Johnus Maximus

Despite that feeling of fleeting time that retrospection gives us, it has been quite a year in gaming. Not as good as 2008, but pretty gosh darn close thanks in part to the huge volume of sequels that made it unscathed by the great release date cull that seemed to occur in tandem with the financial crisis across the world.

On a personal note, it has been a year of joy and sorrow, but the friendships I have within the gaming community have come to fruition and allowed me to soldier on at this journalism lark. By now I’m sure you’ve all had time to look at what the ‘big boys’ (Kotaku, Joystiq, Edge et al) have had to say on this matter, but what of this lowly writer? Well my friends, below you will find out what games filled my heart with joy during 2009.
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It seems that I’m not the only person who has decided to revamp the look of their site as we welcome in this new decade – the team over at True Achievements have got a new look for 2010!

Catching up on some RSS articles, I noticed this post and rushed over to see their handywork, I must say that the change is certainly for the better.

If you’ve got an Xbox 360 and are not aware who True Achievements are, you should definitely take a look at their site, it’s crammed full of everything you could possibly need to enhance your gamerscore.

Image after the fold [...]

Okay, you can open your eyes now, it’s finished!

Please let me know what you think (and more importantly, if you find any bugs or errors!)

Look around you and it will be more than obvious what time of year it is. From the Coke ads and their incessant demonic chanting to the cacophony of cackling wenches declaring “here come the girls”. And it’s not just the adverts – television shows roll out their feature length holiday specials and the forgotten stars of yesteryear are pimping their panto performances.

I’m not a grumpy person at christmas, honestly. In fact, it’s my favourite time of year, one of the rare opportunities I have to travel “up north” and share time with some of my favourite people. As well as the company of those that I hold dearly in my heart, there is a special place for some festive films.

It’s extremely likely you have heard of these films, I’m certainly not as knowledgeable about avant garde experimental cinema as I am wholesome family entertainment, but as is the case with each and every one of us, we sometimes have our particular favourites that we like to discuss and compare with others.

Here tonight, for your viewing pleasure, are the top five christmas films that I could not live without. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and best of all you’ll possibly appreciate just how good christmas can be, once you get beyond all that mind-numbing commercialisation.
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…who’s your newest blog writer?

Maybe you’ve heard of him, he’s a northern bloke living in a southern town by the name of Johnus Maximus.

Yes, that’s me!

I’m going to be contributing reviews and possibly more to one of the funniest and friendliest gaming communities around.

Keep your ears open and your eyes peeled to www.sanctuary4gamers.com

Remember that awesome Top 10 with a Twist feature that Hi-Score did, where they kindly asked me to submit my views on a gaming subject? Here’s the link if you missed it first time around – Part 1 – Part 2

Well, they only went and did it again! I felt pretty humbled to be considered amongst the lineup, especially as these articles are starting to gain some notoriety amongst the blogging community. The question this time was which cut scene/cinematic is our favourite, and why?

Being a man of significant years, I’ve had the opportunity to plumb the depths of in game cut scenes, and despite the hilarity of Barry Burton and co or the poignance of Aeris popping her clogs, I actually chose something that I came across within the last couple of years that affected me in a way no other game has before.

What was my choice, and that of my peers? Well, I’ll let you find out for yourself, here is the article – http://hi-score.co.uk/2009/11/01/top-ten-cinematic-scenes-with-a-twist/

Okay, so I went to London but did not actually see the queen.

However, I did see something almost as majestic and grand – thousands of gamers crammed into a huge building full of new games!

From Heavy Rain to Mass Effect, Dantes Inferno to Star Trek Online, there was something here for everybody.

I was able to frantically run round the event for two days trying my hardest to formulate some kind of opinion to report for Gadgetoid.

What I did manage to do was see a large majority of the games (I tried to ignore things that were already released as I feel people will generally have their own opinion of those).

Also, I snagged a neat prize to give away on Gadgetoid, but I’ll be announcing that in a couple of days time.

So, for my reportage, head over to the article – http://www.gadgetoid.com/2009/11/13/our-man-in-eurogamer-expo-2009-london/