WoW

I understand that lots of people like World of Warcraft. I used to like it, well before the Burning Crusade expansion. I recently downloaded the client and fired it up. I don't know. Whats the point? The world never changes. The quests are uninteresting. The graphics are dated. And the combat system feels like I am watching somebody else play the damn game. After playing DOTA, I realized that I need lots of tactile feedback to keep me interested. I want to have some kind of tactile feedback to the action. I feel a profound disconnect when I only hit two buttons during a fight. Auto attack, heal. Kill the next one. Auto attack, heal. I suppose I need fiddly knobs to enjoy my games these days.

The problem with Bad Company 2

I have played first person shooters for a long time. I played Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Rise of the Triad...you see where this is going. Needless to say, I have a good deal of experience with the genre.

When it comes to the modern first person shooter, I have problems. For one, my reflex time isn't as good as it used to be. One of the reasons I disliked Modern Warfare 2 was its reliance on reflex time. A milisecond too late, and you were dead. Which isn't counting the people who play Modern Warfare 2, or the rampant cheating, or the abominable PS3 network code. A game that is slightly more...stately would be more to my liking. Hence, the Battlefield series. I really enjoyed the first Bad Company game, because it seemed like the polar opposite of Modern Warfare. Distance, space, changing terrain, concrete objectives; it lets someone who isn't in junior high excel.

While I honestly don't care about its singelpayer, I enjoy very much the multiplayer of Bad Company 2. Its everything that the first one was, but improved greatly in every regard. The modes, the weapons, the sound and especially the graphics are great steps forward from the design of the original. What I like especially is the dynamic of the classes. I enjoy the reconnaissance class more than anything else. The GOL sniper rifle is without peer in the current class of shooters. It handles well, is highly accurate and delivers a significant punch. I will play the engineer occasionally, but I could care less about the medic and assault class. A sniper can be relevant in this game, unlike MAG. In MAG, a sniper spends most of his time attempting to find a halfway decent line of sight. Rarely is a sniper doing something remotely relevant, and has to move into dangerous firing positions to even see the enemy. In Bad Company 2, you are dressed like a bush. So that, when you hide in another bush....you are actually difficult to detect! And, you don't have to be close enough to the enemy to give him a friendly handshake to be effective. Of course, this doesn't stop people from doing stupid things like, oh, I don't know, sniping from the starting area. At other snipers. Who only can see each other. Which provides a situation in which the attacker is wasting his fucking time shooting at people who aren't defending the flag. Its like they start their own little private match, and waste respawns doing, effectively, nothing. I'm usually the highest scoring sniper on my team, because I actually move to effective firing positions and don't waste my time on pointless sniper duels. Bah.

The Dropkick Murphys

I always thought it was strange the way that people from older generations follow people like Bruce Springsteen or the Rolling Stones. It never made a lot of sense; the music was old, the people making it even older. What was the attraction to this dusty old music?

I will preface this by saying that I am 25. Not old by any stretch of the imagination, but gaining enough distance from my youth to gain perspective. I started listening to the Dropkick Murphys when I was 15, when I was a freshman in High School. Sure, I still listen to Rancid and Black Flag, but none have the same spot in my heart as the Murphys. Wherever I have brought music, I brought them with me. Afghanistan, Croatia, Italy, Canada...I've always had them with me. When I die, I want them playing at my funeral.

The appeal of Mass Effect 2

I have played, and completed, every Bioware RPG (excluding Baldurs Gate 2).  I have always enjoyed the Bioware style, the character interaction and the story.  And while I have had my problems, most notably with the combat, the games always provide a fascinating experience.  Mass Effect 2 is so much better than all of its predecessors it seems like all of the previous Bioware games were made by a different company.

I usually don't have time to finish games.  I have work, I have school, and my wife starts sending mutinous glares in my direction if I begin to ignore her.  Thus, I don't finish nearly as many games as I used to.  I finished Fallout 3, but that's because my wife truly enjoyed watching the game.  I finished Assassins Creed 2, because it was both engaging and relatively short.  And I might finish the odd game here and there, like a campaign in Empire or Civ 4, but its become something of the norm for me to buy a game and to play it to random levels of completeness.  I still haven't finished Uncharted 2, despite its superior craftmanship and quality.  But Mass Effect 2 consumed my interest like no other game since Oblivion.

 I loved the original Mass Effect.  I played it to completion in Afghanistan while on my deployment, and while the beginning was clunky (due to the leveling system), once your character reached a certain level of combat proficiency the major detractor to the game faded away.  However, Benezia?  Awful.  One of the worst designed boss fights I have ever seen.  Saren was far easier to defeat than Benezia.  Bah.  All of that changed with Mass Effect 2.  The leveling system essentially freed you to play a true role-playing experience.  You can play the noble hero, or the ruthless rogue, or some shade of gray inbetween.  While I liked the fiddly knobs of the first Mass Effect, not having to spend points on conversation options while ignoring survivability suits me quite well.  The dialog choices that you select give you paragon or renegade points, which unlock further paragon or renegade dialog options.  So you don't have to make an arbitrary decision to focus on dialog, while you can't hit the broad side of a barn with your sniper rifle.  

The combat for Mass Effect 2 is a revelation.  I don't always like 3rd person shooters.  Gears of War was interesting, but did not necessarily grab me.  But the smoothness of execution in Mass Effect 2 convinced me of its merits.  The flow of the combat, the feel of the weapons, and the challenge of the opponents make Mass Effect seem worthwhile.  Its conceivable to want to go back and play the game for the combat alone.  And while I did somehwat enjoy the combat for Mass Effect 1, it isn't something that you necessarily want to experience multiple times.  But perhaps the greatest draw in Mass Effect 2 is the characters.  

In the original Mass Effect, I was disappointed with the romance options.  Ashley was stiff, and racist.  I'm a dude, so I didn't go for Kaidan (and let him die on the cloning facility mission).  Liara was the only romance option, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I picked her.  She was...alien?  I don't know, none of the romance options in the first Mass Effect really appealed to my tastes.  The only character that I had a legitimate interest in was Tali, if only to see what was under her damn mask.  When I learned that she was a potential love interest in Mass Effect 2, I did everything in my power to make sure that it happened.  I really enjoy her character.  She seemed like the most complete person of them all, and perhaps the most normal (which is an insane thing to say about an alien who lives on a ship fleet because the artificial intelligences they created rebelled against their masters).  Tali was the most relateable.  Miranda was...interesting, and attractive, but far too cold and ruthless.  Jack was a character that I could understand, but not necessarily found all that attractive (What? Women should have hair.  Sorry).  Samara was disinterested.  Kelly was....blah.   Tali was one of the characters that I rolled with on almost every occasion, along with Grunt (also an amazing character).  The affection between my Shepard and Tali felt genuine, their story believable.  I felt satisfied with how the romance played out, even though they never showed you Tali's face.  Which, let me tell you, was terrible.  I laughed when they artfully declined to show you her face, of course.  But, come on.  Whatever.  

I will probably talk about Mass Effect 2 some more.  But for now...it is probably my favorite game of all time.  Oblivion or Heros Quest used hold that position, but Mass Effect 2 is firmly ensconced in its position as my favorite of all time.

The constraints of time.

As I get older, time becomes my most precious resource. It is the thing I have the least amount of. When I have spare time, my wife tends to capitalize on it. Now that we have a house, what time my wife doesn't take I use to improve our ancient house (I like my house, but it has its fair share of problems). So when I do happen upon some glorious free time, that I can use to do whatever I want, what do I play? Why, an old-ass game, thats what.

Civilization the fourth is the closest I will ever come to abusing a controlled substance. I will admit, I'm not that great at it. I usually play at the prince difficulty. Anything lower and I steamroll the lobotomized computer opponents, anything higher results in my spearmen getting run over by tanks. In the classical age. Bah. Much has been said about this game. But it still continues to draw me in, years after its release. Part of it is the look of the game. If I played any other game from that period it would look rather pedestrian. But the art style just doesn't seem to age. The game was released in 2005. The same year as the Xbox 360. Graphical and art design has changed by leaps and bounds in that time. Yet Civ hasn't changed, and it hasn't lost its appeal.

Its fairly incredible what we do when we want to waste our time. I have a stack of new games waiting to be played, but I spend my time on something that predates my current video game console. I find Civ 4 to be comforting. It rewards you in direct proportion to how much time you spend with it. The more and deeper that I get into the game, the greater the emotional reward. Micromanaging is something I don't particularly like to do, and I can gloss over it while I play. But when I do pay close attention, I gain a much more significant reward for my efforts. Very few games feel this rewarding for simply surviving in the game world. Even when you are mediocre, you can do something interesting. There is allways something to do, allways something to try. Thats what keeps pushing me back to Civ. It still has new things to do, after four years of play.

Renting

Trying to rent a game at blockbuster is horrendous.  It blows.  Nothing is ever there.  Thats why I just signed up for gamefly.  Maybe I can rent a new game within three months of its release.  

Some background on this.  I live across the street from a blockbuster, so its the easiest thing in the world to go across the street and pick up a movie.  Theres allways something random enough there to interest me.  I kind of like their selection; while they have all the new stuff, they have tons of tv shows there to pick up.  So I can torment my girlfriend with Battle Star Galactica (BSG from now on) from the very beginning.

But the games section is allways a deserted wasteland.  While there are numerous copies of Fallout 3 (bought it), Far Cry 2 (steam!), or Fracture (better served by setting it on fire), nothing that you might actually want to play is there.  Mirrors edge hasn't been on the shelf in over 2 months, and Prince of Persia hasn't been for over a month.  I don't know what the hell these dudes do, just grab a game and put it in their secret box of gold dubloons?  Mirrors edge should take a week, at the most, to complete.  Yet its absence mocks me.  Wanting something and constantly being denied tends to strengthen the appetite.  So thats why I signed up for Gamefly.  Being haunted by the spectral promises of parkour and e-surance cut scenes was just too much to bear.

Yes, well.

I'm back!

Well, its not like anyone reads this.  But keeping the illusion of love towards myself keeps me happy, which makes me want to write, which makes me want to be a better writer.  And such.  Anyway, I wanted to talk about malaise.

Recently, I started playing Civilization 4 again.  Anyone who has felt the loving embrace of this game knows the wonderful feeling of crushing spearmen with tanks, or the frustration of no one ever willing to trade their iron with you.  Ever.  Its absurd.  But, back on topic.  Civ grasps you and refuses to let go.  Its the closest I will ever come to be truly addicted to anything.  The structure of the game invites you to keep jamming the enter key in the vain hope that something great will happen in the next turn.  It probably won't, but you will still do it hundreds of times in a single game.  Your determination will see your tiny nation grow from a single settlement in some godforsaken jungle to a colossus bestriding the world.  Or overrun by ruthless barbarians.  Civ loves them some barbarians.

I had bought Civ 4 as soon as it came out.  That was several years ago.  But the alluring siren call of bombing railway lines and crushing peasants with tanks/knights/zulu warriors constantly calls me back.  Each game provides its own unique narratives, with starting positions and resources playing an overwhelming hand in how each civilization fares.  No oil?  Call up the troops, its time to invade your neighbor.  No iron?  Time to call up the troops and yell angrily and throw rocks and hope for the best.  No copper?  Barbarian overlords.  However, you could easily cruise through the game playing diplomat or peace loving hippies.  Its all about choices, which Civ 4 has in spades.

However, after a while a certain malaise sets in.  The repetitive nature of the game tends to give you a strong sense of deja vu, because you tend to be doing the same thing over and over again.  Its somewhat akin to an MMO, where you furiously press the same three or four buttons for hours on end.  I love civ 4, but eventually the eyes glaze over and I have to take a lengthy break from the game or lose my sanity.  I get a certain feeling of malaise, where I don't want to do anything that involves whatever I allready have.  However, I could chalk that up to the seattle weather as much as anything else (the sun is a crutch!).  So, what do I do?  I load up fall from heaven 2!  Sweet!  Its new!  With orcs!  FUCK YEAH!