Author: John Breeden II

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.

Graphical Greatness

A house built on a shoddy foundation won't last very long, no matter how many amenities the structure has. In the game industry, a game's graphics are its foundation. Having amazing graphics is a basic requirement of any game these days, or consumers won't even bother to try it out. Ironically, creating amazing graphics is […]

Freelancer Boldly Goes

For fans of the spaceflight genre, freelancer is probably the most anticipated game of the year. The title follows in the tradition of both the Wing Commander and Privateer series, and is more closely related to Privateer. This is a good thing, since Privateer II remains one of my all-time favorite games. What was so […]

Impossible Fun

It’s not easy to break the mold, especially in the real-time strategy and shooter genre. You can improve the graphics and sound, but at the core we have not seen anything too new for a number of years. Impossible Creatures does bring new and exciting elements to the table, much to the joy of tired […]

The Sims Online is Addiction Squared

Adding online playability to the immensely popular Sims series is like throwing gasoline onto a bonfire. For fans of the game, it is an excuse to permanently enter the ranks of the addicted. Maxis has created an inviting and friendly online world, more so that I have ever experienced before. The world’s rules are completely […]

This Is Not 1984

Remember the "Video killed the Radio Star" song? Well, video – as in the MTV video brand – also killed the computer game industry back in 1984 that was previously riding high with success following success. But today is not 1984. In addition to the sudden rise in music video popularity, market leader of the […]

Tribunal Adds Creativity to Creation

I was so happy having just completed about 300 hours of role-playing, easily the largest amount of time I have spent on a single non-online only game in my life. Super bad guy Dagoth Ur fell to my blade, well, actually he fell to an earthquake after I completed the game-winning ritual, but I’ll take […]

It’s WWII, Woo Style

After months of incessantly playing Medal of Honor, it seemed like nothing would break the spell that game had over the local LAN. With interest in World War II at a recent high with the release of Band of Brothers on DVD, it seemed that anything that would topple MoH would have to be WWII […]

Comdex Is About Games Too

As I pack my bags and head off to the Comdex computer show in Las Vegas, I wonder if the game industry will have a large presence at this largely computer-hardware type show. You see, last year was interesting because the tech industry (read non-game related technologies) were in a huge slump. Now we know […]

One Game to Bind Them

When you first load up Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers on your Playstation 2, you will be treated to the first battle scene from the movie, recreated using the PS2’s DVD capabilities. Suddenly, the movie will fade into the game and just that quickly, you will become part of Tolkien’s world, or at […]