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In Theaters This Weekend: December 10, 2010
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, IFC Films, Miramax, Paramount, Sony, Action, Adaptation, Adventure, Biopics, Documentary, Drama, Family, Independent, Sequels, Comedy, Sports, Thrillers, Lists, New Releases, Trailers,
Here are a few selections in theaters this weekend:
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (PG): starring Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley (directed by Michael Apted)
- The Tourist (PG-13): starring Johnny Depp, Angelina Jolie, Paul Bettany (directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)
- And Everything is Going Fine* (NR): starring Spalding Gray (directed by Steven Soderbergh)
- The Fighter* (R): starring Christian Bale, Mark Wahlberg, Amy Adams (directed by David O. Russell)
Click to continue reading In Theaters This Weekend: December 10, 2010
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Gas Torch Flames in Spirals
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Smart Home, Misc. Tech,
If you really want to wow the neighbors, add a Tempest Gas Torch to your porch or patio. The effect is somewhat magical, for the flame inside the ceramic glass spirals around instead of simply flaring up. Recommended for mounting anywhere outside, Travis Industries is hoping that everyone will want their own Tempest. We dig the cleverness of the design and want to know what it will do with/to marshmallows. Contact them for price and availability.
Read More | Travis Industries
Console Downloads Feature Space Bounty Hunters and Also Giraffes
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Adventure, Nintendo, Platformers, Retro, Third Person Shooters, Virtual Console, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade,
People with virtual currency burning pixelated holes in their alternate reality pockets can check out the Xbox Live Arcade and the Wii Virtual Console this week for some new (or perhaps old) titles. The most exciting offerings this week look to be the Jeff Minter shooter Space Giraffe and the wonderful SNES classic, Super Metroid.
Click to continue reading Console Downloads Feature Space Bounty Hunters and Also Giraffes
Read More | Nintendo Press Release
California Extreme Channels a Simpler Time
Posted by Paul Hamilton Categories: Culture, Editorial, Retro,
Gamers of a certain age, if given half a chance, will gladly recount grand tales of smoky rooms, dimly lit by a few dozen cathode rays where the only sounds are the white noise of competing digitized soundtracks, crude speech sythesizers, blips and bells, pings and whistles and artificial arpeggios rolling down an electronic scale.
The misty sincerity of those gamers who cut their teeth on the quarter-munching cabinets of Space Invaders, Asteroids, Missile Command and Sinistar is almost enough to make one forget what a mess the modern arcade equivalent has become. The gargantuan interface machines with their elaborate weapon approximations and physical demands juxtapose over a likewise spectacular price per play resulting in a hollow shell of what the old guard knew so well. These are not arcades as exist in those guarded memories, they are interactive entertainment experiences: The kind of branded, marginalized speciality device that has been focus tested and trade-show marketed to get the premium floor space right out front in view of the mall concourse is showpiece here.
Even those arcade machines which can still accurately be described as video games compete for the higher-yield ticket-generating skill games (which ironically involve very little skill). Most of those who recall the days when 3D graphics referred to the vector lines of Tempest pass by these modern emporiums. Perhaps they shake their heads a little or make a disparaging comment. Kids these days. Get off my lawn. They don’t enter; inside is only heartbreak.
Perhaps what hurts the most is that it is a heartbreak we chose. We have no one to blame but ourselves, for while the arcade as it was may be dead, ultimately it is us who killed it.
We wanted the more valuable entertainment experience. We asked for and then demanded a perfect replica of our arcade favorites that we could play at home from the comfort of our couches. We pressed for more arcade-quality graphics on our home consoles until our set top boxes had visuals that outpaced anything showcased on a standalone machine. We asked for, and received, greater narrative depth in our games and as a casualty for our insistence we killed the arcade—the very entity we now mourn.
Click to continue reading California Extreme Channels a Simpler Time
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