Mass Effect

I've come a long way on the notion of shooting things.  I really preferred my games with more slashing and less shooting.  Shooting requires precision, patience, planning... slashing a sword only requires - well, slashing.  But I've found that I have increasingly and increasingly been evolving to enjoy active combat and a weapon that can aim.

The Mass Effect series were the games that put Bioware on the map: a space opera series about Commander Shepard, human extraordinaire, and his ragtag group of adventurers.  Having finally been re-released for the PS3, the time was ripe to play and enjoy the series.

Bioshock 2: Minerva's Den

Lasers and gravity, oh my!

While it certainly was a long time since Bioshock 2 came out, I finally found time to play through the Minerva's Den DLC (even though I purchased it nearly a year and half ago).

The add-on tells a completely unrelated story of an Alpha Series Big Daddy, Subject Sigma.  As Sigma, you are lead through the three-levels by C.M. Porter, the proclaimed designer of "The Thinker," the punch-card computer which controls operations of the underwater city of Rapture.  Things in this part of the city aren't much different from the rest of the dystopian waterworld: Splicers (so named for their history of splicing their DNA with ADAM) are running the asylum.

One new add in this DLC is a new type of Big Daddy, the Lancer, and its unique weapon, a laser.  It's a fun add, and the Lancer is no joke to defeat.  The other add is a new plasmid: Gravity Well.  It's a game-breaking method of dealing with the Splicers, but useless against heavier hitters.  It also is a huge suck on the graphics capacity of my PS3, causing the game to freeze once.

The story of C.M. Porter and Reed Hall (his spliced-up, crazy rival) is very engaging, helped by familiar audio diaries that are scattered throughout the levels.  The story rivals Bioshock 2's main story, which is universally despised.  The entire thing unfolds over two sittings, 6-8 hours depending on your play style.

If you've picked up Bioshock 2 recently, it may have included the DLC - but if you have it sitting around and you haven't, it was well worth what I spent.

Final Fantasy IV

You can keep your fancy polygons:
16 bit is the life for me.

Before there were cutscenes, and polygonal graphics, and confusing combat systems, and teen angst, there was Final Fantasy IV (or Final Fantasy II as it was released in the United States to avoid then-confusion in exchange for now-confusion).  In addition to the game being simpler, I too was simpler: a boy of 8 or 9, unconcerned with taxes, or mortgages, or whether or not to use an Oxford comma when making lists.  And I was there with FF4, following the adventures of the sprite-like protagonists in - upon reflection - one of the most clear Final Fantasy stories ever.

The fourth iteration of the quite un-final Final Fantasy series told the story of Cecil, a dark knight who begins to question if exchanging his morals for power was all that great of an idea.  By extension, he questions the orders of King Baron for sacking the helpless mages of Mysdia to collect their Water Crystal (which, presumably has power - because it is so shiny).  For questioning orders, you are summarily dismissed on a final errand to deliver a package.

The package is actually a bomb, destroying the village Myst and all of its inhabitants (Summoners who threatened the king's plans) minus one girl who Cecil feels really bad about killing her mother and helps protect her.  In turn your party is complimented by the girl, Rydia, a Summoner; Rosa, your girlfriend; Yang, a martial arts master; Tellah, an old sage seeking vengeance for his murdered daughter, Edward, a spoony bard; Palom and Porom, twin mages from Mysdia; Cid, the first playable entrant of the recurring airship captain; Edge, a ninja; FuSoYa, a ridiculously over-powered mage for which you only briefly have control; and Kain, your former Dragoon companion gone-traitor after his own personal redemption.

Redemption is a recurring theme for FF4 - Cecil seeking redemption for being a Dark Knight (and becoming a Paladin), Edward seeking redemption for the cowardice that killed his fiance, Cid seeks redemption for helping build warships... the list goes on and on.  The story here is complicated, but in the way that epic tales are not simple, not the way that I have no idea what is what without reading an accompanying compendium.  There are the occasional cheap writing techniques, but all-in-all the game plays like a story unfolds: naturally.  And there are plenty an epic moment: becoming a Paladin, Rydia's triumphant return to the party, and flying to the moon.

I'm surprised! at how awesome I thought this looked as a kid.

Battle is active, turn-based, and menu-driven.  It's not quite to the perfected point of future Final Fantasies, but the unique ability sets each character develops are a nice addition.  Some battles are quite difficult without grinding, but they are mostly reserved to optional areas and the final dungeon.  Random encounters abound, but the game almost feels bad about throwing them at you: they start and conclude rather seamlessly with the world map.

And the world is well crafted, and huge.  There is an overworld, a world below, and the mother-fucking moon for you to explore.

