Roblog

I played a little bit more than just an hour on this massive console role-playing game from BioWare. Some of that was because I spent about twenty minutes of my usual hour making my character . . . and I was kind of rushing it. The first thing I was struck by when I finally got into the game was the quality of the introductory cut-scenes, or rather the lack of. I was surprised, after seeing the awesome prerendered trailers, to find the graphic quality of the intro to be so . . . lacking. The color palette is drab and the characters have very little distinguishing qualities. By the time the game actually started, I’d either gotten over or grown accustomed to the graphics as they didn’t bother me much afterward.

On to the game itself. The simple description: DRAGON AGE feels like a high fantasy FALLOUT 3, though with seemingly fewer meaningful choices in how you want to play your character. Not surprisingly, for a game with the proclaimed epicness of over 60 hours of gameplay, the start was slow. I played for about and hour and a half and ran into a handful of throwaway battles and two “real” ones with my human mage. They all took place in the span of about a half hour, during my characters rite of passage trial, which basically amounted to a tutorial. The rest of my time was spent wondering around the mage tower looking through cabinets and talking to random non-player characters while searching for Irving, the man I apparently needed to talk to to get the party started story-wise.

The game mechanics were polished and overall the game played well. The game is a third-person action role-playing game. Your character fights his opponent’s in real-time with a fairly intuitive hotkey system that allows the easy use of up to six abilities plus the regular attack. I found moving around while attacking to be a cumbersome affair, so my character ended up stationary during most of his fights. BioWare made no attempt to hide The underlying Dungeons & Dragons mechanics, which, though solid, seem somewhat archaic in gaming terms and I wonder if it’s not time for designers to eschew the old pen-and-paper models for character leveling in a role-playing game.

Overall, DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS has a somewhat compelling world, drab-looking characters (probably due to an effort to keep things feeling realistic), and solid gameplay based on a time-tested, though archaic, system.

~r

Currently Playing: StarCraft II

I figured since it’s a new decade and everyone else wants to make their “top 10” lists for movies, books, and whatnot, I’d throw in my ten cents.  So here are my top ten video and computer games released in the previous decade.

#10 — Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (released in 2001 for the Playstation 2)

I’m a huge fan of the Gran Turismo series and have been playing them since the first one came out for the PlayStation.  The third installment was the peak of the series for me.  I know it didn’t have as many cars as Gran Turismo 2 and maybe not as advanced in display and options as Gran Turismo 4, but the balance of the races and the progression through the game was by far the best of the series to date.

#9 — Plants vs. Zombies (released in 2009; I played on Mac OS)

PopCap Games is the Pixar of casual games.  All of their games are great.  Plants vs. Zombies is their best.  My eight year-old brother’s friends still come over just to play this game.  It didn’t matter that we had two Playstation 2s, a GameCube, a Wii, a DS or two, or even a Playstation 3 — everyone fought over who would get to play Plants vs. Zombies next.

#8 — Rock Band 2 (released in 2008; I played on Playstation 3)

I was late to the party, playing my first plastic guitar game a little after Guitar Hero II came out, but I was instantly hooked on the games.  I’d been a fan of other rhythm games in the past (yes, it’s true, I played Dance Dance Revolution and Donkey Konga, and the lesser known game by Harmonix, Amplitude, had been a favorite of mine), but I thought Guitar Hero was a stupid idea . . . until I played it.  Now I host plastic guitar parties with my extensive collection of Guitar Hero and Rock Band games.  Go ahead and bundle all the titles from the two franchises in with Rock Band 2.  The Beatles Rock Band is probably the best designed, but I still have more fun rocking out to the Rock Band 2 catalogue, which is why Rock Band 2 gets to be named.

#7 — Kingdom Hearts II (released in 2005 for the Playstation 2)

I love this franchise and I think the second one was the better of the two major installments.  The mix of the Disney locales and characters with Square Enix’s gameplay polish and control of the genre made for a very satisfying play.  More console role-playing games should play like these games.

#6 — Ico (released in 2001 for the Playstation 2)

Beautiful, beautiful game.  I still marvel at the look that developers managed to create on the now dated Playstation 2 hardware.  The puzzles were very well done and challenging, and the story, though simply presented, was compelling and provided enough glue to perfectly keep the game together.  Did I mention that it’s a beautiful game?

#5 — The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (released in 2002 for the GameCube)

Wind Waker held classic Zelda-style gameplay in a new, wide-open setting.  Traversing Wind Waker’s water world and its islands was far more fun than I would have expected and really did give me a sense of exploration.  The cell-shaded art style was amazing in the game.  Screenshots never did it justice.  A great game and nearly, NEARLY beats out my all-time favorite of the series, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which is saying a lot.

#4 — God of War (released in 2005 for the Playstation 2)

Brutal. Awesome. Epic. I was not prepared for the amazingness that poured forth from my TV when I put this disc in.  God of War did things I’d never seen before in a game and did other things I had seen, but did them far better.  It’s a brawler, and a platformer, and a puzzle game and it’s great at all three.  Put that with an epic story and even more epic visuals and you’ve got one of the top ten games of the decade.  Oh, and God of War II is just as good, though a bit more cruel.

#3 — Prince of Persia (released in 2008; I played on Playstation 3)

My only real complaint with this game is its ending, and maybe because of that it shouldn’t be in the top three.  I had so much fun with it and the superbly polished gameplay Ubisoft created in it, though, that I’m keeping the latest installment in the Prince of Persia franchise high on my list.  It is a beautifully put-together game, with stunning vistas galore, and ingenious design elements.  The interactions between the “prince” and the princess were fun, informative, well-written and well-delivered.  The feel of the controls make other platformers feel clunky, imprecise, and unresponsive in comparison. Great game.

#2 — Battlefield 1942 (released in 2002 for Windows PCs)

Much time was spent (and arguably wasted) playing Battlefield 1942 and later Battlefield Vietnam at the 11:11 offices when these games came out.  We couldn’t wait to set off renders, take a break, skip lunch, or stay late for rousing battles online and locally.  We played so much during that time that when I went outside and heard a prop plane flying over from the nearby airport, I’d start to take cover . . .

And now a drum roll for my number one game of the last decade . . .

#1 — Fallout 3 (released in 2008; I played on Playstation 3)

This game is awesome.  I’d never really gotten into the previous Fallout games (my college roommate would probably yell at me for that).  I was always intrigued by the open-ended character options, but the chunky graphics and cludginess of the isometric three-quarter view kept me from really enjoying the series.  Then Bethesda got their hands on it and created a first-person role-playing game that actually allowed me to create practically any type of character I wanted and (in the true role-playing sense) allowed me to be successful being evil or good, a talker or a fighter, intelligent or a goober.  I keep replaying this game just to see how situations I’ve already played in the game turn out if, say, I’m a kleptic, gullible guy with fists of steel; or I follow in my father’s footsteps as a scientist who is just trying to survive; or a sweet-talking, gun-nut, gambler with a good heart. All that and I still haven’t even touched the expansions.

So there you are.  The top ten games I played this past decade.  There are some honorable mentions: Quake 3, Starcraft, and Soul Calibur were all games that I had a great deal of fun playing with my buddies in college in the earlier half of the decade (but they all came out before 2000) and I think Civilization IV and the Lego Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Batman games were all great fun and deserve some mention.

~r

Currently playing: Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues