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Good Grief “Gamer Bros” Are Exhausting – A Very Annoyed Opinion

Good Grief “Gamer Bros” Are Exhausting – A Very Annoyed Opinion

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Goodafterevenmorn, Readers!

I’m still in the world of video games. I’d rather not be. I’m gearing up for a book release right now. I’d much rather be talking about that. But the gaming news is slamming itself into my algorithm at the moment, and I need to talk about it. This isn’t happening in a vacuum, but is the same damned thing that happens every time a game that doesn’t feature a straight dude comes out; primarily giant man-babies throwing public tantrums because there is a toy in the world they don’t want to play with and how dare anyone make something that doesn’t appeal to them specifically. There are so many cases of this, but the big one right now belongs to the latest installment of the God of War franchise. Let’s dive in, shall we?

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Courtship Customs: Marrying Mr. Darcy by Erika Svanoe and Erik Evensen

Courtship Customs: Marrying Mr. Darcy by Erika Svanoe and Erik Evensen

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Marrying Mr. Darcy, designed by Erika Svanoe, art by Erik Evensen (Erika Svanoe Games, 2013)

One of my local gaming friends told me about Marrying Mr. Darcy, and brought his copy to a recent session, where we played it. I thought it was a lot of fun and have acquired a copy.

This is a game based on Jane Austen’s classic novel Pride and Prejudice. I think it could be played without having read that book, by anyone who has some familiarity with the courtship customs of the past. On the other hand, such players will miss some of the jokes that add to the pleasure of the game.

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The Horrifying Draw of Subnautica

The Horrifying Draw of Subnautica

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Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

Now that I’ve finished my play-thorugh of Far Cry 6, I have started playing a new game on my Friday night live streams. It is a survival exploration game that I am assured also has a story element (my livestreams are narrative games, largely). It is both fascinating and absolutely horrifying. I am, of course, talking about Subnautica. With the third game in the series out now in early access (oddly called Subnautica 2, even though the second game in the series was Subnautica: Below Zero), I figured I should take a stab at the original game. I knew precious little about it, save that it was a science fiction survival and exploration game, and that there was a thing in it called a reaper levaithan.

Now, I’m not very far into the game, so I haven’t experienced any of the promised story, save for the introduction, but I am already obsessed. Let’s talk about it!

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Late to the Game – My First Ever D&D Campaign

Late to the Game – My First Ever D&D Campaign

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Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

So… I’m a nerd. I know, surprising, right? What might actually be surprising, though, is that I’ve never actually played a game of Dungeons & Dragons. I mean, I’ve had a couple of home-brewed one-shots many years ago, but I’m never actually played a proper campaign, with a regular crew. That changed this year. I started with a friend, who was part of another group, who then created a splinter group for a different game. I am part of that splinter group, starting a new campaign at ground zero.

Can I just say, I am loving it. It’s a very excellent way to explore character and motivation, as well as world-building and story-telling. If you struggle with any of these, consider starting a D&D campaign. Let’s explore what’s going on in my game, because I’m too enamoured with it currently not to share.

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Dark Muse News: There’s something about Return to Silent Hill – It’s Mary!

Dark Muse News: There’s something about Return to Silent Hill – It’s Mary!

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The movie Return to Silent Hill (2026) is an adaptation of the psychological horror Silent Hill 2 (SH2) video game that was rebooted by Konami under Bloober Team in 2024. This ‘return’ film is directed by Christophe Gans, who championed the original 2006 film (which loosely adapted the first video game released in 1999). With the resounding success of the Bloober SH2 video game reboot, fans of the horror series had hope that the movie would pack a 1-2 punch, but it has been received poorly. Why?

Not helping the United States release was an ill-timed blizzard that stretched across the country (Wikipedia even has an entry about the storm). I suspect if that were a fog-storm (do those exist?), then ticket sales would have skyrocketed. At this point, almost every blogger and reviewer who has seen the movie has been pissed since it did not seem to represent the core elements of the game; I was in a similar camp until I dissected the film for this article. Here’s the Deal.

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Sumptuous visuals and brilliant writing in an Indie RPG? Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has it All

Sumptuous visuals and brilliant writing in an Indie RPG? Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Has it All

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Clair Obscur Expedition 33, developed Sandfall Interactive and published by Kepler Interactive April 24, 2025

So… if you are an enthusiast of single player RPGs and have not spent any time thoroughly engrossed in this modern masterpiece, you’re either buried under a pile of rubble or not allowing yourself enough time for brilliant escapism.

