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Take a Virtual Reality Tour of the ‘City of Ghosts’
Over the weekend the Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories (FIVARS) took over the House of VR in Toronto.
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BBP! Guide To Fan Expo Canada 2017: Day 1 Of #FXC17
It’s Day 1 of Fan Expo Canada 2017. Are you prepped?
Let’s run through your pre-game checklist:
- A hardy breakfast and lunch
- Comfortable shoes
- A backpack
- A visit to the cash machine
- Your list of pop-culture themed heart’s desires
If you haven’t got those five items checked off yet, what are you waiting for? This is Day 1! You plan to make it through to Day 2, don’t you???
Follow us down pop culture lane! Biff Bam Pop! is making it’s way to the Metropolitan Toronto Convention Centre and, between the hours of 4 PM and 9 PM today, there are a number of things to do and see…and tips you need to know.
Let’s not dally another minute…here we go!
BBP! Guide To Fan Expo Canada 2017: Preview #FXC17
There’s a well-known, partly tongue-in-cheek saying, that every Torontonian knows: The City of Toronto sees two seasons – winter and construction.
With the gut-bursting pop culture excitement of this coming long weekend, I’m wondering if we can’t add a third season into the mix, even if it is a relatively short one! Canada’s largest and most anticipated pop culture experience that ranges from comic books to movies and television to anime to gaming to toys…and so much more… is finally back!
Fan Expo Canada 2017 is here!
After waiting through twelve months of winter and construction, the most eye-popping weekend of the year begins on Thursday at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and runs through Sunday afternoon. And, of course, Biff Bam Pop! will be there!
Here, then, is our prelude to all the sights, sounds, symposiums, breakout sessions, photo-ops and merchandise you need to experience over the coming four days…
With an expectation of over 129,000 people in attendance this year, make sure you hydrate, wear comfy shoes, and follow us around the pop culture floor of Fan Expo Canada 2017!
Chart a course for Uncharted: The Lost Journey on PlayStation 4
One of the greatest video game franchises of the past decade has been been Uncharted, the PlayStation exclusive created by Naughty Dog. The lead character, Nathan Drake, has become an Indiana Jones for a new generation, and the action-adventure games have only gotten better with every iteration. You can read my rave review for last year’s Uncharted 4 here, but the short form is that it was the greatest video game I’d ever played.
Which means Uncharted: The Lost Legacy has a lot to live up. Thankfully, while not mind-blowing in the way the last game was, it is still an excellent installment.
Injustice 2 is what the DC Cinematic Universe should aspire to
One of my favourite comic book series of the past five years has been the (mostly) Tom Taylor-penned Injustice: Gods Among Us. It originally began as a tie-in to the Warner Brothers Interactive video game released back in 2013. The game takes place in an alternate DC Universe, where The Joker kills Lois Lane and nukes Metropolis, leading a grief-stricken Superman to murder the Clown Prince of Crime and go about establishing a totalitarian regime around the world, dedicated to eradicating crime before it happens. This puts Superman and his associates against Batman, and the story plays out in fighter-style as the two teams rage against each other.
Taylor’s story became its own thing, adding faces not featured in the game and fleshing out character and motivations. Because it was and is a standalone story, deaths happen, matter, and last, which is a rarity in the regular DC Universe. The series and the original game were huge hits, and while the comic has been an ongoing release, it’s taken four years for a sequel to the game to arrive on shelves.
It was worth the wait.
Hot Docs: ‘Living the Game’ and ‘Ukiyo-e Heroes
Gaming culture’s gotten huge. It’s easy to miss, but the gaming industry makes more than either the movie or music industries. Hot Docs in Toronto plugs into the gaming world this year with two very different documentaries. Living the Game takes a revealing look at the world’s best competitive Street Fighter players, while Ukiyo-e Heroes is a subtler portrait of an unlikely collaboration, as an elderly master of Japanese woodblock carving teams up with a graphic designer to make classical Japanese prints of modern gaming characters.
The Princess Explores ‘LEGO Worlds’ And ‘LEGO City Undercover’
There is no stop to the LEGO in my house, and to be honest, I’m not complaining at all. And if you’re into LEGO video games, you shouldn’t be either.
The last month has seen the release of two new games based on the venerable bricks, but both are quite different from one another. And my in-house reviewer, my 6 1/2 year old Princess, is enjoying both of them.
‘Horizon Zero Dawn’ Is A Captivating PlayStation 4 Exclusive
What do you look for in a video game? For me, the most important thing is engagement. I want to be sucked in right away. Truth of the matter is, I sometimes have a pretty short attention span when it comes to gaming. If I don’t have a compelling reason to keep playing, it just isn’t going to happen.
Engagement, right? Or maybe even closer to the point, it all comes down to story.
And Horizon Zero Dawn has a hell of a story.
The LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack Takes You Back to the (LEGO Dimensions) Batcave
For the last two weeks at the box office, The LEGO Batman Movie has been on top. It makes sense, doesn’t it? Batman + LEGO = awesome, as anyone who saw the outstanding The LEGO Movie three years ago can attest. Will Arnett’s voice work as Batman is absolutely the best since Kevin Conroy took on the back in the early ’90s for Batman: The Animated Series. The new film manages to bring laughs to the character while also, perhaps surprisingly, finding a way to address the genuine gravitas that makes Batman so enduring.
The cinema isn’t the only place I’ve been enjoying The LEGO Batman Movie, though. Over the past week the Princess and I have been making our way through the LEGO Batman Movie Story Pack for LEGO Dimensions.
Holiday Gift Guide 2016: Comic Book Collections Part 3
Over the last few weeks, we’ve highlighted a series of comic book collections that would make ideal gifts for your comic book loving friends and loved ones this season.
You can find the first part of our trilogy of lists here, which showcases a number of more affordable trade paperback collections.
Last week, the second installment focused on hardcover collections, although slightly more expensive. You can find that list right here.
Today, we’re getting into the crème-de-la-crème of comic book collections. Save these for someone you really care for…or for even someone like yourself! Who wouldn’t want these tomes wrapped up?
With only a few days to go before Christmas, and without further ado, here is the final installment of our list of comic book collections for the 201 6holiday season!
