“I suppose we could say that the two games are equally fun, and that there’s room in this world for both, but FUCK THAT. History needs to know which is best, so I’m going to award victory who whichever game’s developer sends me the best picture of the other game’s main character wearing a woman’s bra.”
– Zero Punctuation, comparing Infamous andPrototype
Long story short: Gabe and Tycho, the guys who make Penny Arcade and Scott, who makes PvP, are playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons being run by Chris Perkins from the R&D section at Wizards of the Coast (who make D&D). They recorded those sessions, and put them online as podcasts. Even if you have no interest in D&D, these guys are hilarious, and the game only gets better when Wil Wheaton joined in. An example of the funny: Gabe is playing an egotistical wizard named Jim Darkmagic, and in the course of literally every battle, manages to light Scott’s dwarf on fire. Over time, it becomes a running joke that when they enter a room, the first thing Jim does is light the dwarf on fire. If you enjoy Penny Arcade, PvP, or Dungeons and Dragons, you owe it to yourself to listen to these podcasts.
Dear Zoe,
You are two years old, and it is absolutely crazy how much you have changed and grown lately. You’ve recently started going to Co-Op daycare, started jumping and doing somersaults, become fascinated with reading and writing, and singing and talking. You are always busy and high energy, and everyone thinks you’re adorable.
Left 4 Dead is a cooperative shooter. You play one of four survivors fighting hoards of “infected.” There are four stories, each with five chapters, detailing the survivors escaping from a variety of zombie-movie standards, such as fighting through a hospital to a helicopter pickup on the roof, or getting to the airport to get on the last plane out of the city. You can play with friends online, or with two people locally, but what really shines is Versus mode, where half the players are survivors, and the other half play zombies. You spawn near the survivors, and basically grief them as they fight their way through the level. One nice touch is that the coop campaign and the versus campaign are the same – the only difference is whether a human player is controlling some of the zombies. It’s incredibly easy to pick up, has virtually no commitment needed (a campaign can be played in an hour), and yet has enough strategy to make it worth playing over and over. I absolutely love this game, and it has supplanted all other games at our LAN parties, includingHalo 3. This is the game that will sell you on playing with friends over xbox live, and convince you to get a gold account, if you haven’t already.
While I enjoyedFable 1, I never finished it. Like many of Lionhead’s games, it fell victim to the overhyping of Peter Molyneux. So whenFable 2 was announced, I watched the reviews carefully before buying. In the end, I thought it sounded interesting enough to give it a shot, and I’m glad I did. Most of the annoying aspects of the first game are gone (in fact, there are several funny references to the “Your health is low” message from the first game), and what’s left is a core of simple, but effective gameplay. Leveling your character is simple enough that you could put plenty of points into whichever discipline you wanted, though like most fantasy RPGs, the game is dramatically easier if you focus on physical strength and swordplay. The world is absolutely beautiful, and even with a fast travel system, I frequently found myself walking between towns to enjoy it. My only complaint in this regard is that they removed the map, so it’s hard to keep track of where the towns are in relation to one another. Best of all, the game has a great storyline. You must gather up several reluctant heroes to prevent the villain from destroying the world. As you progress, you gain fame so that while townspeople are indifferent towards you at first, by the end of the game, they worship the ground you walk on (assuming you play a good character).
I’m going to break my own rule here and add a second paragraph, because in addition to being a fine game on it’s own,Fable 2 made me realize how disappointed I was inFallout 3. I remember the first twoFallout games as being incredibly compelling worlds with clever stories, interesting scenery, and hilariously violent combat. The new version managed to retain the violent combat and some clever story elements, but set it in a next-gen gray and brown world that sucked all the fun out of it. For me, at least. My coworker recently beat the game and absolutely loved it, so maybe this is a personality thing, but I just found the world oppressive after awhile, and stopped caring about it. TheOblivion engine’s mannequin-like faces may have been part of this.Fable 2, in contrast, seems over-saturated and cartoony, like a caricature of medieval life, but because it wasn’t taking itself so seriously, I found it was much more fun to play.