Author: Mike

  • Past Imperfect

    I’ve recently fallen in love with Star Trek. I used to detest it. I’d skip past channels that were broadcasting episodes of it, thinking about how pointless it was and of all the stereotypical people that watched such bilge: lonely, overweight people with little social skills versed only in the fiction of a sad science…

  • Birthday Party

    It was my birthday last week. Last year, I’d gone out with my pals and the year before that I’d been to a gig and so I decided that, partly due to a bout of ill health but mostly due to my newly acquired old age, I’d have a quiet one this year. My family…

  • + 1 Ignorance

    We gamers don’t always have an easy time with our hobby: we have to endure constant accusations from uninformed members of the public that videogames are the scourge of society, teaching children to become isolated, anti-social shut-ins and teaching them to commit murder while they do so. They are blamed as the cause of obesity…

  • Dance Central

    It’s difficult not to feel a bit skeptical about Kinect. It’s been a good few years since the Nintendo Wii debuted, with its motion-sensing control scheme claiming to revolutionise gaming forever, before ultimately leading to a deluge of soulless crap that flooded the market and drowned the truly innovative titles the system has to offer…

  • Online Diplomacy

    As you probably already know, I’ve been playing Halo: Reach recently. A lot. I love it. I love popping headshots on enemies that have lost their shields. I love filling someone with a load of spikey pink death needles. I love clocking people in the face with a big, fat sticky blue ball and I…

  • Halo: Reach

    You thought we’d forgotten, hadn’t you? You were sitting there thinking ‘WTF? Why hasn’t there been a review of Halo: Reach?’, weren’t you? Were you wondering what we were playing at (not Halo, apparently)? Had we missed it, avoiding it for its sheer scale and popularity? Well, dear reader, fret no longer. We have played…

  • Do Henchmen Have Families Too?

    A question occurred to me when I was playing Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Do henchmen have families too? I was playing that airplane level in the latter half of the game, the one where you’re getting closer to the big baddie, stealthing, running and gunning down the enclosed corridors, taking cover behind cargo crates, popping…

  • Driving Lessons

    I passed my driving test last week. I can barely believe how quickly the time between my first lesson and having my certificate placed into my hand has passed. I remember climbing into the driving seat during my first lesson, where I proceeded to yelp as I reached the dizzying speed of 5 miles per…

  • Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2010

    Edinburgh: It’s an awesome city. Home to cultural figureheads such as Robert Louis Stevenson, J.K. Rowling and Irvine Welsh, alongside Rockstar North, one of videogaming’s most prolific games companies, the capital city of Scotland has long since been known as a cultural hotspot. There are loads of places to visits in locations made famous by…