The #XBOXReveal event, held at the Microsoft HQ in Seattle was a tightly organised show, that showcased what the new hardware was capable of, and some showing off of the possible future of the “entertainment hub” that the XBOX One was aiming to be.

And whilst mainstream media from CNN to MSNBC steered clear of any negative feedback, the verdict is however very clear amongst the core audience – the gamers. Social networks have been flooded with messages that range from underwhelmed and indifferent, to downright negative. Here are my thoughts.

DESIGN:

It really looks like a black shiny brick. It almost seems like no one consulted any hardware designers, and instead settled for a streamlined, run-of-the-mill cuboid case. Comparison to VHS recorders to Satellite receivers have been made. I know, I know, it is just a piece of hardware that is supposed to sit under the telly. But compare that with my current gen Star Wars Special Edition.

HARDWARE et al:

It was all numbers. It all meant, it will be a massive upgrade from the current gen, and will be able to spit out those polygons much faster. That’s all that matters right. But there’s an unremovable HDD. So choose your model wisely.

The controller is more or less, a rehash of the existing one, which isn’t a bad thing. Because I do love the XBOX 360 controller.

And there are other features added, such as Cloud share, screenshot, and  an upgraded Smartglass. XBOX Live will have almost 300,000 servers now supporting it. And yet, no news on if XBOX Live Gold will be required for using streaming services. Booo!

KINECT 2.0:

Microsoft dude, Yusuf Mehdi’s presentation concentrated on how quickly the XBOX One could switch between TV, Gaming, Music, switch channels, snap IE windows on the side, resize Gaming/Movie windows with a grab gesture, and do HD Skype chats.

Nothing however has been revealed as to how the XBOX One would be interfacing with the TV Satellite Receiver – would it be HDMI? Also, is it US specific? Is media on demand synced with providers such as Netflix? Are all video channels going to be shown under the media tab then?

And most importantly, what if I want to opt out of sharing my XBOX habits – in other words, what if I don’t want to share with the world what I am gaming, or watching on the XBOX?

I will give one thing to the new Kinect – it is indeed, very intuitive and almost instant.

But there was no mention of Illumiroom. Hopefully, we’ll get to hear more of that in E3.

GAMES:

15 new exclusive releases have been promised for the XBOX One in year one, and 8 of them being new franchises. The reveal event showcased just one of those promised new franchises – Quantum Break, from Remedy (the makers of Alan Wake). That mini-teaser made no sense whatsoever. So it is quite premature for me to get excited about anything.

EA Sports came up with a footage of what it takes to be a sports person, and how they’re going to incorporate that in their next FIFA, UFC, Madden, and NBA. And everyone watching the event eye-rolled in unison.

Activision showcased their next gen Call of Duty – Ghosts, with a CGI DOG. ZOMG! I have seen it all now.

And FORZA showcased its next gen capabilities with a ….wait for it… cutscene. Yep, no gameplay footage. Wise move dickhead!

OTHER STUFF:

Spielberg announced the upcoming HALO TV Show which will be almost of the standard of Game of Thrones in terms of production quality. That did make me go “HOLY CRAP!”, in a good way.

There are still answers pouring in about the XBOX One’s always online requirement, backwards compatibility, and most of all, support for pre-owned games. But there has been absolutely no mention about its retail price when it goes on sale this December.

IN CONCLUSION:

It is still early days, as we have pretty much nothing on the new hardware’s capabilities as a gaming console. We’ll probably see more of that at E3. But judging by just the announcement yesterday, I can almost clearly say that I am left underwhelmed. The current “advantages” that the #XBOXReveal event kept reiterating, have certainly made the PS4 the preferable console for now.

But of course, all of this could change if MS blows our mind with the exclusive games that it should be announcing at E3.

What did you think of the XBOX One? Please leave your comments below.

