the mediocrity codex

Hating God is a very easy thing to do. He is big, he is vague, and he is probably kind of smelly. Maybe not smelly in the most traditional terms, but he probably does have some kind of strong and overpowering odor about him that acts like sort of an aura. He has an aura, too. That’s a thing, right? I’d go further to say that hating God is so easy that we probably do it sub-consciously, without real effort, because really, it takes no effort. It’s not that hating God is innate , because that would mean we somehow don’t have a choice to do so, like it’s some instinctual habitual need for us to hate God, which would in turn imply that God instinctually and innately exists in some way else this innate instinct would be pointless and unexplainable. What I am saying is that hating God is the path of least resistance when faced with the idea that God might possibly exist, and I am going to go further and say that eventually everyone must decide what to do with that idea . And ...

Title: Dinos in Space Platform: PC, Mac Release: $5 available from developer

So Diablo 3 is out. If you're looking for screenshots and media and other fancy-schmancy malarkey, you can just google it. I'm about to just...talk. It's got a lot of good things going for it. It looks great, runs smoothly, has a friendly, accessible inventory and hotkey scheme, and delivers dastardly satisfying combat feedback. When you click, things go boom. On top of all this is an overwhelming amount of lore, backstory, sidestory, journal padding, and platinum-pantied voice acting surrounded by increasingly verisimilitudinous visual fidelity so much so that if you had a big enough screen, it'd easily take over your waking world. Boom!

Title: Cargo: The Quest for Gravity Developer: Ice-Pick Lodge Price/Platform: $19.99/Steam Insanity, at a price that can't be beat

Title: Avernum: Escape from the Pit Developer: Spiderweb Software Price/Platform: $9.99/Steam I told you so

Games Journalism is a necessary evil, as regarded by gaming vets. We all know the score, they're out to sell more copies, get more hits, and make more of the almighty dollarinos. This means they've always got ulterior motives: unbalanced reviews, fawning editorials, and of course page-crushing interactive and flash-based advertisements. Games Journalism, what is it good for? But the sad truth is that the emphasis of the phrase is not the "evil" but rather the "necessary": we all need somebody to fish out that ocean for us from time to time. It operates on the same principle as the good ol' fashioned industry it's fathered by. Without it, we'd either be stuck following only what we know and referred from place to place by one samey individual to the next, or worse be completely devoid of contact with human life and degenerate into HG Wellsian troglodytism. Is there a middle ground to be had? Recent coverage of Deus Ex: Human Revolution may h...