ANACHRONOX re-released on Good Old Games

Anachronox, one of the greatest, funniest and flat-out most bonkers computer RPGs of all time, has finally been made available on Good Old Games. For $6 you can set out to save the universe with a party comprising a washed-out Mexican superhero, a grumpy old archaeologist with health issues and a miniaturised planet. Worth playing for the showdown with the evil supervillain Rictus (catchphrase: "I SHALL KILL YOU...WITH DEATH!") and the fact your mouse pointer exists in-game as a character and occasionally talks to the party-members.


More than worth playing today (if you can get over the somewhat clunky graphics), especially at such a ridiculously low price and considering the game has been optimised to work with modern PCs.

GAME OF THRONES sets DVD sales records for HBO

HBO have revealed that Game of Thrones is the fastest-selling DVD or Blu-Ray release in the company's history. Season 1 of the show outsold all of their prior box sets in its first seven days on sale. When you realise that means it has outsold The Sopranos, The Wire, True Blood, Band of Brothers or The Pacific, that is a huge and impressive achievement. The series also set new records for HBO sales on iTunes.


Notably, the box set shifted somewhat more copies (57% in the USA) on Blu-Ray than on DVD.

Excellent news, especially as we know that DVD sales were going to be a key factor in future decisions to renew the series.

Details on the resurrection of BALDUR'S GATE

The first information about the rebirth of the Baldur's Gate franchise has been released. As anticipated, the project is an 'Enhanced Edition' of the existing BioWare games (Baldur's Gate, Tales of the Sword Coast, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal) which will launch later in the summer. The first release will be Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, which will include the original game and its expansion with enhanced and improved artwork, native high-resolution support and reworked music and voice-overs. There will also be some 'new content' provided by the original writers and creators of the game.


Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition, which will include the Throne of Bhaal expansion, will be released at a later date. This is generous, since whilst Tales of the Sword Coast was a fairly minor expansion to the original game (with a couple of dungeons and a few new monsters and magic items), Throne of Bhaal was massive in size, easily bigger than many full games. Including it with the already-gigantic Baldur's Gate II is an impressive move.

The Enhanced Edition will retain the original isometric, 2D viewpoint, but with a better interface and higher-res graphics. The game will also retain the Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition ruleset (understandably, as moving to a different edition would necessitate rewriting the entire game from scratch). Whilst there will be new content and new characters (unknown if there will be new party characters), the game will have the same music and sound effects as the original. What is interesting is that the codebase for the entire remake comes from the latest release of Throne of Bhaal, meaning that all the interface improvements from the later games (better inventory, more class/kit combos, possibly a much higher level limit) will be available in the original Baldur's Gate (as quite a few mods enable at the moment). The new remake will also be compatible with many existing mods and original savegames.

Ex-BioWare staff are involved in the project, which is coming from Overhaul and Beamdog, under licence from Atari and the supervision of Wizards of the Coast. If the project is successful enough for all involved, than apparently an original Baldur's Gate III could well become a reality.

Excellent news. A full remake of the original games is just what the Miniature Giant Space Hamster ordered (especially in the wake of the colossal disappointment that was the ending to Mass Effect 3). You will be able to gather your party and venture forth this summer.

Gamer pays game creator $10K as an apology for pirating his game

Min-Liang Tan, the founder of pro-gaming peripheral company Razer, has given $10,000 to games developer Brian Fargo as an apology for pirating his game Wasteland a couple of decades ago. Fargo has been using the 'Kickstarter' system to raise funds for a potential Wasteland 2 and has recently passed his first goal of raising $900,000.


In a Tweet, Tan said

"I'm sorry for playing on a pirated copy of Wasteland years ago, I hope this makes up for it."

Fargo's startled reply was:

"Wow.. I just saw that you donated 10k... You more than made up for it. I am most grateful...You are forgiven... ;) Thanks for the support."

Fargo is legendary within the video games market for founding Interplay in 1983. He directly wrote and created Wasteland (released in 1988) and later worked on games such as the original Fallout, which was directly inspired by Wasteland. He also worked on the Baldur's Gate franchise. During the numerous tumults that shook Interplay in the early 2000s, he quit to found a new development company, inXile, which is now producing Wasteland 2.

