Month: July 2022

Among those that don’t enjoy digital card games, I’ve noticed that some share a certain sentiment. Basically, they question what the point of a digital card game is. The basic argument is that card games only use cards and static images because it’s the only way for the ideas they represent to expressed. That is, physical games are bound by physical limitations. Digital games aren’t though; almost anything can be done in the digital space, so it’s strange that the card format would still be used. I admit it’s a little funny, but I still think that it’s actually not so strange. In fact, I’ll argue that we still lack the ability to go beyond the cards.

Well, for this article in the second season of my “Horror Videogames Series“, I thought that I’d take a look at some of the reasons why old survival horror games from the genre’s 1996-2004 heyday are so incredibly re-playable.

1) They were designed to be: For a lot of reasons – ranging from artistic ones to cost/practical ones – most classic survival horror games were often more on the shorter side of things. Depending on how good you are at the game, they can often take anything from 3-8 hours to complete. Whilst this seems fairly unremarkable in the modern world of indie horror games, you have to remember that these were games from 1996-2004.

Back then, a “full length” game was often considered to be 20+ hours long. Not only that, virtually all games were made by medium-sized or large companies and released almost exclusively on physical…

In a missing chapter, the party drove off the dragon and turned the tide against the giants! After interrogating (and befriending!) one of the captured stone giants, they found out they needed to take out Mokmurian, who is gathering an army of giants in a keep called Jorgenfist, in the Storval Plateau. This some weeks travel away. The party’s inventor, Jail, tells their tale. (-GM)

19th of Abadius, 4708 AR

After the party’s few days of resting and helping the town of Sandpoint rebuild, they travel to Galduria and speak to some of their villagers about the attacks by giants. They find out the attacks have also been happening to them as well. Then three giants try to attack but Aranea shoots a bolt of electricity at the giants, bouncing it off a house 360 no-scope trick shot almost killing them. Ralramp shoots a bolt of electricity…

We last left our heroes as they were breaking out of Kintargo Keep with one of the original Silver Ravens, Jackdaw, in tow! The Silver Ravens’ recent recruit, the time-dragon wizard, Kaidan, continues their tale. (-GM)

11th of Rova, 4715 AR

Our scene starts with us in a fight. The enemy surrounds us, and our bold, incredible, and dashingly handsome wizard is in a troubling situation… The dastardly enemy mage just finishes Dominating him and forces him to take a deep breath against his own side!

The shadow hound we have (TBD’s animal companion -GM) was too STUPID to be dominated though! Veld charges in with a MEGAVOLT and STRIKE putting hefty blows into our adversaries… THEN I TIME TRAVEL TO SEND THEM THROUGH TIME sickening a couple of them and damaging a few… Our magus Valdo ran away to help our new companion AND ACTUALLY HIT A SPELLSTRIKE!…

The Rage-Quit. It exists in all challenging pursuits. It’s the bane of sportsmanship and personal growth. But damn does it feel good sometimes! Even if the instant regret overwhelms when a tennis racket, controller, or friendship pays the price. And if you quit in a rage, chances are you’re done with whatever challenge you were facing. At least for a while. Even without raging though, sometimes you’ll quit something quietly. Maybe out of disappointment; maybe out of boredom. And yet, every so often you’ll circle back and wonder why you ever stopped in the first place. Usually with new resolve. I think the love you wind up having for that game or challenge can be the strongest kind.

The first session I played of Horizon: Zero Dawn was full of promise. By the time I got to the game, it had gained tons of fans and notoriety. Hell, it went…

In the current gaming climate, digital gaming has become larger than ever. Some consoles, like the PS5, are even offered without disc drives, relying solely on digital downloads. Especially with the convenience of buying a game digitally, we can’t really blame people for converting to digital. It seems to be the future of gaming.

But there remains the audience that still buys physical copies of their video games. For me, something feels nice about being able to physically hold the game in my hands and look at the box art. There are plenty of reasons fans still hold onto their games, and while we could sit here and debate all day long whether physical or digital is better, let’s turn our attention to those of us who buy physical and ask: how do you store your games?

As a kid with an N64, GameCube, and PS2, we just had a…