I was out playing Super Contra on an arcade machine last week, and a non-gamer friend commented on how cool is it was that this game was side-scrolling, unlike that “other Contra” game he’d played on the Playstation, which just “didn’t feel like a Contra...

If you follow the history of console video games, it has generally followed this (very) rough progression: Low resolution 2D games of the Atari and Commodore era Rich, colorful 2D experiences with Nintendo, Sega Genesis, etc. Early 3D with the N64 3D for ever and ever from then on, with...

We’ve all heard about how video games are infiltrating everyday life. Infiltrating it to an almost annoyingly offensive level. After reading a few trade magazines with such articles, I started thinking about parts of life that already have video game style rules. Consider the deep, intricate...

Ernessa says: One of the nice things about getting rid of cable this fall was that I didn’t end up watching many shows I disliked, as I was too busy marathoning all the good stuff, like DAMAGES (Netflix), FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS (Netflix), and MISFITS (Hulu). But before I let go of our...

Ernessa says: Oh, I had a hard time with choosing a best TV show this year. I usually pick comedies, and in 2012, we had a couple that I really love: THE MINDY PROJECT‘s Mindy Kaling feels like my spirit animal, and the zany alien show, THE NEIGHBORS, makes me feel like I’m back...

Ernessa says: Well, I’m not sure how this happened, but Fun., a group that received lots of love on our Best of list, is my pick for Worst song of the year. At first I only didn’t particularly like WE ARE YOUNG, but then I started loathing it, with its 20s hipster sensibility and...