You have to go back more than a quarter of a century to find my first visit to a Games Workshop. It wasn’t to buy anything for Warhammer, but a box of plastic Daleks and Cybermen. I still have memories of a dark and dingy place; something of a cave of wonders, filled with dozens […]
So, there’s a teaser trailer out for the new Star Wars film. Have you seen it? No? Then go and watch it immediately – it’s far more entertaining than anything you’ll find here. I’ll wait. Done? Good. I’ve not really paid much attention to the oncoming horror/brilliance that is Episode 7, The Force Awakens. Sure, […]
I’m a grumpy bastard. This isn’t news for anyone who knows me. Ask me an opinion on anything, and I’ll almost certainly leap straight for the flaw. Show me a beautiful piece of artwork, and I’ll have something to say about the quality of the frame, or the fact that it’s not hanging level. Yes, […]
(Spoilers for Destiny can be found below. I had to work really hard to find something to spoil, but they’re there all the same. You have been warned.) I’m still more than a bit bemused by Destiny. If you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last couple of years, Destiny is the newest game […]
Picture this, if you will: A man is transported across vast tracts of space and/or time to an unfamiliar landscape. He falls in love with an exotic princess, fights monsters, overthrows the local warlord, and makes a new life in a land not his own. It’s a common enough story outline – one, I suspect, […]
So, this is a bit of an odd feeling. Nagash (available now) marks something of a milestone in many ways. For one, it’s the first time in at least ten years Games Workshop has moved the Warhammer settings forward, with bleak consequences for pretty much every character, race and realm. (If you’ve not seen it […]
Last time, I expounded on the topic of continuity – the weight of in-universe history (also referred to as background, lore, canon, or fluff in various circles) –getting in the way of telling new stories. Lots of words with a simple message: continuity is often only as much of an obstacle as you want it […]
The subject of continuity (a consistent setting and history over a series of works) always lingers around genre fiction like a bad smell. Regardless of the medium, works of sci-fi, fantasy and the like are often accused of having labyrinthine backstory. This, in turn, is then blamed for raising a barrier to entry so high […]
I thought I’d take a moment for a brief reprise of last week’s topic (a real blog post will come soon). This week, as many of you will be aware, is E3 week, where the big video gaming companies strut their stuff and hype their future releases. I don’t take a lot of active interest, […]
This might surprise some people (particularly given some of the things I’ve written recently) but I find it really hard to do bad things to characters. Doesn’t matter what it is: a disease, a crippling injury, a heartbreak, a betrayal, or, of course, the big D.E.A.T.H. I hate doing it. It fails like a betrayal, […]
