The Future eats the Past

_{[Nostalgia meets horror meets happiness here in this beautiful thought journey from Manchild. Walk through the garden path of his mind.  ~Occams]}

The other day I got to launch my way up a girls arsehole like a good ol' fashioned astronaut. No, really. She was a Czech model who had been payed to pose and be filmed in 3D. And with the HTC Vive, I was able to look at her in three whole dimensions in a way I'd never seen a naked girl before. The pose she was in left little to the imagination, and it said to me with subtle suggestion, "Come. Climb inside my rectum." (Why? Why would I do that? Because you can. And you shouldn't.)

Everyone else in the room who was watching and could see my filthy curiosity was a ??????????????????????????little disturbed by it. But that is the moment I was sold on the experience of virtual reality.

Like trying to play Elite: Dangerous and getting my friends multi-million dollar ship blown up in a conflict zone, it all made me a little sick to my stomach. Porn is maybe best viewed at a distance, where everything feels fake, disconnected, objectifying. I could see flecks of dust on that girl's nylons and that solidified it in some kind of reality??. I felt bad we hadn't gone for coffee first. I wondered what he?r father would think. And my uneasiness led me to another conclusion; maybe this is good for all the weirdos out there who are looking for pure escapism?

Maybe getting closer to reality will actually make it difficult to do disturbing things? I'm checking out every orifice of a model in 3D who has no will to reject my advances or move. I can't imagine what it would be like if it were a snuff simulator, and someone gave me a virtual gun and said "now shoot her." Long live the new flesh. The Videodrome future ha??s arri??ved, and I don't think I'm desensitized enough yet to handle it.

And then it dawned ?on me. I got closer and paused, stared at he?r for a moment, at that glassy eyed doll stare and saw her features begin to shift slightly.

"Jesus Christ, she's breathing."

I had to get out.

The whole VR "thing" is interesting to me precisely because of the nostalgia it embodies. Most of my time as a kid with a Nintendo in the early nineties was spent imagining new ways to play games. And every time a new piece of quickly defunct technology was announced, I would stare at the treatment given to it in my favorite magazine and just wonder at the possibilities.

The most poignant for me was the announcement of Sega VR; a headset peripheral for the Genesis that promised to make all my dreams of running around in a lo?w polygon cube world come true. It never came. Not long after Nintendo released the Virtual Boy, and that was objectively trash. Within minutes I felt uncomfortable, and the red and black color scheme left plenty to be imagined. But I was intrigued??, ready for the world to come.

Computer generated cartoons were hitting their stride at that point, and YTV would air a little series of CG vignettes in between certain shows, one particularly cool one a camera on ?the front of ??a train that would travel through moderately interesting low polygon locales. It was my own personal VR simulator for a time before my imagination was stressed to its tender limit, but I felt that VR wouldn't be too far off in the distance.

I was dead wrong, obviously.

The next mention I got of VR was ??years later when Sony released a little headset that touted high resolution screens; not stereoscopic 3D mind you, just a screen that would be strapped to your face to offer a more immersive experience. It wasn't what I wanted either, so I didn't bother.

And here we are today.

I've been saying two things.

One: The PlayStation VR is the best shot we have right now at "normalizing" this technology. It's relatively cheap in comparison to other headsets, it's already centralized in the living room for most since many PS4 owners are using the console as part of their home entertainment system, and so cost is not nearly as much as a barrier. I helped my friend upgrade his computer re?cently to better work for the Vive. 900 dollars later, he had a much better video card for his money and was ready to play a wider selection of games. Of course he had to spend around a thousand dollars for the Vive, but who's counting h?ere?

(Well, I guess I was; but only to get an estimation of how much a similar setup would cost which was slightly offset by the added element of being gored to death with a kitchen knife if my wife were to discover I'd made us damn near broke.) With the PSVR, that isn't as much of an issue.

Two: It needs to have killer games. Amazing games. This is not the time to be pumping out tech demos. This technology needs to be proven and proven early that it isn't another Wii U or it's???? going to flounder. It's a product that exists in a market with some demand, but if we want the VR Cyberpunk revolution to happen, it has to get better. Fast. 4K screens in the headset are the next logical step but again, without really solid games this shit is going nowhere. And I want to see it go somewhere.

Three: Okay, I said two. But point number three is I want in on the ground floor. I am nervous about Sony handling this technology since they don't exactly have a reputation for supporting their own tech. I think it has just as much a chance of failure as it does success. But I want to get in early. Ride that tiger. All the way to fucking oblivion with Battlezone at my side and my phallus - I mean PS M?ove controller - Fir??mly, wetly, in hand.

I've never despised a term more t?han "adulting". It's an admission of im??maturity in many ways.  We have boiled necessary basic adult tasks down to something reluctant because many of us spend so much time seeking out escapism and entertainment, nostalgia and cheap thrills. But it's telling that the child part of my lizard-brain is excited for VR. Specifically, the possibility of using the technology to play video games I imagined as a child so much that I want to skirt my responsibilities and drop a thousand dollars on hardware that has no remote guarantee of surviving the next fiscal year. But I am pulled, like an invisible force tugging at my lapel into the oblivion of irresponsibility and escapism.

I am driven to see the many wonders the proverbial Lemarchand's box Sony has concocted has to offer me despite the nausea and discomfort I felt much of the time in my VR experience. The knowledge of price versus value, the knowledge that this technology will improve very quickly and these "baby's first VR" helmets will be filling a landfill in the not so distant future. I want to embrace the computer overmind, jump in and cruise the superinformation highway, and play Mortal Kombat with?? a friend in Vietnam??. I know what it has the potential to do. I can see it now, see what it will turn me into.

I am a soft jelly thing, fattened up on Doritos and Mountain Dew. There are blue LED's where my eyes used to be. Outwardly: I swing a PlayStation Move controller dumbly through the air pretending to de??flect low polygon count triangle projectiles as drool pools in the corner of my slack jawed mouth. Inwardly: a girl named Candy spreads her anus in front of me so close I can damn near see her stomach walls.

I know this is my fate. I know that others will escape and go on to do other things with their lives while I wait. While I count my dollars until the day I can go to the store and drop a paycheck on tech that will be dead before the year is out. I have criticized Sony for their blunders in the past but...Sony has won, simply. They have me in their pocket. My time has been badly spent and I am too much of a manchild to say no to the Vaporwave simulation that infests my childish, nostalgic dreams. Sony has taken their revenge?.

I have no VR. And I must scream.

The post I Have No VR and I Must Scream appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs!

_{[The one and only Andy Dixon finally did it. Let's celebrate with him. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

Today is the greatest day of my life.

The post My Gamerscore is BOOBS appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs!

_{[Dtoid community blogger RedHeadPeak gives us part 3 of his look into the historical accuracy of the Witcher. These are so much fun!  Want to see your own writing appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

Compared to other RPGs I’ve played, The Witcher is a very intimate g??ame. Even counting the segments of the city of Vizima as separate locations, the list of places I’ve seen so far is very small. The cast of the game is also quite lean. Both of these conditions are?? hardly negatives; it gives a feeling of familiarity and makes the interactions more personal. It also helps to enrich the story, in my opinion at least.

This intimate setup has impacted on my observations. Whilst with Skyrim I could skip about, cherry picking historic details, this games narrower landscape has led me to make a more specific consideration of the world.

In the third instalment of my ‘grown-up’ look at the historical accuracy of this fantasy adventure game, I’ve picked out one feature of the main character and two features of the city to analyse. The field of discussion is quite specific, though t??he history addressed is quite varied. Let’s start with a piece of history that has had one foot in fantasy for a long time.

Alchemy is Science’s cool uncle.

I’ve often seen Alchemy as the uncle, rather than the father, of Science. Science looked up to Alchemy in its early years. Most people thought Alchemy was strange or even dangerous. However, Alchemy always said its work was based in the ‘good magic’ found in the physical world,? rather than the ‘dark magic’ witches gain from?? unholy alliances.

Alchemy inspired Science to try new thi??ngs, but its parents kept it more grounded. Science would use the clear, conical flasks developed by Alchemy, and borrowed various other techniques but would stay grounded in the pursuit of knowledge. Once Science was a little older, it came to realise just how kooky Alchemy was. The quests to turn lead into gold, and the creation of the Philosophers’ Stone and Elixir of Life led Science to mock and chastise their older counterpart. Modern Science owes a great deal to Alchemy, though it doesn’t like to admit it.

Going back and forth from marshes to city and back again, I’ve had lots of time to try out Geralt’s alchemy skills. Alchemy is a broad and elusive topic, of which I only have a rudimentary grasp, but the references to the craft in The Witcher have elements of reality. Geralt himself makes snide remarks in reference to Alchemists who waste time searching for the Philosopher’s Stone. The basic elements of Alchemy in the game are natural chemicals from animals or plants, a suitable flask over a flame, and meditation. Given that real world alchemy is a combination of basic chemistry, magic and deep spirituality, The Witcher gives a decent (if ?oversimplified) representati??on of the practice.

Whilst I have yet to make bombs in the game, I know from ingredients in my inventory that I will have that ability. Real life Alchemy in the Far East is often accredited with the discovery and perfection of gunpowder. Another bi-product of attempts to transmute basic materials was the creation of liquor, which is complimented by the use of alcohol in alchemy in the The Witcher.Given that the Elixir of Life was one ??of the grander goals of historic alche?my, it makes sense that the game has you making restorative potions.

Tunnels of Poop

I didn’t have the best first impressions of the first major city in The Witcher. It has nothing to do with historical accuracy; it’s hard to warm to a location w?hen you start off? in its sewers…

Whilst these tu??nnels make an awesome, eerie place for battling ghouls, the existence of such incredibly developed, expansive sewers is an oddity. Sewer networks like these are commonplace in fantasy – huge portions of role-playing campaigns ??can take place inside nests of sludge-filled corridors – but throughout history the man-made sewer is a rarer thing.

The inclusion of large, underground sewers is not just an historic discrepancy, but a conceptual one. We as modern peoples rely on sewers to take our leavings away, for our convenience and our hygiene. We also rely on sewers to take away the waste water away from our daily cleaning rituals. But medieval homes (and the historically inspired homesteads in The Witcher) have very little room for hygiene. Even the homes of the rich and powerful in fiction/reality have very little need for a gigantic sewer beneath them. People from the middle ages did wash quite regularly (the Elizabeth I once-a-year bathing thing is a myth) but the average city w?ould be devoid of such an elaborate sanitation network.

Sewers existed, and had existed for centuries before the era that The Witcher is partly motivated by. The Romans are as famous for their advance stone waterways as they are for continental domination. The ancient Roman sewer is a more modest contrapt?ion than the tunnels from most fantasy games, but they were usually wide enough for a person to clear any pesky blockages.

Even the grandest, most famous cities went without proper sewerage for a very long time. Paris for example relied on natural rivers and streams to take waste away. In the fourteenth century, drains were added to the road and a basic ring sewer system was added to one part of the city, but that was mainly there to deal with rain water. The leaders of the city outright refused to improve the sewers in the 1700's, despite the excellent advice of local scientists. It wasn’t until the 18^th ce??ntury that Napo??leon III cleaned the place up.

Cities in the medieval to early modern eras cared about how human waste was cleared out of the streets, but taking the time and money to build sewers rarely received popular support. In seventeenth century Berlin, a law was passed that forced visiting peasants to clear garbage away when they left. The people of London were content with ditches that oozed human detritus out into the Thames River. If your house was built on London Bridge, gravity was all that was requ??ired to transport your waste to the river.

In summary: the people of Vizima ??don’t know how lucky they are.

The Law of the Shiny Metal Men with Pointy Sticks

Once out of the Drowner-infested uber-sewers, the locals did little to improve my impression of the city. First, a group of thugs turned on me after I tried to help them fight a monster that had pounce them at their campfire. Second, a group of hired goons ambushed me as I was leaving ??a NPC’s house. So distrustful of the local populous was I, that I nearly took a swing at a city guard.

It was his only fault really. The spear-wielding soldier came ??rushing around the corner of a house, apparently trying to catch up with the ?two other guards he was patrolling with. I don’t know if Geralt can attack friendly NPCs (I haven’t tried) but it felt like a close call.

It’s not that a force like this, policing the mean streets of Vizima, is entirely alien to history. It is however more historically common to see the local populace take control of their security. Town and peasant folk alike would often band together to form law enforcing groups with varied levels of royal support. Brotherhoods (known as ‘Hermandades’) cropped up all over Spain whenever a region collectively decided to tackle local bandits, leading to the eventual creation of the Santa Hermandad, a national brotherhood in the 15^th century.

It was therefore up to the people to form and enforce the law. Whilst a king or lord could afford to use the local forces in times of emergency (The Witcher story line alludes to several major concerns), it would be impossible to police a bustling, thriving, ever-expanding medieval city. There was certainly no practical way of policing all the small villages and towns across the kingdom. The sovereign could appoint a magistrate, justice of the peace or judge to pr?ovide rulings on accusations o??f criminal behaviour, but using the army to enforce law and order was an expensive practice.

Crime prevention was not prevented by a physical presence, but with the very real threat of brutality.

I’ve spoken before about the vulgar and visceral nature of crime and punishment throughout history. Until relatively recent human history, the promise of mutilation or evisceration was the main deterrent for those wishing to assault their neighbours. The nature of the brutal death or disfigurement often depended on the whim of the local judge, the nature of the crime and even the criminal’s gender; woman who committed murdered were often strangled to death in 13^thcentury Europe.

If you were foolish enough to ignore the blood-splattered warning signs, but were of a social step above peasant, you might be put to a trial. Not a fair trial though; in the Middle Ages a trial was usually a chance for the wronged to get revenge. The accused could be sentenced to one of many colourful ‘ordeals’. One s??uch practice was the Ordeal by Water, the infamous practice of hog-tying the accused and throwing them into the river to see if they drown or float. Most people might know this as a way to weed out witchcraft, but you could go through this ordeal if you were caught or accused of poaching too.

If s??omeone sank, and were therefore guilty, but were dragged out alive, don’t worry: they’d be hanged drawn and quartered afterwards. Hooray.

Further Thought

In Part 2, I was kinder to the historical side of The Witcher. It is therefore essential to provide balance. So while the alchemist element is a reasonable representation of something historic, and the city itself bulges with historic inspiration, the picture is not without its faults. Vizima is a marvellous looking city, but from my perspective it seems cul?turally impossible and dangerously expensive. Whoever designed the cities underbelly was either mad, insanely rich or both. The people running the city now are also burning money to ensure an unusually high level of security.

I have more to say about the city and its surroundings, but that can wait until Part 4. By then, I will no?? doubt have explored further, spotting new historical (in)accur??acies, and I won’t have space to include those aspects until I get to Part 5… and so… on...

Until then, what aspects of The Witcher do you feel have real historic grounding? Are there any?? parts based on misconceptions of history or mythology? Feel free to add to or correct any of my observations too.

Thank You For Reading.

The post How historically accurate is The Witcher? Part 3 appeared first on Destructoid.

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_{[Dtoid community blogger Manchild gave us a touching and lovely blog on Father's Day. Beware getting dust in your eyes. Want to see your own writing appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

A few weeks after the birth of my son, I was desperately trying to sleep. When our daughter was born, the first two days having her home were a nightmare. Howver, ??they paled in comparison to Jack who fought sleep like it was a boogeyman. It was an average week night, and one of the first where Jack managed to sleep soundly giving us a few hours of respite. We were starting to go crazy and my wife was on the verge of tears all the tim??????????????????????????e from how difficult it was.

The phone rang at 3? ?AM. First the house phone, and then my phone.

My brother in law:

"Is my sister there?"

"Yeah she's right..."

"Nononono. Just...can you go to another room?"

"Why, what's going on?"

I froze. There was a ringing in my ear.

A week later was my father-in-law's funeral.?? He had passed of sudden heart failure while going to the washroom in the middle of the night.

It's a difficult day today.

My history with fathers has been convoluted. Out of my mother and her two sisters, every one of them has been divorced and since remarried. Divorce for us was a difficult process as it is for most. We were uprooted. We lived in a small town in the middle of the mountains where my Dad had expected to find a lot of work. T??he subsequent divorce a few years later landed us in Calgary, a city bigger than any I'd ever lived in. I? remember meeting my stepdad for the first time and how nervous he was. I was far less so as I was an optimistic kid before life had really begun to eat away at me.

I missed my ??Dad. I felt like he understood me. And one of the ways in which we had always connected was through ??video games.

