I absolutely loved this game as a child, and I hold it very dear to my heart in the present day. As a young girl who was bullied quite frequently, I found solace in pretty much any monster high related media. The idea of not being "perfect", but still owning your freakiness and making something of your own is a message I deeply needed as a kid, and I think more people need in today's world. Draculaura was and still is my idol. Her style, her personality, everything about her is just something I always wanted to be. Stylish, friendly, a bit spoiled but with a heart of gold. I'm happy to say that everyday I get closer to my ideal self, and every day I feel more and more comfortable in my skin. That's what monster high was all about, loving yourself not "in spite" of your freaky flaws, but loving yourself BECAUSE of your flaws. After all, "everybody turns to look at you, it's not because you're different, it's just because you're scary cool."

Anyways, this game was fun and 8 year old me would likely force you to sit down and play it like 3 times.

I took a college course titled "Creative Writing: Virtual Worlds" expecting to have a hyper-focused class dedicated to writing about augmented reality and shit like The Matrix. Turns out, it was a class where the students carried out assignments in Second Life.

The first rule of the class was that Second Life was not a video game—it was just as real as your "first life." Upon my birth in this virtual world, I was lost and confused. I entered the nearest building to my initial spawn. My eyes were assaulted by a collage of genitalia. Mirroring the myriad *** before me, the walls were closing in. I felt myself gasping for air. Luckily, I carried over an attribute from my first life into my Second Life—the power of flight. Clipping through the ceiling, I narrowly escaped my **** riddled demise. I was late to meet with my class at my professor's estate.

As I sat in my chair sideways, legs out through the hole in the arm, my professor called upon me. "BongoMan27, are you paying attention?" My friend from outside the class I had snuck into her domain, presently standing six meters tall with his face in the window behind her, staring ominously into the farthest reaches of my soul or lack thereof. From this point forward, she told the class about her hobbies. The most noteworthy hobby came in the form of rescuing animals. The professor then asked my friend and fellow classmate if he owned any pets. He went on to discuss his two dogs and cat that his family had. As he concluded sharing, the professor told us that she, too, had dogs. "Here comes one now."

A virtual dog model spawned into the room.

ive always felt the first evil within represented a pitifully directed attempt at something of a horror anthology, mikamis mythic final shot at a title that cobbled together the familiar imagery of his deific body of work with over a dozen new and incohesive ideas that ended up fitting together about as well as a broken jigsaw puzzle. it's one of the rawest disappointments in the medium; its successor replaces the originals dim and misguided attempts to foster a thrilling, psychological weight with a riproaring extravaganza through shattered suburbia and dingy back-alleys infected with competing egos and the subconscious. it's a modern title that perfectly replicates the tone and thrust of classic resident evil's brand of stark horror and schmaltzy optimism; if that doesn't appeal to you, i understand, but it's such a treat in modern gaming to be able to actively and sincerely cheer for a protagonists relatively unambitious goals and his raimi-esque awakening to fearlessness. ends up asking some unique questions of its own, too - just a really memorable package overall, one that i feel is way too easy to dismiss for some. in narrative structure it unabashedly wears resident evil 4 on its sleeve, too, and this is primarily worth mentioning because it's one of the few derivatives with the confidence to stand on its own and to not have me questioning if i should abandon all further engagement to go and replay resident evil 4 instead. its gameplay loop overextends its warm welcome but it is a surprisingly taut title until that point, and the open-district form led to some stirring surprises. removing mikami from the helm seemed like this burgeoning franchise's death knell, but in this instance it's a strong argument for allowing new talent to step in and try their hand at the craft