SWAT 4: The Movie Script
OFFICER DOWN, OFFICER ANDAGENTLEMAN, OFFICER DIBBLE and HANK stand in a rain washed street, weapons at the ready. HANK plants a breaching charge on the back door to a building. OFFICER DOWN takes out a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
First Night, Second Life
Second Life is a Massively Multiplayer Online… Place. There’s no goal, so it’s not a game, but it lets you create things – potentially of enormous complexity. People make games within it. Somewhere,...
View ArticleA Woman’s Life In Search Queries
Somewhere between the recording someone made of AOL refusing to let them cancel their service and the story about the woman whose father AOL insisted on billing for nine months after his death – once...
View ArticleMy Short Story For The Machine Of Death Collection
“Fuck!” It came from the den. Later I’d learn that it had followed a much quieter, “Oh fuck. Oh-” My first thought was that it had broken. I was going to spend a lot of time, over the next five years,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
I Played Through Episode Two Holding A Goddamn Gnome
Halfway through reviewing Half-Life 2: Episode Two for PC Gamer about a month ago, Valve PR Doug Lombardi asks me if I know about the gnome achievement. “No?” “Did you find the gnome near the start?”...
View ArticleMy Galactic Civilizations 2 War Diary
Galactic Civilizations 2 is a strategy game about colonising space. The cool thing about it is the AI: the alien races you meet have very different personalities, and it’s fun to bargain with them and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
EVE’s Assassins And The Kill That Shocked A Galaxy
“The simultaneous ambush and galaxy-wide hangar theft inflicted financial damage upwards of 30 billion ISK – $16,500 US dollars at IGE.com’s prices. The value of the stolen assets utterly dwarfed the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Don’t Make Me Play Football Manager
“Portrait? I don’t have a photo ready for this, but I’ll see what I’ve got in My Documents. Ah yes, an animated GIF Tim sent me of David Hasselhoff wearing David Hasselhoff briefs, which zooms into his...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Team Fortress 2 Unlockable Weapon Ideas
Update: This post was written in May 2008, when only the Medic had new weapons. Since then, some weapons have been added that have similar concepts to these. Valve even gave me a special sparkly...
View ArticleClik here to view.
My Script For A Team Fortress 2 Short About The Spy
To commemorate my 100th hour playing as him, and since he’s clearly next in Valve’s update schedule, it seemed appropriate to take a swing at a Meet The Spy script. It’s a moronic undertaking, of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Fallout Girl, A Diary
My name is Sophie, because the way in which Fallout 3 asks you to pick your name is a way that makes silly names, or obtuse ones like Pentadact, seem rather cruel. I’m not going to spoil what that is...
View ArticleClik here to view.
How I Would Have Ended BioShock
BioShock Spoilers I wrote this post – a rant I’ve bored many friends with about how BioShock should have ended – on the 10th of October 2008, but never got round to taking shots for it. Then on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Different Way To Level Up
Levelling up is pretty much the heart of RPGs, because it does these cool things: Makes you feel like you’re achieving something by playing. Gives you new abilities to try at well-paced intervals. Lets...
View ArticleClik here to view.
An Idea For A Better Open World Game
The last post was figuring out what we all like in open world games; this one’s about how to make that stuff work together. Can you include it all in one game, and still avoid theme-park silliness and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Avoiding Suspicion At The US Embassy
I had to visit the US Embassy in London today, to renew the Visa I need to go on press trips. They won’t let you take any electronics in there, and they won’t hold them for you either – not without...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A Story Of Plane Seats And Class
I think stand up comics do a lot of plane food material because they travel a lot for their work, and travel is boring, and boredom gets you thinking. This is how I’ve come back from a trip with 3,000...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Makes Games Good
A few times lately, non-gaming friends and relatives have asked me: what’s the appeal of games? Good question! The people who don’t ask it seem to assume it’s something terrible, like bloodlust, or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Understanding Your Brain
My last post about happiness was about why success isn’t a good way to be happy, and three things that are. In the comments, Johannes Spielmann said this: Johannes: Great article! For a more nuanced...
View ArticleMy Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review
My review of Deus Ex: Human Revolution is finally online. It is the greatest thing. The game, not the review. Kind of a big one, so I hope I explained it well enough. Read more on My Deus Ex: Human...
View ArticleListening To Your Sound Effects For Gunpoint
I asked if people wanted to make the sound effect for when you switch into Crosslink mode in Gunpoint, the view from which you can rewire how everything works. People did! Thanks, those people! I’ve...
View Article
