The thing that I do as a proper job is writing about computer games. Not really a ‘proper job’ at all, is it? Except that it is. It’s really hard, especially when the games aren’t very good. *throws tantrum*
Something For Nothing
Eurogamer, February 2012
“Brewing away beneath the surface of the industry – beneath the main bulk of the indie scene, even – is a world where money appears meaningless. It’s a world in which developers pour their talents and their time into the creation of fantastic computer games, for which they ask nothing in return.”
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Do You Like Halo, Then?
Resolution Magazine, April 2010
“Oh, really?” says the guy. We’re standing outside a Leeds nightclub, a crowd of people gathered roughly in line, waiting for permission to enter. Smoke blows around in the cold air, while drops of water fall from the underside of the bridge above. I cringe.
Continued at Resolution Magazine…
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Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines retrospective
Eurogamer, July 2009
I love the sunshine, and I’ve rather a taste for garlic, so I’ve decided I’m probably not a vampire. It’s taken a while to be sure, though. The world of Bloodlines is so arresting, so marvellously cohesive, that it’s difficult not to be entirely taken in. Despite the ageing visuals, the places and people of this gritty, gothic Los Angeles are frighteningly real.
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Doing It For The Kids: On UK TV’s Latest Games Panic
Gamasutra/GameSetWatch, March 2010
“Hearing the floor manager tell the octagenarian crowd to ‘really let your feelings be known if he says something you don’t agree with’ seconds before filming was pretty disconcerting. I hope you noted the targeted ‘he’ in that sentence. I certainly did.”
Tim Ingham admits he didn’t expect anything less, though. As you might be aware, the CVG editor recently appeared on UK television’s The Alan Titchmarsh Show, as part of a feature on the dangers of violent gaming to children. Hmm. Where have we heard this before?
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The Denton Dynasty
Play.tm, March 2010
“Have the Deus Ex 3 developers acknowledged Invisible War sucked?” That’s the title of a thread which, as I write, sits proudly atop the game’s official forum. Deus Ex emerged as a millennial poster-child for intelligent game design. It was a title that assumed you were smart. Its fans appreciated that.
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat review
Play.tm, February 2010
It seems apt that the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. saga should feature its own anomaly, one that lies outside the series’ fiction. The surreal glitches in reality that litter the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, squashing or contorting or combusting anything unlucky enough to stray into their grip, have remained an ever-present force across the franchise. The first game, Shadow of Chernobyl, conjured up a shaky yet captivating picture of a bleak nuclear winter. Its successor, Clear Sky, fell somewhat short of the mark, throwing more into the mix and ultimately emerging as a bloated, bug-ridden shadow of what came before.
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Short review sample: Zeno Clash
Zeno Clash is all about fists and fantasy. It’s characterised by the joy of discovery, those splendid moments where the game world escapes from its constrained format and spills out into glorious, open dreamscapes, filled with exotic beasts and dripping with alien culture. It’s also characterised by punching a giant bird in its beaky face.
