Pagoda of Gaming

Another year with nothing really worth personally blogging about, and another year’s worth of great entertainment to round up. I’ve consumed, some might say, too much media over this past year. Including Books! who would’ve thought…

This year’s awards will cover the Bests and the Worsts from the world of Videogames that my purview has brought, along with some of the more defining titles outlined in the ‘Alternatives’ section. Including a round up of the best Non-Gaming media that I’ve picked from the past 12 months of consumption.

Most of the categories are the same as last year’s, and feel free to click the links to find out more about my chosen pieces. Without further ado, I bring you…

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The Bests

My 2010 Game of 2011 – Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, X360, PS3)

I spent a heap of time with Bad Company 2 this past year, mostly due to a cheap £5 purchase via last Christmas’s Steam Sale – it allowed me to see the game in a new light, running on it’s highest graphical settings, wielding a Mouse and Keyboard – a much greater experience than it’s console counterparts, and one that led for me directly into the release of Battlefield 3.

Most Fun on a Shitty PC – Frozen Synapse

Frozen Synapse is a refreshing twist on the Strategy genre, somewhere between real-time and turn based, you command a bunch of mind-controlled soldiers in short 5-second chunks of time, planning out everything from where they look, when and where they shoot, and where to duck for cover. All before that 5-second chunk of time is compared to the same 5-second chunk from your opponent’s viewpoint. I’ve never played anything like it before, I highly suggest you check it out, and you have no excuse, because there’s no way your PC won’t run it.

Most Appropriate Achievement List – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (PC, X360, PS3)

Bethesda always wins this award – they always do a great job of it, I think it’s because they use their achievements as a sort of “tour guide” to the worlds they have created. Looking for something truly meaningful to do in Skyrim? Then pop open your achievement list and see what’s there for you to do. Compete the list, then you’ve probably played enough Skyrim for a lifetime. It doesn’t drag you through the shit like most other games try to do with their hardest achievements, and it doesn’t allow you to ‘miss’ any along the way – it is an indication of how much have you allowed yourself to be immersed in their world.

Most Innovative Online Experience – Battlefield 3 (PC)

Many people have complained about Battlelog since it’s inception, and for myself it took a little getting used to – but once you understand what DICE are trying to do with it’s revolutionary web-based game launcher, and learn how to navigate it, jumping into a game of Battlefield has never been easier. Marrying that with the game’s stat-tracking, battle reports, player progression, and player messaging and party setup – they’ve basically built a Facebook just for Battlefield players. Sure, there are still some kinks in the system, but since it’s all web based, it doesn’t take long for DICE to iron out a problem.

Best Overall Narrative – L.A. Noire (PC, X360, PS3)

L.A. Noire may be the sneakiest attempt at a mass-market point and click adventure, and is one hell of a game, but where it really shines is in it’s narrative. Police Procedurals are nothing new these days, but in videogame form they’ve never been so enticing. The game’s pace matches up flawlessly with your usual 40-minute TV show – and is full of twists and turns that kept it fresh all the way through. Whilst the overall story of Detective Phelps and his post-war troubles may have had a lacklustre conclusion, the game’s story really shines in those 40-minute ‘episodes’ of gameplay, where characters are effectively introduced and new evidence comes to light, mixed in with an occasional action sequence – it all comes out of the mixing pot rather well, and is one of 2011’s most unique experiences.

Best Game Out of Japan -  El Shaddai, Ascension of the Metatron (X360, PS3)

I’ll admit, I haven’t actually finished this game, it just blows my mind every time I play it, overwhelmingly so. Character Action games are basically about half of what Japan seems to be pumping out these days, but El Shaddai feels fresh and exciting – an experience that may top Bayonetta from a year ago. With a story that is utterly bonkers – and somehow based upon the Book of Enoch and the Dead Sea Scrolls – Action that goes over the top and a visual style that you’ll never see anywhere else, El Shaddai is the most Japanese-assed Japanese game I played all year.

Best Pack of DLC – Back to Karkand Expansion (Battlefield 3) (PC, X360, PS3)

DICE didn’t just give the Battlefield 3 community four new maps with this DLC pack, they gave us new weapons to shoot, new vehicles to crash, new game-types, and new challenges (in the form of “Assignments”) for us to work with and towards. The re-imagining and tweaking of some of Battlefield 2’s greatest maps is an utter treat to play, and the best throwback map-pack I’ve ever put time into. Let’s hop that DICE continue this trend with expansions in 2012.

Best Franchise Re-Imagining – Mortal Kombat (X360, PS3)

I was too stupid to play any of the old Mortal Kombat games ‘back in the day’, but with this new iteration, I really feel that I’ve caught up. Fighting games are always hard to get, but this new re-imagining of the classic western fighting series felt like a fresh and streamlined experience to me – despite how unforgiving the game can be sometimes. It does wonderful things with it’s single player content, presenting a story mode that’s entertaining and immediately gets down to business – with the inspired elimination of loading screens between cut-scenes and actual fighting. An awesome training mode in the form of “the Tower” where the game will throw any kind of crazy modifiers at you, from flipping the gravity, to turning your characters appendages into launchable projectiles. Mortal Kombat is a great experience, and I urge lapsed players of the series to really give it a try.

Greatest Impact on the World – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (PC, X360, PS3)

When two co-workers, double your age, start babbling about Killsteaks and weapon attachments, it’s hard to deny that Modern Warfare 3, like it’s predecessors, has a unique impact on the world. Unique in that it seems to easily penetrate the “Non-gamers” of the world – the kind of people who bought their PS3 for a cheap Blu-Ray player. Whilst most of us seasoned FPS players are probably tired of the Call of Duty formula (I know I am), the people who just play Call of Duty, are still just playing Call of Duty – no matter how much you try to tell them that there are other games out there, it seems that this is all they actually want.

Most Offensive Game (In the Good Way) – Saints Row: The Third (PC, X360, PS3)

My inner child still feels that odd sort of joy a 12 year-old would experience by bludgeoning a prostitute with a bat the shape of a gigantic purple dildo (complete with realistic rubber-waggle). Saints Row The Third is an exercise in concentrating all the offensive things your parents would shriek at into a single game, but it pulls it off spectacularly.

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The Worsts

Most Irrelevant Game – Duke Nukem Forever (PC, X360, PS3)

And so the legacy of Duke Nukem comes down to this. I think we all thought that once Duke Nukem Forever finally came out, that it’d be at least a fun throwback to the shooters of old, and that the game’s humour would find new light in modern times. But no. It is a patchwork game made for release a decade ago. With today’s design conventions, it’s just plain broken and irrelevant. Though I can’t really say “don’t play Duke Nukem Forever”, because there’s probably no chance you were even considering it yourself – don’t worry about it, you’re missing a thing.

Most Bullshit Game (That I Didn’t Play) – Dark Souls (X360, PS3)

No matter how much you may try internet, Dark Souls is a game that I just do not want. You may claim how rewarding it is, and how strategically deep it is, and how dying and losing all your time and progression from your last distant check-point is an excellent game mechanic – but you shall never make me play this game. You out there may be tired of the apparent “hand-holding” in modern games – but this total flip on such a concept is not the way to approach it. No thank you, please go away now and leave me alone.

Most Disappointing Game – RAGE (PC, X360, PS3)

Getting past the game’s glaring graphical problems, and a few minutes into the game itself, RAGE is an experience totally derivative of other games you’ve probably played – Fallout, Borderlands, Doom – but never coming to a proper apex of enjoyability or cohesiveness. The entire game feels like a gigantic fetch-quest, even without any proper player progression to give it any sense of purpose. Don’t be fooled by this game’s graphical styles or it’s seemingly-RPG like conventions – there is very little reason for this game to exist, let alone for anyone to play it.

Greatest Crash & Burn – Team Bondi (for their work on L.A. Noire)

It is probably one of the Video Games industries greatest tragedies that it took the implosion of their studio, and the sheer torture of their staff, to create one of the best and unique games of the year – such an experience we will likely never see again. Team Bondi did some truly pioneering work in the industry, and whilst Ancient Alien theorists may disagree with regards to the pyramids, it brings to light an ancient proverb: Slavery get’s shit done.

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The Non-Gaming Awards

Before we get into the best of the best games that 2011 had to offer, let’s take a break to observe some of what I think is the best non-gaming things of the year…

Top 3 Movies – “Super 8”, “Black Swan”, "Drive”

Worst Movie – “Battle: Los Angeles”

Top 3 Albums – “Evanescence” by Evanescence, “Turtleneck & Chain” by The Lonely Island, “Wasting Light” by Foo Fighters

Awesomest Anime Thing – “The World God Only Knows” (Series)

Best New TV Show – “Game of Thrones”

Most Disappointing TV Show – “The Walking Dead”

Best TV Show Season Finale – Community for “A Fist Full of Paintballs” & “For a Few Paintballs More”

Top 3 Books – The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski, Neuromancer by William Gibson, The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov

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Games of the Year

Like last year, it’s going to be the best Exclusive Title from each platform, and then the top 3 Multiplatform. Nothing from the PS3 this year, because I didn’t buy or play a single PS3 game all year – I really didn’t need to. An additional category this year, is “Best Online Multiplayer”, because frankly there is just not enough space to fit in all the best games of the Year.

Best Exclusively Downloadable Title - Trenched/Iron Brigade (X360)

How long has it been since you’ve played a western-made Mech game? Well for me it’s been a good many years. Energy Swords and Super-Sonic Booster Rockets are nothing compared to the good old lumbering legs of a western Mech. Trenched, or Iron Brigade as it now has to be called, is a short but modernised take on the genre, where you build your Mech from a variety of parts and march it on into battle – though this time you’re taking deployable turrets (ala’ tower defence) and Double Fine’s classic humour with you. In 2011 there is still something extremely satisfying about strapping 6 machine guns onto a Mech and letting them just spit hell at your enemies.

Best Handheld Game – Superbrothers: Swords and Sworcery EP (iOS)

Whilst I haven’t really played a lot of iPhone games this year, there are few games on the iOS platform that I could deem as a “game” game. You know, some proper assed gamey game stuff. Swords and Sworcery, as well as enjoying an additional ‘W’ in it’s title, is one of the few games that you really feel is built in whole for the touch-screen platform. It has a dark and very creepy fantasy setting, aided in full by it’s amazing pixelated bit-art and chip tune throwback soundtrack. It is simply a joy to behold, and is in no-way hampered by the touch-screen limitations of it’s platform.

Best Online Multiplayer – Battlefield 3 (PC, X360, PS3)

There just isn’t a FPS experience out there quite like Battlefield, and Battlefield 3 takes that experience to the next level. Huge 64-player games of map Conquest with players going on-foot, in jeeps and tanks, to piloting Helicopters and Jets; all adds to the melting pot of chaos the series is known for. It feels like an actual battlefield, there’s just something great about that – the pure sense of scale the game has just dwarfs any other shooter I’ve ever played. Tied to the gameplay is the usual tried and tested progression system, though with battlefield objectives fulfilling most of a players final score – progressing properly in the game will force you to actively participate with your team, which, when it works is a beautiful thing to be a part of. This game will keep me online for a very long time.

Best X-Box 360 Game – Gears of War 3

Few of the games this year, that had a ‘3’ in the title, actually did a satisfying job of properly concluding their Trilogy. Gears 3 is one of those games. This third instalment is the best and most refined entry in the series – it looks great, it plays great, and the story is pretty great too. Whilst I stayed away from Multiplayer almost entirely – I was happy to see that the game actually looked for Gears 1 & 2 data on my Hard Drive, and said “hey, we see you haven’t played Gears Online an awful lot, so we’re going to keep you away from the hardcore players until you feel you are ready”. In all, it goes without saying that if you own an X-Box 360, you should really think about getting Gears of War 3.

Best PC Game – The Witcher 2: Assassin’s of Kings

This year has been the year we’ve really been able to say that the PC is truly outshining the Consoles in terms of performance. My pick for best PC game of the year pushes my high-end PC well beyond it’s capabilities for beautiful results. The Witcher 2 is a goddamn PC-Assed PC game, full of odd quirks and design decisions, but it all melds together into one of the most unique experiences of the year. The world and individual settings the game takes place in is full of detail, woven around a plot of monsters, assassinations and political intrigue, as you forge your way through as Geralt of Rivia, the Witcher. A story, which I must say, is entirely your own to command – there is even a final boss battle that you don’t even have to fight if you don’t want to. And as a final note, It got me to actually read a book – how crazy is that?

Top 3 Multiplatform

#3 – Batman: Arkham City

Rocksteady have exceeded themselves in making this sequel to 2009’s much-beloved Arkham Asylum. What I loved the most has to be the story; you may think it rather unbelievable that the people of Gotham would let some unknown security firm wall off a whole section of their city to convert into an open-air slum-asylum, but remember we’re dealing with comic book source material here. Once you’re let loose in the city – after a short stint as Bruce Wayne - it’s not long before all the usual suspects make an appearance, and later some not so usual suspects as events get somewhat weirder, all culminating in one of the most OMGWTF final bosses and sequences I’ve seen in a long time. All in all, this is a game where it feels like a great privilege to be the Batman.

#2 – Portal 2

I think we all understand now that Valve doesn’t make bad games – so it wasn’t really surprising that Portal 2 managed to stand up to their constant standard – and yet Portal 2 was a constant surprise from start to finish. It’s still strange to even think of it all as a puzzle game, with all the layers of plot going on, mixed into the amazingly vast and dynamic environments. And the puzzles are just perfect – not frustrating in the least, they made me think and feel smart when I finished them. Portal 2 will without a doubt go down in history as one of the greatest Videogames ever made.

#1 – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim is everything I want from a game – simply it’s as close to “another life” as I’m going to get. Bethesda have created, yet again, another deep and beautiful world for us to all get lost in. Skyrim is the game I’ve thought about most this year – which is to say I think of it too often when I’m not playing it; thoughts that usually start with an internal rendition of the game’s main theme. I can’t wait to play more of it, yet I find myself able to control my intake. I’m happy to know that it’s there, so I’m doing my best to savour the experience. It’s one of the greatest adventures I’ve ever had in a videogame, and I even love the time when the game turns into ‘animal crossing’ where all I’m doing about town is shopping, crafting and putting everything in it’s place in my in-game home. I’m proud to say that, probably like many more of you out there, Skyrim is my 2011 game of the year.

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Another year of games, sorted and ordered to my preference, blogged for the sake of my internet archive. Still no intention of Blogging throughout next year either, in case any of you were wondering – less intention now, since I finally joined the Facebooks, not sure if I’m entirely happy yet with that decision… Regardless I’ll see you all again for a blog post next year, unless we next meet before that in halls of Sovengarde.

Voth aan suleyk wah ronit faal krein!

I said I’d be back for some end of year celebrations, and here I am. This is also going to be the last Blog Post I endeavour to write for a very long time, at least until this time next year. So savour it, or tell me how wrong I am whilst the comments remain open.

Some of the categories are different from last year – basically because I couldn’t find the perfect fit. And if you’d like to know more about these games, click the link and you’ll get some knowledge compiled by people who actually know what they’re talking about.

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The Bests

The Game We All Remember From ‘09 – Fallout 3 (PC, PS3, X360)

I may have broke the awards already – being released in 2008 and all - but Fallout 3 has for two years after it’s release, dominated significant chunks of my overall gaming time. I’ll easily say that it is one of my most favourite games of all time. It will be interesting to see if New Vegas can have such a long-lasting appeal.

Most Fun On A Shitty PC – Minecraft

It took me a while to wrap my mind around Minecraft, and come up with a decent analogy to describe what the game entails. It’s essentially Lego for Grown-Ups, but within a constantly evolving MMO state. It’s fun to build stuff and defend yourself and your creations from a constant night-time onslaught. Best of all, if your PC can run Java and do some minimal 3D stuff, you can run Minecraft.

Most Appropriate Achievement List – Fallout: New Vegas (PC, X360, PS3)

I wouldn’t say that New Vegas’s Achievement “Philosophy” is better than Fallout 3’s was, in fact I think it’s a downgrade – though that’s maybe more a fault of the game’s much larger branching storylines, and utter full-stop of a conclusion, compared to it’s predecessor. It’s the best list I’ve had the pleasure of unlocking all year, it’s a To-Do list, not of epic, but of enjoyable appropriate proportions that I can see myself able to complete without the game becoming boring – a somewhat accurate description of what I think the perfect Achievement list should be.

Best Online Experience – Starcraft 2 (PC)

I’ll admit, I haven’t got the balls to get too deep into Starcraft 2. I’ve been putting it off because the prospect often scares me – I don’t do great with Anxiety and that’s pretty much all you experience with Starcraft. However I will commend that it’s got the best system for player matching I’ve ever seen. The fact that I’ve actually won games is enough of a testament. Every single developer making a multiplayer anything should be aiming to emulate Blizzard’s matchmaking process.

Best Overall Narrative – Mass Effect 2 (PC, X360)

It presents a Narrative that, in my opinion, rivals Star Trek, Star Wars, and many other great cornerstones of Science Fiction, and it did it all by still being a Videogame. It presented Characters I cared about, in situations that were compelling and it allowed my to impact that world by playing in it. Too many games have something to learn from Mass Effect 2.

Best Game Out Of Japan – Bayonetta (X360, PS3)

I expected that Bayonetta was going to be some clone of Devil May Cry squeezed into a sexy cat suit, but I found (being a veteran Devil May Crier) that the game is quite the opposite, and innovative to boot. Bayonetta was the best thing out of Japan this year – beyond Final Fantasy 13 and Lost Planet 2  - because it did what Japan should be doing with it’s games, trying something different, innovating and being really fucking crazy Japanese.

Best Pack of DLC – Battlefield: Vietnam (BF:Bad Company 2) (PC, X360, PS3)

The Vietnam expansion has, over the past couple of days, brought my right back to Bad Company 2. Though I must say, I’d have rather had another game like Battlefield 1943, as this expansion is basically the same scope and depth. But whatever, EA don’t want people trading in their copies of Bad Company 2 – I’m not going to complain, why? Because it’s good, real good.

Best Franchise Re-Imagining – Pac Man: Championship Edition DX (X360, PS3)

Who would think that in 2010 we’d still have a reason to care about Pac Man, a game what’s core experience has changed very little in about 30 years now. This new Championship Edition allows you to use the Ghosts to a greater and more obvious advantage, instead of a plain adversary. It’s a Beautiful, Shiny, Heart-Pumping game, well worth the attention, and best of all – it retains the essence of the Original Pac-Men.

Greatest Impact on the World – World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (PC)

It’s hardly fair to include World of Warcraft in the running for any of the other awards. It’s not even a game that properly came out this year. It’s fitting then that It should dominate this category for “Greatest Impact on the World”. Whilst Starcraft 2 shook Korea to it’s foundations, I don’t live in Korea, so fuck that. Blizzard utterly destroyed their digital world to create a new one – something that only really Blizzard could do. Over 3-Million copies sold day one, and probably so many planned holidays and odd sick days to accompany those sales. No other game could truly occupy so many Man-Hours as WoW. I learned the other day that my Druid – a character I’ve been playing for Years, has over 30 Days of active time. /played motherfuckers.

The “Bro” Award for Best FPS Multiplayer Mode – BF: Bad Company 2 (PC, X360, PS3)

There was always the fear that Bad Company 2 would be released and exist in the critical mind as an experience derivative of Modern Warfare 2’s – But I think not, both titles have discerned themselves rather well – MW2’s and Black Op’s infantry focused, close-quarter’s bullet-fest and Bad Company 2’s gigantic constantly-crumbling battlefields of strategic positioning and vehicle combat. Though it is the team component that sways my vote to ultimately give the Bro award to Bad Company 2, your team – and more specifically, your squad is integral to the online experience, and finding a team that gels well together can bring you victory every time. A Victorious Squad of Bros.

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The Worsts

Most Bullshit Game – Final Fantasy XIII (PS3, X360)

So I spend 12 hours in the world’s longest tutorial, trying to figure out what the fucking difference is between a L’Cie and a Fal’Cie. Get battered by some ridiculously stupid boss fights, and cast summons the most retarded I’ve ever seen in the series so far. But I get pretty used to it, and so I keep going, and BAM! Welcome to the open world bitch! Time to go grinding for XP! Fuck you Final Fantasy XIII. Fuck You. You’re going back on the fucking shelf. What I felt was not rage, instead – a deep seated loathing.

Most Irrelevant Game (That I Didn’t Play) – Gran Turismo 5 (PS3)

GT5 is the complete opposite of what I want in a game. If I wanted to go and realistically drive a car – I’d go drive a fucking car. The only twist I can see is that you’re given access to cars you wouldn’t normally be able to drive because there fucking expensive. If I wanted a driving game I’d go play Burnout Paradise, because it is completely unrealistic, over the top and constantly exploding in your face – not boring like driving round a track trying to explicitly not hit people. What the fuck is a Turismo anyway? and why is it Gran?

Most Disappointing Game –  God of War 3 (PS3)

This game just rubbed me up the wrong way, plain and simple. And no, I actually haven’t finished it, I died a couple of times on the same boss about 4-5 hours in. Why am I dying all the time? I DON’T KNOW. The game didn’t tell me, and I just didn’t care to look it up. I just let out a sigh, turned off the PS3 and went back to Bad Company. For clarification, the disk was removed 2 months later when I wanted to watch a Blu-Ray, the same sort of thing happened to FFXIII. To be completely honest, If I had a Blu Ray Drive for my PC, I wouldn’t need to keep my PS3 hooked up at all.

Greatest Crash & Burn – APB (PC)

NYAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWW KA-BOOOOSSSHHHHH!!! That was my best literary impression of a Plane Crash, an event that pops into my head every time I think of APB. It’s a truly sad story about a game that I actually kind of enjoyed, through the Beta up until it’s release. I think it was said best by one of the game’s developers: “Don’t remember APB for the game that it was, Remember it for the game it could’ve been”. And maybe it will make a comeback, now that the game has been sold to a new company and slated for a re-launch next year. But come on, I highly doubt it.

Worst Tacked-On Multiplayer Mode – Bioshock 2 (PC, X360, PS3)

I’m not really saying that it was BAD bad – I thought it actually had some good ideas – but was it really necessary? Maybe it was, from a marketing standpoint. But once it was released and it’s single-player devoured, Bad Company 2 was just round the corner, at least in that sense, they must’ve wondered who in-large was willing to play this. Is there still people playing this?

Greatest Waste of Potential – MTG: Duels of the Planeswalkers (PC, X360, PS3)

Whilst it’s creators managed to re-release the game TWICE this year, onto the PC and the PS3, it failed to bring more than one little expansion pack to it’s original Platform. A third expansion certainly exists, but not on the platform I actually want to play it on. And it still contains game-changing bugs that have existed since it’s initial release 2 years ago. This game’s entire existence grinds my gears to no end. I’ve said it many times before, but Wizards of the Coast should not be allowed to make Digital versions of Magic the Gathering unless they can do it right – which they clearly cannot.

(EDIT: The Third expansion for this game is now out, as of 29th of December without any warning or even announcement on the Wizards site. But it’s pretty fucking broken, in both design decisions and bugs.)

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The Non-Gaming Awards

Before we get into the best of the best games that 2010 had to offer, let’s take a break to observe some of what I think is the best non-gaming things of the year…

Top 3 Movies – “Inception”, “The Social Network”, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”

Worst Movie – The Expendables

Top Albums –  Linkin Park: “A Thousand Suns”, Lady Gaga: “The Fame Monster” (Yup…)

Most Played Song in My ITunes Library – “Blackout” Linkin Park (117 Plays so far)

Best Movie Soundtrack – Inception Soundtrack

Awesomest Anime Thing – “Summer Wars” (Movie)

Favourite Internet Phenomena – “Troll Physics/Troll Science”

Best New TV Show – “The Walking Dead”

Best TV Show Season Finale – Lost “The End”

Best Thing I Read (As in Words & Books) – HP Lovecraft’s “Dreams in the Witch House”

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Games of the Year

Like last year, it’s going to be the best Exclusive Title from each platform, and then the top 3 Multiplatform. A testament to my constant indecisiveness, and my belief that no one game can truly make a year complete… Unless all you play is Warcraft…

Best PS3 Game – Heavy Rain

There were only Four PS3 games that I actually bought this year, but Heavy Rain easily stands out as the best one. It does something that other games don’t often do – Aim for pure innovation. There is nothing quite like heavy rain, and despite it’s flaws in both narrative and gameplay, and clear “frenchness” it’s one hell of a game. No-one can quite be told what Heavy Rain is – they must experience it for themselves.

Best X-Box 360 Game – Alan Wake

I was waiting for Alan Wake for a very long time. After Max Payne and the very under-rated sequel, I was hooked on Remedy. Now over 5 years later, Alan Wake was finally released. And you know what? I really like it. I liked it so much that I wrote a review, which I will point you to HERE. ‘Nuff said I think.

Best PC Game – Starcraft 2

I’ve always had a hard time liking RTS games. To me, the Campaigns were too long, riddled with walls to hit and hours wasted on singular missions. And the multiplayer was always personally destructive or intimidating. Starcraft 2 is none of those things, it has made me a believer, that with enough polish and thought out design, a RTS can be truly enjoyable. And whilst I haven’t put enough hours into the game as I would’ve liked, It’s a game I’m going to be thinking about (and watching competitive commentary about) for a very long time to come. Here’s to you Starcraft 2!

Best Download Only Title – LIMBO (X360)

Limbo creeps me right the fuck out. For many reasons – it’s presentation, some of it’s game mechanics (best/worst mind slugs ever) and it’s off-handed story – a story much like that of Portal – get through this, and don’t die. Though you will die, quite a bit, and often jarringly. It is reminiscent of Braid from the year before, as being “that awesome indie platformer with a heart of gold”. It’s well worth a look, much like a fine painting, less so like a… Black Ops.

Best Handheld Game – Carcassonne (iOS)

Fuck Angry Birds, Carcassonne is way better. The greatest problem with the original board game, for me, was that I needed to find participants willing to play this crazy-assed German board game. But now that the game is on my phone, and with an amazing puzzle/solitaire mode added in, I don’t need to force the people I know into the game.

Top 3 Multiplatform

#3 – Fallout: New Vegas (PC, X360, PS3)

I think I’m one of the few that actually thinks Fallout 3 is the better game between the two. New Vegas falls somewhere between expansion pack and buggy-assed game mod, though to put it more politely and in a completely different analogy, it’s what Fallout 3 could have been in an alternate universe. Like Sliders. You know what I’m getting at right? I much preferred the linear, somewhat short, main storyline in Fallout 3, whereas New Vegas has it’s main plot in the fingers in nearly all the pies that are the game’s side quests.

Three Analogies in and it’s not sounding like it’s getting too much praise eh?

Well it is awesome, I was hungry for some more Fallout 3, and that’s basically what New Vegas is, as well as a greater glimpse into universe what the original Fallout titles forged. I just prefer my Nuclear Wastelands to be still Nuclear and previously not a wasteland before the bombs dropped.

#2 – Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PC, X360, PS3)

It was a battle between Black Ops and Bad Company 2 for this slot in the top three. And it came down to which game I ended spending the most time with. Whist Bad Company 2’s Single Player campaign pales in comparison to that of Black Ops’ constant roller-coaster ride, I felt as though I’ve had my fill of the current CoD Multiplayer – I think Black Ops takes it too far past Modern Warfare 2 to a fault.

Bad Company 2’s Multiplayer however is an utter refinement of the Battlefield Experience, and is a total joy to play. It’s hard to put my finger on it really – I just keep on coming back to it, and will continue to do so with the new Vietnam Expansion.

#1 – Mass Effect 2 (PC, X360)

The Disk hasn’t actually been in the tray since, oh, I’d say March of this year. But It’s had the greatest lasting impression of all the game’s I’ve played this year. I remember it fondly, and having the third game in the series now announced, and having bought all the DLC on the cheap, unplayed, I’m determined to play Mass Effect 2 again before the next game’s release.

I’m not going to say an awful lot here, in fact I already awarded it my “Best Narrative Experience” above. I also wrote a review earlier in the year, which you can read HERE. If that’s not enough, I suggest you watch the following trailer to remind you of the good times…

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And there you have it. Another year of awesome games has come to an end, and another year of general bullshit has passed me by.

Some additional commentary, I’ve received some words about the whole “I’m not blogging anymore” thing, and I think I should address them (it’s not like I usually get a flood of comments anyway). For starters I have been re-appropriating my mental sewage in other areas – Fiction and technical game documentation – strictly not for human consumption, rather a pure form of mental waste management and insanity prevention. The Vodcast also, was kinda fun to put together, though it wasn’t very good, I’ll admit. All the months it’s been up there on YouTube and there’s only 50-odd views. It’d be great if I had some more equipment – to record from a Console source, or even such equipment as a co-host. But finding a hook for those sorts of videos is hard to formulate. And it’s also rather pointless, given that there are much better and more respectable sources for these kind of videos.

It’s being here, living in my parent’s house, doing the job that I do – all are things that contribute to my lack of inspiration, enthusiasm and general discomfort from which I suffer. And all are rather hard for me to overcome. My current life goals are simply “move out of my parent’s house for good” whilst “don’t get fired”. The easiest way for me to accomplish those goals is to forget the blogging superstar pipe-dreams and just occupy my mind by consuming as much media as possible for as little money as possible – Which is what I’m doing.

So I guess I’ll see you when I see you, or roughly this time next year.

As colours fill the light

I think I’m filled with enough self-loathing now that I can write this post. You may have noticed that there hasn’t been anything new posted here since September, and things are going to continue that way until I find something interesting to say. Which is to say, never. It’s been a long time coming, but I’ve finally given up.

I began writing this blog about 4 Years ago, back when I was still enthusiastic and hopeful for a great many things, and I thought as I would succeed I’d be able to say something worth saying, and people would say stuff back. That is how the internet works after all. But as I continue down the fail-spiral, I am finding my opinions to be less relevant each and every day. I was to be a game designer, and now I am and forever will be a nothing designer.

So I’m going to stop writing for the blog. I’ve recently been jotting down Ideas here and there for things that will never be, simply to stop them keeping me up at night. Ideas for games, and plots for stories, but none I’d ever share with the internet. It’s more to keep my remaining sanity in check rather than some sort of grab of appreciation. But I don’t feel the need to talk about the latest gaming news, or prop up a review like it’s something that matters. If you require such services, Kotaku and Giant Bomb can do a billion times better than I ever could.

It’s also an attempt to step a little further away from Magic: The Gathering. As much as I did write about it, It saddens me that I never actually got to use the decks I build, and in revolt I  do something stupid like spend money on the Online version or lobotomise my bank account every time a new set hits.

I’m not shutting the blog down, I’ve put to many words into this to delete it from existence, and for posterity’s sake I’ll continue to post the annual year in review posts; since when I look back at the blog; they are the most personally relevant. My only remaining active presence on the ‘net will be my Twitter feed – about 140 characters is all I really need to convey my most brilliant of ideas, and you can find that HERE.

The Blog will stay in suspended animation until my life becomes interesting again. For the foreseeable future that won’t be the case. My two life goals currently consist of “Don’t Get Fired” and “Move Out of My Parents House A.S.A.P.” And both are topics not worth discussing. Should I win the lottery, or become Magic Champion of the World, I’ll probably find something to write about. But right now all that’s worth saying is:

See you, Space Cowboys…

So this is the first blog post that I’ve managed to do in a while. Warcraft has consumed me, for good reasons. Details in another blog post in some point in the future. At some point I actually sat down to play WoW every night for two weeks in a row – And finally I’ve reached some point of temporary saturation. Thankfully, with a week of Halo: Reach behind me and all the Scars of Mirrodin buzz, it should pull me away long enough to regain the force to yo-yo back to Azeroth.

Hence the Blog post. It’s also been the first time in a while since I posted a Deck Building article. Admittedly, the post that was supposed to be here was a mountain of my own creation that I am yet to crest. Literally about 6000 words into it, 2 near-full rounds of testing and… well I basically hut a wall. It came to me in a moment of realisation that the deck was very much not what I wanted it to be. That happens sometimes. But I’m here with a new deck for you all to poke at, and I wanted to bring something a little fresh to the Scars Pre-release in the case I am challenged.

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News

Well apart from a Scottish Bro bringing home the title of National Magical Champion with a crazy white-red-green Fauna Shaman deck (details HERE), the world of magic is all a buzz with Scars of Mirrodin spoilers. Here’s 4 of my favourite spoiled cards so far.

As for the rest, you can check out the MTG Salvation Un-official Spoiler until the entire set get’s shown in all it’s complete glory at next weekend’s pre-release.

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Ninja Analysis

I’ve been meaning to revive the husk that is my former Ninja deck for a while now. Yes Ninja. I even forget myself sometimes that Kamigawa block, with it’s flavourful weirdness, existed. And from that we got Samurai, a crapload of crazy-assed spirits, Moonfolk, and with Betrayers of Kamigawa; Ninja.

Fun Fact – whilst I completely disapprove, there are actually more Pirates in Magic than Ninjas. That’s something maybe a sequel to the Kamigawa block may one day rectify. I guess my point is that the concept for this deck, with it’s small pool of Creatures to draw from, won’t be very deep, and since I’m not going for any off-colour weirdness there won’t be much breadth.

The entire concept revolves around enabling the “Ninjutsu” Activated Ability which is as follows:

Ninjutsu <MANA COST> (Pay <MANA COST>, Return an unblocked attacker you control to hand: Put this card onto the battlefield from your hand tapped and attacking.)

Then the Ninja would do something extra for hitting your opponent in the face. Like Draw a Card, or Boomerang one of their permanents. Protip: So you Ninjustu your dude into play, and then your opponent tries to lightning bolt him or something, in response, just Ninjutsu that ninja with another and the spell will fall right off him.

There are only 10 cards that reference “Ninja” in the game, 8 creatures of the type in both Blue and Black, another creature that kills specifically ninja, and a nicely flavoured piece of equipment. Let’s take a look with a pre-emptive mini cardpool:

Blue

Higure, The Still Wind

Oh the fart puns! Higure’s basically the Ninja-Lord of the Tribe. He’ll fetch any Ninja from the deck, and he’ll continue to enable the other ninja in play to hit your opponent in the face. Also add to the fact that he’s rather cheap at 4 mana, and extremely reasonable at 5. 3-off for sure.

Ninja of the Deep Hours

Another solid addition to the clan. He’s a 2/2 for 2-mana Thieving Magpie that’s basically unblockable the first time you see him. He’s basically the dude you want to start hitting and drawing cards on the second turn of the game – and that is something he certainly can be.

Mistblade Shinobi

One-Mana recurring boomerang. When removal just won’t do the trick the deck can call on a Mistblade to get the biz-ness done. I’d imagine he’d do very well against aggro/weenie decks to slow them down a bunch rather than aiming to be a heavy hitter.

Walker of Secret Ways

I can see the logic in this card, and I see the flavour, but what I don’t see is it’s place in the deck. She’s there to get some Ninja’s back into your hand to ninjustsu them out again – not only is that really expensive, I plan to hit a Higure in the mid-game so I won’t have to bounce and re-ninjutsu. What’s really lame is that her bounce ability can only be used on my own turn. So No. Denied.

Black

Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni

Ewwww, It must’ve been one hell of a Furry Friday in the R&D offices when they came up the the art guidelines for this one. Ink-Eye’s has a really quite awesome back story that I won’t get into here, it involves a demon pact if you can’t decipher her title – hence the ressurection and the regenerativeness. Not so much a finisher, more so a final nail in the coffin belonging to your opponent.

Throat Slitter

Double-Ewwww, Double Rat Boobs all the way, across the Swamp. If you can break your gaze away from the horrific anthropomorphic cleavage for a second to realise that this card is a 3-mana repeatable Super-Doom Blade. And that’s pretty cool. In for sure.

Skullsnatcher

Probably the most useless Ninja of them all. There are cheaper and more direct ways to remove an opponent’s graveyard from the game, in fact these day’s it’s as cheap as playing a land. Denied.

Okiba-Gang Shinobi

Though it does hit rather on the expensive side, there’s synergy with Ink-Eyes, and Synergy with destroying your opponent’s army before he fucks up your ninjas. This card’s a high possibility if there’s room for them.

See Also…

Shuriken

Shurken sits in a weird place, on the one hand it’s super-flavourful and a repeatable source of opponent hate, but on the other there’s it’s cost, and that’s including the tapped shinobi it just sapped. But I’m going to throw it in the pot if there’s room for it in the deck. There’s always a possibility of packing too much removal into a deck and that might be the case for this card.

The Ninja may be the win-condition of the deck, but unlike other tribes in the game of magic, Ninjas need alot of support and setup to work efficiently. Let’s jump into the rest of the pool…=======================================================================

Card Pool Extended

“Enablers”

So the trick is finding the perfect suite of creatures that can

- be able to evade most blockers

- be cheap enough to play in the earliest turns of the game, and after Ninjustu costs.

-  be a two for one attacker and effect (come into play abilities, etc)

And there isn’t very many to be honest. Really you want about 6-8 of these critters populating the deck, with a variety of evasive abilities to cater to your opponent’s defences. The perfect example being Fear, or the more modern “Intimidate”, won’t work against the majority of Black Mages – so you’ll need another 4 of these dudes in the sideboard just in case. Let’s check out the candidates…

Ornithopter

I was young at the time, so I was a little late to understanding the usefulness of Ornithopter in the wake of Mirrodin-Kamigawa standard supremacy. The best thing about Ornithopter is it’s cost. There’s basically nothing stopping you from playing it on any turn, especially the same turn you just ninjustsu’d it back to your hand. In a pinch it’s also a flying chump blocker. I also find it a flavourfully fitting choice in the deck due to the ninja legends concerning Kites lifting them up into the air – as a kind of ancient UAV. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Clicky-clicky.

Dimir Infiltrator

He’s straight-up unblockable, and he hit’s the 2-mana mark. His 3 defence is pretty decent too, and really, who cares about the 1-power? Sweetened more by the Transmute Ability, which I would have to play into if I really wanted the most out of this card – since there’s only one usable Ninja that costs 3 mana.

Inkfathom Infiltrator

Like the Infiltrator, is straight up unblockable, and is relatively easier to cast due to the dual-mana costs. However it’s easier to get rid of at only 1 toughness and can’t block in the mean time. Plus, no added benefits.

Augury Owl

The Sage Owl of the future works it’s way into the list for it’s Scry ability, that assumingly will be used multiple times in succession. It’s Mana cost is also rather friendly if I’m finding it hard to find a swamp. I’m not entirely convinced, but if the deck leans more towards control than aggro it’s on the shortlist.

Tidehollow Strix

I think this card gets better if you look at it’s Deathtouch ability as semi-evasive. An opponent would probably rather take two damage than sacrifice his 4/4, and might present further conundrums if said opponent knew there was a Ninja death squad on the way. So then this card also gains points for being able to switch to a defensive roll if needed, which the deck might need.

Spellstutter Sprite

The Cheapest card I could find with Flash. It’s counter ability is not so useful since it’d only be able to counter 1-mana spells most of the time.

Prickly Boggart

This is the lowest costed card with fear in the game, simple as that. I had to look at fear/intimidate as an option, and this little gobbo is the best thing I could find.

Support

Again, we must work around the ninja very carefully, and some issues may not be apparent until play testing, but what I want to do here is to not overwhelm the deck with the  same effects the Ninja manage to pull off. For Example, having an 8-card removal suite – Terrors and Doom Blades, whilst also having a play set of Throat Slitters, which is the deck’s aim to play regardless.

In the opposite way, we also need to find cards that add to the toolbox quality of the deck – find things that the Ninjas cant do – off the top of my head I’m thinking counterspells and also ways to Shroud the Ninjas.

Ninjutsu isn’t entirely cheap either, so I’m going to want to keep the cost down, 4 CMC max, if that…

Additional Equipment 

Ronin Warclub

So any Ninja I Ninjustu into play get’s a +2/+1 equipped bonus for free. That’s certainly worth looking into, but I feel this may be more of a “win more” sort of card. If only it were more like Cloak and Dagger.

Tatsumasa, The Dragon’s Fang

If we’re making the most deliciously flavourful Ninja deck possible, in addition to Shuriken, we should also include a legendary sword that turns any Ninja into a decent fattie. Tatsumasa also doubles up as a giant recursive flying dragon, which is always a plus I think. It’s cost however is where it falls short

Umezawa’s Jitte

This card is currently Banned in 3 Formats, and not too many years ago it was restricted in many more. If that doesn’t explain how retard-strong this card is, you clearly haven’t played against it.

Whispersilk Cloak

It’s exactly what a Ninja wants’ right? It would provide an additional source of unblockability if I’m lacking in Higure, and the Shroud can create some huge problems for the unprepared opponent.

Blinding Powder

Flavourful, yes, most definitely. Useful? Well, I don’t really want any of my creatures in the position where they would need to take combat damage at all. You know what I mean? I think this would just waste space in the deck.

Instants/Sorceries

Let me just rattle through these. Agony Warp let’s me hit, and potentially kill 2 creatures at once. Doom Blade get’s straight to the point, but I’d need to side it out against any black mages, which I’d also have to do for any Throat Slitter’s in the deck.

The most expensive card in the Counterspell Corner is Soul Manipulation, that adds the benefit of returning one of me dead creatures to my hand as well, through it only target’s creature spells. Negate is cheap and effective, though if I’m playing Black and Blue I’d might as well pack Countersquall. And against the modern game tailored to squeeze and use as much mana as possible, Mana Leak is certainly back with a vengeance - it should do very well. And as I final trick I bring up Familliar’s Ruse, which counter’s anything it wants and return’s a Ninja to my hand ready for redeployment, though I’m not sure if the deck will require that sort of manuver.

For additional evasion against tightly defensive decks I suggest Distortion Strike – Useable on a Ninja or an Enabler. Or even the Enabler, and then the Ninja the turn after. The deck shouldn’t need it, but it might be worth the extra insurance from the Sideboard.

Land & Mana

For an extra boost, there’s always the classic Dimir Signet and I think there may be enough Colourless requirements in the deck to warrant an Everflowing Chalice.

As for land, I don’t want to get into specific cards. If you’ve read a bunch of my previous articles I’m sure you know what sort of pool I’ll be drawing from. The only thing I’m sure of is the deck needs to operate real fast to have any decent chance. So the less lands that come into play tapped the better.

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Deck Version 1

What I’ve built is a little more Vanilla Ninja than I’d have liked, but as I said before, there isn’t a lot you can do depth-wise with 8 specific creature cards and an Equipment. There are some things I couldn’t fit in, but maybe I can make it more interesting through playtesting. Check out what I cooked up:

Shizo were a given, Plenty of decent legendary targets (where plenty = more than zero). Urborg solves all your black mana needs, and opens up your opponent for Swampwalking – though we won’t be using that very much in this build.

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Testing

As per usual I tested the deck against many of my previous creations. Let’s keep this quick, in bullet-point form, Here’s what I discovered:

• Augury Owl is too slow. Two mana to play it is two mana I could be spending on a turn-two Ninjutsu. And his ability isn’t really that great in this deck. More often than not I’m drawing what I need anyway.
• Similarly, Dimir Infiltrator hits the same spot. Though I believe he’ll be necessary at some point against severely defensive opponents. So I’ll try and fit him into the sideboard.
• The Land setup isn’t bad, but I’m going to drop the Jwar Isle Refuges and tweak the swamp-to-island ratio a bit, that should speed it up. Also I was thinking of a single Academy Ruins to support the artifacts in the deck.
• Ornithopter is great, But 4 is a bit of an overkill, I’ll keep it at three.
• The Ninja don’t pack such a great punch as I’d like, attack power I mean. I should find some way to buff them up that doesn’t interfere with the deck.
• The Counterspell angle is working out rather well, and I’d like to continue this theme further.
• I might not need the Dimir Signets after all. I’ll have to play without them and see how necessary they actually are.
• I tried Ronin Warclub in an intermediary Build, but it didn’t fit in the flow of the deck, and it didn’t really boost the ninja enough as I’d have liked.

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Deck Version 2

It may appear if little has changed, but the devil’s in the details on this revision. Take a look.

   

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So there you have it, my new and improved Ninja deck. With the Standard Format being a continuously rotating entity, and now Extended taking up much the same position, the game at large is always forgetting the tribes and themes of the past, so it was great to go back and take a look at creature type that never really got a lot of love. And I hope that maybe I’ve inspired you to take a look into your ancient deck boxes for some forgotten inspiration.

I’ve got another couple of decks in the works, but next time I’m going to focus on a colour I don’t often talk about, and I’m going to do it old-school – without printing off half a deck’s worth of proxies. Hopefully I’ll get this done before next weekend’s pre-release, which by the way I will totally be attending in good ol’ Fundee.

But right now, I’m going to play some Halo: Reach, and hopefully later I’ll poop something that’s not mostly liquid (I’m totally sick right now).

come for me, I’ll be long gone

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Like what you saw? Want to Contribute? Then please send me your ideas, requests, or your experiences testing the decks that I’ve posted. I’ll be happy to cook up just about anything I’m asked, in any format - All I need is a decklist or an idea to start things off. Remember that I’m not building competitive decks here, I’m aiming for the fun and functional, or even the most budget of decks, and I don’t troll forums for decklists or ideas. email me at themissingnin@hotmail.com or leave a comment on this post (please remember that if you email me, please make it clear in the subject line what you’re emailing me about, or else I will kill it with my mighty delete button, and if you leave a comment on the site and it doesn’t appear immediately, know that it’s probably been picked up by the wordpress filter and I will approve your comment asap). Also, the more I’m sent the more I’ll have to talk about! ‘Nin Out!

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Yep! It’s Day 40 of my PC Gaming Experiment, and with that it comes to a close. Hopefully you’ve been following my exploits closely, if not, I’ll try and sum it up for you in this post – what 40 days of pure uninterrupted PC gaming can do for you, but first I’d like to hit on some of the games I’ve played since last time.

Crysis Warhead was a very quick burn. It’s very odd – It’s another Campaign played from another character’s perspective that fails to answer absolutely anything at all about the previous game. Instead you get tighter gameplay that in the end makes it feel like a stock Sci-Fi shooter. Though I am very happy to say that enemies are no longer the bullet sponges they were, Ammo is plentiful, Vehicle use is now a viable strategy, and the super-gun you get at the end is both useful and usable more than once.

There’s less of a sandbox to go and dick about in and more of a guided experience, which in-turn is a little bit destroyed by the sandbox nature of the main character’s abilities. In one mission, leading up to an enemy naval base, instead of taking the route suggested by the game’s voice over narrative: a long stretch of road infested with Korean soldiers and guns pointed at my head, I decide to take the long way, an unopposed swim in along the river, stealthing practically on top of my final objective.

There’s a story in there, but I couldn’t figure it out, and after another non-ending I’ll leave it at that. Crysis 2 seems to have taken little bearing from it’s predecessors. Check out this newly released Dev Diary of the game, and pray that your PC is man enough to play it (Watch in HD):

It seems that I’ve finally garnered a taste for Left4Dead 2. The reason probably being that I’m not playing it on a system that makes the game lock up every 2 minutes whilst chugging along at 20 to 30 frames per second. I enjoy every minute of it, more so if I can get a decent team together.

The game’s “Idle” feature is a brilliant idea – in a co-operative game where stats are not a concern, you can up and leave for a couple of minutes and leave the AI to do your dirty work. This saves you from dropping from a match if there’s some immediate serious business. Though the AI doesn’t ever play to your style – I found that I’d often come back to completely different weapons, It’s dropped the Katana I’ve been hauling for the first 3 chapters or switched my – though really it’s playing to it’s own preference instead of mine.

If I had to say one thing bad about the multiplayer experience is that it’s sometimes hard to get into a campaign from the beginning – Many hosts tend to leave their lobbies whilst they’re AFK, for long periods of time. Long enough for me to come, get bored trying to communicate with the host who clearly isn’t there, and leave to try again. And Browsing for a group doesn’t show how many players are in that lobby, and who is hosting it, and their nationalities – which is an extreme problem when trying to communicate a specific strategy, and half your team is made of Russian. But I suppose this isn’t a problem for the gamer who is with-posse, I unfortunately am not.

I’ve played through all the campaigns, and I’ve got only one more to “Survive” through (In a PUG, it’s every man for themselves once the rescue arrives) and I’ll probably give it up after that unless swayed to by a friend or two.

On a whim I also picked up the Mafia 2 Demo on Steam yesterday, and I was really surprised. I’m not “Sold” yet but what I played was pretty slick (mid-1900’s car handling aside). I think I’ll have to wait until the reviews come in, but I think that’s the kind of game that’s built for a console (i.e. I wants my achievements) – though my PC does run it extremely well with all settings on high and at a smooth 60 frames, something the console version has yet to prove.

As for the game itself, what was presented was essentially GTA4 ported to the 1950’s, but with more modern aesthetics – for example, combat was extremely tight, and bore more of a resemblance to Gears of War than the GTA’s of old. However it is almost certain that the game will suffer from the idiosyncrasies of the open world genre, I was treated to a collectable in the demo, oddly “Classic Playboy Pinups” – all trademarked with exposed teats. I’m not really sure what’s going on there – the modern internet has effectively removed porn as a currency, so I’m not quite sure what the developers want from that.

Regardless, my eyes are now on Mafia 2, and I hope it all works out. Until then, check out this moment some intrepid internaut took from the demo. If these two characters were to touch, I’m sure the universe would enclose upon itself….

So now my experiment is effectively over and I should come up with a conclusion. This may take a while…Ahem.

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PC gaming has it’s charms that you just don’t get anywhere else. It’s the Wild West of gaming, something that Consoles have tried to effectively copy and control for years without total success. X-Box Live may the leading online gaming platform in ways of simplicity, but it’s always lacking something that it’ll probably never be able to emulate.

PC Gaming is raw, rugged, and powerful. You can pull off a constant 60-FPS with the right system to the point that the game stops being a race and starts being a roller-coaster. Everything can be tuned to become as slick an experience as you want. Crysis is still a game that mainstream PC’s are having a hard time Maxing the settings on, whilst modern Consoles couldn’t dream of running it.

The Experience of owning and building a PC, I would say, is intricate to the process. I would urge anyone out there who is a serious gamer to think about saving up for a decent PC, and then learn to put it together yourself. It’s an extremely gratifying process, and at that point you know your PC: you know what it can do, you know it’s little hang-ups, it’s become an extension of yourself – you have Birthed it.

PC Gaming will never go away as long as hardcore gamers (and World of Warcraft) exist. It’s where all games are Born, but sadly few stay. Whilst most developers see “sure thing” of console development and have moved on, there still remain developers and whole genres that work better on PC. I’ve never played an RTS or a MMO that has truly worked on a Console, and I’d even go as far as saying that a truly tactical shooter cannot work on a Console without a mouse, a keyboard and a steady 60FPS.

And then there’s Developers like Valve and Blizzard who have made constant innovation and extreme wealth on the platform. World of Warcraft is the Elephant in the Room of every MMO Developer from here to China, and if I could buy every game on Steam (save for the odd collectors edition) I most certainly would. These guys are successful because they have always supported and respected the platform and it’s people, a concept that sadly few modern developers seem to grasp.

The future is bright for PC Gaming despite what the doomsayers and trolls might think. It may take a little patience, a little brains and a little cash but gaming on a PC is well worth the experience that many a modern gamer dismiss. I hope that these words will convince the fallen and the uninitiated otherwise.

And that sirs, is my conclusion.

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Some news before I go. I’ve seen the trailer for Irrational Games’ new project, and I’m officially excited. I’m going to say that you should go HERE and watch the trailer (if you can get it to work that is) before reading my next paragraph, so I don’t spoiler your mind. I’ll blank the text too just in case…

So it’s called Bioshock:Infinite, and that’s a really weird name from my point of view. “Aeroshock” is a little on the head and so is “Fly’o’Shock”, but I’m sure they could’ve come up with something better. “Bioshock” as a title still evokes Rapture, and the name was a little sullied by the recent sequel. I dunno, it bugs me I guess.

But everything else seems really great, The original formula that Irrational has become famous for is intact, or so they say. It’s hard to say really anything about this game after seeing only a pre-rendered trailer. Hopefully we’ll get to see the gameplay demo for ourselves rather soon.

Kotaku’s got a great in-depth look at the Gameplay demo right HERE, which you should check out, as well as words straight from the Ken’s mouth. Unfortunately the game seems to be a 2012 release, which I guess means that it could slip to 2013, so it pains me to know so far ahead of time what those dudes are up to. But right now, I’m thinking they’ve got another classic on their hands.

So that’s it for the experiment, and that’s basically it for my holidays. I’ll be back with a “5 Reasons to be a PC Gamer” type article at the weekend, but after that I’ll probably be back to a fortnightly schedule, ergo Working. Right now, I’m Jekyll, but as soon as I go to sleep on Sunday night it’ll be right back to Hyde. I could say that I’m going to write this and that, but I’ll probably be in a emocidal mood by that time, so I’m not going to commit.

I’ve kinda got it into my head that WoW is the answer to my life, and I’ve had to refrain from re-subbing during the experiment for fears of skewing my data. Though the game is most certainly installed and patched, ready for my billing information. I’ve also got some Starcraft 2 to play – I keep putting it off.

Immediately on the horizon I’ve got some console games to play, not alot, just some things I’d like to catch up on. Crackdown 2 is not one of these games – I think the window’s been shut on that one. I’m also heading into Aberdull tomorrow to see The Expendables and do some other stuff. I’ll keep you posted on my Twitter.

I say good day sirs.

Pigs we get what pigs deserve