Kindle Fire Apps: MLB.tv and Flipboard

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

I thought I’d share a few Kindle Fire apps that I’ve enjoyed lately. Flipboard has been around for awhile but just recently made its way to the Kindle Fire and I absolutely love it. The app presents news stories in a beautiful and convenient format in which you flip through categories and stories that are presented visually. You can also view your Facebook and Twitter timelines in the same format which is kind of neat.

The MLB.tv app is a great companion app for MLB.tv subscribers (if you’re a subscriber you want the ‘Lite’ free app. The $15 app is for non-subscribers and doesn’t allow you to watch streaming games). The app features various pages including a scoreboard, standings and news. You can view a visual play by play report of a game, listen to live game day audio, or watch games live. It’s nice to check in on games with the Kindle when I’m away from my TV. I can be watching a game using the Xbox app and if I have to walk away I can stream the game on the Kindle in another room. Love it.

Bought a Wii

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

So I was browsing eBay one day and decided to bid on a Nintendo Wii. I ended up getting one for $60 and I’ve had it for about two weeks now. My game library is pretty small, I have Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword and Red Steel 2. I also have New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy from GameFly at the moment.

I’ve only played Skyward Sword and New Super Mario Bros. so far but it’s been pretty enjoyable. I haven’t really had the time to get deep into either game but they were fun to play for a few minutes here and there. I look forward to getting deeper into Zelda as the controls feel great with the Wii Motion Plus controller and the game world is pretty interesting.

I’m glad I made the purchase.

Finished Diablo III on Normal

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Yesterday I finished Diablo III on Normal as a Barbarian. Overall I can say I enjoyed the experience, especially after I dumped the idea of spending all my gold on blacksmithing. Instead I used my gold to buy better gear in the auction house and greatly increasted my DPS making the game much less difficult. I will say that ACT IV felt sort of rushed and was the quickest of all of the acts in the game. This makes little sense since it’s the climax of the game where you’re chasing down Diablo in an effort to destroy him once and for all. The final battle was also pretty anticlimatic and lasted at most 5 minutes which was disappointing. Of course now there’s Nightmare mode, where I get to start the grind all over again. I can only hope a future expansion will develop the game further. Until then let’s grind for gold and gear, shall we?

E3…meh

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

A lot of people are all excited about E3 right now, but I’m not one of them. It just seems like one big commercial these days. Nothing all that amazing. I read a quick summary of Microsoft’s conference or whatever you want to call it, and the Xbox SmartGlass idea sounds nice. Otherwise there’s Halo 4, Gears of War and Kinect stuff. Who would’ve ever imagined? Totally breathtaking developments, huh? I mean Halo 4, wow, totally surprised.

Seriously though, everything is just some sequel that we already knew about forever. And you really expect me to use a Kinect to say “Hike” in Madden or “Kick the ball” in FIFA….Really? What are you smoking Microsoft, what’s the point?

That is all.

I no longer use physical media

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

A year ago if I wanted a movie I’d go to the store and buy the blu ray, or if I wanted a video game I’d go to Gamestop and buy the disc. I had already given up CDs as a medium for music (I’ve been all iTunes for quite some time), but I hadn’t completely given up on physical media yet. The main reason was my internet at the time just wasn’t good enough to handle my media consumption.

Now things are different. I want a movie? I buy the digital copy on Amazon or now on Vudu, in HD (or HDX on Vudu) and it looks just as good as a blu ray to my untrained eyes. As for video games, most new releases aren’t instantly available in digital form (on the 360 at least) but when they are I prefer digital over a disc any day.

Having a stack of DVDs just doesn’t appeal to me. They take up shelf space for no good reason, it’s not like they’re appealing to look at every day. Plus when I move it’s really annoying to use up precious box space for a ton of DVDs. Having a digital movie collection is awesome. I can browse my collection on my laptop, tablet, or TV and watch what I want in an instant. I never have to hunt down a disc, I never have to put anything in, just click and enjoy. When I’m done the movie stays on the server far away and takes up no space in my room or on my hard drives.

Even better I can access my collection from anywhere. Over at a friend’s house? No problem. I have access to my entire movie library by simply logging into an account. On vacation? My movies are there waiting for me.

I know a lot of people are slow to give up on something they know. They say they like seeing their collection, or if they pay money for something they need something to hold in their hands. Believe it or not there are people who still buy CDs. So be it, but it’s not for me. I welcome the digital age with open arms. I love the cloud.

Sony Streaming Player

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Last week I picked up a Sony Streaming Player (the n200) for $79.99 at the Bx (you can find it cheaper on the internet). 

The box is pretty small and lightweight but it can do so much. When you turn it on (after initial setup) you’re greeted with a clean and simple menu with a variety of content providers available including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Crackle, Vudu and Pandora radio (there are many more but these are the ones I use). I previously used my Xbox as a media player and it worked, but one problem I had is that if I wanted to go from Netflix to Hulu it was time consuming to switch apps. The Sony streaming player loads pretty quickly and if you leave it in standby mode it powers on quite quickly as well.

The video quality is great (via HDMI) and I haven’t had any hiccups at all. Nothing ever gets blurry or slows down to load (this probably depends on your internet connection, but when I use Netflix on my Xbox at times it seems to be loading and will go blurry. It doesn’t do this on the Sony player).

