Star Wars: The Old Republic – News from the Sith Empire

There are few things more frustrating than struggling to find a topic engaging enough to write about with limited free time, while something you'd really like to be able to review is restricted by a Non-Disclosure Agreement. I got into the SW:TOR Beta, but couldn't really talk about it until now that the NDA is lifted. For those who always skip to the end of this sort of article to get the verdict, I'll give your mouse wheel a break - Star Wars: The Old Republic is a very good game that successfully incorporates the Bioware RPG formula into a WoW-like MMORPG. I intend to purchase it several weeks after launch, and I'll certainly play, but I won't raid in it and certainly won't be quitting World of Warcraft in favor of it. My preferred way to play this game is to turn off most of the things that remind me I'm playing with other people until I want to play with those people, and enjoy the story as a single-player experience on a massive scale. When friends are on, doing an instanced encounter with them or trading items is cool, but I don't intend to randomly group with JEDIDOOD just because I can.

I played through the starting areas for two classes, both in the Sith Empire faction. Let me start by explaining something that I thought was fairly common knowledge, but I continue to surprise people with. "Republic" doesn't automatically mean "good guy" and "Sith" doesn't automatically mean "villain." Moral and ethical choices like those found in Mass Effect and Dragon Age will touch on every character's personal story and the starting areas are very reminiscent in some ways of the Origin chapters in the first Dragon Age. I played a Bounty Hunter who gained both Light and Dark Side points as a mercenary who adheres to the terms of his contract regardless of new information, and a Sith Warrior who is lost to the Dark Side. The two starting planets are split between pairs of classes with Hutta given to the Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter and Korriban for the Sith Inquisitor and Sith Warrior.

Combat options and gear choices are rolled out with completed quests much as they are in any MMORPG, but the quests are anything but typical. First, no quest text. Everything is fully voiced, including your character and every one-off NPC. Second, many quests immediately draw you into some sort of interesting story, and even the "kill 10 blargs and college their whatzits" quests frequently have a twist, where you may find that turning the quest in to the original quest NPC may have consequences you'd prefer to avoid. From the Sith training grounds on Korriban to the streets of Hutta torn apart by a struggle between powerful underworld bosses for control, the environments are gorgeous and logically laid out with "rest/town" areas placed naturally, without seeming like they were spaced out at particular intervals because players need a new quest hub about here. Each classes' abilities are used when trained in different situations, with status conditions like knockdown sometimes being important, or area of effect damage, or a hard, sustained "channeled" attack depending on the foes encountered.

I was surprised to find that the effect your decisions have on NPC party members is retained in the MMO, with every class having an NPC companion with their own outlook and motivations. These characters act like combat pets, and the AI is surprisingly decent on them, with them acting about how you'd hope they would in fights. Conversations have the familiar Bioware "wheel of options" and choosing one over another may affect your companion's opinion of you as well as your personal Light Side/Dark Side points and storyline. I delighted in my evil Sith Warrior's tormenting of his companion, administering painful shocks when she forgot her place or spoke out of turn. People began to react to my tendencies to adhere to a peculiar form of arrogant honor that does not preclude killing those who annoy me with weakness or trivialities. Very quickly, I got to know who my characters were as individuals, which added something to the experience that WoW will never have.

I was less impressed with the stability and capacity on the technical side of things, with login errors, extremely long queues with no way to tell how long a wait for a server was, and no way to back out of a choice poorly made tarnishing the experience. I also found a series of graphical glitches and missing art and animation in some spots that I hope get some additional polish before launch. Aside from the bugs and technical difficulties, I found that the community of players I had access to in the beta detracted most significantly from the experience. Within minutes, I'd turned off the ability to see chat channels and hid the names floating above other players' heads. I suspect that this is a game I will mostly be playing solo or in small groups of friends, trying to interact with the server at large as little as possible. I enjoy the typical MMO experience, but I like my Star Wars gaming to maintain a certain mood, and that doesn't include racism, homophobia or Chuck Norris jokes.

By the end of my last beta weekend, I'd decided to pursue the Sith Warrior class story past the starting areas and I got my first taste of a major faction city as well as the wider world at my disposal. I chose that class because I intend to actually play as a Bounty Hunter come launch, and I'd like to have the rest of that class experience when the full game is released, rather than losing all of what I'd earned after a post-beta wipe. As the feared right hand of a Dark Lord of the Sith, I got into the opening stages of Empire Politics, and I can see the consequences of decisions made earlier already getting ready to come back to haunt me. I look forward to my next upcoming beta weekend, so I can try out the small-group instances and continue my reign of terror. I wield fear as well as a lightsaber in service to the Code: Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through Victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.

There and Back Again... Stupid Fat Hobbit.

No, this isn't a long-overdue review of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.  I've mentioned recently that I'd gained some weight and had been spending time in the gym playing Fitocracy.  I never got into the specifics, but I can do so now.  I've been heavy since elementary school, slowly but surely gaining weight as so many of us do with Mountain Dew, Doritos and a lot of time spent in a computer chair or in front of some other screen, not moving around much.  When I was in my late twenties, managing a hobby shop and running an annual game convention, I'd ballooned all the way up to 325 pounds.  Somewhere in there, I decided to make a change.  I knew that my mother, who had just passed away, had been concerned for my health, and my good friend and then employer, the owner of the hobby shop, shared that concern.  He and his wife decided to work a membership to the YMCA into my annual compensation.

I had the motivation and the means, and it took nearly two years, but I lost over 125 pounds.  I managed to do so while making nearly every mistake a young gym rat can make.  I'd taken up smoking, I was working the "mirror muscles" at the expense of my back and core, and I was taking advice that was aimed at people with an overall greater baseline of fitness than I had.  However, reducing calories and moving around more work, no matter how many stupid fads you subscribe to or how many bad habits you have.  My progress motivated me to push harder and before I knew it, I wasn't having to fast-talk and charm my butt off to get the attention of the fairer sex. My looks were an asset instead of a challenge to overcome with humor, and I used my new-found changes to make many bad decisions with many women.

Luckily, before I killed myself or anyone else with my rampant hedonism and poor impulse control, I met the woman I'd soon be engaged to.  She most likely saved my life, literally. However, I was in danger over the following few years from another spectre: recidivism.  My gym membership went away when the hobby shop did, but my increased appetite and love for beer did not. In addition, I decided that I needed to quit smoking for my overall long-term health and short-term budget.  Things did not bode well for my new, lighter frame. My lifestyle changes and poor decisions brought my weight up. Way up. When I started in Special Education, I steadily gained weight until I was creeping up on 300 pounds again.  When I was laid off this year, I spent seven (heavily documented here) months mostly in front of a computer screen gaming, looking for work and blogging.

Now that I'm nearly as heavy as I was the last time I lost it all, but older, I have a reason to get moving again. I've got a YMCA membership again, and I've got a lot of people supporting my journey back to being a healthy size again. Even though I carry the weight well, looking more like someone just north of 250 pounds rather than someone nearly seventy pounds over that, I am committed to losing it again. I'm rapidly approaching the end of my first month working out and being more careful with what I eat, and I'm down seven pounds so far. I already have a ton more energy and am finding it easier to deal with life in general. I've done this before, I know the way. This is my burden to bear, and you'd better believe I'm ready to huck that extra whole person's worth of weight into Mount Doom.

Beyond that, I've joined Sparkpeople in addition to Fitocracy and I'm lifting weights in preparation to try the Stronglifts 5x5 program, as I find it easy to add mass to my frame, whether through eating burgers or pumping iron. It'd be nice to be healthy and fairly well muscled again, and better to surpass what I did allmost eight years ago now.

Yet Another Humble Bundle – Voxatron, Blocks That Matter and The Binding of Isaac

I've written before about the Humble Indie Bundles and their many advantages, pay whatever you want, support charity, DRM-free Indie games that deserve our support, and these are all still true. I've purchased every one of the bundles I've encountered since I became aware of them, and have been extremely happy with my decision. Though "bundles" that are initially released as just one game, but frequently get more content added gradually are happening more regularly, they've consistently been a great value and the Voxatron Debut bundle is no exception. In this case, unlike the Frozen Synapse Bundle, the "main" game is the weakest of the titles (for now) included, so paying more than the average to get the bonus games is a must.

