Cool Stuff Sunday: "DOOM and Gloom"

Oh hai there. I didn't see you. *poses to better accentuate jawline* How are you? Oh. Right. You're here for cool stuff on the internet. My bad. Sorry. Ignore that.

Rumor has it that Apple will be ending music downloads "within two years." Um... Okay then.

Castle, featuring my very favorite actor Nathan Fillion, has been cancelled after co-lead Stana Katic's departure. Sadness.

Want to read a blog about the Hogwarts IT guy? I sure do!

A friend of mine is writing an excellent epistolary series about vampires. Here's part one.

So apparently Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are a 100% confirmed ship now. I predict more fanart of them in...five minutes ago.

This Firefly comic is... *cries*

Want to know how many hours are left in your work week? Here you go.

The new DOOM soundtrack is pretty good. Here's some behind-the-scenes stuff.

Yep. It's confirmed. Poise in Dark Souls III is entirely stupid.

Ever wanted to hear "Chariots of Fire" in a minor key? Too bad.

So mods of Fallout 4 are a thing. Here are some cool ones.

Untimely Revue: "Crawl Out Through the Fallout (4)"

The following is an updated version of a collaborative review I did with some other former members of the GameInformer blogging community as a sort of anniversary blog. I have updated it with my thoughts on the late game, which remain pretty much the same as my thoughts about the early game, but still. Questions are not mine. Answers are. 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Star Wars and Some Other Junk I Guess"

Oh hey. It's the first Sunday of 2016, and I reckon I've got some cool stuff to shove in your gawping faces, you wonderful readers. (All seven [7] of you)! I'm trying to finally get my writing back on a schedule, so hopefully more work will be up here soon. Of course, I still reserve the right to post stuff as I feel fit, because we don't need no steenkin' schedules. Let's begin, shall we?

Fallout 4 tries very hard to railroad you into killing people, to the point that it pretty much breaks the game if you attempt a no-kill approach. Well, this guy beat the main quest without personally killing anyone. Pretty impressive, all things considered. 

Pokemon Go is looking to be pretty freaking awesome. Here's hoping!

Military commanders in WWI tried pretty hard to prevent a second Christmas Truce. New evidence suggests they failed. Good. War is hell, no need to strip every last vestige of humanity out of it. 

There's a new Berserk anime planned for this year. YESSSSSSSSS. Hopefully it's Golden Arc quality. 

Wondering how Boba Fett escaped the Sarlacc? Here's an interesting interpretation, in Lego. 

Apparently professional lightsaber designers are a thing now. A pretty good sign that geeks now rule the earth, or at the very least have too much money. 

In case you missed it, Steam had some serious security issues over Christmas. Sometimes I worry about Gaben's empire... 

The India-Pakistan border closing ceremony is impressive and utterly ridiculous. 

An interesting theory about Han Solo as an RPG character, or, failing forward. 

You know TR-8R? The "Traitor!" stormtrooper from The Force Awakens? He has a canon backstory. Ah, fandom. 

A really interesting piece about Irish hunger strikers. 

Soon, a Japanese-styled set of Star Wars figures will be appearing. Hmmmmmmm... Hmmm... 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Luke and Leia Are Siblings"

So this Cool Stuff Sunday is going to have a decided lean towards two franchises in particular. You should be able to guess at least one of them. What that means is: Minor spoilers ahoy. 

Some of the less-acknowledged inspirations for Dark Souls. Berserk always gets mentioned, but what about others? 

Miyazaki himself says that Dark Souls has been mined of all new content. Time to move on to Dark Souls II, people! 

A dude I play pen-and-paper RPGs with has retooled the various D&D races. 

Sawney Bean is probably fictional, but horrifying all the same. 

Want to listen to MORE than just the same 20 songs in Fallout 4? So do I. 

Who is Supreme Leader Snoke? Mild-to-moderate Star Wars: The Force Awakens spoilers within. 

Luke Skywalker was a terrorist. 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Scarcity Sunday"

So for some reason, I just didn't find a lot of cool stuff on the internet this week. That doesn't mean that cool stuff wasn't out there! I just didn't find it. I was playing Fallout 4. 100 hours in and counting! Thinking I'll wrap up the main quest after this. Maybe. I don't know. We'll see. Anyway. 

Speaking of Fallout 4, this dude has ripped every magazine cover for your perusal. 

The Wet Bandits shouldn't have survived Home Alone. 

Ol' Billy Shakespeare helped steal the Globe Theater. 

Nuka Quantum is coming to Target! AW YAS. 

"All I Want For Christmas is You" sounds much sadder in a minor key. (Duh). 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Ketchup Time"

Well hai there. I haz computer again, which means I haz interesting stuff to share again. Glorious, innit? Some quite varied stuff on the platter, so let's take a look. 

The art of editing in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. 

Awesome Legend of Zelda posters. 

Are you a replicant? Take the test. 

Here's a map of the Commonwealth of Fallout 4. Stay out of the red. 

Viking clothing is surprisingly colorful. 

An exploration of "Gorgo, Mormo" in Lovecraft's "The Horror at Red Hook." 

Do you love your cat enough to write a poem about it? 

These guys are reading through original D&D's Appendix N. 

Dark Souls III in-game footage hypeeee!

Wandery Wednesday: "Obligatory Post Before More Fallout 4"

Fallout 4 came out. Which means my routine will become "Work. Game. Sleep" for the foreseeable future. That is all.

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Beowulf Does the Uptown Funk"

Ohhaithere! I just woke up from a pleasant and incredibly cozy sleep. Now I've opened my windows, donned a jacket, and am sitting in a cool breeze. Why? Because I like the fresh (freezing) air. Also I am an idiot. Anyway. Let's talk about cool stuff from the internet. 

These Star Wars: The Force Awakens character posters. 

Do you want to print your own D&D 5e spellbook? This site is for you. 

100 movies dancing to "Uptown Funk." 

I disagree 99% with this article about the PMRC and "extreme" music but it's still interesting. 

The Daily Bestiary has invented adventures based around EVERY monster in the D&D 3.5/Pathfinder Monster Manuals. 

This Pip-Boy 3000 is hype as hype can be. The 10th can't come too soon!

Beowulf is available to read online! (The medieval manuscript, that is!)

Noel Gallagher is a very angry person. And also very funny. 

You're doing familiars in games wrong, sez this article. 

The making of Fallout 4 is pretty dang cool. 

There's a new Mass Effect: Andromeda teaser as of N7 Day yesterday. Goosebumps.

On a 16-speed turntable, the Chipmunks actually sound pretty cool. 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Spooky Scary Steve Lichman..."

Some really scary stuff this week. I mean, it is Halloween weekend. So that's to be expected. But this first one? Oh lordy. Scared the pantsu right off of me.

Jar-Jar Binks is a Sith Lord.

The full Fallout 4 skill tree.

A history of rock and roll in 100 riffs.

The Ryckoning.

Slipknot's not-really-that-new but new-to-me music video for "The Devil In I."

The West Marches is a really cool RPG setting/world/idea.

A brief history of haunted houses in literature.

Steve Lichman looks hilarious.

Micro-reviews of some lesser-known RPGs.

Cool Stuff Sunday: "Praise the Sun(Day)"

You got it--this week's focus is on Dark Souls III. And some other stuff. But mostly Dark Souls III. Because Dark Souls III. 

Seriously, though. Dark. Souls. III.

Infinity Blade III is available for free, as are a ton of Unity assets for it. 

Microsoft is still being scummy about Windows 10. Now it's downloading the Windows 10 update to your computer. "Just in case."

The first of the Fallout 4 S.P.E.C.I.A.L. videos has released!

Let's make fun of art trends, such as that of men wearing ONLY military helmets in old paintings!

Physical copies of every game in the Legend of Zelda series, mounted on a wall in pretty cases!

The newest Pokemon game uses virtual reality!

Please don't spend seven months killing everything in Fallout 4. That's a sign of a sick mind. 

Creative ways companies have dealt with cheaters in MMOs. 

Hey Cisco, your router design is bad and you should feel bad. 

World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. is very, very, very carefully-crafted. 

Cool Stuff Sunday: "DDOS and Fallout"

There's a lot of cool stuff on the internet. I find it, because I spend way too much of my free time online. Time was, I had whole folders of bookmarks labeled "Interesting Things." (Not to be confused with the folder labeled "Interesting Thongs"). So I've decided to share my treasures, a roundup of everything that's caught my eye that week. Some of it will be familiar to you, some of it may be new. Let's explore, friends. Click the enlinkened words to go to the original article or site.