazing Jack-o-Lanterns 2015

It’s time for The Lowdown’s annual tradition. I’m not talking about another anniversary show but tomorrow is actually the 8th anniversary of The Lowdown (our first episode was on October 30, 2007). No, today we do our annual look at some really cool Jack-o-Lanterns to give us all some inspiration for our own. One day, one of us might actually do something cool enough to be featured here. Today, we sit back and watch.

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