David Francis Smith began writing about video games professionally in the days of the dot-com boom, when they’d give any damn fool a job. He was ejected from the premises after nine months at Gamers’ Republic magazine, survived nearly three years of quarterly layoffs at IGN.com before his number came up, and helped co-found 1UP.com.

 

Former Electronic Gaming Monthly boss James Mielke is alleged to have once said, “David Smith was amazing at what he did, it’s just too bad he was such a [characterization omitted] all the time.”

stories by D. F. Smith

Game of Thrones brings the pain…and not in a good way (review)

May 14, 2012 8:58 PM D. F. Smith

Telling a story is only part of making a game, and that’s where the Game of Thrones game falls down. This feels like a novella turned into a role-playing game against its will, which makes it tough to recommend, no matter how addicted to Ice and Fire a fan might be.

Smash, grab, and steal from your friends in Fable Heroes (review)

April 30, 2012 1:52 PM D. F. Smith

But like Juliet once said, what's in a name? Fun is fun no matter what they call it, and Fable Heroes is a pretty good time. It's a cooperative game but only up to a point. A lot of players will recall The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, another "co-op" experience that cheerfully rewards the selfish, greedy, and mean. Four friends can get their ten bucks worth of fun here so long as they don’t end up at each other’s throats before it’s over.

Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir is creepy enough while it lasts (review)

April 11, 2012 8:55 AM D. F. Smith

Spirit Camera: The Cursed Memoir is one of those games where the “Genre:” tag should read “Design Experiment.” It feels like the first question the creative team asked was, “How can we try out this new technology?” as opposed to “What is the story we want to tell?” or “What kind of experience do we want to create for the player?”