Reinstall Review: Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II- The Sith Lords

Thug: This is none of your concern human, turn and walk away!
Jedi: I think you should leave that poor man alone and go jump off the docks
Thug: I will leave him alone, a nice jump into space would be fun
I watch as he turns and jumps off the nearest space dock where he will be falling for four hours before landing hard somewhere. A notification pops up letting me know I have gained Dark Side points making me travel further down the path of the dark side of the force. Using the force for such evil purposes may not be right but necessary.

Even years after is release this game still is played and loved. Kotor 2 as it has been called after the first game coined Kotor. Kotor 2 has no strange ideas about how things should go, it knows what a player wants, to use a cool lightsaber and the force. It helps you achieve these goals quickly making it easy to choose to become like Yoda or become like Vader.


Building and improving upon the first game Kotor 2 starts off where the first game kind of left off. The war you fought in is over and the Jedi lost. The Sith are not systematically hunting down Jedi and killing them. The Jedi council is destroyed and disbanded out of fear. Your a former exiled Jedi and you wake up after spending about a week in a kolto tank. Kolto tanks are the magic giant healing vats used in the Star Wars movies. After waking you find yourself on an asteroid that serves as a mining station for an asteroid field. You find out that you and two others are the only living beings on the station, and you need to leave before it blows. As you travel through the station you will find yourself encountering hostile robots, a prisoner who you free to help you out and a protocol droid that says things such as "Answer" or "Statement" each time clarifying the type of thing he is about to say before saying it.

After escaping the station you land on another planet where you have to go through a series of quests that eventually lead you to a small secret Jedi Academy. The owner is a member of the council (they are supposed to be dead) and after speaking with her she will treat you based on how you respond. My first time I was a complete jerk and told her if I had the chance I would kill her with my lightsaber (which she had in her possession at this point). She told me to leave right away, so I had my droid download all the files on her computer and then I left with my crew and bunch of information she didn't want me to have.


The point of the game is to regain your Jedi abilities and to gather the remaining members of the Jedi together to unite and fight the Sith to reclaim the galaxy. You will go through planet after planet to find these members while completing quests such as bringing down a crime organization, fixing the elections, helping kill or save a colony, keeping a royal system in power, and many other things. You can even kill the Jedi council members to get a different game and ending. You eventually can master the ligh side of the force or the dark side. Each has its own advantages and different advantages. Your companions in the game will comment on the light they see about you and how they want to be like you, the light side. The flip side is they continually comment on the fact that they were talking then in a killing frenzy, an effect of the dark side and its moments.

The game is not graphically still beautiful but it holds its own. No strange glitchy graphics like walking through walls or anything of that sort. The facial expressions never change so your character is a constant state of looking angry, happy, or neutral. One bright spot is the glow of the sabers and your Jedi/Sith robe will flow behind you when you run. Among that if your low on health your character will walk around limping and holding their stomach in pain until your back to 25% health. It does have bad things, the inventory system is impossible to manage and there are times after combat where you character gets stuck and won't move. There were times when my character would not be able to move, forcing me to save then load at that point to fix the problem.


Overall the game is good, still holds its own today and still able to be found online and strangely enough, I have seen it at retail stores still being sold, some things never die. After all, who doesn't want lighting coming out of their hands!




Review
Grade-Let it Ripen
Highs-Veterans and Star Wars fans will love the tactics and lore, the new players will fall in love
Lows-AI is dumb at times, stuck glitches, and sometimes characters don't seem to care how mean or nice you are
ESRB Rating-T for Teens, Ages 13 and up
Kid Friendly?It's a bit complicated and it can be violent, respect the rating
Where Can I Get It?Amazon has it, Steam as it and they sell the game for about $19.99 but you can also get it in some stories
Overview-Still good and enjoyable, use the force!

Reinstall Review: Empire Total War

The quiet is unbearable but I wait. Then a cannon fires and within seconds all my cannons open fire. The enemy appears out of the fog and my cannons continue to fire at them as they advance at a run. They get close enough and my soldiers behind the small farm fence take aim and open fire cutting down hundreds of the advancing Spanish soldiers. It doesn't take long as my carefully placed regiments each take easy shots at the Spanish who haven't even had time to return fire. They never get it as they turn and run. Another victory for the Dutch as my conquest across Southern Europe continues. Welcome to Empire Total War!

The Total War Series started out as a new idea that was received with raised eyebrows and not everyone jumped for it. But by the time Medieval Total War came out everyone was all too happy to jump on the bandwagon for it. It introduced a simple idea, the massive campaign map with cities and such, all turn based and looked at like political map. You manage the cites from afar. The engagements with troops are on a separate battle map but instead of other games with 60 troops on 60, its more of 600 on 600. Total War was just that, complete and utter Total War.


Medieval II Total War was also very good and after they were done with the swords and catapults, Creative Assembly and SEGA moved to the time of muskets and cannons and took the world map from Europe and Asia to Europe and Africa with stops in the Caribbean, India, and the Eastern coast of North America. Along the way they added almost 15 new nations to the playable list so the player can take any nation or faction and become a world power. While running down archers with knights was fun, cutting down hundreds of soldiers with one well timed "FIRE!" order is loads of fun.

