A Green Mushroom

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!  Well... almost.  It's almost a new year! I don't want to do a top ten list or anything so formal this year, I just want to talk about games that stuck out in my mind from the year. Mario Maker has got to be the coolest thing that came out this year.  Infinite Mario levels plus the tools to make your own?  I'm in.  I love this idea so much and the execution has been fantastic.  Not to mention that Nintendo keeps updating and improving the game too.  It's nice to see them finally getting with the times and offering expanded content past a game's release. Assassin's Creed Syndicate turned out to be my favorite Assassin's Creed game so far.  I was expecting some fun but most just another entry in the series.  That's generally what we get year-to-year.  But honestly, I love all the small changes that they made to truly tighten the game up.  It's now my favorite game in the series. Hearthstone wa...

Ok... so I kinda got on a roll and flew through the last three seasons of Clone Wars. Season 6 is interesting since it's the season of "Lost Episodes."  It turns out they were halfway through production of this season when they decided to cancel the Clone Wars TV show.  They decided to finish up production on the first set of episodes they were working on but they didn't actually air until much later. Now they're on Netflix as part of the show.  It's interesting to see how much better they've gotten at storytelling by season 6.  None of it packs the punch of the Ahsoka story arc at the end of season 5, but there are a bunch of good episodes in this "Lost Season." There are four main story arcs in the season and I felt that two of them were worth my time.  One of the others was about politics with Padme.  The one that made me cringe was all about Jar Jar and Mace Windu going on a mission together. But the very first arc of the season i...

For me this season of Clone Wars justified watching the entire run of the show.  It ended with one of the greatest Star Wars stories I've seen.  And I've seen a lot.  And read almost the entire extended universe.  And played most of the games. The last story arc in season 5 is, in many ways, a stronger story than any of the prequel trilogy. There were still some rough spots earlier in the season, but wow, it ended with a bang. It's the ultimate culmination of Ahsoka Tano's story as a Jedi.  Now I see why she has turned into such a fan favorite in the Star Wars universe and why it's so awesome that she showed up in Rebels. I don't even want to talk about the rest of the season even though it had some cool episodes with Darth Maul coming back and an in-depth look at the process of Jedi building their first lightsabers.  Those were great episodes.  But the final story arc was amazing. I don't even want to spoil it with discussion of the epis...

Clone Wars keeps getting better as it goes along.  I can tell they're getting better at telling compelling stories. This is the first season where there aren't huge sets of bad episodes.  There are still some lame storylines that don't really lead anywhere, like the droids random adventures or Obi-Wan going undercover to bust a crime syndicate's plan.  But, for the first time, the majority of the season was good. The season opens with a multi-episode storyline about underwater war on Mon Calamari that has cool battles and unique underwater stuff.  The storyline could have been faster but it was decent. There's a mid-season storyline dealing with the clones that's amazing.  It's easily in the best storylines of the whole series so far.  It's about what happens when a general treats clones more like droids than like men. The second half of the season has a compelling storyline about Anakin (and crew) dealing with slavers that makes him come to ...

Merry Christmas!  Or Happy Holidays!  Or whatever applies to you! Today I'm curious about everyone's holiday gaming traditions. What do you guys do for the holidays?  Does the holiday season inspire you to play a certain type of game or is there a specific group of people that you play with?  What are your holiday gaming traditions? For me, I just try to find some time to play Mario.  I got an SNES with Super Mario World one Christmas when I was younger and it's one of my strongest holiday memories.  So now I always try to make some time for Mario on Christmas. Besides that, the fall into winter holiday season always gives me a craving for a good RPG.  This year I spent a ton of time in Fallout 4 for the first week or two that it was out and I'll probably revisit it again.  But I'm also eyeing Persona 4 because I really want to get back to it and one of these days I'll revisit Final Fantasy X-2 since I haven't played it since it origin...

What should you get for the gamer in your life? I always struggle when people ask me what I want for the holidays.  I'm in an interesting (and lucky) position now that I'm an adult with a decent income, if there's a game or system I want I can usually find a way to buy it.  It might require a bit of saving if it's a new gaming system, but even those aren't out of reach. These days my limiting factor is time.  I put a lot of time into my family and into my work, so my leisure time is what takes a hit.  Of course, no one can buy me more time, so I never know what to say when asked what gifts I want for the holidays. I usually default to saying a Kindle gift card is a good bet for me.  I mean, I'll always buy more books.  I love books. What about you guys?  Is there anything that you're really hoping to get for the holidays?  Do you have any tips on getting good gamer gifts for people that are hard to shop for?

