Thursday, January 21, 2010

Gaming Links

Boy, there is a ton of good stuff out there right now, so let's take a look.

First off, let me just say that I have a bias when it comes to Gamers With Jobs. I still remember first seeing the site, only a few days after they went live. They were smart and funny. And their forums were smart and funny and (incredibly) warm--just lots of good-natured people enjoying each other's company.

Now, years later, they've taken over the world, but they're still funny and smart and warm.

Having said all that, though, Sean Sands (Elysium) wrote (by any standard) a terrific column this week titled Fathers And Sons. It's just a wonderful piece of writing about fatherhood.

Next, Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an epic series on Solium Infernum. Epic. It's a PBEM game description, rendered in witty and loving detail, and it is full of all the deceit and downright assholery that makes SI such a brilliant game. It's an 8-part series (I'm guessing--7 parts are up, and the game is almost finished), so start with part one. And I wasn't kidding when I said that Solium Infernum was going to go down as one of the greatest PBEM games ever.

Remember when I mentioned there was a fan project to do an English translation of Fatal Frame IV? Incredibly, it's been completed (thanks to Ryan Shalek for the heads-up), and even better, you don't need a modded Wii--it all runs off an SD card. As long as you have a legitimate copy of the game, you're good. This is quite the stunning mod project, and the information is here.

I mentioned OnLive a few months ago, and Ryan Shrout of PC Perspective recently wrote about his experience with the beta.

Microsoft has done something wonderful and bizarre: they've created an RPG around Microsoft Office. I know, that sounds ridiculous, but it's called Ribbon Hero, and it looks like pure genius (thanks to Jason for the link).

Two last notes. One, whatever happened to Tilted Mill? They seem to have gone totally off the grid for the last few months.

This last note is very good news. Jimmy Page is suddenly talking sweet about music games. Page was do dismissive of music games in the past that I think this is clearly not an accident. Someone is scratching Led Zeppelin a big fat check, or they're at least in the negotiation process. Let it be with Rock Band, please.

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