I’ve been critical of President Obama’s attitude toward the industry in the past, so I have a responsibility to point out that the administration seems to be getting it. Last week, he announced the National STEM Video Game Challenge. It’s the latest in a line of very worthy programs that challenge young students with designing [...]
Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
Dangerous Minds
Posted in Culture, serious games, The biz, tagged college, education, Obama, Stem challenge on September 26, 2010 | 8 Comments »
Silver Mario
Posted in Culture, Games of our Lives, Nintendo, Old school, tagged Mario, Nintendo, Super Mario Brothers on September 15, 2010 | 1 Comment »
In case you’ve been under a rock, today is the 25ht anniversary of Super Mario Brothers original Japanese release. As I write this, “Mario Bros” is the #5 trending topic on Twitter. In addition to the usual suspects, a ton of mainstream press covered it. I even saw a headline about the anniversary on that [...]
How many rock operas did you listen to this week?
Posted in Culture, tagged Mega Man, Movies, Rock, Rock opera, Star Fox, Street Fighter, super mario brothers the movie, The Protomen on August 3, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I had a long, solo train ride from Boston to NYC on a quiet Sunday morning last weekend, so naturally it was the perfect time to enjoy a full, uninterrupted listen to both of the released albums from the Protomen’s 3-act rock opera exploring the Mega Man universe. I’m happy to report it’s as awesome [...]
Love, marriage, and Kratos
Posted in Culture, Sony, The biz, tagged Bioshock, God of War 3, Heavy Rain, Kratos, Mass Effect 2, MLB 10: The Show, parenthood on March 22, 2010 | 2 Comments »
God of War 3 will have been out for a full week by the time I post this, and I still haven’t bought it. It’s a big change for me. I love that series. I picked up the first one early on the strength of Dave Jaffe’s development chops, and wasn’t disappointed. GoW2 was the [...]
The RPG on the Edge of Forever
Posted in Culture, Microsoft, Old school, tagged Big, Mass Effect 2, Xbox 360 on February 23, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I can’t get enough of Mass Effect 2. I’ve spent nearly all of my play time over the last three weeks with it, hardly touching any other games. Looking at its impressive debut at #2 on January’s NPD rankings after only six days on shelves, I’m not alone. And with all that love comes A [...]
Wagging Madden’s dog
Posted in Culture, Sports games, tagged EA, Madden, NFL, skycam, Wired on February 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Since Mrs. Liquid Architecture got me a Kindle for Christmas, I’ve been on a bit of a magazine article bender renaissance. In case you missed them, be sure to check out this chilling article on Marvin Harrison’s gun rap from GQ of all places, along with their entertaining take on EA’s Tiger Woods PGA Tour [...]
Goatee? Goat-ie? Ohhhh… GOTY! The “Game of the Year” post
Posted in Culture, Indie games, tagged 2009, Batman Arkham Asylum, Game of the Year, new super mario bros. wii, Plants vs. Zombies, Uncharted 2 on January 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
In case you haven’t noticed, I tend to leave day-to-day things like reviews and previews to the big guys – listed conveniently in the blog roll for you. Servicey! The fact is, the Kotakus and Joystiqs of the world do a much better job of breaking news and round-the-clock updates than I ever could, and [...]
Business in the front, party in the… front
Posted in Culture, The biz, tagged Child's Play, First Party, PAX, Penny Arcade, polo shirts on November 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
While this year’s Black Friday sales numbers should be trickling in over the next few hours, I just had to point out First Party, the new clothes-for-professional-nerds venture from the Penny Arcade guys. They won’t win Cyber Monday or anything (thanks to teenage girls, anything that doesn’t involve vampires is at a huge disadvantage this [...]
The only game in town
Posted in Culture, Old school, tagged arcades, Capcom, Chinatown, DDR, Namco, SFIV, Street Fighter IV on October 12, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Last week, yours truly was called upon to protect the city and county of New York from the forces of evil. Luckily, jurors get a whopping 2 hours for lunch and my local Hall of Justice is a few shorts blocks away from one of NYC’s truly hidden gems – Chinatown Fair. Once famous for [...]
Direct CURRENTS?
Posted in Culture, Marketing, The biz, tagged Batman, Batman Arkham Asylum, comic books, Epic Games, Licensed Games, Playstation 3, PS3, Spider-man, Unreal Engine, X-men, Xbox 360 on August 26, 2009 | 3 Comments »
We finally got the Batman game we’ve always wanted, with the superb Arkham Asylum from Rocksteady dropping this week. The reviews are glowing, with some lofty comparisons and even “Game of the Year” buzz surfacing. Going back to last summer with the The Dark Knight movie, we’ve seen two projects take on the Batman license [...]
