A MOST AGREEABLE PASTIME
Video Games, Victorian Style
Tag: gaming news roundup
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This week, we start Spiffing Reads with yet another crazy tale from the fascinating space world of EVE Online, followed by something much more wholesome and heartwarming… ‘You will lose both hands’ – How the biggest theft in EVE Online history ended in death threats (Rock Paper Shotgun) Ah, EVE Online. The game I am…
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All hail the return of Spiffing Reads! Every Friday we’ll round up the best writing on video games from the past week – and this week we start with an excellent article from a rat’s point of view. How Dishonored: Death of the Outsider makes rats of us all (Eurogamer) Oooh, some proper writing, with…
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This week on Spiffing Reads, we kick off with a couple of interesting opinion pieces on the Nintendo Switch… Don’t Judge Switch by the Stagnant Competition (Kotaku UK) This article struck a chord with me, particularly in how it accuses many in the games industry of not being able to look past technical specs. “There…
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This week on Spiffing Reads, we start off with a worrying look at what madness Twitch hath wrought. How Twitch is turning ‘always be streaming’ into a career with zero balance (Polygon) Once I got past the slightly baffling headline, this turned out to be a fascinating and slightly scary article about how much time…
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I was going to post this on Friday, but then the whole Nintendo Switch reveal got me all hot under the collar and I had to write a lengthy diatribe about it. I’m sure further thoughts will be forthcoming… Anyway, we’ve had some cracking gaming articles over the past couple of weeks, now that the…
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Not a huge amount has caught my Spiffing Reads eye over the past couple of weeks, hence the thin selection below. We’re well into the season of end-of-year lists, gift guides and reviews of AAA games, none of which makes for particularly thrilling reading – unless a hugely anticipated game gets a critical mauling, of…
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I didn’t have time to post Spiffing Reads last week, so this week we have a bumper double issue of the spiffingist reads from the past two weeks, starting off with an insight into how a game idea can end up going nowhere. The Ant Man: my year in development hell (Eurogamer) It must be…
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This week on Spiffing Reads, we start start off with how the games industry has finally woken up and listened to some of my amazing ideas. Why VR arcades could be virtual reality’s salvation (Polygon) Back in 2012, I visited an arcade for the first time in years, and found it to be a thoroughly…
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I ran out of time on Friday, so Spiffing Reads is a bit late this week. But just as packed full of goodness as ever. Why I Play (Kotaku UK) “Playing video games is, for me, part of a lifelong rejection of boredom.” Keza MacDonald, the chief ed of Kotaku UK, went on maternity leave…
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It’s been a quiet week on the blog thanks to some crazy work schedules, but as always we’ve got a few Spiffing Reads for you. Of course, the big news this week was a certain console announcement… Nintendo Switch Reveal – ALL EASTER EGGS, Analysis & Things Missed (IGN) Everyone everywhere has been writing about…
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This week on Spiffing Reads, we look into a spooky AI future – and a forgotten past of suicidal game disks. The Video Game Horror Of Westworld (Kotaku UK) The new HBO version of Westworld looks rather excellent. I was a big fan of the original film, and it seems like they’ve done a great…
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This week on Spiffing Reads, it’s all sex and VR. So a bit like the Brosnan-starring The Lawnmower Man, then. The best – and very worst – sex scenes in video game history (The Guardian) When it comes to sex scenes in video games, it seems that Bioware is one of the only developers that has…
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A short one this week, kicking off with some retro-gaming nostalgia. Game Genie declassified: That summer I played 230 Game Boy games (Eurogamer) Do you remember the Game Genie? It emerged after Codemasters worked out a way to get around Nintendo’s restrictions on who could produce NES software by bypassing the infamous 10NES lockout chip.…
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This week on Spiffing Reads, we begin with an eye-opening behind-the-scenes look at a certain 3D vampire series. “We got caught in a s***storm” (Eurogamer) This interview with the developers of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow is fascinating. It’s interesting to hear how the two LoS games were by far the most successful Castlevania games in…
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Just a trio of articles on Spiffing Reads this week, kicking off with a comeback from Sonic in an unlikely quarter. How Sonic the Hedgehog’s weirdo Twitter account could bring him back from the brink (Polygon) Most corporate Twitter accounts are harmlessly banal, and the same was true of the official Sonic the Hedgehog account…
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This week on Spiffing Reads, we start off with a mid-life crisis. Pokémon Go, mid-life crisis and me, by Ellie Gibson (Eurogamer) “I will be 40 next year, and I am in the midst of a mid-life crisis. How do I know this? It’s not because my idea of a party is staying in with…
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This week on Spiffing Reads, we start with a look back at when running a games magazine basically meant dicking about. When bass fishing features go wrong: a cautionary tale (Eurogamer) I used to be an avid games magazine reader. But like most gamers, I now rely on the internet for most gaming news and…
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This week on Spiffing Reads we start off with that old bone of contention – mainstream press railing on about how games rot your brain. Why Mainstream Reporting on Video Games is Still Often So Negative (Kotaku UK) A brutal but enlightening look at why games still get bad coverage in the mainstream press. Short…
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This week on Spiffing Reads, we kick off with a look at how magic in video games is in need of a radical overhaul. Putting the magic back into magic in fantasy games (Eurogamer) It amazes me just how influential the ideas of Tolkien are in the modern age. We still have countless video-game dungeon…
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Welcome to Spiffing Reads, our weekly round up of the best games writing, which this week kicks off with an alternative take on Sonic. Sonic boom: Ellie Gibson on nostalgia, novelty, and that 9/10 (Eurogamer) The ever-brilliant Ellie Gibson penned this meandering article on her expectations for Sonic Mania, interspersed with parenting metaphors, and ex-boyfriends…
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This week on our weekly roundup of the best games writing, we start with a look at the crazy time that Nintendo’s been having lately… Nintendo’s roller-coaster week (GamesIndustry.biz) A look back at an important week for Nintendo, with their share price peaking and then diving in relation to Pokemon Go, and leaked reports revealing…
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Welcome to Spiffing Reads, a new section on A Most Agreeable Pastime where every Friday we list gaming articles that have caught our eye this week. We’re always on the lookout for interesting gaming sites, so if you’ve found a brilliant blog, or you’ve read something amazing this week, please share it in the comments.…
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