Loot boxes, or packages of random in-game items that you can purchase for real money, have been popping up a LOT lately. And I do mean a whole lot. While previously reserved for the realm of mobile and free-to-play games, lately it seems like it’s physically impossible for a developer to make a commercially sold online-centric FPS without including some kind of loot box system. “Overwatch”, “Rainbow Six: Siege”, the various “Call of Duty” titles, none seemed to escape unscathed. True, I don’t think that the loot boxes in those games contain any game-changing elements, they tend to be mostly cosmetic items like skins, sprays and taunts. But you know what games DO feature loot boxes with useful items in them? “Assassin’s Creed: Origins”, “Shadow of War” and many other single-player titles that hide weapons and other objects that can actually help you in your game behind a paywall.

Needless to say, gamers were PISSED. I mean, if you’re going to pay £40 or more for a game, it kind of comes with the territory that this is all you’ll need to pay, unless you wish to purchase expansion packs as DLC that feature a substantial amount of additional content. And while it’s somewhat easy to excuse loot boxes in some games that literally have no other source of revenue post-launch (like “Overwatch”, which releases all of its new characters and maps for free), its presence in other games that are perfectly sustainable financially feels a bit insulting. Like, why does “Call of Duty” need loot boxes? There’s a new game coming out every single year, and each game sells additional map packs as DLC post-launch. I believe it’s very safe to say that Activision won’t exactly go bankrupt if they stop selling loot boxes. The same goes for single-player games, where players who pay and players who don’t can have a vastly different experience. It just doesn’t seem fair.

Irate gamers recently created a petition addressed at the Parliament asking to have gambling laws changed to include any and all loot boxes. As you may know, UK gambling laws tend to be rather strict, with any and all officially recognized forms of gambling having to adhere to extreme regulations to the point of near-absurdity. At least two separate, independent bodies are in place to prevent any fraud or wrongdoing whatsoever, and gambling activities are heavily taxed. If loot boxes were, in fact, formally declared as gambling by Parliament, then publishers would be taxed on any loot box-related transactions, games with boxes would automatically receive a PEGI rating of 18+ and the odds of gaining each item from the box would have to be disclosed. It would obviously be a huge step towards either exercising more control over the dreaded business model or just straight up banning it, as it’s not inconceivable to assume that many big publishers simply won’t want to bother with all those regulations in place.

With that said, unfortunately things just weren’t meant to be on that front. Parliament actually denied the proposition in a surprisingly detailed statement, claiming that loot boxes couldn’t actually be considered gambling since the player only receives in-game items rather than actual money. Think about it – the way loot boxes currently are, they function a bit as a blind bag. You know what I’m talking about – when at fairs and such people are selling packages of items for a few pounds. You can’t see what’s in the bags and you need to pick one at random, and the items always end up being cheap trash, but there’s a chance that it COULD have been something cool! No one’s looking at blind bags as gambling, so why are loot boxes considered that? The same goes for the various “mystery box” services that are floating around, like Loot Crate, where you pay a certain amount of cash and then get sent a box of goodies. You don’t know what’s in the box until you open it, and once the boxes have been sent out you can’t get those exact same ones ever again. When you think about it, you’re technically paying money and not knowing what you get out of it, but they’re obviously not gambling.

So I suppose the question is why are loot boxes considered gambling while other completely identical services not thought of as such? I think it all boils down to customer feelings… Which, yeah, I know isn’t exactly the most objective metric, but hear me out. With services like Loot Crate, or Humble’s Monthly feature (which gives you a “blind box” of digital games), there’s only twelve packages a year – one each month. As such, a lot of care goes into making sure that they all make the consumer feel like their purchase was justified, and that they should continue their subscription. The way those types of blind boxes function is pretty passive, since all you need to do is continue your automatic payments and then enjoy your box of goodies every month. But that’s not how loot boxes in games function at all. They’re quite active in their design, meant to make players purchase dozens of them in order to get the item that they want. If a rare item has a drop rate of 1%, a player would need to purchase 100 boxes to have a realistic shot at getting it, which is a far cry from the 12 boxes per month model.

Like it or not, loot boxes aren’t going anywhere – the UK government has hit the gavel and announced that they will not be doing a thing about it, and chances are the US court will follow, if they even care to comment. But I know someone more powerful, someone who can actually make a difference and force loot boxes to go away forever. And that someone is you. Remember online passes? Remember that they were a terrible, anti-consumer idea? The reason why we’re not seeing them today at all is because we collectively put our foot down and said “We will not buy games that treat us like thieves”. And publishers listened. We can make loot boxes go away too. Their main purpose is to bring profit, so… Cut the profit. At the end of the day, it’s as simple as that.

We often like to imagine that some games are timeless. The original “Super Mario Bros”, for example, is timeless – regardless of whether you play it in 1985 or 2025, you’re going to have the exact same experience, and it’s still going to be a great game! It’ll look the same, it’ll play the same, it’s gonna be just as awesome as you remember! Most games, however, aren’t really like that… At all. Like, not even close. Most older games actually look pretty terrible by today’s standards (hell, some even looked terrible by the standards of the time they came out in), or they play pretty poorly, or they’re just not compatible with our modern systems. That’s where remakes come from! Remakes take the outdated games, slap a brand new coat of paint on them and then go “Here, enjoy it the way it’s meant to be played in the 21st century!” That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any bad remakes, or ones that were utterly unnecessary, but for the most part, remakes really help breathe new life into a game, and we’re here to celebrate that! Remember – in this list we’re only going to be talking about official remakes of games! That means no fanmade projects, and no HD collections or remasters! Just remakes! And with that said, this list is far from definitive, I’m just listing three of the most prominent examples in my mind. If you like this article, go and share it with your friends, and maybe I’ll write a sequel! So without further ado, let’s get right into it!

3. Mega Man: Powered Up

Hnnnghhh… I just melt every time I think of this remake. It’s perfection, pure and simple! When people think of “Mega Man”, they often go “Oh yeah, Mega Man 2 and 3 are great!” But nobody really talks about the first game in the series, because while it did a whole lot of things right, it was by no means perfect. That’s where “Powered Up” comes in! It’s a full 3D remake of the original “Mega Man”… If you play its classic mode. But if you choose to go with its “Powered Up” mode, it becomes so much more than that! It adds a story with voiced cutscenes, it adds multiple playable characters (including all the robot masters and Roll) which unlock multiple paths through a level, it adds a level creator and a challenge mode, ugh, it just warms my heart! Originally there were plans for Capcom to remake all early Mega Man games in this manner, but because of poor sales only the first one and “Mega Man X” got this treatment, which is an absolute shame if you ask me! Come on, Capcom! With the absolute disappointment that was “Mighty No. 9”, now is the PERFECT time for “Mega Man: Powered Up 2”, a remake of arguably the best classic Mega Man game of all time! DO IT! JUST DO IT!

2. Adventure of Mana

Those of you who know me also know that one of my favorite games of all time is “Final Fantasy Adventure” – a highly underrated Game Boy title which, despite the platform it released on, I still believe to be one of the best Final Fantasy games of all time. Yes, I said it. It’s got a fantastic score, a very fun battle system (think Zelda as an RPG) and actually the most dramatic and depressing storyline you’re ever going to find in a Game Boy game, as you take control of an escaped slave that needs to protect a girl whose destiny is to restore mana to the world. Oh, you don’t believe that it’s that great, huh? Well, a few years later Square actually released a sequel – a little, unknown game called “Secret of Mana”, one of the most famous, most beloved RPGs ever made. Yeah! Obviously, with “Secret of Mana” spawning a franchise, Square wanted to get some more money from its obscure predecessor, so they remade it into “Sword of Mana” for the GBA… And it sucked. A whole lot of unnecessary story was added which was not only boring, but completely undermined the plot of the original, the battle system was ruined, and I couldn’t tell you more about it because I didn’t play it past the first half hour. The thing about “Final Fantasy Adventure” is that it’s already pretty much a perfect game – you don’t need to change anything, all you need to do is update the graphics, put it on modern systems and boom, it’s done! And, much to my surprise, that is exactly what Square did earlier this year with “Adventure of Mana” for Android, iOS and PS Vita! The story remained the same, the dialogue remained the same, the battle system remained the same, the map remained the same… The only things that were upgraded were the graphics (which are now in beautiful 3D) and the music (which still has the same melodies, but is no longer chiptune). And it is FANTASTIC! I can’t really recommend this game enough, so just go and play it the next chance you get!