I remember the first time we really connected through a game was with Guerrilla War on the NES. A pretty sub-par overhead run and gun, it was one of the first games I ever played that had a co-op mechanic. It sparked a love in me for co-op games, and a lot of it came from playing them with my Dad. We'd go on to enjoy Jackal, Alien Syndrome, Contra, Toejam and Earl and others, and despite his busy work schedule and addiction to Star Trek, he'd usually make t??ime a few nights a week to sit down and play some games.

My stepdad wasn't a gamer. He wasn't much of anything at first glance except a guy who worked hard. My Mom and I moved into an apartment and would go to his place quite often. She'd do his dishes for him; dishes covered in congealed chicken grease that would sit there for days and be impossible to get clean. He was a true bachelor, younger than my Dad. And I pretty quickly grew to know the differences. He wanted to take me out to see the sights, to do things "normal" Dad's did. But I wasn't too receptive. I remember asking "Can I bring my Gameboy?" when he first offered to take my to the Calgary tower. I was checked out emotionally. All I wanted at the time?? was immersion to escape the dreadful reality of what?? was going on.

He was pretty good about it at first. ??He eventually grew to be annoyed with my obsessive gaming habit, but never withheld it from me. But the first time I remember us really connecting, when I felt he was trying to get at me on my level, was when we went to an arcade downtown.

Now boarded up and closed for years it was right next to the train tracks and in a pretty scummy area. It was close to a burger joint where the junkies and homeless would hang out and eat food that would give your average citizen food poisoning. It was my first? real taste of a downtown. And I've heard many rumors since that the arcade was just a front for seedier behavior, but who knows if that's true.

We played through the entirety of The Lost World arcade game; a gun game like Time Crisis with a Jurassic Park theme. I couldn't tell you how many dollars we stuffed in that thing, but we played right to the end. And since then it ?has always been a fond memor??y of mine. Shame it has never seen a console release.

It was reflective of my relationship with my Dad and reminded me of my absolute favorite thing to do with him, which was to hit the arcades. We did it a lot more of course. Our favorite game was In The Hunt, a submarine based shooter by the same folks who would later go on to do Metal Gear. But he would show me the classics as well. I got really hooked on Frogger. Arcades don't really exist in Canada, at least not in my city, today. Where you do see machines, they are seldom originals, the screens are green with blown capacitors and the like, and the buttons are squishy, loose sticks, almost impossible to play properly. One time I went to an auction to bid on a Neo Geo arcade machine and there was an In The Hunt machine in perfect condition. It was a massive beast I would have never been able to get into my apartment. But it made?? me long for a t??ime before.

When I was about 13, after a short period of living with my Dad and then my Mom and I moving in with my stepdad, my D?ad and I stopped talking. There were a lot of reasons for it, mostly the infighting happening between my pare?nts. It was incredibly difficult but necessary.

I? wouldn't speak to him again for about 13 more years.

When I had my daughter, I felt like I had to track him down. I looked him up online and found someone by his name living in a small Saskatchewan town. I'll never forget my nerves making th??at phone call. We didn't talk very long before he decided he had to see me. The next day, he made the ten hour drive down to Calgary. It was pissing rain when he got in. 

It was a bittersweet meeting.

You realize after such a long period of time that there are somethin??g that simply don't come back. What you were is lost in translation. You have to get to know each other again, who you are now. My wife was fascinated because of little things; the way we'd both cross our arms or our body language. Almost like these things were genetic arrangements.

I planned for him to come down in stupid little ways. I wanted to find something, anything, to relate to him with. So I pulled out board games we used to play and stacked them on the table, pretending I played them all the time. I had one of our favorite movies sitting out. And on my computer, I managed to download and emulate In The Hunt, the game we would play so of?ten together in arcades.

Of course, you end up doing nothing, really. Just talking. Just sitting in awe at the fact that it's been so long, how grey he looks, how big I was, and so forth. When we finally had a quiet moment, I turned on In The Hunt.

"Do you remember this one?"

I was excited to see the response. He kind of stared at it blankly and after awhile acknowledged it. "Oh yeah!" It wasn't entirely confident. Something he vaguely r??emembered, but that didn't particularly stick out. The value we place on these experiences, especially as kids, is so much more powerful than as adults. He might have had a fun time with this silly little shooter game, but he didn't remember it how I did; as a shared experience, as something I looked forward to anytime.

"Do you want to play?"

"Maybe later."

We did, but only for a minute or two. And I couldn't help feeling a sense of disappointment at that. It was the realiza?tion that things would never be the same. You couldn't turn back the clock. I was a father, he was an estranged one. And the dynamic of our relationship, whatever had survived after the fallout of a decade?, had been transformed permanently.

As a dad, I want to try and be mindful of these ??things. Of what my kids are doing, of these experiences. Already my daughter will mention tiny things from time to time that we did together months before. Her brain has already imprinted otherwise meaningless moments into memories she will remember forever.

I was really down after my Dad?? left, thinking about all of that. He had forgotten. What else had he forgotten? It was silly, sure. ??But it was a moment of revelation, of growing. I remember just grabbing my wife and crying into her. I didn't know if it was joy or sadness. Since, our relationship has been spotty. He went a year without calling me because he has been going through a lot of his own problems. Our relationship didn't suddenly come back together with a joyous embrace. It is whatever it is, and it's nothing like it was. But that's okay, because it doesn't need to be.

Today my kids are running around the living room playing. I have a headache from staying up too late. I'm thinking about dead people, and? dead relationships.

But I?'m g?lad things turned out the way that they did, and wouldn't trade it for anything.

The post Fathers Day appeared first on Destructoid.

Game with the Dtoid Community!

Howdy folks! Welcome to another edition of FNF. For our Nintendo lovers out there, next week shall see the rise of Nintendoid, courtesy of Shade and Strider. Keep an eye out for their new blog appearing soon and hit the link above to check out what Nintendoid is all about. In other gaming stuffs, have you entered to win a copy of Saints Row IV Re-Mastered + Gat out of Hell for XB1 or PS4? Go do that silly buns! Free games are always nice after all. Contest ends Monday by the way.

If you read last week's FNF, you know that I busted a tooth which I finally got fixed yesterday. That sucked donkey balls. Took close to two hours and hurt like hell, but I can eat solid foods again! I celebrated with a sammich of course. Dagwood (no bacon) is my current sammie jam. So good. So much meat in my mouth. Mmmmmmm. Getting back to the subject of games though, I have sworn off my Xbox for a week. My Steam backlog is pretty damn ridiculous and I haven't been playing the new releases that I have gotten. Now of course of instead of actually tackling my backlog, I bought more games. One of the games I grabbed was The Haunted: Hells Reach and I have to say that I'm in love.  

Haunted blends the gameplay loops of L4D2 and Killing Floor with a third-person perspective, campy B-movie stereotypes/dialog and an interesting upgrade system. The upgrades are great as you earn them through experience (from killing monsters), then pick one of your three weapon classes (pistol, shottie, rifle) to upgrade and watch it be replaced with new badass gun from the same class (i.e. double barreled shottie becomes 1887, burst pistol becomes magnum, etc). The game is by no means perfect (rounds can go on too long, gets repetitive), but if you enjoy these types of games and b-movie horror, I highly suggest grabbing it on sale. Now, I must go play it after talking about it. I'll be hosting it tonight and tomorrow, so join in if you own it.  Have a great weekend all!

New to FNF? Read this! Each week, a bunch of us Dtoiders get together to ??play videogames online! It's a 100% c??ommunity-run event, so feel free to join in or even host something yourself!

The planning for FNF starts in the forums, where community members sign up to host matches and post their pertinent details (game, time, Gamertag, etc.). Then, every Friday, reminder posts go up in the community blogs thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers, and I recap it all here on the front page to give it a bit more ??exposure.

To join in, simply send a friend request to the m?atch host! If you'd rather host something yourself, sound off in the comments section below!

Tonight's Streamers: Add yourself in the comments if you are streaming! All games marked with * below, will be streamed. Click on the game?? title to be taken to the respective channel.

Here's the up-to-date Streamtoid schedule. Wanna join in the fun? Send us an email!

Tonight's Games:

• Sign up to host something below!

Check the XBOX FNF blog for more info!

Tonight's Games:

• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare  (PS4)*
  Host: KymikoLoco (PSN: KimikoLoco)
  Time: 6pm PST | 6pm EST

• Battlefield 4 (PS4)*
  Host: Nanners (PSN: nanashi707)
  Time: 7pm PST | 10pm EST

• Helldivers (PS4)*
  Host: Trev (PSN: ElZilcho)
  Time: 730pm PST | 1030pm EST

• Warframe (PS4)*
  Host: Trev (PSN: ElZilcho)
  Time: 9pm PST | 12am EST

Check out the PS FNF blog for more info!

Tonight's Games:

• Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
  Host: The black abyss of the mind
  Time: In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming

Check out the PS FNF blog for more info!

Tonight's Games:

• Smash Bros. (Wii U)
  Host: StriderHoang (NNID: StriderHoang)
  Time: 2pm PST | 5pm EST

Check out the Nintendo FNF blog for more info!

Tonight's Games:

• Missing: One Blue Poo Stain
  Host: SmurfeeMcGee (NID: Smurfee_McGee)
  Time: Please call local authorities if sighted.

Check out the Nintendo FNF blog for more info!

Tonight's Games:

• Team Fortress 2 (Early Game)
  Server: 68.232.163.42:27015
  Time: 5pm PST | 8pm EST

• Team Fortress 2 (Late Game)
  Server: 68.232.163.42:27015
  Time 9pm PST | 12am EST

• The Haunted: Hells Reach (Steam)*
  Host: Mike Martin (Steam: Philopian)
  Time: 10pm PST | 1am EST

• Zombie Kill of the Week: Reborn (Steam)*
  Host: Mike Martin (Steam: Philopian)
  Time: 12am PST | 3am EST

Check out the PC FNF Blog for more info!

Free this weekend? Why not sign up to host something for Weekend Warriors?! It's like Friday Night Fights all weekend long! Sign up in the comments or Forum thread if you're interested!

Saturday:

• The Haunted: Hells Reach (Steam)*
  Host: Mike Martin (Steam: Philopian)
  Time: 10pm PST | 1am EST

Sunday:

• See above, then go below!

Check out the Weekend Warriors thread for more in?fo!

The post Friday Night Fights – Hell Has Broken Loose appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs

_{[Dtoid community blogger RedHeadPeak gives us part five of his historical accuracy in Skyrim series. I can't get enough of these. Want to see your own writing appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

Skyrim is doomed. The “hero” I have created isn’t really focused on saving the day. They have spent more time picking flowers and catching butterflies than they have spent killing dragons. We’ve meandered into so many caves and caverns, distracted by so many side quests, that I’m not sure how far down the main story we’ve traveled. I and my ?created character are so easily distracted, that the final dramatic confrontation may never actually ??come to pass.

All this means that this will probably be the last ‘How Historically Accurate is Skyrim?’ (at least, for the time being). I’m still playing the game – less so than before – but I’m not wading through new content fast enough to warrant further discussion. The features up for the history treatment today were already on my list at the time of writing Part 4. I’m having a lot of fun lifting the cushions of fantasy to reveal the lost coins of History, but I’ve never been able to play The Elders Scrolls games at a ??brisk pace. Part 6 may appear, but not for a while. By?? then, the dragons will have probably eaten everyone...

For those seeing this odd little blog for the first time: over the last four parts I have poked and prodded at the squidgy bits of Skyrim in order to show where fiction meets non-fiction. History has a curious influence on many elements of the game, some deliberate and some ?accidental. ?In one or two cases, “historic belief” has provided inspiration. If you haven’t read the earlier parts, and would like to:

Part 1 – Fighting, Execution and Wolves

Part 2 – Helmets, Dragons and Drink

Part 3 – Thanes, Magic and Glass

Part 4 – Arrows and Xenophobia

Part 5 – Bandits?, Spears and Giants (that’s this bit ^_^)

Now that that shameful plug is over, let's discuss a few more aspects of Skyrim with odd ties to ??history. Firstly, let’s address a piece of h??istory that is weirdly missing from the game.

The absence of Spears.

Game mods do a wonderful job of adding things that players want to see included. In one or two modified versions of Skyrim, players may stumble upon a weapon added or altered to look like a spear. The original iteration of the game does not have this weapon type though, and this is very strange considering how much Skyrim borrows from Nordic history.

You would be quite right for believing that the spear is suited to group warfare. The ancient Grecian armies are infamous for their use of the Phalanx – a marching mass of shields and spears. Anyone who has seen 300 will know that the Spartans also liked to use this formation to their advantage (it probably never looked so oily and slow-motion however). It&r??squo;s very difficult to defeat a steadily advancing armour preceded by thousands of outstretched spear-point??s.

What is less well known, is that the spear is a far more versatile weapon. Whilst the spear is a great ‘team weapon’, in the hands of any warrior this weapon can be used individually and successfully. In fact, there is a substantial amount of evidence that suggests that the spear was the most common weapon amongst Viking assailants. This weapon was, at th?e very least, as popular as the sword or the axe.

It’s not difficult to understand why. In Skyrim, precious metals are practically l??eaking out of the landscape, but in reality the production metal weapons required precious resources, skill and time. Furthermore, Viking smithing was comparatively basic; swords were often made from strips of metal welded together. The spear on the other hand requires very little metal, and is much easier to mass produce. Whilst a sword (passed down the family line as a status symbol) may be sheathed and strapped to a Viking combatant, thei??r primary weapon would be a stick with a pointy bit.

When I first began to wedge history into my gaming blogs, a reader introduced me to YouTuber and weapons aficionado Skallagrim. His videos highlight misunderstandings of medieval weaponry, discusses the ‘realism’ of vide?og??ame weapons and demonstrates the art of ancient warfare. In the video shown below, he shows just why the spear was so popular throughout History.

Skallagrim also ha??s one or two videos that show hi??m sparring with a spear – in one case showing how a spearman can take on two opponents at once.

It’s historically unfortunate that the spear is absent from Skyrim, but it’s not hard to see why they are nowhere to b??e seen. No matter what weapon you are wielding in game, the fighting style is always the same. Your character adopts the “keep-swinging-until-the-thing-is-dead” combat style. With a spear though, the game would need a new set of fighting mechanics. The spear would have to be held out in front of the player, rather than held at eye heart in the usual FPS fashion. It’s up to the Modders to add those elements in.

Those poor, little Giants.

I pity the Skyrim Giants. For one thing, they’re not really that gigantic. Sure, they are taller than me or my player character, and could smash me into the ground for making fun of them (or occasionally smash me into the sky, which is one of my favourite glitches of all ti??me) but they seem to lack the size and gravitas of the giants of fiction. However, that might not in fact be s??o inaccurate. So let’s once again steer away from all things historic and into ‘historic beliefs’.  

One thing that is ‘historically accurate’ about these creatures is there non-violent persuasion. They can mulch a bandit with one swing, but they usually require provocation. By exploring their habitat, we can see that their diet consists of skeever meat and cheese; breads made from human bone are non-existent. The mythological creature much more inclined to a people diet i?s the Ogre.

The word “Giant” is a blanket term for a lot of different creatures present in numerous cultural beliefs. Whichever form of giant is used in a video game would be accurate from one perspective but inaccurate from another. The ancient Grecian Titans come in two forms: the first were giant, awesome creations whilst the second were more humanoid in scale. In Nordic mythology, Jotun are only occasionally gigantic in scale, quite often described as a si?milar size as the gods that they were facing. Not only were they not as stupid as modern adaptations suggest, but their physical strength is what made then so dangerous, not just their scale.

Which brings us to another discrepancy: in most forms, the giants are the opponents of the Gods. Gods such as Thor would have to use their wits and cunning to best this enemy. They are not the blundering oafs fairy tales would have us believe. In one poignant example, Thor is embarrassed by the actions of the giant “Skrýmir”. This particular giant is of the titanic persuasion. He’s so big in fact that Thor and Loki accidentally use the giant’s open mitten as shelter during the night. Skrýmir was actually quite friendly, and traveled with the Norse gods for a time, but his snoring was so loud that Thor tried to bash his brains in on more than one occasion. Thor fails miserably, and Skrýmir leaves them to it. I’m over-simplifying what is a wonderfully-weird story, but the point remains: Skyrim giants and Nordic giants are leagues apart.

In Celtic folklore, we see a form of giant that more closely resembles those in Skyrim in scale and grey matter. Whilst most mythologies create giants as the arch enemies of the local deities, Celtic giants were used to explain away the old world. Buy the 12^th century, very few people knew or cared how about the past. Ce??lts from what is now the British Isles lived amongst the remnants of the Roman civilization. Stone walls, forts, aqueducts… these ancients objects stood as testament to an advanced society fro?m long ago. How did these buildings come to exist? Well giants must have built them, of course!

