Ikaruga: Xbox 360 Review

Ikaruga was the game I wrote a ‘try-out’ review of for Edge magazine following its Japanese Dreamcast release in the summer of 2002. While I prefer its forerunner Radiant Silvergun by some margin, it still holds a special place in my mind as being the game that marked my entry into professional games writing. It’s ...

The Stories That Surround Our Games

More interesting than any videogame are the stories that spring up around them.

From the overweight American tourist overturning public expectations at DDR, to the terminally-ill mother who sent her kids Animal Crossing presents and messages only discovered once she’d died, to the sense of anticipation and reverence one friend felt before meeting his Virtua Fighter hero in Tokyo, it’s the stories that surround games that make for the most affecting.

Last week Gamasutra-writer Leigh Alexander posted a week’s worth of essays on Final Fantasy VII to coincide with the release of the PSP sequel, Crisis Core. I’m currently reviewing the game for Eurogamer so it was interesting to hear her perspective as someone of a similar age to me with mixed affections/ concerns for the franchise.

The Value of Impermanence

The Internet’s permanence is, of course, a fragile one. When the tides rise and the servers drown, the zeros and ones will all be washed away faster than you can scream ‘google cache’. But, even so, for the moment the web does have a terrifying knack for remembering pretty much everything put into it ever. ...

VW Mr Driller

To celebrate this week’s release of the excellent Mr Driller Online onto Xbox Live Arcade, here’s an image of a VW Golf I created a bespoke themed livery for in the racing game Forza 2. It took me about cumulative 5 hours to make, each colour and shape needing to be shrunk, rotated and meticulously ...

Best Thing I Saw Today #22: Can I Buy Your Knife?

‘As the teen began to walk away, Diaz said: “Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you’re going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm.” The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, “like what’s going on here?” Diaz says. ...