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It has been a long wait for my favourite Saturday evening entertainment. The mad man and his blue box returned to our TV screens along with the girl who is being introduced twice already. Clara Oswin Oswald (Jenna Louise Coleman) and the Doctor’s (Matt Smith) third outing together takes us on a roller coaster ride which spans across centuries – from 1207 AD to present day London featuring the Shard. The Bells of Saint John offered a whole bundle of entertainment and was a befitting series opener. Here are my assorted thoughts on the episode. Spoilers galore after the jump.

So, the story begins with the Doctor in 1207, in a monk suit, standing by a painting of Clara, when he receives a phone call from none other than Clara in what seems like 2013 – assuming since the world seems to be immersed in twitter, smartphones and Wi-Fi. The intro features a young man warning everyone to not click on a WiFi hotspot which has weird symbols on it, or else the user gets sucked into the “evil cloud”, and they perish. As much as that sounded very much like a J-horror movie concept, the warning in the TV message reminded me more of Moffat’s Blink. And speaking of Blink, this one also features another supervillain/monster which we can fairly assume to be the season 7b baddies – the Great Intelligence or the GI.

So this is what happens in the episode – GI wants people’s souls uploaded to the cloud (probably that’s their energy source), and is doing that by means of a team on the 65th floor of the Shard. London is their trial ground, and soon this would have a global rollout. But little did they know that amongst the many souls they had uploaded, one belonged to Clara, the girl who died repeatedly. So far, on a per episode basis, Clara’s death count is greater than Rory’s, and I am betting that this will be a running gag, or at least would guarantee a backstory.

So Clara gets semi-uploaded by the GI sidekicks, downloaded by the Doctor, and she gets super-tech savvy. The Doctor and Clara have a “But it’s bigger on the inside” moment, and then vroom through time to get to breakfast. Villains retaliate, and Clara gets fully uploaded again, and the Doc kicks their ass, whilst having his tea. And oh, the Doctor gets to ride his bike on the shard – vertically (How fuckin cool was that!).

But that wasn’t all. The Bells of Saint John left us lingering with a thousand questions. Some of which are: -

#1. Clara says she received the Doctor’s number from a “lady in the shop”. Now, that is clearly a Rose reference, and quite obviously, this could be sort of building into the 50th Anniversary episode. But how is that possible, when Rose is happy living her life in a parallel universe with Doctor 10.5?

#2. What’s the legacy of Clara? I am guessing her story will somehow be related to the Ponds and River Song/ Melody Pond’s story. Of course she is reading Amelia William’s book – Summer Falls.  But besides that, Jenna-Louise Coleman as Clara is superb. She steps into her companion shoes extremely comfortably, and with her newly gained techno-genius cells, she can give the hacker in the Doctor a run for his money.

#3. Speaking of hacking, why is hacking always portrayed as fast typing. It’s always about writing code, which is perfectly indented, in UI’s which have big font uploads and download progress bars. But then, we’ve seen the Doctor hack with a smartphone even (remember The Eleventh Hour). There are some cringe-inducing hacker dialogue to go with such as – “it’s not about the security, it’s about the people”. Also, I found Clara’s transformation from “How do I find Wi-Fi” to that “I’m a Super Hacker” was a bit of a “I know Kung Fu” moment. Good for her!

#4. More on Clara – her book has pages 16 and 23 missing. What’s with the Page 1 being a dried Maple Leaf? Also, her “Run You Clever Boy” could well be Clara’s version of the very popular “Hello Sweetie!” or “Spoilers”. Speaking of which, the Doctor is flirting with Clara quite a bit, but not snogging her yet. So, where is Clara in the Doctor’s timeline – is River gone now forever, or is my time-line theory wibbly wobbly again?

#5. Moffat has been quite vocal about his hate against social networks, and he doesn’t fail to mention twitter, facebook, and even the almost dead ones – friendster, bebo and the not-so-widely-known habbo.

#6. The GI are back from their Christmas Snowmen adventure, and this time they have leapt through centuries. I believe it is safe to assume that they’re going to be our main protagonist for this series.

And lastly, can we assume that somehow the GI and the Silence are related in some way? Only Moffat knows!

In Conclusion: This episode was deeply satisfying, with elements that kept me thoroughly engaged and had a good resolution. It felt right for a series opener with Matt Smith’s Doctor in top form. Clara has the right amount of glamour and fiesty nature to be the Doctor’s companion. Although the new TARDIS console looks a bit smaller, I’d tend to overlook that since Moffat has delivered on every other aspect of what a Who episode demands. It was bursting with ideas, but never felt burdened or too much to compute.

I have missed Who for a long time, and it was great to get a downright entertaining and rounded Doctor Who story as the Series 7b Opener. I will be coming back next Saturday, hungry for more.

9E3K Rating: 4 Spoonheads Out of 5

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There is a big reason why I did not review last week’s episode “Arrow On The Doorpost“. With just two episodes left for the season, I feel The Walking Dead is getting way too manipulative with its pacing, and it is getting ridiculously obvious that the season finale is going to end with a massive face-melting cliffhanger right in the middle of the big Woodbury vs Prison war. There’s also that reason that I have been a bit lazy, as well as feeling indifferent towards a lot that has been happening in the Walking Dead universe. And I continue to hate Andrea more and more. So, where does that all leave us with this week’s episode “Prey” ? Thankfully, it seemed like the makers of this episode heard me somehow, and almost resurrected Andrea to the levels of maybe liking her a bit. Spoilers after the jump, as I discuss this episode, a few thoughts on last week’s and more thoughts on what’s making me go absolutely batshit about this season’s Walking Dead.

Last week’s episode “Arrow On The Doorpost” was pretty much about the Governor and Rick discussing over a bottle of aged whisky, and telling Andrea to go home and make a sandwich, almost to the point that they showed her the door. Outside, corresponding members of the two groups – Woodbury vs. Prison had a bit of bonding. Herschel got to talk with Milton. Daryl had that zombie off with the Martinez, and Martinez got to swing his baseball bat to land it on a walkers head to squish it like a tomato. And all this while, Merle got a bit too eager to go kill the Governor, until Beth shows up with a open-fire to shut him up. Glenn and Maggie have make-up sex, which judging by the time invested in that, makes me think that she’s definitely getting pregnant. And oh, Governor and Rick arrive at a conclusion  - the war won’t happen if Rick hands him Michonne (revenge and shit). But Rick knows that Governor isn’t going to leave them alive anyway.

So, what was the point to that episode. Well, it brought the events further. But it also made me think, could it have been done in half an episode? SO MUCH TALKING, or rather, so much slow talking and deep staring!! And that brings us to this episode’s beginning, which begins with a recap shot of Michonne and Andrea spending the winter together, with her pet walkers, and a can of food, by the fire. WTF was the use of that scene? Like seriously!

But it is all uphill from there. Prey was pretty much about establishing “Hey, the Governor is a fucking mental” and “Look how much of a badass evil villain he can be”. It also made me understand why Andrea still needs to exist in this show. It is a given at this point how much we hate her, to the point that she’s called the next Lori. She’s been almost charmed to her pants by the Governor. But with help from Milton, she gets to know of the Guv’s plans – tooth plucking forceps and dentist chairs included.

She sets off to inform the prison folks (we’ll talk about Tyreese in a bit). And she’s chased down by the Governor. The two have a killer-prey sequence inside an abandoned metal workshop. So, the cliched breaking of glasses, metal wires, and all the mechanics of “killer approaches victim and walks away within inches due to a distant sound” are all present here. But having said that, the one scene that redeems everything is when Andrea opened that door full of walkers onto the Governor. She looks through that broken glass as the walkers attack him, and we see how she has changed. She now knows the Governor completely as the man he is, and does not hesitate a bit to see him getting chewed up to death.