Since purchasing this box I’ve discovered Vudu which was a service I hadn’t previously used. It allows you to rent and purchase movies, just like Amazon’s store, however Vudu claims to have the most HD options of any service and so far this seems true. It also has an HDX option which is even closer to blu ray quality than standard HD (and in some cases HDX and HD are the same price, so it’s really up to how much bandwidth you want to use). HDX looks awesome, I’m not a huge video or audio buff so I can’t really tell the difference between HDX and blu ray.

What’s also cool about Vudu is that it has some movies from independent studios available to rent BEFORE the movies are even in theaters (for example I rented Take This Waltz which hits theaters later this month for about $11 in HD for a 48 hour rental. The movie stars Seth Rogen and was very good, one of my favorite movies of the year already). It also has some movies that are currently in theaters (again usually from independent studios).

You can buy movies and stream them at any time which I enjoy. I’ll probably make a separate post about it, but I hate physical media, I’m in love with digital and cloud storage media.

In the end I’m very happy with my purchase. Sure my Xbox could already do most of what the Sony player does, but I find the Sony streaming player to be faster and more convenient.

 

GameFly — free to play PC games

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

I used to be a GameFly member back home and always enjoyed it. I’ve finally gotten settled into my first duty station and decided to subscribe to GameFly again. When I did I discovered something new and exciting about GameFly. They now offer free to play PC games to their GameFly members. All you have to do is download the GameFly client (which is in a sense like Steam, however you can also manage your GameFly queue from within the client) and you can start downloading the free to play games. The games available aren’t crappy games either, notable titles include Bioschock, Civilization IV, Saints Row 2 and Assassin’s Creed. You can download the titles and begin playing through the GameFly client.

I’m downloading Saints Row 2 at the moment, so I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet. Still, when I resubscribed to GameFly all I really expected for my $15.95 a month was access to Xbox 360 games like before and the free to play PC game library is an awesome surprise and is a great value for members.

I’d expect as more titles start rolling into the library and as more users take advantage of the service GameFly may decide to go the route of Netflix and charge a little extra for access to the digital library (think of it as Netflix’s streaming add-on for physical disc subscribers). This is just speculation, but it’s my guess. If quality titles keep appearing in the library it may well be worth an additional $5-10 a month (what I’d pay at least).

Also I would guess that maybe with the next generation of consoles GameFly could come up with a “streaming” rental service for consoles (in a sense). No physical discs, no mail, you just rent directly to your console. Though if Microsoft and Sony would make this happen they’d most likely set up a rental service themselves so they get the money directly.

The Art of Video Games

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

A few weeks ago I visited the The Art of Video Games exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC. The exhibit was pretty interesting as it not only explores the history of video games but also presents video games as an art form consisting of visual, audio and story all combining into a single work of art.

Below are some pictures I took at the exhibit, enjoy:

Getting back into Red vs Blue

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

I’ve loved the “popular web series Red vs Blue” for many years, but I’ll admit it sort of got pushed to the background over the last year or so. This past week the teaser trailer for Season 10 (which begins next month) made me realize a lot has happened that I missed. The last complete season that I watched was season 7, so there are two entire seasons that I missed.

Over the last few days I watched all of season 8 and I have to say it was quite enjoyable. It was as funny as ever but they also added a lot more action to the plot which makes it enjoyable to watch and there’s a sense of mystery in the story that compels you to keep watching episode after episode to figure out what’s going on.

I’m 6 episodes into Season 9 right now and so far it’s even better than 8. There’s a lot more action (which are fully animated and look awesome), it looks great in HD and so far there are plenty of references to the earlier seasons of RvB which make for great laughs.

For $10 every 6 months you can become a sponsor, and it’s well worth it. Sponsors get access to new episodes early, there are exclusive videos for sponsors, and sponsors can download episodes of their favorite shows (Rooster Teeth has several web series in addition to Red vs Blue). I highly recommend becoming a sponsor and helping RT continue to make great web content.

Just checking in

Posted on by GumballsPlaysGames

Sorry this blog has been slow lately. I arrived at my first duty station last Thursday (Mountain Home AFB, Idaho…middle of nowhere lol) and have been inprocessing and settling in.

I beat Mass Effect 3 last weekend. It was pretty good, the ending didn’t bother me that much. It was sad, but I think it ended well enough.

I’ve been playing a bit of Civilization V and Modern Warfare 3, but I’ve also started to get back into Halo. I’m going to try to beat Halo CE Anniversary Edition this weekend, so we’ll see how that goes. I’ve also been enjoying Sketch with Friends and Draw Something on my Kindle Fire, but I think I’m going to need to pick up a stylus to draw better.

I finished season one of Breaking Bad and am on episode 2 of season 2 and I’ve been enjoying that, it’s a really great show. I’ve also been catching up on Red vs Blue, starting with season 8, in preparation for season 10 once that starts up. Can’t wait for that, especially since Elijah Wood will be voicing a character in the series now.

So again, sorry for the sparse updates. I hope to blog more regularly sooner or later, that is if I have any free time, I’m sensing I’ll have very little with this job.

Until next time, thanks for stopping by.