Monthly Archives: May 2021

Stalk’s Videogame Corner: Borderlands 2

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Game: Borderlands 2
Developer: Gearbox Software
Genre: Loot-Shooter
Releases: 2012 (PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360), 2014 (PlayStation Vita), 2015 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One), 2020 (Nintendo Switch)
Stalk’s Rating: 8/10

I have talked about “Borderlands” before, the game that more or less invented the genre of the so-called “Looter-Shooter”. Well, “Borderlands” was enough of a hit to see a sequel in form of “Borderlands 2”, and yes, I have also played that title for quite a while. This time though, there is no bigger intro: I cannot remember when I bought “Borderlands 2”, but I can tell you that I did not buy it straight away when it came out and I did not even pay the full price for it. My group of friends on Discord simply searched for another game that could be played in multiplayer mode, so we eventually ended up playing the game together. So, without further ado, here is my opinion on “Borderlands 2”:

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Archetype Analysis: Venom

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Last updated: 25.03.2026

“Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes” awakens in the artwork of “Rise of the Snake Deity“.

It seems that I am slowing drifting towards the safe haven of solidly playable archetypes with candidates like “@Ignister” and “Blackwings” being taken care of and given their own Archetype Analysis articles. However, there are still obscure and underpowered archetypes lingering in the dark corners of the game of Yugioh, one of which I will force into the light by writing this week’s article. The theme for today is “Venom”, the archetype of a Yugioh GX anime villain, which is a label that almost ensures that your group of cards is going to fail the transition in the real-life card game. “Venom” is slow, underpowered, and gimmicky at best, while still sporting one of the most well-known boss monsters of that time period due to being one of the first cards featuring a prototype version of the “Unaffected by cards” line of text. So, let us dive headfirst into the slithering mess before us.

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The “Upstart Goblin” Conundrum

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Yu-Gi-Oh-players have the same question as this guy: Is it really worth it?

Consistency is the name of the game in Yugioh. Having a consistent way to start your combos, draw or search cards, or even simply racking up enough damage on board to finish the game is of paramount importance. There are various generic cards that help decks with consistency issues, such as the “Upstart Goblin” shown up top. However, while the card text is perfectly straightforward, the usage is anything but. I want to go into detail with this card and sum up all the arguments I have come across while also using one of my least favorite subjects: math. But do not worry, I am not simply going to sling some numbers around myself, since I got help with the numbers part by a friend of mine who studies mathematics and wrote his bachelor thesis about probabilities. Also, feel free to check the following article by guest writer “Tinker” on YGOrg, which I was sceptical about at first, but turned out to be completely correct in terms of mathematics and does make a lot of important points when it is best to play the card.

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Archetype Analysis: Blackwing

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Last updated: 28.01.2026 (WIP)

There are some archetypes that see massive hype around their release date, but are then cast aside due to either being underwhelming, them turning out to be not as interesting for some reason, or the archetype in question losing the approval of the playerbase in some other way. And then there are some of the popularity evergreens, like “HERO”, “Dark Magician”, “Blue-Eyes” … or “Blackwings”. The last one is also the theme of this article, since the “Blackwing” archetype managed to sustain a sizeable fanbase for years at this point, with many players still having flashbacks to the impact the archetype had back when it first arrived.

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Stalk’s Videogame Corner: Borderlands

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Game: Borderlands
Developer: Gearbox Software
Genre: Loot-Shooter
Releases: 2009 (PlayStation 3, Windows, Xbox 360), 2019 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One), 2020 (Nintendo Switch)
Stalk’s Rating: 8/10

The year is 2009. My friend Marcel and I are in his room, I have a gamepad in my hand and play some non-descript games while he is lingering on his bed, watching me play. A friend of their family, who happens to be the husband of Marcel’s sister nowadays, enters the room and tells us about the newest game he bought: “Borderlands”. He tells us that the graphics are stunning, and that there are millions of weapons in the game to shoot the numerous enemies with. We both stated that millions of weapons are definitely too many and that there are flashy weapons in other games too, for example in “Ratchet & Clank 3” (which is a very good game in its own right, by the way). Back then, the friend’s enthusiasm was unbroken, but he accepted that we did not share his opinion then and closed the door again to go on with his day. This was not the argument that brought me to buy the game that was described that day. Nonetheless, I own “Borderlands”; even the original boxed version that I bought months later when I was looking for a new game to play in our local game store and saw a shiny red box on one of the store’s shelves.

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