She then runs for the prison. Every time she does that, and as I see Rick guarding the borders with a sniper, I get the feeling that she’s going to get shot. That’d be such an epic anticlimax for her. Unfortunately, that is not to happen, at least in this episode. As she is captured by the Governor (Surprise! he managed to survive through all those walkers). And so Andrea lands up on the dentist chair.

Tyreese: Let’s talk about him a bit. It seems he is the only guy who cannot do a zombie head-shot by now. Also, the way his character is right now, it is almost like he’s the shining beacon of self righteousness.  He won’t let the Governor’s pawns let the walkers enter the prison because they’ve got kids. This lands him in trouble with his own gang, and there’s some sort of weird “saving the lady” history story here, which I don’t give a shit about. Tyreese even lands up in a fight with his own mate, with some wide-eyed drama involving zombie pits. Yawn!

Now comes the best part. The gore in this episode was amazing. First, the governor gets to kill a walker with a spade – straight to his face. Although it did look a bit fake, it was still B-Horror amazing.

Secondly, the walker pit is set to fire by Milton (BTW, what was the point behind not showing his face? ). Most of them are fried to crisp, and the ones still “breathing” almost radiate a crisp red colour. Amazing!

Conclusive thoughts: Prey was a good stand-alone episode of sorts. Like Clear, where we saw a “Rick-Carl-Michonne” story, this was about the Governor and Andrea. Although it wasn’t as good as Clear, Prey certainly brought forward the sudden change in the relationship between the Governor and Andrea. And for sure, it has almost overnight redeemed Andrea as a likeable character, at least.

And oh, my 10 quid on Milton not making it to the next season. That fucker has been messing way too much with the Guv. Two more episodes left for this season, and my predictions are that Milton will free Andrea, Andrea tells the prison guys, and prison guys flee. And the battle will happen, but will end with Team Prison fleeing the place.

9E3K Rating: 3.5 Spades Out of 5

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In my review for the last episode of the Walking Dead, I had complained about this season to be more talk-centric. And that is mostly down to dialogues which are often ridiculously straight-forward, and which lack any sort of characterization. Also, the amount of times that happens, make it a chore to sit through these characters, just so that we can feel the rush once Michonne starts swinging her samurai sword, or Daryl starts using his crossbow.

This week’s episode – Clear, is by no means a heavy action packed one. It does have a mini-story arc attached to it, and although it is a bit disassociated from the bigger story, it doesn’t feel like a filler episode. Instead, it is one of the stronger episodes of TWD. After the jump, we discuss the episode, and there will be potential spoilers.

So, after last week’s Andrea reunion, Rick, Carl, and Michonne head out to find guns and ammo. And thank God for that! They come across a mini-town which is barb-wired, and protected by bamboo spears, and rat-traps. Someone has been busy killing walkers. And bam! Turns out it is Morgan from the pilot episode, who has now lost his son, and is crazier than Rick now. Morgan is hit by Carl’s bullet, and he passes out. While Michonne wants to just collect Morgan’s weapons and leave, Rick wants to hear him out.

Morgan’s tragedy has made him completely insane, as he refuses to know Rick. But when he starts recollecting his memory, all he says is that Rick and his son will die either by zombies or bullets, and it’s actually kind of refreshing to see someone completely devastated by the harsh reality of the situation. It’s infinitely sadder, scarier and more effective than a dozen character deaths, because Morgan is right.

Michonne has been one of the silently lurking around and highly unlikable characters on the show. I get it, she’s got this huge fanbase in the comics, but on the show she’s just way too moody. In Clear, she gets her revival of sorts, as she tag-teams with Carl to go zombie hunting, and do family stuff, like picking up an old photograph, as well as a rainbow coloured stuffed toy. It was a relief to see Michonne smile after all this while, and also to see Carl be a bit more human.