Being someone who grew up in the Netherlands I have always enjoyed strategy games in Europe and I try to be the Dutch when I can. Empire Total War gave me the chance to put that into play. After securing treaties with nations to the West I was able to turn all my forces to the southeast. After my friendly advisor suggested the Spanish as a target I marched right in and launched an attack on them. This brought their French allies into the fray. Not a problem, my Austrian allies joined on my side. While the Austrians kept the french busy in the south I succeeded in destroying the Spanish and untied the Netherlanders under one flag. One that was done I turned South and helped Austria finish off France. Once I had secured ceasefires and left the French and Spanish crying in the corner I headed to the Caribbean and showed the pirates what pain means as I sunk almost every ship they had (or at least the ones I could find), take that Jack Sparrow!


My second time I started as little Austria or Österreich. Your all alone when you start with them, no problem. This time I reversed my path of destruction. I secured treaties with the east and headed West. What is now Poland fell quickly and I headed South into the Balkans. Too easy so I stopped halfway and headed east into Ukraine and Russia. I tried to grab a colony or two in the Caribbean but Austrian sea power was no match for the English and Dutch who made sure to put me in my place when I showed up. That is another thing Empire introduced. Ship combat was very much just point, click, and pray in the earlier games. It came down to numbers, my 20 ships will beat you 16. In Empire you are taken to the sea map where you can personally direct each ship in battle. I can't count how many times I went in with four ships against nine and came out as a winner with three of my ships still left thanks to my good maneuvering and well timed broadside cannon barrages.

As with the previous games you can play a nice long campaign and the number of nations provides so many replayability options that you will be occupied for plenty of time. However, if you get tired of Europe then Empire introduces a new mode called Road to Independence where you take control of the new colonial forces and fight from the creation of Jamestown to the creation of the America as you fight in the Revolutionary War.


Road to Independence was very rewarding as I enjoyed playing through it. I enjoyed watching my colonists transform from simple colonists to soldiers and then to citizens of the new America. It made the game fun and challenging as you often find yourself launching small attacks that do nothing more then stall the British Army and then you smile as your two regiments of line infantry join your army just in time as the British catch up with you. Many of the battles I fought I was outgunned but being a strategy veteran I was able to use my tactics to win battles that I should have lost. Regardless, if your new to strategy games you still can do well, they have a tutorial to help you along and as long as you pay attention to your advisers you can do fine, just don't start off with the Road to Independence, it is a hard one for new players.

Graphically the game is still very shiny and pretty and smooth getting rid of the clunky old map from the other games. The problems with the game stem from the AI. Sometimes it is far too easy to win. Although challenging it at times it becomes easy. I found myself surprised at times as the AI would launch hopeless attacks against me. The Spanish at one point thought sending 150 line infantry against a well rounded army of 800 Dutch was a good idea. I lost two men while killing 146 before they surrendered. The politics and diplomacy system is also cruel to new players and veterans alike. The entire diplomacy system has changed and I can't count how many times I thought I had done well only to find out I came out way behind in the negotiations, I accidentally one time gave up three cities and had to reload and try again before finally coming to an agreement that allowed me to keep what I had gained in a long and bloody war.

Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs-Strategy veterans will love that tactics are back and the new players will fall in love
Lows-AI is dumb and the diplomacy system is cruel and hard to navigate
ESRB Rating-T for Teens, Ages 13 and up
Kid Friendly?It's a bit complicated and it can be violent, respect the rating
Where Can I Get It?Amazon has it, they sell the game for about $19.99 but you can also get it in some stories
Overview-Still good and enjoyable, RTS is alive and well!

Episode Playthrough: Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty

A huge explosion rocks the base and I let out an evil and gleeful laugh as the entire workforce of the base moves to repair the damage while continuing their mining process. No such luck as once the dust clears I order my 20 marauders, 15 marines, and 10 tanks into the front of the base to start the invasion. The enemy moves their alien forces up to defend against my small force I spring the trap and drop 20 marines into the back of their base and start destroying their workers to starve them of resources. The attack is much more effective then I anticipated and I make quick work of the base as the soldier who kicked off the assault slips out and heads home. That entire paragraph is the description of about two minutes in Starcraft 2.

So the next installment of Starcraft 2 is on its way. Episode 2 to the game, this one being known as Heart of the Swarm. While the game launched with access to all races(Terran, Zerg, and Protoss), it only launched with the Terran campaign known as Wings of Liberty. Being a Terran player I was all to happy to dive in but I felt bad as the Zerg and Protoss players were left without a campaign. But in the end that is not a problem at all! Starcraft has always shined in multiplayer, the first one did, the expansion pack did and so does the second game. In didn't take long for Starcraft 2 to get a spot and bring prizes in the World Gaming Chapionships in South Korea. The game has been patched and is now ready for the second episode, the Zerg campaign known as Heart of the Swarm.


