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I wrote nothing on my notepad for the first five hours of playing Guild Wars 2. I always write something when taking part in any Beta event, which makes writing about those first five hours somewhat of a challenge. But then again, this was no ordinary Beta event. All my original intentions went out the window …

Stupid. A waste of time. Evidence that Nintendo didn’t have a clue what it was doing. “Panic Mode”. Mental. Bonkers. Bloody ridiculous. Massively monstrous. Cheap looking. Ugly. Insane. An admission of failure. Useless. Baffling. What the fuck? Frankenstick!

These are just some of the words and phrases you might have heard mentioned last September in response to Nintendo’s unveiling of the Circle Pad Pro. Many of them by me, as it happens. So today I went out and bought one.

I never feel comfortable writing a full review until I’ve played an entire game. On the other hand, I’m actually pretty comfortable writing an almost-review about Saints Row: The Third now. I can’t really call this “first impressions,” because I have seen a lot of Saints Row: The Third. Since buying it, I’ve watched both my husband, and a mutual friend, play pretty big chunks of the game. It’s actually one of last year’s games, contemporary to Skyrim, but since I had to wait my turn, I just started playing it this week myself. Here are my thoughts.

It’s great! I love it.

Wait, you were expecting an article of some kind? I guess I should qualify that opinion, then.

About five years ago, on the message board 4chan, a Japanese artist posted a charming but strange concept illustration. The picture depicted five girls, envisioned as the potential love interests in a Japanese-style visual romance novel. So far, so ordinary, but there’s a twist: all of the young women had a unique disability. One was …

Telltale’s second series this year to extend a classic sci-fi film is a dino-tranq-size shot of nostalgia for when sci-fi movies were still awesome.  Also, dilophosaurs. Though Jurassic Park: The Game is separated into four episodes, as near as I can tell they have all released at once, which I doubt was the original intent, …

Shockingly, I actually bought a game on launch day for a change, because the timing was right. This is another game where you pretty much know already if you really wanted it, in which case you’re probably a lot further in than me, who spent my first five hours with Skyrim yesterday after getting home. …

It’s awesome.  Go play it.

I almost let the most recent Humble Bundle pass me by.  I typically snap up the bundles immediately, but the centerpiece this time is Frozen Synapse, a tactical game, and I’ve never been a big player of tactical games, even of the indie variety.  However, I finally took the plunge the day I saw they …

Where to begin with a first impressions of Star Wars: The Old Republic? There is a lot riding on it for Bioware, a developer synonymous with in depth RPGs and branching storylines. But combine their experience with the Star Wars licence and an MMOG and that is surely a recipe for success.  Right?

I love that someone at Bethesda actually went to the trouble of finding a Nathaniel Hawthorne quote that used the word “rage” – “The fiend in his own shape is less hideous than when he rages in the breast of men.” Maybe I’m an asshole and id Software always intended that quote to drive their …