The game is available in so many ways, you have no excuse not to be playing it right now.  It is available for the Wii in its SNES dumbed-down for American's version, the GBA re-release featuring additional difficulty (as was intended), the Playstation re-release on the PSN (not recommended due to horrible loading times) and a DS remake with polygonal characters and cutscenes (with voiceovers)!

Kingdom Hearts I & II

I've been spending some time over the past couple weeks enjoying the seminal (meaning industry-advancing or significant, not semen-related) Kingdom Hearts games for the Playstation 2.  While the gameplay is nothing new, and the story bounces from whimsically simple to the Square-Enix induced complexity of a theoretical equation, the real standout of the game is the sheer depth of intellectual property fed into the game from both Disney and Square-Enix.

Kairi (left) and Sora (right) in an FMV.

Kingdom Hearts the first tells the story of Sora, Riku, and Kairi; happy-go-lucky youths who live on a small island and dream of exploring other worlds.  Their dream becomes reality when their world is "connected" to others through a menacing bad mojo known simply as "the darkness."  And this darkness also spawns monstrous concoctions known as Heartless, who errupt from a person whose heart fell to darkness.  Luckily, Sora is a chosen wielder of the Keyblade, a device that can destory Heartless and seal the doors between worlds.

Fallout: New Vegas - Old World Blues Wins DLC of the Year

This really shouldn't come as any surprise, but Fallout: New Vegas' DLC Old World Blues has been named by www.insidegamingdaily.com as DLC of the Year.  I've blogged about this DLC twice now.

The lack of the surprise should come by the fact that even though the game didn't offer tremendously different goals, gameplay, or graphics, it more than delivered on story, dialogue, writing, and voice-acting.  The B-movie backdrop allowed some great over-the-top moments that would be impossible to synthesize in almost any other environment.

Bethesda has a lot to be proud of, and has certainly won this award.  Well done, you!

A Song of Fire & Ice: A Game of Thrones

Though I've tried, my journey into the fantasy epics has been somewhat limited to Harry Potter.  Well, no more!  Despite not having watched Game of Thrones, Season 1 Box Set, I decided to read the first book of A Song of Fire and Ice.  The books' spine was thick, and its pages were thin as they come.  With a deep sigh, initially, I opened the pages and delved into the exciting world of George R. R. Martin's plane of intrigue and drama.

Firstly, I would be hesitant to nail A Game of Thrones solidly into the "fantasy" genre.  For the first half of the book, it reads very much like a historical fiction text with sudden bounces into the extremely fantastic (e.g. reanimated dead corpses).  The story centers on Eddard Stark - a Lord of Winterfell - and his family, as he is named Hand to the King and uncovers a plot that led to the previous Hand's death.  The story is told from various point of view (POV) characters, including Eddard himself, his wife Catelyn, his daughters Sansa and Arya, his son Bran, his bastard son Jon, the dwarf brother of the King's wife, Tyrion, and finally a mysterious young woman who is the last of the line of Targaryeans (the previous ruling nobility), named Daenerys.

Already, I was pretty lost.  It kind of felt like being in AP Euro again and not knowing who was related to who and what.  At one point of time, I almost drew a genogram of the families.  Somewhat helpful is an appendix at the end of the text that listed the noble families.  It was more helpful than I care to admit. 

George R. R. Martin writes engrossingly, but the sudden switches in POV lead to some frustrations as a reader (especially with cliffhangers).  I was very happy when the author discovered he could use dialogue to move the story forward, and there was a point when things moved very, very quickly.  The language is pretty dense, and on more than one occasion, I tried to look up the definition of some words by holding my finger to solid page and expecting a definition to appear.  I highly recommend an eReader for these texts unless you have a very proficient vocabulary, are excellent with archaic syntax, or read with a dictionary nearby.

Throughout the book, the mysticism and magic of fantasy remain beyond the reach of the reader.  Only at the end do we (the readers) get a good look into just how deep the rabbit hole of the world can possibly go.  I can't deny that I am eagerly anticipating the next in the series.

If you do give A Game of Thrones a whirl, be patient; there really is a lull until the action gets going - and before you start to see character dynamics unfold.  Before long, you barely notice that you once were unaware of the long and mythic history of the Seven Kingdoms, and you'll be nibbling at every new shred the book gives you to fill in the blanks.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Zelda, half of the titular princesses.

Released in 2006, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess was a desperate chance to save the dying Nintendo Gamecube.  While available for purchase on the 'cube, TP found its primary success on the newly arrived Nintendo Wii.

Zelda games are on par with with the Mario Bros. franchise for the well over-used, but I'm happy to report that TP is heads and tails one of the best Zelda games released.

For starters, Twilight Princess delivers an engaging story that is otherwise lost on other titles in the franchise.  The environs are teeming with life, and everything contributes to a well-rounded, purposefully constructed story.

