May 29, 2003 11:53 PM

What's news?

*I got to pilot the hovercraft in the real world in Enter the Matrix yesterday and I must say that it was the worst experience that I’ve ever had. The first person perspective is dizzying at best, completely stupefying at worst. I will really dread going through this sequence when I get back from Cincinnati.

*I just saw a Circuit City commercial and noticed that the clerk who was explaining the camcorder was the star of "Better Luck Tomorrow". Who says that there are no good roles for Asians in Hollywood?

*Pajamo got his hands on a Gamecube demo disk with playable versions of Soul Caliber 2 and Viewtiful Joe, among others. He says that the 'cube's controller doesn't quite feel right for SC2 but Viewtiful Joe is awesome - maybe game of the year. From what I've seen I don't know if I'd go that far but I will say that it's nice to see a new take on the 2d scroller.

*Videogames can make you smarter, say some smart guys. I'm sure you've seen this study by now but I just thought I'd point it out. No real surprises here, but it will be interesting to note how the overprotective parent lobby reacts to this. They’ve always hated videogames but now perhaps they’ll continue to Maybe this will boost sales for kid-friendly Nintendo? More info here.

May 28, 2003

Just wanted to let you all know that I've been playing "Enter the Matrix" and had a major breakthrough yesterday and saw cut scenes galore (these were shot at the same time as the movie with the same cast, crew and production values). I must say that they were very interesting & entertaining to watch, but the game is horribly paced. I had to wade through way too much hallway running to get to this point in the game.

As many have already said this is proabably a rental game. But if the "Reloaded" dvd does not contain the EtM scenes it might just be a must for all the hardcore fans.

b-ruce

May 24, 2003 11:45 AM

Yesterday, I suddenly came to the conclusion that I really wanted to go to the Urbana Free Library, only to remember that I'm 3 hours away from there and have probably lost my library card. Still I must commend it as a kick-ass library, complete with videotapes and DVDs. Ah the many days I spent there combing the movies and music sections or just reading there to enjoy the air conditioning on a hot summer's day. On this note I just wanted to let you all know that I am going down there to visit the Library and some friends, therefore no posts on here for a few days, but an E3 article is threatening to show itself soon.

b-ruce

May 20, 2003 11:27 PM

Goodbye, and thanks.

The last episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer aired today and there I was glued to my seat waiting. You see for the better part of 6 years I have been watching and singing the praises of this show and tonight, yet again, I was not disappointed. Tonight I saw for the last time these wonderfully written and well-acted characters develop through humor and action and see Joss Wedon’s final message of female empowerment.

A few notes:

The monster in the dungeons and dragons type game Giles, Xander & Andrew were playing is actually from my favorite flash cartoon website homestarrunner.com. Go check out the Strong Bad emails to learn all about Trogdor the Burninator, among other things.

They played the Italian Job commercial once during the hour and I noticed that they changed Ed Norton’s line, now instead of saying: “What happened to my truck!!!” he says: “What happened to my… (in a noticeably lower tone) gold” Perhaps my giant mouth was enough to send word to the producers to cause this? I had always laughed at that line more than Seth Green’s bit of funny at the very end of the trailer. After all “What happened to my truck?!” is pretty silly sounding when screamed by an excellent actor.

Didn’t Willow look a little bit too much like Gandolf for that brief moment? I was half expecting to see her bring Buffy the weapon riding on a white horse.

I was a little worried and very much pissed off when they teased us and made us think Buffy was going to die again. They had already killed her twice, I’m glad she got to survive for a change.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to start watching Angel again and keep an eye out for a spin-off.

Also, I thought Smallville was good. I think it might be an interesting direction to take the series but it wasn’t as affecting as the final Buffy and I can’t imagine how much of anything could have been.

b-ruce

May 12, 2003 7:04 AM

Hey Humans, you're totally in the Matrix!

The great guys at Penny-Arcade have put up a new strip, and it's very funny.

b-ruce