We went to see Alice in Wonderland (in 3D) at the cinema last night. Although not an amazing film by any means, it was still thoroughly enjoyable (as with most, if not all, of Tim Burton’s films). Wonderland looks rather nice in 3D, though nothing compared to the world of Pandora (Avatar). As with Avatar and other 3D cinema I’ve experienced (e.g. old 3D Imax shows), watching the film just excited the hell out of me for when I can play games in 3D. In particular, I can’t wait to play a 3D Elder Scrolls game. I just keep imagining that moment when you walk out of the sewers in Oblivion (The Elder Scrolls IV) and the glory of seeing Cyrodiil and The Imperial City in the distance in 3D.

Bring it on! Eurogamer recently published this interesting feature on the current state of 3D TV’s and 3D games.

Remember these?

I used to love these when I was younger. They’re no longer available in the U.K., but those of you in the U.S. may still know them well as they are still sold there. To cure my nostalgiac itch, I bought these four packs off eBay recently. They’re as tasty as I remember and still have the ability to make my face contort in ways never before thought possible.

The Wikipedia page for Nerds gives a load of interesting facts about the sweets (remember the soft, chewy alternative called Dweebs?) – and yes, the four boxes are now empty.

This morning I received a copy of my first ever magazine publication.  The article was printed in the Stroke Association’s free quarterly publication “Stroke Matters“, and is a discussion of the potential benefits of using video games in stroke rehabilitation.  Many thanks to the publication for giving me the opportunity to write an article for them and also for kindly allowing me to publish the article on my blog.

If you wish, you can also download a pdf version of the document (includes OCR’d text), and a text only version.

If you’ve ever wondered what my research is about, this is a good representation of it.

“Rom Check Fail” is a very cool indie game that should warm the heart of any retro arcade game lover.  From the website:

“Carefully place a dozen arcade classics in a large mixing bowl. Add a dash of awesomesauce, cover the bowl, and allow the ingredients to ferment over three weeks. Uncover in a well ventilated area, then mash until loud and glitchy. Serve over the internet.”

I played through it recently – very crazy, but very cool.  Check it out!

This is an extremely impressive trailer for the upcoming game “DogFighter”, from game developers Dark Water Studios, based in Derry, Northern Ireland (my home town).  There’s no official word yet on what platform the game will be on, but it is looking like it’ll be a hell lot of fun.  I’d love an XBLA release. :)

Its video like this that make me wish I was a better, more inspired researcher.  A great idea, designed and developed at low-cost to create a highly impressive Augmented Reality system.  Baring in mind that this is just a prototype, it really makes you wonder how much the digital world will merge with the physical world over the next few years.  AR technology is moving at such a fast pace, and in particular in the past year (co-inciding with the increasing power of portable devices like smartphones) it has really taken some leaps forward into becoming mainstream.  As well as filling our world with information and shared knowledge within seconds, it will also have great implications for gaming and I’m extremely excited for it.

The future’s bright, the future’s augmented.

I finally solved a Rubik’s Cube (click on the image above for the full shot).

I promise it was scrambled beforehand.

As another year (and decade) draws to a close, here’s a list of the top 10 albums I have enjoyed this year, as well as some honourable mentions which didn’t make the list for one reason or another. I’ve included Spotify links to albums (where available) so that you can listen to the albums in their entirety for free on Spotify.  If you require an invite for Spotify, just let me know!
Read the rest of this story…

Image by Damien Lopez

I’m currently making my way through Jesper Juul’s “A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and Their Players” and I came across this useful diagram.  It is missing a few entries, but overall its quite handy for reference (and nostalgia).

Jordan Mechnar, creator of the classic Prince of Persia (which kick started the franchise), has published his old journals from back in the days when he was working on the original PoP game. They make for fantastic, nostalgic and insightful reading. Not only that, but he has also included original video footage which he shot of his brother running and diving around a park – footage which eventually became part of the digitised animations used in the game. Its incredibly strange after all these years to watch someone run around in real-life with those moves.

Reading these journals just makes me want to have some quality time to make a game.

(Thanks to Leila Johnston on Twitter (whose adventure book “Enemy of Chaos” I have just bought today) for tweeting about these journals, otherwise I might never have found them.)