Concur. Internet TV is not broadcast. If your ISP (often your cable provider, ironically) has a download cap, you have to select your content carefully. I suspect a lot of folks will investigate OTA or the bare bones cable packages to offset the increased bandwidth needs. Assuming you have the equipment do it (tuner card and DVR software) avoid bandwidth cap issues by recording broadcast shows for free.
Cream rises to the top. "Mad Men", an Emmy winning hit for a few years now, runs on AMC, a channel for old classic movies. I doubt many Mad Men fans watch much of the other content on that network. I'm sure it will find a home on another network if nobody wants to pay for AMC ala carte.
I don't see how, unless you plan to have an XBox in every room. We have one on our big entertainment center TV. But in the bedroom we just have a Roku. If MS starting putting out sub-$100 Media Center STBs (with Netflix and Hulu, etc., in addition to XBL content ) then you could make that argument.
Clarification: You do need a PC for your solution, unless there's a cablecard for Xbox I don't know about.
That said, I really like the Windows Media Center interface. That's the only DVR we use currently. Much better out of the box than the Comcast DVR or homebrew solution I used for years: GB-PVR. I just wish the link to it on the Xbox was more prominent. More than a couple clicks/menus fails the WAF.
If there was an easier way to access WMC TV recordings from other small STBs (Roku, Apple TV) it would be the perfect solution.
That's the key. More eyeballs give a great game a chance to catch on with folks who may have passed it by when it was subscription-only. It's worked so far for LOTRO, F2P for over a year and doing better than ever. F2P helps build server population, too, so the mature servers don't feel empty when passing through lower-level areas.
I'll probably give DCO a look. Wouldn't have touched it otherwise. Same for SW:TOR. The barrier to entry is too steep for my discretionary game dollars. This from a loyal Bioware fan.
Check out Crimson Alliance, available through Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 pts ($15). Action RPG in the vein of Gauntlet, Torchlight and Diablo. The best part: 4-player couch/online co-op. I'm playing it with my two younger boys. $15 is a great deal when we can all play together on the same box.
Parrots learn words but not language. Associating words with rewards through Pavlovian training is not communication. Clearly spoken gibberish is still gibberish.
LOTRO is great. The Tolkien lore is wonderful. True Free to Play (not limited to level 20) sucked me in to LOTRO last year and I've been here ever since. The last MMO I played was EQ ten years ago.
Good review. I agree that they tried to do too much. They crammed at least two movies-worth of character and story development into one, which really made some parts feel rushed. Chris Evans really nailed the humble, clever, indomitable spirit of Steve Rogers and the 40s period-piece feel was amazing. I just wish they would have fleshed out the characters a bit more and added some more closure in the 40s before the jarring jump to his contemporary resurrection.
Agree. There is no closure to his WW II life. Just a quick little montage of headlines commemorating him as a lost war hero who will be remembered, but not the tragedy. No time for a sense of loss for him or those close to him. That's a key defining aspect of his character in the Avengers. Shame it wasn't fleshed out more. "I had a date" is an understatement.
Stanley Tucci's scientist character conveyed the message: the serum only amplifies what's in your heart. Since Steve Rogers is pure of heart with an indomitable will he is one of the few who can ingest it and come out for the better. It's classic Stan Lee cliche (aka "With great power comes great responsibility"), yet I think it's done very well here.
No argument on your points. The Norse elements and Howard Stark definitely sow the seeds for the Avengers. That doesn't mean they aren't integrated well into the story to make it interesting enough as a stand-alone. Not knowing who Howard is takes nothing away from this film.
In fact, I was impressed by how different in feel this "Avenger prequel" was from Thor and Iron Man. The wonderfully realized alternate-reality WW II sets really setup the golden era U.S. world that defines Cap and his values.
Agreed. I wish they would have spent some more time, even one minute would have sufficed, showing Rogers reflecting on what he's lost and contrasting that against the chaos of his new reality. He may wish he'd stayed dead.
The nameless soldiers who got vaporized fighting alongside Cap in the movie are no less heroes than him. They just don't get their stories told.
Similarly, there are real heroes in the world today. Their actions are just not exciting enough for their stories to generate viewer interest sufficient for the media to report on them. Nor would they ask for glory. But it's sad that the good they do is unnoticed by the masses.
Instead we're fed politics, celebrity, and scandal.
I disagree. The only setup for the sequel was him waking up in modern times and meeting Agent Fury. That's right out of Cap canon. The rest of the story is self-contained. The fact that he lost everything and everyone he knew over his 70-year hibernation is part of the tragedy of his character. If anything is missing it's giving him a few minutes at the end to reflect on his losses and the challenge of preserving his values amid contemporary chaos.
The preservation of his boy scout ideals in an uncertain world makes him a very compelling character, IMO. And the pitting of his humble leadership style against the massive egos of Tony Stark and Thor will be quite fun to watch.
