Games for Trade

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is the latest modernisation of a classic game developed by Firaxis and published by 2k. Although the franchise has a colourful history of cancelled games and relatively unheard of releases, it’s heyday was back in the mid-nineties with the original Enemy Unknown and the sequel, Terror from the Deep, being the titles that most gamers will be familiar with. Their premise was as simple then as it is now. Aliens have started invading a near future earth [...]

Sometimes in life it’s easier to be forgiven for something than it is to get permission. It’s an approach I’ve been trying to adopt in my programming lately in a way that sometimes feels a little counter intuitive. If, for example, you need to ensure something going in to a database needs to be unique you may do something like this: def generate_slug(self): if not self.slug: self.slug = slugify(self.title) try: Page.objects.get(slug=self.slug) self.slug = self.slug + "_" self.generate_slug() except Page.DoesNotExist: self.save() [...]

2012 was my second year at Eurogamer, the first being last year, but it was no less spectacular second time round. I only went on the Saturday this year, mostly because I booked my ticket too late, but also because I wasn’t so interested in the games on offer this year. There were tonnes of triple A titles on show, as well as the usual mix of merchandise, retro gaming, t-shirts and the like. But if I’m honest, the games [...]

Starting to get quite excited about this year’s Beat-Herder Festival! 6 or so friends have confirmed, and I have my ticket + parking pass. More of the lineup has been trickling out  over the last few weeks and I’m most exited to be seeing Slamboree, Lee Scratch Perry and Parov Stelar. There’s also loads of stuff on that I’ve never heard of, so hopefully I’ll bring home some new names to listen to afterwards. Anyone who has not heard of [...]