A Jerk By Any Other Name

Is there something wrong with me if I happen to have a really hard time being a dick to people who don’t exist? Perhaps I should explain. I’m a nice guy. “Don’t be a dick” is one of my Rules For Healthy Living (it used to be “don’t be a jerk”, but that would have [...]

Video games, and why I (don’t) write about them.

I suppose it’s time that I just came out and said it already. I write about video games. It’s taken me quite some time to actually admit this- I’ve only recently decided this about myself. I still haven’t had the occasion to actually mention it out loud to someone else more than six times. It’s [...]

Are Games Just Too Damn Long?

About two years ago, I gave up video games. Not permanently, of course- or else I probably wouldn’t be writing about them now. But there was a space of about a year where I voluntarily stopped playing video games. It was rather nice. I started teaching myself guitar and piano, finally got around to reading [...]

The EVOlution of Fighting Games

Since the rise of shooters like “Halo” and “Call of Duty,” some people now see fighting video games as a dead genre.  “Street Fighter II” had an amazing run when it was released in 1991, and was even considered a game changer in the industry.  But, when’s the last time you’ve heard of someone willingly [...]

Selling Children to Finance Your Online Life is Okay, Right?

While answering “no” to the question above may seem like common sense, for a couple in Sanxiang City, China it clearly wasn’t.  In 2009, parents Li Lin and Li Juan sold their three children to pay for online games at Internet cafés.  Strangely, the parents didn’t know they were breaking any laws.  In fact, Lin [...]

Video Game Music Not Just For Games

Have you ever wondered what the music from “Super Mario Bros.” would sound like in a jazz arrangement?  Or how about some “Final Fantasy” music as techno?  These types of arrangements, and more, are exactly what you’ll find at OverClocked ReMix. Clocked ReMix was founded by David W. Lloyd (aka djpretzel) in 1999 and describes [...]

Board Games Gather a Worldwide Crowd–Who Knew?

I think it’s safe to assume that all of us played our fair share of board games with our families when we were kids.  Whether it was “Monopoly,” “The Game of Life” or “Chutes and Ladders,” many of us grew up playing board games.  Well, one of my friends recently informed me of a yearly [...]

Arkham’s Boy Wonder

In the world of “Batman: Arkham Asylum,” gamers were introduced to a very dark Batman similar to that of “The Dark Knight.”  However in other series, Batman was unable to go very far without Robin, the Boy Wonder.  With Arkham Asylum’s sequel, “Batman: Arkham City,” just a few months away, the producers have released this [...]

National Symphony Orchestra Plays Video Games–Literally!

This past Friday, I had the amazing opportunity to listen to video games.  Not play, not watch, but listen to video games.  This is because I went to a concert called “PLAY! A Video Game Symphony” at Wolf Trap.  During the concert, the National Symphony Orchestra performed music from video game classics, such as “Mario” [...]

Double Fine Goes to War

Double Fine, the video game studio behind titles like “Psychonauts” and “Brütal Legend” released a war game called “Trenched” last week on Xbox Live.  While I have yet to play “Trenched,” it has received fantastic reviews from critics, making me me want to buy it even more. The game is set in an alternate reality [...]