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Archive for Paul Goodhead

I don't deserve a happy Mass Effect 3 ending

Posted on 27th Mar 2012 at 08:44 by Paul Goodhead with 43 comments

Paul Goodhead
My Mass Effect 3 play through started off so well - so promising, so full of hope. I was going to get the best ending possible, the one where everyone lives happily ever after and nothing was going to stop me. Yes, OK, the reapers were here and they were tearing the earth a new one, but I was confident I had the friends and the ballsy get-it-done attitude to sort them out one way or another. They were messing with the wrong galaxy this time.

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Tags game endings, mass effect, mass effect 2, mass effect 3

Thoughts on Mainstream Game Advertising

Posted on 14th Feb 2011 at 14:05 by Paul Goodhead with 27 comments

Paul Goodhead
As a marketing graduate I often find myself idly assesing the marketing strategies that tech companies employ. It’s an industry that's fairly set in its ways - Taiwanese companies tend to think a CG picture of a pretty girl with an ornate sword or huge gun can sell anything, no matter what we in the West say. Meanwhile, here in the West, we can't help but work the touch-feely lifestyle angle - 'this laptop is good because you can help the kids with their homework on it!'

My interest was piqued therefore when I saw Nintendo’s latest Super Mario advert which marks the 25th anniversary of Mario series of games. The advert is initially quite unremarkable, showing men and women of all ages, some of whom are celebrities, talking about the Mario games and their memories of them. So far, so Nintendo; the company has been using softer, more personal adverts targeted at casual and first time gamers for a while now.

What I did find remarkable though was the end of the advert which contained the message the ad was there to convey - ‘Super Mario Brothers, part of the family since 1985’. It’s the first time I’ve seen a computer game use a heritage message, a message that emphasises the history and longevity of a brand or product.

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Tags advert, advertising, casual gaming, marketting, nintendo, thoughts on, wii

A Letter to Minecraft

Posted on 28th Nov 2010 at 09:59 by Paul Goodhead with 103 comments

Paul Goodhead

Dear Joe

Thanks for your kind letter the other month, it was very nice of you to think of me and Harry while away on your Minecraft excursion. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to turn down your offer to join you however.

I don't mean to appear rude by turning down your offer, but believe me when I say I'd rather stab rusty forks into my own eyeballs than toil away away in an imaginary world, building nothing of any value, consequence or benefit.

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Tags games, gaming, indie, letter, minecraft, notch, online game

Free Games I Like: QWERTY Warriors

Posted on 1st Oct 2010 at 09:14 by Paul Goodhead with 11 comments

Paul Goodhead
QWERTY Warriors is incredibly simple but deceptively addictive. As you can probably tell from the title it's a typing game in which you play some sort of space marine - a space marine with the most powerful but awkward gun in the world.

Enemies appear on the edge of the map and advance towards our brave hero in the centre of the screen. Once they get close enough they open fire on you, slowly blowing chunks out of your health bar.

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Tags free games i like, typing game

Thoughts On Macro Keys

Posted on 19th Sep 2010 at 08:39 by Paul Goodhead with 40 comments

Paul Goodhead
Macro keys on keyboards and mice are almost always aimed at the enthusiast MMO player. Their function is to allow users to execute a long chain of keyboard or mouse commands at the touch of a single button, which is a useful ability in games such as WoW. As a result macro keys are becoming a common feature on gaming mice and keyboards.

It was confusing for Clive then to hear me say that I love macro keys, even though I don’t play any of the MMO games which they are classically associated with. This is because I put my macro keys on my G15 at home to a far less entertaining use than which they were originally intended - entering common information on websites.

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Tags gaming keyboard, gaming mouse, macro keys, thoughts on

Monkey Island 2 - An Alternate Perspective

Posted on 10th Aug 2010 at 10:48 by Paul Goodhead with 19 comments

Paul Goodhead
Over the course of the last week or so I’ve been trying to play Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. I say trying because frankly I’ve been finding it pretty hard going. I’m not even sure whether what I’ve been doing even constitutes playing; maybe my first sentence would be better re-worded slightly.

Over the course of the last week or so I’ve been swearing continuously at Monkey Island 2: Special Edition.

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Tags frustration, monkey island, point and click

Free Games I Like: Transformice

Posted on 1st Jul 2010 at 12:49 by Paul Goodhead with 15 comments

Paul Goodhead
Getting people to work together is difficult. Getting people who don't know each other to work together is very difficult. Getting people who don't know each other to work together over the internet is nearly impossible. Enter Transformice.

Transformice is elegantly simple in its premise. A number of mice, usually 25, have to get some cheese and take it to their hole. In their way are a number of obstacles, gaps, pits, bombs and, unfortunately, each other. Every mouse is controlled by a player, and one player gets to be the shaman, who can conjure various bits of apparatus to help the mice in their quest.

The game strikes a fine balance between teamwork and competition - the mice get more points the faster they get the cheese to their hole but they often need to wait for their shaman to construct them a path. The points are important as whoever has the most points at the end of a round becomes the shaman for the next round.

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Tags browser games, free games, free games i like, multiplayer

Why I don't use WASD

Posted on 24th Jun 2010 at 10:18 by Paul Goodhead with 104 comments

Paul Goodhead
When I was younger I shattered my left forearm while skateboarding. It was a full on bones-sticking-out-of-the-skin kind of moment and it took two plates, eight screws and a couple of hours of surgery to get my arm back together again.

To make things worse, during its journey towards the outside world the sharp end of my broken bone severed a number of nerves; specifically the ones responsible for the feeling and movement of my fingers. Essentially I was left with little feeling or movement in my left hand thumb, little finger and ring finger.

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Tags control, game controls, injuries, wasd
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Custom PC Issue 105

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