The holiday season is always bat-shit crazy around these parts, which is not unusual for most folks who work covering the gaming industry. Publishers love to crank out a heap of games right before the colder months hit, and they don’t tend to let-up until right about now. That’s great news for us game journo freelancers,  as there’s usually a glut of overflow work available for a few solid months. But hot damn, is it a pain to keep up with blogging during the busy season. I’ve been making a solid effort, and I’m also considering making some design and writing changes to this site in the near future as I roll out some other projects. Until then, this remains a repository for my work, my random thoughts about whatever, and my music-related stuff.

Borrowing a handy little updating trick from fellow freelance comrade Andrew Hayward, here’s a massive info dump on all the print work I’ve done over the past few months. I’ve got a busy year ahead, so it’s upward and onward. Figured I’d just get this up before I dive back into the fray. Here’s a quick visual rundown of most of the print mag issues  I’ve contributed to over the last couple of months. I may have left a few issues out due to my inability to find the actual copies buried in the stacks of hell that have accumulated in my office.

First up: Nintendo Power.  I started writing for the mag in Oct. 2009, and I’ve been fortunate to have my work appear in every issue ever since. There’s a lot of new pieces I have in the pipeline, which I’m pumped about. Anyhow, I can’t find the Dec. 2010 issue, but I’m pretty sure my epic piece on this awesome live action Mega Man fan film ran in that issue. For the Holiday 2010 issue, I wrote another Mega Man themed Community piece, this time about a dude who made this insanely detailed mosaic out of screen shots from the first six Mega Man games. That appears on pg 94. and my review of Rune Factory 3 on DS also appears on pg. 89. In the January 2011 issue, I have a small community piece on pg. 94 highlighting some slick Princess Peach art made entirely with painted bottle caps. In the February 2011 , issue that just hit newsstands, I have two community pieces on the inventive charity fundraiser, Mario Marathon, and a piece on a working LEGO Metal Slug tank that all appear on pages 92, 93, and 95. That’s it for now. I have a bunch of stuff queued up for the next few issues and some other pieces I’m still working on.

Next up: EGM. This past summer, I was lucky enough to do some writing for the newly relaunched EGM/EGMi, and it’s been a pretty steady gig. In the Dec. 2010 issue, I have a news feature that explores the online gaming payment models for the three major console publishers, with a specific focus on the impact and implications of the semi-recent Xbox Live Gold subscription price hike. That shows up on pg 14, and I also have a short second-opinion review of Super Scribblenauts on DS that can be found on pg 74. In the January 2011 issue, a bunch of my recent EGM/EGMi review scores appear in a large recap found on pg. 77. I also have a news feature article on page 16 that looks at the Schwarzenegger vs. ESA/EMA case being looked at by the  Supreme Court and the impact it could have on the sale and development of violent video games. In the recent February 2011 issue, I have a full-page review of the excellent Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective on DS (found on page 75).

And finally: PlayStation: The Official Magazine. I started doing a monthly two-page review roundup of PSN games for the magazine back in late 2009 as well as some review write-ups of larger games.  Since the re-design a few months ago, I’m still writing monthly blurbs on PSP Minis, downloadable demos, free goodies, and whatnot, though my byline doesn’t appear under these pieces. I do this every month. Some month I also contribute larger reviews of PSN games. In the January 2011 issue, I have a short review of Blacklight: Tango Down on pg 85. For the February 2011 issue, I wrote up reviews of Spelunker HD, Worms Battle Island, and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX that appear on pages 86 and 87. In addition to my regular PSN stuff, I have a few other reviews appearing in the next issue as well.

Alright, alright. Enough self-indulgent word wanking. Time to get back to work.