Untitled Podcast: Mass Effect 2 Edition

Here is your new podcast!

We talk about our early impressions of Mass Effect 2 and comb through every little detail of it. From Cerberus to Zaeed to the Citadel to Omega, we cover every minor detail from the early parts of the game. We compare and contrast Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2, and talk about what we love and what we hate in the new game. If you are as much as freak for these games as we are, you will love this podcast!

Download it, listen in, and let us know what your opinions of the game thus far are!

-Blaine

Mass Effect 2 and Love

Okay, gonna keep this brief so that I can jump back into Mass Effect 2.

***SPOILERS AFTER THIS POINT***

So, I'd been doggedly pursuing what I've been calling my 'perfect' Mass Effect save until I finally wrapped it up last night. Because of this, I'd loaded my first PC Mass Effect save into Mass Effect 2 and poked around a bit. I blew up, died, rapped w/ Jacob, rapped w/ Miranda (I'm allergic to anything but the assault rifle), shot at mechs with some shitty pistol, talked to the Illusive Man, marveled at all my DLC armor sets, then called it a day.

That being said, I implore to play through Mass Effect again and then, within 10 minutes, porting that save right into Mass Effect 2. It's exhilarating to have literally everything about Mass Effect still fresh in your mind when you get rolling in Mass Effect 2, and really gives extra weight to what's going on when the Normandy is destroyed and Shepard is 'killed.'

What this helps a lot, too, is putting you in Shepard's frame of mind. For both the player and for Shepard, it seems like no time has passed, so it's very easy to get into Shepard's frame of mind when he sees how much has changed over the two years that seemingly passed in minutes.

Very cool experience. Give it a shot.

Also, I'll talk more about why I went back and replayed the game one last time this weekend on the next podcast, and it has nothing to do with experience levels. Be sure to let us know what you wanna hear about on our special Mass Effect 2 podcast!

Anyway, the reason I'm here typing at you is because I have a bit of a crisis on my hands. I bedded Liara in my 'perfect' save (I always gun for Ashley first, but I yelled at her too many times for being Rush Limbaugh with female hawtness), and I'm unsure of what she thinks our situation is now. I mean, ya know, it was nice for a night, when we all thought we might die, but I've got the hottest fucking secretary in all of Cerberus, her name is Kelly, and it's pretty clear she'd be willing to fuck me. The way these things work, I'm sure I'll run into Liara again, and then it'll be all awkward, and I don't want her to be mad, but it's not like she's around to let me motorboat those beautiful blue boobies, and Kelly seems more than receptive, and don't even get me started about Miranda!

So what about you all? You gonna cheat on your Mass Effect girlfriends with the new models? How do you feel about it? Let us know!

-Blaine

Mass Effect 2 Discussion

Based on a flurry of activity both on Twitter and on the Bioware social site, I thought it'd be fun to get a Mass Effect 2 discussion going over here, both for actual discussion, as well as for our podcast this weekend, so we can take some of the best lines/comments and quote you guys when doing our Mass Effect 2 podcast.

Off the cuff, I've not played a lot yet. I'm still finishing my 'perfect' ME1 playthrough (I'm on Virmire now, so I'm close), but I did load my first PC saved character, ported him in, and poked around a bit (all the way to right after I first meet with the Illusive Man.)

So, what do you guys think so far? There's been some criticism of the game being too much of a shooter and not enough of an RPG. What say you?

What do you love? What do you hate? What are unsure of?

As I said, I'm not that far in, but I'll comment here later when I've had a little more stick time with it. Off the cuff, though, I am a little put off by how shooter-y is at times. I don't think I like needing ammo, but again, I don't know yet. As far as the narrative goes, I'm hooked, and it's EARLY. Can't wait to actually finish my 'real' character in ME1.

So, share your thoughts, get some discussion going, and we'll keep this going all week!

-Blaine

Steam is great, until something goes wrong...

Holy hell Steam is not on my good list right now. I picked up the Company of Heroes complete pack for $12.50 or so, which is an excellent deal if you can actually get it to work. I got it to hold me over until Mass Effect 2 and instead I still can't even get the install to start.

Steam has decided to freeze whenever it is preparing the cache for the game, before even STARTING to download it. I can start other downloads just fine, and appear to be the only one having the issue. Normally this would be a simple matter of calling the company and working through tech support - not with Steam. Their only methods of tech support are to either:

1) Create a separate login for the forums, post, and hope someone can solve your problem so Steam doesn't have to. This failed miserably, and just had people going 'well, just hope Steam gets back to you soon, never heard of that issue before.'

