Reality Review: Do We Live In A Simulation?

May 10, 2018

     Since philosophy’s beginnings, people have debated the nature of reality. From Descartes hypothesizing that a demon was using evil magics to fool his senses, to the ‘brain in a vat’ that is directly stimulated, to Zhuangzi wondering if he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly or a butterf...

The Switch One Year Later: Worth A Buy?

Dane Dorius, Reviews Editor

March 30, 2018

The Nintendo Switch released about a year back now. My birthday is in the first week of April, and my parents got me one for it. As somebody who’s seen the Switch grow over the last ten or twelve months, it’s justified its purchase in unexpected ways. Nintendo’s releases for the Switch have all ...

Best Picture Roundup

Dane Dorius, Reviews Editor

February 21, 2018

Over the last week, the Ames High WEB's Reviews editor has seen as many of this year's Academy Awards nominees as he and his budget can handle. Here are his thoughts. Excluded are Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread, The Post, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, due to said editor running out of mo...

I Hate Anime

Dane Dorius, Weeb In Denial

December 14, 2017

I hate anime. I certainly like some, but the medium on average is trash pandering to lonely otaku and pedophiles. The industry underpays everybody within it, and even the voice actors (who’re paid a kingly sum in comparison to the animators) go through terrible abuse- some report being in the rec...

Blade Runner 2049

Dane Dorius, Reviews Editor

November 16, 2017

     When I first heard of Blade Runner 2049, I was disappointed. Thirty-five years after a cult classic comes out, a big-budget sequel comes out, and Harrison Ford’s still going to be in it? As more details came out, with the director’s movie Sicario getting nigh-universal acclaim and my eternal man-crus...

NieR Automata: Not Just Near a Tomato

Dane Dorius, videogame man

April 25, 2017

My first thought when I finished Nier Automata was “oh my god,” followed by “that could only be done in a video game”.  With a flashy combat style made by the creators of cult hits like Bayonetta, Vanquish, and Metal Gear Rising, Neir Automata uses fantastic music and voice acting to tell a story th...

La La Land: Bitterweet Eye Candy

Dane Dorius, Academics and Arts Editor, Ostensibly

February 9, 2017

La La Land is a music romance starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Ryan Gosling plays Sebastian, a jazz pianist who aspires to bring jazz back to the mainstream and run his own club, and Emma Stone plays Mia, a struggling actress. The movie, like its characters, take the imagery, styles, and dreams of...

Arrival Review

Dane Dorius, Academics and Arts Editor

December 16, 2016

Coming hot off the heels off of Sicario, a tense tale of cartels and a raid south of the border and Enemy, a strange, surreal, and nightmarish film that eludes one single genre, director Denis Villeneuve further shows his mastery of any type of film he tries his hand at with Arrival, which is the best science fiction ...

Titanfall 2

Dane Dorius, Academics and Arts Editor

December 5, 2016

Titanfall 2 is a new first-person shooter by Respawn, a team mostly made of the developers of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and MW2. Taking place far into the future, the singleplayer and multiplayer deal with a struggle between two factions of humanity. You play as “Pilots,” elite troops who have ...

The Video Game Industry Is Kinda Screwed Right Now

Dane Dorius, Academics and Arts Editor

November 7, 2016

If you look around you, both in the digital world and in meatspace, video games are a common thread. People argue about Battlefield One versus Titanfall Two versus Call of Duty Thirteen while playing the newest base-building player-versus-player mobile games. If you read business reports, gaming compan...