Except that anyone who knows about grenades knows the paddle (spoon) is what starts the fuse. The pin just unlocks the paddle, allowing it to release (it's spring-loaded). As long as you hold the paddle against the grenade the fuse will not start and you can put the pin back in. A properly stored grenade will prevent the paddle from releasing automatically when the pin is pulled. That is grenade 101. Doesn't make for an interesting movie scene, though.
I was just explaining to my young kids how I played this growing up. The kept asking me why I only got to play as Mario when the game was called Donkey Kong. It reminded me of Patrick Stewart explaining that he thought "Star Trek" was the name of the ship when he auditioned for ST:TNG.
Sid Meier might have the answer. He's bringing a version of Civilization to Facebook. My respect for him is enough to take a look. That will total exactly 1 Facebook game I've ever tried.
Hear hear for Lord of the Rings Online! F2P got me to try LOTRO last September, the first MMO I've played since quitting EQ in 2001. I enjoyed the lore and original story content so much I've been hooked ever since. I'm currently a subscriber but have purchased the expansions and quest packs with the intent to drop back to F2P this fall as an "owner" (Premium) instead of a "renter" (VIP subscriber). No other game let's you play end-game content without a monthly subscription.
The removal of the time-limit on WoW's trial is a good move. Exploring at one's own pace gives guys like me an option to explore the content without having to block time within the limits of their trial. But LOTRO's model is better.
It's actually 5: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and Pakistan (drone attacks in the last three, plus the recent SEAL op to eliminate OBL) Plus our continued presence in Japan, Germany, Korea, and Kuwait following our respective military engagements there.
Hear hear! My 8 year old plays LOTRO as a Hobbit burglar, alongside a Dwarf champion (melee fighter). His reading has improved noticeably since he started a few months ago, as there is a lot of exposition in the quest dialogs. Though he's gotten good at the fighting, he spends as much time crafting and being silly with emotes and the in-game music system.
It's free to play through about level 30, when you need to invest a little cash to purchase more content packs, but there is no need for a subscription. Thus we can limit his screen time with no "subscriber guilt".
Agree. I have a Roku and an Apple TV (on different TVs). Love them both. I also use WMC on my PC for local broadcast and display it on the big TV via XBox 360. When Hulu Plus becomes available for Xbox I'll likely stop bothering with the DVR altogether and use Xbox and Roku for Hulu. If I managed to get the Roku to play my WMC recordings without a lot of hassle and make it easy for the Mrs., I'd probably skip Hulu.
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Concur. Internet TV is not broadcast. If your ISP (often your cable provider, ironically) has a download cap, you have to select your content carefully. I suspect a lot of folks will investigate OTA or the bare bones cable packages to offset the increased bandwidth needs. Assuming you have the equipment do it (tuner card and DVR software) avoid bandwidth cap issues by recording broadcast shows for free.
Cream rises to the top. "Mad Men", an Emmy winning hit for a few years now, runs on AMC, a channel for old classic movies. I doubt many Mad Men fans watch much of the other content on that network. I'm sure it will find a home on another network if nobody wants to pay for AMC ala carte.
I don't see how, unless you plan to have an XBox in every room. We have one on our big entertainment center TV. But in the bedroom we just have a Roku. If MS starting putting out sub-$100 Media Center STBs (with Netflix and Hulu, etc., in addition to XBL content ) then you could make that argument.
Clarification: You do need a PC for your solution, unless there's a cablecard for Xbox I don't know about.
That said, I really like the Windows Media Center interface. That's the only DVR we use currently. Much better out of the box than the Comcast DVR or homebrew solution I used for years: GB-PVR. I just wish the link to it on the Xbox was more prominent. More than a couple clicks/menus fails the WAF.
If there was an easier way to access WMC TV recordings from other small STBs (Roku, Apple TV) it would be the perfect solution.
Do what a lot of people do: Put it behind a wall and control it with RF remote and IR blasters. My Logitech Harmony works great.
That's the key. More eyeballs give a great game a chance to catch on with folks who may have passed it by when it was subscription-only. It's worked so far for LOTRO, F2P for over a year and doing better than ever. F2P helps build server population, too, so the mature servers don't feel empty when passing through lower-level areas.
I'll probably give DCO a look. Wouldn't have touched it otherwise. Same for SW:TOR. The barrier to entry is too steep for my discretionary game dollars. This from a loyal Bioware fan.
Check out Crimson Alliance, available through Xbox Live Arcade for 1200 pts ($15). Action RPG in the vein of Gauntlet, Torchlight and Diablo. The best part: 4-player couch/online co-op. I'm playing it with my two younger boys. $15 is a great deal when we can all play together on the same box.
Interesting. I stand corrected. Thanks.
Parrots learn words but not language. Associating words with rewards through Pavlovian training is not communication. Clearly spoken gibberish is still gibberish.
LOTRO is great. The Tolkien lore is wonderful. True Free to Play (not limited to level 20) sucked me in to LOTRO last year and I've been here ever since. The last MMO I played was EQ ten years ago.
