I love isometric 3D in games, so alongside the awesome EDGE I have a new love on iPhone in Eboy FixPix. I’ve been a fan of his for some years now but have found a new level of appreciation for the work when viewed in pseudo 3D by tilting the device to achieve the parallax [...]

Even this long after my 4-year tenure at art college, the word “installation” still makes me want to vomit. However, these fantastic images by Esther Stocker caught my eye because of their resemblence to the many test maps we’ll create in the course of trying out various gameplay features in game development.

A kid and a giant bird dog… sheer genius.

It looks like the iPhone is now officially a gaming machine, with the release of Rolando – the first game to be neither an overly-sensitive console knock-off or one of the throngs of amateur offerings. As much as I appreciate their balls though, I’m still unsure as to whether or not the development team can [...]

In the combined absence of a working XBOX360 and an unreasonably harsh flu knocking me on my ass for a whole week, I’ve been going Old Skool lately with some PS2 and Wii action. Thankfully, I simultaneously ran out of contact lenses so the games didn’t look as bad as they could have so an [...]

Perhaps the best advert for any product ever. Note the convincing stunt-work from poor bastard Vega… via Kotaku

The latest edition of HDRI Magazine has a front-page article on an interview with Shareef Shanawany, Visual Effects Lead on Mass Effect. There are some details on the post-processes that really defined the look of the game, as well as the fantastic work employed for the biotics using the crust system. I’ve always thought Mass [...]

I recently bought Forza Motorsport 2, enticed mostly by the car customisation editor allowing players to deeply personalise their vehicles before taking them online and racing against others, giving them a real sense of ownership of their unique vehicle. It’s amazing how much fun can be had simply winning new cars then painting them and [...]

Fellow Eidos team members Thierry and Sebastien (BARONTiERi and Reinart respectively of STEAMBOT Studios) have just released their first Gnomon instructional art DVDs. Not animation, but Character Design and Matte Painting. Go buy them and laugh at their funny French accents.

Recently Watchdog, (a UK consumer complaint show), ran an article on DS Brain Training / Brain Age supposedly discriminating against accents – especially those of Northern England and Scotland. As silly as this sounds, I actually found it to be entirely true when playing despite commanding a relatively well-spoken Scots tongue myself, though was impressed [...]

During a recent trip to Turkey, I revisited the archaeological site of Ephesus over a decade after holidaying there as a child and was surprised to the extent at which time has clouded my memory of the ancient city layout. Nor could I recall, (until later reminded by my parents), a night spent in the [...]

Just read that Scottish internet game review show Consolevania (or VideoGaiden if you saw the shortlived BBC version) is coming back soon – fantastic news! For the uninitiated, see the below clip of their interview with Nintendo of America President, Reggie Fils-Aime, discussing Microsoft’s then head of XBOX360, J Allard:

At one point in a recent late night session of co-op Rainbow 6 Vegas, the gunfight paused to facilitate the spec-ops excited admiration of a downed enemy, killed midway through his grenade-throw lying there with grenade in hand, followed up by a gratifying witness of another comrade shooting flatscreen monitors off desks in full physics. [...]

This week, on the eve of the launch of both Sony and Nintendo’s new consoles, an interesting phenomenon has occurred whereby a large quotient of the alsoran’s remaining colleagues that had yet to join the next-generation of consoles, (yes, even developers are shrewd about shelling out their hard-earned money for expensive consoles unless utterly sold [...]

While unfortunately highlighting that gaming habits are tracked in the same manner as supermarket awards cards, the alsoran recently registered to 360voice, the automatic blog kept by the XBOX360. While repetition has already reared it’s head in the generated posts after only a week or so, and an unused XBOX seems to default to a [...]

After reading an article in EDGE magazine regarding the influence of the French gaming industry, the alsoran has discovered this little gem of a game, the flash-based online RPG – Dofus. Of biggest note, the beautifully-rendered art style appears to be created by first building the assets in 3D, then drawing over them in a [...]

Upon breaking his micro following too many drops, the alsoran finally bowed to peer pressure last month and picked up a DS Lite during his trip to LA, and regrets not having done so before. His growing collection includes Metroid Prime Hunters, New Super Mario Bros, Super Mario Kart and the most recent addition, Starfox [...]

So without doubt, one of the most talked-about presentations at E3 was Nintendo’s, not least because of the 2+ hour que to even see anything other than the DS. A friend of the alsoran had overheard the press password “Starfox” on the first day, but that only led to a futile attempt to gain entry [...]

This last weekend saw the alsoran properly introduce the joys of videogaming to his girlfriend and her friend in a hazy evening of gin & tonic and XBOX360. It was certainly interesting to observe two thirty-something women take their first forays into his favourite past-time, most of all because both newcomers were able to catch [...]

At the weekend there the alsoran, while walking along his local main street, chanced upon a sign reading “XBOX 360s Now In Stock”. Now while there’s been a large grey 360 Dev-Kit sitting on his desk for the last 6 months or so, which has recently been accompanied by a rather large Samsung HDTV, he [...]

The alsoran recently had great fun busting out wailing solos on the unique guitar-shaped peripheral for PS2 Guitar Hero. After playing guitar for over a decade now, he was disappointed to only score 97% on his initial run, as real-world experience certainly helps in this game. Of particular interest was one loading-screen message recommending, should [...]

The alsoran feels compelled to write about his most celebrated recent purchase, which saw him entertained well over the christmas break. Though the DS is relatively only slightly more expensive, the alsoran opted for the micro on account of the DS looking like a folding brick that is unable to fit in even the largest [...]

So the alsoran just checked out the official backwards-compatibility list of XBOX games available for the XBOX360 and, at the time of writing, is disappointed to see his one XBOX-only Hall Of Fame entry absent, due to the selection process favouring sales over quality. Though the selection criteria is sadly understandable, Breakdown will be forever [...]

Regarding the furore sorrounding the GTA minigame unlocked by Dutch modder Patrick Wildenborg. the alsoran decided to track down a clip of the actual sex-scenes. Have you seen it? HAVE YOU SEEN IT? Talk about a case of overblown media hype. The recent, excellent God Of War has a sex minigame that makes this look [...]