By Joe Russell, on March 2nd, 2010
Despite the appearance that I’ve been a bit slack lately, I’ve actually been fairly busy writing things that either haven’t been published yet, won’t be published for a while, or will never be published but apparently are required for me to pass my uni course. In any case, one of the things I’ve written that has been published is a review of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat for Gamer Limit. Here’s a chunk:
Call of Pripyat almost acts as a kind of bridge between the two games, taking some of the most promising elements of them both and making them work together in a way that the previous games couldn’t quite manage. GSC also had the sense to drop some of the aspects of Clear Sky that simply didn’t work, such as the faction wars, and instead replace them with simpler mechanisms that actually work a lot better.
You can find the rest over at Gamer Limit.
By Joe Russell, on February 23rd, 2010
Anyone who visited the site recently may have noticed that there was something distinctly virus-y about it. The problem seems to be sorted now, thanks in no small part to Mr. Simon Smith of Blink Design.net. Hopefully everything is where it should be, and I’ve managed to remember how most of the site looked before the downfall. If anything glaringly obvious is missing, please give me a shout.
By Joe Russell, on January 28th, 2010
…and three days. Because I forgot to remember to check when the blog turned one year old. But anyway, the blog is now one year old! Shows that I can be arsed to do things if I’m left to my own devices, I guess. To celebrate, I shall get massively drunk. Join me, won’t you.
By Joe Russell, on January 27th, 2010
I’ve recently started writing for Gamer Limit, which has a frankly awesome community, and this is the first piece of writing worth linking, so here it is. It’s a look back at one of the best moments in the Splinter Cell series, namely Chaos Theory. Here’s a preview:
The Tom Clancy series will always have a special place in the video gaming section of my heart. While the modern monoliths of GTA IV, Bioshock and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare often frequent my hard drive, there exists a small collection of games that are never removed.
Within this group can be found classic adventures, such as Grim Fandango, Age of Empires 2, and the earlier Tom Clancy games. In fact, if someone was to ask me to name my three favourite series of military games based loosely on the novels of the prolific American author Tom Clancy, I’d have no choice but to answer with Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six.
The rest can be found on the Gamer Limit website.
By Joe Russell, on January 18th, 2010
I very nearly called this article “Why so serious (sam)?”, but of course if I did I would have to bash my head with the Solid Wall of Overused Cliches, so I opted for this happy alternative (at the time of writing, I haven’t chosen a titles, I’m just lying. The title could even be utter shit. At this point in the article, you know better than me. Was it shit? Sorry, I can’t hear you, I’m in the past). The topic for today is the case for why games should should include more humour, and how I think that by doing so they would actually attain a feeling closer to real life than if they left out the jokes and went for a straight performance.
Continue reading Seriously Funny
By Joe Russell, on January 18th, 2010
As a precursor to me writing something for this site (I promise something is coming – I’m going to start right after this, you’ll see), I’ve just written up a preview of the upcoming MMORPG Star trek Online for Game Hub, a snippet of which can be seen below:
I should say, before going into this any further, that I am not a huge Star Trek fan. I watched and enjoyed the recent reboot, and I’ve watched a couple of other films and episodes over the course of my life, unfortunately in no particular order and in isolation. As a result, if there is something in the MMO that flies in the face of the classic series, or if Vulcans should have slightly less pointy ears, chances are I won’t pick up on it. What I’ll be looking at is how it plays as a space-based MMO, not a Star Trek-based one. And as a space-based MMO, it’s looking pretty damned impressive.
You’ll have to head over there to read about all the exciting space combat and stuff (really – the space combat is brilliant), so head over to Game Hub now!
By Joe Russell, on January 12th, 2010
Continuing my I’ll-Write-Anywhere-But-Here season, I’ve gone and written a review for Game Hub on the new racer Zero Gear, which you can glimpse at below:
There’s only one real way to describe the racing in Zero Gear, and that is by pointing at every other racer in the genre and pushing them all together. While it does bear the strongest likeness to Mario Kart, it has elements of Crash Nitro Kart in there as well, so that it has enough variation that it doesn’t feel like a direct rip-off. The racing mechanics essentially consist of accelerating, steering, braking, jumping, boosting and using whatever power-up you have at the time. The power-ups seem to vary more than in Mario Kart, but their end result is much the same – they either slow the opponent down or speed you up to varying degrees.
There’s more where that came from over at Game Hub right now.
By Joe Russell, on January 10th, 2010
Yep – I get my hands on a new PSU, and the first game I play is a free MMO based on the Hello Kitty universe. In any case, I wrote up my impressions for Gamepex, and they go something like this:
Have you ever wished that you could combine your interests of playing online RPGs and Hello Kitty? Or have you been playing World Of Warcraft and just found the tame violence to be a touch too much for your impressionable mind? Well you’re in luck – Aeria Games (makers of such other unknown MMOs as Last Chaos and Wolf Team) are currently putting Hello Kitty through an open beta, meaning anyone who felt so inclined could try it out. For some unknown reason, that included me. After all, if the highly-polished pay-per-month MMOs such as WoW and EVE Online couldn’t reach me, perhaps all I needed was a 6 year-old’s favourite cartoon cat to help me enjoy the world of online gaming.
And it continues over at Gamepex.
By Joe Russell, on January 8th, 2010
After a lovely Christmas break, I am now returning to work on articles here. However, my PSU has recently exploded, and a light dusting of snow has caused enough chaos to ensure that my new one won’t arrive this week. In the meantime, then, I direct you to my new article for UK-based games website Game Hub, where I write briefly on the importance of web games in introducing non-gamers to the industry. Here’s a snippet:
These games often get a bit of a bum rap from mainstream gamers. Either they’re seen as mere diversions from the real meat of the games industry, and often the games are designed as such, or they’re compared unflinchingly with retail games and obviously come off worse. However, as more and more non-gamers come into contact with these games through finding them on Facebook and other social networking sites, it seems they provide a valuable service. They act as a kind of ‘gateway’ game, leading the first-time player on to more complex and ultimately rewarding games.
I also talk about hating people and a vengeful robot Stephen Hawking, so there’s that too. You can read the rest over at Game Hub.
By Joe Russell, on December 24th, 2009
Having written a piece on which games in the last decade I think are the most atmospheric over at Gamepex, I thought I’d shamelessly whore myself over here as well. Here’s a snippet:
Around this time of year, and especially this time of decade, a lot of people will start compiling lists of video games. However, they all seem to be concerned with such trivial matters as which game is the ‘best’, or the most ‘influential’, or similar things like that. Instead of something like that, here’s a list of the top ten most atmospheric games of the decade – the games which make us feel like a part of the worlds we are shown, the ones which draw us into the imagination of the designers and only let us go once the game is complete.
You can read the rest on Gamepex.com.
|
|