Now, before we poke fun at our ancestors, remember that we have supplanted ‘giants’ with ‘aliens’. We can’t understand how such amazing construction could exist at a time of such primitive technologies, so we invent a higher power who offered assistance. Authors and historians such as Saxo Grammaticus explained the existence of Roman architecture by reporting that mythological beings had a hand in the making. These giants were often of the same scale and stupidity as those in Skyrim. You and? King Arthur both g??et to fight the same kind of giant.

Bandits! Bandits everywhere!

Players are often tempted to steal one or two items from the occasional store in Skyrim. By “one or two items”, I of course mean “everything”, and by “occasional store”, I naturally mean “everywhere”??. If it isn’t background texture, it’s fair game, and it’s hard to resist the temptation to rob the world of all things precious when the vast majority of NPCs seem to have the same idea.

Walk two minutes in any direction and you will bump into an unsuspecting bandit counting the coins they have pinched. They are everywhere. Is this pre-disposition for criminal intent isolated to fantasy worlds? Or were thieves in history more common than ?innocent bysta??nders?

When teaching medieval history, I love the moment when students are introduced to the curfew bell. The notion that every man, woman and child would be sent to their homes at 8pm by the church bell is truly baffling, and a point of great discussion. The practice was introduced by William the Conqueror, whose initial intention was prevent his newly subjugated, Anglo-Saxon people from meeting and conspiring against him after work hours. He did have to deal with several rebellions during his reign. After all, he invaded England, butcher their king and burn the countryside, all in his first year. The fact is that the combination of the curfew bell and local guards kept castle towns safe at night. We see this in Skyrim: guards roam the streets, day and night, and when it goes dark the local people slip away t??o their homes.

In the previous segments, I have touched on historic crime and punishment. The execution scene at the beginning of the game, and the stocks/pillories found in at least one city in the game allude to a much broader and darker range of cruel outcomes for committing crime in History. Referring to King William I once more, we know of various gruesome punishments that the Norman ruler decreed. For example, should you be caught hunting on the grounds belonging to the Royal Family, you would not go to prison. Oh no no no, a message must be sent to all those who might also be looking to take the King’s stock. If it’s your first offense, the local law enforcement is cha?rged with taking two fingers off the thief. You hunt where you shouldn’t, you lose two fingers.

That makes sense, in a horrible way. Other peasants down on their luck will see those wounds and know not to break that particular law. The loss of two fingers will make hunting in the future very difficult. A harsh punishment, but at least no one would be stupid enough to do it again… except… that people did… because William issued a second punishment for the second offense. You kill one of the King’s deer for a second time, you don’t just lose another two fingers. Oh no no no no no… they take your eyes.

I believe the apt internet meme at this point is “that escalated quickly” attached to an animal with a shocked expression. The fact is that medieval punishments were incredibly visceral because crime levels were so high. Thefts of property, livestock a?nd even abductions were commonplace. Villages and cottages were so isolated from the rest of civilization that crime of all kinds could go unchecked for months before aid was sent. Traveling from town to town can be fraught with peril. From simple thieves to outlandish highwaymen, terrible deeds could be committed without immediate repercussions. Punishments were so incredibly brutal because prevention of crime was close to impossible. Disemboweling, castration, branding and amputation were all forms of punishment that existed because thievery was so prevalent.

However, it must be st??ated that medieval p?unishments could be extreme in any situation. When you have a moment, Google the “Scold’s Bridle” and marvel at the lengths that a town could go to punish a woman who spoke her mind.

Final Thoughts

In the future, I may well produce a Part 6. If I have the time to research, I’d love to learn more about the fine details of Norse mythology and compare it to the stories in Skyrim. This was something suggested by a few readers over the last few weeks – many commenters already began this comparison – and though I have started the reading, I’d need to get further into Skyrim and the research before I could make that happen. For now, I hope you have enjoyed Parts 1-5. It has been so much fun to write, and lovely to hear that so many gamers e?nj?oy their history.

I won’t stop writing the occasional history-gaming blog, and I see no reason to discontinue the “How Historically Accurate” inquiries. I’ve already had requests to comment on other Elder Scrolls games, and similar games like Witcher. I’ve recently started playing Darkest Dungeon, which is chock full with such delightful historic references. Feel free to make your own suggestions. If you want to add to, or amend, anything I have said in this blog please leave a comment. I never claim to be an expert, just someone who love??s history and gaming in equal measure. I’d love to hear what you have to add.

The post How historically accurate is Skyrim? Part 5 appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from the Community Blogs

_{[Did you know we have forums? Most people gravitate immediately to the front page comments or cblogs but Orlion spares nothing in his dark view of one of Destructoid's most enduring places of kinship. Remember to take everything here with a grain of salt because only a purifying circle will keep the dread demons at bay -Striderhoang]}

Not long ago 'twas that I discovered one who has claimed to be your guide. One who has claimed to show you what li?es beneath...

_{Pardon my laughter!}

Allow me, as one who has made their abode within the darkness, to be your Vi??????????????????????????rgil, dear Dante.

In ad??dition to my de??scriptions, I have provided portals directly into the heart of things, inscribed here for your benefit with many an esoteric ritual I have gleaned over time.

??Thus we shall be?gin my brief catalog of the forums, wherein I document but a few of the more prominent landmarks and events within. The forums are as loathsome and odious as you've heard. Give yourself to them, let its slick tendrils penetrate your flesh and assault your mind. 

Prepare thyself for the descent, to have confirmed your every ?fear and trepidation!

Where the New Flesh is Warped

Those who are freshly arrived from the world above are directed to the slave pits, where they are assesse??d and prodded as cattle are. I found myself fortunate enough to be allowed further within, my supple young body being deemed worthwhile, ?but I learned too that many and more never make it past this point. They are engulfed by the slavering pit or thrown back to the world, minds shattered, madmen all.

The Dreaded Sin Lords

They who rule and administrate that pitiless, cyclopean dungeon. Fresh from thine cage, one may not be made aware of the greatest and most terrible beings who rule the demesne, so I shall list them now. They are not as th?ey were before my metamorphosis, having overthrown the prior overlord for something more akin to a council, and are as follows:

Opium, he who hoards the mendicants, embodying rigid order and Germanic fury; Panza, not a dolphin but a great defiler all the same, who warps the minds of his listeners with his hirsute and beastly consort; Nihil, the ebon djinn of violation and eldritch pacts; Bright, whose feline form's flashing eyes induce convulsions; and Dixon, whose lustful, prehensile leviathan snakes out from within his rosy robe??????????????????????????s to probe the heart? and mind.

But enough of the foul gove??rno?rs! Onto the locales.

The Entrance to the Warrens

_{Lo! Here stand high the gates of madness.}

From the position above, one may make their way to any of the myriad halls raised by the supplicants, seeking discussion and worship of their chosen subject. Fresh from the pen??s whe??re one is found worthy, it is easy to become lost. Wandering is the only option, and soon enough one will find a suitable assortment of congregations to satisfy their needs.

The Pub of Vile Liquors and Inured Client

The watering hole of? demons and their kin, where sensibility is lost. The use of this den is so frequent and rough that the building is inevitably destroyed, only to be rebuilt by a new architect immediately after. A badge of honor is bestowed upon the architect of obliterated facilities, but we shall discuss such artifacts later.

Oriental Anim?ation: Imaginary ?Spouses for a Sexual Deviant

Little and less need be said of this mos??t wretched ?idolatry.

The Cinema of Iniquitous Emotion

There's a place w??here the ??denizens discuss movies. MOVIES MOST FOUL.

That's about it.

The Mockery of Saint Nicholas

Near Yule, the denizens become frenzied, ho??oting like elephant seals and yowling as though in estrus. Instead of loud rutting follo?wed by fervent mounting (which, to be fair, is something they do every day), they soon provide to a chosen elective the locations of their dwellings, and further, are given one anothers' location so exchanges of gifts may be given. They then display their affections to each other in a monstrous mimicry of family. This is to deepen the bond between the once human creatures, whose hearts are still susceptible to even lesser acts of kindness, so they may decide to stay whereas they might rather flee.

The Erratic Gallery

Nothing makes sense here. Mad artists display the fruit of their labors alongside stolen wor??????????????????????????ks of every style imaginable. The gallery is long and seemingly endless, and one must be wary of becoming lost. 

_{A cheerful admittance of deed most foul. I know who is responsible.}

_{A prophetic painting of a Sin Lord's fate by a famed madman.}

The Gallery has a twin, as well. There the images mo??ve as if alive, disturbin?g to the eye and mind.

The Feeding Ground of Gluttons

Where food is tainted and?? made unpalatable to all but the twisted tongues of sybaritics.

Traverse the po?rtal if? you will, but I dare not for fear of bodily expulsions.

The Marks of Pernicious Acts

For the completion of horribleness the awarding of "badges" is commonplace. They are many and varied in depravity. From admiring one another's horrid keratinous growth of the face, displays of the most appalling gluttony, showcasing the design of one's hideous lair, self-congratulation on being above the common masses, or participation in insidious games, near every atrocity one can commit against common decency is rewarded. It is? not uncommon for trickery to be employed in an attempt at acquisition, and spiteful rivalries are born here.

Lycanthropy

A perverse "game" played by resident ?liars and backstabbers wherein they are divided into two or more groups and proceed to murder one another over the course of several nights for their own enjoyment. Admittedly,?? it is most fun. The original playing field had been completely and utterly used, necessitating another.

In Summation

I cannot lie?, perhaps it is that corruption has seeped into my being. Suffused by the dark, I do not wish to see otherwise. The light holds no more attraction for me than a passing fancy, or a quick glance upon an errant w??him. The beings here are vile to be sure, but they care for their own, that much I can assure you.

It is not for all, that is clear. But for those who may wish to make that place their h??ome, there are rewards, to be certain. One cannot be truly freed from that place, which takes a part of you as its essential ?fabric. Then again, mayhap you would not wish to be free? Of course, that is for you to discover yourself.

I?? am but a humble guide. If thou art willing and brave, prithee, by all means, offer yourself to the deeps and see if you cannot become greater for it.

_{A recent portrait of myself.}

If you come burdened with questions I ?shall do my best to provide answers. Until then, I pray that I'll see you b?elow. 

Welcome to the Forums.

The post Destructoid Forums: The diabolical truth appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs!

From Teaching to Terrorism

Videogames have been used by many professions over the years as teaching tools, often in sc?hools to help children have fun while learning spelling or math. As the idea of the usefulness of videogames as a learning tool has grown, we have started to see video games being used for all sorts of teaching and training purposes.

One of the longest standing traditions in this theme has been the use of videogames as a training and recruitment tool by United States Army and other armed forces. The use of videogames by a military has three pur??poses: first and foremost, to ultimately entice people, often young adults, to join the armed forces. Secondly, videogames are often used by militaries for training purposes, such as to teach team exercises or to train UAV pilots how to operate drones. And lastly and most recent?ly, videogames have been used to treat psychological disorders, such as PTSD.

Before going into depth on the topic at hand, I'd like to take a minute to discuss the evolution of video games for military purposes. In all honesty, we should probably be thanking the United States Pentagon for what we're playing today, as the first videogame, Spacewar!, was funded by the Pentagon in 1962 and developed by MIT students. It used a microcomputer, the Programmed Data Processor-1 (PDP-1), and allowed two players to “use switches and knobs to maneuver spaceships through a gravity field of a star while firing missiles as each other.” Take that Asteroids.

   _{No Woodworth, it is you that hast been Pwned.} 

Jumping forward a couple decades, the original first person perspective game was the 1980 Battlezone, followed up 13 years later by Doom. These games showed the true potential of 3D piloting and virtual reality-based training. And it was a lot less expe??nsive tha?n sending battalions to the field to practice team tactics and decision making. The Pentagon saved money by not creating their own training simulators, and game developers ended up getting large government cheques. Everybody wins. I wonder why my government wasn't this cool when I was working for it...

_{Is that the moon or the 2nd Death Star?} 

After the Cold War, a combination of economic constraints after decad??es of military build-up and a??n increased linkage being drawn between the effectiveness of videogames as a training tool, favored training games over field exercises.

War has also changed in the 21^st century. Most often now it is not a country or group of countries fighting another axis, but instead a consta?ntly evolving insurgency that requires different types of strategies to combat effectively. Because of these changes, military training games have also evolved to take these factors into account.

Games such as UrbanSim and Tactical Iraqi now focus on counterinsurgency tactics as well as language skills, which are an integral and often overlooked part of these conflicts. Larger simulators, such as Virtual Battlespace 2?? allow commanders to construct scenarios to match real-world situations,? and then train entire companies of troops using them.

_{Military training tool or not, this looks really tactical and all around nifty.}

In a nutshell, this is how the use of? video games by th?e United States Army has evolved since its conception in 1962. But more importantly to the theme of this article is the purpose of a large sect of these video games: recruitment.

America's Army is probably the best known videogame recruitment tool used by the United States. I'm Canadian and I remember this coming out and being a big controversy. It's first release was in 2002, and it used Epic Game's Unreal Engine. Because, what doesn't, right? It was released online for free (you can still check it out at Americasarmy.com or download it on Steam) and is an explicit recruitment tool used by the U.S. Army aimed at young adults and teenagers. Many saw this game as blatant propaganda and the Army intruding into their private homes, and it has glaring issues. No one actually dies in America's Arm?y, whi??ch is a kind of twisted way of enticing people to fight in wars. In a game meant to teach people about fighting with an army, it fails to capture one of the most important and devastating aspects of it: death.

_{For an in-depth structural and instrumental analysis of America's Army, see Marcus Schulzke's “Rethinking Military Gaming: America's Army and its Critics."}

 _{Still propaganda, but at least its more tasteful.} 

Does anyone remember Full Spectrum Warrior? I have a copy of it sitting in my cabinet, and there is really only one reason that I held onto it. THQ was paid over $50 million dollars by the U.S. Government to produce FSW as a tactical training shooter, but it ultimately failed to accomplish these goals. Many critics completely overlooked the fact it was commissioned by the government, but held issue with a lack of depth and technical issues. Interestingly enough, sites like IGN that note it was “commissioned by the U.S. Army to train light Infant?ry troops in urban combat situations” and gave the gam??e a 9.2. Maybe standards were just lower then...

_{Should have saved those fat government cheques THQ...}

This actually brings me to the main point that I want to make in this article, and the theme that will make up Part 2 of this mini blog series. Very recently, it has been reported by several news sources that the Islamic ??State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been using a Mod of Arma 3 as a recruitment tool. This mod was originally developed to fight against the Islamist terrorists, as reported by Vocativ, but it? has since been taken over to allow players to play as terrorists and murder Westerners and Kurds.

This is a terrifying new form of videogame recruitment, and one that I will take some time to dissect this in the followup to this article. I strongly urge none of you to try and find this game to download, or even the threads that it appears in, as it is very likely tha??t by this time that ??the download portals and mirrors are being monitored both by the Western and ISIL intelligence agencies.

A screenshot from the ISIL mod of the original Iraqi war mod. Not OK. 

Game Smart.
TSG

The post Videogames and military recruitment: Part 1 appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs!

[Dtoid community member LuckRequired takes us on a stroll through his memories of the heyday of arcades. Those of us who frequented these electric churches of joy will be brought back swiftly to a simpler time. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]

I love the glowing screens dotted about in a dark environment, like a starry night sky, with no one telling you how bad the poor lighting is for your eyes. I love the stained, trodden, fatigued carpets that stick to your shoes as your skip from one arcade cabinet to the next. I love the chatter of cheers and groans as players react to their own or others performa??nces. I love the myriad of sounds of produced by the games. The power-ups, the coin collecting and high scores dinging and pinging. It was a symphony unique unto itself. And I really love the sounds of coins clinking and clanging into slots, butt??ons being mashed and sticks waggling.

I love the challenge presented to you by that habitual passer by lurking from afar who appreciates your ability to dethrone their hi-score and immediately tries to take it back, as well? as the camaraderie that the best arcades breed.

I love missing those things because they were a l?arge part of my youth and a very distinctive part of gaming history that has left me with some really fond memories. Stuff that only I can recall, but know others? have reveled in too. Finally beating the first stage on one credit, defeating that of wave of seemingly never-ending enemies, mastering my defenses and defeating that tricky credit devouring boss. And finally and perhaps most rewarding was standing my ground against an army of player two challengers.

