Stalk’s Videogame Corner: Tales from the Borderlands

Posted on June 26, 2021 by stalkingvengeance

Game: Tales from the Borderlands
Developer: Telltale Games
Genre: Adventure Game
Releases:
– Episode 1: 2014 (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One), 2021 (Nintendo Switch)
– Episode 2: 2015 (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One), 2021 (Nintendo Switch)
– Episode 3: 2015 (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One), 2021 (Nintendo Switch)
– Episode 4: 2015 (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One), 2021 (Nintendo Switch)
– Episode 5: 2015 (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One), 2021 (Nintendo Switch)
Stalk’s Rating: 5/10

I have a confession to make: Originally, I did not want to cover “Tales from the Borderlands” at all. The game is very different from what we are used to in the “Borderlands” franchise since the game does not feature any of the game mechanics we know and love from the Looter-Shooter madness. Instead, we get a story in the “Borderlands” universe that features rather “normal” people, and while we get to see some of the named characters from earlier installments, the gameplay boils down to looking around and picking dialog options in the slower parts of the gameplay, while the action scenes are entirely constructed with the usage of Quick-Time-Events; and boy, do I hate those QTEs with a passion.

So, what changed my opinion? Well, I felt that I cannot cover all of the “Borderlands” games and then simply leave one title out that seems to be canonical, since we meet some of the people from “Tales from the Borderlands” during the story of “Borderlands 3”. Granted, knowing the story of this game is not critical to anything that happens in “Borderlands 3”, but as it is so often the case with those kinds of easter eggs and additional information snippets, it is nice to know them to get a little extra enjoyment out of connecting the dots. So, here is my experience with “Tales from the Borderlands”; and yes, this article does contain spoilers!

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Archetype Analysis: Igknight

Posted on June 19, 2021 by stalkingvengeance

Last updated: 08.02.2026 (WIP)

“Igknight Cavalier” inflicting damage to her own troops in the goofy artwork of “Bad Aim“.

I have to admit that I loathe Pendulums. Having to write about two cards in one is annoying due to extra workload and makes my articles even more wordy than they already are. On top of that, understanding Pendulum archetypes is not necessarily as easy as many players would like to tell you; and there are examples of incredibly convoluted cards such as “Endymion, the Mighty Master of Magic“, which certainly could have needed some more effect text to become even less beginner-friendly. However, since I write these articles to make archetypes more accessible to all kinds of players, I cannot simply skip all the Pendulum-focused archetypes for all eternity. Which is why I set a starting point with probably the easiest Pendulum archetype is existence: “Igknights”. You will soon see why I labeled the archetype as easy, but if you would like to learn the mechanic while also getting to know a surprisingly interesting strategy, you have come to the right place.

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Stalk’s Videogame Corner: Duke Nukem

Posted on June 16, 2021 by stalkingvengeance

Game: Duke Nukem
Developer: Apogee Software
Genre: Platformer
Releases: 1991 (Windows)
Stalk’s Rating: 5/10

Here is an article that is both out of schedule and shorter than usual; shame on me. However, I wanted to write this post since it features a game that I have fond childhood memories of, back when there was no console in my life to offer me gaming bliss and I had to make do with the computer games that were available at the time. Yes, nostalgia is one hell of a drug and a major hindrance whenever you want to approach things objectively, but this is not going to stop me from talking a little about a game that might also be one of the first video games I have ever played: “Duke Nukem”.

Now, if you think of the gory and quite frankly sexist macho mess that “Duke Nukem Forever” turned out to be, do not worry: I will (probably) not feature any of the shooter games starring Duke Nukem, since I am neither a fan of shooter games nor a fan of the character of Duke Nukem, which gives me little to no incentive to cover those titles at all. If you really want to hear more about those games, feel free to give one of my all-time favorite YouTubers “LGR” a visit, who plays these games with what I would almost call religious fervor. Instead, I will feature the humble beginnings of the blond alien fighter in the first-ever game he was featured in.

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Stalk’s Videogame Corner: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Posted on June 12, 2021 by stalkingvengeance

Game: Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Developer: Gearbox Software
Genre: Loot-Shooter
Releases: 2014 (PlayStation 3, Wikipedia, Xbox 360), 2015 (PlayStation 4, Xbox One), 2020 (Nintendo Switch)
Stalk’s Rating: 7/10

Welcome to part three of the Borderlands reviews on Cubic Creativity. Last time, we talked about the story of the new Vault Hunters that have to stop the big bad evil in form of Handsome Jack from doing all the evil deeds that he inevitably does. However, when I talked about “Borderlands 2”, I already hinted at the fact that Handsome Jack was not just Jack, but John, a corporate employee of Hyperion, at some point in the past. No evil agenda or grand scheme was planned yet; in fact, the only thing this past Jack was thinking about was to keep the lives of innocent people protected, which in his case meant stopping the military force storming the Helios Moonbase from using its laser willy-nilly. But I am getting ahead of myself, so let us start at the beginning:

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Archetype Analysis: Malicevorous

Posted on June 5, 2021 by stalkingvengeance

Last updated: 08.08.2026

With a knife that big, you would not guess that “Malicevorous Knife” only has 600 ATK…

Yugioh has archetypes as its main distinction method, which is unlike the color system in Magic the Gathering or the Types in the Pokemon card game in that there can be incredibly small groups of cards counted as one “subsystem” of the game. While I do like archetypes and the variety they create, I do have to admit that they tend to make the game incredibly more complicated for newcomers, since there is no solid answer to the question of how many archetypes actually exist. One example of an archetype that makes this entire system so convoluted shall be the topic of this article: The “Malicevorous” archetype. While there are many more small and confusing remnants that managed to get out of the anime and be printed onto real-life cardboard, this group is both small and lacking in power, but I will go into further detail in a second.

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