From the Editor
Early Deadlines and Zerglings... by Walt Pretorius
I
f there is one thing that gets writers’ knickers in a twist, it’s telling them that their deadlines are earlier than usual. OK, to be honest, the Gamecca Crew are a good bunch, and they didn’t grumble – at least not in my earshot. But this month was one full of early deadlines because – and this is probably obvious – StarCraft 2 needed to be reviewed. I bravely volunteered to undertake the duty, but getting through a review for a game like this potentially takes time. So, early deadlines, just to make sure that no work could interfere with my fun… errr, I mean reviewing. StarCraft 2 marks the biggest release of the year, and certainly one of the biggest of the last decade. The excitement for this game ran to fever pitch, and the uptake has been phenomenal. The Battle.Net servers are heaving with players old and new, and the sheer joy of the game is (at the time of writing) still outweighing overly competitive types. But StarCraft 2 isn’t the only big name title that is being released in 2010 (although it is stealing a lot of thunder.) There are a large number of top notch titles filling up the release lists and, come next month, we are going to start seeing them dropping onto shelves in quick order. I think that’s the thing I love the most about my job. I am something of an eternal optimist when it comes to games… even if I know that a game is going to be bad, I still look forward to giving it a whirl. I naturally have
very strong views about what makes a game good or bad, and these don’t always correspond with the norm. My main rule of thumb relates to whether a game is fun or not, which only the worst of the worst don’t get right. And so, as we rush towards the end of the year – and all the lovely gaming releases that go with it – I am becoming as giddy as a school girl. Never mind the heavy time demands or the sleepless nights that getting all those reviews done will result in. It’s all about getting more games, more potential for fun. Our birthday issue (last month’s one) was very well received, and I would like to take a moment to say thanks to all of those who sent us notes of congratulations. We hope that, as time goes by, Gamecca just keeps getting better and better. At the moment we have several ideas brewing to add more top-notch content to the mag. Watch this space for details. You may notice that the Geekology column is taking a bit of a rest. This month Dion Scotten fills the space with his ideas, in the form of The Rat’s Nest. We hope to see great things from this new column (if we don’t, we’ll cut off his game access.) Other than that, we bring you a bunch of reviews and previews to check out. As always, we review games that are currently available, rather than running reviews written from early code. That way you know that our reviews are based on final
products, and that you can go out and buy them immediately, if you like the sound of them. And, as always, you can download the latest mag… just follow the link on the front page of www.gamecca.co.za. Also remember to look out for us on Facebook and Twitter, and be sure to subscribe to our spam-free newsletter (also at the Gamecca site.) And drop us a letter or two, why don’t you – we love hearing from our readers. Right, that’s enough rambling from me. Let’s get on with the show. g
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