Repost from MTG: Justice, the Crackdown Way

One more nugget of gaming prose that I put together some time ago for my old blog. In this case, it was my attempt to write a video game review in a structured way. Just browsing through, I find it a bit too similar to many of the reviews you see throughout the enthusiast press. However, in the spirit of allowing me to look back and try to improve my writing style, I put it up here for consumption...

Since my last post, I've been spending hours in Pacific City, ridding the world of evildoers in Crackdown. In an earlier post, I talked about the demo and how much I enjoyed playing it, which spurred on my purchase of the title the day after it was released. Just as a guess, I've probably spent 20-25 hours on the game since then, just reveling in the game mechanics, blowing up gang members, wreaking havoc on unsuspecting civilian motorists...You know, just a normal day for a genetically enhanced freak of nature given free reign in a city overrun with crime, a boatload of weapons, explosives, cars and a license to kill. Without further ado, here's my review of Crackdown.

Story: Probably the weakest point of the game. You are a genetically-enhanced prototype, created by the Agency, to bring down the gangs of Pacific City. Your goal is to kill each of the six lieutenants, and then the kingpin, of three gangs, each controlling a distinct section of the city (for a total of 21 'bosses'). By killing the lieutenants, you weaken a specific aspect of the gang, such as recruiting, weaponry, explosives, vehicles and driving, etc. Your chances of killing the kingpin of each gang goes up as you kill the lieutenants, because the kingpin and his bodyguards are not as strong, have worse weapons at their disposal, etc. as you knock off the bosses who control those aspects of the gang. Theoretically you could kill the kingpin first, but it would be extremely difficult. After you destroy all the bosses for a particular gang, that gang disappears. The section of the city they once controlled no longer has gang members in it, and you are free to roam without fear of attack (useful for searching for agility and mystery orbs, which I'll touch on later).

Once you defeat all of the lieutenants and kingpins of all the gangs, you're finished. There are no side-quests, no mysteries to solve, nothing of the sort. While all the killing holds its own perverse satisfaction and feeling of accomplishment, it would be nice to have the ability to foil a robbery in progress if you happened to stumble upon it, or maybe you would get a mission to go eliminate a safehouse that stores gang drugs or weapons. Something of that nature might help to flesh out a very shallow storyline. I will say that the final lines spoken by your Agent contact after defeating the final kingpin were very intriguing, and clearly lay the groundwork for something in the future, but you really have to hear them to understand the impact, as it relates to the game and what story does exist. It's worth the time to hear them, in my opinion, and gives me hope for the next installment (which you can bet your bottom dollar there will be one) in this franchise.

Gameplay and Controls: You wreak havoc on the gangs of Pacific city from a third-person perspective, with the left analog stick controlling your movement, and the right analog stick controlling your view. The right trigger fires your weapon, and the left triggers targets the enemy (while holding the left trigger, you can move the right analog stick to target different points on the gang member/vehicle, such as legs, torso, arms, head, tires, gas tank, or body). You jump with the A button, execute a melee attack (mostly kicks, since you have a weapon in your hand) by pressing B, switch weapons with X, reload your current weapon with the left bumper, and throw grenades with the right bumper. You can pick up objects (if you are strong enough) by pressing and holding the B button when near the object. This can be really amusing later on in the game, when you can become strong enough to pick up buses and other vehicles.

One of the true joys of this game is the aspect of jumping and climbing. You start out with the ability to jump higher than a normal human at the beginning of the game (and let's face it, the game would be boring if you couldn't), and you can enhance that as the game progresses. Your character is also good at climbing, being able to grab onto window ledges, edges of landings, balconies, etc. and using these to further your ascent up the building in question. When you fall in the game, as you will very often, if you have the time to steer your character to one of these edges, he will catch them and stop your descent. Once you reach the top of the building, you will find some rooftops filled with gang members, or you'll find green orbs that enhance your agility. You can leap from rooftop to rooftop, and cover the entire city (almost) without ever having to set foot on the pavement below.