Heart of the Swarm will follow the Zerg and the Queen of the Blades. For those who played Starcraft 1 and Brood War, you know who the Queen of the Blades is. For those of you who didn't(or were closed off to the world), I will explain. In Starcraft 1 there was a specialized soldier named Sarah Kerrigan. Kerrigan is fighting the Zerg on a world that is being evacuated and about halfway through her battle the general she is working for decides to leave her behind. Some of his soldiers disobey his orders and try to rescue her but they fail, she is presu,ed dead. The reality is she was captured by an alien race known as the Zerg and through DNA modifications and other things they turn her into one of them along with all her specialized abilities she had as a genetically super human soldier.

Heart of the Swarm follows Kerrigan, she has now killed all competitors and has become leader of the Zerg. Heart of the Swarm is the story as she starts her invasion and war against the Terran. Zerg and Terran have had a long running rivalry. Wings of Liberty was enjoyable because it heated it up. The whole campaign was killing Zerg. Forget other enemies, while you did find yourself fighting a small civil war, the largest battles were reserved for the Zerg.


While burning up Zerg was fun and blowing them to smithereens made me smile, the entire battle felt one sided. The Zerg will now have their shot to fight back and I am glad even though I have always found them to be ugly. Considering everything they build is a living organism and their deaths are quite disgusting. Ew! But I am looking forward to where they go with the story. I will not spoil the ending of the Terran campaign but if you have not finished it, now is the time to! The storyline is great and will get you prepared.

The first campaign follows Jim Raynor. He was met in the first Starcraft as well. He was a Terran soldier to the core, he was the warrior's warrior. He joined the rebel cause in the first one and helped overthrow the old Terran Confederacy. But he has found that the new management is worse then the old management. And you join him in battling against the old management and Zerg. Most of the time you are rescuing civilians from the Zerg who are left to die by the evil new management. And you follow his story as he does jobs to get money, rearm, upgrade, and send his forces out to fight the Zerg and weaken the Terran Dominion.


The end was a big twist and what they do with that now is going to be a joy to watch. Hopefully they don't change the game very much. It works well now, it allows you to play against A.I. and it keeps the game balanced. The biggest fear all players have is that the Zerg will get overpowered and break the game. But knowing Blizzard, chances are they will keep it good and based on the first game, the Zerg need some help, because currently they are easy to beat. Whether controlled by a human player or a computer.

Not to mention all the choices you made in the Wings of Liberty will carry over into Heart of the Swarm. Adding to that, Heart of the Swarm will allow you to destroy planets and places however you want. Blizzard is keeping a good lid on the release date but it is very soon and the Starcraft community is ready for it. As the Terran marine says, "Jacked up and good to go!"

Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs-Missions are good, the storyline is compelling, voice acting is good, and the multiplayer is still just as good.
Lows-Sometimes you just can't see the reason for urgency and some missions are unnecessary.
ESRB Rating-T for Teen, Ages 13 and up
Kid Friendly?The storyline is for older gamers.I would respect the rating on the game
Where Can I Get It?Amazon has it and local stores still carry it
Overview-Very good and worth the money

Co-op Gaming

Co-op gaming is not valued on a regular basis. For some odd reason people are more interested in playing a game where they can take down other players. Even in games where teamwork is needed, often no one works as a team. Although there have been exceptions to that with older games and some new games have made maps and match types that are designed to punish players that go lone wolf and thus forces them into the team aspect.

One of the main problems is that people who play the deathmatch games where it's a free for all forget how to play nice with others. They jump into a multiplayer game requiring teamwork and have no idea what to do. The result is they get frustrated and shoot their own teammates in the back, they are warned, then they do it again and it is only a matter of mere minutes until the host kicks them out of the game for it.


Teamwork games are one of the best parts of co-op gaming though. Return to Castle Wolfenstein had an expansion called Enemy Territory that is one of the best examples of teamwork. Axis vs Allies basically and the maps all have objectives. Apart from that each person chooses a class they want to be. And in order to complete missions you will need all the classes different talents and skills. Not to mention having someone cover you will you plant a landmine is always a good thing.

Fantasy sword fighting games have always lagged behind in co-op though. The problem with the fantasy sword fighting games is that archers often are left out because they can't get as many kills. They also are good at accidentally shooting their friends when they send an arrow at the enemy everyone is focused on. Thankfully World of Warcraft has brought all of those people into the mix.


Of course one of the best co-op games around is Army of Two. The Army of Two games are made for co-op play. While you can play the game alone it is not any fun. Anyone who has played Army of Two with a friend can recount some fun co-op moments. You are two elite soldiers with big guns running through war torn places taking out bad guys and both of your characters have smart mouths, what could be better? Sadly not a lot of games have taken Army of Two's methods and used them.

The key is getting players to want to work together. Some games force it and others require it but making want it is almost impossible. Some say it is impossible. What could make players want to work together. Some think that in a game where it is necessary makes it a want. Sadly those types of games are of the required brand, the medic heals me because it is necessary for me to be healthy to help the team, they didn't want to heal me possibly but they want to win, not a want to heal, a requirement.


