In the past I have opined that there's not really any such thing as 'playing it wrong.' If a lot of people don't like a game and people say they're just not playing it properly, that is almost always because the game did not communicate t...

Now that the first chapter of Tales of Monkey Island is out, it's difficult to to write about. As you may have gleaned, the series is kind of a big deal to me and so to collect my millions of feelings I have about Launch of the Screaming ...

Sorry. I've talked about Tales of Monkey Island plenty and there's more to come. I admit, I love this series of games and I want to see people playing it, so I'm doing everything I can to keep people informed about it in my own small way....

I thought I'd put together a disjointed and scatterbrained c-blog post as I surely must be entitled to do at least once a year, on my birthday (which is at least once a year). Happy birthday to me. So, 27 is here. I'm not one to get par...

Yes. It's this game again. But I'm glad it's getting a lot of word-of-mouth buzz and feel the need to contribute to that, because, well... When I first saw Rocket Riot on XBLA I was greeted with the above image. I didn't give it a second...

Oh, how some people endlessly and boringly lament the decline of difficult games. There are plenty to be found, though, for those who would like to look. Mega Man 9, for example, is there for those looking for a more retro-styled experien...

A short while ago, on Pondercast, I described LucasArts as "A hulking zombie of a company which I wish someone would just shoot in the head so it could die." Those who didn't grow up with LucasArts games - perhaps console gamers or the yo...

I'm sure that many a Beatles fan has an idea of some of the songs that they want to feature in the 45-song strong Beatles: Rock Band. Here I present my personal list. This isn't necessarily the list I think the game ought to use and I ver...

It's been a little while since I've had a rant... so let's rant. I've finally gotten around to playing Persona 4 and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. As of now it has taken over my life. It isn't without its difficult and frustrating moments a...

One or two people expressed an interest in me carrying this on from last time as they wanted to see how Boomerang was shaping up for me as a rental service, so here it is - my second month of rentals. Boomerang was certainly in my good boo...

There's a passage in the Bible from Corinthians that people quote now and again that goes: "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Well,...

It's easy to read 'expanded universe' and only see 'marketing opportunity.' The perfectly decent non-cynical reason for an expanded universe, though, is simply that it provides extra material for fans of a game to absorb if and when they ...

So, you know when you run into an old friend you haven't spoken to in ages on Twitter and you get talking and it turns out they're joining the Navy and getting rid of a whole load of stuff, then offer to give you a bunch of gaming hardware ...

Well, it's been about a month since I started renting games after my startling epiphany that I should have been doing it for years. I decided to go with Boomerang rentals in the end, rather than the one I mentioned and so far I've had five ...

At the risk of getting artsy early on in this blog entry, a lot of games I've been playing recently have reminded me of the great capacity the medium has to convey a whole range of emotions, not just the common ones. It seems more and mor...

I've touched on this before but what with the Killzone 2 stupidity displaying itself these days it seems to be topical again, so let's rant. What I want to know is: when did some bright spark get the idea that game reviews ought to be obj...

I don't know if other people have had this same experience but when I was younger and went to the beach during my holidays I'd encounter a strange phenomenon. I'd run down from where my parents were sunbathing, toward the water. Playing b...

(The following is a letter I sent to Microsoft. I thought you may enjoy it.) Over the past several (7) years I have had occasion to purchase several (6) items from Microsoft which generally fall under the category of peripherals, cables, ...

My favourite drummer is Greg Saunier from a band called Deerhoof. I'm going somewhere game-related with this. The band itself isn't to everyone's taste but it is difficult to deny the amount of energy and life the drummer brings to each p...

I realise now that I've been missing a part of my brain for the last twenty or so years that I've been playing games. For other people and particularly, I think, in America renting games is a pretty commonplace activity, even moreso now...

Here are my top 10 games of 2008 and why. If your own Favourite-Game-Which-Should-Obviously-Be-On-The-List is not on here then it's possibly, even probably because I didn't play it. And even if I did play it, what do I know, right? 10. Gra...

I must confess, I love end-of-year lists; they're sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. I'm planning to do one myself when I get back home but man if some games aren't making the process difficult. Take Fallout 3. I got this as an early Chri...

The Survivors are a well-oiled machine. Every Hunter is slapped down before it can get close, hordes of Infected are felled without so much as a scratch and even the Tank is swiftly dealt with, the team taking minimal damage and shrugging...

My sister is not a gamer. She doesn't abstain entirely - we did used to play a multiplayer game on the Amiga called Wiz 'n' Liz (I think there were bunnies involved), she remembers my NES games and thinks that the idea behind LittleBigPla...

Yesterday I experienced my first proper Left 4 Dead Versus Mode game. Previously I'd only spent five minutes in it with a friend but last night Aerox and a whole bunch of other people, GuttlessWonder and ME spring to mind. Ah, sod it: my me...

My regular readers (ha ha, I know) may have noticed that I never posted an impressions blog for Fable 2 and now here I am giving my final thoughts. The reason for this is that this would have been an impressions blog were it not that I play...

When I played the Left 4 Dead demo, something was amiss. Well, two things. Firstly I was playing it solo which I know is very less-than-optimal for this game but there was something else, too. While the mechanics were solid, well thought-...

Having completed the story mode in LittleBigPlanet (aside from collecting the bits and pieces I missed, of course) and getting stuck into the editor, I decided it was time I had more than one game for the PS3, so I went for one which I ha...

I've had the best part of this weekend to play around LittleBigPlanet on my shiny new PS3 so I thought I'd give my impressions so far. This is a game that does its very best to be charming and for the most part it succeeds. As far as the...

I wouldn't have got a PS3 yet, at the current price, had it not been that I unexpectedly got some money. Now that I've had a day or so to play around with it, here's what I think so far. Oh - and for types that like to add to friends lists...