2009: A Year in Reviews
Wow, I wrote a lot of reviews this year. Since it's the first week of 2010, I figured I'd gather all of the links and house them in one convenient place. Aside from the abundance of Joystiq reviews, I also started my own Quick 'n Dirty Reviews here. Head past the break for the linkage and I hope you find the reviews helpful/informative/not completely boring!
My Skate 2 highlight reel
With the dearth of gaming news going on this week, I took an hour to slap together this quick highlight reel of my Skate 2 replays. Nothing amazing, but I'm pretty proud of that sick manual line across the lily pads, thank you very much!
Oh, and sorry for the crummy quality, but that's how EA's site spits 'em out. Oh, and stay tuned for my Halo 3 replays, if you care about that kind of thing. Oh!
Technical Difficulties – Please Stand By
Sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been having issues with the site recently. I'm trying to sort it out, so please bear with me!
Listen to me on the latest Xbox 360 Fancast
I guest-hosted on the latest Xbox 360 Fancast this week (we actually recorded on Friday). Joining the Xbox 360 banter you'd expect, there's plenty of talk about the Dropbear problem in Australia and I even do a funny voice or three. It was a hoot and a holler and if you enjoy entertaining things, I suggest you make with the link clicking.
Values from Video Games: Ryu
In an attempt to get more content here on my personal blog (I can't just write Quick 'n Dirty Reviews forever now, can I?), I've decided to get a bit personal with Values from Video Games, a semi-regular feature on the games and characters that helped shape me as a person. In the first edition, I'll be talking about Capcom's Ryu and how the fictional man taught me to be a real one.
I don't mean this post to be any slight against my own father -- he worked almost 14 hours a day when I was younger to get enough scratch together (not to discount my mom's efforts, which included taking care of us and working) so he could get our family out of Philly and afford us with opportunities he never had. As such, I never had many male role models around me much when I was a kid -- just my evil, manipulative and selfish brother - but I sure as hell had a lot of video games!
Video walkthrough of the new Nintendo Channel on Wii
Today, the Nintendo Channel on the Wii updated, adding a bunch of new features. I did a little walkthrough video (nothing special) for Joystiq and figured I should probably dump it over here, too. So, that's what I'm doing. What, you wanna fight about it?
When pranks go wrong
Let me preface this a bit by giving you all the backstory.
On Christmas, I went down to my Pop Pop's house to see the family and all. My little cousin Lauren (10) and her older sister Brianna (12) are both big fans of these Jonas Brothers, which is one of those cookie-cutter musical acts that Disney likes to churn out for the kids. Well, after that day, when I left, I got a great idea to play a practical joke on my cousins. So I told my parents I would photoshop myself into a picture with the trio and make up this whole story about knowing them or some such.
Thoughts: Seven Pounds
I went into Seven Pounds hoping to be wowed, because, well I like Will Smith and he's due to be in another awesome movie. I wasn't (and this sure isn't "awesome"), but that's not the end of the world. In fact, there are some really good parts in this movie, and both Will Smith and Barry Pepper turned in convincing performances, as well as Rosario Dawson. In the end, I think the biggest faults with this film are the pacing and the editing, which don't really work together to gradually reveal Ben's (Will Smith) motives. I'd suggest this as a date movie, which is good to watch once, then easily forgotten.
Quick bio:Hi! I'm David Hinkle, Contributing Editor for Joystiq, former Lead of DS Fanboy and Wii Fanboy and co-host on the Xbox 360 Fancast. Basically, I write about games, talk about games and play games -- all the time.
This place is mainly a dumping ground for random thoughts, but you can also find links to all of my reviews and my contact info. Email me by clicking on this link.
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twitter.com/DaveHinkle
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