“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed…” Reading the opening line of my favorite novel for the umpteenth time, my legs dangling carefree of over the ledge, the chilled, crisp mountain air filling my lungs, I was at peace. There are many options when it comes to camping, some prefer the warmer months and designated grounds shared with others, some prefer finding their own clearing among the trees, and others basically just bring a second house on wheels into the woods. None of these options are for me though, I prefer the cold weather of the late autumn, just before winter’s freeze, by myself deep beyond where most bother to trek. Many years ago, I had stumbled upon the perfect retreat for loner like myself, long off the marked trails to hills and mountains above the trees. Nestled under the overhang of one of the lesser peaks was a perfectly flat outcropping about the size of a regular living room, shielded from rain, two sides the solid stone
Losing a family member is never easy, but very little can prepare you for losing the last one. I tried to prepare myself for that day, by being distance and callous, but the pain of hearing of my father’s passing was not abated, instead magnified. Knowing I robbed us both of precious time with our last of blood was a crushing, wrenching regret I wrestled with each passing moment. I couldn’t afford funeral for him, neither of us had anyone who could dream of footing the bill, nor any who would even show up to say goodbye. Just myself, watching the casket lower, along with priest carrying a pitying gaze, and a man I didn’t know. He was my father’s lawyer, a short and odd fellow who I was to meet for the reading of the will, but instead he came to me. “These are yours now.” he said in a hushed tone, shoving a small envelope into my hand and hurrying from the plot, gone before I could even ask his name. Contained withing the envelope were three items, a cheque for my father’s
Another day begins as my heavy eyelids open, ending my long, stiff slumber as I work myself out of bed. Everything aches, just like always, shaking and waking my muscles as I work to get on my feet. A stretch, a yawn, some popping noises and I’m good to go once more, shuffling my way to the shower. As my body cleans, my mind wanders. How many accidents have there been involving one’s shower? How many have slipped? How many have managed to drown themselves? How many choked on a stray drop of water that went down the wrong pipe? ”If only those sorry folks could have seen the wonder of a mist bath.” I chuckle to myself, letting the warm vapor cleanse my body safely, evaporating almost instantly on my skin. Stepping back into my room, I slip on the soft, cozy robe I always wear and exit my room into the quiet, white hall. Its a bit of a walk to the lounge, but I find ways to entertain myself along the way, passing by other dormitory rooms, peering into the wrong end of the peep hole
When I was a teen, collecting horror games for the Playstation 2 was one of my few hobbies. I grew up sheltered, afraid of even the slightest mention of anything bloody, gory, or remotely frightening, but that mentality was shattered the moment I played Resident Evil 4 and since then I became a sort of connoisseur. Though while I was quite the collector, I never paid much attention to the gaming news or magazines, usually just ending up surprised by whatever was on the shelves when I happened to visit GameStop or such. One such surprise came at a rather difficult part of my life, a whole lot of things had happened suddenly and my life had been flipped around in the span of a single night, so seeing a new Silent Hill game on the shelves was just the distraction I needed. Shattered Memories it was called, the cover depicted a little girl frozen to a swing set, a strange image that had caught my eye before even the title. I didn’t even know there was a new Silent Hill after
It is July 14th 2027, 1:23 PM. 94 degrees without a cloud in the sky. I’m doing my job. I don’t know how long it’s been since I started, I tend to zone out around Missouri, and there ain’t nobody around to help me keep track. The only way to know my pace, the pedometer on my watch, only has five digits before needing to be reset. Speaking of, might as well do that now. Sometimes I try to keep track of how many resets I’ve done, but the monotony makes my mind wander. Has it been one reset? No certainly not. One hundred? Probably more. Ten thousand? Even if I did know, stupid thing caps out at 99,999 and that slightly off number just drives me nuts. Thinking about it makes my head hurt. I don’t need to worry about pace anyway, it’s never been a problem. The road signs say I’m entering Pennsylvania, still a ways to go. I wish any of these cars still worked, would make my job so much easier. At least, I used to think that way countless steps ago. Sure a vehicle is faster
Have you ever been punished for being really good at a game? Probably not, but what about cheating? Cheating always comes with a risk of punishment when competing against others, but on your own time in a single-player game, cheating is harmless right? Who cares if push a combination of buttons and get a billion points, or infinite lives, only one I’m cheating then is myself, right? When I already own a copy of a game on console, I should be allowed to use cheat engine or other tools on a PC version to catch up instead of redoing everything, right? When you’re not playing an online multiplayer game, it is shockingly easy to mess with a game to your liking, you don’t need to hope the developers put in or forgot to remove cheats, you can just directly modify the files yourself. When I re-bought Ace Combat 7 on the PC since my PS4 was starting to die, I really didn’t feel like having to unlock everything again. Cheat Engine was a godsend. So what if I give myself truckloads of
Why doesn’t anyone talk about Botanophobia? With all the surge in interest over lost and obscure media, I don’t understand how this one slipped by. It released on the same day as Half Life Alyx and was meant as another showcase for the Index VR experience, but it seemingly had no advertising and was only available for about an hour before being unceremoniously pulled from Steam. While I was fortunate enough to see and purchase it during that brief window, my bad habit of procrastinating made it sit in my library untouched for a while as I played Alyx and other games more. One day after an update to the Steam library interface that made suggestions for you to play from your library and showed off the artwork more, I was reminded of the game, as it stuck out due to the lack of cover art. With nothing better to do that day, I dug out my Index, set up the base stations, and decided to finally give it a try. While the game may no longer be available for purchase, it would still
While Bethesda is content to re-release Skyrim again and again, I’ve never really cared for that particular installment of the Elder Scrolls. No matter how many times the water shaders are revamped, the only game of the series I ever really got into was Morrowind. Thanks to a glowing review given on Toonami of all places, I was excited to give the game a try, and one day my older brother came home with it. Unfortunately for the both of us, PC gaming wasn’t a thing in our household, so we were stuck with the original Xbox version in all it’s vanilla, clunky glory. As a young teen, the freedom and possibilities provided by the first open-world experience I’d ever experienced was as amazing as it was overwhelming. Having never really been a player of Western RPGs, I wasn’t exactly sucked in by the story or setting, dark greys and swampy greens only dazzle for so long, but more just the fact I could go anywhere and do anything. Unfortunately this also meant I never actually saw
The Impossible Room by ShadowMaleRenamon, literature
Literature
The Impossible Room
“Action!” “Wait!” “Time Extended!” “Reload!” “Release the pedal to hide!” Anyone lucky enough to have grown up near an arcade in the 90’s probably remember hearing seeing these phrases among the sounds of video game gunfire and loud profanity from the mouths of those who ran out of quarters. Or you may have been like me and had the Playstation version and didn’t have the last part of that experience. In either case, it was you, a light-gun, and a pedal to press and release to dive in and out of cover. You shot things when it said “Action!”, you waited for the cutscene to end when it said “Wait!”, and you tried to not run out of time. Time Crisis, the mainstream introduction to the rail shooter for all the kids too young to play House of the Dead. Though not as well remembered as it’s more ridiculous and over the top sequels, the original Time Crisis always held a special place in my heart as that game that came with a gun controller and I was never able to beat. Big