I’m Back. Also Blood Bowl.

Man, it’s been a weird few months. Blog has been very, very neglected, that’s for sure. I’ll try and sort that out down the line.

Briefly, games-wise, we’ve been playing Blood Bowl on PC. Lots and lots of Blood Bowl. How much Blood Bowl? An entire league’s worth of Blood Bowl, that’s how much. You can find all the details starting here.

Citizen Game Updates

Man, busy busy. Eurogamer Expo trip over and done with, which was ace. Here’s me blogging here and here about it. Oh, and I’m on the latest Citizen Gamecast talking about the whole EG Expo weekend too. Fun stuff. Great trip.

The X-Com diary is set to continue at CG in the coming weeks too. What with Civilization V, Dead Rising 2 and Red Dead Redemption (hey, I just got it and it’s freakin’ great) I’ve been stuck for time to play Apocalypse. This will change.

X-Com Diary: Part 10

Part 10? Man, who would have thought J-Server would last this long? (I say that of course, but in-game it’s only been a week and a half since we set out to save what’s left of the world). A lot has happened. If you’ve missed any of it, get up to speed at this link.

The Return of the X-Com Diary: Part 9

Yes, yes I know. It’s been over a month since Part 8 and I apologise to the four of you that were on tenterhooks with regard to the diary’s continuation. I’ve been on holiday, changed jobs and played an awful lot of Starcraft II and Blood Bowl in the interim, and poor old X-Com has been on the back burner the whole time. But I have been playing it, and I have still been documenting J-Server’s continued efforts not to completely muck up the defence of planet Earth.

I’m over three months into the diary. Personally, I didn’t think I’d get this far. I was certain, given my laziness and predilections for things other than a 13-year old strategy game, that I’d let the thing die on the vine or that the actions of my X-Com Agents within the game would bring the organisation to ruin long before I lost interest in playing. This hasn’t happened. Instead, I’m steadily rekindling my passion for this game and getting more and more invested in what becomes of X-Com this time around. Several people have gotten in touch via email (and you can too) to say they’ve enjoyed reading the diary and it’s encouraged them to check out the game, which is quite nice. If you’re enjoying it too, please spread the word. I’ll love you forever*.

Expect updates to come a little bit quicker in the future, at least through the month of September before my trip to Citizen Game HQ this October. Speaking of which, I’ve got some plans for the diary with regard to the re-relaunch of Citizen Game. Stay tuned.

And now, onward to Part 9…

X-Com Diary: Part 8

(This is a re-post of Part 8 of the diary that appeared as a guest post on J-Server blog Chinwags From Behind A Desk. I present it here in order to keep a continual copy of the diary on my own blog for posterity.)

We got hit. And we got hit hard.

Diary Guest Post A-Go-Go

In a bid to mix things up, and as a favour to fellow members of J-Server whose names populate the diary, Part 8 of my X-Com play diary is now available on the Chinwags From Behind a Desk blog.

By now, I’m pretty pissed off. Osiron waltzed into my base and shot up some of my best agents (and x25killa) and they’re going to get away with it because I’ve nothing to commit to a retaliatory raid, and now the aliens have flown by in shiny new ships and dumped a truckload more extraterrestrial scum on my city while I’m still trying to recover. Bastards.

You can find it here.

New At Citizen Game: DRM Is The Future

Continuing what I hope will be a steady stream of output at Citizen Game, here’s a new piece where I basically hail DRM. Or rather, the right type of DRM:

I believe Digital Rights Management (DRM), that wonderfully cumbersome term applied to any form of copy protection we see packaged with the games of today, is our last, best hope for the future of this medium we enjoy so much. Its ubiquity and ever more visible presence in the titles we love is not only to be welcomed, but actively encouraged.

I know, right? Check it out here.