Absolute Battle, the biggest competitive video fighting game tournament in Texas since 2009, returns this Saturday at the Crown Plaza Dallas Downtown. For the fourth show in five years, its organizers are expecting players from across the world in an event featuring nine games, including classics like Street Fighter III:…
Game demos, whether they are smaller affairs like Sunday’s Xbox One reveal at a Commerce Street warehouse or massive gang bangs of game industry PR, like the annual E3 conventions in Los Angeles, never seem satisfied to be able to assault the human senses with just video games. They are…
Dallas/Fort Worth has served as the home base for a number of major sports championships over the years. Since it doesn’t look like we’re going to get another Super Bowl for awhile because Lord Jerry Jones tried to cram more people into the stadium the way Cinderella’s step sisters tried…
Try to imagine all the time you’ve spent playing video games. Sure they are good for hand-eye coordination and can help numb the pain of living in a violent world by desensitizing you to it, but the number of hours must reach into at least the thousands, even if you’re…
Demigods and politicians have often used games like the Grand Theft Auto titles as surefire signs of the nation’s moral decay and scapegoats for much bigger problems that require actual work on their part, a theory that’s proving more true today as certain members of the U.S. House and Senate…
A great gift shop is a place where art and consumerism meet. Until you enter its doors, you never really appreciated the beauty of taxidermy, or you never you desired — or in fact needed — a mannequin dressed as an Aztec warrior. Well, maybe you don’t need one, but…
Cedar Springs shut down on Sunday for the 30th anniversary of the Alan Ross Texas Freedom Parade. Recently some noise rustled throughout the LGBT community; a response to the announcement banning public nudity from the Pride Parade. It caused some to say that things were getting too commercial. Others used…
We are officially in Dallas Pride mode now, and there’s a lot to celebrate after this past year: the Supreme Court rulings in favor of marriage equality (and Edith Windsor being adorable), the Boy Scouts of America’s (admittedly half-assed) step toward inclusivity, George Takei being pretty much everywhere. We want…
The thing that really stood out at the Ticket’s Fight Night yesterday was that these were definitely amateurs in the ring. Bout after bout would start in a flurry of punches and a burst of energy, only to quickly turn into a lethargic affair of tired legs and weak punches…
On Thursday, August 29, Sportsradio 1310 The Ticket takes over the Village Country Club with a ring, a copy of the Marquess of Queensbury Rules, and a slew of ever loyal P1s. That’s right folks, it’s time for Fight Night ’13, an event members of the Hardline call “The best…
WARNING: The following post contains an excess of the Food and Drug Administration’s daily recommended allowance of vegetable puns. Since this story is about a vegetable rally and I’m still buzzing about Jason Jones’ hilarious story about a California raisin farm “raisin” some hell with the government on the Daily…
I’ve been meaning to take a self-defense class forever. Seriously. You know the day dinosaurs were invented? It was the day before that. As a single girl who lives alone — I write under a pen name so don’t try to abduct me, you dummies — I have a pretty…
Fire hoses. Bazookas. Carnival acts. These are the shooting-things-out-of-themselves experts. I know this now. Probably should have consulted them before attempting to blast a 9-pound-11-ounce boob destroyer out of my favorite part. Ah, well. Hindsight, much like a newborn baby person, is a total motherfucker. And once the baby’s out…
Last week, Oculus VR announced that John Carmack, The co-founder and lead programmer of classic Richardson-based game developer id Software, has joined the gaming hardware startup as chief technical officer. Oculus VR’s pilot project is a head-mounted display called The Rift. This direction-tracking headset hopes to deliver interactive, 360-degree, high…
Last Saturday the DFW Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence hosted their fourth annual Sister Pool Party benefiting LifeWalk and Lone Star Ride Fighting AIDS. Here are some of our favorite shots from the event, and you can check out the full slideshow here…
The Plano-based game developer behind Borderlands 2 and Aliens: Colonial Marines announced that they will release a high-definition refit of the classic space strategy games Homeworld 1 and 2. Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford and CCO Brian Martel announced their plans at Penny Arcade Expo Australia last weekend. The company…
Video games are meant to make you feel like you’re somewhere else, so while playing them you might not consider their development process. However, if you’re even a casual gamer you’ve likely played a game made right here in Dallas, whose thriving game development industry has flown somewhat under the…
In April of 2012, vintage enthusiast Melissa Mackaly set out to create a mobile vintage shop that specialized in housewares. “It’s my passion,” she said this week, while tending the cash table at her “estate sale” in an unmarked building at 2650 Main in Deep Ellum on Thursday. The mint…
Update, July 18: After this post went up a couple weeks back, several people pointed that it was a little — OK, a lot — one-dimensional, omitting various demographics of Dallas’ vast LGBT rainbow of a community. So we’ve added to it. Not every mover or shaker or mover-shaker is…
How respectable is it to get overexcited about a trailer for a new video game? I suspect the answer is “grow up, you mess,” but that has not stopped me from getting extraordinarily worked up about the gameplay trailer that was released this morning featuring footage from the latest installation…
“I don’t want my clothes to be noticed,” Tracy Popken says, standing in the cluttered but orderly studio inside her Bishop Arts District home. It’s a surprising credo for a designer and tailor, but Popken sells the idea hard, convincing you that she just wants her work to show off…
In this week’s Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area’s most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here. Angela Scott has always drawn inspiration from men’s fashion, so when she moved to Dallas from her…
