Recently I purchased a copy of Mass Effect 2. I'd never played the game before, for I'm not exactly a fan of the series. I've played the first a few times but could never bring myself to finish it. I guess you could say I just always lost interest. 

I decided to take a chance with the second installment. I've been playing it for the last few days, and I've noticed many improvements. However, I'm much too early into the game to make any real opinion. That being said, I have witnessed the opening scene about three times now.

I have a real problem with choosing the "right" character type. It has always plagued my RPG experiences.

After watching that scene a few times I began to notice the emotional responses it brought out in me. It makes me feel several different emotions one after another. I wanted to share exactly what I feel during the opening scene of Mass Effect 2.

To start there's this guy named the Illusive Man (thank you subtitles) and he's talking to this chick, I think her name's Miranda. They're discussing Shepard as if he/she's of some utmost importance. Immediately I feel a heavy sense anticipation.

I already know I'm going to meet this guy, and he's most likely going to have some universal scaled mission for me. I'm ready for it, I am Shepard after all. Yet, This character really leaves me feeling intrigued. There seems to be more to this fellow, hopefully I'll get to find out.

Moving along we find the Normandy with Joker at the helm. He's talking his usual pilot mumbo jumbo.....thruster engines and what not. Then suddenly there's an unidentified ship, and they are closing in fast. The Normandy takes some damage.

Right about now I'm feeling pretty excited. New enemy, and I'm already in the weeds. I've played many a game where I had to evacuate a ship, I know I'm in for a good time. I get control of Shepard finally. Tell Ashley to get the hell off the ship. That's right it's an order.

I'm on my way now to find Joker, for he won't abandon the ship. On my way I walk through a door and the other side completely surprises me. The hull is completely gone, I can see open space. There's a planet in the back ground and there's debris on fire lighting the empty vacuum.

It's definitely a cool set piece and it makes me feel helpless. Whoever attacked the ship truly meant business, and the Normandy is going down. The only thing I can do now Is get me and Joker off the ship. We have lost this encounter.

We both find our way to the final escape pod and I throw Joker in. The ship is sustaining heavy damage and is literally falling apart around us. There's an explosion and I'm pulled away from the pod, Joker yells my name in terror. Suddenly Shepard closes the pod door shutting himself/herself away from all hopes of being saved.

After the ship implodes Shepard is thrust out into space towards the planet's atmosphere. Right about now I'm freaking psyched . Shepard just pulled an ultimate bad ass move and I'm wondering "what now". As he/she floats through space it becomes apparent something is wrong. Shepard is struggling almost as if he/she can't breathe. Suddenly the body goes limp and Shepard continues towards orbit.

Cue the sad piano music. Flash the Mass Effect 2 title. I am completely jazzed right about now. I'm slightly upset that Shepard just died, but mostly I'm just amazed that Bioware pulled a ballsy move like that for an opener. That feeling is very short lived it turns out.

All of the sudden It seems "Shepard has been recovered". There's a nice montage of scientific medical technology going to work, flashes of a heartbeat monitor and x-rays. It seems I'm being rebuilt and brought back to life. Honestly I'm kind of upset. "Lame", I say to myself. I hate it when key characters die and then suddenly get granted life once more.

Then again, It could have been worse. They could have went the terrible clone route. For that, I am grateful. Inevitably I'm awoken from my coma during an attack. It seems it's back to business for Shepard.

I must admit, not as a fan of Mass Effect that opening definitely hooked me. It made me feel a wide range of emotions and yet caught my utter interest in the act. I'm not very far into it (I just recruited Garrus), but I feel like I might hold on through this one. 

Very few and far in between do the opening sequences of the games I play immerse me in the experience so well. Mass Effect 2 absolutely delivered on that front.

As always thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.

So I'm just going to call these blogs the series from now on until I come up with something better. Anyways picking up where we left off last time the never ending leveling up of every pokemon caught to level 20.

At level 19 Yanakkie can learn Bite. I chose to have him forget how to Leech Seed and learn Bite. Oh and before you say well that was dumb my reasoning is I rarely was using Leech Seed since it basically wastes a turn to use it and I went back to Route 3 in order to go in a 2 vs 2 battle grass area (since some old fart is in the way in the PinWheel Forest grr on you old guy!) where there are a lot of Pidoves which happen to somewhat resistant to grass type (except leech seed). Anyways Bite does a lot of damage and can actually hurt the Pidove unlike Vine Whip or the constantly missing Fury Swipes.

Mooland at level 20 can learn Work Up which is where the user is roused and it's attack and special attack stats increase. I chose for Mooland not to learn it.

Tabunne at level 15 can learn attract, which is where the user makes the target if it's the opposite gender infatuated and less likely to attack. I chose not to have Tabunne learn it.

Baokkie at level 16 can learn Yawn. I chose for him to not learn it.

Tabunne at level 20 can learn Secret Power (okay this name is making me laugh) which is where the user attacks the target with a secret power and added effects depend on the user's environment (not as funny now I read that more like what does it actually do....?). I decided to have Tabunne learn it since Pound and DoubleSlap are it's only attacking moves currently. I had Tabunne forget how to Growl in order to learn it. Oh and what it does at night on Route 3 in the grass that can lead to 2 on 2 battles is punch the target with a green fist....so basically it's a strong move :)

Shimama at level 15 can learn Thunder Wave, which is where a weak electric charge is used to hopefully cause paralysis (basically if it hits it causes the paralysis). I chose to not have Shimama learn it.

That's all for tonight it is late see you tomorrow :) (well technically later today cuz it's AM)

Hey, GIO. Thanks for coming over. Come on in.

Listen, we need to talk. We've been seeing each other for, what, two years now? What? Oh, sorry, three. Anyway, I...this is so hard...I've been feeling...confined lately. I think you're great, really! I've never been with a website like you. You're honest, you're sweet, you're funny sometimes, and you have the most considerate community. But there's something missing. The fire's gone. Admit it, you've felt it , too. You haven't? Oh.

Now, don't get mad, but I have a confession to make. I've been...browsing. Those times I was up until three in the morning? Surfing the net. Hey, we never said this was a strict relationship. I'm sorry if you read more into it than that.

Now c'mon, baby. You gotta admit that sometimes you have to mix it up a little. You can't seriously tell me that you haven't thought the same thing. What others? Well, there's this site called IGN. She's edgy. She makes me feel alive! Sure, she's a little immature, and her users aren't nearly as polite as yours. But once in a while you need some spice, you know? Even if it does drive you nuts.

There's also one called Gamespot. She might seem a little cranky at times, but I think she really cares. And she isn't nearly as generous with her scores as you are. I guess I just like to be told "No" once in a while.

Oh, and there's a foreign number called Eurogamer. If things were different, I think you'd like her. She's erudite, compared to the rest. Her reviews make me think about games differently, like they really mean something. I don't always understand her, but maybe that's what attracted me to her.

What's that? Nintendo Life? Uh, yeah, once in a while. She is not a tramp! She's just fun-loving. Look, if you're gonna be like that...

Listen, you know I love ya. But I need air! You can't keep me caged up, baby! You'll always be special to me, but I wasn't made for this. I gotta be free!

We can still be friends, right?

(Random picture)

I'm sure you've played a game like this. It was either in a franchise that has lived only for a short time, before being put to the grave. I've played some games like that, and, in this blog, I will go through the five franchises that I don't think were given enough of a chance. This is just my opinion, so please don't take this for a fact. Enjoy!

(Darksiders Franchise)

This wouldn't have to even be mentioned on this blog of THQ hadn't died off, but, since they did, it's easy to say that this franchise is dead as well. Unlike almost every other property that THQ had, Vigil and the Darksiders franchise didn't get picked up by anybody. And while the two games that are in the franchise are great fun, they are also the last great games from THQ. R.I.P. THQ.

(Bulletstorm Franchise)

I know that technically this isn't even a franchise, but rather, just one game. But, it's easy to say that Epic Games and People Can Fly would have turned this into a franchise. If only Bulletstorm had sold well. I have just recently gotten to start playing it, and I can say that I wish that this game had done better, because a sequel would have been amazing.

(Earthbound Franchise)

I know that, in Japan, Earthbound is called Mother, and that Mother has at least four games in the franchise. But, for us Americans, this is about all we've gotten from this great franchise. And while we are getting a rerelease for the WiiU, a sequel(or that this point, a reboot) would be a dream come true. But where did this franchise go? There is a large following for this game, and yet, nobody has tried to make a sequel or reboot to this game. That just puzzles me.

(Alan Wake Franchise)

I know that this is barely a franchise as well, and is a new franchise, at that. But that doesn't really change the sad but true fact that there has only been two games in this franchise. I wish I could say that this is just a dream, but it's sadly all too real. And with the developers of Alan Wake making a new IP for Xbox One, I fear that this franchise has already been given up on.

(New Medal Of Honor Franchise)

After only two games in the new Medal Of Honor franchise, EA has said that they won't be releasing more games in this franchise any time soon, which disappoints me. And while I can also say that the games in this franchise weren't the greatest(they did have room for improvement), they had a lot of potential, and it's sad that, now, we won't get to see where that potential could have taken this franchise.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this blog. I will get a chance to write my Bulletstorm review by Monday(UPS shipped my package earlier than expected). Tomorrow, I will probably write a blog about my all time favorite console exclusive games. Have a nice day!

Hello Game Informer your favorite assassin here with some news for you. Carson the Courageous and I have created a new group for members of our community to play games together. Some of you might know our Halo Night that we do every Friday. We decided to expand on that and include multiple systems and different games. We decided instead of one night we can do multiple nights for different consoles.

We believe this community is amazing and that there should be a game night for the members here and their respective console. Fridays nights are for the Xbox 360. Saturday night is for the PS3 and Sunday is for PC gamers. We do polls on which game you will like to play for that respective system. Carson and I are the hosts for the Xbox 360. Carson also hosts the PS3 Game Night while I do the PC Game Night.

Here's the link to the group page.

We do have plans to include handhelds like the Nintendo 3DS and the PS Vita. We also have plans on doing a game night for the Wii U. Anyone is welcome to join this group as long as you are respectful. We hope you guys join our new group and we hope you guys will have a great time!  

Final Thoughts 15

Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game

{Excerpt}

Note: This is not a review, but merely my musings after having recently completed a game as part of my Rogue's Adventures playthrough of my backlog. Follow @RoguesAdventure to keep up with my playthroughs.

Developer: Interplay

Release Date: Sept 30, 1997

I chose to replay the original Fallout as it’s actually the one I’ve played the least out of the core series. Gameplay is very similar to the sequel with a few noticeable absences in better companion controls, a few UI tweaks, and a smaller scope. But Fallout is also one of the most revered games amongst PC gamers and for good reason; it offers a compelling, mature storyline, a unique and interesting post-apocalyptic world (when such a thing was so unheard of they put similar wording in the seldom used subtitle), a brilliant tactical combat system, and a wealth of roleplaying and decision making opportunities.

Read the full article here!

Help support my writing by checking out my articles on Leviathyn.com!

Previous Final Thoughts:

The Bard's Tale

BioShock 2

Half-Life 2

When Crysis launched on PC back in 2007, the game became an instant legend thanks to its breathtaking technologically feats and gorgeous vistas that strained even the most beefier of gaming rigs back then. There was a spoof that went around claiming NASA supercomputers could only run the game at max settings for no more than 10 minutes before crashing.

Of course that isn’t true, but it does contribute to the sheer power of the game that still rivals the graphical fidelity of games today. But the best thing about the game was the wide-open approach to combat. Players got to approach every combat system the way they wanted to. And four years later, console gamers finally have the chance to see what all the hype has been about with Crysis over the past few years.

The Story

Players will take on the role of Nomad, one of the members on a Delta Force squad who are sent to a mysterious island off the coast of North Korea to investigate a strange distress signal that had recently been sent out by a team of archaeologists. Your mission: extract the survivors and get the hell out.

It isn’t all that easy though when members of your team begin to get ripped apart by a mysterious alien life form and the Koreans are trying everything they can to keep you from finding out what the thing is and prevent you from finding it. But you have an advantage that few of the KPA troops know about, a nanosuit. Thanks to the enhanced speed, cloaking abilities, amour, and super strength the suit provides, taking out Korean troops is a breeze.

But the dumb AI isn’t always the best and I’d suggest turning up the difficulty level if you want more of a challenge. At times, all it took to hide from my enemies when my nanosuit’s power levels were low was to find a nearby bush, crouch down, and poof, your now invisible from the KPA troops!

But the main gimmick of Crysis is the freedom to approach every combat situation how you want. Crytek gives the ability to experiment with all the different approaches that could be anything from going in guns blazing to sneaking in under the cover of your cloak.

The Graphics

And as was Crysis on the PC, the gorgeous, sweeping, wide-open vistas of the island were not lost in the transition from your monitor to the big screen. The port looks good in comparison, but keep in mind that the aging PS3 and Xbox 360 aren’t genies anymore when it comes to blurring the lines between the PC and console in terms of graphics.

The draw distance for sure took a pretty big hit and the lack of anti-aliasing were the two biggest features I noticed firsthand when I compared the two versions side by side. The constant textures popping in and out get annoying early on as well. But if you’ve never seen the PC game in action before though, then it shouldn’t be very hard to brag about how pretty the game looks to your friends.

The game isn’t without its bugs either. Numerous audio issues plague the game from start to finish which was a huge drag in the experience. It was especially annoying to heard the sound of a helicopter right above you when none were there or the sounds of gunfire getting stuck on repeat after a firefight. But other than these two issues, I never found anything else that would happen that really dampened the core of the experience for me.

Closing Comments

The five-year old, ported edition of Crysis to the consoles is still just as fun as any other shooter out there on the market, but the noticeable hit on the graphics and the audio bugs were definitely a big mood killer for me. But the chance to jump back into one of my favorite shooters made to date was a blast and I’d recommend the port to any fan of the Crysis franchise, despite the game’s few annoyances.

Final Update: Alright, the second league is officially filled, and I need to know when would be the best time for us to conduct the draft. A few members have expressed that next weekend would be an issue due to other leagues that they are drafting in, or that they were going out of town. I'll be e-mailing everyone to ask, but if you have a preference, let me know below. It would be great if we could sneak it in tomorrow, but I won't commit to it until I know everyone would be able to make it. If we don't tomorrow, we'll likely draft two weeks from now, either on Saturday or Sunday.

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Update: The first league is officially filled and the draft date has been set for tomorrow at 3PM central time. I am now opening up the second league for recruiting, so if you did not get in on the first league and are interested, let me know. Otherwise, I will also take anyone who is interested in joining both leagues. If you are interested, please send me an e-mail at gioff@gmail.com. Thanks again everyone and I look forward to the first league's draft tomorrow.

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Recruiting for the league is now closed with 14 members. If anyone else is interested we had a few members that were unable to get into this league, so let me know if you are still interested, as I might launch a second league if we have enough people. For those that are in and received their invitations, please let me know what days would be good for the live draft. I was thinking this Sunday around 3pm central, but I want to build a consensus.

Greetings everyone. It is getting to be that time of year. It is time for the start of football season. Every year, as far back as I can remember with this site, we have always run a fantasy football league. This year I took the liberty of starting the league up and am now looking for members who are interested in joining.

This year, the league will be run on ESPN's website. The season starts in just under a month, so we will be looking to move quickly. I currently have the league set to ten teams but will bump it up to 12 (preferred) or 14 if we have enough people. If you are interested in joining, you can shoot me an e-mail at gioff2014@gmail.com and I'll get you entered in. We currently have 3 people participating for sure, with more likely to join. So act fast if you are interested. It usually proves to be a fun time.

**********************************************UPDATE************************************************

We are officially at 12 teams. I can bump it up to 14 if we get 2 more people interested. If you are interested, please e-mail me at the e-mail address above, as the last two slots might go fast.

Well it's the time of year that anyone who's anyone in the gaming industry is packing their bags for Cologne, Germany for the annual GamesCom event.  With the new console releases just around the corner it seems that this year may be a bigger deal than usual given that all three major companies have hinted that big reveals are coming.  Given that I won't be attending today seems a good time to throw a few predictions out into the wild blue yonder that is the internet.

Cool logo guys!

We've been teased already that both Microsoft and Sony have major announcements to make this year regarding new IPs and possibly a final release date for their consoles coming out this fall but I'd like to mainly stay focused on the software side of things for todays blog.  That said, a few general statements about each company are in order.  First off, I think that Sony's big console news will be that the Playstation 4 will release on November 12th of this year.  Like many around the web have been speculating, 11-12-13 is just too good an opportunity for at least one of the big players to pass up on.  Secondly, I think that Microsoft will come out of the gates swinging with non-contradictory explanations of exactly what the Kinect 2.0 will offer gamers to justify the $100 higher price tag their system has.  Lastly, I think that Nintendo will drop the price of the two sku's of the WiiU by $50 dollars each respectively, effective immediately, to push sales prior to the new competition hitting store shelves.  

Now that the generalizations are done I'd like to offer some details about software announcements each of the three could possibly (hopefully) make.

The Nintendo WiiU

I think that Nintendo will make some major announcements either at GamesCom or around the same time via one of their Nintendo Direct presentations.  Given that we already know a Zelda title is in the works I think they're going to surprise us with a 3-D Mario Sunshine sequel.  Galaxy would be the safer bet probably but Nintendo has always marched to the beat of a different drummer and I think that adding Luigi, Peach, and Toad as playable characters in an all-new, 3-D world for us to explore via online or local co-op would immediately sell systems for them.  Some one to four player classic Nintendo platforming goodness would go a long way towards putting the spotlight back on them as a powerhouse developer of a new generation.

Microsoft's Xbox One

While many are probably expecting something new from Microsoft regarding either Halo or Gears of War, I think they're going to go a slightly different route this year.  My best guess for a major software reveal from these guys will be a new Banjo-Kazooie game developed by Rare.  When I say Banjo-Kazooie I don't mean a new 'Nuts and Bolts' title, but rather a return to the platforming golden years of the series.  Something that will compete with the New Super Marios and Ratchet and Clanks of the world. Something that will convince older gamers with kids that their new console has something to offer that demographic that the other two console makers don't have.  It could be a major development and even include collectible elements along the lines of the Skylanders series or Disney's new Infinity title, one a cash-cow and the other potentially so that Microsoft would like to get into.

Sony's Playstation 4

I'm going to play it safe regarding Sony and say that the only major software announcement they make at GamesCom is a new title in the Uncharted series. Naughty Dog just finished up the instant classic The Last of Us and we know they've got a second team working on something so this one seems like a no-brainer.  While I'd like to see a spring release near the time of Infamous: Second Son, I think it's more likely that we'll just get a bit of a preview in the form of a gorgeous trailer with no release date information yet.  It seems to me that they'll wait to drop the inevitable Uncharted 4 in the fall of 2014 following Santa Monica's lead with the God of War franchise last generation.  They've got some pretty heavy hitters with Infamous and Killzone and it wouldn't hurt to have a major IP in the pipeline for next holiday season when the greater majority of purchasers start diving into the new generation of technology.

Some Quick Multi-platform Guesses

We're going to see some major 3rd-party announcements this year as well.  Without delving into too much detail I'd like to make a few predictions about what some of the big name publishers are going to offer for this and next generation.

First off, Bethesda will finally announce the existence of Fallout 4.  It'll be a huge title, probably set in either the rocky mountains or pacific northwest as the previous two explored the east coast and american southwest respectively.

Secondly,Dark Souls 2 will be shown in playable form to the applause of the entire gaming community.  It'll be epic, gorgeous, and just as difficult as previous incarnations with a new twist on multiplayer that we've never seen before.

Third, Square Enix will show new gameplay trailers of Final Fantasy 14, 15, and Kingdom Hearts 3 while offering zero details about when the second two will be available to the public.  In a less surprising move I think we may see a brief trailer for the new Tomb Raider game we know is in the works.

And lastly, for now, Capcom will finally do the right thing and bring Mega Man back as a major AAA title.  Too many years have gone by with weird remakes and download only titles and I think that the advent of a new generation of systems would be the perfect time to see it again.

While the odds of all of these predictions happening at GamesCom this year are pretty slim, I'd like to think that years of following the happenings of the industry mean that at least some of them will occur.  We'll see starting early next week, but no matter what happens it's a good time to be a gamer and any news is better than no news!

Until next time, thanks for reading everyone!

Any other predictions for this years GamesCom?

Anyone think one or more of mine are dumb ideas? (It's ok, I don't mind!)

With that I'm going to go back to trying to teach my two and a half year old niece how to play Ratchet and Clank!  She holds the controller and pushes buttons already but the analog controls confuse her so far...

Happy gaming ya'll!

On the rare occasion that I have access to the internet these days, I do like to spend a moment or two and watch some video features on GIO. While watching the recent stress test with Joe Juba taking on Tyson in Punch Out, the conversation changed to the matter of what helps the editors get in "the mood" for gaming. Taking it as the context of what do you need to get yourself past a particularly nasty or difficult section of a game, and I thought this wasn't a bad subject for a quick blog.

Gaming memories are something that I like to share, and growing up in the 90's meant Sega Genesis and SNES were my console of choice. Now while these systems had some of the best and most memorable soundtracks in video games, I was also a young lad, and had just received my first CD player. Of course no CD player would have been complete without a set of awesome headphones, which my dad provided me a set from a recording studio to listen to, instead of annoying him with my obviously bad taste in music at the time. (Trust me I know it was bad, because it involved Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth, Static X, and other great bands that faded into obscurity down the line.)

I can to this day listen to "Floored" the album from Sugar Ray and still bring up memories of Shining Force and other games of the era. So to me music outside of the game has always been something that I've listened to aside from the soundtrack, although modern era and post PS1 games I have become less complacent to do that, especially given the high quality that video games OST's have become recently. What hasn't changed though is that I still find myself using music to get myself "pumped up" for any particularly nasty or dangerous battles in a video game. When Bulletstorm released a few years back there was one spot where you enter a room of constant death and after getting frustrated to the point I said "argh I hate you game I hate you so so much!" I was on Facebook at the time, and remembered my extensive library of music and sitting right there in my face was my salvation. After driving around and hearing certain songs that got my blood racing I knew what needed to be done.

(Please visit the site to view this media)

I turned up the volume, and I entered the room, and destruction became my name. I wrecked that room without and consequence. Guys were impaled on various instruments of death, fireworks were shot up nether regions, people thrown using my whip, and bodies gibbed into millions of pieces. The death was amazing the music coursing through my veins, and I needed more of it. I then turned to MW3 to find if this new found pumped up music still worked wonders, and it did. I jumped over railing twirling in the air, and throwing combat knives into my victims with pleasure. Cackling and howling like a mad man, I destroyed more armies than trench warfare during World War I. When my red vision had passed, I looked up and felt relief.

Turns out music that gets me in the mood helps, I've tried other methods, absolute quiet, reading strategy after strategy, but put on a good heavy beat and I'll destroy anyone that I come across. I just have to remember not to get too pumped up, I wouldn't want the neighbors to think I'm a raving lunatic. So gamers, light blog, easy blog, even a cheap one, but here's where I end. What do you use to get yourself ready for an extra difficult section of a game? Is there a method that just helps you get in the mood?

The first cooperative multiplayer Zelda game was The Wind Waker back in 2003, which featured a special item called the "Tingle Tuner" that allowed a second player to join in using a Game Boy Advance as a controller. This second player could aid the main player by using Rupees to generate items and various other effects - bombing faraway targets, giving the player the brief ability to hover, and so on. At around the same time, the team releases Four Swords, a four-player dungeon-crawler with its own separate mythology, on Game Boy Advance. Players controlled one of four Links, each of whom could battle enemies and solve puzzles with the trusty Four Sword and one extra item, which each player could choose as they progressed through the maze-like levels. This same approach to multiplayer was blown up for the console space in Four Swords Adventures. Essential to the games was the fact that players each got their own screen, and as such could explore the various corners of the dungeons at will instead of being tied to their fellow friends. All great games and ideas... So why aren't we seeing cooperative aspects in Zelda today?Well, there was Nintendo Land's Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, but that wasn't technically a Zelda game. I think it's time for Zelda to embrace cooperative play: not just as a central gimmick, but as a way of enhancing its value by letting you enjoy your adventures through Hyrule with friends. 

Fortunately, Eiji Aonuma said that he and his team are working on the idea that the next Zelda is will have a cooperative mode as well as a mode that the players will go through their adventure alone. Naturally, there should be some kind of Miiverse integration to give players help in solving difficult puzzles or finding out where to go - and we hope this means that there'll be a lot less forced hand-holding in the actual game - but simply making use of basic Miiverse functionality won't really be a game-changer. If Aonuma is telling the truth, here's some ideas I have for the next Zelda, co- op wise.

First, no hassles. I like both Four Swords and Four Sword Adventure to some extent, but did it really have to require alot of work just to play the game? Four Swords Adeventure, you needed to find three more people with a Gameboy Advance and the same game as you before you could start your adventure. Either make the next Zelda online cooperative or just have 2- 4 people play on one Wii- U at once ( of course with multiple game pads) so there's not a chance people won't play it just because it too hard just to get on in the first place. Also, it should offer meaningful ways for players to bring different weapons and skills. Typically, when we think of the weapons and items we'll carry with us as we play through a Zelda game, we think of gathering a vast and varied arsenal, including a sword and shield, a bow and bombs, a hookshot, and so on. Rather than picking and choosing equipment to balance out our characters against the challenges ahead, we're used to just being able to carry everything around with us. In Battle Quest, however, things are very different. Instead of getting to easily switch back and forth between the sword and bow, players are more or less locked in to one particular battle role. Swordsmen fight up-close and use their broad shields to repel attacks; archers fire from a distance and dive out of the way to avoid enemies. Naturally, a lot of this differentiation has to do with the more limited mobility of the game... but I think the core idea behind carving out those different roles is a solid one. I don't think it'd ever be possible to separate Zelda from the idea that the player wields a sword against foes. In that sense, taking the sword away from the player in order to offer him or her the role of ranger in combat doesn't seem like it'd be a good idea. I was mulling over how best to address this problem, when suddenly it hit me: the difference between a warrior and a ranger could be that the warrior has a shield, while the ranger has a bow. Think about it: Link usually carries his shield on his back, attached to his sword. In Battle Quest, there's that the archer also carries the bow on his or her back. Couldn't there then be an option to choose your combat role based on which "secondary" piece of equipment you choose to bring with you - the shield or the bow? 

Just like in Battle Quest, warriors would shine when they fight up close, primarily using their shields to repel enemy attacks, while archers aim from afar and have more agile dodge moves at their disposal to avoid taking blows. Meanwhile, both players would have a sword at their side, meaning they can both fight in traditional Zelda  style should they so choose. Warriors wouldn't necessarily have to be at a total disadvantage against ranged enemies, either - items like the slingshot or hookshot could still allow them to strike back at enemies from a distance, just not with the lethal force of the archer's bow. There could also be another possible character class: the magic user. The magic-user would wield neither a shield or a bow - instead, he or she would bring a host of powerful spells, some of them offering defensive or ranged abilities. And, of course, the magic-user would still be able to wield a sword. Warriors would have access to a wide variety of shields: shields of different materials ( could upgrade like in Skyward Sword), plus a few new varieties. Don't get me wrong, I don't want this to be a full on RPG, I just want Zelda to have a little more options for battle and so on. While character classes are an interesting way to give players different playstyles to choose from, I don't think the emphasis on player freedom should end there. Given the advantages offered by the Wii U GamePad, the Pro Controller, and Wii MotionPlus, I think it'd be essential to ensure that players can use whichever controller they choose, regardless of which character class they prefer. Fortunately, I don't think it'd be too difficult to adapt each playstyle to each controller. Another thing is the game must be balanced. One of the reasons why the asymmetrical cooperative play of Nintendo Land works so well is that it's very well-balanced. If a player goes solo, the game only throws challenges at the player that are appropriate not only to the player's particular combat role, but to the fact that he or she is going at it alone. You won't face any archers hiding out in watch towers if you have a sword, because there's simply no way to hit them. Add more players, and the challenge level increases. You'll face not only more enemies, but more challenging combinations of enemies.If Nintendo really does plan to implement cooperative play in Zelda Wii U, it's going to be important that they give the game balance the same level of attention and care. The game needs to be fun and challenging in its own right whether you're playing by yourself or with others - that goes for the placement and number of enemies, the way in which the enemy AI attacks and responds to your moves, and so on. Also, multiplayer has to be an added option, there for players to take advantage of if they wish, not the game's "true form" that makes the single-player mode dull in comparison. Some ideas for the future Wii U Zelda title. They don't have to come true in order for the game to be great in my eyes, I just think these idea will make the multiplayer stellar. 

Just like Ocarina of Time's 3D world caused a revolution for the franchise, adding a deep multiplayer component will forever change the series' conventions. No longer will we think of multiplayer as something for spin-offs and extra modes: it'll become a core feature instead.While the fact that Zelda's kind of "late to the party" in terms of taking full advantage of cooperative play means it won't completely change the way video games are made going forward, it'll still mean that the series will at long last have dived fully into next-gen.

What do you think of the cooperative mode in the future Wii U Zelda installment? Any ideas for it? Comment below and thanks for reading!

By now, you all know what has been the traditional stereotype for the average lover of video games. Hollywood feeds us predictable images of 12-30 year-old social misfits who prefer to remain cloistered away in the basement of their parents homes, perpetually without a girlfriend or female interest, surviving on a constant diet of pizza, Cheetos and Mountain Dew. If this stereotype is not presented with this kind of contempt, then we usually see the other extreme of the lovable loser who is still socially inept, but silently brilliant.

Labels. It seems that even as we chafe at the discomfort labels bring, we are still unable to resist them or do without them. It's an unfortunate reality because quite often, if you really pay attention to life and what's going on around you, you'll find that most people have a lot more going on inside than what you see on the surface. To be blind to this is to deliberately cheat oneself of invaluable learning experiences.

These thoughts came to me this past week as a result of a brief exchange I had with a young co-worker of mine. I am by no means "old", but I'm not a kid either. I've got my fair share of life experience and stories to tell. But this co-worker of mine, who is in his early twenties, always struck me as a carefree "typical" kind of "kid". I figured, like most youth he was probably into the modern day holy trinity of life activities: Facebook, Twitter, and Hip-hop music.

Until recently, I tended to look at most people in their teens and early twenties as being naive, flighty and generally not too thoughtful. A large part of my views was influenced by what I saw in the popular media. Action movies with bullets flying and explosions every five minutes. Sappy pop songs with predictable beats and rythyms that recycle the same themes ad infinitum. Clothing fashions that are hyper trendy and often times laughably impractical. Social media that emphasize narcissistic obsession with ones self, and posting a dozen photos with a "duck face". Yeah. My overall impressions of younger generations has not been the kindest one. But... I think I've been wrong.

First of all, young people ARE NOT what the media protrays. In fact, I find that the case is more the opposite. The media tries to superimpose their ideas of what youth should be over the reality of what they are, and it's all about marketing. "Hey, you look like an iPhone kind of person! iPhones are cool! You want to be cool don't you???" "Hey, you look like the kinda person who's 'cool enough' to buy these $300 'premium' headphones!!! You'll look just like a professional DJ, even if you aren't one!"

The movies being made are lame. Most of the music being made is lame. The endless fads, trends and gimmicks are lame as well. But it's not because it's what people want. It's because the people making this stuff are lazy, and greedy.

So... back to my exchange with this younger co-worker. Here I was quietly sitting on my lunch break, when he walks in and tells me that he's been listening to... Thelonius Monk. And it didn't even register immediately what he was saying, but when it did, I was shocked. Thelonius Monk, for those of you who don't know, is probably one of the greatest and most respected jazz musicians of all time. His music comes from a time and place that most of us have no connection to, but no matter. It's damned good music.

That a young fresh-faced "kid" barely escaping his teens would be into music that was popular 50 to 60 years before he was born, was both surprising and inspiring. And it's not that I'm some sort of music "elitist" who smugly thinks himself to be the authority on all things good. But, if there's one thing that REALLY bums me out about young people nowadays is that they don't EXPLORE their world enough beyond what the popular media presents to them.

I don't think pop music is bad. Pop music has it's place in our lives just like any other form of music. The same goes for rap and hip-hop. But could I live with an exclusive "diet" of those two forms of music? I'd rather swallow James Bond's infamous cyanide capsule.

There is so much going on in today's world. So much information, so many possibilities. By all rights, we should be experiencing a second Renaisannce across all fields. Music, art, science, philosophy, all of these things ahould be reflecting the stupendous access to information and communication that we possess today. And yet, by contrast, what I see is that media and corporate advertising mostly serves to herd people into neatly divided, categorized and labeled compartments. One of the most common is age.

In recent years, I've listened to a lot of the rhetoric coming from members of the development community and others involved in gaming, and much of it has struck as being contemptous. Granted there has been a proliferation of ugliness on the internet. The Phil Fish incident as well as others have cast a long and unpleasant shadow over how many gamers are perceived. But that can't become the justification for making broad generalizations and sweeping assessments.

"[PS3] is not a game machine. We've never once called it a game machine. I'm not going to reveal [the PS3's] price today. I'm going to only say that it'll be expensive. I'm aware that with all these technologies, the PS3 can't be offered at a price that's targeted towards households.”

- Ken Kutaragi

WTF???

From my point of view, one of the very big problems existing today in gaming and modern business is that they assume too much, and don't bother to know much more. There's more going on in our heads then the media gives us credit for.

Are we all a bunch of whiny, anti-social sociopaths who enjoy spouting racist, hurtful and downright evil ideas and comments just to get our jollies? Are we all simpletons, that like a common moth, are endlessly fascinated by the light of fiery explosions and the crackle of gunfire? Do we REALLY like Cheetos and Mountain Dew that much? Or is it possible that we would also love to chow down on glazed pork chops in a raspberry sauce?

Do we really care if Phil Fish refuses to make another game? Do we really care if Microsoft decides to play big brother with our video game hardware? Or is it possible that we want things that most businesses are unwilling to discover and pursue? Maybe we want to create our own entertainment, rather than just consume someone else's work. Maybe our interests lie outside of what we've been presented until now.

There's a whole world of possibilities out there, and quite literally, an infinte supply of information to help us realize those possibilities. And yeah, one young fellow telling me he liked a famous jazz legend game me a lot of hope. Because maybe, just maybe if we start to see people for the potential within them, maybe that will be the beginning of something truly great in our world today.

so um..... it has been attempted to be posted twice but I keep getting error if it errors again I pry won't post...

Baokkie learned how to Bite at level 19

Kenhallow at 15 learned Air Cutter. razor winds are used by the user to hurt the opposing team and makes it easier to land critical hits.

Shimama learned a fire attack called Flame something at a level before level 20. the move is where the user puts itself on fire and attacks it don't damage the user but rather increases the user speed stat.

I believe it was level 15 that Miruhog learned Crunch it might have been 16 or 17 though. The move is where the user uses its fangs to chomp down on the enemy.

So I would say more but I had ran out of time and quit playing hopefully I can get this up this time...More tomorrow

I think we can all agree that Call of Duty is getting a little old. They still feel great from a gameplay perspective, but it’s almost like we’ve played the same game 6 times. Some people think Call of Duty is the worst thing ever, but I think it’s just gotten a little repetitive. This is hardly a ground breaking thought, but, none of the games have wowed me like the first Modern Warfare did. Here are some of the ways I came up with that could make CoD fresh again, or at least interesting:

1: Change the Genre

This one is probably very unlikely, because Call of Duty is the most successful first-person shooters, except for maybe Halo. A genre-shift could work though, because anything with the “Call of Duty” name on it is going to sell extremely well. Activision or Treyarch can afford to be a little ambitious at this point. I think an open world game would probably work well, even if it is a little unimaginative. I think the strike force missions in Black Ops 2 could make the basis for an interesting game. If the overhead aspects of it were polished up and you could play it the way you want, I think it could be a different, fun game, basically like a FPS/strategy game hybrid. Obviously, people would want the multiplayer as well, and that could take some ideas from Battlefield: one person gets to be the commander, and the others play it like traditional Call of Duty. Something along these lines would at least be interesting.

2: Lighten the Tone

I know that the Call of Duty games are supposed to be serious, but I laugh at these games almost as often as when I’m playing Saints Row. There are so many cheesy lines, and the games take themselves way too seriously sometimes. For example: Price’s monologue during the last parts of Modern Warfare 2.  It is so cheesy and funny and amazing! These games shouldn’t cut this out, it should be more self-aware.  These games should move more into the direction of being pseudo-parodies of the action movies they get inspiration from (read: rip off). I’m not saying the games should be Saints Row level of insanity, but it would be a hell of a lot of fun playing a Call of Duty game that isn’t so serious all the time. Just looking at the plot of Black Ops, it’s almost like is a not-very-subtle parody of some action movies with over the top plots. (SPOILERS) The player character gets brainwashed into seeing a Russian badass and kills Kennedy, then has to stop a gas that melts people. It doesn’t even make sense, but it was a fun story, and I’d be ok with seeing more like it.

3: Make It Story Driven

Call of Duty is already tested and will reach a wide audience, so if the developers want to tell a quieter, story driven story about a group of soldiers or whatever they won’t have to worry about sales. Imagine if they made a game set during Vietnam (any war would work, this is just an example) about being an Army reporter, where you see the horrors of war firsthand, and how it affects people and the consequences of actions that soldiers have to do to survive. Of course, this sounds like a game that is the exact opposite of Call of Duty, but Activision and Treyarch are in a unique place. They have one of the most successful gaming franchises ever, but it seems like the evolution of the series has stagnated. The developers can keep using the same basic formula with a few tweaks, or they can go into an entirely new direction and try to make something really special. I guess only time will tell whether they’ll try something new or just keep doing the same thing until it stops making money.

Thanks for reading!

Let me give you a bit of history concerning my time with Dragon’s Dogma.  Although it seems a bit odd now, I’ve always associated Capcom with RPGs.  Why?  One of the games that got me into the genre was their 1994 hit Breath of Fire.  I obsessively poured over that game, spending hundreds of hours as a child with Ryu, Nina, Karn and company.  When the sequel released a year later, it instantly became one of my favorite games ever.  Capcom released a few more sequels, but by then I had moved on to other properties, and as the years went by, Breath of Fire was mostly forgotten about.  I moved on to bigger and better RPGs, and Capcom moved on with their life.

Now, almost 10 years after changing my life, Capcom apparently decided to jump back into RPGs with Dragon’s Dogma.  At first glance, it almost appears to be an amalgamation of a number of other hit titles.  The art style is heavily reminiscent of Dark Souls; at one point I swore I was in Blighttown.  The huge world evokes memories of staring at Skyrim’s panoramas.  If you see a castle off in the distance, you can bet you’ll eventually make your way there.  Combat is some of the best I’ve ever seen in an RPG; the real-time battles and skills wouldn’t be out of place in a God of War game, with a sprinkle of Shadows of the Colossus.  Skyrim, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Xenoblade Chronicles are all among the best RPGs of this generation, and I have no problem putting Dragon's Dogma right there next to them.

It starts with the combat.  Unlike a lot of RPGs, you are never just going through the motions in Dragon’s Dogma.  Even forty hours in, I never feel at ease traversing the world of Gransys; death can await you around every corner.  Fast travel is rather more difficult in this game than other open-world RPGs, so it’s important that scouring the world remains fun, and man, does it ever.  It can become somewhat of a grind at times, but when you turn a corner and see a giant chimera blocking your path, the last thing you are feeling is bored.

The scale of some of the enemies in Dragon’s Dogma is jaw-dropping. Scaling one in real-time is absolutely thrilling.

Although you pick a class in the beginning, early on you get the opportunity to swap them at the inn in the capitol city of Gran Soren.  Each class feels unique, and offers a number of weapons and abilities to try out.  It feels a bit like the job system from Final Fantasy Tactics, and I mean that as high praise.  In addition to your character level, you also gain vocation levels, which opens up new abilities, core skills and augments.  The amount of depth just one class provides is impressive, and Dragon’s Dogma gives you nine to play with.  It was always thrilling to see my vocation level up just to see what new skills I could buy, some of which carry over to multiple classes.

These skills that you are buying don’t fall into the +2% damage either, they are almost all game-changing abilities that require extensive thought.  For example, let’s look at my current class: ranger.  I carry a pair of daggers (I could also use a short sword) and a longbow.  There are a number of abilities I can purchase unique to this class, and some that extend to all dagger-using classes.  Ranger is the only one that uses a longbow, so they are all exclusive, like a particularly awesome ability that fires eleven arrows in a line.  Yep, it’s pretty awesome.  A number of core skills can be bought, that also apply to me anytime I’m using a dagger, despite my class.  One of these is a double jump; another is a dedicated roll dodge.  These may seem game-breaking (Must. have. Doublejump.), but many other abilities native to other weapons are just as incredible.  Managing my skills is just as addicting as the combat, and Dragon’s Dogma is a blessing for customization junkies.

Said junkies could spend hours creating their character and pawn alone, thanks to the deep customization options.

Have I mentioned the pawn system yet?  This may be Dragon’s Dogma’s biggest innovation.  Instead of a standard party, you get to create a pawn early on that travels by your side for the entirety of your journey.  Pretty much all the customization you can do (looks, armor, weapons, classes, skills) can be applied to your pawn as well, on top of the fact that you can alter their personality by talking with them at a “Knowledge Chair”.  Even better, you can recruit two other pawns, from real world players, to join you.  While you are playing, people can also recruit your pawn, even though they will stay by your side the whole time.  When they return, they can have gifts from the player that recruited them, as well as valuable information about quests, enemies and locations they experienced while away.  I had my mind blown when I visited an area new to me, and my pawn busted out with something along the lines of “I’ve been here before.  Why don’t you check up there?”  Sure enough, a valuable quest item was lurking where she signified, saving me untold amounts of time.

It’s not just the art style that holds similarities to Dark Souls, though.  In a way, the world recalled that magnificent title as well.  With no fast travel, you are forced to learn the geography of the world, and how each area connects with the next.  A unique health system that drops your max health as you take damage until you either stay at an inn or use certain items has an interesting effect on gameplay.  Since the best way to replenish is to stay somewhere, you fall into a a pattern where you will go out on singular, lengthy adventures at a time, returning to the inn whenever you get tired…kind of like a bonfire.

The capital city, Gran Soren, is always a sight for sore eyes.

All of these elements combine to form an exceptional game.  It’s not perfect; the story is mostly a mess, voice acting is, at best, sometimes passable and the pop-in noticeably stalls the game at points, but it has hooked me like few games have recently done.  I have put a lot of time into this game, and am still surprised by the amount of new content I keep seeing, and the amount of content I have yet to find (I now this because my pawn has knowledge of a number of enemies and locations I have yet to encounter).  Needless to say, I won’t be stopping anytime soon.

{Leviathyn}

This was a hard decision for me. I was thinking of only reviewing Ruby and Sapphire but I felt that woudn't do those games justice considering Leaf Green and Fire Red were made mostly so people with Sapphire and Ruby could complete their pokedex's. So I will divide the review in 3 parts.

Ruby and Sapphire

These games are the first Gen 3 games and these do not have the pokemon Animations of Emerald, Leaf Green, and Fire Red. This may seem trivial but considering these games released 2 years (In Japan) after Crystal, it makes the game feel a bit backwards at first. However once you look past that small fact. The game has pretty good visuals in battle with a considerable amount of detail in the sprites. However, the overworld can seem pretty bland considering golden sun released before it. The music sounds great, with many songs using allot of a trumpet stuff (I am no musical genius). The gameplay isn't too hard but it isn't a breeze through. Many new type combinations make things more interesting. Like Sableye's Dark?Ghost typing which makes weak to nothing. There is also the inclusion of passive abilities that shake up gameplay allot. Again with Sableye his ability prankster lets him go first when he dosn't use attacks. Overall I say these games are really good, with their minor faults.

Aka: "The Misconception of the 'Perfect' Score"

I don't think these guys are scoring games- more like 'game'...

Don't get me wrong, just about every game that I've seen receive critical acclaim in the form of a perfect score from various gaming critics and sources has totally deserved that score. This isn't an angst-ridden blog meant to talk about how no game deserves a perfect score just because I say so. Instead, this blog simply talks about the various nuances behind what drives a perfect score, and the subjectivity of the entire scoring thought process as a whole. The title might come off as a little confusing, so allow me to explain my metaphorical usage of symbolism in this manifested matter. Normally, finding a "chink in the armor" refers to finding a weakness of some sort in something otherwise seemingly impervious, impermeable, or indestructible and invincible. However, in this content matter, I mean it to describe finding fault with the established system- that system, in this case, being the reception and commendation of a perfect score. Now that that is cleared up a little, or at least more so, let's move on.

We've had some excellent games come out this year, and several more show great promise on the horizon. There have been a few perfect scores around the web for great games such as The Last of Us and Shin Megami Tensei IV and other sterling examples of gaming. Where I find fault with the rating system as a whole however, lies not in its subjectivity as that is pretty much impossible or at least improbable to be subject to change ever, but instead with the fact that technically there should never be a perfect game worthy of a perfect score. No game is perfect, no matter how good, and for that reason, I have never given a perfect score as of yet on GIO, and have only ever given one in my years of reviewing to one game that even I realize is not perfect, but that I enjoyed so much that I play it to this day- despite it being ten years old. (That would be The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker for GC, released in 2003, and given a perfect score by myself on MetaCritic.com) Technicalities aside, let's talk about some reasons why and why not i regards to allocating perfect scores to deserving or non-deserving games.

1.0

Pro

Some games, such as The Last of Us- for example, are so intricately designed, so painstakingly rendered, and so near perfectly put together that they seem a sure shoe-in for that perfect score, because of the excellent experience they provide. They have rich stories, an incredible amount of detail, a lasting replayability and experience, and a lack of true glitches or malfunctioning portions of gameplay. These are the kinds of games that are most deserving of the highest possible review scores, if not for their sheer enjoyability, then for the hard work that the developers and publishers put into bringing us mundane folks that almighty experience.

