My review of the excellent Resident Evil 4 is now accessible through my review index. I intend to add more reviews in the next few days, but as always I welcome feedback.
All posts by Olly
Broadband Upgrade
YEAH!!
My current 512k connection is OK but I’m certainly not going to complain at a free upgrade to 2Mb. It’s about time that they got with the times over here and dropped the 512k connections considering most other countries with prevalent broadband use have been at a minimum of 1Mb download for a while now. I can’t wait!
The Redesign
You may have noticed the overhaul of this site, by far the biggest since I set it up over two years ago. Apart from the obvious cosmetic change, the backend has been completely changed from the grossly inefficient, hand-coded HTML system to a new PHP and database system running under WordPress. Not only should the look be cleaner, but it will make updating the site infinitely easier and more frequent.
The old content will be ported when I get around to it, but the site will shift focus to become more of a blog on what I’m getting up to as an aspiring games journalist as I study for my journalism degree, and maybe some more surprises. Stay tuned.
There will be more changes on the way as I finish setting up the theme, but I welcome feedback.
Edge Retrospectives
Edge is one of the few gaming publications that I have a lot of respect for. They can be pretentious but their features are consistently interesting even when they’re not about things that are necessarily popular, they’re insightful, and their reviews with their strict adherence to the idea that 5 = average and 10 = revolutionary are great.
They seem to be one of the few who realise that when they recommend a game people are going to spend £40 on it, which is a lot of money for what can be less than ten hours of entertainment. Dishing out 9s and 10s might get people through the door to see what the fuss is about, but they’re not going to stay if they don’t trust your judgement on what’s worth their money. That is, after all, what they’re paying you for.
Brown nosing aside, since Edge’s recent redesign I think I’ve fallen in love with their retrospectives on overlooked classics. They are, without a doubt, my favourite articles in any current publication and are well worth dropping the £4 to own the latest issue. Opening this month’s and finding six pages on Skies of Arcadia comes second only to opening the issue two months ago to find six pages on Shenmue in the greatest things ever to happen chart. I enjoyed GTA San Andreas as much as the next guy but it’s refreshing to read about a genuinely classic game that perhaps didn’t get the recognition it deserved instead. Even the fact that it’s a “warts and all” look doesn’t matter, because these are games that I’d play over and over again given the chance and will jump at the opportunity to read about them again. Too bad not many others would.
Since two of these retrospectives (my favourite ones so far, I have to admit) have been on Dreamcast games maybe the console itself could qualify as an overlooked classic. That’s certainly what I consider it: second only to the SNES.
Keep it up, Edge.
Plans for 2005
Previous years have seen me do occasional pieces of freelance for various sources, but as 2005 marks my first year as an official journalist-in-training, I’m stepping up my efforts to do even more and, frankly, I’m really excited about some of it.
I had been planning on going to E3 this year since it’s likely that we’ll see some new consoles – Xbox 2 should be pretty definite and it’s reasonable to assume that we’ll see something of PlayStation 3 – but it looks like exams at uni will put paid to that idea, much as I’d prefer to be in Kentia Hall than in an exam hall.
Last year I helped out IGN with their coverage of EGN/Game Stars Live (now Game Zone Live) at the London ExCeL and, as long as they’ll have me again, I’ll be doing that for three days at the beginning of September. It’s good fun even if the show is no E3. Last year had some cool opportunities like playable Halo 2 (if you wanted to wait four hours, absurdly); playable, if slightly buggy, Splinter Cell 3; playable STALKER; etc, and hopefully the show will have gained enough credibility to get more exhibitors, and maybe even the return of Sony from their jaunt up to Alton Towers.
At the beginning of the summer I’ve got a placement to go back to Highbury (formerly Paragon) where I’ll spend two weeks probably doing menial tasks, but at least I can re-establish my name with them. Most jobs for journalists straight out of university are at former work experience places and I can think of worse places to work than there, if it ever comes to that.
The final, and definitely best, piece of work is that I’m going to this years’ Tokyo Game Show. Yes, Tokyo as in Japan, as if there was any other. It’s been a dream of mine to go to Japan for as long as I can remember, pretty much since I’ve had an interest in gaming, and now those Japanese lessons might pay off. Me and a group of mates are going to Japan for two weeks and taking in Akihabara, the rest of Tokyo, and maybe even more of Japan as well as dropping in on TGS for a day. It’s going to be expensive and it’s going to almost completely drain my cash, but it will be worth it.
Here’s hoping that something good comes of all this.
Welcome & An Introduction
Welcome to the first post on my blog, where I plan to chart my progress on the way to becoming a video games journalist.
I can’t remember when this desire started, but suffice it to say that I’ve always enjoyed writing and I’ve always enjoyed video games, so becoming a games journalist has always seemed like the obvious choice of career.
My “big break” came when I did work experience at the tender age of 15 at Paragon Publishing in my home town of Bournemouth. I guess they liked some of my work because I was offered a freelance contract and things have progressed from there. I did some work for them and when IGN were looking for someone to write a weekly article on the UK gaming scene I stepped up. I no longer do that but still do reasonably frequent freelance work such as covering the UK Halo 2 launch and helping out with coverage of UK shows like EGN/Game Stars Live.
I’ve now got freelance on the backburner somewhat as I study at the Southampton Institute for a degree in journalism, but I’m going to keep this blog updated as I continue on the path to becoming a proper games journalist. That’s the idea, at least.