July 28, 2008
By Ben Warren

Those who know me will be able to tell you what I do, not because I have gone out of my way to tell them, but because a person’s profession affects every little moment of their life. For a Teacher everything is potentially a lesson to be taught to their charges, with resources and lesson plans all around them. For a Firefighter everything is either safe or unsafe when it comes to being a fire hazard, and you can physically see them looking around a venue when they enter for the first time to check and see if the emergency exits are clearly marked and unblocked. Myself, as a Graphic Designer and Illustrator, I see the world with a little more flare for inventiveness.

June 17, 2008
By Ben Warren

Series two of the adult orientated ‘Doctor Who’ spin-off show ‘Torchwood’ has now started on British screens, making the jump from Digital’s BBC3 to terrestrial channel BBC2 and filling the 9:00pm slot. It’s interesting to note that by the first episode it is clear that the production company behind the series has already dropped a lot of their original mandate for the show, opening up more links to the show it spawned from and even producing a child-friendly edited version that goes out earlier at night for each episode to try and capture some of the fan-base it was otherwise missing out on.

June 10, 2008
By Ben Warren

Search any media site at this moment in time and they will all be playing the same computer game trailer. Magazines world wide have dropped their cover stories in favour of splashing an image of two of the most recognisable game characters in the world fighting it out. Someone at Capcom must have heard someone whispering that ‘Smash Bros Brawl’ was going to be the biggest fighter on the shelves in years, and decided to bring out the daddy of all Beat-em-ups in order to prove just how wrong they are. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Street Fighter IV.

June 3, 2008
By Ben Warren

In line with the current trend at SquareEnix, Final Fantasy 4 is about to get the DS treatment. Lately it seems that all they have been doing is living off of their past glory whilst manufacturing so-so titles to keep die-hard fans happy – which is fine by me, their previous work is far more fun to play than anything they’ve released lately. With all the fanfare that FF3 received when it was finally released for the western market, upgraded into 3D and with an expanded plot from the NES original, it seemed obvious that some of the other early titles would be given an upgraded release sooner or later (especially after games 1-6 have finished being released onto the GBA in their ‘Advanced’ incarnations). Even a long-time player like me would consider this a bit extreme, after all 1 and 2 just got re-released onto the PSP as well, but oddly I don’t mind in this case.