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Ryan Stewart

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The year of the nerd

Screw the jocks and prom queens — in 2008, geeks took control of entertainment, pro sports . . . even the White House
Barack Obama is many things. Dedicated senator. Devoted husband and father. Adept orator. President-elect. Nerd.

By: RYAN STEWART | December 24, 2008

Review: Fallout 3

It's okay to look in Fallout 3
Several games have attempted to re-create an entire major city to serve as the environment. Fallout 3 destroys one.

By: RYAN STEWART | November 24, 2008

Melodies are fleshy and accessible In Ear Park

4AD (2008)
Rare is the side project that outstrips the better-known band, but Dan Rossen, one of the main men of Grizzly Bear, does just that with his “other band,” Department of Eagles.

By: RYAN STEWART | October 21, 2008

NBC's Chuck doesn't deliver

NBC’s Chuck is a concept in search of a show
Though Chuck is programmed as a comic-action hybrid, it doesn’t do either particularly well.

By: RYAN STEWART | October 21, 2008

Built To Spill & DinoJr at the Orpheum

Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr, and Built to Spill at the Orpheum, September 27, 2008
The problem with these “play your most revered album in full” shows that everyone from Public Enemy to Liz Phair is doing lately is that the correct answer is not always a no-brainer.

By: RYAN STEWART | October 01, 2008

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

No new lease on life for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Many people regard anything produced in the past 15 years or so bearing the Star Wars brand as total garbage, and rightly so.

By: RYAN STEWART | September 23, 2008

I love the ’90s

The CW’s new 90210
When the CW did not send out screeners of the pilot of 90210 some observers took that as a bad sign.

By: RYAN STEWART | September 16, 2008

Science? Or fiction?

J.J. Abrams’s oddball Fringe
“It’s not an exact science,” Dr. Bishop says. His wise-ass son Peter interjects: “It’s not even science.”

By: RYAN STEWART | September 08, 2008

Fantastic voyage

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

By: RYAN STEWART | August 04, 2008

David Vandervelde

Waiting for the Sunrise | Secretly Canadian
Vandervelde's latest takes the familiar Byrds-meets-the-Band sound and bakes it in the sun till golden.

By: RYAN STEWART | July 29, 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

Bonnie Prince Billy

Lie down in the light | Drag City
Long-time fans of prolific country-folk icon Will Oldham, a/k/a Bonnie “Prince” Billy, will likely be surprised to hear Lie Down in the Light .

By: RYAN STEWART | October 27, 2008

Unkindest cuts

Ninja Gaiden suffers a lethal blow
Some advice for game developers: just because the Nintendo DS has a microphone does not mean you have to shoehorn the mic into every DS game.

By: RYAN STEWART | April 22, 2008

Black Mountain

In the Future | Jagjaguwar
The band’s sound comes together best on the opening track, “Stormy High,” which, rather than inspiring you to space out, pulls you out of your seat with its relentless monster garage riffage.

By: RYAN STEWART | April 08, 2008

Odyssey of the mind

A Lost art resurfaces on the 360
If this current generation of gaming lacks anything, it’s traditional role-playing games.

By: RYAN STEWART | February 25, 2008

Rock Band

Supplementing Harmonix's 58-song set list
Would more Britpop be too much to ask?

By: RYAN STEWART | February 12, 2008

Legally previewed

A look at 2008's anticipated releases
Here’s a look at some of January and February’s more anticipated releases and their legally available free previews.

By: RYAN STEWART | December 31, 2007

In a bit of a jam

The follow-up to video-game smash Guitar Hero lets everybody play — even the weakest link
To suck at an electronic endeavor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, of all places, is analogous to sucking at, say, making soup at cooking school.

By: RYAN STEWART | November 14, 2007

Strummer vacation

Guitar Hero 3 is on its own
The first two installments of the enormously popular Guitar Hero franchise were designed and developed by Harmonix, a Cambridge-based company famous for employing a horde of musicians.

By: RYAN STEWART | November 06, 2007