Hello everyone. Many years ago Rik wrote about the classic artillery game Worms. I recently picked it up on GOG.com and, for once actually sat down to play rather than let it gather virtual dust on the virtual GOG bookshelf. So here are a few comments. I know I’ve not posted much lately, I’m sure people are terribly disappointed. I would promise a burst of new activity but, well, let’s be honest here. Content will come in time, this has always been a slow moving site. I can at least say that some major site upgrades are (slowly) being worked on.

Hi and welcome to the latest in our ongoing series of game discussions. This time we thought we’d try ourselves against a big-name, relatively recent title.

If (like us) you live under a rock and don’t keep up with modern gaming, Mass Effect is an action-RPG from the prolific Bioware. It uses third-person cover-shooter type gameplay, and also gives you control of up to three characters at any one time. It’s also known for the epic scifi-story that takes place over three games, and for the range of colourful sidekicks who join the lead character.

Warning: this discussion is totally spoiler-iffic. (Of course if you already know what happens you didn’t need me to introduce the game, heh).

[Edit: Hello! This is future-Rik from 2021 saying that we now have a more traditional, spoiler-free review online in the RPG section…]
Discussion review: Mass Effect continued »

No, I’m not having another eBay clearout. But something’s got to give. Another year has passed and the cupboard under the stairs is still overflowing with unplayed games. And yet, I still buy more: a trip to CeX at lunchtime here, an idle browse of eBay there…and don’t even get me started on the digital archive of unplayed items that is my Steam account (there’s one or two on GOG, too, I think).

I was explaining this problem to a work colleague, who shared with me his own strategy for purchasing games. “Essentially,” he said, “I buy a game and play it until I finish it, or get bored of it. Then I buy another one.”

It all sounds rather straightforward when you put it like that. I’m not sure when it all got out of hand: perhaps it was the extended period of time lumbered with an old and wheezy machine that couldn’t handle anything released after 2002, which left a good six years’ worth of gaming to catch up on; or maybe there’s something about FFG (or any similar website) that leads someone to make strange and unpredictable choices on the basis that something “might be interesting to cover one day”. Or perhaps I’ve just always bought more games than I’ve been able to play.

This is hardly an unusual problem, and if I showed you a picture of the cupboard itself, it would certainly look rather pathetic when compared with some of the mighty collections I’ve seen documented elsewhere. (Oh, go on then…if nothing else the sheer messiness of it all might raise a chuckle).

(Actually, that looks quite tidy, doesn’t it? How about the bottom shelf, instead?)

Also: I generally do get around to playing most things, eventually, even if some considerable time has passed since the moment I pulled it off the shelves. (The game I completed most recently was purchased from a branch of Zavvi, a chain that went bust at the end of 2008). But, of course, by that time, others have appeared.

However – it’s time to break the cycle. So, here goes: I’m going to ban myself from buying games in 2013. New, or used, physical or digital, it’s all out of bounds. Instead, I’m going to focus on that backlog.

I actually don’t think it’s going to be difficult, and it’s certainly not something I’d want to be construed as a bizarre and unnecessary form of self-flagellation, as I force myself to invest all of my spare time in murderously unenjoyable strategy titles that I wished I’d never bought in the first place, while complaining about it on the internet.

On the contrary, I think it’s going to be fun – most of the games are ones that I do genuinely want to play, but for reasons unknown I just, well, haven’t. Anything I can write about on FFG, I will, and anything I can’t, I won’t.

I also won’t bore on about this self-imposed ban, either. I wanted to write about it here, though, just to state my intention, on the record. Whether it works, or lasts, or whatever, remains to be seen, but I’m looking forward to it.

Happy New Year! As it’s the season for continuing unwelcome traditions, here’s my annual roundup of the year in FFG-land. [Yay! – a reader].

Overall, we managed a reasonably steady stream of content across the year, roughly on a par with what we’ve produced in previous years (with the exception of the magical, industrious 2007, but we’ll have to dismiss that as a miraculous one-off). A couple of monkeys were removed from backs in 2012, as I finally managed to play, and review, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, while my esteemed colleague produced the long-promised King’s Quest VI write-up. I think he had slightly more fun than I did. Jo’s review of King’s Quest VII followed later, further boosting our coverage of Sierra adventure series (okay, it’s incomplete, and out of sequence, but it is there, at least).

The FFG sports section was bolstered by significant football game coverage this year, with a Kick Off vs Goal! face-off early in the year, and reviews of not one, not two, but three FIFA games. (Although don’t expect any more anytime soon). The best thing that can be said is, at least we had a cricket-free year.

April saw the introduction of a brand-new feature on FFG, the discussion review. Following our brief experimentation with the format while revisiting some old favourites for last year’s anniversary features, we decided to take the plunge and apply it to some games we hadn’t previously covered. Hardball III was the first, followed by Bio Menace and Delta Force.

Elsewhere, more modern games started to feature, with 2006-era titles such as Dark Messiah of Might and Magic (I reviewed an RPG, mum!) edging themselves onto the site. Another modern(ish) game to feature was The Movies, which saw the two of us immortalised as a buddy-cop duo.

So, what will 2013 bring? I’d be lying if I promised anything other than more of the same, in roughly similar quantities. Although somewhere, FFG v3 is being worked on by, ahem, top men, and I imagine we’d hope to have something to unveil at some stage in the next year or so. As always, if you have any requests, be sure to let us know. Otherwise, thanks for reading, and here’s to the year ahead.

Hi there!

There’s been rather more rushing around and feeling below-par than I might have liked over the past couple of weeks, but anyway, here’s the now-traditional, in under-the-wire, 31 December review: FIFA 07.

Season’s greetings to all our visitors and readers. A 2012 round-up is coming soon, along with some more content, as soon as we can get it to you.

Hi there.

It’s been a little while – sorry about that.

Our review for tonight is The Movies. The length of time it’s taken to get here is probably why you don’t see me in the strategy section all that often.

We’re working on…stuff. There may be more soon.

We’re Going back to Solstheim

And it looks like there’s some Morrowind-style buildings. iirc some Dunmer fled there after Morrowind itself got trashed. Could be a good way of appealing to player nostalgia, without having to do a full-game-sized landmass.

I’ve held off from expansions so far, after spending far too much time playing Skyrim itself, but this is the first one to seriously risk luring me back in.

If you follow geek news, or movie news, or probably any news at all, you’ve probably heard that Disney has spent about a bajillion dollars buying Lucasfilm from George Lucas.

The most important aspect of this is, of course, that they plan on making new Star Wars films. Which I’m cautiously optimistic about – after all, this is the same group that brought us Avengers. I’m confident they can beat the prequel trilogy, anyway.

For the purposes of this little blog though, our interests are regarding Lucasarts’ back catelogue. A few years ago they gave us remakes of the first two Monkey Islands, and put a few other oldies on Steam, but then they seemed to lose interest. So despite the ever-increasing ease of buying old games, we still can’t get TIE Fighter or Day of the Tentacle. Will their new corporate overlords be more eager to make the full range available?

As for what this means for *new* Lucasarts games, the future may not be bright. Rock Paper Shotgun suggest we could be in for a run of mobile and social media games and little in the way of big-budget releases.

(RPS seem as cool and trendy as it gets in terms of gaming sites. Does linking them make us slightly fashionable by association?)

(probably not)

Hello there.

Our new review for tonight is Quarantine.

In a change to our scheduled programming, it’s not the discussion review we’d planned, but I decided it was worth writing up my own thoughts anyway.

We’ll have more content, just as soon as we’re able to bring it to you.

Earlier this week the sad news emerged that programmer Mike Singleton had died, aged 61, after losing his battle with cancer.

Lords of Midnight was a little before my time, but I do have many fond memories of playing Midwinter on the Atari ST. As with many of my earlier gaming experiences, much of the time spent with this magnificently ambitious game was not invested in attempting to achieve its primary objectives. Instead, I preferred to arse about, skiing from village to village in search of a snowmobile, or another character to recruit. Most of the time I failed, with my quests usually ending after one head-over-heels fall down a hill too many, breaking most of my character’s limbs in the process.

On that basis, I’ve been reluctant to review the game here. But, while I might not have made much progress, trust me: I spent ages with it, and it represents a significant part of my early gaming life. So I reckon it’s worth giving it another go, and attempting to play it properly this time.

For more on Midwinter, Eurogamer brought us a retrospective a couple of years ago, while Mr Creosote also reviewed the game over at The Good Old Days.