(Editor’s Note: A�Welcome back, class. A�Today, we will share what we did over the summer. A�Oh, Noob has his hand up, so we will start with him.)

Well, it’s September. A�Summer is winding down. A�My wife and kids all started back to school last week. A�I started back today. A�What better time than now to reminisce back and write one of those lame essays about “what I did this summer” that were always the first assignments in elementary and middle school. A�I’m actually writing four of these. A�This one will focus on PC gaming. A�Two others will talk about console and mobile games and the final will deal with my tabletop exploits.

I am starting with PC because it allows me to open with a long and meandering story that may more may not have anything to do with the overall point of the article. A�It is one of my favorite things about writing for the page.

I am currently restricted to my ancient Acer laptop after yet another electronics disaster. A�I have had computers get stepped on, tripped over, fall off of the couch and chairs, and one even fell down a flight of stairs. A�I sat on my tablet. A�I also dropped it out of my bag onto the parking lot after repairing the screen. A�That happened even though I got smart and started putting it into a case. A�Oh, but it wasn’t in the case because I took it out to clean the case and then didn’t have time to put it back in. A�What could go wrong? A�In that same parking lot, I watched as my month old phone got run over by a car. A�The point is that I have bad luck with electronics. A�I have bad luck with vehicles, too, but that is a different story.

This last laptop lasted me longer than any other one had by several months. A�I had no reason to believe that it would not continue to perform for months, if not years. A�Sure, I had to replace the screen and two hard drives, but the thing kept going. A�And then, one day, it didn’t.

That’s how it happened. A�It was working fine as I watched some stupid Hearthstone streamer as another. A�It was shaping up to be a fine day of relaxation. A�But, wait, what’s this? A�The computer does not appear to be charging. A�That’s okay. A�Maybe there’s a loose connection in the cord. A�No. A�Okay, well, I’ve had this problem before and it was just a quick solder job. A�I’ll pop on Youtube just to see how to disassemble–

Oh, my. A�Oh, well, that’s complicated. A�Okay, that’s fine. A�It won’t be a quick fix. A�Just take my time and it will be no problem. A�Well, to make a long story short (I know, too late!), you know that the story ends with the computer being non-operational. A�More specifically, I severed one of the ribbon cables. A�that might have been an easy and cheap fix, too, but by that point, the computer was in so many pieces that I just gave up. A�I’ve also learned my lesson. My next computer will be a desktop.

So, as a result, I’m restricted to my old laptop that has somehow survived the five plus year purge of electronics. A�The thing is a tank. A�t overheads and is only really good for web browsing and word processing, but it works decent for those two things. A�That brings us, finally, to the reason for this lengthy explanation.

The laptop may not be able to run many of the Steam games I own. A�So far, it has been unable to download the card images for xMage with any reliability. A�Heck, it sometimes has trouble playing Twitch streams. A�One thing it can play, though, is Hearthstone.

Chris will give me crap about this because the number of times that I’ve texted him to tell him that I uninstalled Hearthstone only to come crawling back. A�Heck, one of my articles just before the summer hiatus talked about my hate/slightly less intense version of hate relationship with the game. A�So, I deserve the abuse. A�All of that notwithstanding, the only PC gaming I’ve done all summer is Hearthstone. A�I can therefore report that, even though they’ve recently released a new adventure since the last time I covered the game, not much has changed.

In fact, the game has become even more face-centric and control decks exist only in legend, whispered by Mt players as proof that their game is superior. As a dyed in the wool blue mage, I consider myself among that group. A�The interaction of different archetypes and the ability to win games through different strategy on a consistent basis is what makes MtG a vastly better game. A�still, when I’m feeling SMOrcish and I just want to point that arrow at the opponent’s face, Hearthstone is there for me.