Charge Shot!!!’s second month of life was about triumph in the face of adversity. Rob and I took on expanded duties at our day jobs, and while the number of things we had to do increased the amount we were paid stayed exactly the same. His previous production having finished at the end of December, Craig had to stare down the awful economy in an attempt to find some work. He succeeded, but the job and the search made him quite a busy boy as well.
Nevertheless we persevered, and we have a lot to show for our efforts – we’re slowly but steadily gaining readers, and in between tweaking the layout and having ridiculous weekly meetings via Skype, we cranked out some writing that I think we’re all pretty proud of. Hit the jump for the cream of the crop!
Craig continued unabated with his weekly Audiosurf Radio posts, and made trembling baby-deer steps forward in his quest to win ten games of Starcraft. He also declared himself Indie Game King of the World and wrote about Minotaur China Shop and the superb Dyson, whose frantic gameplay belies its calm exterior.
Craig also responded to a post I did about the increasing irrelevance of the PC as a platform for AAA games. I also apparently caught his indie bug, because I talked about Braid and Castle Crashers. This is all on top of a post about the gradual slowdown of the gaming industry, and just a couple days ago I tried to stir up some controversy with a piece about the topics games avoid.
Because I have to, I’ll also talk about Rob. He had a bit of a backward-looking month, talking about the slow fading of some of his favorite genres, among them survival horror, the flight simulator and the MechWarrior games. He also amused us with tales of the antics of his otherworldly dog in Fallout 3, and posted about a minute-long commercial with more emotional impact than one of 2008’s most acclaimed games.
Our contributors, bless their hearts, weren’t around as much this month, but we forgive them. This time. Boivin managed to write a nice love letter to Left 4 Dead and also revealed something about his deepest desires, while Gene… well, where is that guy anyway?
As if that wasn’t enough, we brought you two nice interviews: the first a Q&A with the lovely Jonathan “the Still Alive guy” Coulton, and the next an in-depth talk with Audiosurf mastermind Dylan Fitterer. Also we kept churning out briefs, something that with a little luck might be someone else’s job soon.
That’s a lot of stuff to digest, but hey, if you don’t read it then why are we writing it? February looms, cold and foreboding, the deepest darkness just before the dawn of spring. Wish us luck.
