News From The Front: EA’s Sights Set Firmly On Blizzard’s MMO Market Share’s Head

It’s no secret, in fact we’ve talked about it here several times. EA and Activision are at war. Activision has had a strangle hold on the FPS genre for years with its Call Of Duty franchise yet EA keeps firing away at them, chipping away their market share with their up and coming Battlefield franchise.

Now, with the release one week ago of EA/BioWare’s MMO hit Star Wars: The Old Republic, EA looks to be taking even more market share from Activision by logging huge numbers of subscriptions.

Read on!

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Windows Phone Marketplace Hits 50,000 Apps, I Still Don’t Have One

I apologize in advance for the incredible tease: we don’t have an application on the way. So a little over nine months after we reported Windows Phone’s Marketplace hitting 10,000 apps, Microsoft reports that they’ve quintupled that amount. While my feelings for the platform have softened in the face of aggressive competition and a better supported, multi-platform music service, I’d still own one as a second phone around the same time that my pimp cane and solid gold gloves arrive. Unfortunately, Microsoft still has a long way to go to convince people that the iOS and Android libraries (which are roughly ten times larger) are worth a pass and provide more games worthy of making this the portable Xbox they never made. Aside from the other issues that they have with Windows Phone, Microsoft also has to work harder to make third-party apps work better on the OS, which shouldn’t be an issue considering the hardware is virtually identical across the board. Still, as Mango allows more developers the ability to put more glanceable information on the Start screen (through Live Tiles), it hints at something so much greater than they’ve done so far.

All the best to ya Microsoft, maybe when you stop restricting the hardware so much, I’ll dive in!

‘Dead Space’ For Android – Game Review

I’ve been on the rampage trying to find games to load up on my phone. Tiny Tower came first, but with Joshua Topolsky jabbering on about Dead Space for Android, I decided I should give it a shot. I’ve always been interested in the franchise, but aside from 45 minutes with the original game after a Steam sale, I haven’t put any time into it at all, which is something I feel guilty about because it looks like a genuinely great sci-fi series from one of the gaming industry’s most unoriginal companies. The game’s format on mobile doesn’t lend to much psychological tension, but it’s a solid shooter that’s worth your money.

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It’s Not A Good Day For N-Control or Their PR Company Ocean Marketing

When will companies learn that treating customers poorly will backfire on them? Well today iControl/Kotkin Enterprises (don’t know which one is correct), the makers of the N-Control Avenger gaming controller, and their PR company Ocean Marketing are learning this first hand what the power of the internet can have on your business. Lets take a step back to learn what sparked this internet shitstorm towards iControl & Ocean Marketing. Read the rest of this article…

Is Pitchfork’s Childish Gambino Review Ironic Or Clueless?

Between Ian Cohen’s rabble on Donald Glover’s latest musical odyssey (you know, the black guy from Community) and a bout of indigestion, I lost a lot of sleep this morning. Yeah, I realize Pitchfork’s scribble came out some time ago and I don’t know how I missed it because I knew it’d be some arbitrary score removed from the zeitgeist. I was right. We gave the album a 10 out of 10 and while it’s not a perfect disc, it’s got catchy, fun songs and it serves well, as our review mentions, as a gateway to other rap. Looking over to Metacritic’s handful of scores, Pitchfork stands alone at a lowly 1.6, so either reviewer Ian Cohen is completely right, or he’s simply an Armond White for music. Read the rest of this article…

Star Wars : The Old Republic – Space Missions Primer

Well, we’re getting to the point that most of the people who picked up SWTOR for the holidays should be getting or about to get their space ships. Of course, with great power comes great responsibility and as part of that you’re going to be expected to do space missions to help out your side.

Of course I’m flying for the Empire (I have a couple of characters who have ships at this point) and I’m enjoying the hell out of the space missions so I’ve recorded a couple and present one of them here, for you to have a look at what it’s like.

Read on!

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From Star Wars: The Old Republic To EVE Online – Keeping MMOs In The “Friend Zone”

In my mind, 30-day trials for massive multiplayer games are perfect. It gives me a lot of the time I need to get into a game, plum its depths, and then formulate a reason to never play it again. Why? Because MMOs can easily sponge up every moment I have available. If I fall in love with one, we have to be together forever. The best solution is to keep these games at a distance, and refuse the will to commit to them. Afraid to commit to an MMO? You’re not the only one.

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2011 In Movies: The Best, The Worst, And The Meh

I can’t count how many times I wanted to go out and see Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, even as it’s readily available on Netflix now, just to see how truly awful it was. On the flip side, I’d also really like to see Brandon Routh start to take hold as an actor, but it just doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen. Dylan Dog serves as sort of a template for the year as far as movies go, in which the lowest lows were probably just as appetizing (on an ironic basis) as the best films, of which the weren’t many. At a glance, we knew we were getting another Pirates film, another Harry Potter, another Twilight, and another Transformers flick, all of which were known quantities, which lights the problem: there was a complete lack of surprise in 2011. So how did this year’s movies fare, so far as the ones that I caught? Let’s give it a look…

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EA And Activision: Things Are Getting Ugly.

EA releases SWTOR, Activision calls it an affront and is now suing EA for $400 million.

Looks like the gaming wars are heating up even more!

(Clarification, due to apparent confusion over the opening statement : The lawsuit relates to EA allegedly luring programmers away from Activision, not to the release of SWTOR)

Read on!

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The Presents You Should’ve Gotten Your Loved Ones This Christmas

As despicable as it may appear, a battery and an onion are perfect gifts. Unfortunately, Jimmy Kimmel got to it before I did, so everyone probably already bought their spouses and children onions and batteries for their cooking and portable energy needs. While you probably did decently around the Christmas tree in supplying the latest and greatest gifts to those that matter most, you probably didn’t give out the best gifts. But fear not! I’m here to be your elf undercover and help you save the holidays from less-than-ideal gifts with the perfect list of stuff! If you hurry now, you might still be able to cook up a ‘well, Santa’s a little late to our house this year’ excuse. In fact, just use that one, it’s great. Works all the time.

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