The Origin of Forgiveness... A Humble Tale.

What would it take to get me to forgive? In much more serious circumstances than video games, I've asked myself that question hundreds of times. There are plenty of virtues I don't pretend to be particularly good at, but anyone who knows me well knows that I've got forgiveness on lock. I just can't maintain even the most justified of grudges for more than a year or two, and eventually I come back to that key question. What, if anything, would be enough to say "Okay, one more chance" to a person or organization? This isn't going to get any more serious from here on out, but I firmly believe in giving credit where it is due, as well as criticism where it is deserved. One company that I've had my share of bad things to say about online (like most gamers) is the real focus of this post. Electronic Arts, I think it is finally time to bury the hatchet.

I haven't knowingly paid for an EA game since Dragon Age 2.

It doesn't take a whole lot of detective work to find criticism of EA online. Virtually every practice that gamers hate about the video game industry has been practiced, if not pioneered by EA. Intrusive DRM, microtransactions, Day One DLC, Always-on Internet requirements (with failing validation servers,) incompetent customer service, churned out sequels to good games... the list of sins goes on and on. EA also has the particular quirk of acquiring much-loved studios and running their core franchises into the ground with terrible installment after botched sequel after failed launch. PopCap, Bioware, Westwood, Pandemic, Maxis and Bullfrog have all been butchered by bad decisions and worse press releases in response to criticism. You have to be pretty bad at this sort of thing to beat out Bank of America, TicketMaster and Comcast for Worst Company in America... twice.

What could possibly make up for all those years of missteps and unabashed greed? Offering refunds on games purchased on Origin sounds pretty good, right? It is a start, and something that Steam doesn't do, but I'm not on board yet, there's still a lot of wrong to make right. How about participating in a Humble Bundle, and having most of the games in that bundle redeem on Steam? Nope, not good enough. Even with "pay what you want," the best of the bundle still uses Origin, and many people, myself included, don't want that on our systems, period. Even reasonable pricing and Steam redemption feels more like a P.R. stunt than a gesture of goodwill, and after all, they are still making a ton of money on the Humble Bundle, right? Well, actually... no. I left out a key detail. 100% of EA's cut of the bundle is going to charity. That... that just might do it. It might still be a stunt, but it is a damn good one.

When I first saw this, I wasn't sure whether it made EA better, or the Humble Project worse.

Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, Burnout: Paradise, Crysis 2 and Medal of Honor are all Steam redeemable and available for as little as $1.00. Dead Space 3 only redeems on Origin, but is also in the bundle before looking at bonus games. The "beat the average" games are Battlefield 3, Sims 3, Populous and C&C: Red Alert 3 – Uprising, though only the last of that batch can be redeemed on Steam. These are some of the highest-profile titles to ever grace a bundle, games that still have some profitability in them at prices much higher than a dollar (except maybe Medal of Honor.) Ten games, six charities. That covers a lot of recent disasters.

I'll even overlook the (recent) steaming pile that is Plants vs. Zombies 2, riddled with way, way too many in-app purchases. I'll forget about the debacle that was the SimCity Reboot. I'll even give the Madden Franchise a pass, despite the fact that it releases every year as a new game for what should, in any sane world, be a free or cheap annual update (an easy one, as I play very few sports games anyway.) I thought the whole Mass Effect 3 thing was overblown anyway, so let's throw that in there, done, gone, forgotten. This Humble Bundle stunt buys you one last shot to get back into my good graces... Dragon Age 3. That's the next game that I'll knowingly pay good money into EA's coffers to solidify redemption. Learn from the past, don't repeat the mistakes of Dragon Age 2... One. Last. Chance. Don't screw it up.

The Humble Origin Bundle ends on Wednesday, August 28^th.

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Blog Gadgets

E3 and the Next Generation of Consoles – My Thoughts

Another year, another E3, only this one is a biggun. Sony and Microsoft are about to release their Next-gen console platforms, and Nintendo's Wii U is already out, so the war is on. Only, I'm not sure I care. Don't get me wrong, like every other gamer out there, I read the briefs and watched the highlights of the press conferences. But I think back to the past twelve months, and I can't remember the last time I used my Xbox 360 as anything other than a DVD player or my Wii for anything but Netflix and the scale that comes with the Wii Fit channel.  My Wii bricked itself almost two months ago, and my feelings about that can be best summed up as "mild distress," and even that faded after a few moments.  I'm not gaming less, quite the contrary. It is just that the games I want to play are all on my PC, and they look better than the console version.

All credit to Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation for this... makes me laugh.

That doesn't mean that E3 won't affect me, or the countless others who have shifted to PC as their main (or even only) gaming platform. Many titles have a multi-platform release, and their development cycles take console hardware limitations into account. This means that after a new generation of consoles is launched, PC games get better looking too as the rising tide lifts all boats... and it means that my 4 year old Media Center PC probably won't cut it for the most technically demanding releases within a few years.  And despite all my posturing, it is likely that at some point I may break down and get one of the new consoles, if only to play that platform's exclusives. So, I'll run my thoughts down on them for you.

Nintendo - 

Ok, this company is officially with EA on my list of organizations I won't support with my money until I see some serious changes.  Why, you might ask? Well, if you've been reading here recently, or following me on Facebook, Twitch or YouTube (you are a class act, and probably very successful with the opposite sex, so I totally suggest you go do that,) you know that I've started streaming my gaming daily, joining the ranks of YouTube partners and wanna be Twitch.tv partners. If I had in my list of games that I stream, any Mario, Zelda or other Nintendo properties, you might think the Big N would love a fan showing his support and wouldn't begrudge me the few dollars my ads might bring in.  You'd be wrong. Nintendo recently filed a content claim to seize the tiny trickles of revenue "Let's Play" content creators make with their games.  Anger your most fervent fan base, generate bad press and discourage free marketing... all for amounts of money that are insignificant to a multinational corporation. Good job.

