This will be my last weekend before E3 stuff starts and my last weekend with secret game. It’s been fun, but it’s time to move on. Thankfully, I’ve had to review Minecraft for Xbox 360 for another site. It’s just as addictive as the PC and mobile versions of the game — just a little tougher to navigate the menus. Of course Diablo III is on my to-do list this weekend. The question of course is demon hunter or monk?!?
How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?
By now you’ve seen (and probably made fun of) Google Glass. This pie-in-the-sky project has a chance to be some truly transformative tech or a tremendous punchline. For now, I want to know which nerd tech it most resembles in your mind. Is Google Glass the precursor to Borg implants from Star Trek? Or is it a knockoff of Saiyan scouter technology from Dragon Ball Z? Please vote in today’s poll and discuss in the comments section!
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GameStop is inviting gamers to register for the “first-ever” GameStop Expo. Part of the company’s yearly conference, the expo day takes place on August 29, 2012 in San Antonio, TX. The date is just before the hugely popular PAX Prime, which kicks off on August 31, 2012 in Seattle. Here’s more from the GameStop Expo site:
For the first time ever, PowerUp Rewards members are invited to attend the annual GameStop conference for a one-day sneak peek at upcoming new video games before they’re ever available to the general public. Get your ticket now for this fantastic opportunity to see more than 200,000 square feet of this year’s hottest video games from the industry’s top publishers, such as Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Activision, EA and dozens more!
In this five-hour EXPO, you’ll experience the hottest new video games months before they’re released, check out and play your favorite games, enter for chances to win great prizes in drawings from your favorite video game publishers, and enjoy special celebrity appearances and autograph signings.
I’m looking for some enterprising nerds to put together an awesome road trip that combines GameStop Expo and PAX Prime. That would be cool. Aside from that uber-geek road-trip, the timing of the event is curious. PAX Prime is established and popular; will many gamers be interested in attending a smaller and newer show that only lasts for five hours? Any of you interested in attending GameStop Expo?
Despite thousands (millions?) of Filipinos faking their IP addresses and using VoIP solutions to vote for Jessica Sanchez, Phillip Phillips won the 11th American Idol. P-Squared’s victory continues the streak of AI winners that can be described as white guys with guitars (WGWG). Teenagers and housewives love WGWGs, so I wasn’t surprised that Phillips became the fifth WGWG to win. What did surprise (and delight) me was that #WGWG5 was a trending topic on Twitter last night. That was awesome.
Congrats to WGWG5 Phillip Phillips!
At the Kapow comic-book convention, DC Comics senior vice president Dan DiDio revealed that the company will rewrite one of its established heroes as gay. Fanboys have been feverishly speculating on the identity of the homosexual hero or heroine. Will it be a man? Will it be a woman? How “major” is the character?
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, the power of WGWG, Austin Aries resigning with TNA, or expensive chef’s knives, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
At the Kapow comic-book convention, DC Comics senior vice president Dan DiDio revealed that the company will rewrite one of its established heroes as gay. Fanboys have been feverishly speculating about the identity of the homosexual hero or heroine. Will it be a man? Will it be a woman? How “major” is the character? Today I’d love to hear your reactions and predictions on DC’s gay superhero. Before you offer your thoughts on the matter, let’s take a look at some modern comic-book characters that are gay.
For a long time, Northstar (Alpha Flight/X-Men) was the only openly gay superhero in mainstream comics. Marvel recently announced — on The View of all places — that Northstar will be getting married. X-Force’s Shatterstar and Rictor were an item back in 2009. The latest version of Batwoman is a lesbian. One of the newest and youngest gay superheroes is Bunker of the Teen Titans. The most badass couple in comics — straight or gay — has to be Apollo and Midnighter from The Authority/Stormwatch.
As you can see, there are a number of gay superheroes in both DC and Marvel. DiDio implied that a major character will be rewritten as gay, but how major are we talking? Several of my nerd friends think that Wonder Woman is most likely. Along with Batman and Superman, she’s one of the three pillars of the DC Universe. It doesn’t get more major than that. A few of my friends pointed out that she grew up on an island of women, so it would be natural for her to be attracted to other women. For various reasons, the mainstream media seems more comfortable with gay women than gay men, so Wonder Woman could be a “safe” choice.
A couple of my friends voted for Aquaman, simply because of his costume. I’m not getting that at all. When did orange become a gay color?!? Besides, dude is married.
As for my pick, I’m going with Red Hood. I have doubts about how big a character DC will go with. With that in mind, I can see the company claiming that Jason Todd is a major character. DC can point to Todd formerly being Robin, as well as being a key part in one of the company’s biggest crossover successes. At the same time, Red Hood is still a relatively new character and safer to play with than someone like Flash or Green Lantern.
How do you feel about DC making one of its major characters gay? Which DC Comics hero or heroine will be rewritten as gay? Please share your thoughts in the comments section!
