This was my first Ian M. Banks, and though I can’t say that I was overwhelmed, it was good solid sci-fi, and not short on humor. I must dig deeper into his canon and report back.

Daniel and I gave a talk at the GDC again this year (well, Daniel gave about half a dozen of them, but I don’t share his enthusiasm for public speaking). We divulged the juicy details on OOO’s financial performance, Bang!’s early metrics and gave a demo of our new project Whirled. Have a look at the slides if you go for that sort of thing.

Perhaps if I hadn’t read Gates of Fire I might have enjoyed this style-over-substance take on the Battle of Thermopylae a bit more. In the event, I was mostly just annoyed at the ridiculousness of it all. But be sure not to miss it if you have a thing for smooth bare chests.

I’m not entirely sure if there was a coherent message to be gleaned from this film, but it felt like one was trying to work its way to the surface. I do like Samuel Jackson and Miss Ricci is no doubt easy on the eye, but I can’t say that I recommend a viewing.