Reading Too Much Into Everything

At this point, the comics went from just having comics to having various articles interspersed throughout, becoming a full-fledged gaming magazine. The Bundles have mostly comics but have other things, such as funny fake ads for Hard Eight products. Also, the stories have become denser. This requires a change in the format of these reviews. I will give the summary, then give my thoughts on each individual story. Issue 7 – The Dice Man Cometh Five Green Towels – the Knights grab everything from a dungeon that isn’t nailed down and split up the goods, and Brian takes advantage of the situation. Again we see how Brian treats life like a zero-sum game. He wrote down everything they collected in the dungeon in large letters, but the stuff he wanted for himself was in very small letters so no one would notice. It’s humorous, but it’s kinda sad that he would do this to his only friends. A Call for Heroes – the Knights head for the city of Krandaneer, where they save the city fr...

I read an editorial in Knights of the Dinner Table about how a person rolled up bad stats for a character in a D&D game and was about to reroll, when he had what he called a "road less traveled" moment. Instead of rerolling, he kept the character and wrote in his biography "He is a coward". In his words, his character was mortal and damn well knew it. When a fight happened, he would drop his sword and run away, and would only come back when the fight was over and the spoils would be divided. Despite this, the other players liked this character.  I had a similar moment in Skyrim. I installed a mod that changed the standard beginning of the game (you're a prisoner about to be executed) into just dropping you into a random spot in the world and beginning the game from there. Well, after choosing my character, I was dropped into a dungeon with no way out. I was trapped, and had to go through the dungeon to get out. Along the way I saw the body of a woman. I st...

At io9, there's an article about Zac Snyder defends his ending in the movie Man of Steel. Here's the link: http://io9.gizmodo.com/zack-snyder-will-defend-man-of-steels-miserable-ending-1754485965 I use this article, and the following video, as a foundation for the points I will make later, so read the above, and watch this: I get where Zack Snyder is coming from, and the article makes some good points as to why he's doing so, but I'm going to agree with a LOT of people that the ending to Man of Steel didn't work, because Superman caused a lot of damage, and because he killed Zod. Now, let's look at the 2 usual defenses people bring up about why the Man of Steel ending was good: 1) The Avengers had a bunch of people, while Superman was just one guy. You can't expect him to save people AND defeat Zod! 2) Superman was just starting out. He didn't know his powers, and the limits to those powers completely. Actually, yes I CAN expect Superman t...

At Birth.Movies.Death.com, there was an article about a Die Hard prequel movie by Scott Wampler. He posits that this may not be the best idea in the world, to put it mildly. The best comment ever (this week) came from Jams: "If this movie isn't called 'Old Habits Die Hard', I don't even know" Funny, but dammit internet, what have I told you about giving Hollywood ideas? There's a good chance they'll use this! Here's the link: http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2016/01/21/heres-the-first-not-very-encouraging-details-regarding-the-plot-of-that-die

The purpose of the All Eyes On section is to expose my readers to other blogs that might be interesting. Today it's Bob "Moviebob" Chipman's turn. He is ostensibly a movie critic (and a good one) but he is also a nerd with a wide range of interests (Nintendo, comics, etc). But he comes off a few times as extremely liberal (even though, by his own admission, his political affiliation is "Whatever benefits me the most"). That rubs some people the wrong way. But he makes no apologies, and I can respect that. In any event, he is very interesting to me, and I enjoy his columns and videos.  Here is the link to his blog: http://moviebob.blogspot.com/ And look up his videos on youtube. He has A LOT, so there's plenty of content to go through. Here's a sample:

Issue 6: Plays Well with Others Luck of the Macaw – the Knights play HackBeard, the RPG about piracy on the high seas. B.A. Felton’s failure to railroad his players into his prepared adventure leads him to trick the Knights. Bob’s macaw Half-Pint gets lots of words in edge-wise. Can We Talk? – the Knights kill the only person who knows where the end of the quest lies, but Sara beats the odds (or so she thinks). Wherever You Go, There You Are – The Knights’ greatest enemy is Dave’s mapping skills. Silver Things Upon His Chest – Brian’s medals provide the Knights with a way to boost their gaming status (and egos). The Safety Lecture – B.A.’s lecture about player absenteeism leads to a story about Bob and his fight with Victor “Nitro” Fergueson. The Great Intervention – Brian’s girlfriend, Alexis Marie, sounds too good to be true. Carvin’ Marvin – Here we see the initial members of the Knights. B.A. is GM (after replacing Brian), Bob, Brian and Johnny Kizinski...