In either case, you’re missing out on what was unequivocally the 2025 GOTY.

I’ll work up a proper review at some point but am simply too busy playing this stunning piece of interactive art with all of my spare time to do so now.

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Eight Things I Think I Think: March 2026

Eight Things I Think I Think: March 2026

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1– BATTLEFRONT II IS PRETTY COOL

I’ve posted before that Fortnite is my kind of shooter. Fast-paced, high action games like Marvel Rivals, and Call of Duty, aren’t fun for me. And I pretty much just die. Fast and often. I’d rather go play a Solo RPG or something. I had been stuck since finishing Grim Dawn (which I wrote about here). I tried a couple games, including getting into Red Dead Redemption II (which I like, it just hasn’t grabbed me like LA Noire did). I false-started a half dozen games.

My son likes Star Wars: Battlefront II, which I briefly tried. Died repeatedly. Quit. But I decided to give it another go. It’s got a single player campaign mode, with multiple missions, as well as a few other solo options. But it was developed as a Multiplayer shooter, reminiscent of Team Fortress 2.

There was a huge controversy upon release in 2017, regarding micro transactions, and Electronic Arts stopped new content and support, in 2020. But the game has had a couple of resurgences and hit an all-time high in concurrent players last Summer. The game is what it is, and there’s a lot of content for the frequent $3.99 sale price.

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Guns or Butter? Race for the Galaxy by Tom Lehmann

Guns or Butter? Race for the Galaxy by Tom Lehmann

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Race For the Galaxy, Revised 2nd Edition, by Tom Lehmann (Rio Grande Games, 2007)

As I mentioned in my review of Terraforming Mars, Race for the Galaxy is one of my long-time favorite games. Its play models the expansion of up to four interstellar civilizations, each from one of five possible starting points: Old Earth, Epsilon Eridani, Alpha Centauri, New Sparta, and Earth’s Lost Colony. Development is represented abstractly, with nothing that represents physical variables, population, or any other real quantity; the idea is to come up with the right combinations of capabilities.

This is a card game, not a board game. There’s no predefined space for play to happen in. Rather, each player creates their own space by the play of their cards into a “tableau.”

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Five Things I Think I Think (February, 2026)

Five Things I Think I Think (February, 2026)

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What? It’s been TWO WHOLE WEEKS since I told you what I’ve been thinking about?

Well, we certainly can’t have that now, can we? I start with a bit of snark, and finish with a mini-rant. But hey, Ohio thinks a foot+ of snow, and consistently negative wind chills, is perfectly acceptable. So, I’m doing some grumpy old man this Winter.

1 – READING IS FUNDAMENTAL

We are not nearly the reading culture we were in the past. Online has massively increased ‘watching’ bite-sized content. Which is rarely as intellectually as fulfilling as reading. Or even watching en entire movie.

And I happen to believe the messed-up state of the world is in part attributable to the decrease in intelligence (ignorance runs rampant) resulting from video being as filling as cotton candy and replacing reading (somebody scrolling tik-tok for three hours a day is not learning the way someone reading a half hour a day is).

You don’t have to read Shakespeare, or bios of physicists, or Wuthering Heights. There’s plenty of ‘more accessible’ non-fiction. And while there’s a lot of garbage fiction out there, the choices are endless.

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Killing Dragons to Fund Your Hobby: Becoming a Book Collector in Skyrim

Killing Dragons to Fund Your Hobby: Becoming a Book Collector in Skyrim

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Exploring the frozen north for rare first editions in Skyrim

There are many fantasy role playing games (RPGs) available but I’ve hardly played any. Dungeons & Dragons is the best known. I had a couple High School friends who read fantasy and probably would have played D&D with me. If we’d known it existed. It came out in 1974, when I was the perfect age of 16, but I didn’t hear about it until my mid-twenties, when I was in graduate school and had no time for socializing. In college, friends and I played marathon Risk games so we probably would have played D&D if we’d known of it. I would have loved being a Dungeon Master. I know quite a few people now who play and I’ve been invited, but I’m just too busy. I can also be obsessive when I get caught up in something; if I started I might never quit.

However, I have an XBOX Series X and a fantasy RPG called Skyrim. I play some most weeks and during summer might go on a marathon session. I don’t have to wait for other folks to be ready and don’t have to travel farther than my living room. Skyrim is part of the Elder Scrolls series by Bethesda. There are earlier Elder Scroll games and I’ve played those, but mostly I play Skyrim.

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