1. Ratchet & Clank

Come on, how could this not be No. 1? The original “Ratchet & Clank” on the PS2 was one of those nearly timeless games, especially when you play the HD version that released a few years ago. It’s great, and it still holds up just as well today as it did when it came out! But boy oh boy, did the remake improve it anyway! I didn’t even think it was possible to improve such a perfect game which spawned one of the most beloved franchises of the PS2 era, but how about that? “Ratchet & Clank” wisely kept the absolute best parts of the original while removing everything that was a little bit outdated and removing it with the best parts of the other games in the series, which just blows my mind on so many levels. Seriously, I wish more people could do remakes like that! While seeing some nice, pretty HD graphics every once in a while, people forget that the main purpose of a remake isn’t just to make a game pretty – it’s to make it appeal to the modern audience. And “Ratchet & Clank” managed to make an entirely new generation fall in love with that duo, which was no small feat!

Nintendo isn’t generally known as The Ups and Downs Company, but it should be, because when you think about it, its entire career has been built on ups and downs. After the undeniable down that were the Wii U and the disappointing launch of the New 3DS, though, it seems that we’re finally on the way to another up with the release of “Pokémon GO”, which raised Nintendo’s stocks by an astounding $7.5 billion despite the fact that Nintendo didn’t even make that game. But if you think that was just a one-off success, Nintendo seems determined to prove you wrong, as they just announced yet another product that’s undoubtedly going to bring them buttloads of cash when it launches later this year – a mini-NES console.

The console, known officially as the “NES Classic Edition”, looks exactly like an NES – Nintendo’s first cartridge-based system which made the childhood of oh so many people across the world and pretty much managed to single-handedly rescue the videogame market in the US. The most noticeable difference is that this console, unlike its bulky predecessor, will fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. Naturally, that also means that it won’t support cartridges of any kind (as a matter of fact, the tray – known officially as the Chamber Lid – can’t open at all), so to make it up for that it comes pre-loaded with 30 classic NES games, including all three “Super Mario Bros.” titles, “Castlevania”, “Final Fantasy”, “Donkey Kong” and “Donkey Kong Jr.”, “Galaga”, “Mega Man 2”, “Metroid” and more. Sadly, Nintendo has confirmed that the system will not receive any more games post-launch, since it can’t connect to the Internet, but the 30 games included are diverse enough to satisfy most players’ nostalgia.

The console will connect to the TV through an HDMI cable, thus providing you with the clearest possible image for these games. In addition, the NES-style controllers can also be plugged into Wiimotes, and so if you’ve got a Wii or a Wii U you can play classic Virtual Console games with the original controller. In other words, as long as you own a Wii or a Wii U then you’ll be able to use the NES controller to play any classic NES game available online, even beyond the 30 which are included with the system. Honestly, I think it’s only a matter of time before someone figures out a way to connect these controllers to a PC for emulation purposes (the Wiimote can already connect to a laptop through Bluetooth anyway, so I’m guessing it won’t take too much coding to incorporate the NES attachment as well).

Now, keep in mind that selling a smaller version of a classic console with pre-loaded games is nothing new under the sun – in fact, Sega did just that two years ago. The biggest difference is that this version was done by a third-party company (as Sega quit the console business after the failure of the Dreamcast), while the mini-NES was designed and will be manufactured by Nintendo themselves, as a first-party system. It’ll cost $60 (with additional controllers costing $10) and will be out in North America on November 11th, with no word yet on a European release. My guess is that it’s going to come out in certain big regions where manufacturers are willing to stock them (such as the UK and Germany), but not in others (like Eastern Europe). That’s typically how things go with hardware like that, but in any case, we’ll know more when November approaches.

5 Misconceptions About Online Gambling

It’s no secret at all that I adore online gambling! I mean, all you have to do is look at some of the other posts I’ve made on my itsy bitsy blog and see for yourself! While I do love it, I know that the majority of my audience here cares more about gaming than gambling, and as a result is prone to some rather interesting misconceptions about the whole affair. And as we all learned from 80s cartoons, misconceptions always suck! That’s why I’m here – to clear things up and maybe, just maybe, make you a liiiiittle bit smarter when it comes to the world of online gambling! You ready? Let’s get down to business!

Misconception #1: Online Gambling Is a Sham

I put this first because you would not BELIEVE how often I see it! I swear, I thought that we went past this whole “anything that has to do with money on the Internet is a scam” phase in the early 2000s or something, so it genuinely surprises me that people still think that online gambling is fraudulent. I mean, do you REALLY think that the various governments of the countries where gambling is allowed would ever permit something like that? I mean, sure, there are some illegal online casinos, but chances are you’re not going to stumble upon them unless you’re deliberately searching for them. Most are absolutely stand-up, and there are numerous organizations (both government and independent) in place in every country to make sure things run smoothly.

