One misheard computer game name title quoted on the Joystiq podcast and this fell out of my fingers onto Brushes. Probably won’t make sense to the vast majority of anyone who checks this out but regardless; doodle ahoy:

((It’s a riff on the next in the Halo series – Halo 3: ODST – if anyone’s causing themselves scalpal issues with the head scratching nature of the secret hidden code.)) (((Also, in a little bit of art imitating life, I’m not a big fan of tea either. I’m more of a coffee guy myself.)))

VERY much looking forward to this game and this trailer does nothing to dampen the interest.

Fabulous animation. I could watch this on repeat all day.

Definitely the best thing I’ve seen all day (sorry Si).

Or one in particular: geoDefense on the iPod Touch.

I’m teaching games at college at the moment and geoDefense is the game that’s getting the most love and hate.

For a start it riffs on (which is a kind way of putting it) a fantastic forebear. Let’s be honest: geoDefense steals its entire art style from Geometry Wars. Which, in one way, is good: if you’re going to steal, steal from the best.

The first levels, all in the easy setting, are brilliant. Loads of fun and very compulsive. That’s when it’s good. After that it’s very, VERY hard and that’s when it’s bad. From Medium level 2 the game is a broken mess of decisions which take the game from being a compulsive classic to being a very unkind partner. Caution, it says as you load it up, meltdown imminent. And that’s very true. In one respect that’s useful; I’ve been using it as an example of best and worst practise in one fell swoop with my students… But it’s so close to being deleted because it’s so frustrating it’s untrue.

Still, just one more go, eh?

Other apps I’m loving; iFractal, Classics, iFooty, Artisan, Topple, Rolando, Dr Awesome, Spawn, Randompos and my favourite app of all: Backgrounds. Hardly a surprise Apple had its billionth app downloaded over the weekend. Good job it wasn’t that app though…

Lol what?

Actually stop, scratch that. I’m a big Edge fan so I come to praise it as much as their most recent action has frustrated me. I’ve read Edge since issue 1, 200 or so months ago, and until recently had them all stacked neatly in a corner of the house until we had to downsize a little. 200 issues is no mean feat so congratulations are due to editors past and present and the publication house: Future magazines. They don’t always do it right but Edge has to be the thing I am most fond of from their stable (although I do also pick up the odd issue of Commy Arts and 3d World).

But, for their 200th issue, they are printing the magazine with a choice of covers. And, you can guess the punchline, there are 200 copies of 200 covers to view and (shudder) collect, if you are so inclined.

Which would cost just a shade under a grand.

I used to work with someone who moaned about many things, not least of the fact that if Edge did two covers it was unfair because you had to buy both to be a completist. I’d LOVE to have seen his face when he heard of the 200 cover thing.

Anyway: 200 covers doesn’t bother me per se: I’m not going to collect them all but hope they do a special magazine collecting them all in the future maybe. What bothers me is the sheer lack of imagination and interest they have put into the project over and above the managing of the scale of it all. Yes we all have our favourite darlings and yeah there are games I’m surprised to see omitted. Yet a good number of the covers are dull as dishwater and show nothing over and above the ability to resize and crop a publicity image. A shame, in many ways. 100 covers drawn by industry programmers and 100 drawn by industry artists would have been a far more interesting project I believe, a search sourced collection of publisher submitted money shots slapped on a cover with no consideration towards eyeflow, layout or design seems a waste of the time and effort the rest of the process must have taken.

I am, however, looking forward to seeing the mag in a big way though. Congratulations Edge. You and I may not have seen eye to eye always but you’re still the only magazine I read on a monthly basis, 14 or so years since inception, and my world would be a less interesting place without your comments and stories.

One of the 170 or so covers I hope to avoid.

One of the twenty or so covers I hope to track down.

Hmmm 20 x 200 divided by 200 x 200 x number of newsagents vs number of people after the good covers… I’m guessing that the odds are not good, but we’ll see what thursday brings.

Without wanting to sound maudlin this sort of sums up living/coping with autism. Spent a lovely time with son boy drawing pictures of Rayman (Rayman 3 being a current favourite of his and mine when it first came out) but taking the pictures was a step too far and he ended up banging his head on the table (because that’s what Frida does, he told me).

That said seeing him draw was delightful and the pictures make me smile, but it’s s strange thing of balance, is trying to work out what to do and say to encourage onwards and not push too far… But maybe it did feel like pigeon steps forward.

Anyhow: Rayman 3… Crossing generations, abilities, all that Was a well designed, beautifully presented game. One day a Rayman 4 Ubisoft? Hmmm? How about it? And no, Rabbids don’t count, although they are ace too.

Bit of a creative evening all round in fact: son drew, daughter wrote a story (and played the grow games online – and if you haven’t played Grow cube, RPG et al then you should, they’re loads of fun), wifey created a groovy level on Little Big Planet and I did this and other stuff (primarily updating the www.kercal.co.uk website a little with some more to come once I get the chance to re-encode the video files)… Yay for playing about and having free evenings and all that.

Currently listening to: Monkey soundtrack. Currently playing: Grow Cube. Currently watching: 24, Lost, Gallactica.