When Michonne and Carl return, Rick has had his discussion with Morgan, and Morgan refuses to join them in the prison. He chooses his solitude and his insanity instead. He doesn’t want to live, or heal, but cannot die as he’s too weak for that too. And as Rick, Carl, and Michonne leave loaded, they pass by the backpack and sleeping bag of the hithchhiker that they chose earlier not to help, and who must’ve fallen prey to the walkers. The message is clear. The fact that he begged them twice is traumatic enough; the way Rick and crew slowly reverse to big up his sleeping bag and supplies? Devastating.

Just a random thought. When Carl and Michonne just about manage to get themselves out of the bar, stupid Carl drops the photograph. The place is infested with walkers, and he wants to go straight in. Michonne stops the stupid bastard from going in, and says him to stay put. As much as I liked Michonne being all authoritative over crazy cold Carl, I was surprised what a rookie mistake this seasoned killer Carl was about to make, by going head on with the walkers. Yeah, yeah.. all for that pic that he wants to show his young sister. Meh! 

Having said that, Clear works mostly because it takes us away from the whole Woodbury vs Prison war story arc, and tries to explore the characters of Rick, Carl, and most importantly Michonne. Yes, I saw it coming that after having Michonne ignored in the dialogue department for a long time, an episode for her to redeem herself and get a place in the gang would eventually happen. And here, not only does she get to talk, but she also charms Carl. But it is crazy Morgan’s scary story of the darker times that he has seen which gets into my skin.

9E3K Rating: 3.5 Bamboo Spears Out of 5

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Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror has gained notoriety in presenting a bleak picture of our present and current surroundings, extrapolated to a view of a not-so-distant future. Series 2′s second episode “White Bear” poses quite a lot of questions, that not necessarily come with answers. It left me confused, and also worried about the human civilization. Brooker’s warped vision of our over-dependence on technology resonates through all of the previous episodes. But White Bear isn’t just that. Here are my thoughts on it.

[THIS POST HAS SPOILERS]

Set again in a sort of a dystopian society, the episode begins with the Victoria ( Lenora Critchlow) waking up completely blank, seemingly after an attempted suicide. As she tries to recollect her memories of her own identity, and the house that she is in, she gets flashing and fragmented images of a young girl. She soon discovers that she is the prime focus of a hoard of obsessive voyeurs as these group of people film her on their camera phones, whilst she’s been hunted down by masked gun-men, armed with electric bread knife. And then comes the big reveal.

It is all a set-up, more like a candid-camera reality TV show, where Victoria is the main contestant, and the audience has been watching her being tormented in this fatal game of chase. A big twist, but it does feel a bit cheap, and contrived as the reality TV angle has been done a couple of times, or so I thought. But Brooker pulls the rug again, when it is revealed, that the set-up is some sort of punishment for Victoria. Her now deceased boyfriend had kidnapped and killed a young girl, and then tortured her to death. And all along, Victoria had been filming this on her camera phone. He killed himself in custody, but the public outrage deemed it justified for the “witness” of the crime, to be punished, over and over again, before a live audience of the chillingly named “White Bear Justice Park”.

Brooker’s powerful writing portrays a dystopia that takes exisiting elements from our modern society, and pushes it to extreme, that does look a bit far-fetched on the surface. But underneath that, it all looks scarily familiar. White Bear initially looks like a take on our constant obsession of tweeting, capturing photos, instagramming, and 4squaring, all at the expense of enjoying the real thing itself. Also, the obsession of torture-porn and laughing at the suffering of another human is what tormented me in this episode. But beyond the obvious voyeuristic angle to it, White Bear also reflects upon the angry public that is fueled by tabloid headlines, who consider a “horrific Truman Show meets Saw” as an appropriate punishment. How does that differentiate us from the convict? Is it human instinct to enjoy seeing justice being served, and is that why Judge Judy and Jerry Springer are one the most compelling TV shows to watch when you’re hungover? What does that make of us as humans?

