The Blue Casket

Hello reader,

You’re reading The Blue Casket, one of the most extensive catalogues of ‘game diaries’ and AARs on the web. Unfortunately, I’m back in education again for just one last year, which means TBC is going offline for a considerable period of time. I may bring it back online again sometime in 2010, but for now please browse the archives and read some of the excellent stuff that everyone linked to on this site has written.

Thanks for stopping by,

Mike

I just went and bought Star Wars – Jedi Knight – Jedi Outcast off of Steam. I’m so glad the LucasArts back catalogue is being added, it really bodes well for the future of Steam. Anyway, I’m off to play that and I’m leaving you with a Star Wars offering for this Sunday too. It’s TIE Fighter! Pyow! Swoosh! Whee! etc. I should point out it’s entirely done from memory, in MS Paint. And is therefore hilarious.

The Blue Casket is going on holiday for a week, starting tomorrow! We’ll see you back soon.

Let’s Play – TIE Fighter

This week I’ve got a short-short from Lee Bradley, he of the Collect blog. It’s the first in his series of Fallout 3 reports, and you can find the whole set here. Want to write for this section? Send me in a piece to bluecasket <at> sekritforum <dotcom>.

It started with an accident and ended with mass murder.

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It’s been said many times that you can’t take a bad screenshot in EVE Online, and this Flickr group certainly supports the idea. As we end our week of gaming photography/screenshotting, we dive into space and take a spin around the beautiful space epic MMO. Next week, normal service returns!

EVE Online @ Flickr

Flickr has a nice Videogame Photography group, with a wide variety of games showing up including Far Cry, Oblivion and GTA. It’s mostly in Spanish, but the photos are what you’re there for. If you’ve just joined us, this week is The Blue Casket’s Snapshots week, celebrating gaming photography.

Videogame Photography @ Flickr

World of Warcraft is exceedingly beautiful. Koinup’s users show this off adeptly, particularly Morgana Le Fay, whose screenshots are taken and edited with extreme care, producing some truly stunning views. If you’ve played WoW before, I suspect you’ll be surprised at how choice of shot and filter has changed the famous MMO world.

Morgana Le Fay @ Koinup

Pentadact, otherwise known as the handsome and intelligent Mister Tom Francis of PC Gamer semi-fame, is great at capturing little moments in games, particularly TF2.  His catalogue of screens over on Flickr are a joy to shuffle through, as is his blog. Tom also wrote the GalCiv diaries, which you may remember from earlier.

Pentadact @ Flickr

Welcome to our Snapshots week, where we’ll be featuring some really quite good galleries of gaming photography. Since many readers of The Runner only go there for the images, we thought we’d start the week with his Flickr account. It’s got full-size photos of a lot of his blog shots, as well as some not posted, and the game looks stunning. Wallpaper-worthy stuff there.

The Runner @ Flickr

Today, we’ve got a whole Let’s Play of the superb roguelike-but-not platformer that is Spelunky. Part One is above, and you can find the rest at the link below. Then go download the final version of Spelunky from Spelunky World and get playing yourself!

Let’s Play Spelunky (via Penny Arcade)

Another blog-to-be here, this time from Adam, who’s been replaying the understated F-29 Retaliator, a game from when men were real men and aviators were real aviators but didn’t really play videogames. Let’s get on with the Short – if you want to see your name in 12pt font, email fifteen hundred words or less to bluecasket at sekritforum.com. Somehow, I’ll find it.

I’m the son of a senator, Senator Bill Young of Georgia. I won’t lie, I had it easy. Growing up, I mean. Well, everything: schools, friends, money, girls, a kickass dad with some really scary friends. I’ve taken the easy road through life, but now I’m here, standing in an office wearing a crisp uniform and saluting. With my hand, I mean. And at an officer, not a high school cheerleader. That other thing in the hotel room the Atlanta Herald made up. Anyway, and so I’m doing that and he says to me:

“Congratulations, pilot. Welcome to the Air Force.”

This is my story.

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