I finished The Force Awakens novelization this weekend after seeing the movie twice.  It's probably not something most of you would get a lot out of.  The movie is obviously the superior experience here. But the novelization added some additional context to situations and that's what I was really hoping for.  It had bonus scenes that were either cut from the movie or never actually shot.  And it added just enough that I found myself drawn through the book in two sittings. Especially towards the end of the novel it delved more into what the characters were thinking and feeling during the final scenes. Again, it's too early to throw spoilers into a post like this.  I don't want anyone to accidentally have the movie ruined by me.  But, if you're a die hard Star Wars fan like I am chances are you'll get something out of the book.  If you're not, then go see the movie!  It's fantastic!

I really liked this show.  Master of None is about modern life in your late twenties or early thirties.  And it's definitely a show aimed squarely at people in their late twenties and early thirties.  This is exactly where I am in my life at the moment. It's quick 20-25 minute episodes each focus on an aspect of life and explore it.  They never overstay their welcome and it's always easy to just click to watch the next one. The acting can be a bit off sometimes but I think it's mostly the actors figuring out their roles.  By the end of the season it's not evident anymore. Overall it's another good Netflix Original Series.  I love seeing things like this that we wouldn't ever get to see on broadcast or cable TV.  And I still love Netflix's model of releasing an entire season at once.  My wife and I watched all of Master of None over two nights. I'm also starting to really dig this trend of 10-15 episodes in a season of a show.  A l...

Clone Wars keeps improving as a show each season I watch but it's still not a good show overall.  It's wildly inconsistent with the quality of it's episodes. Clone Wars is at it's best when it's either adding to the dynamics between main characters from the movies or actually putting some of the key Clone Wars characters in danger.  Part of the problem is that anyone who is in the later movies has complete plot immunity so they're never in real danger. At this point, Ahsoka is my favorite character.  She's an original creation for the Clone Wars TV show.  She takes the role of Anakin's apprentice and basically picks up his attitudes toward the force.  That means that she sometimes rides the line between the dark side and the light side, which is where most of the interesting aspects of the force are. There was one fantastic three part storyline in this season.  It involved Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka stumbling on a planet that the core of the F...

I don't feel like I want to do a formal review for The Force Awakens.  It's much too difficult to encompass all my feelings and thoughts.  But I've seen the movie twice already and I have to say I love it! The Force Awakens captures the spirit and the feeling of the original trilogy while still managing to become it's own movie.  It feels like the Star Wars franchise has finally gotten a movie to live up to the originals! This may become my favorite Star Wars movie.  I'm too close to it to tell right now, and hype is crazy.  Perspective and time is needed but I know that this one is right near the top of my favorite Star Wars movies.  The Empire Strikes Back is a difficult one to topple from the top spot but I'm thinking The Force Awakens may have done it for me. Like I said, I need time and perspective before I'll truly know. But I love what they've done.  The new cast is fantastic and they are definitely their own characters.  They d...

The Battle of Jakku is the first (free) downloadable content for Battlefront.  It's the setting of the first major battle that happens after the events of Return of the Jedi.  I got to read all about the battle in Lost Stars which is an amazing Star Wars book.  It's cool to actually get to see the battle in action. In the battle tons of ships get destroyed, fall into the gravity well of the planet, and crash.  It seems like this has made it into a ship graveyard by the time The Force Awakens happens.  I'm writing this post earlier in the month, but I'll probably know one way or another by the time this post goes live since I'm due to see the movie yesterday! Anyway, it's cool to see the battle in full force. It also introduces a new game type that I actually like.  I was mostly only playing Walker Assault and Squadron modes but this new control point mode is really fun too.  I hope they roll it out to other maps as well.  Basically you h...

Episode six in the Telltale Game of Thrones games wrapped up what is apparently only season 1. I was actually really frustrated by this episode.  I'd been loving this game so far and it seemed like everything would come to a head in episode six and wrap up the story.  Instead, there are some character deaths and big shifts in power but there's not actually a conclusion. It appears that they've kicked resolution down the road so that they can create an entire season 2 of the Game of Thrones game.  I wanted definitive conclusions and I didn't get them.  At this point I wonder if they'll just try to milk it and create as many seasons as they can out of it.  That's not what I want from a Telltale game.  I want a quick series of episodes that give me a complete narrative arc. Not to mention that episode six was the buggiest one in the whole season.  Loading times were terrible and I experiences a ton of glitches in graphics and with characters say...

