http://www.brettdouville.com/ ¹A selection of thoughts about games, based on things I learn from other media. Copyright 2009 Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:21:27 -0500 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.14 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss I remember, back when it first arrived on shelves, that Assassin's Creed took some knocks for its story. Not the storyline of Altair, the Third Crusade-era assassin, but that of Desmond Miles, the curious young man whose genetic memories get... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/07/assassins_creed.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/07/assassins_creed.html Games Fri, 03 Jul 2009 07:21:27 -0500 Well, I finally broke down and bought myself a 360, after buying myself a big TV to go with it. I've been playing a little Assassin's Creed, some Braid and Schizoid, and will no doubt dip into the Fable 2... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/05/finally_did_it.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/05/finally_did_it.html Games Sun, 10 May 2009 20:53:45 -0500 Having no actual artistic abilities myself, I rarely attend art sessions at GDC. As I mentioned in the last post, I pretty much confine myself to design sessions. But having attended a couple this year, I think I'll try to... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/03/gdc_2009_art_se_1.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/03/gdc_2009_art_se_1.html Games Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:28:48 -0500 Rather than do an enormous post about all the things I saw at GDC (like last year's post), I thought I'd break this up into a few talks basically by discipline. First up, the design sessions I attended. It's interesting... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/03/gdc_post_1_desi.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/03/gdc_post_1_desi.html Games Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:09:37 -0500 From time to time, I get emails or questions about how to get into the industry; usually, these are from friends of friends, friends of family, the wider network of people I don't know directly but to whom I have... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/02/getting_in.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/02/getting_in.html Games Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:47:24 -0500 A couple of days ago my post on "managing difficulty" went up on GamaSutra. Lots of great comments over there, some of which I'm addressing here. One thing to keep in mind is that there's a meta-rule when you're discussing... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/02/difficulty_post.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/02/difficulty_post.html General Sat, 21 Feb 2009 09:48:56 -0500 When I was growing up, I didn't see a lot of zombie movies -- I remember seeing a pared-down version of Night of the Living Dead, but beyond that I hadn't really seen many. I mostly got my "horror" fix... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/02/a_zombie_game_d.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/02/a_zombie_game_d.html Games Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:50:38 -0500 A little shout-out to Ye Olde LucasArts crew: The Chronicle recently posted a list of the "Nine Best Star Wars Games". Happily, Starfighter made the list. I don't think I've played that since the year it shipped. I should give... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/02/sf_link.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/02/sf_link.html Games Sat, 14 Feb 2009 14:18:07 -0500 Lately I've been playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer on last gen's Xbox, and it has stirred up a few thoughts I have about difficulty, mostly because it gets it so horribly wrong. I've been gaming a long time, and have... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/02/managing_diffic.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/02/managing_diffic.html Games Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:33:43 -0500 My thinking on this issue has come together over the course of a few items which happened to come into my life at the same time. The first two of these were two terrific books, both given to me by... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/01/suppose_death_i.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/01/suppose_death_i.html Games Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:43:24 -0500 I always keep my eyes open for something a little different, especially on the consoles and handhelds. I'm particularly interested in the weird stuff that turns up on consoles because they seem to have the greatest mass market reach... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/01/analysis_paraly.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/01/analysis_paraly.html Games Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:20:11 -0500 One of the books I read as last year drew to a close was Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends, a collection of essays about his influences, his thoughts on genre, and of particular interest to this specific entry, his thoughts... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/01/making_golems.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/01/making_golems.html Games Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:05:50 -0500 Over the last year, I've tried to keep reasonable records of what I've read, watched, and played, trying to get a feel for how I spend my leisure time. I didn't do it as a specific sort of experiment, nor... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/01/where_the_time.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2009/01/where_the_time.html Games Sun, 04 Jan 2009 22:24:37 -0500 So, I was at the Maryland Rennaissance Festival this past weekend and was thoroughly overwhelmed by one tattoo in particular: I asked him about it (rather than surreptitiously snapping it) and he said that he loved the game and although... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2008/09/a_quick_note_fo.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2008/09/a_quick_note_fo.html Games Wed, 17 Sep 2008 09:05:02 -0500 Spoilers ahead, including in the footnotes. Over the last several months I've been occasionally dipping into No More Heroes, Grasshopper Manufacture's first title for this generation of machines. I had played Killer 7 while between contracts a year and... http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2008/08/that_one_time_i.html http://www.brettdouville.com/mt-archives/2008/08/that_one_time_i.html Games Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:54:41 -0500