Wanting to work together comes in the form of sports games though. Who doesn't love passing the ball up the floor to your friend so he can dunk it. Or tag in your buddy in a WWE game so he can take out the other team because his character is fresh and rested. Madden is one of the best examples, having a friend as a lead blocker is always a good thing when you running for a touchdown.

As more games bring in co-op the time of lone wolf and free for all gaming is coming to an end. Of course. don't forget strategy games, some of the best free for all gaming moments are strategy games. Starcraft 2 is the best example. The strategy communtiy is alive and well and at times evil. Starcraft 2 keeps spirit with the its predecssor and allows players to sitll go head to head in great matches. Age of Empires wasn't bad eiether allowing people to build their armies and have huge clashes in the middle of the map over resources, some of the best Age of Empires battles were over that small pile of gold. And now gamers wait for the next pile of gold in multiplayer gaming, just one question, will co-op be left out?

Review: DC Universe Online

I fire off two guns bursts but the robot seems unfazed by it, not good. I jump over him throwing a fire shield around myself and landing as close as possible to the robot inflicting tons of damage as he catches fire. I roll forward then turn and fire both guns at the back of the robot's head as he clanks and falls forward hitting the ground hard. He starts to climb up but I jump onto his back and finish the job with a point blank shot to the head. No time to revel in the glory, the ship I am on is going down, time to leave.

Welcome to DC Universe Online, be a superhero, or close to it. Through some strange twist of fate Lex Luthor killed all the superheroes and then submitted to work for Brainiac, a huge villain who made Luthor his slave. Luthor saw Earth die so he went back in time and warned the superheroes, the good ones and he told them his plan. He released a bug into Earth's atmosphere helping ordinary become super to fight Brainiac when he comes to take over Earth. And you play as one of these new supers. Hero or Villain, the choice is yours.


I decided to be a good super and went the hero route. After going through a long but enjoyable character creation (trust me it's fun) I went to the game. You start on the one of Brainac's ships and you proceed to break out. A respective hero or villain from DC Comics is trying to get into the ship to help you for when you get out. The opening teaches you the basics about how to kill, loot, and level up. Once done you show up in the city on Earth. From there you take contracts or jobs to help people, or hurt them it depends on your alignment, You also choose a mentor from among the current heroes and villains.

I went villain the second time through and found it to be much more enjoyable. As a hero I found myself bending over backwards to please people and save them from harm. as a villain I could walk into a job and do whatever I wanted and chalk up hiccups as collateral damage. But it's all about playing the way you want to. And as you progress your powers grow and as your powers grow so do the enemies. While running into a starting area and decimating small time enemies is fun the reward is greater when you team up with three others and all four of you work to take down one giant enemy.


Not to mention that at times a hero well help you out. In the early levels and help areas it will be your mentor coming to your aid. Other heroes will show up to help you out and it is great fun to fight along a character you might have seen in a movie, in a comic, or both. And some of the best moments are when you notice the similarities and huge differences between your mentor and you.

The mentor you choose is the one who can train you to enhance your skills the way you want them to be, you will probably pick up something from them while adding your own spin to it. Your moves all look distinct and while there will be some overlap, your character is your own and with the combos possible you probably will never look like someone else unless you try to. Your moves will also look different as the combos for those are also nearly endless.


Occasionally the hero will need help of his own. And that is when you run off with them to help. Chances are you have the same or close the same skill set as the hero your assisting. The reason for it being that his mission he needs help on will require the skill set. The game does this part great, you will never find yourself bringing flying abilities to a super speed fight.

The graphics are cartoon like and the gameplay can get stale but other then that the game is a joy to play. Plenty of fun and lots of replayability. It's free on Steam and free to play but the free only gives you two character slots. Want more characters and content? Your going to have fork over money.

Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs-Free and you get to be super with the supers! What's not to like? And very fun
Lows-Stale fight sequences and limited choices in free mode
ESRB Rating-T, for Teen, Ages 13 and up
Kid Friendly?To a point, respect the rating
Overview-It is free and fun, give it a shot and be SUPER!

Review: Battlefield 3

An explosion rocks me as I stagger before continuing next to my squad mates as we run towards our objective. "Take out the guy with the grenade launcher!" someone yells. I skid to a crouch and aim carefully down my sights at him. He is reloading to send another rain of death. I squeeze of a shot to his head and he drops, one less thing to worry about. I get back up and catch up with the rest of the squad that is all crouched at the base of a hill as everyone reloads and makes sure they are ready for the firefight we will face at the top of the hill. Suddenly a chopper flies over us and we all turn and open fire on it, the enemy clearly waited to play this card until they needed an ace up their sleeve.

I said I wouldn't do it but I did, I got caught up in the craziness that is Battlefield 3. However, after a stint in multiplayer I was convinced that being caught up was a good thing. While the game play is good, the graphics are better. So very pretty and well polished. At times I almost had to remind myself I was playing a game and not watching a news report from the front. After just a good amount of my night spent in the multiplayer I have found out which maps I love, which I hate, and which ones I hate but can't seem to stop myself from playing on them.


Single player is somewhat enjoyable, the story is more believable then Modern Warfare 2 and less ridiculous as it builds on the wars and situations we have in the world currently by using the easy option, Iran. I don't understand why more games haven't gone this way recently. Why create a fictional crazy leader in another country when you have a real one in Iran? If your opposed to Iran then use North Korea but I digress. Not to mention that hand to hand combat is an option and everyone likes that.

Where the game shines is multiplayer. I have been yearning for a multiplayer shooter where people act and operate like a squad and I finally found it. Not to mention that fighting others on multiplayer consists of more then just charging in and spraying bullets randomly. Ammo is not usually laying around all over but the hand to hand combat makes up for it. At one point I ran out of ammo and found myself still pinned down by enemy fire. I was trying to get to a balcony to signal my team that the hallway was clear but I couldn't make it. I decided that charging was the only option. I drew my knife and after the the opposing player shot another burst I charged down the hall and showed up right next to him. I guess he was surprised to see me and before he could shoot me I drove my knife right into him, problem solved. Such things earned the rating it got though.


Battlefield 3 seems to gently force you into that mode as most of the time taking an objective by yourself is suicide and since Duke Nukem is not around, your going to need some help. But not just on the ground, your also going to need some vehicular assistance.I was never a fan in the early Battlefield games of driving things because my driving skill made the insurance rates skyrocket (five jeeps, three strikers, two tanks, and one aircraft) but now I seem to have increased in skill for some reason. After finding that I was much better I jumped in the nearest jet and promptly crashed. After figuring out what I did wrong I jumped into the next game and before long was flying just fine. After a dogfight with a chopper that I prolonged by playing around with him I kept on flying to assist my team on the ground. I spotted my squad and noticed where they were headed. I took off at full speed and unloaded what I could at the objective. After causing quite a few deaths I turned around and after a few more turns found myself just behind the squad as they kept on their course towards what was left of their objective after my pass. A thank you popped up in my chat window as they moved in and took care of the last few defenders left.

On the flip side I found AI behavior to be painful. There were several times in single player where I would look to my right and I would see sweat on my AI squad mate but I would notice his gun was at a resting position while the entire time I was firing at the enemy pouring through the door and he was standing by and watching. Shoot! Don't watch! Not to mention I got shoved off more then a few balconies when my AI squad mates would rush out to help me. I died four times from the same balcony in one level before I had to rage quit and read a book so I could decompress.

All in all the game is good just like its predecessor, the thing that the Battlefield series has always excelled in in destructible levels. You can destroy almost everything in the level. No back door to the house? Create one with a grenade. And honestly, who doesn't like virtually destroying things?

Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs-An action packed shooting fest! Multiplayer makes this game good and the single player story is good.
Lows-AI behavior is maddening and some of the vehicles are jerky in control
ESRB Rating-M for Mature, Ages 17 and up
Kid Friendly?There is cursing in single player mode, multiplayer of course will have cursing and the blood and guts, I would say respect the rating
Overview-A great game and tons of fun let yourself get caught up in it.

Saturday Soundboard: Choice Gaming

Many role playing games today have changed into a game that is heavy on story and action and CHOICES. The choice for the gamer specifically. What to say or do. Do you want to offer help, get more information on the situation, or question a man's eyes by doubting him. Maybe you will shoot your disrespectful squad mate instead of calming him. If someone threatens to leave maybe you let them and you don't care. Sooner or later all of these choices come back to affect the game.

This new trend has improved the gaming world, it makes the game more immersing. When you role play in games you are stepping into another person's shoes and a different world. The hero you created will save the world and bringing choices in not only allows you to dictate what your hero looks like, but what kind of person they are. Are they a jerk who doesn't care and always takes the route that is mean and offensive? Maybe they like the middle ground road, not wanting to be mean but not wanting to be nice. Are they straight up nice guy and always doing the right thing?


Choices have been in games before, on a much lower scale though, early Star Wars role playing games would change your light or dark side alignment based on what you did and how you treated people. You could make snide remarks and watch people die to become a Sith. Or you could be nice, calm, and save people to go Jedi. Those games had people playing again to see just how dark they could go and if they could choke people to death with ease or persuade people to give you their life savings as a donation to the Jedi Council.

Choices and their effects are allowing people to replay the games countless times, maybe you decided that after playing through nice and straight you want to play through as evil and bent, then maybe you play through making all choices on your own instinct instead of aiming for a path you say what you yourself would say if put in that situation.


But the question now is how to make it better or how to immerse someone more. Character creation and appearance editing, moral choices from dialogue to how to handle squad members, romance, and....well that's the question, and something. Something else in games, much is made about your own companions in games making remarks. To use Mass Effect as an example, bringing certain squad members with you on missions can help. One of my squad members once made a comment that instigated a gun battle. When I replayed the game I brought a different squad member and actually got out of the situation without a gun battle due to the absence of that remark. What about cameos of characters in other games like in TV Shows? Could the make it better or be the "something" we are waiting on? How would Morrigan from Dragon Age react to the self-proclaimed hellcat Chief Ashley Williams from Mass Effect? Which I would pay to see.


