Hey folks,

just a quick video with all the sneaky little references I could spot in the awesome Scott Pilgrim Movie! If you haven’t seen it yet, then go see it, we demand it!

Greetings onliners,

If you happen to be one of our following in North America, and you happen to be an owner of a swanky xbox with a Gold Account, then you may want to update your subscription before the 1st November 2010, as Microsoft is planning on hiking up the price of XBL by $10 p/a, with the rest of the world to follow suit shortly after.

On his blog, Major Nelson posted Microsoft’s new plans for the Live Gold System, raising questions about the quality of XBL’s current content, and also the possibility of the much rumoured Platinum Account arising sometime this year. Speculation is abound as to why the increase is taking place, and will there be any new content for Gold Subscribers to justify the increase.

However, according to Industry Analyst Jesse Divinch, it’s not a bad thing at all, and that the new $60 p/a is still great value for money:

When originally launched in 2002, a Gold subscription cost the same as an AAA video game, $49.99. When taking into account for inflation ($50 in 2002 is roughly $60 in 2010) and the additional services available to Gold subscribers in 2010, such as ESPN, Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, Last.fm and Video Kinect, a $10 price increase still represents an incredible value to consumers

However, whether or not this is still a great deal for consumers remains in the hearts and minds of said consumers. So, how do you feel about the price increase? Let us know here!

- Sean “Thank God I buy my Subscription in bulk, like I do with my underwear” McCarter

Greetings mammals!

Now here at the QOTPA, we don’t just like video games, despite what my Raptr Account might tell you. We in fact embrace a huge swathe of gaming and alternative entertainment because generally it’s much cooler and alot more fun than going out on a saturday night, getting jaiked and picking a fight with a lamppost. This extends to the world of traditional gaming also, from D&D to the mammoth gaming giant Games Workshop.

Games Workshop are due to host their annual Games Day at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, 26th September 2010 – a day for hobby-enthusiats and wargamers to convene and meet the men behind the Games Workshop logo, and also behind the companies writing label Black Library. It’s also an excuse to get cool stuff early and play some goddamn Warhammer and Warhammer 40K, and this year promises to be bigger and better than ever.

And it is with great excitement then that we can announce that the mighty Dan Abnett will be appearing at this years Games Day. The good Mr Abnett is perhaps BL’s most well known (and dare I say it, best) writer, and he will be appearing along with a slue of other Black Library Luminaries.

For those of you who are big fans of wargaming, head on over to the official Games Workshop site and land yourself a ticket to what is the highlight of the wargaming calendar.

- Sean “I was there, the day Horus slew the Emperor…was well messy…” McCarter

Greetings peeps,

Blizzard are perhaps one of the best gaming companies around in terms of constant maintenance and patching of their existing line-up of games, from thr constant maintenace on World of Warcraft, to the recent love they have showered upon Diablo II. And it’s a trend that they are wanting to continue with their sci-fi smash hit Starcraft 2.

This morning, Blizzard announced on the official Starcraft site that after just a month of the game being active, they are fast approaching completion of Patch 1.1. Blizzard gave a fairly extensive rundown of the changes expected:

Balance Changes

We have several balance changes in store. One general change we’re making is that friendly units will no longer provide vision after being killed. Enemy units previously revealed will no longer be targetable. Now let’s break down the additional balance changes we’re implementing.

Maps

We’re going to be adding destructible rocks to the Desert Oasis map to make natural expansions easier to protect. In addition, the center map watchtower area is being narrowed.

Protoss

We have two key changes in mind for the zealot: the build time is being increased from 33 to 38 seconds, and the warpgate cooldown is being increased from 23 to 28 seconds. Zealot rushes are currently too powerful at various skill levels, particularly those that rely on rapidly assaulting an enemy base from nearby “proxy” gateways. We feel the window players have to scout for and fend off this rush is too small. We also want to address the problem of protoss being able to dump minerals a bit too quickly with the combination of warpgates and Chrono Boost.

Terran

There are several changes in the works for terrans. Reapers against zerg are stronger than expected. Due to the zealot build time increase, reapers would be a bit problematic in combination with proxy barracks, bunkers, and/or marauders against protoss. Therefore, we have decided to increase the build time of reapers as well from 40 to 45 seconds. Fast reaper + bunker, or fast marine + bunker rushes are problematic against zerg. Although this rush would never outright destroy the zerg player, we feel zerg suffers too much of a disadvantage from either having to cancel the fast expansion, or getting trapped inside the main base for too long, so we are also increasing the bunker build time from 30 to 35 seconds.

Siege tanks in large numbers are performing too well in all matchups. In the mid- to late-game, siege tanks are too dominant against all ground units. We want a small set of light and unarmored ground units to perform better against siege tanks. With this in mind, we’re changing the Siege Mode damage of the siege tank from 50 to 35, +15 vs. armored; to correspond with this, damage upgrades will be changed from +5 to +3, +2 vs. armored. This change reduces the base damage of the siege tank against light and unarmored units, as well as the splash damage.

Battlecruisers currently lack good counters from the ground and still perform very well against a wide array of unit types. We’re aware that it is not easy to get battlecruisers out for the cost, but at the same time, it is possible in both 1v1s and team games to create stalemate situations to bring them out. Overall, we feel that battlecruisers are too strong for their cost, and the terran-forced stalemate situations are causing less interesting gameplay. We will be lowering their damage against ground units from 10 to 8.

Zerg

Ultralisk damage is being decreased from 15, +25 vs. armored to 15, +20 vs. armored. This reduction is comparable to the changes being made to the battlecruiser and siege tank. Like the battlecruiser, ultralisks are simply too powerful for the cost, even though they are difficult to muster. Also, in combination with other units, ultralisks are difficult to counter from the ground. The ultralisk building attack (Ram) is being removed because the damage rate is too similar to its normal attack, which will be used against buildings instead. When ultralisks target tightly packed smaller buildings such as supply depots, the Ram attack is actually outputting considerably less overall damage than its normal attack, as Ram only hits a single target.

The more observant among you will notice the heavy set of changes that the Terran Faction will undergo, as feedback from the Starcraft community has been that Terran players have overpowered forces and easier strategies. Whether or not this will change the spectrum of armies played, or whether it will remedy the achievement bugs that have plagued Starcraft 2 since launch remains to be seen. Blizzard hope to release Patch 1.1 sometime mid-September.

- Sean “Hahaha! I use Broodlords instead mofo” McCarter

Hear ye, hear ye. Hark unto us oh child, and bear witness to our review of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game. And keep your eyes open for our very special guest: Dan Soup!