Tuesday July 08, 2008
Latest Columns 
Get ready to rock, needlepoint-style
Published: Friday, July 4, 2008 12:00 AM Page R21
Aren't you supposed to get better at something if you keep trying? You may, for example, take your midlife crisis in the form of a triathlon and find yourself flailing on your back in the swim portion, looking up to realize that not only are you not doing the smooth front crawl you imagined but you've been heading in the wrong direction for much of the race.
Get ready to rock, needlepoint-style
Online Edition: Thursday, July 3, 2008 10:00 PM
In an ingenious piece of engineering, developers have fitted a glove-like add-on to the bottom of the Nintendo DS
Shoot the bad guys, then stop and think about it
Published: Friday, June 27, 2008 12:00 AM Page R23
The guns have gone silent. A few minutes ago, rebels were fighting mercenaries hired by a paramilitary company, but now the only sound is snoring. A lone figure in a skintight, high-tech suit that blends its wearer into any background, has been crawling through the battlefield firing anesthetic darts into each combatant. With no one left to shoot at him, the grey-haired man rises slowly, perhaps feeling a long piece of narrative exposition heading toward him on the horizon, and massages a crick in his back.
A manual labour of love
Online Edition: Thursday, June 26, 2008 10:00 PM
The sheer creative expanse of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots requires some digestion time
Gaming art draws the short stick in visual art show
Published: Friday, June 20, 2008 12:00 AM Page R22
''Here, you try.''A teen hands the Nintendo GameCube controller to his mother, who holds it as if it might bite her if given a chance. We are standing over 12 television screens jutting up from the middle of a large room at the Vancouver Art Gallery, part of a continuing exhibition called Krazy! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art.
Exhibition Krazy!
Online Edition: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:00 PM
Gaming art draws the short stick in visual art show
The perfect soccer game lies just down the field
Published: Friday, June 6, 2008 12:00 AM Page R23
Wayne Rooney, the English soccer star, breaks through the last line of defence and is one on one with the goalkeeper. Rooney smoothly moves into shooting range, paying no attention to the keeper now rushing out at him. In fact, he's not paying attention to anything: Virtual Rooney stands idly by while the goalie collects the ball at his feet - and then I realize I'm shaking my left hand in the air.
Footie feature fan
Online Edition: Thursday, June 5, 2008 10:00 PM
The perfect soccer game lies just down the field in a game not yet made
Game geekery reaches the next level
Published: Friday, May 30, 2008 12:00 AM Page R23
If you charted the development of various media formats, the arcs for video games and comic books would be almost identical: They started off largely as amusements for children, and then went through sustained periods of both hand-wringing and creative growth as their content and forms matured.
Game geekery reaches next level
Online Edition: Thursday, May 29, 2008 10:00 PM
Role playing on the rain-slick precipice of darkness
