Glitz Over Gameplay

I think that my efforts to make my blog entries shorter has been a success so far, what do you think? Please comment and share your thoughts. I just feel that this way more people will read entire posts and I can get more work done. The topic for today is rooted in video games and is inspired by quite a sensational article in a growing concern today: the lack of truly innovative games. There have been a few recently that are pretty creative, but a lot of them have been just fodder for marketing schemes. The main idea he's trying to hit is that the game industry has gotten caught in a cycle where they have to make hollow big hits in order to take maybe one or two risks, and as a result many of them have been taking less and less risks. Instead, they're trying to stay atop competitors in graphics. It's sad when people with fresh ideas are left in the dark in any field, and to see it happening in video games is pretty sad given just how much of a spread over age groups there is. Everything is more complicated than it sounds, of course, but some of us have to dream of a utopian society if we ever want to reach it I suppose.



If you had to guess what car has that interior, you probably wouldn't guess a new Mazda concept car, but it's true. What's really fascinating is that the Sassou would operate using a USB flash drive as the key, which you could also use to store music and driving directions. Now that's something I'd like to see soon. The bigger issue right now though is gas prices, and the New York Times has a great rant on how unprepared the energy industry has been for such a downturn. I wish I could say that in the next few weeks they could restore production in that part of the Gulf and lower prices, but it seems unlikely and I think many people are already clamoring for government intervention. Sadly, they elected a conservative Republican. Lastly, if you want to want to correct some myths on the antagonism between Microsoft and Linux, check out this interview that sheds much light on the situation.

I'm going to kick off the movie news with the freaky stuff. IGN has some pretty creepy pictures from Saw II to satisfy the sadist within you. Yahoo! Movies put up a couple of clips from The Exorcism of Emily Rose, but it unfortunately highlights the scary parts rather than the courtroom drama core. AICN has a couple of reviews from a screening of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but they're both pretty contradictory. It sounds like fans of the book will like it better though. Lastly, the Queen of the hotties, Jessica Alba, has signed on for a thriller called Awake about being awake but paralyzed during surgery. It may not sound good so far, but we really don't have much plot to go on yet.

Now for the 3x Thursday:

1. Do you think national holidays (President's Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, etc) are a joke? Why/Why not?
Not really. I think they're more like well-deserved breaks for the working class. Labor Day and Thanksgiving are the only holidays UT students get this Fall, and we need them both.

2. What's your favorite national holiday? Why?
Probably Thanksgiving because it's an ideal amount of time to spend away from school to chill with family.

3. If you had to come up with a national holiday of your own, what would it be?
What worthwhile dates are left to decree holidays?

Bonus Question for Comments: Are you doing anything for Labor Day this year?
I'm going to plan my weekend as it goes along (i.e. I'm a loser and am hoping to find people to hang out with). I am going to the UT game Saturday night for sure though.