game people
Cooking Guide (DS)
August 20, 2008
A cooking guide on the Nintendo DS? Why? Can’t you decide what to eat?
In recent years, Nintendo have been real innovators in terms of gaming technology, they’ve obviously had great success with the Wii, but before that came a quieter gaming tech revolution in the form of their latest handheld, the DS.
I’m constantly being surprised by the gaming styles and uses that this flexible gaming platform is being put to use, be it conducting surgery with Trauma Center or in this case utilising the Nintendo DS as an interactive recipe book - Cooking Guide DS!
Continue reading »Free Fantasy Football - A Perpetual Gamer?
August 7, 2008
Zath: I recently announced the 7th season of the Zath Premiership - which is my own league that I run in conjunction with a free fantasy football website, based upon the results of the English Premier League. We’re now into the 4th year of the Zath Premiership that has been run through the official Fantasy Premier League website and I’m always pleased with the progress that is made year on year in terms of new features.
For instance, this year in the Zath Premiership there is the standard accumulation of points for players to aim for, but in addition, each week your team will “play” another team from the Zath Premiership, the team with the most points scores 3 points, the losing team score 0 and if it’s a draw, both teams will score 1. This is a great idea I think as it gives a cup like competition that has been present in previous years, but it takes place each week - I for one always got knocked out early on!
Anyway, if you haven’t already got signed up, then make sure you go shopping for players before the action kicks off or you’ll be playing catch-up! Here’s another of my fellow Game People’s thoughts on Fantasy Premiership Online, in this case the Perpetual Gamer: Dom Roberts
Continue reading »Tech Gamer: Belief and Betrayal
July 24, 2008
Belief and Betrayal is a ‘Point and Click Adventure game’ – something you see a lot less of these days in the age of photo-realistic graphics and free-roaming open-ended game worlds. The ‘Point and Click Adventure’ was a type of game which saw real success back in the 90s - those were the days of great games like Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Broken Sword – unfortunately here’s where the likeness ends!
Belief and Betrayal states on the box “Unveil dark secrets that could destroy humanity” and “Become enthralled in a secretive and mysterious world of power and intrigue; truth and conspiracy” – which I initially thought, “this sounds an awful lot like the Da Vinci Code, but it might be good all the same”, I think it’s fair to say the developers have taken some inspiration from it!
I installed the game – it took a while, so I went away and make a hot beverage, came back to find it was still installing – it eventually finished, I took this to be a good sign - there must be lots of high quality graphics and audio to make for a really polished game experience. Unfortunately once I loaded the game up I found that this certainly wasn’t the case!
Continue reading »Family Gamer: E3 Matters
July 21, 2008
Zath: “The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was one of those annual events that as a gamer I always wanted to attend - it was basically the largest conference of the gaming industry with hundreds of stands at the LA conference centre, if you liked games then this was the place to be. However, last year saw the whole event scaled back and moved to several smaller venues as it was starting to cost the industry exhibitors huge amounts of money which it couldn’t justify.
I can understand why it’s had to happen, but in a way it’s a still a shame that E3 as an event on that scale no longer happens, I kind of liked the idea that the gaming industry could command such an event….well perhaps in actual fact it couldn’t!
So with a smaller E3 venue and the number of visitors having been scaled back, has E3 lost some of it’s shine? Are the big companies still using this event to make their big announcements of what we can expect in the coming year? - It would seem there’s still plenty going on though as the Family Gamer, Paul Govan now explains in his syndicated article below…”
Continue reading »Family Gamer: Rough Guides
July 16, 2008
Zath: I’m somebody who really likes playing games, but doesn’t get anywhere near the time to devote to them as I did while I was growing up. This means I don’t want to have to ‘waste’ my precious time and money on games which I only find out are not my kind of game after having bought and spent several hours of gameplay on them. Obviously you could do lots of research, reading a variety of reviews, but again that’s cutting into your busy life - the answer is that you need a “rough guide” that outlines the type of game it is and what it generally involves!
