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The Board game is not a lie

portal board game

Portal the Board Game

                Valve plans on releasing a Portal board game later this year and while no release date has been set it’s being planned for the fourth quarter of the year.  Like the video game it’s based off of the board game requires a lot of planning and strategy to play.  It has a mixture of co-op and single player where players can either join forces when they choose to or just go solo and try to win on their own.

You play as Aperture test subjects moving around Aperture to try out the test chambers.  The goal is to take the lead and take out all the other test subjects.  Right now the game is in its prototype stages but it’s already such a unique and entertaining game that Cryptozoic, a company many video game creators to go for board game versions,  didn’t have to make a lot of changes to the game saying “they had a really solid, functioning game already.”

While this game will easily appeal to all portal fans it’s intended to stand alone as its own entity, and if it does well it could mean more board games to come.

Jacob Carpenter is the writer for TSCN.TV and also a blogger under the name JSnakeC on IGN

More Nintendo Board games

pokemon-monopoly

More Nintendo board games

                We’ve already seen Monopoly games that span several nintendo games at once, but at the 2014 American International Toy Fair, USAopoloy confirmed that Legend of Zelda would get it’s own Monoploy game. USAopoloy also confirmed another Pokemon Monoploy game coming out as well.

We already know that the Pokemon Monopoly game will feature the Kanto region which means we could see five more Monopoly games like this for the other regions if this one sells well. With Zelda we still don’t know much about what will be featured on this version.  With Zelda focusing on the same characters so many times it’s more likely that the Zelda Monopoly game will span multiple games.  These games will be $45.

We also know that a new version of Connect 4 featuring Super Mario will come out sometime this spring for about $25. My guess is it’ll feature red and green pieces for Mario and Luigi. As a board game fan I’m excited for this, but we’ve already seen a few nintendo based monopoly games, and while Connect 4 is a fun game it’s hard to get overly excited for it if you already own a version of it.

Jacob Carpenter is the writer for TSCN.TV and also a blogger under the name JSnakeC on IGN

Super Smash Combos

Super Smash Combos

                Remember when using characters like Fox and Link you could bombard your enemies with a fury of attacks by mashing the A button? Well those days are over.  With news of the new Super Smash Brothers game coming almost daily we now know that the newest version will feature combo attacks. So instead of button mashing you actually have to execute a series of combinations in order to use more powerful attacks.

This should add a huge change to the game as a whole. Now that the characters have combo attacks weaker characters might have some powerful attacks that can be unleashed which can also help to add more balance to the roster as a whole.

 

Jacob Carpenter is the writer for TSCN.TV and also a blogger under the name JSnakeC on IGN

JP Kellam talks about Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U exclusive

bayonetta 2

JP Kellam talks about Bayonetta 2 as a Wii U exclusive

                So as we all know the original Bayonetta was for multiple consoles so everyone was surprised to find out that the sequel was only for Wii U. Many people voiced their negative opinions about that fact and Kellam has finally decided to respond to all those complains.

“Without getting into some stuff that is both business and confidential, the simple question I’d like to ask you is, ‘Do you want to play Bayonetta 2?’ Bayonetta 2 would not exist without Nintendo white knighting that project. So while I totally understand that people want to play it on the platforms that they’ve played it on previously, we really wanted to make Bayonetta 2.

But if you were going to sell a game on a Nintendo platform, what publisher would you choose? Right, Nintendo. Right? So if you’re going to sell a game on a Nintendo platform, the publisher that you want to be with is Nintendo because they know how best to service their audience and they’re going to do the best job of explaining your game to that platform. You very rarely see huge, major third-party successes on Nintendo platforms because it’s really hard to fight against Mario, right? It’s why Universal isn’t as big as Disney. I mean, it’s really hard to fight somebody on that kind of turf, so…

We really wanted to make Bayonetta 2. And Bayonetta 2 is a project that we were passionate about. And when we couldn’t… when the business situation changed and we couldn’t make it the way that we were originally planning on making it, we definitely wanted to make sure that our project survived. I’ve seen Bayonetta 2 – I look at it every single day of my life when I’m in the office. It’s really cool and the world is going to be a better place because Bayonetta 2 is in it.

I spend a lot of time on Twitter seeing people get really angry, ‘Why is it not on PS3 and 360?’ Right? So kind of the way it went was, ‘Why do we have to buy a Wii U for one game? Why isn’t it on PS3 or 360?’ And now that the Xbox One and the PS4 are out, it’s ‘Why isn’t it on PS4 or Xbox One?’ So then it’s not about buying a piece of hardware, it’s just that you didn’t want it on the Wii U.

And that’s cool, I mean maybe that system’s not for you, or maybe that platform isn’t what you want to play games on, but we really want to make Bayonetta 2 and we think it’s going to be a fun game and the people who do play it are going to really enjoy it and I think that we made the right decision to make sure that game survived. I mean I’d rather be in a world with Bayonetta 2 than without.”

