Troll in the Corner

Dragon Age: Journeys

31. October 2009

With Dragon Age: Origin's street date right in our faces. Bioware has released a short but sweet browser game to state our hunger.

A crash from across the street alerts me as I am drinking my morning cup of tea. I quietly excuse myself to the lady's room, slip on my goggles, dawn my suit as I like to call it and squeeze out of the bathroom window. Just down the street I see the police talking to some Champions. I make my way to the broken building and and officer pulls me to the side. This is where my story begins.

Torchlight – the Definitive Review

28. October 2009

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Having spent more than a few hours with Torchlight, a new action/rpg-lite from those folks at Runic Games, I have the be all end all of review for you.

The Most Amazing, Bizarre, and Wondrous Thing I Have Heard in Years

28. October 2009

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The Most Amazing, Bizarre, and Wondrous Thing I Have Heard in Years

This is a project called “The Symphony of Science.” Basically they have taken footage of Carl Sagan and other scientists talking about the Universe, some of their most beautiful statements, and turned them into music by digitally adding musical tones to the words and syllables. I know that sounds really strange on paper. Heck, you might not even like it the first time through at all. I can guarantee though that most of you, if you actually listen to the lyrics, will not only have it stuck in your head after a couple listens, but love the songs. It’s a message about man’s potential, that despite being utterly insignificant in scale to the Cosmos, we are part of the cosmos and therefore extraordinary. Put simply it is sublime stuff.

Don’t forget Twitter for deals and quickies. Yes, quickies.

27. October 2009

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Don’t forget Twitter for deals and quickies. Yes, quickies.

A reminder to our wonderful readers. I post a lot of stuff on Twitter that you won't find here. Lots of deals, quick links and other goodies that don't justify a full post on Troll in the Corner.

Using More Skill Challenges

27. October 2009

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Skill Challenges are something I think many GM's have been using for years but was finally officially introduced to the D&D world in fourth edition (though notably things like this have been in other RPG's long before this). They are a tool to help you award experience fittingly for out of combat action (or sometimes in combat skill checks).

EyePet for the PS3

26. October 2009

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My new pet arrived in the post Saturday morning and I spent a couple of hours hatching and playing with it Saturday evening. It’s an exciting concept and makes use of the Playstation Eye camera accessory for the PS3. I already had a camera (bought with Eye of Judgement) so got the solo game for [...]

Leaked Left 4 Dead 2 Trailer

26. October 2009

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I saw this and just had to pass it along. I love the first Left 4 Dead even if it does scare the heck out of me. There's a new set of people and it looks like there's new types of zombies as well. I'm ready to get scared all over again. November holds so many great releases I just can't wait!

Castle on TV: Hyper-reality blurs with reality a little bit more

26. October 2009

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Castle on TV: Hyper-reality blurs with reality a little bit more

Castle is an ABC crime show, in the more humorous vein of shows like the Mentalist and Psych. The shows titular lead, Richard Castle, (Nathan Fillion of Firefly and Dr. Horrible fame) is a mystery writer on par with Patterson or Cannell, fresh off killing his main character out of boredom. Meanwhile Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic, The Spirit) is looking at two seemingly unrelated murders with one odd thing in common: Both were killed almost exactly like murders out of Castle’s books. She brings him in for questioning, leading to him volunteering to help with the case because of his familiarity with the crimes, which turns into a more permanent partnership as he decides to base his new book on her. But that's not why I've writing on the show, great as it is. I'm writing about Castle because they actually wrote the book he finished about Beckett last episode. So what is it when you have a book purporting to copy a book that doesn't exist? Welcome to third order simulacra and the blurring of reality.