First footage of DISHONORED

One of the potential sleeper hits for this year in gaming is Dishonored, a steampunk game being developed by some of the creators of Deus Ex, Thief: Deadly Shadows and Arx Fatalis. The game is notable for its offbeat feel, its steampunk setting and some interesting character designs. It could well be one of the first games in the 'New Weird' subgenre to appear.

In this video, creators Harvey Smith and Raphael Colantino discuss how the game works. It basically sounds like a steampunk Bioshock mixed in with elements of Deus Ex, such as being given missions and then total freedom on how you execute them, varying between stealth, combat and information-gathering. Potentially interesting is an eavesdropping system, where pausing and spying on enemies before engaging them could lead to your objectives changing on the fly.

Originally mooted for summer 2012, a final release date for the game has not yet been revealed. It will be published by Bethesda who, in the wake of the enormous success of Skyrim, are probably going to be content to wait until Dishonored is fully ready before releasing it.

New cover art: David Wingrove & China Mieville

First up, a better look at Larry Rostant's cover art for the third Chung Kuo book, The Middle Kingdom, due on 1 August 2012:


And with the cover lettering in place:


Meanwhile, the UK cover art for Railsea, China Mieville's new novel, due on 24 May:

Happy 15th and 20th Birthday to BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

2012 marks two anniversaries for Joss Whedon's signature creation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. July marks the 20th anniversary of the release of the original 1992 movie starring Kristy Swanson and Donald Sutherland. More notably, however, Saturday was the 15th anniversary of the TV series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.


Joss Whedon created the character for a spec script he shopped around Hollywood in the early 1990s. He was inspired by the idea of inverting the traditional horror movie open with a monster chasing a girl and killing her. Instead, the girl fights back and kills the monster, because that's her job. Whilst the 1992 movie (directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui) was a modest success, Whedon was unhappy with the degree to which his script was messed around with. In 1996 he was offered the chance to helm a TV spin-off and seized the opporunity with enthusiasm. Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on 10 March 1997 and ran for seven seasons, concluding in 2003. It also spawned an arguably superior spin-off, Angel, which ran for five seasons in 1999-2004.

The series was notable for combining drama and humour, whilst its ensemble cast was impressive. It made Joss Whedon a cult star, along with several of the cast (such as James Marsters and Allyson Hannigan) as well as kicking off the career of David Boreanaz (now famous in the States for his role in the long-running Bones). Ultimately it led to Whedon being picked to write and direct the movie The Avengers, due out this year. It wasn't the most consistent series in quality - arguably only the second and third seasons were reliably excellent and the rest were highly variable - but when it was on form it was very entertaining, with several episodes (such as the inventive, almost dialogue-less Hush and the unrelentingly dark The Body, an impressive take on loss and grief) that are borderline genius.

The future of the Buffyverse appears in doubt these days, with apparently the studio that owns the rights more interested in pursuing a movie remake rather than anything new in the existing setting.

GAME OF THRONES Season 2 episode title update

An update on what we know about the second season episodes for Game of Thrones.


201: The North Remembers. Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by Alan Taylor. 1 April.
202: The Night Lands. Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by Alan Taylor. 8 April.
203: What is Dead May Never Die. Written by Bryan Cogman, directed by Alik Sakharov. 15 April.
204: Garden of Bones. Written by Vanessa Taylor, directed by David Petrarca. 22 April.
205: The Ghost of Harrenhal. Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Petrarca. 29 April.
206: The Old Gods and the New. Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter. 6 May.
207: Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter. 13 May.
208: Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by Alan Taylor. 20 May.
209: Blackwater. Written by George R.R. Martin, directed by Neil Marshall. 27 May.
210: Written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by Alan Taylor. 3 June.

EDIT: Apparently David Benioff and D.B. Weiss got another writer in for at least one of the episodes. This person has not yet been identified (although it's not Jane Espenson, who also worked on Season 1, as she was too busy with Torchwood: Miracle Day when Season 2 was being written).

EDIT2: HBO have confirmed that Vanessa Taylor (a former writer on Alias and Everwood), a co-executive producer on the series, has written two episodes of Season 2. Which episodes is so far unconfirmed.

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion by Terry J. Erdmann

Deep Space Nine, the second spin-off from the original Star Trek series, ran for seven seasons from 1993 to 1999. At the time it was originally on the air it was considered the 'awkward child' of the Star Trek franchise, being overshadowed at the start of its run by the end of Star Trek: The Next Generation and then for the rest of its run by the start of Star Trek: Voyager. Time has been kind to the series, however, and it is now widely regarded as the best - or at least the most consistently excellent - of the Star Trek television series.


