It's been a little while since this announcement, but I came across it for the first time today.

It seems that Britain's oldest PC games mag, and long-time inspiration of FFG, PC Zone, is to cease publication after some 17 years. The giant publishing behemoth that is Future have decreed that there's no point in churning out three PC magazines with games reviews in them and as Zone is the smallest, it's going to be the one to go.

To be honest, such a move always seemed on the cards once the magazine started to be published by Future, who also produce one-time rivals of Zone, PC G*m*r. I guess the only surprise is that it's taken so long to happen.

To get too incredulous about it is slightly hypocritical when you don't even buy the magazine anymore (as I don't) but it's definitely a shame that it's come to this. I did subscribe until a couple of years ago and although I definitely preferred the writers from the mid-90s to early 2000s 'glory days', it was still a pretty enjoyable read. But I gather there have been more changes of staff since then and the writing was on the wall.

It's been a few years since we wrote this but most of it still rings true. Farewell, PCZ, we'll miss you.

And I'll even shell out £6 for the last issue.

tags: pc, zone

In recent months I've joined Abandoned Places as an updater. I've tried to keep a regular update schedule, and take some time to mention a bit of detail as to what's in each update (as that's what I would want as an AW webmaster).

Unfortunately, things have gone slightly wrong with my latest update, which seems a bit, well, brusque. To add an explanation: I did my homework and attempted to add a newspost as usual, but for some reason it wouldn't work unless I did an EXTREMELY short update.

So, apologies to all members. Voh's working on the problem as we speak (I have no technical knowledge whatsoever) and when it's resolved I promise to mention all updates in full in the newspost.

Also, new sites - I can't add or reject you, but hopefully something will happen later this week. Thanks for your patience.

tags: aplaces

It's getting towards that time when everyone who doesn't like football prepares to be extremely bored for weeks on end.

As for everyone else (in this country at least) the question remains: "Can England do it this time?"

Pro Evo says yes...




tags: football, world, cup

So I finally made it to the magic 100. As achievements go, it's hardly on a par with discovering the cure for...well, anything, but hey, if you can't put a little note about reaching a milestone on your own website without feeling like you're blowing your own trumpet rather too loudly, then you probably shouldn't bother putting your words on the internet in the hope of people reading them [Good idea - FFG reader].

Don't worry, though, we'll save the self-indulgent retrospective for our 200th site review or our 10-year anniversary, whichever seems more appropriate. For now, we'll make do with the briefest of glances over my personal list of reviews (list kindly supplied by Stoo).

The site started with a clear mandate for covering old games that we'd enjoyed in the past and that we wanted to recommend to others. For me, that meant tapping out some brief words of praise for Blade Runner and Wing Commander 3 and e-mailing them to Stoo for him to add to the site. My own contributions were pretty flaky back then, with my esteemed colleague cranking out 3000-word epics on some strategy game or other, while I did little more than occasionally cast an eye over some late-90s favourites that I'd revisited during a particularly dreary weekend. The stats don't lie: no reviews for Rik in 2003. But I can't honestly say what I was doing instead.

Things got a little better from that point, with review #25 - the awesomely cool Full Throttle coming in the middle of a period of semi-regular content during 2005.

Even so, I was still lagging well below 50 reviews (although I honestly wasn't keeping count back then - but #50 was Tiberian Sun) by the time we got into 2007, whereupon I launched myself into a frenzy of reviewing activity which saw two and sometimes three(!) reviews being added at once. I can't say exactly what prompted such enthusiasm and focus, although it has to be said, discovering the entertaining and regularly maintained content at Just Games Retro did sort of shame me into trying harder.

By this stage, newer games were coming onto the radar (#75 - XIII being a case in point), with the old philosophy of previously-loved favourites being abandoned by necessity in order to keep the new content a-coming.

Which brings us to the present day. Looking down the list, I'd have to say that it's a fair reflection of my gaming habits over the years. Possibly there's a slight indication of having acquired and played rather more games of average quality than I might care to remember, but that's probably fair enough - give me a choice of buying a single, well-thought-of game for £30 or a whole heap of miscellaneous budget nonsense from the bargain bucket, and I'd choose the bargain bucket every time.

Perhaps then, it's fitting that these latest reviews represent not only the worst of what can happen when you go fishing in the 'reduced' pile, but also the rewards that splashing out on a quality title on the day of release can reap.

And when you find yourself writing that kind of nonsense, you know it's time to stop. If anyone's out there - thanks for reading...

tags: reviews, site

I've played a bit of Audiosurf before, and I quite liked it, but I never really got into it in any kind of obsessive, must-get-100%-on-Message-In-A-Bottle kind of a way like I did with the earlier Guitar Hero games.

