Month: May 2012

NetherRealm is giving us Injustice.

D'Arque Bishop

So, NetherRealm Studios has officially announced their next game. It’s called Injustice: Gods Among Us, and it’s a fighting game based on the DC superheroes.

Of course, this isn’t NetherRealm’s first foray into DC-based games. The last game they made as part of Midway was a crossover with their Mortal Kombat series called Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and they recently released a companion game to Batman: Arkham City for iOS called Batman: Arkham City Lockdown. However, this looks like this is the first time they’ve been given their own property to work with, as Lockdown was essentially a prequel to Rocksteady’s game, and the DC side of MKvDCU was very by-the-book.

It appears (according to an interview with Ed Boon) that whereas MKvDCU used the concept of a magical “rage” to explain how characters such as Batman and the Joker (who is not an announced character in Injustice; Harley Quinn, on the other hand, is) could go toe-to-toe with heavy-hitters such as Superman and Wonder Woman, Injustice separates the characters into two types: “power” characters (like Superman), and “gadget” characters (like Batman). Environments appear to be a big factor in the game as well, with items in the arenas able to be used as offensive and defensive weapons.

Not much is revealed about the storyline, other than a tagline given during the trailer: “What if our greatest heroes became our greatest threat?” It sounds like they’re going for a variation of the Justice Lords storyline from the Justice League episode “A Better World”. In it, the Justice League of another universe become the fascist Justice Lords after the Flash is executed by President Lex Luthor, who is then himself murdered by Superman to keep him from starting a world war. Another option is a variation of the Young Justice story “Auld Acquaintance”, where the Justice League fell under the mental control of Vandal Savage and Klarion, and were used to cause devastation offworld. It should be interesting to see where the storyline goes, especially after the critically acclaimed story mode that Mortal Kombat had.

In any event, it definitely looks like this will be a must-buy for me; since parting from Midway, the guys at NetherRealm have done a superb job with their games, and I admit I’m a sucker for DC-related media. It’s just too bad it won’t be coming out until next year.

Hey, “Political Survey Group”? Stop calling my cell.

D'Arque Bishop2 Comments

I admit to annoyance.

Over the past week or two, I’ve been receiving several automated calls to my cell phone. The message is the same on each one: they claim to be with a group called the “Political Survey Group”, that they know I must be frustrated with the direction the country is going, and asking me to take part in a quick political survey, after which I will be compensated with a free cruise. The first time I got the call, I listened to the message long enough to get to the “free cruise” part, and promptly hung up, figuring it to be a scam. Since then they’ve called a few more times, but never on my home line. Each call has been to my cell phone, which last I checked was illegal (as it’s from a robocall).

After doing a little research, I found that it is indeed a scam. The automated survey is only a few questions long, at which point they direct you to a representative with the cruise line. It’s at that point you’re told that in order to get the “free cruise”, you’re required to pay a port tax up front.

Personally, I’m considering it a particularly slimy scam, especially as they’re using a political survey as the lead-in during a rather heated election season. More, as I said, they’ve been calling cell phones, which means the recipient of the call has to pay for it. I know there are exceptions to the National Do Not Call Registry for political messages; I wonder if they’re using the “political survey” as an end-run around the rules.

In any event, do yourselves a favor. If you get a call from these people, hang up on them immediately, or better, don’t answer at all (especially if the call is from the 360 area code).

Twice nothing is still nothing, and an interesting rephrase.

D'Arque Bishop

http://www.khou.com/home/TSA-wants-to-double-security-fees-for-round-trip-flights-155434915.html

HOUSTON—A Senate committee has approved a plan to double the fees charged to airline flyers to help fund the Transportation Security Administration.

Every flyer pays a $2.50 federal fee each way to help fund the TSA.

The proposal that just passed out of a US Senate committee would make that $5 each way or $10 per round trip.

Most federal agencies are trying to avoid the budget axe but the Transportation Security Administration is looking for direct revenue.

Adding an increase to the TSA budget would not be a problem if we got anything out of it, but the problem we face is that we’re getting nothing from them except for extra hassle at the airports. Even experts such as former FBI counterterrorism experts and the former security chief for El Al Airlines have said the TSA is remarkably ineffective, providing an illusion of security while doing absolutely nothing to make us safer. If the added money were to be used for more effective procedures, that would be one thing. However, there is no indication that that is in the cards; they even asked a Congressional panel to rescind their invitation to security expert and TSA critic Bruce Schneier, keeping him from testifying about the TSA’s problems.