You never know where you're going to be exposed to a new way of thinking. Earlier this week I mentioned that in finally sampling 90ish comics from last year's free comic book day I found two series that inspired me to actually pay money and pick up more comics.  One of those was Wayward. Wayward is about supernatural occurrences happening in modern day Japan while most of the people are none the wiser.  It has relatable characters, fun powers, and an engaging story. The thing I like most about it is the section in the back of every issue that has a short essay on a facet of Japanese culture.  It's honestly the thing I look forward to the most in each issue. It's often an essay explaining the Japanese mythological origin for a character or group encountered in that week's comic.  But sometimes it's simply about the structure of day-to-day life in Japan.  I find both unbelievably fascinating. I love being exposed to new culture and finding out about ...

Sunless Sea is a game that got a ton of praise when it came out last year.  It finally fell enough in price that I picked it up in the latest Steam sale. It's a narrative driven game in the vein of Fallen London.  Fallen London is a free browser based story driven game that I got fairly heavily into for about a month a year or two ago.  Sunless Sea is actually created by the same team and with the same engine as Fallen London and it shows. It's basically Fallen London with more gameplay elements tacked on top.  There's a ship that you navigate around the sea while having to manage your crew, inventory, and combat.  It's a smoother and more engaging version of the free Fallen London game that's been available for awhile. My problem is that I got my fill of Fallen London when I dove deep into that game a few years back.  This feels like playing it again.  It's an interesting game and the sea is fun to explore... but I've already gotten my fill ...

Free comic book day is something that happens every year in May.  I've still never gone to a free comic book day in person at a comic book shop, but the last few years Comixology has done free comic book day digitally. When I first started getting into comics it was digitally with Comixology and right around the time of year for free comic book day.  They released a ton of comics for free and I devoured them.  The last two years I've been busy during that time of year but I go "buy" them all digitally for free and download them. I just finally got around to reading through all the free comics from the past two years worth of free comic book day.  I started it on my trip last month and finished them all up within a week or so.  Most of the comics were either an issue one, special issue, or one-off.  They're meant to entice you into picking up more comics from the series and get invested.  Honestly, it's really smart. I read somewhere between 80 an...

Continuing with my new Steam game impressions is The Escapists. I like the premise of this game.  You're an inmate and you need to escape a prison.  There are different difficulties for different levels of prison.  It seems like there are quests, routines, items to buy and sell, and some light crafting.  I really like the premise of this game. I played through a couple levels but on PC I had a lot of frustration with the controls.  It's not intuitive at all when to use which click or how to interact with different types of objects. I think I would much rather be playing this game with a controller.  Sadly, it doesn't support a controller on PC so I can't play the way I want to.  I bet this would even control better on a touch screen. At this point I've basically been striking out on all the games I grabbed on the Steam sale.  I'm mostly ok with that.  I picked up all these games on the cheap for just this reason.  I knew that...

Subnautica is another game I picked up in the latest Steam sale.  I had overheard some people talking about it and the general impression I came away with was that Subnautica is a game about underwater exploration. It starts out with you crashing on an alien water planet and basically just tells you to go. I was really excited to splash into the water and start swimming around to discover new life and strange oddities. What I actually found is an underwater game with a limited oxygen meter that is channeling the crafting mechanics of Minecraft.  I've done enough Minecraft style crafting for one lifetime... I don't really need to do it in any other game again. Granted, Subnautica is still in early access and things could change.  As it stands it isn't a game I want to play.  But if they make a mode with no oxygen meter and free exploration of an underwater realm then I'll jump back in and have fun exploring.

Ori and the Blind Forest is another game I grabbed during the Black Friday Steam Sale. It's a beautiful platformer with great sound design.  It set a mood and made me feel for the characters within the first ten minutes.  It seems like it has high production values and offers a lot for platformer fans. I'm coming to realize that I may have played so many platformers in my life that I'm not nearly the fan I used to be.  I'll still sit down and love all my time with a new Mario game... but beyond that I'm finding the genre less and less interesting.  Everything feel derivative and samey. That's how I feel about Ori and the Blind Forest.  I can tell intellectually that it's a really good platformer with fantastic art direction and a story to tell.  My problem is that moment to moment it's not doing much for me in the gameplay. I'm going to set this one aside and if I'm ever in the mood for a solid platformer that's not Mario I'll...

I picked up a couple new Steam games in the Steam sale over Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  At this point I have almost all the Steam games I want, I just keep indie oddities on my wishlist so if they drop low enough I can grab them on the cheap. Titan Souls is the first one of the games in this category that I grabbed in the latest sale. The basic premise of the game is that you are given one arrow to shoot (and retrieve), one point of health, and one hit kills.  One hit on your character will instantly destroy you but  one arrow in the right spot at the right time will kill a boss too. It makes for an interesting dynamic.  The entire game is made up of boss fights and the open world spaces between them.  In a big way it reminds me of the structure of Shadow of the Colossus. Bosses are scary and imposing at first while you figure out their weakness and their patterns.  Then you think you've figured it out but can't quite execute the kill correc...

Ugh.  So.  I tried to get back into StarCraft II multiplayer after playing through the single player campaign the other week.  While I was immediately able to throw myself back into that single player campaign it was really hard to get back into multiplayer. I basically failed to get into it. I was placed in Bronze league and I lost a lot.  Bronze should be the easiest league in multiplayer with the newest and worst players.  I think at this point there aren't really any new players.  Bronze league was a great place to learn the game back in 2010 when it first came out but now the people there will tear a newbie apart. I'm sure I could buckle down, look up some current strategies, check out a few guides, and work my way back into StarCraft II multiplayer.  But I don't really want to.  That's a lot of work for something that doesn't seem very rewarding for me these days. I still think StarCraft II is the best RTS game out there right no...

Video Game High School (VGHS) is a YouTube series by Freddie Wong.  He's a creator that I've followed for awhile because he does tons of videos about film making and special effects.  Since that was my profession for the first ten years of my career I've always been interested in his videos. VGHS is his first long form show.  It's structured like traditional TV shows into longer episodes.  It's all about a group of kids that enter into a high school specifically for gamers.  Everything in the school revolves around gaming. As a gamer I find so much enjoyment in this show, even though it's often rough around the edges.  I've been watching it since season one but I hadn't realized until last week that the third and final season was finally out.  I got to binge watch it over the holiday break and it was a fun diversion. If you're a gamer and you've never heard of it I would definitely check it out.  There are three seasons and each one is bett...

I think this is the best thing that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has created so far.  It's so much better than the other shows I've watched, especially compared to DareDevil. Where DareDevil left me frustrated with the pacing problems and inconsistency in quality, Jessica Jones is well paced and interesting the entire way through.  I watched it in two sittings but stopping that first night because I had to go to bed was painful since I was so engrossed in the story. The premise is that Jessica Jones has super powers but doesn't want to be a super hero.  She's super strong and can heal faster than normal people but she mostly just uses her powers in an everyday sort of way while doing her job as a private investigator.  The story is all about her dealing with her powers and confronting her past with the villain Kilgrave, who is played by the amazing David Tennant.  I thought he was good in Doctor Who but he's amazing in Jessica Jones. Kilgrave is a min...

Now that I've had more time with Battlefront I really need to follow up on my initial impressions .  While I still think this is a must-have for Star Wars fans I'm also starting to see the limitations of the game. Don't get me wrong, it still gives an amazing sense of place and of being in the Star Wars universe.  When I need a quick fix for Star Wars this is an easy game to reach for. But from a gameplay standpoint as a shooter... it doesn't have the same refined qualities as a game like Destiny, Halo, or Call of Duty.  The progression system is too slow and doesn't give enough options.  There are only 4 big maps, and they're cut up into smaller maps for different game types.  So while they say there are something like 16 maps... it's really just 4 tilesets and you'll quickly start to recognize parts of maps within different game types. I'm also a bit disappointed with the single player offerings.  There are a few missions and survival mod...

While I got delayed by Fallout 4, I did get around to playing Legacy of the Void.  I've always been a fan of Starcraft and I think Starcraft II is the best RTS out there.  I'm not as big into the multiplayer as I was when it first released, but it's still an amazing game. Legacy of the Void is the final campaign in StarCraft II finishing off what started back in 2010 with Wings of Liberty.  The main campaign follows Artanis and the last of the uncorrupted Protoss as they try to regroup and then eventually retake their homeworld.  All the threads start wrapping up as the Hybrids, the relationship between the Zerg and Protoss, and the Xel'Naga are all explained. I loved the Protoss campaign because I got to play my favorite race in the game.  In all honesty, I think that Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm had more variety in missions and more unique missions.  But, I've been waiting more than five years to finally get the Protoss campaign and I e...

Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorite authors these days and I just found out that he released this novella Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell a while ago and I somehow missed it. I remedied that situation. My favorite thing about novella length fiction is being able to sit down and read the entire thing in one session.  This one was no exception.  I read through the novella in one night and really liked it. Sanderson creates a new world with a new system of magic and superstition, as he usually does.  It's always interesting to see which direction he takes it.  In this world it seems to be built up around puritanical belief systems.  I'm not a person that likes too much religion in my fiction, but  Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell does a great job of using it as source material but not lingering on it. The story follows Silence, a character who owns a waystop along a dangerous road through the forests and the White Fox, a b...

Last week while I was traveling I got some time to dabble in various distractions.  I was away from my main gaming PC and consoles, so I got away from the newest game releases and dug into other things. I listened to a lot of podcasts on the trip.  I even picked up a new one, Rebel Force Radio, which is an awesome Star Wars fan podcast. I got caught up on all the Star Wars comics I've purchased on Comixology.  Then I started picking through the 80+ unread comics that I got for free through Comixology last year on free comic book day.  They were a lot of either one-off or issue #1 and I didn't get through them all yet, but there were a couple that were intriguing and I might actually go purchase some more in those series to see if they hold my interest. I'm basically up to date on playing all the 3DS games I wanted to so I browsed the Nintendo e-shop and realized I had never picked up Pokemon Ruby or Sapphire... they were after my prime time with Pokemon Red/Blu...

I'm an introvert.  I know this about myself. When I need to recharge I need time by myself.  Preferably some time without any noise or needs from other people.  This is the core of being an introvert.  It's not how you act or if you're a people person.  It's how you recharge yourself. I noticed something interesting last week on my trip.  I had a lot of travel for three days in a row and no real time alone to recharge.  Instead I did the opposite... I kinda overloaded my brain.  On the plane I put on a podcast and played games and paid attention to my traveling companion all at the same time.  Apparently this can help me deal with stress when I can't actually recharge the way I need to. As soon as I got back home I just wanted to retreat to a quiet corner of the house and relax... but it's good to know I have another coping mechanism for when that isn't possible.

So good. It's so good. Well... if you're a Star Wars fan it is.  If you aren't a Star Wars fan I don't know if the gameplay is anything groundbreaking enough to recommend it to you. But if you are a fan this is an amazing game.  Everything comes together to make it feel like you're in a real Star Wars battle.  The graphics and sound design are simply amazing.  It's spot on. Now that the full version is released I finally got to play around with all the gameplay modes.  My favorite two are Squadron and Heroes vs Villains. In Squadron mode you are never a trooper on the ground, you spawn in an aircraft and you're always in the air.  It's so much fun.  It makes me crave another Rogue Squadron game.  I'm already thinking that Squadron mode will be my preferred mode of play before too long.  I already love it that much. Heroes vs Villains is a really cool set-up too.  It's a 6v6 match where three people on each team spawn as h...

I am so excited for The Force Awakens!  My hype level has been slowly rising over the past few months and at this point I just can't wait for the movie. Star Wars is my favorite universe and to see it move into new hands that are finally going to expand the universe officially with new movies makes me happy.  I'm mostly over the fact that they had to wipe out the old expanded universe because they've started creating a new one, and this time it's all canon.  Disney is going to keep all Star Wars media canon going forward and so far I love what they've done. I'm still reading all the Star Wars Marvel comics that they're releasing in the run up to the movie.  And I've read all the books.  And now I've played Battlefront too. At this point I'm re-watching the original trilogy and digging into the special features in the latest Blu Ray collection.  The behind the scenes stuff is super interesting, especially the footage and interviews from the ...

