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.

Boxee Box delayed until November

June 15, 2010 Doug Groves Avner Ronen, Boxee, Boxee Box, D-Link7 Comments

When the Boxee Box (hardware by D-Link), was announced late last year, they originally planned a launch by Q2 of this year. Although rumours of a delay have been swirling around for a month or more, it wasn’t until this past Friday that it became official. The Boxee Box will be launching in November, in both the US and Canada. It’s not surprising, as there have been a number of advances in the past few months in capable hardware and it would make sense for Boxee and D-Link to take…

Halo: Reach E3 2010 Campaign Trailer

June 14, 2010 Doug Groves Bungie, E3, E3 2010, Halo: Reach, Microsoft, trailer1 Comment

One of the highlights from today’s Microsoft was also the swan song for the Microsoft/Bungie relationship. Even though Halo: Reach has been known to be the last game in the Halo universe from Bungie (Microsoft still owns the IP), it looks like the venerable developer is going out with a bang. The prequel to the Halo story, about the fall of Reach, will introduce space combat for the first time. Halo: Reach should hit stores Sept 14th, 2010

Xbox E3 2010 keynote highlights

June 14, 2010June 15, 2010 Doug Groves Fable III, Gears Of War 3, Kinect, Microsoft, Project Natal is Kinect, Star Wars, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Slim6 Comments

Microsoft’s keynote at this year’s E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo, don’t you know), is probably the biggest one in the past few years, on a number of levels. Of course, all the big titles were trotted out, including Bungie’s final installment of the Xbox franchise, Halo: Reach, which looks like it’s adding space battles. Other big titles on display include the latest in the Gears of War and Fable franchises. There was even some footage from Metal Gear Solid: Rising. Although the games never take a back seat at E3,…

de Blob 2: Underground hitting the big three consoles

June 14, 2010 Doug Groves de Blob, de Blob Underground, Nintendo DS, PS3, THQ, Wii, Xbox 3602 Comments

For someone who hasn’t played a ton of Wii games, I can definitely say that de Blob was my favourite. In the original, you controlled Blob, who’s goal was to bounce around a city, and liberate the citizens from the evil INKT Corporation by painting the buildings in vibrant colours. It has an interesting control scheme, and the gameplay is a blast. Though not a runaway best seller (what non-Nintendo game IS on the Wii), it’s done well enough that THQ has announced there will be a sequel, called de…

Project Natal becomes Kinect

June 14, 2010June 14, 2010 Doug Groves Dance Central, Joyride, Kinect, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, Kinectimals, Project Natal, Project Natal is Kinect, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Slim3 Comments

With E3 2010 kicking off, Microsoft has decided that the official name for Project Natal will be Kinect, according to a since-pulled article from USA Today that was published on Sunday. Besides the name change, a number of games were announced… Kinectimals, which is a virtual pet game, with over 20 different animal. Joyride a racing game that is driven by your avatar. Kinect Sports, which includes bowling, boxing beach volleyball, track and field, table tennis and soccer, and sounds very much like a controller free Wii Sports. Kinect Adventures,…

Walking Dead: Zombie School

June 13, 2010 Doug Groves AMC, Comics, Frank Darabont, Gale Anne Hurd, Image Comics, Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead, Zombie School, Zombies7 Comments

The folks over at AMC are certainly doing a good job of using the Walking Dead series blog as a production diary. Besides some of the make up work that they released images of, they’re including more and more behind the scenes featurettes and shorts. The latest is “Zombie School“, where the zombie extras are actually trained in zombie choreography. They’ve also put up the first production still (the image above, natch) and you can see the high res version, as well as the video, after the break…

PS3 3D gaming experience

June 10, 2010September 17, 2010 Doug Groves Bravia, Bravia 3D, Futureshop, MotorStorm Pacific Rift, PAIN, PS3, Sony, Super Stardust HD, WipEout HD2 Comments

Sony has officially launched it’s new line of Bravia HDTVs with 3D, either built in, or 3D ready by adding a transmitter. To go along with the TVs, they’re also leveraging 3D games for the PS3. Here in Canada the TVs will come with PSN codes to download MotorStorm Pacific Rift and PAIN, both of which are demos, or partial games, and WipEout HD and Super Stardust HD, both full games. Yesterday at a launch event, we had a chance to go hands on with both MotorStorm Pacific Rift and…

Rock Band 3 brings keytar and ‘Pro’ mode

June 10, 2010 Doug Groves Fender, harmonix, keyboards, keytar, Mad Catz, PS3, rhythm game, Rock Band 3, Squier Stratocaster, Xbox 3604 Comments

A week before E3, it looks like it’s official. Rock Band 3 will be bringing both the keytar and a Pro mode, courtesy of a story on USA Today. Though the new keytar is being called a piano peripheral, when you have a 2 octave keyboard, with a handle so that you can play it standing up, it’s a keytar, and don’t let anyone tell you different! Seeing the play mechanic in action is actually quite interesting, as once you start playing at the Hard setting, you’re basically playing the…

Google gets Bingified

June 10, 2010 Doug Groves bing, Bing hotspot, Google background image, search1 Comment

Although Microsoft’s Bing has only made a minor, though respectable dent in the search market, it’s certainly been more effective than Redmond’s past efforts, holding 2nd place, what with it providing backend support for Yahoo search, and making deals to get on the iPhone. Last month, Google‘s search results got a makeover, which gave them a much more ‘bing-like’ look, and now Google’s gone one step further. The Google home page now has an image background, just like Bing. Although it doesn’t feature the ‘hotspots’ of Bing where you can…

NSFW – TCAF 2010 – Evan Dorkin Interview

June 9, 2010June 9, 2010 Doug Groves Beasts Of Burden, Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Evan Dorkin, Hectic Planet, interview, Milk and Cheese, NSFW, Show, TCAF, TCAF 20103 Comments

Evan Dorkin, creator of books such as Hectic Planet and Milk & Cheese, and writer of the new Beasts Of Burden, gives us more of his time than he probably expected. In this wide ranging, NSFW, funny, insightful, some would say meandering – Alex and Evan talk about everything from Bangladesh to pop culture, cross dressing to ELO, and even the state of comics today.

Bill C-32 and digital locks

June 8, 2010 Doug Groves bill C-32, copyright, digital locks, DMCA, DRM, Michael Geist, privacy1 Comment

When the Canadian government put forth it’s new copyright bill last week there were few surprises. The new bill still supports making circumvention of digital locks illegal, thereby negating many of the fair dealing provisions allowed for in the Conservative’s ‘new and improved’ version of bill C-61. Support for freeing up the DRM section of bill C-32 has been growing since it’s announcement. Besides the large swath of consumers opposed to DRM’ed content, groups such as The Canadian Booksellers Association and the Retail Council of Canada are saying “some parts…