StuffWeLike

Blood Ties – Season One (Region 2) DVD Review

Blood Ties is a TV show based on a series of modern day books about vampires. The story follows Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox) a former cop who is now a private investigator as she investigates cases of the bizarre and unusual. Think a grown up version of Buffy with the standard monster of the week that comes with it.

While investigating the cases she joins up with former partner cop Mike Celluci (Dylan Neal) and vampire Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid). The show in essence uses the same formula as Angel where a monster is encountered and then the vampire is sent in to fight it. There is more to the story though in even a full season set there is only a single bad episode. The rest are stories about vampires, exorcisms, haunted paintings and the list goes on.

Even though the show does sound rather generic on paper with the vampire sidekick and romance storyline that shows it type of book origins it is a good show. It takes a while to get used to and the DVD has no extras but the show is excellent and takes repeat viewings.

Verdict: +

Major League Gaming, now on ESPN

In what appears to be a healthy intermingling of the mainstream sports and gaming cultures, ESPN has struck a deal with Major League Gaming so that they can have shows on ESPN. Sounds pretty cool and the guys at MLG are ecstatic enough to release this press release. This elevates MLG’s status to biggies like the MLB, the NBA, the NHL and what-not, because ESPN will be giving complete coverage to the MLG.

That means you’ll be seeing player interviews, the 2008 MLG Pro Circuit Competitions, streamed matches, scores, statistics and so on. We’re definitely not talking about an oddly-timed half-hour show talking about how gaming tournaments are so weird. We’re talking a full-fledged sports deal that puts the MLG actually into the major league.

Check out ESPN’s flashy new site for the newfound affiliation, where they’ve already got the show going, with fresh MLG news and Pro Circuit stuff. Those not in the know might also be interested in ESPN’s Video Games site, where they try to be real cool and pretend they are good at covering video games like other major sites we won’t mention here. Just kidding.

This event has a profound impact on gaming, perhaps the largest since Halo 3’s humongous sales. With nerdy gaming tournaments getting showtime on ESPN, you know that the mainstream-gaming gap is being filled slowly. And while some might be annoyed by that, the more optimistic among us will tell you that this can only mean more people play games, more people make games and hopefully, games become cheaper and better!

So much for Utopia.

Echochrome dated in Japan

The most impressive game from E3 2007 finally gets a release date.

Last week I mentioned Echochrome was arriving on the PSP on March 19. Now I can confirm it will arrive on the PlayStation Store as a downloadable PS3 game on the same day. The price has not been announced, but if Sony is selling the PSP version for 3,990 yen ($36) it will probably fall in the $25-$30 price range.

I know what some of you are thinking, “no fucking way am I paying 25-30 dollars for some tiny PSN game.” You, sir, are dead wrong. Echochrome’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before, the kind of game M.C. Escher would make if he could only draw stick figures. I play games to have this kind of mindbending experience, and just watching the trailer, it felt like I had sprained my brain. Don’t let the lo-fi graphics fool you: Echochrome is one of the most promising PSP and PS3 releases this year. At least, I think I’ll probably have more fun with it than MGS4 and GTA4. If the trailer below doesn’t convince you of its awesomeness, well, you have no soul.

Courtesy of Siliconera.

Could there be a new Windows Vista in 2009?

According to TG Daily ‘industry insiders’ have confirmed a new version of windows has been ‘shipped’ as code to be validated.

Even though the existing Windows Vista has barely been out, the so-called new version could be out in the second half of 2009, if reports are to be believed.

If you’re thinking “That’s a bit soon isn’t it”, then you’d be right. Microsoft originally planned to release the new version in 2010, but then changed it to the earlier date. We’re not sure why though.

Other points mentioned by TG Daily are the ability of the sofware to handle a ‘heterogeneous graphics system consisting of multiple graphics cards from different vendors’ and a new integrated media center that at the moment only supports PC speakers.

Wannabe early adopters will have to wait to hear when they can ty it out as the Beta date has not yet been decided.

Eager PC heads can find out more here.

New Police Sirens Dangerous?

New police sirens could potentially be risk to your health.

Yes imagine that police sirens that vibrate you while driving. Sounds soothing doesn’t it? It’ll be interesting to see if this causes car crashes in the near future. As of right now the vibrations are said to be sound based so biologically you should be ok, but mentally – that’s a whole different story.

Bloopers Mashup – StuffWeLike Fall 07 Videos

As the new Spring semester for college creeps up on us, I became depressed. My free time will dwindle away, but the good thing is that I’ll be able to make more internet videos!

I mashed up Mr. Lifeless, Gazmo and Friends, and Two Males and a Killer Whale bloopers all into one video. This is all never before seen stuff so enjoy our stupidity!