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TNT's Leverage is 'For the Horde'
I love Leverage. The newish modern-day thinking man's action show from TNT offers a weekly look at a gang of crooks doing a little bit of bad for a lot of good. It's actually a lot like the tabletop RPG Shadowrun, if you've ever heard of that game. The show is appealing on a number of levels, but the producers obviously know the demographic one of its characters attracts. The man in the snazzy suit above is Aldis Hodge, playing the part of Alec Hardison - resident geek and computer/technology expert. And, apparently, a member of World of Warcraft's Horde.In this week's episode of the show Hardison bonds with an officer worker in a corporate megaplex he's infiltrating. We actually got a preview of this clever schtick in an interview done by the folks at WoW Insider. They spoke with episode writer John Rogers about the episode last month. You can catch full episodes of the show over on TNT's website, but if you just want to check out the full clip of their exchange you can do so below the cut. Now I want to know what class he rolls.
TNT's Leverage is the latest stretch-o-vision victim
Anyone watching Tuesday's episode of Leverage (The Wedding Job) probably quickly noticed that instead of the crisp 720p image we've become accustomed to, it was being delivered in TNT's disorienting stretch format, taking a 4x3 picture and adjusting whatever it thought we weren't looking at to fill the gaps. Why TNT still uses this at all in 2009 is beyond us, but we got in contact with Executive Producer (and blogger) John Rogers to find out what happened. We still don't know the details, but he let us know via email that it was a simple case of someone transmitting the wrong version, so we should be able to look forward to properly formatted TV for the rest of its run (let it be known: if someone screws up The Closer, there will be consequences & repercussions.) Read - AVS Forum Read - Kung Fu Monkey
Television writer is for the Horde!
John Rogers résumé is long and varied. Physics graduate, television writer and avid online gamer. He's credited with writing an early draft of the "Transformers" movie and creating "The Jackie Chan Adventures" animated series. His latest endeavor is the new action series "Leverage," premiering tonight on TNT at 10/9c. Every week on the new show a group of professional cons takes down corrupt authority figures using their unique skills. And they're not above using World of Warcraft to get the job done.Wait...what?You see while reading John's blog, I saw a single line about an upcoming episode of "Leverage" having a WoW reference in it, joining the ranks of "How I Met Your Mother," "Big Bang Theory" and "Stargate Atlantis." I contacted him to find out more about his new show, his love of the game and further confirmation that WoW is the new golf.
Hunter changes for patch 3.0.3
Is it Christmas already? It sure seemed that way when I opened up Patch 3.0.3 and saw so much Hunter love coming out from the box. Sure it's not all good, but it's mostly good. Sort of like Westley only being mostly dead. Let's get right to it... first off, we have Barrage and Improved Barrage now affecting Aimed Shot. This is an awesome buff because let's face it, ever since Steady Shot showed up at the party, nobody's asked Aimed Shot to dance. This also makes all three talents a hell of a lot more attractive, so they're now like some sort of hot mean girls triple play that's come to kick Steady Shot to the curb. Or something like that. I mean, come on, +12% crit to Aimed Shot.Aspects are now off the Global Cooldown and have a shared 1-second cooldown, which is excellent if you're on the ball with aspect switching. It will no longer interfere with rotations, although the only aspect we really switch up when we're sniping away is the, um, rebalanced Aspect of the Viper. The mana returned per shot is lower by 50%, but it now grants a passive regeneration of 4% of total mana every 3 seconds. Mana is also returned with melee attacks, which means we now actually have a sweet aspect to put up when a Warrior is Whirlwinding our butt.
Scattered Shots: Traps
Welcome to Scattered Shots, your weekly source for all things Hunter. This week, Daniel Whitcomb begins his stint as the official main author of the column.One of the coolest Hunter class changes in the expansion is the addition of the Freezing Arrow, which essentially the ability to "throw" a Freezing Trap at a targeted patch of ground. It's the type of ability Hunters have been asking for for a long time. Thinking of this, I noticed we haven't had a good trap discussion and primer for a long time, and now is as good a time as any. Traps are one of those parts of the Hunter class that separate the skilled from the Auto Shot AFKers. If you know how to use traps properly, it is much easier for you, as DPS, to stand out from the pack and prove that you bring enough to a group to merit a place on dungeon runs and friends lists. With that in mind though, the trap system is far from perfect, and some traps are definitely better than others. We'll take a look at each trap after the break.
Hunter Glyphs found in Wrath Beta build 8820
With the newest Beta build that hit live servers last night, MMO Champion found yet another round of inscription glyphs in the build. In particular, I'd like to talk about the Hunter glyphs. They still seem half-finished, with some values that are most definitely placeholder, and a good portion of them are firmly in the PvP camp. Still, most of them are complete enough that they're worth analyzing, if only to know how to advise Blizzard to change them in future Beta builds. Not to say there aren't some good ones, but there's also some that no sane Hunter will use. Let's check them all out after the break.
