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CoD: MW3 – Trailer Fail [Updated]
In: video gaming
2 Sep 2011
Sometimes, you wish these things were fake.
That’s how I felt, when I watched the new Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Reveal video, which was released by Infinity Ward today. Here, watch this thing:
See what I mean? Now watch this trailer:
See the difference? One looks like it took some time and effort the produce, while the other looks like it was made by a 12 year old with too much free time on their hands. What a travesty. The MW3 trailer has way too many slow mo, “Zach Snyder” moments. You saw the movie “300″ right? Yeah. That. The trailer also follows various soldiers around the map using the worst 3rd person angles one could think of. They tried to show and feature the new customization options and the new killstreaks, but it failed. It failed miserably.
This video was supposed to get me excited about MW3, but instead, it’s making me think about cancelling my pre-order. That’s pretty sad.
Update 09/05/2011 – Activision has released a MUCH BETTER trailer called “Tango Down”. Check it out:
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(3) Comments - Tags: battlefield 3, call of duty, cod, competition, fail, modern warfare 3, multiplayer, mw3, opinion, trailer
Empire Avenue – Just Plain Fun
In: web2.0
7 May 2011Recently, I was invited to a service that I heard about a while ago, but for some reason I dismissed it. The service is called Empire Avenue, and I think it’s quite a bit of fun.
Empire Avenue is the Social Media Exchange, where you can invest in any social media profile by buying their shares, meet new people, unlock Achievement badges, and earn boatloads of virtual cash by being active and social online! Buy shares in your friends, your followers, people with similar interests, brands you love, celebrities – anyone! All using a virtual currency and all for free!
A long, long time ago, in an internet far, far away, I participated in a very similar site called Blogshares, which did similar techniques to promote websites. Empire Avenue (EAv for short) takes it a step further by throwing in achievements, and encourages you to contribute to your connected social networking services. Our community has started playing around with EAv, and quite a few of us are taken by how fun it is. I’ve been criticized by you all that I don’t communicate to my audience enough unless something is broken. I can’t say I disagree with you there, but something like EAv gives me a bit more motivation to tweet to everyone that I’m doing a show soon, or to communicate the latest promotion – You know, that thing called “social media”? 
At any rate, I doubt the game is for everyone and I think a lot of you out there will probably dismiss it as a gimmick or a waste of time. As for me, I’m going to be buying some shares of (e)PIRILLO as soon as I get the chance. Perhaps I can convince (e)OREO to lower their prices a bit. If you wish to join, please visit http://bwna.me/empavenue to give me and you 10,000 “Eaves”, which is their virtual currency.
I’m listed as (e)BWANA on EAv. Surprised? 
P.S. If you do decide to sign up, I highly recommend getting a cup of coffee and a few cookies. After you smile a bit, read Chris Pirillo’s THOROUGH EAv guide here. You’ll be glad you did
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No Comments - Tags: EAv, Empire Avenue, game, gaming, soci, social media, trading
iPad 2 Nitpicking
In: apple
10 Mar 2011Tablet wars. Gotta love ‘em.
I found this interesting article from John Gruber at daringfireball.net. He rips into Walt Mossberg’s review of the iPad 2. Specifically, he focuses on the Mossberg’s drawbacks of the iPad 2:
So Mossberg’s second “downside” is that battery life for movie playback — with the brightness set 25 percent higher than Apple’s factory default — exceeds Apple’s stated 10 hours by nine minutes. Apple says you can play video for 10 hours, Mossberg gets 10 hours and nine minutes, and it’s a downside?
[...]
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a review where a product that exceeds the manufacturer’s stated specs for battery life gets dinged for battery life.
I gotta say I agree with Gruber’s disagreement of Mossberg’s battery life “drawback”. It seems to be really reaching, but then again, a lot of the iPad 2 naysayers are doing the same thing.
The iPad 2 is a real thing that you can go buy in a store tomorrow. What is Mossberg comparing the iPad to? An imaginary tablet, available today, that does have Flash Player and 4G networking, on which neither technology has an adverse effect on battery life? Why not list the lack of a quad-core processor, instead of the iPad 2’s actual dual-cure one, as a drawback, too?
Bingo. I don’t think I could have stated that better myself. I find it puzzling that Mossberg would mention Flash/4G as drawbacks on the iPad 2 and those drawbacks are not even working on the competitors’ tablets Mossberg mentioned. I guess it comes down to pleasing everyone:
Mossberg’s entire review is only 1,500 words; measured by the word, a full third of what he has to say about it are these “drawbacks”. By contrast, his 1,200-word review of the Motorola Xoom — a tablet nearly everyone, including Mossberg, agrees is inferior to the iPad 2 — contains one 62-word paragraph of “downsides”.
Sounds like Mossberg was tired of being called an Apple lover
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No Comments - Tags: ipad2, john gruber, mossberg, review, walt
Nintendo Answers My Plea
In: video gaming
4 Mar 2011
On my past shows of Game Chat With Bwana, I pleaded with Nintendo to justify the seemingly high price ($250) of its new handheld, the 3DS. Recently at the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), Nintendo announced the device would support Netflix as well as 3D recording. Iwato discussed that 3D video will be coming to the 3DS in the form of an exclusive channel with content like the “Green Lantern” trailer and so forth. (HELLOOOO NURSE!) The big N also announced a partnership with AT&T which will grant access 10,000 Wi-Fi hot spots across the country.
The downside is that all of this great stuff won’t be available at launch apparently. (Always a catch) It will come in a future software update that nerds across the country will pester Nintendo for months for. While I’m not crazy about that part of the package, I am extremely pleased to see that Nintendo is reaching beyond the games on the 3DS and looking more and more like the PSP in terms of overall digital entertainment. If they deliver as promised, the 3DS may well be worth its price.
Rift Beta This Weekend
In: video gaming
4 Feb 2011
If you follow the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) gaming genre, then you have probably heard of Rift. It’s a new entry in the already crowded market, and aims to cater to both experienced and new MMO players. If you want to give it a try, there’s another open beta round going on this weekend.
If you need a beta key, head over to zam.com and get a key there. Once you obtain a key, you need to create an account at riftgame.com and apply the beta key to your account. The developers will email you an official invitation to the beta and you can get into the game. I’ll be playing on the Seastone server with various characters. If you wish to check out the game, I’ll also probably stream gameplay at my live stream.
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No Comments - Tags: mmorpg, open beta, rift
DC Universe Online: Will It Last?
In: geek|video gaming
29 Jan 2011Some of you may not know, but I love comic books. I grew up reading Marvel in my early years and gradually moved towards DC Comics in my adult life. So I was definitely excited to see that DC was releasing a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) called DC Universe Online.
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No Comments - Tags: dc universe online, dcuo, discussion, mmorpg, review, thoughts
Why You Should Try Raptr (Again)
In: video gaming|web2.0
25 Oct 2010A while ago, I tried Raptr during the beta and I liked it since it combined gaming with the social web. Here’s my initial review from 2008:
It kind of fell off my radar since I was primarily using Xfire to track my gaming. I also had a problem with Adobe Air at the time since it was a memory hog. Since then, Adobe Air has improved a great deal (still pretty heavy) and Raptr has improved by leaps and bounds.
Read the rest of this entry »
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(1) Comment - Tags: Community, facebook, game, gaming, raptr, social networks, tracking, twitter, web2.0
