Reus

Oh, boy, it has been a while since I've been on here, hasn't it? I've let a lot of stuff slide (sorry, Freaky Fun Friday readers! I promise, the last installment was not the end of that series!).

I blame Reus.

Okay, so it's really my fault. I'm not good at keeping myself motivated, especially when there's a video game to distract me. And Reus (don't ask me how to pronounce it) is an incredible distraction.

The premise is simple: you're a living planet. You are in direct control of four giants (Ocean, Forest, Rock, and Swamp). You use them to create different biomes and place resources (animal, plant, and mineral).

But the giants aren't alone on the planet. There are these pesky things called "humans," and they have a mind of their own. They'll settle anywhere they can find resources and start building special projects. It's up to you to provide the humans what they need so they can build those projects. But at the same time, you also have to keep them in line because, if you don't, they'll turn on you and attack the giants. And you only have 30, 60, or 120 minutes to get as much done as you can.

I've found Reus to be mind-bogglingly addictive, and part of the reason why is the nature of the game. It's a stripped down god-game (think old school Populous) with heavy puzzle elements. Every resource you can place can interact with the stuff next to it. For example, if you place certain animals near minerals, they'll provide more food. Or if you put certain minerals next to plants, those minerals will provide more gold. Part of the challenge is to find the best interaction to help bolster what the humans are up to. And you want the humans to build those projects. Pretty much every time they do, they provide your giants with an "ambassador" that unlocks special powers, allowing the giants to upgrade the resources, leading to more and better interactions that allow the humans to build more and more impressive projects.

Ah, those humans. Love 'em and hate 'em in this game. There literally is no good way to control them (aside from being really careful where you place the resources). They'll sometimes pick odd projects (one of my swamp villages kept trying to build a "Geologist" project, which requires mountains. They were nowhere near a mountain. I finally had to have my Rock Giant destroy the village). And if you give them too many resources too quickly, they'll get greedy. Greed is bad. Greed leads to the villages attacking each other and eventually, the giants.

Not only that, but the game sets unofficial "goals" for each playthrough. For example, one of the goals I'm trying to meet right now is to create a game where all of the villages create 2,000 food together. Meeting those goals unlocks more resources to use in the game (something you also receive the first time the humans build a particular type of project).

Not everything is hunky-dory with this game, however. Figuring everything out is kind of tricky. The game links to a wiki that I've found really helpful, but a lot of what a player does is trial-and-error. That's not necessarily bad, but you have to be careful not to lock yourself into one way of playing.

Also, there are stability issues that have been maddening for me. A few times, my giants have frozen in place and won't take orders. I found an easy fix for that one, but the most recent has really upset me. The game will randomly crash at the same point, over and over. For example, last night, I finally managed to complete some projects that had been eluding me. I had only 15 minutes left in my game. And then it all crashed. I tried reloading from the auto-save, only to have it crash again. And again. And again. Needless to say, I had some unpleasant thoughts about the game.

But that shouldn't stop you from checking out this great game. It's available from a variety of sources and it's only about ten bucks. Well worth the money, believe me!

Organ Trail

Every now and then, I find an interesting video game on Steam. Usually it's an indie game and I love buying those games, if for no other reason than to encourage the indies to keep working.

Well, the other day, I got excited, because I thought that I spotted an old favorite on Steam: Oregon Trail. Who here remembers Oregon Trail? When I was in elementary school, I remember how excited I got plopping down in front of the Apple II and trying to get my little band of pioneers from Independence, MO, to the promised land of Oregon. Yeah, I usually wound up wiping out due to dysentery or the final trek down the river, but it was a lot of fun!

You can imagine my surprise when I thought I spotted Oregon Trail on Steam. It even looked the same as the Oregon Trail I used to play. So I clicked on over and then stopped.

Organ Trail? What on Earth?

As it turns out, I had stumbled on a silly little indie game in which a group of survivors have to travel from Washington, D.C., to a promised land on the west coast. Load up a station wagon, gather your provisions, and head on out. Just hope that nobody gets bit by a zombie or you might have to put them down.

So let's talk about what the game gets right. First of all, it's got the feel of the original 8-bit version of Oregon Trail, down to the awful graphics. You have to buy your original supplies, like food, ammo, med kits, and spare tires and mufflers and batteries for your car. You can set your pace and your rationing and hope for the best.

Just like in the original game, you can stop from time to time to scavenge for more supplies, just like how you had to hunt for game in the original. Only this time, you're scooping up magically appearing wallets and grocery bags and using your trusty rifle to shoot the shuffling zombies that come after you. Plus there's plenty of silly humor in the game, some nods to the original that had me smiling.

