Gumballs Plays Games

Worth Reading: “The End of Food” (The New Yorker)

Posted on May 8, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

I read another interesting article in The New Yorker yesterday. “The End of Food” by Lizzie Widdicombe details the interesting story of how Soylent, what might be the food of the future, came to be. Soylent is something comparable to a protein shake, yet it contains seemingly all of the nutrients your body needs to survive. Technically you can ingest nothing but Soylent and survive. One of the main appeals of Soylent, described in the article, is that you no longer have to spend time preparing and eating food. You can sip on Soylent throughout the day and remain full and satisfied. Therefore you can continue working and staying on the go without ever having to stop and focus solely on eating.

It’s certainly an interesting idea. I haven’t tried Soylent, but I’d be interested in giving it a shot. You can get 7 bags of Soylent (which will provide around 21 meals) for $85, or $70 a month if you subscribe. There’s also the option to purchase in 14 and 28 bag quantities.

Soylent website

The website is pretty sleek looking, as is the packaging. I recommend reading the article in The New Yorker and then heading over to Soylent.me to check the product out.

Get healthier with S Health

Posted on May 7, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

One of my favorite apps on my Samsung Galaxy S5 is Samsung’s S Health app. It has driven me to become more active and to be more aware of my daily physical activity and general health. It can track your heartrate, daily walking, running, biking, food intake and more through add on apps you can download.

My favorite feature is the pedometer. It challenges you to take at least 10,000 steps a day in order to meet the widely recommended amount of weekly physical activity. I’ve found that during a night of work I tend to rack up between 5,000 and 6,500 steps on average and I’ve since challenged myself to add an additional 3,000-4,000 steps to my daily routine by going on walks before work, and walking to the store rather than driving. The pedometer made it easy for me to challenge myself to walk more and challenge myself to reach a higher and higher step count every day.

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I love being able to glance at the widget on my home screen to get a quick look at my daily progress.

I’ve also been using the run tracker within S Health, and it’s functional but I still prefer the Nike + app for running. The diet tracker makes it easy to track what you eat in a day and it’ll help you to hold yourself more accountable for what you eat. Once you see exactly how that snack will affect your calorie total you’ll probably be more likely to swap it for something healthier like a fruit.

S Health will challenge you to increase your daily activity in order to meet whatever goals you, or the app, set for you. The app is a simple way to become more active and hold yourself accountable for your health.

Gumballs Plays: Side Pocket

Posted on May 5, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

Side Pocket was one of my favorite games on the NES. It had addicting music and the right amount of challenge to keep you trying to get further and get a higher score every time. I don’t think I’ve ever made it to the last round, though it’s never frustrated me to the point where I want to stop playing. To this day Side Pocket is still an enjoyable experience that I never get tired of.

Extreme Rules not so extreme

Posted on May 5, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

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Extreme Rules last night became the second WWE PPV to be broadcast over the WWE Network (and from what I understand it was not carried by many satellite and cable providers in protest) so I watched most of it even though I haven’t been paying attention to a lot of wrestling lately (again I mostly like the idea of an independent network being used to distribute premium content).

I have to say, for a PPV named Extreme Rules it was actually pretty tame. I remember the barbed wire and inferno matches of the attitude era, and it makes me wonder why they’ve retained an Extreme Rules concept in today’s PG WWE. There’s no blood, and ultra violence of the past. The most extreme moments of the night came courtesy of the SHIELD member who jumped from above one of the entrances to take out the Evolution, and the flaming table in the Kane vs. Daniel Bryan match. The main event match between Kane and Bryan took the action backstage and introduced a variety of weapons and even a forklift, but in the past this sequence of events would have featured an abundance of blood and gore. Without this it all felt tame, and quite boring.

Even the flaming table was too tame. Moments before it even happened a crew member rushed into position with a fire extinguisher, and with gas cans in view under the ring you already knew what was about to happen. It would’ve worked better as a complete surprise, not a safety first, get everything right, PG rated stunt.

