I had all the characteristics of a blogger frayed jeans, opinions, laptop, tea but my depersonalisation was so intense, had gone so deep, that my normal ability to compile charts had been eradicated, the victim of a slow, purposeful erasure. I was simply imitating top ten articles, a rough resemblance of a best-sellers list, with only a dim corner of my mind functioning.

And yet. … [visit site to read more]

I’m trying to think who it could be. I don’t really have enemies any more, or not knowingly so. Some forgotten bully from school who never left our hometown and is still obsessed with tormenting me? A fellow journalist whose article I might have drunkenly tweeted something rude about in 2009? Someone I unfollowed or unfriended because they were tiresome or awful? You Know, Those Guys? Or: all of them, working together. Pooling their life savings to buy as many copies of a certain game as they can. Make no mistake: someone’s out to get me. It’s the only possible explanation.

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Whilst I was playing Cossacks 3 [official site], a console-focused journalist of some reknown (TV’s famous Simon Parkin, since you ask) popped his head into the rotting cupboard above a coffee shop that I attempt to call an office. He didn’t say anything when he glaced at my screen; didn’t have to, for his face said it all. This, these tiny men, those cod-historical serif fonts and that expanse of terrain> – this was what PC gamers played all the time. Our interests and stereotypes had not changed since 1997.

I sought, somewhat in vain, to defend myself, because in truth it has been many years since I played a historical RTS. Cossacks 3 is not PC gaming’s norm in 2016 any more than Mario or Sonic are consoles’, but I must admit that I found it to be something of a balm. A return to a more innocent age.

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GSC Game World have announced a release date for Cossacks 3 [official site], a remake of their 2001 RTS Cossacks: European Wars. If you loved Cossacks already then now’s the time to pay attention. It’ll be out September 20th.

… [visit site to read more]