Critical Path

Hello readers! Do you have an interest in video games journalism? Have you always wanted to write about video games but you don't know what it takes? Or do you just like reading in general?
Well then I have a book for you.

The book is entitled Critical Path: How to review games for a living. And it was written by a man who spent almost 15 years working as a games journalist. Dan Amrich worked for various different video game publications. I had the chance to send him a few questions via email. 

Spieg89:Tell me a little bit about your background in the games industry and what made you want to write this book?

Dan: I started reviewing games professionally in 1993, sort of as a side path from my music journalism career. That eventually blossomed in 15 years as both a freelancer and a staff member; I worked at GamePro for seven years in the late 90s and early 2000s, helped launch GamesRadar in the US in 2005, and transitioned to OXM for a three-year stint. Through all those jobs, I answered reader mail and was an admin in the web forums, and I kept seeing the same question from readers: "How do I get your job?" It seemed every reader wanted to be a writer; everybody thought it would be the coolest job in the world but had no idea how to actually, you know, get started on doing it as a career option. The answer to "how do I get your job" was not something I could easily answer in one email or even a series of them, so I decided to try to answer it completely in a book. I chipped away at the project in my free time over eight years, and revised it constantly as I learned new things or came into new situations that I thought would be worth discussion.

Spieg89: What are some of the key themes and ideas in the book?

Dan: I tried to cram the book with as much useful advice as I could, but one of the biggest points is realizing that it's not an easy job to get or even an easy job to execute even though the content is fun. There's a lot of hard work both in writing and getting noticed as a writer; you need more than just desire, you need discipline and drive. Other key things are how to improve your core writing skills, and then taking responsibility for what you write, because you will have to defend it to not only your editors, but your audience and the developers themselves. You will meet them face to face; they will remember your review. You need to be a professional about how you conduct yourself both on and off the page.


Spieg89: What are some of your projects outside of the games industry?

Dan: I taught myself to juggle in high school and quickly moved on to doing dangerous stuff for fun; fire is my specialty. But even when I juggle fire, I find it very relaxing. Also, I've been playing guitar and making music for years, and after a five-year stint singing in an 80s cover band, I am now making videogame parody songs with a friend under the name Palette-Swap Ninja; all our tracks are free downloads at paletteswapninja.com. Also, I'm a big Ghostbusters nerd so my wife and I built a full proton pack out of plywood some years ago; I am sometimes seen skulking around comic cons wearing that.
 
Spieg89: What are you doing now in the industry?

Dan: My current position is as Social Media Manager for Activision, which is really a fancy way of saying "blogger." I talk about Activision stuff on oneofswords.com, and chat with gamers on Twitter and Facebook. Basically, Activision saw what a good job Major Nelson was doing as the community guy for Xbox, and they said "Would you want to do that for us?" So after a few months of interviews and a lot of consideration, I joined Activision in January 2010 and they let me set up my own site. I decided to join up because they let me keep my editorial autonomy -- I am proud to say that nobody approves my tweets, blog posts, or podcast before I post. I am trusted to just sort of do my thing and get the information I would get if I were still a member of the media.


Alright so are you interested? Cause I am!


Dan's book is available on Amazon, Kindle, iBooks, Nook, Google's ebooks store, and directly from Dan's website: http://criticalpathbook.com/buy-it/


For more information please go to http://criticalpathbook.com/


Dan has also said he will be at PAX East next week wondering around on behalf of Activision and to help promote his book.


That is all. Carry On!


-Spieg89

City Under the Moon

Hello Gamers!
Sorry about the prolonged leave of absence, but relocating and settling across the country is a bit challenging and time consuming. But my personal life is not why we are here.
A fellow gamer of mine, Hugh Sterbakov is in the process of writing a novel that is shaping up to be great. For those of you who are die-hard Robot Chicken fans you may recognize Hugh. He bought most of the toys the show used, and was a writer most notably on two of the Star Wars specials. He is also the writer of the critically acclaimed comic book Freshmen. He is now finishing up his first novel City Under the Moon. 

 

The story is the a werewolf infection has struck New York city. And the story follows a few of the survivors. It has a very World War Z kind of vibe with werewolves instead of zombies. But don't take my word for it. Hugh has posted a brief preview that you can read for yourself: http://cityunderthemoon.com/sample/. Go check it out and read for yourself. 

Hugh is a good guy and he deserves your support. If nothing else you should read the preview and decide for yourselves. 

That is all. Carry On!

-Spieg89

Gears of War 3

The fall onslaught is truly in full swing now with one of the most anticipated releases of the year. It has been 3 years since we last played a new Gears game, and this one does not disappoint.

