This book, this book again. I am nervous to report that it’s beginning to make sense! My unease persists as the understanding is thin and wispy, threatening to float away. I’ve begun to revisit earlier passages. These words jitter through my eyes and into my brain like whispers upwind. Crook thy head. “We’ve come to…
It’s 6:23 on a Tuesday night and I’m sitting at a table with two others. I know what time because I have a tablet in my palms and I accidentally press the home button. Medieval music is playing. Lutes and panpipes and percussion summoning devils and stirring souls while the world goes dark. I am…
A couple of years ago I was driving through Memphis and I had the radio cranked to a level of volume best described as distortion. I was listening to a classic rock station; timeless cuts like “Fortunate Son” and “Jessie’s Girl”. The car was bumping. Then something strange happened. “Seven Nation Army” by The White…
As a longtime fan of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, I was hopeful for Rivals. The concept is a 45 minute multiplayer card game of intrigue, politicking, and violence. In addition to the World of Darkness setting, it’s clear that many of the foundational elements also share a link to that famous Richard Garfield CCG. It’s…
Designer Gordon Calleja has stated that the initial idea for the Vengeance Director’s Cut expansion came from my perspective on the game, a perspective I discussed in an earlier episode of my podcast Ding & Dent. My specific comment from that review was: “This game is focused so intensely on the medium of film, it…
Some of us remember sitting in a room, one made smaller by glowing CRTs and louder by whirring CPU fans. Tripping over cords and shouting insults at those sitting a few feet away. It was as close as we got in PC gaming. Our poison was StarCraft. That seems so long ago. Now the real-time…
Far to the east through the narrow pass and beyond the salt flats is where it was found. I didn’t know what it was at first. It was a book yes, but it was something peculiar. It read like books do but it also didn’t. Its cover worn and faceless. Its pages cryptic. Its words…
Here we are again, a little late this time. I wrote my 2019 top 10 list on December 31st of that year. That’s confidence. I allowed myself no time to reflect and I was sure I had tried every game which would have a reasonable shot at being among my selections for the best in…
It’s easy to dismiss Ruination. Its another one of those games with dudes walking across a map so they can battle other dudes, petroleum leaking from broken plastic bodies as slaughter begets slaughter. But this one takes place in the post-apocalypse. Or rather the post-post-apocalypse as the primary mode of transportation is foot and hoof.…
I took one look at Deranged and it crawled through my retinas and into my brain. So much about this experience appeals to me, including an exceedingly stylish gothic horror setting, semi-cooperative player friction, and variable scenarios with both scripted and emergent narrative. Those games that play with fire and risk utter collapse also flirt…
