“Atlantica Online is a strategy RPG—although players create their own character, they also hire ‘mercenaries’ up to a maximum of eight to take part in turn-based tactical battles. The game is set in an alternate reality mixing real world locations with fantasy and steampunk, and includes a variety of community features such as the ability to control towns and a player driven economy.”

I go into detail on this in the article, but Atlantica Online is an MMO with truly gorgeous art and truly rank “Kill X, Collect Y” level design. Korean MMORPGs, eh?

“To everyone who has seen The Wrestler, we always have the same advice: ‘see Beyond The Mat.’ The clear influence behind the story of Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson, it displays the very highs and lows of ‘sports entertainment’ that The Wrestler fictionalizes. Vampiro: Angel, Devil, Hero isn’t quite as successful.”

This column is actually largely a capsule review of the Vampiro biopic. I also mention North Korean Kaiju film Pulgasari which I’ve now seen and (to be honest) didn’t consider especially good.

“I’ve been thinking about the — perhaps not obvious — comparison between the Wii and the iPhone/iPod Touch a lot recently, and I think racing games are one of the best examples of their similarities (and differences). You see, I’ve never really got on with racing games on either system, with one vital exception – Mario Kart Wii.

Sadly, Low Grav Racer continues this trend.”

Yet to see a racer on iPhone that’s any cop at all – I just don’t think rotating or tilting the screen you’re trying to look at really works. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong, though.

“Sometimes, I’m sure, we’ve all looked to the sky and asked aloud, ‘God, why do bad things happen?’

Were God anything like the city planner I found myself as in SimCity on my iPod Touch, his response would be ‘listen, I’m really not trying to make bad things happen. I’m just clumsy. I’ve got these huge fingers, you see, and sometimes when I’m trying place a road it doesn’t go where I want it; or I zone areas incorrectly; or I accidentally hit the disaster button and destroy huge swathes of the city. I really can’t help it.’”

Sim City is a really unfortunately bad iPod Touch/iPhone game. I can’t imagine anyone gaining any pleasure from playing it unless they sand the tips of their fingers down to points.

Well, I guess Lady Deathstrike could enjoy it.

“While watching the trailers for Underworld: Rise of the Lycans that have been wallpapering TV recently, you may have wondered two things. First of all, “Rise of the Lichens?” and then probably, “Who is that beardy bloke who keeps yelling?”

We’ll tell you who it is. It’s only bloody Tony Blair!”

This is probably funnier as an non-sequitur.

(I also made a post about a new game development group in Toronto this week.)

“Straight up — I’ve never played the original Newtonica. If you’re already familiar with the fact that Newtonica2 is a completely different game, then my bothering to tell you this is almost certainly maddening, but shut up for a minute and let me meander to the point I’m trying to make.”

I’m not a huge puzzle game fan, but I like Newtonica2. It gets brutally exacting towards the end, however – and I have no idea if collecting the (impossibly hard to capture) doughnuts has any point, either.

“In eRepublik, users become the citizen of a nation, based on those in the real world, and take part in a simulation of the real world’s economic and political spheres. Players can take jobs, working their way up to own companies and corporations, get involved in wars between citizen-run countries, and even become president.”

eRepublik is a really neat idea completely undone by implementation.

“So where were you last night when the power cut hit? We can tell you where we were—sitting in the Bloor Cinema watching some old-school trailers and waiting for the Rue Morgue screening of the original My Bloody Valentine to start. While initially confusing—the lights going off in a cinema is, after all, expected, and the power had the grace to cut off directly as a trailer ended—it was unfortunate that after that point there was nothing left to do but go home without being able to ingest a classic Canadian slasher flick.”

I mention the fact I was off to see Chandni Chowk to China in an almost offhand fashion in this column. Well, I’ve seen it now, and I can quite easily say it may turn out to be one of my favourite films of this year. I sincerely recommend you check it out if you have any interest in either Bollywood or Kung Fu films, because it’s a brilliant mash-ups of the two.

“I love Space Deadbeef.

Kind of an unusual start for a review, to be honest, but it feels unusual enough that a free shooter that’s short to the point of being a “tech demo” should be far and away the best thing I’ve played on my iPod Touch that I’m not really worried about it.”

As Contributing Editor for Gamasutra I spend quite a lot of time working on the sites related to it – you may have noticed I’ve spent most of my time recently editing Worlds In Motion – but because I like doing reviews I’ve decided to start doing them for the one site on the network that does them, Finger Gaming.

And here’s the first one! A neat little review of a free app that pretty much everyone who likes shoot-em-ups (and owns an iPhone/iPod Touch) should have. Don’t listen to what people say about flying into bullets when trying to shoot enemies – that’s part of the challenge.

I think, anyway.

“And so we return to our weekly film round-up. A slightly delayed return, we guess, but with studios now mostly interested in revving up towards the Oscars with the films they’ve already released, there’s very little happening in January.”

A week of forgettable films leads to a sadly forgettable column…