2) Create a separate login for the 'submit a question' (yes, this is even different from the support forum login), submit your problem, and wait for a reply. I have been waiting over 4 days now, with no such reply, and no way to contact them at all.

So basically, they have my money, and I have no game. I have no way of contacting them. How on earth has the primary method of getting PC games gone this long without any real tech support system? I was so desperate that I switched my language to Spanish and my region to Europe, still no download start. From what I have read as well, when I do get a response it will be a canned piece of crap. Great. At least I have another game to play, but this has seriously made me consider never buying from them again - this time it was a $12.50 purchase, next time it could be a $60 preorder down the tubes.

PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE

A part of my brain is beginning to loathe Mass Effect.

Don't get me wrong, the game is one of my all-time favorites, as evidenced by it making our 'best of the decade,' but I've been really pushing myself to play through it a fifth time in order to a) have a save that includes all the DLC & b) have a 'perfect' save to port into Mass Effect 2.

Part of this is brought on by the fact that I switched to mostly PC gaming a year ago, in an effort to collect all my favorite games on one system, and one that I could lug around with me. I dropped a couple grand on a mega-laptop that I've since dubbed 'the Deathbook,' both for its shear amount of power, but also for how fucking huge and heavy and unwieldy it is, and I've proceeded to slowly migrate as many of my favorite games as I could to its hard drive. Steam's awesome random sales helped that tremendously, and Mass Effect was one of those games I snagged for a few bucks. I then played through a new game on PC and it was glorious. Getting to see how AMAZING this game looked in full 1080p was beyond words. This, plus the upgrades to how much more you could command your squad mates and how much better the inventory system is made the switch a no-brainer. So, yeah, my fourth playthrough was driven by the 'new' experience. Now that I'm on my fifth playthrough, I'm having moments that are starting to feel a bit like a forced march.

One of the great ongoing jokes between Tony and me on the podcast is how many games I buy and either a) never play or b) never spend more than a day on or c) never finish. What is interesting, though, is that the time I should spend beating other games, I spend replaying games I love. There's a lesson in there somewhere, I swear.

Here's the thing, though. I'm a dad, a husband, an employee, and a student, so I think I've moved into a gaming space where it's more enjoyable for me to be able to play something familiar in quick spurts, as I sometimes have to just STOP to either tend to a kid emergency, or take a call, or follow the wife into the bedroom rather suddenly. If it's something I already know and love, I'm not too worried about disrupting the flow of the game.

Also, since Bioware has essentially cornered the market on my gaming time, I have brilliant RPGs that are insanely replayable. RPGs are just about the only genre I play anymore (though I am batting my eyelashes at Rebellion's upcoming Aliens vs. Predator), since I'm a story junkie, and they're somewhat analogous to that Nook I keep on the nightstand and from which I read a chapter each night.

Anyway, I've gotten WAY off track here.

I'm really considering just porting my original level-50 PC save over, but I'm concerned, since I know that the higher the level of your save, the more you're rewarded in the next game, and Pinnacle Station isn't in there. Yes, Pinnacle Station sucks balls, but I'm a fucking completist, so shut up.

I dunno. The more I write about it, the more I'm actually wanting to go back and play more Mass Effect.

Part of what brought this on is that I had my first-ever lock-up in the PC game, and I hadn't saved after 45 minutes of conversation on Noveria. Life really sucked at that moment.

I've had a few beers, though, and I think I'm ready to jump back in.

Quick question, though.

There are a few games I've really put myself under pressure to finish, and I think I may want to turn this into a podcast topic, so let me put this out there. What's the most pressure you've ever put yourself under to finish a game, and how was the experience?

Please share this post far and wide, and please comment, as we'd love to have some experiences to read on the podcast. I think this is an interesting topic, and one that could damn near fill a grad student's thesis, so let us know!

-Blaine

If crap is cheap enough, is it worth buying?

So I noticed that all the Mass Effect DLC was 40% off this week, translating to $3. For all the crap I have heard about how terrible Pinnacle Station is, this price point has me thinking about picking it up. I mean, people spend $3+ on crap for their avatar, so why not buy it to support a game I love? I suppose that's crappy logic, but I want an excuse to play it again before Mass Effect 2 hits next week.

