For those of you interested in my geekry I’ve updated my Gameblog for the first time in ages.

I’ve previously moaned here me and Rach aren’t doing XMAS properly until the second week of Jan. I sort of had XMAS yesterday, starting with the egg in a bun fest that was breakfast at maviscruet‘s. Massive kudos to that man for feeding the large number of people who turned up. I was literally in shock when I first stepped into the crowded room, so apologies if I didn’t talk to everyone. Lots of people, most of whom have LJ even sweet Jimmythedog. A nice fun way to catch up with people and their hangovers…

Then returned to the peace and quiet of Castle Von Newport, and me and Rach exchanged one present. I gave her the new G4 CD since she likes that sort of thing¹ and my sweet darling wife gave me a copy of The Movies.

Hurrah for Peter Molyneux and the chaps at Lionhead. When ever I get bored with FPS and pc games in general they release something that is truly innovative and fun to play. Last time it was Black and White, which I had to put to one side I had to work on my Masters.

On the surface The Movies is a management type game like Theme Park meets the Sims. You have to look after your studio keeping it in good repair and adding buildings while looking after the needs and happiness of your Movie stars. However it all builds up to the creation of Movies that you can watch after they are made. When the game starts in the 20s this is all automated (leading to some very strange Gay Cowboy films). However as the game eases you into it, it lets you lose with the Advanced script writing once you’ve released a couple of films, which allows you to write your own films.

This is my first attempt “Die, Die my darling”, A particularly violent spaghetti western tale². I created it in game³and nearly bankrupted my studio filming it. My leading lady, who appears in this film, quit the studio soon after. Like most “Art” films this one didn’t make its production costs back.

Download “Die, Die My Darling” (in .wmv format/ ~4Mb)⁴

Spent most of the afternoon and long into the night playing/tinkering with game. Now firmly into the post war period, managing the chaos which is a busy B-Movie studio. Trying to get “Maximus studios” off the bottom of the Studio league table, by churning out crap short films to rake in the dough. Then I can go back to make my WW2 epic, or perhaps some more strange Sci-fi/Horror films.

I’m rather smitten by this game. I like messing about with this sort of multimedia nonsense. The good thing about the Movies is that you don’t have to create things from scratch, so its relatively quick to put a short movie together. Most of all its fun. Expect more nonsense from this direction 😀

¹Of all the muppets that have been on X-Factor they are the most tolerable.
² Ok so it was an excuse for me to try out all the fight scenes.
³ Apart from adding the music after wards, and slightly changing the titles. This can now be done in game using the “Post production studio” but this wasn’t available when I originally made the game. You can also make films with all the options, sets, props and costumes etc., in the out of game Sandbox mode.
⁴Next on the list of things to learn is to import these files into flash in a smaller format.

I just bought the D&D Rules Cyclopaedia off Ebay in a moment of madness. I don’t care if I never play it. Its a pure nostalgia trip. Basic/Expert D&D is where I started off.

“No you can’t a have a 4th Level elf with a +2 sword!”

“So we’ve spent all after noon filling in all the hexes on the map, and you tell us now we wandered off course half an hour a go!!! We better find something big with lots of treasure to fight soon!!”

“Yes we did try to read your notes when you went to the loo, but we still can’t read your hand writing.”

Oh those were the days.

Picked it up yesterday, for my birthday 😀

I had read mixed reviews about this one. The people who didn’t like it were people who were expecting an inovative fresh take on the FPS genre. If however you are expecting the latest Quake game, all wrapped up shiney in the Doom 3 engine, you’re in for a treat.

Although some of the the levels are similar to Doom3, clastrophobically dark and relying on gore and scarey monsters jumping out of the shadows to get across atmosphere, theres lots of big wide open outdoor levels or large rooms with epic fire fights. There’s also vehicles. So far I’ve manned a laser cannon on the back of a truck and driven a hoover tank 😀

The whole thing plays like a gritty war movie, and so far I’m enjoying it immensely.

Not played Multiplayer yet, but apparently its very oldskool Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag. I’m a big fan of CTF so I’ll be trying that out this evening.

There was a time during the mid to late nineties, when I thought that Killing Joke was a spent force. Oh how wrong was I. They’ve got a new lp on the way, and Jaz (lead singer/also classical composer/conductor) and Raven (bass player) have a new 4 cd release

“Gems of Power is a four CD spoken work box set that includes Original compositions by Jaz and ambient music by raven. There is also exclusive footage of Jaz in Templova Prague, back story of Killing Joke and excerpts from Jaz’s magikal diaries Gems of Power take you in to the mind and internal workings of Jaz Coleman & the philosophy of Killing Joke.”

I was pissed off that I missed them play in Manchester last week, but I think I’ve just decided what I want for my birthday 😀

More on Killingjoke.com, including an excellent 30 min interview with Jaz.

Woke up not so bright and early, checked the Tavern (a RPG forum I frequent) and found a post linking to a discussion on RPG.net about Mongoose Publishing doing an official revamp of RuneQuest, a fantasy role-playing game that I used to play pretty much solidly for five years.

Yippee! I’m signing up for the play test straight off!

Here’s the announcement http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=201322&page=1&pp=10

If you are interested in following the development of Mythic Russia, a roleplaying game set in Medieval Russia using the HeroQuest system, there are now two blogs on my webspace

The author’s Mark Galeotti’s Developers Blog & my Playtest blog.

I’ve been asked to contribute one of my scenairo’s for the upcoming Lunar Adventures book for HeroQuest!!!!

I’m posting it here because I’ve got to get it out of my system.I can’t say any more because that’s part of the contract that we don’t talk about it until its released.

I told Rachel last night but all I got was an uninterested hmmph. Bloody girls!

I’m so happy, this is the culmination of two years work, and nearly didn’t happen.

Now I’ve got to do some polishing and adapting, but should be done in the next couple of weeks.

I suspose there are elements of it, you are engaging your bain in an imaginative way and talking to your fellow man. All basic therapy in my book, which keeps me ticking over nicely thank you very much.

However the lovely John Hughes (one of the HeroQuest Authors) has written the following academic paper

Therapy is Fantasy: Roleplaying, Healing and the Construction of Symbolic Order

Bit of roleplaying nonsense here (for you that like that sort of thing)
Got ARS Magica 5th ED last week