Alex Ward

Agree. Worst. Weather. Ever.

In touch with some old friends from the early 80s again
Much talk of early VIC and C64 games. Woke up and listened to @stinkyox.bsky.social talks on YT. Always wonderful stuff!

Some amazing key art there by Bob Wakelin as well.

Watching the history of SNK on YT. I still think about Ikari Warriors a lot. Had a massive influence on me.

This was one of the first 2P games I really enjoyed. Bruce and "the Yamo" working together or just beating up Ninja all the time. And a great Title Screen theme. Had it on disk.

In Archer's house he built.a faithful recreation of the JW snooker room. Complete with mousehole in the corner. A true genius.

Owning a SteamDeck reminds me of owning a PC Engine or GameBoy on UK import back in the early 90's. You replace the unheard of but interesting NEW Japanese games with small bespoke games on Steam. Have had a LOT of fun playing the SUPERB "Rush Rally Origins" and just wishlisted the upcoming "4PGP"

Spent the day playing Online on Xbox. Af the risk of sounding Too Old it is not what it used to be. Not putting a headset in the box means most people dont have one and if they do there is no chat. Live used to be a great place to be.

Either way it is a shame that this will be the last one. So much hard work for years for the studio.

I feel as if I have driven these same tracks since the Xbox 360. Why not reuse them all? Where is Prague from FM5?

One of the old EA Nascar games had a scenario feature. Some driver interviewed another and said something like 'remember that race where you were 5th and and was raining and XYZ happened" and then the game thrust you into playing that moment. Forza could have done that.

I have played them since the beginning. Always enjoyable to me. But I can see why few want to play. Shooters are way more immediate and entertaining

The PC sim consumer is never playing this. They play Assetto Corsa for starters. FM should have worked MUCH harder to break out of offering a gorgeous - but ultimately a bit ordinary racing experience. Not enough tracks and nowhere near as exciting enough to compete with other games.

In the 3rd intro race I was the only Racer. Who thought this was a good idea? 1st problem is assuming the Xbox consumer is a PC consumer and vice versa

Forza Motorsport online. A brutal introduction. You are forced to commit to 3 events before it all unlocks

Next year the PlayStation 3 will be older than the NES was when the PS3 launched.

If I had one I would send you one. But I dont. My personal collection is quite small these days.

Bit of a shame really.

Burnout 2: Point of Impact - Featured in our book - The Games Of A Lifetime

A video game time machine that takes you on an incredible journey from the very dawn of the industry, through the decades to the present day.

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#booksky @jazrignall.bsky.social

We actually had zero knowledge of this. Wasnt done officially. But then I used to work in coin-op so I saw folks do all sorts of stuff. We would have insisted on way better cabinet art and do bespoke audio and music. As an arcade fan this stuff is clunky and cheap. Not even an attract mode either...

Yes but you played for a "high score" of all things. I mean who wants to do that?!? It is madness I tell you!

A lot of media and industry folks do not play games. Around them for work. But never in their spare time. Would not dream of it. Blank faced all around when I talked about "OutRun".

The John Candy documentary is every bit as wonderful as I wanted it to be.

They asked me that for every single Burnout.

But you would not believe the amount of people who pressed on why there wasnt a story in over the years? But why are you racing? Erm, because its a racing game was my only answer...

Bay Twelve....please.

YouTube video by ShanghaiEye魔都眼 Lightweight and accesible! Chinese exoskeletons shine at CES 2026

youtube.com/watch?v=E8ql...

The satisfaction when you get the volume of the radio 'just right' when voices and music sound so smooth and easy to listen to..

I bumped into a friend called Stef down there one day. He had been there for three hours. First thing he pulled was "Pink Floyd Live In Pompeii" - that is higher education right there..

The first tapes I pulled were the full set of the excellent C4 series "The Secret Life of Machines" - now remastered and on Youtube.