But not everything is kosher in this game. The combat system is a major disappointment.

Look, I get it. The game developers didn't want this one to get too easy. But using the mouse to aim the gun is too much of a hit-or-miss proposition, and usually, it's a miss. Instead of putting the cursor between the zombie and myself, to aim, I have to put the cursor behind my avatar. The only way I could reasonably aim my gun was to draw a line from the zombie target to myself, but there were still times when my hand would twitch and suddenly, my character would turn 270-degrees and I'd be facing the wrong way, unable to turn around quick enough to shoot the zombie. Because of this glitch, I haven't even come close to reaching the end of the game. And all of this is on easy! I shudder to think what would happen on the harder difficulties.

So do I regret getting this game? Not at all. It is fun. I just wish I had a better shot at beating it.

Rapture

If you've been around my blog long enough, you've discovered that I have a thing for video games. That's especially true for games that come with a good story. And if you're looking for some great stories in video games, you don't have to look any further than Bioshock (and in this case, I'm referring to the first two in the franchise; I haven't finished playing Biohosck: Infinite just yet, but I think I might be close).

Part of what makes the Bioshock franchise so engaging is the setting and the larger-than-life characters the player encounters throughout the games. I still remember the first moment I saw the underwater city of Rapture looming up on the bottom of the ocean floor in the first game. I still remember the shock I felt at The Twist in the middle of the first game (and no, I'm not dropping any spoilers here). I still remember how excited I was to go back for the second game.

So when I saw that a man named John Shirley was tasked in creating a book about Rapture and its denizens, I wanted to see what he put together. I got a copy of BioShock: Rapture and finally got around to reading it.

The book is pretty much what it advertises. We get to go along as industrialist Andrew Ryan envisions his objectivist utopia and builds it on the floor of the North Atlantic. We get to watch as all the characters we meet in the games come to live in Rapture. And then we get to watch as it all falls apart: as war breaks out between Ryan's forces and an upstart who wants to rip it all away, as Dr. Sofia Lamb tries her best to create a collective out of what should have been competition, as so many little girls are turned into Little Sisters, paired with the hulking Big Daddies.

I really wanted to like this book. I mean, I really loved the games. The first one, especially, kept me up late one night wrestling with philosophical questions of how much free will a person really has (and really, isn't that what a good story is supposed to do?). I guess those high expectations translated over to the book.

Don't get me wrong. Shirley does an admirable job weaving a very convoluted timeline into a whole (I've often gotten confused about how all the events of the two games fit together). And I think he does a pretty good job capturing the personalities of the games.

But after reading it all, I think I know what it was missing: a true through-line. We needed a main character to follow and care about. There are a lot of people that I felt sorry for while reading the book. But we pop around Rapture so much throughout the book that it was hard to really care about any of them. Shirley almost does that with Bill McDonagh, but we don't spend nearly enough time with him to really come to care.

So this was an admirable try, but it fell short of the greatness of the games.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find out what happens in the flying city of Columbia. Ah, Bioshock, you're so much fun!

DLC Quest

If you're a gamer, you're probably painfully aware of the fact that the video game industry has adopted the practice of overusing DLC, which is short for downloadable content. You buy the base game, and then, either on the day the game releases, or scattered throughout the following months, the developers add content to the game, allowing you to run new missions or get new weapons or stuff like that. For example, in Mass Effect 3, we have the following DLC packs that have been released (some for free, some for up to $15 a pop):

• Alternate Appearance Pack 1
• Leviathan
• Extended Cut
• Reckoning
• Citadel
• Groundside Resistance Pack
• Omega
• Firefight Pack
• Retaliation
• Earth
• Rebellion
• Resurgence
• From Ashes

Somehow, typing that list out made me more depressed, although to be fair, the vast majority are free multiplayer upgrades.

Regardless,  the inclusion of DLC has a lot of players steamed. And where there's anger, comedy quickly follows. Enter Going Loud Studios' DLC Quest where everything is DLC.

You start as an 8-bit character. You have no animation, no sound, and you can only move to the right. As you move, you collect coins in the game and meet up with a shopkeeper, one who will sell you the DLC necessary to rescue a kidnapped princess. So you buy the ability to move in every direction. You buy the ability to double-jump. You buy everything you need to actually play the game as microtransactions. And along the way, there are ridiculous jokes about current gaming trends, other popular game titles (such as my beloved Mass Effect games), and even more DLC.

When I bought the game on Steam, it also came with an expansion called "Live Freemium or Die." All told, playing the whole game took me about two hours. It's not a lot of time, but I was laughing out loud through most of it.

If you're a gamer and you're not happy with the current trajectory of gaming when it comes to DLC, this is a good game to check out. And hey, it's only like three bucks. Not a bad deal!

Miasmata

Where was that stupid plant? I knew I needed it to synthesize the cure for the plague running through my veins. I had followed the notes the other researchers had left scattered across Eden, updating my map as I could. I knew I had to be close. Maybe if I stopped to get my bearings again, triangulate my position from the large stone statues that dotted this island paradise? I found a good vantage point and tried to find the monuments on my map. No, no, no! I couldn't find any of them on the map! So where was I?

And then I heard it. The steady thrum of a heartbeat growing louder with each moment. The beast was coming.

I dove for the nearest tall grass, kneeling down and holding my breath as the giant cat-like creature stalked into view. If only I could stay hidden. If only I could find familiar landmarks. If only I could find that plant! Then maybe I could discover the cure and save the world.



 Every now and then, I find an awesome indie game that's quite a lot of fun. Miasmata, by IonFx, is just such a game. The premise is very simple: a plague is ravaging humankind. You play as Robert Hughes, a researcher who is slowly dying from the plague as well. You've been sent to the tropical island of Eden, a veritable treasure trove of medicinal plants. There's supposed to be a whole team of researchers working on this problem and they've even figured out how to synthesize the cure. Unfortunately, they're all dead, apparently murdered by . . . well, someone. It's your job to explore the island, find the plants you need, and create the cure the world needs. But that won't be easy, because not only are you in a weakened state, thanks to the plague, but there's a creature stalking you, ready to destroy you.

So let's talk about the good parts of this game, and there are a lot of them. First of all, it's gorgeous. The graphics are well done and there are some fun ecosystems to explore.

The fact that your character is sick can be frustrating, but in a good way. Because he's infected with the plague, there's the constant danger of running a fever (which can prove lethal if left untreated). The character is also weakened from the plague, meaning that you can't run far or for long and swimming is pretty much a no go. You can temporarily boost your strength and endurance by mixing the right medicines together and even permanently boost your abilities by creating the right drugs.

Finding the different plants is a great puzzle. Most of the plants can be used in some way, the most plentiful being used for basic medicine. But half the fun was stumbling across the rarer plants that are scattered across the island. Part of the challenge, though, is bringing the plants you find back to the various labs that are set up throughout the island. Your weakened state can make that difficult, as can the creature that pops up from time to time.

Let's talk about the creature. The first time I spotted it, I nearly jumped out of my chair. It's a nasty beasty, one that can stalk you through the tall grass. There's really no way to defeat it. You just have to hide and hope that it eventually will get bored and leave you alone.

But here's something I didn't expect: cartography! When the game starts out, your map is mostly blank. And it's a big island and very easy to get lost in. The only way to keep track of where you are is to triangulate your position. You find two landmarks that you have on your map, and boom, you know where you are. And it works in reverse as well: if there's an unfamiliar landmark in the area, if you can pinpoint your position, you can figure out where the other one is too. I often got wrapped up in plotting the location of statues, ruins, and tents on my map, partially because it was fun, but it was also a way to make sure I didn't get lost again. One time, I was so caught up in plotting the nearby statues that the creature snuck up behind me and knocked me off a cliff. Not cool, man. Not cool.

For all the great points of this game, there are some drawbacks. For one thing, the creature doesn't show up quite nearly enough for my taste. Yes, it was worrisome when it did, but I could go for long stretches without even a hint of the beast.

Second, the game seems incomplete. The mystery of the murdered researchers is never really solved. They're all dead and obviously, someone killed them, but you never learn who or why or where the murderer went. I expected to at least learn that much but I never did. Also, there are references to making anti-hallucination agents, but I never was able to and, strangely, I never had to either. Maybe in a future patch?

And third, the game is kind of buggy. There's no real way to pause the game except by bringing up the control panel, but if you do that for too long, the game crashes. There were other times when the game would just crash on me for no apparent reason, mostly when I was starting out.

But here's the thing: this entire game was programmed by two guys. Two! That alone makes this game an impresive feat. You can get the game on Steam, and I really suggest you do. It's a great puzzle and a fun time. Just watch out for the creature!

Mass Effect 3: DLC Roundup!

FAIR WARNING: If you haven't played BioWare's Mass Effect 3, you might want to skip this one. It's not going to make a whole lot of sense.

Last night I finished another play-through of Mass Effect 3 (my third), and I realized that it had been a while since I mentioned something about the game here. That surprised me, seeing as they've released four DLC packs for the single player game, the most recent being released a few weeks ago. Well, more than four if you count the alternate appearance DLC and weapons. So let's talk about the four packs that somehow alter the single player campaign's story:

From Ashes - This was the first DLC to be released and boy howdy, did it cause a lot of frustration for players. A lot of people threw a fit because it was released the same day as the game itself. They didn't like the idea of having to pay money for something that's supposed to be on the game disc itself. Not only that, but everyone knew that this somehow involved the Protheans, the extinct race that's rested at the heart of the franchise for the previous two games. Given the fact that the Catalyst is supposedly a Prothean invention, the Prothean in this DLC obviously has something to do with this, right?

Well, no, actually. Javik, the last Prothean left, knows nothing of the Catalyst. As a matter of fact, Javik adds very little the game. Sure, he's a useful extra squad member, but that's about it. He's a surly, mean-spirited individual that I've wanted to kick on more than one occasion. About the only time I like having Javik in the game is during the Thessia mission. If you've played the game, you know why.

So basically, this DLC rates a lukewarm "meh" from me. Not worth the stink it caused, that's for sure.

Extended Cut DLC- Out of all the DLC, this one was the most necessary. The original ending of Mass Effect 3 was, in a word, awful. So much so that I actually took the time to share my feelings in a YouTube video. Yeah, I know. I'm a nerd. That's not news to me.

The stink over this one grew so large that the folks at BioWare acted and fixed this and they did a pretty good job. Originally, the game shoe-horned the player into one of three barely explained choices and then bang, the game just ended. There was no closure to . . . well, anything. Saved the krogan from the genophage? You won't know how that turned out. Picked the quarian over the geth? No clue what happened after that. All you were left with was a strange coda that was poorly voiced by Buzz Aldrin. Seriously.

So they went back in and they added in some extra dialogue to help us understand what was happening in the final moments. And they added a epilogue that helped give closure to the entire franchise, showing us through bits of video and pictures how everything turned out. I shared my favorite. What can I say, I'm a sucker for the krogan.

Overall, this one was a great addition to the game because it fixed a major defect in the game. In its original form, I didn't really want to replay Mass Effect 3. With the Extended Cut, I want to go back and see how my decisions change the ending. So this is definitely worth it.

Leviathan - There's something lurking in the darkness, a powerful force that once took out a Reaper. Commander Shepard and his team have to race against the Reaper forces to locate the Leviathan and convince it to join their war against the Reapers. But Leviathan does not want to be found. Not by Shepard, not by the Reapers, not by anyone. The darkness must not be breached.

I loved this one! While it didn't add any new enemies or any new squad mates, it added a lot to the Mass Effect mythos, further explaining the Reapers' goals and motivations. I wouldn't normally have thought that's a good thing (something that I explain in this post over at Speculative Faith), but in this case, it helped. I got chills when Shepard finally found Leviathan. It was a great addition to the game.

But I do have one gripe with it. The developers didn't do a good job of integrating the Leviathan missions with the rest of the game. Once the DLC missions become available, you can basically play through all of them in one long burst, which means that you can wind up facing Reaper forces you haven't encountered in the main game yet. For example, at one point, the Reapers unleash banshees after Shepard's squad, and one of the squadmates correctly identifies them. That's even though the player hasn't gone to the ardat-yakshi monastery yet. I would think it would have been easy to stagger the Leviathan missions so that you can't complete them until you've reached certain parts of the game (i.e. you can't play the mission with the banshees until after the ardat-yakshi monastery).

But that's a minor quibble and not that big of a deal. This one was great and helped make the game even more complete, so far as I'm concerned.

Omega - So in Mass Effect 2, Commander Shepard visits a mining outpost called Omega, one run by a ruthless asari named Aria T'loak. Well, in the chaos of the Reaper invasion, the human terrorist organization called Cerberus has invaded Omega and taken it from Aria. Now Aria wants Shephard's help to reclaim it once and for all. Shepard leaves his team behind to join Aria in a desperate fight to retake Omega.

