Tuesday, January 31, 2012

'Mass Effect 3' voice cast revealed

You can fight like a Krogan, run like a leopard. But you'll never be better than Commander Shepard
As the PR juggernaut begins to move ever more powerfully as launch day approaches, EA posted a video this morning of the key voice cast members in the closing chapter in its science fiction space opera trilogy: Mass Effect 3.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Sunday Sidebar: You Can’t Go Home Again


This week I’m on vacation in the States. The prospect of just over a week of without work had me trying to plan out something I could do with my time here. After some rumination, I came to settle on the idea of going back to one of my favourite games of last year – Eidos Montréal’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution. As a usual-resident in the United Kingdom, this game was obliged to stay put when I returned back to the small islands late last year. An opportunity to rekindle what we had together seemed one that I would be unwise to ignore.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

"We won't be making any more Resistances", Insomniac CEO confirms

In an interview with VG247, Ted Price, CEO of developer Insomniac Games, has stated in no uncertain terms that their tenure with the PlayStation 3 Resistance franchise has come to a close.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Sunday Sidebar: MMO Fatigue: Is it affecting you?


If I had to choose one particular genre that made leaps and bounds in recent years, it would be that of Massively Multiplayer Online games. If the ’80s were the epoch of the arcade, the ’90s a realm of first-person shooters, I would argue that in the here and now, the post-broadband era of the games industry has been defined by the rise of multiplayer online gaming, and no genre better unifies this concept than that of the MMO. For many players, the excitement and social buzz of playing a game simultaneously alongside hundreds, if not thousands, of other people is irresistibly engaging. For every scare story of babies dying due to parental MMO addiction, there is another of those who meet in-game, fall in love, and live (at least so far) happily ever after.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Sunday Sidebar: Meet John Drake of Harmonix


In my continuing mission to expose the great and good of the videogames industry, this week I called in on John Drake of Harmonix Music, the developers of acclaimed franchise Dance Central, party favorite Rock Band, and recently, on iOS, the total nonsense-fun app, VidRhythm. John is responsible for heading up everything public about Harmonix, as well as being a generally easy-going, yet always enthusiastic, guy.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Sunday Sidebar: Easycore? – How lifestyle changes affect gaming approaches


There is a maxim that refers to the three stages of life, and how these three stages govern the management of free time. To relate it to gaming is not hard. As children, we have no money, but a veritable abundance of free time. For many of us, this is how our gaming habit takes root. Long nights (mis)spent exploring cavernous dungeons or aboard extraplanetary vessels, our imaginations caught like ships amidst digital storms. As school or college students, we have more money, but less free time. Where previously we could consume infinite amounts of experience, we must begin to better focus our gaming habits. It is at this stage that we will normally commence honing our skills in a particular area.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Sunday Sidebar: How not to do Gaming PR


In the weeks following Christmas, the gaming industry, like many others, falls into a slump. The big releases of the winter period have been thoroughly hyped, pre-ordered, purchased and played, and we wait, satisfied, for the new-born of spring to provide us with future gaming excellence.

For the press, this dearth of new games and significant news is usually overcome with End-Of-Year lists of best-ofs, worst-ofs, underrateds and also-rans. You might see a few retrospectives, or a well-constructed thought-piece concerning where the industry is at with regards to too many sequels, or big sellers, or failed releases and why they failed. In short, it’s a relaxing time where you can plod through old content from throughout the year, and re-arrange it into something people can enjoy. It is basically recycling, and we must always encourage a sustainable model of journalism. Well this week has been a little different.