As you may have noticed from my post yesterday, I’m in the process of writing a novel (thanks for any feedback, by the way. It’s really useful.) However, because it’s a project slightly separate, I’ve decided to spin it off and give it its own blog here. This is partly to focus, partly because I wanted to give the story its own webspace, and partly because I wanted to mess around with Blogger. Anyway, while I’ll probably still occasionally post book stuff here (if I can’t be bothered to write anything, as has been the case in the past), it’ll mostly be over there. So go and visit. It’s still very much a work in progress, so be forgiving. It’ll have news and lots of interesting little bits which are ancillary to the story but maybe still interesting. Anyway. That’s it for today, I’ve spent most of today sorting out the new blog. See you tomorrow!
Monthly Archives: February 2010
Prologue 1
Here is the entirety of the first prologue which I posted the first paragraphs of some weeks back. It’s only the first draft but I quite like it. It’s not copyrighted, but… please don’t steal it. That would be mean.
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Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
You and he were…buddies…weren’t you?
Before you read any further, if you’re reading this and you haven’t seen Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, go and watch it now. Seriously, you will enjoy it a hell of a lot more than you will reading this, which is essentially me just going on about how great I think it is.
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Another Video
I was going to do a post about Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, but I’m feeling awful, so here’s a (very) short film by some friends of mine. Better stuff tomorrow, promise!
The Heckling Trailer
Evening all! Thought I’d share a trailer for a new (awesome) video series that Scott and myself will be releasing into the wild shortly. Enjoy!
Peggle Nights for FREE!!1!1!!
Well, I’ve posted something of this effect on Aeropause already , but I felt I should share it with… whoever (whatever)’s reading this. Go here and sign up, and you can get a free copy of Peggle Nights. It’s a fantastic game, and there’s no reason to pass this opportunity up! Go now! Yeah, it’s short! If you want a long post, read my Saboteur review! See you tomorrow!
Review: The Saboteur
World War II is one of the most overused settings for videogames. It’s easy to see the attraction – black-and-white morality, lots of action, and interesting locations and events. The Saboteur, however, is a far more interesting take on the concept than usual. It’s set in occupied Paris and surrounding countryside (nary a D-day beach landing in sight!) which is a superb setting in which the protagonist, the titular Saboteur, can run, drive and climb his way around in order to vanquish the Nazis.
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The Burden of Continuity, and problems with comic books.
There’s a problem which created universes which have been around for a while suffer, one which I like to refer to as the ‘burden of continuity’. This is less of a problem in a world like the one portrayed in Lord of Rings, which is the result on one man’s singular vision – Mr Tolkein knew exactly what was going on and exactly what was going on. In other places, its a different story.
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Emergent gameplay
My favourite game of last year was Red Faction: Guerilla, from Volition, which concerned the exploits of a guy with a hammer tearing things up on Mars. Aside from the fact that nearly everything could be destroyed (this will be the subject of another post) one of the things I really enjoyed about it was the emergent gameplay – the way situations developed in interesting or unexpected ways due to the way the game is made.
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Jokes which are no longer funny
It’s going to be succinct today: Here are some jokes which are no longer funny. Take note, panel game contestants fishing for cheap laughs.
- “Some variation on Nick Clegg being a nonentity.” At this point, if people didn’t know him because he’s a leader of a major political party, they’d know him because this joke KEEPS BEING MADE
- “Gordon Brown lacks charisma’ He’s a politician. His job is to legislate. Really, his charisma (or lack thereof) is a non-issue.
- “David Cameron’s a bit of a posh-boy” While this is true, it’s not that funny. Apart from in this context.
- “The internet consists primarily of porn” Not anymore. It wasn’t even that funny when it was less dilute.
- “Wikipedia is inaccurate” Yes, occasionally people like to vandalise Wikipedia. However, considering the number of users and editors it has, any abuse is unlikely to remain unnoticed for long.
- “Videogames/The Internet/Technology in general is for nerds”. Technophobic humour is no longer funny, and really hasn’t been since… well, ever. Stop deluding yourself. Everyone has hobbies or interests others would consider weird.
- “Topical comedy is satire” Actually, this is a joke. Satire is Brass Eye or The Day Today or Private Eye. It’s not The Now Show. That could barely claim the status of topical comedy (see previous articles about Mitch Benn)
- Pointless lists to which no-one will pay any attention
- Reflexive post-modern humour.
