Archive for March, 2014


Titanfall 5-Hour Energy Shots Drop in the US

Saturday, March 22nd, 2014

Titanfall_5_hour
The 5-hour Energy people were kind enough to send us a sample up here in Canada of the Titanfall branded 5-hour Energy shots. While they’re only available at US Wal-Marts, it’s interesting to see a cross-promotion of this nature. The ones with the special Titanfall labels (our box exclusively featured the Orge titan on the front) come in Berry flavour exclusively, not that it really matters due to 5-hour Energy’s famously bitter taste. So, if you’re in the US and you’re hankering five hours of energy and coming on 10,000% of your daily recommended intake of B-12, you now have a more collectible limited-edition option at your disposal.  You’ll have to pull yourself away from the game first, though.

Movie Review: The Immortal Augustus Gladstone (2014)

Tuesday, March 18th, 2014

augustus-gladstone

The modern disillusionment with the compromises wrought by big studios in the entertainment industry has brought on a Renaissance of sorts for indie games and movies. Social media networks make it easier than it has ever been for smaller productions to reach out and gain the kind of viewership that was previously possible only with the help of big-name studios and their deep pockets. As more and more of these small budget/big idea productions come out each year though, it is becoming increasingly obvious that for every Reservoir Dogs there are a dozen or so movies that just should never have been made and for each The Stanley Parable or Antichamber there are countless indie games made by people that shouldn’t even be allowed near a computer. Robyn Miller (pictured above as The Immortal Augustus Gladstone’s eponymous character) is known primarily for creating the immensely popular Myst and Riven PC games with his brother back in the mid-90s and essentially nothing else until the aforementioned indie mockumentary movie. Does The Immortal Augustus Gladstone (TIAG) live up to Robyn Miller’s reputation for groundbreaking story telling or does it suffer from the feeble blandness characteristic of all too many poorly executed indie ventures? Read on to find out just how immortal I found this movie to be.

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Tales of Symphonia Chronicles (PS3)

Saturday, March 15th, 2014

tales+of+symphonia+screen07
Developer:
Namco Tales Studio
Genre: RPG
Players: Symphonia 1-4, Dawn of the New World 1-2
Console: PlayStation 3
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
Launch Price: $39.99 (both games on a physical disc) or $19.99 (each on the PSN store)
Progress: 9 hours of playtime in Symphonia, 6 hours of playtime in Dawn of the New World (Previously beat both original GameCube and Wii versions)

Namco Bandai have recently been showing a lot of love to their North American fan base and the new Tales of Symphonia Chronicles release on the PlayStation 3 is a great example of that. The release includes both Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World for $39.99 on a single disc. These games are also offered individually on the PSN for $19.99 each. There is also a Collector?s Edition for $99.99 (whose features I discuss later) though I am not sure if much stock for it is still available.

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