Hah, so…my famously crappy computer finally died a final death, and I’m here typing on what is lovingly referred to as “alistair-fd3c74″ until I can think of something better. For anyone unaware of the rabid horribleness that was my previous computer, it would often crash at a moment’s notice - recently, this happened all the time while using the new iTunes.
So, unfortunately, I’ve been flat out trying to get this new one organsied, and have once again ignored Little Mathletics. So, in brief, here are some things that happened:
There was an interview on Gamasutra with Chris George, vice president of client solutions for Fox Interactive Media about the recent IGN GamerMetrics Fall Buyer’s Guide. It’s essentially a document sent out to retailers that says, ‘This game is going to be super-popular and you should stock heaps of it - this one is not, so don’t stock it’. If you’ve ever had trouble finding an obscure title, this is the document to blame, I guess. The number one game this Christmas is going to be The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, apparently - not that I would disagree. I can’t wait.
There was also another Q&A on the site with Richard Chae from NHN USA. They’ve just set up ijji.com, which is a free gaming site aimed at social gamers. I haven’t had a great deal of time to look at it, but I used to play Gunbound on Softnyx’s server - it’s a cool game, and I’m probably going to be checking out their golf title too. It should be interesting to see how they go, as NHN is huge in Asia. They’ve got the number one gaming sites in both China and Japan, and have a search engine that accounts for 70% of the market in Korea. So they’ve certainly got the business clout over there; whether it works in the US is another thing entirely.
The first Media Consumption column (by me, at least) happened: I spoke to Jim Bottomley from SilverBack Studios. They were one of the companies affected by the Acclaim bankruptcy, and were bailed out/bought out by Fund4Games and allowed to continue making their game, Made Man. Jim is a massive Mike Patton fanboy, which certainly made me happy.
Additionally, the first in this year’s The Road to IGF series went up. I’ll be putting up two of these a week - talking to Independent Games Festival entrants about their games. This one was with Dan Marshall, who did Gibbage, which is a frantic 2D deathmatch shooter. It’s pretty cool, actually, and he’s flat out hilarious. Check it out.
Finally, there were two reviews up on the DB Magazine site - one for The Da Vinci Code, which is basically a heavily restructured version of a review I did a few months back, and one for V8 Supercars 3. Supercars is a fun game, but it’s no Gran Turismo 4 or Burnout, so it’s probably going to be ignored by those who aren’t huge fans of V8s here in Australia. I’m playing through Yakuza for them right now; it’s a cool game, it’s just not terribly polished. Lots of fun, though, despite that.