Author: Chuck
I Don’t Heart Huckabee
I just watched the December 9th episode of “The Daily Show”, which ended with Jon Stewart’s interview with Governor Mike Huckabee on the issue of same-sex marriage. Stewart did a good job with the interview, making his point forcefully without being disrespectful to his guest. He raised almost all of the relevant points, he explained…
Feedback’s a bitch
Previously on Spectre Collie, I made the claim that the “state of the art” in story-driven games still treat storytelling and gameplay as two completely separate things. In even the best games, the player’s role is that of the guy who pushes buttons and/or shoots guys in the way; the key story moments happen in…
I Tell You What
Georgia’s changed so much in the 13 or so years since I moved away, that there’s not much left there that I miss. One thing I do miss is the accent, or at least my own version of it. I never listen to myself talking (because, you know, I’m kind of boring), so I have…
Lepton of Disappointment
The worst thing about Quantum of Solace is that it has to follow Casino Royale. That’s the capsule review I’ve been hearing in the past few weeks: “It’s not as good as the first one, but still okay.” And that’s a shame, because it’s not a bad movie; in fact, it’s still in the top…
Mediawean
It’s disturbing how dependent I am on television; I think I’ve never gone more than a week without access to live TV of some sort, and being without it makes me inexplicably nervous. A year ago I did a price comparison between keeping satellite service, or dropping it and getting shows via the internets, and…
The Criminal Projective
Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People Episode 4: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective is out now, and everyone with money should buy it. Everyone without money should ask for some and then use it to buy it. It’s my favorite of the series (although episode five is coming along pretty good, too), partly because…
Back to Work
I’m mainly posting just to get this blog back on the weighty topics of rambling about videogame design and making shallow observations about pop culture, instead of whining about McCain and whatshername. I tried my hardest to get all enthusiastic and inspired about the election, excited that the lines were too long for me to…
Country FIRST POST!!!
Hey, did you guys hear? Sarah Palin said something dumb that was picked up by the “gotcha” media again! I can remember hoping for more substance than sound bites and petty insults in this election, more talking about actual issues instead of transparent attempts at media manipulation. And I keep trying to rein in my…
By Their Farts Ye Shall Know Them
It turns out that Dead Space wasn’t able to hold my interest very long, after I saw a friend at work playing Fable 2. The game was completely off my radar, because I could never get into the original Fable; I was disappointed in the unfulfilled potential of Black & White; and I was unfairly…
Resident Evil, But They’re in Space!
Over the past few nights I’ve been playing Dead Space, the new sci-fi horror shooter from EA. It’s an extremely well-made and entertaining game, and I’m enjoying it a lot. I want to make that clear up front, because I spend the rest of this post complaining about it. And I’m even going to go…
Forty Years of Banging the Crap Out of Things
Another year means another post from me imploring people to see the San Francisco Taiko Dojo’s Concert in Berkeley in November. This year is the 40th Anniversary Show, so it should be a pretty big deal. I’m especially looking forward to it because I missed last year’s concert in Berkeley as well as the past…
Le Monde de Goo
I already wrote praising “World of Goo” on here when the game was still in pre-order/preview status. Now that the game is available, and I’ve seen past the first chapter, I feel obliged to talk about it some more. Everything I said last time still stands, but there’s more. I’m still not halfway through, and…