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New Conversations
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2–3 minutes·
6 comments on New ConversationsAt GDC this year, I remember hearing some writers talk about the sorry state of story and dialogue in action/adventure games. One of the promising games that they looked forward to, though, was Mass Effect – apparently it would have a brand new conversation system. Over the months, details emerged. In effect, the game would…
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Echochrome
One of the most innovative games that’s come out of this year’s E3 is Echochrome for the Playstation; basically, if M. C. Escher could’ve made a computer game, this is what it would look like. I have some questions about the control scheme, difficulty level and gameplay (e.g. does the guy keep on walking all…
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Bits and Pieces: Centuries
Weather In a book about weather (called ‘Weather’) that I’m reading, there’s a fact that blithely states: Driest location: The Atacama Desert in Chile has virtually no rainfall (0.08mm annually), except for a passing shower several times a century. Not several times a year. Several times a century. What impresses me about this is not…
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Yann Tiersen – a disappointment
A couple of months ago, I went to see Yann Tiersen play at The Scala in London. Mr Tiersen is, of course, the person behind the tinkling, cheery and immensely popular music to Amelie and Goodbye Lenin. Shortly before the gig, I discovered that he probably wouldn’t be playing just Amelie-style music, but instead he’d…
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Frisbee Golf
There are about 100 times more frisbee golf courses in the US than there are in the UK. This put something of a dampener on my enthusiasm to give it a go after reading about it in Kim Stanley Robinsons’ Fifty Degrees Below, but then, I already knew there weren’t any courses in any of…
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Religion in His Dark Materials
Philip Pullman, along with a couple of other people from New Line, gave an interesting talk at the Oxford Literary Festival yesterday about the process of adaption The Golden Compass for the cinema. There was a bit of a thrill of seeing some effects shots for the first time, although it turned out to be…
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Baba Yetu
Like other game designers, I don’t play a lot of games. I do have a Wii and a PS2, which sounds typical enough except for the fact that the only games I play on the PS2 are Katamari Damacy and Guitar Hero; Wii Sports and Warioware for the other console. Clearly I like quirky and…
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Cars off the road
M&S unveils carbon-neutral target (BBC News): M&S said the carbon savings it aimed to achieve under its plan would be like taking 100,000 cars off the road each year. Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of environmental plans being measured in the number of cars taken off the road. I did a search on Google…
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PowerPlay Golf
From BBC News Online: In PowerPlay Golf, each green has two holes instead of one, with a black flag denoting a more difficult pin placing and a white flag the easier one. Over nine holes, players have to make three powerplays where they have to go for the harder option. (…) Other innovations being considered…
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Their Say
I’m not sure whether I’ve mentioned how much I hate the Have Your Say section on BBC News Online (surely a forum the BBC must be ashamed of) – if I haven’t, then I’ll have to do a post about it some time. Anyway, it occasionally throws up some real gems: Q: Should we build…
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