War: Now changed

Reader beware: This is not a month-early, very elaboate April fools’ practical joke. It’s the actual forthcoming expansion to Magicka.

I have no words. This is just too brilliant.

Magicka is, for the record, one of the few genuinely innovative titles to rise from the primordial sludge of ever-growing AAA franchises and stagnant creativity of the past five years. It comes with things that used to be staples, like emergent gameplay, humour that works, not taking itself very seriously, and so on. All for a measly ten €/$/£ on Steam. Disregard the “oh noes sub-80″ metascore (which serve only to illustrate how exceedingly inept 95% of the gaming press is, and how irrevocably flawed score aggregators are) and just play the game – it’s really that good.

Actual promotional art. Basic knowledge of shooty type games required to understand why it's hilarious.

I played the Dragon Age 2 demo

Back when Dragon Age 2 details started surfacing, I made the following prediction: Dragon Age 2 looks like it should have been named Dragon Effect.

Let’s face it, the signs were all there:

- The dialogue wheel goes medieval
- Player character limited to a single race
- Both genders are available, but the male version is made the posterboy just because
- Customizable appearance
- Fully-voiced player character
- … To ensure a more focused narrative (usually a buzzword for “a  narrative filled with binary and ultimately inconsequential choices)
- Promises of a “faster paced” combat system, which “played to the strengths of the individual platforms” and was “more accessible” to a “greater amount of players”.

The BAFTA/GAME awards, also known as the clueless pandering awards

It’s that time of the year again, when celebrities embarrass themselves and others by hosting various award shows. I always thought it might be fun to have an award show where we hand out awards for the best award shows. The Meta Awards – Best Male Award Show Host goes to …

Yeah, pretty much.

Regardless, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards are now also awarding what they regard as artistic excellence in games, and here are the nominees for 2011. If it’s not made abundantly clear simply by looking at the list, I’ll spell it out: While British critics tend to be a lot more sensible than their overseas counterparts, this particular award ceremony seems to gravitate towards heavily-marketed triple-A titles (and that one compulsory indie game), with little or no regard for actual artistic excellence. It’s uncertain whether they’re pandering to the IGN/Gamespot brand of pay-per-grade game journalism, or  simply happen to be blissfully clueless – but the list makes for an entertaining read nonetheless.

Global edition something

Because geek chic makeup darling JediAnastasia over at LipsticksAndLightSabers.com believes I should be available to a greater audience. One can only hope. While ideally the english version would be an exact, english language-mirror of the Norwegian-language blog, I think that’s a little unrealistic, unless this edition somehow turns out vastly more popular.

What I do: Write opinionated pieces about various aspects of gaming, the industry or about specific games. It aims to be equal parts commentary, comedy, and information, but the ratio can and will tip in either direction depending on the particular subject matter. Additionally I maintain and expand a list of games that I’ve tested and found to work on my netbook, for your perusal.