As a journalist John has covered everything from rural town meetings to the U.S. Congress and even done time as a crime reporter and photographer.|His first venture into writing about the game industry came in the form of a computer column called "On the Chip Side," which grew to have over 1 million circulation and was published in newspapers in several states. From there he did several "ask the computer guy" columns in magazines such as Up Front! in New Mexico and Who Cares? in Washington D.C. When the Internet started to become popular, he began writing guided Web tours for the newly launched Washington Post online section as well as reviews for the weekend section of the paper, something he still does from time to time.
His experience in trade publications came as a writer and reviewer for Government Computer News.
As the editor of GiN, he demands strict editorial standards from all the writers and reviewers. Breeden feels the industry needs a weekly, reliable trade publication covering the games industry and works tirelessly to accomplish that goal.
The game industry has several defined buying seasons, the most powerful of which is obviously over the December holidays. But game companies are starting to branch out somewhat as well, giving holidays like Halloween their own genre-specific titles to help people get into the season. This is evident in humorous titles like Ghost Master, which GiN will have a review of in a few days. Nosferatu: Wrath of Malachi is more of a traditional Halloween game. It is very much like a haunted house in that things are always very dark, and monsters are jumping out and trying to scare … Continue reading Bloody Holiday Fun→
Space Colony follows the adventures of a wacky group of socially challenged colonists as they attempt to survive the dangerous of hostile planets. Created by Firefly Studios, the developers of Stronghold and Stronghold Crusader, Space Colony follows the same basic simulation-type theme as their other titles. But, Space Colony is more about simulation than warfare, though there is quite a bit of combat in the game too most of the time. The game is extremely humorous. The colonist’s disparate personalities really play off of one another well, which may leave you tearing your hair out trying to get people to … Continue reading Laughs in Space→
Depending on your point of view, Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader is either a thinking-man’s Diablo, or an action gamer’s version of Baldur’s Gate. Lionheart is an RPG that places you in Europe in 1588. Historically speaking, many things look as they should in Barcelona, where you spend much of this single-player adventure. Even the Spanish Armada is getting ready to invade England out in the harbor. But the coolest aspect of this RPG is that it is an alternate history setting, so lots of things are different too. The main difference between the Lionheart world of 1588 and the … Continue reading Lionheart Has Lots of Heart→
It’s 1903, do you know where your airplane is? It’s hard to believe, but just 100 years ago there was only one airplane in the entire world. We have come a long way in a short period of time, and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight celebrates the centennial by letting users cruise around in some of the most historic airplanes ever built. Flight simulators are nothing new, but computers have finally advanced to the point where the flight not only looks realistic, but the planes handle very much like the real thing. Assuming you have a good … Continue reading Touch the Sky→
As movie sequels go, Pirates of the Caribbean is not too bad. I played it on the PC and despite little flaws, managed to have a pretty good time. My review will be based solely on my PC experience. However, I want to put up front that the Xbox version of the game is nowhere near as good. It was pretty buggy, with disappearing quests and crashes during FMV sequences. In fact, our Xbox review console broke while playing the game. We won’t blame Pirates for this, but the combination of an old Xbox and a disc-intensive game was apparently … Continue reading Pirates is Ships and Swordplay→
Silent Hill 3 is one of the best, and best-looking, games I have ever played on the PS2. It has the right mix of action, thinking and horror. It’s as good as or better than any horror movie and will suck you right into the middle of the action. It will have you looking over your shoulder and fearing the things that go bump in the night.
The backlit EluminX keyboard from Auravision is without a doubt the coolest keyboard any gamer can buy. By daylight the keyboard looks like a fairly normal input device. The only real clue as to its special nature is that the keys are clear plastic instead of a solid color. The lettering is black and easy to read. Something really cool happens however when the lights are dimmed. You notice that the keyboard is actually glowing faintly. The glow is there the entire time, but it’s subtle enough that you don’t really notice it in normal lighting conditions. But who plays … Continue reading Lighting up the night→
Those of you who have been waiting for the next great puzzle game to appear, wait no more. RHEM is without a doubt one of the most difficult and challenging games I have ever played. It is a world full of puzzles, and your intellectual noodle will be stretched extremely far while playing. The game is also inexpensive. You can get a copy of it for just about $30, which makes it an excellent deal considering I guarantee you will be working at the puzzles for many, many hours if you have any hope of solving RHEM. It also ships … Continue reading RHEM Will Puzzle Puzzlers→
There is a distinct flavor to most games published by Microsoft, especially in the real-time strategy genre. Not that this is a bad thing. Almost all the games are marked by good quality gameplay and graphics, as the Age of Empires series will attest. Rise of Nations is kind of like an advanced version of Age of Empires. It brings some unique elements to the table that I have personally never before experienced, along with a lot of the old standards that RTS gamers have come to know and love – or hate as the case may be. The first … Continue reading Rising to the Challenge→
It should come as no surprise that the game industry is under the microscope again, and as usual it's not a good thing. What is unusual is where the pressure is coming from this time around. The industry has often been criticized in the past, normally with much fanfare. I personally remember Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison at a hearing waiving a copy of Doom in the air and promising a first amendment fight to restrict game sales. This was in the days following the shootings at Columbine High School after it was learned that the kids who did the … Continue reading SEC’s Jack Booted Thugs→
Your Free Daily News Source Of The Video Game Industry