Then I got an e-mail:

"You used to have the worldwide best score for: everything counts [live] by depeche mode

Now the Audiosurf player 'Prozak Junkie' has beaten you. Launch Audiosurf and reclaim the top spot!"

I didn't even know that I had (or used to have) the worldwide best score for anything, really. And, had I never found out, losing that mantle would never have bothered me.

Now, of course, I've got to beat that Depeche Mode loving bastard!



tags: audiosurf

So these days it seems we're obsessed with DRM and how it does or does not affect sales of PC games. Still, while the methods change, the principle of stopping casual piracy is nothing new.

Eurogamer has done a fun retrospective on some of the copy protection methods employed by publishers over the years.

I have to say, I reserve particular disdain for the Lenslok system. As a young lad, I couldn't ever get past the copy proetection on any of the Lenslok games my Dad had (legitimately) purchased, so any time I wanted to play any of those games, I had to ask him to do it for me. And even then I don't think it was easy...

A few years later, though, and I was able to get past the copy protection for Midwinter without even looking at the manual. You were shown a picture of one of the game's 50-odd playable characters and asked to name them. And, sad bastard that I was (am?), I knew all of their faces off by heart...

tags: copy, protection

I'm not normally one for milestones, but there's one coming up fairly soon. It's been a long time (perhaps too long) in coming, but better late than never I suppose.

So, in case you'd noticed this yourself and were lying awake at night wondering if I've got something special planned - well, I do. Kind of. I mean, you know, they're reviews. Of games. Like the ones we normally do.

If all goes to plan, we'll have #98 soon, and then a double-whammy to bring up the century, whip off the helmet and kiss the FFG badge on my shirt. (That's a cricket reference for you there).

tags: reviews, site

I've been meaning to post about this for a while, but events seem to have overtaken me somewhat. Anyway, as you'll have noticed from Stoo's recent newspost (or indeed from the site itself), the nice fellows over at Just Games Retro have decided to call it a day.

It's always a shame when a site you enjoy and visit on a regular basis shuts down, particularly in this case as the quality and frequency of JGR's updates not only meant a regular serving of retro goodness, but also a source of inspiration to try harder and do better with our own content.

Anyway, I won't waffle on, except to say that JGR will certainly be missed. If by any chance you're reading this and you haven't had a chance to check out the site, go there now and do so before JMan pulls the plug...

tags: just, games, retro

There's been a countdown on the GOG homepage for a little while now promising a big and exciting announcement soon.

It transpires that they've signed a deal with Activision, which doesn't immediately make me think of any game in particular that I'd like to see on GOG soon.

However, as part of the announcement, the first Gabriel Knight game, Sins of the Fathers, has been released. I didn't know Activision had the rights to that series, to be honest.

Anyway, the disk version has been an abandonware staple for a while now, but we're talking about the full talkie version here, which is something I've wanted to get my hands on for a while.

Disclaimer : Speculation regarding upcoming reviews on FFG is not linked to the likelihood of them appearing.

tags: gabriel, knight

So that was 2009. Despite our best efforts it's been a quiet one, although we did manage to update each month, which is still better than we used to manage back in the early days (when, ironically, we had much more free time).

Anyway, our limited ambitions for the year were largely realised. Having started the year by adding a review of a Sierra adventure, Police Quest II, we went not one but two better by covering chapters three and four as well. By my reckoning that's the PQ series covered - we're not counting the SWAT games, goddammit.

However, having enjoyed PQ more than we were perhaps expecting, in a fit of enthusiasm I decided to review Jim Walls' Blue Force. That was my mistake - it's rubbish.

All police questing aside, we also met our (well, my) commitment to cover Davilex's Knight Rider game. Which is also, er, not very good. Thankfully, we didn't bother with Daikatana or else the year would have been a depressing slog through old rubbish (let's not mention MegaRace, then).

Thankfully, though, that wasn't the case. Personal highlights included finally getting around to playing cult classic Grim Fandango. Plus a selection of decent racing games, the best of which was Rockstar's Midnight Club II.

In between all my larking around on light-hearted, commitment-free titles, Stoo was hard at work boosting the neglected areas of the site. Haegemonia was added to the strategy section, while after years of trying to get a party together to venture forth, the long-awaited review of Baldur's Gate finally materialised. Free Dr Pepper for everyone!

In a first for the site, we finally got a fighting game - or "beat 'em up", if you will - reviewed. Fittingly it was a PC-only effort, One Must Fall. While in the action section, Stoo continued our quest to review every FPS except Doom with reviews of the ageing Heretic and the more modern Unreal 2.

So what for 2010? With this site, as with life, I have no specific ambitions. We should have some more reviews of some old games at various stages throughout the year. Stay tuned.