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Have you ever wondered what attending a day of video game press conferences is like? Based on my email inbox, you probably have. Allow me to tell the story of my day today and just how very exciting the life of a game journalist can be. More
Have you ever wondered what attending a day of video game press conferences is like? Allow me to tell the story of my day today and just how very exciting the life of a game journalist can be.
You already know about the high-octane announcements that came out of Nintendo's press conference. Out of my twelve pages of notes, however, a few things stand out that you might have missed. More
I’m all out of hate. Maybe Microsoft’s strategy was to get the Kinect launch’s vast stupidity out of the way at the Cirque du Soleil show so that I could roll my eyes and move on. More
Cirque du Soleil tickets go for what, $80? I wish I were exaggerating when I say that you would've had to pay me more than that to go to Microsoft's embarrassing Kinect (nee Project Natal) event. More
With Master of Magic going up on GOG.com this week ($6 and it works perfectly on my modern PC? Yes please!), I've been totally obsessed with it all over again. I adored this fantasy 4X empire builder when it came out back in the day, but does it hold up? More
Master of Magic is back! I wrote a huge after-action report detailing my return to Arcanus.
It's Nick Punto Day! Don't ask me why. I just woke up to Twitter assaulting me with all kinds of sarcastic and amusing tidbits about our favorite Italian Stallion. More
I remembered that I have a build of 2K Sports' MLB 2K10 at my desk, so I simulated the season to see how Visual Concepts thinks the year is going to go for Little Nicky.
What if I told you that Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield had created a Magic-esque video game that included online leagues, a replayable single-player campaign, and didn't require shelling out for collectible cards? More
What if I told you that Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield had created a Magic-esque video game that included online leagues, a replayable single-player campaign, and didn't require shelling out for collectible cards?
Mass Effect 2 is brilliant. We all know this. What I'm here to tell you today is that it's amazing for a bunch of reasons that you aren't thinking about, but that you should be. More
Mass Effect 2 is brilliant. We all know this. What I'm here to tell you today is that it's amazing for a bunch of reasons that you aren't thinking about, but that you should be.
Believe me, you're not the only one up in arms about our Top 200 Games of All Time list from issue #200. From calls from my brothers to Facebook messages from dudes I went to high school with, I've been hearing about it from all quarters. More
This weekend was all Dragon Age, all the time. It is superb, and probably my personal game of the year for 2009. I can't think of another game that lines up so exactly with what I want out of a fantasy RPG. That said, there are still some issues. Luckily, I'm playing Dragon Age on the correct platform...Inventory SpaceTurns out Joe was right. The sharply limited inventory space is irritating, especially for my poison- and trap-making rogue. All those stupid little items will eventually turn into sweet consumables, but in the meantime I can't loot anything? Garbage. I could scrimp and save to buy backpacks in every town, or BAM! Modded! Sure, I guess I'm technically cheating a little bit, but screw it. In cases like this where the designers made an annoying decision, I feel no guilt in hacking a (single-player) game to be more to my liking.Paying For Storage?I'm more than fine with offering Warden's Keep as a bonus adventure for $7; I'm a big proponent of letting players pay for more content in a game they love. Tying the critical storage chest to it is mercenary to the point of being insulting. Modded! I'll probably still buy Warden's Keep eventually, but fixing this stupidity is a point of pride.Limited TacticsOkay, seriously, I'm not spending my precious skill points to make your terrible AI system less bad. Sorry. Modded! Thirty tactic slots can help make Alistair slightly less brain-dead, though not any less regular-dead when I forget to kill the enemy mage first. (I have since disabled tactics entirely since Hard mode is hard, but I figured this might be useful info for folks who prefer to use them.)Shapeshifter Is TerribleLike really, really bad. As awesome as it is to turn my whirling elemental vortex of destruction into a crappy fighter, I think I'd prefer to keep flinging fireballs and dropping AoE stuns on the swarm of darkspawn attempting to tear Alistair apart. Modded! Morrigan's outfit doesn't get any less ridiculous, but at least she has good skills after taking advantage of the respec mod.Step 4: Profit!Stealing is amazing. The unending stacks of Elfroot and Deep Mushrooms are unnecessary, but the cash money and occasional useful item come in very handy. For some reason, BioWare decided to balance the skill's usefulness by giving it a frustrating 10-second cooldown and not telling you what you've stolen. Modded and modded! I can't imagine bothering with Stealing without these mods installed, but it's a great boon with them in.There's plenty more Dragon Age blogging to come since I'm neck-deep in it and can't stop thinking about how to better build my party, but that's another post. In the meantime, go fix some of the dumber decisions that BioWare made -- and tell me about any awesome mods that I've missed.
Stuffing oversized parts into a teeny-tiny Dell case is not the most ideal way to build a PC...but it's so cheap! More
Runic Games' inaugural effort is out, huzzah! My full review will be up later in the day, [EDIT: The review is up!] but in the meantime, check it out:Keybindings! More