I haven't really cracked the Icelandic sagas much yet. I understand their literary merit, but at the end of the day I'm not really reading sagas for their grounded and human stories. I like the hazy periods where history and legend interact. That said, part of what has turned me off on the Icelandic sagas is they…

Hrolf Kraki is probably my favorite of all the Sagas. I love how well it blends humor and excitement as well as history and magic. I haven't read the Nibelungenlied yet but I want to check it out. I'm curious about how it compared to the Voltsung Saga. It was interesting reading a different version of the Hrolf Kraki…

It's almost as if the whole movement is based on the proposition, "I want real life to be more like life on the internet, where I can say whatever I want with absolutely no consequences."

I've been going on a binge of national epics recently and I'm having a wonderful time. Song of the Voltsungs (good) Chanson de Roland (ok) Le Morte D'Arthur (great). And I'm continuing to work my way through Gesta Danorum by Saxo Grammaticus, which is just the best. Whether or not I enjoy the subject matter or style,…

That sounds awesome. Yea, the idea of an in-game manual that emphasizes user engagement is probably something more games should look at. Especially because there are so many games that I take a break from and then have a hard time getting back into (especially as I have zero desire to re-play the tutorial). For Breath…

That was a stellar pair of articles this week, with some good discussions afterwards. Great job, guys!

"Remember this. The people you're trying to step on, we're everyone you depend on. We're the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We make your bed. We guard you while you're asleep. We drive the ambulances. We direct your call. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about…

I'll defend Dark Souls 2 till the end of the day, but yea I'm inclined to agree. DS2 is merely a great game. The original Dark Souls is a stone classic.

I was going to show it to her, which is so much cooler! But she wasn't interested in coming with me to see a pile of horse bones. Although, maybe I should have considered that, just because she wanted to see a picture of a Stalhorse doesn't actually mean she wanted to see one. Sitting at my desk right now, if someone…

The evidence is thin, but you make a strong case nonetheless! I hadn't really thought about it before, but it makes a lot of sense both in terms of why you would find him there and in terms of re-contextualizing the original fight.

Sounds perfect - I'll check it out!

Ah-ha - great! Thanks!

I have that muscle memory feeling when playing Mega Man again after having not played it for a while. If I come to a tricky part of a level or a boss, my mind might have forgotten why exactly my fingers think it's so important to jump around in some goofy pattern, but my thumbs are consistently proved correct by…

Great analysis! But you're opening up more questions than you're answering for me. How do we know Gywneviere went to Heide? And what are the hints that Ornstein is abyss-corrupted?

Yeah. More games could do with drawing on the "Spider-Man" school of heroics, rather than just batman, Batman, BATMAN types.

Nope!

Not sure if that was in reference to anything, but it sure was fun to say. But yea, I loved yukkin' it up with some Sean Connery guy and talking dental plans with some Joanna Dark clone. The game had a good balance of goofy referential humor.

The MOOOOOOSE IS LOOOOOOSE

Diary of Alan Breck: Surveyor of Extraordinary Lands
A Bone Chilling Encounter, Part 2 of 2

I feel like Nintendo's relationship with violent games is less that Nintendo doesn't like Violent Games (although there might be a certain level of distaste) than Violent Games not liking Nintendo. Nintendo has had its share of Murderworlds or COD ports over the years, but for the most part I think they don't do well…