This campaign is the best Gears story yet. And it feels good to have a lancer and chainsaw enemies in half just like it always has. This campaign picks up a few years after the events of Gears 2. With all of the human cities destroyed and the COG dissolved, this game is personal. And it strikes hard and fast, with twists and turns starting from the get go to the last cut scene. And it delivers. It is possibly one of the most satisfying conclusions to any trilogy that I have seen. And  a first for Gears, there is 4-player co-op.  There is also a new Arcade mode which encourages friendly competition within the campaign.

As far as the multiplayer is concerned, there are 3 different options. The first is the classic Gears multiplayer with Team Deathmatch, Capture the Leader, and King of the Hill. This is the backbone of the multiplayer experience in Gears. For those of you who played the Gears 3 multiplayer beta, you know what to expect, especially if you have played the previous Gears games. It is classic online multiplayer at its best. The maps are geared towards close quarters combat. There are also dozens of weapon skins that are available to unlock and purchase. The skins are available in various packs as well as individually for each weapon. If you want all of the skins, they are available for $45 or 3600 Microsoft points. There is also available for purchase on Marketplace, the Season Pass, which will give you all of the upcoming DLC which will be coming out for a 33% discount.

The Marcus Fenix statue that is included with the Epic Edition of the game.

In addition to the traditional multiplayer, there is also Gears' fabled Horde mode but in a re-imagined way, combing the traditional endless waves of enemies with a tower defense element. In addition to Horde 2.0 as it is called by Epic Games, there is also Beast mode. Beast mode gives players the opposite position, playing not as the Gears, but as the Locust. As the players earn more COG kills, they earn more money which will allow them to buy bigger and better Locust. And with each progressive wave, more and more Gears are added to the fray. And it is great.

In addition to the standard copy of the game, there are 2 special editions, a controller, and a limited-edition Xbox 360 bundle. The Gears console includes 2 wireless controllers, the game and special sound effects for the opening of the disc tray and power off & on of the console. The wireless controllers is one of the new Xbox controllers, with the new analog sticks and and transforming D-Pad.  All of these are available at your favorite retailer.

Gears of War 3 Console Bundle

Gears of War 3 Epic Edition

Gears of War 3 is the best Gears game to-date. And it is also the pinnacle of what it means to be an Xbox 360 game. With a fantastic campaign, great multiplayer and unique modes it is a compact and full package. I can not recommend this game enough and everyone who is a shooter fan and an Xbox 360 owner should have this game.

"Let's Finish This"

That is all. Carry On!

-Spieg89

Guild Wars 2: The Future of MMO Gaming?

First off let me start by saying that, about a year ago, I practically vowed to never play another MMO game ever again because I didn't want my life needlessly sucked away, and I really didn't have the time it takes to practically have a second life dedicated to an MMO anyway.

Then, after hearing a friend of mine rave on about Guild Wars 2 for a while, I finally took a look into it. After reading about it and watching some trailers and reviews, I was sold. Finally, an MMO that overcomes all the things that I view as "MMO killers", such as endless boring grinding for levels, enemies that just stand around waiting for you to approach them, battle systems that get boring fast, etc. I could talk practically endlessly about why I think GW2 is the next step in MMO gaming, but the videos I'm about to post are worth 1,000,000 words (yes, pictures are just worth 1,000 words :P).

Here's the first video you should see about GW2:


And here's the newest trailer:


And if you want to dig a bit deeper and get some more epic info and to see some action, here's a fairly long epic demo:


Now, I'm a casual gamer and I've always gotten left behind by my friends when playing an MMO because I don't play for a week and they end up getting 5-10 levels ahead of me or something. Every other MMO game I know of practically forces you to invest hours upon hours and you can't go a day without playing or you'll get left behind. But I want to do it on my own pace while not getting left behind. GW2 allows you to do this, and it's never lame for a high level character to join a low level character. In other MMO games, it's always sacrificing fun for the person with the high level character to go back and help build up a the guy with a low level. GW2 breaks that and strives to make it an enjoyable experience no matter what. There are so many awesome things about GW2, but my favorite things are: the beautiful and persistent world, the more co-op epic good feeling social aspect as opposed to the usual competitive anti-social feel, THE MUSIC IS DONE BY JEREMY SOULE, an interesting personalized story, no stinking subscription fee, and so many other things.

So what do you think? Is GW2 going to set the new standard of MMO gaming? I think I sense WoW (more directly, Blizzard) trembling in fear.

So. How is the 3DS?

The truth is, the 3DS may be the greatest handheld gaming device that I have ever owned. Ever. Now I'm not trying to down play the influence of the GameBoys, GameGears, PSPs, or phones, but this is simply incredible. I haven't had this much fun with a portable gaming device since I got my first GameBoy Color at 11. I purchased The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. This game is equally as amazing.

