Standard Tour of San Antonio: Cards and Crafts,

While the internet is full of ways to find game stores in your area, it does very little to tell you about the real character of those stores: their atmosphere, their product, their staff, or anything else a curious gamer might want to know. To help others out, I've started a week-by-week tour of the stores in my area, playing a Friday Night Magic at each one and sharing the results with you.

This week I went to Cards & Crafts, located at 8104 Tezel Road, right by the Little Caesar's. In a breach of tradition, I'm covering the Friday Night Magic before giving an overview of the store.

Cards & Crafts is geared to play Magic: the Gathering. They have much of their floors space dedicated to a play area. An accessory wall and boosters for recent sets are on display, as well as an almost holy grail of an organized collection of cards from older sets. That last one is almost a holy grail because Cards an Crafts has what I can only describe as Mecca in a Holy Grail, surrounded by a Wailing Wall: individual tokens for sale. While they were (predictably) out of Goats, it's a really big deal.

It's not just Magic though. They've got a room dedicated to their baseball cards and sports memorabilia collection. I can't honestly judge it's quality, but if you're into that kind of thing, you should certainly check it out. The store also carries other CCGs; Legend of the Five Rings, Naruto, the Universal Fighting System, and Spellfire (&#$*ing Spellfire). It has a breadth of collectible cards like Buffy, Smallville--I didn't even know there were Smallville cards. Despite not selling any tabletop minis (that I noticed, anyway), they have a good selection of mini-mats and terrain for mini play.

It's also one of--if not the--most intimate location I've been to. The staff are laid back, knowledgeable, and eager to answer questions. The FNM I attended there was professionally handled (in fact, this is the only store that used "Match Record Cards, which was awesome!), even if the players were a bit young. Most importantly, I had a pretty good time while playing.

Minecraft Tour, Part 02

As you know, I've been pretty busy lately. One of my few breaks from studying and writing has been playing Minecraft. This hasn't left me a lot of time for blogs, but in light of the fact that it's not uncommon for me to blog about the games I'm playing anyway, putting up a short series showing you my Minecraft world isn't that strange.

A slave to tradition, I'm headed west by rail. The river just to the west of my base contains my first real project; an underwater glass dome illuminated by lava. It was built somewhere between the time I was huddling in holes at night afraid for my life and the time I was steeped in (virtual) ennui at the lack of new horizons.

This is a tiny portion of the village to the west. When I start heading back east, I'll have some nice pictures of Minecraft villages up. When you've seen one, you've seen them all. The focus here is the elevated rail system done with my best Minecraft approximation of classical arches.

ME3: WWWWW, Part 2

Alright, as you know the internet has been vocal in their dissatisfaction about the ending of Mass Effect 3 (see above). Now, I miss Red Letter Media too, but I don't really have the time to make a 20 minute homage while talking about Mass Effect. Today is part two of my point by point criticism of the point by point criticism of Mass Effect 3. (Part One)

6. Closure & 7. Twist Ending

In terms of the series, the ending is open; a sandbox of chaotic elements that make rich fertilizer for subsequent Mass Effect games. I've said my goodbyes proper before the final series of missions. It would be nice to have more detail about what's going on in the end, and having all of my (surviving) allies land in the same one-size-fits all ending that doesn't get much exploration is disappointing, but I'm not angry about it; there will probably be another game and there's no reason my friends can't get off that dumbass planet. Also; I get Buzz &*@#ing Aldrin telling me how Shepard's a legend, so +1 for that.

Done!

Sorry for the delay guys. With any luck, I'll be back on a regular schedule Monday because I think I submitted my last assignment as an undergrad student today.

Anyway, I've been listening to these two YouTube videos on loop all day to get psyched:

It was an awesome day.

Mass Effect 3: What's Wrong with What's Wrong, Part 1

Alright, as you know the internet has been vocal in their dissatisfaction about the ending of Mass Effect 3:

Now, I like Red Letter Media too, but I don't really have the time to make a 20 minute homage to dissecting sub-par science fiction while addressing all of the things wrong with this particular litany of complaints. Despite having my own choice things to say about Mass Effect(here and here). However, to describe it as a travesty or simply whine because you don't get the--

--look, just put on your nerd hip-waders and read this thing.

Timewalking Archive Trap:

Hey, I've got five final projects to complete in four days. I've got Wednesday queued up, you might very well be on your own for Friday, and Monday is late and it's a Timewalking Archive Trap from my old Myspace blog. Sorry.

So very sorry.

Mar 1, 2006

I took to the coffee shop today for studying. Public places are generally good places for me to study. I get to whip out a book and some papers and study. Well, I generally tend to sit alone when I do this (as my papers and things need "spreadin' out space"), but the coffee shop was pretty crowded. Not to look thwarted in front of a mall of (nearly) perfect (but not nearly perfect enough) strangers, I simply ordered my coffee, resolving that if someone didn't vacate a table within the time it took to get it, I would simply invite myself to sit with someone.

And I did.

We talked for a goddamn hour. A god. Damned. Hour.

Minecraft Tour, Part 01

As you know, I've been pretty busy lately. One of my few breaks from studying and writing has been playing Minecraft. This hasn't left me a lot of time for blogs, but in light of the fact that it's not uncommon for me to blog about the games I'm playing anyway, putting up a short series showing you my Minecraft world isn't that strange.

I'd do a video if I could, but seeing as how I don't know much about any video capture software and I'm not buying some until I have a job anyway, that's not gonna be happening any times soon. :(

This is my main base. The class structure just under the reticle is my main base. To the left is my farm. The spindly structure rising above it was one of my first "great works." It's a tower that reaches up the to the sky (at least the sky when I started playing). When most of the world was wilderness, I wanted a landmark to help me find my way back home.