YouTubers are promoting our products and earning literally
 HUNDREDS or THOUSANDS of dollars for doing so? As a multibillion dollar company, we've gotta stop that.

It is fortunate, then, that I have no interest in the Wii U as a platform. The console with controllers that act as (and frequently are used as) advanced handhelds feels gimmicky now. Most of the people who use them seem to be using them to cut the TV out of the equation entirely, whick makes the Wii U feel like a very, very expensive Game Boy/DS that has a "Base Station" you can't go too far from. Also, where are the games? Like the last few console launches, the lineup has been tepid at launch, and new titles are trickling out at a painfully slow rate. Nintendo has proven itself to be a company with its head stuck firmly in the past, making the same mistakes over and over again. As someone who was a Nintendo Fanboy and Nintendo Power subscriber from the very beginning, it hurts me to say that I'm done with them.

Microsoft - 

The other console I owned this generation was my Xbox 360. I suppose I've been a Microsoft console fan from the beginning as well, as I had the original Xbox as well. The internet is on fire at the moment with hate for the Xbox One, and I'm right there with them. Running down the reasons why is a pretty easy task, and most of it has to do with the console's hardware DRM. Locking down the Xbox One as a closed platform means you can't rent games or buy used without paying a special fee. Considering that rentals and used games comprised 100% of my 360 play in the last three years, already I'm out. Also, you can't turn the Kinect off, even when you aren't using the console, and the console needs to "phone home" using the internet once every 24 hours or you can't even play your single-player games. Internet based DRM, huh... how'd that work out for SimCity and Diablo 3? Traditionally, those schemes anger customers because the authentication servers go down and prevent legitimate paying customers from playing.

I don't think this one needs a caption.

Wait wait wait. I know, if you've been reading, you know how much I love Steam. Steam needs to connect to the internet, and I can't buy used or rent my games from there either. In fact, Steam itself is a form of DRM. Does that make my argument completely invalid? Nope. I've already committed to a platform that has many of the downsides of the Xbox One. Why do I need another one? I'm looking at the titles coming out, and I ask the question: "What can I do with the Xbox One that I can't do with my PC?" The only answer I'm coming up with is "Play Halo." Well, I don't care about Halo, so... that's that, then.

Sony -

So, traditionally, I've skipped Sony's consoles. I had a PSOne, and played on family and friends' PS2s, and even bought a game or two for them despite not having a PS2 of my own. I never even seriously considered getting a PS3. It was too expensive at the time, and I had my 360, PC and Wii already.  However, if I was getting a console in the next generation at all... it'd be a PS4. I'm not thrilled about PSN Plus adding a fee to play online, but they started the program of giving you free games with that fee (which Xbox Live is now copying.) No hardware DRM restricting used games, rentals, loaned out games, etc. No Kinect spying on you.  Actually decent looking exclusives announced at launch. And then there's the kicker: $100 cheaper than the Xbox One. I always try to get the most value out of my gaming dollar, and next generation, that dollar either stays with upgrading my PC, or goes to Sony.

Watching Videos of this and the Uncharted games makes me wish I'd just bought the damn PS3

It feels like this generation's console wars are over already, and the winner hasn't even released their product.

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Blog Gadgets

(Yet Another) New Beginning...

In my last few published articles here, I'd stopped promising a brand new start, regular updates, and the rest of it, because I knew better. I started to feel like someone in a doomed relationship swearing "No, really, baby... I can change," no matter how obviously insincere it was.  I resolved to produce new content when I could, without forcing it. This, obviously, meant that I didn't produce much of anything at all in almost the last year.  So much of what I was interested in was something I'd already covered here, and I didn't feel there was anyone clamoring for yet another Minecraft article, weight loss update, Humble Bundle or any of the other topics I've exhausted here. I'm here to say that nothing has changed, and everything has.

...and I'm not just talking about dropping over 100 pounds, but
while we're at it, Hoo-raw.

I'll still be writing in this space, when inspiration takes me or when I really have something to say on a subject.  I have some new insights on a few different games, comics and films, as well as additional perspective on geek culture issues and challenges facing the unemployed or under-employed.  (On that front, I've returned to gaming/comic/hobby retail, part time at the moment, but I won't be renaming the site yet again.)  However, I need to rebuild and to set my house in order. Part of that is getting back to producing and sharing content for the people who have supported me so far. Those hopeful folks who are still checking in daily or weekly to see that the last update was weeks or months old, you are appreciated and have not been forgotten.

In addition to the new job, hitting weight loss goals and playing Magic Competitively (as alluded to in my last update here,) I still play video games. A heck of a lot of video games. For those who are more interested in sci-fi, tabletop, fantasy novels, TV and/or comic books, I'll roll out some new contents in this very space. This other thing isn't so interesting to you if you don't care about Magic or Video Games.  I'd  toyed with methods of producing content online beyond just blogging, and I noticed the sort of content I was consuming online had moved to something more audiovisual, whether podcasting or YouTube or Twitch.tv videos. Younger geeks often can't be bothered to read more than a paragraph (get off my lawn!) and video is the only way to engage with that growing audience.  I still have a message for those people, but the medium... that might need to change.

