Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic and elsewhere on the Internet.

Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic.

Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic.

Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic.

I've tried to be fair to the concept of free-to-play games, which you see a lot of in mobile gaming. Yes, it all seems a bit cynical—it trades a single price for a potentially unlimited revenue stream, but there's nothing necessarily illegal or unethical about that. It does depend on making some substantive portion of…

Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic and elsewhere.

There's a new insane study of children and video games out there, and it makes me grateful the Wii died without that ridiculous Vitality Sensor ever coming to market.

Download a game on the Xbox 360 or the Wii and you're good to go. You can play it. Download a game on the PS3 and you just might have to then tell the PS3 to install it.

Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic and elsewhere.

On March 7, Apple announced the iPad 3. "Look how shiny it is!" Apple's executives preached to a crowd full of cheering fans and press. "Retina display! Brand new graphics! You want one!"

Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic and elsewhere.

I'm having the same, recurring nightmare of late. It's one of those stupid ones where something that's normally inane and innocuous becomes unreasonably horrible. Here's what happens: I'm on Pandora, out on a mission—to kill someone, probably—when I notice something. Maybe it's a a box or a locker. And the second that…

How would you like to be fired? Do you want to go out in a take-this-job-and-shove-it blaze of glory? Would you like security to martyr you, marching you out by the elbows, as you clutched your box of things like Richard Gere carrying off Debra Winger? Would you just want the chance to look into the soulless black…

Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic and elsewhere.

No, seriously. This is a question I've had to wonder of late thanks to Dexter, the hit TV show that follows a serial killer who kills other serial killers. This would make him a "good" serial killer—at least, as good as someone who murders people can be. That may sound ridiculous, but being privy to Dexter's…

Welcome back to "Backhanded Box Quotes," a collection of measured, thoughtful, sometimes plagiarized criticism from the user reviews of Metacritic and elsewhere.

If you never saw Crazy People, a 1990 film starring Dudley Moore, I highly recommend it. Basically, an advertising agency is taken over by the insane, who decide that honesty—the anathema of marketing—is now the best policy. Volvos are sold as "boxy, but they're good." Another stunt offers "a free plant for fat…

Audio is NSFW.

You probably don't know Elizabeth Tobey. She didn't voice an outrageous character or design an outlandish weapon in any video game you're currently enjoying. But she did, legitimately, have a hand in the creation of —or at least stirring up the desire for—two big 2K Games hitting shelves right now. And she didn't get…

Or outrage, or scorn. Video games are just one pushcart in the vast marketplace of ideas, where everyone shouts down the quality of the goods. Then again, sometimes the merchants deserve the berating. So let's recap the week's most noteworthy reactionary topics, scoring them for the outrage they summon and the…