Musings...

It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been working a lot of hours at my day job, and what little time I’ve had left has been squarely devoted in playing the new Mass Effect 3 DLC Leviathan and of course Guild Wars 2.

If you’ve read any of the reviews for the latest DLC from BioWare you read one consistent complaint; there isn’t enough emotional connection. Whether you’ve loved the last two BioWare games, Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 like I have, or hated them like a vocal minority has; BioWare has challenged the perception of what games can and should do. Whether or not you agree with the hype and subsequent backlash, video games are not likely to ever be the same in this post Mass Effect world.

I was reading an article about Remember Me, a new game being published by Capcom. Capcom is trying with fairly decent success to open itself to new ideas and ways of making games. The Japanese game market isn’t what is used to be and it’s becoming mobile and handheld only in the last half decade or so. Once the Mecca of the gaming world, Japan barely holds on third place in terms of games sales, that being said it is still an important epicenter of game making, and Capcom has the beginnings of another gem in Remember Me. Remember Me started out as the Sony game Adrift that got cut as the economy went south. Made by the French developer Dontnod, it stole the show in Gamescom 2012. It is making itself known on all the things that are distinctly BioWare; a small well told story and good interesting characters.

A few years ago, games didn’t even bother to tell a coherent story let alone a good one. I remember when Halo dropped; I was amazed to see a story that made sense, let alone a great one. To give you an example, Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64, is only remembered for its incredible multiplayer. To make it all the more amazing it was recently made clear by former Rare employees that it was something that itself was tacked on as the whim of a few talented staff from the development team. The bulk of their work went into part of a game very few people even remember.

I finally seem to have stuck on a character in Guild Wars 2. I’ve spent the last week or so creating and subsequently deleting characters, trying to find that perfect mix of likeability in class, story, and appearance. Guild Wars 2 is not up to the standard of The Old Republic when it comes to story but it does have a more personal touch than say Secret World. I don’t know how long I’ll be playing this one but it does seem very enjoyable, I’m sure I’ll have a post or two up later. That’s’ all from me, just wanted to say hi.