Category Archives: Blog

Sexism sucks, and our ability to critique video games is diminished because of it

Jason Schreier of Kotaku responded to a dig from Vanillaware President and developer, George Kamitani today, and you know what, while I agree with Schreier’s stance on the sexism issue that he is trying to tackle, it really sucks that that he needed to make his initial jab at all.

Schreier first called out the artwork of the sorceress in the recent Dragon Crown’s trailer last week, due to her hyper-sexualized design. “As you can see, the sorceress was designed by a 14-year-old boy.” Schreier wrote.

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No, ordering my Pizza Hut with a Kinnect is not a ‘logical progression’ Major Nelson

When I’m sitting on a couch with some friends watching movies, playing games, discussing the finer points of a hockey game, and I want to order pizza, I whip out my laptop or phone.

Yet Polygon is reporting that Pizza Hut and Microsoft are patterning together to “allow users to order from the chain’s menu directly through their Xbox 360.”

I get that, as of February 2013, Microsoft has now sold over 24 million Kinect sensors, and it might seem like a no-brainer for them to try and give the other 50-or-so million Xbox 360 owners a reason to pony up the cash for the 3D-camera peripheral, but trying to convince consumers that ordering pizza with one will be easier, is not the way to go. Continue reading →

The woes of online journalism and the challenges of ad-blocker

I’ve never used an ad-blocker.

They’re something I didn’t even know existed until about a year ago, and even if I did know of their existence sooner, I never would have set foot near one.

I’ve understood for a long time that nothing in this world is free, and that goes for the content I consume on the internet as well. I’ve consciously looked at the ads that I see on my favourite websites as a good thing. When I see an ad, the people who create the content get paid. So when I discovered just how large the majority of my friends – and apparently the rest of the tech-savvy world – is that uses an ad-blocker I was shocked.

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EA Sports’ NHL 14 feature list includes drastic changes for veteran hockey gamers

EA announced the next instalment to one of their annual sport-sim franchises on Friday, NHL 14, and the iterations that it’s expected to include are a big deal.

Along with a new screenshot (that looks exactly like every other NHL screenshot released in the last 16 months), EA also recounted the “innovation” they’ve infused into hockey games throughout the years. Then, on Monday they revealed some of the new features we can expect to see on September 10, when NHL 14 is expected to hit North American stores.

Dione Phaneuf delivers a hit to Thomas Plekanec
in this new NHL 14 screenshot

As a gigantic hockey fan, and as a gamer who has put over 4,000 cumulative hours into the popular line of hockey games throughout my life, every minute change that’s made to the core gameplay experience usually means that I’ll have to make some alterations to the way I compete on the digital ice.

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