Post Turkey Links

My Top 50 Controllers. This isn't my list of the top 50 video game controllers, it's some random guy on the interenet's list. Still, it's a good list. It's also a good reminder that the Dreamcast had some of the weirdest controllers ever.

Fabulous Lady Deadpool Cosplay by ShiveeeJam. Hello Lady Deadpool.

Pentagon Super-Hoarders Waste Billions Buying Stuff They Already Have. Next time you hear some talking head on TV or radio talking about how cutting military spending is a threat to national security remind him that the Pentagon is literally losing money. As in they buy supplies and then immediately lose those supplies in giant warehouses because the Military has never heard of Excel. And that doesn't even count all the M1A1 tanks they keep making even though the army say they don't need them.

Slaps, Lies, and Videotape: Irene’s True Story of 1998’s The Real World: Seattle. Another great read if you have 10-15 minutes to burn on late 90s nostalgia. Irene touches on the casting process, what it was actually like to film the show and just how much the city of Seattle hated the cast. Oh man how I remember that. You could tell everyone in Seattle was both super excited to get the attention of a show like the Real World and super excited to show a national TV audience how little we cared about a show as crass and fake as The Real World. The local indy papers would have reports every week of where the cast was and what they were doing all of them super snarky. It was sort of the most Seattle thing ever. Caring about showing others how little you care.

The Triumph of Links

Half an operating system: The triumph and tragedy of OS/2. Good gravy, find yourself a few minutes and go read ArsTechnica's epic tale of IBM, Microsfot and the OS/2 operating system. It really is amazing how Bill Gates and Big Redmond made all the right moves back in the 80s and early 90s. Think about it this way, Microsoft pants IBM so hard they gave up on the personal computer market in 2004. Gave up... the guys that practically invented it. That would be like Apple deciding that smart phones weren't really their bag anymore.

Great read, can't recommend it enough.

Background Actors Who Have No Idea What They Are Doing. I've been watching this gif all morning like it was the Zapruder film. Why is that guy throwing his dog? WHY!!!????

The Greatest Doink the Clown Story Ever Told. I want this to be true so bad. It probably isn't but can't we just pretend? What harm would there be?

Cops Called Over Cosplayer’s Underboob. I'd like to think that when the cops took this call it played out very much like the episode of Seinfeld where Elaine complained that Monk's was only hiring women with big breasts. Like every cop in the city showed up to help file the report. The entire CSI unit showed to take measurements and pictures.. the whole 9 yards.

How to Fight a Baby

Here's the video you're going to see on facebook and twitter like A THOUSAND TIMES today. It's of a hipster dad pretending to fight his infant child. A couple things here: First off that's one cute chunky monkey. Secondly he's totally missing two of the better baby fighting techniques, pinching their cheeks and tickling their feet. Those are my go to moves whenever my daughter is kicking my ass.

"As God as my witness I thought turkey's could fly"

I know this makes me hella old, but whenever I think of Thanksgiving day episodes of TV I think of this classic WKRP episode where they drop free turkeys from the traffic copter.

Also Bailey was super hot, amirite?

Magneto Killed JFK, because why not?

The producers of X-Men: Days of Future Past have been doing a bit of viral marketing lately. First up was a fake website from the supposed makers of the Sentinels that was quickly followed by a youtube commercial for the Sentinels, now there's a website (with accompanying youtube clip of course) TheBentBullet.com that presents the case against Magneto being the mutant on the grassy knoll.

I'm not sure if this is poorly timed or not, seeing how last week was the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination. Until I see a story on buzzfeed on the 11 ways this advertising campaign is insensitive, I'm going to go with not.

NASA regrets to inform you, you're a dumbass

I wish I could find the original source of this but every link just leads to another link. I'm just going to say I found this on reddit and wash my hands of it.

Top 10 Games of this Generation

The Screen Team (as featured on this blog before) have asked their viewers for a list of the top 10 games of this generation. GammaSquad did something similar a couple weeks ago but they drew it out over like 5 different slideshows and featured far less cleavage, so I'm going with this one.

