Leave a comment Posted on June 14, 2015June 13, 2015 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Sunday Link-Off: Media Matters

This is going to be a fairly quick set of the Sunday links as we’re gearing up for E3 2015. This year’s edition of E3 will have seven on-site press conferences along with Nintendo’s video conference. In addition to the usual five (EA, Ubi, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo), there will be appearances by Bethesda and Square Enix along with a Tuesday night show focusing on just PC games for some reason. We’ll have coverage all week.

Anyway, it’s time for the links. Since she once appeared at the Video Game Awards, let’s start with Jessica Alba.

There’s a federal election this fall but don’t tell Justin Trudeau. His Liberals are slumping this year. (CBC)

Gawker and Hulk Hogan are set to square off in a $100 million battle over the newsworthiness of Hogan’s sex tape. It’s not about smut but freedom of the press. (Fortune)

Benny Johnson is back writing on the internet after being outed as a plagiarist. His comeback profile in the Washington Post was written by a friend of his. (Gawker)

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Leave a comment Posted on June 13, 2015June 13, 2015 by J Entertainment, Link-Off

Entertainment Link-Off: Dino-mite!

It’s been 12 years since the original flick but Jurassic World, the fourth installment of the franchise is finally in theatres and it’s a worthy sequel to the dinosaur-centric films. Despite a few minor flaws, the overall experience of the movie is quite good. Anyway, let’s start off this edition of the ELO with the leading lady Bryce Dallas Howard.

After the jump, a fun little Jurassic Park fan theory, Tomorrowland is losing Dinsey a lot of money, check out the extended interview with the Gilmore Girls cast, Grant Theft Auto in real life, imagine Jon Snow doing a Pantene commercial and a fun little ditty on mixing up Bryce Dallas Howard with another acclaimed redhead actress Jessica Chastain.

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Leave a comment Posted on June 12, 2015June 12, 2015 by Steve Murray Video Games

A New Players’ Guide to Heroes of the Storm

So while I should be spending a lot more time writing, I’ve spent way too much time playing Heroes of the Storm. According to Raptr, I’ve put in some 50 hours since closed beta started and have played near 400 games logged on my in-game profile. Suffice to say, I’ve seen a lot in my time playing HOTS.

Now, I’m not a very good gamer. HOTSlogs says that I’m a gold level player which allegedly means that I’m in the upper half of gamers. However, I have learned a bunch of things that new players should be mindful of before they get too far into the latest entry into the MOBA genre.

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Leave a comment Posted on June 11, 2015June 11, 2015 by Steve Murray Entertainment

Game of Thrones: The Dance of Dragons Review

There are two types of Episode Nines in Game of Thrones. The first is the big plot-heavy episodes that bring us to the climax of many of the show’s big stories throughout the season. The other are the more tightly focused big budget battle episodes. The Dance of Dragons was definitely more the former but the ending certainly had the spectacle of the latter.

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Leave a comment Posted on June 10, 2015June 9, 2015 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Wednesday Link-Off: Investigate This

If there’s one thing that I’m a fan of, it’s an empowered press corps. Often times, the press are at their best when they try to do actual reporting. When investigative reporting works, it’s one of the great public services. Of course, as an ex-newsman, I might be a little biased there.

Anyway, it’s time for us to do the Wednesday set of links. Let’s kick things off with Salma Hayek.

The boss of Canadian investigative reporters, Kevin Donovan, just took down another big star. This time, it’s the CBC’s Evan Solomon. (Toronto Star)

Investigative reporting isn’t just the realm of newspapers any more. InTouch did some solid investigative reporting to break the Duggar story. (Washington Post)

One of the reasons that Sepp Blatter got re-elected (for four days) as FIFA president was because of the help he supposedly gave poorer soccer nations. While they’re getting money, they aren’t improving because of it. (FiveThirtyEight)

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Leave a comment Posted on June 9, 2015June 8, 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 and videos that we think are the most epic fails of the week.

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Leave a comment Posted on June 8, 2015June 7, 2015 by Steve Murray Video Games

Ride Review: Two Wheels Are as Good as Four

I have a mixed history with games from Italian developer and publisher Milestone. While I liked their kart-racing take on the World Rally Championship, WRC Powerslide, the more simulation-focused main WRC series has been a bit of a disappointment. On the whole, their four-wheel racing offerings have gotten mixed reviews at best.

On two-wheels, though, Milestone has a much stronger track record. While Metacritic shows a pattern of review scores in the 60s for the WRC games (I think I gave WRC Powerslide the best PC score on the internet), their MotoGP games have ratings in the 70s. Ride might not be backed by a big license but the motorcycle racing game does feel like Milestone’s attempt to create the first Gran Turismo-style bike game since Tourist Trophy.

So does Milestone’s first venture away from a licensed racing product in eight years live up to its two-wheel reputation?

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Leave a comment Posted on June 7, 2015June 7, 2015 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Sunday Link-Off: Selfie

Hello and welcome to The Lowdown Blog. Okay, that’s the podcast intro but we recorded an episode yesterday and I’m going to start the editing soon. Hopefully, I’ll have it up this week. If not, we’ll be missing some E3 coverage. At least that’ll be on the blog.

Anyway, it’s time for us to do the links. Let’s change things up and kick things off with Kate Hudson.

You’ve probably heard the term about how the rich get richer but it’s actually true. Even the IRS helps the rich get richer as they make more money. (Washington Post)

How did the Americans make their latest strike against ISIS? By back-tracking a selfie. (Washington Times)

Penn Jillette has been watching official videos from Presidential candidates and has found out what might make Bernie Sanders the most formidable candidate on the trail. (CNN)

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1 Comment Posted on June 6, 2015June 6, 2015 by J Entertainment, Link-Off

Entertainment Link-Off: Extraordinarily Ordinary

In cinemas this weekend you can catch Melissa McCarthy in the hilarious film Spy. In addition to the positive message of how an ordinary somebody can become a super spy, the film is also violent, crude and funny. Rose Byrne also does a brilliant turn in her villainous role.

After the jump, Ron Perlman needs your help, how many writers will it take to save Transformers, Cameron Crowe apologizes for whitewashing cinema, goodbye Degrassi, kids react to the original Transformers animated series and check out Wong Fu’s new feature film! Continue reading →

Leave a comment Posted on June 5, 2015June 5, 2015 by Steve Murray Entertainment

Game of Thrones: Hardhome Review

If you gave up on Game of Thrones two weeks ago, I feel bad for you son. You’ve got 99 problems but one of the best episodes in the show’s history ain’t one.

In the run up to this week’s episode, I was mentioning to my show watching friends that I wasn’t really sure what big events we had to look forward to heading into the final three episodes of the season. I wasn’t expecting the big blowouts we got in seasons two and four but maybe some big events scattered about Westeros like in season three. While I’m still not sure we’ll even get that in episode nine, Hardhome certainly brought the spectacle.

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