1 Comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

Will The Xbox One Be Your Overly Attached Girlfriend? (Infographic)

Microsoft might have gotten rid of the online check-in DRM requirements for the Xbox One but doesn’t mean that it isn’t still watching you. We’ve all read that it’s built around advertising with the Kinect integral to making that advertising work better for advertisers. The Kinect always watching and Microsoft’s compliance in giving data to the NSA doesn’t make me feel better about it.

So is the Xbox One going to be like a clingy girlfriend? The folks at Kensington make that case in a handy infographic.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Entertainment

Sorkin, The Newsroom and the Price of Perfection

the-newsroom-season-2-promoWhen you talk about great modern TV series, the conversation will always include a mention of Aaron Sorkin. The man was the driving force behind not one but two modern classics, Sports Night and The West Wing.

However, Sorkin’s current series, The Newsroom, isn’t considered a classic by most TV critics. It’s not because it’s a bad show. Anyone that has watched network TV over the last few years will know that most series on TV now are pretty poor. Critics don’t like The Newsroom because it doesn’t live up to Sports Night and The West Wing.

That’s the problem when you set the standard too high.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Link-Off

Wednesday Link-Off: The Real Point

olivia-garson-rosafaia13-01It’s the middle of the week which means that it’s time for the links. It’s a news heavy set but hopefully you still enjoy. Let’s kick off with South African model Olivia Garson.

The verdict in the George Zimmerman trial certainly brought out some very strong opinions about what this says about race in America. (Gawker)

Is it possible that high levels of news coverage of a trial before it happens could correlate with not guilty verdicts for those defendants. (Washington Post)

A freelance journalist talks about her work in the middle of the Syrian conflict. (Columbia Journalism Review)

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Sports

IndyCar – Toronto Indy: Two for the Price of One

This weekend was the second of three doubleheader weekends on the 2013 IndyCar Series schedule and it was the first time that we would see a standing start in the IndyCar Series. It also happened to be the first time that we saw the doubleheader winner bonus handed out as Scott Dixon did the double in Toronto after winning both races.

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Leave a comment Posted on 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 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Sunday Link-Off: Jurnalizm

kim-cloutier-laredoute13-01It’s the weekend so it’s time for the links. Remember when I called this the Weekend Link-Off? That was the good old days when we had like 30 uniques a week. Good times. No, wait. Those times were simpler but I never felt like I was accomplishing anything. Okay, the top posts still make me fell that way but at least people are reading now.

Anyway, let’s start this post with one of our favourites, Kim Cloutier.

And, yes, I meant to spell the title that way.

Using Edward Snowden’s data, here’s a look at how Microsoft collaborated with the NSA to give them your data. (The Guardian)

A former CNN producer and current journalism professor says that it might be time to stop considering CNN a news network. (Gawker)

Sharknado may have been all the rage on Twitter but it wasn’t SyFy’s highest rated original movie. Maybe that’s because Twitter isn’t a good proxy for the general population. (Slate)

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Entertainment Link-Off: Go Big or Go Extinct

rinko kikuchi pacific rimApparently it’s neck and neck at the box office this weekend with either big names or big robots drawing people into theatres. Seriously though, why would you pass up an opportunity to watch Pacific Rim where giant robots duke it with giant alien monsters to watch Adam Sandler in his critically panned Grown Ups 2? Plus, it features Rinko Kikuchi for your viewing pleasure as well! 

After the jump, Sharknado is a social media hit… not so much on Syfy, some more Pacific Rim related links, Disney has another big dud on its hands, Summer Glau joins CW’s Arrow and find out what really happens during the Universal Studios opening sequence.  Continue reading →

Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Humour

Caption This: July 6 -12, 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 →

Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Columns, Video Games

Unreal Engine Could Be Next-Gen’s Big Loser

unreal-engine-4-headerWhat do BioShock Infinite, the Mass Effect trilogy, the XCOM series, the Batman: Arkham series, Dishonored and Spec Ops: The Line all have in common? If you read the title of this column, you probably guessed that these are all games made in the Unreal Engine.

Many of this generation’s most popular and most critically acclaimed games were made on Unreal Engine 3. While the next generation of console gaming doesn’t start for another four months, early plans don’t seem to involve Unreal Engine 4 which was the first next-gen engine that was previewed.

While we might give Nintendo a hard time over poor Wii U sales and criticize Microsoft’s former DRM policies, they might not be the big losers of the next generation. When the industry moves on to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, Unreal 4 could be the one who’s left behind.

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Leave a comment Posted on by Steve Murray Video Games

The Walking Dead: 400 Days (PC) Review: Long on Stories, Short on Storytelling

the-walking-dead-400-days-box-artLast year’s The Walking Dead by Telltale Games was a real surprise. Not only was it a licensed game that turned out to be spectacular when the TV show based on the comics was struggling but it came from a developer who hadn’t put out a really good game in the previous couple of years. The Walking Dead was the surprise hit of 2012 and walked away with a number of Game of the Year awards.

With the promise of The Walking Dead: Season 2 upcoming, Telltale tided us over with a new series of five short stories from their The Walking Dead universe. Fortunately, all the success hasn’t gone to their head and tiny series of snippets into The Walking Dead play out almost as well as Season 1.

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