TNT Serie aims to rival FOX in Germany -- starting in 2009
While we knew both FOX and TNT were destined to land in Germany at some point, the latter won't be arriving until January of 2009. For those unaware, FOX has actually already launched in Deutschland, but you can bet your bottom dollar, er, Euro, that TNT is hoping to be a formidable competitor. TNT Serie, as it will be dubbed, will unfortunately be aired in 16:9 24 / 7, which likely means at least some content will be shown in stretch-o-vision. Still, we're hearing that the programming lineup will be quite robust, with re-runs of US favorites 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, Everybody Loves Raymond, Monk, King of Queens and quite a few others. As for carriers, it seems as if discussions are ongoing with a number of cable and IPTV providers, but nothing definitive has been uttered just yet.[Thanks, Chris]
FOX and TNT headed to Germany
Though it's been an uphill battle for Germans looking to acquire fresh new content, it seems as if two blockbuster stations could be headed their way, and soon. According to a pair of German-language sites, both FOX and TNT will be arriving in short order, with the former going live on May 19th via pay-TV provider Arena. We're also told that Premiere (another carrier) will be picking up FOX shortly thereafter. As for TNT, there's been no specific air date listed, but word on the street has it pegged for a launch on Premiere in the not-too-distant future. Unfortunately, the biggest detail (to us, anyway) was left out, so we'll just have to wait and see if HD versions show up alongside the SD counterparts.[Thanks, Chris]Read - Details on FOX launchRead - Details on TNT launch
Archos 704 TV headed for France
GenerationMP3 reports that France is set to get its own version of the Archos 704 PMP, dubbed the Archos 704 TV, which'll boast a few notable additions and at least one notable omission. Sure to please folks in France the most are the two TNT tuners integrated into the cover of the device, which will let 'em pick up digital TV signals from the Télévision Numérique Terrestre service -- France's equivalent to Freeview. Unfortunately, that seems to have come at the expense of integrated WiFi, which has apparently been dropped from the device. Otherwise, the device looks to be virtually identical to the regular 704, with the same 7-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen and somewhat hefty 22 ounce carrying weight. If that trade-off works for you, and you live in France, you should be able to grab one by the end of June for 549€ ($736).
All three Lord of the Rings films airing in HD on TNT
Our friends at TV Squad let us know that TNT will be airing all three Lord of the Rings movies December 15th. This will be the network television debut of the third film in the series, The Return of the King. Unfortunately what we're not sure about is whether the HD channel will be airing original aspect ratio 1080i beauty or stretched widescreen upconverts. As the films have yet to make their debut on HD DVD or Blu-ray we're keeping our fingers crossed but given TNT's history with stretching content we can't assume anything. The films will also be available for HDTVs via VOD, but that's no assurance as when the Star Wars trilogy aired on Cinemax it was OAR, but cropped on video on-demand, so they may be different. We appeal to our readers, does anyone know if the previous Lord of the Rings films shown on TNT were native or upconverted, and if there's any way to tell which these will be? Our plans for next Friday are riding on it (like we have plans).[Via TV Squad]
No expedited shipping for Europeans
The above image says it all really. People purchasing Macs in the U.K. and, I assume, Europe are stuck with a vague 3-7 day shipping method while Americans get the option of a superior free 5 day service or the option of 2-3 day shipping for $18 extra. Why?
News Corp thinks you'll pay $30 per flick for on demand HD
That was the gist of a presentation by News Corp president Peter Chernin Tuesday. He said that consumers with high priced home theater systems would be "desperate consumers" of such offerings. Apparently his plan calls for "rental" releases via cable and satellite 60 days after they hit theaters. They think this could create new market for "home premieres" between the theatrical release and typical DVD windows. So wait, you want me to see the movie in the theater, download it, then buy it on DVD? So instead of producing better movies that people want to come out and see, the movie industry just plans on consumers being willing to pay to see the same movie overandoverandover.....sounds like TNT's weekend lineup. This plan seems really bad, Philip Swann at TV Predictions doesn't sound too enthused and neither does Henning at HDBlog. Are we all missing the point and there is actually a huge market for this or do you think it will crash and burn?[Via digg]
TNT-HD is up on DIRECTV
TNT-HD was up Friday morning on channel 75, I am excited to get the first new HD channel on DIRECTV in a long time and now that I have TNT-HD I can share my opinions about it. The first thing I saw when I turned it on this morning was a stretched, up-converted episode of Charmed with a "IN HI-Definition where available" on the screen. I am happy to have a new channel, but I wished they would do a better job of distinguishing between the SD and the HD shows. I undestand that not everything they show is in HD, but the least they could do is label it properly and don't even get me started on the "DD 5.1" which 90% of the time isn't 5.1 at all.
