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 [...]

While the happy reunion with Princess Hygiena was taking place, Clostridium difficile sat silently beneath the cover of darkness plotting his quest for total gastrointestinal domination.  Billions of innocent Normal F’Lora had fled from their ravaged homeland after the Apothecaries had made an unsuccessful attempt to banish the Lords of Pestilence.  “Friendly fire” and the [...]

My wife and I often discuss my various dalliances with other women. The only way I am able to say that without fear of genuine physical harm is because I’m referring to my relationships with women who happen to be video game characters. As narratives in games become more complex, it stands to reason that [...]

The Apothecaries were growing weary.  They had waged their battles against the Lords of Pestilence for many moons and their power was slowly becoming depleted.  Their potent elixirs were beginning to fail them – the Lords of Pestilence had learned to use the elixirs to strengthen themselves! They sat in a circle staring into the [...]

“I’m actually still playing Sons of Liberty (the sequel to MGS on the Playstation 2), and am stuck on the part where you have to defeat that army of huge serpentine robots called Rays.” “Easy. Just use chaffs to scramble their radars, stay in the corners, and wait until their mouths open to attack – [...]

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 [...]

In perhaps what is going to be the most controversial post on the NCL blog for a while, I wanted to share with you the story of Hillary Adams, the now 23-year-old girl who set up a camera in her bedroom to document her father beating her for downloading games and videos on her pc. [...]

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 [...]