[04/30/2003]   The campus theatre was showing Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa last Saturday night, and I decided to make an appearance for the 9 p.m. show. It's easy to forget how much influence his films have had on mainstream American cinema (proving that videogames haven't been the only cultural export from Japan). Oh, and Toshiro Mifune's no-name samurai would do wonderfully as an RPG hero or villain.

The Japanese version of Speed Racer didn't name its hero "Go Mifune" for nothing...

   This is in response to a few well-intentioned complaints by some site readers regarding reader reviews. Our reviews are graded on a scale from 1 to 10. 10s are supposed to be a near impossibility for games to achieve. Not that some games don't achieve this in some categories, but…it's a rarity. Giving a whole swath of 10s to a review destroys its credibility very fast. Any questions, please query the review team.

Amish: Michael Beckett hits Gold! Congratulations to him, and wish him luck on the climb to Red (or Blue) status. RPGamer newsie Gabe Putman also weighs in with his review of Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter.