Archive for June, 2008
The Nub of the Matter
June 18th, 2008 | 
Author: 
Lian Xing is stumbling clumsily backwards through the control room, the petite brunette moving with about as much grace as a gorilla on ice, which is disturbing, not only because the covert operative only tips the scales at only 54 kilograms, but because this is Syphon Filter, Dark Mirror, a game of stealth and the first game to bring user-friendly precision control to the Playstation Portable platform. Even more alarming, I’m not actually touching the analogue nub. Lian bumps drunkenly into a doorway, alerting the three guards to her presence and slumps to the floor in a hail of gunfire. Lian’s dead, but far far worse, and without getting too technical, The Incomplete Gamer PSP is rooted.
Everyone out there bemoaning the fact that the PSP only has one analogue nub, and not the two analogue joysticks like the PS2 and PS3; there is a fate far worse, which is of course no analogue nub at all. Kutaragi’s Law of course states that your PSP will break on a public holiday, at a location where you have no on-line access and at a time when you have a great deal of free time to get your game on, if only your PSP would function.
Posted in Now Devouring | 
Tags: Ken Kutaragi, Lian Xing, Pursuit Force, Sony Ericsson K610i, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror | 
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Melting Moments
The Nuclear energy debate is back in the headlines. Not surprising really as the world comes to grips with the worst oil crisis in forty years and the price of petrol soars ever upward. At the time of writing, media outlets are reporting that petrol has reached A$171.9 in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide.
As Australian motorists deal with rising fuel prices, in the US, Presidential Republican hopeful, John McCain, has come out strongly in favour of nuclear energy, advocating building new commercial nuclear plants.
Rising fossil fuel prices make the nuclear option more attractive. A recent UK newspaper poll found 86% of respondents in favour of nuclear energy. of course, nuclear energy still has its detractors; Friends of the Earth spokesman, Ali Abbas believes that “nuclear power is a dirty, dangerous and expensive distraction”. Many haven’t forgotten the lesson of Three Mile Island.
Onward Christian Soldiers
Christian game developers are again busy marshalling the forces of good. Next month (July 24-26), the folks at the Association of Christian Entertainment (ACE – they probably thought it sounded pretty darn cool at the time) will hold the 2008 Christian Game Developers Conference in Portland.
Portland, Oregon, hardly seems like a video gaming hotspot, but conference organisers may simply have cut a good deal on the venue hire. There’s not a great deal going on during the month of July in Portland. In years past, the highlight on the Portland Events calendar has been ‘Bears Awareness Week’ – basically a week to remind everyone in Portland that the Oregon Zoo still has bears. A quick look at what’s on in Portland next month, and you’ll discover the Oregon Zoo Summer Concert – the natural next step for a city now aware that it has bears. Here’s hoping the bears are still into Boz Skaggs ad Sean Mullins.
Speaking of gaming hotspots, in past years the conference organisers have boasted the participation of video game professionals from Egypt, Korea, Brazil and Nigeria? Clearly they have all the major markets covered.
No one cares what I had for lunch…but I'm going to tell you anyway
No one care what I had for lunch. So says Maggie Mason, author of No One Cares What you Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog. Who am I to argue. Maggie’s a published author. Sure, her tally is only one book but at the time of writing, that’s one more than me. No..really, Maggie is the real deal. She’s a successful blogger with an established and loyal readership. One of Maggie’s sites, was even named one of Time Magazine’s Top 50 Cool Sites of the Year. Here at TIG, we once read 50 issues of Time, but that’s about as close as we can get to Maggie’s claim to fame.
Maggie’s sage advice is to make your blog of interest to your reader, if you want to expand your readership beyond its current exclusive numbers (“Hi Mum, hope it stopped raining in Surfers“). Makes sense. No one really cares what you had for lunch unless perhaps your a restaurant reviewer in which case this book’s advice won’t do much for your career.
