Blogs

Good afternoon. Today’s topic is the internet.

The internet. its impact upon people’s daily lives cannot be underestimated; it’s changed the way we shop, socialise, research and game. So when a bill – the Digital Economy Bill, to be exact – is introduced, threatening to completely change the way this resource is governed, I get more than a little concerned.

Rumour isn’t real news. Not unless you’re merely stating the fact that rumours are indeed propagating the gaming world along with a varied plethora of industry reaction. Such has been the case with the recent ‘Will Gears Of War 3 be released next April’ hubbub.

In a bit of news relating to an entirely other kind of classic gaming, I’m very pleased to announce that by the time you are reading this I shall be married (this is significant because I am not married as I’m writing this just now). This is classic gaming news because this is not my first foray into the world of matrimony (far from it, truth be known) and in point of fact I did have a previous marriage which took place while I worked at Atari, and to point a little further I married another Atari employee, which is not specifically what classic gaming is about, but all this did take place with classic games all about.

There might be spoilers in this, if you didn’t already guess that. Last night I finished Heavy Rain and later today I will be writing a J’Accuse on it. Regular readers of Play magazine will know that J’Accuse is a regular feature in which a widely celebrated kicking at the hands of someone writing under a bizarre pseudonym. It’s a just a bit of a fun really, and is no way intended to undermine the positive review we’ve given the game. Plus, it can be a chance to vent.

When is comes to games journalism, there’s a lot of useless crap out there. I’m not in any way sectioning myself off from that. I’m as guilty as the next man; "I love this game, but such and such hates it". Even today, my own opinions on White Knight Chronicles have flown in the face of the common hegemony among all of the games magazines which operate out of this office, who largely shun it – that the game is actually rather brilliant.

Have you levelled up recently? This fundamental ingredient has been around since the inception of the RPG genre, but what does it really signify and does it make sense?

Issue 94 of games™ is out soon and features the following reviews:

I have a spare room in my flat known as ‘The Museum’. It’s a wonderful place full of consoles and gaming machines from the past. I don’t play with them as much as I should, but for me, part of the fun is collecting them and just knowing they are there. The ownership of the thing is equally, if not more important than the playing of them.

The announcement of the PlayStation Move (a subject on which we’ll be expounding upon in greater detail as we discover over time how developers intend use it in contrast to Microsoft’s Natal) got us musing about its possible impact on the growth and dominance of the FPS on 360.

I was in New Orleans studying Economics and Mathematics at Tulane University (minored in theatre too). I was planning on following in the footsteps of Sir Mick Jagger and attending the London School of Economics, only not dropping out to become a rock star. Although that can be a wise career choice. I walked into a sandwich shoppe for lunch and there I saw my first coin-op game console… Space Invaders. I took one look and knew instantly this was going to be very big. I did not think for a moment, however, that I would become as involved with it as I did.