Ari Blog

Blog: More Than Games – 09/23/20

Welcome to another fantastic edition of this blog where I sometimes talk about video games. Boy howdy are there a ton of video games I want to talk about this week, I'm basically swimming in rewarding gameplay experiences that I'm eager to discuss. It's hard to convey sarcasm through a written piece, but that was all a big fib. I did a lie. No, this week has mostly been about me reading a book, hearing about how people are enjoying games I know aren't for me, and watching the slow and steady erosion of our democracy continue unabated. So hell yeah, video game blog time!

Ari Articles, The Master of Disaster

The Master of Disaster: Prepping – 16

One of the most interesting, fun and tedious parts about being a Dungeon Master is preparing from session to session, but even more of a challenge is preparing a new campaign entirely. My group and I are currently wrapping up our "one-shot" of The Sunless Citadel, a pretty decent Dungeons & Dragons adventure, and are gearing up for our next big campaign. As luck would have it, Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden released just as we were finishing up, so we decided that it would be our next adventure. Being that this is my first time prepping a full campaign, I figured I do it as meticulously as possible. Here's what's happened...

Ari Blog

Blog: Super Mario 3D All-Stars Feels Scummy – 09/16/20

I'm almost certain this has been covered by other folks before, but as we creep closer to its release I find myself feeling worse and worse about Super Mario 3D All-Stars as a whole. You'd think that a package containing one of the best video games of all time would be a more exciting proposition, but there are so many little upsetting nuggets of information that keep cropping up that have effectively killed any enthusiasm I had for the collection...

Ari Articles, Gut Check

Gut Check: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

It's rare when something that's so clearly playing off of your nostalgia actually delivers and makes good on all of those memories you have of a game instead of just reminding you how flawed your brain is. It turns out that the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series was phenomenal and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 brings everything you loved about the series into the modern era extremely successfully...

Ari Blog

Blog: Console Bore – 09/09/20

As of writing this, Microsoft finally saw fit to confirm what might be the worst kept secret in the gaming industry, in announcing the existence of the Xbox Series S, the all digital and budget model of their next console. I could talk about how odd and wildly different from the upcoming Series X it looks, but instead I'd like to add to the cacophony of voices asking, "Should these boxes just be delayed?"

Ari Blog

Blog: Games-tember – 09/02/20

I cannot believe that it's already September. This year has simultaneously felt like it's taken forever and vanished in the blink of an eye. I personally love the fall and can't wait until this muggy, humid, miserable heat fucks right off for a few months. Along with that shift in weather however, the fall comes bearing oh so many highly anticipated video games along with new consoles that arguably should be delayed. But let's focus on the games for now with this short list of my most anticipated games of September...

Ari Articles, The Master of Disaster

The Master of Disaster: Combat Encounters – 15

People often talk about the three pillars of Dungeons & Dragons and how crucial they are when making a well rounded campaign. Of the three pillars, exploration, role-playing and combat, I usually tend to focus on the role-playing pillar the most while paying less attention to the others. I've always felt that exploration was the toughest one for me, but as I run more Dungeons & Dragons games with different groups, I find that combat ends up feeling the weakest and least interesting...

Ari Blog

Blog: Windows is the Worst Part of Game Pass – 08/26/20

I want to get out ahead of this blog and say that I believe that Xbox Game Pass is a fantastic service that people should look into if they have the extra cash and a desire to play more games. That being said, the PC experience for the service isn't great and I think that Windows is mostly to blame for that. This isn't me complaining about the games or the value of the service itself, instead this focuses solely on how ironically miserable the PC launcher integrates with Windows...

Ari Articles, Features

About That Avengers Beta

Since their surge in mass popularity during the 2010's, I've been yearning for an Avengers game that would appropriately blend the varied powers of the Earth's mightiest heroes with actual fun gameplay. Things were looking very promising when Marvel's Spider-Man released two years ago on the PlayStation 4, but all of those positive feelings slowly drained away as I spent some time with Square Enix's Marvel's Avengers beta...