Good review. I agree that they tried to do too much. They crammed at least two movies-worth of character and story development into one, which really made some parts feel rushed. Chris Evans really nailed the humble, clever, indomitable spirit of Steve Rogers and the 40s period-piece feel was amazing. I just wish they would have fleshed out the characters a bit more and added some more closure in the 40s before the jarring jump to his contemporary resurrection.
Agree. There is no closure to his WW II life. Just a quick little montage of headlines commemorating him as a lost war hero who will be remembered, but not the tragedy. No time for a sense of loss for him or those close to him. That's a key defining aspect of his character in the Avengers. Shame it wasn't fleshed out more. "I had a date" is an understatement.
Stanley Tucci's scientist character conveyed the message: the serum only amplifies what's in your heart. Since Steve Rogers is pure of heart with an indomitable will he is one of the few who can ingest it and come out for the better. It's classic Stan Lee cliche (aka "With great power comes great responsibility"), yet I think it's done very well here.
No argument on your points. The Norse elements and Howard Stark definitely sow the seeds for the Avengers. That doesn't mean they aren't integrated well into the story to make it interesting enough as a stand-alone. Not knowing who Howard is takes nothing away from this film.
In fact, I was impressed by how different in feel this "Avenger prequel" was from Thor and Iron Man. The wonderfully realized alternate-reality WW II sets really setup the golden era U.S. world that defines Cap and his values.
Agreed. I wish they would have spent some more time, even one minute would have sufficed, showing Rogers reflecting on what he's lost and contrasting that against the chaos of his new reality. He may wish he'd stayed dead.
The nameless soldiers who got vaporized fighting alongside Cap in the movie are no less heroes than him. They just don't get their stories told.
Similarly, there are real heroes in the world today. Their actions are just not exciting enough for their stories to generate viewer interest sufficient for the media to report on them. Nor would they ask for glory. But it's sad that the good they do is unnoticed by the masses.
Instead we're fed politics, celebrity, and scandal.
I disagree. The only setup for the sequel was him waking up in modern times and meeting Agent Fury. That's right out of Cap canon. The rest of the story is self-contained. The fact that he lost everything and everyone he knew over his 70-year hibernation is part of the tragedy of his character. If anything is missing it's giving him a few minutes at the end to reflect on his losses and the challenge of preserving his values amid contemporary chaos.
The preservation of his boy scout ideals in an uncertain world makes him a very compelling character, IMO. And the pitting of his humble leadership style against the massive egos of Tony Stark and Thor will be quite fun to watch.
Except that anyone who knows about grenades knows the paddle (spoon) is what starts the fuse. The pin just unlocks the paddle, allowing it to release (it's spring-loaded). As long as you hold the paddle against the grenade the fuse will not start and you can put the pin back in. A properly stored grenade will prevent the paddle from releasing automatically when the pin is pulled. That is grenade 101. Doesn't make for an interesting movie scene, though.
I was just explaining to my young kids how I played this growing up. The kept asking me why I only got to play as Mario when the game was called Donkey Kong. It reminded me of Patrick Stewart explaining that he thought "Star Trek" was the name of the ship when he auditioned for ST:TNG.
Sid Meier might have the answer. He's bringing a version of Civilization to Facebook. My respect for him is enough to take a look. That will total exactly 1 Facebook game I've ever tried.
Hear hear for Lord of the Rings Online! F2P got me to try LOTRO last September, the first MMO I've played since quitting EQ in 2001. I enjoyed the lore and original story content so much I've been hooked ever since. I'm currently a subscriber but have purchased the expansions and quest packs with the intent to drop back to F2P this fall as an "owner" (Premium) instead of a "renter" (VIP subscriber). No other game let's you play end-game content without a monthly subscription.
The removal of the time-limit on WoW's trial is a good move. Exploring at one's own pace gives guys like me an option to explore the content without having to block time within the limits of their trial. But LOTRO's model is better.
It's actually 5: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and Pakistan (drone attacks in the last three, plus the recent SEAL op to eliminate OBL)
Plus our continued presence in Japan, Germany, Korea, and Kuwait following our respective military engagements there.
Hear hear! My 8 year old plays LOTRO as a Hobbit burglar, alongside a Dwarf champion (melee fighter). His reading has improved noticeably since he started a few months ago, as there is a lot of exposition in the quest dialogs. Though he's gotten good at the fighting, he spends as much time crafting and being silly with emotes and the in-game music system.
It's free to play through about level 30, when you need to invest a little cash to purchase more content packs, but there is no need for a subscription. Thus we can limit his screen time with no "subscriber guilt".
Nah, they know Great White jumped the shark.
Agree. I have a Roku and an Apple TV (on different TVs). Love them both. I also use WMC on my PC for local broadcast and display it on the big TV via XBox 360. When Hulu Plus becomes available for Xbox I'll likely stop bothering with the DVR altogether and use Xbox and Roku for Hulu. If I managed to get the Roku to play my WMC recordings without a lot of hassle and make it easy for the Mrs., I'd probably skip Hulu.