In the short term, I've launched a Twitch channel for streaming here, and have begun testing some "Let's Play" style content. It'll be a bumpy ride as I upgrade, purchase and replace hardware for this purpose, including a webcam, better mic and maybe a PC upgrade when funds allow. For the moment, though, I'm practicing playing games, as I do, with a running commentary (and learning no not hate the sound of my voice on playback.)  My best experiments in this area will go up on YouTube, and anyone who joins me on the livestream will be able to chat live, interact with others also watching the experience as I play games from my Steam Library, experiment with interesting Minecraft servers and play Booster Drafts on Magic Online.

It'll be a different sort of content than what I'm used to producing online, but one where I don't have to wonder: "Did I screw up and use a copyrighted image?" "Is anyone even reading this?" or "What am I bringing to the table that can't be found in a hundred other places online?" There aren't so many gamers this close to 40 and married making time to make this sort of content, and that's my niche. Maybe this'll be the next thing I try for a while and then lose interest in... but in the meantime, I look forward to producing this kind of show for myself, even if no one at all watches. Join me, if you like.

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Blog Gadgets

XCOM: ...and Now. (2012 Firaxis.)

I meant for this follow-up article to follow within a few days of my profile on the 1994 original. However, when I got the new XCOM on launch, I realized something. There would be dozens of articles within days of launch written by foks who had put a handful of hours into the game and written to hit a deadline. I knew after a few minutes playing that I was going to be into XCOM for some time to come, and the best way to talk about it would be from someone who had sunk enough hours into the game to consider themselves a veteran. In the last two weeks, I've sunk nearly 85 hours into this game, making it the second-longest played game on my Steam account, beating out Borderlands which I played weekly with friends for months, sometimes staying up all night. Early this morning, I finished the game in the manner it is intended to be played: Classic Difficulty, Ironman mode. I now feel qualified to talk about it.

XCOM has the guts to do something new.
 Instead of eventually beating the game being a matter of persistence, you can sink dozens
 of hours into a game of XCOM, and lose. Planet is taken by the aliens, Game Over.

So many of the reviews I read and listened to did the same thing. Spent a few sentences talking about what a good game XCOM is, and then the rest of the review talking about flaws, many of which were just design decisions they didn't personally understand. Make no mistake, there are a few bugs here, and they frustrate, especially in a game with permadeath and a mode which does not allow you to reload saves when something unfortunate happens. However, even in its current state, XCOM is a triumph. Turn-based strategy is a genre that is mostly found in niche titles or older games, with the notable exception of the Civilization series. XCOM has the potential to change all that, with a big-budget, slickly produced title that modernizes the gameplay and provides modern polish.

The game is, like the original title, about running a global organization to combat an alien invasion against a foe that outnumbers, outguns, and strikes without warning anywhere in the world. They start with weaponry that can kill a human or destroy a building, while the best soldiers in the world with our finest technology can only kill one of their weakest number with concentrated fire, assuming they don't panic before doing so. What provides hope is the strategic and tactical command of the leader of XCOM (you) and the researchers and engineers who take bits of alien technology and study and replicate it in order to develop new weapons, armor, ships and techniques for turning a bunch of scared rookies into a force capable of striking fear into alien hearts. Turn by bloody turn, difficult choices are made, and the tide slowly turns from barely surviving to kicking the aliens the hell off our planet.

You can customize everything about a soldier except their assigned class, Country of Origin, and gender. I named this squad after characters played by myself, my wife and friends in tabletop RPGs over the years.

In the strategic layer, you need to manage limited resources to build up the base, get satellites covering most of the globe, research and develop the tech for the soldiers on the ground, build and arm craft to shoot down UFOs and manage global panic to keep your funding in place. The game is played through the tactical missions, but won or lost based on the strategic layer. The missions are usually "find and kill all the aliens," but sometimes there will be a VIP to escort or locate and protect, bombs to defuse or civilians to protect. The pace of the game is careful and deliberate, with risky play resulting in failed missions, wasted resources and dead soldiers who need to be replaced with raw recruits. The best and worst turns of the game are when you make a minor mistake, exposing a new group of aliens to your squad's position, and your soldiers are at risk, even if they have advanced equipment and abilities.

Every soldier is assigned a class on promotion from being raw recruits, and as they participate in missions and kill aliens, they level up, gaining more powerul abilities. You can customize the soldiers, they gain nicknames automatically, and it hurts to lose a leveled-up soldier knowing it was your fault. That's going to happen. I lost surprisingly few soldiers in my successful Classic Ironman game, but two of them were Colonels (the highest rank) with dozens of kills each, and they died in the same mission on two subsequent turns. Each soldier can move twice, move and fire, or just fire their weapon without moving. Certain special class abilities or weapons require you to stay still, and others end your turn as though you had fired a weapon. You make hard choices. Save India, Canada, or Russia? Reload now, not knowing if you should instead get that soldier ready to fire on an alien you can't see? Try to outflank the enemy and risk alerting more to your position, or take a risky 35% shot and feel maybe like you wasted a precious action?

The result of poor planning, squad panic, rushing forward too quickly, or just plain bad luck.

Having played a bit with the multiplayer (point-based, competitive mixed squads of humans and aliens on static maps) and beaten the game on Normal and Classic Ironman, albeit with two wins out of thirty games attempted, I don't think XCOM is quite done with me yet. I might not take on Impossible difficulty with any degree of seriousness, but Firaxis is committed to long-term support, especially with a game that has done so well. Reviews have been nearly universally rave, and DLC is planned, with the first post-release content announced yesterday. A subplot focusing on China with custom maps and new missions will be the focus of "Slingshot," with a Chinese gangster available as a hero character, and the possibility of early access to a powerful endgame weapon as the reward. With more DLC planned, and the inevitable expansions and sequels, I feel bad. So much death is coming. Aliens, poor squaddies, and a whole lot more of my free time.

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Blog Gadgets

XCOM: Then... (1994 Microprose)

Tonight at just before midnight, one of my most anticipated games of the year is releasing. That's a bold statement in a fall that is so packed with amazing game releases for PC and consoles that even someone without a job or school commitments can't possibly make the time to play everything. When XCOM: Enemy Unknown arrives, I expect that my time with the other fall releases, as well as the games I still have from the Summer Sale that didn't get the time they deserve will come to an abrupt halt. I've spent a week watching videos and reading reviews. I'll give a full review of the 2012 XCOM once I've emerged from a likely weeklong bender playing it. To understand why I am so hyped for this game, you have to look at the game it is a remake of, 1994's X-Com: UFO Defense (known as UFO: Enemy Unknown in Europe.)

The Global Geoscope view is, along with base-building and the tactical combat, 1/3 of the X-Com experience.

Most games from almost 20 years ago don't hold up very well. Even if you can get past the dated graphics of years gone by, when you take off the rose-tinted glasses, gameplay has come a long way. The original X-Com is still compelling, still brutally difficult, and still fun if you can actually manage the downright hostile user interface. I've made my love of turn based strategy well known, between Jagged Alliance and Civilization I've spent countless hours planning, plotting and fighting battles one turn or action point at a time. Xcom is a game that I realize even now I've never gotten very good at. In the year 1999, Aliens invade and the Earth pools its money to fund a global organization to combat the threat. The situation is near-hopeless, but you are the last hope for humanity.

I can say that with many hours into the game, I've never won. I am still challenged even on beginner difficulty in a game that has veteran players modding it to further increase the challenge. X-Com does not tailor itself to the player, from the beginning, the aliens are playing to win, independent of your skill or decisions. Globally, you have to manage bases, respond to threats and learn where the aliens are and what they want. You fight on the ground with normal human troops each with unique names and statistics over landed UFOs or crashed ones you've shot down. Capturing alien technology for research, figuring out where alien bases are, even capturing live specimens for study are goals from day one, and even surviving the aliens is a challenge.

Inside an enemy spaceship, the squad from an Escapist Magazine forum's Let's Play
faces a dreaded Chryssalid. Zombification imminent.

Your soldiers get better with time, but against alien weaponry they die. Even once armor has been researched and produced, and you have energy weapons at your disposal, in a single turn a soldier can be killed, and death is permanent. Every battlefield is procedurally generated, all terrain (aside from UFO walls is destroyable, and if you have the action points, you can issue a wide variety of orders to the troops. Grenades, rocket launchers, and stun batons supplement conventional weaponry, and tanks can be loaded into transports to assist your troops. If a psionic alien can be captured alive while it is mind controlling your troops to drop grenades into the middle of the squad, psychic powers can be researched, and psi-soldiers trained.

The new game has big shoes to fill. Along with Sid Meier's Civilization, X-Com was one of the titles that made Microprose huge in the 1990s. Luckily, Sid Meier's own studio, Firaxis Games has taken up the challenge, and I look forward tonight to seeing Sectoids mind-control my hapless squaddies while Cyberdisks move in for the kill and Chryssalids happily turn civilians into zombies to panic and terrorize the citizens of a likely doomed Earth. Should be a lot of fun.

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Blog Gadgets

Surviving the Steam Summer Sale

Way back when I started this blog, one of my first articles with any significant content was talking about how great Steam is for unemployed gamers. You don't have much money, but man, have you got some free time. Even looking for a job as hard as you can, there's still more time for gaming than the average working person has, and sales, especially of the deep price cut variety, can help with the "not a whole lot of disposable income" end of the equation. As a veteran now of Steam Sales, I can share my learned strategies and talk a little about my purchases this sale week, and how they revisit both the Piracy and the DRM issues.

I've never been so excited about online shopping before. Twice a year, this is actually a legit event.
 I sometimes spend more time shopping for games during this than I do playing them.

Steam Sale Strategy Guide:.


1. Be patient.  Whatever the game you want is, it is probably on sale starting the first day of the sale. However, that first-day price might not be the lowest it'll go for the duration of the sale. In general, until the sale is over, you should wait until whatever you want is a featured item, whether that means the Daily Deal or, this Summer, the Flash Deal.  The Daily/Flash deal price is the lowest it'll go during the sale, and if it is never a featured item, you can still buy it at the normal sale price on the last day of the sale. Patience is rewarded.

2. Participate in the activities when you can. Whether you are completing achievements for tickets or presents, working on a Badge, or voting on the next Community Choice Sale, in general, there is some level of reward for the customer in being a part of the event. It is a simple deal, Valve wants you to be tempted as often as possible by looking at the store, so you are rewarded for doing so. Effective on all counts.

3. Watch for DRM, and decide if the deal is worth the hassle. Even though Steam itself is effectively an anti-piracy scheme, some publishers just won't let their own measures go.  SecuROM, Games for Windows Live, both... personally, if the game is good enough and the price is low enough, I'll deal with it, but be aware before you buy.

