You Should Probably Play This: Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honor

You Should Probably Play This is my positive review column. In it, I'll review a game that I think needs more attention. It may be an obscure oldie, something that was released recently with little fanfare, or something that was badly received on release but has since been made better. This time: Visit scenic Enroth.  We have laser guns.  And puns.

NaNo Approaches (and an excerpt from my NaNo two years ago)

Hi there.  Starting on November 1st I'm going to be participating in National Novel Writing Month for the fourth year in a row and, if all goes according to plan, winning for the fourth year in a row.  For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge in which you have to write a 50,000 word novel in one month: November (boils down to 1,667 words per day).  It's a lot of fun, and I definitely recommend doing it.  There's no real prize or anything besides accomplishment, bragging rights, and discounts on writing software, and it's very casual and friendly.  The site is this way.

You Should Probably Play This: Stacking

You Should Probably Play This is my positive review column. In it, I'll review a game that I think needs more attention. It may be an obscure oldie, something that was released recently with little fanfare, or something that was badly received on release but has since been made better. This time: A game from DoubleFine.  Who are awesome.

Album Retrospective: Guadalcanal Diary

Oh hey, another one of these things.  I was originally just going to review one of their albums, but I figured they only have four so I might as well do a retrospective on 'em.

Guadalcanal Diary are an 80s jangle pop band from Georgia.  The best way to describe their sound would probably be: Take REM; turn up the rockabilly influences, add punky quirkiness, add some African rhythm influence, and slap Michael Stipe until he stops singing like he's been lobotomized.  So yeah, they sound like REM (though they formed the same year, so you can't really call them clones).  I actually like Guadalcanal Diary more though, as I've always found REM a bit boring. Guadalcanal Diary have more energy and a rather quirky range of subjects, from spiritual contemplations to references to the Three Stooges.

Line-up:
-Murray Attaway: Vocals, guitar
-Jeff Walls: Guitar
-Rhett Crowe: Bass
-John Poe: Drums

Video Game Storytelling: Examples of Good Stories

This is a side update to my storytelling series.  I thought I'd talk briefly about games that do good storytelling, or have interesting ideas but are flawed.

Contains spoilers for: Arcanum, Bastion, Braid, Fallout: New Vegas.

Note: I would argue that Civilization or Tetris has a story in the rise and fall of the player, but for the purposes of this article I'm talking specifically about pre-written linear narrative.