New Review: PDC World Championship Darts 2009

Recently posted at Resolution, and it’s naff.

If you’re getting the whiff of shovelware here, rest assured you’re not the only one. Like other lines of sports games with a different year tacked on to the end of each title, this is another typically so-so effort made purely for a quick buck and relying heavily on a famous face to push the product.

Some New Work

I’ve been a bit tardy keeping this up to date, but here’s the most recent batch of words to appear under my name, both at the rather spiffing Resolution Magazine.

Good Things About Bad Games: Kane & Lynch:

Kane and Lynch are how Lethal Weapon’s Riggs and Murtagh would’ve turned out if writer Shane Black had made those characters criminals instead of cops and Smokin’ Aces’ Joe Carnahan had been around to direct.

Quite proud of that one, and it’s hopefully going to turn into a bit of a series as soon as I can figure out what to play next. Someone suggested the latest Alone in the Dark. Not sure I’m ready for something like that.

Oh, and here’s a review of Sword of the Stars: The Ultimate Collection that nearly got me in trouble:

The most memorable aspect of Sword of the Stars is, ultimately, its modesty. Kerberos are a small Canadian developer made up of some of the bods responsible for Homeworld: Cataclysm and would seem to be well aware of their own limits. While Sword of the Stars doesn’t necessarily feel cheap, there’s an economy to its design and aesthetic that suggests it was made on a comparatively small budget, and the game seems to focus primarily on things the developers felt they could do extremely well, at the expense of additional features.

The State of Citizen Game

You might have noticed that things are quiet at CG these days. Danny, who has moved to London, is in the process of completely rebuilding the site. The CMS just isn’t good enough at the moment, and we’re going to change the focus of the site going forward. We’ll be dropping news in favour of editorial, and video content will eventually start to appear and take centre stage. That’s the basic plan. New site, new direction. Stay tuned.

Updates

I’ve let things get too quiet around here of late, this is supposed to be an up to date portfolio site after all. I’ve added additional links to new work under the relevant tabs and re-jigged the Bio page somewhat.

On your left you’ll see new links to blogs of people I count among my friends, colleagues, or people wot I stalk online. They all make for interesting reading.

New Review: Nile Online

I’ve started doing some freelance work for UK outfit Resolution which could turn into something very interesting, but for now here’s my first bit of output for them – a review of the quaint little Immortal Cities: Nile Online.

Immortal Cities: Nile Online (to give it its full, unwieldy title) is most definitely a casual game. Knocked out by developers Tilted Mill when they weren’t tinkering with the likes of Hinterland, all you need do to access the game is part with your email address. This modest little package is entirely browser-based, without the need to download anything, which is nice, though it is not entirely free (strictly speaking – I’ll get to that). No sound and minimal animation means it’ll run on just about anything with an internet connection, with the side effect that most of the time it looks and feels like you’re trying to manipulate a screenshot rather than guiding your fledgling settlement to greatness.

Citizen Game Podcast, 24th April

Bit of a lack of updates here. Been working on a lot of things, trying to sell words is proving harder than I’d like.

For now, the latest CG podcast from last Friday. This is number fifty, something of a milestone, and it’s a good ‘un.

Citizen Game Podcast, 27th March

This is now settling down to be a nice fixture in my weekly schedule. Recording on a Friday morning can be a bit of a pain, and Skype still insists on dropping the connection every now and then, but overall I think we’ve got things down. Danny has gone to some pain to record a remote guest like myself and listener feedback suggests it’s paid off.

In the latest episode we talk about GDC, why I think OnLive will never, ever work and a whole lot of other stuff.

Citizen Game Podcast, 6th March

Forgot to post this at the weekend. All the various technical problems associated with recording our Skype calls have finally been sorted so time permitting my appearance on the podcast will become a regular feature.

This time out we spent most of our time discussing the new Watchmen movie, Watchmen game and the things that have been annoying us most lately. 

New Review: F.E.A.R. 2

Now showing at Citizen Game. I took the PC version, Andy G the Xbox 360.

The one word review: “fine”. Just fine. That’s what FEAR 2 is.

I do elaborate, mind you.

First Professional Publication at The Escapist

This a bit of a big day for me. All the work I’ve done writing about games up until now has been for free or in exchange for the odd game or two. Today that changed, as The Escapist published it’s new issue. I’m in it. I’m delighted. Have a read and share your thoughts.

We all have parts of ourselves that embarrass us or make us feel self-conscious. Instead of letting it all hang out, you try to present the best of yourself – the last thing you want is for your partner to get a glimpse of your stranger or less attractive aspects and lose interest. That was what gaming was for me: something private, not to be discussed for fear it would ruin my chances of being taken seriously by the opposite sex. In a way, it was crippling – until I realized that it’s only through the sharing of experience that we grow closer to other people.

Dedicated to Jen. For being awesome.