Return from Lake Erie

I am surprised just how much I enjoy our annual camping trip to Kelley's Island. I am typically not an "outdoor" type. I play basketball in a gym -- no more blacktop due to my ankles. (If you have followed my blogging over the years you know how messed up they are). I'm also not big on bugs. Spiders freak me out. I also burn easily. When I go swimming I am coated in sunblock to the point of absurdity. But I love our camping trip.

Let me back up a bit first.

There are various forms of camping -- there's RV camping where you bring a big tank/mobile home and watch TV. That doesn't interest me. There's also Old School where you use a bucket as a bathroom. I'll pass on that, too.

We float somewhere in the middle: Sleep in a tent but with an air mattress -- screw the ground. My back's been battered from basketball enough as is. We cook 100% by campfire -- this year we cooked everything over hot coals wrapped in tin foil. For me, a fireproof tea kettle is of great importance,. I must have coffee. Fill up the kettle and sit it on the fire. Woo hoo. Boiling water! I should go on Survivor.

Kelley's Island has great bathroom facilities that resemble more of a locker room than what you'd expect in a forested setting. Clean bathrooms with showers that contain enough water pressure to blast rust off a truck. -- key for me.

Ashley brought a friend with her this year and they practically lived in the lake -- swimming by 9:30 AM. Lake Erie at 10 in the morning, if you didn't know, is COLD. Not "chilly" but bone chilling cold. The persistence of youth.

Our trip was great aside from a Monday Night Armageddon Rainstorm that nearly blew our campsite away. I have never been outside in such a storm. It was pretty scary...and the kids slept right through it. The deep sleep of youth.

But Tuesday through Friday was great and we have a lot of pics that I'll post tonight or tomorrow. I can't wait for next year's trip. Maybe one year I'll get Todd and the fam to go. Maybe when his kids are a bit older.

Todd -- you're down with sitting by a fire for several hours a day chilling lakeside and playing boardgames while the kids swim, right? I tell you -- best vacation ever.

The best part of the day for me is getting up early...around 6AM and starting a fire -- making a cup of coffee, feeling the cool breeze come in off Lake Erie and just watching the lake as the waves roll up to the rocks. There are very few better ways in which to start your day.

OOTP 9!

OOTP 9 Release Date Announced

We are pleased to announce that OOTP 9 will be released on June 18th! As in years past, OOTP 9 will run on both PC and Mac platforms, and will sell at a list price of US $39.99 for customers outside of Europe, and €39.99 in Europe.

Rockin.

Check out all of the new features.

Ninja Gaiden II Rod of Trials

Our news editor is on a kick making these how to vids for us. GameShark lacks the infrastructure to host its own vids so we're forced to use YTube.

Still, pretty cool stuff.

Here's an Easter Egg vid as well as a How to Find the Rod of Trails vid.

Brakke at his best -- Mass Effect review

I rarely praise Todd for much of...anything, really. But his take on the PC version of Mass Effect is great stuff.

The Roman D20

Check this out -- a 20 sided Roman die circa 2nd century A.D. for a bargain $18K.

I bet they used this to play D&D: The Roman Gods Edition.

Hulk Smash

One more quick post for the day. I'm just about to take off to go see Incredible Hulk. Based on some early reviews from trusted reviewers I've been getting more and more excited to see this one. I'll be sure to get a review of my own up early next week.

Teh Awesome

I was reading Bill Harris's Dubious Quality blog this morning (one of the best there is) and there's a link in his Friday Links post to a Games Radar video that is just too awesome for words. It's the opening title sequence to The Naked Gun, only done using the GTA IV engine. There doesn't appear to be a way to embed the video here, so you'll have to click the link above. If you have fond memories of The Naked Gun movies (or, at least the first one), this is a must watch.

Mass Effect's Shortcomings

I've spent every single evening this week playing Mass Effect in an attempt to get as far as I can in it before writing my Gameshark review; a review that's already a few days overdo thanks to the sinus infection I had last week and the long Wings playoff run. Not that I'm complaining about the latter, of course. I haven't finished the game yet (boo!), but at this point I think I've got enough of a handle on it to get a review done (yeah!).

