Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Want to know what happened the past few days in nerd culture? WEEK IN GEEK is your quick fix to catch up with the rest of the fanboys out there.
MOVIES
Joss Whedon spoke on what he dislikes about The Empire Strikes Back, saying: "Empire committed the cardinal sin of not actually ending, which at the time I was appalled by and I still think it was a terrible idea." He claims he wants a full experience with an actual end and not something that feels like it's telling you to "come back next week, or in three years".
My take: Makes sense, and it's tough to argue against it. While cliffhanger endings do serve a good purpose, people shouldn't do them without making the film feel like it has a true ending on top of it. Look at what they're able to do now with post-credit or mid-credit teasers. It's the same effect, but after the film has already completed.
Daniel Mindel, the cinematographer for Star Trek, will team back up with J.J. Abrams for Star Wars: Episode VII.
My take: Here come the lens flare jokes. Hopefully, they don't actually do that. They need to keep that in Star Trek. This is good, though, as Mindel has proven himself with the Star Trek films to understand how to go for a realistic look rather than an abundantly obvious CGI-effect like the prequel trilogy ended up having at times.
The fifth Pirates of the Caribbean will be titled "Dead Men Tell No Tales".
My take: I'm on the fence....not bad....kind of bland.
A new X-Files film, a Spawn reboot, and a new Scooby Doo movie in the works?
My take: I won't be seeing them, but if you are interested, what are your thoughts?.
VIDEO GAMES
The Final Fantasy XIV early access period was plagued by congestion issues, making gameplay extremely difficult if not impossible.
My take: Fanboy Sean Mitchell dealt with this firsthand and was justifiably frustrated.
Fanboy Zach Roth stumbled upon SaltyBet.com, a website that lets you bet virtual money on live video game situations (primarily fighting contests and competitive games).
My take: Fanboy Sean Mitchell dealt with this firsthand and was justifiably frustrated.
Nintendo has a new battery for the Wii U which boasts a 5-8 hour use time.
My take: Every improvement that Nintendo can make, and any other company for that matter, is for the better.
Microsoft has switched the Microsoft Points concept into real currency for Xbox Live.
My take: Sounds good to me.
TELEVISION
NewMediaMetrics has a new study predicting which TV shows that are new will end up being a sure-success, based on their Emotional Attachment algorithms (blah blah blah). They've identified The Crazy Ones, The Michael J. Fox Show, Sleepy Hollow, Ironside, Hostages, Almost Human, The Blacklist, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and Reign.
My take: Very interesting. I love reading things like this and trying to predict them myself.
Rambo TV series, coming soon and not starring Sylvester Stallone?
My take: Hey, why not give it a shot? Rambo could work as a TV series, particularly on something like NBC, and you'd need to recast a younger actor in the role. Stallone can work on it as an executive producer or something.
COMIC BOOKS
The new Cyborg Superman is no longer Hank Henshaw. Instead, he's Kara Zor-El's father and will be a Supergirl villain, primarily.
My take: Stupid. Supergirl needs to stop being crammed down everyone's throats just like Cyborg is, and there are too many Superman spinoff characters. Why can't Supergirl fight with her father and have him not be Cyborg Superman, also? Poor Hank Henshaw.
HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES
Hugh Jackman, after wrapping production on X-Men: Days of Future Past, donated $10,000 on behalf of the cast and crew to the Montreal Children's Hospital Foundation, then treated everyone to a screening of The Butler as well as a bunch of TA Pies (a local Montreal pie shop).
My take: Jackman continues to prove that he's a nice guy. It's always great to see a celebrity use their fame and fortune to help others.
CYBERCULTURE
YouTube sensation "Fred" has come out and stated that he's gay.
My take: Congrats. I think his character is stupid and his videos are dumb, but that's good to hear that he felt comfortable enough to say that. That's who he is (rather than him actually being a high-pitched spaz) and he should be able to live his life the way he chooses.
Watch out for this segment each and every Wednesday. We'll see you next week!
Did we miss something? What are your thoughts on these topics?
Leave us a comment below!
Posted by
Unknown
- Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Put in place to support industrious small development teams and secure console-exclusives, OUYA's Free the Games fund is a great opportunity just waiting to be seized. All a game developer has to do is create a Kickstarter branded with #FreeTheGames, secure at least $50,000 in funding, and OUYA will double the earnings in exchange for six months of exclusivity. Most attempts have fizzled out before the 20% mark, but recently two Kickstarters, Gridiron Thunder and Elementary My Dear Holmes, hit their funding goals-- and hit them fast. Once independent investigators started following the money, however, things just weren't adding up.
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| A concept screen from Gridiron Thunder |
So we waited, both for mainstream gaming journalism outlets to expose the shady Kickstarters and for OUYA themselves to decide whether they would double the funding of these spurious developers. In a barebones announcement, Joystiq didn't acknowledge the funny figures. And OUYA's response was clear:
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| "Supportive community." |
One Joystiq user decided to take the investigative journalism into his own hands.
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Some people really want to pay over $4,000
for a free to play game that isn't Madden. |
And what does user louiedog mean, exactly? As of the time this article was written, Gridiron Thunder's Kickstarter has raised $78,000 from 127 backers. However, if we add up the number of backers purchasing tier rewards, even the nine backers at the $300 level, the single backer at $500, we see that 110 backers raised just $5,068. This of course leaves 17 mystery backers having contributed about $72,000-- a cool $4,235 per head. For a free to play football game on a console that still hasn't gotten out all of its own tier rewards to its backers.
MogoTXT, the team behind Gridiron Thunder have included a lengthy combined resume that includes ports of the Sam & Max adventure games and an... 'adult' feature. It's absolutely likely that they already had enough money and simply backed their own Kickstarter to claim what is essentially free money from OUYA. But the people behind the self-proclaimed "console-killer" seem less than concerned-- loathe to investigate this despite the clear evidence.
What's worse, the second sham Kickstarter that hopes to help free the games executes its subterfuge even more poorly. With 710 backers, Elementary My Dear Holmes' Kickstarter reached its $50,000 goal. While this initially seems more legitimate than Gridiron Thunder, a quick perusal of their list of backers reveals dozens upon dozens of clearly fraudulent backers. It appears Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, the Mona Lisa, and the city of Adelaide all backed this prestigious Ouya title.
Also among the backers are a number of celebrities such as Iron Chef Cat Cora, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, and, most heinously, a woman who has been reported as missing since 2011.
I wish I was making the last part up.
Potentially, Elementary My Dear Holmes are doing exactly what Gridiron Thunder did: backing their own Kickstarter to secure Free the Games money, only with smaller parcels of money and a remarkably pronounced lack of effort and scruples. Surely, Ouya will at least investigate this Kickstarter, with its hundreds of obviously fake accounts?
It's not clear who is most at fault here: the game developers who perpetrated the scams and are claiming money more legitimate efforts desperately need, or Ouya, who are in essence allowing themselves to get scammed by two incredibly transparent schemes. But, this is the same company who are forced to backpedal on a regular basis, be it an ill-advised commercial or any of their various Twitter gaffes. The same company who secured over 8 times their own Kickstarter funding goal, who still required $15 million more, who still haven't gotten all of their backer rewards out, and who are now giving away over $100,000 to a couple of scams. Either way, gamers lose.
Posted by
Travis Goss
- Monday, August 26, 2013
In this episode of Rose Colored Reviews, I discuss why we all should give Ben Affleck a chance when he dons the Bat Suit for the new Batman vs. Superman movie coming to cinemas in 2015. I also talk about the four Batman movies I grew up with: Batman (1989), Batman Returns (1992), Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997).
I also get a little "angry" in the video.
Follow me on Twitter.
Like me on Facebook.
