Brenda Brathwaite at the IGDA has noted that the new E3 rules may cramp the style of those game developers and publishers that like to dress up their dross with eye candy. (Hat tip: Utopian Hell.)

“Material, including live models, conduct that is sexually explicit and/or sexually provocative, including but not limited to nudity, partial nudity […]

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Creative Assembly has announced a new real time battle game - a sequel to their immensely popular Medieval: Total War.
Medieval II will have 21 factions, over 250 units, and an extended map to allow the player to do battle against the large American empires of the Aztecs and Inca. In an adaptation of the role […]

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Philippe Thibaut is a French strategy game developer best known for his design of the board game Europa Universalis. He helped Paradox adapt that design to the PC, and therefore had a crucial role in Paradox’s first huge hit.
He then began working on his own PC games, developing Pax Romana - a game full of […]

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2005 was a good year, and I have hopes for the upcoming year, as well. Corvus’s “Round Table” has asked for people to submit their wishes for the new year, and for their expected consequences. So here are my hopes for the strategy genre in 2006.
My first hope is that there will be a big, […]

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The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences has announced its nominees for this year’s Interactive Achievement Awards. Oddly not available on the organization’s own site, you’ll have to check Kotaku to get the whole deal for now.
First thought that occurred to me was surprise that Call of Duty 2 was the only PC game nominated […]

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Though all of the praise for Civ IV is well-deserved, little of it is as merited as the kind words directed at Soren Johnson’s afterword in the manual. It is a beautiful little essay that gives some insight into the game design process, specifically how to adapt a classic game and make it better. Potential […]

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The inaugural issue of Games and Culture is available online.
As a survivor of the academic world (and still a hanger on), part of me rejoices to see an academic journal devoted to game studies - ludology if you prefer the fancy word.
As a gamer, I am confident that none of this university provided criticism will […]

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The independent games column/insert Alt.Games returns in February’s Computer Games Magazine under new authorship - mine.
Appended to the “Mods and Ends” section, alt.games is no more than a few hundred word reviews/blurbs on free or inexpensive indie products. There’s no opinion column attached, like there was when DIYGames’ Greg Micek wrote this thing. You can […]

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If you read gaming blogs, you’ve already been pointed to Something Awful’s “Five Worst Gaming Articles of 2005.” And you’ve probably already read some commentary on this commentary. Kotaku writes that the article is both obnoxious and correct while both Game Girl Advance and Mile Zero point out that game articles are actually not journalism […]

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The thing with gaming blogs is that there is always more criticism than joy. This is probably inherent in the form itself. Blogs are very personal and driven by a small number of motivations. It is easier to make a gripe interesting than a celebration. Plus, criticism more easily provokes discussion than praise.
Bruce Geryk has […]

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