Yeah, EW fumbled its Frankenstein theme a bit. MEC troopers needing to be amputated makes basically no sense. Nor does their presence in the early game, where you're supposed to be regular army dudes getting outnumbered and outgunned by technologically superior invaders.

The D&D Bag of Holding is tricky though. It sounds great until you read the description for Heward's Handy Haversack, which does the same thing but also has the item you actually want always appear at the top of the sack. The obvious complication there being: is working with a Bag of Holding supposed to be a comically…

XCOM: Enemy Unknown (aka XCOM 2012) seems like the sweet spot between games I really loved and games that have had a major impact on the industry. It's been the torchbearer for a huge wave of games that embrace either one of (A) perma-death or (B) turn-based tactics, both of which I am more than okay with.

I was pretty late to the party with Metroid Prime, not having played any of them until 3 came out despite loving Super Metroid. While I'm still consistently a wave behind pop culture, I'm finding that most of my "How have I not played this yet!" experiences are only a year or two late.

Why do you hate the Water Temple, out of curiosity? I found swimming around as a Zora to be one of the best parts of Majora's Mask, and the water temple eschews the tedious menu-fiddling and water-level-adjusting that OOT's suffered from. The currents funnel you into the "starting" portion of the dungeon, then you…

Finally done with Dragon Age: Origins! I was not a fan, and I offer my sincere apologies/thanks to all who patiently endured my lengthy whining. The entire game had a real “first time DM” feel to it. By that I mean the world/plot wants to be “serious & gritty” and break with genre tropes, but in doing so becomes…

Civilization 2 was another game notable for having advisors that felt like actual people. It helped that they actually were acted out (in consistently hilarious costumes), but they'd also bicker with each other and inject personality to their advice. The modern-era military guy chomping on his cigar and suggesting…

The old Rise of the Triad had some fun weapons - I'm gonna go with the Excalibat. There's something charming out of raising hell with a magical Louisville Slugger that shoots exploding baseballs.

I would really love if information gathering became a more common game element. Because really, what makes a master thief/assassin/whatever isn't just that they can go into situations half-cocked and squeak things out, it's that they know how to not go in half-cocked. All too often, game strategy takes the form of…

It's super creepy, and I'm glad they went with the cannibalism route rather than the route of say, Duke Nukem Forever. But I'm still scratching my head a bit at Branka's grand design.

Ah yes, the exciting adventure that nobody finished because you needed to collect 100% of the suicidal hermit bears to play the last level. :(

I remember going back to BK a few years ago and being really surprised at how dense the levels are. Each one has a ton to do, but you don't spend much time just running around between them - really helps establish the feel of the game as a vibrant, varied adventure.

To be fair, that would totally work in real life. If you waited in line for 3 hours, then got to the front and learned that you had to pay an extra 10 bucks to actually use the ride, just about everybody would simply so that the time wasn't completely wasted.

I actually didn't have a terrible time with the Deep Roads, in part because I took some advice I saw floating around the net and alternated between doing a Deep Road zone and running a couple sidequests. They're still too long, but if you're willing to put the main quest (and common sense/logistics) aside, there's…

Light Side force powers are kinda bleh aside from Force Valor, which is boring but good. I recommend grabbing Burst of Speed and Force Whirlwind ASAP. Both are side-agnostic, with the first letting you explore the world WAY faster, and the second being both powerful and hilarious.

This weekend is wrapping up Dragon Age: Origins (just finished the Landsmeet) and cranking out Awakenings before finding a nice change-of-pace game.

NEEDS. MORE. TWIRLING.

My fingers are crossed to see the Fire Emblem series get some love; it's got some of the best sprite animation around, plus or minus a goofy crab walk (link) here and there. They're full of little details like a mage's robes fluttering from the force of their spellcasting (link), and I will forever love that critical…

I rarely read manga, but I've definitely seen some scanlations that mirror the image as part of their edits. At this point, it's become reflex to read it both ways once or twice before deciding which orientation it's actually in.

I mean, my criteria there was just "does this game present anything at all to do with god(s) or the worship thereof." So yes, it's intentionally broad. In Asscreed you happen to hang out with the pope (though I had forgotten about the space angel whateverthefuck in Desmond's story), Darksiders uses Christian…