Archive for Tag: Dear Readers

  • Dear Readers: Out of Their Minds

    Columns Columns by Paul Franzen on

    For the longest time, I couldn't play Out of This World, the acclaimed side-scroller in which, as one GameFAQs user put it, "failure is almost unavoidable." I was too scared to. Right at the beginning of the game, there are these evil slug monsters who jump completely out of nowhere and kill you instantly. They're impossible to avoid—at least, they were for a a ten-year old who'd only just recently mastered tying his shoes—and they always jolted the poo out of me.

  • Dear Readers: Why Adventure Games Are Dead.

    Columns Columns by Paul Franzen on Comments3

    Having now played Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon, Escape from Monkey Island, and King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, I now know why nobody makes adventure games anymore: Because the games are festering puddles of squid waste.

  • Dear Readers: Three Years

    Columns Columns by Paul Franzen on

    It's been three years, now.

  • Dear Readers: Leave Us Alone

    Columns Columns by Paul Franzen on

    What did we ever do to you?

  • Dear Readers: Keeping Up

    Columns Columns by Paul Franzen on

    Dear Readers, Atari released its "Video Computer System" (known by most as the regular ol' Atari) to American audiences in 1977. The next mainstream home console, the original Nintendo, came out eight

  • Dear Readers: Secret of Mana Theater

    Columns Columns by Paul Franzen on

    As part of my New Year's Resolution to finally have more readers than I have college courses this semester, I've been driving down the Information Superhighway in search of video game-related sites worthy of becoming GameCola affiliates. One site that I've had on my radar for a long time is Secret of Mana Theater, and to be perfectly honest, I never expected that they'd wanna trade links with us.

  • Dear Readers: New Year’s Resolutions

    Columns Columns by Paul Franzen on

    It's been a while since I last made any New Year's Resolutions, with the last one being "To not eat so much paste in class", but the time seems right to press start and try again.

  • Dear Readers: Who Has Time to Play Games?

    Columns Columns by Paul Franzen on

    I don't know about you guys, but I sure haven't been playing many video games lately. (Is it just me, or is this not the first time I've started off a "Dear Readers" with those words? Crazy.) What with schoolwork, transferring to another college, saving money for and purchasing Christmas gifts, and just being an all around loaf, it seems like I've gone an entire month without saving the world. Oh sure, I've died a few times in Way of the Samurai, rediscovered how annoying Legend of Mana is, punched a few deserving small children in Fable (honestly, can't they just quit making fun of me for not breaking the barrels?), and started to play the new GoldenEye (I'm enjoying it quite a bit so far -- look for a review next issue), but most of this month has been spent on things much less important than video games. For this, I am sorry.

  • Dear Readers: Short Games Aren’t Necessarily Bad Games

    Columns Columns by Paul Franzen on

    Dear Readers, Like everybody else in the world who owns an Xbox, I've recently purchased, played, and completed Fable.  The game took me just over eleven hours to complete, which means that I was pay

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    Dear Readers: Please Send Me Stuff for the Janish!

    Columns Columns by Paul Franzen on

    Once again, it is that time of the year. School's back in session, it's getting colder outside (or at least I assume as much; the only times I go outside are when I need to collect sunlight in Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hands), and, apparently, football season is underway. Who knew? But none of that is what I'm here to discuss with you today. If you've been following GameCola since at least this past winter, you know we like to start off the year with something special, something we creatively refer to as "The January Issue", or the "Jan Ish", for short. In past year's we've enjoyed much success in being able to bulk up the special issues with oodles of special material, with our staff members bumping up their word count, submitting brand new feature columns, and working with me to put together the "GameCola Interactive Video Entertainment Awards". That's not all we do, though -- we also rely on you fans to send us letters, photographs, artwork, poetry, and especially guest reviews and top ten lists.