It's a pretty respectable list. A couple of the Wii and PS3 games I haven't played so I can't comment on just how baller Super Smash Bros: Brawl really is. I had zero intent of doing this but off the top of my head these are the best games I remember playing on the 360 (and the few times I got my hands on a Wii or a PS3):

Red Dead Redemption
Bioshock
Battlefield 3
Mass Effect
Skyrim
Arkham City
Uncharted 2
Halo 3
XCom Enemy Unknown
COD: Black Ops


I know putting a Call of Duty game on here blows away any "hardcore" gamer cred I never had but as a reminder I've been in baby land most of the year and haven't really had a chance to get my hands on some of the bigger titles from 2013 like GTA V or The Last of Us. Also COD: Black Ops was dope, so get off my back.

Here's my counter offer

I haven't had to interview for a new job in quite a while but I think this could work. The cartoon bird just needs to add a couple more cartoon bags of money.

Toy Review: Spider-Man: Spider-Cycle Chase

Hey it's a toy review? Look at me branching out into new things.

In the TMI category my son has been having a big problem with self imposed constipation. For whatever reason he's afraid to poop and will sometimes hold it in for 3 or 4 days. Kids are weird. One of the ways we're dealing with it is a reward system for him going potty. He gets a sticker for every time he goes and when he has enough stickers we take a trip to the toy store and he gets a toy. This has led to us buying a lot of Legos over the last couple months.

The last trip to the store my son was telling me what set he wanted before we even got there. He was focused like a laser. He wanted Spider-Man, Venom and the flying car. Honestly this set was a bit more expensive than what we like to spend on potty rewards (19.99 at Fred Meyer) but I'm a pushover when it comes to buying toys for my son.

It's a pretty impressive set. It's probably my favorite of all the ones I've bought him. For 20 dollars you get 3 mini-figures and two vehicles. Even if Spider-Man's spider-bike is on the small side that's a pretty good value. Plus the mini-figures you get are good ones. Venom (not pictured) and Spider-Man are a good pairing, Nick Fury almost feels like a bonus.

My favorite thing about the set is that the two vehicles are really solid. With the Star Wars and Ninjago sets I've put together there are a lot of pieces that aren't attached very well so they're always falling apart. Nick Fury's flying car is practically a tank. You can play nice and rough with these and not worry about parts ending up under the couch. The build time was pretty quick. I think it took me about 15 minutes to put everything together (minus the mini figures which Logan does) and a lot of that was done one handed holding a baby. From the box I was afraid this set was going to have a lot of large specialty pieces that wouldn't fit anywhere else once Logan was old enough to start really using his imagination but it really doesn't. Outside of the hood and windshield for Nick Fury's car the pieces are actually pretty small. There's definitely a lot of potential to really pimp these out.

Overall I give this set two thumbs up. Would buy again.

Professional Wrestling Promo of the Week: Scott Steiner and Size Matters

I've decided that every Friday I'm going to post a little thing I like to call the Professional Wrestling Promo of the Week.

Scott Steiner is probably insane. He's the best worst promo guy ever. By that I mean his promos are always so bad they become awesome. This one from the dying days of TNA where goes on and on about how "big" he is, is an instant classic.

Why Specs Don't Matter Anymore

As you may recall, yesterday I posted a video review for the Xbox One. Here's what one viewer (ie best man at my wedding) had to say:

I like how he addressed game play, graphics, etc. Is that not important anymore? Are consoles becoming cell phones i.e. focused on a bunch of other functions except for the one thing they are supposed to be?

-B

Short answer: no with a but. Long answer: hey, here's a lengthy post about the next generation of consoles...

The video game industry has changed a ton over the years. I ran an article about the demise of LucasArts a few months ago where they mentioned that the cost of producing a GTA style Star Wars game would be upwards of $100 million. Think about that for a second. In 40 years we've gone from Steve Wozniak programing Atari games all by himself to teams of thousands blowing through $100 million dollar budgets. And it's worth it, GTA V made a billion dollars in less than a week.

So, if the video game industry is bigger than it's ever been why haven't reviews for the Xbox One or Playstation 4 focused more on games? Because there's barely any difference between the two systems. They use the same media, they share a similar GPU architecture and both have roughly the same amount of system memory. Sony and Microsoft have independently designed two very similar systems to make sure they don't miss out on any hit titles. With so much money on the table neither can afford to ostracize any game developers by creating a machine that's too different from the competitor.

Think about it from the game developers side of things. If you're going to spend $200 million dollars on the next GTA V, you need to make sure you're selling to the broadest market you can, even if that means nerfing your game a bit. We've already seen that with the last generation of consoles. As far as hardware goes the Playstation 3 was more powerful than the 360, yet games like Call of Duty and Madden looked pretty much the same on both systems. Game developers smartly decided to save money and maximize sales by programing for both systems at the same time which meant the more powerful system was limited by the hardware of the weaker system.

Editors Note: This is a wildly simplistic look at software developing but for this particular discussion I think it will do.

Oh sure there are console specific titles out there but how many of those are actually developed 3rd party? 2? 3? Outside of the Wii I can't name a single one.

The point is, if you're looking to play Call of Duty: Infinity or Grand Theft Auto VII: Missoula Montana either system will do. The choice between the two systems is going to come down to the exclusive titles Sony and Microsoft make (ie Halo vs Gran Tourismo), which system provides the best user experience and of course cost. Microsoft took Sony's lunch with the Xbox 360 providing a better user experience than the PS3 at a lower price. It will be interesting to see if this time around they can win the war by offering a better user experience at a higher cost.

Of course I could write about 4 more paragraphs on how the console war for Microsoft is really a trojan horse designed to get Windows 8 (don't call it Metro) into your Cheeto stained hands but I digress.

Now does this leave Valve and the Steam Machine in a position to potentially sweep all the hardcore gamers off their feet? Kind of. The Steam Machine still has a pretty big hill to climb. It runs on Linux, so essentially you're asking developers who have been programing PC games for Windows for the last 18 years to start prgraming them for an alternate OS and Hardware. Ask Apple how well that works.

The big advantage Valve has is a large existing user base in Steam and the fact that PC graphics DEMOLISH even the two newest consoles. Seriously there are PC rigs that right now will play games in 4K resolution. I could easily see a scenario where a Steam Machine becomes the killer piece of hardware to pair up with your new 4K TV but that doesn't make it a lock. With the Steam Machine Valve isn't just throwing their hat into the console war, they're looking to completely change the way gamers look at consoles .

Rev3 Games and Adam Sessler's Xbone review

Quite a few co-workers know that I'm a big geek (I think all the comic books and toys I keep in my office have somehow tipped them off) so that means I've had the "Are you getting a PS4 or an Xbox One?" conversation about a dozen times. The short answer is I don't have the money for either. Not even close. Like I still owe about two grand to the hospital for baby number two kind of no money. Even if Santa dumped a pile of cash down my chimney for Christmas it would all go to bills and credit cards before I could even think about buying a new video game machine. Even then I think I'd buy one of the new Nintendo 2DS and get my Pokenmon on.

Still the next generation console race does interest me so I thought I'd post this Xbox One review by Adam Sessler. It's probably the most balanced review I've watched or read on the Xbone. Also it's the review that made me realize that even if I had the money it's most definitely not the console for me. Why spend the extra $100 on a console that's biggest perk is how well it integrates with cable TV when I have my Xbox hooked to the basement TV where I don't even have cable? Also are they still doing that thing where you have to have an Xbox Live Gold subscription to use Netflix? Screw that noise. Someone pass me the Pokemon machine.

GoldieBlox is a thing I will buy my daughter

GoldieBlox is a building/engineering toy line geared towards girls. I hadn't heard of them before this Beastie Boys meets Rube Goldberg video but now I'm thinking about picking some up for my daughter this Christmas. Sure they might be a little advanced for my 2 month old, but you should really see her. She's flapping her arms around at a 3 month old level.

Professor Xavier Fires Jubilee

Pete Holmes (of the Pete Holmes show) has been doing these really funny Ex-Men skits for a couple weeks now. I never posted any because by the time I had actually watched the first one it was like a week old which in internet time is YEARS.

Anyway in this one he Xavier fires Jubilee. My favorite part of this is that he mentions Burning Man and about 10 years ago X-Force actually did have to stop a bad guy at Burning Man. Of course Jubilee wasn't there when she was actually needed.

Also did you know Jubilee is a vampire now, because of course she is.