Also, for some reason I cannot get my iTunes to update with the new podcast. Anyone else having this issue?

Untitled Podcast returns!

Here it is!

We kick things off with some general chatter about what we've been up to, then talk about (gasp) games. We talk everything from Star Trek Online to Final Fantasy VIII to Killing Floor to God of War III to Magic: Duel of the Planeswalkers (huh? Yeah, I'm there with ya.) We then move into a brief overview of the gaming implications of what was shown at CES 2010 and then talk some gaming news, and then wrap it up with quick preview of Mass Effect 2's inventory and armor system.

Oh, and we came in @ 2 hours, so you can relax.

Download it, listen to it, then yell @ us in the comments about what ya think.

We'll be posting new blogs again on Monday, and maintain that, then we'll be back with our Mass Effect 2 blowout podcast on 1/30.

Thanks for listening, and let us know what ya think!

-Blaine

Man I am cheap... plus my top 10 of the Decade

I remember on one of the podcasts way back when, and on just about any gaming podcast, there have been discussions about how single player only games are fine, even if they are only 6 hours, as long as they are fun to play through. I find it becoming harder and harder for myself to part with my $$$ for single player games that are not RPGs though. The first 'lost' gaming experience that I can really attribute to this was Batman: AA last year - I just decided right off the bat (hah) that I did not feel like paying $60 for a game I would play through and then just sell back.

Of course this changed later that same year with both Uncharted 2 and then Assassin's Creed 2, both of which have one thing in common - I have already sold them. I can't help but wonder why in the hell I dropped all that $$$ on games that within 2 weeks I was completely done with. I didn't even need the money at the time, just figured I would never desire to play the games again and sold them while I could get most of my cash back.

Why bother though? In an age where there is at least one decent game each month, why should I spend money on a new single player game that I can finish in under 2 weeks? Why can't I convince myself to pay $60 for Darksiders, a game that looks like something I would love, instead convincing myself to just wait until it is $40 or lower? I have no idea what insane criteria I am even using nowadays, but I wonder how many other people are going through the same thing. In an age where I can get Killing Floor for only $5 and get however many hours I want out of it and then turn around and get Magic on XBLA for $5 and do the same, it becomes harder and harder to justify spending the cash on anything that I cannot extend as much as I want, especially when the odds of me playing through it more than once are getting slimmer each year.

Also, since I said on the podcast I would post it but forgot until now, here was my top 10 of the decade before Blaine and I started making our combined list:

10. Orange Box
-ironically for me more for Portal and TF2 than anything else, but TF2 I still play on PC
9. Grand Theft Auto III
-the original, still the most pure fun, can't even count the number of hours spent playing this
8. MVP Baseball 2005
-my favorite baseball game ever, so many seasons played, and ton of fun even today
7. Dragon Age
-loved this game much more than I thought I was going to, great characters
6. Bioshock
-this game really struck a nerve with me, also very tied to the topic above, though I kept this one
5. Final Fantasy XII
-didn't even think I would like it, put it off for 5 months, and it ends up being one of my favorite FF tales
4. Diablo 2
-probably my top 'hours played' game of the decade easily, can't wait for 3 (Diablo 3, not my #3 game, but speaking of which...)
3. Mass Effect
-played through it twice in a row, ended up loving the action-oriented combat, can't wait for 2 (Mass Effect 2, not my #2 game, but speaking of which...)
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
-this REALLY got me hooked for months and showed how much a progression system in a shooter can keep people playing
1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
-this is probably my only game this past decade that would make my top 5 of all time, played through it I believe 5 or 6 times, excellent game

Star Trek Online beta, part 1

So, last night, I got home, fired up the Star Trek Online torrent to FINALLY get the client, and that sucker came flying down @ 1.5-2MB/sec. Every digital download game should distribute via torrents.

But, like I said before, I won't run torrents on Windows boxes for safety reasons, so I then had to transfer it over the network to my gaming box, at which point I installed it, then fired it up, and BAM, their servers were down.

Long story short, I finally got things up & running somewhere between 0200 & 0300 last night.

I wish I hadn't been so exhausted by the time things really got rolling, because I might've been a little more patient. The game walks you through some character-building stuff, and there are some interesting customization options, but they say right upfront that not everything is in place yet. I built myself a basic human Federation dude, since I didn't see any Klingon options yet, but I know that will be happening (I may also have had a bit too much wine & missed my chance).

