Save the Robot – Chris Dahlen

So yeah, I’ve been busy. Blogging has lapsed. Not gonna pretend otherwise. I’m working on some other projects,

But let’s post some links of stuff I’ve been up to lately.

- Edge Magazine commissioned me to review Rise of the Argonauts. They’re my favorite glossy gaming magazine, and it was a hoot to review this. Fun backstory: I got the assignment during that ice storm last December, when we were trapped at the Motel6, and accepted it even though my whole family was packed in a hotel room with no XBox. The power came back just in time to finish the game and make my deadline. (Well, first it kept crashing on my XBox. So I stole the XBox from work. Resourceful!) They even kept my Achilles pun.

- Battlestar Galactica – I recap, you decide. The show has been … complex this season, and comments are through the roof. I think it’ll make a great DVD when it’s done and you can digest it in one go. For now? Join us every Friday night to ask the eternal question, “Why the hell don’t they just go back to Kobol? It looked pretty nice.”

- I wrote a press release and posted an interview with Sweet Billy Pilgrim, a fantastic UK band recommended to fans of dreamy Brit-pop, bands David Sylvian likes, and stunning, rich music. Give it a listen. I found their new record extremely beautiful but came to like them even better when I got to talking to Tim Elsenburg and got a whiff of his sense of humor. Yes, once again, full disclosure, I got paid to write this, but I wouldn’t do press releases for samadhisounds if they didn’t have such impeccable taste. Plus, this work is the reason I have David Sylvian’s upcoming release here on my desk. Early report: it is horrifyingly beautiful.

- My interview with Mouse Guard’s David Petersen finally ran. Interesting guy. He makes good points about world building, and explains a lot about the inspirations for the comic.

And I’m on Twitter, daily. Sad!

I know, doesn’t look like I’m that busy. But I am, dammit. Crazy, drowning busy. I have a couple other projects cooking, a slew of essays and pitches to cook, and a five hour interview with the great Steve Bissette to transcribe. So stay posted.

One other thing. Close readers may have noticed that I filed a bunch of reviews for Variety last fall, but not this winter. There have been cutbacks at Variety, meaning fewer game reviews and the layoff of Ben Fritz, who got the axe with 30 other staffers. (This is all public knowledge, or I wouldn’t print it.) I had a whole post in mind about this, but I guess what it boiled down to was that when I heard the news, I got really depressed. Not because I was losing some assignments – I mean, that’s life – but because Fritz strikes me as the kind of guy who really should be in this business and in a staff perch, covering gaming from a hard-eyed business journalist’s perspective and marshalling a serious team of writers (I mean jeez, Tom Chick and Leigh Alexander?) for coverage that really spoke to his audience. It was one of those moments where you wonder, if they don’t keep a guy like this, where are we headed? I don’t see the games writing space in competitive terms. Maybe it’s because I wind up helping my friends find gigs far more often than I try to steal their lunch, but I believe we’re in a vital and expanding space. We all win when we have great editors, and we all lose when major outlets cut their talent.

But on the bright side, the Cut Scene blog is contracted for another three months. So, see? Sometimes the good guys win. Or at least, win something.