Author: Doug Groves

dougplanet.com is his personal blog, which is withering on the vine. If you poke around it, you’ll find out that he’s an animator and broadcast designer by trade, usually pushing pixels in either After Effects or Lightwave 3D. If he absolutely had to pick a favourite all time writer, it would be Harlan Ellison more days than any other. If you don’t know who Ellison is, then Doug weeps for you. Doug also likes long walks on the beach, mainly to collect improperly discarded medical waste for an undisclosed project of epic proportions.

The Start Show – Benjamin Rivers interview

October 2, 2010October 7, 2010 Doug Groves Arcadian Renaissance, Dyad, Hand Eye Society, interview, N+, Nidhogg, Nuit Blanche, Retro Sabotage, Show, The Start Show1 Comment

With the Hand Eye Society’s Arcadian Renaissance happening tonight as part of Nuit Blanche, we figured it would be appropriate to post this interview with The Start Show co-organizer Benjamin Rivers. When we first interviewed him, it was at Fan Expo as a comics creator. We actually had no idea about his involvement with Hand Eye at the time. Well, we know better now. The Start Show, which I hope becomes an annual event at the very least, showcased a number of great indie titles, including N+, Dyad and Spooky Squids’s…

Fan Expo 2010 – Bedlam Ink

October 1, 2010October 5, 2010 Doug Groves Bedlam Ink, Fan Expo, Fan Expo 2010, Jessie Lam, Lost Girl, motion comic, Navid Khavari, Show, Showcase, Tigh Walker, video, webcomic4 Comments

The folks over at Bedlam Ink, who are charged with doing additional storytelling for the new Showcase series Lost Girl were at the Fan Expo booth this year. This included both a printed comic, which is a standalone story, as well as a motion comic that works as a prequel to the TV series. Jessie, Navid and Tigh from Bedlam Ink were kind enough to take some time to talk with us about how the comics tie into the series, and some of the process of developing the comics for…

Telus launching Samsung Galaxy Apollo

September 30, 2010October 1, 2010 Doug Groves Android, Android 2.1, Eclair, Galaxy Apollo, google, Samsung, Telus1 Comment

There’s no shortage of Android devices pouring out the Samsung factories these days, with the latest to land on Canadian shores being the Galaxy Apollo, courtesy of Telus. Unlike other Samsung Galaxy models, the Apollo is targeting those looking for something a little more compact in an Android phone. With a slightly smaller screen (and lower resolution of 400 x 240 as opposed to 800 x 480), this is definitely for people looking for something easier to slip into their front pocket.

Ubisoft crossover fever: Assassins Creed, CSI and Pets to have Facebook components

September 30, 2010October 3, 2010 Doug Groves Assassin's Creed, Brotherhood, crossover, CSI, CSI Crime City, facebook, Hamsterz, iPad, iPhone, Nintendo DS, PC gaming, Petz, PS3, Ubisoft, Wii, Xbox2 Comments

Do you like console gaming, but somehow find yourself wasting too much time on Facebook, making you fell guilty for not using your beatiful next gen console to its fullest potential? Depending on how you look at it, maybe Ubisoft is going to give you a reason to fire up the console more often, or maybe they’re just going to suck you all the way into the black (and blue – so much blue) pit that is Fb. At a press conference in San Francisco, they’ve announced that they’ll be…

Fan Expo 2010 – Gravy Train

September 30, 2010September 30, 2010 Doug Groves April Mullen, Fan Expo 2010, Gravy Train, interview, Show, Tim Doiron, video5 Comments

We first met April Mullen and Tim Doiron at 2009’s Fan Expo, they were promoting the DVD release their hilarious mockumentary Rock, Paper, Scissors: The Way of the Tosser. Between then and now, they’ve gone on to make another feature film, Gravy Train, which premiered this past April, and has now launched on DVD, but you can find out about that, and more, in the video interview.

