Photoshop Disasters is often good for a howl. And it fits nicely into my “geek skills” category on this blog. With great power comes great responsibility, yadda yadda yadda. As if Amy Winehouse doesn’t have enough problems… she now has Thing growing out of her left shoulder. (Click to visit Photoshop Disasters. They’ve got some […]
Author Archives: Game Writer Guy
Gears of War 2 gets a new smoke grenade
Gears of War fans, rejoice. The gameplay for those previously useless smoke grenades is getting a facelift. In the first Gears of War, the smoke grenades were as useful as they would be in a Quake 3 deathmatch. There’s really nothing tactical about GoW; it’s a pure twitch game with zero stealth. And I’m not […]
ACL “Sound and the Jury” contest horrors
Game visuals in Gears of War 2, and RIP CGW
Two quick notes for you game-hungry readers… First if you’ve seen the screenshots for Gears of War 2, you might want to compare them with the screenshots for Gears of War 1. You’ll notice that: a) GoW 2 is gorgeous. Haze, smoke, particles. Details recede into the background. Textures are richer and more plentiful. AND… […]
Best videogame monster
Best videogame monster: now accepting your nominations The best videogame monster. Now that’s a competitive category. Like best movie villain, except a heck of a lot more likely to make your palms sweat. Even if you’re a novice videogamer, you’ve probably seen your share of incredible videogame monsters. Some examples that spring to my mind: […]
What happened to M. Night Shyamalan?
What the heck happened, M. Night Shyamalan? I just saw the ad for the new M. Night movie. It’s designed to look like some kind of andromeda strain movie. “There appears to be an event happening,” a man intones. This, according to our statistics, is the blandest, most uninformative, passive-voice piece of advertising ever recorded […]
Gameplay Cliches
Gameplay cliches get a lot of chatter, but when the game is successful and has a core experience that people enjoy, no one says a word. Case in point: Gears of War. Mine carts. Ammo boxes that are strewn around abundantly. Crates that contain ammo boxes. Also strewn around at every juncture. Lava levels. Gears […]
Napoleon Dynamite and other dance scene movies
Time to break open the scope on this blog a bit and chat a bit about movies — not overtly fanboyish movies like Blade but movies in general. You see, today I was speculating about a new subgenre of popular non-musicals. Outsider movies that feature a “big finish” dance scene. Specifically, Napoleon Dynamite and its […]
Can you geek it old-school?
Game design: Call of Juarez
Game design case study of the Xbox 360’s Call of Juarez I played a decent chunk of this shoot-em-up – “the only Western first-person shooter experience on Xbox 360” – the other evening. I’m curious as to what other Westher shooter experiences there might be in the game universe. I’m offering $25, public accolades, and […]