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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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Best Video Game Voice Acting

            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 20 and the topic is “Best Video Game Voice Acting”.

            “South Park: The Stick of Truth”.  This game is a ton of fun.  And represents the single best transition of an intellectual property to a different medium, with the entire creative team of the show working on the story, dialogue, and art.  It is actually kind of hard to compete with in regards to voice talent because it is the voices of the characters, not just vocally, but intellectually.  This is “South Park”.

I am also looking forward to the sequel which is about Superheroes,

            I don’t really have anything else to say about it.  I guess I will post my Steam review of the game, such as it is.

Even though I have not played the game to completion it is still a fun and definite recommendation.

The combat is a little limited (with only one other companion to help you in battles, and positioning is not a substantive factor) and the gear you get is so flexible that you can be a bit overpowered at times by switching between numerous different augments to fit the situation.

The story is ULTRA true to the South Park universe, and I imagine that the game was meant to reintroduce fans of the series who have not played games before (via the easy gameplay) but also to welcome back people who used to watch the series but hadn't in a while (hence why some of the references are to jokes from the series that aren't even referenced in the show anymore, like Mr. Hanky).

            But how about I talk about a game that I love which has totally original characters with voices and characters captured by the voice actors: Pretty much everything ever produced by Bioware.  Even when I didn’t care about the game all that much “Dragon Age Origins” I loved the voice cast and the dialogue is delivered in a natural tone with great comedic timing.  “Mass Effect 2” is one of my favorite games ever because of Jennifer Hale, the most prolific voice actress in video games, and the surrounding talent which allows her to get shit done.

Her actress has played space heroines elsewhere too.

            I could point to a game with voice acting that totally doesn’t work, but I tend to not play those very much… Maybe “Shadows of Mordor” a game I love but I hate the main characters because they are boring assholes.  But that isn’t a reflection on their performances, just the writing.  I guess I don’t have anything for a bad example of voice acting, except for stuff everyone already knows about (that I never actually played) like the original “Resident Evil”.

            How about the single best casting choice?  Armin Shimerman, was the actor who portrayed Andrew Ryan in “Bioshock”.  The lunatic founder of a Libertarian city under the sea is voiced by the same actor who played Quark on Star Trek, the character who spoke of the philosophical benefits of capitalism and free trade on Deep Space 9, a city in the stars.  He so completely disappeared into the role I didn’t notice until I started researching this blog.

Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? -Rule of Acquisition #70 

             I guess that is it for my rambling BS.  If you have a favorite voice performance, I am guessing “Batman: Arkham (Place)” will get a few mentions as they borrowed the most iconic animated performances for it, it is a good choice.  Maybe you think I am an idiot for picking “South Park”, also good, but if so please tell me why in the comments.

Though, there were numerous instances in which I just wanted this jerk off to shut up while I stealth his goons.

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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Favorite Video Game Supporting Character

            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 6 and the topic is “Best Video Game Supporting Character”.

            I am going to do the thing where I pick two characters I like for entirely different reasons to illustrate how broad a topic this is.  And because I play by my own rules.  I am a total rebel. A rebel with a blog.  Also, there is only so many ways to say a character is strong.  It is like that expression, “All happy families are happy in the same way, but all unhappy families have their own reasons.”  Good characters are typically good for the same reason, they work well with the protagonist on both a narrative level and (in games) mechanically.  I am going to start out with a rebuttal from yesterday with a character from “Mass Effect”.

            “Forgive the insubordination, but this old friend has an order for you,” he said with a sly grin.  “Go out there and give them hell.  You were born to do this.”  In the “Mass Effect” series a race of giant omnicidal sentient starships called Reapers are trying to destroy sentient life and civilization in the galaxy, they have done so in the past many times.  Garrus Vakarian is an ex-cop turned member of your starship crew, tasked to help you save the galaxy, and he is a badass.  Garrus is an astute, sniper, dinosaur man alien, who is funny, noble, loyal, and gets shit done.

Shepard: I couldn't do this without you Garrus.
Garrus: Sure you could.  Not as stylishly of course.

            The only time interacting with him isn’t solid comedy gold or some of the best comradery encouragement is when he is making sure the ship’s guns are so calibrated that they could shoot individual trees on distant planets.  I cannot emphasize how often I kept him in my party just to hear his one liners.  I have no complaints about him and watching his greatest hits via youtube clips is fun as hell.  Like I said, it is hard to bang on about positive things, so now I move to a character that is… Different.

            “Here we go.”  From the complete opposite end of the spectrum comes a guy that is as cowardly on the outside as he is brave on the inside.  Brave enough to face danger for the sake of his friends and the brother that will forever over shadow him.  Luigi, everyone’s second favorite plumber who fights magic killer turtles with the power of mushrooms.

"Just putting this out there, anybody else want to do some shrooms?

            While some might point out that Luigi is frequently a protagonist in his own games I must point out that he is a supporting player in (or even completely missing from) more games in the mushroom kingdom than just about anyone else.  He appeared in the manual for “Mario RPG” just to tell you he wasn’t in the game, and I can’t think of a single adventure in which he was the star that didn’t also have Mario in it (to put that in perspective, I think the new Toad video game doesn’t have Mario; Toad got a standalone title before Luigi).

It's like when they write in a strange scene with a video recording of a character, just so an actor gets his contractual episode appearance, even though it stands out like a sore thumb.

            However, I would like to point out that Luigi has loads more character than Mario, being fearful of the dangerous situations he is in and acting heroically in spite of that fear is already more personality than anything Mario has going for him.  There is also his unlockable presence in “Super Smash Brothers” which is best characterized as “Strange bordering on experimental”, his greatest power in “Brawl” was to dance to a psychedelic melody that put nearby opponents in a stupor.  What even is that?

I’ll tell you what it is, a perfect foil to all the other blandness of the various Mushroom Kingdom characters.  A juxtaposition that makes everything more interesting for its strange presence, strange in a world of magical killer turtles being battled with the power of mushrooms by plumbers and an army of fungus people… Sometimes in space, often in a lava castle.  It is a high bar to be the odd one out in that universe and for that Luigi deserves a medal.

I would also like to point out that originally this prompt was not “supporting character” just “character”, something I didn’t really like.  It is too broad, and again kind of redundant when you consider that a “Favorite Protagonist” is another prompt, so if someone liked Samus, and liked being Samus there is a bit of a crossover there.  I’m a very pedantic person sometimes.

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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.

Annoying Video Game Characters

            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.

Before I start today I wanted to talk a bit about the idea of a blog challenge.  It is hard to come up with 30 prompts and looking over the month to come with the various blog prompts the list offered I am noticing a few things about it.

1)     The Prompts were not organized well at all, a roller coaster shifting from talking about individual characters, to technical stuff like voice acting or music (and not really a lot of that), and then back to more characters.  I grouped them as best I could into somewhat coherent strings of topics (all of the character ones are together, the very few mechanical ones next to each other, and a general overview section).  The issue is that I understand the difficulty of coming up with 30 ideas (if I didn’t have trouble doing that myself I wouldn’t have googled and found this), but I would think maybe trying to put like things together after making the list would have helped to spot another problem.

No, but I guess I should keep an eye out for evil clown toys.  That is definitely an issue to be concerned about, blog or no.

2)     There is a good bit of overlap and some of these I would consider a repeat.  I combined, or dropped a couple and made up some of my own to keep things a little fresher, and I do the thing I usually do of elaborating well beyond what the prompt originally intended, or talking about two things instead of one.

3)     I get the feeling that they who wrote the prompts very much emphasize story and art over mechanics (I had to drop or combine some character categories and added something on game mechanics), there is no section for “what is your favorite puzzle game, or “what are some of your favorite mobile games”, I might be generalizing but this person might be more of a “I like a deep and involving narrative type, and no I don’t care if most of the game is a literal corridor I walk down endlessly” person rather than a gamer of many different hats.

4)     Some of these prompts I still have in line are kind of bad and I will probably just end up cutting them in favor of something I can talk a lot more about.  Like I said, it is hard to come up with 30 topics, and often you just let yourself go with the thing you think works and don’t look back.  This isn’t brain surgery; it is just for fun.

Okay, that all being said, I’m going to move onto today’s topic

            Today is day 5 and the topic is “Most Annoying Video Game Supporting Character”.

            Let’s talk about what makes a character annoying.  To some it is an entirely physical concept, a person smells, moves erratically, has a funny sounding voice, is ugly, or has issues with personal space.  These people are annoying on a superficial level and removed from a face to face social situation the things that make them annoying fade away, messaging them online would not bother you.

