Comic reviews

Posted on November 7, 2011 by

I’ve been posting weekly comic reviews at Comic Vine since September, especially looking to fill blank spots on their site.

Because these reviews appear on pages that could include a lot of information — a wiki entry, links to wiki entries relevant to that issue, other users’ reviews, etc. — I have kept them quick and engaging. I’ve also taken advantage of hypertext by providing links to any other books/characters I refer to in reviews, so everybody can understand comparisons.

Comic Vine uses a five-star rating system with half-star increments; half a star is the worst possible score, three stars is average, five is the best.

I’ve included a cross-section of reviews below, but the rest can be found here. Continue reading →

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Dog Wars: The dogfight between developer freedom and taste

Posted on April 27, 2011 by

Title screen

Dog Wars is the game PETA had in mind when they condemned Mafia Wars’ inclusion of pit bulls. It’s the app Apple has in mind when it cherry-picks content allowed in the walled garden of the App Store.

It’s a dogfighting role-playing game full of unhelpful icons, ugly buttons, and broken minigames. I expect forcing my way through crashes and freezes is what will eventually toughen up my dog, so he doesn’t get his throat mauled by one of Dog Wars’ other players’ pit bulls. Developer Kage Games has recently edited the title’s Market description to suggest it is satirical. It might pull a Hit the Bitch and reveal its true nature after your first fight, but I doubt it. Until earlier today, its blurb advised “if you have a bug up your butt about the game concept, remember: It is just A VIDEO GAME” and made no mention of satire. Continue reading →

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What can help me stop smoking?

Posted on April 12, 2011 by

What can help me quit smoking?I edited this document, found an aspirational public domain photograph to illustrate it, and formatted it into an attractive booklet.

(Photo by Thomas Hawk, Flickr. Creative Commons Attribution — NonComercial 2.0 Generic license.)

Posted in Informational publications | Tagged ,

Smokefree Playgrounds

Posted on March 14, 2011 by

For ASH Wales’ ongoing campaign to erect no-smoking signs at children’s playgrounds across Wales, I produced this informational toolkit.

It was sent to local authorities across Wales to persuade them of the need for smokefree playgrounds, show how they have worked elsewhere in the world, and answer important questions about the implementation of the policy.

(Translated into Welsh by Pennawd.)

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How Rock Band taught me I’m allowed to sing

Posted on January 12, 2011 by


It’s my turn to sing, and the song is Maps by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I don’t know the song, but I know this is a female-fronted band. And I can’t sing. A loop of a single note on guitar plays, and our drummer follows the complicated introduction almost perfectly. Some words appear on the right of the screen.

Next, something unexpected happens — words come out of my mouth, sung in lead singer Karen O’s register, and the game tells me I’m “awesome!”

I know it’s exaggerating — I’m playing on a lower difficulty, and my singing is soft to conserve energy and not draw attention to myself. But it’s still encouraging. After a few songs I step up the difficulty to hard, then to expert. I feel my voice getting more accurate as the game gives real-time feedback. With my five gold stars for “Creep,” I can supposedly call myself 99% of Thom Yorke.

I’m not going to say Rock Band’s made me a good singer — that’s totally different from getting a good score, even at the highest difficulty level. But its visual feedback has helped. It’s also let me know that I’m allowed to sing — I can sing — even though I’m not up to a high standard. Continue reading →

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What’s So Great About the Darkness?

Posted on December 14, 2010 by

The Darkness

The Darkness isn’t perfect. I’ve played plenty of first-person shooters with better-designed levels, and the story is almost as cheesy as the comic book it’s based on. But on Unik Gamer – a site written in charmingly broken English, on which gamers arrange their Top 25 lists – I placed it second. Why? Find out in this conversation with…well, myself.

Is The Darkness really the second-greatest game ever?

I couldn’t argue that it’s objectively a better game than those more familiar with “Greatest Games Ever” lists. I wouldn’t either — I’m not interested in “Greatest Games Ever” discussions. I’m more interested in why games are important to individuals.

So what is it about The Darkness that got me, er, you hooked but not the rest of the world?

As I wrote in July, the feeling of being in another’s body is something I notice in games. Protagonist Jackie moves at a human pace with just the right amount of head bob, and he pokes his guns over or around cover.

The atmosphere is thick with ambient music, graffiti, and TVs with substantial programming. Entire movies, episodes of Popeye, Flash Gordon, and Gabby, and a few music videos can all be found by flicking through the channels. To Kill a Mockingbird, starring Gregory Peck, is on in the background of this important scene: Continue reading →

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Poker: Telltale Shows ‘Em How It’s Done

Posted on November 28, 2010 by

When MASH surgeons need to do something with their hands, they play cards. It’s cool, it’s tense, and it adds some action to dialogue scenes. Gambling is full of bold-sounding terms like “no limits” and “aces high,” and it’s inherently more exciting than drinking or smoking (two activities which directors rely on for visual seasoning).

Card games have found their way into Red Dead Redemption, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and just about any other game big enough to fit them. But instead of adding some activity to character-driven sections, they usually isolate the scenes and block out the worlds surrounding them. Red Dead Redemption’s outside tables were an ideal setting for Texas Hold ‘Em, but the witty writing from the cut-scenes had gone.

Do you remember playing pool with your cousin Roman in GTA 4? You’d pick him up, drive him somewhere, play some pool, and then drive him back. In the car, you’d share a natural conversation and learn a little about him. In the pool hall, you’d both turn into robots that barely spoke. It was awkward and alienating. Continue reading →

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