October 6, 2010 scottcjones 5Comments

>There’s a lot of naturally occurring downtime during our Reviews on the Run shoots. Lots of low-brow joking–the lower the brow, the better. Lots of playful insults. Lots of toilet humor. And, apparently, lots of spontaneous dancing.What I neglect to remember sometimes is that all of this is being filmed.The editors pieced together this montage–without my permission, of course–which I believe is something of an homage to the closing dance number of the Academy Award winning film, Slumdog Millionaire.And yes, when I am trying to insert my index finger into my clenched fist, the clenched fist is something of an…

September 16, 2010 scottcjones 7Comments

>My friend John Teti has a website which he uses as an aggregator for the various writings he does for various publications. (Bookmark it, if you haven’t done so already. John’s one of the best writers I know.) Taking a page from the J. Teti playbook–this isn’t the first time I’ve stolen a page from you, sir–I’ve decided to also post links to the stories I write during spare moments away from the show. Last week my review of Halo: Reach appeared in The A.V. Club. Here’s a sample:”The original Halo was many things—space opera, technical achievement, irrefutable proof that…

August 19, 2010 scottcjones 2Comments

>So Mafia II is mere days away from completely turning the game world upside down with its GTA IV gameplay and Heavy Rain-caliber cutscenes. Or, so 2K hopes.Is it great? Is it terrible? Am I even playing it? Forgive my coyness, but 2K has issued a blanket, industry-wide gag order. Anyone who is actually playing the game–and, presumably, many writers are–isn’t allowed to even Tweet that they are playing the game. Or else unholy 2K-style hell shall rain down upon them.So, in the name of keeping the hell-rain at bay, I’ll cop to playing the Mafia II demo, which is…

August 17, 2010 scottcjones 7Comments

>I was at a BBQ at Vic’s place last Sunday afternoon–the incomparable Ryan Payton was in town visiting, and we were grilling salmon steaks in the name of feting him–when the topic of conversation suddenly turned to spiders.Confession: I am no fan of spiders. Snakes? Fine. Heights? No problem. But spiders? You can keep your damn spiders, thanks.”You should have seen the one that I killed this morning,” Vic said. “It was right there.” He pointed his spatula at the corner of a free-standing umbrella, just above our heads. “I knocked it to the ground. It was one of those…

July 28, 2010 scottcjones 17Comments

>Yesterday Vic and I locked ourselves in the production office and attempted to plow through as much StarCraft II as we possibly could in the name of shooting a review sometime in the near future.Blizzard worked on this damn thing since 2003, and here I was trying to choke the whole thing down in a day or two. It’s one of the unfortunate aspects of my otherwise really, really–and I mean really–great job. In the name of being timely, sometimes there’s just no time to take your time and savor experiences.And we’re not the only ones who are consuming StarCraft…

July 24, 2010 scottcjones 3Comments

>I’ve been in San Diego this week, attending my very first Comic Con. I’ve never had any desire to go to Comic Con. I have no urge whatsoever to dress up as anything, or even look at people who are dressed up as anything. I don’t even really want to be around the dress-up people. Some are cool about it, and sort of keep to themselves, and aren’t into flaunting the fact that they are dressed up as Jocko Sinn from Obscure Manga #782. Others, the most terrible ones, embrace their disguises a little too much and run around posing…

July 9, 2010 scottcjones 3Comments

>Despite what you may have heard, the Raven-made, Activision-published Singularity is not, I repeat not, a bad game.Not at all.It’s a pretty good game. Damn good, in fact. I’ve enjoyed it as much as I’ve enjoyed anything in 2010. It’s got issues, sure, but right now it’s got good a shot at making my top 10 list this year. No, I’m not kidding.Speaking of those problems, the most egregious error–and this one is a real game-killer for most people, including critics–is that it gets off to a rotten, shit-ass start. I nearly quit playing in the game’s opening frames, out…

July 5, 2010 scottcjones 13Comments

>For about a week now I’ve been clocking three, four hours a day on Mass Effect in the name of finally finishing the game. I’m not the biggest RPG fan, so playing the game takes me outside–way outside–my comfort zone. Which is no doubt why I stopped playing it on at least three previous occasions.I lost Wrex on Virmire. I was really fond of him. And I lost Ashley, too, which really made me sad. I spent several minutes staring at my TV screen saying, “YOU MEAN SHE’S REALLY GONE? FOR THE REST OF THE GAME?” All the time I’d…

June 7, 2010 scottcjones 4Comments

>If you haven’t played Alan Wake yet, and you plan to, be warned: I’m about to shine a light on its finale AND PULL THE LEFT TRIGGER. (Which makes your beam really strong, and totally drains your flashlight’s batteries.)Actually, wait. Hold up. Don’t go anywhere.What I’m about to say probably won’t do any damage to whatever enjoyment you’d glean from the game. Alan Wake’s first few hours are without a doubt the best hours of the game–and are arguably the most interesting, genuinely unnerving hours of 2010 so far. And you can still experience those hours. Nothing I’m saying here…

June 4, 2010 scottcjones 1Comment

>The apartments here (in Vancouver) are unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, anywhere on earth.For the same amount of rent that might get me a studio apartment (with a square footage on par with what a taxi cab’s trunk would have) on a terrible block in a terrible neighborhood/terrible borough in New York City, you can have something that would make a nouveau rap star blush.Outdoor decks. Fireplaces. Views of snow-topped mountains and the ocean. Laundry machines in your own apartment. These are things that people expect from their living experiences here. Here, people fill their closets with clothing, instead…