WTF is... Anachronox?

These guys are all delightful and charismatic, I promise. Because I wouldn't keep playing if they weren't.

It's a delightful little gem I found in PC gamer's 25 greatest RPG's and simply had to have. It's as if Deus Ex tried to out do Final Fantasy VII and they hired Douglas Adams to write it. It's funny. Not funny for a 13 year old RPG. Funny, funny. Funny in a way that doesn't beat you over the head with desperation (as some insecure games are wont to do). The writing is sharp, the spoken dialogue, professional (the guy who played Marcus in borderlands is the lead, and he's wonderful), and the maddeningly ancient facial animation is heartfelt enough to shine through playstation era character models. A herculean feat from where I'm standing.

If you've been itching for some classic turn based JRPG magic, but with a more western tone, this is your jam. It's tough at first... I forgot games could look this muddy. But it has a heart and a killer sense of humor.

It's $7 on Steam and $6 on GOG. Take your pick.

PC Gamer's 25 greatest RPG's of all time.

So maybe I'm throwing this up here because I'm trying to avoid real review articles. Maybe it's because they've put some of my more obscure favorites in there (dredmor!!!! holy crap, I thought everyone forgot that ever existed.) And maybe, just maaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe my favorite game of all time is #12... and Fallout 3 isn't on the list at all. But this is a great list that doesn't have deus ex in the #1 spot and a game that came out 3 months ago is in the top 16.

Bet you're wondering what it is, huh?

And down we go... (my impressions of the Crown of the Sunken king)

Though much easier to find than the original's DLC, From software has brought the pain. It starts off simple enough, tall and hard hitting toxic zombies with some new puzzle switches, it shakes things up considerably fifteen minutes in.

For one, and this is kind of a spoiler, I knew it was only a matter of time before player phantoms (those transparent ghosts running around that are actually other people playing the game) became enemies. I fell for it. Hard.

If you've got $25 to throw down for some more dark souls, go for it. I say this after only sampling the first course of three.

Whiplash Trailer: One half boiler plate relationship story, one half J.K. Simmons being a complete and total BAMF.

You'd be hard pressed to find anyone on the internet that isn't on Simmon's side. He's so lovable, especially when he's being an asshole. Whiplash looks to turn that around, giving him a character that is so caustically abusive in such a short amount of time, that this trailer scared me more than most horror movies.

Oh and Miles Teller.

He's in it too.

...he's ok.

Gardians of the Galaxy: It's apparently really, REALLY good.

While it may be surprising to some people that Chris Pratt can carry a movie, It's no surprise to me and my fellow pawneeans. I love James Gunn and I loved all the trailers, but even still, I've fallen hard for some real pieces of sh*t. Yet I still want to believe.

But the film has been recently screened. And the word is thunderous.

That word is also amazeballs.

Superego is back for Season 4! ...and Paul F. Tompkins is along for the ride.

My favorite gaggle of improvisationalists are back after a what seems like a 2 year absence. It's only been one, but that's how much they've come to mean to me. I've tried to put into words how funny I think they are. How they're just as much fun when they miss their marks as when they hit it out of the improv park. How the word of the day calender makes me spit hot coffee out of my nose after I've heard them both at least 4 times each.

They return September 1, with only an agonizing two month hiatus between each episode... probably. It will feel like two months to me, anyway.

Musings about Planes: Fire and Rescue

You remember cars? The red headed step child of the Pixar family so ridiculously lucrative it's straight to video sequels still get a theatrical release?

You know the one.

Anywho, I was reading the reviews on RT and I stumbled across a pretty damn interesting insight from the National Catholic Register. Yeah.. they review movies. But more to the point, Stephan Greydanus  points out a stunning logical fallacy about the whole thing that just made me smile:

"Think of the climactic forest fire in Bambi, and then take away the deer, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, birds and people. A forest fire ... in an uninhabited forest"

The movie exists in the Cars universe. The one without people or animals. But planes are stopping forest fires. What are they rescuing? Car campers?