Conflict between party members is already creeping in and it is still bringing the gamer back to choice, choose a side. Some games the choice is easy because one of your party members has clearly went dark. But games are now making it harder on who to choose, both party members are important and both has been on missions or quests with you. So who do you help? Who dies and who lives? It makes you question yourself later on. Did you have to shoot Wrex on Virmire in Mass Effect? Was keeping the council alive worth it? Or in Dragon Age, was telling Lielani to leave a good idea?


So what is next for games and choices, more of the same for now and in the end as a gamer I love it and so does the gaming community, it is bringing a little more of yourself into the game and allowing the RPG to work the way you want it to. Your life choices change your life, your in game choices change the game so it you can shape the experience as much as possible. How will it change? Maybe have your party members yelling at you, "Kill the dragon! Shoot the arrow!!"

Shooters don't like to bring too many choices in, the war is already there and so the shooting is natural but what if they did. The small aspect of choice they have is choosing the route into the building whether to go in quiet with knife kills or go in loud with guns blazing. But what if the game gave you choices on what to do to people. What if in a sniper mission you could choose to take out the target or not?


Back on RPGs where romance has been brought in. Your choices and the party members you pay attention to more will react differently. You can ignore someone all game and they will tend to ignore you and not talk to you at all. But if you give tons of attention to a certain party member in games they seem to give plenty back in return. It brings a nice sense of appreciation and gratification to the gamer that their effort paid off for lack of a better term.

In the end, just remember what the well known game maker John Carmack said, "At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can't win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior." Perfect if you ask me, maybe the developers will look at our behavior as a cue for the next thing.

Sequel Playthrough: Mass Effect 1 & 2

A laser blast goes by barley missing my head before smashing into the wall and an explosions rocks the nearby stairwell, not exactly the welcome I expected in the office suite of a pharmaceutical company. I simply turn and fire down at the enemies and throw a grenade letting the blast do the rest. I am there for one reason, the computer in the CEO's office has evidence against the administrator, I plan to use it so I can blackmail him into doing what I want. I might be called evil but I need this and the galaxy needs it in Mass Effect.

Since the first Mass Effect in 2007 the saga has enthralled gamers. The choices you make in the game, the relationships, and the way things turn out based on your choices. In 2010 the second game came out and it took RPGs to a new level. After beating the first one you can take your character and transfer him into the second game and continue the story. All your choices from the first game affect how the second game works. I beat the first one as the lap dog of the alliance and the second game remembered that as I noticed certain characters resented me for it and others were more then happy to help me out due to that fact. I beat it a second time as a complete jerk and in the second game I had a completely different experience and I was treated differently.

Mass Effect still holds up to graphical standards well and I am once again back to playing the first game through trying to see if I can get another different ending and another new experience in the second game. Why? Why would I play through the games again, well its simple. Because the tentative release date of March 6, 2012 looms. Mass Effect 3 is on its way and being able to transfer my character over to it is just too big of an opportunity to pass up. You have a character you have had since day one, all his or her choices and actions from the first two games will affect how the third game is played and how you make your way through. Anyone who has played Mass Effect will also tell you that the voice acting is superb headlined by Seth Green's voice as your pilot and he pulls it of well. Seth Green is known for some funny and goofy roles but his role as the voice of your pilot is superb. Star power got bigger in Mass Effect 2 when Martin Sheen's voice played a character known as the "Elusive Man", a rich man bankrolling your mission. The voice acting from Sheen was superb as well.

Any RPG gamer will tell you that gameplay changed by choices is huge. For example, in Mass Effect 1 I had the option to kill or talk down a certain character. I talked him down and in the second game when I ran into him, he remembered me sparing his life and was all to happy to lend me a hand. Another character from the first game remembered the same thing and tried to kill me for it. Mass Effect 3 has been confirmed as the conclusion, it's the end of the triology and I can't wait to see how it ends it. What is the game about? Well there are always trailers for them(See below).

Review
Grade-Harvest Them!
Highs-Missions are good, the storyline is compelling, voice acting is good, and overall the way your choices affect the game is good
Lows-Sometimes you just can't feel the tension in the missions sometimes making the urgency hard to feel ESRB Rating-Both are M for Mature, Ages 17 and up
Kid Friendly?The storyline is for older gamers.I would respect the rating on the game
Where Can I Get It?Amazon has it, but local stores still carry both games, what, that's what happens when your good
Overview-Both are very good and worth the money

Saturday Soundboard: Fallout

Fallout has become one of the best series in games. It is a golden piece of gaming, no matter what number or title it is, it is hyped up and then lives up to the hype. Fallout 3 was Game of the Year. On October 19, 2010, the next chapter of the Fallout Saga came out, Fallout: New Vegas. This Saturday, lets take a journey down memory lane.

For those of you who don't know, Fallout is a game set in a post apocalyptic earth. Nuclear war took place and almost everyone died, the world has become a wasteland. Those who survived the war had taken shelter in massive underground vaults. The number of those who survived is close to one million out of billions that were wiped out. These games are set hundreds of years after the bombs, the radiation is mostly gone except and those who have come out of the vaults are trying to restart their lives.


