Words On Wednesday

Everclear is legendary. It has a notoriously high alcohol content, many people are afraid to try it at all, and those who have tried it usually have a very negative story to go along with it. Does it really live up to the bad reputation that it has? Name: Everclear Source: Luxco Style: Grain Alcohol ABV: 95% Price: $5.95 Volume: 200ml (6.8oz) Price per oz: $0.88 My first time trying Everclear was at a Halloween party the year I turned 21. I was still new to legal alcohol consumption, or alcohol consumption at all, really. With the innate curiosity that I have for trying new things, I was willing to try anything. (That never changed.) With so much booze at this party, I was sampling new drinks left and right. When my cousin realized that my friend and I hadn’t tried Everclear, he pulled us to the side and poured a partial shot for each of us. He talked it up something fierce. “You’re going to feel like you’re about to throw up, but you won’t. It burns for a minute, but then it’s gone.” ...

“Castlevania: Curse of Darkness” is a 3D action RPG released on the PS2 and Xbox in 2005. Early 3D games in the Castlevania series existed in a very weird space; they were trying to blaze a trail from a traditionally 2D genre into a third dimension, but 3D models were still fairly low resolution and the controls were often clunky. As such, Curse of Darkness is cursed (pun intended) with this sort of video game adolescence, where earlier games excelled with 2D sprites and traditional mechanics, and later games did something similar but better. However, does that mean that Curse of Darkness offers nothing worth playing today? My experience with Curse of Darkness began soon after it released on PS2. At a time when rentals were expensive and demos only existed for popular titles on quarterly demo discs, you basically had to make a decision off pictures from magazines and familiarity with the series. I played and enjoyed Castlevania games in the past, so it was a reasonably safe bet. Althou...