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| Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment |
Posted by
Ronnie Brown
- Sunday, August 25, 2013
As I start typing this, my heart rate is still elevated and I'm so angry that we have to wait until next week for the next episode. By now you all know the drill. Blah blah blah spoiler alert blah blah. So let's dive in.
Holy. Shit. I'm gonna start with the ending here. In season 5A Mike referred to Walt as the time bomb- and he kind of was when he killed Mike in a moment of pride and anger- but that was nothing compared to the bomb Jesse turned out to be. Not long after last week's episode ended I was talking to my friends about how I hoped Jesse would find out about Walt's involvement in Jane's death and Walt poisoning Brock. We all agreed that the latter was much more likely, and lo and behold, that happened here. I absolutely love the way it was done, with Jesse making the connection between Huell lifting Jesse's pot and the missing ricin cigarette, with Saul finally admitting to it; it was the second major confession in this episode. Part of what made that moment so great for me is I actually didn't know what was going on at first and then I had my epiphany moment and realized how perfect it really was. From the moment that scene with Jesse in Saul's office started, my whole viewing party and I started to feel uneasy. Something just felt...off about that scene, and I was extremely relieved that Jesse chose not to go with the "disappearer." Then after seeing Walt rush to the car wash and grab a gun he had hidden in the soda machine, I was expecting the episode to end with Jesse showing up there. Instead we got Jesse breaking into Walt's house and dousing the entire living room with gasoline. For a moment my friends and I thought that that explained the condition of the house in the flash forward teaser scene from "Blood Money," but after thinking about it a bit, the interior of the house wasn't singed or anything, so I don't think that's what drove the family out. Something is clearly going to stop Jesse somehow, but what?
Now for the other story aspect I've been waiting to be addressed and the first confession: the fact that Marie used Walt's drug money (thinking it came from gambling) to pay for Hank's medical bills and rehab, revealed here to be $177,000. With the episode titled "Confessions," I was expecting one of those confessions to be Jesse talking to Hank, and I was genuinely surprised that he didn't. So to see the first "confession" come from Walt, in which he accused Hank of being Heisenberg and essentially blamed Hank for almost everything that's happened in the entire series while claiming all he did was cook, was astonishing. In my mind, that is one of the worst things Walt has done in the entire series, and my mouth was literally hanging open in shock during that entire scene. Granted, Hank and Marie are the only ones who have seen the DVD, and as Hank rightly pointed out, it was pure blackmail and Walt had no intention of showing anyone else unless Hank kept up his investigation. Yet what makes it even worse is that paying for Hank's treatment actually adds credibility to the story! Now that Hank finally knows about the money, that's definitely going to change the way he handles the situation. Just goes to show that even if Walt is out of the meth business, Heisenberg is who this man is now.
Also great in this episode was when Jesse finally called out Walt on all of his bullshit. He is fully aware of the fact that Walt has done nothing but manipulate him for the longest time, and poor Jesse has had enough of it. Then Walt gave him a (VERY awkward) hug and he broke down crying. Maybe that made Jesse start to doubt his convictions a little bit, but any hint of doubt was immediately washed away when he later realized that Walt poisoned Brock. During a commercial break my friends and I had a big discussion about whether or not Walt was sincere in that scene. We all knew he wasn't, but I really WANTED to believe there was some sincerity there. Alas, that's just not who Walt is anymore. I just know that I hate this show and AMC for making me wait a week between episodes, but I absolutely love it and these last five episodes are bound to be one hell of a ride.
Now I decided to add something to my reviews that I'm basically shamelessly stealing from the great TV reviews done over at A.V. Club: their stray observations, random thoughts about things in the episode not discussed above, but I'll come up with a different name for them next week. Probably "Random Thoughts" or something like that since I'm lazy and I'll be balancing the next five reviews with my fifth year of pharmacy school.
- Starting with that scene. It was tense and actually very funny with Trent the waitor. Then Marie telling Walt to just kill himself was ice cold and a wonderful moment.
