I’ll be running around the USC area and downtown Los Angeles for several E3 2013 press conferences. I’ll be in touch through the RPad.TV Google Hangout, but if you have any thoughts on the pressers while they’re happening, kindly use the comments section of this post. It’ll be our E3 2013 press conference day sandbox! I can’t wait to hear what you guys have to say about today’s pressers from Microsoft, EA, Sony, etc. And just for old times sake, fore!!!
Category: Videogames
What Do You Think of Kiefer Sutherland as Solid Snake?
Konami has confirmed that Kiefer Sutherland has replaced David Hayter as the voice actor for Solid Snake. Sutherland’s pipes will be heard in the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain. According to Polygon, Metal Gear Solid director Hideo Kojima chose Sutherland on the advice of producer Avi Arad (longtime Marvel producer). While many longtime MGS fans were bummed about Hayter being replaced, Kojima felt that a change was necessary for a 49-year old Snake and a new game:
The themes are a little different from previous games in the series. We’re taking on some heavy subjects, like race and revenge. As a result, I wanted Snake to have a more subdued performance expressed through subtle facial movements and tone of voice, rather than words.
It’s different from anything we’ve done before. I felt that he was the perfect fit, in terms of age and performance.
Sutherland has a lot of nerd fans from his work on 24. While he’s had a number of great movie and television performances, he’ll always be the guy from The Lost Boys and A Few Good Men to me. Those roles combined with the fact that Hayter has been voicing Solid Snake since 1998 will make Sutherland’s performance a strange experience for me, at least initially. Hopefully he’ll do a good enough job that gamers will get over the replacement quickly.
How do you feel about Kiefer Sutherland being the new voice of Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain?
Noobz is on Netflix
Blake Freeman’s videogame movie Noobz is on Netflix. The movie, starring real life gamers Jay Mewes and Zelda Williams, is about a group of gamer friends that go on a road trip to compete in a Gears of War tournament. If you have some time this weekend, please check it out. After you’ve seen it, please share your thoughts on the flick in the comments section. If you need additional background info on the movie then check out the video interviews below. Continue reading “Noobz is on Netflix”
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
Now that my AT&T U-Verse Internet and television service is up and running, it’s time to fix up my consoles and games. My consoles have been ready to go, just waiting for a solid Internet connection. My games are in boxes in the living room. I didn’t want to unpack them until the wiring was all done. As expected, I had to move the shelves several times and that would have been a pain in the ass with hundreds of games and movies on them. After the dust clears, I’m going to try to play some Fuse for PlayStation 3, but just a little bit. E3 2013 festivities start on Sunday. I’m excited for the show and looking forward to catching up with old videogame friends.
How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?
Microsoft Outlines Xbox One Game Reselling, Sharing
In a post titled “How Games Licensing Works on Xbox One,” Microsoft has detailed its policies for game sharing, reselling, and trading. The bullet point that has been getting the most heat is the gifting policy, which states that a game can be gifted to a friend once. Here’s the full text:
Give your games to friends: Xbox One is designed so game publishers can enable you to give your disc-based games to your friends. There are no fees charged as part of these transfers. There are two requirements: you can only give them to people who have been on your friends list for at least 30 days and each game can only be given once.
While the policy doesn’t change anything for me, I totally understand why some people are angry about the new rule (Bill Maher TM). Naturally, I want to hear your views on this policy and Microsoft’s other Xbox One licensing proclamations. Kindly shout it out in the comments section!
This Week’s Videogame Releases
The week before E3 is usually a dull one in terms of videogame releases. Still, there are few games that you should keep an eye on. Capcom’s Remember Me has been getting some buzz. This stealth-action game takes place in a futuristic version of Paris and uses some interesting sci-fi concepts. If you’ve missed out on Skyrim then you should consider picking up The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Legendary Edition, which has all the bells and whistles. Lastly, Marvel Heroes launches this week. As a comic-book nerd, I’m intrigued by this superhero MMO and wondering if any of you are interested in a spandex adventure (in the game, not in real life).
Any of you picking up new games this week?
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
As most of you know, I’ve been spending the last few weeks playing The Moving Game, which is something you need to play every now and then, but also utter crap. Thankfully, I’m done with that…experience. Now I’m playing the slightly better Unpacking Game. To keep myself somewhat sane, I’ve shoved all the non-essential boxes into the closet of my home office/filming space. Of course there will be a lovely surprise when I discover that an important box is tucked away in the corner and I have to dig through 18 boxes in order to find it. Yeah, this game isn’t the best.
Hopefully you can regale with your exponentially more entertaining exploits (E3?). What’s on your weekend playlist?
This Week’s Videogame Releases
There are two games that you should keep your eyes on this week. The (far) more interesting one is Fuse by Insomniac. This four-player cooperative action game is being published by EA and will be available on multiple platforms. I don’t remember the last time an Insomniac game was published by a company other than Sony (I think it was 1996, but don’t quote me on that) and it’s weird seeing a game from this stellar developer on a non-Sony console. Dogs and cats, living together! Mass hysteria! The other release is GRID 2.
This week’s pairing reminds me of when Ricky Gervais introduced Tom Hanks and Tim Allen at the Golden Globes:
What can I say about our next two presenters? The first is an actor, producer, writer and director whose movies have grossed over $3.5-billion at the box office. He’s won two Academy Awards and three Golden Globes for his powerful and varied performances starring in such films as Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Castaway, Apollo 13, and Saving Private Ryan. The other is Tim Allen.
So yeah, the other is GRID 2. Ha!
Any of you picking up new games this week?
Coffee Talk #587: Excessive Nerd Rage and You
Nerd rage is a funny and often ridiculous thing. The world has many problems — damage to the environment, malnourishment, and homelessness, for example. Yet dorky debates often escalate the point where you’d think people were more interested in solving the “Han shot first” dilemma than making sure kids have enough to eat. Sure, it’s sometimes hard to maintain perspective and it can be fun engaging in geeky arguments, but this week was out of hand. Look at the nerd rage that dominated the Internet this week: the “controversy” over Alice Eve’s half-naked scene in Star Trek, the pronunciation of GIF, and anger over the Xbox One…more
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 Phil Jackson watch, Olivia Munn’s disgusting Esquire interview, or Yahoo! possibly buying Hulu, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Nerd rage is a funny and often ridiculous thing. The world has many problems — damage to the environment, malnourishment, and homelessness, for example. Yet dorky debates often escalate the point where you’d think people were more interested in solving the “Han shot first” dilemma than making sure kids have enough to eat. Sure, it’s sometimes hard to maintain perspective and it can be fun engaging in geeky arguments, but this week was out of hand. Look at the nerd rage that dominated the Internet this week:
- Star Trek: People were passionately railing on JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, and company for having a needless scene featuring half-naked Alice Eve. Never mind that James Tiberius Kirk is a total dog that also appears shirtless and that many men don’t need a narratively-sound reason to see Alice Eve half-naked. People were demonizing the scene as if it were comparable to slashing acres of rainforest for kicks.
- GIFs: People were arguing over the pronunciation of GIF (Graphics Interchange Format). The creator says it like the mediocre peanut butter, while most of the world pronounces it like the word “gift” without the last letter. I’m struggling to understand why anyone cares enough to participate in this argument. You say JIF and I say GIF, let’s call the whole thing off, no?
- Xbox One: Unsurprisingly, people are harshly passing judgement and hating on Xbox One. Yes, there’s a lot to criticize, but there’s also a lot that Microsoft hasn’t revealed yet. The full story will be revealed in a few weeks at E3 2013. Enthusiast gamers know this, but that hasn’t stopped them from raging against the machine (*snicker*) and bombarding the Internet with palpable anger. There are fair points to be made, as seen in several excellent comments by RPadholics, but I don’t understand some of the vitriolic criticism being hurled at Microsoft.
How do you feel about this week’s nerd rage. Was it just a typical week on the Internet? Or were netizens particularly angry this week?
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
My consoles are all packed up, waiting for the (three-block) journey to their new home. That means it’ll be an iOS gaming weekend for me. First up is Wizard Ops Tactics. A pal at Autodesk brought this game to my attention and I’m super happy that she did. The game is a tactical RPG with combat that’s similar to Final Fantasy Tactics (my all-time favorite) and Ogre Battle. Nerd combat on isometric grids is totally my thing. As I mentioned earlier in the week, my friend Scott Foe has a new game called Douche Defender. I’m going to give his naughtily-named creation a spin this weekend as well.
