Friday, May 31, 2013

Kinect 2.0, more like GLaDOS

I thought the whole deal with the Xbox One's anti used game policy and its DRMish log on every 24 hours for verification thing was pretty bad. But its when its idle, and its got that damn Kinect nobody wants plugged into it. Microsoft says its mandatory, otherwise the console will not work. I know the 360 doesn't do anything unless it has a charger active, while its idle. The One however has the Kinect 2.0 always on, always watching. In particular you if you come in its line of sight. One apparently also features a Siri like AI that can be voice commanded to turn the system on or off and a whole plethora of other crap(Thats all we know for the moment, Microsoft says there's more to it). I only think of Skynet Terminators, Eagle Eye, and GLaDOS. When I hear that a machine is going to have its own AI and a fucking camera and microphone that can't be disabled that's scanning around my game room and then trains itself on me when I walk in, its not a very pleasing feeling knowing that. It also has the power to check my heartbeat and mood. And it apparently recognizes who you are and will sign you in and some other stuff...What?!

The rest I take with a grain of salt but its possible, some people said it would direct ads to the things its sees around you. I don't want to be sitting eating Lays and wearing Fruit of the Loom and the console starts blowing up my dashboard with ads for the same brands around me. It sounds like the One is adaptive, as is all the other AI's made up by us with fiction. The reality of it probably isn't too bad but with the things people have watch or played in the last decade and a half, gives you creeps thinking that the thing will start hacking into Cheyenne Mountain and start nuclear war overnight or something.

The worst part is that its legally patented so basically invading ones privacy is legal in some way. I'm not saying that Microsoft is watching you doing, well, things... But its just an unpleasant feeling knowing that you basically bugged your own house for the sake of entertainment. I'd just toss some electrical tape over the camera for the time being. Half of it is proven and half of it is still speculation(Wait until E3). Just by the amount of vents on the console, that's sure a fast way to dump neurotoxin into your house.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Super Soaker XP 310 Test Fire

I'm not going to review this old soaker actually, but its a lot of good fun and is much better than the triggerless shit(Arctic Shock was actually kind of fun)Nerf puts out under the great name nowadays.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Super Soaker XP 310 and 270

I just picked these vintage soakers up on eBay a few days ago, with a little conflict. The 310, I believe is the largest soaker in the XP lineup and the 270 being second most to that. Individually, soakers, and maybe even these can get ridiculous prices and that is absolutely not worth what they are. To put it this way, I got the duo for 99 cents. Yeah, you can see why he would get pissed off, but snooze you lose. After a short conflict, I turned down his cancellation and threatened to trash his feedback and have PayPal get on his ass if he refused to ship the items. He shipped them and all is well, unless he took a hammer to them to make sure I got my money's worth. I'll get reviews up for those when they come, and a potential mod for the 270 since its missing it tank cap(easily fixable). In the meantime, I need to find my old Max D 5000 I used many years ago in 2001.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Nerf Vortex Diatron Review (4.5)

I haven't bought a Vortex blaster in quite some time, my last one being the Pyragon. So I found this thing at Wal-Mart for $20 bucks and it was the last one on the shelf so I figured "What the hell." This is the Diatron, the newest Vortex blaster so far. And its a little strange and a little awesome.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Blaster Types that are Pretty Much Dead Now

I came to the realization that even though Nerf and the other brands out there have put out some pretty neat stuff recently, the golden age of innovation for these brands was long left behind after N-Strike took its foothold in 2003, leaving Larami(One of the most renowned manufacturers at the time)and OddZon down in a ditch while the long running tactical based blasters took the foot hold for the new generation's interests. People didn't want Ballzooka's, Mad Hornet's, or Crossbow's anymore, they wanted something that resembled their Barrett or M4A1 off Call of Duty instead. It's the things around us shape what we are, that's exactly what happened with Nerf. Here's some of the gear that the new generation missed out on.