2.0

Con

To refute the last point, at the same time, no game is absolutely 100% perfect in any way. However minimally, each game will experience some bug in either the hardware or the game material itself. Some games experience more than others, making them a  broken mess such as Rogue Warrior and Dark, and rendering them virtually unplayable or enjoyable. Others, such as (again) The Last of Us, feature only minor gripes and are plagued by maybe one bug for every thirty hours of gameplay, if that. For example, clipping has always been a big issue in games today, and one that can semi-decrease your experience by shattering the illusion of a virtual reality when your hand sinks impossibly through a hard substance. It's a little thing, but enough to make your game only 99.7% good, and thus not perfect at all.

Now, let's talk about the second set of material I've brought here with me today for this 'perspective' blog. Because no game is perfect and therefore in all technicality doesn't deserve that perfect score no matter how good and enjoyable that game is, that means our entire review system is flawed beyond belief, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. Subjectivity is a double-edged sword, as is objectivity. Through subjectivity you can explain yourself however you wish and note everything down as opinion based reasoning. Through objectivity, the word opinion is virtually tabooed and fact reigns supreme. In our reviews, for those of us apt to write generally good and well-received ones anyway, we craft a craftily concocted mix of subjective and objective based content for you to peruse at your whim. We, as any good writer will attest to, often add in a dash of fact for authenticity, and then a splash of opinion in order to base our review and writing in reasonable wisdom and rationality. This is the heart of the matter as well as the crux. In some situations, it is impossible to go entirely fueled on fact alone, whereas in others it is entirely unrealistic to do so with only opinion. It is finding that common, middle ground and perfect combination that is much, much more difficult...

That is why our review system is, and always will be flawed, as longtime GIO blogger Jolt(The Cynic) once said in several of his excellent writings. There isn't much we can do about it other than to write the truth as we see it, and give things our best go. It's simply quite the interesting conundrum we find ourselves in often as writers here, and other places. Wherever you have some sort of review system, whether it be numerical, alphabetical, or simply worded from high to low, this problem will crop up everywhere. In fact, the only way to ever be rid of it would be to stop reviewing, and in turn, stop judging people, places, things, items, and any other mundane or extraordinary experiences we've had or seen. And as human beings, that is such an innate part of society and our makeup that it is simply irrelevant and impossible to even think of being rid of. But, enough with this deep musing. That's it for my piece today, and be sure to tune in another time for more. Wrek out.

Environmental storytelling at its finest, Gone Home is less fascinated with the “how” than the “why,” “when,” and “where,” as well as remarkably fresh not for what it includes, but for what it excises. Guns? Absent. Regenerating health? Nope. Boogeymen waiting for the next jump scare? Well, the atmosphere is unsettling, just not fatal. For a narrative that totally disarms its main character, then, you would never guess that Gone Home’s scariest feature is how deeply moved you may be.

After a year of traveling across Europe, Kaitlin Greenbriar returns to the States to find her family’s home empty, the sight of the manor palpably unwelcome. Since her parents changed residences during her classes abroad, Katie is as much a stranger on Arbor Hill as the player. Even worse, upon reaching the front door, Katie finds a note from her younger sister, Sam, with disconcerting news. Sam has disappeared. Why? Where to? While she says no one should worry, any horror fanatic knows that line is immediate cause for concern. Katie finally peers inside, the foyer’s flickering light her only greeting. 

The Greenbriars are far from the prettiest video game cast. 

Although Gone Home’s ominous setup matches Slender: The Arrival, no dangers lurk within its walls. Instead, a mystery lies ahead. Where is everybody? What happened during Katie’s sabbatical? As players rifle through boxes, bedrooms, and bathrooms, a year’s worth of familial troubles provides much-needed answers. While Katie’s father was a published author, unsold books and crumpled manuscripts haunt his study. Her mom is a forest conservationist, but secret letters point towards unfaithful outings with a fellow ranger. And Sam, the most conflicted of all, struggles with her independence, sexuality, and rebellious personality, yearning for acceptance.

First impressions almost ruined my experience. I likened Sam to a turbulent teenager going through average pubescent pains, but rummaging through their household, my connection to the Greenbriars grew. Having his sense of journalistic worth built up and then deflated, I know Mr. Greenbriar’s agony. My ex-girlfriend, however, could write novellas about cheating. And yet, the issues I dealt with most were the fear of moving into a strange house, transferring to a different school, and trying to find where I fit in while learning how shallow adolescents can be. I remember nobody caring what my name was or where I was from, then finding the one person in my existence that gave life meaning.

The narrative eats at the heartstrings successfully, in part thanks to Sam’s portrayal. Players scour various rooms, picking up postcards, reading notes, and examining photos, slowly unearthing Sam’s inner secrets. She monologues about her day to day toils too, introducing her sharp wit and strong will, giving those notes, photos, drawings ‒ whatever ‒ significance. It's obvious that The Fullbright Company worked tirelessly to rend emotions using every captured pause, sigh, and sob. I pitied Sam; I wanted to tell her life does get better. Although Sam’s whereabouts became clear before breaching her inner sanctum (her bedroom), the developers are also adept at covering their tracks. In creeps the terror once again before all is said and done.

Dads giving friendship advice are among the most awkward adolescent moments.

Still, the Greenbriars are only half of what makes Gone Home special. Set in 1995, the house ‒ the setting ‒ is as much a character as its inhabitants, a window into the past I never wanted to close. Computers, smart phones, DVD players? Sorry, kids. The TV Guide outlines Full House and Boy Meets World air times, Street Fighter II arcade cabinets beckon new challengers at local 7/11s, and VHS tapes advocate old-school piracy, of recording reruns of The X-Files, Airplane!, and Blade Runner.

Gone Home allowed me to project my own memories onto each scene as I searched under every bed, beneath every pillow, behind every chair. Nearly every meaningful object can be grabbed and inspected, like a cassette tape and its hastily scrawled labels, the TV Guide’s legible listing of shows, or a soda can’s nutritional facts. Gone Home exhibits texture details rarely seen, while the narrative gradually shifts from a story about life’s unavoidable hardships to one of hope and finding where in the universe one's heart lies. It might be a spoiler saying players will not have all the pieces to the puzzle by the end. The developers leave something to the imagination, and that is one mystery I completely understand. 

Upon completing the main campaign of Half Life 2 (I still have the episodes to play), I laughed.  Oh, cheeky Valve.

Traditionally, I struggle with first person shooters and even though I picked up the Xbox 360's The Orange Box for a mere $20 I largely avoided the titles while I played other games.  Sometimes a gun with a chainsaw attachment applied to an enemy's head is a cathartic release and other times it is a mindless grind rolling from one convenient waist high cover to the next.  Mostly my struggles with FPS games are based on the overwhelming horde that never ends.  A chokepoint with enemies rushing from every corner is fought with many deaths, strategic changes, and a sweaty controller as the tension builds with the final but superhuman enemy rushing towards me with a scream.  In the end, there is no relief.  Only a brief headset conversation from the intelligence operative (usually a woman in science fiction but a man in"realistic" military shooters) while I rush forward into an eerily similar shootout. From one high stress map to the next I usually switch games because I must build up the wherewithal to face the overwhelming horde again and again.

I figured that my early gaming years on JRPGs with turn based enemy encounters broken up with wildly distant checkpoints but with the reward of emerging out of an enchanted forest into the next town full of conversations, shops, and mini games (most often hide and seek with cheeky children) established my gaming expectations that made me struggle with playing FPS games for hours. 

Is it coming?  Maybe, maybe not.  

Half Life 2 was an obligation, a gaming requirement to at least appreciate the fans' hair pulling wails for Half Life 3.  HL2 may not rank as one of my favorite games of all times but now I get it.  The beloved but tough as dirt grandparent franchise of first person shooters remains unseated from its throne.  HL2 may wish that a younger game with more energy would usurp its position as high ruler of all FPS games but the title must be earned, not given. 

