Honestly, how is it Monday already? How on earth is it time to start wearing pants again? What the actual fuck happened to the weekend? It just, like, disappeared without a trace, save only for a faint carving of Croatoan scratched into a nearby tree trunk – a genuine mystery for the ages.

Still, when the universe takes with one hand, it often gives with the other and so it was this week, with a veritable feast of great Gaming pieces on the t’internet; a virtual smorgasbord of news, reviews and opinion. From philosophical ponderings, to well directed polemic, and via a few original takes on Gaming “news”, my WordPress Reader was playing an absolute blinder, and that was great for me given I didn’t get much actual Gaming done, thanks to my new puppy.

Anyway, given this abundance, I’ll stop talking shite now and just get on with it…..

 

  • Let’s start with something slightly different today, and take a look at this Bioshock piece over at The Moral of The Story. We all like a great story done well, but I’d never really thought about the morals, messages etc contained within them, so I really enjoyed this piece’s focus on exactly that.

 

  • Having had me a brief go on the new Street Fighter back in October, I was pretty excited about it – which made all the bullshit Capcom pulled on release particularly hard to take. I was going to write a piece on it myself, but Cary over at United We Game beat me to it, and nailed everything I wanted to say anyway – and, if I’m being honest, a shitload better than I would’ve done.

 

 

  • I find interviews with Developers interesting, precisely because they can give us a glimpse into some of the processes, challenges, personalities etc involved in making our favourite medium a reality, and this interview with Brandon Adler of Obsidian is a great example of that. Check it out at Tritops Gaming.

 

  • I don’t necessarily need loads of encouragement to spend my money on games, but I do usually make an effort (OK, a token effort) to do some due diligence beforehand – and so it was that I read two reviews of the game Firewatch. I was keen before, but now I’m distinctly on the #shutupandtakemymoney side of the fence. You can read why over at Geek, Sleep, Rinse, Repeat and Hundstrasse’s place.

 

  • I’m not as good at keeping up with news as I’d like to be, and I always mean to cover PS+/Games with Gold stuff, but I’m always late to the party. And when I say late to the party, I mostly mean lazy and forgetful. Luckily for me (and by extension you) theaimlessgamer is totes on top of that shit, and you can read her (as ever, humorous) look at this month’s PS+ and Xbox Live offerings here and here, respectively.

 

  • Another bit of news I missed because I was lazy and/or not paying attention, is that there was something of a possible revelation concerning the next Battlefield game. Is it going to be set in World War One? How would a game known for expansive, open maps cope with the limitations of Trench Warfare? Are we just being trolled? Anyways, you can read James Busby’s take on the news over at Ultimate Games Culture, as well as a great piece about WW2 shooters linked to within that. Yeah, that’s right: I’m giving you a twofer….

 

  • And finally, this weekend saw some Gamely Giving/Game Blast events take place. Even though it’s finished now, you can still read about what a great idea it is, where the funds raised go, and if you’re so inclined, I’m sure you can find details of how to donate and/or get involved in the future either at 1001Up, or Geek Out South-West.

 

And on that upbeat note, I’ma wrap up this week’s MMPP. As always, if there’s anything you’ve come across on the world wide webinator this week that you think people might like, please feel free to give it a shout-out in the comments. I mean, it is Monday, so if you’re sitting on anything that might make it more bearable, get that shizzle shared….