Geek Syndicate Issue 8 | Page 25

Geek Syndicate

There were some other major surprises. Nintendo pulled

a fast one with the announcement of their 2DS,
a 3D-less version of their
3DS handheld console
in August. Understandably many on the interweb thought it was a late
April Fool’s joke. It is to
Nintendo’s credit that the
console’s October launch
coincided with the release
of kid friendly Pokemon
X and Y, navigated round
the previous concerns of
the use of 3D on young,
underdeveloped eyes, and
came at a rock solid entry
price point that it added to
the year long Nintendo 3DS
victory lap as audiences
flocked to play games like
Fire Emblem and Animal
Crossing. It also played and felt
pretty darn good in the hands
too.
On the film front a surprise
came in October-November
as Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity,
starring Sandra Bullock and
George Clooney. This film
brought an accessible science
fiction story that was a solid

Image © Geeky Gadgets 2013

big surprise in the announcements was how big a leap Sony
managed to make with its new
console. Last generation, the
PS3 was a faltering underdog
that only managed to find its
feet sometime after the initiative of Microsoft’s Xbox 360
had dominated the market.
Coming at a solid price point,
with an appealing focus on
gaming and games development, rather than multimedia
gambits, and a nice nod to indie developers (and the preowned games scene), PS4 solidly scored with the preorder
crowd. Xbox One, on the other
hand, faltered. Being more
expensive, an excessive focus on multimedia entertainment than gaming, and some
significant mixed messaging
and bad press, Microsoft spent
the latter part of 2013 playing catch up – mainly through
plentiful U-turns. 2014 could
become the decider for this rivalry as they duke it out postlaunch.

and tense drama in its own
right. Meanwhile on the comic
front, while Age of Ultron may
have disappointed, Jonathan
Hickman built up a complex
space epic with Infinity in the
latter half of 2013. Combining
elements from his Avengers
and New Avengers books, Hickman pulled off a rock-solid
plot driven story of galactic
proportions that could lead
to some interesting themes in
his continuing tenure on the
Avengers in 2014.
2013 may have been a mixed
bag at times but there was
certainly something good and
unexpected to discover.

Dean Simons

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