4. Check Package Deals and Individual Game Prices. Always. Sometimes, even when a game is on Daily Deal, buying it as part of a package saves money, or for a small amount more gets more games or DLC (Downloadable Content) by the publisher. Conversely, sometimes the package is featured, and you only want one item from it, but while the package is on special, each item within it is also cheaper.

My haul from this year was pretty good. I bought a lot in the first few days, as almost everything I really wanted on Steam was a featured item very early in the sale. I bought the Arkham City complete pack (Arkham Asylum GOTY, Arkham City + all DLC and Gotham City Impostors,) The digital deluxe editions of both the Witcher 1 and 2, Back to the Future by Telltale Games, and Crusader Kings 2. With this, I got  a little bit of everything I enjoy in terms of genre, and picked up games I'd rented or even pirated in the past with additional content.  Not only did Steam get me to virtually stop pirating games, but even the little piracy I've done in the last few years, I've evened the accounts at least in my own conscience by purchasing the titles in question.

I started playing this when I got it, and 10 hours vanished. Politics, assassinations,
birth and death and succession and war... and there is a Game of Thrones total conversion mod.

What is interesting to me is that all the intrusive DRM didn't stop me from getting a pirated copy of a game within a few days of launch.  A reasonably priced service from a company I like quite a bit got me to eventually buy those same titles, and endure the copy-protection hassles as a legit customer. That seems backwards. It tells me something that developers should take to heart, though.  Price motivates ethical behavior in a way that even the world's best DRM cannot, and treating your customers well means that the loyalty you've built up in that relationship will even make some of the most shameless pirates into good customers.  Don't punish the honest with expensive and ineffective means to fight piracy, translate the lack of licensing fees for that garbage into a lower price-point and build a rapport with your customer, and they'll stop pirating on their own.

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Blog Gadgets

The OUYA – Open Source Console: What it is, and what it isn't.

Video game news sites, blogs and discussion boards are all talking about the OUYA, and it really is a story that is too big to ignore.  Crowdsourced for its initial funding by Kickstarter (which deserves its own article here, soon) in only four days, people have pledged $4.5 million to see this thing happen.  The concept behind the console is that the Big Three are hard and expensive to develop for, and the companies that manufacture them lock down the hardware and software so the user can't modify the units themselves after purchase.  Many talented developers have stopped even trying to create games for consoles, focusing on PC or moblie markets instead, where it is cheaper and easier to get going. The OUYA will run on a version of the Android OS, have HDMI output to a TV and will be moddable and hackable out of the box. The SDK (Software Development Toolkit) will be designed to make it easy and cheap to get games onto the platform, which should attract developers who don't want to deal with the hassle of breaking into console gaming's current walled gardens.

Controller will have analog sticks, triggers, and a touchpad, but doesn't actually exist yet.

I've read a lot of reaction to the Kickstarter campaign, and the vast majority of folks who are participating in either the hype-bandwagon or the hipster-backlash for or against the OUYA seem to have some of the details wrong.  They don't know what the OUYA is, but they either think it is the second coming, destined to immediately take out the Playstation, XBox and Wii platforms... or they have a laundry list of criticisms that are only partially grounded in reality. There are a lot more invalid assumptions and just plain wrong assertions coming from critics of the OUYA, but in order to get to the bottom of this, I need to talk a little bit about what the OUYA is, and more importantly, what it isn't.

Anyone dropping $100 today because they believe they are buying a piece of hardware that is comparable to even current-generation consoles is misinformed. The technical specifications of the unit are a little bit better than a bleeding-edge expensive smartphone. That said, a phone with those specs is $650 with a 2-year contract and has some serious limitations on what it can deliver as a gaming platform.  There currently are no final designs for the console or its controller, and it won't launch with AAA-style titles, the hardware won't support it, and the type of developer that is capable of delivering that sort of game is already inside the existing walled gardens, and doesn't need what the OUYA is selling.  All games that release for the system will be required to have a free component, like a smartphone app, with subscription or microtransactions in place, emulating the Free2Play model. Let that sink in. All games are free, but will likely feature a "cash shop" or something similar.

That said, without any 100% confirmed titles at launch (though Mojang has strongly suggested that Minecraft will be made available), and games that are more likely to have design influenced by the existence of microtransactions, the OUYA doesn't look a lot like an XBox. Critics have seized on this, and the Android platform as proof that the console will primarily support the sorts of games currently found on the Android Market (Google Play) and iTunes.  A $100 console that plays Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja doesn't sound as much like a game changer.  However, it is short-sighted to believe that developers won't line up to make games for this with over 30,000 pre-orders in a few days from customers, and the Developer's Kit console pre-orders (400+ of them) sold out in that same time. It is a fair assumption that while we'll see some shovelware, at least a few games that manage to make a subscription or microtransaction model work will be available at launch.

I like Canabalt, love Minecraft, but they will need a solid launch library that consists of new titles that are hits, or
that can be hits on their platform.

A common complaint I've seen online is that the technical specifications are weak for a console and that they won't be able to produce units in order to retail the console at $100.  These statements come from comparing specs to existing consoles and price to smartphone components. The test of the OUYA as a concept is what sort of performance they can get out of their advertised hardware once full games are running on the system. I'm not worried about the hardware price, as there is no reasonable comparison between phones and PCs or consoles, dispersing heat in a small handheld and making components tiny enough to fit inside is pricey, mass-producing dedicated boxes to run Android... not so much. Downloadable games in a console which is basically a PC with a GUI and a controller evokes a negative comparison to the Phantom Console from 2004 that nearly ruined Infinium Labs. In the last 8 years, however, many of the technical limitations that made the Phantom famous vaporware have worked themselves out, most notably massively improved bandwidth speeds making streaming content, even games, possible.

I've talked a lot about what the OUYA isn't... but there are a few things that it is, or could be, that folks are missing out on.  A moddable/rootable box can be a 1-stop console for emulation of everything from the NES to the Playstation 2, with all the legally grey caveats that emulators and ROMs have dealt with.  It can be yet another box for streaming Netflix or any number of music services with nothing but existing apps on the Google Play store today.  It may not be able to challenge even this generation's consoles on day one, but it could absolutely take on the Xbox Live Marketplace, PSN and Wii Points stores if enough developers with fresh ideas back the idea, letting their best games rise to the top naturally. Even without a massive launch lineup, the confidence that comes with the number of people behind this project makes $99 a more than fair price.





Investing in the OUYA today is supporting a group of established industry professionals who are rolling the dice on coming out with something that could really change the console market. Even if it doesn't deliver on the best of its promises, what you could have today is fairly reasonable... and with the right software, and if the hardware is stable and relatively quick given its limitations, what could be there tomorrow sounds plausible, all hype put to the side.

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Blog Gadgets

Diablo 3... My take, now that the Real Money Auction House is live – A Review.

Well, I teased this more than enough as my re-introduction to geeky subjects, and I have rather a lot to say about this game.  A look back through my articles in the past would probably earn me the label "Blizzard Fanboy" (especially from those who disagree with me.) Okay, I'll own that. I genuinely like Blizzard's games, and especially like that they improve them based on fan feedback until the game is improved based on those suggestions to a place where someone might call it "done." Not that gamers are happy with those changes, mind you. The constant in the current culture of gamer entitlement (which is a whole other article and another can of worms,) is whining on internet forums. That said, there are a lot of issues that displease a whole lot of people, which bother me more, less or not at all, and I'm prepared to address them now. Server issues, required internet connection, real money auction house, and the rarity of really great loot drops are frequently debated. Other issues, like class balance and a huge jump in difficulty at Hell and again in Inferno (especially Act II) are issues that can and will be addressed by patches, so I won't get into them here.

My current highest level character, a Witch Doctor.

Let's start with the one for which there is the weakest possible defense. Blizzard's servers weren't ready in launch week, and there are still latency issues. The answer for this one is an unpleasant truth. Blizzard knew that a certain portion of the folks who bought Diablo on launch, or who got it free with their WoW subscription extension (a LOT more on this later) will hate the game and stop playing it within a few weeks, if not immediately. Buying, maintaining, configuring all the hardware to handle a base that will massively shrink within a few weeks is a waste of money. It sucks that the consumer has to suffer for this, and it is mildly ironic that some of the base shrinking will be due precisely to the servers being overloaded, crashing or laggy.  There is, however, a series of linked issues which are the real things making people mad.

The servers wouldn't be an issue if you weren't required to stay connected to them in order to play at all. This is accepted in an MMORPG, but Diablo isn't really one of those, and I heard a TON of folks talking about how they couldn't play their single player game because they couldn't connect to a server.  Time for a hard truth. Diablo as a single player game where you pay $50-60 to "beat" the game by going to the last boss on normal difficulty and defeating him, and then you're done... well, that is something that doesn't exist anymore. Some might argue it never did, but in this incarnation in particular, Diablo is a cooperative action/rpg with randomized dungeons and loot that you are meant to play with friends through a series of ever-increasing difficulties on the way to Inferno and Level 60. You are allowed to solo, just like you can in an MMO, but this is not the way the game was designed to be played by default. I'll get into why and what it all means in a moment.

Posted this on FaceBook, friends who play Diablo
but never played WoW weren't amused.

A lot of people have figured out the basics of why a persistent connection is required. For the first time, there is an auction house where extra gear can be sold, and this time around you can choose to buy and sell items for hard-earned gold coins... or real money.  This economy doesn't work at all if there is an offline mode where items can be duplicated, and it doesn't work as well if the playerbase is given an option that doesn't include it. In an offline Diablo 3, items and gold could be duplicated, statistics that are valuable could be hacked in, changed, etc. You can't build an economy that anyone has any faith in with that as a very real possibility.  Drop rates, randomized stats on loot and how rare it is to find a truly awesome item are design decisions all impacted by the fact of an auction house where you are connected to every other player who may want to sell items to you, or buy your extras.

The most common response to all this is "I don't care about all that! I just want to play single player and I want the game I pad for to work!"  Time for another hard truth, and I'm going to say it in a way that may offend some people. If that is how you feel about Diablo, Blizzard doesn't care about you.  The gamer that wants to pay their $60, play single player until they've beaten the game and put it down, never looking back, isn't a valuable customer to them any more.  How do I know this?  They chose to not charge that $60 at all to a large base of folks used to using an auction house, used to needing to deal with server outages and maintenance, and who have already been exposed to micropayments for in-game items.  Blizzard had a problem. Subscription numbers for World of Warcraft were in decline, and Diablo was going to eat away at that base even more, taking away a bunch of monthly subscription fees.  The entire design of Diablo 3's online connection, auction house, and focus on multiplayer interaction is based on addressing this.

Also, Ponies. Gotta love how Blizzard responded to haters who complained
that the new art direction was to colorful and cartoony. (Most of the game isn't like this.)

