Another strange and tricky year pulls to a close (a few months after I promised a return to weekly blog entries – we’ll get to that in a moment), and what has happened? Well: Academic Firstly: my book is now out! Counting this post as a slightly-delayed December post, I’m going to do a proper “launch” … Read More
Hello everyone, and welcome to my new website! After several months in development, I must – as noted on the post I’ve just uploaded on my old website – give my profound thanks to the amazing work of NerdCloud, whose website design ability made this all possible. For those who have already read that one, … Read More
I’d like to start this entry with an anecdote, which outlines the basic issue I’m pondering far more effectively than an abstract discussion. A few years ago I found myself in the position of trying to teach someone who had never played a single video game in their life – and had extremely limited experience of board or card … Read More
HBO’s new Westworld series is absolutely essential viewing for anyone with an interest in games. It’s a great mystery, a great thriller, and great science-fiction, but it’s also fundamentally an exploration of games. On one level it is obviously an exploration of immersive or pervasive games – games that expand past traditional boundaries to engage with the “real … Read More
A Hunter is a Hunter, even in a blog entry… Regular readers of my blog may remember a comment I made a while back about a game I’ve been deeply anxious to play for some time. This was Hidetaka Miyazaki’s new masterpiece (or so the reviews told me) – Bloodborne. I know I’m rather behind the times … Read More
A few years ago Perfect Dark was re-released on Xbox Live Arcade. Whilst it was generally met with a positive reception as an impressive modernization of a classic game, especially since the new engine was built ground-up to be as close a copy of the old engine as possible, several reviewers claimed the game’s level design … Read More