How many writers wrote the story for Mass Effect 1? Including the lead writer, 5. How many writers wrote the story for Mass Effect 2? Including the lead writers, 10. How many writers wrote the story for Mass Effect 3? Including the lead writer, 9. Much has been written about the Mass Effect series'  stories. I will not reiterate them here. What I will focus on is the fact that there are stories in these games at all. When EA acquired Bioware, the intention was to make money off their intellectual properties and their reputation. This is understandable (from their point of view) but it has resulted in the loss of some of Bioware's reputation. Only the future knows if Mass Effect: Andromeda can save Bioware's reputation. Part of this reputation was built on the strength of their writing. Jade Empire, Mass Effect 1, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age. All great stories. All these games speak to their mastery of stor...

Issue 5: Master of the Game Spaced Out – the Knights play SpaceHack, the sci-fi RPG. B.A.’s lack of scientific knowledge crashes against Brian’s rules-lawyering. Conquer and Deny – the Knights play the board game Risque (a Risk riff) with nuclear weapons, shaky alliances and Sara’s tactical genius coming to the fore. Beating the Odds – B.A. tells the story of Tar Markvar, an average PC with average stats, which sails over the Knights’ power-gaming heads. Can’t Buy Me Luck – Bob’s bad luck at dice-rolling prompts the Knights to do a dice-purging. Agent of Evil!! – The power of the Hand of Vectra tempts the Knights into a hand chopping contest, and only Sara can save them. For my money, this issue is one of the funniest ever. B.A.’s fear of losing control over his SpaceHack game comes to the point that he completely ignores basic science. Sara proves that when given the chance, she’s smarter than the other Knights. As for Agent of Evil, after the comic there i...

Zack Snyder hinted at a larger mythology for Doomsday in the upcoming Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movie (a title which, for my money, is no longer the silliest thing about this film).  The director said that we have Doomsday, who didn't just crawl out of the ground, he has his own mythology, and that has to be explored. He hastened to add that now that Doomsday is introduced, audiences need to think about a bigger world, and that just because he's introduced in this movie, doesn't mean we know everything about what the movie will be about. Okay, I have some thoughts about this. But honesty demands that I tell you where I'm coming from with this, so, upfront, let me say the following things: 1) I know a lot about comics and comic book characters, both DC and Marvel, and what I don't know I can look up on the internet and get a mostly correct answer, since comic book continuity is one of the most meticulous ever made by fans, even when compared to other i...

So Michael Bay is directing Transformers 5. It would be soooooo easy to bash him on this, but really, I think the man is a genius. He's made 4 Transformers films that have almost nothing to do with the source material, and on top of that, have questionable morals and an absurd preponderance of explosions.  But somehow, people go see them. They make money. Enough to justify continuing to make them, but only if Michael Bay keeps directing them. This is a smart move.  Something he does keeps people watching this crap, and I've talked to plenty of fans of the movies. Not one of them could tell me why they like his Transformers movies.  Props to Michael Bay. The man is a true supervillain. No one can stop him. Not critics, not bad reviews, not even common sense.  Certainly I can't. So if you enjoy the prospect of a new Transformers movie, then enjoy. I'm kinda envious, and wish I could look forward to this with the same joy you are. 

Knights of the Dinner Table: Bundle of Trouble Volume 2 This set collects issues 4 through 6. It is here that Jolly R. Blackburn and the KoDT Development Team began to branch out and do different narratives for not only their main characters, but the supporting cast (some of whom are still only mentioned and not shown, and others who are shown, but so far have no direct impact on the Knights’ world yet). We are introduced to “Weird Pete” Ashton and his store, the Games Pit. We are shown the company that makes Hackmaster and all the other roleplaying products that the Knights use, Hard 8 Enterprises; and the hard-working “geniuses” that work there. They are: Gary Jackson – the president of Hard 8 (and yes, he is meant to be named after Gary Gygax & Steve Jackson) Edmund Finley – the Director of Research & Development Jo Jo Zeke – he writes most of the flavor text for Hackmaster and crunches the rules to see if they work Pete Skipowski – worked with Gary sinc...

