John Walker's discussions

“It was irony written on a sledgehammer, repeatedly swung into the screen. And it was spectacular. Hilarious, biting, and wonderfully hammy, it took the eccentricities of RoboCop and cranked it up to 11.” Read more

Well, no, it was a turn of phrase. For instance, even I got it at the time. Read more

It’s extraordinary to see someone dismiss suffrage as just some frippery. What were women and people of colour making such a fuss about?! Read more

I was referring to the delivery, rather than the content. A Modest Proposal is the least heavy-handed delivery imaginable. Read more

$30. Read more

Well, apart from all the mentions. Given 400,000 people were playing at once, most users could log in. However, yes, with the vast numbers of people, there have been issues, as mentioned. Read more

I think you might have somewhat misread every single word in the entire review. Read more

You’ll note that my criticism is neither that they should have updated the game, nor that they shouldn’t have released the games as is. My criticism is purely the revolting nature of the message, pretending that leaving it as is, despite their full-body retching at the horror they just sold me, is some act of public… Read more

You know this article says that? Read more

Yeah, this was my mistake. Only the first version of the Wii would play GC games, but later versions wouldn’t. And yes, the 3DS would reluctantly play DS games at the wrong resolution, unless you fiddled. All fixed now. Read more

I agree, cheaper would be better, but given we live in the timeline where Nintendo ports 30-year-old games and charges $60 for them, and Sony has $70 as its starting price on everything, I was kind of impressed this wasn’t a complete gouge. Read more

Goddammit, I was going to say that one, and then when I’d written the list I thought, “What was the other one I was going to write?” and then couldn’t remember and now it’s now. Read more

No, genuinely, I wrote what happened. You know what—at no point from discovery to publication did the thought of how many people would click on it cross my mind, because it makes no difference to me at all. I just tend to hope that whoever does read it will enjoy it. That’s the end of my motivation. It’s lovely when I… Read more

You see how this whole article is structured, right? It begins - literally the opening sentence - by acknowledging this could be an “embarrassing gap in our knowledge”, then I repeatedly mock myself for reporting 23-year-old news throughout, and then finish by mocking us again by suggesting we’ll report on a Wii egg… Read more

I’m 46 and I spent an awful lot of my time playing my GC at the time. Thanks for your concern. Read more

As the father of a 9yo who is currently obsessed with Minecraft, while he might not turn homicidal, he’d definitely be very disappointed if the film didn’t properly understand the game. Read more

I figured from talking about props and sound stages it was pretty clear from this article too. Read more

It does seem like it’d be a bit of a slog to get the G/O offices to print it out, then fly 10 hours to New York to pick it up, 10 hours home again. Read more

You get that this is an article about HP getting sued, right? The other companies aren’t the ones getting sued. Read more

You know, I knew the boarding pass thing was lame as I wrote it. The truth is, the only thing I ever use a printer for is printing out cryptic crosswords. Read more