Incident Technologies’ gTar is a cool Kickstarter project that has been getting a ton of attention this week. This combination of an electric guitar and an iPhone app teaches people how to play guitar. Things start off easy, with prospective Joe Satrianis only needing to hit the right string. Naturally, more advanced learning requires users to hit the proper frets and strings at the proper time. gTar is compatible with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S. Here’s a clip from the product’s Kickstarter page:
The gTar is a fully digital guitar that makes it easy for anybody to play music, regardless of experience. All you have to do is dock your iPhone in the body, load up the gTar app, and an array of interactive LEDs along the fretboard will show you how to play.
You may be asking yourself what it means for a guitar to be “digital.” While most guitars have pickups to amplify the sound of vibrating strings, the gTar has none — instead, we’ve designed the gTar with sensors that detect exactly what you’re playing in real-time and relay each note to your iPhone, which then produces the actual sound. This makes it possible for us to do all kinds of exciting things.
Judging from the product description and the video above, gTar looks like a pretty sweet product. It looks like it will be a fantastic educational tool beginners, but it also has tremendous creative possibilities for advanced players. Additional apps by Incident and other developers could make the gTar a wonderfully diverse digital guitar. As a longtime (and not very good) guitar player, I usually judge a guitar by its wood, craftsmanship, etc., but the digital nature of the gTar has me geeking over a six-string in a whole different way. This is some very cool tech and I’m happy to see that Incident has already blown past its Kickstarter goal.
Any thoughts on the gTar by Incident Technologies?
I really enjoyed you guys and gals talking about your favorite beat-’em-up games yesterday. Today I’d love to hear about your favorite run-and-gun shooters. Another staple of 8-bit, 16-bit, and arcade gaming, these shooters all had the same concept: run and shoot. Differences in level design, character design, and…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, your Spurs vs. Thunder prediction, United Airlines CFO John Rainey calling customers over-entitled, or RFID shielding wallets, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
I really enjoyed you guys and gals talking about your favorite beat-’em-up games yesterday. Today I’d love to hear about your favorite run-and-gun shooters. Another staple of 8-bit, 16-bit, and arcade gaming, these shooters all had the same concept: run and shoot. Differences in level design, character design, and weapons made the best run-and-gun shooters distinct. From Ikari Warriors to Commando to Rambo to Rush’n Attack, these games sucked up countless quarters in arcades and consumed millions of hours on home consoles. Which games in this genre did you like best?
As for me, I have to go with Contra on the NES. The Konami code. The spread gun. The awesome multiplayer. Jumping so high that your partner perishes. Contra is just an amazing classic. I have so many fond memories of this game and I’m sure many of you feel similarly. Playing this game with my brother and my friend Alex Morgan…ah, the good old days.
Now it’s your turn! What are some of your favorite run-and-gun shooters?
Five major American cable companies have joined forces to form Voltron. Wait, that’s not right. Let me try that again. Five major American cable companies have joined forces to offer cross-network WiFi access. Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable offer local WiFi hotspot access to its customers. Under this partnership, customers of one company will be able access the WiFi hotspots of the other companies using the same login information. Here’s a clip from the press release:
Bright House Networks, Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable today announce that they will enable each other’s high-speed Internet customers to access their metro WiFi networks, totaling over 50,000 hotspots. To simplify access, a new network name, “CableWiFi”, has been created for subscribers to use when accessing the WiFi hotspots outside their home market. The first implementation is already complete as Bright House Networks and Cablevision launched “CableWiFi” alongside their branded WiFi networks in the New York City area and central Florida earlier this month. Over the next few months, the “CableWiFi” network name will be added by each of the cable companies to their branded WiFi hotspots.
As a customer of (crap bag) Time Warner Cable, I’ve never found local hotspots useful. My LTE or HSPA+ connection is almost always better in Los Angeles. This roaming agreement is much more interesting. As a frequent traveler, having an extra dose of connectivity is a great thing. Part of me wants to fly to New York to test out this roaming agreement…and also see my parents and eat some real pizza.
What do you think of the CableWiFi partnership?
May keeps rolling along with several interesting videogame releases. Fans of action-RPGs and giant dragons (as opposed to the baby dragons currently on Game of Thrones) will want to check out Dragon’s Dogma. If gunplay is more your thing then Ghost Recon: Future Soldier should have you covered. Sorcery is a PlayStation Move game that got a lot of attention (good and bad) at E3 2011. Lastly, Men in Black: Alien Crisis is the videogame companion for the third installment of the Will Smith movie franchise (actually going to a screening today, btw).
Any of you picking up new games this week?
I’m so psyched for Anchorman 2. The original was a wonderful comedic blend of satire, over-the-top goofiness, and song. The fight scene was…magic. I’m looking forward to more laughs from Will Ferrel, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and David Koechner. Check out this teaser trailer for Anchorman 2 and let me know if you’re excited for the return of Ron Burgundy, Brick Tamland, Brian Fantana, and Champ Kind (please)!