Misconception #2: Online Gambling Is Unprofitable

I mean, who plays online gambling, am I right? Well… A whole lot of people, actually! How many people, you may be asking? Enough for it to get over $40 billion in profits worldwide in 2015, and that number is expected to grow to over $55 billion by 2018! You have permission to be impressed, if you aren’t already!

Misconception #3: Most People Who Play Are Old & Dumb

Okay, sure, maybe more people play than you suspected, but the ones who do are all toothless old guys who are too dumb to realize that they’re never going to win anything other than some small bonus here and there, right? That’s gotta be true, right? Well… Actually, surprise surprise, this stereotype, much like many others like it, is completely false. As a matter of fact, most people who play online casino (slots in particular) are middle-aged and have at least college-level education, according to a 2012 study. Kinda makes you think, huh?

Misconception #4: Gamblers Are On Their Own

When you want to play online casino, you pretty much just need to wing it. They’ve got to rely on ads, word of mouth and online communities if they want to get anywhere, and… Guys, come on. This is the Internet – if it’s possible, it’s there! There’s many professional gamblers who actually have made it their jobs to write for sites like bestukcasino.org.uk and inform players about anything, from which casinos are worth their time to how they should sign up to get the best bonuses. You’re not alone, bro!

Misconception #5: All Online Casino Games Are the Same

This one’s common even among experienced gamblers! Let’s be real here for a second, no sarcasm – casino games haven’t really changed all that much over the last 300 years. Really, the switch from physical to online was probably the biggest change that happened over that time period. I mean, why change it if it works, right? But still, there are some differences between games, and it’s important to be well aware of them when playing. Take, for example, this article on blackjack where the differences are explained in detail – you can see that live blackjack isn’t the same as regular online blackjack, and as such you’d be using different strategies in each if you want to win!

I hope this exploration of misconceptions in online casino was helpful to you, and if you enjoyed it, let me know! There’s plenty more where that came from, so who knows, maybe there will be a part two coming soon enough?

Online gambling can be a lot of fun and, in some cases, profitable as well. The games themselves are quite engaging and entertaining and also very accessible, especially now that you can play most of them on a mobile device, but it’s the added bonus of having the chance to win real money that makes them so popular among people from all walks of life.
Of course, it’s not all peaches and cream, as there are many example of people that when too far and lost it all to gambling on the Internet. A perfect example for that is the story of Justin Rees Larcombe who lost not only his life savings on real-money games, but also his family and his prestigious job. In fact, the statistics show that in the UK alone there are over 450,000 problem gamblers which in relation to the total of the adult population in the country makes for quite the high percentage.
Thankfully, there are some very reputable charity organisations out there whose mission is to educate the public about responsibility in gambling and to prevent underage gambling. Some of these are The Responsible Gambling Trust, GambleAware, GamCare, to mention but a few. All of them give players great advice as to how to have fun playing real money games at land-based locations as well as online without putting themselves in danger. Let’s have a look at some of the most important ones.
A great rule of thumb when gambling is to set a limit on what you will gamble for the day and to only gamble what you can afford to lose. A big part of the excitement when gambling is having the chance to win big, but if that becomes your primary focus, you’re most certainly up for a disappointment. You should learn to enjoy the game itself and accept that in gambling sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. When you get to this state of mind, the winning become even more pleasant as they genuinely come as a surprise, while the losses don’t seem so bad as they are perceived as something natural.
A great advice which is also related to the previous tip is to not only set money limits but also time limits on your gambling. It’s advisable to switch between other recreational activities and not spend all your free time gambling.
Something else you can do to protect yourself from spending too much is to use the tools for self-control that now all gambling sites are obliged to provide. These tools let you set limits as to how much you can deposit and spend at the site on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. In case, you’re really concerned that you might have a problem, then there’s also the self-exclusion tool which you can use to ban yourself from the site for a certain period of time.
Of course, these are only a small part of the things you can do to keep your gambling habits under control. The more you know, the better are the chances for you to have an enjoyable experience gambling without having any problems or getting addicted. This is why I recommend that, in addition to reading this article, you visit the websites of the responsible gambling organisations I mentioned earlier – there you will find a lot of useful information that will prepare you for all kinds of situations.