Overall I remain very, very impressed with this game. That said, it is, predictably, flawed in many areas. This is the type of game that in many places is so unbelievably good that the areas where it fails to measure up really start to stand out after awhile. The sometimes inane behavior of your squad mates in combat is a pretty easy target. Let's just say it could be better and move on from that.

I've also really grown tired of the limited dialog options. I don't necessarily have a problem with the fact that most every response is of your generic good, neutral, evil variety. It's that how characters respond to your choices really doesn't change much and sometimes not at all. The dialog is very carefully crafted to feel seemless, but it doesn't take much reading between the lines to realize that many, if not most, of the NPCs have responses that will fit whatever option you choose. And even if something you say does merit a unique response, it's usually of the one to two sentence variety before the NPC jumps right back into the generic conversation tree. And, really, don't get me started on the love triangle with two members of your crew. I'm all for romances between characters in an RPG, but their dialog (and the dialog I have to choose from) is the stuff of high school romances. At this point in their development as developers, I really expect better from Bioware than that.

I also don't like that a lot of parts in the game, mainly in the side quests, get told to you rather than shown. Survey a planet and a text dialog narrates to you what you found. Complete a planet based side quest and -too often- you get a text dialog that narrates a quest summary to you. This aspect of the game reeks of underutilized potential. If I survey a planet, why don't I get a report (either audibly or textually) from Joker (the pilot) or someone else in the crew? It would accomplish the same thing, but at least it would be done within the context of the game universe and it would give a very underutilized ship's crew something more to do. (Another problem is that only the NPCs seem to have dialog that evolves with your progress in the game. The other members of the ship's crew have the exact same dialog options they had when I first took command of my ship. Ugh.)

Hopefully this doesn't leave the impression that I've soured on the game. It's still a great, great game. I'm leaning towards and A- at this point. But when sequel time comes (if it hasn't already), I hope Bioware takes a good look at some of the things they could've done better. For all the things Mass Effect does right (and there's a lot), there's still a ton of unrealized potential.

Wednesday Music Break

Usually the Wednesday Music Break (I refuse to title a post "Hump Day") is Bill's thing, but, with him on vacation, I figured I ought to throw something out there. I'm not much for knowing good music from bad music, but I know what I like and Tom Petty has been and remains one of my all time favorites. So today's music break is the track Saving Grace from his most recent album, Highway Companion.

Enjoy!

Mass Effect (PC) Impressions

Preface: I'm still not very far into this game. That's why this is an "impressions" post and not a review. My level of enthusiasm may change as I go deeper into it (though I doubt it).

If you haven't played it, Mass Effect is set in a distant future setting in which mankind, having discovered alien technology, has catapulted to the stars and found itself as one of many races looking to co-exist (or not) in the cosmos. You're a military man (or woman) with the last name of Shepard (the first name is up to you). It's a mix of classic RPG elements (multiple character types, character leveling and development, epic story) and 3rd person action. But as I've been playing it, the comparison that comes to mind more and more often is Starflight (1986).

Starflight didn’t have any 3rd-person action shooter elements, but you created your captain and crew, took command of a fully upgradable ship and explored a multitude of star systems and planets in an attempt to figure out why stars across the galaxy were going nova and how it could be stopped.

In Starflight you direct your ship where you want, when you want, collecting hints and following-up on rumors as you go. As you travel, you can land on any world (that doesn't have crushing gravity) and use your armed rover to search for alien artifacts as well as biotic specimens and useful minerals that can be mined and sold. As you gained money, you could train your crew to improve at their jobs. For example, your communications officer would get better and better at translating ship-to-ship communications between alien races. You could also improve your ship and take on more dangerous areas of space. It was epic in scale, when you consider it shipped on a pair of 5.25" floppy disks. True, you needed your own imagination to fill in a lot of details, but that was true of most games of the time. (And I suspect my imagination filling in the blanks for those old games is why I still revere them so much.)

Starflight was and remains one of my all time favorite games.

