My Gaming Manifesto
Nov 8th
I decided to do a spot of creative writing to keep me on my toes. I wouldn’t mind getting some opinions. You can log in using a twitter account.
Fact hidden cleverly in fiction
Sep 25th
Some people may already know that for the last few months I have been doing an awful lot of reading. The series of books I have been reading are the ‘Sword of Truth’ series by Terry Goodkind, a fantasy series that has both captured my imagination, but intrigue as to what will happen next.
As the storyline unfolded I came across something that I didn’t expect, a series of rules that on the outside seemed to be a major factor on the story, but on the inside was something much bigger. What I found was these rules known as the ‘Wizards Rules’ made a hell of a lot of sense, not just to the storyline but to normal everyday life.
I don’t know if Mr Goodkind is a genius or not but I have to admit, he has a really good point. So in this blog post I will give you the rules and my explanation of them, but you see what you think, and how they apply to you.
Nothing is ever easy!
Sep 16th
It’s been one week since Andy left for Australia and I have to say it’s been a pretty stressful turn of events. So what makes me say these things; well let me tell you all in this brief summary.
A new day for TIMJ and a little more.
Sep 7th
It’s Tuesday and today is a start of new things. The server transfer went ahead last night with little issue. The new forums are being built and altered so they work the way that we want them to. Business is back to normal, and the usual and the steady flow on content will now begin being published.
More >
Exciting times for TIMJ
Sep 6th
It’s been over a year since me and my good friend, and colleague Andy Corrigan, came up with the idea for www.thisismyjoystick.com and in that year it’s been a lot of hard work; that I can say I have been very proud of being a part of. Over the last year we have been supported well by the team, and we have worked very hard to produce the quality content that we have.
Highschool of the Dead
Sep 6th
The other week I came across something so awesome that I am now addicted. That awesomeness if none other than Highschool of the Dead! What’s this got to do with gaming? Well not a great deal but I don’t care; there are references so that will do. It has zombies, yes zombies, does it need anything else? Press the magic button and we shall continue this inside [pops kettle on].
Borderlands: What I’d like in a sequel
Sep 6th
One of the best games to come out of 2009 was Gearbox Software’s Borderlands. This game has everything. It has class, it has replay value and it has so many different varieties of weapons that you can easily see why millions of people have been playing it all over the world. It’s been nearly a year since I bought two copies of the game for me and my girlfriend and set out on the epic mission of killing everything that dared to attack us as we traversed the world of Pandora. After several conversations with Andy C, we started to pull apart this masterpiece, not only praising Gearbox for successfully mashing together various different elements into the game, but finding ways that if we were the developers, we would improve it for the next game.
At this point I figured what the hell; maybe I should write this stuff down and see what the rest of the world thinks.
Review: Nier
Sep 6th
I must say, when I got Nier through the post, I hadn’t really heard a great deal about it. All I knew was that it had been developed by Cavia and published by Square Enix, which wasn’t a great deal of information. I had heard things from people saying it was a one button affair and that it didn’t look anything special, but it didn’t put me off, after all, I have to formulate my own opinion don’t I?
After putting the game in the tray I was greeted by an audio only monologue from a woman that seemed to be talking to a character called Weiss. I say talking. I mean shouting abuse and profanity at him in a comical yet erm… enthusiastic way. This was before I had even started the game. Hell, I hadn’t even pressed start and new game, and I couldn’t help but wonder if the rest of the story was going to be as colourful. That said, I got the show on the road to find out if this game was worth shelling out for.
My gaming dry spell
Sep 6th
It happens to every gamer and some point in time. Sometimes more than just the once. It’s what I like to call the ‘dry spell’, where you pop a game in the console, start to play and promptly turn it right back off again. The will to play any game has completely disappeared and it doesn’t matter what game is in the console, it could even be the newest game on the market that you have been waiting since forever for, it’s like eating a really nice looking meal but one that tastes of nothing but sawdust.
The other week I had the chance to play a game that I had been awaiting since Eurogamer Expo last year in Aliens vs. Predator. It may not be a game of the year candidate but it was still one I wanted to play. Into the console I popped the disc and within ten minutes I wanted to play something else. I popped in another game and the same thing happened. Twenty two titles later it dawned on me, I hit a dry spell.
If this has happened to you before then you will know where I’m coming from, if not then you best expect one at some point in your gaming life. Either way, I suggest you read on.
Review: Earthworm Jim HD
Sep 6th
1994 was a bad year. Fred West’s house was excavated, Kurt Cobain killed himself and Ayrton Senna was killed during an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix. In fact if you look at all of that year you will see that there was probably little to celebrate. Saying that, one thing that was definitely worth celebrating about was the release of Shiny Entertainment’s Earthworm Jim. This side-scrolling platform game had everything; class, charm and style and was well received around the world.
Some of you reading this will probably think I have gone mad, and want to know what’s so interesting about an earthworm. Well the simple answer is this, Earthworm Jim raised the bar in games. It was praised heavily upon release, with Gamesmaster magazine gave it a whopping score of 100% (it was the first time they had awarded a game 100%) and one of the few classics that has been remade several times over the years. Speaking of remakes, the latest incarnation has been brought forward to XBLA and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. After all, what could be better than playing a classic in HD.