So, people are frothing at the mouth over the $599 price tag over the Oculus Rift, but, oddly enough, the company has reported better than expected preorder numbers for the Oculus Rift. While I wish the Oculus Rift well, and hope this makes virtual reality take off, let me say something to everyone fainting over the price of the Oculus Rift: wait. That's right. Wait. That's all you have to do. Historically, whenever a new technology rolls out, it will always be expensive. For example: Initial price of a VCR  in 1977 - $1,280 Initial price of a blu-ray player in 2006 - $1,000 Initial price of  flat-screen TV in 1997 - $15,000 and so on. The people who preordered the Oculus Rift? They are paying a premium for early adoption and access to this technology. You, however, can trade time for potential cash savings. In fact, given that you can get any of the aforementioned devices for only hundreds of dollars (and less), you're guaranteed savings. Also, if you wait, not...

This comic is awesome to me. It follows the antics of a gaming group calling themselves the Knights of the Dinner Table. They play Hackmaster (a riff on Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition). Our cast of characters at this point include B.A. Felton (the gamemaster), Bob Herzog (a high-strung power player), Dave Bozwell (a more relaxed power player), Brian VanHoose (rules lawyer), and Sara Felton (cousin to B.A. and a roleplayer; that is, she's the one that would rather converse with NPC's rather than kill them, as the rest of the group tend to do).  What I intend to do is to review the entire series, It has been in print (and now PDF) for 25 years, and in the process the writers have turned these characters from gaming tropes into fully realized characters. This comic started in Shadis (a gaming magazine) and was created by Jolly R. Blackburn. The art is really basic, just talking heads in front of a static background. But as the series goes on, other writers help out,...

This blog is run by Shamus Young. In here he (and his small circle of friends) do Let's Plays, game analysis, podcasts, comics, even a book or two. It contains an amazing amount of interesting content. If you're into video games, this is the blog for you. For instance, Shamus is currently halfway through a Mass Effect series Retrospective. It details all the good, all the bad, and why (in his opinion) it all goes wrong by the end. You may not agree with his opinions, and that's fine. But you can't say he isn't thorough.  Here's the link: http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/

My intent was to post a comparison between how much The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt cost to make and market, and how much profit it made, and how much EA's Star Wars: Battlefront cost to make and market, and how much profit this game made. The problem I immediately ran into was the economic conditions in Poland vs. the conditions here in America. Polish game developers make only a third of the monthly salary an American game developer makes. Same with production costs, office space and all manner of tools and talent in Poland when compared with America, and in fact the gap may be larger than that. So the comparison would have been like comparing, well, apples to oranges. Now, I like the Witcher 3. I've plaved Witcher 1 & 2, so CDProjektRed built consumer trust in me, so I bought the latest Witcher game without a moment's hesitation, and judging from what little I played, and the reviews that came in, it was a wise purchase.  Star Wars: Battlefront, on the other hand, w...

For the past 6 years I've been losing motivation to play video games. It used to be one of my greatest passions, but that passion has lessened. I tried to figure out why: maybe games have become boring, maybe I've become more mature, perhaps I've decided some things are more important. None of those reasons seem to fit though. I really don't want to lose that passion, but it's become more apparent this is a continuing trend. Has anyone else felt this? If so, have you solved the problem? Please let me know in the comments.

A feature I want to do on my blog is to draw attention to other people's blogs because they're either important, informative, or simply different enough to warrant attention. This one is certainly different, and it's called Bonnie Bon Bento. Here, the blogger posts lunches made to fit into japanese bento boxes. These include recipes, how to plan lunches, and pictures of the results. My mouth is watering just looking at them. Anyway here is the link: http://www.bonniebonbento.com/ I hope you enjoy it.

It is the year 2016, and I believe it's time to start this blog. I have been struggling with what to say, but a family member told me to simply start blogging. His reasoning was that if I have a voice, it should be heard, and if it is similar to other's thoughts, it will be heard. So here goes. Dear Triple A Games Industry, s top doing the following: 1. Micro-transactions in full-price games. This belongs in mobile games. 2. Spending too much money on graphics. They are as good as they're ever going to get, barring  holodeck technology.  3. Season Passes. I will not spend money on wishes and dreams, only on real, finished products. 4. DLC that has obviously been cut from the main game to be sold to us later. 5. Releasing games that are in a shoddy, buggy unplayable state (looking at you, Assassin's Creed:  Unity & Arkham Knight). 6. Blaming customers for your bad business decisions. Take responsibility for your mistakes. 7. Lying to yo...