The first two titles in the series are Fallout and Fallout: Tactics. Fallout: Tactics was a bit of a squad/turn based combat game. You had a squad of men and you ran around taking people out. It was set the in Fallout universe, while it didn't advance the story, it did have some relevance. It has a very basic concept.


The actual main Fallout storyline took place in the first game named Fallout minus any additional words. You played as a well respected and well known officer in vault. The problem was the vault was running out of water due to the fact that their shipment of water had gone somewhere else before the war. Your mission was to go and get them new water. You had 100 days to do it before the vault ran out of water and people would start to die. The game was good and featured an open world where you could go anywhere and everywhere, so much to explore and do except for one problem, you had a time limit. You had 100 days to get water, and calculate you were traveling on foot and across the mountainous terrain of the west coast, your time would quickly run out. You had to go all or nothing on the quest, exploring was not an option unless you didn't want to beat the game. The question I asked myself was why they gave you an open world to explore but didn't allow you time to explore it. I still beat the game hoping it would allow to me watch the end or continue to explore, it did not give that option.


Fallout 2 was a vast improvement the graphics weren't updated much but the gameplay was amazing, more of the good old turn-based combat and life in a post apocalyptic world. In this game you were a descendant of your character from the first game. A member of a tribe. Apart from that, what made it better? The open world was back along with a quest, but no time limit. You could explore wherever you want and do whatever you want for as long as you want. Sure you could complete the quest quickly if you wanted to but you didn't have to. I myself completed most of the quest in five hours. I got what I needed and made it to the next objective which is the final part but I held off. So after five hours which equals to about 30 game days I stopped working on the main quest and just started doing whatever I wanted. I went to new cities and became a boxing champion. I saved a town from certain death and killed two mafia big shots while at the same time getting in good with one of them by marrying his daughter so he could tie her down by claiming she had a husband to be there for whenever he (that being the player) returned from his adventures.

Sadly, not long after Fallout 2 there was a problem. Interplay and Black Isle, the two makers of it, they went bankrupt. Black Isle vanished and Interplay said they were alive but basically was dead and are now officially after selling all Fallout rights to Bethesda. Bethesda is known for the Elder Scrolls games and is quite successful at making blockbuster games. Bethesda bought the rights for Fallout from Interplay and began to make Fallout 3.


Bethesda changed up Fallout quite a bit. They took the turn-based combat out of it making it real time. But they kept one thing from the combat that most players loved. They kept a system called V.A.T.S. The letters stood for Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. What V.A.T.S. did was allowed players to pause combat and tell their character to target certain body parts of their enemy, it can make for some very bloody results in combat while at the same time can allow you to take down bigger opponents who would otherwise kill you. Bethesda also made the view point first person whereas in the previous games it was a third person view where you were looking at your character from about 20 feet up in the air at an angle.

Fallout 3 was moved away from the west coast by Bethesda. It was moved to Washington DC. It featured a very in-depth storyline and featured the voice acting of Liam Neeson. I don't want to give anything else away apart from the fact that you never hear about the events of the first two games and you can walk around inside Capitol Hill and check out all the places you only see on C-Span. The game may be on the older side and some people say "You can't spoil it!" Yes you can.


Fallout:New Vegas took the series back to the west coast right next to the Mojave Desert near what is left of Las Vegas. Some of it was spared the war but after spending time around the world you discover that maybe one street was left untouched but other then that, everyone took hits. New Vegas takes place 10 years after the events of Fallout 3, which doesn't seem to matter considering those events are not even discussed. They kept the same perspective but they changed up body types and made the storyline a lot more interesting. Just to give you a taste, the intro features a well dressed man, voiced by Matthew Perry from the iconic TV Show Friends, says a few words to you before shooting you. Your rescued and nursed back to health.

The most recent game (New Vegas) takes a much different approach then all the other games. In Fallout 1 you were in a vault, in the second game, you were descended from someone in a vault. The third game had you back in the vault. Vault, vault, and vault, all of the games centered around them, I understand people survived in them but the game is about a post nuclear war world, not the vaults. Someone at Bethesda agreed, there are mentions of the vault but they are just off hand comments and people don't even seem to care. You can find vaults if you go looking for them but apart from a doctor mentioning it, you can go through the game without even finding one. It was nice change, you were no longer a "vault dweller" or "tribal", you were just you. Mind you that in the previous games you were treated differently due to being a "tribal" or "vault dweller" and especially worse if you were a "tribal" and it got worse if you were a female in that role.

New Vegas also brought back something Fallout 3 missed, and that is, the sex, violence, drugs, and rock. Fallout has been iconic for these features, not porn movies, but the suggestive nature of why you went to "that club" or why your character's vision is blurry and the question someone asks when they come into their house to find you standing next to a pile of something red, "Where is my husband?" Fallout 3 dropped all of that which were staples of the first three titles before it. New Vegas realized that it couldn't let it stay away and it was brought back and the Fallout universe was back as it should be.

With Fallout still going strong and New Vegas still making money it seems another Fallout game will have to come out, Bethesda says they have something in the works, but just what will that look like? No one knows one can only hope we get to see the iconic: Fallout.4 But more importantly hopefully the famous Pip Boy will be there!

Review
Fallout:Tactics-Let it Ripen- Amazon
Fallout 1-It Could Grow- Amazon
Fallout 2-Harvest It!- Amazon
Fallout 3-Harvest It!- Amazon and local game stores
Fallout:New Vegas-Harvest It!- Amazon and local game stores
Rating-All Fallout Games hold a M for Mature, Ages 17 and up
Kid Friendly?No, do not get your 12 year old this game, the rating is completely justified!
Overview-Early stumbles but the games are now a staple of what a post nuclear war world would look like

Reinstall Review: Age of Empires III

"Your quest for treasures will not matter once I burn your village to the ground!" the cocky AI player says to me as my explorer picks up a nice little sum of gold. I decide that I have heard enough of his insolence and I giggle with an evil grin as I send my 30 men armed with muskets into his village and proceed to wipe him off the map. Gives his allies pause and perhaps they will keep their mouths shut next time they decide to take shots at the Dutch.

Only days away from the six year anniversary of Age of Empires 3 being released and after all that time it still is one of the most fun and beautiful games around. Its not up to the graphical quality of some titles but it is still a pretty game. Its mechanics are still good and its multiplayer base is still strong. It still can shine and bring out some of the best rage quits and come from behind victory dances.


I still enjoy each nation and the way the game deals with the time of the world portion in regards to the fact that your village is a new city being established in the new world. You can send away for things from your home city and based on how well you do you can upgrade your shipments and make them better. Sometimes a battle can turn on the 10 soldiers you called from your home city who arrived just in time to save you.

The resource system didn't change much which kind of was a staple of the franchise. However it needs work, the balancing of it was out of whack. Some nations can advance faster then others due to the resource system and upgrades and it makes the game unkind at times. The AI also is bad at times, I have had to win games by myself countless times after my allies die even after I have given them tons of resources trying to help them along.


Multiplayer with humans can also be challenging as the way the game matches people up is horrible. I played a game where I was matched up aganist a new player and I intentionally played worse to make it fun.

Other then that, it is a very fun game and worth getting if you haven't already. Just don't count on a sequel, Microsoft shut down the studio that made it.

Review
Grade-Harvest It!
Highs-Good strategy, shipments from home city, strategy, and the differences between nations make it good
Lows-AI allies die quickly and the resource system is a disaster
ESRB Rating-T for Teens, Ages 13 and up
Kid Friendly?It's a bit complicated as stated I would respect the rating on the game
Where Can I Get It?Amazon has it, they sell the normal version of the game for about $19.50 but you can also get the deluxe edition for a bit more, that has all the expansions
Overview-It might be $19.50, but there is a reason for that price six years later

Review: Monday Night Combat

I fire off another round an it explodes in a ball of fire but the robot keeps coming. I run back and position myself next to one of my turrets and fire off four more rounds before reloading. The robot gets closer but right before he hits me my turret finishes what I started. I finish reloading and take on the next not, my two turrets help me make short work of him and Round 8 of 20 is complete, this is what you will experience in Monday Night Combat!


Not to be confused with Monday Night Football, this is much better and no bad commentators to ruin it. Just an overly cheesy PA announcer that actually makes the game even better. The game show PA announcer is funny to begin with considering the "game show" is shooting robots to keep them from stealing a huge money ball in the middle. The point of the game is simple, your dropped into an arena with weapons and you kill robots to earn cash, then you use the cash to upgrade yourself and other parts of the arena. You defend a money ball in the center of the arena and some of the money can be spent to build and upgrade turrets around it. And trust me, you will need the turrets to help you keep the robots at bay, since your alone.


Apart from the single player aspect, it is even better multiplayer, co-op is fun as hell and the community is also very helpful and respectful. Running around blowing things up is always fun and this time is no exception. Combine all this with the cartoon graphics and you got a whole lot of fun.


There are also fun strange product endorsements you see. They are not for real products but they are used for funny jokes. Certain combat rounds are sponsored by fictional products. And the cartoon girls make sure to never let you forget about it. I was offered the soda Spunky by one of them.

Problems arise as the game will crash sometimes for no reason. It will freeze and although patches are still being applied, you would hope that would be fixed. Not to mention the patching system is nothing to rave about. Rather then using Steam or another service it came through, it uses its own patching system which does not work all that well. It was quick but still was not very efficient.

Putting everything together, it is good and it is a lot of fun. Humor and action, sometimes, like this time, it works very well.

Review
Grade-Let it Ripen
Highs-Fun action, great humor and jokes, along with just good concepts in the gameplay and multiplayer
Lows-Patching needs work and the random crashes sometimes break the experience
ESRB Rating-T for Teens, Ages 13 and up
Kid Friendly?Apart from some sexy cartoon women dressed a bit skimpy, it is great for your kids, lots of fun
Overview-A great game and tons of fun!