Flash of Steel header image 1

Carving Out Your Own Space

July 22nd, 2008 by Troy Goodfellow · Escapist

I haven’t linked to The Escapist in a while, mostly because everyone visits there now because of some vulgar little video critiques that I happen to find very entertaining most of the time.

But please don’t forget to read the articles, especially Sean Sands’ A Site to Call My Own. Sands is one of the people behind Gamers With Jobs, one of the best reads on the ‘net and the home of what is probably the single best gaming podcast.

Sands makes the fairly obvious point that “If you’re looking to get rich, don’t go into the wonderful world of independent videogame journalism. ” But, fortunately for all of us, Sands is convinced that he is doing good work and worthwhile thing, even if the sum wage adds down to less than a dollar an hour.

It’s easy to dismiss the launch of new gaming sites. After all, how many do we really need? But as Sands makes clear in his article, the outsider voices add something that is usually missing from the experienced professionals or wannabes clamoring for a job in a professional arena already too crowded with pikers. I can’t imagine my weeks without GWJ now, and I’m thrilled that they’ve been able to secure some top notch guests for their podcast.

Comments Off on Carving Out Your Own SpaceTags:

More to Write

July 19th, 2008 by Troy Goodfellow · E3, Industry, Me

I have lots of stuff still to write and upload about E3, but I’m exhausted. Nothing tires you out like airports and airplanes.

A few little tidbits:

– Empire: Total War will probably consume me when it comes out. We only got to see the sea battles in action, but from the rest of the description, this engine will make a lot of things possible that weren’t before.

– Space Siege is a surprise. It looks like a relatively light sci-fi RPG, and could be a lot of fun.

– Dragon Age is Baldur’s Gate 2008. I’m not yet sure if this is a good thing.

– Storm Rise is a console RTS with a different approach than Halo Wars, which demonstrates just how much room there is to be creative with console controllers once you realize that you need to break out of the mouse/hotkey module that rules PC RTS.

– Eidos says that the word “skimpy” is no longer used by Tomb Raider developers. The cut of Lara’s wetsuit says otherwise.

– Neither Gamecock nor Activision Blizzard are ESA members, so they weren’t at E3. But they were near E3. So come on guys, pick a side.

→ 5 CommentsTags:

E3 Never Ends

July 17th, 2008 by Troy Goodfellow · E3

More previews at Gameshark:

Halo Wars
Spore

These are the two games that I am (at this point) most excited about. Halo Wars makes the crucial (but obvious) decision that console real time strategy games have to be very different from their PC predecessors.

And Spore will either sell 10 million copies or be the most brilliant failure in gaming history. If people get what is going on, then this will be a huge hit. If the Sims audience does not get what Will Wright is trying to do, then this will be another Psychonauts,

From where I sit, this is jaw-dropping brilliant. But I’m an idiot.

→ 5 CommentsTags:

More E3 Previews

July 16th, 2008 by Troy Goodfellow · Akella, E3, Electronic Arts, Gameshark, Preview

Disciples III: Renaissance
Crysis: Warhead
Lord of the Rings Conquest

→ 2 CommentsTags:

Command and Conquer 3: Red Alert

July 15th, 2008 by Troy Goodfellow · E3, Electronic Arts, Gameshark, Preview

My preview can be found here.

→ 2 CommentsTags:

Disciples III and Red Alert

July 15th, 2008 by Troy Goodfellow · Akella, E3, Electronic Arts

I saw two strategy games today, Disciples III from Akella and Command and Conquer 3: Red Alert from EA. And I think I’m equally interested in both.

Now I’m not a huge Disciples fan, so I’m sure a lot of this had to do with the contrast between the game and the environment it was shown in. EA is on one end of the show floor and Akella is in the exact opposite corner. So one side is all noise and basketball and Xbox 360s overheating. Akella’s technical glitch just meant that the sales rep showed me the game on his laptop – a small presentation befitting their small stature.

But Disciples III is doing something really neat – putting a hex based wargame into the series instead of the traditional grid system. It looks great in 3D, and they’ve done some neat stuff with the information displays.

Red Alert looks good, too. Don’t get wrong. Lots of color and things going boom. And it’s not like E3 is the zoo that it apparently used to be.

→ 3 CommentsTags: