What a scrabulous word; fashionblogexpert. Well consider me one ;). I almost forget to put this up here. Some time ago I did an interview on blogs in general and blogs on fashion in particular. Last Friday the story “Hippe mode van echte mensen – Modebloggers nemen trendspottende taak van de magazines over” appeared in Nrc & nrc.next. It’s a well researched and interesting piece.

My personal fashion taste is, as they say, somewhat eclectic. When I cruise on Sunset Boulevard I can’t get past ‘HH‘ to buy some t-shirts or a fancypancy jacket, on the other hand I am crazy about Ted Baker‘s shirts. But appearing in a story on fashion blogs, I think that’s hot!

Glossy’s en blogs zullen naast elkaar blijven bestaan, denkt ook David Nieborg, onderzoeker Nieuwe Media aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam. „Blogs houden de modetijdschriften scherp. Ze tonen de nieuwe trends, maar de tijdschriften maken de mooie reportages met dure camera’s en daar zal ook behoefte aan blijven.”

Weblogs vullen een plek die de massamedia negeert, zegt Nieborg. „Ze boren hun eigen publiek aan. En ze doen iets cruciaals wat tijdschriften niet doen: het allerlaatste modenieuws tonen. De mode verandert steeds sneller en alleen de blogs kunnen dat bijhouden.”

No games last week and no newspaper articles next week, but I had time to produce a story for todays newspaper. I am quite pleased with the whole story, every time I mentioned the idea of comparing Gran Turismo 5: Prologue to Mario Kart Wii I got a chuckle from my fellow game critics. A nice thing about the story “Cartoonkarten of car porn?” (.pdf, p19) is the custom made illustration. I cooperated with the graphics department of Dagblad De Pers and they came up with the picture. Nicely done!

About Mario Kart Wii, I just love it! The best thing about it, you can play it for like 30 minutes and have a good time and I’m not that bad (as opposed to Call of Duty 4 for example where I end up last every single round…).

*Update* This afternoon I participated in a Wii Kart tournament with Dutch game critics such as the guys from WiiDS.nl, hosted by Nintendo. I finished third twice, could be worse I guess :).

Don’t know about you guys (and girls of course), but I’m pretty psyched about the prospect of playing GTA4 in the (very) near future. From what I previously saw of GTA4 in Munich last month makes me extremely hyped about the game (up to a point that I know I may just end up a bit disappointed…). I do hope I can take some days off just to play it, should be possible with Queensday and the other days off around April 29. In the meantime, news is pouring in. GTA4 is ‘gold’ and ‘en route‘. Wew, if any of you see a copy or anything, let me know! Would be cool to have a pic of copies before they hit the shelves. And what will happen April 29…?? According to Variety the game will “bring in $400 million in its first week”. And, more rumors, the downloadable Xbox 360 content will be cities (perhaps)? And, best of all, Ricky Gervais will have a role in the game: “”It’s a first – which always interests me,” [Gervais] said. “It was shot in New York, my favourite place in the world, and I got to wear a tight lycra suit as part of the digital process. No, hold on, that wasn’t so good.” I got my R0FL button at the ready.

Last December I happened to be in Liberty City (in China Town to be exact), see below and spot the fanboy :).

This weekend was Mario Kart Wii weekend (no not a Wiikend…). I quite like it, the online capabilities are top-notch (for a Wii game) and the new racing peripheral is absolutely something that adds to the experience.

So, if you’ve got a Wii, please enter my friend code: 0817-3929-3946 and we can race online!

About a month ago I paid a visit to DICE, the studio behind Battlefield, in Stockholm. In an article for Dagblad De Pers I already talked about Battlefield: Heroes (the free-2-play First Person Shooter PC game) a bit. For GMR I covered two games and wrote a studio profile. It was a very intense trip and, best of all, I did some additional interviews for my PhD, which was something unexpected but extremely useful (thanks for that EA!). This weekend I participated in the closed BF: Bad Company multiplayer beta (for the Xbox 360) and I have to make up my mind about how the game’s wrapping up. Just so you know, during the playtest at DICE everything runned very smooth. In this months GMR:

- (preview) Mirror’s Edge: Rennen, vliegen, duiken, vallen, opstaan en weer doorgaan, p28.
- (preview) Battlefield: Bad Company: Shooter met een gouden randje, p30-31.
- (studio profile) Ontwikkelaarsprofiel DICE, p40-41.

I won’t post the studio profile here until the next GMR, so, if you are interested in this, please go to your local bookstore and get a copy of GMR!

… and make a movie…

I hate video games, on or offline. I hate the way they suck real people into fake worlds and hold on to them for decades at a time. I hate being made to feel hateful for saying so, and I hate being told to immerse myself in them before passing judgment, because it feels like being told to immerse myself in smack and teenage pregnancy before passing judgment on them. (The Times)

He probably just hates games, not gamers…

This morning I received this photo, a typical Dutch gathering of bicycles. For all you new media lovers out there. Note, this picture is taken at a place where they produce (very) old media ;).