Kane’s flaming table stunt failed to compare to the flaming tables of years past.

That said, the WWE Network again worked without issue, and I watched using the new Xbox One app. The quality was great and the service worked as advertised. I might not have been impressed with the PPV, but I am still impressed by the WWE Network and I applaud their new business model that isn’t controlled by overpriced cable companies who charge $60 for a few hours of content.

Another check in

Posted on May 1, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

Hey there. Still busy, sorry I haven’t been around lately. I haven’t played Elder Scrolls Online at all in the last week. I’m not sure if I’ll play much more of it. I played a bit of Trials Evolution on Xbox One and it’s pretty enjoyable. I like the atmosphere of it all, even if it is a bit distracting at times. The core gameplay is basically the same as the other Trials games (with the addition of trick mode) which is great, because the main draw is trying to beat your friends’ ghosts and top them on the leaderboard.

I hooked up my NES and played some Super Mario Bros. 3 after watching the Giant Bomb Encyclopedia Bombastica on Super Mario Bros. 2. I’ve never beaten Mario 3, in fact I’ve never made it past the first world. So I looked up how to find the first warp whistle and warped to world 4 but then the game froze. I have another copy of Mario 3 that’s in better condition so I’ll probably have to use that one if I want to try to make any serious progress. I suck at platforming games though. I always jump into pits repeatedly and just get angry and quit.

In other news, I have next week off as a break before the deployment so maybe I’ll get motivated to blog a few more times. Until then, thanks for stopping in.

The Elder Scrolls Online so far

Posted on April 19, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

Hey there, it’s been pretty busy at work lately as we get ready to deploy this summer so I haven’t gotten around to blogging much. I’ll try to post more as I can. Anyway, against all common sense I found myself wanting to buy The Elder Scrolls Online and ended up buying it yesterday. Most of the reviews call it mediocre at best and most users have nothing good at all to say about the game. For whatever reason I bought it anyway…Maybe when it goes free to play (when, not if) they’re reward the people who bought it early on. If not, oh well at least it’s something new to check out.

I played for about 45 minutes so far and streamed it to Twitch so figured I’d share my progress so far.

Ordered the Samsung Galaxy S5

Posted on April 7, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

I’m posting from my phone, so this will be short and to the point. I’m an Apple guy, I love the company, the hardware and the software. I’ll never not own an Apple computer, I absolutely love my MacBook Pro.

I’ve enjoyed the last couple of years with various iPhone’s, but this week I’m upgrading my iPhone 5 to the Galaxy S5. I jumped onto the AT&T Next program and preordered the S5. It should ship Tuesday.

I kind of decided to make the switch on a whim after a coworker posted on Facebook that he had ordered the s5. I started looking at the phone and it just caught my eye and my love for new gadgets took over. I liked the ads, the preview videos of the phone. I liked the way the screen looked and the pictures it takes. I’ve been enjoying my Tab 3 and the way I can use widgets.

So that’s basically it. I’m never going to hate the iPhone. I’m still a fan of the iPhone and believe it’s one of the best phones out there, especially with iOS 7. I just want to try a new gadget.

Can you watch new episodes of RAW on WWE Network?

Posted on April 6, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

Not exactly. Before signing up for WWE Network this weekend I was trying to find the answer to this question and it wasn’t easy. I browsed through a couple pages of Google result pages and didn’t find an answer to the specific question above so I wanted to answer it here for anyone else wondering the same thing.

If you’re looking to watch episodes of RAW anytime after they air your best bet is still a Hulu Plus subscription. This is because the WWE Network delays episodes of RAW and Smackdown for about three months. For example as of today the most current episode of Smackdown you can watch is the January 23, 2014 episode. As for RAW, the most current episode is the January 19, 2014 episode.

You can, however, watch the most current PPV (which until later tonight is February’s Elimination Chamber), as well as any past PPV and of course any live PPV starting with Wrestlemania XXX tonight.

I hope this clears up any confusion anyone might have. Maybe I just missed the information, but I couldn’t find a clear answer through Google myself.