But okay - yes - first we finish 3 tiny dungeons and then expand to whole world to battle our way through 5 more.  Each dungeon contains a specific item that alone can be harnessed to crush the dungeon master, freeing a sage to lock away evil, blah-blah-blah...

What sets TP apart (besides its gorgeous and detailed environment), is the clever twist it takes on the old favorite.  All of the puzzle-based delights are still there, but the robust world of Hyrule delivers opportunities to enhance outside-the-dungeon puzzles.

For the most part, external, world-based pursuits are for collectibles, which TP delivers in spades.


Firstly, with the piece of hearts now split in 5 instead of the usual quarters, there are 45 piece of heart containers to collect and enhance your life bar.

An additional 24 golden bugs can be collected for rupees and to increase the wallet size.

You can fish (which is especially interesting, considering the impending doom).

And finally, in the style since The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, there are hidden enemies to destroy, called Poe's.  Beating one will yield one of 60 Poe's Souls.  Retrieving 20 nets you the fourth bottle, and all 60 gives you access to an endless supply of rupees.

So besides the main story, there's plenty of derping around to do.

Link atop Epona, trusty steed and world traversor.

However, the game is not without its faults.  For starters, there is my typical waggle complaint.  The sword is controlled by a shake of the Wiimote.  It's mostly responsive, but has cost us a wine glass due to my over-enthusiasm.

Using the Wiimote to aim items is also frustrating, because of how far away my couch is from the Wii-sensor.  I don't think our couch is overly far, but - apparently it IS!

All in all, the game is excellent, and makes me excited for The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Car 11K - A Second Look at L.A. Noire



Main character, tortured hero dude, Cole Phelps.

 Upon ravishing the Catherine loan from my friend to the point in which I was having dreams about moving cubes around, I decided it was time to give L.A. Noire another run for its money.  I had great things to say about the game, but I wondered if they would hold up under the inflamed scrutiny of a replay; and to add to wanting to give the game a bad review, I decided to do so on a Platinum run.

Though it seems sadistic, my logic was this:

1. If the game was good even if I played it to its extremity, whereby doing everything, then I would feel vindicated in my earlier, positive review.
2. I like trophies, even though I don't understand why sometimes.

Well, looky-looky who has a cookie.  And by cookie, I mean a digital trophy icon representing my completion of the game.

But, did the game live up to its earlier success?  Find out, after the jump...

Old World Blues Follow-Up

Bethesda's first attempts at a roll out of DLC for smash hit Fallout 3 were pretty ill-received.  I happened to like The Pitt, which brought up some more complicated moral choices, but that can't be everyone's cup of tea, I suppose.

Giant Roboscorpion!

Old World Blues was, in comparison, an immaculate example of what I had expected from a $9.99 purchase of DLC.  It added approximately 10 hours of playtime, new enemies, new versions of old enemies, new weapons, new perks, new traits, and an engaging and hilarious story. 

I wrapped up the DLC last night, and have to comment that it stayed true to its foundation of quality deliverables through and through.  The story had poignancy and a twist, but not a twist in the way that the writers sat down and said: "we have to think of a twist so that the story maintains relevance.  All stories have unexpected twists!"  Actually, the "twist" is a natural discovery, and it's the exact kind of fun I wanted from the story add-on, and that I had come to expect from Fallout: New Vegas.

Crashes, of course, were an issue; I can't say I wasn't disappointed by the gripping thrust back into reality by watching my character's weapon half-holstered, frozen in time.  It would have made a nice picture had it not been so frustrating.

My recommendation of grabbing this DLC stands, but if I could enhance it - somehow add flavor to it, I would say this: as a male character with the Confirmed Bachelor (gay) perk, I was able to flirt with my brain in a jar.

Really, where else can you experience that?

Fallout: New Vegas DLC - Old World Blues

Old World Blues is the most recently released DLC package for Fallout: New Vegas, and it's also the only pack I've had any experience with.  After about five hours of play yesterday, I feel like I've got a good enough grasp to give it a review, even if I haven't played the whole thing (this sort of behavior makes me reek of professionalism, right?).

Firstly, there is about a half hour of dialogue at the beginning of the DLC.  Yes, a half hour.  Do you know how long I wanted it to be?

Bioshock

Shortly after it was announced that Bioshock would be released for the PS3, I got an opportunity to finally experience Rapture; an experience others had been privy to for what seemed like decades.

You have to ask yourself, are video games art?  The Smithsonian seems to think so, and among the subjects of its upcoming feature of the Art of Videogames, Bioshock is sure to make an entry.  From the demo-drop to the PSN, through receiving the game for Christmas (from my awesome husband), and the six or seven completions since then, I am constantly enRAPTUREd by this gem.


The box art gives an idea of the amazing world within.

