Like a wily green-fingered demon.

So I've been a bit silent of late - both here, Facebook and elsewhere. A mixture of redundancy, looking for work and finding said work have all conspired to steal my free time and devour it in their own personal hells. Anyway, that's enough of that.

Onto the green-fingered demon, and what treasures lurk within it's verdigris digits...

Skiewolfen.com is now live

So yeah, I finally got my ass in gear and got myself a proper website for portfolio work and personal projects.

Feel free to check it out: www.skiewolfen.com

I'll still be updating on here, if a little sporadically, but it should still keep on going. Ish. I hope.

Linking In

So I finally got round to updating my LinkedIn profile, after having it for god knows how long. Still need to fill out a couple more sections, but it's getting there!

Guess I should really do my one on GamesIndustry.biz at some point too.

And, as usual, have a funny cat picture...


see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Prison Break-time

So, yeah, Introversion have released some news about their upcoming prison simulator/management game, Prison Architect. It looks as though members of the public will be able to 'pull a Minecraft' and pay for early access to the game.

Not only will this get you said access, but it will also help fund the further development of the project and help it reach the heights of acclaim we're all expecting of it.

And it's all yours for only the price of an entirely unknown amount. Hopefully Introversion will let us all know soon, as I'm desperate to lay down some hard-earned cash to help them along!

For now, have another peek at their teaser trailer.

Skyrim, The Battle For

This Machinima video created by YouTube user Tyrannicon is a masterpiece of pure action. Warfare, but with none of the scripted work that usually clogs up user-created videos.

So sit back, whack it up to 720p and prepare to be entertained!

Jagged Divide

So, the demo for Jagged Alliance: Back in Action hit Steam yesterday and I decided to give it a whirl.

I adored the original Jagged Alliance and was keen to see how the new semi-turn based real time 3D visualized variant would compare against my memories of its predecessor.

The new iteration on the IP uses what they've coined as the Plan & Go system. This is essentially a 'real time with pauses' system that allows the game to run in real time, with commands/actions able to be given at this point, but can also be 'paused' in order to allow the user to give more detailed/further actions and directions to their squad members. This 'pause' mode also allows for commands to be queued up, meaning you could go "move here", "throw a flash-bang through the window" and finally follow it up with "run into the room and shoot anything that moves" - which will then run sequentially once you 'unpause' the game.

In my opinion is that this has worked really well. The game flows nicely and, whilst the demo can hardly be seen as a full demonstration, it has a lot of potential. The only place I've found it to fall down is when you come up against the the somewhat limited AI in use. Quite a few times I told my team members to run up to an area where I expected an Enemy to be, based on their previous patrol route, only to find that they had taken a slightly different route (or even just stopped walking entirely) and I then had to set up another set of commands in order to combat them.

Overall I quite enjoyed the demo, although I feel I must warn you that the level given in the demo is pretty damn difficult. The tutorial, on the other hand, is a nice intro to the systems and allows you to get to grips with the gameplay before being massacred remorselessly.

You can grab the demo on Steam at the moment, but as it seems to be struggling a little at the moment you can also grab it from one of the links here.

Jagged Allian: Back in Action will launch in the UK on 10th February 2012. You can pre-order on Steam now and save yourself a cool 15% on the final price.

What would you do with superpowers?

So, I went to see Chronicle last night.

It has a basic enough premise: kids go to a party, discover an 'alien' artefact, develop telekinetic powers, muck about with them and then something goes wrong. Not really a lot of depth there, or so I thought.

To be fair, the trailers didn't really explain enough that this wasn't just a film of kids dicking about with superpowers. Yes, they do spend a large proportion of the film doing that - and it is highly entertaining - but it also follows one of the main characters as they cope with certain taboo subjects such as the death of a family member, bullying and an abusive parent.

I don't really want to go too much into the plot line of the film - suffice to say it kept me watching all the way through - as that would then mean you wouldn't go to see it. And you should.

Dane DeHaan has managed to take the life story of his character,  Andrew Detmer, and bring all of the different aspects of their life to the fore in a manner that we can all find relations with. I mean, who hasn't suffered bullying or loneliness? The way in which he brings his character's emotions and actions to life really gives some depth and meaning to what happens and how the conclusion is reach, drawing the audience in over the course of his journey. Alex Russell and Michael B Jordan, playing Matt Garetty and Steve Montgomery respectively, also held draw the audience in - although this time it's more for their 'play boy' and 'devil may care' attitudes on screen more than their ability to show real emotion.

The film uses a typical handy-cam style of recording, similar to Blair Witch and Cloverfield, which means that the initial 30 minutes or so has some very shaky footage. Beyond this point Detmer starts using his powers to hold the camera, meaning you still get the very personal, almost video blog style, shots but minus the stomach-churning motion shake. Another good idea they've implemented is to alternate what camera they're using. If there's another camera shown on screen, or likely to be nearby, then they will try and utilise the view from that. This means that some scenes will be shown from bystanders cameras or from CCTV-style footage. Whilst this allows the film to give a more rounded perspective of what's going on, I found this to be a bit jarring towards the end - with multiple rapid switches between different source material keeping me at a loss as to who is in control at any one time.

Detmer demonstrates to Montgomery his control over objects - in this case his camera

Overall it was a good film that lived up to my expectations. If you enjoy sci-fi films with a bit of dark humour and sections that make you think, go see it!

All in all I would give this film:


3.5 / 5