Leave a comment Posted on November 29, 2014November 29, 2014 by J Entertainment, Link-Off

Entertainment Link-Off: The Awakening

It’s a big weekend. Not only is it Thanksgiving over in the States, big movie trailers have been released! Namely the new Star Wars flick and the latest installment of the Jurassic Park franchise. So many things to look forward to in 2015! Anyway in other entertainment news, The Veronicas recently released their new album and it’s quite good. Definitely go check it out! Meanwhile, let’s start it all off with their latest appearance at the ARIA awards.

After the jump, the aforementioned trailers, Independence Day 2 is happening, the movie universe model is not looking so good, Stan Lee’s latest film cameo is a bit animated, and watch Batman and Darth Vader fight to the death. Continue reading →

Leave a comment Posted on November 28, 2014November 26, 2014 by Steve Murray Video Games

Toybox Turbos Review: Outside the Box

Anyone that follows my writing over on etg. sister site The Lowdown Blog knows that I’m a racing fanatic. Two wheels, four wheels, even more wheels (European truck racing is surprisingly awesome), road courses, ovals, dirt, I can settle down and watch anything. So naturally, I had a lot of toy cars growing up and had a lot of toy car races.

This brings me to Toybox Turbos. While many people liken the game to a modernized callback to Codemasters’ Micro Machines, their first iconic racing game, I thought of Toybox Turbos to be just like the toy car races on the floor at home. But does a childhood call back, whether it’s to a video game or little plastic or die-cast cars, make a great game.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 27, 2014November 24, 2014 by Steve Murray Man Lab

The 25 Latest Reasons To Be Thankful For America

Today is Thanksgiving in America. Now, there are lots of reasons to be thankful for our neighbours to the south. There’s the day of football (even if the Lions are playing… though it’s occasionally generous to call my Lions a football team). There’s the big discounts on Black Friday that start today at some stores. And they once Rickrolled the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and I really wish something awesome like that would happen again.

As is our American Thanksgiving tradition from Lowdown Blog headquarters in Canada, here are 25 more of the great women of the United States.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 26, 2014November 25, 2014 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Wednesday Link-Off: The Week That Is

I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen a single week in which so many major stories have broken or had developments. Between the grand jury and subsequent protests/riots in Ferguson, Jian Ghomeshi, Bill Cosby and the start of year-end lists, there is no shortage of interesting reads this week. It was a challenge to get it down to a manageable list for today’s links.

So let’s not waste any more time. Let’s start with Kate Beckinsale.

The Grand Jury hearing the case of Officer Darren Wilson, the man who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, declined to indict the police officer. It’s hard to believe considering the inconsistencies in Wilson’s story. (Vox)

And Grand Juries not approving indictments, the Grand Jury is often termed a prosecutor’s playground. It’s exceedingly rare for a Grand Jury not to indict but Robert McCulloch managed to pull that off in the biggest case of his career. (FiveThirtyEight)

Rape culture and the discourse around sexual assault is something that society is coming along on but is a far way from getting right. There is still a lot of troubling stigma over sexual assault. (Rolling Stone)

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Leave a comment Posted on November 25, 2014November 22, 2014 by Steve Murray Sports

Formula E Putrajaya ePrix: #SamBoost

For the second time, the FIA’s new green motorsport took to the streets in an attempt to show that motorsport doesn’t have to be all loud noises and high-octane to be a spectacle.

After a so-so first outing that was only highlighted by a massive accident in the final turn, Formula E returned with a trip to the streets of Putrajaya, Malaysia, that saw battles throughout the field. Well, except at the front where Sam Bird absolutely dominated the day’s running to win his first ePrix.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 24, 2014November 23, 2014 by Steve Murray Sports

F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: Double the Points, Double the Fun

Double points, regular points and no points. It doesn’t matter what the points on offer would have been in the final race of the 2014 Formula One World Championship because the result would have been the same. With an ERS failure crippling his car for the final half of the race, reliability was finally on Lewis Hamilton’s side as he scored the win and clinched the World Drivers’ Championship.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 23, 2014November 23, 2014 by Steve Murray Link-Off

Sunday Link-Off: Snowfall

I suppose I could complain about the state of the weather right now but I’m not in Buffalo so I can still get out my front door. For all the whiteouts, terrible roads and couple of feet of snow in a week, it’s not a patch on Buffalo. Small miracles, I suppose. I’m really starting to hate climate change. Can we have global warming back?

Anyway, it’s time for the Sunday set of links. Since I haven’t featured her on the blog for a while, here’s Kate Upton.

I think I’ve mentioned before about how people try to out do people with over the top reaction. Here’s a look at social media’s descent into grief porn. (Gawker)

With Canada having just seen a “beloved” public figure have their public image shattered by reality, America is no going through the same with Bill Cosby. And while the Toronto Star had two reporters on Ghomeshi, the Washington Post had 13 cover Cosby. (Washington Post)

Before that article went up, I was going to mention that TV stations were already abandoning Cosby. (Variety)

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1 Comment Posted on November 22, 2014November 22, 2014 by J Entertainment, Link-Off

Entertainment Link-Off: Afire Love

So the big blockbuster hitting the screens this weekend is the first part of the final installment of The Hunger Games franchise. I am certain people will be flocking to the theatres to catch what is considered to be the best flick in the franchise so far. Oddly enough, it feels like half of a finished product. Anyway, as if Jennifer Lawrence and co. aren’t enough of a draw for you to check it out anyway, Natalie Dormer finally shows up in the franchise as Cressida. Let’s start off the ELO with her.

After the jump, third time is hopefully the charm for Global Frequency, more Planet of the Apes films to come, aca-awesome trailer for Pitch Perfect 2, another Breading Bad/Frozen mashup and shake it off the violin cover of the Taylor Swift hit, Continue reading →

Leave a comment Posted on November 21, 2014November 21, 2014 by Steve Murray Video Games

EA Pulls Dragon Age: Inquisition from India Before Launch

About six months ago, Electronic Arts was caught in a controversy over homosexual characters in The Sims 4 which saw the game get an adults only rating in Russia.

This week, EA is having another fight with regulators over the content of its games. One day ahead of the launch of Dragon Age: Inquisition, EA was forced to cancel the release of the DA:I in India because the game would have violated Indian laws because of the inclusion of a prominent homosexual character.

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Leave a comment Posted on November 20, 2014November 19, 2014 by Steve Murray Sports

F1 Power Rankings: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

So we’ve reached the final race of the 2014 Formula One World Championship. Normally, the 17 point gap between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg would be insurmountable under normal circumstances. However, thanks to the wonder that is double points, he’s not out of it yet. A couple of positions between the Silver Arrows can mean the difference between a championship and 2nd place.

You know, I didn’t like the idea of NASCAR’s new Chase format (or any of their Chase formats) but it worked brilliantly in practice. I don’t think double points is going to win anyone over unless Lewis wins the title. Even then, no one will like it.

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