There’s a terrible drought affecting New Zealand, and no-one is reporting on it. Don Rowe goes where MSM churnalists fear to tread, and covers the great weed shortage of 2016. A giant ‘meh’ echoed around New Zealand last week, as news broke that a combined police and air force operation had culminated in the elimination of ‘around 9000’ cannabis plants … Read more
The Southern Kings have staggered from crisis to crisis for years, failing to pay their players last Super Rugby season, and struggling to field a team this year. Kings beat writer Michael Green talks to Don Rowe about covering South Africa’s most turbulent franchise. Southern Kings fans have seen enough chaos in the last few years to last … Read more
Two of the most exciting stars in the UFC lost last night, badly. Don Rowe describes what happened and pays homage to the omnipotent power of chaos in the sport of sanctioned violence. If UFC president Dana White had any hair left on his shining bald dome, it would have been violently pulled out by … Read more
You might have noticed an increase lately in the amount of news stories about half-naked men fighting in a cage. You might also have noticed one man in particular seems to get a bunch more air time than anyone else. Don Rowe explains just who he is, and why everyone is talking about him this … Read more
If there’s one rule game designers should take into account, it’s this: bullshit simply will not fly in the internet age, at least not for long. Ubisoft should have known better, writes Don Rowe. Creating game worlds from scratch is hard and expensive. Every blade of grass, every bird, every blood-soaked temple to the sun … Read more
As mobile gaming becomes the dominant force in the entertainment industry, one company’s aggressive endorsement campaign has established them as king of the hill. But they are in increasingly strange ethical territory, writes Don Rowe. What do Kate Upton, Mariah Carey and Arnold Schwarzenegger all have in common? Successful entertainment careers aside, the answer is seven-figure … Read more
Cheese and crackers, coffee and cigarettes, some things are just incomplete without the other. So why, asks Don Rowe, have Capcom dropped by far the coolest character in their canon for the latest Street Fighter game? The answer probably won’t surprise you. In 1987, eight years before Tekken hit the Playstation, an ambitious new fighting game began … Read more
Chaos reigned, if only briefly, over the Auckland CBD today. Don Rowe moves through a world of swirling ideology and takes an exhilirating walk down Queen Street with a few thousand other people. “You’re a very loud minority!” sneered a solitary businessman in an off-pink dress shirt. A few people turned their heads, someone called … Read more
In 2013 Chris Pryor and Miriam Smith moved to the small Waikato town of Reporoa to shoot a documentary about the local club rugby team. One year later they emerged with a stunning meditation on what it is to be a farmer, a teammate and a man in rural New Zealand. Don Rowe talks to … Read more
From How Bizarre to The Lord of the Rings, the New Zealand entertainment industry has performed well internationally across a variety of mediums. But, Path of Exile aside, these small islands are yet to birth any significant gaming classics. Don Rowe speaks with John O’Reilly about the challenges and triumphs of designing games in New Zealand … Read more
Whether you’re trading in stocks or assault rifles, the stakes are high. But who are the real gangsters? Don Rowe talks with one guy who might know – Sons of Anarchy screenwriter Brady Dahl. Someone, it might have been Immortal Technique, once said that the real gangsters are the ones wearing suits. Anyone who’s seen … Read more
The galaxy is awash with shitty indie games, but in Flightless’ Element Don Rowe discovers a New Zealand made, space-themed strategy game that’s thoroughly worth your time. In a market saturated with derivative big-box franchises and cookie-cutter annual releases, experimental game design has been left in most part to dorito-crusted indie designers and smelly bedroom coders. The results … Read more
In 2013, the New Zealand’s woman’s rafting team won their fifth world title on the rivers of the Bay of Plenty. Two years later, Don Rowe joins them for an early-morning training session ahead of the 2015 World Champs in Indonesia. The dark jade waters of the Kaituna River flow 50km from inland Bay of … Read more
On a Sunday afternoon in November, Holly Holm shocked the world when she knocked out the undefeated, undisputed UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. Don Rowe was in Melbourne to watch the fight – here he discusses both the bout and the subsequent social media storm. On Tuesday morning Ronda Rousey left Melbourne Airport hidden behind … Read more