Despite what Marvel is trying to tell us, we aren’t living in the age of Ultron (that was more like a week of Ultron anyway) – we’re living in the age of Apple, the age of Samsung, the age of LG, the age of insert mobile phone manufacturer here (and no, the age of BlackBerry was never a thing and will never be a thing, let it go). We’ve evolved into a sci-fi society which literally can not function without our phones by our sides. Think about it – the idea of a world where everybody owns a device for instant communication which also contains the entirety of information currently known to humanity as a whole wouldn’t be out of place in, say, “Minority Report” (hell, that movie already predicted tablets and touch-screen technology anyway, but that’s another subject entirely). What my needlessly complicated brain is trying to say is that, in 2015, we’ve grown way too attached to our phones, and with good reason – there isn’t a single thing you can’t do from that tiny device in your pocket.

Wanna check out the security cameras in your home? Go for it! Wanna track that package you’re expecting? Awesome! Need to open up a videogame-style minimap in order to find your way around? Any phone can do that! Speaking of videogames, maybe you’d like to play some? Some mobile games, such as the excellent “Dead Space”, replicate a console experience almost flawlessly! And in the near future, thanks to advancements in technology, we’re getting even more awesome features, such as instant translation and other AR (augmented reality) goodness. But I’m not here to talk about the future – there’s other blogs that can predict that, with varying results. I’m here to talk about the present, and in particular – my own present. Because, let’s face it – other people’s presents just suck!

As you may or may not know, I’ve always enjoyed a good gamble. I used to frequent casinos a lot when I was a little younger (around 18-19), though I mostly played blackjack and slots. “But Elliot”, I hear you saying over the Internet because that’s how I roll, “Slots are for people who don’t really know how to gamble!” And yeah, you’re sorta right – playing slots falls strictly into the “high risk, high reward, low skill” category, but I’ve always found it sort of relaxing. It’s probably got to do with the smooth motions of the reels or something along those lines, I don’t know, but I’ve always liked it. So, now you might be asking yourselves what exactly this had to do with the whole “age of mobile phones” thingie a paragraph earlier? I’m glad you asked, dear reader!

The thing is, while many of them can be played on a computer or a laptop, Online Casinos can be played on most modern Smartphones as well! Just think about that for a second – we, as a species, have evolved so much and have developed our technology in such a way so that we can now gamble money literally from any point in the world with a 3G signal! That absolutely blows my mind! Only 20 years ago, if you wanted to play casino games in a professional manner, you had to specifically go to a casino and spend a substantial amount of money there. The concept of a “quick spin” was just non-existent – you couldn’t walk into a casino, spin a slot machine 2-3 times and then leave, that’s just not how it went! But in the modern day of online casinos literally in our pockets, such behaviour isn’t only allowed – it’s encouraged.

Considering the aforementioned online revolution, online casinos have had to keep up or keep out. There was no middle ground – with as much as 15-20% of all online casino bets being placed through a mobile phone or a tablet (according to data from 2014 – I’m fairly certain that this number will increase to at least 30% by 2016 and will keep on growing), if a certain online casino doesn’t have a decent mobile versions, chances are that the more mobile-savvy users will simply leave it in favour of a counterpart which can satisfy their needs. In addition, a very strong online casino, such as LeoVegas (which offers more than 300 games readily available on mobile at this very moment, with more being added every month), will undoubtedly end up attracting those who would have otherwise shown no interest in online casinos in the first place! I mean, think about it – if you’re a young person who’s used to fiddling around with his or her phone, but has no time or energy to use an actual computer for too long, wouldn’t you be more likely to try an online casino?

It truly is the age of the mobile phone, ladies and gentlemen, and here, there is no “okay” or “alright”. You’re either “the best” or “the rest”. While an average user can be playing multiple games (I myself try 3-4 new games every week, though on average gamers tend to try about 2, maybe 3 new games a month), the overwhelming majority of them will only play on a single online casino at a time, which means that if you don’t win them over and keep them, they WILL move onto something else… Or they will quit the world of online gambling altogether. And in an industry which so desperately needs fresh blood, this simply can’t be allowed to happen. Bottom line – if you own an online casino, please have a decent mobile version. It may not seem like a very profitable option now, but take my word for it – it will be soon enough.