I love you arcade emporiums!

I listened to this while typing this out.

The post Monthly Musing: I Love Arcades appeared first on Destructoid.

Monthly Musing

[This month's Blogger Wanted comes from Luna Sy and is all about love and video games!]

This is the month of February. This is the month of ♥ L ♥ O ♥ V ♥ E ♥, and it's time to celebrate that.

As Frozen has taught us, true love can come in many different forms. There are many kinds of love, not just romantic that deserve acknowledgment. Video games have plenty of individual elements and asp??ects that encourage and inspire us to express our deep love and admiration. You can love a certain character, a pairing, or even certain character traits. There maybe certain types of game settings or art styles that you love. The music? The story? The game play? Those deserve some love too.

Effusiveness. Enthusiasm. Heartfelt feelings. That's what we're looking for this month. Again, GUSH. Gush about things you love. I'm sure you're all very good at gushing. To participate, just start a new community blog and title it "?I love _______!" and elaborate your adoration towards that topic/thing/whatever! 

The post Gush about things you love this month appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs

_{[Dtoid community member TheDustinThomas shares the story of how video games helped him cope with the loss of his best friend. This made me ache a bit and wish I could see Isabelle again. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

I've never used videogames as a way to escape from the realities of life, I don't find that to be a healthy way of dealing with things, at least it isn't for me. I don't like to push t?hings under the rug and pretend like they didn't happen, I instead choose to use videogames as a way to cope with loss, rather than to escape from it. I understand why some people would choose to do it this way, because I have friends and family that do, it's just not my style. Videogames and writing are the things that have always helped me to make peace with situations, that's why I wrote the blog about Muldoon the same day he passed away, I just needed to write about him and let everyone ?know how awesome he was.

I've never used videogames as a way to escape from the realities of life, I don't find that to be a healthy way of dealing with things, at least it isn't for me. I don't like to push things under the rug and pretend like they didn't happen, I instead choose to use videogames as a way to cope with loss, rather than to escape from it. I understand why some people would choose to do it this way, because I have friends and family that do, it's just not my style. Videogames and writing are the things that have ??always helped me to make peace with situations, that's why I wrote the blog about Muldoon the same day he passed away, I just needed to write about him and let everyone know how awesome he was.

The first death I remember is my grandfather when I was four. I don't really remember him much, but I was with he and my grandmother every day while my parents were at work until I started kindergarten. I remember being sad, and I remember playing Super Mario Bros. because it would cheer me up. Shortly thereafter, my family's house blew up--not burned down, blew up--from a gas leak. The day after the fire, we went back to where the house used to be to try and salvage whatever we could. I remember picking our copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 from the wreckage. It was blackened from the smoke and soot, but you co??uld still make out the smiling, raccooned Mario on the cover.

I didn't expect it to work, but it didn't matter, our NES wasn't as lucky and didn't make it out alive. A while later, in one of the greatest acts of kindness I've ever experienced, my mother's coworkers pooled money together to buy my brother and I a new NES. As luck would have it, that copy of SMB3 still worked like it was brand new, which is why I'm convinced that NES cartridges will continue to flo?urish long after Skynet has become self-aware.

Fast-forwarding a little bit, during a two year period beginning in late 2006, I lost my best friend to cystic fibrosis, my grandmother to natural causes, and my uncle to liver disease. Then the girl I was engaged to at the time and I split up. I was working a full-time job on the graveyard shift that I hated, I was working a part-time job that I enjoyed but couldn't get a promotion from, I was going to school full-time, and I was in the wrestling ring every chance I could get. I had a lot on my plate and had very little free time. I was battling a great deal of depression and anger, I was struggling with an eating disorder, I was frustrated because I felt like I deserved to be better off with my wrestling caree??r than I was, and for the first time in my life, despite always being a believer, I was questioning my faith in God. There was one week that was so bad that I slept from the moment I got home from work to the time I had to go back every day.

But at the end of the day, I had videogames to help me. My friend ? Chris and I explored every inch of Pandora. We dispatched thousands upon thousands of zombies in Cajun country. I soared through space with a Lombax and solved platforming puzzles with his metal sidekick. I ran alongside the ghost of Sparta as we trekked through Greece in search of Zeus.

That's around the time I started writing Cblogs on Destructoid after months of just being a casual observer and leaving the occasional comment. I knew I was a good writer, but would the Dtoid community think so? Well, there was only one way to find out, and I was amazed when the second blog I ever posted here on Destructoid made the front page. It felt awesome to see something that I had worked so very hard on make it to the front page, and trust me, I put a lot of work and research into that particular blog. It was cool seeing the comments rolling in, praising my writing. It only fueled me to write more and more. That was the first time I ever thought "Hey, mayb??e I could do this and get paid for it one day." Over the years I've had my fair share of blogs make it to the front page, and every time I get that same rush and it only pushes me to want to keep writing?? and keep getting better.

Ever since that very dark time in my ??life, I've lost other family members, I've lost more friends, and I've been hurt, either by people or by life in general. Today, I'm in a much better state spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally, but that doesn't mean that I don't still use videogames and writing as some of my coping mechanisms. I put God first in every aspect of my life now, but sometimes, this guy needs to cope by riding an elephant and liberating outposts in Kyrat.

I don't get through tough spots in my life by watching movies or television. Music helps sometimes, but it doesn't take my mind off things. Videogames do, thanks in ?great part to the interactivity and having to constantly be on my toes. Eventually I get tired of watching the same movies or listening to the same songs, but I never grow tired of hitting buttons on a controller and watching Mario jump around and stomp goombas. Videogames are, to me, the gift that keeps on giving.

Thanks for reading

-Dustin

The post The Gift of Gaming: The world’s greatest coping mechanism appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs

_{[Dtoid community member Bardley played some Metal Gear games. This got him thinking about genetics and how they could affect him throughout his life. He gives us an amazing blog well worth reading. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

I’ve had the Metal Gear series on my mind a lot recently. Just a few weeks ago, I blogged about some of the music I loved from the series. I picked up a PlayStation 3 this past summer and played through Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, picking up the story from where I left off from playing the previous games two years ago. Since then, I’ve started playing through Peace Walker and am trying to find a decently priced copy of Ground Zeroes to catch up on the story before The Phantom Pain launches next year.

The glorious future of gaming awaits.

Since playing through Metal Gear Solid, I’ve loved the stealth action, the voice acting, and the crazy storylines that the series has become known for. Yet, when playing through these games, there wasn’t much that I had a personal connection with. I’ve never been a super soldier sneaking through enemy territory on a world-sav?ing mission or fought superhuman villains who talk too much and have certainly never somersaulted naked through an offshore oil containment facility.

Except for appearances. Snake and I could practically be twins. Ya'll are made out of polygons, too... right?

Yet, in all the combined craziness and grounded realism of the Metal Gear universe, there is one aspect that I can? relate to, on??e that came to mind recently.

Genetics are a very interesting field. I remember being fascinated as a kid by all the physical similarities I could find with my parents and things I had inherited from them, such as left-handedness, eye color, hair color, and facial features. From childhood, I have been interested by left-handedness and how exactly why right-handedness is so much more prevalent than left-handedness. While studying the origins of genes in biology class in high school, I thought it was cool how anyone could map out their family hist?ory and map the probability of inheritance of any number of features. It was really fascinating looking into how I turned out the way I am, with the probabilities and chances of me receiving my physical features laid out in front of me.

But, genetics is rarely fun kid’s stuff; there is much more to it than an elementary school science lesson. With genetics comes family history of diseases and health concerns. On both sides of my family, diabetes is fairly common. However, it often isn&rsq??uo;t caused by diet, but genetics. My grandfather on my mother’s side is incredibly healthy and physically active w??ell into his seventies, but was still diagnosed with diabetes. I am in good health myself, eating well and trying to stay physically active in a busy university setting. Yet, a family history of diabetes isn’t what scares me. It is the dementia and Alzheimer’s in my family history that scares me. Though physically very healthy, my grandfather is in the early stages of dementia and is currently living in an assisted living center. He still recognizes most of the family, but every visit seems like he’s getting worse. A few months ago, my great aunt passed away after a long battle with many health problems, including dementia. We’re afraid that my grandfather on my father’s side may also be showing signs of early stages of dementia.

There aren’t many things that scare me, but dementia is one of them. I’ve seen how the disease progresses, with people forgetting basic task??s to eventually forgetting close loved ones; it feels as though they are a completely different person. I’ve seen that look in someone’s eyes, someone you’ve known your whole life, when they don’t even recognize you anymore. With my family history of dementia and no known cure for it, developing the disease honestly frightens me. When watching scary movies and playing horror games, there isn’t much that scares me anymore. However, one of the few things that freaks me out is the loss of identity. In stories, this can be from possession from a foreign entity, assimilation, or swift degradation of the mind. They are either a shell of their former self or have been changed into a completely foreign being. No matter what the result, the character is no longer himself or herself.

Perhaps why this aspect of horror scares me so much is knowing that something similar could happen to me. I could very easily dev?elop dementia and not be able to remember things as my mind slowly regresses. Memories from a lifetime could fade away as I forget loved ones and fall into myself. One of the things I value the most is my mind. I enjoy?? creativity and imagination, appreciating and enjoying the hobbies and activities I take part in. I dread slowly losing something like that and knowing that it is happening while it takes effect.

Recently, I thought about Metal Gear Solid and recalled the role that genes play in the game. As the ??game progresses,? the player starts to understand that there is more to the events of the game than there appears to be. A standard mission to stop terrorists slowly changes into something deeper and unexpected. It turns out that Solid Snake is actually a clone of the legendary soldier Big Boss and the shadowy figure that has led the terrorist plot is his brother, Liquid Snake. The soldiers that Snake had fought along the way through Shadow Moses Island were augmented genetically and could technically be considered his brothers as well.

Throughout the entire game, Liquid is spiteful towards Snake because he be??lieves that he was given all of Big Boss’ recessive genes, while Snake was given the dominant genes. Liquid believes that he must prove himself as the superior clone of Big Boss to gain self actualization. As it turns out, Liquid was the superior clone, as Snake had in fact received Big Boss’ recessive genes. Yet, Liquid handicapped himself from the start, cursing h??is genes and spending his entire life with a chip on his shoulder.

In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, it is revealed that Solidus is the perfect clone of Big Boss, ??an exact replica of him. He took much pride in his appearance, that of Big Boss.

Just like Dad

Liquid and Solidus spent much of their lives trying to live up to their father, surmount him, or blame him for perceived slights. Solid Snake, on the other hand, though the weakest of the clones, did not try to live up to his father and did not curse his fate. He simply did what was right, paving his own path in life. After the tumultuous events of Metal Gear Solid, he leaves Shadow Moses Island with Meryl at his s?ide, ready to l?ive life to the fullest.

Yet, Snake does not leave scot-free. Before the mission even began, he was injected with a genetically engineered retrovir?us called FOXDIE that was designed to kill the members of FOXHOUND that Snake came across. As a macabre final touch, the FOXDIE strain was designed to someday kill Snake. After discussing the virus ?with Naomi, she informed him that the virus had a wildcard incubation period, meaning that it would kill him at an indeterminate point in the future.

Snake: Naomi, Liquid died from FOXDIE too. What about me? When am I going to go?
Naomi: That’s up to you.
Snake: What do you mean?
Naomi: Everybody dies when their time’s up.
Snake: Yeah, so when’s mine up?
Naomi: It’s up to you how you use the time left to you. Live, Snake. That’s all I can say to you.
Snake: ………

C'mon. Let's enjoy life...

Honestly, I think that this is one of the few Metal Gear games that end with almost everything being positive and left me with a smile on my face. There is so much confidence for the future, with a world of possibilities for Snake and Meryl??. Evil has been defeated and our heroes have learned something and grown along the way. So, Snake decides that he will live his life to the fullest, knowing full well?? that FOXDIE will probably kill him at some point in the future.

When I think about my ow?n genes and about the future, this is the kind of attitude I want to have. Unlike Liquid, who lamented his genes and handicapped himself, Snake accepted who he was and where he came from and decided to move on. In my case, it’s no use worrying about what may or may not happen in the future. What matters is making the most of my time on Earth. I may have dementia someday and I may not. If I do, I want to have a life worth remembering. I’m nearing the end of my time in college and plan to graduate next spring. I’m at a crossroad in life and have been in a period of transition since I started college. It feels like my life is only just beginning at times. Whatever happens, I know that the best is yet to come.

The post Facing my genes with Solid Snake appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs

_{[Dtoid community blogger Alphadeus is back with another lovely album! From his brain space to the tips of his fingers to your ears, this is a journey worth taking. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

I released another album, 2AD14 - II. As you can tell, I'm not really a good digital artist when it comes to album art, but I d??o the music so I guess that works! I'm not going to just drop an embed and call it a day, I'm going to wr??ite about each song.

I figure this time, instead of slowing everyone do??wn with em??bedded video, maybe I can try to get the Bandcamp embed to work instead. It should be above this paragraph.

2AD14 - II is an album in the 2ADXX series I started this year. It's basically the year with the AD emblem representing the zero in the year. It's "probably" going to replace Nonsensicals as the album where I just write music without a theme. The first one was released las?t month,?? and it received some positive comments.

This time around, I only rearranged 1 song from a previous album, Battle on Nostromo, Exit Ripley, Mr. Andy Dixon's song from the Community Album. I wanted to do at least one mo??re, but the track I decided to work on more or less froze me (I wasn't able to figure out a decent arrangement), so I deleted it and started wor??????????????????????????king on original music.

Most of the tracks this time around are the kind of music you hear in modern movies and video games. I've been messing with this type of sound since the first album. I tried to include other styles on there as well. Basically, whatever I fancied at the time. I'm going to write?? about the individua??l tracks.

01 - To New Beginnings: The first track, I felt, had to be a positive one after the dark, angry track that ended 2AD14 - I. It would represent a new beginning, a new album, a new outlook on things. I wanted?? this album to? be more positive, and also to kick more ass. So I started it with this explosive song. I absolutely love how positive it is.

02 - B.O.N.E.R. ~Mr Andy Dixon~ : The updated version of Mr. Andy Dixon's song! Now with 52% more kickass! My goal for this rearrangement, was to write something more dramatic, a??nd again, positive. I also wanted to try out different progressions in the second half. I think it came out well. When the guitar kicks in (in both versions), it makes me want to salute, but not with my hands, if you catch my driftwood.

03 - Shattered Diamond: Of course, there has to be sad, dramatic songs on my albums. This would be one of the songs. It's meant to play during a scene where a character conside??red to be one of the strongest, is destroyed in battle.

04 - Eye of the Beholder: Action strings don't fail me! Kind of a boss battle song, inspired heavily by the work of Michiru Yamane. It includes an instrument called t?he "Cellosaurus". Not much else needs to be?? said about this track ;)

05 - Chosen: With this particular track, I actually wanted to try to write something "pretty and generic". Why generic? Because I'm always trying to do things that either haven't? been done before, or are uncommon. It's a wonderful song, just the progression is fairly common in movies, is all.

06 - From the Pit of my Stomach: Not sure how to describe what I was going for here, I guess a dark, "gross" song in a sense. It picks up halfway through, has an interesting bass line that reminds me of Gato's song from Chrono Trigger, whic?h is kind of what I was going for. I like to toss in throwbacks to music that inspires me whenever possible.

07 - Bit by Bit: A bit unusual?? compared to most of? my music. I used what I call a "panic progression" to create a song that sounds like it could be played during a chase. The name refers to the 8-bit instruments used. I like the fast beat as well.

08 - The Forgotten Sword: More action strin?gs! Gotta love 'em! I was going for pure drama here. The Sword is a living being, and is? upset about being forgotten! It has an interesting switch up in the middle, perhaps. I could be lying!

09 - Lost in the Stars: Fast beat, with a muted trumpet that I'm slowly learning to love. It's quite an interesting departur?e from my older stuff, although I believe I've been writing all kinds of unusual stuff lately. I suppose that happens when you've written over 200 songs (possibly), and like to try new things.

10 - The Corrupt Leader of the Free World: I picked up a new Nexus expansion called Hollywood Synth, and whenever I get a ?new Nexus expansion, I have to write a song using as many instruments as possible to justify the purchase. And thus, this epic piece was born. The song is meant to play for a final boss character, as he sits on his throne, planning his big move. The world is free, but not for long, if this character has his way!

11 - Define: Define! One w?ord title! I was doing so many orchestral game music pieces, I wanted to try to write something that was a kick in the teeth.

