Author: John Breeden II

John has spent his journalism career covering just about everything, from small-town meetings and crime scenes to Capitol Hill and the U.S. Congress. He got his start writing about games and technology with a computer column called On the Chip Side, which grew to more than 1 million in circulation and ran in newspapers across several states. Today, John is an award-winning journalist with more than 25 years of experience. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, Newsweek and many other publications, and he writes a regular technology and government column for Nextgov/FCW and hosts security and educational webinars for FedInsider. He is also the founder of the Tech Writers Bureau and the chief editor of GameIndustry.com. He still loves disappearing into games, whether that means crawling through Baldur’s Gate dungeons deep into the night or planning one more big offensive in the latest wargame.

Star Wars: Force Commander demands respect

Star Wars: Force Commander puts you in charge of ground level operations of the Empire. Long have Star Wars fans played the many flight and space simulations set in the most popular sci-fi universe ever created. But while the flyboys and a few jedi knights have thus far gotten all the gaming glory, lets not […]

Welcome To The New GiN!

Welcome to this brave new world. You are one of the first visitors to the new daily Game Industry News, and I wanted to take a moment to welcome you. One of the major changes is that GiN is now free. Simply click on the Free Subscription or the Free Prizes link to sign up. […]

Disciples: Sacred Lands is a pleasant diversion

Disciples: Sacred Lands is the latest entry in the turn based strategy gaming arena. It comes from a Canadian company, Strategy First, which is known for highly detailed strategy war simulation games like Man of War. The game almost got delegated to the lowest shelf of the "to review" library after a quick glance. When […]

Carnivores 2 takes a bite out of hunting simulations

Ok, let me get this out in the open. I’m a closet hunting simulation fan. There, I’ve said it. That out of the way, if anyone thinks this makes me soft, you can find my e-mail at the bottom of the page if you want to challenge me to a game of Half-Life. I know […]

Gamers will answer Asheron’s Call

The beauty of Asheron’s Call is difficult to describe. Having been a devoted fan of the reigning champion of online-only games, Origin System’s Ultima Online, for years, I was used to a somewhat lower standard. Play Asheron’s Call just once or twice and you will never want to go back to Ultima. Asheron’s Call was […]

Touring Car Challenge doesn’t lose horsepower in translation

When I was first given Touring Car Challenge, one of the first products released in the United States from European-based Codemasters, I figured it had a few strikes against it right off the cricket bat. For one, the product was a simulation of British racing. And like Dr. Who and boiled beef, its not often […]

Wild, Wild West: The Steel Assassin is on target

Anyone who has seen the movie Wild Wild West, or been a fan of the television series, can appreciate the wonderful action-packed nature of this game, and how it couples both humor and puzzle solving to make an excellent package. Those of you who are unfamiliar with either the movie or the show can still […]

Nocturne is so good, it’s scary

Being a fan of the horror side of computer games, it was easy to get into the concept of Nocturne, which features a monster hunter named The Stranger who goes around killing werewolves, zombies, vampires and other creatures of the night. One of my favorite games of all time is called Realms of the Haunting, […]

Shadow Company: Left for Dead is a stealthy hit

Shadow Company: Left for Dead is a good attempt at marrying realtime strategy gaming with actual man to man combat. When I first got the Shadow Company box, I thought UBI was going to try to piggyback on the success of one of my favorite turn-based strategy games, Jagged Alliance 2 by Sir-Tech. The plot […]