Game? More Like a Masterpiece!

Wednesday, December 28, 2016


Since games have become a publicly viable medium for storytelling, every generation of games has had it's masterpiece.  I believe that this generation's masterpiece is Final Fantasy XV.  First of all, while I enjoy watching others play RPG style games, I find that they are a mite more than I want to deal with, with hours of inventory diving and changing equipment for the most powerfully configured character.  For the most part, this is the majority of Final Fantasy games, which while the storylines are incredible, I just don't want to deal with that level of granularity.  FFXV breaks that mold, or is making me configure all of these little thins without realizing it.

ModMic 5: A Truly Great Mic for Any Setup

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

When it comes to a home setup for streaming, recording for a presentation or just talking with friends online, sound quality is important. For gamers like myself, getting a set of headphones with a decent mic can be difficult. Often times it seems that we have to sacrifice either the quality of the mic or the headphones unless you're willing/able to drop over $200 on a high end set. Most people I know have a nice pair of headphones that they wish had a microphone. With the ModMic 5.0 from Antlion audio, any pair of headphones can become your all in one headset.

Destiny's Dawning: Big Deals in the Small Details

Thursday, December 15, 2016


The latest event in Destiny, "the Dawning," has brought shiny packages wrapped in gold ribbons to the tower. The holiday celebration is delightfully cliche with its delicate snowflake patterns adorning the now snow covered tower. Eva Levante, the shader merchant is predictably giddy over the festivities and Amanda Halliday has brought the SRL (Sparrow Racing League) back for the duration of the event. As much as I appreciate the adorable festival and the return of the one PVP activity at which I excel, there are a number of permanent changes to the game mechanics and economy of Destiny that are far more exciting for long time players.

Back into the Fray with 5th Edition and Volo's Guide

Thursday, December 8, 2016



I've found myself at the head of yet another D&D group. We're a smaller bunch of players, hovering around 4 players at the moment though teetering at the edge of 5. The group largely consists of Wesley's co-workers and their significant others. We've had three sessions so far and each one has had its share of unexpected moments. I've missed playing tabletop regularly. The last time I had an opportunity to play was just briefly with Mike, Morgan and Wesley at PAX. Even then, I found myself running the game rather than playing.

ADR1FT Is the Prettiest VR Game I've Played Outside of VR

Tuesday, December 6, 2016
I don't have a VR setup yet. Ultimately, it boils down to buying the hardware, and I just don't have $800 laying around to drop on a Vive. I did manage to pick up a copy of ADR1FT in one of the latest Humble Bundle's though, and it's one of the games I've most wanted VR for. A game about surviving in space after a catastrophic event, I was pleased to find ADR1FT to be plenty enjoyable outside of VR.

Titanfall 2: The Best Game you Haven't Bought Yet.

Thursday, December 1, 2016



 
Titanfall is a magnificent game with a fascinating history. I'm not referring to the game's backstory, which can be hazy at times, but rather the story of how the franchise came to be. Respawn Entertainment was founded by the former heads of Infinity Ward after they were dismissed by Activision. A great many members of Infinity Ward joined Respawn shortly after the dismissal and Titanfall and Titanfall 2 are the two games the studio has released since its creation. Why is this important to our review of Titanfall 2? Because it gives perspective to the obvious love and passion that went into creating this game. Respawn has delivered a game with incredible fluidity that embraces things that the gaming community has been clamoring for for years. And chances are that you haven't played it yet or possibly even considered it until tonight.

[Pathfinder] The Divine Caster You've Been Looking For?

Tuesday, November 29, 2016


If you're anything like me, you've always found the Cleric class to be a little weird. Where other than media that specifically springs from D&D do you see this divine, "godly" character who prays for spells and runs around in a breastplate eviscerating opponents with their deity's preferred weapon? Aren't most of the divine spellcaster type tropes out there of robe and cloister types, or at least your duster and tie types like John Constantine? Even the evil divine types are always portrayed in heavy black robes with deep hoods or something of the like, preferring darksome spells and magically enhanced minions to wearing metal armor and beating people with their own two hands. The cleric we have is kind of a weird design artifact, born from the wargaming roots of D&D and oddly unchanged since its conception.

The priest attempts to address that gap between the more commonly seen trope of the berobed and scholarly divine petitioner and the mechanical need for a spellcaster who can provide magical healing and support while surviving the rigors of an adventuring life, so let's take a look at how it does, hmmm?

REDUX: A Wee Challenge and a Wonderful Character Generator

Tuesday, November 22, 2016



 
I've found myself at the head of another Dungeons and Dragons group recently, and we just lost our first character after our third session. It got me thinking about rolling characters and how I might be able to shake things up a bit this time around. I was reminded of this character generator and the interesting quirks it throws out. I'm throwing this out there again for anyone thinking about a new character but isn't sure where to go with it. Check it out.

Changes to Somnambulant Gamer

Tuesday, November 15, 2016


Hey there, folks. I'm substituting our regular post to tell you about some changes coming to Somnabulant Gamer that you may or may not have been aware of. Since this site began in 2008 (yes, we've been shouting into the void for that long) a lot has changed about the way we provide our content as well as the way that people generally consume it. We've grown, though in small increments, each year and I am proud of the voice we have found amongst the din of larger sites.

It has always been our goal to provide you with our own, unedited opinions on the games we like and dislike as well as the challenges we see for this industry. That won't change. However, we will be disabling comments from here on out. Our small community hasn't really used them and they have not proven to be a place that has brought any more depth to what you get from our site.

As you may know, Michael Sayre, one of our writers and a very good friend of mine has been working on a few projects outside of Somnambulant Gamer. His first large book, Akashic Mysteries from Dreamscarred Press, is a loving adaptation of one of Mike's favorite elements from D&D 3.5, the Magic of Incarnum. He has worked very hard on this book and it shows in every page. If you play Pathfinder at all, even if you aren't typically one for third party content, do yourself a favor and pick it up. It is excellent.

Mike has already worked on a number of other supplements and third party content and is fast becoming a well known name in the Pathfinder community. If you are interested in tabletop games at all, you owe it to yourself to become more familiar with this man's work. He is insightful and sharp, and first and foremost has the interests of all players in mind. Akashic Mysteries has managed to take a system that I felt was clunky and overcomplicated and massaged it into a smooth and intuitive ruleset.

In other news, I have been pursuing a game design degree for the past six months. I've been very happy with my progress so far and hope to bring some of the insight I have gained to bear on our future work here at Somnabulant Gamer.

Thank you all for reading through the years. If you're a long time reader or just joining us, please stick around. There are great things ahead.  

Mars Rover Rescue is a kid's Science Book By Space X Engineers

Thursday, November 10, 2016


I know it's a hard time for a lot of people out there, so let's keep this light. I was made aware of a new Kickstarter campaign by Andrew Rader, an MIT Phd and Space X engineer. It's a children's book called Mars Rover Rescue and it is aimed to present space science in a way that is approachable and easy for kids to understand. It is a really interesting project that I think you should support, especially if you have or know any children who are interested in space. 

Battlefield 1: All the Horror, All the Glory

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Battlefield 1 is a return to form in some respects. DICE has done away with the claustrophobic spaces of Battlefield 4 and Hardline. Finally we see the return of vast, open maps that are shaped by the conflict that takes place within their confines. No wall or building is ever absolutely safe. At any moment, a shell, tank or explosive could shatter the walls or even bring the building down on top of you. Every window or ledge could harbor a sniper. Finally, we have a Battlefield game that achieves the scope of older entries in the series, but it comes at a price.

Dragonball Xenoverse 2: An Excellent Game for Fans and Those Who've Never Seen the Franchise Alike

Tuesday, November 1, 2016




If you haven't played the first Xenoverse, let me open by telling you that it was great, but had a few hiccups. The servers were constantly crashing or unavailable, you could level up faster than you could learn relevant techniques, your character who spends 99% of their time flying around at high speeds had to walk everywhere out of combat, etc. Dragonball Xenoverse 2 takes notes from those failures and addresses them all with varying degrees of success, but is universally an improvement. 

So Many Games, So Little Time 2016

Thursday, October 27, 2016

It's been a while since I've had such a hard time choosing a game to buy. With the backlog we get here from time to time, my gaming course is pretty well laid out for me. I do have a few on the back burner at the moment, but there are three games recently released that I've been hungry to get my hands on; Civilization 6, Battlefield 1 and Titanfall 2. All three look really entertaining and have received fairly good reviews. I know more than a few people that are caught in the same predicament at the moment. Perhaps by discussing these three we might hasten our decision making process.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Will Never Live up to its Predecessor

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

I'm very excited about Red Dead Redemption 2. The trailer showed some beautiful vistas framed in ways so very typical of western films and the mythology that surrounds the setting. I think that it will be a great game with a lot to offer. I think that I will love its characters (whoever they turn out to be) and I expect to spend a great deal of time immersed in the world it provides. I do not, however, think that it will ever approach Red Dead Redemption in terms of expectations.

Westworld is a Fascinating Mystery

Thursday, October 20, 2016

If there are three things in a story that are certain to grab my attention it's AI, the old west and a good mystery. Westworld has all of these things. I absolutely love it. Even from just the first three episode, it is clear that there is something else going on beneath the surface of things. I can't yet say what that is as I've really no idea what is really happening. All I have right now is a ton of theories, but I am very excited to see where this is all going. If you're unfamiliar with Westworld or only familiar with the 1973 film with Yul Brenner, you'll want to check it out however you can. It really is something very special.

Different Virtual Views

Monday, October 17, 2016


During PAX West we had the opportunity to try out quite a few different VR units, and surprisingly when all was said and done, Ssalarn and I ended up going the console route for VR.  When it was released, we picked up a copy of the PS VR along with a couple of little goody games (samplers) to go with it. 

My First Raid in A Year: Wrath of the Machine

Thursday, October 13, 2016

My good friend Michael, who you may know as Ssalarn, has been spending a lot of time with Wesley and I on Destiny. We've been running strikes, tidied up the last of the Rise of Iron story quests and even struck out into the Iron Banner. Overall we've played more in the last two weeks than either of us has in the past six months. Our time with Destiny, rough as it has been in the past, seems to be smoothing out a lot for us.

Sadly, Wesley and I have not had much luck with the raids. The only one I've ever completed was the Vault of Glass back before any of the other expansions dropped. Since then, every attempt I've made at the raids has been a complete disaster. It is difficult for me to find the time to set aside for a raid, especially when completing one can take upwards of a few hours. Mike understood this and organized a raid group specifically for people who don't have much time for them. We were a gaggle of misfits to be sure, but it was the greatest raid group I've ever been part of.

Batman the Telltale Series Episode 2: Children of Arkham

Tuesday, October 11, 2016



When I wrote me review of the first episode of Telltale's Batman series, I talked about the difficulty of writing stories for so many well known characters. There is so much well established history to the Batman mythos and it is taken so seriously by some, that trying to bring a fresh eye to anything considered canon is a risky move. Movies, shows, animated features, games and even a few comics have aimed to accomplish something like this and failed, sometimes so spectacularly that it becomes a joke for years to come. I was worried that Telltale, in trying to bring so many disparate origin stories together in one series would miss something vital or go too far out on a limb in the name of innovation. After playing the second episode, my fears have lessened substantially.

Rise of Iron: Better with Friends

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Rise of Iron was released to rather lukewarm reviews. Some felt that too much of the content was rehashed bits from vanilla Destiny, others have said that the new content doesn't amount to enough real play time. Normally, I would be inclined to agree with both of these points, as my history with Destiny has been rather spiky. This time around though, I'm inclined to be a bit more charitable than the average reviewer.

REDUX: The Role of the Dungeon Master

Tuesday, October 4, 2016


A tabletop game like Pathfinder is a constantly evolving story. The boundaries of that story are limited by only by the party and the DM. The former is an occupant in the observatory, shining a bit of light into the darkness this direction and that. The latter, in this case, becomes the universe, the big bang that brought into being everything the party observes and interacts with. It's flowery and overblown, but the DM's role is too often misconstrued. Let's shed some light on the subject.

PAX 2016: Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age



While wandering PAX's massive expo hall, I found myself gravitating towards the massive display set up for Final Fantasy XV. That is not the game I'm going to talk about. Instead, I'm going to talk about another release I discovered tucked away into a corner of the same display, a remastered and reworked version of an older Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy XII.

Kubo and the Two Strings

Tuesday, September 27, 2016
A couple weeks ago we went to see Kubo and the Two Strings, the latest work from Laika studios. It was our treat for our kiddo's birthdays but really a treat for all of us. Already fans of their work on Coraline and The Box Trolls, we had heard great things about Kubo and the Two Strings but hadn't managed to get out and see it. Being so late in it's theater run, the closest showing was almost a two hour drive, but we made it anyway. After seeing the movie, I would make the drive a thousand more times if it meant being able to see such a beautiful film again and again.

Clustertruck is Chaotic, Addictive and Very Replayable

Thursday, September 22, 2016


TinyBuild Games has always leaned a bit toward the eccentric. Their retinue of games from No Time to Explain to The Final Station spans numerous genres and playstyles. They seem to be able to create compelling gameplay from out of nowhere. Despite how much I have enjoyed some of their more "contemplative" titles, I've always held a special place in my heart for the kind of fast paced, quick-reacting gameplay. When I first saw Clutertruck at PAX last month, I had to give it a go.

PAX West 2016: Objects in Space

Tuesday, September 20, 2016


I grew up with games like Privateer and Tachyon: The Fringe. I've never felt like my game library was quite as complete as when I had some large space game to lose myself it. I had expected to add No Man's Sky to that list, but after the disappointment I suffered at the hands of that game and the lengthy silence from its developers, I've had to move on. I made an appointment at PAX West to meet with some of the developers of Objects in Space, a game I had read about from a Ploygon article back in April. I understood it to be a space sandbox with a really interesting control setup, but when Leigh, part of the team at Flat Earth Games, told me that Objects in Space was like Privateer in many respects, I got really excited.

Overwatch is Taking Over my Game Time

Thursday, September 15, 2016


I was so sure I wouldn't like Overwatch. I was disappointed that it didn't have a campaign mode and that the story they set up was largely just filler and had no impact on how the game is played. Then I picked up a copy, and I'll be damned if I didn't change my tune right quick. I'm no expert, and I've not even reached a rank where I can play competitive matches, but I'm all in for Overwatch at this point. Here's why.

PAX West: Obduction

Monday, September 12, 2016

Myst is one of those games that you don't really forget. Back when Cyan's first big adventure was released, no one had really seen anything like it before. The strange vistas, bizarre puzzles and eccentric characters were enthralling, and I remember thinking that this was as good as graphics were ever going to get. Times have changed, but Cyan is still around and they've recently produced a new game in the vein of Myst, an expansive puzzle adventure story called Obduction and I got a chance to go hands on with it in VR at PAX West.

Trekkin, Yo!

Sunday, September 11, 2016


I always knew I'd be part of a starship crew. I didn't think I'd get the opportunity so soon, but last weekend at the PAX formerly known as Prime I got my hands on Star Trek Bridge Crew. While I didn't get to play with my preferred crew (Ssalarn, Wesley and Steve) I still had a great time and am really excited to pick up the full game whenever we finally snag a VR headset.

Who would have thought that I wasn't the only Trekkie drooling over the opportunity to play?! The line formed early, and my first couple attempts to get to the game met with failure. But like a stubborn Starfleet cadet, I kept coming back until I managed a spot before they capped the line.

Pathfinder: Ultimate Intrigue

Saturday, September 10, 2016


So, Ultimate Intrigue took a while for me to come to a complete opinion on. 

The Vigilante class introduced in this book is, in my opinion, easily the best non-spellcasting class Paizo has ever created. It breaks up its social options and combat options in such a way that you have a great character able to participate in all areas of the game without having to choose whether you want to be competent in combat or in the myriad other facets of the game like exploration, social encounters, etc. It has deep and well-designed talents that allow you to pick any of a variety of different ways to participate in combat, with or without weapons, and numerous tools for allowing players to influence the story with safe houses, contacts, and more. 


PAX West: Earthlight Demo

Friday, September 9, 2016


This was the year of VR demos at PAX West (née PAX Prime) for us here at Somnam. Among the most notable was the Earthlight demo by Melbourne, Australia based developers Opaque Media.

Your odds of becoming a US Astronaut are better today than they ever have been since the "The Mercury Seven" were first selected in 1959. Even so, the hurdles are incredible and only a total of 536 people (as of 2013) worldwide have been to space. It's rare experience available to a select few, but Opaque Media has managed to bring part of that experience to a much wider audience.

PAX West 2016: Thoughts on Battlefield 1

Thursday, September 8, 2016




We spent most of our time at PAX West playing indie games, but I did sneak away to play a bit of Battlefield 1. I first got hooked on the Battlefield series with Bad Company and stayed on through Battlefield 3, but I lost track of the series after that. On top of the demo that I played at PAX, I also spent some time on my PC with the open beta this week. I have a few thoughts on the mechanics of the game as well as the look and feel of the action.

PAX 2016: Of Fallen Gods and Game Designers

Wednesday, September 7, 2016


  There are certain things I look forward to each year when PAX rolls around. The presence of friends from out of town, getting to see and demo new games, but more than anything else, I look forward to getting to chat with the people who make the games I love to play.
 
I had one such experience when I swung by the Monte Cook Games booth at PAX Prime this year to discover that one of my favorite game designers and long time industry veteran Sean K. Reynolds was manning the booth. I'd like to say I did a pretty good job of suppressing the fanboy in me and had serious, intelligent conversations about the various projects Sean and Monte Cook Games were working on, but if I'm being totally honest I was there for like 4 hours and at least some portion of that probably had to involve me sitting there staring in awe while Sean helped an actual customer. It's true what they say, you should never meet your heroes, though in this instance that phrase doesn't imply a failure on Sean's fault, but more mine for being a little too impressed and a little too burned out from the day and a half of PAX activities I already had under my belt.
Anyways...

Riverbond - PAX Rising Demo



In our current gaming world couch co-op has started to fade into the background. There is less and less opportunity for raucous games shared with friends in the same room. Riverbond, the third title by Toronto based developer Cocucumber, is a breath of fresh air in this co-op light gaming scene.

PAX West 2016 VR Favorites

Tuesday, September 6, 2016


PAX West 2016 is over! This year's show was full of surprises. Bungie returned to the Expo floor after a long absence, Mainstay AAA studios like EA and 2K skipped the Seattle show entirely, and the indie and VR scenes really took over the show. We were fortunate to see a lot of VR games over the fours days in Seattle. Here are a few of my favorites

PAX West: I Couldn't Get Away from Final Fantasy XV

Monday, September 5, 2016

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a fan of Final Fantasy. I have heard a lot about FFXV in the past few months, but at PAX West, I encountered way more FFXV than I thought possible. Square Enix went all out marketing the game during the con; so much so that I literally could not escape it. Luckily, I was able to snag some hand on time among the many other attendees hypnotized be the relentless media onslaught.

PAX West is go!

Friday, September 2, 2016




We are all four of us here at PAX. I write this from the ferry as we make our way to the city. I will be sending updates on Twitter throughout the day and will add a summary of each day to this post. Here we go!

A New Console Means New Games

Tuesday, August 30, 2016




There is now a second PS4 in our house. I've toyed with the idea of getting one for a while, just to get around the fact that so many of the games being released these days don't offer split split screen co-op. Now that it's here, I can't stop thinking about all the games Wesley and I can finally play together. It's a shame that it has had to come to this for us to be able to play the same game, but that's a rant I've been on before. With PAX only days away, we haven't invested in a lot of games just yet, but there are two that have been keeping us up late.

No Man's Sky Part 2: The Burning Question

Thursday, August 25, 2016
A supposed screenshot from the game before it was released shows a very different experience.
On Tuesday I wrote about No Man's Sky, the game that was supposed to be incredible. What we got was an incredible disappointment. Riddled with bugs and missing a ton of content that was supposed to be in the game already. Sean Murray and the rest of the Hello Games team have been conspicuously silent since the 18th when they said they are focusing on updating and adding features to the game. I've been trying to salvage some sort of experience from the whole debacle, and met with some success. The trouble is that I worry about whether or not I'm trying to make space lemonade out of space lemons, or if I'm just making excuses for a game that I desperately wanted to like love.

No Man's Sky Part 1: The Hype and the Reveal

Tuesday, August 23, 2016



This is one of the most difficult opinion pieces I've written in a while. No Man's Sky is a game that I was really looking forward to and my first impulse is to defend the fun experiences I've had in the game. At the same time, it would be disingenuous for me to ignore the disappointments I've had during my playthrough. It would be easy for me to focus on those frustrations and disappointment and write a venomous article about the game but as cathartic as it might be to rant and rave for a while, I won't deny the good times I've had. So I'll try to tow the line here, but I may stray a bit. Stick with me though, it gets complicated.

REDUX: Our Enemies Should Be Better Than Us

Tuesday, August 16, 2016


We are waist deep in alien species, toxic atmospheres and strange resources from No Man's Sky at the moment and not really prepared to offer our complete opinion on the game. What had been planned as a provisional review of the colossal exploration game has been hampered by half-realized opinions that we are still struggling to wrest from the clutches of our early expectations. I don't aim for objective reviews, but I am still too attached to the picture I had built in my mind of No Man's Sky. In place of a review, I offer you this piece from a while back about AI and its general failure to challenge the average human. Wouldn't it be interesting if we actually had enemies to deal with in No Man's Sky that weren't so ambivalent to our actions? More on that later.

Like Survival Games? Check Out This Humble Bundle!

Thursday, August 11, 2016


I discovered survival games a few years back when I got into the DayZ Standalone. Something about the unforgiving nature of it Since then, I've devoured the genre, snapping up Don't Starve, The Long Dark, Terraria, and a host of others. The current offering from Humble Bundle seeks to expand everyone's collection of the increasingly popular genre with seven notable games that will reward your tenacity. 

A Reminder to Fans of No Man's Sky: Make Your own Story

Thursday, August 4, 2016

No Man's Sky has been in the news a lot this past week. It started with a few videos released by an individual who reportedly paid over $1000 for a leaked copy on the PS4. The game won't be released until August 9th on the PS4 while PC players like me have to wait until the 12th. This person couldn't take the wait any longer and not long after receiving his ill gotten copy, he began uploading videos of his playthrough. Most fans were content to ignore the videos and updates that he posted. That was, until he said he reached the center of the galaxy.


Batman: A Telltale Game Series, Episode one: Realm of Shadows Review

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Batman in the hands of Hollywood has always been more about action than anything else. In any of the films or games, Batman has been a warrior, Bringing justice to super criminals through judicious application of fisticuffs. When I read the comics as a kid though, it wasn't this side of the Dark Knight that stood out to me. Instead, I've always remembered Batman as the world's greatest detective. That persona has been sorely lacking in almost every portrayal of the character outside of the comics (and even those have strayed more than a little from time to time). My hope with the Telltale series was to finally see that part of Batman realized.

Monikers is Simply the Best

Thursday, July 28, 2016

While at PAX Prime last year, we had the opportunity to play Monikers with Alex Hague, one of its creators. Crammed into the crowded Indie Megabooth, Alex dealt out a few cards to each of us from which we assembled a deck of our favorites. Each card had a name of a person or a thing on it and our goal was to guess what thing was on the card from a description given by another player. In the second round, we were asked to guess the same cards with only one word clues and the final round forced us to play charades-style, with only gestures and slight sound effects. In fifteen minutes, we laughed uproariously while fumbling to describe or act out the things on the cards. As soon as we were able, we bought our own copy and tonight we played it with my mother and brother.

