Which I knew. But it wasn’t general knowledge until this morning when developer High Voltage Software revealed the fact at a closed-doors presentation that included the Wii-exclusive FPS amongst its other titles.

WiiNintendo.net has the brief here, if you want to read it.

(To clarify two points in the article: I did rewrites and dialogue revision on PREY and I wrote a full script for BORDERLANDS but that was prior to the game’s reimagining.)

I’m psyched! The team at High Voltage has been a dream to work with and I’ve made contacts and connections there that extend beyond the project. I look forward to hearing what folks think about the game when it ships.

“Blair’s writing this? Woohoo!”

I’m a big fan of games, no matter their stripe, but I have a particular fondness for point-and-click adventure games such as the Monkey Island series, Grim Fandango, the Gabriel Knight trilogy, and others. And as much as I’m not into world or political history, I am very much into the history of games, often losing hours of my life in the serpentine jungles of Wikipedia and Google, digging up information on whatever game or company is currently occupying the obsessive cycles of my brain.

One of my current interests is the long and tentacular history of one of adventure gaming’s pillars, Sierra On-Line, from its founding in 1979 to the infamous Chainsaw Monday 20 years later. It’s a heckuva history to untangle but it’s been fascinating.

Downloadable games site GOG.com is helping to fill in some of the lacunae in my mental database with these articles about the history of Sierra’s signature games series, King’s Quest.

The second article was just posted and I’ll be digging into it this afternoon.

Here’s the first part.

Here’s the second one.

While you’re at GOG.com, be sure to pick up some of the great games they have in their catalogue. I especially recommend Syberia I and Syberia II, the Tex Murphy games, and the absolutely free Beneath a Steel Sky (and they have the previously mentioned Gabriel Knight trilogy which is a top series). If the articles piqued your interest, you can pick up the King’s Quest 4, 5, and 6 bundle for just $9.99.

And those are just some of the point-and-click adventure titles, they have plenty of other great games and game genres as well (including the criminally-overlooked Beyond Good & Evil).

In other news, work continues apace on the current gig. I am truly blessed to be working with such great people. I love the job and the studio and I’ll say more when I can (which will likely be very soon). Until then, take care.

John S. Drew and the other good folks at the Chronic Rift podcast invited me to appear on their podcast as a member of a roundtable discussion on “Science Fiction and Fantasy in Video Games.” Geek Radio Daily‘s Billy Flynn was the other guest, and I had a blast talking about everything from the world’s best version of Pac-Man (it’s Assassin’s Creed) to how games are made, why they sell, and whether games without dialogue are bona fide hits.

Hear me babble about digital fun in Episode 76 of the Chronic Rift podcast.

I had been anticipating the PS3 title Heavy Rain for years. When Sony released the game on February 23rd, I tore through it, posting reactions to the experience on my Twitter account. These ravings caught Jeff Tidball’s attention and he asked if I’d my impressions up for GamePlayWright, the site that he and Will Hindmarch run.

I agreed without hesitation.

Even if you’ve no interest in video games particularly, if you’re a fan of story and wonder how we can grow it as storytellers and game designers, I urge you check out the article, which just went live:

“Dancing in the Puddles of Heavy Rain”

Enjoy!