EGM Magazine Closed by Buyer Well, EGM Magazine lovers… I feel guilty, although I probably shouldn’t. On Jan. 7th, Ziff Davis announced that they’ve closed down the entire EGM magazine publishing operation, only days after my post criticizing the clipping problem they had on their Gears of War 2 cover. Okay, I admit that there’s […]
Tag Archives: game writer
Game artist: caught clipping
A game artist goofup A game artist has a hard life. You spend years – nay, a lifetime – honing your skills and craft. You sketch incessantly, driven by your passion for visual expression. You paint, you sculpt, you design, you draft. After your traditional art training, you pick up the digital tools of creation. […]
Game design innovation… in today’s market?
I guess a few game designers were paying attention The game design plaint that I most routinely dispense is doubtlessly one you’re familiar with. Game design is a dying craft. Publishers have forgotten what makes great games. Sequels are the spawn of Satan. But maybe I was wrong. A few fresh game design ideas are […]
The videogame writing smackdown of the month
The videogame writing quandry Videogame writing often gets overlooked in the modern videogame development process. There’s no hiding from the raw facts. From EGM’s review of Alone in the Dark for Xbox 360: AITD wants to emulate the presentation of serial television, but neither the writing nor the “performances” compare to even TV’s least-essential shows. […]
JJ Abrams’ Lost Thoughts on Creativity
JJ Abrams’ Lost Thoughts, get it? Ha ha… sorry. Anyhow, a friend recently turned me on to TED.com, a site where you can view talks from the cognoscenti from all sorts of incredible fields and backgrounds. On TED, I recently found this entertaining and thoughtful lecture by JJ Abrams, the creative guy behind Lost, Cloverfield, […]
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 […]