The Sunday Papers

Sundays are for stuff. Stuff and compiling a list of the interesting (mainly) games related reading from across the week, publishing them here and trying to avoid squeezing a lnk to some piece of pop music or another at the end, because that's not what this list is for and I must try harder.

• A videogame was released this week with a controversial bit in it. Everyone has written about it. From the Telegraph to the Daily Scoundrel to Resolution (Who have hefty reservations that the whole thing works at all). Anyone seen anything else really worth reading on the subject? I admit, I've been shying away. I haven't played it yet, and I suspect I should have an opinion on it. But there's no way I'm supporting the price-gouging, y'know?
• Larington pointed me at this piece of slightly tongue-in-cheek commentary about stupid Single Player Games ruining it for MMOs. Point being, who has a chance for an MMO when there's so much actually compelling single or small-group games flying around at the moment. I'm actually entirely convinced it's because the SP games are better at the moment and the MMO took over when the PC-game fell. I suspect it's less the SP game rising up, and more the MMO falling.
• Kyle Orland over at Crispygamer interviews the chaps at the forthcoming aggregator CriticDNA. Basically, its efforts are to make the whole system more critic-centric. I can see problems with this, of course, but it's still probably better than Metacritic.
• Quinns gives the short-notes on the lecture he'd tell people training to be games journalists. Presumably he'd riff at length about the word TIGHT if you put him in front of an audience of the impressionable. Or hit on them.
• Denby gives some notes on Develop Liverpool.
• Haven't watched this yet, but it's the 50 worst videogame voice-overs. Apparently. Any they've missed? (Actually, listening when writing now. Very console centric. Frankly, they should listen to some East European games.)
• New Scientist talks about putting read outs on the contact lens. Our cyberpunk future awaits.
• A hefty Guardian article about the rise and fall of Waterstones - the British book-sellers - in terms of cultural impact. Lots of stuff to think about, and a lot of it transferable to other media.
• As a break about writing about people with splendid tattoos in New York, Brian Wood writes a wide-ranging comic about the Vikings for Vertigo called Northlanders. I highly enjoyed him walking through his favourite five-historical battles of the period.
• Old comrade Andrew Wheeler writes ascerbically and brilliantly about the issue of Gay Marriage. The historical notes are particularly worth considering.
• Picked up from Warren Ellis, Simon Reynolds writes about the rise of the beard in music.
• I was amused to find someone who's ripped a whole load of Kenickie B-sides on youtube. Here's Can I Take U 2 The Cinema, taken directly from the vinyl if the clicks are any proof. I fear I'll be playing this next week when I DJ at Thought Bubble. No, the idea scares me too.

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