A review of the book Dungeons & Dreamers has been posted, after receiving permission to make it available after its initial publication earlier this year in Juiced.GS, an Apple II newsletter (hence the focus of the article). I usually find video game chronologies somewhat staid and boring, despite the subject matter (Game Over being an excellent exception), but this one held my interest through the end.

Release dates updated.

Sony announced a new model PlayStation 2, due to hit store shelves on November 1st. Judging from the picture, this thing is slim.

This announcement goes against popular theory that Sony would want at least one holiday season at its current price point to deplete its current inventory before replacing the PS2 with a newer model. Fascinating.

Movies from several perspectives: theater seat, couch seat, (baseball) stadium seat.

Review of Resident Evil: Apocalypse is up. Several aspects of the movie are left uncommented on, such as the Russian troops being faithful to the Resident Evil 2 game in appearance if not personality – but I believe I got the gist of the film (which is written by Paul W.S. Anderson, who wrote the medicore [and ridiculously PG-13-rated] Alien vs. Predator, and the excellent Mortal Kombat film).

Prior to the film was shown a trailer of The Grudge, which, along with another movie that was previewed, I initially thought might be a Fatal Frame film. But The Grudge made up for it by starring Sarah Michelle Gellar in a dark and spooky setting – a real stretch for the vampire slayer.

I recently splurged on some DVDs, most of them items I'd missed upon release: Buffy Seasons Six and Seven; Quantum Leap Season One (Season Two'll be out for Christmas!); ReBoot Season Four (it's been too long since season three); and the Star Wars Trilogy (duh), which releases tomorrow.

I spent the weekend in Boston, doing extra work in Fever Pitch, a movie based on the Nick Hornby book and starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. Comedian Steve Hofstetter has already succintly outlined the lack of gratification involved in being an extra, so I shan't expound on it otherwise here except to say that the real pay was having another entry on my resume; that 17 hours of freezing cold in Fenway is not an experience I wish to have again (I knew I was tired when, on the drive home, my vision suffered from pop-up); and that I'll probably have to wait to freeze-frame the DVD (due in 2006) before I see if I'm even in the darn thing. (my "appearance must be visible in the final cut of the film" in order to submit an update to the IMDB, says they)

And on a non-movie note, my alma mater is designing a major dedicated to game design. Game on, WPI – and props for putting a GameCube controller on your front cover.

Silent Hill 4: The Room is out. I think it's a bit soon for this game – only a year after Silent Hill 3. There was hardly time for any antici…. pation to build. Did that stop me from picking it up? Come on – this series continuously ranks in my top games of whatever year in which they are released. I'm always up for a good fright (which I didn't get from Resident Evil: Apocalypse – more on that later).

If you're into storytelling (then again, don't see Resident Evil: Apocalypse), then Fable is out soon – as is Demon Stone, which should be well-received if for no reason than the involvement of acclaimed fantasy author R.A. Salvatore.

Street Fighter: Anniversary Collection is a repackaging of little that we haven't already experienced on other consoles, but surprisingly, contains the feature length film Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (doubtless the rated version, sans Chun-Li shower scene).

Speaking of surprises, I was accepted into the World of Warcraft stress test. But this short-term phase of the beta-test runs only through tomorrow (Sunday the 12th), and I didn't get the notice until Friday the 10th, which is exactly when my DSL connection decided to crawl at dial-up speeds, which was not conducive to downloading the 2.2GB installer. So, no test for me. Ah well.

PBS will be airing a show on the history of video games. Check your local listings – and play some classic video game trivia quizzes, while you're at it.