Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Sundays are for gathering ancient Ogres to give to my brother in a sinister North-London meeting before he sods back off to Sheffield and compiling a list of the fine (mostly) games related reading from across the week, while trying to not include a link to a new Mix-tape that’s tweaking my monkey and a track by the band I went to see last night. Tweaking my monkey? I don’t know. I just don’t know. GO LIST!

• This ties in amusingly to what’s the main game the half of RPS who don’t review the sexy new stuff are playing this week. Neptune’s Bounty has been picking up a gear and… well, we’re wrestling with how on Earth we’re going to write about the bastard thing. Anyway! Graham PCG, who’s playing an important part in the game in the last 24 hours, writes about his teenage gaming with Planeterion: “At my Secondary School, for a few months at least, our teenaged politics was defined by who was kissing whom, who had insulted whom, and who was sending spaceships to defend or attack whom.” We do forget the personal a bit, being grown-ups, I think. Well, mostly grown ups.

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Sundays are for sipping tea, wondering whether you’re going to be able to find any time to play a game with all the shit you have to write today (or maybe go see Los Campesinos at Rough Trade) and compiling a list of interesting games-related reading from across the week, while trying to resist posting a link to some manner of pop music that caught my (and Walker’s for that matter) ear. Go!

• PC Gamer’s hug-king editor Tim Edwards on the whole Ubisoft thing, including a right of reply from Ubi. He also coins the phrase “DRMageddon” which we’re going to pay our highest compliment to by stealing.

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Sundays are for wondering how we let the terrorists win in the board game last night, rambling out a quick post on Ultima and compiling a list of fine (mainly) videogame reading we gathered from across the week, while trying to stop myself linking to a couple of indie-folk-who-follow-on-me-on-twitter’s new videos. Yes. Yes.

• When Gamers with Jobs is normally good. When it’s full-on, it’s phenomenal. Fathers, sons, operations and games.
• While the games-journo twitter community was afire with gags about the games-causes-rickets scare, Joe Martin takes a well-deserved proper swing at it. And then joins twitter, to get the gags.

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Sundays are for swinging across the country in an enormous metal track-worm, then desperately trying to pull together a Sunday Papers before house guests turn up for a game of the just-bought Dominions and… what’s the Sunday Papers? Oh, you know, sweeties. You know. Let’s just hope I can get through this list of fine (mostly) game related reading before the urge to link to a pop song becomes overwhelming.

• Jordan Mechner was Prince of Persia/Last Express. Eric Chahi was Another World. They talk, in French. It’s translated at Gamasutra. Two auteurs on auteurism. Got to be worth reading, yeah?
• Julian Murdoch over at Gamespy talks about the Problem of Religion in games with a variety of designers, such as Molyneux and Ken Levine. Talking of which – seen that Irrational have started blogging?

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Sundays are for finishing off an epic videogame play-by-mail battle, trying to shake a nasty lady gaga obsession and compiling a (particularly enormous) list of the interesting (mostly) games related reading from across the week, without linking to some manner of hastily lobbed up you-tube entry by the alt Lady Gaga. Go!

• Do look past the questionable writing – as all readers of RPS should be more than capable of being – and the EA_SPOUSE-echoing words of the Wives of Rockstar San Diego is an ugly picture of development.

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Hello readers of the Rock Paper Shotgun weblog. I am Hercule Poirot, famous detective. Hastings and myself were passing an enormous, sleeping monster when our attention was drawn to some repetitive tapping. While Hastings dismissed it as mysterious indigestion, I recognised the pattern was Morse code for S-O-S. I started a rhythmic conversation on the beast’s belly, discovering that several young men and Kieron were trapped inside it. I started to suggest a plan of escape, but was interupted by a most insistent message. Escape can wait, says the figure who identified himself as Kieron. First, there must be a list of fine reading compiled across the week with – I’m not sure if this is right – without some manner of popular song at the end. This is the aforementioned list, which I now transcribe for you, my friends.

• Walker and Alec in the Eurogamer end of year malarkies. Alec writes about Canabalt (I suspect I’d have written the whole piece just using one key, if I were commissioned to do it). Walker writes about Dragon Ages, specifically using a tiny subquest as an example of the game’s detail (I suspect I’d have written it in the form of Morrigan/Shale slashfic). So it’s probably just as well I didn’t write it.

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H…ello? Hello. Thank the Lord. Oh Than… let’s do this quickly. Sundays are for crouching in the darkness of an enormous beast’s belly, feeling your legs slowly dissolve in stomach acids, listening to the whimpering of John as he calls for his mother, finally managing to get a little internet reception as the creature that ate us passes some wireless Internet so I can compile and present a list of Interesting reading from across the week and/or send desperate messages for help and/or try and resist linking to some music.

• Tom Bramwell explains why they never did their critics Top 50 games of the year. In short, too much whining and foot-stomping from the audience. Instead, a selection of splendid individual essays highlighting individual stuff. For example, here’s Tim Stone on Armed Assault II. I admit, when I heard EG wasn’t doing it, I wished RPS had totally ripped it off and did it instead. The writer’s open insulting of each other’s choices would have been a fine way to present this most conflicted of years for PC gaming.

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Sundays are for waking up on the floor of Comrade Rossignol’s rural domain, stumbling around blindly until you find both tea and an internet connection then compiling a list of the fine (mainly) games related writing that caught your eye across the week, while trying not to include a link to some piece of pop music. Go! Slowly, while sipping tea.

• This is great. Midlife gamer interviews 3 MPs about their beliefs and plans for policy about games. Good work.
• Splendid piece by Leigh about people working on a game and not getting credit for it. As in, an actual credit. Of course, if you think about it for a few seconds, the problems become obvious. Look at the 5 year megagame cycles. Look at your own job. Do you have the same job title now as you did five years ago? Are you even at the company still? It’s an enormous issue, certainly, and the IGDA’s standards are required. And, no, I’m not bitter about not getting a credit for my work on Chaos League’s script back in the day. Main reason I did the job was to get on Mobygames. Sad emoticon.

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Sundays are for drum-drum-drumming your fingers while waiting for Solium Infernum turns to arrive, considering having a shave as you have to appear in public in a bit and compiling a list of all the fine (mainly) games related reading from across the week in a handy list for RPS’ readers’ delight, while desperately resisting the urge to include a link to some bit of pop music or another. Go!

• Game Set Watch do a list of this year’s top 5 gaming controversies. Thankfully, none of RPS’ fuck-ups were noted enough to cause TEH SCANDALZ.
• RPS’ adventure-half of Alec and Walker aren’t actually enormous fans of the Monkey Island revival – it seems we’ve mostly mentioned it to compare unfavourably to ZombieCow’s games. Let’s balance it a bit now. The ever-entertaining Richard Cobbett is a big fan. He writes about ‘em at length over at his blog. Go reads!

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Sundays are for listening to unlistenable indie rock bands at ATP. Which means that Thursdays are for compiling a list of the fine mainly games-related reading from across the week into a list for your delectation, while trying to avoid linking to something related to pop music.

• Tadhg Kelly writes an agreeably column about why it’s better to be Sexy than Worthy, at least if you want to sell. His delineation and definition of the two concepts is a lot of fun.

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