Recent content by Brian Name

That was bloody STELLAR!

Not all indie games are pretentious. If you played Nidhogg you'd see that there's no pretension at all. It's just a game about sword fighting. About having fun. Same goes for tons of indie games.

I love Assassin's Creed for the same reasons! It's all a mire of various philosophy and as a study of attitudes to imperialism you can do no better than listening to the dialogues between Altair and his victims. For all the games faults those sections are superbly written. But I have to...

Absolutely adore this game. Nicely written article. It's always a bit unnerving to see the city you're actually sitting in go up in a blaze of white on the screen. Nothing quite like it.

I don't think it was a failure on the writer's part if a person didn't "get it" on the first read. Partially, maybe. But I think it was intended to be provocative and get a backlash. It was a success in that regard. It was entertaining and interesting to read as well, so that counts as a...

Didn't really think it was very good. But it is targeted at kids, which explains a lot of the over-used, simple game mechanics they have in it. Crate pushing? Click and drag puzzles? Nah thanks. But if you're 12 or under, go for it.

I actually really enjoyed this article. It was certainly well-written. And I think a lot of the commenters seem to be totally misinterpreting the point. From how I read it Rowan is not saying "Hardcore means male" or "Hardcore should mean male." Rowan is saying: "Most people are...

I thought that was rather splendid myself! Keep it up.

Let's be honest. For someone to be able to say "there are 1.7 million repeat users..." it may just mean that a lot of people have used it more than once because it has been out for a little while and they keep going back to check if it has become any better. They stick around for 50 minutes...

Booooooooo. Makes me wanna cry. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_139/2992-Fighting-with-Monsters

You definitely should. The second game does still suffer a weeeee tinytinytiny bit from 'ghost jungle bullet syndrome' ("Somethin' just jumped up an' bit meh!") but it's a far better game than the original. As for Dragon Age: Origins, I'm with you on that one. The randomness of difficulty...

I enjoy a boss fight as much as the next boomerang waving do-gooder, but I'd have to agree with others in this thread - some games play just fine without them, particularly in any FPS. Instance. Halo played nicely without any boss battles, just different types of enemies. Then Halo 2 added...

Neat article. Far Cry feels a bit cheap sometimes yeah. Far Cry 2 on the other hand plays with the 'social contract' of get-better-guns progression that you mentioned. Loads of the usual types of gun are available to you so long as you kill the right person to get it. Eh-kays, Blunderbuss, Jet...

Or whenever you fight the reincarnation of Psycho Mantis - if you try to reassign the controller to controller 2 on the PS3 he shouts at you: "Did you really think that would work this time!?"

I always loved that MGS never took itself too seriously. Theres a bit in the first Metal Gear Solid when you lose a keycard in a drainage ditch. Master calls up and says: "A rat must've eaten it." "A rat? That's just ridiculous," Snake retorts. "It's the only explanation," says Master...