Every Single Article Written by N - All 1343
We Chat With Hal Halpin About The Supreme Court Ruling
If you haven’t met Hal Halpin yet, you should. He’s, first and foremost, a great guy, but secondly he’s also the founder and head honcho of the Entertainment Consumers Association, an entity that represents video gamers with the government and other entities. The ECA has been busy in the past few months educating and encouraging gamers to petition their politicians about Brown v. EMA, the lawsuit regarding a law in California that would’ve penalized retailers for selling violent video games to minors. We reached out to Hal on his thoughts on what is perhaps the most important ruling on electronic entertainment ever.
Movie Review: Transformers: Dark Of The Moon
I did not like Transformers 2. No sir, I did not. I’m gonna be up front: you’re not reading this review to make up your mind regarding the third outing by Michael Bay into the wild frontier of licensed morphing mechanical toys. You’ve already made that decision. At this point, I’m only here to reinforce your opinion either way in an articulate and amusing manner. So here it goes: is Dark Of The Moon better than the second film? Yes. Is it a good film? No.
Movie Review: Bad Teacher
I wish I had nice words to say about Bad Teacher. It seems like a cruel tradition around my birthday that I’m subjected to an awful Cameron Diaz vehicle, last year’s being the Tom Cruise-helmed Knight and Day. Okay, here’s the good thing about it: she plays a deceptively cruel middle school teacher whose maniacal schemes and backstabs are more clever than the movie itself. But really, who wants to see Diaz, who’s now just shy of convincingly hot, stomp around the film being an absolute jerk to everyone? Hopefully not you, definitely not me.
Penny Arcade: The Series – Season 2 Review
As you’ve probably already figured out, I’m a pretty big fan of Penny Arcade. One thing that I was always curious about, spurred by Mike and Jerry’s mishaps in their early years, was how a company based around a web comic about games could operate. They’d drop hints from time to time, but for the most part, the thing was a mystery. How did they run PAX with a staff of twelve? What about Child’s Play, their gamer-themed charity benefiting hospitalized children? With the first season of Penny Arcade: The Series, many of those questions were answered. So, what was left over for the second season?
After Ruining Amateur Photography, High Dynamic Range Seeks To Destroy Movies, Too
With great power comes great responsibility. With the release of affordable DSLRs (aka, the fancy cameras with the complex lenses) came an ocean of new “photography studios” (if I could air quote any harder, my fingers would snap right off). While most are rubbish, it makes sense, really: if you own a camera that makes it difficult to screw up a photo and have the skill to purchase and install Photoshop, you can come up with some decent-looking photos. It’s not surprising then that these amateurs can also use the tools of the trade and their complete lack of artistic ability to completely destroy those images. The latest tool in their chest of abomination? High Dynamic Range. And with a recent development in off-the-shelf tech, AMP is bringing us horrible-looking HDR photography (like the murky, blown out shot of Tokyo above) to us in 1080p at 24 frames per second. I fear for the future of our species.
Dungeon Keeper, The Article About
There’s only one reason why I have faith in Peter Molyneux, despite his aggressive attempts to shake me off entirely. The revolutionary Project Ego became the crushingly limited Fable. Which begat Fable 2. Which begat Fable 3. Which begat a Fable Kinect game. (Do you see the downward progression here?) Aside from the incredibly pleasant The Movies, Peter has simply stopped making games I want to play. But I keep trucking on, hoping to relive the glory days. Why? Dungeon Keeper.
Solar 2 Quick Look!
You may have just read our interview with Solar 2 developer Jay Watts or you may just be here to watch the epic Quick Look for the game. Either way, we dress to impress! Scope out our video after the break!
Turntable.fm Excites Me, Crushes My Fragile Feelings
I don’t know about you, but everyone in my celebrity/important people circles has been jabbering on and on about Turntable.fm. Never heard of it? Neither had I, so I decided to investigate. It’s not quite open to the public yet, but if you have a Facebook friend who’s in, you have an invite by proxy. Unfortunately, what began with so much hope ended up with me in an empty room spinning tunes I already own… to myself. Then the room kicked me off the DJ tables. Read on about my sad adventures after the break…
FEZ Interviews: Jay Watts, Developer of Solar 2!
Kelly and I just got into Solar 2 (Xbox 360 Indie Games, Steam), a fun action/tactical game that starts you off as a humble asteroid and allows you to become a mighty black hole, complete with the ability to swallow the entire damn universe. Sound epic? It is. I got to interview Jay Watts, the one-man army behind the developmental magic and we discuss the game, how he got to be a full-time indie developer, and the industry at large!
Ya Done Screwed Up, Epic Meal Time
Look, we get it, you guys are maturing. You took your little show about disgusting-ly awesome and unhuman main courses and got really successful. That’s awesome. So you started doing ads. That’s cool, whatever. Gamefly, Squarespace, fine, fine. At the end of the day, we want the videos with the insane amount of food formulated with copious amounts of liquor, not the festering piece of crap you just uploaded as this week’s episode.
