I’ve no idea how to squeeze in play time these days (I’m struggling on the second bit of Lego Harry Potter…), which is a shame as there are so many great games available like Settlers of Catan on the XBox (I’ve always wanted to beat Martin Fowler at it…) or even on Surface.

Last time I played Age of Empires 2 (not the most recent version, but the best I reckon) was in the early days of broadband with the little blue Alcatel squid thing as an ADSL router which would tend to drop connection frequently (typically when my laptop decided to power down the USB port randomly).

This being strategy, it was no surprise that my strategically minded colleague, Gareth, who was ‘Head of Strategy’ (I think) thus proving those credentials tended to be victorious. My main recollection is building a fantastic city, smart, flexible army, and then being stomped all over the park by War Elephants.

Anyway, this announcement that AoE is going all MMORPG-y means I’ll dust off the “battle mouse” one more time…

Nothing like recovering from an arduous family holiday (planes, trains and automobiles what with a volcano, and big eurotunnel delays – meh!) than settling down with a copy of Edge magazine.

Lo and behold but friend and colleague @sithers is quoted in an article covering X48 Game Camp of which he is a champion. Worth a look at the whole article or the X48 site, but highlights for me included best team name of “Salt. Pepper. Now.” (after the recent Gordon Ramsay TV show) and the “5 Rules of Game Jamming”.

• Keep It Simple.
• Get It Working Fast.
• Do What You Know.
• Programmers Rule.
• Genius Steals.