After that, you're dropped into a starbase, where you begin to be put through the paces in terms of movement, combat, talking, inventory, etc. It's the worst part of every MMO, but STO does a good job of keeping it interesting. Everything you're doing in the game makes some kind of sense, since everything in Star Trek is so hyper-detailed. Sure, the Borg are acting all fucked up and not assimilating folks, but I'm giving the writers the benefit of the doubt, and assuming that this is going to be explained at some point.

I gotta say that I LOVE the space combat, even if everything I did last night was baby stuff. Everything I saw showed me that Cryptic understands how Star Trek space combat is supposed to work, with phasers, photons, movement, shields, and most importantly, power reallocation, so I'm really pumped to do more of that.

The ground combat works nicely, too, but it's strange not having a cover mechanic (CliffyB is smiling somewhere). I dunno, it just seems ridiculous now to have shooting in a game and no cover mechanic.

Anyway, that very minor gripe aside, the ranged combat works nicely, via number keys assigned to recharging skills, and I had only minimal experience with the melee stuff, but I expect that it's smarter to just keep your dude out of melee.

Movement (ground) is done via the standard WASD, but I'm hoping that some tweaking can be done on the A & D keys, since they swing the side-to-side movement WAY too much. That was honestly the biggest issue I had, which is a good sign.

I've yet to actually communicate with any other players, though I could see them infesting the chat last night. I'm thinking I may just avoid 'human' contact 'til the game actually starts since half of what I saw was people not grasping intuitive game design and asking retarded questions ('how do I get to (next objective)?' 'I dunno, keep moving forward through the level?') and the other half was people bitching about the game running like shit, which I thought was running beautifully. I really got the sense that many of these people were strictly console gamers that sometimes dabbled with PCs and Star Trek and other things that require too much thought for most people. This is, by no means, to slight people who only play console games, since I know many, many very smart people who don't play PC games, since many PC games require at least a couple years of training just to install them and troubleshoot them yourself when they inevitably don't work the first time.

Anyway, I was very disappointed with the quality of player of most of the other players, but this is an open beta, so it's bound to attract the unwashed masses.

That being said, I do look forward to really, truly roleplaying with other Trekkies. This brings me to the big question.

How much does this game feel like Star Trek?

Thus far, a bit. It's hard to say, since all I've done is play through the info-dump training, but the sights and sounds are there (even if the visuals are your standard MMO blah-style, so as to make it as playable as possible for as many people as possible), and much of the lore is dead-on, but I have the sense that the 'war' that has broken out in 2409 between the Federation and Klingons is going to narrow the focus of the game and keep it from being a means of 'relaxing in Star Trek,' which is kinda what I want. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about kicking some ass in Star Trek, but I'd like to have the option of just chilling and relaxing in that amazing universe, as well.

We'll see. I just haven't had enough time with the game yet to really get a feel for it yet.

So, yeah, to recap, here's the basic breakdown of what I did in the game last night:

Locations I visited:
 - starbase in the Vega system
 - my ship, the U.S.S. Shepherd (exterior)
 - interior of another ship
 - a planet (forgot which one)
 - starbase orbiting Earth

Things I did:
 - created a Tactical-focused C.O. who is now ranked Lieutenant, j.g. after starting out as an Ensign

 - recruited a Bajoran engineer chick
- blasted the Borg with a phaser, a pulse rifle, and my FISTS; also blasted their asses in space
 - have been assigned as C.O. to the ship I created, the U.S.S. Shepherd
 - finished the info-dump training part of the game

Things I plan to do tonight & tomorrow:
 - customize my ship
- recruit more bridge officers, since this is how you add stats to your ship & crew
 - visit any locales that I can from the shows & films (DS9 is at the top of the list!)
 - start questing; maybe hook up with a friend to quest together
 - EXPLORE, EXPLORE, EXPLORE

What I Loved:
 - space combat feels RIGHT
 - uniform customization is neat, but when I do get my TOS movie-era uniforms for buying Star Trek on Blu-Ray?
 - authentic sights & sounds
 - lore is dead on
 - control is intuitive in every circumstance
 - lots of character customization

What I Didn't Love:
 - visuals are not very sharp; look outdated for a PC game, but I'm told many MMOs are like this now
 - very little NPC voice work; most of them communicate through text boxes; really pulls one out of the experience
 - A & D keys really swing character too much from side-to-side; this may be addressable through control options
 - other players; people on the internet just kinda suck

So, yeah, I'm gonna get showered up here in a minute, then jump back in, and I'll be back tonight and/or tomorrow with more reports on Star Trek Online. Sorry this is so late, but I'd hoped to get more play time before I put this up, but the fucking servers were down!