Xbox Dashboard Fall Update 2010 – Netflix in Canada on the 360

September 29, 2010October 2, 2010 Doug Groves Arcade, Avatars, Kinect, Microsoft, Netflix, netflix how to, netflix on xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Dashboard, Xbox Live, Zune1 Comment

The Xbox Dashboard getting a fall update is about as dependable as the leaves changing colour and pumpkins popping up at every corner store. If you’ve already signed up for the preview program (now closed), you should have it now. Though we Canadians don’t get all the goodness of our US brethren (no ESPN and no Zune Pass), the update does support Canadian Netflix access, and gives the user an idea where Microsoft is headed, not just with the Xbox, but with it’s interface metaphor across a wide swath of…

Fido goes Android with the Acer Liquid E

September 29, 2010September 30, 2010 Doug Groves Acer, Android, Android 2.1, Doubletwist, Fido, google, Liquid E, Rogers, smartphone, Spinlets, superphone0 comment

Fido has added the Acer Liquid e to their smartphone line up. When we took a look at the phone on Rogers in the bygone era of earlier this summer, we were suitably impressed with the performance, for a relatively low cost. On Fido, the phone is even cheaper, at only $30 with a 3 year contract. For that price you’re getting a fairly clean Android 2.1 install on a 3.5 inch 800 x 400 resolution screen. When we reviewed it, we summed it up thusly: The Acer Liquid E…

Fan Expo 2010 – Nerd Girl Pinups interview

September 29, 2010September 30, 2010 Doug Groves Fan Expo, Fan Expo 2010, interview, Nerd Girl, Nerdgirlpinups, Show, video1 Comment

One of the stops we made during Fan Expo this year was the Nerd Girl Pinups booth. For a couple of years now Nicole (friend of the show) and the gang there have hosted a Fan Expo after party a few blocks up from the convention floor. Dave talks with Katherine Curtis and Kenickie Street about what’s new with nerdgirlpinups.com, and gets the lowdown on their new calendar, which you can check out here.

Child of Eden at Tokyo Game Show – Rez Super HD?

September 28, 2010September 30, 2010 Doug Groves Child Of Eden, Genki Rockets, Microsoft, Playstation, PS3, Rez, Rez HD, Sony, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, Tokyo Game Show, Trance Vibrator, Ubisoft, Xbox Live Arcade4 Comments

Child of Eden, from Q? Entertainment, the spiritual successor to Rez HD (Rez remade), had an extended demonstration at the Tokyo Game show. If you’re not familiar with Rez HD, it’s ostensibly a 3rd person shooter where your hacker avatar attempts to infiltrate an advanced computer network controlled by an AI named Eden. The game itself was completely on rails, but that didn’t stop it from becoming one of the best titles released on the Xbox LIVE Arcade. What makes that game stand out is it’s balance of visuals and…

RIM announces the BlackBerry PlayBook – BBM tablet style

September 27, 2010September 29, 2010 Doug Groves Blackberry, BlackBerry PlayBook, BlackBerry Tablet, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Flash, press release, QNX, Research In Motion, RIM, tablet2 Comments

Research In Motion’s developer event’ is still underway, but they’ve kicked it off with a bang, or so co-founder Mike Lazaridis is hoping. The PlayBook is RIM’s push into the tablet space, sporting a 7 inch display, a 1GHz dual core Cortex A9 CPU and sport a ‘flash-loving’, ‘app-rocking’ platform designed by QNX, called the BlackBerry Tablet OS. When the PlayBook was still expected to be called the BlackPad, it was rumoured that one of the big differentiators for the device would be it’s pairing capabilities. Sure enough, the preview…

The Sacrifice DLC coming Oct 5th – comic online

September 27, 2010September 29, 2010 Doug Groves DLC, L4D, L4D2, Mac gaming, PC gaming, The Sacrifice, Valve Software, Xbox 3605 Comments

Valve has announced that “The Sacrifice” DLC for both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 will be released on October 5th, 2010. The new DLC further bridges the gap between the two games, and tells the story leading up to the demise of **** (name redacted for spoilers sake). During the lead up to the release of the DLC, Valve has also started putting “The Sacrifice” comic online, with the first 2 of 4 parts now available. The DLC “The Sacrifice” will be available for the XBOX 360,…

Kinect for Xbox 360: on display in Toronto and soon Montreal

September 27, 2010September 29, 2010 Doug Groves BigPark, Dance Central, Good Science, harmonix, Kinect, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, Kinectimals, Microsoft, Montreal, Rare, Toronto, Ubisoft, Xbox 360, Your Shape: Fitness Evolved7 Comments

If you’ve been hearing about Microsoft’s Kinect for the Xbox 360, but haven’t yet had a chance to see it in person, you can get an early hands on right now, as long as you’re in Toronto. To help promote the launch of the full body interface, Microsoft has leased a storefront and filled 2 storeys with Kinectified Xbox 360s, to give the public a chance to go hands on, as it were. Covering 2 floors, there’s a variety of playable demos, including Kinect Sports from Rare, Your Shape: Fitness…