Many of you wrote us this week to find out why it has been somewhat quiet on our pages this week and why we did not cover New Line’s press event they had heard of from other sources. As you know we are covering most events throughout the industry, so of course, you are wondering why not this one? The reason is quite simple. We have been on the road, on assignment, so to say. We traveled to San Jose for the better part of the week, to once again partake in the annual “Computer Game Developers Conference”. This conference was also the reason why we couldn’t visit New Line Home Video this week, who held an interesting Editor’s Day in Hollywood. Because we had planned our trip to San Jose a long time ago, we had to pass on the opportunity when New Line approached us with the idea of hosting this press event. There will always be a next time, though. So for now, make sure to stop by “The Big Picture” to read their coverage of New Line’s Editor’s Day.

On these pages we will instead give you some coverage from this year’s Game Developers Conference. Although DVD news were spares on this year’s show as opposed to last year’s - check out our coverage of last year’s show - we were still able to uncover some exciting tidbits for you. Please come back sometime later this week when we have had the time to go through all our notes and materials, and managed to write it all up for you.

On a different note, you have probably noticed that “DVD Review” has undergone a few minor changes. Based on your feedback we have re-arranged some of our content, moving some of the editorial coverage in a new section called “On The Inside”. This new section now contains all coverage of shows and events, like the VSDA show, our behind the scenes coverage of MGM’s “Ronin” event and other exciting news from within the industry. Our newly installed “Interview” section contains our one-on-one sessions with filmmakers, directors and others. Currently only our interview with Armageddon director Michael Bay is housed there, but very soon he will be accompanied by some other high caliber people.

“Quick Peeks” is the name of our brand new section to contain brief reviews of DVD releases. Again, this section is a direct result of your feedback and hopefully it will give you a better overview over discs we do not have the time to review in detail. Unlike our extensive full reviews, these quick peeks focus mostly on the technical aspects of these releases without touching upon the films’ stories, backgrounds, etc. They are designed to just give you a quick update about the technical facts of the disc. Check out the three ones we have prepared for you, to see what I mean. Many more are about to follow.

Our regular “Reviews” section has also seen a face lift. We moved away from the previous design to give it a lighter, more upbeat looking feel. The new design gives us the chance to give you a better overview over our recent reviews without cluttering the page too much. Hopefully it will load quite bit faster, too, and thus allow you to surf our pages more efficiently.

Finally, there is our new “Smell The Coffee” column on the front page. You have certainly noticed it on your way in. This column is a short daily commentary covering interesting tidbits and information we encountered during our daily work in this exciting industry.

Now the ball is in your park once more. Let us know what you think of these changes. Let us know if you have problems with it. More importantly, let us know what other information we can supply you with, that would make “DVD Review” an even more valuable source to you. As you can see from our changes, your feedback is taken seriously and we are currently working on a number of other enhancements and new content, which we will hopefully be able to reveal in the next few weeks. We wanted to have it all ready for you by today, but unfortunately our trip to the Game Developers Conference took more time than expected and hence... well, you get the picture.

Take care everyone and have a great week.

 March 21, 1998

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