Dec 2012 - March 2013

Being website manager for MWEB GameZone & Bravado Gaming means that I have a lot less time to focus on writing. When I do get the chance to write I mostly cover news, sad times indeed!

Here's a selection of a few of the more noteworthy articles from Dec 2012 to March 2013.

Exclusive: MWEB GameZone interviews SimCity Creative Director Ocean Quigley

I had the tremendous honour to interview Ocean Quigley, the Creative Director for SimCity. Quigley is a veteran in the video game industry; his knowledge, passion and experience is invaluable and demands respect from developers and gamers alike. Even if you are not a fan of the genre he specialises in, Life Simulation, you cannot help but be impressed with the creative processes and genius of his work. Join me for a walk through the mind of the creator of exceptional worlds. Read the full interview here.

Review: Dead Space 3, free falling through terror, together

It will be terror filled they said, you will need a partner they said. (Co-oping with Lola is a terror filled experience in itself. The 50 times she drove our Warthog of a cliff in Halo is a testament to that.) So in fearful anticipation for my review of Dead Space 3, I called on a friend to take down the terror together. I mean all dat hype! I was getting ready to have nightmares and suffer from temporary dementia during my review time in the game. I did not. Read the full review here.

A call to return to the dark ages and the burning of “all the things”

So disturbed kid goes on a shooting spree, automatically the people who claim to know how life works, turn to exterior influences as the culprits. You know, like religious leaders and such people have been doing for eons. In the dark middle ages, witches were burned at the stake. In the 50’s, with the rise of rock ‘n’ roll, records were quickly called out as the root of all evil. In this age of unprecedented advances in science, biology and just about everything, video games are being summoned to the stakes. Read my full rant here.

Take a peek into the deeply layered world of Fallen Enchantress

Fallen Enchantress is a game like no other: it requires a mind that feeds on intrigue, has an aptitude for strategic gameplay and the desire to explore mechanics and complexities. The game is far above my patience, intellect and adrenaline rush inclination so I have searched far and wide across the Internet in order to find a gamer who felt at home in the daunting world of Fallen Enchantress. Read the full interview here.

A slice of Indie life

I have the tremendous opportunity to be able to share in the birth of an Indie video game studio. To witness a birth is both a fearful and wonderful event. You get to experience the anticipation, the pain and the joy of the people involved. It is a rare honour. This is a story about passion, about daring to reach for your dreams and about how a simple idea combined with a bit of faith can turn the wheels of fate in your favour. Read the full interview here.

Remember Me – Living in an electronically manipulated world

Remember Me looks to be a game that will pierce gamers’ imagination by displaying a world that is futuristic, yet imaginable. A world where the most valuable commodity is thought, where privacy is not a right but an item on sale and where freedom is but an illusion. The game holds the promise of being not only a smashing first-person action game, but also a game that will lay bare the underbelly of the ‘connected age’, the age we are being hurdled at with an alarming speed. Read the full article here.

An interview with The Nutty Professor of Gaming

A while back I wrote an article, When science and gaming mesh the world becomes a better place. The article is about a new game in development by Broken Crown Games called Escaping Titan. It is a post-apocalyptic space fiction, single-player role-playing game…yeah, it’s all THAT. What makes Escaping Titan uncommon is the incorporation of science and the usage of input from various scientists into the core features of the game. To my utter delight, Tyler Yohe, CEO and Creative Director for Escaping Titan agreed to do an in depth interview about the game. Please keep in mind that I have an unhealthy fascination with both science and gaming, the interview is therefore lengthy, with stacks of science lingo. Read the full interview here.

Other noteworthy news

A threesome of the best kind, The all-time 100 best video games according to TIME, 2013, the year of living the eSports dream, Silviu, the "cocky" little man from Romania with the sharp mind and big heart, A tale only the rain knows

Special thanks to the people who took time from their extremely busy schedules to do an interview with me.