-Blaine

On the Road, part 2

If you haven't read yesterday's late post, then you are a terrible person, but can redeem yourself here.

Still here in the country. Yup.

Tried to download the Star Trek Online beta on my in-laws' decent connection, but I couldn't get it to exceed 80k/s, which is shocking, since it normally comes in at around 300-600k/s. There's more to it, though.

The only way I could download it was via that godawful horrible portal of filth known as (News Corp-owned) IGN's FilePlanet, which informed me that I could pay a bunch of money and get the beta NOW with good speed, or I could get queued up in a nearly infinite line and download with rage-inducing slowness.

What's funny about all this is that I preordered the game through GameStop, and one of the benefits was that I would get access to the beta, and get additional early access to the game. Nowhere did it mention that GameStop was the one digital download preorder joint that would saddle you with fucking FilePlanet. I like trying out different digital distribution sites, and wanted to see what GameStop had to offer, but I should've stuck with trusty ol' Steam.

The benefit to this is that I will never, ever buy something from GameStop via digital distribution ever again, and neither should you. (News Corp-owned) Direct2Drive wasn't great w/ Dragon Age (pre-loading was a clusterfuck and my money that News Corp got via IGN contributed to the corporate-funded Teabagger club), but they were light-years better than GameStop.

There was an option to torrent it posted on the STO site, but I'm not stupid enough to use Vuze or any other Windows-based torrent, so I'll run the torrent on one of my Linux boxes when I get home, and hope that I'm able to get it faster that way.

It's still shocking that a huge corporate entity like GameStop would guarantee a product feature, but then have no infrastructure to ensure a timely delivery of that product. I'm sure some of you who don't take a moment to stop idiocy from flying from your fingers will want to respond with, 'wot ar eyou takking abot dude its gameslop n they our always evil becos they opnly kare about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

But, see, what you're missing there is that part of the reason that they're this 'big, evil corporation' is because they've been really smart in leveraging not only gamers, but the generic people, too. In short, they wouldn't be this big company that everyone kicks if people weren't racing to hand them money. I buy all my console games from them because the guys at my store know me, are totally cool, and provide me with a great service, and thus I vote for their service with my dollar. For years, every 3-4 months, I've walked into that store, dropped a few hundred bucks to preorder everything I want for that quarter, and pay it off, so that I can just walk in on the day of release, grab my game, and get the fuck out. Do they rape people on their used prices? Yes. You know what's awesome? Not buying used games from them! Vote with your dollar and buy that shit on eBay. Better yet (GASP!), sell YOUR shit on eBay! Find out what GameStop would give you, then set your reserve price on eBay to a dollar more than that. Wow, I just fixed the universe.

Ahem. I got sidetracked there. What was I saying? Oh, right.

Anyway, I know GameStop's been working at gobbling up a major digital distributor, rather than building their own, but I'm wondering how I'd be getting the game if I wasn't downloading the beta from FilePlanet (since I have a key, my beta IS the real game). Would I have to get it through the Pirate Bay? I mean, jesus fuck, GameStop, it's 2010! I know you're terrified of digital distribution, but shouldn't have had some R&D going on this for a while now? Steam has cut into HALF of what I used to give you, since the PC has become a MUCH better place for me to game, and Steam's service is better than yours (though I wish I could preorder & pay off games much farther in advance than I can right now.)

To close, I'm fucking pissed that I'm that one idiot who preordered a digital product through GameStop, and now I have to TORRENT the fucking product to get it, which means I'm waiting until my netbook isn't my lone Linux machine before I can do it.

Sigh...tomorrow night can't come soon enough.

Okay! So! We're back this weekend to finally bring you a non-epic podcast. This time, we're back to normal, and we're just going to rap a little about CES and just talk games. Some old, some new. I WILL be able to talk about Star Trek Online, since it is officially an open beta, which is good news.

If there's anything from CES you wanna hear from us about, drop it in the comments section below, as well as anything else that's been on your mind!

So, what do you think about GameStop, digital distribution, or anything else! ENGAGE!

-Blaine

On the Road

So, yeah, I'm visiting the in-laws w/ the wife 'til Friday. It's good times, even without a wifi connection, which can be terrifying for one such as myself, who is ostensibly plugged-in. I'll talk more about that on this weekend's podcast, when we wrap up CES 2010 and all the tech/gaming goodness that's come out of it.

It's been a little tough keeping up w/ CES while in the remote reaches of northern Illinois, but I've been using my in-laws' much-improved, if still slow-as-hell-relative-to-my-fiber-optic connection (which freaks the fuck out if I connect a router to it).

Anyway, I might try to hijack their connection tonight w/ my gaming machine to get rolling on the Star Trek Online beta, but we'll see if that's even feasible. I also don't know how much I can talk about my experience w/ the STO beta, but I'll look over my agreement to see if there's an NDA.

I spent quite a bit of time with Final Fantasy VIII on PSP last night, and I kind of enjoyed it. First, I figured out how to resize the screen, and this should work for PS3, as well. It seems that with any PS1 download, if you hit the Home/PS button, there's an option towards the bottom of the screen to resize the screen, and you get many options, one of which is a manual resize. This helped things quite a bit.

Anyway, I played all the way from the Fire Cavern to just after the Dollett mission, and spent a ton of time drawing magic and level-grinding. I know that level-grinding can be ill-advised in FFVIII, but I really wanted to get Squall at least somewhat pimped-out before I reach the 'open-world' part of the game. I've got close to 2000 spells drawn, and I think I'm ready to start rolling, for real, in the game.

I think that one part of FFVIII that really doesn't jive with me is the way that I play RPGs. I craft each character to be a unique person that brings something different to the battle, and FFVIII punishes that by insisting that you only have three character loadouts that you swap to the three (or fewer) active characters, and will kill the shit out of you at times if you don't have every GF available in the battle. I like assigning a GF & magic to a specific character, and assigning them based on that character's personality and battle strengths, and just leaving them there. The game's designers find this approach to be anathema to their love of generic vessels that substitute for 'characters,' and have built systems into the game to take punitive measures against anyone 'playing it wrong.'

My mission is to thwart this hateful design and make this game enjoyable to someone like me, who has better tastes in games than those who nearly single-handedly toppled the greatest franchise in gaming history with this entry in the series.

More on this as it develops.

Remember, Tony & I will be back this weekend with a new podcast.

Now, some questions!

01 - What did you think of Final Fantasy VIII? How did you play it?
02 - Are you on the Star Trek Online beta? If so, lemme know how to hook up with you in the game!
03 - What do you wanna hear about from CES on this weekend's podcast?

Lemme know, and we'll talk. I'll be back tomorrow!

-Blaine

It's cold and I am bothered

As you undoubtedly heard on our most recent podcast this past weekend, BiowarEA has announced an expansion for Dragon Age, called 'the Awakening.' This is hot on the heels of their last-second announcement that they've delayed 'Return to Ostagar,' followed by a steadfast refusal to say why, which was followed 12 hours later by a quietly muttered, 'ya know, bugs n' shit,' kinda explanation.

I love Bioware, though the treatment I've been receiving at the hands of their owners has been less than kind. I've teased for a long time that I'm going to post the hilarious indifference that EA's tech support has shown toward their victims, and as soon as I have them all organized, I will. I'm still battling over EA's refusal to work with me on getting my Bioware profile to update with my Dragon Age game info, so I may wait until that is resolved, but we'll see.

Anyway, word on the street is that 'Return to Ostagar' is supposed to finally hit today, but I'm not holding my breath.

Make damn sure you read up on 'the Awakening,' because it sounds great, and I can't wait to see if we actually get to know 'the Architect' a bit, because he was a really interesting character in the most recent book.

So, I've got a few things on my mind that I was thinking about posting this week. One, my impressions of 'Dante's Inferno' or my gripes about 'things that lotsa gamers do that make us all look bad.' You pick.

Lemme know, and I'll post it in the next day or so.

-Blaine

Happy Frakkin' New Year! Here's a podcast!

It's a new year, a new decade so here's a new podcast.

We rap about all the games that are worth talking about in this new year (that would be 2010 for those of you keeping score at home.) We also wrap up our top games of the decade by revealing our #5 - #1. We also talk about all the old shit we've been playing this last week. You Fallout 3 apologists might be pleased.

Tony is blasting George Michael right now, so it's a little distracting.

Listen in, enjoy, and let us know what works for you, and what doesn't.

We'll be podcasting again on the 16th, to wrap up CES, and we'll be posting in the meantime.

Let us know if there's anything in particular ya wanna hear/read about from us.

Word.

-Blaine

I can't sleep, so...

You know it has been a successful New Year when you have to look outside on the ground to locate your phone. That being said, I am actually feeling good this morning. Captain Morgan didn't let me down. I know I kind of just stopped with my whole 'games that didn't make the top 10 but I love still' on Christmas, but I thought I would start it up again with another racing game. Actually 2 of them.

Dirt / Dirt 2

When Dirt first released, I was immediately drawn to it just because it had my car on the cover. From there I glanced down and saw who made it though, Codemasters, and wondered if they had something to do with GameShark or what. I had never really played a game made by them, and passed it off as something that couldn't possibly compete with the Forza or Gran Turismo games, likening it more to Tokyo XTreme Racer or another niche title made by a smaller company.

When the game dropped to the $40 point, I went ahead and picked it up around Christmas 2007. Having played through Mass Effect twice and having major internet issues keeping me from CoD4 I was just looking for something to play and thought Dirt would be a good time waster if it was at least decent. I say all of this in buildup because I learned a lesson from all of this regarding smaller game publishers, and in this case Dirt turned out to be one of my favorite games I played that year and 2008.

The point to point races in Dirt are amazing. Of all the racing games, this is what has kept me on the edge of my seat while playing. It puts Forza's visual damage to shame, allowing your car to get seriously messed up. Even better, in the multiple stage races you only have a certain amount of time to fix your car, leading to prioritizing what parts are more essential to your racing and bringing a very real 'risk vs. reward' dynamic to your approach.

There are also a number of non-car races, some of which are fun and some that I would have preferred were not in the game. Overall though this was such a fresh experience for me that I was blown away. The game was not perfect though, the main fault coming in how the cars felt a little 'odd' when driving. The best I can explain is that it felt like there was a stick in the middle of the car around which it rotated, making this a little less simulation than I felt it should have been. The online is incredibly limited as well, and the single player is very straightforward and gets repetitive (this is an issue I believe that the racing game genre in general has a hard time avoiding actually - the only game that has avoided this was Trackmania and only then due to user-created levels).

For sheer fun though, this game probably tops both Forza and Gran Turismo, even though the overall package may not be as good a game as these two. It should be said that Dirt 2 is another amazing game, but it seems to have suffered slightly by 'MTV-izm' or having one too many energy drinks. It is very Americanized, and still a great game, but vastly different in feel from the first game. The events are much more focused around cars, but the tracks feel less open overall, with Rallycross (lap racing vs. point to point) being put much more in the forefront. The online is improved, but seeing as damage is disabled it becomes frustrating in anything but Rally/Traliblazer races where there are no car to car collisions. When there is no penalty for someone slamming into you around a corner, they will do it.

Overall the Dirt games are different enough that I felt the need to keep both of them, which I guess is a pretty strong plus when compared to other racing series. Even though I got into it late because of my incorrect thinking regarding Codemasters, these 2 games turned out to tie Forza in my personal experience for my 'best racing series' title. As a side note, Grid was also very fun with some cool ideas if you want to keep your racing on the track instead of the dirt.

Random Other Musings

I have been spending my gaming time all over the place, hopping between Torchlight, Killing Floor, Forza 3, Battlefield 1943 (yay for sale price), and Defense Grid: The Awakening. It has been a strange holiday season for gaming, and the two games I expected to still be taking up all my time aren't - Modern Warfare 2 and Left 4 Dead 2.

I'm not sure what it was, but neither of these games had any staying power with me. I know we discuss some of the reasons that Modern Warfare 2 falls far short of CoD4 on the podcast (which I won't repeat here - you can always still download and listen!), but Left 4 Dead 2 is harder to pinpoint. Maybe that one just comes down to how similar it is to the first game, or how much harder the game is overall. Or maybe it was due to my expectations for both of these games. Expectations can go a long way in shaping how you receive something or look back on it; part of the reason I absolutely loved Dirt was because I expected nothing out of it.

Either way the Steam holiday sale has made sure that I have plenty to compliment my Forza 3 binges. Can't complain too much about that.

Hope everyone had a fun and safe New Year celebration, and be sure to check up late Saturday/early Sunday for part 2 of our 'best of the decade' podcast, featuring our top 5 games of the decade plus a look into 2010!