Bad Apple

Apple's been bad. And I've had enough.

Sound familiar? Read on.

So I've been playing some  Hearthstone lately. I haven't played for a while, but I thought it may be a good idea to start playing and checking out the new Goblins VS Gnomes cards, as well as get back in touch with some old Hearthstone friends. I was relaxing in bed one evening with my iPad and playing a few games. After some time, I decided to get some packs. After all, it's been quite a while since I got any packs in Hearthstone, and even then that was all before the new expansion came out. Cool, let's buy some packs.

I remember very well what the price of 40 packs were about 6 months ago, roughly the last time I played Hearthstone. But, knowing that the new free expansion came out, I was expecting somewhat of a hike. That was my first mistake, to make an assumption. Nevertheless, I continued into the store on my iPad to check the prices for the packs. I was astonished that the price had gone up a total of $7.99 for 40 packs!

I was really surprised. I mean, I did expect the price to go up a little bit, but nowhere near $7.99! This really made me angry; but I really enjoy playing Hearthstone and felt like 40 packs were still a better value than buying 10 or 15 and then deciding I needed more. So I went ahead and purchased the 40 packs.

Not long after that, I checked my statement from my financial institution. It turns out I was charged not $7.99 but $15.31 more than the price I remember paying when I bought the same amount of cards last. Now I was really angry - so I decided to speak to Blizzard.

A Blizzard game master told me "We charge a set amount of our packs, but we are not responsible for fees imposed by iTunes on top of what we charge. You'll have to speak with them."

I proceeded to look on my PC client and the packs are exactly the same price I payed 6 months ago! It was a difference of $15.31 between what I payed on my iPad client than what I paid on my PC client. At this point I was outraged. The fees were never explained to me, there was nothing there - the price was written not on the iTunes store but in the game!

So I contacted iTunes 4 days ago and have yet to hear from them. Trust me, I'll be updating you here on what happens. Suffice it to say this is the last time Apple has overcharged me and tried getting away with it. I used to use Apple products regularly in the past, and to some degree the company has built a little bit of loyalty with me. This is why I gave them the benefit of the doubt the first time. But this is clearly unacceptable. To charge $15.31 on top of what I should be paying, without so much as an explanation of the fees.

I'll keep you guys posted as to what happens next. In the meantime I am cutting my ties with Apple. I hate to say it, but ever since Steve Jobs passed away it has not been the same company. You might call me an Android fanboy, and you know what, you wouldn't be far off. Don't get me wrong, I hate Google+ and a few other things about Google. But overall, I feel I am being charged a reasonable price for my hardware and software and what I have meets my needs. I like it because it's simple and it works, and if that makes me a fanboy, then so be it.

Thanks for reading!

Let's Play Heroes of the Storm - Featuring Zagara

Hey everyone,

A new episode of Let's Play Heroes of the Storm is up! In this let's play I play Zagara, one of my most favorite heroes thus far. She's a very flexible mid range specialist who has some really cool abilities and ...a really big ass. Zagara is great at pushing lanes and keeping other heroes in check. She has some really cool utility abilities, as well as some traits and talents which let her move faster and live longer. I really liked her in Starcraft II, and very happy to be seeing her in Heroes of the Storm.

Check out the video below, or head to the channel for the best quality and discussion with other fans of the game. Thanks very much for reading/watching and if you haven't already make sure to subscribe for all the latest!

Keep your eyes peeled on the channel for more videos coming this week, including Friday Night Magic!

Weekly Fix #2

Hey everyone,

Welcome to your weekly fix for Monday, March 2, 2015.

GTAV PC Push Back, Heists, and $1.5M Pre-Order Bonus

According to Rockstar Games, developer of the famed Grand Theft Auto games, the release for GTAV PC has been pushed back yet again. It was supposed to release on PC in late 2014, which didn't happen. Then it was supposed to be late January, 2015. Slated for release on March 24, it got pushed back another time now to April 14. As unfortunate as this is, I'm totally with Rockstar about their decision to buy time and release when it's best for the game. Rockstar has always made fantastic games with incredible levels of detail and polish. Learning from their past, they know the effect on the community can be profound if a product which is not ready is released (GTA Online ring any bells here?) It looks like they've taken this one by the horns and are sticking to their guns on ensuring the game will live up to the expectations of millions of fans worldwide.

As an additional incentive and act of goodwill, the pre-order bonus was amped up to include another $200,000 usable in GTA Online when the game launches. That brings the current pre-order bonus to $1.5M.

Additionally, we are finally going to be seeing heists in GTA Online. For owners of current and next generation copies of GTA V, heists can be expected to hit on March 10, 2015. They will fundamentally be very similar to those int he single player game. You will need to prepare for the heist over the course of several missions with your friends, and only then will you be able to do the big job. This is a 4 player cooperative game mode that I personally cannot wait to play.

Multiple GPU's? Yes please!

According to speculation and rumors originating on Tom's Hardware (and for now they will remain speculation and rumors) apparently there is a PC video card breakthrough coming from Microsoft to be revealed mid March at GDC.

DirectX has been at the forefront of PC gaming for many many years. It has been evolving as have the graphics cards to provide us gamers with more immersive and realistic gaming experiences. Now, DirectX 12 looks like it's going to take PC gaming to a whole new level.

According to some of these rumors, a source who wished to remain anonymous revealed that DirectX 12 will make it possible for PC gamers to mix and match graphics cards in multi-GPU arrangements without the restriction of multi-gpu technology or manufacturer.

For instance, if you own a PC and want to increase the graphical processing power of your system, you might want to install 2-4 nVidia SLI enabled video cards. Or, you might want to do the same with AMD CrossFire. What (apparently) DirectX 12 will make possible is that not only would you be able to use AMD and nVidia cards interchangeably with one another, having multiple types installed in your system, but that they would be collaboratively considered as a single graphics card.

On top of this, memory pooling would allow you to maximize the amount of VRAM you had available to the total amount of RAM among video cards installed in your system.

I'm not sure what to expect here, but if this is true, it could really send a shockwave through the market, change the way AMD and nVidia compete against one another, and possibly change the way we game forever.

HTC & Valve to enter VR market

In a world of ever advancing technologies, it's a no brainer that more and more companies want to get involved in the next generation of tech.

Recently, VALVE (The company behind Steam, as well as some of my favorite PC games) revealed alongside Taiwanese phone giant HTC that they will be entering the VR market later this year with the release of their VR headset named Vive.

The Vive is said to have a resolution of 1200 by 1800 per eye and run at approximately 90FPS. This, says the developer, will remove the jitter that is prevalent in many other devices already on the market.

In addition, with several base stations (I assume that will have to be purchased separately) your body can be tracked as well as your head in a room the size of about 15 by 15 feet. This would add a new dimension in the feeling of immersion, and would make for some interesting experiences.

HTC was initially very skeptical as to the way the system would work until they saw Valve's demo. They jumped on board shortly thereafter and there are now several other companies signing up to produce content for the Vive. Companies like Dovertail Games, Fireproof Games, and Cloudhead Games. With others like HBO interested as well, I am curious to see which way this technology will go.

Surely the focus is gaming, but it might be possible to apply this technology to other faucets of entertainment as well. Only time will tell.

It was also rumored that a handful of Valve games will support this new VR headset, and in doing so will help to further immerse gamers into the awesome experiences they already enjoy today.