Family Gamer UK had a surprising boost in traffic last week. Adding my parent’s rough guides was a small step but one that proved to connect with mums, dads, kids and even aunties.
I’ve been playing games for a long time, so when I got married and had kids I wanted to share my hobby. However, grabbed a game from a store shelf that reported to be suitable for my family often resulted in an ill fitting experience. Sometime the games were too difficult to control for the kids, or addressed issues they weren’t interested in, or failed to engage the other adults in our brood - namely my other half.
Continue reading »Family Gamer: Caption Competitions
July 9, 2008
Zath: The Family Gamer section is having a caption competition! If you’re anything like me you’ll like the chance to walk away a winner with some gaming freebies, so take a look at and see if you can come up with an clever and funny captions - now is the time to prove you should be on the ‘Have I Got News For You’ TV show!
Family Gamer section on Game People have just set up this caption competitions page:
Continue reading »Tech Gamer: Battlefield - Bad Company
July 7, 2008
Zath: I have now joined Game People who are a bunch of gaming writers each of which specialise in a different of being a gamer, you may have already seen some of their posts here on the site. Hope you like my first edition of “Tech Gamer” in which I’m reviewing Battlefield: Bad Company.
The switch back and forth from PC to 360 controller is never easy, but Battlefield: Bad Company certainly incentivises the experience. It even got me wrestling with my AV amp in search of some quality surround sound to match the rest of the game.
Using technology to improve gaming immersion is all very well in theory. But in practice, when I came to play Battlefield: Bad Company, I found that my surround sound system was not co-operating at all! Admittedly it started to die a few months back when you’d switch it on and hear the sound stuttering until it had warmed up. Being a bit of a tech head I’ve tried investigating various options to get it working but to no avail. So until I receive the new system I’ve got on back-order I have to turn it on a while before I want to play.
Continue reading »Family Gamer: Controlling your eMotions
July 1, 2008
Zath: In this week’s Family Gamer article, Paul Govan talks about the Nintendo Wii innovative control system - I’ve only played on a Nintendo Wii once when I was invited to attend Sega’s Mario and Sonic Olympics bloggers’ preview event, but ever since then I’ve been intending to get myself a cheap Wii and start being immersed in the innovative control system that it employs - I’m going to treat myself to one as an early birthday present soon!
There are certain types of games that I like to play that would benefit so much from using the immersive Wii Remote control system, one such type would be arcade shooting games such as House of the Dead which normally require a specialist light gun accessory. This is great for that one game, but then once bought, you find that no other games use it and it just gathers dust - by using the Nintendo Wii Remote in different ways, you ultimately save money on expensive, under-used accessories! - Bargain!
Family games live or die by their controls, and motion controls even more so. Why is it that games like Boom Blox are so instinctive and intuitive, when others like SSX Blur are so forced and laboured? For me it’s that one-to-one free-form movement that brings the magic and makes the games come to life.
Continue reading »Race Gamer: Logitech G25 Racing Wheel PS3
June 23, 2008
Zath: Here’s another great syndicated gaming article on behalf of Game People, this time it’s from their latest writer, Jon Starkey, who as you can perhaps tell from the title, is a gamer who likes to play a racing game particularly using the Logitech G25 racing wheel and a GameRacer Seat. I believe this is the set-up that I played with when I went to Sega HQ to preview Sega Rally last August - so I can vouch for how great it was to use as well - I just wish I had these to play with at home! I hope you enjoy reading Jon’s perspective on gaming here and in the future - feel free to leave a comment on what you think.
Every petrol-head dreams of that perfect setup. Real cockpit, quality wheel and gear shift twinned with a console and game that can deliver the experience to match the hardware.
Continue reading »Family Gamer: Dad’s Edition
June 14, 2008
Dads are a tricky subject. Some are loving and inspiring whilst others absent and off hand. Some are communicative and open, whilst others are as hard to fathom as the depths of Loch Ness. Some are in touch with their creativity and at ease with their feminine side, whilst others are purely manly. Although the people I’ve got to know through Family Gamer talk about their dads in different ways, they all seem to agree that they make up a big part of what it is to be a family.