            Then there is the next level of annoying in which the person doesn’t know what they are talking about, and they either know this, which leads to you eating up time explaining and defining things… OR THE FAR WORSE THING, they think they know what they are talking about.  People who push ideas that they “heard about somewhere” or acquired thru a personal account, “in my experience, that one time I tried it”.  These people are annoying because they either waste your time, or because they cloud the issue.

            The last are people who are annoying because they are dicks.  This can take many forms, being self-centered, entitled, egotistical, spiteful, bigoted, or they just tie every issue back to their own personal bugbears about which NOBODY ELSE CARES.  They are annoying because every communication with them is a chore, and they just don’t know a good thing when they have it.

And sometimes bullets.

            For this category I am going to run down two annoying characters, one is “annoying” in the superficial way characters are written that way (joke characters), the other is annoying on a deeper level.

            “In a moment you will be greeted by a funny little robot,” said the blue eyed woman talking into my brain.  “Do everything he says.  You’ll know what I mean when it happens.  I’ll contact you again soon.”  And that is when I met Claptrap.  Claptrap is a doofus with a piercing voice, a moronic affectation, and almost entirely useless.  The strange blending of Jar Jar Binks and R2-D2 into a hybrid character that I kind of love.  His character is that he is “annoying” in the most superficial way, but at the same time, he is enthusiastic, he adds to the story, and he gives you info and assistance.  And when you take him for what he is, his “annoying” nature is funny and cute.

"Hey, wanna hear the new dubstep song I wrote? Wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub. DROP! Wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub wub."

            You can apply the logic of Claptrap to most “helpful” game characters that have a cute appearance and voice.  Navi from “Zelda Ocarina of Time” or Slippy from “Starfox” … Every supporting character in “Starfox” really.  They are annoying, but there is a method to it, they are needling you back on track, giving you hints, guiding you thru the story.  The whining is the game telling you how to advance.

            “Thinking you were dead tore me apart,” he said making the whole conversation about his feelings.  “How could you put me thru that?”  Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko is a self-centered, whiny, complaining dipshit.  In the “Mass Effect” series a race of giant omnicidal sentient starships called Reapers are trying to destroy sentient life and civilization in the galaxy, they have done so in the past many times.  Kaiden is a member of your starship crew task to help you save the galaxy, he is also a love interest for the female iteration of your character, whose name is Sheppard (by the way, the name Sheppard is a hint at how the character is actually space Jesus, with his/her death and resurrection happening in the second game).

With the fate of the galaxy in the balance Kaiden is hurt that his ex has decided to work with a company that is actually doing something about the Reapers, instead of writing them off as a conspiracy/fantasy which is what the formal government of the galaxy is doing.  Kaiden is unwilling to work with the most notorious living hero in human history because she didn’t text him immediately after having woken up from a god damn two-year coma (the aforementioned death and resurrection).

I would like to say that I had liked the character for a time in the previous game, but Kaiden is such a self-centered dick that when my Sheppard was revealed to have been hitting on both him and Liara T’Soni, a blue skinned woman who looks like an underwear model, that his fragile ego compelled him to press for exclusivity in the relationship, so I dumped his useless ass.  The only reason he was alive to ball me out when I played “Mass Effect 2” is because I didn’t carry over the save of me leaving him to die, because I got tired of listening to his ineffectual whining.

I'm gonna go ahead and guess the person who drew this does not share my disdain.

Kaiden being “annoying” is not the games’ intention.  He is attractive, a competent technician, and he suffers from disabilities related to his super powers.  He is a complex and richly developed character who should inspire good vibes and comradery.  At least he is on paper.  In practice, not so much.  I do not know why this character rubs me the wrong way so deeply, but I keep having to point to his relationship plot as being such a defining part of his character.  He’s needy.  When Sheppard hits on other members of the crew, let’s say Garrus for instance, Garrus often barely gives Shep the time of day before getting back to calibrating the ship’s weapons, because he has interests outside of Sheppard, he likes to kill things with giant guns.  It’s not much of a hobby, but at least it is something.  And when I talked to Ashley (the love interest for the male Sheppard) I got the vibe that she also had a hobby of killing things with big guns.  It is something.

So to review.  I do not find characters written as “annoying” to be annoying, but lord help a character if their only meaningful story contribution is being a needy piece of ass, cause holy hell do I hate’em.  They are annoying.

What characters do you find annoying and why?  Answer in the comments and thanks for reading.

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If you like or hate this please take the time to comment, +1, share on Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook, and otherwise distribute my opinion to the world.  I would appreciate it.