Computer Games

The worst thing about Shogun 2 is the lack of Ezo on the map. What’s the point of taking over japan if I can’t have my favourite island? Only slightly smaller than Ireland and with a fairly cool climate it’s a home away from home. Anyway, yes I’ve been playing Shogun 2. It's my first foray into the Total War series.

Shogun 2 is set in the sengoku period. The shogunate has grown weak. The daimyos have grown ambitious and the farmers are getting uppity. Into this mess you come as a clan of Japan’s finest, your eyes set on Kyoto and the shogun’s hat. Shogun 2 has two fields of battle. The first, and most obvious, is the real time pitched battles conducted by armies of samurai and peasant ashigaru. The second, and more interesting to my mind, is the turn based map where you direct the flow or armies, agents and economies. You live or die by the sword but without the coin from trade and taxes there’ll be only sword for dinner. So how was it?

You know, when I go back over the year it turns out I've done a lot less gaming than I thought. It may feel like I've spent the year locked in a dark room cursing the economics of chickpeas. However, on careful review it seems I went outside at some point. Anyway, let's see what was high and what was meh this year.

Mehs:
Bastion, A late entry which really deserves a full review. Bastion had ups and downs but the competent gameplay and touching story were brought down by that bloody narrator.
DarksidersI/II, I know I didn't review these but I literally played them for 20 minutes and went, nope, not for me.
Deponia, It certainly wasn't all trash but Deponia was meh in its characters, story, some of the puzzles.
FTL, I still hate FTL for not letting me get any of the special ships. the game was fun and hi-jinx but it was just a roguelike at the end of the day and a rather limited one. Compare with Stone Soup.


Highs:
Avernum, The new one was pretty much the same game as Avernum and Exile I was but every time Vogel adds just enough to make it fresh again. He even has characterization now!
XCOM: Enemy Unknown, proves once again that no peace-loving alien race is safe from the predations of humanity. We're so good we don't even send armies anymore, just four to six guys.
Warlock: Master of the Arcane, Fantasy Civ as it was meant to be. Fall from Heaven surpasses it in terms of lore and depth but Warlock's gameplay goes from strength to strength
And of course game of the year goes to Alice: Madness Returns. I love Alice platonically and from a safe distance. There's no way I'm going near that knife.

"Daring intervention by unknown military forces in the United States prevents alien abductions."

The bit I love most about the new XCOM is undoubtedly the news ticker in the control room. Headlines like the above stream constantly, giving the world's reaction to your battles and the ongoing alien situation. Small touches like that bring you into the game world and make it feel alive. They're even enough to make you forgive XCOM's flaws. What flaws? Find out by clicking the continue button.

What to say of refuse? It is inevitable and ineffable. It is the closure of the universe. It is the focus of Deponia.



But is it any good? Well I found out inside.

You know what's terrible? What's terrible? Why a terrible of course!

You know what else was terrible? Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Apparently he only did it so he could make Frankenweenie. That sounds terribly delicious. But where was I? Oh yes falling into Alice: Madness Returns



Now, I never played American McGee's Alice but I understand it was quite the mad thing. I picked up Madness Returns as a relative outsider. Steam inspires that madness. Buy games! It says. What games? I ask. Games on Sale! it yells. But what games? I cry and then it takes my wallet. But it's fair to say this time Steam left a bundle of joy. At its base Madness Comes Back it's a 3d platformer. You stab the peoples, jump the platforms and explode the tea. All regular, normal things. What's in it is the wonderful visuals and the mad romp through Alice's life, or what's left of it. Come down the rabbit hole but watch out for spoilers.

Warlocks are pretty metal.

I've had Warlock: MAster of the Arcane for a couple of months now and it just keeps getting better. Patch 1.4 introduced terraforming and there's nothing like collapsing your opponent's lands into the sea.But let's start at the beginning. Click below.

It's nice to see Always On DRM working out.

Surprisingly not a complaint about writing. I don't play as many games as I used to but one that has gotten the odd hour recently is Avernum: Escape from the Pit. It's quite a game. You play a band of misfits tossed into the lightless caves below the earth. There you must carve out a life amongst the other exiles and prevail against the countless monsters that wait in the dark. Avernum is very much an old-school dungeon-crawler with your party battling lizards, aranea and demons for their precious experience. It also comes with a fleshed out world and solid if impersonal story.

How fleshed? Let's find out.

Let's round off the earth's orbit shall we?

Mehs:
Space Marine, talk about meh and bleh. It truly shows how you can waste a franchise. Maybe I'm being too harsh. Maybe I just wasn't in the target market... of robots who enjoy doing the same thing over and over to the exact same enemy character model.
Daggerdale tried its little heart out. I feel kind of bad for it. Its combat was decent enough and it worked as a budget Dungeon Siege. However it was criminally short and the end boss was treason.
Halo 2 is over. We're not talking about this. Go to your room Master Chief.
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light was worth it only for the Kain and Raziel pack. Only.

Highs:
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic was a time absorbing bag of fun. All those spells. All those elves to murder with spells. And equipping all my heroes just right into an awesome team of five teens with attitude.
Skyrim is proving a big hit in the midst of icy winter. How fun is walking for hours through endless snowstorms only to get killed by a dragon so you have to do it all again? A whole lotta fun!
Dungeon Siege III deserves credit. Its combat system was fluid. Its story solid and incredibly for an Obsidian game it had minimal to no bugs. Sure it wasn't anything like the older dungeon sieges but you get the bad with the good.
But game of the year has to go to Deus Ex: Human Revolution. The story of a man, a cyberpunk and a transhumanism. All my favourites rendered with such care as to evoke a heart breaking fondness. Human Revolution truly showed how games can ask questions, even with a fabricated premise.

Through fire and ice
through blood and war
No barrier bars
He-Finds-Dragons