Christmas Comes Early for Battlefield 3

It looks like I'm getting a late birthday present, and everyone is getting an early Christmas present. The folks at EA and DICE have finally dated the release of their Back to Karkand DLC for mid-December. Battlefield 3's back to Karkand  add-on, which will be free to those who pre-order BF3 (myself included), is set to be released on December 13th. Otherwise, it's $15 (1200 MSP). Playstation version owners will get it a week earlier on the 6th.

Karkand will feature new maps, guns, vehicles and achievement/trophies. It seems that the weapons will be unlocked by "Assignments" which require you to meet specific requirements within a match. But the cool thing is that they unlock for not only the BtK maps, but also the originals. Let's just hope that they're guns worth running on the treadmill for. I do enough running in the game as it is.

Battlefield 3 Android Home Screen

In the spirit of Battlefield 3's release today (in North America, at least), I put together a custom Android home screen to mark the occasion. I literally just received my preorder copy at the door as I'm writing this (release-day shipping from Amazon ain't too shabby). Spooky...

Click for full size

She Had Some Work Done...

"You promised me pretty, Steinman! You promised me pretty! Now look at me! LOOK AT ME!!"

Well, the new site design is up and working (as far as I can tell). It took a hell of a lot longer than I had planned. Mostly due to how finicky I was about the whole thing. I think it looks far better on the outside, and it definitely is a lot better on the inside.

I also took the opportunity to cut some of the clutter out of the sidebar. I may add a few things back in, but I'd like to keep it clean. I'd be lying if I said that I'm done with it. As far a I'm concerned, it's an improvement, so it's close enough. I'm not above making further adjustments, though.

Game of Couches

There's been no shortage of things to kill my productivity lately. It's nothing short of a conspiracy. I swear, if I did not have the self-control that I demonstrate in steeling myself to write this very post, I'd be doomed spend the rest of my summer on the couch. So much new and old TV magic to behold, care of Netflix and associates.But I'll get around to finishing the site update sooner or later.

I started watching the highly recommended Game of Thrones as of yesterday. I must say, I was not disappointed. While I may be a little late to the party, all of the violence, nudity, and Sean Bean that Game of Thrones has to offer has not been lost on me. Did I mention that there's lots of tits? And that's just speaking for the first two episodes. Yes, sir, this is not the show for the young'ins. But does seem to perfectly hit my demographic's favorite selling points. Okay, so it might not have a lot to appeal to women. But it has lots of horses, too (women like horses, right?)

TV Nostalgia Courtesy of Netflix

I've been using Netflix for a while now, and it's been a major consumer of my free time. Unlimited streaming TV shows and movies for as little as $7.99 a month? You can't explain that!

But Netflix has gone further and tempted me with offerings of many of the TV shows that I watched as a kid in the 90's. At first it was just The X-Files. But after seemingly listening in on my thoughts and conversations with my brother, now the X-Men and Spider-Man cartoons that I grew up with are available. They also have Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, too.

Other recently added choices like all of the Star Trek TV shows (except they don't have DS9) are a good bet as well. I already watched through Star Trek: TNG prior to getting Netflix, but I'll probably start up Star Trek: The Original Series.

Time for a Tune-up

Due a combination of my summer free time and the fact that the blogs are, as of yet, woefully unmaintained, I'm getting around to an update. Not only do I intend on making everything pretty (not my strong suit), but I'd also like to make the template compliant with Blogger's new(ish)  template designer. I decided that it would be best to start from one of the many stock templates to meet this requirement.

Duke Nukem Forever Demo Review

They say that 'You Can Always Bet On Duke', but I never was a bettin’ man. Thanks to my recent purchase of the Borderlands GOTY Edition (also made by Gearbox and 2K), I received early access to the Duke Nukem Forever demo as of today. People who pre-ordered the game get the early demo as well, but I’m not sure what’s so great about a demo for a game that they already bought… Guess it’s time for ol’ Duke to put away the bubblegum and start kicking ass. I’ll stop with the puns now. Maybe.

Write It Like You Stole It

Browsing the front page of the local newspaper today (that’s right, a twenty-something reading a dying media), I came across something I hate to see in the news: video games. Below the main headline read “Brothers Played ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ Drank Before Officer Was Killed”.

The article is a follow-up to the recent shooting death of an area public safety officer. It presents updated information regarding the shooter (who was also killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound) and the circumstances leading up to the crime. The same article is available at Mlive.com here.

Your Mom Sells Dead Space 2

EA/Visceral Games' recent viral ad campaign for Dead Space 2 has been popping up on various video game news outlets since its debut over the weekend. For those of you who are not familiar, it's essentially an attempt to make Dead Space appealing solely based on the idea that middle-aged (conservative) mothers think it's gory and violent. Take a look at some of the videos here.

Apparently, everyone (excluding their mothers) thinks this is "brilliant". I'm not sure that I'd call it that, but I see what they might be going for with this campaign. The argument for why it's "brilliant" is because it uses the idea of the disapproving mom to sell video games. But if your target audience is over 18, how does parental disapproval have anything to do with making them want to buy the game? If it really is trying to sell mature game to minors, then is reducing your industry to the child-corrupting stereotypes really the way to help your bottom line?