Greg's illustrious gaming career started out at the age of three, when he managed to get a bean from 'Don't Spill the Beans' wedged up his nose. While he has never been quite that intimate with a game since, he loves all manner of games, and will play anything that is put in front of him. He even goes to a week-long convention every year devoted entirely to board games.
Keeping the website up and running can be hard work, and Greg likes to relax with a nice puzzle game, but also likes to play LotRO with some of his GiN colleagues. Adventure games and shooters have also been known to hold his interest.
And he still maintains a sad devotion to that ancient religion: Civilization II.
A talk with a controversial groundbreaker You don’t have to go very far in a historical conversation without broaching a sensitive or controversial subject. This century had been filled with tragedies, and even talking about some of them "too soon" has been considered controversial. I hear it was quite a number of years before one could bring up the subject of the Titanic without getting strange looks. But I can’t think of too many things more controversial than releasing a game in Germany that is set in World War II. CDV Software Entertainment has done just that. Based in Germany, … Continue reading Is It Too Soon”?”→
Sometimes a programmer’s got to do what a programmer’s got to do "Don’t quit your day job," was what people would say to part-time musicians and performers as a way of saying that they weren’t yet ready to make a living in the arts. Some may say the same thing to aspiring game makers in what can be a tough industry. But they also say that you can’t get anywhere without taking chances. Alexandru Marias (or Alex as he likes to be called) lives in Romania, where the standard of living is lower than in the countries typically associated with … Continue reading Taking a Risk→
A new company tries to get a piece of the action My grandmother always told me not to put all of my eggs into one basket. But all too often in the interactive software industry, that’s exactly what you have to do. A startup company sometimes can devote its limited resources to the development of just one game. When that happens, the entire future of the company depends upon the success of that game. This is not a problem if the game is good. Heksplex Entertainment started out just developing one game, The Boss, which is a strategy game based … Continue reading Starting Out with a Bang→
When Daydream (the makers of Safecracker, one of my all-time favorite puzzle games) and Dreamcatcher (the publishers of Cydonia, one of my all-time favorite puzzle games (notice the pattern?)) got together to bring us a new puzzle game, I thought I’d be in heaven. And mostly, I was. Traitors Gate is a totally brilliant game with beautiful art, a fabulous interface, engaging sound, and best of all – ingenious puzzles. It is marred only by some loading and startup problems that I will get into later. In the game, you are Raven, an agent with the CIA. The head of … Continue reading Traitors Gate is crown jewel of two companies→
"Risk, the Game of Global Domination?!" Now, I know what you are thinking. "Another board game adaptation?! Jeez, what a novel concept." Yeah, I was thinking the same thing myself when I got this in my inbox. Generally, you expect a classic board game adaptation to fall into one of two categories. Either it’s so completely untrue to the original that you wonder why they named it after the game in the first place, or it’s such a painstaking duplication that you might as well just break out the actual board game. Sure, there have been a few exceptions, and, … Continue reading Risk II Globally Dominates→
The advances in sound technology over the last several years have tried to do one thing – bring the sound closer to the user. One only has to look at an ordinary desk chair to envision the obvious next step. The Intensor LX is a specially designed chair the has speakers placed in strategic locations to give the user a sort of ‘sensaround’ feel. The subwoofer sends its sounds through the base of the chair right into your spine, giving your sound experience that extra punch. The unit that interfaces with your computer’s sound output is a small box that … Continue reading Intensor LX is intense→
Ever want to rule the world? More specifically, ever want to rule a Renaissance-era Europe, and its accompanying New World colonies? Then Imperialism II is the game for you. You start off in charge of one of the reigning European powers in 1500, either in a map of Europe or a random one. You have a certain number of provinces, each which contains one principle city. While you start building up your resource network at home, you also must send out a ship or two in order to explore the vast oceans in search of the New World. While your … Continue reading Imperialism II is a strategy game Renaissance→
Music and art make Cydonia a memorable experience. Mars. Exciting and new. (I would continue substituting lyrics to the "Love Boat" theme, but none of us really needs that, do we?) Mars has been a lofty, and sometimes thought of as an unattainable goal for us meager humans for decades and decades now. And now, with Pathfinder still in our thoughts and the International Space Station actually underway, an adventure game that takes place on Mars seems only logical. Cydonia more than fits this bill. Cydonia is set in a somewhat-far-ahead-but-it-could-happen-to-us-if-we-don’t-watch-out sort of future. The Terran League [the governing body … Continue reading In the Valley of the Giants…→
Upon re-reading my first review of this game, I realized that it was not simply a review, but there was also an editorial on where this part of the industry was headed. It was all muddled together, and came off as a luke warm review of the game. This is not what I intended, so I went through, sifted out the two sets of opinions, and separated them, so people can understand just what it is I am talking about (a rare privilege – savor it, people). Ready? Hang on. Sanctum by Digital Addiction is a collectable card game that … Continue reading Okay, let’s try this again…→
Safecracker is an intriguing collection of puzzles and clue searches, all intertwined together and layered prettier than a Dorothy Hammil haircut. In this first-person solve-em-up, you are left without any intro or other preparation and, in the spirit of games like ‘Hacker’, you are thrown into the game running (actually, in this case, standing in a phone booth with the phone ringing, but you get the idea). After you answer the phone (I never dared to not answer the phone), you are given your instructions (which you had better pay attention to) and off you go. This is a good … Continue reading Just when you thought it was safe…→
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