Recent content by Spanner

Review: Need For Speed: Undercover Need For Speed: Undercover has all the elements of a Fast and the Furious movie. Unfortunately, they add up to a pretty mediocre game. Read Full Article

Review: Sacred 2 Sacred 2 is bigger than God - and just as hard to get acquainted with. Read Full Article

Open-World Gaming Handhelds and cell phones may let players game on the go, but developers have yet to realize the possibilities of truly mobile gaming. Spanner speaks with LocoMatrix founder Richard Vahrman about how his cell phone gaming platform is blurring the lines between real-world and...

Too Much Information Tomb Raider represented a new style of gaming, and helped cement the 3-D revolution in home consoles. Consumers needed a mental anchor to connect us to this new form of gaming. Instead, we got two. Read Full Article

The Dark Side "Of course, Star Wars was popular when it was first released. But it wasn't the sudden, galaxy shattering event we like to remember. It was a good kids' movie that everyone could enjoy; the revolution came much later. In fact, I'd argue Star Wars didn't really happen until The...

Identity Of A Decade "How, then, in the years to come, will we remember this decade and the trends that define it? The last eight or so years have been spent in a decadent and meticulous revival of decades past, so what will there be to celebrate? What about the dawn of the new millennium, if...

The 15th Shot "Looking down at the throng of people watching the army barricade the long, straight street below, Eric could see cyclists breathing on their cold hands in confusion, and inadequately clothed children huddling close to their parents for warmth. The cold was falling from the...

Power to the People "It's got to the point now where I feel naked without a phone, MP3 player, camera, PDA, flashlight, radio, wireless headset and a complete backup of my essential files, company accounts, music and a couple of series of Star Trek. This kit can be thinned down if it's just a...

Down T' Local "The boozehound is a fickle and self-challenging creature, always eager for a new way to test the limits of his drunken endurance. It's hard to imagine anything other than darts, dominoes and pool as the kingly taproom sports, though these are more recent additions to the pub...

Slimlining "While there was no reason to shrink the PS2, it may, in retrospect, have been a prophetic opportunity to give it one last push while the console's third incarnation struggled to be born by medieval cesarean section. The slimlined PS2 even saw a resurgence of third-party support once...

Super Happiness Tokusatsu Cosplay Force "Presumably stemming from the generally acrobatic, superheroic nature of most manga and videogame characters, a rather peculiar trend has also permeated Japanese cosplay competition: cartwheeling. The ability to perform a cartwheel in full costume -...

The King and the Donkey Before Nintendo released their first home console system, their American branch was in the business of licensing games to other manufacturers. Spanner details a defining moment of Nintendo of America, its legal battle with Universal Studios over Donkey Kong. Permalink

Scriptoria "When we look at a job posting for a game designer, it reads like a checklist for a superhero. The specialized requirements (programming, direction, art, management, music, magic powers and yes, writing) are so disparate it's utterly irrational to expect professional competency in...

Three Unappreciated Demon Slayers "Placed in a position designed to fail, the outcome of the disastrous PlayStation 3 launch begins to seem more understandable, as does Ken's sad decline into confusion and contradiction. His fall from grace, both within and without of Sony, is the result of an...

Flower Power It's certainly not a well-kept secret that Nintendo began life well over 100 years ago as a playing card manufacturer, but as with all aspects of Japanese culture, the basic truth is far removed from the intricate, tightly woven facts. Spanner looks at the history of Japanese...