- It was also nice to have the "disappearer" brought up again to remind the audience that this guy exists since the flash forward teaser scenes suggest that Walt used this guy to change his identity. Also pretty funny that one of the updates in the Breaking Bad Story Sync was all about the vacuum cleaner that's used as code for contacting this guy.
- I assumed that someone or something would stop Jesse from lighting the White house on fire, but the "fix" for next week in Talking Bad just now makes me think maybe the inside of the house does burn: apparently the White family takes a "staycation" and the image made it seem like they were in some sort of hotel room or something. Maybe a temporary place to stay while the house is fixed up? It's probably not that obvious, but we'll see.
- Also just as I predicted last week, minus the teaser scene, this episode picked up immediately where "Buried" left off, and after that ending, it seems very likely that "Rabid Dog" will pick up immediately where "Confessions" left off. One continuous story indeed.
- Last thing I'll mention before I shut up: the opening scene with Todd. He told the story of the train heist back in "Dead Freight" and surprisingly left out the detail of how he killed Drew Sharpe. I was honestly expecting that little detail to surface, but nothing. And now the new meth operation spearheaded by Todd is on its way back to Albuquerque. Clearly this can't be good for Walt. Sooner or later this is one more thing that will catch up to him and bite him in the ass.
As you can see, I had a lot to say about that fantastic episode and I rambled on for way too long (seriously, a big thank you to anyone who actually read this whole thing). So as long as no one burns down your house, I'll see you all next week for "Problem Dog"!
Posted by
Mike Paden
- Saturday, August 24, 2013
Nothing on the internet brings grand satisfaction like seeing another person fall and get hurt, especially while trying to look cool...except maybe cats, but someone else can start the Caterday pics here on Fanboys Anonymous.
I'm here to bring you the spills and aches that will make your own sides hurt, starting with this gem:
One dork's failed attempt at showing off results in at least three other skaters falling as well. The superhuman of the group is the dude in the hoodie, who not only perfectly leaps over a board, but also manages to change his trajectory and avoid slamming into a pole.
If it isn't him, it's the fellow in front who just keeps casually drinking his beer while all this is going on.
This chain of events is just glorious.
Do you have any other funny gifs or videos for the next Wipeout of the Week? Leave a comment below!
Posted by
Anthony Mango
- Friday, August 23, 2013
DC has been making waves with their reboot of the universe in their New 52 line and things don't seem to be stopping any time soon.
The latest major change is targeted towards Lobo, an alien bounty hunter who is essentially a walking parody of all the stereotypes that 90s comics were fond of. He was a giant, muscular, biker alien covered in guns and chains who filled the "cool" killer antihero role to a nauseating level, in my opinion.
And now he looks like this:
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| What the frag? |
DC Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras weighs in:
"Back when we introduced this “What’s New In The New 52” column, I told you that the most important word in The New 52 is “New.” We’re always striving to keep things exciting, different and surprising. Which is why JUSTICE LEAGUE #23.2: LOBO (from the creative team of Marguerite Bennett, Ben Oliver, Cliff Richards and Daniel Brown) contains a major surprise – one we’ve had planned for a while. The Lobo you’ve seen so far in the New 52 is not who you think he is. In this one-shot, you’ll be introduced to the real Lobo. A ruthless killer, Lobo is on a quest to kill the man who has taken his name.
This Lobo is equal parts strong, vicious, and driven. There’s a darker and more logical idea about what a force of nature like him is capable of. After all, this is someone who can infiltrate high society, fly a space ship, and adhere to a very specific moral code that’s not your typical anti-hero one. Oh, and, this one-shot takes place very far away from Earth. And when I say very far away, I mean it takes place literally on the other side of the galaxy."
What do you think of the new Lobo, who looks more like Johnny Depp than what everyone is used to? Is this a step in the right direction, or are you just waiting until Lobo goes back to this:
