Dragon Age: Origins

Hey hey hey! Look who's back! The prisons of Tartarus are not deep enough to withhold me! Of course

I'm most likely talking to no one right now, due to the fact that I haven't written on this blog in about five months, and my audience (if there ever was one in the first place...) has most likely disappeared. If you have indeed remained loyal, I will now continue updating weekly again for at least the next month. I have been playing some new games that I am really excited about giving my opinion on. (yet again, on the off chance that anyone cares)

So here is the first of my new reviews. I figured I would start off with one of the latest works by the good folks at Bioware studios. I have always had a soft spot for the ye olde sword and sorcery fantasy game. This one, is truly exceptional as many of you probably know. Dragon Age: Origins was designed to be a tribute to the more primitive games that Bioware designed a good handful of years ago, namely the Baldur's Gate series. Eventually however, Dragon Age grew into a niche all it's own, and is even receiving a visual makeover to better suit it's atmosphere, along with a more in depth sequel. This is not without good reason. The story is freaking fantastic. It may be lacking in originality in the big picture, as who hasn't done the demonic horde invasion story before? Origins saves itself very nicely with the trials that the player character has to go through, an oppressively dark style, and the fact that the story is never the same twice. In fact, I'm going to start off with that. A lot of games have recently come out that allow for the player's choices to heavily effect the outcome of the story, and even elements of it that don't have to do with the ending, but Origins trumps all of these (at least by my experience) in terms of just how many choices and outcomes there are. In fact, in one quest (I shall try to remain spoiler free) there are at least five different ways that the ending can play out. That is an amount of player affect on a game that I just have never seen before. What does make me cringe about this amount of customization when it concerns the plot, is that I went through a town near the beginning of the game in my first play through, and I was impatient to see what happened next in the plot, and didn't want to get bogged down by a bunch of side quests. It was only later that I found out that you pick up not one, but two party members in that town. I tried to return to rectify my rather gratuitous mistake, but realized that the game would not allow me to reenter. It was as if the word “bollocks” had taken physical manifestation in the air between me and the television. The problem I had encountered was that the story had so much potential for customization, that it was possible to play through the entire game and skip huge portions of plot and character elaboration that people had put lots of good, hard work into. I'm all for broadening the horizon of player choice, but that's taking things a little far in my opinion. Of course, this could be a blessing in disguise. A game that makes players live with their mistakes, or allows them to make such a conscious choice is fairly revolutionary. Of course, Bioware has and is doing a good job of maintaining a reputation for these sorts of mechanics in a game. With Dragon Age 2 coming out sometime within the near future, it will be cool to see the story telling in this series taken to the next level.

Mass Effect 2

No, I am not dead. You can't get rid of me that easily. It was brought to my attention two days ago that I did not own Mass Effect 2, which I promptly decided to go forth and purchase. Right from the beginning I was floored. Bioware took the familiarity with characters and other plot devices from the first game, and threw it right back in the player's face. The main story line is easily one of the best that I have ever seen in any video game period. This was one of the few games that actually had me standing up out of my seat at certain key plot points, proclaiming "That is awesome!". Not only does it have it's thrilling moments (of which there are plenty of), but the character of Shepard is even fleshed out to a further extent. Now, before you say "How in hell do you flesh out a character whose nature entirely depends on the player's choices?", I shall say that it entirely depends on how much the character speaks. In the first Mass Effect game, Shepard's dialogue was always triggered by the alignment interface that came up in the middle of the screen whenever the conversational ball was thrown back in his or her side of the court, which in turn didn't come up quite as often as it could have, and gave the illusion that Shepard was the stoic type. In Mass Effect 2, Shepard is much more talkative. Not only does the ability to choose the sort of response that Shepard makes appear more often, but he or she speaks automatically every now and then, usually comprising of something based on a choice made at an earlier time, or something that is rather morally unremarkable. There is another element to the story that I find to be extremely remarkable about this game, the tangibility of the romance between Shepard and whichever other of the main characters that draws attention. This is one of the few games that I can name where the romance between the characters has actually made clear why these two are drawn to each other. It felt real. Well, at least the one with Tali Zorah did, I have yet to play through the other combinations.

Now, as for matters of gameplay, I am aware that there was a lot of controversy at first about the changes being made to the combat system, but I believe that they were made for the best. The addition of limited "ammunition" and thermal clips for the weapons made for an experience in combat that felt more visceral and gritty. The fact that you can affect your enemy's performance by shooting him in the limbs now was also a welcome tweak. What I did not like though, was how there was only three of each weapon type in the game. The fact that I wasn't constantly buying and selling equipment worried me. That however did not last. The lack of equipment variety is made up for by the fact that you through various means can be constantly improving your gear through acquirable upgrades and passive skills. One thing that I particularly enjoyed, and thought that was a much needed improvement was the hacking minigame, which now is much more fun to use, more challenging, and does not require the wasting of skill points in a separate skill. That however pales in comparison to the fact that there is no more damned rover! I could not be happier. Honestly though, I'm not certain if I just have not encountered the rover sequence, or if they actually got rid of it, but the practical lack of it is a good thing regardless of how you look at it. Well, I thank you for your time, your patience, and the six thousand dollars I have stolen from your bank account while you read this review. Next I shall be making a dissertation on Bioware's other recent hit RPG.

Fallout 3

Fallout 3
I have returned! Nothing can stop my bloody warpath across space and time, destroying everything that I see! Kneel before my glory! Anyway, this week I am going to be taking a good long look at the rather magnificent game that is Fallout 3. Okay, maybe magnificent isn't the correct word for an rpg that takes place in a nuked out district of colombia. Don't get me wrong though, the game is absolutely fantastic.
Lets take a gander as to why that is.
The story in it's very basic sense is quite good, even though if you don't pay strict attention to what's going on the entire purpose of your quest goes out the window with hygiene and clean water. Which brings us to the obvious point that most of the quests and goals involve finding sustainable food and water of the kind that will not kill you. That, and the rest of the time your duties as the champion of the wasteland fall under slaying monsters and thwarting the efforts of the villainous enclave or as I call them, “fallout nazis”. The miscellaneous quests that you run into while traversing the obliterated country-side are extremely fun as well. The ideas are usually fairly original for the most part, and like Bethesda's other masterful rpg Oblivion, some quests and goals are initiated without notice.
The combat system is also a very original and tasteful take on the usual fps action that makes up the genre of post apocalypse. The V.A.T.S. system is extremely smooth working, easy to use, and yields some spectacular results when couple with the perks that you gain. Speaking of which, the perks that you can select when you increase your experience level, range from extremely, to questionably useful. I found that many of the perks just seemed to be there for the sake of being there, they didn't actually bring anything to the gameplay that changed it dramatically. That being said, the ones that are really useful, really shine when you put them to use. The only real complaint I have of the system, is that other from using cheat codes (lets be honest, if you're considering using them on a first play through, I want you to unplug your keyboard, and use the little edge of plastic beneath the space bar to cut off your hands. I don't care how, I just want results. Serves you right.) there is no way of getting them all, whereas in Oblivion it just took a lot of time and dedication to max out every stat to get each perk, you can only max out the stats in Fallout 3. The leveling system runs the same course that it did in Oblivion, being a good idea on paper, but not all that practical when implemented into the gameplay. Now, as far as gear load outs go, I was impressed. There are large amounts of weapons and armor for the player to choose from, each with varying effects on play style and performance. I will say this though, imagine my opposing rpg characters from Oblivion and Fallout, (I keep on referencing the two together because their play style is almost identical.) the first being a towering vampire in black and red plate armor swinging an enormous soul stealing sword and bearing a shield with a screaming demonic face on it, surrounded by his elite bodyguard of skeletal warriors. Then picture a man in a huge suit of futuristic powered armor with electric arcs shooting all over his body, hefting an enormous laser cannon in one hand, and in the other a rocket launcher that shoots nuclear warheads. Ask yourself who would win if either of these mighty heroes went head to head with each other. If your answer is the hero from Fallout 3, then you can stop reading right now, not ten minutes from now, not when you decide to get up and visit your friend John Crapper, but NOW. The reason I say this is because my Oblivion character enchanted his own armor to do exactly what he wanted them to. Same with his arsenal of destructive and necromantive spells. My fallout character cannot do any of that. I really detested how they took the customizing of blank slate equipment out of the game. I can sort of understand that we're talking about physical technology and not the forces of magic here, but still, it's such a crucial thing in any rpg to be able to customize your equipment. As long as we're on this sort of note, let's talk about post-game awards. Fallout 3 has a bunch of perks, weapons, and housing options to choose from as far as ways to spend your cash. Yet, I do not really see these minor things as being awards. Aside from the destruction of the Enclave (or the Brotherhood of Steel, whichever you prefer, that is if you're a fallout nazi) there are no large benefits, you do not become a demon prince (Oblivion), nor do you become essentially immortal. All in all, I believe that Fallout 3 is a fantastic game with a great aura of desperate futility about it. Yet, when I load up the save, and look at all that my character has done, and the aftereffects of his actions, I can't help but wonder, have I really saved anybody? That's the thing, nothing really seems to get any better. Sure there's clean water for everyone at the end of it all, and the Enclave is no longer a huge threat, but what difference does it make? The world is still in shambles and the people are all clawing at each others throats like dogs fighting over a scrap of rotten meat. I had you going there didn't I? That's the entire point of the game I believe. That despite all of the good that you try to do, in the scale of things it hardly matters, the world is tearing itself apart from it's use of nuclear energy, combined with good old human nature. A more destructive pair there never has been. That's what makes Fallout 3 a great game in my opinion, that sense of hopelessness that sets in every now and then as you stare across the blackened fields and the charred forests. More than anything, the sense of atmosphere, that of fear, doubt, and sickness, contributes the most to what makes Fallout 3 so great.

Final Fantasy XII

I have returned! Almost catastrophically late, but, fear not. I've been looking at a very good game recently, a game so good that it made me eat my own socks. Yes, that good. The game, not the socks. Anyhow, the most recently released game in the Final Fantasy series is by far the best console rpg that I have played on the PS2. When I started playing this game, it grabbed me by the throat, and upped my standards of console RPG's tenfold. Everything about it is astounding, from the story, to the cinematics, to the gameplay. The entire game makes me want to stand up, wave my arms over my head, and scream "EPIC!" over and over again.
As far as the story goes, the tale of a small kingdom caught between two warring empires is a fairly basic concept, but the geniuses at Square Enix took it, and turned it into something extraordinary. Between the political strife, the seemingly one sided romance between two of the main characters, and the epic quest to restore the rightful heir to the crown in order to declare peace with an occupying nation, the story has litteraly got something for everyone.
The gameplay is second to none. The combat system takes a little getting used to, but the first three hours of play are spent in tutorials, which explain all of the game's odds and ends. The combat utilizes an auto attack in conjunction with other special abilities, like World of Warcraft. The thing that really sets it apart though, is that you can pause the game at any time during combat in order to issue commands without having to worry about your characters' health bott0ming out. The skill and ability unlocking system to the game, and is really fun to use. Sure it's frustrating to have to graphically unlock several other skills to get to the one you want, but the puzzle like system is ultimately creative, and entertaining.
I wish that I could go one further about the game (I think that I might edit this post a little later on) but duty calls. "By the light of the moon!" *poof*

The Fable series, part 2

And on the third day, the lord came down from heaven and said "What be pimping hoes?"! Sorry for the late update this week, Charter cable is now my official nemesis. On our second foray into the fable games, ergo we look at the second game. The sequel I believe built quite faithfully onto the original in terms of story and gameplay. It also tweaked a few features and added some new ones that I think all work very well in contributing to the game. A few that stand out are the streamlining of the ranged combat including spells, and guns. Another thing that I thought was extremely note worthy was that, the developers added in a whole bunch of endgame content to help raise money. This was a feature that was lacking in the first game, and is a welcomed adition to the sequel.
As far as story goes, Fable II has it's shit held tight. Even though your charater never speaks, or interacts socially with other people in traditional methods, the developers wrote the story so well, that your character exhibits all of the traits of a literary hero. Yet again, the game's story line is dark, with undertones of classic British humor, just like the first game, but the dark bits are even darker and creepier. The dream sequence after Lucien declares that he killed your family (and your dog, bastard) is so wonderfully eery, it drove chills up my spine towards the end, what with the music box playing in the background of all the death and destruction. A well received collection of features that were supposed to be in the first game, indeed made it into the second, including the ability to have a child.
Fable II has some of the coolest endgame rewards in rpgs, like the ability to become king of all of the game's world, you don't see that too often. Which raises the question of what the point of the third game is going to be. Recently a teaser trailer was released with the catch phrase of "The race for the crown begins." Now, I think that the selling point of the sequel is going to be to become a powerful monarch, which you already could in the 2nd game. So my guess is that maybe the third game is going to build right off of the 2nd game, (using the same character?) and is going to take the allmighty ruler thing to the next level. Before I sign off for this week, I want to say two things. The first is that I will now be posting on saturdays for sake of convenience. The second is that a really cool looking MMO called Aion is coming out around the same time as the newest addition to the Halo series (all hail master chief) and it would really be worth your time to go check out it's web site. Now, onward Concord!

The Fable series, part 1

Yo. That's all I got for this week as far as a greeting goes. I hope that no one cares about the nearly catastrophic late posting, but the galaxy needed saving again, and I needed to do the laundry and feed my cat. Anyhow, this week's game is actually the game and it's sequel, because it's hard to look at just one of them independently. In this first part The Fable games are arguably some of the funnest and at times most controversial games on the market. Controversial in that the developing studio's head creative developer made a lot of promises for the first game that were never fulfilled, resulting in much customer disapointment, and Microsoft asking Lionhead studios to keep a tighter leash on their enthusiastic colleague. Despite all of the features that never made it into the first game, the first game was extremely popular and for good reason.
As far as the story goes, despite the fact that your character never says anything (as per usual), the narrative of the plot is fantastic, with several good twists, a nasty villain, and a sort of deus ex machina in the form of your creepy and blind older sister who see's into the future and shoots lasers. The gameplay itself is very fun as well, with the combat system being fairly simple to figure out, and having some rather entertaining spells to cast. The one feature thatI find the most interesting is the way that your personal aesthetic changes based on your actions. Such as, how if you brutally slaughter an old woman, that you grow horns and flies buzz around your head. As well as, if you spend two hours hacking up skeletons in a graveyard, butterlies flutter around you, and a shaft of light follows you around. The particullarly enjoyable bit about the Fable games in general (more so in the second game) is their tongue in cheek attitude, a mix of dark fantasy elements and offbeat humor. I personally enjoy this, what with a need to take a break from the more disturbing parts of the game such as children being turned into goblins, and the need to murder your own sister in an attempt to gain an extremely powerful weapon.
Before I make a final statement, I'm going to cut off for now, and publish part two of my critique of the Fable series next week.

Two Worlds

That's right, I'm back. Internet crashes and unreadable disks are paltry challenges! Anywho, this week I'm looking at a bad game. A really bad game. A game so bad that I felt obligated to use the cheat codes. A game so bad that it scales an eleven on the badness scale. I'm talking about Two Worlds. The first thing that I noticed about this game is the primitive level of the graphics, and the godawful voice work. I swear, Steven Hawking voiced half of the characters in this game. As I went on playing it, I found the gameplay to be clunky, shallow, and "Is something wrong with my Xbox or is the framerate really that bad?" I don't believe that I have ever spent so long on one game figuring out how to freaking change the spell that I'm casting. The only thing that's worse in this game is the inventory system, which clumps the tiny item pictures together in incomprehensible clutter, with no thought put into organization at all. I was thouroughly disgusted by the fact that unless you keep your inventory screen spick and span, you find yourself taking five minutes or longer to put on the new armor suit you bought. Which brings me to my next complaint, all of the items in the game to be bought are too expensive to even be comparable to the amount of gold you have on hand at any given time. Quests award miniscule amounts of gold, and ultimately pointless faction reputation boosts. Then there is the writing for the game. Just like the rest of the game, the story is pitiful, shallow, not well constructed, and completely baffling. It doesn't even have a satisfying ending. All the ending is, is this two second cut scene that takes you back to the main menu. The only game I can think of with a worse ending than this is The Lord of The Rings: The Third Age, which didn't even have an ending... >:( Now the combat holds special contempt, at least for me. The enemies are so ridiculously powerful, that it isn't even practical to take them on in close combat, and ranged attacks are laughably weak. So your only option is to run away like a sissy. Then there are the rewards you get. At the endgame point, you can actually take on the enemies without the fear of getting your ass kicked. Pretty decent reward if you ask me. /sarcasm. There really is no other reward. It's all pointless. Just the same douchebag character with the synthesized voice running around being an ass hole, because that's all that he can do, there is no actual role playing in this game. It would more aptly be called a killing time game. What with the company's announcement that they're making a sequel you have to stop and ask yourself, "Why? What point is there in a sequel? Will it be slightly less terrible? Will it have better voice overs? Anyway, I'm not going to hold my breath. Next week, I'm going to be looking at a game, and it's sequel together. (Insert cheesey line here.)