Unwinnable Monthly, February 2020
This is a reprint of the letter from the editor in Unwinnable Monthly Issue 124. You can buy Issue 124 now, or purchase a monthly subscription to make sure you never miss an issue!
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Welcome to the February issue of Unwinnable Monthly!
Our cover story by Tom G. Wolf looks at the overlap between heavy metal and tabletop roleplaying games, both aesthetically and in the sorts of people they attract. We welcome back Seb Westcott as our cover artist and catch up with what he’s been up to in our Artist Spotlight.
In our second feature, Alyssa Wejebe decides to play Breath of the Wild as if it were Animal Crossing, with some surprising results. Rounding things out, our sponsored feature looks at the inspirations behind, and development of, the forthcoming mystery game Backbone.
In the columns, we welcome longtime Unwinnable contributor Declan Taggart into our pages. He’ll be looking at videogames through the lens of his distinct sense of humor. This month, he takes on healing mechanics.
Most of the gang is back from the post-holiday slump. Astrid kicks things off with her usual selection of new metal and Noah follows with a slight format shift in his hip hop recs. Harry Rabinowitz has good things to say about Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans’ Dungeons & Dragons inspired comic series DIE. Blake Hester, meanwhile, burns down all of classic rock. It is a smoking ruin now. All that is left is The Dirty Nil.
Amanda Hudgins introduces us to fanfic based on the obscure Canadian supernatural detective show The Sentinel. Deirdre Coyle gives us a chipper description of hell (the free to play mobile game Animal Restaurant). Ben Sailer wonders about the relationship between the decline in violent football videogames and the rise in awareness of football-related injuries in real life. Abducted in Plain Sight leaves Matt Marrone flabbergasted.
Yussef Cole examines Death Stranding’s depiction of fatherhood. Justin Reeve tours the grand architecture of Witcher 3’s Beauclair Palace. Rob Rich ponders how the mundane moments in Avatar: The Last Airbender are the ones that make us truly fall in love with the characters. Finally, Adam Boffa decides Outer Wilds just isn’t for him.
Thanks so much for reading, y’all. We’ll see you in a couple weeks in the next issue of Exploits!
Stu Horvath
Kearny, New Jersey
February 14, 2020
