Just finished watching this spectacular show put on by BBC 4 called Charlie Brooker's Gameswipe. I think anyone who would consider themselves an enjoy-er of videogames would greatly appreciate the show, thus I'm posting it. The show is essentially a history, or primer, for the broader market on where the industry has gone up until this point in history. The following quote form the guardian.co.uk really sums the show up best.. It's broken up into six parts on youtube. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Couple notes: - There is liberal use of expletives through out. - If people would like the actual embedded youtube links I'd be glad to oblige. - Please enjoy.
I'd seen short clips of Charlie Brooker online in the past, and I thought he was funny in a "my, those potty-mouthed brits" kind of a way. What I didn't expect was how insightful he was on the subject. My favorite bit in that regard was his comparison between pedestrian behavior in Driver (which is convincing in a cinematic sort of way) and GTA (which is just stupid in a video game sort of way): it's such a revealing detail, and whether you agree and disagree with his general assessment of the franchise, it still makes you pause and think. Great stuff.
His background was in UK video games magazines. He wrote for Amiga Power and/or Zero I think. I met him once a long long time ago when he turned up in the office to interview my boss. The next I heard of him was this site, a sort of spoof TV listings mag: http://www.tvgohome.com/1201-2001.html I was kind of surprised to see the producer credit for "Inspector Bumhat", I guess I just have an amusing name...
He didn't write for Amiga Power. He was best known for his time on PC Zone. Do Americans have any idea how hilarious we find it when you say "potty-mouthed"?
