Machinima and Avenged Sevenfold have announced that the band’s Hail to the King animated series, which serves as a prologue/tie-in with their new album of the same name, will be available on December 15, 2013.
Author - Jerry Paxton
Square Enix and Eidos Montreal have released their Spike VGX trailer for the upcoming, and highly-anticipated, THIEF. THIEF is due out in February for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One platforms.
Trailer
Streamed as part of the Spike VGX this last weekend was a gameplay trailer from CD Projekt RED’s upcoming The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which is due out next year for the Windows PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One platforms.
Trailer
We were lucky to attend Knott’s Berry Farm’s recent media/blogger day to celebrate their on-going “Merry Farm” festivities. Our cold, rainy day started off by parking and then picking up our media packet from Knott’s PR and Social Media representatives, and we then entered the holly-clad gates. Walking down the streets of the park’s “Ghost Town” themed area, it looked anything but. The area teemed with holiday cheer and decor, featuring various vendors and dining locations. A particularly cool setup was in front of the hotel where they were making maple popsicles. This consisted of pouring molten maple syrup onto a bed of ice and then laying in a popsicle stick as it cooled. The result was not only tasty but, also, a great conversation piece.
We had lunch over at the Ghost Town Grill and were very pleased with our food. One of our party had the restaurant’s rib eye steak and couldn’t praise it enough. I had the buffalo chicken sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy – it was great. I have dined at this establishment during the park’s annual “Halloween Haunt” event, and the quality of the food has improved a lot since then (which wasn’t long ago). I am unsure as to the reason behind this, but my compliments to the chef. The restaurant was also nice enough to help us charge our phones while we ate – which is something that a lot of theme parks won’t touch with a 33 and 1/2 foot pole.
“It’s Christmas, Snoopy!” is the park’s current holiday ice show, and is a fun time demonstrating the great skills of the skaters found therein. The show features both costumed Peanuts characters as well as skaters, but don’t expect a narrative to guide you through. The show is made up of various skating routines interspersed with clips from either Peanuts TV specials or live action, costumed Peanuts characters exchanging random dialog about Christmas. One moment that I was expecting to hear some controversy over was when the costumed character of Linus spoke his monologue about the meaning of Christmas – as heard in the holiday classic, “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. With so many places trying to be neutral and PC about the various holidays found this time of year, I was sure to hear some grumbles. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by the reception it received. It was actually sort of refreshing for a park to actually focus on Christmas. I recently attended Disneyland’s festivities and they go for a very neutral approach to Christmas instead – “Happy Holidays!” instead of “Merry Christmas”, etc. But, I digress.
We walked over to Santa’s Cabin, which is setup in the park’s Wilderness Dance Hall, and got our pictures taken with Santa Clause (yes, kids, he DOES exist!). Also in the cabin is a cacophony of sweets and treats to delight. There is a sundae bar, coffee bar, wine and beer booth, and numerous others. My personal favorite was the booth serving sliced green apples mixed with real caramel. Note to those of you who partake of this amazing treat: It is REAL caramel. This means that it turns hard when cooled. So, don’t expect it to remain gooey when you walk outside in the blustery cold weather. The cabin was also serving Cinnabon cinnamon rolls with their delicious frosting, but I didn’t get the chance to try them as I was stuffing my face with caramel apple slices.
We walked around some more, enjoying the ambiance, and finally got over to the Calico Stage to see a reading of Twas the Night Before Christmas, followed by the park’s tree lighting show and ceremony. Both were just more of the continued Christmas fun we experienced throughout the day. During the show, a group of elves struggle to ready the last shipment of toys for Santa’s yearly flight and we even got a cool appearance by snoopy who pops out of a large, over-sized present. On our way out, Knott’s Berry Farm was kind enough to give us a few samples of their new “Berry Market” line of jams and preserves. I can’t say enough good things about this product line. It is great to see the park doing what made it famous in the first place.
