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.

Baldur’s Gate II Rocks RPGs

There are two ways you can spend the holiday season. The first involves dinner with the family, huge lipstick-smeared kisses from aunts you barely know and riveting conversation about how in the old days people walked to school in the snow and it was uphill both ways. And then there is the fun way: Baldur’s […]

Games Invade Comdex

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates opened the Comdex Computer Show in Las Vegas this week by proclaiming the new name of the show "Comde-xp" in support of his company's new operating system and office suite. However, fully a third of his speech was devoted not to high-end networking tools or productivity software, but to the Xbox […]

Flashpoint Explodes Standard War Games

Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis is one of the most realistic war simulations I have ever played. At times this can be both wonderful and frustrating at the same time. You start out in the campaign mode as a single infantry soldier. You are confused as to what is happening and so are the rest […]

Shattered Galaxy Breaks the Mold

When I originally heard about the ambitious real-time strategy project from Nexon called Shattered Galaxy, where they would create a massively multiplayer world of perpetual war, I was a bit skeptical. I had visions of one giant tank rush and of overlord players running around stomping every new person to strap on their combat boots. […]

Arcanum is Bookish, Hardcore Fun

I want to say that Arcanum is the "thinking person’s role-playing game" but shouldn’t every RPG be for thinking people? I also want to rave about how much I enjoyed playing the game, but I think I better first explain that Arcanum won’t appeal to everyone. Arcanum is a role-playing game in the purest since. […]

Anarchy Online is Revolutionary

Anarchy Online sounds a bit like some shooter free-for-all, at least judging from the main title. But despite this, the game is actually an online massively multiplayer RPG that is second to none in terms of character development and detailed landscapes. The first thing however that sets Anarchy Online apart from most massively multiplayer RPGs […]

GameDoctor Erases Scratches

We have all run into this problem at one time or another. We love a game, yet we don’t treat the CD very well. Perhaps we are in a hurry to switch to another game, or perhaps we are tired of digging into the jewel case to switch disks yet again. So we set the […]

Max Payne is Pure Pleasure

Max Payne had a lot of things going against it when I decided to give it the once-over for review. I, like all other professional writers, try to keep my bias out of reviews. But off the bat, things did not look good. I have seen so many variations on shooters this past year that […]

Baldur's Gate Series Ends Gloriously

Four games and several years ago, the Baldur’s Gate saga was born in this fine nation. The original game caused a revolution in the way people, especially PC gamers, thought about role-playing games. It was probably the first RPG to sell over a million copies, and it did it in less than three months. The […]

Up Against the Wall

Where computer gameplay and excercise coincide. Gamers sometimes get the reputation of being couch potatoes because they sit around all day playing. But if you spend all day playing with the Sports-PC interactive backboard, you are more likely to end up looking like Kevin Sorbo than Bill Gates. The Sports-PC wall is another example of […]