In Mass Effect you start off as a lone marine on an assignment that is very much on rails. But it's not long before you end up with a ship of your own, the autonomy to go where you will, and a team of party members that travel with you, allowing you to select any two of them as you adventure outside the ship. (Which crewmen you select can have a significant impact on how easy it is to accomplish your goals in a specific area.) The planetary exploration is incredibly reminiscent of Starflight (at least, so far). There are fewer star systems and fewer worlds, but if there's reason to do so, you can land on inhospitable alien worlds and find resources to be mined, alien artifacts and other unforeseen encounters. The main difference being that you can actually get out of your ATV and walk around a bit. (Plus, it uses more than 16 colors. Mass Effect is gorgeous.)

All that, however, isn't what makes Mass Effect the kind of game experience I've been looking for, for years. It's that the galaxy is allowed to breath. When you first arrive at the central world of Citadel, Mass Effect looks like it's going to be a pretty generic 3rd-person shooter with a little talkity-talk as you go. But as you explore the Citadel an entire galaxy opens up to you. The alien races all have incredibly rich histories. Every character of consequence has a deep personal history that offers clearly defined motivations for their actions. And the actions you take in the world have consequences in the world appropriate to their scale. (If you're just doing one person a small favor, they'll remember you. But if you do something big that gets everyone's attention, most everyone will comment on it.) With characters and cultures so well defined, it's easy to get lost in the world and get to the point where you actually give a shit what happens to the people in it.

Bioware has also done a marvelous job of investing you, as a player, in your own character. You can pretty much, if you so choose, make up a character in your own image, which is nice. There's a handful of character classes that allow you to specialize in three main areas or some combination thereof: combat, biotic skills (magic) and tech (decryption, electronics, etc.). But beyond that, the game also lets you select a two-part backstory involving how you grew up and a life changing event. There's only a few options to choose from, three for each of the two parts, I think. But the ones you choose are frequently reflected in the game. If you decided that your marine was the sole survivor of a disaster, for example, NPCs throughout the game will refer to that back story. Even if the options aren't as diverse as you might like, it was still very effective at investing me in my own character, something that I never got from Oblivion or Bioshock.

Granted, this game isn't going to hit everyone's happy place like it did for me. There's every bit as much talking up NPCs and running fetch quests as there is intense combat. If you're not one who likes to read or hear a lot of dialog, or spend lots of time solving other people's problems, Mass Effect is going to be boring as hell for you. And it's not like Mass Effect breaks a ton of new ground. This style of game has been around forever. For all Bioware's crowing (before the console release of the game), your dialog options, in particular, really don't go anywhere we've not been before and your dialog choices don't often have the moral ambiguity or unknown consequences of The Witcher.

For me, though, I don't care. Mass Effect is hitting an itch that I haven't been able to scratch since the days of Black Isle studios and the Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale), but it's doing it in a sci-fi setting that I've been missing since Starflight, more than 20 years ago. (Note: I still haven't played Knights of the Old Republic. Maybe I've just missed out.) Bottom line, if you like a good, old school, PC RPG that unfolds like a great book or movie, Mass Effect is well worth checking out.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I have yet to hit the infamous alien sex scene (perhaps I missed it?) that caused all the controversy last fall. I did, however, just find this YouTub clip that pretty much sums up my feelings about it. It's only 30 seconds, so give it a quick view:

Restoring the Faith

Believe it or not, I've spent a fair amount of time in recent years, not playing games, but rather thinking about whether or not I should bother playing games anymore. Even with the ones I've really liked the last few years, like Civ4, Bioshock or The Witcher, I end up putting my time in and then asking myself, "was it worth it?" And it's not that the answer is always no, but I think the fact that I feel the need to ask myself the question is telling. Sure, I can get lost in playing Civ4 for days on end if my job and role as a parent didn't prevent that from happening, but when I finally turn away from the screen I don't necessarily feel like I've really gained anything.

Every so often, however, I'll play something that reminds me why I play games. You see, I'm all about the story. I think the one constant in my development from young'n to kinda sorta being an adult is my love of a good yarn told well. I think when you're exposed to a story and characters that, for whatever reason, are able to communicate to you and allow you to get lost in them, well, they become a part of you forever. And there's no rhyme or reason to it. One person's Citizen Kane might be another's Batman and Robin. (I'd say and vice-versa, but come on. Nobody liked Batman and Robin.) The love/hate relationship the masses have had with the latest Indiana Jones flick is proof enough of that.