So what makes it so great? The top screen as many of you know displays images and video in stereoscopic 3D. It does this without using any 3D glasses at all. It is currently the only screen on the market that can do this. And it has a slider on the side of the screen that allows you to adjust the depth of the 3D.

It also has several built-in programs that show off the 3D and graphical capabilities of the 3DS. The first is a game called FaceRaiders which has you take a picture of someone, and you move the 3DS around (using the 3DS's built-in gyroscope) and you shoot at small floating incarnations of that face. On the front of the 3DS are 2 cameras which combine to form 1 3D camera. Another built-in game is called AR Games. It uses the included augmented reality cards to play a series of mini-games and it also includes several cards of popular Nintendo characters.



As I mentioned earlier, I also purchased the 3D remake of the single-highest rated video game of all time The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time.  I have a bit of a confusion, I never played the game on the Nintendo 64, largely because, I didn't own a 64. However I did play the game when it came on The Legend of Zelda: Collector's Edition for the GameCube, which was The Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda (1), and Zelda 2. I loved the game, but was never able to finish because my disk was lost. I am grateful that I am now able to finish the game, and it looks incredible. The graphics have been given a significant face-lift and the controls feel great with the circle pad. Also the fact that the songs you have learned are actually saved on the lower screen easy to pull up when you forget them. And speaking of the lower screen, that's where your items and maps are and it works great. Look for an in-depth review when I have completed the game.

All in all, I have to say I can't recommend the 3DS enough. Especially now that it is $169.99. And if you are a Nintendo fan or have been, you need one of these. And if you are a Legend of Zelda fan, you need this system and you need this game. It will play better then you remember, and it looks even better. Now go. Buy a 3DS, buy The Ocarina of Time 3D.
And also know, Star Fox 64 3D is also coming out soon. So if you have fond memories of that game, you need this system.


That is all. Carry on!

-Spieg89

How does one stumble upon WiredGamers?

Blog Post AKA: "Search terms that have gave our site a hit"
AAKA: "What I find hilarious at 2am in the morning"

Ever since WiredGamers has been up and running here on blogspot, I have always found it quite funny as to what people search in that fancy Google search bar to find our blog. Luckily blogspot has just the feature that tells us on an hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and all-time basis what random words bring our readers here. And now you (and only you) will know the secrets of how others find us! Aren't you a lucky duck.

"futurama donbot daughter"
Ahhh, you must be referring to our review of the Futurama episode "Silence of the Clamps"

"grape 64"
Jordan's first blog post! An achievement of sorts! Ba-dunk!

"galaxy quest poster"
Sorry, but we don't have one of those... ohh wait. Let me dig it out... AHH here it is! After spying at this poster... only then did I realize that everyone else in this movie seemed to have stemmed in to an from even greater Sci-Fi lore... Harry Potter, Avatar, Star Trek, Monk. Where does Tim Allen fit in on this?


"brink игра"
It's at this point of the blog post that we would like to thank our Russian readers. Большое спасибо!

"ritzville washington"
In case you didn't know, there is nothing here. Unless of course you have an infatuation with wheat.

"this little red"
...this search term leaves me wanting more.

"thor's hammer mjolnir images"
Don't have any of these either... hmm... and FYI... before Stan Lee stole Thor from the Norse, this is what the hammer resembled..."ubox uhaul"
uMust be referring to when Spieg89 made his trek across the uNited States.

"sonic the hedgehog birthday"
happy birthday my main man!

"wired gamers and stress"
Wherever these people are getting their information, it must be from a reputable source

"the legend of zelda game over animations"
and here we mark the end of the post... Ganon told us it would come to this.


Until later, and after more ridiculous Google searches!

~~Disc07

New Futurama episode (Now 3 hours earlier!)

Today the newest episode of Futurama called: Möbius Dick aired tonight at 10 PM EST (one of the nice things about living on the East Coast is seeing shows earlier).

The episode started out with Professor Farnsworth talking about his original crew and a very young Zoidberg. He explained how they lost their lives. The current crew then has to go set up a memorial for the original Planet Express crew. The crew then has to travel through the space equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle, the Bermuda Tetrahedron. 

As they are leaving, they encounter a white space whale, and Leela suddenly becomes like Captain Ahab and forces the crew to go on a Mobey Dick- style whale hunt to destroy the whale that destroyed the Planet Express crew's monument. This whale is no ordinary whale though because it is a 4th dimensional being. Meaning it travels between dimensions. 

This episode was significantly different from the episodes this season. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I also recommend buying Futurama Season 8 on either iTunes or Zune Marketplace. I bought it on iTunes so that I can watch it on my iPod. But a cool note would be that if you bought it on Zune Marketplace that you would have it available on your Xbox, or Windows Phone.

That is all! Carry on!

-Spieg89