After the terrifying tirade that made our top TV moment of 2015, we thought it would be fitting to revisit Don Rowe’s report from Auckland airport as he watched Willy Moon and Natalia Kills leave the country. Like great dark bats they swooped through Auckland International Airport. He wore leather and she sheltered beneath a … Read more
One World One world, Thinking with one mind, Thinking with no mind, Other than what they are told. Preach to me, Sell me new and old; Indoctrinate me, That I will do what I am told. Trace my every dollar, Trace my every step; Trace my every sentence, No privacy is left. … Read more
Mark Hunt fought his way from the streets of South Auckland to the top of the world stage in a career spanning almost 20 years. Don Rowe speaks to co-author Ben Mckelvey about writing a book with the Super Samoan. Are fighters born or made? In Mark Hunt’s case the answer appears to be both. Perhaps the hardest puncher to … Read more
Suspended above the sun I witnessed the creation and destruction of the stars. An astral dust condensed and formed a molten core, pulling smaller fragments of space rock into its enhanced and growing gravitational field. From behind a distant moon, an asteroid streaked through deep space, hurtling into the burgeoning planet and smashing it into … Read more
Friday Night Lights examined the side effects of a small town’s obsession with high school sports. Don Rowe reflects on the show’s realism through comparison to his own rugby career at Hamilton Boys High. “Do you think God loves football?” “I think everyone loves football.” – Jason Street and a young fan, Friday Night Lights For an … Read more
Sick of having his hand held by games made for toddlers, Don Rowe gets masochistic in FromSoftware’s Bloodborne. One need only switch on their headset while playing online to realise that a significant portion of the gaming community are shrill, prepubescent children. Accordingly, game designers have gravitated in recent times to more simplistic, user-friendly games. … Read more
To celebrate 20 years of Sony’s PlayStation console, Don Rowe attends a PlayStation party complete with DJ and breakdancers. I’ve loved PlayStation since I first heard an old, secondhand PS1 come to life. It starts with a heavy synth pad, like the intro to some demonic Kraftwerk song. Then mystical chimes and a techno flute, fading … Read more
Jonah Lomu was farewelled for the final time in public today. Don Rowe reports on a moving ceremony. Jonah Lomu remains a giant even in death. Under grey clouds he entered Eden Park for the last time today, carried on the shoulders of Manu Vatuvei, Jerome Kaino, Frank Bunce, Michael Jones and more. The men … Read more
Don Rowe slept through high school history. Now he’s a quasi-scholar of the ancient world thanks to a series of videos from an anonymous American gamer. Anyone who’s taken a high school history class knows how quickly the stories of humanity’s most horrific, bloody and grueling armed conflicts can turn into potent sedatives when relayed … Read more
Don Rowe is joined by Bigpipe‘s Josh Drummond and Gameplanet editor Matt Maguire to discuss another helping of Spinoff gaming content. Don shares the kaleidoscope of cosplay and consumerism experienced at his first Armageddon Expo, while Josh explores the difficulties he faces in getting to game at all. The group take on Fallout 4 as a … Read more
On Sunday afternoon, Holly Holm shocked the world when she knocked out the undefeated, undisputed UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. Don Rowe was in Melbourne to watch the fight – here he discusses both the bout and the subsequent social media storm. On Tuesday morning Ronda Rousey left Melbourne Airport hidden behind dark sunglasses and … Read more
In 2013, the New Zealand’s woman’s rafting team won their fifth world title on the rivers of the Bay of Plenty. Two years later, Don Rowe joins them for an early-morning training session ahead of the 2015 World Champs in Indonesia. The dark jade waters of the Kaituna River flow 50km from inland Bay of … Read more
On a rainy Saturday in October, Don Rowe headed to Armageddon with 20,000 sodden gamers, cosplayers and consumers. A forlorn pikachu trudged along Great South Road under a grey curtain of rain. Water ran from its drooping ears and down into a rapidly disintegrating paper loot-bag. The sagging and ragged hem of its yellow onesie legs … Read more
Dry dialogue, boring gameplay and a generally lackluster main character let down beautiful graphics and an audacious storyline across the Uncharted series, writes Don Rowe. I tried to like the Uncharted games. I really did. Night after night I plonked myself down on a beanbag, took up the controller and went in search of ancient … Read more
“Kia ora, I’m Temuera Morisson, and welcome to Mataku; chilling tales of the unexplained and the unexpected. Join me on a journey, through the supernatural world…of the Māori.” Mataku is basically the Maori X Files, and it’s a national embarrassment that this show isn’t every part as much cultural canon as The Lord of the … Read more