I’ve updated the Articles section with a new regular feature which shows off various escapades I’ve had with the utterly gorgeous Garry’s Mod for Half-Life 2. Mainly an excuse to wallow in ludicrously sexy eye-candy, but I had fun making it!

For those interested in getting in on the act, I regularly host a four or five player GMod server, under the alias of Harmonica. The server name usually takes the form “GMod - [pithy comment]”. Drop me a line for the address, or pop in and say hi!

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Some more webjunk for your delectation, a hilarious hardcore remix of a crappy british TV ad for a household cleaner, “Acidic Bang”. I’ve never heard of it either.

Not sure how long the video will last so grab it while it’s hot.

This is a post to notify people that the oft-spurned “Rob’s 200+ Genuinely Brilliant Films” list (and I tell no lies) has had a massive overhaul and is sitting pretty in the Articles section right now.

As I mention atop the beast, most of the links are broken (all of them after Aliens at the time of writing), but I’m keeping them there so that I remember which films I’ve already penned pieces for, and editing the MARKUP as I go. Because I’m just lazy like that.

Alas, have a look anyway, and check up on its progress every so often - if you enjoy just one film thanks to its recommendation then my job is done!

For not the first time I am indebted to James Blog (although not James’ blog) for rekindling my desire to blog with a new idea.

Tom’s recent piece on World of Warcraft, where he astutely summed up the whole kobold-kicking experience (as many have been doing recently - with not a little chagrin) reminded me how much I enjoyed doing the same back in the beta period. Travel journalism to imaginary places, right? I’ve also had a huge and frankly obscene love-in with Darwinia which needs to be expressed in WORD-FORM. Critically it’s been heralded by all the right people. Gillen’s piece at Eurogamer championed its brilliance loudly (and was also nicely divisive - it split my friends between ‘what on earth is he mumbling about’ and ‘that’s exactly the type of thing someone needs to say about the game’). I’ve not read a bad review of it, because I don’t read bad reviews. Get it? Anyway, to cut to the crux, once I’ve enjoyed a few more hours in Darwinia’s dreamscape I shall talk about why it is so damn sexy.

But for now, read my source of inspiration and take notes: http://www.kfj.f2s.com

“Time for a Monday neologism: Post-genre.

The theory goes like this. If we’re looking at computer games, when videogame manufacture was first democratised by the appearance of home computers. No one had any idea what they were doing so they were forced to invent by necessity. Ideas were thrown together just to see what operated well, or even operated at all. These times I’ll describe vaguely as “pre-genre”.“

Kieron Gillen waxes lyrical over Darwina at Eurogamer.

It’s a strong review that necessarily makes a big hoo-hah over the game. I mean, this is a game that sacrifices being cutting edge (certainly not wholly through choice, knowing Introversion, but not without a lot of thought) - graphically, stylistically, even down to the way the game is controlled - because it is, I think, making something of a point about the current trend towards huge productions. Games needn’t be pushing the boundaries of technology just to be playable. By comparison, World of Warcraft, the title I have also blogged about a lot, cost $70 million to make (and yet, some might carp - and I’d be there with them - it’s nowhere near as original/innovative as Darwinia). Admittadly team-size accounts for a lot of that - tens of £1000s a day - but a lot of it is also the general style with which the development was carried out, and what the end-product is: a fairly standard “Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game”. Yes.

So, returning to the point, Gillen’s review is arguing that currently we’re at a point where “genres have burnt out”, and the reason why Darwinia is so special is because it blurs genres in an artisticly credible way, and remains playable because it still retains the qualities behind each of them. If that makes any kind of sense, I applaud you. Another reason why I enjoyed reading the review was because - as the massive opening rubric somewhat testifies to - it was a challenging game to write about. And it’s good to see good writers challenged, if only from a masochistic standpoint.

I shall probably write about Darwinia in more length at some point soon.

I found this last night whilst idly browsing the internet. I’m nost sure whether it’s a real photo, or an Adobe® Photoshop® jobby, but it’s purdy!

Kinda made me think about all those millions of people that are out there that you’ll never see or hear about.

I haven’t blogged for a good while. No particular reason, save the lack of exciting events to regail you with coverage of, and a little blogger-apathy. Hope it’s sorted now.

photo copyright © Jim Higham, University of Kent, March 2005

On Wednesday I journeyed to Canterbury to visit Kent University - the establishment lucky enough to be receiving my company come September. It was the first time I’d visited the campus, because being the unconventional type Kent only became my favourite choice late on in the whole UCAS process back in November 2003, and I hadn’t chance to visit. So I guess I was a little nervous that I would like the place, seeing as I’d definitely be heading there!

As it turned out, my nervousness was totally unfounded. I’ve not visited a vast number of campuses, but Kent is easily the most welcoming and straightforward place I’ve seen. Maybe it was the ridiculous weather (unforeseen snowstorms that had the army called in to the county), but they were uniformly friendly and helpful. The whole 300-acre site is very attractive, too, although it was rather unhelpfully covered in inches of the white stuff. Thanks clouds!

During the day I got a tour from a student guide; we saw three of the four colleges, which are all pretty nice, had a lecture from an ex-student-now-liason about uni life, and later I visited the Film department, where I met one of the lecturers, who outlined the course.

It took 4 hours to get home. Kent looks really good in the snow, though…