Review of 1942: Joint Strike

My first review for GameRevolution has been posted! It covers 1942: Joint Strike, a game that was quite a bit of fun.

Hit up the review here, and let me know what you think!

I’m Not Quite Dead

I know it’s been forever since I’ve posted, but things have picked up for me recently. Since I’ve been so busy, and it’s not like this blog actually makes me any money, it’s kind of fallen by the wayside.

Since I last posted, I’ve taken on two new jobs. The first, as kind of a side gig, is that I’ve begun to write reviews for Game Revolution. My first review, of the game 1942: Joint Strike, should be posted soon, and I’ve been working on another one this week for Bionic Commando Rearmed. I’m just doing Xbox Live Arcade games so far, since it’s easy for GR to send me a redeemable code, and so far I’m just getting free games out of it, but hey, free games!

On a more career-oriented note, in eleven days I will be starting work in QA at Blue Fang Games. It’s entry-level, sure, but it’s a foot in the door of the industry in which I’ve wanted to work since I was five years old, drawing old Nintendo Power-style level layouts for imaginary platformers. (I created multiple concepts for a Calvin & Hobbes game of which I was particularly proud.)

On Multiplayer Personalities

In a bit of site news, I’ve added a new page at the top called “What I’m Playing.” It’s exactly what it sounds like, just a simple list of games I’ve been playing lately.

One game that’s on there that wouldn’t have been there two days ago is Team Fortress 2. I’ve had the Orange Box for a while, obviously, but TF2 is probably my least-played of the package. There’s not anything innately wrong with the game, it’s just that I’ve always been more of a single-player gamer, my twenty-one-month addiction to World of Warcraft notwithstanding. Dealing with the attitude of the average twitch gamer online isn’t really something I enjoy doing.

But yesterday, after reading about the impending “Heavy Update” to the game, and looking at all the changes that Team Fortress 2 has undergone in the last few months, I decided to give the game another shot. At about two in the morning, I looked up and realized I really needed to go to bed.

Brainy Gamer Proposes Narrative “Manifesto”

Yesterday I discovered The Brainy Gamer, and reading through some of its most recent posts, I’m wondering what the hell took me so long. Its Vintage Game Club post discussing Grim Fandango alone instantly upgrades this to one of my favorite blogs, and it doesn’t hurt that the writing is excellent

In any case, I found the blog through a link from Kotaku, highlighting a number of different essays on gaming narrative that all seem to have coincidentally appeared at around the same time. Blog author Michael Abbott proposes that these essays are the beginning of a kind of manifesto concerning narratives in gaming:

Perhaps “manifesto” is too strong a word for what I’m describing, but at the moment I can’t think of a better one. Most dictionaries define the term as a public declaration of intentions, motives or views. Beyond that simple definition, however, manifestos are intrinsically anti-status-quo. Regardless of its framework -  politics, ideology or art – a manifesto is a defiant call for change and an implied “Who’s with me?” All of the people I’m about to describe are plugging into something that sounds very much like a collective manifesto to me.

I won’t go into much more of it here, save that one of the authors Abbott quotes is Jonathan Blow, the creator of Braid, a game that recently hit the Xbox Live Marketplace. (A full review of which is forthcoming, but in short, a brilliant game that everyone should go play.)

Abbott’s post is an excellent read, and although I haven’t yet been able to delve into the links he provides, I expect I have several hours of reading ahead of me. Go check it out.

Bodies In Dead Space Include Warren Ellis

Dead Space gets more and more attractive each time I hear about it. The most recent delicious piece of news, as reported by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, is that much of the game was written by comic writer Warren Ellis. On his most recent mailing list release, Ellis revealed his involvement:

Oh, I got released from an NDA the other day, so I can finally say that I wrote a bunch of the groundwork, backstory and structure on the forthcoming EA videogame DEAD SPACE, which recently got a comic prequel from the hands of Antony Johnston and Ben Templesmith. I believe there was at least one other writer on the project, but I’m sure there’s some of me in there somewhere.

Ellis is the madman behind the comics series Transmetropolitan and Planetary, as well as plenty of other work for Marvel, DC, Wildstorm, Image, and others. Planetary being one of my favorite comics EVER, this announcement makes my fanboy gland pulsate in anticipation.

I’m sorry, that was gross.