Citizen 16

Generally I attempt to keep gaming news from dominating these posts. This month I failed. Oh well, maybe this gaming info-splurge will distract everyone from the fact that I only added one post to City 16 this month. I have failed you all.

• Ed McMillen writes a couple of articles for GameSetWatch dealing with difficulty and risk/reward and how he’s built on lessons from old-school platformers in the creation of his upcoming Super Meatboy.
• Charlie Brooker writes about the pressures of live TV after his appearance on Channel 4′s Alternative Election Night coverage. He may have pissed himself. A little.
• Memo: This is now the best trailer. Please update your mental databases.
• Tom Jubert [Ir/Rational, Penumbra] has started a new blog, Plot Is Gameplay’s Bitch. There’s a cornucopia of worthwhile articles already posted but here he is on a writing project that he “screwed up.”
• It must be hugely frustrating for those game journalists whose day to day activities involve posting endless rumours and press releases. It can make a man go a bit funny.
• So, predictably, the Lost ending sparked a lot of posts this month. Coren linked to Kotaku’s gallery of Lost as a Lucas Arts adventure. Richard Cobbett’s been promoting Lost: The Board Game. Also, here’s an interactive picture revealing the fate of each character. Key point: Lost was fucking ridiculous.
• A couple from The Brainy Gamer: The problems with Metacritic, which is a point often discussed in games writing but always worth keeping in mind, and a racist shopkeeper in Red Dead Redemption. Mmm… Emergent.
• You don’t have to do what your mum says anymore because it’s Independint Charles Show. Until she comes back home.
• Webcomic: The alt-text to this A Softer World comic crippled me with laughter. I need therapy.
• This one’s for Eamonn.
• There’s a new Scott Pilgrim trailer! Here it is, along with Ultra Culture’s definitive guide to why it’s brills.

Next month: I do better.