We Came, We Saw, We Gamed – Gameblast 2016!

From Friday last week to yesterday, I joined an awesome group of people in a 48-hour gaming marathon to raise money for an even more amazing organisation. SpecialEffect is a charity that creates custom controllers and solutions for people with disabilities—gamers just like all of us—so that they can enjoy the videogames that we take for granted. SpecialEffect brings happiness to everyone they help, something that is clear in the pure and radiating smiles you see in their videos.

So how could I not join Gamely Giving? It meant that I could help SpecialEffect change someone else’s life, bring happiness to them, help them realise that as long as they want it, achieving their goals and dreams is possible, that having disabilities doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy what other people take for granted. They will, because there are phenomenal people out there, people lke those in SpecialEffect, dedicated to helping them make it so. Continue reading We Came, We Saw, We Gamed – Gameblast 2016!

Gamely Giving

This will be short & sweet.

Right now, the 1001up team, yours truly included, is having a Gaming Marathon for Special Effect, and awesome charity using Games to help children with special needs, also making it easier for them to play their games.

Go on our JustGiving page and donate for this amazing cause, and then join us on twitch for the rest of the day for our gaming stream (here and here), and be ready for any of the cool surprises we have on the way, including some special Phoenix Online Studios guests later this afternoon while we play Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller!

Gaming, charity and awesome surprises, what are you waiting for?

For complete information, go to yesterday’s post on 1001up.com!

Attic Cleanup – 12th February 2014

Hello everyone!!!

As you may have noticed, activity in The Attic has been nonexistent and what posts there have been haven’t been from yours truly but by the awesome Kim from 1001up.com, who’s now my first contributor, with others to follow, wanting to use the The Attic as what it’s always meant to be, a space to vent whatever the hell’s going through the minds of the writers.

So, there’s a reason there haven’t been any posts lately, and that’s my mind being too preoccupied with the one plan I’ve mentioned in the past but never got into details. Now I can talk about it.

For the past three years, leading up to today, I’ve been in the immigration process to Canada. Today I finally entered the country as a brand new permanent resident! I hadn’t mentioned it before for simple superstition. You should never talk about your plans until they’re at least close to fruition. Counting on them before the time and talking about them just invites a rug being pulled from under you. So I kept my mouth and my fingers shut 🙂

But now things have come to pass and I can finally talk about all of this. I will have a post in the coming weeks describing the whole process, the “ordeal”, because sometimes it felt like it.

With that weight off my shoulders, I can finally think clearly again and more importantly, I can get back to the writing! So, expect the numbers of posts to pick up in the coming weeks, as I get back into The Mental Attic groove.

Speaking of writing, you might have seen I’m now part of 1001up‘s staff! You’ll see more than a few reviews on that site from moi, more than a few focusing on the real classics: Super Nintendo games, some of the absolute best there are, which I think a lot of you can agree with me.

Recently I played the Elder Scrolls Online beta, but as much as I’d love to talk about, I “signed” an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement), which prevents me from mentioning anything about my experience, and it would be highly unethical and frankly illegal of me to say anything.

In the past weeks, while I haven’t written anything, I have read more than a few cool posts. You need to check out The Archaeology of Tomb Raider for Kelly’s latest articles and spot-light interviews! V has risen from the dead and posted on the topic of Valentine’s day and the horrible, horrible rom-coms she’ll watch and review for our pleasure. I gave her a weak and cruel blow and told her to watch Gigli. I can be a real bastard sometimes. My good friends at 1001up.com have been maybe a bit too excited about us joining and have put out a slew of posts about those, from the video announcement, to the blooper reel, to the staff interviews. Go check them out ASAP!

My current obsession though is Yahtzee Croshaw & Gabriel Morton’s Let’s Drown Out videos, and you should see them too, and read their blogs, Fully Ramblomatic and “I’ll think of something later“. I find Gabe’s posts fascinating.

What’s coming to The Mental Attic? A few interviews from Phoenix Online Studios, about their origin game The Silver Lining, and their upcoming and almost assured hits Gabriel Knight 20th Anniversary Edition and Moebius; as well as a shorter one focusing on the role of a PR Director in a videogame company.

I’ll try to get the ball rolling on Urban Arcana again and of course, more reviews and other random crap, as usual!

Finally, with the power of Canadian internet, I’m going to start doing more playthrough videos! Maybe drop in a podcast or two too. The first one will be a Testament of Sherlock Holmes “Speed Run”, followed by a series of Dark Souls videos 🙂

See you all around the corner, and if you’re in Canada, let me know and we’ll set something up!!

Attic Cleanup 15-12-2013

Another week gone! Just a few short ones until this kickass year ends. Kim, from 1001up.com, asked me about two things I thought made this year amazing, and I had no problem coming up with something to say. As for what I said, well…don’t be so nosy.

This week’s image is a bit of a pun, if you know your Hellboy, you’ll get it!

Continue reading Attic Cleanup 15-12-2013

Attic Cleanup – The Last Month…or so…

With some of my colleagues doing their roundups for the month/week, I decided to give them a shot. As V so kindly put it:

They’re fun and they don’t require too much thought, perfect for a Sunday eve.

So, let’s go over the last few happenings in The Mental Attic Continue reading Attic Cleanup – The Last Month…or so…

Outlast Scarethrough

After the awesome Outlast Scare-up on 1001up.com, V from VerbalSpewReview, JohnHeatz from JohnHeatz.com and I decided to do our own Scared playthroughs of the game.

I’m the first one doing it.

Following their Scare-Up, I decided I’d play the game following this rule: I play until I die, which I did, about 5-10 minutes before 1001up did, and I feel sad about that, I wanted to beat their progress…even if I complain about playing such a scary game every minute.

I have to say I was scared as hell. You can tell by that one high-pitched scream and the fact I stood still for a long while.

You can watch it here (I don’t know how to embed twitch.tv videos here)

We’ve been talking about this, and the plan is to do one of these playthroughs maybe once a month, but we’re still in the planning stages.

I hope you excuse the poor camera but I was using my laptop’s and with such a dark game and the lights out (no point in playing this game with the lights on) you can barely see me, but this is my first time doing this and I didn’t take those things into account, next time I’ll try to have a light or something close to me so you can see my horrified expressions more clearly.

Also, the video is a bit twitchy…that may be my fault for not setting things up correctly…again, first time, I’ll take care of that for the next Playthrough

Hope you like it.

The Versatile Blogger Award

The awesome trio at 1001up.com have honored me with the nomination for the Versatile Blogger Award. This is my first nomination for anything on WordPress, so I’ll frame up this post somewhere in my room for when I need a pick me up…not really, but no matter what I’ll always see this one as the best of the bunch. Continue reading The Versatile Blogger Award