Hide and Geek

The copious amounts of snow that covered southern England last night were more than enough to bring out my inner child. After getting up early, all giddy and excitable, I donned my wellies and Salopettes, and rushed outside to embrace the vast whiteness. After a few minutes of standard snow related activity, I began work on a little snow sculpture…

After four hours of scooping, patting, carving and smoothing, the sculpture was complete, and Snowboy was brought to life. Hit the jump for more pictures.

(more…)

My first article for gamer2.0 was published today, asking the question ‘Can The Old Republic Take Over the World (of Warcraft)? ‘

World of Warcraft is a game of such magnitude that it has managed to eclipse every other MMO on the market. Blizzard has created the most popular MMO in gaming history, and shows no signs of slowing down. The release of the games second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, later this month will only increase interest in the game further. It’s the MMO all others want to be, the daddy of massively multiplayer online. World of Warcraft is the game that defined the MMO genre.

Or did it….

The rest of the article can be read in it’s entirity here.

/Jamin has no shame in plugging his new article

I played Oblivion til my eyes bled when the game was first released on XBox 360. I played it every waking hour of the day, but the game obviously wasn’t content with just this, as when I went to sleep I dreamt of made up quests and obtaining made up treasures. The game offered a beautiful world with endless options, no boundaries and no restriction of choice. It offered a living, breathing world with it’s own personality and charm, a world that I eventually left due to unknown reasons. Probably a full gamerscore.

Anyway, I started playing Oblivion again today (on PC this time…) as part of a games research project, this time however, I’m looking at the game through a specific lens. I’m analysing the world of Oblivion itself, how the environments are constructed, the story and lore behind the world and what exactly gives the game it’s unique atmosphere. But I digress.

I haven’t played the game for a good couple of years, but stepping back into the world of Cyrodiil was just like listening to a song that you haven’t heard for years. It managed to conjure up all the thoughts and feelings that were running through my head when I played the game previously. It’s a strange combination of familiarity and nostalgia. Returning to the game offered me a strange sense of belonging, like the game had been happy to welcome me back after my long absence. This was mainly achieved through the sound and music, I believe there’s some science behind the fact that sound has a stronger link to memory than any other sense. The satisfying sound effects of picking up a new item, or improving a skill instantly triggered feelings of nostalgia. These tiny sound effects alone instantly brought me back to a state of mind I was in when I played the game 2 years before.

It’s a strange and fascinating thought that a game, a mere combination of code and polygons, can make a player feel such strong attachments to a virtual environment. Of course this feeling isn’t just limited to Oblivion, many games I’ve returned to years later have had similar effects on me. But Oblivion’s rich, fully realised, lore driven world was a joy to return to. It was like returning to the holiday location your parents forced you to visit year after year. I knew my way round, I recognised certain landscapes and I was familiar with the locals. I’m sure this is a feeling many gamers have noticed during their gaming lifetime, but returning to Oblivion is the best example of this phenomena I’ve experienced to date.

/Jamin’s back off to Cyrodiil

Right. In an actual fight, who would win. Sonic or Mario? This would have been a common argument in the playgrounds back in the early 90’s, but if you remove all the console loyalty and childish fanboyism, who would actually win? In a bare knuckled fight to the death - who would hold his head high as victor. It’s a question that needs answering. A question that needs some degree of analysis before proper judgment can be made. And I’m the (informed, knowledgeable and incredibly bored) man for the job.

(more…)

Everybody loves Tetris. It’s a game I’ve spent countless hours playing as child. The fact I had so many colourful dreams about falling blocks is testament to how addictive the game is. I recently downloaded ‘Tris‘, a free Tetris clone available on the iTunes store and was able to relive memories of my childhood. Sad news then that ‘Tris’ will be removed from the Apple iTunes store as of tomorrow (27th August). The Tetris Company have contacted Apple regarding copyright claims for the title.

On his blog, the games developer Noah Witherspoon has said;

The trouble is, I’m a college student, and not an affluent one, and I simply do not have the time, energy, or resources to fight this battle right now

Hopefully ‘Tris’ will eventually make it make back to the app store, but as of tomorrow, it’ll be gone. Get it while you still can folks.

Source

Jamin