Posts by Michael Durr

Episodic Gaming, Circuit City closings, & Wii RPGs? - Welcome to the column that would get out and vote if only there was a candidate that supported more hot women in gaming known as Dare to Play the Game.

Yesterday was Election Day in the grand ole United States of America. While I could go on a nice rant about the person who got elected, this is not a politics column and I tend to steer far far away from such discussions.

Before I watched X-Men, before I watched Scooby-Doo, there were shows on my television like Sesame Street, Electric Company, and so forth. The purpose of these shows was to entertain & educate. There was also a range of 3 minute shorts that ran during Saturday morning cartoons on ABC that served a similar purpose. They were collectively called Schoolhouse Rock. From talking about Adjectives to Multiplication to our good ole Government, they helped to inform as well as entertain. In preparation for the 2008 election, Disney decided to come out with a compilation of fourteen Schoolhouse Rock shorts about everything from the Preamble to the Electoral College.

As I get older, I still find myself watching a lot of cartoons. New ones, blue ones, ones that I have no idea how they got made in the first place. So, with this practice I often run into cartoons that I have never seen but feel the need to give them a chance and see if they have any draw whether to kids, parents or me the cartoon nerd who enjoys such things. In my review pile, I stumbled upon one such cartoon and that was Pucca. From a critical eye, one might dismiss the odd characters and strange style rather quickly. However, to the careful eye one might find something a little more entertaining.

Game Cards, MK & DC gets the T, & National Gaming Day! - Welcome to the column that should get a national holiday just as long as it doesn’t have to divulge what nation it actually belongs to known as Dare to Play the Game.

I spent the last week in Ohio, I’ll try to refrain from any major jokes about buckeyes or Deliverance music or how freaking hilly the state is. I like my states flat, just like I like my wom…errr that just doesn’t sound right.

Little Big Planet causing controversy, Rockband goes a little country, and Golden Axe: Beast Rider is a bunch of rubbish - Welcome to the column that would say something about Ohio but there are people with pitchforks & torches and the Amish are a little poed off too known as Dare to Play the Game.

I am currently sitting in Ohio. Oh Hi Oh. We've had a nice time in the Buckeye state but keeping it mostly simplistic. The temperature has been very cool for this time of year at least for me. As a result I've come down with a slight cold or allergies or something that makes me all sneezy, runny nose, stuffy nose and general bad things with my nasal region.

My personal bias may be leaning through but I fully enjoy the Transformers. More than meets the eye, robots in disguise, Starscream for President! Well, he can’t be any worse than the two turkeys we got running right now. Anyhow, after the Generation 1 cartoon series came and gone, we got a slew of off-shoots and attempts at re-creating the cartoon hit that was the Transformers. In the middle of 2005, a series produced by a partnership between Hasbro and Takara came to the fold. It was a sequel to Transformers: Armada & Transformers: Energon. It was called Transformers: Cybertron. Fifty two episodes later, the series ended. Was it any good or did it just get sucked into a black hole?

Most people who know me know that Daredevil is my #1 Superhero of all time. Number #2 is Batman. Third is somewhat of a surprise for a lot of people. It’s the Punisher. It’s surprising because the Punisher is portrayed as a nemesis of Daredevil quite often in the comic books. However, like Batman and Daredevil, Punisher is a classic flawed hero. In the comics, his family was gunned down gangland style and he seeks out to “punish” those responsible. In the proceedings, he finds that the greatest enemy is not those who executed his family but himself. Drinking, suicidal thoughts, and endless pursuit to extract justice at any cost chip away at this very core. Enter 2004, and director Jonathan Hensleigh decides to bring the story of the Punisher to the big screen.

Xbox Live upgrades, World of Warcraft education & addictions, and the Age of Booty! - Welcome to the column would probably be delisted if Metacritic even ranked us in the first place known as Dare to Play the Game.

The Ike debris is gone, the Ike debris is gone. *Happy dance* *Just a jump to the left* *And then a step to the right* *Put your hands on your hips* *You bring your knees in tight* *But it’s the pelvic….errrr. Perhaps I should stop right there.

Standup comedians live interesting lives. The typical stand-up comic performs for fifteen to thirty minutes, two or three times a week. For many their sole purpose in life is to make people laugh. Many often suffer from depression when their acts bomb or they go through dry spells where they can’t get gigs or write new material. However, the best ones make their own breaks and find their way into their audience’s heart. Sometimes that can be accomplished through a MC. This MC or master of ceremonies can often take a grand event such as a tour that lasts 30 days & 30 nights and turn four men into superstars.

The day that Bruce Lee left us was truly a tragedy. The Game of Death was Lee’s pet project, the one where he could truly show off his skills for the world to see. He never finished it. Even though there was ninety minutes of footage, it was never completely restored to make a complete film. Instead, a mere eleven minutes and seven seconds was used in a 1978 movie called Game of Death. The plot was revised and every camera & stand-in trick was used in the book to finish the movie. The rest of the footage was either lost or found its way into the documentary, Bruce Lee: A Warrior’s Journey. One has to often wonder what the casting process behind casting a body double & stand-ins were like for somebody as unique as Bruce Lee. One also has to wonder how easy it would be to make fun of it.