Getting caught up in a story, I think, happens more easily with non-gaming media (books, movies, TV, even music) where you're just along for the ride. But a good game can accomplish just as much as any of these other mediums. When it can, it's even better than those mediums because, in its own way, it's happening to you. You're not just along for the ride anymore. After more than 20 years playing games, it's the ones with stories that ensnared my sense of wonder that I remember. X-Wing may have been a better space dogfighting sim than Wing Commander, but decades later, I remember the Wing Commander storyline (and the game) more fondly than I remember X-Wing (which was a great game too).

If a game can call me back to it because I simply have to know what happens next, just as I might stay up far too late to digest just one more chapter of a good book, then it's hitting my narrative g-spot. Baldur's Gate II remains my all time favorite game, in part, because it is the most epic title I've ever played. It's characters weren't just portraits off to the side of the UI, they were people with histories and their survival mattered to me. Likewise the quests let you feel like you made an impact on the game world and that you weren't just doing them to gather better arms and more experience. Ultima V, despite the archaic graphics of the time, still allowed a willing mind to run wild. Lord British is missing? The eight virtues of the Avatar perverted? Your heroic companions of Ultima IV in hiding? Just what has happened to my Britannia?

It's been awhile, though, since a game really was able to grab me on that kind of level. Bioshock came close, but in the words of Ken Levine, at the end of the day it was really, "just a shooter." Ultimately, I still think its spiritual predecessor, System Shock 2, was a more memorable game. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion never really gave me a game world that I could feel a part of, even if the world itself was a breathtaking place to explore.

I was beginning to think that perhaps I'd changed, that my ability to sink into these places and become a part of them had been lost to a mind that had to worry more about making sure the kids were eating their dinners and that the mortgage got paid. Despite having a computer and three game consoles that do get used regularly, more than once I've wondered if I shouldn't just close it all down.

Then, along comes a game like Mass Effect and the feelings brought on from playing games like Wasteland and Planescape: Torment are suddenly rekindled. I hear the voice of James Earl Jones at the end of Field of Dreams, saying, "It reminds us all of what once as good and can could be again." Okay, yeah, he was talking about baseball, but the axiom still holds.

Yesterday, I finally got in a good, long marathon session of Mass Effect and the short version of my impressions can only be summed up as this: I love this game. I play it and I remember why, at 34 years old, I'm still playing games and why I'm not going to stop anytime soon. It's a fully realized world with three-dimensional characters that are almost instantly compelling. And it makes me feel like I'm a part of it, that I'm not just grinding out experience so I can improve my character skill set. Since this post is already pretty long, I'll just leave it at that for now. I'll do a real impressions writeup between now and Tuesday morning.

Oh, and I'm embedding the following video again because there should never be a reference to James Earl Jones without it coming up:

Don King Call

Wow. Here is my write up from the 2K conference call with Don King. Surreal does not begin to describe it.

Me, Not As Tough as Ryan Malone

I've been wanting to write up something on the Wings winning the Cup, as well as some Mass Effect (PC) impressions, but a sinus infection I've been battling decided to turn nasty a few days ago. My ass = officially kicked. At this point my face feels like one big bruise, not unlike the Pens' Ryan Malone, who took a slapshot to the face in Game 5 (see the embedded video). Only, I'm not tough enough to stay suited up to play. So, it'll all have to wait till next week. Have a good weekend, everybody!

Stuff on a Thursday

Twlight of the Arnor is a brilliant expansion. See. This review says so.

Michael's next to last installment of TWBG is online today. Hate to see this series come to an end. Sucks that Mike had to go through all of that but it gets a lot of hits! Maybe I can convince him to open the store up again...

We also have a preview of Guitar Hero Aerosmith. Do GH fans really want to play that? Todd? I liked Aerosmith when they were on coke. When bands sober up, the music suffers.

I'm getting packed for our vacation next week -- you will be in the hands of The Brakke from Monday through Friday. Happy for Todd that the Red Wings won. I forgot they even played hockey in the states...living near Columbus, we tend to forget from time to time.

Lastly, I have my copy of Conan but I haven't opened it yet. Anyone playing this?

Lastly 2x, I should have a preview of the new version of The Political Machine ready before I leave. Let's hope it's better than the 1960 boardgame.