This post obviously contains spoilers.  You have been warned. I have to say that I like Fallout 4's main story so much better than Fallout 3's.  I completed Fallout 3's main quest because I felt like I should.  I finished Fallout 4's because I was really excited to see what would happen.  The story actually drove me to complete it, which is super rare for a Bethesda game.  I still don't think I've actually seen an ending to any of their Elder Scrolls games that I've played. Fallout 4 is my favorite Bethesda mainline story so far. The intro to the game was super cool.  I loved seeing the world of Fallout before  it was destroyed.  That futuristic yet 50's style is so well done.  It's the first true glimpse of that world that they've ever let us see and I thought it was a big insight into the rest of the world of Fallout. Shortly after entering the Vault and narrowly avoiding death by nuclear war you are frozen for 200 years in a cr...

Sorcery! (the exclamation mark is actually part of it's official name) is an interactive fiction game that I played awhile ago on iOS.  Scorcery! 2 picks up where it left off. These games are basically a choose your own adventure book brought to life with combat, gear, and pieces moving around on a map.  It's a pretty cool format. In Sorcery! 2 you're immediately thrown into a city of thieves and untrustworthy types and are tasked with getting through this massive city to the other side.  Your true objective lies beyond the city and this is an interesting detour that you have no choice but to take. Quickly you realize that the different sections of the city and different factions within all have a variety of motives and goals.  You can choose who to help and who to hinder.  And occasionally you'll stumble on a really cool diversion. I loved my time with Sorcery! 2 and was considering replaying it until I saw that Sorcery! 3 had also been released. ...

My regular readers all know by now that I love all things Star Wars. That being said... this is the first Star Wars book in the new canon that is extremely mediocre.  It's not horrible but there's no way I would recommend this one to anybody. Seriously, if you want a recommendation go read Lost Stars .  It's probably my favorite Star Wars book ever and it's in the new canon extended universe. Star Wars Battlefront: Twilight Company is supposed to be a tie-in book to the Battlefront game that releases today.  Actually, it's a very generic sci-fi military novel.  I've never been a big fan of military books.  These are novels that spend the whole time focusing on what it's like fighting on the ground and being one of the troops.  Twilight Company is no exception. There are a bunch of undeveloped flat characters that you spend the whole book with.  They're ground troops in the war against the Empire but they rarely tie into the overall ...

Let me pose a question.  Do you use the default character? Because a lot of the time I do. When I started up Fallout 4 last week I was so excited to get into the game but within the first minutes you are thrown into the character creator.  I know a lot of people who will spend hours creating their character... but I don't. All I did was change a couple of the scars and tweak the hair color slightly.  It took me less than a minute.  Basically, I'm just using the default character the game provided me.  And I'm completely fine with it. The best part was getting to the gameplay right away.  I didn't have to put my excitement on hold while I tweaked and modified and changed and tweaked some more.  I got to dive into Fallout 4 right away. As long as the default character isn't horribly ugly I do this in a lot of games.  I played through all of the Mass Effect series with the default male Commander Shepard. I'm extra glad I didn't spe...

As soon as I realize I'm going to purchase a game that's not out yet I stop consuming media about it.  The lead up to Fallout 4 made me realize that I've started doing this over the past few years. I love finding out about games while playing them, so as soon as that purchase decision has been made the only thing I can do is spoil it for myself.  I don't actively hide my eyes from all things about the game I'm interested in but I do stop seeking it out and reading every in depth article. These days I'm much more likely to consume media around a game I'm on the fence about. It's actually really fun this way.  I get to go into huge games with giant media blitzes basically blind and truly experience it all for the first time. That's how it's been this year since Fallout 4 was announced.  Immediately after the E3 press conference I knew I would buy it.  I pre-ordered it on Steam as soon as it was an option and then promptly forgot about the g...

The setting in Fallout 4 is starting to get to me.  This is something that has happened with every Fallout game I've played. I love the open world and the exploration.  I love stumbling onto something unexpected and investigating it.  I love the stories in the world and all the activities to do. But the post-apocalypse wears on me.  It's mostly brown and grey and everything is destroyed.  They do such a good job of setting the scene that after playing a Fallout game for a couple days it starts to affect my mood. It's not going to cause me to feel truly depressed but I have noticed that it bums me out even after I step away from the game for a bit. So I've decided to just critical path the game to see the ending.  Then I'll see how I'm feeling, but chances are I'll look online to see if there's anything really cool that's a "must see."  After that I expect to take an extended break from Fallout. The setting is the only reason F...