12 - To The Future: Last track on the albu?m. Gotta go out on a chill note. Probably the slowest song on the album, and I think a great way to end the whole action-packed ride.

There were so many action songs this time around. I think this album is probably one of my more "kickass" albums. Of course I'm just tooting my own horn. You be the judge of my horrible/terrible/wonderful/okay music ;) ??I? hope you find something worth your time, and I apologize if they all suck. I tried my best. I'm only one person! What did you expect!

Thank you for listening, and for the years of support and positive vibes. I wouldn't be writing music if it wasn't for this community. At least, I think that. I don't know where I would've ended up if I didn't start posting here when I did. You guys took me in, and many of you I've ?? gotten to know on a personal level. I'm really happy to know you guys.

The post New Album “2AD14 – II” – Always Free! appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs

_{[Dtoid community member Solar Pony Django shares with us what gaming has given him. Its something most of us can relate to in all sorts of ways. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

To me my favorite gift of gaming is all of you. The community, each person makes it feel unique and for the most part makes me feel welcomed here. However, I've been a part of a few communities before stumbling my way to Destructoid and I've brought a little piece of them with me. So I'm going to go over them. Starting with a game that I have way too many hours in for a genre I don't play that much: Team Fortress 2.

To start with we have Project Mayhem and a video I had forgotten I had recorded in the first place. Recorded back on my toaster of a laptop, I was part of a community called Project Mayhem (yes, it was based upon Fight Club). All the people in it were really friendly for the most part and having watched this video again it made me feel a little sad. Th?is community is no more which is a common them sadly. Project Mayhem is definitely a place and moment that holds a special place in my heart.

I played on Project Mayhem a lot during my Freshmen year of college, I didn't happen to know anyone at my college so I was a little bit of a shut in. I would almost always get on and play for 3-4 hours every night on that toaster, just chugging away. It's amazing how I thought that laptop was so cool but it could barely even run Team Fortress 2. I would talk with YellyVonHollerlots, Vish, Bella, Sandwich, Raist and a whole lot of others and it was a really good time. It made me forget about how lonely I was and may have contributed at least a bi??t to my? poor grades during that time.

In order to become a full member of Project Mayhem you had to do some silly little assignments, each worth a different amount. The silly assignments were really fun though, as you had to post proof in the forum and that would in turn get you talking to more people and becoming closer knit (much like the community blogs actually). Some were simple such as the above video where you film all the mods you have ins??talled. Some were a little harder but required more of a community effort.

Nothing too hard, as an admin could flaunt their skills and help push you along such as the "get every player named after a certain theme" (mine was Mega Man) and post a screenshot of it to the forums. I liked them so much ?that I donated money and become a junior administrator. Sometimes I went a little...crazy with the power, mainly kicking people that made fun of my r?eligious beliefs. It was before I learned to just tune it out since I know they were just trying to get a rise out of people.

But somewhere along the line the servers sadly died. Not enough people were contributing money and the server administrator didn't have enough to do it by himself, which I totally understand. So I moved from that Team Fortress 2 community on to The Halolz server. Which is also dead. I stayed their another year and moved my way up the ranks ag??ain, nothing as high as an admin this time but I had a lot of fun there since Halolz was definitely more silly based. I'd actually love to play with my fellow Destructoiders but people aren't on the server that often.

But that's only one such game, there's another that I hold close and dear to my h?eart, I yearn for it frequently actually when I play the sequel and that game is.

I have fond memories of Guild Wars 2. I became a part of a relatively active guild. However, my favorite memories are from the original Guild Wars. That game is almost ten years old now. Kind of hard to believe that I started playing that game back i??n my Freshmen year of high school. I think it's time to revisit the land of Tyria actually.

Anyways I have 6,000 hours in this game. That's 250 days for those curious. Almost a full year. Back when I was playing ??I hammered at this game and loved it. It was my escape, especially during high school.  I could log on and ??play with my friends and ignore the real world all the bullies and naysayers. In Guild Wars I was Zelda Sheek Slayer of the Lich, Destroyer of Shiro, Conqueror of Abaddon, Delayer of the Elder Dragons! And that was just one of my names.

I haven't really touched Guild Wars in about 3 years now. I've gotten on occasionally but not for long periods of time. Mainly because when you have 6,000 hours, you burn you??rself out. You need a break. I think that break is nearing it's end and it worries me. While I love this game with how much I've spent on it, I'm worried how much I'll forget ?my real life goals and ambitions. But this time I know I have somebody that will thankfully pull me away if it is too much.

But what does this have to do with community? Everything. I was an officer in a guild called League of Commanders. Some of you Guild Wars players may have heard of it others not. We were big, but not huge.  We were, however, big enough to conquer parts of the Jade Sea. Never Cavalon but we managed to conquer a few areas with our alliance that required a lot of grinding. In order to conquer and area you had to do?? alliance battles or certain other ways that let you donate alliance points and ??be part of a faction. The faction with the most alliance points controlled the area.

I remember doing dungeon??s with Doucet and his girlfriend at the time. I remember all the grinding we did together for gold, items, titles, you name it we did it. We were a close knit team. I would get on Ventrillo and talk with them for hours on end just shooting the breeze. It feels like a lifetime ago, even longer than Project Mayhem since this was going into my Junior year of high school. Maybe a little bit earlier. But we were a family, and it pains me a little to say I've fallen away from them. Some drama happened and ??it killed the guild. I won't get into out of respect for those that it happened to but it makes me sad that it died.

My best memories with that guild though are probably Ursanway. Doucet introduced me to it and told me it was the easiest way to make money. He was right; it was smash head on keyboard and win (unless you were the monk, they had a harder job) but it did require a little bit of grinding. See Ursanway depended on Ursan Form, Ursan Form depend u??pon your Norn ranking. Highest ranki??ng best stats, so you had to max that first (along with Lightbringer since the best farm had enemies that with the Lightbringer title you did more damage to and took less damage from) before most people would take you.

I think I only got away with that farm for a little more than a month after I discovered it. ArenaNet did not predict how much it would royally screw up the economy and just how broken that skill was at it's initial release. I think I got 500k during that time. Others got more, but I had work to handle as well during that time so I couldn't farm as much as everyone else. Those that remember it in Guild Wars 2 remember that time.

Everyone was making money then, thankfully the market did eventually fix itself and get back to normal. But during that time,we were kings. We ran Domain of Anguish, one of the if not the hardest dungeon in the game and could do it in two hours. If you got lucky you got enough gemstones for an Armbrace o??f Trut?h, but most of the time it took a few runs.

There is one thing that I am thankful for from Guild Wars 2. That is the brony guild I got into. It made me much more involved with My Little Pony which I love and adore now. It also got me to start writing my original character's back story, which I still need to complete, but I'm writing a chapter around Zecora and rhyming is pretty hard for me so it's discouraged me for a long time.  I'm a little ashamed of how long its taking me but I hope to one day finish it.  Sadly, as is the nature of things, this guild?? died too.

And with that as stated earlier I'm here with the Destructoid community. I comment with you guys, exchange thoughts with you, hell Nekrosys and I even have a running gag now about that post apocalyptic harem of his! There's Hoffman, Dreamweaver, Gajknight, Occams, Luna Sy, Scept, Pixie, Shade, Kodu, sonic429, Fenrif, LuckRequired, Holmes, Steven Hansen and so many more. I love all of you (even those I didn't list, there's a lot of people) and I'm secretly scared that this community will die because of my past experiences but I really hope it doesn't. I know it seems a bit silly since thi?s is a game website as opposed to a guild but it worries me a bit. I like all of you and don't want to see yo?u guys go.

And that's why everyone in the community here, everyone I've ever been a ??part of any previous community, and any community going forward is a gift to me. You all mean so much to me and make me smile and happy. Thank you. All of you.

The post The Gift of Gaming: Community appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs!

[Dtoid community member Fenriff shares some of us favorite supporting characters with us.  Its amazing just how much they add to a game. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]

It's easy to get caught up in how great or disappointing main characters can turn out to be in games. All too often we forget to give a shout out to the great supporting cast that help us through our many adventures. Playing Dragon Age: Inquisition almost nonstop this week has certainly given me plenty of time to fawn over the great party banter you experience while out ex??ploring the world. So lets talk about some great supporting characters in games.

Varric – Dragon Age

As I've already brought up Dragon Age I'll start off with my favorite character from the series: the dwarf Varric. His fantastic sense of humor and rogue-ish charm make him a pleasure to have around while spending untold hours exploring the huge environments in Dragon Age: Inquisition. It doesn't matter who else you throw in your party, he'll have something to talk about with them. Even if you're one of the many people who gladly spit on Dragon Age II you have to admit that he was a highlight of the game. I couldn't ima??gine playing through ?either game without him at my side, lightening the mood.

Elizabeth – BioShock Infinite

Elizabeth was, in my opinion, a breath of fresh air accompanied by a huge sigh of relief in BioShock Infinite. She's beautiful and has depth as a character but never comes off as an annoyance. The game allows you to care for her without having to ?take care of her. Rather than most games which would have forced you to protect the “poor defenseless lady” she hides on her own,? stays out of trouble, and is actually a big help by throwing you ammo, money, and opening rifts. An excellent side character in an excellent game.

The Watcher – Darksiders

The Watcher is great because he takes the “Navi” role in a game heavily influenced by Zelda and fills it in a very interesting way. Rather t?han being a nuisance he provides a creepy, evil reminder that your character, the seemingly unstoppable War, is on a leash and will have to follow orders if he wants to prove his innocence. He's also voiced by Mark Hamill, which is enough reason on its own to like h?im.

Magus – Chrono Trigger

Magus has been one of my favorite RPG companions since I was a little kid. The first time I played through Chrono Trigger I didn't even know it was possible for him to join you, but when he did I made full use of him. He's a great case of that old story mechanic where the guy you think is the bad guy turns out to act??ually have good intentions. You learn of his past and how he was just some kid who many thought talentless and grew up surrounded by monsters that he would one day rule. With this backstory revealed, he becomes so much more badass than you already thought he was.

Maria – Silent Hill 2

I've spoken before about how much I love Silent Hill 2, and Maria definitely helps make it as amazing as it is. No other side character could leave me so absolutely confused as she did, but in the best possible way. The iconic jail cell scene where you can't tell if she's Mary or Maria and even she seems to be unsure is just phenomenal. She's a great example of how Silent Hill's creations can be unnerving in a more passive way rather than always being a giant mon??ster that horrifies you.

Knuckles – Sonic the Hedgehog

Long before Sonic Boom ruined the character by turning him into a bulky idiot who literally doesn't know his left from right, Knuckles was a badass who came from pretty much out of nowhere. He was introduced in Sonic 3 / Sonic and Knuckles as an antagonist of sorts. However, in reality he had been tricked by Dr. Robotnik into thinking that Sonic had arrived in Knuckles' home to steal his island's chaos emerald. Few people can ??claim to have outmaneuvered Sonic the Hedgehog like this red echidna. In a game series that never really needed characters, Knuckles s?howed up and I'm sure we're all happier for it.

Solaire – Dark Souls

Are you ready for some j-j-jolly cooperation?! Then Solaire is here to help you out! Solaire explains to you, in the most in game canon way possible, how multiplayer works in Dark Souls and gives you the item you'll need to make it happen. He also proves to be a valuable ally on your journey through Lordran and has a pretty interesting story to boot. His fate is left entirely in your hands when he reaches the end of his journey, and assuming you can save him you'll have an ally in the riposterific final battle against Gwyn! While it has been stated by From Software that Gwyn's firstborn is not present in Dark Souls, many fans (myself included) enjoy entertaining the notion that Solaire himself is the forgotten son come home. If only you could be so gr??ossly incandescent.

Yosuke – Persona 4

Really this spot could be filled by ANY of the excellent cast of characters in Persona 4, but I picked Yosuke because he stands out by being the first real friend you make in the game. He fills a spot that Junpei of Persona 3 wanted to fill but couldn't: the role of your bro. Yosuke is the guy you can always rely on to have your back. He's flawed, but has good intentions. In a fantastic game of fantastic characters, Yosuke gets the cast started off righ?t.

Zero – Mega Man X

Growing up, Zero was one of the first video game characters that really stood out to me as a badass. I liked him instantly upon seeing him in Mega Man X. His overall design, skill, and attitude combined to make him a character that helps you connect with your in-game self, because much the same as X, you also want to be like Zero. As the X series continued he beca?me the character that connected the X series to the original series through the discovery that he was created by Dr. Wily to kill Mega Man, and his actions are what led to Sigma's rebellion which started the plot of the first X game.

There are?? plenty of fantastic supporting characters worth mentioning, but these have been a few of my favorites. No matter how good your protagonist is, it always helps to have good characters backing them up. I'm interested in hearing what your favorite side characters are, so by all means let me know! It's Garrus isn't it? Of course it's Garrus. Thanks for r??eading!

The post Share the load: Memorable supporting characters appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs

[Dtoid community member RedHeadPeak takes a look at the historical accuracy in Skyrim. What happens next is both entertaining and fascinating. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]

I began to play Skyrim for the first time last week. After finally jumping onto the bandwagon the game loaded me into a much more literal wagon, and announced that I was to be executed; a bad way to start a Wednesday evening. I was then told that another passenger was the true 'High King' of Skyrim. "That's convenient!" A cynical voice in my head crowed, "Fancy being in the same cart as the contender to the throne!" "Well… it's not that unlikely." A more grown-up voice rema??rked, "Think of all the times that usurpers and pretenders have challenged the order of succession."

That voice in my brain made a good point. Pick a time in history and you'll find people squabbling over who should be in charge. The majority of the major 'plot points' in world history revolve around one party challenging the power of their leaders. This dispute is usually resolved by the two groups putting bits of metal through each other (last one to die, wins). So randomly bumping into someone in Skyrim with a grudge against the monarchy is not?? so strange.

Skyrim is not a game based in History (which is a shame), but each of The Elders Scrolls games has been heavily influenced by weapons and locations from the middle ages. Skyrim takes most of its inspiration from medieval Northern Europe. There's a real 'Viking-y' feel to the whole thing. So far I've only played about ten hours ?of the game, but I'm already starting to spot the history behind the fantasy. Once noticed, I found it quite hard to turn off ??History Teacher Mode, so I thought I'd go with it and inflict my observations on you instead.

The Execution Scene

The horse and cart trundle into town, and the prisoners are unloaded. After a brief/lengthy [delete as appropriate] session with the character cr?eator, ??you and the other criminals are lined up to be executed. The method of execution: beheading. We watch as the first prisoner is placed neck first onto the chopping block, and a downward axe swing separates the gentleman's head from the rest of the gentlemen.

This scene is, for the most part, an accurate depiction of a form execution ??employed in medieval Europe. Executions in public were also a regular feature of a feudal society. You ??deal with a serious criminal and remind the local populace what happens if they commit a high crime. However, decapitation was not a punishment given out to just anyone.

It's strange to think of a method of execution being more popular than another, but death by beheading was the preferred way to go. The quick, relatively painless removal of the head was seen as a much more dignified alternative than the other, much more common method of execution. Hanging was the capital punishment used on the common man; a much more common occurrence in the Middle Ages. Beheading was seen as a much more noble death. This perception continued for centuries - Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII's second wife) reques??ted a doub??le-edged sword rather than an axe for her execution. It was all the rage in French high society, don't-you-know.

In that opening scene of Skyrim, your character is unknown and insignificant. Historically speaking, the axe is way too good for you. The suppose??d 'High King' that traveled with you might have been given enough respect to be granted a noble death??, but your character should be swinging from the gallows...

All those Wolves

Wolves are everywhere in Skyrim. Walk in any direc??tion for two minutes and you will soon find yourself pestered by black, scraggly mutts. And once again, we find a connection to the medieval world. A thousand years ago, wolves were a serious problem for towns and villages in Northern Europe. In France, cattle were at so much risk of wolf attacks that the job of 'wolf hunter' became an actual profession, scoring high on the list of "Coolest Sounding Job Titles".

Ever heard the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf? Well, there's a touch of reality there. Young children in Anglo-Saxon England were given the job of watching over the village flock in case of wolf attack. So, if you ever hear anyone claiming that 'kids today have it easy'… they are really, really right.

Round, wooden shields

T??ry this test: take a wooden spoon and a metal spoon from the kitchen. Holding one spoon in each hand, smack the implements off a hard surface. Notice the difference? The metal spoon transferred the force into your hand.

