Paperghost.com

Hooray! Google have finally dropped their idiotic names policy on G+. Unfortunately it's a massive hack job and fails in almost every way imaginable. I'd much rather be called "paperghost" than "Christopher Boyd" on G+. With that in mind, it should be a piece of cake to change it, right? The first problem is a total lack of clarity on the part of Google with regards how to change your details, what works and what doesn't. A quick look at the Google posts on this one [edit - I had links but in keeping with the G+ tone they've fallen off and don't want to stick] and you'll see the first issue: people simply don't know what to click on to change the public facing name.  You'd think this rather basic info would be right there on the Google posts about this brave new world of customisation, but nope...nothing. First port of call is trying to change the name in the custom url pop up, seeing as it's likely the first name related ...

The best of the best from the recent Steam Sale. I bought a lot of stuff, but I'm only mentioning things I've played since picking them up. 1) One Finger Death Punch All you do is hit left or right. "All you do". If you think your reflexes are up there with Neo then feel free to give this a shot. It's like Space Channel 5 with punching. 2) Doom 3 BFG Edition You have to understand, playing this game all those years ago freaked me the hell out, even while running it on an underpowered Pentium 2 (or whatever it was). I never managed to get more than a few hours in before saying "nope" loudly and doing something else instead. Weirdly it feels like I'm cheating in the new edition due to being able to wave the torch and the gun around at the same time. I'm too fast. I should be more sluggish. Maybe that's just the Pentium 2 talking. 3) Ghost Control Inc. Okay, a bit of a cheat here because I don't remember if I bought ...

A few things: 1) Yes, I'm aware I haven't posted in aaaages. I admit, I was surprised by the length of time gone. On the other hand, I changed jobs close to Xmas which is never a sensible time to change anything and I had a bunch of other stuff to sort out alongside it. Then I had to deal with six alien invasions, rescue a kidnapped Eastern European Prince and...uh...look, I just forgot. Or something. 2) The new blog is over here . 3) It isn't really the "new blog", given I've been writing on it for close to seven months and LOOK I FORGOT. 4) The publishing interface is still a bit rubbish. Also thanks to Posterous dying , my worst fears have come true and nearly all old images uploaded via Posterous have vanished. I will get around to fixing it eventually, but oh man that's a lot of blog posts to dick around with. True story: uploading images to blogs is the slowest, most painful experience of blogging you will ever come across. 5) Don't go...

I did an interview with Gamespot a while back on the subject of hacking in videogames. Off the back of this, I wrote a piece on the history of hacking in videogames. If you'd like to see some of my favourites (alongside a few "What were they thinking" efforts) then here comes Christmas .

Problem : I have a safehouse and a ton of offshore money / loot stashed in said safehouse. At present I can't do much with either . How to make them more interactive? The dev team are going to bring in safehouse customisation, but I don't want to just spend thousands of dollars making it look nice. I wonder if it's possible to do the following: 1) More than one safehouse. maybe 3 or 4. I don't really care if they all look the same. 2) It makes sense that the police would be constantly looking for your safehouse / money. The less stealthy you are in accumulated missions, the more likely they are to find your safehouse. 3) Imagine being in a heist and getting message that one of your safehouses is being raided. Do you bail and go to defend it or finish the job you're on? 4) The safehouse customisation should be about shoring up the safehouse. The more cash you spend, the harder it is to breach (locked doors, metal doors the cops can't shoot open a...

1) It's good to see Poison Ivy still getting work. 2) Did they even giver her a name? I thought I heard "Viper" but I could be wrong. Hot damn, that costume is terrible . Wait, she's peeling off her skin. Oh boy, she's going to look like a lizard or a snake underne- ...nope, she looks like a bald woman. Uh, okay. 3) I was massively excited to see a SEGA sign. Shush. 4) "We're going to remind you Logan has been depowered by having him shot every ten minutes." 5) His depowering is kinda weird, isn't it? He can't regenerate but he can jump around on trains and bounce all over the screen? Worst most expensive power sapping spider robots ever. 6) Why didn't he bleed to death when his claws came out? #nerdynitpickbutwhatever 7) Rila Fukushima was the best thing in the film, and she's written out for a huge chunk of it in the middle. 8) "We're going to remind you Logan has regained his powers by having him s...

Flawless victory