Review: Wildstar (PC)

When it comes to MMOs that are outside the usual heroic fantasy mold, things don't always seem to click as well as you'd like to think. While The Secret World and Star Wars: The Old Republic are holding their own, they're still pretty small change compared to fantasy worlds like World of WarCraft and Guild Wars 2. Carbine Studios looks to break the mold on that with WildStar, and they might have the formula.

Review: Firefall - Part I (PC)

At this time in my life I don't have the necessary patience to grind, grind, grind, grind... and grind some more. And every free-to-play game relies on the grind to make money. The logic being, "Hey players that want to climb the ladder to avoid the grind they'll pay real money to buy items and XP boosts in the game! Cha-ching!"

Think it's boring to run between objectives? Well, there are vehicles available for purchase right now rather than grind with the idea that one day, maybe, you'll have enough in-game currency to buy one and affirm yourself a masochist.

Preview: Destiny (Multiplatform)

Unless you've been sleeping for the last fifteen years or so, it should be a point of common knowledge that Bungie makes some really excellent shooters.  They did it with the Marathon series, they did it again with the Halo series, and they're looking to make the hat trick with Destiny.  Bungie faithful have been following the project closely and with their public beta test coming up, it's shaping up very impressively.

Review: World of Warplanes (PC)

One aspect of World of Warplanes that the developers absolutely nail is the feeling of flight, at least on a casual basis because this isn't a flight sim by any stretch.

It makes me wish I still had my three-button Gravis joystick (circa. 1991). It also makes me wish there were more games that nudge up against that part of my brain that releases endorphins every time I think of X-Wing, Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, or the Rogue Squadron games. Then World of Warplanes makes me wish there was more to do within the confines of the game.

Editorial: Raving Rant - The Night Elf and The Snowman

It’s been a while since I've found myself bereft of speech on an issue.

To be fair, the last several months have had a near daily flood of information that part of me didn't want to miss by trying to nail down any one set of specifics. I've been watching the near daily revelations of Edward Snowden with the same sick fascination one would properly expect of a train wreck, particularly one of this magnitude.

For years, I've been following a lot of the topics that the Snowden Files address, but always with the degree of removal that good investigative journalism imposes: you get a clearer picture, but you know that there’s probably information even the journos missed. I've long been opposed to the post-9/11 surveillance state policies that have warped and twisted the world into the shape it’s in now. And for good or ill, we've seen far more than even I could have even begun to imagine, and I've got a very good imagination. For example, the fact that half the alphabet soup agencies on the Federal Register blew time and taxpayer money hunting for terrorists in Azeroth.

Review: Secret World (PC)

Secret societies?  Balderdash!  The idea that any sort of secret society can survive in this day and age is utter nonsense.  The purported power of so-called mystical sites like Stonehenge and [REDACTED] boggles the rational mind with yclept of fantasy that yclept yclept [REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED] filth [REDACTED][REDACTED].

***SCANNING ERROR***
*ATTEMPT RECOVERY
***SCANNING ERROR***
*ATTEMPT RECOVERY
***TERMINAL SCANNING ERROR***

Good, the text scrambler is in place and operating normally.  We can talk, if only for a short while.  It's important to pass along this information with a minimal amount of interference.  Maybe they're allowing it come out, just enough truth to salt the field of lies.  Or maybe they've slipped up this once.  After all, even in a secret society, people are only human.  Mostly.