The Bloggings of The_B

Well, my student life is officially over, and I must leave my current digs this week. Due to reasons I won’t bore you with, I’ll be staying on my Brother’s couch for about a month. After that I’m not certain at this point. My brother does have internet access but I have no idea about it’s quality or otherwise, so consider this the advance warning that activity from myself may be sporadic, hopefully not for too long.

Still, cheers to everyone I’ve met in my three years of Lincoln. It’s been a great three years, and it’s definitely changed me. Now comes the hard part of Real Life. (Of course, I’m still after a job, any commissioning editors reading) – to those who have asked me to do unpaid work, I will be getting back to you very soon in (I hope) a positive manner. My email is always open for any other offers.

So there’s the excuses, hopefully normal service will resume fairly quickly, but if I’m even more quiet than usual for the next month, at least you know why.

Is it about time now to publicize this? I think it’s ripe for public viewing now.

Friend Mike Cook – also known as FinalSin – has recently relaunched the Sekrit Forum community (of which I am a member) with a new domain, a makeover and on top of all this a very awesome new project/blog known as The Blue Casket.

It’s a repository of one of my favourite kinds of games writing – the gaming diary. Featuring links to the internet’s best gaming journals, and with pieces from the Sekrit community themselves, The Blue Casket features experiences as varied as an Amateur’s attempt at assassination in Blood Money to stunt mercenary Reggio Perino’s adventures in Mount & Blade and even Charles Dickens – Football Manager – this is a blog that’s going to be well worth keeping an eye on.

Go! Read! And follow their Twitter!

Well, think it’s about time I announced my next blog project since I’m ready to release the first post. Like just about everyone else on the planet I’ve had my time this weekend spent being rather addicted to the Sims. And obviously because I like falling into the usual categories of mashing various aspects of my hobbies/work together until both resemble nothing more than unrecognisable pulp, I’ve decided to mix a little of Left 4 Dead into the proceedings by recreating the Left 4 Dead characters in The Sims 3 to see what hilarious japes they get up to. That and it’s far easier to let weird/bad/crazy stuff happen to Sims characters that aren’t based on yourself.

Incidentally I am not abandoning Malevolent Effect, that’s still ongoing (as I hope the update to the blog headers thanks to some awesome coding help from the brilliant Monsieur Cobbett prove) – heck, both this new project and that are obviously going to be subject to the real life stuff happening at the moment, mainly from moving house and no longer being a student as I keep seemingly reiterating in the last few blog posts. But hopefully once I’m settled into my new place the updates will be more forthcoming. Anyway, without furher ado please click on the image above to be taken to Left 4 Sims, and see exactly what happened when our favourite zombie holocaust survivors made it to Riverside.

Incidentally, if you enjoy this sort of thing and would like to read another Sims 3 related tale, Mr roBurky has been busy creating a homeless Father and Daughter combo known as Alice and Kev. Well worth a read.

They had made it. Only just, but they were alive. After battling thousands upon thousands of the infected horde, the survivors had finally reached their destination: Riverside. However, they now faced their toughest and most terrifying challenge ever: living with each other…

Continue reading ‘Chapter One: Welcome to Riverside’

So, even though the expo itself doesn’t start until today, yesterday Microsoft had their 360 related conference to show off their stuff. Highlights included footage from Modern Warfare 2, Final Fantasy whatevernumberthey’reuptonow and Splinter Cell Conviction. There was also talk of XBox 360 getting integration with Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm. But personally for me the best things were (in no particular order)

An Angry Internet Man, Yesterday. Notice the difference in size of his Angry Typing Arm.

1. Project Natal – Despite having a name like a rejected member of the Gladiators, this is a full 3D motion tracking camera thingymabob with voice and facial recognition to boot. If they manage to pull this off, it’ll be bloody fantastic to see. However, most of the gaming public know to take this sort of technology with a pinch of salt – after all, the PlayStation Eye for the PS3 and MS’ own You’re In The Movies haven’t exactly set the gaming world alight. However, one of my favourite arcade experience remains Konami’s Police 24/7 – where you had to physically move your body to avoid the hail of bullets – in a time of Time Crisis style foot pedals was quite a remarked difference and was pretty immersive in its day. Still not quite sure about Peter Molyneux deciding to show off the technology with a new Virtual Boy (literally) in Milo. He’s a bit creepy. In a having-Alma-from-the-FEAR-series-would-have-been-so-much-better kind of way.

2.The Beatles Rock Band Yeah, OK – it’s no secret I’m a fan of fake plastic guitar games, but the debut trailer for Lego Rock Band as well as the footage shown yesterday (introduced by Paul and Ringo themselves) of Beatles Rock Band has not failed to quash my excitement for them. I got far more of a sense of childish glee from seeing the Lego Rock Band one than even the announcement of the Harry Potter or Lego Indy 2 announcements also this week.

3. Left 4 Dead 2
And this was announced yesterday, which as a PC centric sort of person most excited me. I’m really looking forward to the new campaigns, characters, story and new infected such as the Charger shown in the picture. However, it appears to have generated a lot of people’s anger. Now, I see where it may seem like quite a rapid turnaround for a sequel, but Valve have already said they’re not abandoning the first game, and there’s still plenty of DLC to come for the first game. But I for one can’t wait to start attacking infected with a chainsaw in broad daylight. AND IN THE GAME. (The Anti-Cliché part of my brain just died) Loads more info (and indeed views from both sides, along with a podcast from the producer of L4D2) over on RPS.

And finally, not entirely E3 related but announced this week as well so I’ll mention it anyway – an updating of the first Monkey Island game is coming along with some new Monkey Island games from Telltale. Hurrah!