My (nick)name is Al3xand3r.
I've been a hardcore gamer for almost all of my 25 year long life. Ever since that day I was encouraged to skip school and join a few of my friends at the Arcades, I knew what my favorite hobby would be for the rest of my life. Getting my hands on Nintendo's Gameboy sealed the deal for obvious reasons. Sega was the next company to show me the wonderful world of gaming via their Mega Drive (Genesis) & Sega Saturn consoles. Rooting for the underdog for several years allowed me to play some of the greatest examples of gaming which sadly went unnoticed by the mainstream.
Once the final golden nail was put in the Saturn's coffin (that being Panzer Dragoon Saga) I migrated to Sony's PlayStation, a worthy machine thanks to the excellent third party support and later some of Sony's own titles, only to return to Sega with their short lived but more than worthy Dreamcast.
PC gaming was my next field and remains my main hobby though I also own a Sony PSP and Nintendo Wii. I'm always interested in console gaming as a whole and will probably purchase the rest current (and future) generation systems at some point (when my wallet allows it).
My journalistic endeavours started several years ago when I realised that some of the websites I enjoyed visiting could perhaps find my knowledge of useful.
I earned experience by working for various known websites such as planethalflife.com (GameSpy) and hl2.jolt.co.uk (Jolt) as well as my personal website(s) Mod HQ & Steam Lab (down) which attracted a dedicated, if small, fan base thanks to the amount and quality of the content, especially the speed at which community news were reported. Some of my reports have been mentioned on various popular websites.
I acquired important contacts (via e-mails and interviews) within recognised software companies such as Valve Software and Ritual Entertainment, the former of which, seeing my personal hard work, not only gave me the chance to interview some of its major members (Ritual soon followed) but also offered me a Steam press account providing immediate access to most of the current as well as future video games published via their platform and media events (I took part in the first DoD: Source press preview) carried out within.
Somewhere in between, I had to go through my army service (I'm Greek, it's obligatory) and everything I had worked so hard for disappeared in the year (May 2007 - 2008) I was absent. I spent that time in the Greek Corps of Cyprus, a great opportunity which resulted in many important experiences and life lessons. Discipline, decision making, resource management and even leadership were only some of the required skills that can be of great value to civilian life.
I am currently employed by the Greek government's IRS but I'm always actively searching for an exciting, challenging job within the industry I love. Contact me via al3xand3r[at]gmail[dot]com.
Note: This interview was originally posted long before the announced release date of Aftermath, the first known name of what eventually became known as Episode One.
I recently had the great opportunity to interview Erik Johnson, Valve Software's Project Manager. Various topics were discussed and while not all of my questions were answered (which is, of course, more than understandable, but also the reason some of the content may appear a little disjointed), there are more than enough juicy details here to sink your teeth into whether you are a a fan or an aspiring developer. read more...
Note: This interview was originally posted on 15 Feb 2006 long before the release of SiN: Emergence and the company's buyout by MumboJumbo.
I was able to send a set of questions regarding SiN Episodes and its development to Ritual Entertainment for the interview you will be reading here. First of all I'd like to thank Tom "ParadoX" Mustaine (Director of Development / Vice President) for setting the whole thing up and of course, Levelord (Co-owner / Level Designer) and Steve "badman" Hessel (Community Relations Manager) for the time they took to answer all these questions. Also for putting up with me being a pain in the neck. Read on for the goodies! read more...
Note: This interview was originally posted on 29 Dec 2005. The project remains unreleased as of writing this but its developers show the occasional sign of ongoing production. It is still one of the promising modifications.
I recently got the chance to interview one of the Neotokyo lead members and so learn more about the development process as well as the planned gameplay and content. Now it's your turn to do the same with what I hope you will find to be an exciting read. read more...
Note: This review was originally posted on 12 Jul 2006, just after the title's release.
Basic Premise
There's not much of a story to The Ship. The mysterious Mr X has built a series of beautiful big ships and all the passengers received a free ticket to a luxury cruise aboard one of them. Upon boarding they discover that they are to take part in Mr X's twisted idea of a game as their life and the lives of their families are at risk. Their only chance for safety is to win.
As the official website explains, this devilish game Mr X wants you to play challenges you to kill or be killed. Once you're on board you're given the name of another passenger whom you must find and secretly murder. Every passenger is at the same time the hunter and the prey and the way to victory is to outsmart both your victim and your assassin (though the rules may vary a little depending on the game mode). read more...