July 17, 2009

Film Friday: “Harry Potter and the Overused Headline Joke” / Torontoist

“The problem with discussing a new Harry Potter film—such as the just-released Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince—is that there’s no way to win. If you’re in favour of the series, you’re an adult in arrested development reading poorly written nonsense for kids. If you think it’s poorly written nonsense for kids, you’re a heartless curmudgeon who can’t see all the hidden depth. So to be honest, we’re just going to leave it completely alone. You pretty much know if you want to see it if you’re a fan or not, right?”

July 17th, 2009 : Columns, Torontoist
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July 16, 2009

Archive: 14-16th July 2009: Develop Conference 2009 / Gamasutra

I had an absolutely great Develop this year – ignoring getting the worst chips ever in the chip shop next door to the Hilton Brighton Metropole. As well as my coverage for Gamasutra I moderated a session in the first day’s “Evolve” track, After the iPhone Honeymoon:Where Next for Apple’s Mobile? (which went rather well, thanks to speakers such as ngmoco’s Alan Yu and Tag Games‘ Paul Farley), performed a “Best Worst Game” live on One Life Left, and got stuck in during the Develop Den Opinion Jam arguing against arbitrary moral choices in video games. I only lost out to Ernest Adams, who argued for better writers (which no one could disagree with, surely?)

Develop 2009: David Perry: ‘Gaming Should Be More Convenient’
Develop 2009: Team17’s Brown Talks Challenges Of Self-Publishing Online
Develop 2009: Thatgamecompany’s Chen On How Emotion Can Evolve Games
Develop 2009: Realtime Worlds’ Jones On Players As Content
Develop 2009: SCEE’s Hirani Reveals PS Eye Facial Recognition, Motion Controller Details
Develop 2009: LittleBigPlanet’s Cohesive Chaos

July 16th, 2009 : Archive, Gamasutra
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July 11, 2009

Gaming Made Me: Mathew Kumarked These Highly / Rock Paper Shotgun

“To be frank (don’t worry, you can still be Shirley) the first thing that disturbs me about writing about how gaming made me is that so many of you reading this won’t be old enough to remember going into a John Menzies and browsing the racks and racks of games between £1.99 and £2.99, buying one almost certainly on the basis of how interesting the cover was (or sometimes how many games they’d managed to crush on; Codesmasters sticking four, usually terrible, games on some of their tapes got me more than once) and then going home and waiting for the tape to load while reading the insert.”

I take part in Rock Paper Shotgun’s absolutely fantastic “Gaming Made Me” series. Read them all! Mine’s best, obviously, but they’re all good.

July 11th, 2009 : Features, Rock Paper Shotgun
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July 10, 2009

Film Friday: “The Brüno Locker” / Torontoist

“Though we’ve been known to take a bit of an interest in Susan Cole’s writing in this column, it almost seems untoward to add to any more fuel to the still roaring Susan Cole–fire (see what we did there?). But it’s impossible to talk about any of this week’s film coverage without noting the strange sort of dissonance going on in NOW’s film pages, relating specifically to Sasha Baron Cohen’s Brüno. First, we’ve got Norm Wilner’s overwhelmingly negative review, where he claims that ‘it’s shock comedy based entirely on gay panic’—a point that a lot of pre-release coverage implied. Then there’s Susan Cole’s ‘feature’ on the movie, which is, ahem, another review of it.”

July 10th, 2009 : Columns, Torontoist
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July 6, 2009

Interview: Ubisoft’s Mallat On New Toronto Studio’s Future / Gamasutra

“Following Monday’s press conference announcing a new Ubisoft development studio in Toronto, Gamasutra had a chance to talk to the studio’s new CEO, Yannis Mallat.

Mallat — who is also to continue overseeing Ubisoft Montreal — talked to us about the big plans for a “triple-A” game development studio, with convergence with the local film industry key.”

A decent interview with Yannis Mallat about the very exciting news of a new studio for Ubisoft here in Toronto. I’ve spoken with Mallat before, and with this kind of news I expect to be talking to him a lot more.

July 6th, 2009 : Gamasutra, Interviews
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July 3, 2009

Film Friday: “Public Enemy Number One” / Torontoist

“Though Michael Mann has many fans, it would be inaccurate to call us one. Sure, we consider his version of Manhunter to be pretty much the best (Brian Cox’s chillingly reserved Hannibal ‘Lecktor’ far better than Anthony Hopkins’ later scenery chewing). Mann’s recent thrillers have all been turgid, reaching an absolute nadir with Miami Vice—the kind of film you’d imagine would send the series creator into conniptions if that wasn’t, absurdly, Mann himself.”

July 3rd, 2009 : Columns, Torontoist
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July 1, 2009

The Canada Day Fragments / Future Shop Tech Blog

“Tim has just done a nice post celebrating Canadian music for Canada Day, pointing out some Canadian music worth checking out (such as Malajube, which I second). If I was to write about Canadian music I’d spend the whole time inciting the nation to murder Nickleback, so I won’t do that. Instead I’m inspired to write about one of my favourite Canadian directors, Bruce McDonald, in the hopes that if you’ve never seen anything by him you’ll check him out.”

Though hardly tech related, I thought I’d celebrate Bruce McDonald this Canada day.

July 1st, 2009 : Future Shop Tech Blog, Uncategorized
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June 26, 2009

Film Friday: “The Transformer Experience” / Torontoist

“What an incredible week for cinema it is if you’ve got a genuine interest in the representation of women in film. It’s the kind of week you could write an entire research paper on. First of all we’ve got Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which uses Michael Bay’s ever-so-male gaze to stare at Megan Fox with the same kind of lust with which it stares at the vehicles the Transformers turn into—an empty collection of moving parts that are probably good for a ride.”

June 26th, 2009 : Columns, Torontoist
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June 19, 2009

Film Friday: “Weak One” / Torontoist

“Weirdest news of the week? That Lars Von Trier’s much-talked-about-at-Cannes horror film Antichrist is receiving a video-game adaptation. How utterly bizarre.”

June 19th, 2009 : Columns, Torontoist
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June 12, 2009

Film Friday: “Away We Depart” / Torontoist

“Perhaps it’s not handsome, but there’s a weird sort of gratification when you read an article or review that agrees with something you’re already thinking. Such as Jason Anderson’s review in Eye of Away We Go, where he notes that ‘Even the least discerning and most pliant indie hipsters may have cringed at the poster for Away We Go. That cutesy, post-Juno graphic-design cocktail of photo, illustration and hand-drawn type was more than enough to indicate the movie’s target demographic even if star John Krasinski wasn’t pictured looking like a guy who sells merch at a Fleet Foxes show.’”

June 12th, 2009 : Columns, Torontoist
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