A very good friend of mine shared this the other day, originally from The Winter of the Air: Sometimes you’re 23 and standing in the kitchen of your house making breakfast and brewing coffee and listening to music that for some reason is really getting to your heart. You’re just standing there thinking about going to work and picking up your dry cleaning. And also more exciting things like books you’re reading and trips you plan on taking and relationships that are springing into existence. Or fading from your memory, which is far less exciting. And suddenly you just don’t feel
Author: scwiba
Wire Brush
In an attempt to offset the daunting scope of the last two WADs, this month I’ve got something short and sweet: rf’s Wire Brush. As much I enjoy single-level WADs, they don’t usually stick with me the same way bigger megaWADs do. They don’t leave that indelible impression on me the way the Suspended in Dusks do, or the Memento Moris, or the STRAINs. So the fact that I remember this one years later is a pretty good indicator of quality. (Disclaimer: It may also have something to do with me just really, really liking rf’s stuff, and also also
Flatbread Crack
I really like crackers, you guys. I have to get that out there, because I think I might have a problem. I like crackers a lot. An intervention might be called for. I’m a cracker connoisseur from way back, you see. It all started when I was a youngin. Since my first experience with them, I have tirelessly researched the subject, experimenting with my taste buds’ reaction to dozens of varieties. This research has been ongoing for over twenty years, so I feel the title of connoisseur is quite appropriate at this stage. As a connoisseur, I believe it is
Path of Exile: Baby Steps
Baby steps through the office. Baby steps out the door. Baby steps down the Path of Exile. I’ve been playing the Path of Exile beta on and off for a few months now. This game and Torchlight were where I ended up looking for the qualities I loved in Diablo and was afraid I might never see again from Blizzard. Long story short, Path of Exile is a blatant love letter to Diablo II. I really like that about it: it doesn’t try to hide its agenda, and its agenda is to capture a little of the spark that made
Cyberpunk 2077 and the Teaser Trailer Blues
I know next to nothing about Cyberpunk 2077 — or the pen and paper game it’s based on, for that matter. Up until last week, if I’m being honest, I thought the game CD Projekt Red was working on was some untitled cyberpunk RPG, not one called “Cyberpunk.” I’m coming into this whole thing totally fresh, with no preconceptions other than knowing that I really dig cyberpunk (that’s “cyberpunk” with a lowercase C). So I can only speak for myself, of course, and as someone who doesn’t know the source material at all, but I think the first sputterings of
Star Fox 2: The Forgotten Flight of Fox McCloud
Star Fox was a bit of an obsession in my household back in the day. My brother was something of a master — even playing competitively — and while I can’t claim I approached that level of dedication, I always had a soft spot for it. I returned not too long ago, with the intent of finally conquering so-called “Level 3,” the most difficult route to Venom, and the one I had never been able to see through to its conclusion. How unexpected, then, that I made it through after only a few tries. From the moment I defeated Andross’
A Quarter of Five
Today, someone asked me what time it was. It was 4:44. “Four forty-five,” I said. People seem more comfortable with chunks of five or fifteen when dealing with time, so I’ve gotten in the habit of rounding a little, even if I prefer being precise. “Is that like quarter of five?” he asked in reply. “Yeah, but less confusing.” Really — what’s with measuring time in quarters or halves? Is this a generational thing? I’ve honestly never heard a single person my age or younger drop a “quarter of” or a “half-past”, but I grew up with my parents using
Radio the Universe
Stop me if you’ve heard about this one already. I’m usually the last to know about these projects. I’ve followed a lot of Kickstarter projects over the last six months or so. Mostly videogames (surprise, surprise). Many of the big ones were hard to avoid, of course: Double Fine Adventure, Wasteland 2, The Banner Saga, Shadowrun Returns, Project Eternity… After all those heavy-hitters and the massive campaigns that they ran, you might be experiencing some Kickstarter fatigue. I sort of am. Still, it’s worth keeping an eye out for the smaller gems that often fly under the radar, especially now
Magic: The Gathering: Quick, Somebody Turn Off My Internet
I used to be way into Magic: The Gathering. I didn’t have a whole lot of cards; I didn’t have the money to buy them, but I used to play as much as I could. More than that, I sorted and shuffled and thought about Magic, and that’s where most of my love for it comes from. I spent hours and hours putting together decks back then (some of which barely got played). The theming of decks was always more fun to me than the strategizing. As a result, most of my decks were designed less around winning and more
Welcome to the Future
Hey, futurites! Would you look at that? We made it to 2013! You can tell 2013 is the future just by looking at the number. Doesn’t it look weird? Feels weird to say, too. And I don’t just mean the kind of weird where you’re not used to it being the next year, so you keep saying and writing the previous one by mistake. Is it just me? 2013. It looks sci-fi… like the sort of year you’d set your science fiction story if you wanted it to take place in the future but not the future future. You know?