Sam Machkovech

Sam Machkovech is a freelance arts and tech writer based in Seattle, WA. More

Sam Machkovech is a freelance arts and tech writer based in Seattle. He began his career in high school as a nationally syndicated video games critic at the Dallas Morning News, eventually taking up the mantle of music section editor at Dallas weekly paper the Dallas Observer. His writing has since appeared in Seattle weekly The Stranger, in-flight magazine American Way, now-defunct music magazine HARP, gaming blog The Escapist, and Dallas business monthly Dallas CEO. He currently serves as a games and tech columnist for Seattle web site PubliCola.net, as well as a volunteer tutor at the all-ages writing advocacy group 826 Seattle.
'Portal 2': A Video Game That Gets Comedy Right

'Portal 2': A Video Game That Gets Comedy Right

The new game, out this week from Seattle-area game company Valve, avoids the cliched techniques used by other titles to inspire real laughs More »

A Magical Screen Without Much Depth: Nintendo 3DS Review

A Magical Screen Without Much Depth: Nintendo 3DS Review

Nintendo's latest launch is packed with a pedometer, wacky effects and other gimmicks, but it lacks innovative software More »

iPhone Gives Indie Game Developers New Hope

iPhone Gives Indie Game Developers New Hope

The success of small games on mobile phones over the past year has indie game developers fired up for the future More »

'Marvel vs. Capcom 3': A Perfect Nerd Storm

'Marvel vs. Capcom 3': A Perfect Nerd Storm

The new video game boasts 18 franchise superheroes, tapping more geeky pressure points than any other Marvel offering—film or otherwise—this year More »

Russian Media Late (Again) to the Blame-the-Video-Games Debate

Russian Media Late (Again) to the Blame-the-Video-Games Debate

The country's news outlets are engaging in an all-American pastime: blaming "Call of Duty 2" for this week's airport attack More »

Nintendo's Glasses-Free 3-D Experience: The 3DS

Nintendo's Glasses-Free 3-D Experience: The 3DS

Why this hand-held video game player may make consumers finally want to buy 3-D devices More »

Why the Dave Matthews Band Model Won't Save Music

Why the Dave Matthews Band Model Won't Save Music

Slate thinks other acts should take lessons from the group's grueling—and lucrative—touring schedule. Why that argument misses the point. More »

The Best Video Games of 2010

The Best Video Games of 2010

A roundup of the strongest titles of the year, from download-only favorites to online shoot 'em ups to a motion tracking dance game More »

WikiLeaks: A Tale of Two Video Games

WikiLeaks: A Tale of Two Video Games

The scandal inspires a pair of games: one cheesy, one fascinating More »

Beyond Radiohead: Video Games One-Up the Pay-What-You-Want Model

Beyond Radiohead: Video Games One-Up the Pay-What-You-Want Model

The Humble Indie Bundle 2 launches today, allowing people to buy high-quality games at whatever price they want More »

Wild Flag: Music's First All-Female Supergroup

Wild Flag: Music's First All-Female Supergroup

Members of Sleater-Kinney, Helium, and The Minders join forces to create a promising new band More »

The Real Problem With 'Call of Duty': The Ad, Not the Game

The Real Problem With 'Call of Duty': The Ad, Not the Game

The new ad highlights stereotypes about gamers as corrupt and violent More »

Kinect, a Week Later: Great Technology, Disappointing Games

Kinect, a Week Later: Great Technology, Disappointing Games

After several days of gaming, a review of the new Xbox add-on and its six major games More »

Call of Duty's Twisted Advertising Campaign

Call of Duty's Twisted Advertising Campaign

The latest installment of the video game has been shilled with a misuse of the word "soldier" and a troubling portrayal of game players More »

Microsoft's Kinect Motion-Sensor: More Fun Than Wii*

Microsoft's Kinect Motion-Sensor: More Fun Than Wii*

The new video game device is released today, and it beats its predecessors in most ways—but not all More »

The Secrets Behind Harmonix, the Pixar of Video Games

The Secrets Behind Harmonix, the Pixar of Video Games

The company developed "Guitar Hero," then lost the rights to the name. Then they came up with "Rock Band" and "Dance Central." More »

'Rock Band 3': 102 Reasons Music Games Are Still Worth Playing

'Rock Band 3': 102 Reasons Music Games Are Still Worth Playing

The third installment of the popular music video game series offers a reason to shake off fake-rock fatigue More »

'Super Meat Boy' and the Rise of Micro-Level Video Games

'Super Meat Boy' and the Rise of Micro-Level Video Games

The silly new game is important for one main reason: its levels are an average of just nine seconds long More »

Why Video Games Aren't Art (At Least Not All of Them)

Why Video Games Aren't Art (At Least Not All of Them)

Too often, releases are filled with bugs, making them works in progress rather than fully realized pieces of art More »

Why Is Nintendo Ignoring Its Own 25th Birthday?

Why Is Nintendo Ignoring Its Own 25th Birthday?

Today is the gaming system's silver anniversary, but there's been no official acknowledgment of it More »

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