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.

Talking Toons and Teaching

Game programming for children has been around for years. But these days, much of the software billed as "edutainment" falls much more into the entertainment than the educational realm. That is not the case with ToonTalk, a program that really breaks the mold in children’s software. In fact, ToonTalk teaches children how to program, so […]

Winning the Medal of Honor

Sometimes reviews are just too easy. Such is the case with Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. Basically I can sum up my feelings and advice in just three words. BUY THIS GAME. Well, perhaps being the resident World War II expert, I should go into a little bit more detail. This is by far the […]

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance is a Quest You Can’t

Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance takes the monster-hit PC role-playing series into new territory – the console platform. And thankfully, the game is more than worthy of its namesake. Hardcore PC role-players should note that Dark Alliance is at its core, a console game. While not every quest is solved with combat, for more than 90 […]

Stronghold is Strategy and Structure Amid Medieval

A man’s home may be his castle, but if you want to keep your Middle Ages home safe, then it better be a stronghold. Fans of the old Castles series will be overjoyed to discover a new realtime castle building sim for their PC. Players become the chief architect for wooden Motte and Bailey castles, […]

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 […]