Timewaster's Guide Archive

You may have already seen ads for this; rottentomatoes has it plastered all over the site right now. It looks like a traditional movie, but it's actually a collection of short films, all fully available on the Internet, that tell a serialized story about an author trying to write a book. I found it to be absolutely incredible, in writing and acting, and I wish there was more to it.

It is actually two different stories: the story of the book itself, a very absurdist thing about two brothers, called The Neverything; and the story of the author writing the book with the help of her former teacher, called Lovely By Surprise. The really weird part is that both stories are tied up in some kind of Lincoln Mercury ad campaign, but I can't imagine that this kind of thing is going to sell cars--it's too literate, too weird, and for some reason virtually devoid of cars. The major ad site is the one for The Neverything, and I haven't watched all of it because the site itself annoyed me. Lovely By Surprise, on the other hand, is astonishingly good, and very low key, and I highly recommend it:

http://www.lincoln.com/lovelybysurprise/movie.asp

Important Note: possibly because it was intended as an ad campaign, the site makes it very hard to actually view the movies in order. My first bit of advice is to skip the trailer--it gives away too much. The second bit of advice is how to watch them: this page links to chapter 5, which has three films, but there are four other chapters in the background, which you can link to by clicking on them. This is the only page I can find that links to all five chapters, so you'll just have to click chapter 1, watch them, then go back to 5, click chapter 2, etc. It's annoying, but I thought the film was worth the trouble. The first few films are ridiculously short, but after number 4 or 5 (there are 13 in all) they get longer.

I'm very interested to see what you guys think of the story. I was really impressed, and actually kind of sad to see talent like this wasted in some kind of inexplicable ad campaign.

Read it here: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=1285

You know, Fish, the next time you have a Magic date I can loan you the deck of doom; you can use it to impress him or scare him off, whichever you prefer.

After so many years, it's a sad day when we have to let one of our most prolific writers and editors go. The truth is, however, that SE has reached a point where our creative differences are simply too great to continue working together. His ideas for a fundamentalist Christian review site are certain to find an audience somewhere on the Internet, because some people will read anything, but that place is not here. We will continue to bring you quality gaming articles and movie reviews untinted by ridiculous claims and religious paranoia.

With SE gone, the position of Editor will be filled by Spriggan. I know he's not the best proofreader (by far), but he'll get articles posted on time, and he won't try to flood us with his born-again claptrap.

I hope that we can put all of this behind us and move on with our cheerful lives.

Now with Sea Monsters: http://www.wizkidsgames.com/pirates/article.asp?cid=40734

I'm not sure what I think about this. It's kind of cool, but also kind of silly. And that's kind of bad, but not necessarily.

New press release:

Play Magic Online and win a trip to E3 from Wizards of the Coast

Here's your chance to get into the biggest gaming event in the world.  Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE:HAS), is providing one lucky Magic Online player and a guest with a trip to sunny Los Angeles to attend this year's E3 Video Game Expo.  The winner will also earn a coveted first-hand look at the 2006 Magic: the Gathering Invitational, a tournament honoring only the best of the best MTG players.  To further push any Magic fan into a state of pure glee, the winner will also get a behind the scenes look at Magic Online III, which releases later this year.

Here's the deal: E3 Qualifiers will begin on March 23 and run through March 29, 2006.  The top eight finishers will move onto the secondary qualifier on April 1.  The winner of that is good-as-gold and will attend E3 2006.  Check out the Wizards website for more information, the official rules and all that small type: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=magic/magiconline/article032006.

I just got this press release from NCsoft:

Auto Assault® takes a bold step away from traditional fantasy-based online role-playing games. Where other games feature elves, swords and sorcery, Auto Assault® is all about Mutants, chain guns and tricked-out, high-powered vehicles. You’re a road warrior - horsepower and firepower are what really count as you take your place as a survivor of a post-apocalyptic Earth.

Auto Assault® features:

Destruction: The Havok™ 2 physics engine lets you destroy buildings, level towns and send enemy foot-soldiers flying through the air!
Speed: Other MMORPGs are left in the dust! Combat, travel, finding a group…everything is designed to get you into action fast
Customization: Choose your vehicle and swap out weapons, armor and more for looks and performance
Power: Choose incredible skills and powers as you level up and become a member of the road warrior elite
Combat: Take on other players – skirmish on the highways, group together for massive outpost raids or enter the Arenas
Loot: No two loot items are the same! You’ll always be on the hunt for that perfect gun, engine, armor and more to add to your unique vehicle
Create: Repair and back-engineer guns, engines and more to equip your own vehicle or sell to others.

To sign up for your place in this - the fastest, most destructive MMORPG ever – simply click here: https://secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/free_trial.pl?partner=7

We’ll send you your own serial code key that is valid from Friday, March 17th at 4pm (EST) through Tuesday, March 21st at 3am (EST).

I've been looking at this game for a while, so I'm all signed up. It looks pretty interesting.

Since there's no law against "writing lame books," they're suing him for plagiarism: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11589138/?GT1=7756