As a journalist John has covered everything from rural town meetings to the U.S. Congress and even done time as a crime reporter and photographer.|His first venture into writing about the game industry came in the form of a computer column called "On the Chip Side," which grew to have over 1 million circulation and was published in newspapers in several states. From there he did several "ask the computer guy" columns in magazines such as Up Front! in New Mexico and Who Cares? in Washington D.C. When the Internet started to become popular, he began writing guided Web tours for the newly launched Washington Post online section as well as reviews for the weekend section of the paper, something he still does from time to time.
His experience in trade publications came as a writer and reviewer for Government Computer News.
As the editor of GiN, he demands strict editorial standards from all the writers and reviewers. Breeden feels the industry needs a weekly, reliable trade publication covering the games industry and works tirelessly to accomplish that goal.
The backlit EluminX keyboard from Auravision is without a doubt the coolest keyboard any gamer can buy. By daylight the keyboard looks like a fairly normal input device. The only real clue as to its special nature is that the keys are clear plastic instead of a solid color. The lettering is black and easy to read. Something really cool happens however when the lights are dimmed. You notice that the keyboard is actually glowing faintly. The glow is there the entire time, but it’s subtle enough that you don’t really notice it in normal lighting conditions. But who plays … Continue reading Lighting up the night→
Those of you who have been waiting for the next great puzzle game to appear, wait no more. RHEM is without a doubt one of the most difficult and challenging games I have ever played. It is a world full of puzzles, and your intellectual noodle will be stretched extremely far while playing. The game is also inexpensive. You can get a copy of it for just about $30, which makes it an excellent deal considering I guarantee you will be working at the puzzles for many, many hours if you have any hope of solving RHEM. It also ships … Continue reading RHEM Will Puzzle Puzzlers→
There is a distinct flavor to most games published by Microsoft, especially in the real-time strategy genre. Not that this is a bad thing. Almost all the games are marked by good quality gameplay and graphics, as the Age of Empires series will attest. Rise of Nations is kind of like an advanced version of Age of Empires. It brings some unique elements to the table that I have personally never before experienced, along with a lot of the old standards that RTS gamers have come to know and love – or hate as the case may be. The first … Continue reading Rising to the Challenge→
It should come as no surprise that the game industry is under the microscope again, and as usual it's not a good thing. What is unusual is where the pressure is coming from this time around. The industry has often been criticized in the past, normally with much fanfare. I personally remember Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison at a hearing waiving a copy of Doom in the air and promising a first amendment fight to restrict game sales. This was in the days following the shootings at Columbine High School after it was learned that the kids who did the … Continue reading SEC’s Jack Booted Thugs→
PlanetSide is a bit unique among massively multiplayer online games. Instead of role-playing a character, the game is all about battle. And on battle, it has plenty. Set on a futuristic world, the plot of the game is that humans from the Terran Republic have set down on a new world bristling with alien technology. They are connected to their empire only by a wormhole. But when the wormhole collapses, the humans begin to fight. One group decides it wants to remain loyal to the republic. One group generally likes the laws of the republic but wants a bit more … Continue reading PlanetSide is Hardcore Perpetual Action→
The many Star Wars games that have come out over the years have let us play many different people in that universe. We have been Jedi knights, rebel pilots, bounty hunters, planetary biologists, wartime strategists, imperial officers, trade federation droid handlers and just about everything else imaginable. But now LucasArts is letting us be something completely new – ourselves. Well, you can be yourself if you want. Or you can be a Wookiee, Mon Calamari, Bothan, Rodian, Trandoshan, Twi’lek, Zabrak or simply a human completely different than yourself. The point is that the only massively multiplayer game devoted to the … Continue reading A Strong Force for Fun→
This is our Independence Day! And not the kind where aliens come down to Earth and blow up the White House and other national landmarks. At least I hope. The first weekend in July is the time when those of us in the United States celebrate the fact that we broke away from formerly-evil-now-best-friend England to form our own country. We wanted to drink coffee instead of tea, play football instead of soccer, watch NASCAR instead of road rallies, and I don't think anyone ever really understood cricket. And it just so happens that this means we get a three … Continue reading It’s A Three Day Banger!→
I just can’t get too much Morrowind. And considering that 80,000 readers voted it the PC game of year and game of the year in the environment category, I’m not at all alone. Bloodmoon is the second expansion pack for the Morrowind game, and builds out the massive single-player RPG even further with an entire new land to explore that is alien and strange to those of us who have spent hundreds of hours adventuring on the mainland. Gone are the soupy hot swamps and dusty, dry mountains most of us call home. Bloodmoon features the island of Solstheim, home … Continue reading There’s a Bloodmoon on the Rise→
The space flight genre has always been a fascinating one for most PC gamers. It is one area where the PC will probably always be ahead of the console world, at least in terms of massive universe type games that would really be too advanced for most consoles, even the vaulted Xbox probably. Freelancer is yet another entry into this genre, and follows in the tradition of Wing Commander, Privateer and even – going way back – Starflight. Freelancer most resembles the Privateer series – Privateer II will always have a soft spot in my heart – in that you … Continue reading Freelancer is Alpha 1-1→
(But it did arrive!) In the United States we often get justice in the end, but sometimes it just takes a little while. A good example of this is the St. Louis law that prevented violent video games from being sold to minors. It provided fines for any vendor who sold computer games deemed violent to minors, much the same way cigarettes and alcohol are regulated. It was enacted in 2000 and caused our then-extreme columnist Ken Urben to call the politicians involved Nazis. I'll stop short of calling anyone names, but surely the politicians who thought this genius of … Continue reading Justice Comes Slowly→
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