It's therefore appropriate that the best Star Trek series got the best companion book out of all of the series, and in fact probably the best non-fiction book ever written about Star Trek. To write it, Terry J. Erdmann took the unusual step of developing it alongside the series. He literally started writing it in 1993 when the show launched and completed it in 1999 after it concluded, publishing it in 2000. This - slightly mental - way of writing the book allowed him to interview the writers, actors and production staff at regular intervals when their memories of each episode were fresh, and in some cases be on-set for the filming of scenes. This wasn't a cash-in hack job to ride on the show's popularity, but an eight-year project that is impressive in showing its creators' commitment to doing as good a job as possible.

The format of the book is fairly standard. The book is divided into seven sections, one for each season of the show. There's an overview of the season as a whole and then a summary of each episode, as well as cast lists, transmission dates and all the usual gubbins you get in books like this. However, the meat of the book is the elaborate 'behind the scenes' section for each and every one of the 173 episodes that was made. These sections usually feature interviews with the episode writers about how the idea for the episode came about, comments from the actors who were heavily featured (regular, recurring and guest stars alike) in the episode in question, and discussions with the director and production crew who had to turn each script into a reality.

These behind-the-scenes sections are impressive. Every episode, no matter how minor or unsuccessful, has one, and they're usually between 2 and 4 A4 pages of reasonably small print in length. This is why the book is over 700 pages long, which is bordering on the 'insane' side of things for an episode guide. The reason for the length is that almost everyone involved in the making of the series offers insightful thoughts on the production process. The writers (including future Battlestar Galactica showrunner Ronald D. Moore) are honest and forthright in debating their writing choices, including what went wrong as well as what went right. Showrunner Ira Steven Behr's brutally honest appraisals of how dire episodes like Let He Who Is Without Sin and Proft and Lace made it to the screen are interesting and also extremely funny.

The actors also have their say, talking about how they developed their characters from episode to episode and why they made the acting choices that they did. Production crew are also interviewed, from the director of each episode down to the stuntmen, visual effects personnel and occasionally even the extras. The book makes it clear that vast amounts of work went into making each episode of the show. That the series turned out as well as it did under the chaos of a production schedule almost unthinkable today is clearly a tribute to the professionalism of everyone involved.

What is most interesting is the way the guide tackles the sometimes challenging relationship between DS9 and the rest of the Star Trek franchise. The writers are unapologetic about the problems they had on The Next Generation, where interpersonal conflict between the human characters was not allowed, and applaud the freedom that Deep Space Nine gave them to write more interesting psychological stories. They also reveal that Deep Space Nine had cast-iron rules about limiting the amount of technobabble in the series and a total ban on 'holodeck malfunction' episodes. However whilst the contributors are surprisingly honest, this is still an official tie-in book, so the severity of the disagreements between the DS9 staff and overall Star Trek franchise-runner Rick Berman are downplayed (more recent interviews indicate some of these disagreements were a lot more serious than this book indicates, with Berman eventually giving up and preferring to work on Voyager). The absence of any mention of the rivalry between the DS9 and Babylon 5 fanbases is also interesting given some of the things happening at the time, probably another casualty of the book trying to take a positive view of everything.

Still, whilst there's a few areas the book doesn't touch on, pretty much everything else about the series is explored in ridiculous detail. From the transition of motion-controlled model work to full CGI (the revelation that a considerably more elaborate version of the Battle of Wolf 359 from the pilot episode was shot but has never been shown is tantalising; maybe something for a future Blu-Ray release?) to the ongoing evolution of the prosthetics work, there's few side-areas of the production that are not touched upon.

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion (*****) is hands-down the best tie-in book of its nature I've ever read, and in this age of instant and free-to-access wikis and production videos and webcasts, maybe the best there ever will be. It's an impressive guide to how this series was conceived and filmed, packed with fascinating revelations and trivia. Even if you have no interest in DS9, it's still a fascinating read for anyone interested in the process of producing a weekly science fiction TV show. The book is - sadly - long out of print, but copies (for somewhat excessive prices) can still be found on Amazon UK and Amazon USA.

