Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show

This was AMAZING last year. Check out their video (which I haven't watched with sound, so who knows what they are saying.)

http://www.nwpinballshow.com/video/index.php

For a single entry fee of $20/day there are hundreds of pinball machines and video games set to free play.

AWESOME!

-Adam!!!

Zero Punctuation iz da bom!

If you haven't seen Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw's Zero Punctuation video game reviews, you're missing out. They've become a weekly feature on the Escapist Magazine website and a highlight of my week. New episodes are posted each Wednesday and while the quality of each one is the subject of massive amounts of debate, the fact that they garner such debate is clear evidence of success.

Note: The reviews are wonderfully crass and Yahtzee is not the least bit afraid of using words like F***.

If indeed I still have regular readers (which I sort of doubt) you've probably noticed how I've started talking more and more about video games. Well, I have. There, I said it.

-Adam!!!

The Doctor is Out

I guess Dr. Phil is going to tackle violent video games. I don't normally have a problem with Dr. Phil, even when I disagree with him. He's already started with this article.

This is the quote that bothered me:

"If you shoot somebody in one of these games, you don't go to jail, you don't get penalized in some way — you get extra points!"

Extra points? What is this, 1985? Very, very few video games use points any longer. It's an antiquated term, based on an antiquated vision of what a video game is. What this says to me is Dr. Phil is speaking about these games from a position of ignorance. He doesn't play them, he doesn't know what modern games are about, but deems himself qualified to speak about them.

His advice to parents is sound, though totally obvious. Be aware of what your kids are playing, limit their time, pay some friggin' attention. Dr. Phil just needs to heed his own advice.

-Adam!!!