Newton’s third law is a scientific favorite: “To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.”  This law is also the core of competitive gameplay. If I make a move, my opponent must respond in order to neutralize the value of my move. The victor is then the player that takes a step [...]

“GO GO GO!”. . . “Fire it up.”. . .“Battlecruiser operational.” The rise of real-time strategy (RTS) games back in the ‘90s had such a legacy and cultural impact amongst the male population in the virtual world. Especially in South Korea and the United States, competitive and corporate-sponsored leagues (including participation in Major League Gaming) were [...]

Perhaps the most elegant example of learning while actually having fun came from a real-time strategy game called Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom. But first some gaming history. Strategy games such as Chess, Risk, and Stratego have enjoyed a long heritage. The classic games were turn-based, essentially allowing each player to gather his or [...]

It was during the autumn of 1999 that I fell in love. She was beautiful, complex, tremendously high maintenance, and from the land of the rising sun. Her name was Gran Turismo, and our relationship was tumultuous, fiery, and a constant struggle for performance and power. Horsepower, that is. In a few short weeks, I [...]

After doing some further gameplay to explicitly test the physics of Skyrim, I felt the need to do some background on the physics engine at hand. The engine, which many of you have probably heard of before, is the Havok physics engine. This is a collision-based physics engine that focuses on the dynamic interaction between [...]

Bahamut translated means Dragon King. He was a 24-year-old who had been admitted to my service the night before. On checkout rounds I remember being impressed by the sheer multitude of pathologies that were at play in this young man’s body. The primary ailment was lymphoma – a cancer of one of the lymphatic cells [...]

I’ve started listening to the Weekend Confirmed podcast which is run by the folks at Shack News, a gaming news site / blog from back before blogging was even a noun/verb. The podcast is run by game reviewer/illuminati Garnett Lee, and I began listening after the Totally Rad Show’s Jeff Cannata mentioned it as another [...]

Description (Healing Blade Lore) Bacteroides fragilis are widespread in Soma. They can live peacefully along the aqueduct, where they feed on the nutrients and other resources that flow down from Buccal Bay, and are among the most common residents below the Southern Dam and near Fecal Outlet. They can even be beneficial to Soma’s health, [...]

Before this summer, I had no idea who Michael Fassbender was. In truth, I had come across his work in Tarantino’s impressive Inglorious Basterds, in which Fassbender portrayed a British spy behind enemy lines passing as a Nazi officer in one of the films more tense sequences. Still, I merely thought of him as a [...]

If you’ve read this blog, you’re probably aware of just how fan-boyish we are for Bioware and the MassEffect series of games. Glorious graphics? Check. Interesting game-play that seems to have evolved over the series based on fan feedback? Check. Awesome pop-synth score? Check. Characters with motivations, conflicts, and weaknesses that make you care for [...]