Saturday Night Live’s 40th Anniversary Celebration
Saturday Night Live celebrates 40 years in several ways including a special Sunday February 15 broadcast special on the NBC television network. Funny memories will flow and new ones will be made.
News & Features
Battlefield Hardline Open Beta Gets Over Six Million Participants/Suggested Improvements Continue
The Battlefield Hardline Open Beta ended early this week with a final tally of over six million participants whose voices are being heard as Visceral/Electronic Arts work for improvements before this game officially releases as a hopefully lucky 13th installment in the Battlefield game series in about five weeks.
High Seas Sandbox Action Game ‘Windward’ Coming to PC, Mac and Linux!
I remember playing Sid Meier’s Pirates! for the first time – I had missed the 1987 game but fell in love with the 2004 release, playing it on every platform since. Now a new sandbox action Windward is coming to Steam Early Access with plans for a Q2 2015 release on PC, Mac, and Linux! Ship’s Ahoy, indeed!
Why I Don’t Use Dropbox
When I first started storing backups of photos and key files online, I signed up for Dropbox and free 2GB of storage. It became quickly apparent that was far too small, but I was too cheap to pay $100 to jump to the next level. Instead, I started using Microsoft Skydrive, now OneDrive; as of yesterday I have 121GB free!
Love a Smoker? Create a ‘Nobituary’ to Help Them See Life Without Smoking
Everyone of elementary school age knows smoking is bad for you, so the shock-tactic anti-smoking ads often only serve to scare little kids. More effective is thinking of what you might miss, and what you could be doing instead with better health and more money. That is the goal of Nobituary, which creates a celebratory look at your non-smoking future.
Check out the Red Band Trailer for NWA’s ‘Straight Outta Compton’ Movie (NSFW)
No matter how you feel about rap music in general and NWA specifically, the music and band are connected to the late 80s racial unrest in the way that Woodstock is connected to the late 60s Zeitgeist. Songs like ‘F**k tha Police’ made them few friends in the establishment, but they spoke to and for a generation still feeling oppressed.
Check out First Footage of Legend of Grimrock on iPad, Coming This Spring!
One of my favorite recent game franchises is Legend of Grimrock – the grid-based dungeon crawler is a modern take and a throw-back to classic games like Eye of the Beholder. The game has been released for Mac and PC, and a PC sequel arrived recently, now we get to see the iPad port in action and more!
RIPCemetery Wants to Make Saying Goodbye a Little Easier
Already this year I’ve lost several friends, mentors, and coworkers from my past. Each one had a different online obituary site, and most had some Facebook presence, but the ability to fully communicate felt limited. A new IndieGoGo project called RIPCemetary seeks to allow loved ones to “create a space to honor a person and keep the memories alive forever.”
Resident Evil Digital Release Takes Top Spot
Capcom has video game players seeing red as they celebrate Valentine’s Day week with the recently released Resident Evil becoming the new all-time best-selling digital title in North America and Europe.
Martian Watches Is Making Big Smartwatch Moves in 2015
Judie and I have been covering Martian Watches since they first debuted a few years ago. While smartwatches are still trying to find the sweet spot of form and functionality Martian Watches has stuck with its winning formula that leverages the capabilities already present in today’s smartphones and allowing access to them from your wrist.
Big Hero 6 Early Digital Release
Why wait until February 24 to see Big Hero 6 on home video? The digital release on the Disney Movies Anywhere app with other services lets audiences everywhere experience this unique Disney animated adventure based on the Marvel comic series now.
Sugr Cube Is a Minimalistic and Beautiful Touch-Based WiFi Speaker
We’ve reviewed internet radios in the past, and the Sugr Cube is similar to those, but it also does much more. It can stream music directly through your router’s WiFi from sources such as Tunes music, Pandora, BBC radio, 8Tracks and Douban FM, and you can transfer hundreds of songs from iOS, Android, PC and Mac devices to it.
Book Your Trip to Jurassic World!
Regardless of how you or I may feel about Jurassic World, the film studio is trying very hard to generate buzz. If you’re looking for a way to kill time this weekend, check out the official Jurassic World amusement park site. Plan your trip, from lodging to rides, and remember to follow the safety instructions!
Easily Defeat Keurig 2.0 DRM with the Roger’s Coffee Freedom Clip
Last year I wrote about Keurig’s new version 2.0 K-cup brewer, and how they were including digital rights management like features into it that would prevent owners from using any other K-cup except “approved” ones. This has been worked around by many, but this free Freedom Clip from Roger’s Coffee has managed to make it easy to defeat this technology.
Surreal Puzzle Platformer ‘Tulpa’ Now Available on Steam
Whenever I see a game like Tulpa, I go back several years when it seemed the small developer was gone, that everything was headed to AAA games on consoles. Fortunately that didn’t happen, and innovation is alive and well, as demonstrated in Tulpa, described as a surreal puzzle platformer. It is now available for PC, Mac and Linux on Steam.
Underworld Ascendant Kickstarter Seeks to Revive RPG Classic!
Back in the pre-Doom world of 1992, Ultima Underworld was a revelation – coming before Wolfenstein 3D it offered 3D immersion, player-based choice and consequences, and a richly detailed and dynamic world to explore. The game was hugely influential and led to games such as Thief and Deus Ex. Now the adventure continues with Underworld Ascendant from the original creators.
Is Under Armour the Dark Horse to Win in Wearables?
Even before Apple announced their Apple Watch, much of the tech world was looking to wearables to be the next big thing. Everyone is looking to established technology companies, but there’s someone coming in from outside the tech world positioning themselves to dominate, especially with their latest acquisitions: Under Armour.
First Sims 4 Expansion Pack Announcement
The Sims 4 will get to work in April 2015 in the first expansion pack for the popular game series. Available on PC and Mac, The Sims 4 Get to Work features three career and a create your own business
2015 LEGO Game Announcements
LEGO Maniacs have a full slate of video game releases coming this year including a surprising LEGO set announcement decided by fans. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, TT Games and The LEGO Group have set LEGO Jurassic World, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers, LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin plus LEGO Batman: Beyond Gotham. The LEGO Movie Videogame iOS versions are available now. LEGO Jurassic World starts a new game series ahead of the upcoming film of the same name (June 12, 2015). This game will combine the storylines of Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III, and Jurassic World. Available in June on Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation…
Games Get First Real Super Bowl Feature, Was it Worth the Money?
Surprisingly based on overlapping demographics, video games have not featured widely in Super Bowl commercials in years past – maybe because the big franchises launch in late summer through the fall, maybe they were unwilling to spend the big money on the ad space, or something? But this year three ‘freemium’ mobile games spent big – but was it worth it?
Haunting Sci-Fi Adventure Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock Coming Feb 17th
After taking us to the peaks of humour with Supreme League of Patriots, Phoenix Online Publishing teams up with Red Herring Labs to announce the upcoming game Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock. Morningstar: Descent to Deadrock is a chillingly alien and atmospheric sci-fi first-person point-and-click adventure, will make its debut for PC and Mac on February 17th!