My Top 10 Video Games

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 31 and the topic is “Top 10 Video Games”.

            This and yesterday’s entry (which were my favorite games "20-11") were not a part of the original 30-day challenge, I added them to replace categories that I decided to excise for being lame.  Some of these games I have talked about before in this series, and some I have talked about before that, so I will link to those when apropos.  Cause I have written more than 25,000 words on freaking video games this month and I am pretty tired so I am not going to bust my ass on a rehashing of what I have already done.

SO LET US BEGIN!

I sincerely doubt this game is in many top 10's.

10) Fable

I have already talked about this one.  But to give a quick rundown of that: a game that emphasizes humor and a whimsical tone with basic gameplay and basic fantasy story.

           

This is probably on more lists.

9) Resident Evil 4

            Haven’t talked about this one yet.  This is the only good “Resident Evil” game.  It drops most of the BS science fiction to instead focus on a Lovecraft type horror, with giant monsters, twisted monstrosities, cults, zombies caused by parasites rather than a virus, and a plot to insert mind control parasites into the white house.  It is often playing things with a tongue firmly in its cheek, goofy elements, and random puzzles.  While most RE games take themselves too seriously RE4 lets you throw eggs at people.

As for mechanics it has the best quick time events I have seen in a game, though it is also probably responsible for that mechanic being added to every other action title that came out around that time.  The controls do not allow you to move while aiming, instead requiring you to be still while lining up shots in an over the shoulder camera model that works shockingly well.  There are also siege-defense, which allows you to push furniture in from of doors, or shove ladders away from windows, a small but really cool way to interact with the environment that adds to the survival horror element.

Lastly, the game is all about escort quests, as you attempt to save a damsel (the president’s daughter, Ashley) from the monsters, and it is the gold standard in this type of gameplay; Ashley anticipates your movements and gets out of the way, she takes cover behind you, she ducks when she doesn’t have time to get behind you, she can be sent thru some windows to unlock doors or throw switches while you keep the cultists off her, and in one of the cutest aspects of the story she gives a “yeah” mini fist pump when you kill a bad guy.

Resident Evil 4 is a fun and adventurous game that has a good sense of humor and solid gameplay.  I love it. 

           

This is definitely on top 10 lists.  Everybody loves this thing.  I kind of feel mainstream by picking it.

8) Portal

            I have talked about this one too.  And mentioned it positively a couple times.  To some up, it is a tightly designed puzzle game with one of the best mechanics, best bad guy, and best senses of humor in all of gaming.

           

I imagine people's negative reception to the ending of 3 might make this game unfairly neglected during award season.

7) Mass Effect 2

            I have talked about the characters of the Mass Effect series, but this is my favorite entry in the series specifically because of how good those characters are.  While I do find the action gameplay fun what I am really here for is the space politics and the space drama.  I like seeing the bigger issues of the galaxy explored thru the microcosm of diverse crew members you interact with.  It is funny, sad, and awesome in numerous measures.  One of the truly great games of its time and one of my personal favorites.

           

I am so out of juice these captions are giving me trouble.

6) Super Smash Bros Brawl

            I talked about how Nintendo is my favorite developer and this is a good example of why.  The only fighting game I like because it is so easy to play, and much like the rest of Nintendo, it is about having fun not really about giving everyone a competitive system to waste one’s life mastering.  (Note: I think E-Sports are stupid, they are as inane as any game and give you none of the exercise of sports and none of the creative or educational benefits of non-competitive games like Dungeons and Dragons).

            “Smash Bros” just takes bright characters and goofy environments and tells you to have fun with them.  The meta-narrative is that of all the characters all being toys and acting out the play battles of the “Master Hand”.  This even ties back to my discussion of “Alan Wake” yesterday, that I like the idea of characters taking on a life of their own and fighting to break free of their creators as the characters in this game square off against the Master Hand at the game’s ultimate conflict.

            I am sure if I had a WiiU that would be the iteration of the series that I like the most, but I don’t, so it’s not.

I've got to find a way out of here...

5) Spec Ops: The Line
Already talked about this one.  It is a dark exploration of the impulses that make people want to be a hero and the destruction such a self-serving drive has on the world.

Said the Joker to the Theif.

4) Age of Empires III

            Already talked about this one.  It is a Real Time Strategy game set in the colonial era of history.  It has lots of different units and a fun system for gathering and managing resources.

           

Breath that glorious desert air.

3) Fallout: New Vegas

            I beat this thing into the ground with my praise and the amount of time I have spent discussing it.  A mailman is left for dead, and now he is back and out for revenge in the post-apocalyptic desert of Vegas.

           

My brain is tired.  Maybe I wouldn't be cut out for it.

2) Psychonauts

            I already talked about this thing with a glowing review of how I wish I could live in this world.

This is from the opening cinematic of the game, but I have my doubts as to whether this would be the best place to settle down.  The river has advantages, but the mountains might make it too difficult to get enough workable tiles.

1) Civilization V

            This is my favorite game.  At time of writing I have 4100+ hours logged on this game via Steam.  This game introduced me to Steam and I have spent many a long night up playing it.  I love it, and I still to this day suck at it because I have no interest in ever playing it against anyone else.  “Civ” is what I do so as to busy my hands and mind while watching Netflix, Channel Awesome, or whatever else might be on the internet.

I have innumerable complaints and compliments for this thing (I still have no idea how the religion mechanic works), but I don’t want to list them all.  It would be pointless to as that 4100+ hours count would just underline how I have not let anything stop me from playing.  I have learned a lot about historical figures and great wonders of the world because of this game, and I look forward to “Civilization VI” later this year.

            What are your top 10?  What do you think of “get gud”?  How much time have you spent on your favorite game?

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What am I Currently Playing

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 13 and the topic is “What am I currently Playing”.

            This and tomorrow are easy days, and I put them at this part of the line up so I could play catch up.  I started out with a 4-day lead, now I am pretty much on the day of.  This also has the side effect of giving this entry the shortest shelf life and the least substance.

            There are some games that I am pretty much always playing, “Civilization V” and “Age of Empires III”.  They are games which have instances, they generate a map, some allies and opponents, and then you play until you win or lose.  I play these games whenever I am watching something on my other monitor (usually Netflix) and they have no story or narrative element to keep track of.  “X-Com” was on this list, but it got really temperamental when I upgraded to windows 10 and I uninstalled it, it has story elements but I don’t dwell on them.

            What I am playing that has a definite end is “Fallout 3” (which I am playing thru on an Xbox360 with my brother’s hard drive, because he has the DLC, and I have to play on his profile) and “Fallout 4” (which I am playing on my brother’s Xbox 1, there is no DLC and I plan to play thru the complete version of the game once it is on console so that I can mod some of the REALLY dumb problems the game has.  Most of which have to do with the Pip-Boy, more specifically the “Notes” section, and holy crap are there other things that just make me want to bang my head at how cluttered and disorganized it is).

            I would like to send a short message to Bethesda: fix up the PC version of “Fallout 3” to run on windows 10.  Hell, do a remastering like you are with “Skyrim”, add in the weapon crafting from 4 and touch up the skills (NO ONE NEEDS A BIG GUNS SKILL).  Then do the same thing to New Vegas.  In fact, do both of them and release them together on the 10^th anniversary of 3.  You have 2 years to do this.

            There are also a bunch of games I started for 40-90 minutes, thought they were fine, but have not returned to.  For instance, “Kingdoms of Amalur” (which is basically “Fable”), “Mark of the Ninja”, “Super Meat Boy”, “Shadowrun Returns”, and “Invisible Inc.”

             What are you currently playing?  Share yours in the comments.

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Civilization V, pt3

            I would also like to see more wonders of the world, at launch the game only had 4 of the original 7, which is insulting as they later sold them as a mini game booster along with the Korean Civilization.  But if I had to suggest a couple I would suggest first, Burj Khalifa, the worlds half mile tall sky scrapper in Dubai, it appears for construction when you research the Mass Market I mentioned last blog; I think it could give a bonus to nearly any stat but I think the best thing it could do is boost trade benefits from international partners, granting extra happiness and money from each deal with a City State, since in real life the thing was intended to bring international attention and investment to the country.  I also think that since some wonders, like Machu Picchu require proximity to mountains that a really good mountain proximity wonder would be Mount Rushmore; it would appear for construction when you get Dynamite; the best bonus would be to generating Great Persons (special historical figures like Thomas Edison or Patton who do different things in the game), they have a wonder that does it currently the Hagia Sophia, so this would be an even bigger bonus being much later in the game.

A picture of me in front of the Hagia Sophia.

             More Wonders, the Hoover Dam, comes when you get electricity, and can only be built in the city is on a river it will grant a bonus to Production (another resource used to build buildings an units like soldiers), or a bonus to production in all cities and a free Hydro Electric dam in the city it is actually built in.  I also like the Panama Canal, it would be unique in that you would have to build it in two coastal cities that are only a certain distance apart, it would allow you to transport a naval unit between the two cities as if it had been led down the Canal.  And the Golden Gate Bridge would be another one, researched with Metallurgy (right now the only thing you get with Metallurgy is a shitty mounted unit) the Bridge would have to be over a lagoon type area on a coast, and it would grant a small bonus to units moving along roads.

            The Ancient Cities of Petra (an ancient city in Syria that is carved into a canyon wall and served as a place to get water and safe passage through the desert) and Timbuktu (a wealthy African capital city) that could also be added.  Petra comes with Engineering, gives the city a free Aqueduct with its construction granting a bonus to city growth on top of the Aqueduct.  Timbuktu would appear with Theology (as it was an important Islamic center), only be buildable on a river and grant a bonus to developing a religion.

The Oracle, a Wonder of the Ancient World... Kinda.

            Another could be the Las Vegas Strip (a massive expenditure of electricity and hub of money for the United States), have it appear with Electricity and have whatever city building it get a free Casino (a new building I think should be added), it would generate two Great Merchants, like the Louvre generates two Great Artists.  Probably the best one would be The Internet, you get it researching Computers and it should give a bonus to spies in enemy countries (like the Arab Spring in real life) and at the same time give you a bonus to pretty much everything.

            Really, I am hooked, and whatever they throw out there I will devour, I just hope it is good.

Civilization V, pt2

            There are things missing from the game that I don't really lament, but find odd.  For instance when you build the legendary wonder of the world "The Great Library (of Alexandria)" you get a free Library in the city as one of the benefits, cause that is common sense.  So when "The Louvre" one of the largest museums in the world becomes a buildable Wonder of the World later in the game you would think that as part of building it a free Museum would be one of the benefits, that is not the case.  On the topic of Museums, there is only one type, it grants a bonus to Culture (a resource used to buy policies in the game like Liberty or Patriarchy), that makes some sense, museums should provide a cultural benefit, but what about Science museums?  Why can't there be 2 types of museum, one that gives a big Culture benefit, and another that gives a smaller culture boost, but also gives a small science boost, and maybe a boost to your national happiness (another resource that builds up to a "Golden Age") if you are a country that is really focused on science?  Likewise, Libraries don't grant a bonus to culture (which, really the word "culture" is a stand in for philosophy in the early parts of the game, and Media in the late parts).

The Great Library.

            There are other things that could be added too.  Like for instance, there are 4 big buildings that grant happiness, Coliseums, Circuses (if you have horses or elephants), Theaters (which give no bonus to culture), and Stadiums.  Where are the amusement parks?  I know it is a little thing, but it would be a cool addition when you research railroads you get roller coaster parks that cities can build to increase Happiness.  For that matter, why are there no Zoos, Casinos or Breweries?  Currently the technology you start off with in the game is Agriculture, it costs nothing and allows you to build farms, but you can't build Granaries until you research Pottery, why not have Granaries come with agriculture and get Breweries when you research Pottery, the Brewery adds to Food production and some Happiness?  And Casinos could happen when you Research Electricity in the late game, have them give happiness and money.  Zoos would come with Biology, giving more of a happiness bonus.  Just make each structure cheaper to maintain, and have a lower overall bonus to happiness so you are not generating too much happiness and in doing so making it a nonfactor in the game play.

            I also think that researching Skyscrapers should be a technology that grants access to Apartment Complexes, which should give a bonus to city growth like the Aqueduct or Hospital.  Later they could have you research Mass Market, which would grant access to Grocery stores and allow Luxury items like gems and dyes to grant bigger bonuses to happiness (because it is making these items more available to you citizens.  They could also use Airports, which would allow you to fly a unit in a city to another city with an airport, and give a bonus to production.

            There is also the lack of alternative power, currently you can only get a Solar Power Plant for structures in the desert, and Hydro Electric Dams next to rivers, why not Wind Turbines as an upgrade to Windmills?  They could come along with the Solar Plants when researching Ecology in the late game.

This is the symbol for Ecology, a guy diving.  What do you get for researching Ecology?  Solar Plants, cause that is what you do to build Solar Plants in the desert, you go diving.

            So I guess there are a few things I would like them to add in the expansion, Amusement Parks, Breweries, Casinos, and different types of Museum.  What are some other things?  Well, since they are adding Religion as a new resource and mechanic then that means some culture buildings, Temples and Monasteries are going to have to change function.  So I guess new culture building will have to exist, maybe add Artist Communes (which existed in numerous ancient cultures) and maybe Academies (like the one Plato started in Greece), both of these could generate culture.

Civilization V, pt1

            Probably my favorite video game ever is "Civilization V".  At time of writing I have logged 1211 hours according to the online track keeping on the part of the Steam network.  I actually avoided buying the thing for a very long time because I knew, both from the advertising (which flat out stated that it would be the most addictive game ever made) and my own knowledge of my likes.  ("Age of Empires" anyone?)

Kind of a bland logo really.

            The game is turn based strategy, which means you get to move and use all of the pieces you control on a board at any given time then the other 'players' act one after another.  You are a historical ruler of a living or dead civilization, be it George Washington, Napoleon, or Otto Von Bismarck.  Over the course of a game you go from the dawn of civilization in which your whole world is a city and some club wielding warriors.  Eventually constructing fantastic monuments from through history, Big Ben, the Colossus of Rhodes, or the Great Wall.  You research bronze working, theology, and eventually space travel.  You can go to war.  Or you can become a mercantile leader of lesser nations.  You can win the game in a half dozen ways, most often for me this involves colonizing other planets.

            Soon an expansion to this game will hit the market and I will be buying it day of release because it will change the game in significant ways, it will increase the number of different world leaders by a third, will add in new systems for spying, make Naval units relevant (which might be the biggest problem mechanically with the unaltered original), and will most importantly allow the player to create religion as part of the game mechanics instead of religion just being something that gets researched as if it were a new type of mill or factory.

            I already know that they are changing combat significantly, like the previous mentioned Navies becoming relevant they are making it so all units have 100 Hit Points.  Currently each unit has 10 HP, and any attack action takes a minimum of one HP to do.  So you will sometimes be in a situation where an archer from the stone age is dealing damage to an Giant Death Robot from the year 2040.  With 100HP, the archers will still be able to deal 1 HP of damage but it won't be 10% of the robot's whole life.  In this regard I really don't have anything to complain about, this adds a lot of flexibility to how units work and I am really glad they added it.

Kind of an Ed-209 type thing, but with Uranium.

             If I were to add something to the combat units it would be to change some advancement.  Currently there is a unit called a Scout, it doesn't advance like other units it just looks around.  So in the late game you might have a half dozen scouts, who wouldn't put up much of a fight against Spearmen, but you are currently fighting Riflemen.  Why not have the Scout upgrade to an Archer?  This problem happens again later.  Archers turn into Crossbowmen, and they are both ranged units, able to fire over a space and not get hurt, but then they upgrade again into a melee unit, so they can't shoot over spaces again.  Why?  Why not have them turn into a new unit: Snipers?  They still shoot over spaces and continue to serve the same strategic function they always have.  Then in the even later game they could turn into Commandos which do the same but are Stealthy (a new ability that means a unit can't be seen until an enemy unit moves onto its space).  It is a hole in how things are that I think needs fixing.

One of the new societies.