There's a lot going for this DLC pack. For starters, there's one of the squad mates you gain for these missions, namely Nyreen Kandros, a female turian (something heretofore unseen in the Mass Effect franchise). Nyreen is a noble individual, an interesting counterpoint to the very cynical and cruel Aria. And your Cerberus opponent, General Petrovsky, was a fascinating individual. Then there's the bonus powers that Shepard gains access to once the Omega missions are completed. I switched from warp ammo to Aria's flare power and never looked back. As a matter of fact, I have a feeling that flare is a bit overpowered; it allowed me to slice through enemy forces through the rest of the game with a little too much ease.

And yet . . . and yet there are problems. Once again, we have the same problems as in Leviathan. I was fighting Cerberus phantoms before encountering them in the main game. Not such a big deal this time around, I guess. But what did bother me is how underdeveloped the story on this one seemed. While Petrovsky was a cool opponent, the final showdown with him seemed anticlimactic. And the adjutants, while creepy, didn't seem to add much to the story either. So while this was an interesting addition to the game, once I finished it, I felt very underwhelmed.

THE VERDICT:  So how to sum all this up? The Extended Cut DLC was a must because the game is incomplete without it. Leviathan makes the game that much cooler. Omega is okay, I guess. And as far as I'm concerned, Javik can go crawl back into stasis.

Wreck-It Ralph

Thanks to my wonderful wife (who is a wizard at finding cool deals), I was able to see a sneak preview of Wreck-It Ralph a little over a week early. This was a great opportunity, simply because I'd been looking forward to seeing this movie pretty much all summer. I heard it described as a sort of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? but with video game characters. Given how much I love my video games, I couldn't wait to see who got included. I was hoping for a whole smorgasbord of characters. Sadly, there weren't as many as I hoped for. On that account, I was a little disappointed.

But only on that point. I went in expecting a light, silly movie, one designed to stoke up nostalgia and little else. But what I found instead was a well-crafted story. A silly one, sure, but I was pleasantly surprised at how great this movie turned out.

You can get the gist of the plot from this trailer:



Poor Ralph. All he wants is to appreciated for once in his life. But his quest to become the hero endangers his game and many others.

What can I say about this movie? It's awesome. While I was a little dissatisfied with the lack of cameos (there were a lot of classic characters wandering around in the background), the ones that did show up made logical sense from within the story. The internal logic hangs together well too. The characters are a blast. The story, while somewhat simple, was a hoot.

The greatest surprise for me? Alan Tudyk voiced the Candy King. I had no idea until the end credits started rolling. I suspect the people I was sitting next to thought I was crazy when I saw that.

The one caveat I can share is this: beware the ending, especially if you're bringing kids. There's some dark stuff going on in the ending. I mean, I know they're video game characters, but some of the stuff that happens at the end struck me as a bit . . . well, dark.

But it's a great movie nonetheless. If you're a video game fan, go see this movie. Even if you're not, it's a great movie. Just be sure to see it soon!

FTL: Faster than Light

The bane of my existence right now is Kickstarter. I actually have to stay off of it most days because I know that I'm going to find something that I like and I'll want to dump some money into supporting it. My particular weaknesses are the games, both board and computer. I want to get them all!

Case in point: FTL: Faster than Light. On the surface, it looks like a throwback to "simpler times." The graphics aren't complex. Neither is the sound. And yet, this game is a lot of addicting fun.

You are in charge of a starship, one with a vital mission. The Rebels are going to wipe out your government, but you have the battle plans that reveal the weakness of their massive flagship. You must get your plucky crew across a randomly generated galaxy to do battle with the flagship. While you go, you collect scrap, missiles, drone parts, and fuel. You upgrade your ship with new systems and weapons. You pick up Sounds easy? Guess again.

This game is hard. Extremely hard. As in, I've played this game dozens of times and only beaten it three or four times, and each time, it's surprised me. The enemy gets progressively harder, but the final boss is a beast. Worse, there's no way to save the game to go back if you make a mistake. There is a brutal learning curve to this game and it is still a blast. Ever since I backed FTL on Kickstarter, I've had access to the beta. The additional features that have snuck into the game as they worked on it has made it awesome. This is a great game and a challenging one to boot. It's worth the investment.

What Can Videogames Teach Us About Backstory?

So earlier this week, I was a presenter at the NextGen Writer's Conference, an on-line conference for teenage writers. It was an absolute blast! Rather than just write a post, though, I decided to go all high-tech and do a video. And here it is:



This won't be the last videogame/writing related video you'll see from me, though. I have a few more ideas and, at future conferences, I'll be presenting more of them. And I'll always be sure to share in this little corner of the Web as well.

Mass Effect 3 Ending: Choices and Theme

A few weeks ago, I posted a video here about the controversy surrounding the Mass Effect 3 ending. Well, it looked like so much fun, I decided to make one of my own.

Mass Effect 3 Ending: Tasteful, Understated Nerdrage

Sometimes on Friday, I dump in silly little videos that have amused me in some way, shape, or form. Other times, they're videos that have gotten me thinking.

This time, it's a video about a video game.

If you read my review about Mass Effect 3, you know that I'm not entirely pleased with that game's ending. Neither are a lot of the fans. People have been trying to explain why and how to fix things for a while now. Well, I found a video this week that does just that.

A few caveats: there are spoilers aplenty. The video is over a half hour long. And there's some salty language in here. But after watching this video, I'm pretty much in agreement with just about everything this guy says. He breaks down the problems cleanly and points to how it could be so much better.

I doubt anyone from BioWare will find my little corner of the Internet. But if they do, watch this, please. And think about it.

Mass Effect 3

So this is it. The final chapter. The time for all of your choices to come home to roost. Mass Effect 3 launched last week and I've been stealing an hour here, an hour there, to play through what is easily one of my most favorite game franchises ever. But last night, when I finished my first playthrough, I was left feeling a bit upset. But more on that in a bit. Since this is a BioWare game, we have to talk story first.

The story of this game is a culmination of the previous two installments. The Reapers, gigantic living machines, have invaded Earth. They're slaughtering everyone. As Commander Shepard, the player must rally the forces of the galaxy to his or her side to fight off the Reapers and save Earth. But things are not going to be easy. For example, there is the on-going tension between the krogan, the turians, and the salarians due to the "sterility plague" that the latter two inflicted on the former. The quarians have chosen this time to go to war with the geth. Shepard has a political and diplomatic minefield to negotiate if s/he wants to bring the full force of the galaxy against the Reaper threat.

But more problematic is the involvement of Cerberus, the rabidly pro-human organization that Shepard worked for/with in Mass Effect 2. They keep interfering in the situation because their leader, the Illusive Man, has his own plans for the Reapers.

Can Commander Shepard drive off the Reapers? And if s/he can, what's the price that will have to be paid and by whom?

 In terms of gameplay, this was a lot of fun. BioWare found a happy medium between the sheer depth and breadth of weapon and armor choices that they loaded into the first game and the minimalist design they used in the second. It seemed as though I was constantly finding new guns, most of which I wished I could try but never got the opportunity. I also liked the way they allowed players to design their own weapons loadout. It allowed me to tailor Shepard to my playstyle and gave me a lot of options. I'm already looking forward to going back just so I can try out those weapons.

As usual, the vocal talent was simply amazing. I have no idea how BioWare lands such big names for their casts, but once again, they did a great job. The graphics, too, were stellar.

An odd inclusion (at least, I thought it was odd at first) was the multiplayer co-op mode. I didn't think I'd like that, but I'm a believer now. I've been playing many matches with my engineer (who I've nicknamed "Scotty"). I kind of like the way that this feeds into the single player experience, but I'm not the biggest fan of being forced to do something like that if I don't want to.

So that leaves us the story. In many ways, I really liked the story up until the ending. A lot of threads that had been woven into the previous two games were resolved and I really appreciated the way that they handled those stories. In particular, I loved the return to Tuchanka to deal with the genophage and I really liked the way that they included a resolution to the quarian/geth conflict. Both of those had a lot of emotional heft in the previous installments. Again, while I chose the "paragon" route for those plots this time around, I am curious to go back in and take the "renegade" route and see how things can go off the rails.

But then there's the ending. There are a lot of fans who are extremely upset with BioWare because of the ending and, quite frankly, I can understand why. I'm upset by it too. I don't want to get into spoilers here, so I'll try to speak in overall generalities.

For starters, I didn't like the lack of resolution for some of the larger storylines. Shepard resolves the Reaper conflict, but we're not told what the aftermath is for the larger galaxy. Do the alliances that you forged last? What happened in the aftermath to your teammates?  I would have been satisfied with a "Where Are They Now?" montage at the end of the game. BioWare has done something like that in previous games, most notably Dragon Age: Origins. Given that we've invested so much time in these characters and races, it'd be nice to know, for example, what happened to the krogan or the rachni or the quarians. What happened to Liara T'Soni or Garrus?