Red Wings: Champions!!!!

'nuff said, for now. I'll write up more later.

A Simple Red Wing Prayer for Tonight's Game 6

Please don't blow it. Pretty please.

...with sugar on top, even.

Hump Day Music Break

One hour of sleep last night due to the storm system that came through Ohio; my dogs FREAKED out and it was a miserable evening. So, here's some Black Keys.

Marc-Andre Fleury: I Hate You

Do the Pens not understand that last night's game was supposed to be a coronation? Did they not get the memo? Does their goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, not understand that if the puck doesn't reach the back of the net that the Wings don't get the goals they need to win? I mean what the f#@? It's cats and dogs living together out there on the ice. MASS HYSTERIA!!!

In all seriousness, you have to tip your hat to the Pens. I'm not saying I think they deserved to win last night. I don't think they did. After a shoddy first period the Wings pretty much owned the rest of the game, especially the 3rd period and the first overtime. Fleury flat out stole the game.

I've got to say how glad I am the game wasn't decided on either of those phantom goalie interference calls the Wings got tagged with in the first two OTs. I really don't want to hear another Penguin gripe about not getting calls after that fiasco. That said, the final 4-minute penalty to Hudler, that lead to the Pens' game winner had to be called. It wasn't an intentional stick to the face, but he did it and it probably cost the Wings the game. Though, after about 10 minutes of overtime you had to know it had the feel of a game that just wouldn't go the Wings way, no matter what.

I'd try to sum up what it feels like, as a fan, to watch that unfold, but the On The Wings blog already pretty much nailed it. I got very little sleep last night as the number 34.7 flashed in my head over and over again. It was so bad my dreams were filled with visions of Fleury stopping golden opportunities. I can't even imagine what it's like for the players.

I so wanted to see the Wings hoist the cup on home ice. Now it's back to Pittsburgh, where I think we'll see a Winged fury unleashed for Game 6.

At least, I hope so.

It's 12:24 am

And this frigg'n game is still going. The Wings were up 3-2 in the closing minutes. My wife got our four year old up to come watch the final minute. Then the Pens scored with 35 seconds left. As I type, they're now heading for a 3rd overtime and I just had to send the poor kid back to bed. Who knew?

Fleury (the Pens goalie) is single-handedly keeping Pitt in this game. If you're not watching you're missing an epic battle.

Also, Mass Effect (PC): Tres Cool so far, but I've barely scratched the surface.

Update: Well, that sucked.

Movies

I spent a lot of time this weekend watching movies --some new and some for one reason or another slipped past the net when they were you know...relevant. I couldn't sleep this weekend so hey...might as well watch some TV.

I have no idea WHY but I watched Pirates of the Caribbean at World's End. I loved the first movie, didn't like the 2nd, and wow, this last one was just dogshit from top to bottom. Not only did I watch it but I sat through all 2 hours and 48 minutes of it. (Insomnia!!!) What a train wreck. See, when Todd bags on Temple of Doom -- I understand his complaints and I agree with most of them, but then I watch this piece of bloated trash and it makes movies like Temple at least in the high "C" range. No, still haven't seen the latest Indy. But I will.

I did see the new Narnia movie. Like most sequels -- not nearly as good or as fun as the first. And a plot of convoluted as The Sicilian. Still, leagues better than the Pirates sequels.

Romero's Diary of the Dead, if you like the zombie genre, is totally awesome.

28 Weeks Later, while NOT a zombie movie (seriously people -- infection -- rage..not dead people rising from the grave) is also dogshit. See, I have NO problem with an implausible premise (zombies, giant monsters) but the plot has to make sense. This one doesn't. Again, loved the original and this one was made to make a buck.

Cloverfield is next on the chopping block. Motion sickness + rich beautiful twenty something yuppie people...man I started cheering for the damn monster just to eat these assholes and be done with it. So much hype for this movie but I already saw the hand held video camera horror movie thing -- it's called Blair Witch Project and it's ten times scarier than this. And seriously the first 25 minutes is spent watching a boring home movie. It's painful. I give it props for the exploding death scene. But that's the highlight.

So it was a sleepless weekend spent watching, for the most part, bad movies.

I really need to sleep.