Diablo 3 was FREE to anyone willing to extend their WoW account for 12 months. Why do that? Well, not only does Blizzard get to collect another year of fees from players, some of whom likely would have cancelled subscriptions in that time (some of them specifically because they knew they'd play Diablo,) but that is just the cherry on the top. The full dessert is in the Real Money Auction House (RMAH.) RMAH transactions have a fee, in the US, that's $1.00 to Blizzard off the top of each item sold.  Blizzard knew that a very, very small percentage of their players would use the RMAH at all, and an even smaller percentage would use it enough for those fees to add up.  The solution? Make the userbase as large as possible, attracting the very type of player most likely to use the system.  The millions of folks playing World of Warcraft are exactly that sort of player, and I experimented with the RMAH since it went live 2 days ago.  With $1.00 from every successful transaction, Blizzard has figured out how to monetize the farmers and get a consistent source of additonal money without charging a monthly fee.

I'm not going to tell anyone not to be mad about all this. By all means, if this isn't what you want out of your gaming, be mad.  It doesn't bother me, because I recognize that in the post-WoW world, a game like Diablo 1/2 isn't realistic as a way for Blizzard to make the kind of money they are used to.  They have to justify the decade and millions spent in development, the time and money spent patching and maintaining the game and servers... and the inevitable expansion(s) to their Board of Directors. Getting another Diablo to play (and I've had a blast so far) is worth all that to me. Of course, I'm exactly the target market for this game, and I played Diablo 1&2, and don't see those games with rose-tinted glasses... I remember how much worse they were for multiplayer one month after release.  Guess that makes me a fanboy.

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Blog Gadgets

Ocean Marketing/Paul Christoforo and Penny Arcade: Why Customer Service Matters on the "real internet."

It has been a while since I've had a bona fide gaming industry scandal to write about, but man are they interesting. I think that these sorts of stories hit the same spots in the brain that are activated when a high school girl hears the newest gossip or when a bit of drama hits guildchat in WoW. I am, of course, talking about Paul Christoforo of Ocean Marketing, a supposed SEO/Internet Marketing "Professional" who decided to be rude and condescending to a customer over a legitimate consumer complaint, and then Penny Arcade got involved... and things got weird. The entire text of the exchange can be found here, but I'll summarize as this frenzy has exploded over Reddit, Twitter and now even 4chan has gotten into the act, gleefully trying to destroy someone (and for once, it is a person who appears to really, really deserve it.

This all started with a few questions about a third-party controller, the Avenger, purchased in November, advertised as shipping in early December and a customer's questions about a shipment that was clearly going to miss a target for Christmas. These things happen, and Dave, the customer wanted an update, and noticed that new orders were eligible for a $10 off coupon and expressed his frustration that he wouldn't get the controller when he needed it, so he'd be best off canceling his order and placing a new one to save the ten bucks. This is a clear expression of a customer with a legit complaint that anyone who has been in any sort of sales knows is best handled with an apology and a $10 credit (toward a future order, if that ten dollars is really that important to you.) Instead, Paul Christoforo decided to respond in a condescending fashion, threatening to cancel the entire order of anyone who tried to save $10 stating "you can buy it at retail somewhere else." And in closing, he calls Dave "Dan."

This is where things get heated. Dave explains, using strong language (but no profanity) why this response to a customer is unacceptable, affirms that the product is so good that he intends to buy it anyway, but calls out Ocean Marketing on several failures to provide a minimal level of service. To be fair, he ends this e-mail with a bit of a snarky comment that could be construed as a personal attack. Mr. Christoforo then proves that he has not yet hit rock bottom in terms of a complete lack of business acumen or professionalism, and fires back. He starts name dropping, calling names and in general pulling the "do you know who I am, you little nobody?" routine. In this attack on both a customer and spelling/grammar, we have gems like "Son Im 38 I wwebsite as on the internet when you were a sperm in your daddys balls and before it was the internet" and "You just got told bitch ... welcome to the real internet." He closes by bragging about all the trade shows he'll be at, including PAX East.

This last bit is where thing take a turn for the surreal. The e-mail exchange is forwarded to Mike Krahulik, of Penny Arcade and co-owner of the PAX shows. Enraged, Mike steps in and calmly states that if this is how customers are treated, Ocean Marketing and Paul Christoforo will no longer be welcome at those shows. In a stunning display of ignorance, Paul responds with "I guarantee I can get a booth if I want one money buys a lot and connections go even further" and "who are you again?" The game is on. Penny Arcade is one of the most influential websites in all of video gamins, and Mike flexes a little bit to someone who clearly doesn't know who he is talking to. Paul Christoforo makes this clear when he starts throwing insults and telling someone with a LOT more pull than he has to "watch the way you talk to people" because "it's a small industry and everyone knows everyone," not appreciating the irony in his statements. He follows up with more name dropping, including the Mayor of Boston, Sean Buckley at Engadget and Scott Lowe at IGN. For a finishing touch, he insults and threatens the Penny Arcade site, saying that he'll put his "125 employees" on a smear campaign, insisting that Mike doesn't know who he is messing with.

The exchange is put up on Penny Arcade, which in his arrogance and ignorance Mr. Christoforo believes is a good thing, free publicity... and it goes viral within hours. Reddit, Kotaku, IGN and other sites all go bonkers at this little man with the mind-blowing ego and instantly he is the most hated man of the moment for many, many gamers worldwide. On Twitter, Scott Lowe takes issue with his name being dropped in support of this insufferable twit, and says so, calling him "completely unprofessional" given their past working relationship. Staying the course, Paul responds by calling Scott a "douchebag" and claiming that "You were the unprofessional one" in the same tweet, still oblivious to the concept of irony. Kevin Kelly of G4TV stands by Scott Lowe in his assessment, and the manufacturers of the Avenger controller become aware of what their "professional" marketing guy is doing to their brand online. At the moment (as of 11:30 AM, 12/27) Frank Shephard tweeted an apology to any customer treated poorly and said that there is no official statement yet, but "more to come soon."

