Even though it’s Carnaval here in Brazil (so I’m not even halfway through my 5 day weekend), I’m going to – out of the goodness of my heart, because that’s the kind of guy I am, etc, etc – provide you with a little bug-out bag of gaming essentials to help you survive the drudgery of the dreaded Monday. Rather than containing, say, bottled water, those silver blanket things, or a crossbow, this particular bug-out bag contains, like, words. Lots and lots of words. What I’m going to do – basically – is give you a little collection of Gaming-related stuff for you to surreptitiously read at work, in class, on your commute; essentially anywhere you choose where you feel it might alleviate the grimness that is Monday.

Admittedly, this will contain a few of my own pieces (yeah, whatevs), but also a few things from around the t’internet that caught my eye, or I found interesting, or that just made me do a little laugh. Obviously it’s not an exhaustive list (the t’internet’s quite a big place) so if there’s anything I’ve missed that you think would fit nicely into the general spirit of punching Monday in its big, fat, stupid face, feel free to give ’em a shout-out in the comments below.

Anyways, best of luck out there, folks. And give ’em Hell!

First, a little som’thin som’thin I gone done wrote about Gaming Narratives.

Secondly, a pretty interesting take on Episodic Games, DLC, and Gaming Revenue by Hatm0nster over at United We Game. This is an area I’ve been banging on about for a while now, so it’s nice to see its not just me getting worked up about it.

Next, here’s a pretty cool piece of Nostalgia for the Mario generation, which made me smile big rainbows of childhood memory stuff. Likewise, more Rainbow-ey smiles were had with this review of Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures.

Then – also on the nostalgia theme – for those of you thinking of tackling some Retro Zombie Action (as I hope to this week), here’s Hundstrasse’s look at Resident Evil Zero.

Following on from that, if you’re a fan of the Uber-batshit-cray-cray Saints Row games, Cary’s got a nice reminder of how much fun SR IV was over at Recollections of Play.

Then if (like me) you’re really looking forward to the forthcoming The Division, there’s quite a comprehensive analysis of how the Beta went over at Geek, Sleep, Rinse, Repeat.

Also, because I’m also a fan of the Lego Games (there, I said it) – here’s a look at the Trailer for the Lego Force Awakens Game by a fellow fan of the games.

Finally, here’s a thing I wrote about the weirdly addictive nature of Trophies and Achievements, and featuring me coming to terms with the fact I might have a problem (except if my girlfriend suggests it, in which case I’m totally on top of it, obviously). You can also read the review that inspired it over at Particlebit’s crib.

OK, that should do you for now, I reckon. I mean, I’m not trying to get you fired or anything, so you should prob’ly make at least a token effort to do some work, eh!? Again, though, if there’s anything that caught your eye, holla at us in the comments.