Cigarettes and Coffee

- If the name alone isn’t enough to get you to play Puzzle Farter, we will probably never be friends.

- In my last post, I mentioned Josh Cotter’s amazing Skyscrapers of the Midwest, and I’ve been making notes for a more in-depth post about the book. Instead, I’ll just direct you to Brian Heater’s review [...]

Okay, that might be an overstatement. LostWinds, a new game for the Nintendo Wii, doesn’t quite reinvent a video-game genre or deliver innovative gameplay the way Portal did, but it’s part of the same tiny revolution in console gaming that Valve’s miniature masterpiece exemplifies.

I could seriously listen to that music all day.
Both Portal and LostWinds [...]

Yesterday I gave you my favorites from the game, so today we’ve got three songs I would’ve liked to see make the cut. To qualify for consideration, songs had to be appropriate for extended car chases, ultra-violent urban crime sprees, or both simultaneously. In the spirit of the game, they also had to include at [...]

Mix-tape apps seem to be the hot new thing, and while I’ve already talked about (and really like) Muxtape, I’m also having a lot of fun with Mixwit. My main complaint about Muxtape is that it doesn’t offer any kind of widget for off-site use, but Mixwit’s got that covered. It lacks some flexibility - [...]

One of my duties at Racer X is compiling and contributing to the CD-review page of our AV Room section. Beginning with the June ‘08 issue, we’re also printing a monthly video-game review, generally written by yours truly. I’ll try to reprint them here as often as I can, starting … now!

Professor Layton and the [...]

News about the just-released Grand Theft Auto IV has been inescapable this week. I got my copy (PS3 edition) on Thursday and have been able to spend a few hours with it so far. It’s far too early for me to have a solid opinion about the game - for a game this large, that [...]

Say hello to your Friday productivity killer.

So nerdy that I took a picture…okay, five pictures of my name in the the online leaderboards for Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer, an ass-kickingly difficult game for the Nintendo DS. (Technically, it’s an updated version of Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Fūrai no Shiren, a Japan-only Super Nintendo game from 1995. Read my Amazon review [...]

We had an Easter party here at the apartment yesterday. After a couple hours of eating and drinking and pleasant conversation, the afternoon took a turn, devolving into a Rock Band noise-a-thon. That game isn’t exactly ideal if you live in an apartment building, particularly if you have downstairs neighbors. (I don’t feel too guilty. [...]

It’s the damnedest thing.
I’ll check in with an actual post soon. In the meantime, you can play some maddeningly addictive virtual ping-pong (linked from the excellent Jay is Games - click “Click” at the end of the first paragraph) or begin your adventures in the uber-geeky and hilarious Kingdom of Loathing.

Spinning: The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses (Thanks, Sean!)
Couple links to start with:
When I read this morning that George Best had died, I knew my man Simon Barnes would get it right. Of course, he did.
Good news! (For most of you.)
Vladimir Nabokov’s son may follow his father’s instructions to burn what remains of [...]

Spinning: Van Morrison, Magic Time
That Van the Man link up there? Click it. Unless you’re some kind of asshole, you’ll dig this album. His best in a decade or more.
If I ever write a country song, which I won’t, it will be called “I Set Myself Up To Let Myself Down.” I just like how [...]