Second, and this is what really rankles, is the fact that instead of providing us with multiple endings, BioWare essentially gave players one. I did a little digging last night and found out that your choices, which were so central to the gameplay, ultimately don't matter. You basically get the same ending; they just change minor details within the ending (such as the color of the final explosion; really!?!). I seem to recall reading in prerelease interviews that the design team were promising players radically different endings. They didn't deliver. If I choose option A, the ending should be very different from the ending that arises from option B, and so on. BioWare touted this game series as one where your choices matter. With this ending, their message is basically, "LOL! Not really."

So does this mean that I won't be coming back to this game? Not at all. While the ending is farcical and a mess, the overall game is good. And I have a lot of saved characters to import into the final installment. I want to see how their stories wind up too. I just wish their endings could be different.

Portal: No Escape

So it's been a while since I posted a Portal related video. But this is one as worth the wait:

Orcs Must Die!

Every now and then, I'll spot a game on Steam that catches my attention for some reason or another. When I saw the title of Orcs Must Die!, I had a feeling that this was my kind of game, so I downloaded the demo and sure enough, I liked what I saw well enough that I pre-ordered the full. Just last night, I finished the first play-through, but I'm definitely not done with this fun and funny game.

The basic premise is this: the player is an apprentice warmage, one charged with protecting magical rifts from wave after wave of invading orcs, kobolds, ogres, and so on. You have a few special magical talismans that shoot fire or ice or electricity. You also are given a wide variety of traps and helpers to defend the rift(s). There are arrows that shoot out of the wall, giant springboards that can toss the orcs through the air, or swinging pendulums that . . . well, the less said about those the better.

This is basically a tower defense game with wall and floor traps. There isn't much of a plot, but what little is there is funny and engaging.

Like I said, I finished the game, switching from the medium difficulty to the easiest. Now I'm going back to try to get perfect scores on each of the levels. Doing so gives me "skulls," which I can spend to make the traps more deadly. And then there's the "nightmare" mode. I'm actually kind of looking forward to that one.

So if you have a few bucks sitting around, this one is definitely a keeper. Have fun (stopping them from) storming the castle!

Tropico 4

The Tropico franchise has been great from the beginning, and Tropico 4 is no exception.

For those unfamiliar with the games, you play as the dictator of a Caribbean island. You have to guide your country, making them prosperous either through trade or tourism. You have to deal with rebels and foreign governments, all the while trying to siphon away as much money as you can into a Swiss bank account. Well, not all the games were like that. Tropico 2 was about pirates. Go figure.

In many ways, Tropico 4 is just a spit-polished version of Tropico 3. The building models are pretty much the same (although the graphics are better). You still build your dictator from the ground up, selecting a background, a rise to power, and three traits, all of which give you particular bonuses and, in a few cases, hinders your performance. And then you're set loose on an island with agricultural and mineral resources.

The really interesting difference between the previous game and this one was the inclusion of a twenty mission campaign with a coherent storyline, one of a meteoric rise, betrayal, and revenge. That was a fun surprise; each mission forces the player to focus on a different aspect of island building. In one, you have to build a tourist mecca. In another, an industrial powerhouse. There were points where I was left scratching my head. For example, one mission took me a really long time, not ending until the game year hit the '90s. The next mission started in 1955. I realize it's a game mechanic that can't be helped, but it was a little odd.

Included in the game is the usual sandbox mode as well, allowing you a freeform game to play however you like.

I really like this game. It has some wry wit and humor and provides enough of a challenge to keep me coming back for more. I have no idea if a 5 is in the cards, but if it is, I'll be dusting off my dictator hat for another go-around.

Outside Aperture

Yet another fan-made film about Portal. This one's a little . . . well, weird. But in a good way.

Want You Gone

One of the great things about the Portal games is the inclusion of music. When I beat the first game, I nearly fell out of my chair as GLaDOS, the big, evil computer began to serenade me. And while knowing that she'd sing again in the sequel kind of made it less special, I still loved the new song, "Want You Gone."

But not, apparently, as much as the guy who made this video. To be fair:



If you haven't played the game all the way through, don't watch the video. But if you have, enjoy.

Beyond Black Mesa

I've apparently been amassing a load of on-line videos that are really cool. I figured I'd better start sharing them, nicht wahr? Here's one set in the universe of the Half Life games. The sheer dedication it takes to make a video like this is absolutely mind-boggling.

From Dust

One of the dangers of having Steam installed on my computer is that every now and then, I'll see an ad for a game that looks interesting and is priced relatively low. Usually I can resist the temptation to splurge. Sometimes I can't. And the cheap-o games I get are a mixed bag. Some are really fun, others aren't.

