Naughty Dog’s Games Have Matured With Their Audience

Someone on Reddit today pointed out how game developers Naughty Dog has seemingly matured with  both their audience and each title. I can say, honestly for me as a gamer, this is absolutely true. I was obsessed with Ratchet and Clank as a kid. Got older and thought Uncharted was about as good as gaming got. Then played Last of Us a few years back and it convinced me it was one of the most moving and mature games I had ever played.

Nicely done, Naughty Dog. Thank you for realizing not all gamers still go to grade school.

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Far Cry 5: 7 Things You Need to Know About Far Cry 5

I do not hide my adoration for the Far Cry series at ALL. Though Primal felt like a really decent DLC turned into a game, I have loved and lost myself in all the others, and part 5 looks to be no different. The recent revelations about Far Cry 5 have me foaming at the mouth, truly. For the first time in the series, we will be here, in good old America, fighting some weirdo religious and political extremists, and it looks, in a word, farcrytastic.

Check out this vid to find out 7 more things about this game that will have your mouth as foamy as mine is for Far Cry 5‘s arrival next year!

[Pre-Order Far Cry 5]

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What Time Zones are the Poles In?

Here’s a totally useless fact… unless you decide to travel to one of the poles, of course.

Given that they are every possible hour all the time, or more aptly technically in every time zone, it may come as no surprise to you that there are no official time zones at the poles. Nevertheless, groups working at or visiting the poles still have a need to keep track of and coordinate time, so what do they use?

[Today I Found Out]

Beren and Lúthien: A New Book by J.R.R. Tolkien!

Did you know? J.R.R. Tolkien has a new book out today! 100 years after Tolkien wrote the story of Beren and Lúthien, his son Christopher (age 92) has released the book (illustrated by artist Alan Lee) to the public today!

The tale of Beren and Lúthien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning from France and the battle of the Somme at the end of 1916, he wrote the tale in the following year.

Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and Lúthien: for Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was an immortal elf. Her father, a great elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and Lúthien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril.

In this book Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and Lúthien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded; but that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his father’s own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost.

In relation to the book, here’s an interesting anecdote: Did you know that the names Beren and Lúthien are inscribed on the gravestone of J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife?

[Beren and Lúthien]