26 February 2009

If you listen to only one podcast this year...

...Make it this one.

Yesterday CNET's Jeff Bakalar, Wilson Tang, and Justin Yin invited me to their small but tastefully decorated podcast studio at 28 West 28th Street to be a guest on CNET's The 404.

I brought $2 cookies for everyone from Starbucks. Bakalar was fighting off a case of what appeared to be pink eye (his right eye was watering uncontrollably).

We discussed Crispy Gamer, the upcoming Nintendo DSi, the fogging over of the lady in the bathtub in The Shining whenever it's broadcast on network TV, and my former career as an editor at a men's sophisticate magazine.

The boys also giggled uncontrollably at the term "space docking," which is on my list of things to Google today. If you've got a spare 45 minutes, give it a listen.

17 February 2009

Street Fighter IV, Bikinis & Zombies, and Las Vegas

I've got a review up on The A.V. Club for Street Fighter IV that's polarized people.

Some comments are good, some are bad, and some are just plain insane.

The odd thing about this comment thread is that the commenters are committed to writing about the game. (Unlike most A.V. threads, which go off onto oddball tangents and never come back.)

I appreciate how focused the thread is, but I'm a little alarmed by the affinity some of these posters have for the Street Fighter franchise. To paraphrase Gus Mastrapa, the tin-foil-hat-wearing crazies came out for this one.


Evan Narcisse and I are off to the DICE summit in Las Vegas tonight. We're flying Virgin, a.k.a. The Nightclub in the Sky. And we're lodging at the suspect Palace Station Casino.

Home of the $40/night room, Bonkerz Comedy Club, and all the second-hand smoke you can inhale.

Stay tuned for my reports from L. Vegas as they happen.