Saturday 23 November 2013

Shakespeare Enters the World of Video Games, Stage Left


Renowned works of literature - especially those many centuries old - are not often to be found in video game form. Off the top of my head, only Dante's Inferno comes to mind, a game that came in for a good deal of criticism for its stale gameplay (ripped straight from God of War) and some mystifying departures from the source material. It seems strange, to me at least, that some of the most thrilling and thought-provoking stories ever written down so rarely find a place to stay in Video-Game-Land. Imagine my pleasant surprise, then, when I saw a set of games on Humble Bundle's latest sale that included two entitled The Chronicles of Shakespeare, adaptations of Romeo and Juliet, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Works from arguably the greatest literary artist of all time, expressed through a medium advancing and evolving in unprecedented ways. What could go wrong?

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Cookie Clicker - A Retrospective


Earlier this year, a number of BFVG members were afflicted by a serious addiction.

Drugs, drink and gambling were not the vices that took hold of our collective attention. We were able to resist the allure of delicious Mephedrone, and the prospect of having a flutter on the 3:30 at Epsom left us feeling cold. It took a digital narcotic to bring a group of us down into the depths of compulsive behaviour, late-night binge gaming and accelerated RSI of the index finger.

That drug's name was Cookie Clicker.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

BFVG Dream League Of Dreams Week 4

We are proud of what we have achieved so far in the Dream league Of Dreams. FAFF (Federal Association For Football) has founded one of the greatest sports in the world. Literally millions of people from all 4 corners of the globe have watched some of the finest athletes in the world compete at the highest level.
For those who do not know what the DLOD is all about; we are basically a group of friends who have drafted a team on PES14. Each week we then sim the games on which we attempt to commentate although most times we simply resort to insulting each other.

This weeks recap is a special (if not short) one for it will be the last weekly post that we do concerning the DLOD. If you wish to catch up on any of the previous weeks you can do so here; Week 1, Week 2, Week 3. Hopefully once a month we will give a short recap of the previous few weeks action. You can of course keep up to date with the DLOD by watching it live on our Twitch channel. See below for last weeks results.



Friday 8 November 2013

BFVG Dream League Of Dreams Week 3: The Darkest Hour

As we entered the 3rd week of the DLOD the excitement was palpable. Last week we saw some cracking results some of which came as a huge surprise. So we all sat down ready and in anticipation for what was going to be an amazing week of football. However all was not well within FAFF. There were murmurings from some of the players that they were being forced to work far to hard for little to no money and some of them were threatening to strike.
This all started a week ago when FAFF (Federal Association For Football) announced major changes to the format of the games. Instead of the regular 5 minutes each half, the matches would now consist of two, 10 minute halfs. For some reason there was an assumption amongst the players that their pay would also double in size. When they received their paychecks they were in for a shock as not only were they now being forced to play games for twice as long, they were having to do so for half the salary. The players did not notice that in the smallest print that could be printed (measuring exactly 2 micrometers tall), FAFF had written a clause in all the players contracts stating that, 'If in the unforeseen circumstance that FAFF decides to increase the length of the games, the salary of the players will match the change in a negative direction'.
Week three would continue as any other and on Wednesday 30th October 3 games were played as planned. However the fans could tell that something was not right as this day would go down as one of the most underwhelming days of football in DLOD history.

Wednesday 6 November 2013

Podcast #6 - Tanjenshull Lerning



We discuss what we have learned and the wonderful potential of what can be learned through playing video games. Then we talk about bowel movements. Classy.