There’s a game I keep coming back to, of late. Not grinding, in multi-hour gaming binge sessions, or even nightly – but about every week or so I find myself compelled and excited to spend another couple hours digging in the subterranean mines of Deep Rock Galactic. And now that it’s cumulatively found me nearly one-hundred hours of play over the course of its Steam Early Access run, I think it’s probably worth taking some time to talk about this game and what’s made it so lastingly fun, for me.

Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse is an extraordinarily good film. This has been my review.

Ok good so now that you’ve hopefully been click-baited into here by the title, let’s answer some questions right up front. What is box selection and why does Ulf think it’s time to put it down? What would take its place?

Well, first off, when we’re talking about box selection from here on in, what I’m referring to specifically is the de facto method for selecting multiple units in PC real time strategy games. To wit: left-clicking and dragging to define the opposing corners of a rectangle, then, upon releasing the left-mouse button, finding and selecting any units within the projected area of said rectangle.

“I know what box selection is you dingus” you are saying, “because I am reading this on my computer and I can tab over to my desktop and do it right now.” You are right! (unless you are reading this on mobile, in which case you are lying) (more…)

Greetings everyone! Apologies for the state of things, but welcome nonetheless. I’m still scuttling about under the hood here and fiddling with this or that there, but pretty soon we’ll have made this house a home…page. Stay tuned over the next week and keep checking in – I’m planning on having new content uploaded daily until we’re fully armed and operational.

And before I forget to properly introduce it myself, say hello to The Art of The Ulf, my personal portfolio and blog space.

Since it’s something that’s going to be a focus of my writing here, I think we ought to take a moment to discuss critique. In the world of education in the arts, the dreaded crit is well feared, but respected for its importance in helping shape and sharpen creative minds. In art history, critique is the life-blood and language of all discussion. Art critique is about dissecting and analyzing an inherently nebulous thing – art – in an effort to understand it and ourselves, both as artists and viewers, better. By scrutinizing minute details, contrasting it with other pieces, digging into the reasoning of unconscious decisions, studying the context of the piece’s period and the history of its life, etc. we, as critics, attempt to get an idea of how art works. At the same time, we, as artists, attempt to utilize that knowledge to strengthen our own work. And so, the dialogue between artists and critics continues through art.

The year is 198X and professor Repeatski has just discovered the formula for time travel. Awesome! Probably. And hopefully unrelated to all of the crazy apocalyptic stuff that suddenly starts happening across time and space.

Luckily, you are the Super T.I.M.E. Force, so time can rest easy knowing that you are there to fix and/or cause all of its problems.

So this game is amazing. It’s fun, it’s funny, and it’s delightfully pixel-chunky. You definitely should own it. You definitely should play it. I cannot recommend it enough and it will always hold a special place in my heart.