Month: September 2013

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Should You Get A Roku?

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My wife and I decided to setup a TV in our bedroom for occasional viewing, and my wife did not want a bunch of cables and boxes lying around, so I used the opportunity to buy a Roku 2 XS.  This used to be Roku’s top of the line streamer, but it was replaced by the Roku 3 this year.  The Roku 2 XS steams in 1080p, has a wired network port to supplement it wireless, and has a motion remote to enable some video games.

What I like about this box is that it is super small, so it doesn’t get in the way, and even though it includes standard definition cables, you would usually set it up with an HDMI cable.  It has most of the streaming channels that you would expect: Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crackle, and many more, but it is missing YouTube which is unfortunate.

I was also recently put off by the fact that my HBO Go will not work on the box because Comcast has decided that it will not allow it.  This is hardly Roku’s fault, but I feel that Roku should be leaning on Comcast as much as possible to get this app to work.

The motion controller is passible, and playing Angry Birds on it is pretty much like playing Angry Birds on any other platform, except it is on your TV, so I guess that is cool, but it is not something I would get the Roku for.

If you need a cheap streaming solution, the Roku is perfect for that, and it looks like it is adding new options all the time.  If they could get HBO Go to work on Comcast, and add YouTube it would just about perfect, and since the new Roku 3’s are coming out you can find deals on all the Roku 2’s right now, so it is a good time to pick one up.

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Dredd Day of Action Update!

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Well the Dredd Day of Action has come and gone, and I thought I would give a quick update of what I saw.

Dredd climbed to at least #6 on the Amazon Blu-Ray charts in the USA, and it hit #1 overall in the jolly old UK, and considering how long it has been out, that is quite a feet.

Dredd did not crack the top 100 on DVD in the USA on Amazon’s charts, but it is now on delayed processing and the price has gone up $2, so it must have sold quite a few copies.  It did hit #5 overall in the UK on Amazon’s charts.

It may be a month or two before we find out just how many copies of the movie were sold, but it was enough to at least get the movie visible on the home video store fronts on Amazon for awhile.

Dredd is now one of the most watched movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime, so it looks like people are taking the time to watch it if not own it.

It was fun to see the Brits really get behind one of their major super heroes, and hopefully this Day of Action sold enough copies to get it back in the public eye and given the movie executives enough money to think about Dredd 2.

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Xfinity Is The Worst!

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Comcast Xfinity has been driving me nuts lately.  Well I should say that I have always disliked them, but recently they have been doing their best to get on my nerves.  Yesterday gave me not one but two examples of how lame they can be.

My wife and I decided to setup a TV in our bedroom, and since we don’t need a lot as far as programing goes in that room, I decided to pick up a Roku 2 XS which is the previous generation’s top of the line streaming box.  The apps I bought it for are Netflix, Amazon Prime, and HBO Go.  There are other channels and stuff, but I will get in to that when I do my Roku review.

The problem with this plan is that apparently Comcast blocks the HBO Go app on the Roku.  Why? I don’t know, I guess they just hate having happy customers.  They allow it on my Xbox 360, but apparently the Roku box is a bridge too far for them.  Setting up HBO Go is already way to complicated for its own good, but hey, I have done it before, so it not a big deal, but no I can’t.  Blocking it on devices that other cable and satellite companies allow seems horribly dumb, but maybe I don’t see the world through their idiot eyes, and it makes perfect sense to them in their lava filled throne room.

After that disappointment, my wife and I decided to sit down and watch the latest Breaking Bad episode on my Xfinity app on my Xbox 360, but low and behold their license server was acting up, so we couldn’t watch it.  Luckily Amazon came to the rescue and we just bought that episode for a reasonable price, and I am glad we did because it was fantastic.

These are just two of the examples of why I hate Comcast/Xfinity, and if they didn’t have a monopoly in our market, and the only internet company in our market that supplies reasonable internet speeds, I would leave, but as it is now I am stuck.  That does not mean I will not complain about it on the internet because we all know complaining on the internet is how stuff gets changed.  Oh right, nothing happens, and Comcast just keeps on being a jerk.