There exists within the game a decent array of weapons, ranging from pistols, rifles, automatic weapons, sniper rifles, grenade and rocket launchers, and hand tossed grenades. As is to be expected, the stronger enemies carry the stronger weapons, so you won't see all the weapon types in the Los Muertos area (generally considered the beginning area of the game). There is an interesting system in place to gain access to the weapons you acquire during the game. As you come across new weapons, by relieving enemies of them, you have access to that weapon immediately. If you want to have access to that weapon at later times as well, you are required to take this weapon to a Supply Point, areas scattered throughout the city where you can regain health and reload your ammo, and select what weapons you want to carry out there into the fray. Once you take a previously uncaptured weapon to a Supply Point, you can then access that weapon from any Supply Point. This mechanic creates a mini-collection quest for players (like myself) who like to have everything. I had a great time finding a new weapon and then being able to experment with it to find out its strengths and weaknesses. In the end, for my primary weapon I settled on the HMG machine gun, as it had an 80-shot clip, with the ability to carry 800 rounds at a time, as well as being relatively powerful and accurate. For my explosive weapon (you're allowed to carry two weapons and one type of grenade at any one time, so I decided to carry a firearm and explosive, to maximize efficiency), the clear choice was the Firefly rocket launcher, mainly based on its heat-seeking ability, but it also had the advantage of a 5-round clip and 15 round total carrying capacity. Feel free to mix and match, to find your optimum combination.

I can't truly comment on the driving aspect of the game, having spent little time with the vehicles. Every once in a while, during a particularly evil streak of reigning hellfire down upon the gangs of Pacific City, I would hop into one of their rides and try to mow them down. Because my driving is so weak, compared to the rest of my abilities, the task of running down moving gang members was basically fruitless, as they were intelligent enough to avoid me most of the time. Since the game allows you to continue to roam the area after all the gangs have been eliminated, I will go back and experiment more with the feature, to get a more accurate understanding of its potential.

Character Advancement: The portion of the game that seems to be drawing the masses into the game experience, the character advancement is a rudimentary implementation of RPG-type elements into a third person shooter. The last statement makes it sound as if this is a negative, but to the contrary, it very much adds to the game, and creates rewards for using your different abilities. If you shoot down a gang member with a gun, you get firearms experience. If you blow up gang members with a grenade or rocket, you get explosives experience. If you beat a gang member senseless with your bare hands or a thrown item (trash can, staging, cinder block, car, etc.), you gain strength experience. If you eliminate gang members by running them over with a vehicle, you get driving experience. If you make it your mission to gather the agility orbs scattered throughout the city on rooftops, you gain agility experience.

There are also rooftop races and driving races scattered about the city (12 of each) that, upon successful completion, add to the pertinent experience pool. The rooftop races consist of traveling to a waypoints that pop up throughout the area in a certain time frame. Unfortunately, I can't comment at this time on the driving races, more for the simple fact that I found jumping and running through the city was more convenient than trying to drive. I promise try these in the future, to give all of the game features its just due.

Overall, this advancement system really does create a risk/reward experience that adds a lot to the game, because there's nothing more gratifying to blow up a rooftop full of baddies, and then watching the explosive experience flow into you. It's instant feedback for players, and creates goals separate from the main storyline. The dynamic seemed to keep me captivated in the game, working toward higher and higher levels of experience, to see what the effects would be on my explosives, jumping, etc. and most likely kept me playing far longer than if there were no advancement system in place.

Graphics: The graphics were pretty good in Crackdown, mixing some cel-shading aspects with attempts at realistic environmental aspects. Your character, the gang members, and civilians all look as if they had jumped out of a comic book frame, in a good way. It's a unique take on, and adds a cartoony feel, which to be honest took the edge off the massive amounts of violence doled out, both by myself and by the gangs (at times). The environment is well-done, and really does give the feel of a city on the edge of despair. One of the things I found very impressive is that the clipping plane seemed infinite, as I could see tall buildings from great distances, and they actually had substance, as I could launch a rocket at the Agency tower from the furthest point in the city, and watch as it impacted, some 10 seconds after the initial launch. There's a lot of variety in the locations within the city, from nightclubs to office buildings to oil refineries, and all are rendered (from the outside) with excellent detail.

Sound: The sound was very well done, with the exception of the fact that there was no background music. In most games, there is at least some music playing, but unless you're driving around in a vehicle, there's only the ambient game sounds to occupy your ears. With that being said, the ambient sound effects were great. When you walked at street level, there was a din of a busy city, from overheard conversations, to vehicle noise, to the occasional sound of distant gunfire (hey, it happens even in real cities). The citizens of Pacific City will wish you luck, run in fear, and even curse at you, if you happen to accidentally fall on them from above or something. The gang members are constantly chattering about how they're going to kill you, and often have some comment while they die ("I can't...feel my...feet", or "It's so...cold"). The vehicle sounds, from engines, squealing tires, to the screeching of twisted metal when they crash, are outstanding.

Fun Factor: Even though the game's story is very shallow, this does not take away from the fun of the game itself. Running around the city, skirmishing with the small groups of gang members you run across, searching for agility and mystery orbs, assaulting the boss locations, character development....I could go on and on about the things I've seen in the game (I caused a massive pile up on one of the city's main highways, simply by crossing the highway on foot, and watched in astonishment as car after car rammed into the pile, even running over hapless victims who had managed to climb out of the wreckage), but it's up to each player to sculpt their game experience. The game's developer, Realtime Worlds, made a conscious effort to create a true 'sandbox' game experience, and this does not disappoint. In my opinion, this game will be what the player makes of it, because you can very quickly work your way through the gangs, and be finished in probably an afternoon of play. If you take the time to play around with the game mechanics, explore the city, and just wreak havoc with the gangs whenever and where-ever possible, you can extend the game experience far longer.

Final Judgment: On a scale of 1-10, with 5 being an average game and 10 being the best of the best, I would have to give this game a score of 8. The lack of depth to the story really knocks the score down for me, because I found the game mechanics, character advancement, controls, visual effects, and overall feel to be great. If only the game were deeper and had more side quests, it would be worthy of a 9 or higher. Due to the lack of depth, this may not be a purchase title (although the inclusion of access to the Halo 3 beta later this spring will make it so for many people), I will definitely say this is a title that you owe it to yourself to rent.

Thanks for reading my first structured game review. Hopefully you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. In the future, look for more reviews of this type, as well as some less-structured impressions I have for games that I don't deem it worthy to fully play through. Once again, thanks for reading and keep gaming!

Well, it was a good try, anyway. Now I'm hopefully on to bigger and better things.

Repost from MTG: Item Repair and Permanent Decay

As with the previous post, I'm attempting to save some of my meager writing history with this reposting of some thoughts I had on decay and item repair in MMOs. As before, take a look and see what you think...

Because of the tragic death (for the third time, as discussed in a previous post) of my laptop screen, I'm currently sitting at my work laptop installing WoW. Thankfully for me, WoW is one of those games that isn't system-intensive and will allow me to actually run the game on my work rig. The work machine isn't bad, it just lacks graphical power, which is the generally the case for all work machines in my line of work (consulting engineering).

So, as I'm here patiently switching out CDs (the five for the original build, plus the four for BC), I thought I'd put down some of my thoughts on MMOs, specifically the systems in place for item wear, item repair and item decay. This general dynamic has been handled in many different ways by MMOs over the years, from no repair or decay whatsoever (a good example of this is the original Everquest), to having to repair items over time as they are damaged during use (most MMOs have some form of this nowadays, including SW:G and WoW, and EQ2 to a small extent), but most, if not all MMOs on the market now do not deal with permanent item decay. If you have an item (let's use in this example a sword), and you use it, in many games the condition of the item will worsen. This makes perfect sense, since in the example of the sword, it's going to take a beating cleaving through rats, bats, and gnolls. As the condition of the sword worsens, it becomes less and less effective. Eventually you'll have to go to an NPC or PC with the proper skills and have your sword repaired. With no permanent item decay, though, your sword can be repaired over and over and over again, with no fear of it ever permanently wearing out, breaking or otherwise becoming unusable.

Now, in a video game world, this makes some sense, as people are not playing the game to deal with real-world issues such as having to replace things because they wear out. It's much easier to suspend disbelief and some sense of realism and just accept the fact that the repair-people have such skill that they can repair any flaws, damage, etc. that are incurred on your item. There is also the fact that players would look less than favorably on the decay of an item that they spent countless hours raiding one boss mob, or one instance, or [insert endgame aspect here] to achieve. The player puts in their time, gets the item, only to have it wear out far too soon.

However, this aspect of items never truly wearing out and/or breaking wreaks havoc on the economy. Because items never really disappear, as players find more and more of these items, they flood the user market and reduce the inherent value of the item. For example, a powerful sword for a warrior, when first discovered, is extremely valuable for its rarity and power, but after a few months of farming and just plain finding more of the sword, its value is reduced because of the greater supply and no attrition of the sword due to breakage or wearing out.

The effect of items never wearing out also affects player-created items. In the original Everquest, early on in the life of the game banded mail armor was very popular and in demand for use by warrior types. Players skilled in the armorsmithing trade could make a decent living by making banded armor for the populace clamoring for it. As time went on, more and more people hopped on the bandwagon to make armor while fewer and fewer players needed it. As better armor was discovered, and players handed down their banded armor to the new characters they created, the market for banded armor dried up and disappeared altogether.

This effect of item wear on the economy has been lessened somewhat by the inclusion of soulbound and/or no-drop equipment, in whatever form it takes on each different MMO game. There are items in all games that, either after being equipped by the player or simply picked up by the player, cannot be traded to another player. This effectively removes the item from any in-game market, because the player who originally picked up or equipped the item cannot transfer it to another character. This system addresses the issue of flooding the game market and economy, but does not address the original topic of permanent item wear and decay.

In the MMO I would design, there would exist the aspect of permanent item wear and decay, and I would propose the basic system to work as such:

Each item would have two numbers associated with its condition, separated by a slash (xxx/xxx). The first number would represent current condition, while the second number would represent overall item conditon. The current condition (number ranges from 0-100) would be affected by the use of the item (i.e. going out and fighting creatures) and would affect the item statistics. As this number goes down, in the case of a weapon, the damage dealt by that weapon would decrease. If the item is armor, the damage mitigated would decrease as the current condition number goes down.

The second number represents the item's permanent condition. This attribute does not affect the item's effectiveness, but represents the amount of wear on the item itself. The attribute goes down over time, based on many factors, including how far the player lets the current condition go down before repairing, the skill of the player or NPC attempting to repair the item, etc. When the permanent condition of an item reaches zero, the item breaks and/or becomes unusable.

Regarding the repair dynamic: Using the original item example from above, taking this item to a player or NPC for repair would (depending on the level of the item and the skill level of the player or NPC repairing the item) revert the current condition of the item back to 100. However, the permanent condition of the item would be reduced, by a little if the repairing player or NPC has high skill, by more if they have little skill or the item's owner has allowed the item's current condition to go below a certain threshold, etc. The exact values of these events can be scaled for balance.

I could go on and on about the nitty gritty details, and bore you for hours taking about the system and the all of the dynamics that could come into effect, but the main thing I'd like to try to get across is that this system could be a vehicle to improve the flooding of the market with basically ageless items that never disappear or are removed from the economy, and also make player tradeskills relevant. If tradeskillers can provide the populace with items that are relevant, desirable and need to be replaced from time to time, then it would create player-driven economy with more interaction between players, create alternate advancement trees and occupations for players who may not be as inclined to 'grind' mobs endlessly, and generally balance out the economy, reducing the flooding of the market with items that never disappear.

Of course, there are downsides to this argument, and here are some of the issues I see with this system. FIrst, how do you apply item decay to rare and/or hard to procure armor, weapons, jewelry, etc. in such a way that it's fair and equitable without angering or downright alienating your playerbase? No player wants to see a rare drop, one that took them hundreds of hours of grinding, complete luck, whatever the circumstance, just disappear from use. Do you not have the decay dynamic affect this item, and simply slap a 'no-drop' or soulbound tag on that item? Do you have a specific NPC that can repair this item for a substantial fee, thus creating a money sink to further attempt to balance the economy? Or do you have the decay dynamic slowed so much that it almost never comes into effect with any regularity? These are questions that would need to be addressed with testing and proper balancing in a game setting, because no matter how good anything sounds on paper, all bets are off when it's released to 100,000+ players.

Again, as I've stated before, I'm not a game developer, so it's very possible that all of these questions have been addressed and answered hundreds or even thousands of times before, and the reason why a system as I've proposed doesn't exist is simply due to the fact that it's not practical. I'd like to think (and please don't burst my bubble too violently, I beg you) that I've come up with at least the basis for a system that could be reviewed, expanded, tested, revised, and become usable at some point. Maybe someday I'll develop a technical document including this system, and present it to a developer and see how much they laugh. An intriguing thought, to be sure...

Well, since the installation of WoW is finished, I'm going to retire from the blogosphere for now and head into Azeroth for a bit, but you can be sure that I'll be back soon, with more ramblings. As always, take care and keep gaming!

Well, what do you think? Leave any comments or suggestions in the comments section.

Repost from MTG: Dynamic Quest Systems

The following post comes from my days at ny old blog. I repost it here in essence so I don't lose the content, as I may someday want to revisit the ideas I put forth here. This particular post dates back to January 2007, and covers my thoughts on a possible implementation of dynamic quest systems in MMOs. Hopefully it's still an interesting read. Enjoy!

I've spent a decent amount of the past 5 years playing MMOs, which is pretty impressive considering my short attention span. I cut my teeth with the original Everquest, and have played several of the larger titles since (DAoC, AC2, SWG, EQ2, WoW). For many people, part of the enjoyment of the game comes with the completion of quests. There's a certain rush to working your way through a long chain of quests, and eliminating the 'boss mob' at the end, then triumphantly marching back to the questgiver for your reward. With this said, the entire experience is cheapened a bit (well, a lot actually) if and when you happen to wander past the area where you experienced the epic struggle, only to see the same boss mob sitting there, just waiting for the next player/group to come along.

This experience is fundamentally different than that of a single player RPG, where your actions can and will affect the story in direct and powerful ways. Once you've worked your way through a particular mission or quest, the gameworld is changed because that objective (killing a boss, freeing a town from occupation or assault, rescuing a damsel in distress, etc.) is gone, and the world is altered accordingly (the boss is dead, the town is free, the damsel is no longer in distress and appropriately grateful to you). Your efforts in the game move the storyline forward, closing certain avenues but inevitably opening others, and in this manner the game continues.

Another major difference between MMOs and single player RPGs is that the single player RPG has an ultimate goal to complete to end the game or finish the main questline. You free the world, kill the demon menacing the coutnryside or save the princess (sometimes all three or even more), the world is grateful, and the credits start to roll. There is a definite feeling of accomplishment and, hopefully, satisfaction in this event. An MMO does not, because the point of an MMO is to have people continue to log in and play (thus requiring them to continue to pay the subscription fee), and to have an ultimate end to the gameplay experience would be counterproductive to this goal. There may be an end boss that players strive to face and destroy, but unlike that of a single player RPG, after the end boss is destroyed, it will respawn after a prescribed period of time, just waiting for the next lucky raid group to come along and test their mettle (or most likely, get killed by the same group for the 50th time for the epic loot they drop, but that is a topic for another post).

This game mechanic is somewhat required, because there are so many players in an MMO that to have a quest or mob disappear after one player or group solving the riddle would be counterproductive to the overall experience. There would be a mad rush, as players compete to finish all of the available quests, and then there would be a general clamoring by the player base for more content, which, if not provided, would cause a mass exodus from the game. But, since there is a need for content to be available to all players that meet the requirements of the content, it cannot be permanently removed. While this is the most fair, equitable and accessible method to provide content to players available at this time, it does not lend itself to developing the 'epic' feeling that often comes from single player games of the same type.

I'd like to think that at some point in the near future the MMO genre will evolve to the point where events can alter the environment, but not to the complete detriment of players. To start, it would be great to have quests that, after the first player or group completes the quest, it disappears. For example, you talk to an NPC in a town that's been attacked by a band of kobolds on a trail outside town, and had a valuable [insert item here] stolen. They're willing to pay some intrepid adventurer(s) to retrieve this item. The player/group travels out to the area indicated by the NPC and finds the signs of a struggle. Following the signs left behind by the marauding kobolds (either simple tracks that can be followed or maybe requiring the use of a player-character hunter/ranger and their tracking skill), they come upon the kobolds at a campsite. After a fierce battle, the player/group wins and begins to search the bodies and the camp. They don't find the [insert item here], but do discover some sort of 'receipt' or clue to who the kobolds have already pawned the [insert item here] to. They then track down this character (say a shady merchant in a seedy part of town) and 'persuades' the merchant to give back the [insert item here] (by force, coercion or simply buying it). The player/group then returns to the original NPC and gives the [insert item here] back, receiving as a reward whatever was promised.

Now, in this generation of MMO, the next player/group to come along and speak to the NPC would find that this poor person has been attacked by kobolds and lost a valuable [insert item here]...What, was the NPC dumb enough to walk out of town, immediately after getting their item returned, travel back to the scene of the attack, and be attacked once again by the same group of kobolds (who should be dead, by the way)? This occurs so that all characters that so desire can experience this quest, and thus achieve the reward offered.

What if, instead of a static NPC that always gave the same quest, with the same steps, the same solution and the same reward, a dynamic quest system were to be implemented? This would involve players going up to an NPC, receiving a quest, and then no other player/group would be able to receive the same quest from that NPC. This system would involve populating citizens of all cities and towns with probabilities to have quests, and when they are assigned a quest by the system, they will hold this quest until activated by a player/group. The quest generator would have many storylines, with many segments to be able to logically mix and match to create quests for the people of the game world. Because of the nature of the world, there would always be some poor woman who's child has gone missing and needs to be found, some poor merchant who's been assaulted by thugs and needs to get his stolen wares back, some old man who's willing to pay a lot of money for the recovery of some artifact that he remembers from his early years. The segments of the quest could be varied, down to the number of distinct segments required to complete to finish the overall quest. The reward could vary according to length of quest and difficulty to complete, and any loot given could be subtle variations on loot given for other quests.

This would make the cities and towns a more vibrant, 'alive' place, as people would be encouraged to travel through and talk to all citizens to see if they're in need of help at any given time. The system could detect your level range and assign a quest of appropriate difficulty to complete. There could still be static quests, such that there are still rites of passage for classes to achieve status in their particular profession, but instead of going out and killing a named person/being that's the same all the time, the quest generator could generate a different name/beast type every time, to develop a sense of uniqueness for each character.

As I'm not a programmer or developer, I'm not sure of the inherent difficulties and resources required to develop and code a sytem of this type and magnitude. The biggest fear I'd have, after reading a blog (I wish I could remember which one) discussing the fact that many systems have not been implemented because of stress on the servers that host and run the games. This is probably one of those cases...

There is also the fact that, most likely, today's MMO players would completely revolt at the thought of a 'non-static' quest system in an MMO. If this type of system were implemented, how could the game sites that we all like to visit (the ones that have all of the detailed quest walkthroughs, including starting NPC, steps and reward) continue to thrive? Now quest walkthroughs would be essentially useless, other than possibliy revealing the structure of specific quest segments, because each quest would start at a different location, with a different NPC, have a different set of segments making up the quest, as well as a different reward. I'm not sure that this system would go over well in today's MMO world made up of games like WoW, that announces quest-givers with a very unnatural yellow '!' floating in space over the NPC's head. If players had to go in search of their quests, that might not be desirable.

This argument is not even taking into accout the effect that this system might have on the economy. If there are relatively unique rewards for each quest, this could greatly increase the value of the reward to the owner, especially once they 'outgrow' the reward (i.e. a piece of armor that is eventually replaced by a better item) and can put it up for auction, using the in-game auction system. Since there are many fewer of this type of item (if a random reward generator is used to assign items with abilities and effects, there is the good chance that there will be duplicates or very similar items generated), the theoretical value of the item is increased. This system is a topic of its own, one I may try to expound upon in a future post.

I'm not professing to be an expert on this topic, or any topic, I'm just speculating on how the next generation of MMOs might build upon the successes of this generation's titles, and evolve into the overall experience I feel is attainable from the genre. The develope rwould have to be serious about making this system work (from a hardware and coding standpoint, as well as a gameplay mechanic standpoint), but the end result would be a game that would feel a bit more unique and dynamic. This can only benefit the players looking for unique experiences every time they log in and play...

Another time, I'd like to explore other enhancements to today's MMOs that, in my opinion, would move the genre forward, but for now, I'll sign off. Take care and keep gaming!

So anyway, that was it. Does anyone have thoughts on this? If so, please leave them in the comments.

Random Thoughts - Thursday Edition

Because of my concerns in spending large amounts of money (considering our financial situation right now and the whole economic crisis occurring globally at the moment), I haven't pulled the trigger on a 'showcase game' that will show off the capabilities of my upgraded PC. Instead, I've found comfort in the arms of a former love, Half Life 2. Playing for about 45 minutes last night before going to bed reminded me just how good this game really is. The atmosphere the game projects is perfectly hopeless (from the run-down train station in the beginning of the game to the oppressed mood of all of City 17's population) and yet hopeful at the same time (the upbeat demeanor of all of the Black Mesa personnel and other resistance forces). I love the feeling of being chased through the buildings in the first few minutes, as well as the moment when you feel trapped by soldiers, and then hearing Alyx's voice through the blinding white light of being stunned. Even though I knew everything was going to be OK, I could still feel my heart beating rapidly during the chase. There are more impressive sequences coming up, but the introduction is enough to grab even the most hardened gamer's attention.

My hope, in regard to HL2, is to complete the original game, then move on to the Lost Coast expansion, and then from there probably bite the bullet and get The Orange Box from Steam. This will give me access to Episodes 1 and 2 of HL2, as well as the amazing Portal (which I've completed on XBox 360, but would like to try it with mouse and keyboard) and the popular Team Fortress 2. I'm not very good at multiplayer shooters, and consequently shy away from them, but I'm almost willing to give TF2 a chance, because of its cartoony art style and game experience.

(While writing this, I received a tweet in my Twitter feed that said, "Jesus saves, the rest of you take full damage." You have to love nerd culture, especially D&D references.)

I've also spent a fair amount of time playing Hinterland, which came out last week. Bill Harris, of the Dubious Quality blog, has a great impressions post on the game, which I recommend you read, as he very eloquently sums up a lot of the good and bad points of this surprisingly good budget game ($19.99 new on Steam). Before upgrading my PC, I was able to run the game, but with a lot of lag (the onboard graphics had a tough time handling everything). The upgrade allows it to run silky smooth, and really improves the experience. To sum it up, if you like your Diablo II mixed with Stronghold, then give this game a shot.

I'm currently listening to the most recent Player One Podcast, a consistently enjoyable podcast. The current episode has Dan Hsu, former Editorial Director of the 1UP network, as a guest for some interesting discussion on the recent announcement of the DSi from Nintendo. As has been speculated by others, this has to be an attempt to resuscitate flagging sales of the DS in Japan, because Nintendo consistently moves 500,000 DS units a month here in the States. A headscratcher to be sure, but I'm going to reserve judgement on this until more info is available.

Well, that's all for now. I'll be back soon, hopefully with something of more substance.

My Personal Backlog

As I mentioned in passing in the "I Am Not Alone" post, I have quite a list of games for various systems that I currently own which I haven't played to substantial completion. For posterity, I'm going to list them all now, in hopes that I can start to whittle this list down, as opposed to going out and spending more money on games that will take their place on this list in due time. Without further ado, here is my list, sorted by system, in no particular order...

PC

• Starcraft (complete game, including Brood Wars)
  
• Baldurs's Gate I and II (played about 10 hours of the first one and then got sidetracked)
• Diablo II (played 4-6 hours of this)
• Fallout (played a fair amount of this when it was new, but never completed)
  
• Fallout 2 (never played this)
• Half Life 2 (played a lot of this but never finished)

XBox

• Psychonauts (played 5 hours or so of this, and got sidetracked)
• Jade Empire (played only about an hour of this)

PSP

• GTA: Libery City Stories
• Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
• Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters
• Crisis Core; Final Fantasy VII
• Sega Genesis Collection
• Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony

DS

• Professor Layton and the Curious Village
• Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
• Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
• Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja
• Etrian Odyssey
• Lunar Knights
• Shiren: Mystery Dungeon

GBA

• Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
• Metroid: Fusion
• Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
• Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
• Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

As you can see, I have a lot of quality gaming in my possession right now, and should have no business spending the money on any more until all of this is taken to at least substantial completion. Even though it won't stop me from spending more money heedlessly, there now exists a record of the games I own that I should play.

Final note: Compiling this list makes me want to go ahead and put together a personal Pile of Shame, those games I should have played when they came out but either missed or purposely ignored. This list would include games of the caliber of Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, Okami, Indigo Prophecy, Beyond Good & Evil, and many, many more that I can't come up with right now. That's a project for another day.

I Am Not Alone

Finally, I've found them. I've found someone like me. Someone who can't resist the siren's song of electronic whimsy, someone who goes weak at the knees at the latest preview of 'the next big thing' (or even 'something similar to last year's big thing, but not quite as good'), someone who happily goes through their discretionary spending fund buying video games. I thought I was alone in this endeavor, and that everyone else had the common sense to pick and choose their game purchases carefully, and not fall victim to every flashy ad campaign or 'come-hither' intro video that shows up in their RSS reader. It seems there's at least one more person like me, and they've identified themselves here.

The gist of the fine piece of prose I've linked to, and coincidentally the paragraph that sums up my feelings and attitudes toward game purchases, is this:

But, as I said, I am not a compulsive spender. I can’t even find solace in suggesting that I am the victim of one of those unscientific, pseudo-addictions that have replaced the space once reserved for personal responsibility in the lexicon. I will simultaneously agonize for weeks before pulling the trigger on buying a new CD or DVD, while thoughtlessly ejecting forty dollars for a game that I have no intention of playing for at least a fortnight. I haven’t purchased a new shirt or pair of pants in more than a year, simply because I can not bring myself to spend money on woven fabrics. I recently bought a pair of sunglasses at one of those knock-off kiosks in the mall for $10 bucks and had the temerity to feel proud of myself for spending the money.

The main point that really rang true with me was the line about "...while thoughtlessly ejecting forty dollars for a game that I have no intention of playing for at least a fortnight." I often go to the game store and come home with multiple titles that, considering the length of today's games, I have no chance of getting to all of them in a reasonable amount of time. I have a stack of games in my possession that would take me months to get through, especially since the change in pace at which I'm able to digest gaming content after the kids were born, and that's without adding a single new title to the stack until I'm through with them. In fact, that's a fascinating idea for a project or challenge (or hell, just a blog post), to list all of the games I currently own that I have not played to substantial completion, and then try to plow through them before buying a single new game.

Even with this stark realization, the sheer amount of content sitting on my shelf that I have yet to fully experience and appreciate, the daily trolls through the gaming blogosphere continues, searching desperately for 'the next big thing' or something that will grab my attention and hold it firmly. While quality titles like Crisis Core, Phantom Hourglass, Psychonauts and the Baldur's Gate series (definitely ancient in terms of video game life span but games that deserve to be played regardless of age) sit sad and feeling unwanted in my collection, the relentless quest for games to buy continues.

