I haven't posted about a video game in a while, so why pretend I've actually been productive?

I could say that Resident Evil 4 is my all-time favorite game. It's the only game I've played through more than five times, and I unlocked the crazy upgrades, playing through with an infinite supply of tommy-gun ammo, dressed in a black pin-stripe suit and billowing silk scarf. Dead Space is the next logical extension of that trend. Staying in the same genre with similar interface and gameplay, but taking the action into the bleak world of deep space mining.

So here's the question. When does this game get difficult? I played Normal difficulty to start and equipped a high armor suit I downloaded because I expected to get thrashed and wanted to at least see the end of the story. By the end of the game, I had upgraded all my gear and I was still swimming in credits. I had abandoned all but two of the guns, the flying buzz saw launcher and the laser cannon, and when I finished the game and got a reward of extra credits and so on for my second play through, it was such an embarrassment of riches that I couldn't make myself do it and started a fresh game on Hard mode instead.

I decided I would not use my powered up armor suit and buy upgrades through the game like a common peasant. I saw there's an achievement for completing the game with only the plasma cutter side arm, so I decided to see how far I could get before I'd break down and buy a force gun, or return to my old friend, the ripper.

At level 7 out of 12, I'm still fine. Sure, I get ganked occasionally, but I know enough to retreat from mobs and that the best firing order is still 2 shots at the lead leg and then one at the lead claw arm to level most bipedal creatures. Some of the frights still make me jump and my heart rate climbs when one of them uses the ventilation ducts to get behind me but none of the other guns are really that appealing and I've got enough cash to buy an armor upgrade when it becomes available.

Maybe I'll change my tune when I get to the destroyer and the speedy ones start to gang up on me. I haven't upgraded my "not so fast buck-o" stasis module yet, but since I know they're coming up, I probably will by that time.

So, is it my mad skillz0rz from hours of RE4, or just a lack of game balance that make Dead Space less Deadly? I suppose we'll see what Impossible mode has to offer.

In other news, I've begun naming computers around my office. I think it started with my new laptop, since it was bigger than I expected I called it a behemoth the first week. That was shortened to Beth. Now I'm naming the servers I prep Ida, Thelma, Helen, etc. Perhaps I hope they will treat me better if I can call them by name.

Fallout 3 rocks. I feel like I could spend a long time playing this game.

I've noticed a pattern in my Fallout playstyle. When I start the game I always plan to try being the bad guy. Steal whenever I can, don't answer questions of the NPCs, take some opportunities to rack up bad karma by doing a few deeds for the devious denizens. That never happens.

I already knew about an early quest in which you can wipe out a settlement in a matter of seconds. It's a nasty thing to do, but I thought it would be interesting to try it. But then I went to the town. Maybe it was my high charisma stat, but people were generally nice to me. They told me about their lives before settling down. I met the Sheriff's son. Joel Creel told me about his adopted daughter. In no time I was doing errands for the people and when the sinister businessman shows up to invite me to destroy the place, I sicced the Sheriff on him and then blasted him. After he had killed the Sheriff unfortunately.

Then I went to the Sheriff's house and spoke to his son. There's this weird feeling of regret, that I should have been faster on the draw, or that I shouldn't have involved the Sheriff and taken out the bastard on my own. It probably doesn't help that the kid looks like one of the other kids I grew up with in the vault. One of the ones who didn't punch me when I wouldn't give him my birthday present.

It's always this way when I play an RPG. Even tabletop. My bad-ass jerks turn into supportive people who are eager to help and smooth over troubles among the PCs and NPCs. In subtle ways if not openly. Playing a Lasombra vampire with the intent of making him a pirate eventually resulted in me becoming a mediator between two other characters who bickered constantly and being spokesperson for the group as a voice of courtesy and respect.

Perhaps my personal morality isn't something I want to escape from when I'm playing an escapist game. Games without choices never get at me like this, but when there are consequences, I want to play like I would act in real life.

It's sobering in a way. I find myself actively fanning the flames of my misanthropy, especially in an election year, but when it's time to act on something, I'm back to being pleasant and helpful, even if I do it begrudgingly.

Anyway, my brother Steve wants to play his character in the manner of Ken from Fist of the North Star, so I'm trying to work up a build of stats, tags and perks for him. I wish him luck in focusing on melee and hand-to-hand combat against rabid bears and slavers armed with shotguns, but Fallout was supposedly made to be played however you want, provided you play with determination.

