It’s unfortunate that I’ve lost interest in the “wait for someone else to do math” dynamic of Small World, because Small World is a brilliant concept: take two things and jam them together to make a third thing. In this case, an adjective and a fantasy race. Berserk elves. Wealthy giants. Heroic trolls. Dragon master skeletons. Okay, dragon master isn’t really an adjective, but mastering dragons is so cool it doesn’t matter. The combinatorial possibilities make Small World an unlimited game. All that lurking synergy.
Even fairly recently, internet streaming video sites like Youtube and DailyMotion were considered a sort of holding spot for music clips and cat videos, not that there’s anything wrong with that. But if you go looking, there’s some creepy video footage to be found lurking in the shadows of those sites. Videos of unexplained phenomenon and weird events abound.
In this time of election drama, Brexit, and news gone mad, Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare offers a getaway. “Screw it, let’s go to space!” The one thing you can count on every year is that Activision will spend beaucoup bucks to make a ridiculous live-action commercial for Call of Duty. This year, Danny McBride and Michael Phelps, among others, enjoy the cathartic Michael Bay of it all. In this case, it’s Peter Berg with the directing honors. Berg knows explosions.
Team Liquid is pushing for Civilization VI to be included in esports. Where there is competition, there’s money, and sanctioned tournament strategy videogames has been a thing for years. Why should it just be hardcore real-time strategy games? Why not turn-based gaming? As Team Liquid points out in their announcement, big-money esports began in strategy gaming, so it makes sense that the community would embrace Civilization VI’s multiplayer which includes a faster, goal-oriented version of it’s regular rules, made for shorter matches. The next time Ghandi nukes you, there could be money on the line!
Juho Snellman (aka jsnell on the Qt3 forum) has a long history with Terra Mystica and unique insight into how to play it online. He’s also just back from Essen with a suitcase full of new games.
Horror is a young man’s game. Because as you get older, you have grandkids and you get all sentimental like Steven Spielberg or you lose your touch like John Carpenter or you just decide you’d rather chill out and do something else like Stephen King. Youth is the time to get all wound up about anxiety, fear, and dread. Later years are for just relaxing. Right?
I’m honored that a site called Folks is letting me write about something other than videogames and movies. Well, about something other than videogames, at any rate. I’ve written about what it’s like having first-hand experience with cancer and then seeing it in movies.
When you do a keyword search for cancer on the Internet Movie Database, you get 1500 entries. Breaking Bad is at the top of the list. Bryan Cranston’s cancer gives him license to break bad. He starts a meth lab to support his family. The series creator, Vince Gilligan, summarizes Breaking Bad as a story about a mild-mannered teacher who becomes the equivalent of Scarface.
Because cancer. Cancer lets you become an over-the-top Al Pacino character.
You can read the article here. You can also read a more personal take on my experiences here. And about a good friend’s struggle with cystic fibrosis here.
Hey, Nintendo fans! It looks like you’ll finally be able to play The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on a Nintendo console soon. The Nintendo Switch, (formerly known by its work-in-progress designation “NX”) is a hybrid console that can be configured on the fly as a mobile game system, a home TV console, and weird tablet thing with detachable controllers. It’s probably easier if you just go watch the announcement video to see it in action.
The Switch is a progression of the Wii U console design, blending the traditional console experience with the newer generation’s mobile focus. The odd little controller bits, called “Joy-Con” by Nintendo, are the key to the strategy. They can be used as independent controllers, they can be configured to act cooperatively as one controller, and they can be used in conjunction with the tablet section to create a Wii U-esque gamepad. If that’s not your thing, a more familiar Pro Controller will be available as an option.
The Nintendo Switch will be available worldwide March 2017.
Come on, Funcom. This is just sad. A bargain priced jump scare simulator marketed to the kids on Twitch and YouTube? This is the opposite of horror and The Secret World deserves better. Sigh. If watching the exaggerated grimaces of people recoiling from cheesy funhouse gags is your thing, Hide and Shriek might fill the hole in your life.
It’s Halloween and the students of magic at Little Springs High and Innsmouth Academy are about to honor an ancient tradition: sneaking into school after midnight, turning themselves invisible, and scaring the living hell out of each other!
Hide and Shriek will launch on October 25th on Steam.
Horror fiction is often at its best when you down it in one shot instead of nursing it like a beer. Short stories are ideal for a genre that benefits from leaving things unsaid. It took Twilight Zone less than thirty minutes to sink a barb. Stephen King didn’t need a thousand pages to freak you out with a story about a laundry machine that eats people, an astonaut who grows eyeballs in his hand, or beer than turns people into a fungus. So in the interest of time, let us recommend for you a couple of our favorite short form masters.
There’s a new Plants vs. Zombies game that you may not have heard about. It’s Plants vs. Zombies Heroes. It’s a collectible card game that has everything you love about CCG videogames. It’s got randomly sorted card packs you can buy with real money, haves-versus-have-nots multiplayer, and heroes with different powers to keep you occupied with unlocks and an XP grind. The PvZ twist is that the game features lanes of attack. You remember the lanes from the old Plants vs. Zombies games, right? They’re here, but now the attacking and defending units are cards.
