Ken Newquist 
Roger Ebert has famously said that video games may have the potential to be beautiful, well crafted, and technically competent … but they are not art. In a later column, he asked what video game made to date could possibly stand up against the greatest movies ever made? Admittedly, I find his premise faulty; I … Read more
I’ve had an Xbox for going on four years, and a 360 for one and a half. I’ve spent many a happy hour playing online, both over Verizon DSL and RCN Cable, on the 360 … at least until Halo 3 arrived. For some reason, Halo 3 refused to play nice like the rest of … Read more
My new MacBook Pro arrived Friday, and the first thing I did (after basking in the beauty that is a new Mac) was to start loading my “must have” applications on it it. Of these, the Quicksilver fast app launcher is probably the single most important tool I have — using it has become as … Read more
The Lehigh Valley’s annual Celtic Festival is underway in Bethlehem, which means that most of my friends chose to drink, eat and listen to great music rather than game. That said, two of us were still able to get a little gaming in, namely a playtest of the new Halo ActionClix collectible miniatures game from … Read more
Hallmark’s released their Winter 2007 ornaments, so it’s time to warp ahead to the future of this year’s Geek Tree. I have my eye on three new ornaments, two spawned by Star Trek and and Joss Whedon’s Firefly. First up is the three-warp nacelled Enterprise 1701-D from the episode of “All Good Things”, the series finale … Read more
Prepping for Issue #1 of Infinity Storm didn’t leave me with enough time to write a Game Day column last week. This week though, I’m back in the player’s seat for our ongoing Ravenloft campaign. The campaign’s got a few new tricks up its sleeve, mainly a whole slew of deadly effects from Paizo’s GameMastery … Read more
The Cosmic Cup had live jazz tonight (with my boss on drums, so I stopped by with the kids for coffee, hazelnut chocalate gelato, and good music. We didn’t stay long — StarGirl was tired after a big day at preschool — but the kids seemed to enjoy it, and it was a great break from … Read more
This brand-speaking new Radio Active promo talks about the wonders and challenges of geek parenting. It’s 1:52 minutes long and is saved in MP3 format. Download the file and share and enjoy!
On this edition of Radio Active, Nuketown ventures into Facebook, the epic MacQuest gets an update (and the nifty new/old iPod nano arrives) and Halo 3 looms like a shadow over all that we do. We’ve got Mighty Morphing Toddlers as NeutronLad walks and talks like never before, and StarGirls delves deep into Princess Star Wars. Netheads … Read more
Martin Rayla has a great thread over on Treasure Tables about using music in your game. He’s not talking just about having something going on in the background, but also crafting a soundtrack that matches the expected actions, fights and drama that the players will be experiencing. I’ve used music in my games before, but … Read more