I should have been a pair of ragged claws

I am now a proud owner of the new PS2 thanks to a surprisingly good deal at EB . Quick thoughts on it so far: Size Wow. I thought the GameCube was a small system, but it towers over the PSTwo and looks to be three or four times the volume. The size and color make it difficult to find when you are looking for it in a messy pile of game systems. (Not that I would know of course. This is purely hypothetical!) Top loading Argh, I wish it was a side loader so I could pile other systems on top of it. The top panel feels a bit flimsy, but hopefully the top loading will allow boot disks to emerge allowing region-free play. Loading times The loading time for games seems to be sped up a slight amount. Winning Eleven 7, a game that has load times of over a minute, probably had 10% less load time compared to my previous system. The 10 second load times of Taiko Drum Master have virtually disappeared. From the few games I tried out, it seemed the shorter the original load time was, the greater t

The latest installment of ESPN's recent sport series on American football in the US discusses the sport at Georgia Tech. Sorta. The article is more about how few students at Tech (in particular undergrads) care about football because they are simply too busy doing their work to goof off. From my experience, the article is largely accurate. I think the overall intelligence of the students is a bit overstated. There are quite a few geniuses, but Tech was largely populated by mere mortals like me. The overwhelming volume of nerdiness, though, was perfectly conveyed by the article. From my time there, I feel Georgia Tech presents a relatively unique college experience. Most people I talk to speak of the "good times" in college, the parties, the excessive drinking, and what not. I don't drink, I'm not very good at parties, and I really wanted to get something out of college rather than watch it pass by in a chemically induced stupor. (Most of my four years were indeed

Ignatz the Mouse wants nothing more than to hit Krazy Kat in the head with a brick. Krazy Kat loves being the target of Ignatz's masonry affection. And the local policeman, Offica Pup, struggles to keep them apart. I first heard of George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" comic strip in Bill Watterson's 10th anniversary Calvin and Hobbes book, where he cites it, along with Peanuts and Pogo, as the strongest influences of his work. Also in the book, Watterson laments the contraction of the comic strip, from full page canvases in the first half of the 20th century down to the three tiny frames we have today. I never understood this complaint until I got my hands on a collection of George Harriman's work. Krazy Kat is like no other comic I've seen. The way the central themes of violence, love, and justice are juxtaposed is far more twisted and challenging than anything I've seen on a comics page. The interactions three primary characters, in particular Krazy Kat'

The DNA tests just came in. Your biological father turns out to be Curt Schilling. Hey New York, nice work on the loss. The disappointment. The biggest meltdown in baseball history. And you lost to the Boston Red Sox. The shame. The shame. Hey Sox - go break the curse.

With Nintendo's recent revealing of the DS lineup , Miziguchi's Studio Q released screenshots for its upcoming title, Meteos. While I was willing to give Lumines the benefit of the doubt, the studio announcing another handheld falling-block puzzle game has erased all my optimism. Take a look at the screenshot below; it is frankly embarassing. And the knife to the belly: the lead designer is none other than Kirby creator, Masahiro Sakurai . Oy vei.

Brilliant happy game but don't make me walk so much two visits is fine

NFC Games has an excellent article on the visual evolution of Nintendo's Mario character. Comparing and contrasting the various character designs over the last two decades is enjoyable, but I don't agree with a bit of the analysis. The "Jumped the Shark" Mario section largely features designs not created by Nintendo's core development group in Japan - rather by Square and NST, Nintendo's in-house team in the US. I'd consider the Paper Mario 2 iteration of Mario to be the de facto 2D version of the famed mascot rather than the blurry Donkey Kong Country-style mess in Mario vs. Donkey Kong.