Author - NerfHerder

Here’s how to avoid spoilers from The Force Awakens

December 17, 2015
NerfHerder
Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Fan Theories
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star-wars-spoiler-blocker

If you haven’t yet managed to secure a seat to experience The Force Awakens, then you need to do whatever it takes to avoid spoilers – believe me.

The onslaught of film reviews and commentary about Episode VII has begun, and these articles are being liberally shared on social media platforms. How do you know which sites and articles contain stories that reveal critical secrets from the latest Star Wars installment?

This is where the Chrome extension Force Block comes in handy. The app utilizes “smart pattern detection” to determine which content pages are likely to contain spoilers, and it blocks them by default – while giving you the option to reveal the page if you feel it has been flagged in error. Since the launch of the movie, the app has been further enhanced though feedback from those who have seen the film, to recognize specific phrases that suggest a spoiler.

Force Block is only available for users of the Google Chrome web browser at present. To download and install this Chrome extension, go here:

Download Force Block

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Hello from the Dark Side – The Adele parody you need to hear

December 17, 2015
NerfHerder
Games and Novelties, Star Wars Funnies
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The performers at RoyishGoodLooks have outdone themselves, with a parody of Adele’s anthem Hello that hits all of the right notes.

Hello from the Dark Side somehow still possesses the same emotive vocal impact that Adele delivered in her recent hit, while telling a sombre tale of Vader’s failure to convince Luke to follow in the family business. The result is humorous, catchy and guaranteed to be stuck in your head for days. Listen and enjoy!

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Saturday Night Live skit burns action figure collectors

December 16, 2015
NerfHerder
Star Wars Funnies
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Ever since George Lucas helped to transform the movie-making business into a blockbuster industry and accepted a reduced director’s salary in exchange for merchandising rights, licensed action figures and other movie merchandise have been a hot commodity. George’s decision is responsible for his current billionaire status. In fact, Lucas now has a greater net worth than Spielberg, Oprah and all other entertainers, largely thanks to the success of Star Wars merchandise.

That said, toys are designed for kids, right? You could even say that they are supposed to be removed from their boxes and used in active play, to stimulate the imaginations of our youngsters. So often, however, adult fans of Star Wars and other iconic pop culture universes hoard collectibles and keep them for investment or display purposes.

The following Saturday Night Live skit takes aim at this trend with a tongue-in-cheek look at these two conflicting purposes.

What do you think – play, or “leave them in the box!”? 😉

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Lightsaber Escape – Google turns your phone into a game controller

December 16, 2015
NerfHerder
Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Games and Novelties
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Lightsaber Escape

This is so exciting. I still remember the days when online movie promotional tie-ins were relatively innocuous websites featuring hidden content areas or spoof videos. Google has kicked things up a notch with the release of “Lightsaber Escape”.

Billed as a “Chrome experiment”, Lightsaber Escape is a free online game that transforms your phone into a lightsaber handle (or hilt). To play the game, you need to be using the Chrome browser on your PC and have Chrome installed on your phone. Getting started is then as simple as following these steps:

  1. On your laptop or desktop, visit https://lightsaber.withgoogle.com
  2. Once this loads, a personal URL will appear on your monitor.
  3. Crank open Chrome on your phone and visit your personal URL.
  4. You’ll then be invited to calibrate your phone by holding it vertically in front of your monitor. This only takes a couple of seconds.
  5. That’s it! The next thing you see is a stormtrooper in a hallway and you’ll have the opportunity to test your sweet deflection moves in a quick instructional test, before moving into more challenging stages.

Lightsaber Escape Screenshot

Google has put the phone’s vibrate function to good use in providing tactile feedback, and the audio coming from both the desktop and phone provides a fairly immersive experience.

This is a simple game, but it’s nevertheless an impressive promotional cross-over, and a clever use of multiple devices, associated through a web browser. I hope you have as much fun with the game as I did.

 

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Early feedback from The Force Awakens premiere gives us all A New Hope

December 16, 2015
NerfHerder
Episode VII - The Force Awakens, News and Views
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Okay, as far as puns go, this headline is one of the worst, but it seems JJ Abrams and team have brought us one of the best. Rest assured, this article contains no spoilers about The Force Awakens, but does provide a snapshot of the reactions that the film has generated from those fortunate enough to attend the red carpet premiere.

The consensus thus far indicates that the film has hit all of the right notes, and returned cinemagoers to the magic and majesty of the earliest Star Wars films. Flipping through the morsels of information that have been shared on Twitter so far suggests a broad opinion that The Force Awakens is stronger than all three prequels, plus Return of the Jedi. If that’s the case, this will be a feast for the senses and a powerful emotional ride.

Following is a snapshot of some of the early feedback:

It also looks as though the film has set up Episode VIII beautifully, if this post by Patton Oswald is representative:

Are you excited yet? 🙂

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