I'm 3 1/2 Bananas behind today

Gymkhana 6 is real and it's spectacular

Want to watch Ken Block do things with a car you should only be able to do in a video game? Me too.

A mind forever Linking

15 Ambitious Plans to Colonize the Moon I love every one of these. If I didn't have a family I'd be the first one to sign up for the floating moon base. With my luck they'd give away all the top spots to people with college degrees. Even in space work experience doesn't count for anything.

Who Actually Owns Your Favorite Beers. I guess I'm a Heineken guy. Who knew?

As the years have gone by and my digestive tract has been ravaged by all sorts of mysterious ailments I've found myself really enjoying lighter beers. Lagers and Pilsners and such. I swear I even look at an IPA and I start feeling acid reflux.

Outright Geekery’s Top o’ the Lot: Star Wars Vehicles (One-seaters). I'm trying to expand on the regular links to gizmodo, destructiod and comics alliance. Here's a nice quick article about the best single seaters in the Star Wars franchise. If you have a page worth checking out send me the link. Big Poppa Pump is your hook up.

10 Golden Age Sidekicks whose name sounds like gross sex moves. A couple of these are a bit of a stretch but most of them.. whoo boy. There is zero chance I'm looking up Sandy the Golden Boy on Urban Dictionary. Somethings you just can't unread.

Professional Wrestling Promo Of the Week: Macho Man Randy Savage and the Cream of the Crop

I've decided that every Friday I'm going to post a little thing I like to call the Professional Wrestling Promo of the Week.

It's almost unfair to all the other professional wrestlers both past and present to start with Randy Savage but who cares? They're not Randy Savage, so screw those guys. "Cream of the crop" is the quintessential Macho Man promo and one of my favorite ever. It's completely insane. He's like a loaded high tension spring just waiting to explode. Near the end just when you think he's about to really go off he just ends it and walks away. It's so perfect.

Where does he keep getting those cream packets?

EXTREME INSANE Domino Tricks!

Here's like four minutes of some pretty sweet domino set ups. I really like the ones that are like full towers and when they fall they go KABLOOOWEEE!!

The FIFA tantrum to end all FIFA tantrums

Ever been so upset at a video game that you've thrown the controller? How about smashed the TV with a karate chop then rip it off the wall and maybe possibly try and kill your friend with it?

psshhh, and you call yourself a gamer.

Blizzcon 2013 Epic Cosplay Showcase

Here's a video of cool and exciting cosplay from last weekend's Blizzcon. And by "cool and exciting" I mean boobs. Here's video of a bunch of cleavage from last week's big Blizzcon event. Merry Christmas everyone!

30 for 30: The Space Jam Game

I haven't actually watched this yet but it's so relevant to my interests that I thought I'd go ahead and post it blindly.

BTW, Space Jam is 18 years old. So it's old enough to vote and smoke. My guess is it will vote for someone stupid like Ted Cruz. Thanks a lot Space Jam.

Ordinary Batman Adventures

New Lego Movie Trailer

Here's another trailer for The Lego Movie. Have I mentioned how cool it is that they filmed this in stop motion instead of making it all CGI? There are plenty of CGI Lego movies and cartoons (I know, I've seen them all now) so the stop motion animation helps make this feel special. This might be the first movie I take my son to go see in the theater.

Heroes for Links

Marvel and Netflix announce multiple live action program deal. Well there's some big news for you on a dreary Thursday morning. It's a bit of a head-scratcher for me. It feels like Marvel/Disney is doing everything they can to keep any sort of established characters off Agents of SHIELD just in case they want to use them in a movie. So why have they decided to sign a deal with Netflix?

I'm guessing the perceived prestige of doing an original series on Netflix was a big attraction. You know, cutting edge and all that. Also let's not forget Disney owns ABC and a boat load of other cable channels. If they wanted to say develop a Runaways series for ABC Family they can do it whenever they want. The decision to go with Netflix might be less about Marvel finding a new outlet for their characters and more about Disney dipping their toes in an all digital distribution method for their intellectual property.

Halo 4 one year later, what happened? Woof, the on-line numbers for Halo 4 are kinda terrible. Here's some crazy deep analysis that highlights just how bad it's been for 343 industries.

