Month: February 2005

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The only non-live-blogged Oscars report on the Internet.

One of the best moments of the evening was songwriter Jorge Drexler walking up to the stage and actually genuflecting to Prince before singing his acceptance.

Gradius V.

How is it that games that are so difficult and frustrating can be so much fun?

Oscar-nominated animated short films.

Watching the animated shorts online mostly makes me pine for a DVD or theater showing; streaming video is a horrible way to watch, well, anything really, but it’s particularly bad for watching animation, where you just know that you’re missing out on all kinds of details.

What do we want out of games journalism?

The question is whether you can get all this writing moved off the web and into print, and if you do, whether anyone will buy it.

Another day, another redesign.

You know all that stuff I said yesterday about weblogs providing “much simpler tools” for people to build home pages with? Yeah, so much for that.

Will blog for food, or, the rise of the blogotariat.

Or, Josh gives in and starts blogging about blogs. Bloggity blog blog.

Those bears have the right idea.

I don’t know if it’s the cold, or the light, or what, but every February, I have a single, overriding urge, and that is to sleep.

All-stars and Blazers and Wolves, oh phooey.

Both of my teams are stuck in mediocrity, and I’ve been reduced to the most abject, pathetic state a basketball fan can find himself in.

Hyperlinks for you and me.

Don’t mind me, just fixing my links page here.

Not for me, perhaps.

It’s incredibly saddening to think there are whole servers full of people out there who honestly, innocently think that the words they use have no effect at all on those that hear them.

Otogi 2. (PopMatters)

My review of Otogi 2 is now up at PopMatters.

The Last Tycoon.

What The Last Tycoon shows you is not just how Hollywood works as an industry, but how cinema works as a form.

2005 Winter Premieres.

A day late and a dollar short, here is a scorecard of some of the series that have premiered since the new year.

Shrek 2: Darmok and Jalad at Tenagra?

For every allusion that signifies, there’s one that makes no sense at all.

Gaming movies like it’s 1999.

Beyond such classics as The Blair Witch Project and Independence Day, there are scads of 90s films out there, just waiting to be remediated into hit games.

Video Games as Tools for Educators.

What was most rewarding for me personally was the opportunity to see games discussed in a new context, not only topically, but socially.

Alias, Season 1.

So now there’s a spy club even more evil than what Sydney’s used to, although it’s not the spy club that Zoe from Firefly works for. You’re probably thinking this post is full of spoilers for the first season of Alias, and you’re probably right.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II.

Having a whole pack of Jedi backing you up rather than just a couple of schlubs with laser pistols can make a huge difference in how easy or difficult the later stages of the game are.

Super Bowl XXXIX: The music! The commercials! Oh, and some football, too.

The Super Bowl is about much more than football, and there was plenty of extra entertainment to be had; I didn’t skip over any of it, no matter how much I wanted to.

Fight Club. (PopMatters)

My review of the videogame adaptation of Fight Club is up at PopMatters.

Games at the Onion A.V. Club.

The Onion A.V. Club launches its new videogame section with a pair of interviews.

Million Dollar Baby.

Million Dollar Baby’s achievement is less in avoiding cliches and more in the way it executes them.