Why?  Must you ask?

Follow?  Follow Who? 

HL2 is open level, not open world, but even that limited openness allows us to become lost.  Nearly any current FPS release nowadays includes the immortal NPC, Follow, who can lead us through any dangerous obstacle course and emerge unscathed.  In fact, refusal to comply with the command inherent in Follow's name results in a video game meltdown that throws the player back to the last checkpoint.  Leave Follow's side at your own risk.     

Ravenholm is a fantastically designed level, I even forgave the infinitely spawning zombies. 

The open levels of HL2 do not "lead the way."  The open levels range from a maze of a map that requires puzzle solving to unlock the next door or hidden ramp to the clearly attainable roof to a sequence that is more linear than open with its high concrete walls and directive to ride the airboat to the end of a radioactive canal.  Also, items of interest are not highlighted (hint: the watermelon is totally destructible).  HL2's minimal game developer assistance to the player is not a retro throwback to the impossible difficulties of bygone games.  In fact, HL2 is not a particularly hard game because the solution is on the screen and the answer is reasonably apparent which perfectly captures that sense of achievement in gaming upon discovering the solution rather than the button mashing luck that cannot be recreated. 

Door To Door Jumping In First Person Platforming

Admittedly, this is exactly what I thought when I played through this level.  

Take note Assassin's Creed: Revelations, first person platforming can be done.  Of course, Mirrors Edge has remained as the lone game based entirely on first person platforming based.  As the next generation gifts video game developers with much more computing power first person platformers are becoming a revived genre before the new consoles even launch with Mirror's Edge 2 finally announced and games such as Sunset Overdrive garnering much attention. Admittedly, the first person platforming in Half Life 2 is one of the game's rougher edges.  Jumping across the sandy beach on alternating pieces of scrap metal, driftwood, and the inexplicable numerous doors littering the beach was not my favorite level but the level was done well.  The platforming was doable with a fun and immediate consequence for missing the platform and made me decide whether or not I had the patience to hopscotch far out of my way for tantalizing supplies (I did not).    

Who Needs A Gun?

If only real life imitated video games more often. 

The Half Life franchise's hero, Gordon Freeman, is a maniac with a crowbar.  The crowbar is a last ditch melee tool, most effective for head crabs, and its value is well established as the best and most satisfying method of breaking open boxes.  The crowbar as the most iconic weapon in a game that also features a pistol, a magnum, a shotgun, a crossbow and more is a fun irony that a gun is not the featured weapon of a FPS game.  FPS games nowadays may use HL2's overall arsenal of guns, grenades, and mines but it is the unexpected weapon that is a fun treat.

Far Cry 3 includes a blowtorch.  The blowtorch's function for vehicle repair is not as helpful as a box breaking crowbar. At the point that my vehicle required repairing the needed repairs were often beyond the blowtorch's capabilities.  Fact, the blowtorch will not repair your fully submerged vehicle, I tried.  Yet, the ability to use the blowtorch as an impromptu melee weapon was reason enough for me to equip the blowtorch now and then, just in case I needed to melt off an enemy's face (that is not an actual mini cut scene but take this idea under advisement Ubisoft).      

Save Anywhere

The modern FPS game uses a checkpoint save system.  Nowadays, such checkpoints are not clearly defined record books (that are always in a house of worship) or tape recorders (that are always in a utility closet) where players stop and save but an animation in the corner of the television triggered by an invisible line.  Undoubtedly, the worst part of a reload is waiting for the revelation of where the last checkpoint was.  By a show of hands, who here has become frustrated enough to turn a chokepoint into a full out sprint towards the enemy horde hoping to trigger a checkpoint before certain death?  Me.

I died a lot here, I mean a lot and then I died some more. 

HL2's and Valve's overall commitment to the save anywhere feature allows us to test out our different theories for puzzle solving as well as experiment with our weapon choices and battle plans.  Again, a show of hands for who stopped plans worthy of an action hero after remembering the location of the last checkpoint?  Again, as the rare modern FPS open world game, Far Cry 3 required reloading at unlocked safe houses and radio towers.  The sudden memory that the nearest unlocked spawn point was across the map of the outpost that I had under siege kept my sniper rifle aimed on patrolling guards rather than a Molotov cocktail based approach.  Whereas, after a save before opening a door in HL2, I threw barrels (the gravity gun is simply Gordon imitating Donkey Kong after all), aimed for a magnum head shot, attempted the perfect grenade throw, or whatever else I felt like trying. 

Is That Pain You Felt?: Closed Captions

Truly an epic experience with closed captions. 

Remember that I laughed when I finished the game?  The endgame joke is only truly funny for those who know the ending of the original Half Life.  I did not play the game and ultimately gave up on Game Informer's Super Replay of Half Life because the game featured no subtitles or captioning of any kind.  However, and this topic deserves more space than I will dedicate here, Valve responded to complaints regarding no captions in Half Life with actual closed captioning in Portal, Half Life 2, and Portal 2.  No other game developer that I am aware of provides this option in the menus and then provides actual closed captions.  The quick explanation of this importance is that subtitles are for the hearing because subtitles are simply a language translation that does not include auditory clues.  HL2's closed captions are truly impressive including "*pain*" when an enemy is hit or "distant zombie groan" and I felt included rather than a befuddled by countless cheap deaths.   

Zipping down the water chased by a helicopter...the original experience. 

When I initially began HL2 I was not stunned, merely appreciative of one of the original FPS games.  While my airboat sped down the seemingly endless canal full of radioactive sludge and a helicopter's guns aiming for me, I flashed back to Call Of Duty: Black Ops.  I remembered the thrill of zipping from land to sea to sky culminating with a helicopter versus helicopter battle.  At that moment I realized that the original thrill came from HL2 and I kept my eyes open for how else HL2 made the genre that we know today as a staple of current generation gaming.

We cannot argue with science. 

HL2's narrative is not even particularly more substantial than Call Of Duty or Halo.  Go here and get that and spend the majority of the game enroute to the "go here" objective.  But HL2 took the time to make a game that forces the gamer to actively participate in order to advance.

Thank you for your readership, I appreciate you.  I was disappointed to miss a week last week after life's responsibilities all but eradicated my gaming and writing time.  All problems may not be solved but I just bought XCOM: Enemy Unknown to play on my birthday and my GIO fantasy football team will rise from the infirmary to crush the opposition.  Life is good.

What is your favorite FPS game?

What is your favorite gameplay mechanic of HL2?

Do you think that FPS games can include a more substantial story?

The last wish is a collection of short stories staring geralt of rivia, Better know as the witcher. A witcher is a bounty hunter, That hunts monsters only. Geralt is one of the last witcher alive. The last wish contains a number of different stories, That range from long to short. The last wish starts off with geralt going after the king's proclamation. The proclamation says that the town is being attacked by a striga. But once geralt talks to the king, He finds out that this is no ordinary job. Because it turns out that the striga is the king's daughter. So it's up to geralt to save the king's daughter without killing her, But that's easier said then done.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         The last wish was written by andrzej sapkowski a polish author. Originally published in 1993. The last wish has seven different stories, That all come together in one way or the other. Whether it's characters or the story, It all fits together. Most of the novel is told as a look back on past adventures, As told by geralt. Some of the stories resemble classic fairy tales, Such as snow white and beauty and the beast. The author puts a different spin on the classic tales to make them feel new, And interesting. The last wish is the first novel in the witcher series to be published in english, And the first one in the series altogether. It sets up all of the characters and the main story line used in later books. The last wish is on the shorter side only 359 pages long, Every page has something new and interesting, That will have you captivated till the very end. Whether you're a fan of the video game, Or someone who wants to get into the series. The last wish is a great novel for fans new and old.