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.

Alienware’s laptop line up

August 18, 2010August 23, 2010 Doug Groves Alienware, Area 51, Dell, Futureshop, gaming laptop, Laptop, M11X, M15X, M17X, PC gaming6 Comments

Futureshop recently held a ‘Back To School’ event with various hardware vendors showing some of their wares. Despite the ‘…School’ moniker, there was a plethora of gaming oriented companies there. For example, Alex got to take a look at the Alienware notebooks coming to retail in Canada via Futureshop, including the M11X ($1199), a portable gaming rig in an 11.6″ almost netbook sized form factor. The M11X has switchable graphics so you can jump from the integrated Intel solution to NVidia’s GT 335M chip for gaming good enough to play…

The Last Exorcism review

August 18, 2010August 18, 2010 Doug Groves Eli Roth, Film, review, TADFF, The Last Exorcism, Toronto After Dark Film Festival2 Comments

When going into The Last Excorcism, which played Monday night at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had seen the trailers, and at first blush it seemed to be treading the same ground as other documentary style horror films, from Blair Witch to Paranormal Activity, and it was also tackling the exorcism sub-genre that The Exorcist still holds the crown after almost 40 years earlier still holds the crown for. All this, combined with the name Eli Roth, made me wary. Though not…

Sony adding 320GB PS3 to the fall line-up

August 18, 2010August 17, 2010 Doug Groves Playstation, PS3, PS3 bundle, PS3 Move, PS3320GB, Sony2 Comments

Though they had already appeared on the inventory lists at both Amazon and Gamestop in the past couple of days, Sony has finally officially confirmed that they will be updating the PS3 with both 160GB and 320GB hard drives. The 160GB model, priced at $299.99 is replacing the current PS3, and already shipping to retail, so should be appearing on shelves any time now. The 320GB Move bundle, stuffed with Sports Champions, a PlayStation Eye and Move controller, aimed at getting people up and running with Sony’s new motion controller…

Mass Effect 2 coming to the PS3 in January 2011

August 17, 2010August 17, 2010 Doug Groves Bioware, Electronic Arts, GamesCon, GamesCon 2010, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, ME, ME2, PS3, Sony3 Comments

It was bound to happen. With Mass Effect being one of the most innovative franchises to come along in a long time, in both story telling and gameplay mechanics, it’s no surprise that BioWare has announced that it’s bringing the hit game to the PS3. To further entice PS3 players, BioWare is including hours of bonus content to immerse them into the ME universe. [I hope some of this bonus content fills in the back-story from Mass Effect 1 for PS3 owners, since the second game’s story is even better…

Toronto Zombie Walk 2010

August 17, 2010August 17, 2010 Doug Groves event, Toronto Zombie Walk, Zombies1 Comment

2010 marks an impressive 8 years that the Toronto Zombie Walk has been up and running (or shambling). Although there’s still over two months to go until the undead take to the streets of Toronto again, there’s been a change that people should take note of. This marks the first year that they have instituted a registration process. It’s free and easy, but with thousands showing up every year, they need to get a head count so the city can allocate the proper resources. Due to the overwhelming number…

Bad Advice For Good Times – The Necronomicon

August 15, 2010August 14, 2010 Doug Groves comedy, H.P. Lovecraft, Necronomicon, Short Film, TADFF, Toronto After Dark Film Festival2 Comments

The above commercial played before The Last Lovecraft at Toronto After Dark‘s gala opening. Taking a Lovecraftian spin on the free Bible television ads, I figured Sunday morning would be the best time to share it.

The Last Lovecraft – Opening night at Toronto After Dark

August 14, 2010August 17, 2010 Doug Groves comedy, Devin McGinn, gala, H.P. Lovecraft, Henry Saine, horror, Lovecraftian, premiere, review, TADFF, Toronto After Dark Film Festival5 Comments

The Last Lovecraft: Relic Of Cthulhu kicked off the opening gala at the 5th annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival last night, and also marked the film’s international premiere. The film a horror comedy that sits in the same space as Jack Brooks Monster Slayer and, reaching back a bit, the original Tremors. While I’m not sure it’s bound for cult classic status, the film does have it’s moments, and offers a humourous take on the Lovecraftian mythos, including an opening credit sequence that was reminiscent of the 80’s cult…

The Hand Eye Society wants your game on a cabinet

August 10, 2010August 9, 2010 Doug Groves game cabinet, game developers, Hand Eye Society, indie games, Mousey McTrackball, project, The 2UP, Toronto, TORONTRON, video games1 Comment

With the success of TOJam, and of the Hand Eye Society’s Torontron arcade cabinet chalk full of indie games from local developers, it’s only a small surprise that they’re making more cabinets, and they’ve put out a call for more games to fill them up. More specifically, there will be 3 cabinets with different control schemes, and they want to highlight some of the best of the Toronto indie scene in high traffic areas like the TIFF Bell Lightbox and the offices of the OMDC. The cabinets in question will…

Steelseries 6G V2 keyboard review

August 10, 2010August 10, 2010 Doug Groves 6Gv2, gaming keyboard, heavy, keyboard, pro gaming, review, Steelseries6 Comments

Whether you build your own PCs, or buy a computer off the shelf, the keyboard is often the last thing on your mind. Either the new machine comes with one, or you probably have one (or several) lying around that’ll do the trick. I know I’m that way. On one of my systems, I’m still using the keyboard from the PC manufacturer, which looks nice enough, but for extended use is actually pretty annoying. I’ve generally steered away from most gaming keyboards, because although I do game on the PC…

4th dimension surfing as video art

August 8, 2010August 6, 2010 Doug Groves animation, Creative Commons, Don Whitaker, Film, MotherNatureVideos, Processing, script, slit-scan, time slicing, video1 Comment

I actually came across the above video via Boing Boing a couple of days ago, but just haven’t stopped watching it, so that’s why it’s getting posted on a Sunday morning. In the video, Don Whitaker has taken footage of the Oregon coast, and by putting it through a Processing script that re-creates the slitscan technique for the digital age, creates a haunting and sometimes eerie landscape that appears to be at point plucked straight out of one’s subconsciousness. Slitscan imaging techniques are used to create static images of time-based…

Telus HTC Desire launches

August 6, 2010 Doug Groves ActiveSync, Android 2.1, Exchange, first look, Friend Stream, google, HTC, HTC Desire, HTC Sense, Microsoft, smartphone, Snapdragon, superphone3 Comments

I think that Friday August 6th 2010 can unofficially be labeled Android day in Canada. That’s because Telus has officially launched HTC’s latest superphone, the HTC Desire, sporting the latest version of HTC Sense. It’s also a harbinger of a possible price war to come, as it’s a solid 1GHz processor priced at $79.99, which is more than competitive with other high end phones. The new phone comes with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 5 megapixel camera (with flash), and a 3.7″ 800 x 480 screen. We had a chance to…

Plants vs. Zombies stumbles onto Xbox this September

August 6, 2010August 6, 2010 Doug Groves Michael Jackson, Microsoft, multiplayer, Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies, Pop Cap, PvZ, XBLA, Xbox 360, Xbox Arcade, Zuma2 Comments

Since it’s release on the PC almost a year and a half ago, Plants vs. Zombies has migrated to both the Mac and iOS. This September, it’ll make it’s console debut on the Xbox 360 as an XBLA title, priced at 1200 MS Points (or $15). Besides getting a resolution bump to 1080p, the game will have 7 different play modes, including two new multiplayer modes (coop and vs.), and 21 different mini games. “With a ton of new features and content exclusive to the XBLA version, we’ve pulled out…