SketchStone » Byte Sized

A Fine Line

sketch — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:02:46 +0000

Many true words in this fine blog from ImpulsiveCompulsiveInsane. How much is too much indeed? The perils of collecting so often means making tough decisions as to when to walk away and when to take the plunge when shopping for limited editions and collectables. Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it, but when finances are a consideration, sometimes, head has to rule over heart and sometimes, you have to walk away.

A thoughtful piece and it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who has been in that situation.

Alien Breed Returns

sketch — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:47:40 +0000

The original and stunning cover

Any Amiga fan who remembers the Alien Breed series with a wide smile and nostalgic flutter will be champing at the bit for December 16th after the release date of the remake was finally announced. After teasing fans with news for months, it seems that Alien Breed Evolution – Episode 1 from Team 17 will be blasting its way onto the Xbox LIVE marketplace for a worthy 800 MSP in the next two weeks and personally, I can’t wait.

As someone who adored Alien Breed and who has fond memories of finishing the second one with her father in multiplayer all those years ago, I have been looking forward to snapping this one up for a long time. As with any remake, there is always that lurking terror that they may just have fucked everything up…that the alluring computer voice when you access the satisfyingly futuristic green terminals will be gone, that the triple laser or the Boomerang weapons will have been thrown out for something more resembling what the youngsters today are used to with their new fangled Halo nonsense, and that Team 17 might have pissed all over the hallowed memory of a superb game. Time will tell though, and luckily that time is but a few weeks away…

So with an action stuffed single player mode, along with LIVE and local multiplayer, Alien Breed Evolution looks set to send pulses racing as you are pitched once more against crawling beasties in the eerily lit corridors of some fear-stained, overrun facility. Two weeks and counting…

: The old eyecandy from back on the faithful Amiga…

And all new eyecandy…

Bully 2 finally muscling up for a release?

sketch — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:02:38 +0000

After falling in love with Rockstar’s Bully for the Xbox360, I naturally scoured the net for any morsel of information that I could find on the possibility of a sequel, only to come away bitterly disappointed. I chalked it up to being one of those star games that settles for one hefty body blow before slouching off into the sunset and shelved all hope for a sequel. Now, thanks to a leak from a surprising source, it seems that all hope may not have been in vain…

After chatting with thegamingliberty.com, musician Shawn Lee let slip a surprising nugget of information while answering questions about his work on Bully:

TGL: So far you’ve worked on two games, The Getaway and Bully, would you be open to composing for other games in the future?

Shawn Lee: “Yes. It looks like I will be doing the soundtrack for Bully 2 in the not so distant future….”

This unexpected leak, if it is indeed true, couldn’t be better news for me. In fact, to say I am now hyped would be a gross understatement…you see, I don’t care a damn about Modern Warfare 2 or the like, and this year’s remaining releases are but a shoulder shrug to me. However, Jimmy Hopkins’ troublesome schooldays at Bullworth Academy were some of my favourite gaming moments and Bully was the first game that I maxed out the achievements for.

From my obsession with Skool Daze and Back 2 Skool for the Spectrum to Bullworth’s grubby grounds in Bully for the 360, this setting and type of game have always appealed to me – playing the misunderstood miscreant while you do everything you always wanted to do but never had the balls for. A game with humour, guts, and fun, that took a less well used mould and created a great game. And now…this tiny glimmer of hope has cast a sliver of light onto the possibility of a sequel that until now, Rockstar have never once mentioned, and I just sincerely hope that it holds true.

http://thegamingliberty.com/index.php/2009/11/10/tgl-exclusive-interview-reveals-possible-bully-sequel/

Shout out for some stunning Fable 2 writing

sketch — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:09:46 +0000

A friend of mine who adores Fable 2 from Bowerstone’s crooked rooftops down to Wraithmarsh’s swampy depths wrote this stunning piece on the game some time ago. After re-discovering it in my favourites list, I fell in love with it all over again and had to post the link:

http://therighteousperspective.blogspot.com/2009/04/hail-to-conquering-hero.html

Emotive, evokative, and well written, this short character piece beautifully encapsulates the strength of his emotion stirred up by Fable 2 and the outcome of the events that the character inexorably builds towards. Everyone who loves Fable 2, should read this.

Civ preparing to invade Facebook…

sketch — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:33:32 +0000

Interesting news recently about the mother of all time suckers – Civilisation and how it is soon to be invading Facebook.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=225884?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-General-RSS

Farms will be left untended, crops will wither, and cafe food will spoil as Facebook gamers migrate to begin forming governments, coalitions, and plotting invasions. This has the potential to be huge and employers and disinterested spouses across the land will have cause to weep.

Luckily I haven’t yet been sucked into Facebook gaming and don’t see it happening with this one. The original Civ games passed me by as I threw all my time into the lesser known forgotten cousin that was Colonization on the Amiga. So you can have your brave new worlds and I will enjoy this squashy comfortable one, albeit with my feet up on the table and a controller in hand…

Build, Buy, Bum out…

sketch — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:38:27 +0000

Actually had my first Windows blue screen in I don’t know how long – thanks to Sims 3. The game seems just determined to make my life miserable one way or another, doesn’t it? That’s the third time it has crashed out on me in the build mode, and once when it has frozen instead. Also, thanks to the fact that you can’t save as you are building, but instead have to come out and back into the town to save, more work is likely to be lost (and has been).

Trash and Burn?

sketch — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:09:44 +0000

After stumbling across an intruiging sounding game called ‘Prison Tycoon 3′, I was amazed that there was such a tycoon game and that it had actually manage to spawn two sequels. An idea began forming about having a serial feature section where I focus on an obscure or dodgy title (largely PC based, I suspect). The game would be played as much as is bearable and then commented upon, in a small feature/review. I have the perfect game for the first one sitting on my shelf…’Ski Park Manager’. The joy.

First!

sketch — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:02:16 +0000

After much faffing and general procrastination, (mostly involving watching my screensaver), I have finally grabbed a piece of the internet and spread a (carefully chosen) blanket to park my gaming writing on.

Intended as a personal gaming writing site, rather than an up to the minute melting pot of red-hot news and reviews with a dozen sarcastic authors, I just hope that any visitors that do lose their way on the interweb and end up here, find something to enjoy. Not that I care or anything. I’ll be too busy staring into the depths of an unending starfield and contemplating Monster Munch.

More info can be found in the About link, but you’re hopefully all grown up enough to have spotted that anyway…