Never forget your first

Mean Yob was probably one of the most successful creations from all of Emap's console magazines. It was Julian's sneaky way of telling the readers they were 'mentally challenged' and not take any flak directly. Yob was one of the first illustrations I did for Mean Machines and became a popular figure for contributors and other artists. For some bizarre reason I gave away most of my original Yob artwork when I left Images back in 1996. Luckily I held onto the first Yob painting I made and it's still in pretty good nick. This image was first sketched out onto CS10 paper and then inked with a .25 Rotring pen. For the life of me I cannot remember what I used for the colour but I was a complete amateur with brushes and avoided them as often as possible.

Bioshock in good game shocker!

Bioshock really does kick ass! So it's another 360 shooter, not particularly original and for an 18 cert I was expecting a little more splatter. A bit cack then? Not on your life pal. My tired eyes are testament to the marathon sessions I've put into the game since I grabbed my copy from Tesco the other day. It's riveting, suspenseful and almost impossible to break away from once you get immersed into the story. Especially if you get sidetracked on achievement hunting and the endless search for upgrades and tonics hidden across the levels. This is not The Darkness-style collectible drudgery either. Every room is skillfully rendered with plenty to examine or just simply to admire. Throw in some expletive drenched splicers, ear-splitting alarm bells or the whale-like drone of the Big Daddies and you have edge-of-the-seat stuff for anyone with a pulse. I reached the part where you need to photograph dead bodies for a nutcase who is making some oddball statue out of corpses and picture frames. I had the photos an hour ago but I keep walking around looking for unexplored rooms and machines to hack. Bioshock is pure class and you've got to be a muppet to ignore it.

12 years on...

...and Gary's Gossip returns! Torn screaming from the dusty pages of Nintendo Magazine System and tortured by the CIA until it agreed to spill more gaming diarrhea for the fans. Yes, all seven of you. Going to post a mixture of old and new so expect to be 'thrilled' with unheard of tales from the 'ol Emap days. The new stuff will cover my gaming habits, industry opinion and the odd yet obligatory jibe at someone elses expense. I've got a ton of cool pictures that will keep the retro freaks happy along with some interesting snaps of what might have been had Moloney not screwed it all up for everyone.

What the hell is Gary's Gossip anyhow? How did it start? Harrod? Who hell he? Answers to these and other global issues will be answered in the months ahead. If you are an impatient bugger you should perhaps check out Damien's fine memorial to Mean Machines magazine for a crash course on what old skool gaming magazines were all about.