Let's start with that main event, available for any price, as low as $0.01, the Alpha release build of the Robotron-inspired voxel-based shooter Voxatron. The 3D graphics combines with an old-school aesthetic not unlike Minecraft in a shooting game that is unlike most of what I've played on the market. You play a character with a basic gun, the ability to move in all directions and jump, and when you shoot, it locks your direction of aim and movement together into a strafe based on where you are pointing. It feels like the arcade classic it takes its name from with the way movement and shooting interact, but the controls end up feeling extremely clunky, and that takes a lot away form the game. I've also suffered a few crash bugs and framerate slowdowns, but I expect these will be corrected in future patches. The one thing that saves this game from mediocrity is the fact that players can use an editing program with building blocks to build and add their own content and custom levels, and turning a community's creativity loose on your project is a sure way to ensure a lot of content (quality, and otherwise.)

The Binding of Isaac is a twisted little game that combines features of shooters, the original Legend of Zelda dungeons, and roguelike RPGs. The story is that of a child whose mother hears God's voice telling her to murder her son to prove her faith, and the weeping, naked boy escapes into his basement, which is filled with awful things. There are disgusting and hellish elements from bosses based on blobs of flesh with cleft palates, enemies weeping blood or vomiting flies, and upgrades related to the occult and implied child abuse. The arenas are randomly generated every time the game starts, power-ups and bosses are different with each playthrough and there are tons of unlockables and achivements to earn. The game is tinged with a disgusting dark sense of humor but it is never funny, images which could (and perhaps should) be shocking are rendered with a cartoon style that robs them of their power and just makes them part of the game world. If the concept of playing as an abused child using his tears as a weapon against demonic creatures and confronting his own fears and personal demons doesn't offend, you may find that the overall solid game design makes this one a lot of fun to play.

My personal favorite game in the series is the platform/puzzler Blocks That Matter. The game combines elements of Tetris and Minecraft to form a unique experience that directly pays homage to its inspirations. Indie Developers Alexey and Markus have been kidnapped, and their secret project, the Tetrobot is the only way they can free themselves. The robot can destroy and collect many blocks such as sand, wood and dirt, and is able to replace them elsewhere in the level, but only in shapes of four consecutive blocks, like tetris pieces. Parts of the four block designs may again be destroyed and collected, leaving bits to stand and jump on to reach other parts of the level. As levels progress, there may be massive spots where there are blocks that cannot be drilled through, but, like Tetris, any line of eight (or more) blocks can be made to vanish. Figuring out how to make the various types of blocks interact and being efficient with them allows for progress through the games many stages.

This bundle will be available until Monday, November 14^th, 2011 and the bonus games both have Steam and Desura activation codes. Like other bundles, bonus titles are available if the price chosen for the bundle is higher than the average for all bundles purchased thus far, so about $5.50USD (as of the moment) gets you all three titles, and any of these games is worth at least twice that.

Batman: Arkham City Review: As Good As Arkham Asylum?

I rarely buy console games anymore. I play them, but I spend so much more time on the PC that it hardly seems worth it to go out and get a new copy of the hot new release for the Xbox360 or Wii (still don't own a PS3.) I do, however, have an active Gamefly Account, and I make use of that to get to play new-ish games, one at a time. I was exceptionally lucky this month, as Batman: Arkham City popped up in my queue on release day, and landed two days after it was available for sale in stores. I loved Arkham Asylum, with the deliberate and dramatic staging of boss encounters, lore detail specific even on obscure points enough to satisfy a comic book geek and the feeling when playing well that you ARE Batman. Terrifying helpless goons dropping down from rafters, using a wide variety of gadgets from the utility belt, and satisfying melee combat made the first game almost perfect. I can say that the sequel improves on the original in all the right spots.

The game opens with a press conference concerning the new prison facility within downtown Gotham, a section of the city walled off and left to the criminals, heavily patrolled by guards ensuring that nothing escapes. The populations of both Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison are dumped within and left mostly to their own devices. This is, of course, a terrible idea, and it is no surprise that it is the brainchild of Batman villain Doctor Hugo Strange. Enter Batman, investigating what is really going on inside the walls of the prison, what has happened since the last game, and taking some extremely surprising turns along the way. The city environment is open, allowing for rooftop travel across long distances, gliding and using grappling tools to soar through the air.

Fans of the first game will note that nearly every major Batman villain who didn't take a major role in Arkham Asylum is present in this game. The big players, like The Penguin, Mr. Freeze and R'as al Ghul are brilliantly staged boss fights, whereas more minor villains such as Calendar Man or the Mad Hatter are featured in sidequests. The only characters returning in plot-centric roles who were also heavily featured in the first game are, of course, The Joker and Harley Quinn, and The Riddler remains ever-present at the source of secret collectibles/unlockables. Every single villain plays to their personal strengths, and they aren't abnormally good at something they shouldn't be just in order to craft a challenging boss battle. For example, The Penguin is extremely heavily armed with weapons and stolen/smuggled technology, but his melee combat ability it laughable. Despite the fact that the little fat man drops after only a few punches, he is an extremely formidable villain based on his henchmen, equipment and planning.

Story-wise, it feels like there are really two plots going on at the same time which cross paths from time to time. Dealing with the Joker and the aftermath of his having injected himself with the TITAN serum at the climax of the first game is an ever-present goal while trying to find out exactly what Strange is doing in the new prison facility, and how he ever managed to make this monstrosity happen. Actually believing that Gotham would let the Arkham City project fly in the first place is the hardest bit of the plot to swallow, and you're hit with it off the bat (no pun intended.) If I had a singular complaint about the film, it would be that the main plot is pretty short. It was an engrossing story, but I'd beaten the game after two evenings and a solid long session on one weekend day. I've gone back to work on sidequests, but as I'm not huge on hunting down optional content, I'm effectively done after only I'd guess 16-20 hours of play.

The graphics are top notch, and the sound is even better, though I found myself playing a LOT in "Detective Mode" to make certain I wasn't missing the location of a goon who was hiding somewhere in the muck and grime dressed mostly in black and brown. There were a few frustrating technical issues as well, as I had a half dozen unexplained crashes to the Xbox dashboard claiming I had "corrupted DLC." Since I was playing a rental copy, I had no DLC whatsoever (no playthroughs as Catwoman or Robin for me.) Also, attack animations are very occasionally sometimes a split second longer than they should be, sometimes exposing you to attacks you are helpless to prevent. This flaw is noticable on normal difficulty, and nearly game-ruining on hard, as enemies do so much more damage per strike.

Overall, Batman: Arkham City was great despite its flaws, since nearly every hour of gameplay contained some experience that was jaw-droppingly awesome. I won't spoil the ending here, but those who have beaten the game appreciate the bold and potentially controversial choice made in the game's final twist. I can honestly say I was not expecting what happened, and I'll be very curious to see what they might to in light of the game's ending for any possibility of further games in the series. If you love to hunt and explore for every last collectible and unlock all varient costumes, concept art and bonus game modes, I'd recommend this game as a purchase. If you are like me and are mostly satisfied with getting to a certain level of completion % and then stopping, this is an absolute must-rent.

A New Daily Grind, and Fitness Questing with Fitocracy.

Way back when I started falling into a routine based on habits and the goals I'd set for myself when I was out of work I talked a little bit about what a typical "day in the life" for me was like back here. Looking back on the last few weeks, as I do my best to adjust physically and mentally to a new daily grind, I've started to think about the differences and similarities between those schedules. I'll give a brief rundown on my new routine as a lead-in to talking about a website that has started to play a major part in helping me keep to a part of that schedule. (This post won't be entirely "OMG my daily rut is so interesting," so bear with me while I get it out and onto the page for a moment, and then I'll get into the details concerning Fitocracy.)

