I am a very nice guy. I make friends very easily, can engage with strangers comfortably and am a devastatingly charming dinner companion. Modest, too. But even someone as patient and self-effacing as I am has his limits. And my limit is anonymous online gaming. I hate it. I can’t go into a multiplayer lobby […]

[Read more →]

While finishing up my review of the non-violent conflict sim A Force More Powerful (hopefully coming to a magazine near you in a month or so) it occurred to me that it shows a side of politics that is completely missing from strategy games – the question of legitimate and illegitimate actions. In a site […]

[Read more →]

Civilization IV has been patched, and the changes are pretty interesting. In probably the most significant gameplay change, the “chop till you drop” strategy has been seriously weakened. Many of the most successful Civ IV players center their early game around the deforestation of their first few cities. The wood is converted into hammers, pushing […]

[Read more →]

Yeah, I’m just getting to this now. It was on my wish list, so the missus picked it up for my birthday. Good of her to do that. Always marry a nerd. Lionhead and Peter Molyneux take a lot of beatings for creating games that are high on ambition and low on execution, and, despite […]

[Read more →]

I finally get a week to spend on some important chores, including finishing up some reviews for some important people plus the usual house stuff. (I’ll also be going to my first Nats game of the season on Wednesday night.) The shame of the week, though, is that there is no huge new release for […]

[Read more →]