Kings of Morning by Paul Kearney

Years ago, ten thousand Macht mercenaries marched into the heart of the Asurian Empire and were betrayed. Only a handful of survivors, led by the famous warrior Rictus, escaped to see home. In the years since then, Rictus has lived through times of peace and war, standing alongside the legendary Corvus as he forged the fractious Macht cities into a single nation. The Macht have now re-invaded the Empire, this time deploying new weapons and strategies that baffle their enemies. But their greatest ally is the division and turmoil that seethes in the heart of the Empire, as the imperial household is divided at the very moment it needs to unify against the invaders.


Kings of Morning is the third and concluding book in Paul Kearney's Macht sequence, which began with 2008's excellent The Ten Thousand and continued with 2010's even better Corvus. As with those books, Kings of Morning mixes fantasy with historical fiction and even a hint of SF: Kuf, the planet on which the books take place, is apparently an alien world and the Macht seem to be the descendants of human settlers/invaders, with the natives a notably different humanoid race. The influence of Alexander the Great on Corvus's story is clear, meaning the general trajectory of the plot can be a little predictable. However, Kearney mixes things up enough to ensure the story never gets stale.

Structurally, the novel is a little different to its two predecessors, which focused almost completely on Rictus's point of view. The opening quarter or so of the novel shows a political crisis within the heart of the Empire, as the brutish heir to the imperial throne, Kouros, and his younger brother engage in a bitter feud, with their father apparently unwilling to intervene. A hapless slave boy is unwittingly caught in the middle of this dispute, to his ruin (a strong stomach is required for the scenes where he is tortured by Kouros). This is an interesting way of starting the book and demonstrates Kearney's impressive power of concise storytelling without sacrificing depth. In this story the Macht are a vague and distant threat, easily dismissed, until it's almost too late.

We then switch back to Corvus, Rictus and the Macht army on the march and are soon back into a world of strategy meetings, comradeship and desperate battles against superior numbers. Yet Kearney, for all his reputation as one of the finest writers of battles working today (in either fantasy or historical fiction), keeps the martial action at a distance for most of the book, instead focusing on Rictus's character development as he sees the culmination of Corvus's plans and starts thinking about his own future. The conflict in Rictus between the lifelong soldier who tires of peace but hates the waste of war is developed well throughout the book and contrasted against the world-weariness of the Asurian Great King, Ashurnan.

Kearney's skills of characterisation are impressive, particularly the attention he gives to Kouros. Though an unthinking, thin-skinned brute, Kouros is given a backstory and motivation that explain why he is the way he is without ever risking him becoming sympathetic, and developing him as a villain (if he's even competent enough to be called that) much more than beyond the initial impression the reader gets of him. Kearney also undercuts the storyline of the two royal twins and their mutilated servant trying to flee into the wilds, with it moving in some very unexpected directions (even if the ultimate destination is unsurprising).

Kearney restrains the military activity to a few brief descriptions of sieges and negotiated truces before giving us one large battle. Inspired by several of Alexander's engagements, the Battle of Gaugamesh is an impressive display of depicting a complex engagement spread over a large battlefield in a straightforward manner. Kearney's skills at writing warfare remain undimmed, but it's his depiction of the aftermath, of the mix of disgust at the waste of life of war and admiration of the heroism of those who endure such hellish circumstances, which impresses the most.

The novel climaxes in a surprising fashion. Whether the parallels between Corvus and Alexander will continue or not is something that is not answered, as this trilogy is the story of Rictus, and that story ends impressively with Kings of Morning. We bow out of the story at this point with the full impression that life will go on regardless.

Criticisms are hard to find. The novel is very concise and at times the reader will want more information, more character scenes, more battle sequences, but these are not necessary for the story Kearney is telling. In epic fantasy it is rare to find an author who leaves the reader wanting more rather than feeling over-stuffed on thousands of pages of needless filler, and the former is definitely preferable. Some may feel the novel lacks a full resolution to Corvus's story, which is fair, but then this trilogy is not about Corvus and it certainly finishes Rictus's story in fine form. Finally, some may feel we don't get any revelations of note about the (possibly techno-organic) black armour of the Macht that makes them so difficult to kill, but again Kearney gives us some clues to be going on with and there are few possible explanations for it that would not veer towards either the obvious or the cheesy.

Overall then, Kings of Morning (*****) is a superb military fantasy novel and a fine conclusion to one of the best epic fantasy/historical fiction crossovers of recent years. The novel is available now in the UK and USA.