Uprooting

I'll try to stop neglecting this blog for long enough to write about why I've been too busy to write anything in it recently, a nice change from not updating because nothing has happened. I'm now about two weeks into properly working for SEGA, so I have more or less completely adapted back into a working routine. This was probably made easier by my unusual working hours allowing me to get up fairly late in the day, but on the other hand it hasn't been very much fun travelling two hours to and from work. I'm really enjoying the work, by the way, and I'm getting on well with the people I'm working with. I can't talk about what it is I'm working on, but I will say it is certainly a game I will feel proud to have contributed a small part to once it is released.

My time in the evenings has become very precious, hence the lack of blog posts. This will change shortly, though, as I have managed to find myself somewhere to live in London, greatly reducing the size of my commute. It's a nice little studio apartment in West Kensington with easy access to various important things like a laundrette and the Tube. Moving house is always a busy time so at the moment I'm looking forward to getting settled in and having everything working. That won't be for at least another week, though, when the broadband is supposed to be turned on. Whether that happens or not is far from certain though, BT reminding me how much I dislike dealing with them today by cutting off the Internet from my old flat a week before I said they should.

What that means is that I'm going to attempt to move everything I need into the new place tomorrow, which will be quite the undertaking. Luckily the place is furnished, so it's only my desk and various electronics that need shifting, but still I have to drive to London and find somewhere to park in order to get everything set up. Maybe if I put my posters up first it'll seem like home more quickly.

A Job, Finally!

So, just in case the news hasn't spread to everyone already, here's what's going on with me right now. Last week I finally found a new job, and was lucky enough to be hired by SEGA as a quality assurance tester. So far I've been in for two days of training and am excited to get started. This week though I'm at home, so the real work will only start on Monday. What's going to be interesting is that I'll be working the late shift, running from 3pm until 10.30 at night, which will make things a bit difficult socially for my friends in the UK, but will allow me to play more with my North American friends.

This new job also means that I won't have nearly as much time to make video reviews, especially at first as I get into a new routine (and sleep pattern!) and begin searching for somewhere new to live. As such, I'm going to put the Westwood series on hold for a while until I've found my feet and can properly plan out when I can start working on it again. I'll be moving around mid-August, and I don't see myself getting much reviewing done before I've settled into my new place. Sorry if anyone was looking forward to that, but I'll try not to let the hiatus last too long.

Digital Dreamscapes

Darwinia is so far my main candidate for the Modcast's 'Late to the Party' 2009 award for an amazing game that we only got around to playing this year. Recent games of Company of Heroes have revealed that the tactic that works best for me is a good old fashioned meat grinder, so a game in which individual units are worthless so long as you complete your objectives would of course always resonate with me. Coupled with some healthy doses of virtual world nostalgia (air strikes are provided by space invaders, whilst Tron's famous recognizers act as your engineers) and the retro art style, this is a game almost impossible not to like.

The game draws itself to a brilliant climax, seeing the usually peaceful Darwinians rise up in strength to rid their world of an infectious virus. The only flaw with this spectacle for me was that it came too soon. I consumed Darwinia in large chunks and it was all over a bit too quickly, leaving me unwilling to see the end of the Darwinians' slow march to freedom.

This week I decided to put a bit of time into the multiplayer pseudo-sequel Multiwinia, but only against computer opponents for the time being. Whilst the mechanics are actually quite different and there is no actual story to progress through, I find that the fierce civil war of the Multiwinians is just as arresting as its forbear. And like its forbear, it is very photogenic. I do like a good screenshot, so here's one I took today and is now taking up pride of place on my desktop (I recommend clicking it to see the full-sized version).
I'm especially pleased with the sight of the battle between the reds and the blues through the trunk port, as well as the looming monument beyond the dark forest. I could really spend as much time looking for good pictures in Multiwinia as I do playing it.

Waiting for the Rapture

Video Games | Darksiders | E3 09: Vengeance Trailer HD

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Darksiders was definitely my most pleasant surprise from PAX last year. A mixture of Zelda dungeons with a God of War combat system, all set against a very biblical end of the world. This trailer came out of E3 a couple of weeks ago and has me more excited than ever to actually get my hands on the game.

Jam Enslaver Reviews...Nox

My second video in a series covering the lesser known games of Westwood Studios tackles Nox. The fact that Nox actually runs on my PC without any trouble is actually one of the reasons behind why I decided to do this series. The copy I have actually isn't mine, it really belongs to my friend Jon who lent it to me years ago saying how great it was. After being stoned to death by urchins within about five minutes of starting (apparently the extremely simple controls got the better of me that day), I dismissed it as stupid and took it off whichever computer I had at the time. Thus it sat on the bottom shelf of my bedside table in my parents' house for about nine years until I found it again a couple of months ago and decided to give it another shot. I guess this is another example of making sure to give a game a thorough examination before giving up on it.

I'm going to take longer producing the third part of this video series than I did the second since I need to get a good amount of time in with a game that I have never played before but should really be covered by these reviews. I can't put a definite timeline on when I'll be able to actually start working on the next video since right now it's hard to say how much time I'm going to have (still waiting to hear back from that job interview).

Slightly Obscure Westwood Games Part 2 Update

In case you're eagerly waiting for part 2 of my video series covering lesser-known Westwood games, here's a little update. So far the week has been very busy; today I went up early to London for a job interview (I think it went well, more information at the end of the week) and yesterday was filled with random chores like taking my car to be serviced and getting a haircut for today. As such, the video won't be ready for another couple of days. The script is done, but I still need to record the audio and capture the footage. My best guess for when it will be ready is Friday.

Until then, in case you haven't already seen my Twitter about it or gotten wind of it from some other source, and were perhaps wondering what on Earth we were talking about during the latest Modcast, here's Giant Bomb's take on the Nintendo E3 press conference.

Jam Enslaver Reviews...Emperor: Battle for Dune

Maybe it's a mistake to release a new video during E3 week, but hell if I didn't work hard over the past two days to get this review finished so I'm putting it out.

The Command and Conquer games will always hold a special place for me, since seeing the original in action at my friend Richard's house is one of my very earliest gaming memories. But when I started thinking about making a video about C&C, it struck me that Westwood actually made a whole handful of games that don't really get talked about much. Since there were a couple that I'd played in the past, I decided to create a sort of series of reviews and tackle them all together. Emperor: Battle for Dune is a good place to start, seeing as it took Westwood back to their roots as well as being the last RTS game produced by the studio.

Now of course the challenge is to keep the videos coming for parts 2 and 3 (and maybe 4, depending on whether I can play enough of a particular title in time to write about it). It's going to be tough, especially with Infamous sitting in my PS3, but it does feel good to work hard at something again. Expect to see more soon.