Tag: Valve

This One Time, On The Internet- March 14, 2014

Here are the quick hits from the world of movies, TV, games, K-Mart locations, laserdisc collections, whatever catches our fancy.

Movies

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige says we can look forward to Hawkeye and Hulk having larger roles in the sequel. This pleases me.

“Part of the fun of Age of Ultron was saying, you’ve seen another Iron Man adventure before, you see another Thor adventure and another Cap adventure, but we haven’t seen the Green Goliath again. So that was important in the characters you haven’t seen – Hulk being one of them and Hawkeye being one of them – Ultron will make up for it. They have very big parts in Age of Ultron.”

Pan

In the long, successful tradition of actors playing characters of different ethnicity, like Johnny Depp in The Lone Ranger or Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer, Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) has been cast as Tiger Lily in 2015’s Pan. This movie sounds like a scene out of Dragon Tattoo…very uncomfortable to sit through.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Sebastian Stan has revealed that he has a nine picture deal with Marvel Studios. Get ready for Winter Soldier to be around for a long time.

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Watching Arnold crush things with a tank is somehow deeply satisfying. He is doing it for charity as well, so no shame in helping out.

Games

Titanfall

Amazon raised Prime prices this week and now they have been caught deleting low scores for Titanfall by NeoGAF. Ruh Roh, Shaggy.

Valve

Check out the redesigned Steam controller which still looks weird as hell, but now with A,B,X and Y buttons.

Street Fighter

Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, an original web series, will debut on Machinima. It can’t be any worse than the last two movies…can it? At least the video has no Van Damme or Kristin Kreuk although it looks like the grand master is wearing one hell of an anal bead necklace.

http://youtu.be/GYjIT-HALrY

Books

Harry Potter

JK Rowling has released a new 2,400 word piece called History of the Quidditch World Cup. It is free and can be read on Pottermore.

March 14, 2014
Alienware To Release New Steam Machine Yearly, Makes My Brain Hurt

If you were already on the fence about the myriad of Steam Machines releasing this fall (as I was), this may make you fall off completely, at least for one of them.

Alienware, whose Steam Machine has certainly been the most talked about because of its design, has delivered the facepalm of the day by announcing that their box will release every year in new iterations. Not only that, but the existing box you purchased will not be customizable like with a PC.

“Lifecycle wise, consoles update every five, six, seven years, we will be updating our Steam Machines every year. There will be no customisation options – you can’t really update it. The platform will continue to evolve as the games become more resource intensive.”

It seems like Alienware has lost what little sense Valve was trying to instill in these boxes. Some other variations come equipped with extra video card slots for future expansion. I can not perceive why Alienware would try to annualize a game machine like this. This isn’t a $100 Ouya. It is a machine that will, most likely, come in at $500 or more. Now you are asking potential buyers to play with a non-upgradable PC for one year before charging them again.

Has this hurt the Steam Machine’s already murky future? Will it make consumers look harder at the other brands offering them or turn them off to the concept completely?

January 21, 2014
Steam Controller Unveiled. Valve Takes On Virtual Boy For Worst Controller Design Ever

It has been a big week for Valve. They teased three big announcements for this week and have so far delivered Steam OS and that the mysterious Steam Box would be coming next year as they try to revolutionize the relationship of PC and living room TV gaming. I have not focused on these announcements because…well I am not a PC gamer and probably will never be. Just being honest.

But this is something different. Because..well…look at it!

It is the official Steam controller which features two circle trackpads as opposed to analog sticks. Valve says that they will offer unparalleled control and as Valve stated will make, “whole genres of games that were previously only playable with a keyboard and mouse” easier to play on a TV. ” The trackpads can be used as buttons also and will also have a feedback system.

There is a touchpad in the middle of the controller which can be used in many different ways including scrolling through pages of information and also can be a clickable button.

I do not play mobile games on my phone for a reason. I do not like touchscreen control pads. Now I know this is not the exact same thing, but I have to have tactile contact. I want to feel an analog stick moving in the direction I want it to. Those trackpads may be amazing, who knows. I will never get used to gaming like that though.

OK, those are the basics. I know there are some long-winded explanations of every function this controller carries, but I have to get on with the simple fact that this thing is plain, fu**ing ugly. There will some Valve lovers that will jump down my throat because everything Valve does is a revolution or whatever, but come on. Be realistic. This thing is Virtual Boy ugly.

It is like looking at a Steam controller in reverse.

Of course, there is still the Gamecube controller out there with its hanging blue balls.

And one can never forget the Jaguar controller. I know my hands never will. Long nights of Aliens vs. Predator and hands cramps…the hand cramps. Never forget.

September 27, 2013
Valve’s Steam Box Is Real, Codenamed ‘Piston’

Hey, remember how the rumor mill has been talking about Valve developing a supposed “Steam Box” for like three years? Here you go.

Guess we can chalk one up for the rumor mill.

Hardware maker Xi3 teamed with Valve and showed off a very early version of the Piston to CES. It will come with up to 1TB of storage and will be able to upgrade the CPU and RAM as well as have component updates. It will perform beyond the upcoming next generation consoles and is only about the size of a grapefruit.

No pricing was revealed but this is most likely where the differences with home consoles will be seen. Valve could just want this to be an extension of their PC market but if this is competitively priced, could they take a small chunk out of the Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo pie?

January 8, 2013