Activision juggernaut Call of Duty has made entertainment history once more with the release of Modern Warfare 3, which sold 6.5 million copies in its first day of release, The Guardian reported. In 24 hours CoD:MW3 made $400 million in the U.S. and UK alone, shaming opening day sales for Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the July release that set the highest-grossing opening day for the film industry at $91 million. “Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening...

The internet is a big place, and one is never surprised to find cutthroat debates that might not register on the average person’s radar: “Firefox vs. Chrome,”  “Kirk vs. Picard,” “Joel vs. Mike,” to name just a few. One more debate for you: Call of Duty versus Battlefield. Battlefield 3 was released for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 Oct. 25, and with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 out this past Tuesday (Nov. 8), the drawn-out dispute is coming to a head. At this point you’ve silently affirmed your loyalty...

Puget Sound professor Hans Ostrom will soon break into Hollywood with Napa, the film adaptation of his mystery novel Three to Get Ready, which begins filming this week. Napa stars Rose McGowan (best known for her roles in Grindhouse and Charmed) as Scarlett Harding, a Napa, Calif. native who begins work as county sheriff after returning from three tours in Afghanistan. McGowan will be joined by Kevin Pollack, of The Usual Suspects fame, Taryn Manning of  Hustle and Flow and Sean Astin, the inimitable Samwise Gamgee, in the role of...

At a convention in Las Vegas on Nov. 18 or 19, a Swedish game developer will announce the “release” of a game that has already sold nearly 4 million copies, earned a “big pile of awards” (developer’s words) and assembled a devout fanbase as dedicated to the game’s growth as its creators—Mojang’s “Minecraft.” “Minecraft” is an indie, open-ended sandbox game that, in the humble words of the minecraft.net homepage, is “about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine.” Judging from the game’s astronomical success—in its cultural impact (particularly among...

Assuming you have had any amount of spare time since the late 90s, you have probably logged more than a couple of hours in simple simulations of matching jewels, numbered minefields, virtual crops and cattle or (most likely) green pigs and fowl-flinging slingshots. The upstart industry of “casual gaming” continues to enthrall the masses, mystify the diehards and rake in loads and loads of cash—love them or hate them, “casual” games like “Farmville” and “Angry Birds” have earned both economic and pop culture relevance. From Microsoft’s “Solitaire” and “Minesweeper” to...

It is possible, however unlikely, that as the semester progresses an all-too-familiar feeling of B.A. bitterness will begin to take root, a cynicism that inspires daydreams of traveling back in time to squash those over-hyped icons of art, philosophy and science with something very, very heavy—a boulder, maybe. If this is beginning to sound familiar you will be delighted to hear that independent game developer ACE Team has recreated this fantasy in their imaginative, Aug. 31 release, “Rock of Ages,” a game of heavy things and suddenly flat historical figures....