Articles & Content Archives


Advanced Mining Strategies for Minecraft

Minecraft: Mining Strategies

If your goal in Minecraft is to build a nice wooden house and wile away the days with a little farm and maybe a few animals, you need never venture below ground at all. But then again, where would be the fun in that? Unfortunately, most of the fun to be had in Minecraft will require you to go mining, and the dark and dingy caverns under–blocky–foot are not for the unprepared. Here we will discuss some Minecraft strategies to consider when going in search of those precious materials. (more…)

Top 10 Games of 2015 [Video]

Avoiderdragon's Top 10 Games of 2015

I’m almost three weeks late for this, but at least I got it out before February rolled around. While late for that annual hot period for top 10 lists for X year, I think it’s still ripe for yet another list because I do think I’m hot shit like that. It’s not a very “complete” list though since I only include games I got to play in 2015, so it’s bound to get sticklers flustered by the absence of certain titles that do merit recognition, but those games already got enough attention as is. (more…)

Best Build for Learning Fallout 4

Fallout 4 Vault Boy

It has been well over a month since its release, and I’ve played one character for most of that time. I only got to post this now during the Holiday season due to work. For the first playthrough, I think players must be able to experience as much of the game as possible to get as complete of an impression of how it is as a whole and to enjoy it as much as possible. Whether you actually go with this build or disagree with it, it’s still important to play it the way you want. But if you ask me, the best build for your first character must be one that lets you see close to everything and get your money’s worth. (more…)

Relive StarCraft Brood War for Free with Mass Recall

StarCraft: Mass Recall

While I’m writing a script for what will hopefully be a full StarCraft II review video (I really have to start making more videos), I look back at the story of the first StarCraft and its expansion Brood War. Even after 17 years, those six campaigns still stand on their own. For those who still want to experience the awesomeness of the first StarCraft, but also want it in the graphics of StarCraft II, then this mod is exactly that. (more…)

Konami: In the Name of Petty Revenge

Konami: Scorched Earth

So a travesty occurred in this year’s Video Game Awards (I think the event is a sham, but it does its good anyway), wherein Geoff Keighley mentioned that Hideo Kojima was banned from attending to receive an award for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Keifer Sutherland received the award instead, which is definitely an indication that Konami is still adamant about keeping Kojima away from his creation. (more…)

Fallout 4 First Look

Fallout 420

This is a couple of days late, but I still got this out to not back down on my commitment to making more videos (which I’ve backed out on repeatedly for most of the year). I’ve planned on making videos on Fallout 4 the whole time prior to release, so I might as well fulfill this promise. I may go through with Fallout 4 playthrough videos and such, as well as my own review. Meanwhile, here’s a video on my first impressions of the game. (more…)

Pre-release Build Ideas for Fallout 4

Fallout 4: Protagonist and Dog

As of this writing, it’s less than a week until Fallout 4 comes out. Being too excited for it, I’d been looking for new info and stumbled upon a page detailing the new perk system, complete with descriptions for each perk. This immediately resulted in me coming up with character concepts and builds to prepare for release. I rarely get excited for day one of a new game, but this is Fallout 4—I’m taking a week off for this. (more…)

Review-pocalypse: On Writing Criticism

Reviews: Good or Bad?

There’s an art to writing reviews on bad stuff—an obnoxious one at that. It’s also quite fun—at least at first—to tear a bad game or movie apart by using metaphors and hyperbole to describe their badness. But as it usually is with objectifying subjective experiences, there is also such a thing as a badly written review. It neither offers connects the dots nor solutions to problems and only serves to insult the creator(s) without subtlety or any careful consideration. (more…)

Video Games as Art… Again

Video Games logo

By now, this controversial post on Polygon has made its rounds and got nerd panties up in bunches. I thought of writing something about it not because I have anything to prove, but merely to express a bit of my incredulity on the subject, which is a moot and futile point anyway. But since I don’t take myself too seriously, I’ll make an ass out of myself anyway by putting on my pretentio-hat and stretch my pseudo-intellect to analyze this whole “video games as art” topic, just like hundreds of thousands of times before by other pretentious pseudo-intellectual pricks before me. (more…)

Going Clear Review

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief

It took me a while to actually put up something on Going Clear, but I just had to with the recent events concerning a certain religious organization here in the Philippines. I’m not insinuating anything, but it did remind me that I still haven’t posted anything on this documentary, which is perhaps one of the best of 2015. This film is meant to send chills down spines and raise eyebrows regarding Scientology and the C-word (no, not THAT C-word, the other C-word). (more…)

Time is Fool’s Gold: On Clickers and Grinders

Time

Recently, for reasons only known to my subconscious mind, I opened solitaire on my computer after several years of not even a passing thought on the game. It then made me think of games that were meant to pass the time like solitaire used to be. Nowadays, it has been relegated to idle time in offices, and even that has been usurped by browser and mobile games for the most part. Those solitaire slayers are what I want to talk about, but from an outside perspective since I have barely touched the damn things. (more…)

Chernobyl in Games and the Internet

Chernobyl

Fallout 4 is coming out later this year, so fans are most likely replaying older Fallout games right now. In the meantime, let’s look at one of the most radioactive places in the world for some inspiration. Chernobyl was nothing short of a complete fuck-up, but it’s now a ghost town noteworthy for some of the most beautifully haunting photographs ever taken and even some games. There’s also a woman who likes to walk around in the damn place like a frolicking school girl while making videos about it. Also, I’m not patient enough to wait for the 30th anniversary of the disaster to post about it. (more…)