This will probably be my only post about Grand Theft Auto IV, a game which has been dubbed not only “great”, but “important” by a number of very savvy critics. Seth Schiesel’s review in the New York Times epitomizes the form, being (as usual) well written enough to persuade my wife that GTA4 is something […]

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There are 26 letters in the alphabet and ten numerals. So can you please stop using Os and zeroes in your registration codes? Or at least make it clear to me which is which? Use a font that puts a strike mark through the zero or makes the letter O really fat.

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I love post mortems on game design. You can learn a lot about the business and about developers as individuals. It’s always astonishing how close some games come to failure before they even hit the marketplace, where most of them will fail anyway.
Sins of a Solar Empire was not a failure. Read about how success […]

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Romance of the Three Kingdoms is coming back to the PC this July.
You may now dance.

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Every time someone tries to make something of the Atari name, it just tarnishes what was once a truly important brand. Does “Atari” even mean anything any more?
Besides, if Infrogrames changes their name they will lose their awesome anthem.

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Rockstar Games has just acquired Massachussetts developer Mad Doc Software for an undisclosed amount of money. Given how poorly most of the gaming world responded to Mad Doc’s most recent efforts, Empire Earth III and Star Trek: Legacy, the nasty side of me snidely wonders if this is a poison pill to deter EA’s buyout.

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Neverwinter Nights developer shuts
If that headline popped up in your news reader, you could be a little confused since you would have heard the wailing of a million voices if Bioware disappeared. After all, almost no one remembers or thinks about the 1980s Neverwinter Nights game (a proto-MMO) that the now closed Stormfront co-developed with […]

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At a lunch meeting I was not invited to, Firaxis designer-in-chief Sid Meier told Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal that he’s fine with EA buying Take Two.
We worked with Electronic Arts ten years ago. We respect them highly as a company. They’re a great company. We enjoy working with Take-Two. We’ll let them sort that out.
If an […]

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I’m skipping the Game Developer’s Conference this year, even though more people I know will be there and there are lots of parties. After a lean 2007, I simply couldn’t justify the hotel cost (even as a business expense) so I didn’t bother trying to angle press credentials.
I love the conference myself, even in spite […]

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Spore may be delayed.
Damn you to hell.

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