When Real Life Gets In The Way

Face, meet desk. Desk, face.

When I first started this blogging I updated this site once in the first nine months. When I came back to it, I set myself the goal of using my time more productively and gave myself the challenge to update this blog twice a week, once on a Monday and again on a Thursday. But at times, even that modest target has been difficult to meet consistently when life demands attention.

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Project Arklay – A Modern Day Text Adventure

projectarklay

I’ve got fond memories of text adventure games. One of the first video games I ever played was Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. On DOS. On a now archaic PC. That’s why I’m really excited to have the opportunity to work with my good friend David Nimmo on a text adventure of our own – Project Arklay.

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How to solve a problem like Newcastle United?

How to solve a problem like Newcastle United
Newcastle defending a corner against Southampton in August. Picture courtesy of wikimedia.org

North East football is unquestionably in turmoil at the moment. Sunderland are propping up the rest of the table with Newcastle United lying in 19th place having only gained two points from a possible 18. But how are the Magpies in this predicament?

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#PigGate – the perfect Hambush or a load of porkies?

#PigGate - How Twitter reacted

I woke up this morning, like I do most mornings, with bleary eyes and a slightly sore head. It took a while for my sight to focus but when it eventually settled the red LED of my alarm clock read 06:15. I was running late. Panic. “How could I sleep through my alarm? I did set it didn’t I?” These thoughts rush through my head as I grab my phone and see a text from my friend. Relief. He was also running late – we’d meet up in half an hour. Little did I know I’d slept through one of the most bizarre news incidents in British political history.

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Genre and Narrative: Analysing Die Hard

Genre and Narrative: An Analysis of Die Hard

In this blog post I will be investigating the action/adventure film field and considering the importance of genre and narrative, with reference to both theorists (namely Vladimir Propp and Tzvetan Todorov) and the seminal 1988 Bruce Willis box-office hit: Die Hard. Not only is it one of my favourite films of all time – every Christmas at Tyneside Cinema it gets screened and I’m always there! – but it truly has something for everyone. Warning: spoilers ahead!

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Best of the Worst – Virtual Hydlide

Virtual Hydlide Best of the Worst

So I was talking to one of my old university lecturers on Twitter about bad videogames and I remembered a real stinker I played back in the day on the Sega Saturn called Virtual Hydlide. I dug out an old review I did of it and thought I’d share it. Interestingly, this game was so bad it prompted a series of pieces called ‘Best of the Worst’ where I reviewed the worst games I could get my hands on. There’s more where this came from…

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