This is an example I suggest to students when trying to explain why a metal shield is a silly and historically inaccurate idea. This is also why warriors wear padding under metal armor, why sword handles are bound in leather, and why shields are often made of wood. Plus the fact that the production of metal weapons and armor was far more expensive and time consuming. If you ever see a metal shield in real life, it's probably ornamental. Most warriors of Northern Europe would use shields of wood. So pleased was I to see that some shields in Skyrim follow that logic.

I'm sure that when I progress further into the game I will come across big, heavy metal shields with eccentric designs, but for now my warrior is wielding a shield like the one above. The other image is of a recreated Saxon shield. The only issue with the Skyrim version is that it has too much going on. Most round shields had a metal centre, behind which the hand holding it is kept safe, with metal bands either across the shield or around the edge. Few soldiers would put that much metal onto a ?single shield.

The round shield is much more than something a Norseman would hide behind. That metal center (which is called a "boss") or the metal trim around the shield edge could be used to bash an opponent, providing the opening for a free stab. I've already seen a 'finishing move' performed by my character where the edge of the shield was used to cave a rival's head in. The way in which most shields in the game are held is also accurate. We often imagine shields ?as being something strapped onto the forearm, which did happen, but it was more common to see a shield held by a single handle?? on the back. This gave better reach and much more flexibility.

Too many books

Every house you go to in Skyrim, you can expect to find at least one book sitting on a shelf. This is a pretty weird thing to see, considering most people in a medieval society had neither the time, nor the need, to learn to read and write. A farmer raised their children to become farmers. If a medieval boy wasn't learning how to build or repair the home, they w??ere learning how to fight. On top of this, pape??r was a difficult item to manufacture; owning paper was often regarded as a sign of high standing in society.

The Fighting

Combat in Skyrim seems pretty straightforward. You click a button and the character swings a weapon. If you hold for longer, they swing harder. Not the most sophisticated swordplay you'll ever see. Yet this is what makes close combat in Skyrim strangely accurate. Magic abilities aside.

We've all seen movies and games with melee fighting in them. Swords clash, warriors spin and twirl, dodge rolls a-plenty, fights lasting for ten minutes. Medieval fighting is none of those things. A spin attack might look awesome, but if a medieval knight tried that they'd get a spear through the head for trying to show off. Most fights would last all of two sword moves. No skilled medieval knight would waste time blocking their opponent's blade; they would have the skill to parry the blow and stab their enemy in the same move. And why would you cla?sh swords? That would blunt the weapons.

Just watch these two modern day Scandinavian men pretend??ing to be Vikings:

To me, the fighting in Skyrim is pretty close to the mark. T?wo opponents swinging for each others vital organs, clobbering each other? into submission, letting the armor take the hit, focusing on attack. Maybe one too many swings from up high, but the real brutal essence of combat is there.

The Iron War Hammer

This is a late edition to the list. I found one of these in my latest session with the game, and I'm really pleased to see it. When most people think of a war hammer is fantasy terms they picture a huge lump of metal fixed to the end of a wooden pole. Again, those versions exist in Elder Scrolls too, but the iron war hammer is much closer to the genuine article. When you think about this physics of both the historic and the fantasy versions, I hope you'll realize the former is way more brutal. The smaller, thinner hammer can be swung with the speed and accuracy of a sword, and the smaller surface area gives the weapon a real punch. These weapons were designed to break bones through the victims armor.

…the Skyrim version is still way too big, but it's ??an improvement.

Final Thoughts

So after week one there's a lot of little, really accurate references to history in Skyrim, not all of them are deliberate. When I've played previous installments I made no attempt to spot the historic elements of the game, bu??t doing it this time round has added an extra level of enjoyment to the experience. The only instance where I may have almost spoilt the game occurred when I realized that the dragons aren't historically accurate… which is a shame.

Maybe you've spotted other historical (in)accuracies within Skyrim? Let me know. Or you may like to add to/correct the comments I've made here. I'm always eag??er to learn mo??re.

Thank You For Reading.

The post How historically accurate is Skyrim? appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs

[Dtoid writer, community member and Queens of the Stone Age aficionado Brittany Vincent is thankful for the victories and the struggles that come with developing a career writing about games. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]

A wise man once said "I think, therefore? I am." My philosophy ??is simple: "I think, therefore I game."

Boy, do I. I've been in a torrid love affair with the digital medium ever since I burst out of my mother's ?womb, saved the world three times over, and settled down as an enter?prising young woman in Louisville, Kentucky. That's over 20 years of gaming, with no end in sight.

But not only do I game. I write about it, too. I work hard at it. I work a full-time job that's completely unrelated to video games and sleep 4 or 5 hours a night to make sure I can still deliver the best content I can. It makes me rude, irritable, and difficult to be friends with. I'm also dealing with depression, as I've opened up about on Destructoid previously. It's just that nothing is?? more important to me than furthering the career I've worked tirelessly to?? nurture. Not my appearance, not my health, or sometimes (regrettably) my relationships.

So when the time comes that I'??m staring at a byline at one of my favorite ?publications or reading a comment on a review I've written thanking me for covering a niche visual novel or even a triple-A title, I can't help but be thankful. Even if I'm exhausted. Even if I feel like there's never going to be a permanent space for me within the video game industry. There's still the fact that, as many of you have pointed out, I've carved out a space for myself. No matter how small, it's a place of my own that I've labored to reach.

And I'm so, so thankful to be here.

I don't say it enough. Really, I don't think it enough. I surely take it for granted, and I feel terribly guilty for it. I could be stuck working at McDonald's because I was too scared to take a chance or pester a PR representative four or five times to give me a chance to evaluate one of their ga??mes. I could be languishing in a community on a gaming site lashing out at everyone who dared to take the plunge and start writing for better or for worse.

I don't appreciate what I have enough of the time, really, and and it's turning me into a much angrier person. I'm quick to complain about not accomplishing everything I want, or what oth??e??rs are doing. I critique editorial practices and lament having to stay awake until 4 AM working on a feature when I'd rather be watching inane YouTube videos instead. I'm pretty rude to some of you in the comments because I'm overworked. I'm on edge. And I'm sorry.

I'm still appreciative, because no matter how frustrating and ??terrible it is to log in and see a comment calling me a whore because I dared speak positively about a game with sexual references in it, I'm not going anywhere. I wo?uldn't trade what I've got for the world. 

As I look back on 2014, I can't help but become overwhelmed and overjoyed by what I've been able t??o do over the past eight years. I joined Destructoid this year, and despite my various complaints and frustrations, I'm still here. I browsed the site back when Colette Bennett was writing about a lot of the stuff I cover today and I coveted her spot. Meagan Marie was still Virt??ualGirl. Chad and his dolphins frolicked about later on, and I nearly wrote a feature here under his guidance, but we never could quite hammer it out.

Now I have the option to simply write something. It's a bit surreal to work at the places I grew up fantasizing about writing for. I wanted to infiltrate the mess that was GameGirl.com back when it existed and improve it tenfold, but I never could.  I never got the chance to work with 1UP. But I landed at Destructoid, and that's been infinitely important to me. I thought I'd never catch any?one's eye here??. I thought I couldn't hang. Maybe I can't. But I sure as hell am going to keep trying.

It's been a weird ride. Nearly ten years ago I found my one ?true love in video game journalism. Childhood meant thumbing through Dad's subscriptions to PC Gamer and EGM to pore over the latest releases and editors' thoughts on what would become viable hits. For the longest time they were just middle-aged men with jobs to me -- worlds apart from a little girl in Kentucky with no real connections to the industry. All I had then was a notebook, a Game Boy, and a pink duffel bag full of cords and cartridges...and a dream.

With the advent of ZDTV and later G4, I immersed myself further in gaming media and the writers I adored. These people actually made a living analyzing and reporting on the games I grew up with! It was their livelihood! I knew I could do it too. So I picked up a pen, reviewed Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, and I never looked back. I never settled for anything less than progress, even when I was forced?? to review b??aby games and shovelware.

I'm a head-shotting horror hound glazed with sparkling sugar pixels. I was born gaudy, raucous, and determined. That means I'll try anything once. That means I'll never give up. And it means I'm not afraid to go after what I want, even if I do weird things to get there. I rock rainbow-hued hair, a?? Pokémon tutu, and a "purse" fashioned out of a hollowed-out NES because I'm proud of how my favorite pastime has shaped me. I'm proud to inspire, and I'm always eager to involve others in my colorful world of adventure and intrigue.

But it's important to remember that none of that makes me special in any way, shape or form. In the end, I'm just a random name on the internet. No one knows who I am. I try to talk to coworkers about games am written off nearly immediately as someone who probably doesn't know anything about Destiny or Halo or whatever the most buzzworthy topic is at ??the moment.

Still, I'm fucking grateful. 

In a tumultuous industry where it's cool to snark and denounce and lord everything right down to your geographical location over readers, there's still an audience out there I can speak to who are just in it for the games. I'm working during a time where it's practically required of games media to riff on every single bit of news that comes down the line, but there's still a space for me to enjoy things and remain positive. I'm overjoyed that I don't have to write about "videogames" inst?ead of "video games."

To me, that small space between words is the perfect way to illustrate two different schools of discussion when it comes to the hobby I've enjoyed all of my life. I don't care how lowbrow it is of me to purchase and enjoy a Call of Duty title, no matter how much fun it is to rally against a wildly popular annual franchise. And I'm simply not interested in discussing the "sexist implications" of Bayonetta. No, not even because I'm a woman.

It is and always has been about the games, as I take a very simple black and white approach when it comes to reviewing: Is it good? Should you play it? What do you do in it? Astonishingly, there are still avenues for me to gush endlessly about how much I love Random J?apanese RPG #845 or why Rhythm Adventure #4 really is the best out of the series. I don't have to invent things to hate. I don't have to tirelessly report on things that are wrong. I can entertain without breaking down. I wish I had known that early on when I began writing. But I'm learning it now. 

In fact, I don't have to hate at all. I can be positive and look forward to the future of gaming and everything beyond it. And looking back on this blog, I realize that there's one thing I should be thankful for beyond the fact that I've been granted the incredible opportunity to write about and be paid for the things I love most in life: the fact that I have changed and evolved thanks to those who have given me ??the time of day. 

I??t could all end at any time. I am not any more important than any one of the rest of you. I reiterate once more: I'm grateful to have written thousands of lines worth of text about games. But I think, as I'm head into my ninth year of freelancing, that I'm even more thankful for the people who read it. 

Thank you. 

LYLAS,

Brittany Stormborn of House Destructoid, Queen of the Weeaboos and the First Otaku, Khaleesi of the Great Plains, Breaker of Bust A Groove 2 Jewel Cases, and Mother of Niche/Rare Games

The post Giving Thanks: Writing about games appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs

[Dtoid community blogger Dreamweaver shares with us all the ways he is thankful for video games. I think we can all relate in some fashion to his words. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]

Now now, I'm sure you guys think that I'm being a little too, for a lack of a better word, materialistic. If my parents ever hear me saying this they would scoff and think exactly that but a lot I have to be thankful for has stemmed from video games.  Whether it's a mechanic that helps saves me so much grief and agony, to helping shape the? kind of person I am, for better or worse. Video games are like mementos; sure,  the trinket themselves may no?t be entirely valuable, like a disc in a plastic case, but it's the meaning behind them, the stories they tell and the characters you know, that makes them too valuable to me. So, without further delay, here's what I have to say about why I'm thankful for video games.

Streamlining/ Making Things Easier

Got shot in the face? No problem: "Tis only a flesh wound!"

This is something a lot of people actively hate, but hear me out: I'm not a very good gamer. So having things like regenerating health helps a lot in keeping me interested in games. One reason I wasn't too appreciative of games when I was younger, back on those NES/ SNES days, was because I didn't have the skills to make it very far. I still haven't been able to beat either the original Super Mario Brothers or its sequel Super Mario Brothers 3, with or wi?thout warp pipes and whistles, and I don't think I've gotten any better as I got older.

Furthermore, my parent's financial pockets weren't very deep, so I was always afraid to buy a game in fear that I wouldn't be able to get past the opening levels which made a lot of games seemingly unavailable to me. I still kind of have that fear in me now, as I'm even afraid to buy The Evil Within for myself? after getting frustrated with that bloody, multi-armed chick following you?? in Chapter 5 after my friend let me try it at his house.

Thankfully, lots of games have gotten so much easier, and because of that, I've been more willing to try games that I never would've otherwise. If Halo: Combat Evolved didn't revolutionize the genre with its regenerating shield, I would've never played it and fell in love with the series as I did. (I wrote something of a retrospective of it on Destructoid a while ago, but don't go digging that up, please!)

It isn't just regenerating health, either.  Mechanics like on-screen prompts, hint systems, checkpoints...all of these things make a bunch of games more accessible by not making me have to stress out over every little thing. Nothing would ruin a game like stressing over whether I will get lost navigating an area or get stumped on a puzzle. I understand that people like complexity in their games, and to an extent, I do agree; there's something about managing weight, stability, and power output (and heat, in the earlier games) that makes building a mech in Armored Core a pretty interesting simulator, and I couldn't imagine Dark Souls as a game that told you where to go.  However, for the ?most part, I'm quite okay with having my hand held if it means getting to the end of a game because I've played a lot of titles that were so well worth it.

Experiences I May Not Get Otherwise

One of the most adorable intro to a character ever!

I'm what you would call the video gaming equivalent of a bookworm who only reads in her (I say "her" because I always imagine bookworms to be female because it's so sexy) spare time.  Instead of sitting on a table with a pile of books at her side, I'm sitting on a comfy couch with cases of games I wanna tackle piled on top of my console. All I wanna do is play video games, but it's not so much for getting the high score or top slot in the leader boards as it is to watch tales un??ravel before my eyes and get to know the characte??rs as they travel on their journey.

This has caused me to have a bit of a spending problem, as I would literally think about my next purchase, bargain bin or otherwise, immediately after receiving the shopping bag from the Gamestop clerk but I can't help it!  I feel like Yomiko Readman from the ever-so-excellent Read or Die OVA when she buys all those books in the beginning of the series whe??n she still has plenty at home, and the smile on her face when she's c??arrying them must've been mirrored on mine to a -T whenever I hold a recently bought game in my hands.

Character Customization AND Integration

Let's be honest, who in their right mind didn't choose Morrigan?

You wanna know what's better than witnessing character in a video game going on an adventure? Participating in one yourself! Like Elsa once wrote about how she likes to create her own characters to put herself in the game (couldn't find a link, sorry!), I too get a huge kick out of being able to replicate myself into the world. The chance to fight alongside the characters and developing a personal bond with them a?s though I was really in the struggle with them is something that I always appreciate. This experience is generally unique to the world of interactive m??edia that movies and books can't really reproduce.

Of course, it simply won't do if the game half-asses it though. As cool as it is to make myself in Soul Calibur IV and go head-to-head with the heavenly goddess-blessed Ivy and Taki or the awesomely badass Nightmare, Starkiller, and Darth Vader (say what you will about how Star Wars characters don't fit the universe, but including them was a huge a fanboy moment for me!),?? there's something to be said for the player being treated like a pa??rt of the storyline.

Being Commander Shepard in Mass Effect and the Grey Warden in Dragon Age: Origins were two memorable experiences for me. Not only did it feel like I was in the game after creating the character to look like me, but also because inquiring who my companions were and learning their backstories  made me feel like I myself was getting to know them, rather than controlling a proxy like, say, Jude Mathis in Tales of Xillia. This feeling of connectivity and immersion was cemented further when I got to make some of the big choices throughout the game. This made me feel like I mattered to the story rather than watching it unfold in front of me. Whether I saved or condemned an endangered alien race was my call, and if I wanted to bang Morrigan just because she offered, then damn it, I will because I wanted to and oh boy, did I want to!

Sure, many games do emphasize player choice, like Telltale's The Walking Dead, but to me, it doesn't feel like I personally am making the choices so much as it is that I'm choosing what I want that character to do. Throughout The Walking Dead: Season 2, I chose Clementine's dialogue b??ased on who I want her to ??be instead of what I would say if I were her.

Multiplayer in Games

The clowns in this game scares me, and I ain't talking 'bout the ones at the Carnival...

Yet, for as much as I love engaging in a cinematic,immersive experience with a video game, sometimes I simply want to play a game, and nothing says that like playing against other people! While I don't want multiplayer to be shoehorned into every game, there's nothing like getting to the top of the scoreboard based on your abilities. I love playing Call of Duty or Halo online where I can just focus on winning and killing with some fine?ly-tuned shooting mechanics.? Also, playing against other gamers online is such a hoot!

