Decided to enter the competition for a new UK:Resistance logo, because I enjoy messing around with Photoshop and it took my mind off watching people I like losing at Snooker.

First off is a fairly clear rip-off:

(Its obvious if you know the game…)

Then a somewhat better effort with lots of Sega characters (hooray!) but not Sonic. Because Sega haven’t made an even slightly good Sonic game in over a decade. Sorry. They should just give up and do better things like Valkyria Chronicles and House of the Dead Overkill (oh wait, I think they are…)

I wonder if UK:R will use either? Probably not but its given me a laugh which is good enough for me.

Update – here are a couple more alternatives. I must stop Photoshopping now and get back to iPhone development, but Photoshopping is more fun!

I think the day I realised I’d definitely joined the realms of the ‘causal gamer’ was when I fired up a demo of … something, I can’t recall … and groaned when I saw screen that tells you all the million-ty buttons you now have to remember.

A Typical Controller Configuration Screen

You see, it’s shit like this that stops me from playing new games (or indeed, any games sometimes). I just cannot be arsed to learn all these new buttons any more.

Being an old git, I remember ‘back in the day’ when we only have 1 or 2 buttons on the “joy-stick” as they were amusingly called back then (fnar fnar). So why do we apparently need so many buttons now, and why do all games have to use all of them in maddeningly different ways?

Mostly I think the problem is the “If you build it, they will come” scenario. Although in this case it’s more like “if the button is there, a use will be found for it”. I’m sure many of these buttons could be removed with more generic “do shit” or even “do useful/relevant shit” button.

Now, some games do this, to be fair. Nintendo aren’t button-crazy like some and some games even have nice generic “action” buttons which make life a little bit easier. I find the worst game are the FPS (“First Person Shooter”) games that have a legacy of starting on the PC with its 102 keys where it was very tempting to just assign a key to everything and call it done.

If I had any kind of design feedback I would say – can we have an ‘easy’ mode in the game where most of those buttons just aren’t there? The game could just do the ‘right thing’ automatically or have a ‘magic button’ to choose automatically for you?

That would certainly help old gits such as myself to get into games more quickly, and dare I say it, actually enjoy them a bit more as well.

I’m getting too old for this shit.

Every game needs its obsessive fans, and I’m very happy to say that Burnout has them. Someone has already made up a video of ‘real crash tests vs Burnout Paradise Crashes’… and it wasn’t even someone at EA. Nice!

My friends at IGDA London have teamed up with the Science Museum to put on some great talks next Friday evening – a good way to find out more about the history and future of UK Games development, as they are open to the general public.

Game On Events: Level Two

What will games of the future look like? Who invented the first video game? How do you go about making a modern computer game? Why do we enjoy playing them?

These are just some of the questions that will be answered in the Science Museum’s second series of exclusive gaming events, which are being held to complement our fantastic Game On exhibition. On four nights in January and February visitors can gain a deeper understanding of video games from experts and industry insiders. The Game On exhibition will also be open until 21.30 (on 2 Feb) so visitors can experience the exhibition after normal opening hours.

2 February, 19.00–20.30
Games Gone By: A history of video games
Join us to look back on the history of the video game from a UK perspective.

Eighties Games You Might Still Play
Dave Green, Editor, Channel4/games
The 1980s and 1990s saw a massive explosion of innovative games and games design, especially in the UK. But as technology progressed these games were relegated to rubbish bins and second-hand shops. Dave Green looks at these retro games and asks, do we still want to play old classics – and do we sometimes play them without even realising?

Game Makers: Then and now
Andrew Oliver, development director, Blitz Games
Discover the game developers’ side of the story with Andrew Oliver, once a bedroom coder, now a development director at Blitz Games. How has the industry in the UK changed and what is it like to work in gaming now compared with 20 years ago? Can you make a successful career in gaming and not be a geek?

Game and Able
Iain Simons, gaming author and Director of the GameCity festival
The UK video-games industry has generated some of the most exciting, innovative and esoteric titles. One particular trend from the UK is that of the game-designer brothers. Why were so many companies formed by brothers, who really should have been arguing like normal teenagers? Iain Simons traces this trend across three decades, attempting to explain why it might happen.

For more info see the Science Museum’s “Game On Events” website.

Originally uploaded by The Iconfactory.

Well, not really – but very good all the same. Don’t try to fight ninjas with it, kids! Check out the whole set on flickr.

A beautifully put together video – created from 1000 replays of the PC game Trackmania.

Embedded movie (youtube – low quality):

Higher Quality movie: Link to video hosted on GameTrailers.com

I should be able to get the GameTrailers.com movie embedded but it doesn’t work, grr!
If you want the high quality version just click on the link about.

Even if you don’t like games, the video is quite beautiful – it’s reminiscent of a pop video or adverts. The mass of cars is in some ways liek a flock or insects or a stream of sand grains, there are so many. Worth a couple of minutes of your time, anyway