August 2012

August was such a hectic month; because of Gamescom I covered a bit more than my usual load for MWEB GameZone, I finally got around to cover eSports for Bravado Gaming and then we hosted the next 16Bit Team Fortress 2 competition. I totally got this journo thing down after Aug ;)

Herewith my article highlights for August

Review: A lesson in empathy from The Walking Dead

The game explores the most fundamental and simplest of human needs; the need to survive. Every confrontation, every decision and every interaction seeks to strip the player of the layers of morality that coats the mind with decency.  It hits you right in the gut with, “How far are you willing to go to live?" The Walking Dead takes the question of survival and escalates it to the point of complete insanity. Now, here is the catch. The game also succeeds in justifying the most outrageous and despicable of deeds in the name of living. It does this by eliciting empathy for the various characters you meet throughout the game. Read the rest of the article here.

An invitation to explore with thechineseroom

I invite you to take a journey with me through the creations of thechineseroom, an Indie studio whose games are changing the electronic playground. They looked into the hearts of gamers and correctly saw an ache for games that are able to tell deeply immersive stories. Dear Esther will leave you with an impression of profound beauty and wonder. Amnesia seems to be a celebration of terror and madness and with Everybody's Gone to the Rapture gamers can expect a game environment that is beautifully drawn, music that cloaks the player in the atmosphere of the game, and a journey that tears at the heart. Read the full article here.

Review: Get feared for free with Slender

Terrifying, nauseatingly fearful, diabolical, erratic, shat in my pants.This free-to-play Indie horror game from Parsec Productions had me in a grip of icy terror. The thickness of the fog, the dreadful noise and the ever present suggestion of his presence all becomes too much. It’s such a sudden bombardment of horror on your visual and hearing senses that you totally overload on fear. It felt like I was physically being cloaked with evil, and I screamed like a little girl. Read the full tale of my night of dread in the foggy woods of Slender Man’s virtual nightmare here. 

My Indie pick for the month: A horror filled space exploration with Rescue

I found this promising new game from Indie studio, Lunar Software. Routine is a first-person horror exploration game set in space, and it has me in a vice grip of fearful anticipation. Where AAA titles have ceased to impress me, Indie games seem to continue to blow my mind away with its ability to tell compelling stories, create immersive atmospheres and to well, just, be a breath of fresh air in the over saturated, stale playground of video gaming. The glimpse we see of the dreadful world of Routine hints at a game that will be on par with mainstream games on graphics and with a soundtrack that cloaks the player in absolute terror. Read full article here.

Understanding the deeply layered world of Beyond Two Souls

I am fascinated by Cage. What he aims to achieve through the medium of video games are both exceptional and immensely intriguing. To therefor understand Beyond, I propose we take a look at it through the eyes of its Maker. Beyond focuses on two themes; accepting who you are, and the question of what happens after death. The emotional quandary of finding meaning in death and the struggle of self-acceptance are two issues that we all face at some point in our lives. For a game to be able to reflect the inner conflict those two questions can cause, are absolutely fascinating. Cage understands the fundamental ability video games have to engage its users in a way unlike watching a movie or listening to a story is able to do. Read full article here.

The truth about the 3rd degree Mind Sports South Africa received

I've waited years to write this article. The way Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) and its president, Mr Colin Webster, have been treated by the majority of the South African (SA) gaming community, is something that has marred our image as a mature and respected sub culture within society. I took the most serious allegations from the do Gaming comments (Dec 2008-current) and posed them as statements for SA leaders that has actually walked the line with MSSA. Read the full article here.

Noteworthy news articles & interviews

Check out Living the game, Cape Town gears up for its own gaming festival, A look at the authentic war universe of Medal of Honor, Achieve moral excellence with Ultima Forever, Reinventing death with Dishonored, Capcom introduces memory bending with new game: Remember Me, le Broken Sword reappers, The argument for eSports.

Many thanks to all the readers for your input and support. I'm excited to discover what September has in store for us.