Rec Room

Found farce

Spaced makes it to DVD
Simon Pegg is funny.

By MIKE MILIARD | August 05, 2008

Fantastic voyage

A classic RPG gets made over
This is a nostalgia trip worth taking.

By RYAN STEWART | August 04, 2008

Dream on

Aerosmith can’t make Guitar Hero sing again
It is somehow fitting that the Guitar Hero series should follow the trajectory of the countless rock bands who achieve too much success too soon.

By MITCH KRPATA | July 28, 2008

Visions from Lilliput

The rise of the minisode
In a sense, every successful portmanteau word represents a narrow escape.

By JAMES PARKER | July 28, 2008

Life of Don

Mad Men ’s dark nostalgia
Mad Men continues to take us back to a time we think we know.

By JON GARELICK | July 22, 2008

Civil service

Sid Meier brings Revolution to the people
The upshot of all this building and scheming is that you can turn Paris into an Aztec city and settle Fyodor Dostoevsky in Tenochtitlan.

By RYAN STEWART | July 21, 2008

Never bet on baseball

Balls, pucks, and monster trucks.
One of my favorite stories about my dad is a sports story.

By RICK WORMWOOD | July 16, 2008

In Plain Sight’s straight talk
On USA’s nifty summer series In Plain Sight , Mary McCormack, as federal marshal Mary Shannon, joins the select league of those who’ve made jeans, tank tops, boots, and leather jackets into an American fashion statement.

By CHARLES TAYLOR | July 15, 2008

Back to the future

A new generation of Space Invaders
Of all the things to love about games, the best is when one comes out of nowhere to knock you upside the head.

By MITCH KRPATA | July 15, 2008

Tour bust

The wheels come off for Guitar Hero
It’s more pleasant than being eaten by a T. Rex.

By MITCH KRPATA | July 08, 2008

Criminal intent

Ed Burns on writing Iraq
Ed Burns — former Baltimore homicide detective, Vietnam vet, and long-time writing partner with David Simon, both on the The Wire and on Generation Kill , spoke with the Phoenix about the new series.

By ADAM REILLY | July 07, 2008

The wages of war

The creators of The Wire take on Iraq in Generation Kill
The Iraq War poses a strange problem for the American public.

By ADAM REILLY | July 07, 2008

Tokyo roses

Jeopardy! Japanese style
It’s a special people indeed who can cast off the twin yokes of rigid history and a driven work ethic to spend time unwinding in Day-Glo game-show studios.

By MIKE MILIARD | July 01, 2008

War of words

The final Metal Gear Solid doesn’t go down quietly
“War has changed,” Solid Snake tells us, both at the beginning and at the end of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots . He would know.

By MITCH KRPATA | July 01, 2008

Block party

Indiana Jones goes Lego
Somehow I missed out on the whole Lego video-game universe.

By AARON SOLOMON | June 24, 2008

Blood money

Adventures in the slave trade
Katrina Browne’s Traces of the Trade is a legendary local documentary, a film on which all hands in Boston indie production seem to have toiled at some point.

By GERALD PEARY | June 24, 2008

Blood sport

Ninja Gaiden II scores a flesh wound
To judge by the way they’re portrayed in video games, ninjas are suffering from an identity crisis.

By MITCH KRPATA | June 17, 2008

Belle de nuit

Secret Diary of a Call Girl on Showtime
Belle is, as she introduces herself right up front, “a whore.” Or, if you please, “prostitute, call girl, escort, hooker, courtesan.”

By JUSTINE ELIAS | June 16, 2008

Bourne to lose

Action, but no thrills, in this Conspiracy
The Bourne Conspiracy is a video game not directly based on the Bourne films starring Matt Damon — a fact its makers have taken great pains to obscure.

By MITCH KRPATA | June 10, 2008

Black Gold digs the crude

Oiled up
If the poet John Milton were with us today and casting about for a theme epic enough to engage his imagination, I am confident that he would settle on oil .

By JAMES PARKER | June 10, 2008