I’m not one for conspiracy theories, mind, but I noticed something interesting yesterday morning when watching the local CBS affiliate’s early news. I happened to walk by the TV when it was showing the news story about the fee increase, talking about reactions from viewers on their Facebook page. At the end of the piece, one of the two anchors, Ron Trevino, said, “Well, if it makes people feel sa… if it makes people safer…” I thought that was a fascinating self-correction; as stated earlier, one of the biggest criticisms of the TSA is that it engages in what Schneier aptly calls “security theater”, providing an illusion of safety while not actually making people safe. Saying people “feel safer” leads into the question of whether people actually ARE safer. If one didn’t know better, one might think the station might be pushing the current status quo and toeing the TSA’s public line that they are making travel safer, when the evidence states otherwise. The anchor’s rephrasing would fall under those lines, if one bought into that theory.

Perhaps I’m reading too much into it. However, it just struck me as interesting that such a correction would be made.

It all boils down to Ticketmaster’s evil.

D'Arque Bishop

Right now, I think Jennifer and I deserve to feel like we’ve been ripped off.

Two nights ago, we went to go see Styx and REO Speedwagon at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, better known in these parts as the Woodlands Pavilion. For those people not familiar with it (which won’t be anyone in the Houston area), it’s an open-air concert venue about 30 miles north of downtown Houston. One of its most defining features is the lawn seating; the back half of the audience area is a grass area where you can just sit anywhere you want. You can bring in your own blankets to sit on, or you can rent a lawn chair for $6 apiece. We almost always choose the lawn option, as you can get good seats there while still able to see the stage.

As we were driving up to the Woodlands Pavilion, we remembered that we had seen emails from both the Pavilion and from Ticketmaster that a pre-sale for Journey, Pat Benatar, and Loverboy was going on. I admittedly have a soft spot in my heart for Journey, as I consider them a bit of a geek friendly band. Not only did they provide two songs for the soundtrack to Tron, they were the first band ever to have a video game based on them. Jennifer loves their music, too, so we decided to buy tickets. We picked two lawn seats priced at $32.50, bought them, and were good to go.

Fast forward to this morning. I was checking Twitter, and the official Twitter account for the Woodlands Pavilion announced that tickets for lawn seating were on special for $20. Feeling more than a little annoyed, I replied asking if there was anything I could do to get the $20 price, and they said there was nothing they could do, but that they wished they could do something to help. I ended up contacting Ticketmaster asking for help. They were very unhelpful and unapologetic, saying our tickets could not be refunded or exchanged, and that they were not responsible for changing the prices. According to the representative I spoke to, those changes were done by the promoter or venue, and was not up to Ticketmaster. I ended up thanking them for nothing and hanging up.

Now, keep in mind that normally I don’t have a problem with prices going down or specials later on that I miss. The problem we had was that we essentially paid $25 for the privilege of buying tickets “early”, for a venue that likely will not sell out. Worse, they dropped the price the day the tickets officially went on sale with no warning. From this point forward, why would I buy tickets early when there’s now a history that the price will drop the day they officially go on sale?

The worst part came after I got off the phone with Ticketmaster. I had tweeted to the Pavilion that Ticketmaster had blamed them or the promoter. Whoever was manning the official Pavilion Twitter account said they didn’t think it was them, but that they would check with the box office. Sure enough, they confirmed that it was the promoter that was behind the price change decision. The promoter, in this case, is Live Nation. Live Nation, for those not aware, merged with Ticketmaster over a year ago.

In other words, they changed the price and then used weasel terminology to absolve themselves of any wrongdoing.

Jennifer and I will still go to the concert, but the whole experience has been soured by Ticketmaster’s actions. I don’t blame the Pavilion at all; even though they couldn’t help us, they were still far more sympathetic to our plight than Ticketmaster was. I know now that we won’t be buying pre-sale tickets through Ticketmaster anymore, as they’ve shown there’s no benefit to it. I just wish there were alternatives to Ticketmaster out there, as most venues I know of use them for ticketing. I wonder if this could be used as an example of a monopoly that does not benefit customers.

It certainly didn’t turn out to be a benefit to us.