PS_ Another side effect is that I want to GM Tribe 8 again. For serious this time!

Was me clicking the "pre-order" button for this game hard enough to crush the desk under the mangled remains of my mouse.


Please note that the robot seems confused about what to do with the power tool attachment. Also Father's face while the Vault Tec rep. is discussing the future with Daughter.

Since the first Fallout game, I've found their incongruity of Mad Max post-apocalyptic bleakness with 50's kitsch and pop culture well worth the price of admission. I'm already asking myself the heavy questions:

Do I want to play like my first run at game 1? Go all out with Mad Max leathers and shoulder armor, trade in any gun that doesn't look like Decker's Blade Runner pistol, reload any save that keeps my dog alive? Or is it time to go Brotherhood of Steel? Powered armor, miniguns, paranoid racist propaganda, wholesale slaughter. Maybe I'll just headshot some Brothers and take their stuff . . .

Good thing I broke down and bought that 360.

When Condemned 2 was released I struggled for weeks about the whole "can I afford another console" thing. I like the first game, played it on my PC but at a low resolution (even today, after like 3 upgrades I still can't crank up a game that was made for original XBOX?) After reading some middlin' reviews I calmed down and decided that the then looming recession would eat up any money that could be spent on an overpriced game box.

Today I saw this advertisement:


Now, inexplicably I'm back to wondering if I can maintain my standard of living, without my teaching pay for the summer, and still afford that PS3.

Until I decide No More Heroes' bitter level difficulty is worth beating, I intend to play the holy hell out of Boom Blox.



I have no idea how Steven Spielberg is attached to this project, and I don't care. I will gleefully recreate the hours I spent at age four, sitting on the living room floor with brightly colored wooden blocks building towering castles, ready for the kickin' over.

Also, get the new, free NIN album. You don't know what you're missing.

Brett needs to live closer so we can game. Conventions are all well and good, but it's not the same. We meant to test Contract Work but I found another broken rule while reviewing my notes.

Do you die when your assets get cut down? Or do you die when you run out of cash? I'm beginning to like the latter. It reinforces the wagering mechanic. Besides, players survive by buying themselves back from their boss, not by hoarding money.

Instead we just relaxed, enjoyed food and watched movies. I did run my Tribe 8 as tSOY by him (an easy conversion) and he liked my idea that a player's first key (character's focus, or drive) should also be why they get exiled from their home tribe.

In DS news, I thought it would be neat to try out Brain Age since I had lots of fun with the puzzles in Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I'm now embarassed of myself and looking forward to tomorrow when I can get my copy of The World Ends With You and return to games that don't make me feel like an idiot.

The DS is officially the best console ever. Sorry, it just is.

No More Heroes was awesome fun.

When I was a kid, I wanted a lightsaber. I didn't want any of that self-denying samurai bullsh*t that came along with the Jedi beliefs. I wanted to slash things up. That is exactly what I got from No More Heroes. Foul-mouthed Otaku lunatics slicing and dicing each other in the streets.

The ending(s) are fabulous too. They get into breaking the fourth wall when the villain's gruesome back story is told in fast-forward because the game is almost over and they don't want to delay production with getting all that stuff past the ESRB ratings board. "Do you want this to become No More Heroes Forever?" Yes, that is a crack at the Duke Nukem sequel.

I'm playing through it again on the higher difficulty. I'm not so old yet that I can't enjoy a bad guy's head exploding into a red mist.

Incidentally, I think Lucas Arts are taking a lesson from Grasshopper Manufacture. The Jedi games in which players can be total badass darksiders have sold very well, and the next one features a Sith protagonist. Seriously, who do you want to be; stuffy, boring servant of good or raving power mad champion of evil?

That's what I thought.

This may be the entire reason I bought a Wii.




We'll find out in February.

If this game is as good as it looks, then GOD OF BULLETS has to be my next project. After Contract Work, of course.

PORTAL is currently the best video game ever made. If your PC can run it, go get and play it, and fall in love with the passive/aggressive AI, GLaDOS. (Just watch the trailer, you'll get a taste of the nihilistic humor that fills the game.)

If you suck at video games, you can at least read the lyrics to the fabulous ending song by Jonathan Coulton here.

Seriously, where else are you going to meet a robotic machine-gun turret with such good manners?

"Come over here, please," Blamblamblamblamblam! "Thank you."