As some of you may know, I played a couple of heists with the awesome Scholarly Gamer a while back. Now this isn't a game where the success of a heist is based on what the narrative has to say. On not at all. If you aren't working together and plan out what needs to be done, then chances are none of you are going to be enjoying your riches. Other games such as Battlefield 4 has advertised itself for being known as the multiplayer game where "Battlefield Moments" are abundant. Moments like running across a field whil?e avoiding the strafing gunfire of a helicopter before covering your engineer as they take it down.  These exciting and seemingly scripted moments are something that can happen completely unprompted and on the go.

It also brings another element of the unique abilities of video games as well. As we all know from the shining example that is the Souls series, players can either leave messages to alert others of the dangers ahead or help them find a hidden secret. This is extremely useful when you're running into an unknown location, especially in a game where death can happen quickly and with little warning. The other more intense way of interaction, however, is that players who are feeling particularly malicious can invade your world and try to assassinate you.  If you're connected online (which, in my opinion, is the only way to play a Souls game, and I refuse to play without it) and meet certain conditions, another player could be stalking you, waiting for the perfect time to stick a blade in ??your back!

Of course, on the positive side, you can also summon them to help you, and celebrating victory after taking down a boss is something that really helps make the fight, however easier it was, a??ll the more rewarding. I especially like how you can see "ghosts" of other players as they play in the same area as you. This little touch really helps to break the feeling of isolation and loneliness when you see others having to trek the same land as you.

What other medium could evoke the same thing? Sure, when you see other survivors in AMC's The Walking Dead, you know they've been through some tough times but when it's you and another player, it feels more personal.

Talking about games

Pictured: not me. :(

You know, I can talk about the genius behind the multiplayer aspect of the Souls series for paragraphs on paragraphs and that leads me to another thing I'm thankful for: being a gamer has given me a chance to talk to others. Let me be extremely honest right now: I don't have many friends as I'm an extremely shy person and socially awkward. It doesn't help that I have limited interests. Not a lot of people I know are gamers, much less ones who don't play Call of Duty all day (like I said before, nothing wrong with that, but I can't really connect with them much) and I don't really have any other hobbies  Sure, I ??enjoy writing, though I haven't done so in a while, but it's not something you can really chat with others about, and I'm less invested in other mediums like anime, television programs, and movies than I am with video games.

As I mentioned earlier, most of my money goes towards new games so I can't afford every DVD coming out, but there's also only so much time in a day which is, admittedly, funny coming from a half-time student with no job.  However, the point still stands that I can't do everything I want to. (how the fuck does Chris Carter do it?) Still, I'm okay with being a gamer because I'm very passionate about the medium and I'm ??happy to talk about it with all of you guys!

Throughout my life, I've always turned to the internet for my social interactions ever since I joined the Nintendo Power forums way back when, and since it closed down, I've moved on to other forums like Gametrailers, Gaia, Escapist and even Gamefaqs (which I still frequent, actually). My wandering eventually led me here to Destructoid, where I was something of a drifter for a couple of years. I made an account around 2009 and posted some embarrassingly bad bl?ogs here and there, but I never really involved myself with the community because I didn't really feel like I belonged. Of course, I guess you? could say that I didn't really attempt to make an effort until last year in 2013, four years later, but hey, better late than never, right?

Nowadays, I consider this place to be something of a second home to me, the third being  Gamefaqs since I've been there since 2009 as well, and post there often enough, but we all know how it can get sometimes and I'm glad to have stumbled to this site??. The staff members seem like genuinely good people and the community members even more so! I hope you guys feel the same way about each other and I hope you guys will write blogs to let them know! It's always appreciated to hear some??thing like that, so say it while you can.

Anyway, that's why I'm thankful for video games!

What are you thankful for?

The post Giving Thanks: What videogames have done for me appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs

[Dtoid community blogger StriderHoang is thankful for his lady. Though distance may keep their bodies apart their love blooms in the world of Animal Crossing. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]

Many of us have loved ones and we may envision sharing our passion of games with them. Many of us who have attempted may also be familiar with that feeling in your gut as you watch your loved one walk in circles trying to figure out the buttons. Years of playing games condition us to instinctively know the bottom-most button usually jumps and the left-most bu??tton performs an action. An instinct like this isn't something you?? just pick up quickly and no matter how much my girlfriend really does enjoy a game or two on her laptop or tablet, it's difficult to find a game we can both enjoy together. She feels comfortable on smaller mobile games and I want to try a co-op game that may be beyond her current spatial awareness.

I knew she liked puzzle games because she played a ton on a flash cartridge for her Korean DS while she taught English abroad. I remember being excited for Call of Duty: World at War, to the extent that I took my girlfriend with me to buy it at launch and binge through the entire campaign while she just watched the spectacle. The first game I intimately shared with her was Crashmo for the Nintendo 3DS and while it was an instant hit, it wasn't something we could both enjoy. Sure, we've played games together before but it was usually amongst mutual friends as well. By the time I had bought a Nintendo 3DS though, I knew I was excited for Animal Crossing: New Leaf and had a long history with it. So I took a $200 risk: buy her the special edition Animal Crossing 3DS that had New Leaf pre-installed knowing she might've hated? this beloved franchise of m??ine that was already a niche within a niche.

In hindsight, the odds of her just playing it once and never playing it again were high.  I'd have forked over $200 for a 3DS with essentially pre-installed shovelware. But in a long distance relationship that you've made work, you look for every thing you can to shrink the distance a little: phone calls, texts, Skype, Facebook, and more but it's never enough. Until you figure out a practical solution to distance like a proper job or housing, you do what you have to. Playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf tog??ether over the internet was one more, albeit significant and expensive, option to shrinking that distance. Would she like playing it, let alone together?

It paid off though, and it paid off in spades.

Thanks to a dark pact with Nicolas Cage that is.

It wasn't as if I took a blind guess on it. Animal Crossing has cute, endearing animals to befriend and Animal Crossing isn't exactly a hard game to control. There's no hard failure state as you can live in a tiny house as long as you like with a loan that incurs no interest, never defaults, and will never lead adorable little animal thugs to find you and break your knees over a late payment. You're free to talk to animals and make friends or simply ignore them to further an agenda of cold hard cash bells. But just as there's no failure to get ?frustrated, there's no inherent goal. I couldn't predict whether or not she'd get tired of shaking her 20th fruit tree to earn money towards some sweet digital furniture. Of course the point isn't the intrinsic mechanics built into the g??ame. The point is to play together!

We got to share stories and tips. I told her about selling native fruit in foreign towns and then we'd go to each others' towns to make bank. When Crazy Redd came into town with his stupid art, I'd help her figure out with painting was legit. Something I should've expected was just how deep into the game she'd get. Whenever she really likes something, she goes all in and its hard to pry her away. It happened with Tetris, it happened with Megopolis, and it certainly happened again. 

She started to plant her flowers and trees in methodical patterns. She'd complain that my flora was scattered around randomly and I replied that it was simply natural. She planted so many different fruit groves that that it'd put a Civil War era plantation to shame. She was definitely the hard working mayor who stumbled into town to my sort of hippie, surfer type mayor wh?o just rolled into town and bums around with a juice box and a joint. Don't get me wrong, I definitely took pride in some interior decorating with themed rooms such as a trophy room, a jungle cabana, and an arcade. But while I was sitting on a cool two million bells at most, sh??e stocked up on an ice cold 25 million bells.

Meanwhile, I had all the style!

The job market is tough and we still live a long ways off from each other in our home towns. We've even both gone back to school to figure out better opportunities. While I have a BA in Journalism (for some reason) and she has one in Creative Writing, we're now pursuing Networking and a teaching credential respectively; two areas that aren't going to experience any shrinking of jobs anytime soon. In the meantime, we've competed in bug catching competitions, gone island fishing, traded outfits, listened to a dog hold concerts, harvested million bell yields, trick-or-treated together, and more through Animal Crossing.

In particular we swooned over Kapp'n remarks on us as he took us to and from the island especially ("You better treat that Kitty O. well Marcel. She'd make a fine wife!"). She even had her own head canons much like my own.

She believed Bill the duck and Filbert the squirrel both adored her. Bill was a jock and would work out to impress her while Filbert would just be a goof and charm her with his vacuity. When it came time to install her police station box, she dropped Booker right between them, as if to help sort out their competitions. Of course, Booker isn't as assertive as Copper, so all it did was leave a timid Booker in between the two rivals' competitions. She had her own stable of favorites like Pudge the goofy bear and "if-Fonzie-were-a-koala" Eugene. Our fair sh?are of neighbors would move from one town to another thanks to our continued visits and wh??enever someone new moved in, we'd immediately show them off knowing full well they couldn't be persuaded to pack up and move to the other's town.

By the way, I wasn't kidding about the arcade room. I mean look at this piece of work.

These days both our time on New Leaf has cooled off considerably. I try to get on to pursue all the catchables I missed from last year but Super Smash Bros. 3DS came out and now I have a Wii U. Her schedule is pretty packed but I decided to get her Smash Bros. too. Last night she invited me to play Farmville 2, which is decidedly less scummy then the first Farmville and decent fun even as far as tablet games go. We still talk optimistically of our future together and someday soon I'll be too busy to play as much games as I'd wish but I'll still fondly remember those times when our mayors would just jump into a bed together and we'd just talk over the phone about our day before we get ready for bed. I wouldn't say Animal Crossing saved our relationship or anything but it does reconfirm my feelings that I have one hell of an awesome girlfriend and future wife when I come home fro?m work, ready?? to play some games and the first thing she asks is, "What's your premium at  Re-Tail?"

Two souls, bound by the red string of fate, now journey on to your uncertain futures, but together.

The post Giving Thanks: Turning over a New Leaf appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs!

_{[Dtoid community blogger CarltonMcHard talks about what its like to be a Catholic and a gamer. It's an interesting read from a perspective that isn't discussed all that often. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

Bayonetta is one of my?? favorite videogames. It’s rather odd for me to say that, considering my Catholic background. I often find myself thinking, “I really enjoy a game about a stripteasing witch who literally fights against God and angels. What does that say about me?”

I consider myself a hardcore Catholic. I tend to have some liberal views outside of the typical Catholic mindset, but I am well versed in my faith and attend weekly service. I believe I have a de??ep connection with God an??d have a responsibility to do my part to make our world a better place for everyone.

So why do I feel comfortable playing Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII, a game where the main character actively fights a?g??ainst her world's version of God?

For me, videogames are escapism.  I totally respect people who play for competition, but I love immersing myself in a world unknown. Fantasy is fiction.  I can’t double jump in real life, but you can bet a lot of videogame characters can. Many game series like The Elder Scrolls have fictional history, lore and religion. Even the Catholic loved and approved The Lord of the Rings series has fictional religion in it. So if God is depicted as a scantily clad sex object who is hell bent on being evil, I take it?? just as seriously as any other historical or religious figure depicted in games. It’s fiction and there is no reason to get worked up about it.

Unfortunately, not everyone sees things that way.  Just about every adult in my childhood overreacted and lashed out at any depiction of religion in media. I was banned from viewing and reading stories that involved any criticism or fictional take on religion.  Luckily for me, the adults in my life didn’t bother to look at any of the games I played.  One example that should have been terribly obvious was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. That game had the three goddesses who created the Triforce and the land of Hyrule itself. It’s sad to say, but this was the first exposure I had to other religions besides my own. It was years until I learned about Judaism and even longer for others. Hell, it wasn’t until I played some Final Fantasy ??;titles in junior high that I began to see Christianity presented in a villainous l?ight.

I think the difference between me and my elders was the way we approached the issue. For them, Bayonetta and Final Fantasy titles are directly made to insult their God and them personally. They can’t imagine that these games are anything but intentional and evil blasphemies. For me, I see my religion as inspiration for these games. I find it flattering that Assassin’s Creed 2 had me punchi??ng the Pope. Catholicism has been a source of pain for many. I realize that as a critically thinking individual. I feel sorrow for evils that our world has been exposed to on account of people of my faith. Therefore, I really don’t find it surprising that my religion is shown as a villain sometimes. Honestly, it’s minimal compared to the punishment we Catholics likely deserve.

It can be incredibly rewarding as well. As crazy as Bayonetta can get, its depiction of angels is most flattering I’ve seen in any videogame. My jaw almost hit the floor when I first saw the Enchant class of angels. I never thought I’d ever see the ophanim ever depicted in games. I only had read of wheel angels in texts like the Book of Enoch (on a side note, that text was depicted liberally in the videogame El Shaddai). I’m sure many don’t know that in the Old Testament you’d be less likely to bump into an adorable baby faced angel as one who would melt your face if you so much as looked at it. Oddly enough, despite its premise,  Bayonetta impressed me more than my childhood’s local favorite, Bible Adventures, which depicted ??Noah as having the strength to lift four ox sized animals over his head at any given po??int.

That b??eing said, I respect anyone who electively chooses not to play problematic content. I’ve had friends of several denominations and religions who for whatever reason have decided not to play certain games. I’m adverse to war shooters, but lik??e my friends, I don’t see people who play them as bad or idiotic. I simply don’t feel good playing war shooters while my friends don’t feel right slicing up something that calls itself “God.” In my opinion, it’s only a problem if gamers outright attack or shame companies for promoting content they don’t like.

There are a terrible amount of Catholics who see videogames as problematic and pointless. Just looking at one particular article alone, you can read some terrible opinions from a select few priests (except for Fr. Matthew Schneider. He’s awesome!). If a majority of priests and leaders are saying these kinds of ignorant things to their congregations, it’s no wonder the adults in my? life didn’t take videogames seriously and still don’t.

I was fortunate to have positive influences in my life. I have a priest in my own family who has been extremely supportive of videogames and my other hobbies. He jokingly recoils in horror upon seeing the “violence” in a Kirby title and has expressed interest in playing party games and even more mature titles like Left 4 Dead. In his eyes, videogames are escapism, just like books and movies. With any medium, you’re going to have good and bad content. Looking at my libr??ary of videogames, I can see just as great a ratio of critical successes and failures as I do with my book??s and movies.

Ultimately, I think I’ve grown closer to my faith because of video games, not against it. Games like Assassin’s Creed, Bayonetta and El Shaddai have made me question the content of my religion and its place in my world. I’ve actively researched different areas of my faith to understand why these depictions exist. I’m extremely excited for Bayonetta 2 to come out later this month. I’ve been avoiding trailers and content footage to get a fresh experience so I might seem ignorant when I ??say that I hope that Platinum Games continues to be inspired by my faith and adds eve??n more crazy angels for me to fight this time around. In the end, Platinum seems to appreciate my faith much more than the adults did in my childhood. The very medium they thought was a waste of time brought me closer to God than their censorship ever did.

The post My Life as a Catholic Gamer appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs!

_{[Dtoid community blogger SpielerDad offers up some real life spooky places that would be a perfect setting for a horror game. Warning: Pseudo-NSFW images below. Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

Halloween is less than a week away, know what that means? Two fisting Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups until your gut explodes. If you’re a parent, it means spending ridiculous amounts of money on a costume that your 2-year-old will wear for five minutes before she tears it apart. She was supposed to be Elsa from Frozen, but now she looks like a hobo hooker.

If you’re in school or recently out of school, it means drinking and dressing up. Also, girls love dressing up for Halloween. Their modus operandi usually consists of finding an outfit and making it “slutty.” It’s the one time of year they can get away with it and they LOVE IT! Slutty Nurse, Slu??tty Cop, Slutty Secretary, Slutty Vampire, Slutty Court Bailiff. ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES! 

Halloween also is synonymous with things that go bump in the night, or least it used to be, before it was commercialized to the point of becoming all warm and fuzzy. I’m not saying that you need to go all out and decorate your house so it looks like Rob Zombie’s place, but Halloween used to be ?about telling ghost stories, and generally creeping each other out. 

In my younger days, living in the suburbs of New Jersey, my friends and I would pick up issues of Weird NJ magazine and trek out to find roads less travelled, ??abandoned places, and supposed haunted thingamajigs. Most of the time they were lame, b??ut occasionally we’ll find places that were indeed creepy.

Do ki?ds still do this? Fuck if I know. Goal was to take some girls with us, see if they got scared, and then they would run into our arms for protection and possibly SEXY TIME! That’s how the mind of a horny teenager works. It's how my mind still works and I’m far removed from my teenage ?years.

Ironically enough, if there wa??s some deranged undead mass murderer in the woods, we were making ourselves prime targets. Everyone knows that teenage SEXY TIME will lead to getting a throat slit in a cabin out in the woods

Video games give us the unique ability to creep ourselve??s out in the comfort of our own homes without actually venturing to a place that is cursed by some undead malevolent force.  There are plenty of real wor??ld places that are supposedly haunted, cursed, or just plan creepy, but designers have generally ignored these places in favor of inventing their own.

