I have a blog now. It’s called The Great Escapism.

Everything remains here, for your enjoyment. I even fixed it in 2013. There were corrupt tables and everything.

Read this article…

I’m up to 1,300 words of my ‘The End of Time, Part Two’ review. Clearly what I lack in speed I make up for in size.

… Ladies.

There’s also an atypicalreview redesign coming. If I had any sense of timing at all, it’d be ready on April 4, a date to which I’m not counting the days to at all, no sir, not me. But I almost certainly don’t, q.v. paragraph one.

Finally, and because there’s no way in hell I’ll get around to reviewing it, I’ll briefly mention The Surgeon of Crowthorne, a book about murders, schizophrenics and the English Dictionary. It’s a peculiar read — constantly interesting but not particularly engrossing, if that’s possible. You get a good perspective of the almost insanely daunting task of making a comprehensive dictionary, which would be pretty tricky today, but even more ridiculous without computers. But just as interestingly, you get a good idea of how horrible it’d be to be a bit mental¹ 150 years ago.

Linking to books is trickier than linking to movies, where IMDb is king. I’ve gone with amazon.com above, but in future perhaps Shelfari will be a better bet. It’s kind of like a social networking site for reading. Is anyone else using it? I started importing my library from Delicious Library and got rather bored rather quickly.

In any case, the title didn’t match the cover for Crowthorne — which has clearly gone through some name changes in its time — but this may be fixed by the time you visit, as Shelfari allows you to suggest changes to its information a la Wikipedia, which is pretty neat. If anyone is inspired to sign up, I’m here.

1. Not the technical term, as I understand it. ↩

Microsoft won’t release their 250gb hard drive separately.

Greenberg told Joystiq that limiting the release of the console is “part of what makes it special”

Huh. Ironically, not letting people get hold of a large hard drive without buying a whole new Xbox is part of what makes Microsoft complete jerk-offs.

In the interests of advancing the boundaries of human knowledge:

Ranking of Indomie Noodle flavours

1. Mi Goreng Normal (10/10)
2. Mi Goreng Satay (4/10)
3. Mi Goreng BBQ Chicken (1/10)

One of these days I’m going to stop trying these kooky new flavours. It’s just not worth the risk.

Read this article…

It’s probably worth mentioning here that Mass Effect 2 is awesome, and in true Bioware fashion, insanely addictive. It certainly kicks Dragon Age into a cocked hat, at least on the Xbox 360. It looks amazing, and they’ve managed to strip away the clutter and annoyance of the previous game while still retaining everything that made the first game good. No more endless versions of the same weapon. No more “your inventory is full”, by virtue of not really having an inventory at all. Better combat. Funny dialogue. No more bloody Mako driving. Better implementation of persuade and morality choices.

It’s that last one that I’d like to expand on. You see, I’m normally a very good person in these games. I save the innocents, forgive the guilty, generally act like Jesus, if Jesus had a gun and awesome psychic powers. But now, you’re given the option at key moments in scenes to suddenly do something very good or very bad. And if someone’s standing right above a gas canister, well, how’s a person who likes explosives supposed to stop himself from blowing them up? Or, if someone of dubious character is stuck up against a full size glass window on a skyscraper, how do I hold myself back from kicking them out?

I guess what I’m trying to say is that Bioware, not happy with simply stealing my free time, are now trying to corrupt me as well. Bastards.

Boy, these are exciting times we live in! Two games in development on ATR. Maybe we should get a stall at E3 this year.

This build not only contains the promised ability to walk, but also a light source. User testing has revealed that some gamers are afraid of the dark.

The game is after the link and as before you’ll need the Unity web player to view the game.

Read this article…

This won’t make sense if you’ve not read Andy’s announcement of yesterday.

It’s all thrills at atypicalreview.com this week. I know, it’s been quiet around here, but now, we have a game in development. And no one is more thrilled about Andy’s Animal Crossing RPG than I. Which makes me feel a little awkward as I steal the thunder somewhat with my new announcement.

I present to you the first build of my new RPG FPS Puzzle RTS. It’s called Jemima Pricklebottom in the Transcendent Pineapple World of Elgentwist: Modern Warfare. It’s early days yet, but with build 1 I think you’ll notice two key elements that set it a notch above Andy’s effort. Not that we’re competing or anything.

1. You don’t need to install some crazy plugin to play.
2. I’m not using that harsh and scary “black” colour. I’m more keen on a soft yet firm shade of #1b1b1b.

The game can be found after the link. Prepare to have your mind BLOWN.

Read this article…

I’m sure you’re all very excited to here that development on AC’s AC: the RPG has begun. Build 1 is after the link. You’ll need the Unity web player to view it. At the moment, there is only blackness and you can’t look around or move, not that you’d be able to tell if you could. Build 2 will include some fancy features, such as the ground and walking.

Read this article…