Aside from the prurient entertainment factor of online drama, what does all this tell us about online marketing and the gaming industry? If you mess with an online institution over something petty, asking them "Do you know who I am?" soon, everyone will know who you are, and that isn't a good thing. Bad publicity is no longer the same as "good publicity," something I'm sure Mr. Christoforo will learn, much to his dismay. We also can see how careers and names can be ruined over something that could have been fixed with a ten dollar coupon. In general, as people become more connected, it is better to be decent and forthright with people, as word really does get around, and you DO have to be careful who you talk to and how. That's what we on the "real internet" call karma, bitch.

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Blog Gadgets

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.

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Blog Gadgets

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.

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Blog Gadgets

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.

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Blog Gadgets

Blizzcon 2011: Demons and Costumes and (Panda) Bears, Oh, my!

So another annual convention from the developers of World of Warcraft, Diablo and Starcraft is in the books, and there were a few highlights of interest to those of us who couldn't make the trek to the convention. There was the ever-popular costume contest, the announcement of the next WoW expansion, and a deal for people willing to sign up for a one-year "tour" for the popular MMORPG, that is seeing a decline in subscription numbers. Personally, I was excited by this year's announcements, and I'd like to talk a bit about them and address my feelings on the controversial elements, specifically about the next World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria. But before we get into any of that, let's take a look at the convention as a whole.

Outside of the WoW-Universe, there were a couple of major announcements with the debut of the trailer for Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm and the release of Blizzard DOTA. The Starcraft trailer gives us a bit of a teaser for next year's expansion, showing that even though Sarah Kerrigan has been rescued and looks human again, all is not well with the former Queen of Blades. We get a preview of a bunch of new units and a brief look at the continuation of the story from Wings of Liberty, with a gorgeous trailer rendered using in-game technology. On the DOTA front, it is exciting to see the original Action/RPG/Realtime Strategy mod Defense of the Ancients get an officially supported release, with many of Blizzard's greatest characters as champions. The original DOTA spawned a subgenre of games including League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth, and it'll be great to see the original game return with updated graphics and gameplay, and with Blizzard's official blessing and support.

This year's costume contest continues the tradition of moving away from "sexiest costume wins" and rewarding amazing craftsmanship. The top three this year included a great-looking Deathwing in human form, a decent representation of a WoW Paladin with Ashbringer, and the grand prize winner, one of the best costumes I've ever seen outside of a Hollywood movie. The costume, a note-perfect representation of a Starcraft Adjutant android was worn by Avery Faith of Los Angeles, CA. The combination of technical excellence in the fabrication of the costume pieces with the simultaneously creepy and beautiful aesthetic makes the piece something that really needs to be seen to be believed. (Which is why I picture it below.)

There wasn't a lot more that could be said about Diablo 3, aside from a new teaser trailer, since we've already seen a glut of preview videos and the news that it won't come out until 2012 broke before the convention. However, there was one thing they could do to make Diablo 3 news my personal favorite bit of the con. They made it free. Of course, there are strings attached to the deal. With the imminent release of Bioware's Star Wars MMORPG and some frustration with current raiding content, World of Warcraft is losing subscribers. The solution? Offer a free copy of Diablo 3 to anyone willing to commit to a 1-year subscription to WoW. The offer also comes with an automatic beta invite for the next WoW expansion and an exclusive in-game mount. For me, it was a no-brainer, since I hadn't planned on canceling my subscription this year anyway, and I was a guaranteed sale for Diablo 3, so reducing that game to my favorite price was a bonus.

Then we have the next WoW expansion, raising the level cap to 90, introducing a new zone, a new playable race and a new base class. Mists of Pandaria will be centered on the forgotten home of the reclusive masters of brewing strong spirits and practicing asian-style martial arts, the Pandaren. The race will be available to be played by either Horde or Alliance, and will have a strong connection to the new base class, the Monk. The developers are changing up the formula a bit, focusing on the conflict between Alliance and Horde instead of a single "last boss" like the last three expansions. The Pandaren will be drawn into the conflict, creating a brutal civil war in a land that once knew only peace and meditation, with the "main villain" as war itself. The announcement of a battle minigame system for non-combat pets, along with the "cutesy" look for the Pandaren has the neckbeards of the internet lighting their torches and sharpening their pitchforks, declaring WoW forever ruined.

...Really? We have talking walrus-men, cow-men, bird-men, fish-men, but pandas are somehow crossing the line? I get that none of those races has be the central character for an entire expansion, but people have been begging for Pandaren since the beginning of World of Warcraft. The accusations that the next expansion is "Kung-Fu Panda and Pokemon," and therefore is designed with small children in mind insults the intelligence of the average gamer. Pandaren have been present in the Warcraft lore for sixteen years, long before there was a Kung-Fu Panda, and gamers were outraged that they weren't a new race way back when The Burning Crusade was first released. I'm completely willing to check out the next expansion (and with my guaranteed beta access, I certainly will) before I declare it to be childish and stupid. If the game becomes something I no longer want to play, I'll stop. I don't see the point in being insulting and jumping to conclusions on the basis of a few videos and some sketchy details, however.

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