Off Topic

By now there's a good chance that you've heard of The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, an award-winning documentary now streaming on Netflix.

It's the end of spooky season, so let's finish it on a high note. This week brings us against the Fade, fighting with the Vampire Killer, wearing a pointy hat in a 2D Souls-like, and running terrified from a Xenomorph.

There's a certain subset of productivity strategies and lifehacks that seem like a goofy scam until you give them an honest shot.

Easy.

During a September 10 Goldman-Sachs conference, where one can undoubtedly find serious players of interactive tabletop roleplaying games, Hasbro President Chris Cocks revealed AI is actively being used to develop games at the company, including Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons: "Inside of development, we've already been using AI...It's mostly machine-learning-based AI or proprietary AI as opposed to a ChatGPT approach.

This weekend I bring you a remake of a popular Sonic title (with the edgiest hedgehog, Shadow), an MMO turned co-op title, an alternate timeline to Lord of the Rings, and a spy thriller deck-building title!

This weekend I bring you a new Mario Party game, a top-down twin-stick shooter, FromSoftware's *other* title (no I don't mean King's Field, no one remembers King's Field), and a spinoff title of a popular RPG franchise!

This week is the third and final Steam Next Fest of 2024 and, as always, we are excited to try out new game demos.

Sunderfolk is the first game from former Blizzard head honcho Mike Morhaime's Dreamhaven Studios, and it's intended to be "a turn-based tactical RPG adventure for one to four players that's tailored for a deeply engaging couch co-op experience." However, it also reminds me a lot of games like Wildermyth and TTRPGs like Pugmire, Wanderhome, or even the tabletop RPG adaptation of the board game ROOT that Magpie Games is working on.

The fall weather here in the Northern Hemisphere is the perfect time to hang out inside around a table with your friends, your collection of dice, and your favorite tabletop RPGs.