Much as the promise of all that HD gaming is an enticing prospect, the geeks have already bent the PS3 to their will – by installing the Linux operating system on it.

You’d be forgiven for assuming that, given its attitude to the PSP, Sony would be against this sort of thing … But actually, Sony completely supports people that want to do a bit more than simply play games, browse the web, watch high def movies, listen to music, view photo galleries and all that on their PS3s.

› read more

Taking unboxing to its logical conclusion, this goes far beyond the cardboard case and doesnt stop until every component is taken out of the PS3 itself. And oh lord, here’s a video of one being taken apart, a little as if it’s on an operating theatre table. If Engadget’s unboxing post is PS3 erotica, this is gynaecological.

I’ve just contributed to the Three Speech blog with a piece about the PS3 unboxing blogs and videos that have sprung up over the last week or so. I wasn’t totally sure about doing it, as Three Speech is a problematic old thing, as GameSetWatch’s Simon Carless explains. But I’m interested in seeing the site strike that subtle balance between being promotional and being a respected source of PS3 info. So, er, I thought I’d start helping out by writing about people taking things out of boxes. Oh, and not entirely sure what’s going on with the weird linking style there.

› read more

Max Dean is co-creator of The Robotic Chair, seen at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz in September, which explores the process of imbuing inanimate objects with humanity. The chair is designed to fall into pieces and laboriously reassemble itself in an act of methodical self-preservation. An earlier project, The Table, is able to sense and select a single person in a room with whom to attempt to strike up a relationship with attention-seeking wiggles and turns. There is a desire to understand who we are, and one way of doing this is to try to duplicate ourselves,’ says Dean.

› read more

A bit over a year ago, Dazed and Confused commissioned me to write a piece on how MMO worlds were attracting more than games usual quotient of women. I took the opportunity to bang on about Second Life, and Dazed and Confused decided not to publish it. Lord knows why - I mean, it couldn’t be because it’s crap, could it?

Well, gentle reader, it’s up to you to judge, because here, exclusively (and probably not entirely legally - D+C, give me a shout if you want me to take it down) it is, public for the first time.

› read more

“It is … hard to countenance the common stereotype of the video games player as a withdrawn and idle youth. If anything characterises “typical” keen video games players, it is their sociability and creativity."

Me on the rich cultures that have developed around videogames for the New Statesman. Not sure about the pictures chosen, mind, but the whole supplement is rather good.

› read more

WarGames was just on TV. I’d forgotten how much I liked it - I’d even forgotten that I read the book a couple of times when I was little. It seems to me that it’s a reminder of how so many 80s teen films (especially those starring Matthew Broderick) are a lot better than their shallow modern counterparts.

Maybe that’s just my age talking, but WarGames has a subtle touch that most modern mainstream films lack. OK, the war-is-bad morality is hardly heavyweight, but seeing the idea of global thermonuclear war conveyed through the abstract lines of those Norad displays, along with brutally statistical casualty projections, measured in millions, is always powerful.

› read more

I went to the media opening of the Game On exhibition this morning. Its pretty much the same as the original Barbican one, but with some updates (360 et al), Jon Burgerman’s (great) illustrations and a rather tacked on ‘what place do videogames have in contemporary culture’ commentary that didn’t really go anywhere.

Essentially Game On is a big arcade, filled with free-to-play videogames, from Space War to Guitar Hero. I was like a kid in a sweetshop, but I’m not sure what good it truly does for videogames.

› read more

Forget Dead Rising’s obvious zombie-bashing charms. What it really does well is role playing.

In many ways Dead Rising’s role playing is much truer than that found in an epic RPG like Oblivion. While Oblivion allows you to do what you want, Dead Rising puts you squarely into the shoes of its protagonist, “likable prick” (in Edge’s words, if memory serves) photojournalist Frank West, a man faced with 72 hours of survival in a zombie-infested mall.

› read more

I interviewed Rebellion Games head Jason Kingsley today as part of an article I’m writing for the New Statesman about videogames culture in the UK. It went pretty well, and he seemed a nice guy. I wanted to talk to him because he and his company bought that quintessential bastion of British popular culture, 2000AD, a few years ago.

Anyway, at the end of our talk, he said something that I’ve been idly mulling over too. He said that the thing he was least proud of about videogames culture is its depiction of evil. “It’s portrayed as darker and malformed, but evil is deeds, not appearance,” he said. “That simplicity is disappointing and alarming”.

› read more

Do I actually enjoy playing Oblivion? Judging by how much I was grumbling at the screen playing it last night, not very much.

That might not sound the most incredible revelation to pass on about some videogame or other. But you have to understand that I’ve put 45 hours of my scarce free time playing this rambling RPG over the last few months. And I daresay I’ll be putting a few more tens into it in the future.

› read more