Bioshock has often been described as the spiritual predecessor of Ken Levine's System Shock 2, but whatever brought the idea to fruition is okay with me.  The story, set in 1960, is about the unnamed protagonist (who is dutifully known as "Jack"), who - as the only survivor of an airline crash - finds a mysterious lighthouse with a bathysphere that transports him to the underwater city of Rapture.
Rapture was created by Andrew Ryan, who believed the city was the only place safe from the persecution of the government, communists, and religion.  During the bathysphere ride down, we learn that he created the city for an artist to not fear the censor, for scientists to not be bound by petty morality, and the great to not be inundated by the needs of the weaker members of society. 

However, as it is 1960, you find yourself in Rapture in media res - literally late for the party.  The city has devolved from ongoing civil war and the discovery of deep sea slugs who produce ADAM, a genetic substance capable of granting superhuman powers.  As Rapture's denizens fought, and further spliced (shorthand for using ADAM, splicing ones' DNA) themselves, the toll of constant war and ADAM's effects begin to turn them from being the foremost artists and scientists into killing machines, hell bent on collecting more ADAM to feed their ongoing addiction.



A splicer, who was surely once handsome, now deformed.

 To further produce and maintain a supply of ADAM, leaders of Rapture develop the Little Sisters program.  Young girls are implanted with a sea slug, which allows them to gather ADAM from the corpses of the fallen; however the girls are to fragile to go alone, and giant diver suits are grafted onto "volunteers" to become Big Daddies to protect the Little Sisters.

So, your Bathysphere unable to return to the surface, you are guided through the arrival terminal by a friendly (and more importantly, sane) Rapture hold-out named Atlas.  You pick up a wrench and blindly inject yourself with the first Plasmid (superhuman power) you can find.  Weapons (which diversify from the melee wrench) are switched and fired with the right shoulder buttons, while Plasmids are selected and activated with the left shoulder buttons.  This is highly intuitive, as your first-person view shows you holding the weapon in your right hand, and your left hand has a representation of the Plasmid equipped (covered in ice, or bursting with hives of bees, for example).

The game is fairly linear (one fetch quest after another), but there are plenty of off-the-beaten path areas to explore, kill splicers in, and collect resources (first aid kits heal, while EVE hypos repower your Plasmid use).  The great challenge of the game is that of the Big Daddies.  In order to procure ADAM, you must either rescue the Little Sisters or harvest the sea slug inside of them, thereby killing the girl.  But before you can get close enough to the girl to perform your act of kindness or malice, you must defeat the otherwise placid Big Daddies.

During my playthrough on "Survivor" difficulty, I really got an opportunity to get creative with Big Daddy battles, to the point of what some might consider cowardice.  It can easily take all of the ammo and first aid kits to best a big lug, as well as carefully considering the environment you engage them in.  Setting up traps tended to be a better solution for me, since I am a terrible aim and typically relied on melee attacks to best most splicers.  To date, Big Daddy fights remain some of my favorite experiences in a game: challenging, but not overly frustrating.

Once you've substantially dealt with her guardian, there's the Little Sister herself.  You may choose to rescue the girl, using a Plasmid you get from Dr. Tennenbaum, or you can reach right into the girl and grab the slug implanted in her.  Harvesting nets twice the amount of ADAM instantly, but Dr. Tennenbaum ambiguously promises to reward you if you save the girls instead.  Almost constantly in games like these, I prefer to play a righteous character, but in my "Survivor" playthrough I needed every drop I could get.  Sorry girls.

This small mechanism is highly praised as introducing a morality to the game, and I'm going to harp on that: while the decision doesn't have long-standing changes to how you play the game (some dialogue changes, and a different ending, befitting how horrible you are), but forcing a player like myself to work outside his comfort zone for a relatively low payout to get a marginal leg up on survival did create a question:  If this was real, would I be so noble, or would it be every man for himself?  Of course, this is the question of Rapture itself.  The individual, or the community?

Holy shit!  A video game made me think!  MAKE IT STOP!

Additionally, the graphics tell the story of the underwater city beautifully, complemented by an excellent soundtrack and phenomenal voice acting.  You interact directly with very few characters (and even then, they are behind barriers), but you learn about Rapture through a variety of Audio Logs recorded by its residents.  From these tapes, which are scattered precariously everywhere, you learn about the revolution against Ryan, its motivations, and how things got so fucked up.  And despite the fact that you probably shouldn't be sitting around listening to dead people's diaries, especially while you're being hunted by those you haven't slaughtered yet, it's a genius method in delivering story content.

The game levels out with difficulty, as eventually the Plasmids on weapons available to you can massacre almost any enemy you come across, but it's okay because you should feel that powerful.  The replay value exists, but the predictability of the games' AI makes additional playthroughs past the fourth get a little tedious.  All the same, if you haven't yet, Bioshock is a must play.