Unwinnable

Last Thursday afternoon, I asked my mother what she thought of Cara Ellison’s Twine game Sacrilege. Mom reads just about everything that goes up on Unwinnable (hi, Mom!) and, because of that, she has learned a lot more about videogames than she probably would have discovered on her own. (more…)

“Right naow Barnabas is abaout changed. Can’t shet his eyes no more, an’ is all aout o’ shape. They say he still wears clothes, but he’ll take to the water soon.”

- Zadok Allen

When Captain Obed Marsh made his deal with the devil, he didn’t sell his soul; he sold something infinitely more insidious: his lineage. (more…)

The House of Fabergé was a Russian jewelry firm that rose to prominence by making a number of ornate jeweled eggs over the 32 years between 1887 and 1917. Many of those eggs were small and worn as pendants, but the most famous were the 50 or so large Imperial eggs made for Tsars Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia. (more…)

The last day at home before traveling to a conference is the worst. I fret over my luggage. I regret booking the trip at all. It is too expensive. It is too long. It is going to be a disaster. Surely it cannot possibly be as amazing as last year. I should cancel it entirely, but I am expected. People are relying on me. So I go. (more…)

Here I am in the car, watching the landscape whiz by, the dark grey bones of trees clawing up at the light grey sky. Here I am in the airport, paying too much for junk food and searching for a nonexistent shoeshine stand. Here I am on the plane, ears clogged and head swimming from the dips in altitude. (more…)

Sometimes, you have to start over to realize just how far you’ve come. Today, I did that with the new Tomb Raider, playing through the first hour or so just two nights after finishing my first playthrough. There was Lara, fresh-faced and wide-eyed, unscarred and unilluminated. Once again, she had no idea what tests awaited her in the hours ahead. (more…)

A friend of mine has been known to say that she would sooner kill a human being than an innocent animal. It is sometimes hard to tell if the gleam in her vegan eyes is from humor or conviction but, having witnessed her cries for blood while watching hockey and her disgust at the hunting included in Red Dead Redemption, I have no desire to find out. (more…)