Category Archives: The Deep End

In-depth think-pieces about Movies, TV, and Games

Dueling Conventions of Love and Hate: Comic Con vs The Republican National Convention

Movies, Television, Video Games

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The best horror movie of the last week has been the Republican National Convention. The event pushed the narrative that we are all part of a huge battle between the “real” Americans and…well, everybody else. There are the Muslims who supposedly hate us, the immigrants and criminals who are more prevalent than ever (or at least it “feels” that way, which New Gingrich says is more important than facts), and the dastardly liberals and their Lucifer-following ways. It all painted a picture of a society on the brink of collapse, unless an orange, toupeed “blue-collar billionaire” can come to our rescue.

And yet, at the same time, another gathering suggested that maybe all of the above blustering is a crock of shit. The San Diego Comic Con kicked off on the night of July 20th, just as the Republican National Convention was winding down. The massive convention center south of San Diego’s Gaslamp District flooded with an irresponsibly large body of fans, all of whom had happily made their pilgrimage to the event.

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E3 and the Art of the Press Conference

Video Games

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The strange thing about E3, the biggest video game show on the planet, is how little a platform’s lineup actually matters. On paper, Playstation 4 fans are in a bit of a rough patch, as only one of its major releases is actually slated to release this year. However, Sony not only showed off a number of future titles at their show, they also managed to make those presentations stellar. By innovating and surprising audiences, Sony walked away from E3 as victors, even in the face of a competitor with two new consoles and several big releases over the next calendar year.

It’s not that Sony’s games were completely unexpected. We’ve all known for some time that a new God of War was in the works, for instance, and it was well known that Kojima’s new company was developing for Sony and that Bend was working on their first console release. Even the biggest surprise of the night, a Playstation-exclusive Spider-Man game being developed by Insomniac, had been rumored in previous weeks and made sense given Sony’s ownership of the film properties. But the show was focused specifically on the type of material that fans wanted to see. There was no long aside about a dancing game, or a movie adaptation, or multimedia capabilities. Sony wanted to make sure we were excited about the games we would be playing in the future.

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Game of Thrones: Fun with Theories – Tyrion Lannister

Television

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(This article will contain spoilers for Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire, and George RR Martin’s supplemental material. It will also cover potential plot points that could very well turn up in the future of the series. You’ve been warned!)

Last week on Game of Thrones, we were teased by the “Tower of Joy” sequence and unceremoniously yanked out of Bran’s vision before we could enter the tower with Ned Stark. For casual viewers, this was just a cool fight scene with a hint of mystery, but to those who have been reading and theorizing about A Song of Ice and Fire for years, it was a somewhat irritating stalling tactic for a reveal that we’ve been expecting for a long time. The R+L=J theory is so well-known and well-supported at this point that it’s essentially canon, so holding out of the reveal feels less like suspense and more like prolonging the inevitable.

But there’s another theory that is less widely accepted by fandom and, I feel, almost as likely to be true as R+L=J. If you’re paying close attention to the supplemental material and the scenes included in the TV adaptation, there’s a strong reason to believe that Tyrion Lannister is, himself, half-Targaryen.

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Why the Playstation Neo is Bad News

Video Games

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In case you’ve missed all of the news and rumors so far, here’s the gist of the situation with the Playstation Neo. Sony is reportedly working on a new version of the Playstation 4, with improved CPU and GPU components. In theory, this console will be able to handle 4K video output and VR gaming more capably than the current version. However, the new system’s improvements will not be relegated only to these particular functions. Starting in October, all Playstation 4 games will be REQUIRED to have a “Neo” mode, with improved resolution, visual effects, and framerate beyond what the original Playstation 4 can provide.

As you might expect, this has caused something of an uproar in the Playstation community. The PS4 has sold roughly 40 million units to date. That’s a lot of owners who are now seeing their highest-end console as obsolete. Of course, in Sony’s supposed documentation, they insist that this is not the case. The Playstation Neo is meant to coexist with the base-PS4 unit, with all games playable on both consoles, just better on the Neo.

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