They announced it a few months ago, but I only saw the ad for Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown yesterday. December 2nd, baby…I’m so there.
Category: Gaming
Holding the Line.
In the most recent skirmish against the machine chessmasters, human contender Garry Kasparov tied X3D Fritz in a four-game series. He fights for us.
Ender’s Games.
For you gamers out there, Day of Defeat 1.1 was released last night (over Steam.) I suspect it will conspire with Civilization 3.2 (Conquests), which I picked up while Christmas shopping today, to tempt me away from my increasingly necessary orals reading. A WWII FPS and a dominate-the-world strategy game counts as time spent historicizing, doesn’t it?
Fire in the Hole.
The source code of the much-anticipated Halflife 2 is stolen and pirated online, knocking back its release until April 2004. Hmm, that’s very annoying, and particularly if, as feared, the leak allows unsavory types to exploit further the myriad holes in Valve’s new STEAM launcher. As it is, the DoD servers I admin for are being overrun anew with h4x0rs, teamkillers, and other FPS annoyances, who’ve all received a new lease on life in the shift from WONID to STEAM. I shudder to think what will happen if the smartest of the bunch get their hands on the code and find ways to hack directly into players’ PCs.
The Big Mo.
Riding the wave of the Sleepless Summer tour, Howard Dean is not only 21 points up on Kerry in NH, he’s just raised another $10 million over the past few months (other than Clinton in 1995, a fund-raising record.) I had planned to go to the Bryant Park rally last night, but opted to watch the aptly-named Chris Moneymaker win the World Series of Poker instead. Ah well…if Dean keeps this type of stride going, I expect he’ll be back.
The Gray Davis Blues.
Via my friend Ben, try your hand at balancing a state budget…if you can.
Full House.
Now here‘s a reality show I can get into. Coverage of the World Series of Poker starts tonight on ESPN. If you’ve never tuned in before, you’d be amazed at some of the psych-out tricks these guys try to play on camera. (Via Mark.)
Death of the Party.
More good news on the gaming tip – Apparently, gamers aren’t only more spatially aware, they’re social multitaskers, too. All this validation for gamers is going to end up getting me in trouble…the last thing I need right now is another Civ binge.
Pac-Man, Lay off the Dots.
An Albany congressman proposes a “fat tax” on junk food, video games, and TV commercials to combat NY’s growing obesity rate. Thinking outside the box, I suppose, but where would this end? There are very few items in American life these days that don’t contribute to obesity, so it seems a bit harsh to pin the blame on Grand Theft Auto.
The Chimp stays in the Picture.
Max of Lots of Co. points the way to this very fun movie production game. I’m proud to say my first film, a revolutionary war drama called Republic of Virtue and starring Harrison Ford and Kate Beckinsale (also featuring Colin Farrell, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, and Maggie Gyllenhaal), went on to make over $100 million. Still, I should have cast the chimp.