That’s understandable. While Nintendo hasn’t had the biggest sales on the market right now they do have the most iconic characters in video game history, so having Nintendo make a third party game into a game they highly endorse might be a good thing for Bayonetta and it could lead to even more games in this series.

Jacob Carpenter is the writer for TSCN.TV and also a blogger under the name JSnakeC on IGN

Samuel’s Thoughts episode 30: Communication

Samuel's Thoughts

 

On this episode of Samuel’s Thoughts I had a very intersting month to tell you about with good news and new goals regarding my health, a new acting role I am excited to take on, and two events that made me realize how important communication is for me personally.

To find previous episodes go to: tscn.tv/samuelsthoughts

To subscribe to this podcast put this link in your favorite podcatcher:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/tscnst

Send feedback to: samcastfeedback@gmail.com or leave a comment below!

 

This message will self destruct in 3..2…1..

IBM helps make self destructing technology

Last year the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced plans to build technology that could at some point self destruct. With this idea in the planning stages IBM decided to help with the project by giving DARPA a $3.45 Million contract last month.

This actually has a lot of interesting, and devastating uses. The original intent of the project is to be used for technology that would be on the battlefield. If the technology were to fall in the hands of an enemy it could easily be exploited to either spy, detect, or harm others. With the use of this technology a simple command would cause a silicon chip in the device to dissolve thus rendering the device unusable.

This is good, but with technology being so handy and constantly coming out with new models this technology could also be used to make technology unusable after so long to promote customers to keep buying new models when they come out.

So this has a lot of potential to be used for good, and bad purposes, but with the technology still in development it’s impossible to tell for sure where this will go in the end. One this is for sure this message will self destruct in 3…2….1….

Jacob Carpenter is the writer for TSCN.TV and also a blogger under the name JSnakeC on IGN

 

New Companion for Doctor Who

_73177627_samuel_andersonbbc

New Companion for Doctor Who

                Since Peter Capaldi’s Doctor will have nothing to do with romance in the slightest it looks like a new character will fill that role for our impossible girl Clara Oswald.  Samuel Anderson will play as Danny Pink a teacher at Coal Hill School like Clara.

How they plan to introduce his character, and what his character will offer to the show has yet to be determined but it is possible that this new character will play a romantic interest for Clara to fill in the gap that has been left for romance fans everywhere when the Doctor left his boyfriend material status behind.

This isn’t the first time two teachers have traveled alongside the Doctor. The original companions Ian and Barbara were teachers of the Doctor’s granddaughter before they stepped in the Tardis and their lives changed forever.

Anderson had this to say about the role. “I was so excited to join Doctor Who, I wanted to jump and click my heels but I was scared I might not come down before filming started,” he continues by saying, “It’s a quintessential part of British culture and I can’t believe I’m part of it. It’s an honour to be able to work alongside Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman and I can’t wait to show people how my character becomes involved with such a fantastic duo.”

So get ready whovians a new companion is coming which will hopefully add a lot to the cast of characters. Let’s just hope he doesn’t keep dying and coming back like Clara and Rory. I think we’ve seen enough characters that won’t stay dead.

 

Jacob Carpenter is the writer for TSCN.TV and also a blogger under the name JSnakeC on IGN

Doctor Who can come to legos

Doctor Lego

Doctor Who can finally come to Legos

                Fans of Doctor Who and Legos had to deal with the fact that Legos could not develop any Doctor Who based sets due to licensing conflicts. Well fans can finally rejoice as they can now submit any Doctor Who ideas to Lego Cuusoo without any issues.

Already people have started submitting ideas such as the Tardis, the Doctor, and even K9. While nothing is official at least we know ideas can now be submitted so we can hope to see  Doctor Who planets, machines, characters, and enemies out of the addicting lego blocks.

Jacob Carpenter is the writer for TSCN.TV and also a blogger under the name JSnakeC on IGN

The Monthly Music Mixup March 2014

MMM copy

 

On this months MMM we face a few bodies of water, a few bad things, look at how they just don’t make things like they used to anymore, deal with love so hot the firedepartment had to be called, and that brat Beiber..sigh..

Playlist:

Facing the Ocean- Heather Gruber

Face in the Water- Freds House

Bad Wolf- Devo Spice

Bad Dreams- Rave Boar

Airships- Confabulation of Gentry

Someone Call the Fire Department- Paperboy

That Brat Bieber- Steve Goodie

To find previous episodes go to: tscn.tv/MMM

To see all the shownotes for this episode go to: tscn.tv/MMMmarch2014

To subscribe to this podcast put this link in your favorite podcatcher:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/tscnsamcast

Send feedback and submissions to: monthlymusicmixup@gmail.com or comment in the post below!

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