Last year, Rift stuck Christmas decorations all over the place, including presents and Christmas trees out in the open world. It was cute if you’re into the whole “let’s drizzle holiday themes over everything” approach. I don’t recall if there was some sort of Rift fiction about these Christmas trees and presents. I don’t recall much about Rift’s fiction at any rate. And I haven’t played World of Warcraft enough to know whether the winter snowball fights and presents and whatnot have some sort of unique place in Azeroth other than “just because”. I imagine DC Universe will have Christmas in Gotham and Metropolis because Christmas actually exists in the real Gotham and Metropolis.
But I like how ArenaNet’s fictional holidays — which I believe have been carried over from the original Guild Wars — feel like they’ve bubbled up from inside the world of Guild Wars rather than being imposed from the outside simply because of the real world. First there was the Mad King for Halloween, and now there’s the asura Tixx in a massive golem-shaped zeppelin, which will visit various cities before coming to rest at Lion’s Arch. Wintersday — not Christmas, mind you! — starts this weekend. Check out the schedule here, with dates and places for the zeppelin’s tour.
Calling a game disappointing arguably has more to do with me than the game itself. Disappointment isn’t an inherent quality. It can’t exist without some sort of expectation in the first place. In many cases, these games are sequels, or the creations of developers with proven track records, or entries in established genres. But for various reasons, the central fact about these games is that I had hoped to like them better.
Before we can get to the fight for Stalingrad or whatnot, there is the small question of Sevastopol. This naval base on the Crimean peninsula, famous as the site of the focus of the Crimean War in 1855, was the home of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet in 1941 and stood as a fortress through a 250-day siege until it finally fell to the Germans in 1942. In War in the East’s Operation Blue scenario, the Soviets get 50 points for every turn they control the city. That’s a lot of points, so I need to make an all-out assault on the first turn to limit the damage to my final victory.
After the jump, Germany made an all-out assault of their own.Continue reading →
This week is our hopefully annual “We love Lynn Shelton” episode. We discuss the non-studio comedies Humpday and Your Sister’s Sister, directed by Miss Shelton. At the 53-minute mark, we mount up for this week’s 3×3 to consider whether bicycles are awesome or ridiculous.