Before Photoshop there was Drew Struzan. Try and remember any iconic movie poster from the 1980s. Got one? Good. Odds are Drew Struzan painted it. Check out a nice collection of his work here.

Here are the Coolest Custom Lego Minifigs You Can Buy on Etsy Right Now. One of the lasting impression from my trip to BrickCon this year was just how crazy the custom minifig market is. Like $30 for a custom Star Wars Trooper kind of crazy. Custom minifig weapons and accessories were going for up to 10 dollars. I mean I want a Ron Burgundy mini figure just as bad as the next guy but there's no way I'm paying 20 bucks for one.

Motivational Cheating

I saw this on Reddit and I thought it was funny. Enjoy.

Nice Hustle Boys, lets go to Hooters

You know what's a fantastic team building idea? A post season diner at a nice restaurant. You know what's a terrible team building idea for a bunch of middle school football players? A post season diner at Hooters. Take it away deadspin:

Corbett Middle School's football team in Oregon just finished their season, so you know what that means: awards dinner. Head Coach Randall Burbach knew precisely what would make this awards dinner unforgettable. Boobs. Ass. Chicken. Socks.

Burbach tried to schedule a dinner for his squad at nearby Jantzen Beach Hooters. The coach says he chose Hooters not for nineteen-year-old waitresses with bodies yet unmarred by time or alcohol, but for the pleasant experiences his own kids had there when they were preteens. He was so sure of this that he took the plan to the school athletic director, because middle schools need athletic directors. The AD, JP Sougnalet, shot it down.

My favorite part about this story is that the coach wouldn't yield to the AD and he got fired. He said he was teaching the kids about a lesson in standing up for what you believe in. And when what you believe in involves short shorts and tight tank tops who am I to argue?

Call of Duty: Ghosts of Modern Warfare 2

If you think that Call of Duty: Ghosts is just Malibu Stacy with a new hat, you don't know the half of it. Activision has been caught using a motion capture sequence from Modern Warfare 2 (a game that came out 4 years ago) in Ghosts.

whoops...

Loki 1, Kids 0

Here's Loki doing his best AT&T guy talking with kids impression. I don't want to spoil it for you bu It ends in a very Loki-like way.

I don't know about you but I'm starting to believe that Tom Hiddleston actually is Loki in real life. Like if I found out his parents really were Frost Giants I wouldn't be that surprised.

Post Hallow's Eve Super Mega Links

MCM London Comic Con Cosplay in Pictures. Cool pictures from a Comic-Con I've never heard of before.

Soapbox time. Last night we probably got half the trick-or-treaters we usually get and man did most of their costumes suck. I saw almost zero superheroes, no pro wrestlers and like two Star Wars kids. The best costume of the night came from a kid dressed up as Harry Potter. He had the robes, scarf, scar, glasses the whole package. Next year these kids better step up their game or I'm handing out floss.

10 Bizarre Television Conspiracy Theories. Really there's one good theory here (the Saved by the Bell one) and a bunch of bunk. When you think about it, it totally makes sense. Especially the summer spent at the beach club.

I Hate Buzzfeed. I'm with this guy. Buzzfeed used to be a perfectly nice little web aggregator but over the last year or so they've turned into this SEO behemoth that can't stop spitting out shitty articles like "OMG, 15 TV shows from the 90s that you probably liked" or "the 12 cutest cats that look like Barack Obama". Worst part about it is they source everything from Reddit so it's not even original shitty content it's ripped off shitty content. Stupid Buzzfeed.

All the Evidence that Time Travel is Happening All Around Us. I've made the point before that my son looks so much like I did at his age that I'm 99.9 percent sure he is a time displaced baby me. Leaving adult me to raise myself. I'm not quite sure how the hospital did that, but I'll get to the bottom of it soon.

Destructiod's Batman Arkham Origins Review breaks the internet. Long story shortish, Destructiod isn't as large of a video game site as Kotaku or IGN but they're still pretty reputable. Earlier this week their lead review guy Jim Sterling DESTROYED Batman Arkham Origins. It caused quite the web-wide controversy.

He makes a lot of good points in his review but I feel a lot of his criticism can be read as more of a condemnation of the video game industry as a whole. My guess is when he gave the game a 3.5 out of 10 he did it with the express purpose of making waves. Still, good read.