Is it an obsession? Probably. I often placate my growing concern for the large stack of unfinished games by telling myself, "At least I'm not sitting in a bar drinking every night, or blowing my cash in a casino," but there may not be a big difference between these pastimes (looked on with disdain by a large portion of the population) and my current pastime of game buying (ironically also looked on with disdain by a large portion of the population).

There is a passage in Elysium's discourse that gives me some comfort:

But, there’s more at play here, and it’s the part of this self realization that I can take comfort in. I love video games. Sometimes I feel like the last of that dying breed, an unabashed fan of the industry, of its excesses, of its creatively compromised, morally bankrupt, lowest-common-denominator indulgences. Unlike less pleasant and more physically debilitating addictions, I still get the high when I install that new game and fire it up for the first time. I’ve been playing fake songs on plastic instruments for two years now, and I still bounce around like a professional fool when the lights are out and everyone else has gone to bed. I’ve been running fetch quests for digital avatars in artificial worlds for half a decade, and that ding of a new level is still fundamentally Pavlovian. I’ve dispatched ten million bad guys from their multitude of nefarious, world-ending deeds, and I still am close to that thrill of the hunt.

"Why does this give you comfort?" you might ask, and well you would be entitled to ask just such a question. It's easy for me to find solace with my perceived shortcomings and lack of willpower when some of the exact feelings I've had countless times are put into words by another. The feeling of 'not being alone' is strong and comforting, and is a feeling I'm sure everyone can associate with and appreciate.

Sadly, even after this journey of awareness and self-discovery, am I likely to change my ways? Most likely not. Like a junkie craving that next fix, I'll most likely continue to buy games in bunches, and have the best of intentions of playing them all to completion. Like those ill-fated titles that stare back at me all the time, these new games have a great chance of joining their predecessors, forlornly taking up space on a dusty shelf (or haunting me every time I open the Steam interface, in some cases), begging for one more chance to dominate my ever-shrinking entertainment time. Unlike before, walking this path is not a solo experience. I can hold my head high, knowing that at least one person is walking that path with me.

Computer Upgrade (and Sickness)

It's been a bit since I last posted, for a couple of reasons. One, I've been fighting a cold that's made me feel like my brain is trying to function in fog, which isn't very conducive to writing a blog post. Second, I've had family here since Monday (they just left today), and one of them was staying in the basement where I keep the computer. He (my grandfather, to be precise) goes to bed early, and I write most of my blogs at night after the kids go to bed, so hopefully you can see my conundrum. Anyhow...

I'm back now, and while I'm still not 100%, I don't feel like I'm viewing the world through bong water, so I felt it safe to post this evening. While I was home sick, my new power supply and video card arrived UPS from Newegg, to my excitement and trepidation. You see, I've had a bad experience while installing computer components myself (burned out an AMD processor because the thermal paste didn't correct contact the chip during install) and the thought of blowing out my main computer while replacing the power supply was a real fear of mine. Fortunately for me, computer component manufacturers have made their products as idiot-proof as they can, and the 'heart transplant' went off without a hitch. The new video card now allows me to play most PC games out on the market, which is a huge improvement over what I had, which didn't allow me to play 5 and 6-year old games, in some cases (due to the fact that my onboard video option didn't have lighting and shading hardware).

To try out my new setup, I launched Hinterland, a game I'd picked up from Steam earlier in the week. It sounded like an interesting premise and it would run on my current machine (pre-upgrade). I'll save my impressions of the game for another post, but in a nutshell the lagging and slowdown I was experiencing earlier in the week vanished when crunched by the 8800 GT. Now I'm trying to decide what game to get next, one that will push the new video card a bit more. I'm considering Bioshock, a big favorite of my on the XBox 360. I'll keep you updated with my choice once I make it...

One other item of note: I was up late on Saturday night, because I'd slept a good chunk of the day and my normal sleep schedule was thrown off. Flipping through the channels, I saw that Kimbo Slice was due to fight that night, and having heard of him and the hype surrounding him, I figured this would be a good chance to see what all the fuss was about. Around 11pm or so the fight got underway (against a relative unknown, because Slice's scheduled opponent, Ken Shamrock, had to withdraw due to a medical reason), and 14 seconds later it was over. The unknown, Seth Petruzelli, beat Slice so badly and quickly the ref called the fight. Wow, I'm sure glad I stayed up to see that.