To anyone who isn’t into Elden Ring: This post is going to be all Elden Ring, all the time, so fair warning given. I know it sucks when all the attention goes to some pop-culture phenomenon that you’re just not into. I’m afraid it is going to be at the center of the critical gaming discourse for some time to come and…

The way the episode showed Gerald getting worried about how Sheila might react to the (pretend) gunplay or Kyle’s pellet bruise early in the episoide made me think it was going to turn into some episode about moral panic, but it just never develops from that.  I think it’s quite possible that someone on the writing…

Two questions:

Agreed. I might enjoy the food—I’m a sucker for trash foods made well—but the whole concept is like a Hawaiian shirt:  loud and tasteless.   

I don’t know. If it’s a well-maintained* arcade with both old and new games, I’m on board, even if the whole Flavortown concept seems like it might me a louder and more garish experience than I’d prefer. If it is mostly those VR games or those dumb ticket games (yes, I am joyless, get over it), then it’s a pass for me.

I guess I never really noticed the difference?!?  Except for the juvenile pleasures of mixing a suicide soda, I’ve just always preferred cans and bottles over fountain soda.  Even if I order a value meal from a fast-food joint, I’ll often pick a bottle up from a convenience store if I’m taking it to-go, often…

Fair enough. I do admire its ambition. DS2 was set in a different land, completely divorced from the first game, whereas DS3 might not be directly connected to the first game (then again, every bit of lore is kinda vague), but it was clearly indulging in nostalgia for OG DS. DS2 also tries to implement a torch as a…

It’s funny you should mention Skyrim, because the last open world RPG before this that really sunk it hooks into me—well, that would probably be The Witcher 3...but, well, before it, it was my first (and, I would argue, best) contact with The Elder Scrolls series: Morrowind. I was so obsessed with that game and its…

Elden Ring is one of the most unique, strange, epic and meticulously crafted games I’ve ever played

Solid point!  And sorry for getting your species wrong!  I suspect I’ll be hearing about that for some time to come.  Is it Poke-specieist to suggest that a lot of them look alike?  

I guess I shouldn’t just books by their covers, but I would have never expected a Kafka reference from the Jigglypuff avatar.  Well done!

But I guess that sets the game up as one where Dracula has all this info on the world map and gets to set up his traps and evasive maneuvers while the vampire hunters are always two steps behind, and if they catch up to Dracula, suddenly the tables have turned and the heroes have all the hidden info, and Dracula has…

I’m there with you. I haven’t played it as much as I wanted and I definitely haven’t gotten very far, if we’re using trophies as a measure of progress, of which I have none thus far. I have been take down a few bosses, likely all optional, and all I’ve gotten from the game is a bunch of souls runes and some medallions…

If and when you get around to playing Fury of Dracula, please let us know your impressions of it. I started playing it once (I’m not sure which edition it was) with a group of 5 (I was playing Dracula), but we quit before finishing. The reasons were many, probably mostly down to bad board-game prep: we started with no…

It’s been a busy week, so I’ve only sunk a handful of hours into Elden Ring. I’ve mostly been bumbling about and throwing myself at challenges outside my skill level (somehow, I always seem to forget all the accrued muscle memory from past SoulsBourne titles after I finish playing them). It’s only been very recently…

Writer:  “Slow news day. I mean, there’s nothing else important happening in the world.  Right, guys?  Huh, ‘turn on the news’?  OK, but I don’t see what that has to do with...OHHHH...”

Who doesn’t know the tongue-in-cheek lyrics to Walker Hayes’ hit song “Fancy Like”? 

I certainly didn’t mean to minimize the experience of both those leaving (who, in a perfect bit of double-speak, were told that the move was not mandatory, though their jobs would be moving) or to the incoming staff, who have to reckon with whatever BS this new regime has in mind...and likely some bad will from those…

at least in the days before Kinja decimated the site’s robust commenting culture

We’re not talking here about the much-touted narrative contributions from author George R.R. Martin, whose influence on the game’s plot feels roughly as impactful as its influence on the text of this review. (Which is to say: Negligible.)