Although the PSP is selling wonderfully in many other parts of the world, it has struggled in the US market since its release. It would be hard to call it a failure with the many millions of systems sold stateside, but it definitely has struggled to find an identity in this country. The UMD video discs were a complete disaster for Sony, and the third-party market hasn’t embraced the system as much as it has its rival.
The Contrary Opinion – J.J. Abram’s Star Trek (With Spoilers!)
If one takes the glowing reviews of J.J. Abram’s Star Trek as a representative sample of the populace, most people love this movie. I am not most people.
Review: “The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena” (Xbox 360)
For us folks who are two movies and a video game behind on knowing what the hell is going on, here’s what I can gather: Space Vin Diesel washes up on some shore, and is pissed (naturally). He also looks damn good in a space wife-beater, and has sweet space welding goggles. There’s some silly obligatory one-liners said by our hero, but soon we’re off doing what we REALLY wanted to do: stabbing people in the throat!
Review: Monster Manual 2
If there’s one thing most DMs can agree on, it’s that having more monsters to pick and choose from is better than more options for players, so the Monster Manual 2 comes as a welcome addition to 4E. The MM2 expands on many of the monsters we’re already using as well as introduces a whole slew of new beasties to the mix. From front to back, this book really excites me as both a DM and a player, and it delivers a lot of excellent new content for the 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons.
Review: Omnifray
It’s taken me a long time to review this product, because it’s so obviously a labor of love. It takes dedication to write tens of thousands of words about your game setting and your system, then put it all together into not one but two books, and amazing amount of courage to put it out there in the world and hope that people will like it and play it. I commend and support that kind of initiative. Roleplaying has always been a creative, Do-It-Yourself kind of hobby and it’s one of the things I love most about it.
That’s what makes this hard for me to review. Because when someone like Matt West, the creator of Omnifray, has made this kind of commitment and clearly has such a strong belief about their baby, it’s hard to say anything negative without feeling like a jerk.
Review: Arcane Power
The second in Wizard’s series of books that expand upon their power sources was released earlier this week for the 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Arcane Power follows very much in the footsteps of Martial Power except this time providing expanded options for all of the arcane spellcasting classes currently in the game. This book will appeal most to the current player of an Arcane character (including Bards, Sorcerers, Swordmages, Warlocks, and Wizards), providing a slew of new options, powers, feats, paragon paths, and epic destinies for each and every one of those classes.
Review: The Darkness that Comes Before
I bought R. Scott Bakker’s first book purely based on its appearance on ‘top fantasy’ lists and its comparisons to the ‘realistic’ fantasy authors of Steven Erikson and George R..R. Martin. Bakker comes from an English critique and Philosophy background and it shows. His prose is often quite moving: either beautiful in its poetry or sickening in its brutality. His characters, setting, and background all teem with philosophical underpinnings.
My 2009 Gathering of Friends Picks
I’m back from the 2009 Gathering of Friends, the 10 day long boardgaming con. I’m also (mostly) recovered. This year, I focused more on relaxing, hanging out with fellow designers, and playing prototypes moreso than playing every new board game that came out. (Also, I made the final table of both the Loopin’ Louie and […]
Krod Mandoon: Comedy Central caters to the RPG crowd?
What better to occupy my 10-11pm hour on the Thursday before a Friday off from work then the potentially horrible but still quite intriguing Comedy Central premiere of a fantasy-comedy series? Not much! The full title for the show is Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire, and it will be showing for at least a few half-hour episodes on Thursday nights at 10pm.
Review: “Watchmen”
It’s funny for a movie that is supposed to be so faithful to the book (that I have read through many, many times) that I did my best to avoid spoilers. I wanted to dive in and make the comparisons myself, without hearing what critics have to say. I also try very hard to avoid being the nitpicky fan who dislikes any deviation from the source material: after all, different media have different challenges. Watchmen does a very good job of conveying the story (and most of the important plot beats) of the original work, and for that, I really enjoyed seeing it onscreen.
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