Overall, Knott’s Merry Farm is the perfect place to take your significant other or family to get a nice dose of down home Christmas cheer. I highly recommend it and can’t wait to go back. Let’s just hope this Winter weather keeps up so that we can bundle up and really get into the spirit. We would like to thank Jason Soyster, Leidy Arevalo, and Josh Mikkelsen of Knott’s PR and Social Media department for making our visit possible.
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Knott’s Merry Farm Event Photos
Telltale Games officially revealed it is working on a game based on the immensely popular HBO series, Game of Thrones.
Trailer
During today’s Spike TV VGX show, Remedy aired a new trailer for their upcoming Quantum Break, showing off a bit of gameplay.
Trailer
Haarlem, The Netherlands – December 6, 2013 – Veteran game publisher Iceberg Interactive announces today that its latest 4X space strategy game Star Lords is available now on Steam’s Early Access program store.steampowered.
Players can purchase the game now in Steam’s Early Access program and be involved in the rest of the development process by providing feedback and suggesting what they would like to see updated, changed or added to the game. Early Access players can then play as the game evolves throughout the entire development process.
“Star Lords is an amazing 4X game, and we are thrilled to be working with the talented Arkavi Studios team,” says Iceberg Interactive CEO, Erik Schreuder. “We are looking forward to players joining early as the game evolves, and hearing what they would like to see improved and implemented in the game. Early Access provides such a unique addition to the development process and we are looking forward to hearing what players and fans have to say.”
Star Lords is a tactical, turn-based space-strategy game showcasing eight major races in an epic-sized complex universe with some new twists to the 4X genre. Star Lords is set in space where players can take command of one race to join the struggle for supremacy in the galaxy. As the leader of an empire, players explore the stars, colonize new worlds, manage their empire and conquer whoever dares to oppose. In the Early Access Alpha, some features are not available yet such as multiplayer, huge galaxies and domestic policies, as these are still very much being tested. They will be opened up further down the line in Early Access.
Star Lords Key Features:
- Living, Breathing Universe: in addition to the major powers, independent races and pirate clans also claim the galaxy as their residence – use them to your advantage
- Economic and Political Layers: War isn’t the only way to weaken one’s enemies; diplomacy, intelligence and trade are very powerful and effective tools
- Eight major races each with their own ship designs, technologies, unique traits and unique abilities
- Create and customize your own ship designs
- Generals: Unique and powerful units evolve as they battle
- Randomly generated universe, tech tree and units – never play the same game twice
- Empire shattering: unrest might lead rebels to start a civil war which in turn might lead to the creation of a new, independent empire that might grow to rival your own
- Plotting: secretly finance a war against your enemies in order to weaken them or prepare a surprise joint war along with your allies in a bid to destroy that frighteningly fast growing empire
- Human-like AI that doesn’t cheat and plays by the same rules as human players, while presenting a constant challenge. Or play with your friends in hotseat mode.
- Modding support
- LAN, hotseat and online multiplayer (not available yet) with matchmaking
The Alpha version of Star Lords is available for $19.99 on Steam’s Early Access Program. For more information about Star Lords please visit www.starlords-game.com.
Trailer
Creative Lab’s Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 is a very intriguing device. Part karaoke machine, part Sound Blaster, part NFC speaker, part battery bank, part mobile conferencing speaker, part voice recorder, part megaphone, and part MP3 player. When pieced out, this should add up to about a $1000 dollars. Creative Labs has managed to squeeze all of these features into a white monolith about the size of a large diameter candle that will retail for about $300 dollars (less with the current holiday promotion).
One must first ask why would they need a device like this. The nice thing about the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 being as capable as it is becomes clear when looking at those features – there is at least one thing that it can do that a person might be interested in. For many people, multiple features will be appealing. In my case, I am a hardcore PC gamer that does not need to use it as a Sound Blaster, but the Bluetooth speaker and conferencing options really appeal to me. Everyone is different.