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Playing Around Like A Godus!

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I was kind of torn about whether I should write anything about this game or not because according to the developer 22Cans it is only 40% complete, but they are selling it on Steam Early Access for $19.95 (or if you are like me you got it through Kickstarter), so I figure it is fair game.  The game is being designed by Peter Molyneux, and like I wrote before developed by his new studio 22Cans.  It returns Molyneux to his roots in god games.

What is a god game you ask?  It is a game where you play as a god, and you use your mystical powers to influence a civilization.  As you get more powers, your people get more advanced.  As they get more advanced they give you more praise, and you get cooler mystical powers.  It is a simple yet fun concept, and it is quite addicting.

Godus is billed as the reinvention of the god game, but it still feels like the god games I grew up playing, so I am not sure what the reinvention is, more clicking perhaps?  Maybe that will come in with the next 60% of the game.

The graphics have a fun layered look that almost makes the entire game look like a large paper-craft model, and the buildings and people are reasonably stylized.  The layers are also practical as well since by grabbing them and pulling or pushing you mold the ground.  You will be doing this a lot to either make suitable area for building houses, or looking for resource cards.  Changing the land costs “Praise” that floats in little balls above your peoples houses after awhile.  You can also use the Praise to build totems and statues that further alter your peoples’ abilities and motivations.

If your people are working to slow you can build one that makes them work faster.  Sick of clicking Praise bubbles?  You can build a statue to collect it all in one large bubble.  You can build one that makes people run to it, so you can move them around the map.  Pretty much all the advanced stuff is done with totems.

There are also diamonds that you can spend on upgrades if you do not want to wait for enough Praise.  I think this is where the Free to Play aspect will come in, but I am not sure.

All and all it is a fun god game, and it is a great time sucker.  I always want to flatten a little more land, find just a few more cards, or get a few more advancements, so it is already successful in that regard.  It may not be “done” yet but since there are very few new god games to play (Sand is the only other one I can think of) it is still worth checking out if you like the genre.

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Shmee Survives The World’s End!

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The World’s End is a film by Edgar Wright with a lot if input from the actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and it is the third film in the Cornetto Trilogy.  The first two are Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.  While all three films are different, they all make fun of Wright, Pegg, and Frost’s favorite genres, so Shaun of the Dead is horror, Hot Fuzz is the police action film, and that leaves The World’s End to be the Sci-Fi disaster movie.

The film is about Gary King (Simon Pegg) who has never gotten past his glory days in high school, and his favorite memory from high school is when he and his mates tried to drink the Golden Mile in their old home town.  The Golden Mile consists of twelve pubs, and the last one is The World’s End.  Back in high school they did not complete the mile, so now the much older gang has got back together to try again, but after a strange confrontation in a bathroom with some young local thugs, the night turns out much different than they planned.

This movie is much different than I expected, sure there is dry rapid fire British humor which is excellent, but this film also has a lot more depth to it, and it is probably the most introspective of the Cornetto Trilogy.  This film really dives in to the psyche of Gary King, and why the Golden Mile is so important to him.  It is a nice change from the out right zaniness of Hot Fuzz, though in Hot Fuzz’s defense it is the funnier film.

Gary King is brought to life by the brilliant Simon Pegg, and even though he is an unlikable character, you still root for him thanks to Pegg’s charm.  The rest of the gang does great work too never missing a beat.  Martin Freeman seems like he is in everything these days, and since he is such a good actor I have no problems with that at all.

Wright handles the action and special effects with this film quite well, which is reassuring since his next movie is going to be Ant Man, and that movie is going to be all action and special effects.

If you can’t tell by now, I really liked The World’s End, and it makes me sad that Cornetto only has three flavors because I could use a few more, but if there had to be only three than I am glad all three are so good!

**I saw this with my buddy Daniel, and you can see his opinion here!