So I went ahead and spent five minutes (really I did not give this much effort) putting toget?her a list of creep??y places that would be would right at home in a horror video game.

?Have any additional ones you want to add?  Let me know about them in the comments.

North and South Brother Islands, New York

When you think of New York City, you think of densely packed blocks?? of buildings, sidewalks clogged pedestrians, and streets packed with cars.  However, out in the East River, between the Bronx and Rikers you will find two abandoned islands with a bit of history.

Riverside Hospital was the first resident of the North Brother Island. It was founded in the 1850s to treat small pox and isolate victims of the disease. Eventually, it became to be used to quarantine all individuals that were believed to have communicable diseases. The infamous Typhoid Mary was also confined to ??the island for over twenty years before her death. 

On June 15, 1904, the steamship General Slocum, shipwrecked and burned on the isla??nd. Over 1,000 people died from the fire or from drowning, their ??bodies washing up on the islands shore.

In the 1950s the hospital b??ecame a facility to treat young adults suffering from hero?in addiction. Addicts were confined to this island and locked in a room until they were clean, many times against their will. By the 1960s widespread staff corruption forced the hospital to close.

The Island is now considered a bird sanctuary for the Black-crowned Night Heron and off-limits to the public. Many of the buildings are sti??ll standing, but are highly deteriorated and the island is reverting back to a forest. 

Interestingly enough, in 2008 the Herons abandoned the island for “unknown reasons.” Probably because Herons are not stupid and realized that they were ?living on a HAUNTED FUCKING ISLAND! 

I’m thinking a first person shooter would be a good match for this location.  I think Brother Island would fit in nicely in a game like F.E.A.R.

Povelgia Island, Venice, Italy

Speaking of historic haunted islands… the island of Povelgia in Venice, Italy has a slightly longer history than Bother Island. It also has another name, as the Most Haunted Island in the World.

In the year 429, the island’s first inhabitants settled there while fleeing barbarians. In the 1600’s it became a fortification. In 1776 in became a quarantine station for those wishing to enter Venice. It also had a few breakouts of plague during this time. Rumor has it that there so many victims of the plague were burned there that the soil is 50% human ash, no?t to mention multiple “plague pits.”

Oh, and of ??course, in the 1920’s it was turned into an insane asylum, because of course it fucking was. Legend has it that the doctor who ran the asylum performed a lot of unnecessary experimental surgery. He th?en became insane himself jumped from the island's bell tower.

How has this island not been featured in a video game yet? Povelgia could have been a mission in Assassin’s Creed II, breaking up som?e of the action with a bit of the super natural. 

Bhanghar Fort, India 

Known as the most haunted place in India, many people who visited the abandoned yet surprisingly intact structure say that there is ??a strange feeling in the atmosphere, and leave feeling anxiety and restless.

Many say that the fort is cursed, and anyone? who tries to spend the night there are never seen from again??. The Archaeological Survey of India has even posted signs forbidding anyone entering the fort before dawn or staying after sunset. Is this because the place is haunted? Probably not. Who are we kidding; this place is FUCKING HAUNTED AND CURSED!

I’d say that a place like Bhanghar Fort would make a fine and believable location in Tomb Raider.  Lara needs to get up in that place and dese??????????????????????????crate some shit f??or archaeology.

Aokigahara, Japan 

At the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, lies the Aokigahara forest. A beautiful and picturesque area frequented by many tourists and referred to by the locals as the “Sea of Trees.” Many people also refer to it a?s the “perfect place to die.” Aokigahara has?? the distinction of being the second most popular place to end one’s life, after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

It’s not uncommon for people to get lost in the dense in the dense forest. Given the high iron deposits in the volcanic soil, compasses have been known to act erratically in the area, but that&??rsquo;s scientific gobbledygook! Everyone knows the compasses go haywire because the ghosts don&rs??quo;t want you to leave! Spiritualists in the area say that the ghosts of the suicidevictims have permeated the trees of the forest, so there you have it. 

ALSO ALIENS! Okay not aliens.

On a more somber note, volunteers comb the forest looking for the remains of those who have taken their own lives, but given how dense the forest is, ?many are not found for years. ??It’s not unusual for hikers or volunteers to find skulls and bones from suicide victims from years ago.

On more macabre note, rumor has it when the volunteers ??find a suicide victim and bring him down from the forest; he is housed ??in a special room. The volunteers then play a version of Rock-Paper-Scissors to see who the pleasure of sleeping in the room with the corpse.

Supposedly, they believe that if the corpse is left alone, it is very bad luck for the yurei (ghost) of the victims. It is said that the spirits scream throughout the night, ?and their bodies will move?? on their own. I call bullshit but HOLY FUCK SERIOUSLY!?! 

I think the Aokigahara forest would make an interesting location in the Yakuza games. I picture a mission where they go out into the f?orest to teach someone a lesson, but things go awry when the supernatural forces make themselves known.

Village of Pluckley, Kent, UK 

In the beautiful English countryside you’ll find many charming villages. Pluckley is no different that it has strolling meadows, quaint cottages, and pretty far??ms. It also has the distinction of being the most haunted village in England, according to the Guinness Book of World record??s.  Depending on whom you ask, there are 12 to 16 confirmed ghosts haunting the village.

Here’s a quick rundown? of a few of the restless spirits you may encounter in Pluckley: 

• A screaming man who fell to his death while bricklaying.
• A highwayman who was murdered by being run through with a sword and pinned to a tree.
• A schoolteacher who hanged himself and was discovered by his own students.
• An old pipe smoking, gin drinking, watercress selling woman by a bridge, who accidently set herself on fire while selling watercress, drinking gin, and smoking her pipe.
• A farmer that shot himself in the dairy in front of his wife. His last words to her were "I will do it." Apparently, visitors to the farm say they hear these words repeated in a whisper around the property.
• A lady dressed in red that wanders the church cemetery.
• A lady dressed in white that wanders around inside the church.
• Long story short, Pluckley has no shortage of ghosts.

I would like to see an English version of Silent Hill&??nbsp;that takes? place in Pluckley. It will be just like any other Silent Hill, but more… err… Englishey. 

BONUS - Any place in Australia 

Everyt??hing in Australia will ?kill you. This is a fact. Crocodiles, sharks, snakes, spiders, box jellyfish, giant fucking centipedes! You need giant balls of steel to live in Australia, and unlike like all the other places mentioned on this list, this shit is real and will murder the fuck out of you.

 He will kill you and fuck your skull.

Think I missed a place? I’m sure I did as I only mentioned si??x places. ; Let me hear w??hat spooky and creepy places you think should be in a game.

The post 5 spooky places that should be in a videogame appeared first on Destructoid.

Promoted from our Community Blogs!

_{[Dtoid community blogger SeymourDuncan17 suggests 10 delightfully spooky things for gamers to enjoy this Halloween.  Give it a read and throw your suggestions in to the comments.  Let's all share what makes us shiver!  Want to see your own stuff appear on the front page? Go write something! --Occams Electric Toothbrush]}

Over the years, I've gradually become the kind of person who enjoys Halloween in a passive se?nse. I no longer dress up and heckle the neighbors for candy (and th??en more candy), I'm no party-goer, and I don't really make much of a deal about it at all.

I do, however, still absolutely love seeing others enjoy it. Seeing what stupid decorations they've cooked up for this year, seeing children adorably try to pass themselves off as their favorite creatures or superheroes, and, above all else, hearing the single greatest holiday tune grace my local radio once more. (If more Christmas jingles were this fun, it would be a much less depressing holiday. I'd rather hear "Monster Mash" on repeat for hours than liste??n to just 30 seconds of "Jingle Bells.")

Well, if you are the kind of person who likes to make an event ?out of Halloween, with friends or just yourself, by marathoning spoooooooky shit, then have I got the shit for you. Churned out for your pleasure like a giant candy corn pumpkin, so make sure you don't take it in all at on?ce. Save those cavities for Halloween night.

Killer Instinct's Spinal Musical Theme

Goddamn skeletons. Easily the spookiest of all monsters. You h?ear the rattling of those bones, and it can only be one thing: Your worst fear, with death to soon follow. Alright, that's two things. Actually, a skeleton may not even be able to physically kill you as the??y have no muscles. 

But, look at them! Ug-o!? It's like being ultra-naked. 

One of gaming's most famous skeletons being KI's Spinal and as a huge fan of the franchise, it felt appropriate to?? feature him in some way. This "complete" version may drag on a fair amount for those first 4 and a half minutes, but it still comes together quite nicely. The video's cheesy visuals help a great deal. Make sure to read the top comment for a little bit of insight into the creation of the track. 

I need to get me a leg bone flute. 

Silent Hill

While everyone fondly remembers the highly-influential Silent Hill 2, remember that those same people also seem to forget that Silent Hill 1 exists.

Jerks. It's like shoving your mother into hospice over a common cold. Sure, it's aged a little bit, but, then again, so has Silent Hill 2. There's something to appreciate in both. Personally, while Silent Hill 2 has the industry significance, the OG Silent Hill is where all the super spooky frights are. From the very beginning, the game is intense and doesn't waste any time. First, you are killed, but actually not. Then, you're attacked by motherfucking pterodactyls! Immediately afterwards, you try to find your bearings amidst the empty and fog-infested streets of Silent Hill as you're mauled by rapid dogs!

Don't even get me started on the elementary school. I still haven't gone back to finish the?? game since completing that section over two years ago. Someday, though. Someday. Perhaps once I forget how outrageously ?terrifying it was. 

This hilarious Erie commentary

Some time ago, I hastily threw together a blog detailing my top playthroughs by one known as Cr1TiKaL. Since discovering his Octodad playthrough a couple years back, I've been a ginormous ?supporter of his work and I'm here to once again try ??to get some more of you into the club. 

What makes Cr1TiKal so unique to your average LP'er is in how much he downplays everything that happens. You can literally count the amount of times he's either laughed or screamed on your two hands. He often emits sarcasm and seems to effortlessly form both hilariousl??y crude, yet varied and intelligent sentences in regards to what's happening on-screen. All the while, he is totally monotone. So oddly charming.

He doesn't pander to the usual LP schticks. He just plays and makes ligh??t.

Oh and every cent of his partnership funds go directly to charity. Why aren't ?you already a fan?

Darksiders II

It may not be a horror game, but the Darksiders franchise still has got a devilish, monstrous universe with tons of violence, gore, and gritty settings. It also features a player character who looks suspiciously like Slipknot's Mick Thompson. 

The original Darksiders is sort of a cult favorite amongst gamers. It was incredibly derivitive, but there was also a lot of charm to it's darker take on the Legend of Zelda for??mula. Its sequel, though, was ??much more of its own thing. While still taking inspiration from other titles, it became more of an unspecified open-world brawler with a focus on loot. 

It does get shaky for a while around four fifths of the way through, but it's a thoroughly aw?esome experience that more should have picked up on around its release. The developers didn't just haphazardly pump out a sequel, it's clear they gave it their all and that should be rewarded. 

This year's JonTron Halloween special

How many of you were honestly aware the original Clock Tower also released on the SNES? I sure wasn't! Then again, I also kind of sometimes confuse Clock Tower with Alone in the Dark. So, that means I'm just stupid. 

JonTron gives us a love?ly and humorous look at what was arguably one of the first "survival horror" videogames. Although, it seems much more like a straig?ht up point and click adventure that just so happens to focus on horror. Either way, it has a villain that reminds me that I haven't yet thought of every possible awful way to die. 

The Typing of the Dead: Overkill

I experienced a handful of the original House of the Dead: Overkill via the Wii version. I haven't touched too many light gun games, but this one was some good fun. However, I think I enjoyed its self-aware sense of humor a?? little more than the actual gameplay. Making light of classic grindhouse and horror films as well as itself, you'll find yourself basking in whatever crap the game decides to throw at ??you. Context is this game's strong suit. 

The "Typing" iteration of Overkill not only includes a way to play it as it was originally intended??, but gallantl??y brings back an old favorite pastime of mine: typing games!

I used to love the mini-games we were rewarded with during my high school's typing course exercises. Heck, I considered even the basic exercises its own sort of videogame. I needed speed, I needed precision, I needed to be totally in the zone, and I wanted to beat every new "high score" I achieved. To think, I was simultaneously improving a skill that's actually of use in the real wor??ld! What a great time it was to be a growing boy. 

If the above paragraph speaks to you at all, you literally cannot go wrong with Overkill's PC port. It's pretty cheap considering how loaded with content it is, and it's pretty darn hilariou??s to boot. ?;

Silent Hill (Film)

I haven't played every installment or obsessively Wiki'd all I could about it, but the Silent Hill franchise is one I have a great ?amount of respect for. That it's even still around and that its latest install??ment is looking pretty fucking good so far makes me so happy. 

So, you may not have assumed as such, but I do actually sort of enjoy the first Silent Hill film. What can I say? I ain't gonna lie. It's not amazing, it's not even strictly faithful, but as far as film adaptations of videogames go, well... it goes without saying that you can do much, MUCH worse. It's a nice little horror film with tons of Silent Hill-y elements. No more, no less. 

The hilariously terrible sudden exposition ?spout towards the end kinda makes you want to write a passive aggressive email to whoever wrote the screenplay, but it's worth supporting as a videogame adaptation that doesn't soil itself. 

Imscared: A Pixelated Nightmare

If you're looking for a horror game both easy on your hardware and easy on your wallet, not only does this little diddy's visuals amount to buggerall (it's kind of in the title), but it's totally free!

Here's a dirty little secret, though: I haven't played it. I've only ever watched it being played. However, I think I can at least say you can find far less digified free PC horror experience??s than this. It looks pretty interesting. It even involves adding files to your computer (don't worry, it's safe) that are contextualized as the game's antagonist (seen creepin' above) trying to interact with you as the player. 

Sort of brings back memories of the 4th wall-breaking Psycho Mantis of Metal Gear Solid, doesn't it? Sounds like a heck of a thing. Give it a shot and tell me how it i?s because I'm far too much? of a wuss. 

Game Theory's unsettling look into Five Nights At Freddy's 

It's no fun admitting defeat.  That the biggest and most seemingly overhyped indie h?orror craze since Slender is actually a little spooky, but after watching the Game Theory's latest video...I can safely say I will never ev?er play this game.

This all could be chalked up to "thinking too much" about some likely meaningless details, but that's where things can get interesting!&nb??sp; When they make this much sense, it also gets incredibly unnerving.  As much as I sort of wish I had never watched this video, more should revel in creativity like this!

Those who are especially weak-willed, get ready to scroll that wheel.

Gotta get to 10 things. No matter what it takes.

Alien: Isolation

I'm sure you were ??expecting this to pop up at some point, like a Xenomorph dropping suddenly from the vent above to claw and host it's way into your tummy. Enjoy the rest of your very short life as an egg, buster.

I've already gone at length about why the alien's AI in Isolation is so bloody brilliant, but s?eeing as how much your time on the Sevastapol is spent on the synthetics, the humans and exploring, I thought it'd be appropriate to tell you why the rest of the game is also pretty nice. 

While the humans can, sadly, only offer minor thrills with their incredibly rudimentary AI, the synthetics, ironically, feel that much more realized in how they fight and maneuver. Sometimes they won't bother you, but usually, they're out for blood. Not ?quite intentionally, though. They're just a little overprotective is all. 

They're also pretty damn resistant. Set them ablaze and t?hey'll just keep coming (athough, it is an especially awesome visual treat). Fire at their noggin and they'll just stumble a bit. Melee them? Hah. Don't even try. You'll have to expel one of your stun baton charges first, and only then will a barrage of melee attacks do just one of them in. They're a riot. 

Simply walking around the Sevastapol may get very tiresome during the game's final hours, but for the vast majority of the experience the atmosphere and level of detail/graphic fidelity got me hooked as well. Even ignoring that, a lot of the time an Alien is literally stalking you throughout every forward progress or backtrack; it's an absolute joy to witness what Creative Assembly have done with the visual stylings of the original Alien film. It's not only incredibly faithful, but wholly its own thing. You'l?l find yourself both absolutely giddy and terrified in believing you're actually in the same universe as the films/comics.

It has its pacing issues, but Isolation?? deserves you??r time and money. If any game released in the last few years is going to make you wet or poo poo yourself, it's this. 

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That's it for my list.? If you have of your own sugge??stions, tell me about them! 

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