T w e n t y S i d e d
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “DM of the Rings Remastered CXXXIX: Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy!”
DM of the Rings Remastered CXXXIX: Oh Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy!
MTG Prerelease Outing
Magic the Gathering’s newest set is a Universes Beyond release based around Avatar: The Last Airbender. Prior to the full retail release of a new set in Magic there’s events called “prereleases” that allow you to play with the new cards early. My wife, myself, Bay, and Izzy will be heading out to a local event tonight.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “MTG Prerelease Outing”
Wednesday Action Log 11-12-25
More Slay the Spire this week.
I’ve been slowly getting better at playing as the Watcher. My main roadblock has been that the only runs that make it anywhere near the end are usually focused on blocking. They have such little damage that it takes 20 turns to fight a regular monster, let alone a boss. Surely if I just do the same thing again I’ll get a different result.
What’s everyone else up too?
Slasher Movie Evolution: In the Case of Halloween and Halloween II
Last week we talked about the origin of the “Big Three” slasher movie franchises: Halloween, Friday the 13th, and A Nightmare on Elm Street. All three of the original movies were created as stand-alone films, although as noted A Nightmare on Elm Street had a sequel approved right at the end of filming, causing a final scene to be added that essentially negated the conclusion (and arguably the message) of the movie. All three franchises would eventually re-write their long-lasting villains into different concepts, but not necessarily immediately.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Slasher Movie Evolution: In the Case of Halloween and Halloween II”
DM of the Rings Remastered CXXXVIII: Another Cunning Gambit
Trophies and Achievements Are Fine. Good Even.
Achievements and trophies have been a contentious addition to the gaming space since their initial releases. The majority of people mostly ignore them. Some find it mildly annoying to have their immersion or momentum broken up by a HUD element obscuring the action. Some really hate them, viewing them as trivializing and undermining the individual game’s enjoyment or message for the sake of short-term dopamine. Certain dopamine deprived monkeys, like myself, love them. And for the sake of this article I will refer to them all collectively as trophies, as the PSN system is my area of focus.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Trophies and Achievements Are Fine. Good Even.”
Wednesday Action Log 11-05-25
This week was once again, uneventful.
I played more Slay the Spire, and pretty much spent the whole week trying to beat the game with the Defect. Yesterday I did it with great effort and luck. And now I’m going to try to beat it as the Watcher.
I did also play a few rounds of R.E.P.O. since the monster update came out. I’ve only seen a few of the new monsters, but they have definitely spiced things up.
How’s everyone else doing this week?
From The Archives:
Mass Effect Retrospective
A novel-sized analysis of the Mass Effect series that explains where it all went wrong. Spoiler: It was long before the ending.
Steam Summer Blues
This mess of dross, confusion, and terrible UI design is the storefront the big publishers couldn't beat? Amazing.
What is Vulkan?
What is this Vulkan stuff? A graphics engine? A game engine? A new flavor of breakfast cereal? And how is it supposed to make PC games better?
Spec Ops: The Line
A videogame that judges its audience, criticizes its genre, and hates its premise. How did this thing get made?
Project Octant
A programming project where I set out to make a Minecraft-style world so I can experiment with Octree data.
Stolen Pixels
A screencap comic that poked fun at videogames and the industry. The comic has ended, but there's plenty of archives for you to binge on.
What is Vulkan?
There's a new graphics API in town. What does that mean, and why do we need it?
Was it a Hack?
A big chunk of the internet went down in October of 2016. What happened? Was it a hack?
Bethesda’s Launcher is Everything You Expect
From the company that brought us Fallout 76 comes a storefront / Steam competitor. It's a work of perfect awfulness. This is a monument to un-usability and anti-features.
Overused Words in Game Titles
I scoured the Steam database to figure out what words were the most commonly used in game titles.