In direct response to all of the UBB crap (Usage Based Billing) going on up here in Canada, Netflix has added the option for users to control the amount of data used for streaming content.
According to Neil Hunt (Chief Product Officer at Netflix), users will have the option to choose between three levels of service: Good, Better & Best, in order to control the amount of data used each month.
All of the details are outlined in his post on the Netflix Blog here….
Apparently, using the old default settings, 30 hrs of streaming content could consume up to 70 GB of data. Using the new defaults, throughput should drop to around 9 GB for the same amount of video.
Obviously there is a hit to the video quality as a result (though it may not be that noticeable). If you want to change it back, the option is found under \Your Account & Help\Manage Video Quality.
ComputerAbuser
Three days after adding Iron Man 2 to their Canadian line-up, Netflix has officially sent out a press release announcing their multi-year licensing agreement with Paramount Pictures.
Netflix and Paramount Reach Multi-Year Premium Pay TV Window Deal in Canada
I’m guessing the deal was actually finalized a while ago since The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Defiance and The African Queen were added way back on March 2nd, but are listed as upcoming in the press release.
Regardless, this is great news and confirms my earlier suspicion that we could be expecting more content from Paramount Pictures in the near future.
ComputerAbuser
Lately I have noticed that Netflix has been pretty good about adding new, quality content to their Canadian site. Especially when it comes to TV series. This past month the following TV series’ have been added…..
Prison Break: The Complete Series
Arrested Development: The Complete Series
Dollhouse: The Complete Series
All that is left to add is Buffy The Vampire Slayer and they will have the entire Joss Whedon collection.
Anyway, today I was shocked to see that Iron Man 2 was added. This has to be a pretty major milestone. Iron Man 2 was the third highest grossing film (domestically) last year. This is by far the newest feature film by Paramount Home Entertainment released on Netflix Canada so far. Hopefully this means we will see some more recent blockbuster films added in the near future.
ComputerAbuser
Before February ended, I was able to catch a few more free movies using my General Mills passes (before they essentially expired). These include The Eagle, Unknown, Drive Angry 3D and Hall Pass.
The Eagle (37% RT) – I didn’t have high expectations for this one but it was only rated PG, I had a couple of kids passes that I wanted to use up and the kids decided they wanted to see it (since there were no family movies out that they had not already seen). It wasn’t that bad. The story was interesting, the action was pretty good and the acting was decent (I’m not really a fan of Channing Tatum – how does this guy keep getting movie roles?). I’m glad I didn’t pay to see it. It would be worth renting if you wanted a decent action film, like period movies and don’t have anything better to watch.
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Previously I wrote on how my home area was initially missing from GoogleMaps, but that after sending in a complaint it was updated.
The initial response from Google stated that I would be notified after the update. After I noticed that my area was added back in I assumed I would hear back from Google, but I didn’t. At least, not until a couple a weeks ago when I received this e-mail….
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Over the past few weeks I have been able to watch several more movies for free using my General Mills Cineplex movie passes.
These include True Grit, 127 Hrs, No Strings Attached and yesterday I Am Number Four.
True Grit and 127 Hours were both exceptional, although that was to be expected given their Tomatometer ratings (95% & 93% respectively).
No Strings Attached was a pleasant surprise. Romantic comedies of this nature normally don’t fare very well with critics and here it shows with a modest 51% Tomatometer rating, but my wife and I enjoyed it immensely. In fact, half way through the movie my wife informed me that “we’re buying this movie”.
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On Thursday, I finally received an e-mail informing me that my free episode of Back to the Future: The Game from Telltale Games was now available for download.
Back in October, I wrote about a promotion that allowed you get the first episode of the 5 part series for free, simply by registering.
The first episode ended up getting released in December, but we have all had to wait until now to get our free copy.
It appears that the episode costs $8.99 if you were to buy it separately (the entire series is $24.99), but since the original offer is still available that’s not really necessary.
The e-mail also contained a link giving a 10% discount on the entire series until March 2nd 2011.
ComputerAbuser
While browsing around GoG.com as part of their Tex Murphy sale, I noticed that they now have The Last Express available for download.
If you happened to catch my post the other day regarding Jordan Mechner and went to his site, you might have noticed his section on this game. I have actually yet to play it but I read a fair amount of back story about the making of it on Jordan’s site. As a fan of adventure games, I always meant to give this one a try but previously there was no easy way to get it.
Obviously, that’s no longer a problem. The game is not on sale or anything at the moment but $6 is already a pretty fair price. If anyone reading this has any experience with this game, feel free to leave a comment on what you thought of it.
ComputerAbuser
I just received word that the Tex Murphy series of games are on sale at GOG.com (sale ends Monday).
Mean Streets was one of the first PC games I ever played. My friend had a copy for his 286. This was before sound cards were common, yet the game was still able to output speech using the PC speaker. Pretty amazing at the time.
I then received a copy of Under a Killing Moon for my 16th birthday. To this day it is still one of the best games I ever played (amazingly Pandora Directive was even better).
If you have never played or even heard of these games you are missing out. That is if you enjoy a game with an excellent story, fantastic music, memorable characters and enjoyable gameplay.
Obviously, they are pretty dated now and if you don’t like point & click adventure games, you may not care for these either, but for under $15 you can get the whole series (DRM free) which is a pretty sweet deal.
ComputerAbuser
If you enjoyed the original Price of Persia video game (circa 1989 – 1992), you may be interested in reading up on the making of it on Jordan Mechner’s blog/website.
If you didn’t know, Jordan Mechner is the creator of the franchise. He designed and programmed the first game by himself back in the 80’s when he worked for Brøderbund.
The entire process is told through personal journal entries that he kept during the time. Spanning over 7 years, the journals describe what it was like to be a game designer/programmer at the time and some of the inner workings of the business.
I found the whole thing very interesting, but it may take several sessions to get through it all.
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