Ego-stroke…

My article, part of a continuing feature, about writing stories in FPS games went live today and seems to have been quite a success. Digg front page, and as a reader kindly alerted me, has been controversial in the French gaming press:

Hello,

I just noticed an article about your article “Writing for the LCD: FPS games” :
http://www.nofrag.com/2007/jul/23/26123/

Here’s a translation of what the author wrote (it’s written in French) :
“A pretentious moron writes an article about how to write a FPS . Our opinion : drop the scenario. Make games, not limp interactive films. “

Free speech is a thing, abuses are another one.

The French law gives you a right to reply to this insult on nofrag.com. If you want to use it, you just have to contact them with your reply and they must publish it within three days. (to contact them, use this form : http://www.nofrag.com/contact/form/question/ )

Last thing : keep up the good work you’re doing whatever websites like this one say

Regards,

Fabien

Still, the support has been very good mostly and if you want to read the article then please let me know what you thought by dropping me a comment.

Also, my article talking about Ageia Physx cards has proven quite popular too, getting a link on Engadget.

And yes, this post was just one big ego massage. So sue me.

Joe, out.

New TV…

I got a new T.V. recently. I bought it off of Geoff and Tim for the cost of the moving van, which is a pretty sweet deal. They were throwing it out as they have a fancy new 50″ Hi-Def TV which they got from a mate who’s a millionaire.

The TV I got from them is rear projection, but it’s 40″ or so, which means it’s more than a enough to replace the crappy old 12″ers that Hannah and I had. It’s the first time I’ve had a TV this big and playing games on it is excellent.

Oh, and yes, it’s been raining here a lot. Flooding actually, but I live in a top floor flat so it’s all Kool and The Gang for me.

Hm, what else is interesting? Well, I almost got run over yesterday. I was late at work and when I started walking back at about 9PM I was coming over the big bridge by Martins Heron train station and these two cars came up the road in fron of me, crashing into each other. The car at the back was already damaged and was ramming the other one, which too was damaged on the front.

The two cars were all over the road, filling both lanes and sending bits of glass and so on everywhere. When they got close to me one of them clipped up on the pavement and I had to jump aside a little – not too seriously though – and a headlight went flying off, landing in the grass near me.

The cars went past, way up onto the top of the bridge, where one of them spun out of control and slammed into the barrier, cutting off the opposite side of the road completely. The other car went up on the pavement on the otherside of the road.

I ran back with this guy who jumped out of a car and started calling the police/ambulance, but when we got there some nurses were already there and it didn’t look like anyone was hurt. Apparently the nurses had just been driving by and stopped to help.

It looked to me like the two cars, one of which was full of chavs, had hit and one had tried to get away. The other car apparently didn’t like that.

In other news, I had to go and see Ageia Physx yesterday for an interview (soon to be on Bit-tech.net) and preview thing and I got all wet in the rain. Was very miserable that I had to stay at wor, soaking wet for ages, though I do love our offices.

Joe.

What I love…

There are certain things I’m looking forward to this year and, unlike the rest of the office, my eyes don’t fall only on Crysis. Instead, I’m looking at bigger and brighter things. Things like this, which make me all tingly inside… 

In other news, Han and me saw Twiggy and Roo this week, as well as Kirsty and Marcus, which was really nice. Great to catch up with old friends – almost as good as it is to be stalked by old friends.

Yes, I’m talking about Ben (or Bauul as hes known on the Bit-tech forums), who has been following me since I used to beat him up in pre-school. Playgroups, primary school, secondary school, university and three years of living next door to each other and he still can’t cut the umbillicus – as proven by the new job he’s got just half an hour away from me and Han. It’s going to be ace living so close again.

Plus, he may arrive just in time for me to boast about the Bioshock hands-on preview I’m going to be attending soon.

Joe, Out.