Things I learned from videogames #8

If you hear a phone ringing, even if it is just a payphone you happen to be walking past on the street, answer it. It will be something pretty important, such as a job offer. It will never be someone trying to sell you double-glazing or insurance.

Beers of the Month - June 2009

My beer of the month is Brewdog's How to Disappear Completely which I sampled from the cask at the Rake. It's a completely bonkers beer: 3.5% ABV but packing an obscene 198 IBUs of bitterness, due to the brewers hopping it every which way they could with Columbus and Centennial hops.

Named after their favourite Radiohead track, Brewdog are dubbing it an "imperial mild". You have to love hops to enjoy this beer. The aroma is likely sticking your head in a sack of fresh hops and inhaling. On the tongue it is scorchingly bitter. You feel like you're either getting tongue cancer or being cured of it, and to be frank, you don't care which. In an earlier age, this would have been sold as a patent medicine. If you're down with the hops though, it is a delight as the sessionable strength means you can drink it for hours. Just don't expect to be able to properly taste what ever you drink directly after it.


It was a reasonably quiet month for drinking and no beer stands out to be highly commended, so instead I'll tip my hat to the wonderful samples of Harvey's beers provided on their superb brewery tour. Guinness may waffle on about waiting for two minutes for the perfect pint, but the waiting list for the Harvey's tour is over two years - and it is worth the wait. Ian Burgess was a superb host and incredibly generous to the Ratebeer crew, allowing us samples of some special brews, both old and new, and it was a great evening. The engraved souvenir tasting glass says it all: "Many a soul hath found good cheer in harmony with Harveys beer."

Tweet like you mean it

Twitter is all the rage these days but you may be surprised to learn that I've started using it (as I'm usually a late-adopter or a never-adopter for most internet crazes.) However, I think I've hit on a sensible use for it; a lot of people ask me what trends I see among the game submissions I review, so I'm going to be tweeting what I assess each day (anonymised of course.) I hope that is something that people will be interested in.

You can either follow me via my username or just keep an eye on the Twitter box on the right hand side of this page. There will be some tweets about general game-related matters and replies to other people, but you can be assured that you won't have to read about the minutae of my daily life at any point.

If you decide to sign up for it yourself, I recommend this beginner's guide. If you want see something a bit left field being done with the service, one of my favourite webcomics writers (Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content) has set up twitter accounts for his characters, creating a form of SMS soap opera around the main comic.

It's good to think

This blog has been rather neglected of late but I hope to change that in the weeks to come. I'm just back from a week in West Zealand, Denmark, where I was attending a "creative summit" with some of the top creatives in my company to thrash out some recommendations for our future strategy. The venue was excellent and it was wonderful to have no distractions and indulge in some impassioned debate about where we need to be headed. I feel really relaxed, inspired and yes, more creative for the experience. Hopefully this will benefit the blog!

Apart from the main discussions, I also won some money at poker and got to see some great demos of future titles (and no, I can't talk about them!) On the journey home I discovered a superb combination of confectionery and the undead - liquorice in the middle, fruit gummi on the outside - delectable.

True to the source material

This morning I played the excellent Don't Look Back on Kongregate. It's a retelling of a well-known Greek myth and well worth playing to completion . You'll need some polished old-school platforming skills but the difficulty is manageable and the lack of loading times keeps frustration to a minimum.

Being charitable

If you're not keen on swelling the coffers of the major US games retailers by trading used games for store credit at miserly rates of exchange, you should check out a new charity, Donate Games, that has just launched. You send them your unwanted games and receive a tax credit in return (since it is a charitable donation). They then sell the games to raise money. It is currently US only I'm afraid. Thanks to Game Politics for bringing them to my attention.

Closer to home, the UK games industry's main charity is now GamesAid, which superceded the more boringly titled (but highly effective) Entertainment Software Charity. They've got off to a good start and can hopefully weather the recession.

The best known gaming-related charity is Child's Play, founded by Gabe & Tycho of Penny Arcade fame, initially to show that gamers didn't conform to the media stereotype of being selfish and homicidal. I try and donate each year, sometimes by inflicting gaming torture on hapless Canadians.

Child's Play cunningly uses the Amazon Wishlist functionality to allow you to buy toys for specific children's hospitals in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Egypt, cutting out middlemen and ensuring that children who really need the distraction that gaming can provide get the chance to enjoy it, whatever their family's circumstances. In addition to their numerous fund-raising events, you can also donate money directly online via PayPal, allowing you to get your compassion on, even on Sundays.

Things I learned from videogames #7

If you work in a hazardous environment, such as an isolated research station, an underwater city, a deep space freighter or a secret military base, it is vital that you keep an detailed diary for posterity.