My new Galaxy Tab 3

Posted on April 6, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

Last week I picked up a Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0″. I’ve always been an Apple guy. I have a MacBook Pro, iPhone 5 and for awhile I had an iPad 4. I sold the iPad 4 before the Air came out and planned to upgrade but ended up getting an Xbox One instead. So I went awhile without a tablet and basically picked up the Galaxy Tab 3 on a whim since it was on sale and within my budget.

So far it hasn’t been too bad and experience, but it hasn’t been amazing either. The Tab 3 isn’t too much cheaper than the first gen iPad Mini, but based on its performance it feels like it shouldn’t be priced over $99. It’s not the worst in the world, but at times it’s pretty bad. There have been times when I hit the home button and have to wait 3 seconds for the home screen to display. I found that for the best performance you have to manually close out of apps, otherwise they continue to run in the background bogging down the system. On Apple devices I’m used to hitting the home button and switching between apps while letting iOS manage everything in the background.

One thing I do like about the Android operating system is widgets. It’s nice to have updating information on the home screen and various pages. Being able to check baseball scores, news headlines and weather by simply looking at the screen is a very nice feature. (Speaking of baseball scores, why is there no ESPN Score Center app on the Play store? There’s only a Brazilian version. Strange).

I also really love the Samsung Book Cover case which I got for $35 at Best Buy on clearance (it’s usually $50). It’s a nice quality case that looks great on the device and feels great when using the tablet or carrying it. I definitely recommend this case!

The only other thing I really have to say is the cameras are not that great on the device. It has a 3MP rear camera and 1.3MP front camera and neither take great pictures, though the front camera is functional enough for Skype. I’m not that concerned about the rear camera because I don’t often use a tablet camera to take pictures since I always have my phone with me (the iPhone 5’s rear camera is 8MP for reference).

I bought the 8gb model and a 32gb micro SD card. I didn’t realize you couldn’t install any apps on the SD card, so my 8gb device storage is already almost full. It is nice to be able to use the SD card for movies, books and other media files at least. With the iPad I’d often have to delete games and apps when I was traveling to make room for movies (I had the 32gb version but had a lot of large games).

I love gadgets so it’s been nice exploring and learning about my first Android device. I still prefer iOS and Apple hardware, but the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 isn’t bad. I look forward to learning more about it and experimenting some more as time passes.

The WWE Network

Posted on April 5, 2014 by GumballsPlaysGames

I haven’t watched a whole lot of wrestling lately, but I decided to subscribe to the WWE Network in anticipation of Wrestlemania XXX which takes place tomorrow night. It seems like too good a deal to pass up. For $9.99 a month (with a required 6 month commitment) you get to watch every PPV live on the WWE network via the website, or app on the device of your choice (though it’s not on Xbox One yet).

You also get access to absolutely TONS of on demand content including every past PPV. I was under the impression you could watch RAW and Smackdown after they air, however it turns out there’s a delay of over a month because HULU has the rights to those shows. There’s also some live content and original programming, however I’m not that much of a wrestling fan and probably wont watch very much of that.

Wrestlemania is going to be the first PPV broadcast live over the WWE network so we’ll see how the network holds up tomorrow night. A friend of mine ordered Wrestlemania last year through the PS3 app and the broadcast stopped working after about 30 minutes and never started working again.

I decided to check out what the WWE Network has to offer mainly because I like the business model. I’m not a cable cutter (I have Dish Network and love it), but it’s interesting to see a content provider deciding to take control of its content and distribute it on its own. I also subscribe to MLB.TV and love being able to access content on my own terms. I’ve read a few articles where Dish and DirectTV have expressed frustration over the WWE’s decision to provide PPV content live to WWE Network subscribers (why would you continue to spend $50 a month on PPV’s when $9.99 gets you the same thing and more?) and apparently Dish even refused to carry the last PPV in protest. I’m glad the WWE is deciding to shake things up, and maybe we’ll see more a la carte content in the future.