Dots & Slashes

What ARE "Dots" and "Slashes"...?

In the TV world there's "cheers and jeers." In the movie world there's "thumbs up" and "thumbs down." Well, here in cyberspace, there are  (...) dots and (/) slashes. Such are the icons for this web site's own quickie "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" list, which is added to whenever the latest entertainment news requires it.  What news bytes hit their mark, and which should be slashed? Here are the latest of them.

 

Past Lists:

 

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January-April, 2006

Want Something Praised or, well..."slashed"...? Send a note, and we'll add it to the list!

DOT :  To Tomb Raider Legend, for putting its PC version on DVD. With its way-cool "Next Generation Graphics" option turned on, the Windows XP version of TR:L is the best looking version (yes, including X-Box 360, although that's the best looking video game system version). The only thing that would distract from it would be if the videos had to be made lower resolution due to the "need" to place the game on compact disc. So they release the game exclusively on DVD, and every PC owner is a winner. I guess I should take this time to give a small yet affectionateSlash to Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, for being on six CDs. But I digress. You put TR:L in the drive and it's as good as installed, with no obnoxious CD-shuffling along the way.  That's the way it should be.

 

DOT :  Another "thumbs up" for Tomb Raider: Legend, for an amusing downloadable extra prior to its release. Go to the official web site and find in the media section "Desktop Lara," which will literally put Lara Croft on your desktop. The interesting part; she will not just walk around at the bottom of the screen, but she will remark on things you do, and at times, even use her magnetic grappling hook to climb atop a mini window or two. Each time the program is clicked on, Desktop Lara will also check the official web site for updates. Click on a button to see these updates in mini-menu form, and Lara will sit next to the mini screen like while watching the latest trailer or screenshots. This is really a neat idea. What could be next...? "Desktop Sonic" and "Desktop Mario," perhaps? That'd be cool.

 

DOT :  To all those games that have taken the X-Box 360's faceplate option to new heights. Pre-ordering highly anticipated games like Full Auto and The Outfit gave you a special gift: an exclusive faceplate for your X-Box 360, in the spirit of the game. Pre-ordering Full Auto got you a faceplate that looked like the front of a racecar; The Outfit earned a sort of Army fatigues faceplate for your pre-order. So suddenly your system looks like "part of the actual game." One can only hope this trend catches on. We love the idea of changing the faceplate every few weeks, depending on our mood that month. It would also be cool to see how imaginative the faceplates get after awhile. A Star Wars faceplate would be pretty cool. Let's hope that one comes soon.

 

Slash : To all the barrage of "fat suit stories" all over the entertainment news shows lately. To make matters worse; someone actually felt a sequel to Big Momma's House was necessary. But all these skinny people who wear a fat suit and are all "oh my gosh I can't believe people are so mean to me"...? Excuse me, please, but if you're supposedly trying to help fat people everywhere, would it be so scandalous to have followed around an actually overweight person for a day? Or is it suddenly a more "interesting" report because everyone knows it's really Miss Foxy-Booty underneath all that spurious fatness? If you want to help overweight people, make them a correspondent. Other than that; enough with the "twerp in a fat suit" video stories already.

 

DOT :  To Microsoft's newest mouse, and it's "zoom button." On honor of larger screens with tighter resolutions, here's a mouse that with one click puts a "zoom window" on the screen, like a virtual mini magnifying glass. Hold down the button and either enlarge the zoom window or make the magnification larger or smaller. That's pretty cool. 

 

Slash : To the rather boring February sweeps this year, when some shows barely aired a new episode at all. Remember when February sweeps was important? Someone does not...and they were in charge of scheduling for the major networks. Lost had all of two new episodes. Other networks relied on promos for their new shows arriving in March. March isn't part of sweeps, so, seriously...what happened here?

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