On a given day, I'm likely to wake up to two alarms, one on a clock radio and one on my phone, set for 4:59AM and 5:00AM, respectively. I manage to get out of bed before either triggers the first snooze alarm, most days at about 5:03. Then I start the morning routine, which is comprised of more ritual than most portions of the average Catholic Mass. Breakfast, e-mail and checking social networking sites, followed by a shower and getting dressed, at the approximate same times, clothes on by 6:00. I make my sack lunch for the day, pour a cup of coffee and allow myself time for some morning PC gaming until about 6:45 AM (this will drop back to about 6:25 when there is snow) and then I brush my teeth and get in the car. My commute is long, over an hour daily but with the help of my iPod and at least a few minutes daily of a vaguely amusing morning talk radio show, I manage.

My work day is highly structured as well, as work at a therapeutic day school must be. Every day, I clock in, get another cup of coffee and attend the morning meeting. I head to my classroom and prepare daily attendance and behavior tracking paperwork and wait for students to arrive. I'm going to vague it up a little here to avoid coming within even shouting range of confidentiality issues, but each day is broken up into standard high school periods including arrival/breakfast, Gym and Lunch. I can say that Gym and Lunch are together under the current schedule late enough in the day that by the time we survive the chaos of Physical Education, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Once the last student has left the building, I have enough time to finish any required paperwork before 3:00PM. The commute back is a solid 90 minutes or more on any given day unless I get really, really lucky with traffic.

Once I make it home, I have a little bit of time for decompression before dinner (working in writing a blog post where I can somewhere in here) and after dinner I need to get ready for either the night's Progression Raid in World of Warcraft or the trip to the YMCA for a workout. Either one of these activities takes me close enough to bedtime that maybe I can sneak in a few minutes of gaming before I have to sleep at 11:00PM to catch six hours of sleep before doing it all over again. This is, obviously, a far cry from what I'd adjusted to between the months of February and October of this year when I started this blog. I was used to sleeping when tired, eating when hungry, and being on the PC the rest of the time. The effects of that inactivity pushed my weight up higher than I like, which is the primary reason for gym workouts occupying three of the four nights I don't raid, giving me only Saturday nights free of commitment.

With all that, it is really, really easy to find excuses to skip the gym. I'm a master of that, as evidenced by the fact that I went to the gym all of a half dozen times in my entire term of unemployment. I allowed myself to get sidetracked by hobbies and, of course, any number of the various games I filled all that time with when not looking for work or blogging. The number of tagged articles with "video games" on them spell it out. I find myself too easily drawn into various games. Fortunately, I found a way to convert the addictive qualtities of questing, leveling and highly structured rewards found in the RPGs I play into a way to keep myself motivated in the gym. I'm playing another game. Fitocracy, as recently featured on Penny Arcade, combines the addictive qualities of social networking with the quests, achievements and levels of any MMORPG to focus the gamer's Obsessive/Compulsive qualities into a way to keep going to the gym.

The interface mostly looks like Facebook, or a similar social networking site, and there are plugins to link your Fitocracy account to both your Facebook and to your Twitter. You automatically follow the progress of whoever invited you, and you may choose to have the program find friends from your personal social networks. Excercise, record ytou workouts on the site and recieve experience points toward the next level. Bonus XP can be gained from completing quests which start out simple (do 20 crunches, or play sports for 30 mins) and get progressively harder. Quests also encourage the user to try excercises that they might not normally ever give a shot to in a normal workout, and the bonus experience is enough to maybe try a freeweight bench press instead of the standard half-hour or hour on the elliptical, bike or treadmill.

Your friends and members of groups you join can see your progress as you earn experience, levels and achievements, and give "props," which are essentially the same thing as upvotes on Reddit, likes on Facebook, +1s on Google+, etc. The site seems well laid out, though more variety in the specific types of exercises that can be tracked would be nice in some spots (There is, for example, an entry for "video game dancing" but nothing for, say, WiiFit, and many weight lifting exercises that use machines are absent.) The amount of experience required to gain the next level and the progressively more difficult quests do a good job of subtly encouraging more excercise, and I'll admit, I've gone out of my way to do a little extra on a non "Gym day" to knock out a quick quest for bonus experience. The amount of free content on the site is impressive, and if you want to support the developers, it is possible to subscribe to get access to titles and at least one bonus achievement when you become a "Fitocracy Hero." I'm only Level 3 at the moment, but I'm just getting started, and since I don't get to run back if I keel over, I'd like to be able to make it to endgame.