In terms of design, the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 follows the same basic shape as its sister products in the Axx line – the biggest difference being its smaller size and white coloring. It has the attractive touch-based control pad on the top of the device as well as some switches and buttons on the back of the unit to control power, recording, and megaphone features. Functionally, the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 is simple and straightforward to use and displays high quality in every respect. The megaphone option is overwhelmingly loud when turned all the way up and the AXX 200 allows users to insert a blank MicroSD memory card into it in order to play music or record voice notes.
You can even plug your computer into the AXX 200 via USB cable and your PC will use it as a full-fledged sound card. The AXX 200 features Creative Labs SB-Axx1 multi-core audio processor and puts out some very good quality audio. This would make a great speaker system/sound card for your gaming laptop or even to plug the audio output of your backyard projector into for family movie nights.
Cooler still is that the AXX 200 is a Near Field Communication speaker system – so, if your mobile device supports that, you will have no problem pairing them up. If you are like me and only have Apple mobile devices, then you can still interface with the speaker system via Bluetooth. In fact, the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 has two Bluetooth channels so that you can connect two devices to it at the same time. The idea behind this is that you can be gaming on your tablet with its audio piping through the AXX 200, then seamlessly switch over to a conference call as the AXX 200 is also connected to your phone. Why wouldn’t you just use your phone for the conference call? The AXX 200 features four microphones to pickup voices from all around the conference table. It also utilizes Creative Labs Crystal Voice technology to eliminate background noise and provide more clear voice traffic. In my testing the device, I was blown away by how nice the quality is – it was actually distractingly-good in comparison to dedicated teleconferencing units I have used.
While the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 has a lengthy battery life of up to 15 hours, you can also use its stored energy to charge your mobile device. Just plug it into the USB port and it will start the electrons flowing. This makes the AXX 200 a great backup battery if you are every stranded without access to a wall or car outlet. Personally, I am going to pack this in my CES bag for when I need to recharge my phone on the fly.
We were also able to check out the charging dock, which is sold separately. I highly recommend picking this up as it provides a nice base station to set your AXX 200 on when not in use that charges it up as well. The only thing that would have made the charging dock better was if it used a smooth charging pad a la the late and underrated Palm Pre. The current charging solution had two little pins that stick up from the charging dock that touch two little points on the AXX 200 which are revealed when the bottom of the device is opened up via small plate.
I can see myself taking the AXX 200 with me if I ever get to go hiking again. You could easily signal for help using the megaphone option, keep your phone charged with it for when you get in range of a cellular tower, or just play some tunes on it if you are camping. Overall, the Sound BlasterAxx Axx 200 portable sound system is a very cool sound solution that will replace a great many device types. It is available now for about $149, while is a special and limited time holiday price point. Once the special over, the price will be back at its MSRP of $299. You can find out more about the Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 over at its official product page.
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Sound BlasterAxx AXX 200 Features
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Santa Fe Springs, Calif.– December 5, 2013 – Swann, a global leader in do-it-yourself security monitoring solutions, announces the release of its Quad Starship™. Swann’s new Quad Starship looks like something from a space movie, but it’s here, it’s real, and it will boldly take your teenagers into a new out-of-this-world dimension this Christmas. The Quad Starship™, is available at Amazon, Fry’s, Tiger Direct and B&H stores nationwide for $79.99.
The Quad Starship is equipped with Swann’s Easy Fly Gyro technology which includes 4 axis and propellers. With this design it makes for easy multi-direction maneuverability and simple control. The four rotors mean it can move up, down, forwards, backwards, and sideways, as well as perform flips and stunt tumbles.
The compact and powerful Swann 2.4GHz control is capable of transmitting a signal up to 330 feet away. The Swann Quad Starship is simple to set up and easy to charge. Simply add four alkaline AA batteries to the remote control, and then charge the chopper using the USB cable included. Once charged, you’re up and away with 8 minutes of aerial flying time per charge. The Swann Quad Starship ’s lightweight and durable construction is built for indoor flying in any direction.