I didn’t really start playing videogames until I was 18 years old. I have mixed feelings about that – on one hand, I deeply regret letting them influence my childhood. Reading stories from people who cried at “Final Fantasy” and felt inspired to be braver by “The Legend of Zelda” is always a treat, and I really do feel disdain for the fact that I don’t have any such stories related to games. But on the other hand, at least I was never given the obligatory “games make you dumb” speech that has been a staple of parents everywhere for over 30 years now. We all know how it goes, even those of us who have never personally heard it – “Why are you wasting your time with those stupid games, they’ll never teach you anything, it’s just nonsense, go read a book or something!” Of course, most of us rightfully dismissed these notions as being ridiculous… But was there more to them than we thought? Maybe. Or maybe not. It’s complicated.

Recently, the National Children’s Bureau of Northern Ireland released a report asking the question of “How does the use of laptops, tablets and games consoles affect a child’s education?” And the answer is – a lot, it seems, and not in a good way. Basically, children who spend more than three hours a day playing games perform worse in school, with only 40% of the study subjects who use a handheld games player more than once a day achieving 5A*-C. Ouch! That sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? The study, which is about a hundred pages long, goes into quite a lot of detail about the various ways in which games ruin children’s lives not only in terms of grades, but in terms of social interaction as well. Well, it’s settled – take those games away from little Emily, they’re going to destroy her as a person! Except they probably won’t.

Popular gaming site Kotaku took a look at the report and found quite a lot of flaws in it. For instance – the report doesn’t really specify what is considered a “handheld games player”. A PlayStation Vita or a Nintendo DS would certainly qualify, but so would a phone or a tablet. So were the children evaluated in the study only those who own a gaming console, or were those with a mobile device considered too? Additionally, the focus groups of the study had all kinds of faults – for example, a giant chunk of the test subjects were boys, who statistically have lower grades than girls regardless of how many games they play. The notion that only boys play games is outdated and kind of sexist, so why an important gender demographic was omitted is beyond me. Additionally, a focus group of children who don’t play games was not examined at all, so there’s no way to tell if the study’s results even mean anything.

I highly recommend reading the entirety of Kotaku’s article, as it’s a really fascinating read. While the author does agree that the study’s overall points may be legitimate, the study as it is is too flawed to be taken seriously. So until it can be peer-reviewed and authenticated with additional studies that verify the results, I’d advise all parents to calm down and let their children play, because there’s plenty of studies out there proving that games have more benefits than downsides. Game on!

This was a triumph. I’m making a note here – huge success!

If you’re anything like me, then you just couldn’t read the two sentences above without singing them, at least in your mind. 2007’s “Portal” was, and still is, one of the greatest games ever made. It had a fun little story spearheaded by what would become one of the most iconic, well-written characters in gaming history, a core mechanic that is a bit hard to explain, but is immediately comprehensible when seen in action, and some of the most well-crafted and intelligent puzzles in any game that always manage to tickle the player’s brain in just the right way without ever getting so difficult that they’re frustrating. And who can forget the wonderful Jonathan Coulton song that ended it all? A truly brilliant experience on practically every single level! So when I made the decision to start my own/online magazine about gaming, to me, there was no better name than “Portal”. Say hello to Portal Games Magazine!

By this point, you might be asking “Who the hell are you?!?” Well, my name is Elliot Dawson, born and raised in a tiny Yorkshire village named Yapham, located about 20 km away from York. Ever played “Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture”, a recent PS4 game by TheChineseRoom? If you have, then you’ve already visited Yapham – I swear, that game managed to nail the “small English town” vibe so perfectly! But anyway, the thing is, there’s not a whole lot to do in Yapham – there never really was, so growing up I had to find other interests, which mostly consisted of reading and old sci-fi and/or horror movies (so I was a nerd, sue me). I was also a big fan of card games, mostly poker, which I often played with my friends. In 2007, two very important things happened in my life – I turned 18, which meant that I could FINALLY start visiting the casinos in York and use my card-counting skills (which may or may not be imaginary), and I also played the aforementioned “Portal”, which changed my life and forever hooked me on videogames!

But yes, to keep a long story short, over the next few years I increased my knowledge about videogames and especially about casino gaming, having signed up to several online casinos in order to play there when I didn’t feel like travelling to York (seriously, those online casinos are a life saver for people like me). I’ve always liked talking about these subjects, but sadly, not a lot of people in my surrounding area ever wished to listen. As such, I decided to make this blog and update it whenever I had something to say! You know, to get it out of my chest and move on! I’m not sure how many of you will actually stumble upon it, but if you’re reading, thank you very much, and keep a look out for cool things to come! Updates may not be frequent, but I assure you that the blog is Still Alive and I don’t Want You Gone (I’m sorry, I had to).