Today, September 25, is my birthday. Happy birthday, me! To celebrate, I'm gonna talk Gravity Falls for a minute here.

Last Wednesday, Alex Hirsch teased the possibility of Gravity Falls comics. Most people asked for typical pie-in-the-sky stuff (Ford's adventures in the Portal! Stan O'War II adventures! Dipper and Mabel's next summer at Gravity ( Read more... )

Hey there. Sorry for the delay. I'm not sure what happened there. I've been around, just... distracted.

So! Currently I've been reading a whole bunch of things: some of the earlier Hellboy volumes, Astro City: Family Album and Local Heroes, a few volumes of Batman: Black and White... I've even tried reading an actual, no-pictures type novel, like ( Read more... )

For the past couple weeks, I've been going over games nominated for the 2015 XYZZY Awards that I hadn't played yet. Today, we'll be reviewing the last game in this series, Oppositely Opal, by Buster Hudson.

In Oppositely Opal, you play as a witch who is trapped by a rival in a cursed cabin. You have to get out in time to compete against her in a ( Read more... )

For the next week, I'll be going over games nominated for the 2015 XYZZY Awards that I haven't played yet. Today, we'll be reviewing Arcane Intern (Unpaid), by Astrid Dalmady.

Arcane Intern (Unpaid) is about a young intern who gets a job at a magical publishing company. The game is slighter than the other Best Story nominees I've played so far; it ( Read more... )

For the next week, I'll be going over games nominated for the 2015 XYZZY Awards that I haven't played yet. Today, we'll be reviewing Cape, by Bruno Dias.

Cape is a near-future superhero story about someone who gains mysterious superpowers after stealing a talisman from a townhouse. It's fairly linear, with a few optional sidepaths (I hear talk of ( Read more... )

For the next week or so, I'll be going over games nominated for the 2015 XYZZY Awards that I haven't played yet. Today, we'll be reviewing Map, by Ade McT.

Map is a game that is very much concerned the choices we make in life, whether it's to let that person stay with us, or to dance with that guy in the bar. It's about a middle-aged woman whose ( Read more... )

For the next week, I'll be going over games nominated for the 2015 XYZZY Awards that I haven't played yet. Today, we'll be reviewing two games: Neon Haze, by Porpentine and Neotenomie; and Beautiful Dreamer, by S. Woodson.Both Beautiful Dreamer and Neon Haze were nominated for Best Setting (and only Best Setting), so I felt it would be appropriate ( Read more... )

For the next two weeks, I'll be going over games nominated for the 2015 XYZZY Awards that I haven't played yet. Expect a new review on Friday this week. For now, let's review tonight's game, Toby's Nose, by Chandler Groover.In Toby's Nose, you play a dog. Specifically, you play as Sherlock Holmes's dog, Toby, at the summation of a tense case. ( Read more... )

For the next two weeks, I'll be going over games nominated for the 2015 XYZZY Awards that I haven't played yet. Expect a new review Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this week. For now, let's review tonight's game, Hana Feels, by Gavin Inglis.

Hana Feels is a short game about a young woman (named Hana, natch) who self-harms. You play as a sequence of ( Read more... )

So this week I've read Kino's Journey, Volume 4 and 5, by Keiichi Sigsawa. (Previous reviews here and here.) It's the same curate's egg as before, some great stories, most undistinguished, some big stinkers. Part of that is due to the anthology format, I think, but I also think a bigger part is because of protagonist Kino's personality.

( Gonna put all these words underneath a cut )