So a few weeks ago, I saw an ad for From Dust. The ad made it sound like this was a critically acclaimed game and a friend of mine mentioned playing it. I blame my sleep deprived state, but I decided to buy the game and see what it was like.

It's a fairly straightforward game. You have a little tribe of followers/worshipers who are traveling from level to level, building villages around stone totems. You are some sort of powerful deity or spirit or something-or-other who can sort of control the forces of nature, sculpting the land, protecting your people, guiding them ever onward in their quest to find . . . well, I'm not sure what, exactly. The story in this game isn't much, just a weird through-line of trying to find "the Ancients" for some unknown reason. Go figure.

Each level is basically a puzzle you have to solve, using the powers that your followers can unlock for you. For example, if they build a village around the totem for "Infinite Earth," you gain the ability to create sand and dump it wherever you want for a limited amount of time. The trick is to figure out how to keep your tribe safe from the hostile world around them. That's not as easy as it sounds. There were a few levels that I barely made it past, simply because I got lucky.

In many ways, this game reminded of me of a stripped down version of the old Populous games. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I liked Populous. And for the most part, I liked From Dust. The levels were challenging enough but not so bad as to completely stymie me. There are further challenge levels that I may check out.

The downside is the DRM, which apparently a lot of gamers are upset about. From what little I can gather, Ubisoft, the game's developer, promised that you wouldn't need a persistent internet connection to play but, guess what, you actually do. That didn't bother me so much, but for some reason, at the beginning and end of each session, the game tried to sync my saved games and failed, a process that took two to three minutes. Kind of bugged me.

So I guess you have to ask yourself if you don't mind intrusive DRM. If not, this could be a fun distraction.

The Sims 3: Generations

I wanted to hold off on writing this review of The Sims 3: Generations for as long as I could so I could see as much of this new expansion as I could. But unfortunately, I've grown a little frustrated with the Sims lately, a statement that I'll explain in just a little while.

I've been an avid Sims player since the early days and, by and large, new expansions always get me to sit up and take notice. I especially liked the idea of this one: add more stuff for kids and teens to do. That's been one area where the Sims 3 has been lacking: while adults can do a lot of stuff, the teens and the kids especially basically only have school and skill building. So when I saw that they were dedicating an entire expansion to new stuff for the young'uns, I was pretty excited.

And there's some good stuff in this pack. I think I've seen most of it by this point. There are new characteristics for your Sims (such as the Nurturing personality trait for those Sims who love kids, or the Rebellious trait which is fairly self-explanatory). Kids can now pull pranks, such as rigging showers with dye packs. There are new objects, such as a chemistry table that allows Sims to craft potions that do various things to whoever drinks them. There are new objects, such as new playground equipment.

The school setting has been revamped as well. Now kids and teens can sign up for afterschool clubs to build their skills. They can go on field trips (which also build skills). There's prom (an addition that I love!). You can even ship your kids off to boarding school, which I've done a few times now. It's an interesting experience; you don't have to worry about controlling said kid, but you also don't have much say in what traits they develop while they're gone. It's a cool trade-off.

Also fun is the inclusion of the Imaginary Friend. Occasionally, after a baby is born, a mysterious aunt will send them a doll they can play with. If they play with it enough (which they do automatically; it seems to be a toddler's favorite go-to activity), the toy will "come to life" as an imaginary friend, a companion that only the child can see and interact with. But if the child has a chemistry set and a high enough logic skill, they can craft a potion that brings said friend to life for real. The friend then joins the family and can even be married. I've done that. It was kind of fun.

On paper and even throughout my playing, this was a good expansion that helped enrich my game. But I have a serious complaint about it, one that seems to be recurring for most Sims games: it shipped with way too many bugs. This seems to be a common theme for Sims games. After the initial release, there are a lot of problems with the game that hopefully get caught with the first patch. It's a bad way to do business, in my opinion, and lazy to boot.

And it's also infuriating. Twice now I've lost games because I've hit a bug that makes half my household unplayable (their picture disappears from the boxes on the left of the screen). I've had to delete two very fun games because I can't play them. Also broken is the family inventory when the Sims travel overseas as part of the World Adventures expansion. Normally, when you go overseas and buy a "big" item (such as a nectar maker or martial arts dummy), it would get put into the family inventory to be used when the Sim returned home. Not since Generations came out, though.

So I've learned my lesson: while I will plan on getting expansions for this game, I won't buy them right away because the development team apparently needs to finish their jobs. It's a shame. A franchise like the Sims deserves better.