Victoria is forced to repeat her punishment day in and day out, with no clue of what happened the previous day. Was this truly justice? My biggest problem was the memory wipe. If she’d been allowed to fully remember her crime and previous life, then I could almost say that it was justice. But would wiping her memory not create a new and innocent person? If a person has no recollection of the event, should they be held responsible for it? Isn’t the point of punishment to right a wrong? How is it righting a wrong if the wrong never happened in the perpetrator’s mind? I would argue that she was an innocent and that they were torturing an innocent, over and over again. At which point does this become more monstrous than the original crime? Even if she did remember, one could ask the same question. And regardless of her guilt, I couldn’t stop sympathizing with her, to the extent that I wanted to believe that her story was all fabricated, and that she’s innocent, and just part of a corporate entertainment conspiracy who wants to sell something new in the name of entertainment.

For the many twists and turns, and the many questions it raised about our human nature, and for Critchclow’s incessant shrieking and deeply moving act, White Bear is my favourite Black Mirror episode by a country mile. And yes, even more than the ‘Prime Minister fucking pig’ National Anthem.

9E3K Rating: 5 Bread Knives Out of 5

Having almost dodged MWC 2013 with just a new tablet, Galaxy Note 8.0, the next big event on Samsung’s 2013 calendar has got to be the Unpacked event. To be held on the March 14th 2013, in New York at 7pm EST, industry pundits have speculated this to be the unveiling of Samsung’s next big flagship phone – the successor to its immensely popular Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4 (or SIV). And here’s all that we know so far about the new upcoming device.

Screen:

For the S3, the screen went from 4.3 to 4.8 inches, and the pixel density from 217 to 306. The earlier rumored flexible screens for the S4 have been dismissed completely. However, Anandtech spotted a roadmap of the screen sizes on Samsung devices, and it could possibly confirm that the S4 would be sporting a 4.99″ Full HD screen.

Processor and Memory:

Samsung is rumored to put a quad Cortex-A15 CPU inside the Galaxy S IV with the Exynos 5450 chipset, but EE Times is reporting that the Korean company has a more interesting chipset in the works – the first one to use ARM’s big.LITTLE technology. The chipset in particular will pack four A15s clocked at 1.8GHz and four A7s clocked at 1.2GHz. So whilst the industry is still busy flaunting Quad-core, Sammy is going all the way with Octo-core. How about THAT!

As far as memory is concerned, it could be bog standard – 2 GB, with 32GB onboard storage. Please Sammy, have a MicroSD slot.

Battery:

Bigger screen size, and octo-core processor could be a monster battery sucker. So, we can only expect Sammy to overhaul the battery capacity. The S2′s 1,650mAh was manageable and the S3′s 2,100mAh blows that out of the water. But still, it’s only OK. With Moto’s Razr Maxx, and Maxx HD clocking almost 24 hours with a 3,300mAh power pack , it will only be stupid for the S4 to have anything lesser.

Jelly Bean:

Of course, the S4 should be running the latest version of Jelly Bean i.e. Android 4.2, and not 4.1. It is highly unlikely for S4 to be announced with Keylime Pie, as Google would be keeping that for its own Nexus product launch in May.

Camera:

Already bored of your 8MP camera on the S2 and S3. How about 13 MP. Sony’s waterproof Xperia Z has 13MP, and the S4 shouldn’t be left feeling inferior. Techradar reports a test image taken by an early S4 prototype camera, sporting a 2322 x 4128 resolution which would suggest the Samsung Galaxy S4 is packing a 13MP camera.

Others:

Home button or not? Most probably no. Earlier rumoured shots indicate so.

Polycarbonate? Will Samsung be giving up the plastic back, for a more premium feeling glass finish? Hopefully. Also, the pebble blue colour should die NOW! Black or White please.

And like its predecessors, the S4 should also have a gimmicky feature. Such as this one that the NYTimes reports – Tracking Eyes to Scroll Pages.

And that’s all that we’ve got for the rumour roundup on the Galaxy S4. We’ll be keeping a keen eye on the updates from Sammy over the next couple of days, and also do a comparison post the March 14th event.

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