What is XCom 2 Like With All the DLC?

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

XCom 2 has been out for nearly six months. In that time I've logged over 70 hours in the game and am currently working through Ironman mode. That time has also seen the release of a slew of interesting mods and three pieces of official DLC. That DLC has changed a great deal of the core gameplay and introduced some interesting new mechanics and features. Taken as a whole however, how different does the XCom 2 of today look in comparison to XCom 2 from February?

Stop What You Are Doing, Call Into Work and go Watch Stranger Things

Thursday, July 21, 2016


Netflix has had some interesting original series since it first debuted House of Cards in 2013. The latest series, Stranger Things is something that we hadn't heard much about until we started watching it. It came out of nowhere on a Thursday evening and before we knew what had happened it was Friday morning. We were completely enraptured by the show and have since begun re-watching the episodes to try and pull out whatever details we can.

Pokemon Isn't Just for Everyone Else Anymore

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Last week I talked about the immense amount of fun I've had playing Pokemon Go. After another week of riding around town on my bike and wandering the downtown streets late at night I decided that Go shouldn't be my only Pokemon game. I know so many people that play Pokemon, and when I really examine my reasons for not buying any of the games prior to now, I come up short. I don't know why it has taken me so long to get into it, but I've finally broken that cycle. Yesterday I went out to our local pawn stores and bought a 3DS and a copy of Pokemon X.

This Post is Late Because I've Been out All Night Chasing Digital Creatures Through Real Streets

Tuesday, July 12, 2016


I've never finished a Pokemon game. I've never played more than an hour of any Pokemon game out there. I am, by all accounts, a Poke-novice. I've read all about the games and watched Wesley play through game after game, but I've never dedicated any of my time to the pursuit of Pokemon. Last week that all changed. Pokemon Go has brought me fully into the fold and though I know there is a serious difference between what I am playing and the other games in the series, I couldn't care any less. Pokemon Go has, so far, brought me closer to my community and gotten me up off my ass more than anything else has in the past three years.

Check out the Vigilantes of Skyborne Playtest!

Thursday, July 7, 2016


Right up front, I want to say that this is a post about one of our contributor's projects. Michael Sayre has been a close friend of mine for a while and a contributing writer for Somnambulant Gamer for almost as long. A few years ago, he started working on third party modules for Pathfinder and has carved out a comfortable place for himself within the community. His work has been very well received and he has continued to lend his talents to more and more projects. His latest contributions come in the form of The Vigilantes of Skybourne from Drop Dead Studios. It is currently in open playtest here and if you're at all interested in playing iconic super hero type characters, you should really check it out.

Gravity Falls: Sld wrw R Nrhh Gsrh Hsld Fmgro Mld?!

Tuesday, July 5, 2016
We don't have a cable subscription. All of our TV comes from Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime and there really isn't much we feel we have to complain about. For the most part we get to see what we like; if a show isn't available on Netflix, it often is on Hulu and so on. Occasionally though we totally miss out on something. For example, it wasn't until last year that we discovered Stephen Universe, a show that we have all grown quite attached to despite not having seen any more than the first season. Today though, I'm here to talk about Gravity Falls, a show that is so good, I am completely stunned that it escaped us for its entire run on Disney XD.

I Love Battleborn, But its Players are Ruining the Experience

Thursday, June 30, 2016




Battleborn gets a bad rap. Too often compared to Overwatch, I think that Gearbox's latest quirky shooter can be a lot of fun to play. Mike, Wesley and I have spent many nights playing Incursion or Meltdown, doing our best to support our team and waste some adorable robots. We've had some great experiences with a few people in matchmaking, but more often than not we end up with a few really awful teammates and its becoming a serious problem that has kept us from playing more often.