“The Quad Starship is perfect for intermediate pilots aged 14, plus those who have never used remote controlled helicopters before. Teenagers can be hard to buy Christmas presents for, but I defy any teenager (or their Dad) not to have fun with the Swann Quad Starship,” says Jeremy Stewart, Vice President, Marketing of Swann. “The Easy-Fly Gyro technology will help to self-stabilize the flight level and maintain control. With some practice you will be performing death-defying turns, dives, flips, tumbles and stunts in no time.”
Available
The Quad Starship, is available at Amazon, Fry’s, Tiger Direct and B&H stores nationwide for $79.99.
December 5, 2013 — Gaijin Entertainment has announced that that the closed beta program for Ground Forces Expansion for military World War II MMO game War Thunder has launched. Selected players that participated in various daily in-game challenges during November will be among the first to get a taste of intense tank battles and new progression system. Collector’s advanced packs with exclusive content and access to the closed beta later this month are also available now.
Ground Forces Expansion marks the next glorious chapter in War Thunder’s evolution toward providing gamers with the ability to experience next-gen WWII military gameplay filled with intense action and highly explosive battles, launched from either the air or using armored vehicles.
“Our ultimate goal is to have hundreds of thousands of individual games made up of dozens of players who can experience intense battles where they come from the skies, the land and eventually from the sea,” said Anton Yudintsev, CEO, Gaijin Entertainment. “The launch of Ground Forces Expansion closed beta is another step towards that goal.”
For users that want exclusive content that will become collector’s items when the open beta for Ground Forces starts, there is an option to purchase one of the advanced packs at http://online.gaijinent.com. All of these packs will also grant access to the closed beta later in December, although the other means of getting access are planned as well.
- M4A2 Sherman Starter Pack (49.99 USD/Euro)
- Exclusive M4A2 Sherman, captured by the German forces, that will be available only for the owners of this pack;
- 2000 Golden Eagles;
- Access to the closed beta later in December
- M4A2 Sherman Advanced Pack (59.99 USD/Euro)
- Exclusive M4A2 Sherman, captured by the German forces, that will be available only for the owners of this pack;
o Unique German “Panther” decal of 39th Tank Regiment, 51st Battalion;
o Unique German “Knight with spear” decal of 505th Heavy Tank Battalion, 1944;
o Unique title “Sherman Hunter”;
o 3000 Golden Eagles;
- Access to the closed beta later in December
- T-34 Advanced Pack (49.99 USD/Euro)
- Exclusive T-34 prototype, that will be available only for the owners of this pack;
- Unique Soviet “Swift” decal of 15th Guards Mechanized Brigade, 4th Guards Mechanized Corps, 3rd Ukrainian Front, 1944;
- Unique Soviet “Circles” decal of 7th Guards Tank Corps, 1945;
- Unique title “T-34 Test Driver”;
- 3000 Golden Eagles;
- Access to the closed beta later in December
- T-34 and M4A2 Sherman Advanced Pack (99.99 USD/Euro)
o Exclusive T-34 prototype, that will be available only for the owners of this pack;
o Exclusive M4A2 Sherman, captured by the German forces, that will be available only for the owners of this pack;
o Unique Soviet “Swift” decal of 15th Guards Mechanized Brigade, 4th Guards Mechanized Corps, 3rd Ukrainian Front, 1944;
o Unique Soviet “Circles” decal of 7th Guards Tank Corps, 1945;
o Unique German “Panther” decal of 39th Tank Regiment, 51st Battalion;
o Unique German “Knight with spear” decal of 505th Heavy Tank Battalion, 1944;
o Unique title “Sherman Hunter”;
o Unique title “T-34 Test Driver”
o Unique title “Tank Pioneer”
o 6000 Golden Eagles
- Access to the closed beta later in December
Over 5 million players already know the enjoyment of raining down aerial destruction via the PC-version of War Thunder and this fan base continues exponential growth. War Thunder is currently in Open Beta on PC and PlayStation 4, and in development for Mac OS and Oculus Rift. Download War Thunder for free from the official website and join in a heated battle to dominate the skies: http://warthunder.com.