Honestly, how is it Monday again? It seems like five minutes ago that I was getting all giddy and shit because it was Friday! Still, them’s the breaks, and until we crack the whole ‘army of robots doing everything for us’ thing, Mondays are always going to be a pain the ass. Obviously, the army of robot thing might lead to a Skynet scenario like in that documentary ‘Terminator’, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, eh!?

Anyhoo, as ever I’ve put together a wee collection of Gaming Reads for you to dip into should you need an escape from Real World grimness – but only if you want to, obviously. We’ve got a cool selection this week, so hopefully you’ll find something that interests you in your battle to make it through the day without collapsing into a fetal ball, screaming ‘enough already, just let me go home’. I mean, we’ve all been there, right guys? Guys…..??

  • Upon reading Darwin’s theory of Evolution, Thomas Huxley is famously reported to have exclaimed ‘how extremely stupid not to have thought of that!’. This was pretty much my reaction when I read this piece by Hundstrasse, who used the Easter Period to write about…..hidden Easter Egg-ey games within games. Aside from being a goddam genius idea, it’s also a great piece, so check it out here.

 

  • Next, hot off the presses, check out this reaction piece to the Video Game BAFTAs (like the Oscars, but with added tea and crumpets) over at Part Time Gamer. Do you agree with the results? Do you agree with his assessment of the results? Have a look and see.

 

  • I don’t need much of an excuse to go off on one, admittedly, but one of my biggest concerns right now is about the Rising costs of Gaming in general, and the trend towards freemium/Season Pass/Pre-order type shenanigans. Hatmonster’s done another good piece about Pre-order type hype here, and there’s also a good piece about Season Pass-ey/Micro-transaction-ey stuff over at Mr Oliver.

 

  • On a similar theme, there’s a good piece about budgeting games into our lives (both in terms of expense and time) over at Falcon Reviews. We all struggle with this I think, and it’s always interesting and/or useful seeing how other people manage their gaming habit hobby. Not least because (as I found out to my cost) just buying shitloads of games and hoping your girlfriend doesn’t notice isn’t a particularly successful plan.

 

  • Now, we have a birthday to celebrate. One of my favourite blogs is The Maximum Utmost, and Pine717 has just passed the two years blogging milestone. We all know the level of commitment necessary to keep a blog going, so that’s quite impressive by any standard. More importantly, there’s an intriguing and interesting plan for going forward (that I’m looking forward to seeing play out) and a bit of Trivia (that’s got me stumped). Join in the festivities, and/or put me out of my misery by answering said question here.

 

  • One of my favourite Next-Gen games so far is Wolfenstein: The New Order, and I’m always happy and interested to read other people’s experience of the game. In that spirit, you can check out Particlebit’s Review here, which as a bonus, pretty much echoes my own feelings too.

 

  • And finally for today, I’d like to point you in the direction of this piece over at 1001Up, about something that’s both interesting and worthwhile. A while ago I linked to their piece about participating in GameBlast for the charity SpecialEffect and they continued that good work at EGX Rezzed this weekend. Seriously, check it out.

 

And that is that. Go careful out there, folks, show ’em you mean business, and remember, if my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles an hour, you’re going to see some serious shit!