Blog Archives
BBP! Fan Expo Canada: Day 2 Guide (Friday)
Like an appetizer at a grand feast, yesterday was tasty – but a taste was all it was!
How are your feet? Wearing comfortable shoes? Good. How’s your back? Is the strap on your pack strong enough to carry a heavy load of books, toys and other weighty paraphernalia? Excellent. You’re very nearly prepped.
Today begins Day 2 of Fan Expo Canada – and it’s the first of the two longest days of the pop culture convention operation, starting at 10:00 AM and running until 7:00 PM.
If you didn’t get a chance to make a run to those exclusives tables, make sure you do it first thing this morning – they’re not going to be around much longer. And if you want original art from some of your favourite pencillers and painters in Artist Alley, take it from me and do it now.
Here’s what Biff Bam Pop! thinks you should be checking out on Fan Expo Canada Day 2:
The Endless Possibilities of “No Man’s Sky”
Pink Floyd is my favourite band. I’ve been listening since back in 1990, when a girl I was going to high school with loaned me a cassette copy of The Wall to listen too. I dubbed it, and while I didn’t really understand what I was listening to at the time, I still found myself transfixed by the double album, enough so that I began exploring the band’s entire catalog. I feel in love with the trippiness of albums like The Dark Side of the Moon, Animals, Wish You Were Here, and Meddle. There were layers to all these recordings – explorations of sounds and lyrical meanings. I didn’t need to “get it” to get into it.
And that, my friend, is how I feel playing the new galaxy exploration video game, No Man’s Sky.
There’s No Dark Side to “LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
We’ve reviewed the various LEGO games over the last few years here at Biff Bam Pop, and all of them have been highly recommended for the most part. The latest entry in the franchise, though, takes the games to a new level of fun, thanks in no small part to the outstanding intellectual property its based upon.
Biff Bam Pop’s Alien Invasion Goes Gaming with Mat Langford
Alien invasions have been the premise for some of the best – and worst – games of all time. While these games have you primarily saving the world from imminent danger, they often provide the setting for some of the best gaming stories you can play. Here are three of my favorite alien invasion games.
Sony’s best E3 Conference yet – Exclusives, Reboots, Remasters and VR!
Burns and I got the VIP treatment at the Scotiabank Theater last night in Toronto at the 2016 Playstation E3 Experience, and we couldn’t have asked for a better event. Playstation came out guns blazing, showcasing exclusives, remakes, remasters and VR in a flow that felt more like movie trailers than a conference. Very little talking by execs and almost all video and gameplay – the way a PS4 event should be. Here’s a rundown of some of the bigger announcements. Read the rest of this entry
Uncharted 4: The Greatest Movie You’ll Ever Play
I want to tell you that I’ve seen the future of gaming and that it’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, but that would be wrong because, 1) Uncharted has been a Playstation franchise for nearly a decade and 2) the future isn’t months or years away- thanks to the first instalment of the game for Playstation 3, the future is here, and it is incredible.
Ratchet and Clank PS4 – Review
Ratchet and Clank is one of the most fun games I’ve played all year. It’s not long – about 6-10 hours depending on how much of a perfectionist you are – but it’s chalk full of great gameplay and fun and interesting characters.
All The Pop Culture Was Found At TORONTO COMICON 2016
Sunday, March 20th – the first day of Spring.
And with the spring melteth the carbonite.
Yes!
Superheroes, Star Wars and Ghostbusters. Manga, Anime and Master Chief. Longboxes, movie posters and original art. Everything that was, is and will be pop culture this year, reared itself up from a mighty winter slumber, yawned, and stretched its way out of bed, gathering with a like-minded niche in downtown Toronto.
And all dressed in cosplay, of course!
The 2016 edition of the TORONTO COMICON ran from March 18 through to the 20th this past weekend at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, waving an important hand high in the North American pop culture landscape – successfully ushering in this year’s Con season!
Get the goods after the jump!
LEGO Marvel’s Avengers assembles an awesome game for MCU fans
I’m a sucker for the LEGO video games. They’re simply fantastic fun to play, even when they wind up being a little harder than you anticipate.
When the company first started making their licensed video games for various platforms, they were a little simpler, without the big name voices from the film’s they were parodying – their were no Harrison Ford’s or Johnny Depp’s in the LEGO Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean games. As the LEGO franchise has increased in popularity, the budgets have gone up, at the voice work has included (most of) the casts from films like The LEGO Movie, the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films, and the Jurassic Park films. In the fall of 2015, LEGO Dimensions brought together various franchises from across pop culture in a Skylanders/Disney Infinity type game that has been a huge success. However, missing from the line-up that includes Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, DC Comics, the Simpsons and even Doctor Who, were Disney’s Star Wars and Marvel characters. Not a huge surprise, mind you, since Disney Infinity has those moneymakers covered. Luckily, while SW and Marvel may not be in LEGO Dimensions, the LEGO/Warner/TT Games people still get to make standalone titles. We’ll see a Star Wars: The Force Awakens LEGO game later this summer’ in the meantime, LEGO Marvel’s Avengers is now in stores, continuing the fun we’ve all come to expect from these games.
LEGO Dimensions transports you to another level
In our house, we love our LEGO. With my daughter beside me, I’ve built a fairly solid collection of Star Wars vehicles and playsets (and there’s a Millennium Falcon and Jabba’s Sail Barge still waiting to have their boxes cracked open). For me, this is a family experience, and one that is somewhat unique to LEGO. It leads to a certain amount of bonding, though if I’m honest, my daughter often will encourage me to build while she goes off to play with something a little less complex.
One thing she loves though, are the LEGO video games. We’ve played almost all of them, from LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, to LEGO Harry Potter and LEGO Batman. Some of these have been on consoles, while others have been via their iOS iterations. Whichever version she’s playing, she seriously gets into them. And she’s a good gamer, to boot.
When I told her we’d be reviewing the newest LEGO video game experience, LEGO Dimensions, the girl was completely psyched. And it’s always cute to see a psyched five-year old, believe me. If you don’t know, LEGO Dimensions is the company’s first foray into the toys as games market, similar to Skylanders and Disney Infinity (a franchise that is equally beloved in our house as well). In this world, multi-dimensions are crossing over into one huge, genre spanning game. Among the popular properties – DC Comics; Lord of the Rings; Portal; Back to the Future; Doctor Who; Ghostbusters, The Wizard of Oz; the Simpsons; the Wizard of Oz; Jurassic World; and the LEGO Movie.