No Spoilers in this post!  Promise!  Just gameplay thoughts. I'm not a Fallout diehard fan but I really liked Fallout 3 and I've been looking forward to Fallout 4 ever since it was announced. Since it came out earlier this week I've been able to starting digging into it.  I picked it up on PC and have been playing it both on my computer with keyboard/mouse and on my TV via my Steamlink with a Xbox 360 controller.  Well, I would be but the Steamlink set-up is a little buggy at the moment for this game.  I can get it to stream to the Steamlink but I can't get sound.  It's launch week though, and it's such a low priority bug.  I'm sure it'll get patched up quickly. As a quick side note so far I haven't had any gamebreaking bugs on PC.  Just a couple super tiny graphical oddities, but they're rare and far between. I really like Fallout 4.  It's a brand new open world to explore.  The very first night I touched the game I played a...

It's time to check in once again on my gaming to-do list.  I've loved this idea ever since a fellow blogger brought it up in the middle of Blaugust this year.  It's a good way to make a plan and keep tabs on the games I intend to play. So, let's check in for the first time since September.  Here's my current list: Fallout 4 - At the time I'm writing this post Fallout 4 isn't out yet, but by the time it's published we should be a couple days into the craziness of Fallout 4 launch.  I hope I like it.  I'm looking forward to exploring the world! [adding to list] StarCraft II Legacy of the Void  - StarCraft II is still my favorite RTS ever and the latest expansion should come out two days before this post goes live.  I'm interested to see how the campaign plays out and I'll probably end up giving online multiplayer another shot too. [adding to list] Star Wars Battlefront  - I played the beta every day this game was available.  I'm so ex...

Hand of Fate is a card based choose your own adventure... action game?  It's honestly a weird blend of genres.  It's out now on multiple systems, including PC where I picked it up. I'm realizing more and more that I like these modern incarnations of the choose your own adventure novel.  This game is all about a journey through a deck of cards.  There are encounters, items, locations, shops, enemies, and all sorts of interesting things in the deck. It seems like both the player deck and encounter deck can be customized if you so choose.  So far I've only used the "recommended" deck setup for each situation but it's nice to know that there is a lot of variety in replayability if I want it. The strangest part of the game is that combat actually takes place in a fully rendered 3D hack and slash setting while the rest of the game takes place on a tabletop with cards. The hack and slash portion is serviceable but the game shines with the cards on the...

Rebel Galaxy is a 4x game refined down and made more arcadey.  It's by the developers of Torchlight who have already proved that they can take a game (Diablo) make it their own (Torchlight) and refine it until it's really solid (Torchlight II). I have a strange relationship with 4x games.  I've always wanted to love them and I end up trying a lot of them out.  But not a single one of them has ever stuck with me.  I quickly get either bored or overwhelmed... or both somehow. I love the idea of a giant open world with multiple strategic ways to approach it, especially since the 4x genre is often set in space.  I love sci-fi. Trying Rebel Galaxy has just made me realize that this genre might never be a good fit for me.  I liked what they had done with the gameplay and story.  It was super approachable and the moment to moment gameplay felt so much more fun than any 4x game I've played before... but it still didn't do it for me. If you're a 4x ...

I finally made some time to finish up the last episode of Tales from the Borderlands by Telltale games. It was great! I can't say anything about this particular episode without giving out huge spoilers for the other four episodes leading up to this one.  But I can say that they tied it all together and they answered all the questions they had asked earlier in the series. I love that so many decisions from the four earlier episodes ended up having an impact in episode five.  It was really well done. Now that Tales from the Borderlands is complete I can honestly say it's my favorite Telltale adventure game.  It consistently made me laugh and held my interest throughout all the individual episodes.  I still like a lot of their other games, but this is my favorite. If you're the type of person who waits for all the episodes to come out in an episodic series, now's your chance to jump on this game.

Triforce Heroes is the newest Legend of Zelda game on 3DS.  It came out two weeks ago but I still haven't see much coverage of it.  Maybe it's because Triforce heroes isn't structured like a typical Legend of Zelda game, it's basically a follow-up to The Legend of Zelda Four Swords. If you don't know what that means... it's essentially multiplayer Zelda. The main conceit in making Zelda multiplayer is that the open world exploration is completely gone.  Instead, the game is structured into zones which contain levels which contain stages. You connect online and choose the zone you want to play in.  This will match you with other people who also want to play levels in that zone.  Once you have a party of three you enter the zone and cast your vote for the level you want to play.  It does a little roulette spin and choose the one of your three votes randomly.  Then you actually enter the level and play through the four stages within it as a team...