Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II

A while ago I posted a review of Dawn of War: Winter Assault; I still hold to the belief that particular game is packaged ass. I mean, it looks great, but eventually you realize the whole thing just stinks. Wow, I thought I'd make it longer without sinking to "potty humor," but whatever. The point of this whole rant is that I played Dawn of War's sequel series and its expansion and I was impressed.

Picture your garden variety real-time strategy game. Usually your camera hovers somewhere close to several hundred feet off the ground, leaving your units, all of whom are frail enough to detonate on touch. Some games will allow you to zoom in (Dawn of War being one of them), yet you rarely get a good view of your buildings and soldiers, and the battles end up looking miserable and impersonal. Dawn of War was the first big game I can think of with unit specific kill animations (not just death scenes) such as a soldier driving his chainsaw sword through another's chest. It was awesome! Couple that with detailed, animated structures and destructible landscapes, and a pretty epic space opera storyline and Dawn of War was an excellent R.T.S. Now fast-forward a few years and expansions and Relic, the company who made the first game releases a true sequel: Dawn of War II.

To put it bluntly, this is not a true R.T.S. game; certainly the controls are, as well as the general feel of the missions, but this game is more akin to playing Warcraft III with only the hero units. For one, your named characters are the only units (apart from their two-to-three grunt entourage that count as the character's squad) you can control. If they die, you can resuscitate them and they're back in the fray. As for buildings, you have a drop pod where the mission starts, and then there are relay points where you can reinforce the squads (revive those grunts in a character's unit). That's it. Your squads level up and you allocate skill points, and you get wargear that drops from enemies at random, and you have skills you can use on the fly, each of which is character specific. If anything, this game is a strategy-R.P.G.

Returning to the leveling up deal. Each character has three skill lines, and you get a few points with every level up. Each tree deals with a stat or two, such as health and health regeneration, melee damage and melee skill (hit percentage and crits), ranged damage and accuracy, and energy and energy regeneration. Scattered across those skill lines are abilities, both active and passive, that further specialize your squads. For instance, the main character is a blank slate for specialization, and you can play him almost however you want, whereas other characters are really geared for specific jobs. Sounds good, right?
Here's where one of my problems with the game comes in. You see, though they give you free reign with deciding the specs, the main guy really is meant for melee damage with some extra points to throw away wherever you want. This is made pretty plain by the fact that, with the exception of two characters, the rest of your team is ranged, and all but one of those gunners is incredibly frail. Blame gear drops and the main guy's abilities for this.

Gear is plentiful, but the best greens (second tier gear) and onward sort of direct your path through the game. I find it sad that the "most adaptable" character gets the slimmest variety in excellent gear. Look forward to wielding a beast of a two-handed hammer for the last few missions, meanwhile your stealthy character has the option of wicked shotguns and sniper rifles (and by the expansion a grenade launcher)! I'm being hard on the game, really, because the gear itself is excellent, even if your main guy ends up always using the same stuff. There are about 3 different models of gear for each soldier and scout, and then there's the overpowered but slow Terminator armor. And weapons...there are a plethora of choices, though most are taken away once the best stuff appears. Axes, chainswords, two-handed hammers, a shield and one-hander hammer, etc, and that's just the melee arsenal!

The last bit I have to cover -because I refuse to tell the story- is the multiplayer mode. This is where the game returns somewhat to R.T.S. format. In it you build units, even if they population count is small and unit cost high, and you wage larger-scale battles. In the pre-fight you choose which commander (such as the main guy's class from the story) you'll use and the match type. The only complaint I have with multiplayer mode is that there is no teamless mass destruction of your enemies feature; instead, the only free-for-all modes are ones where you capture structures and hold them, gathering points by doing so. Arguably the best part of multiplayer is being the last guys standing and why Relic left this out of the game baffles me. Nevertheless, I've spent hours, now, just on multiplayer, meanwhile my third playthrough in the story gathers dust. When you have three commander types per faction, each with their own customizable features and super moves that cost points gained by butchering enemy forces...well, even a good story doesn't satisfy that kind of itch. In summary, the multiplayer alone is worth the purchase.

I really like this game, and considering you can get it and its expansion for thirty dollars or, if you don't mind a slightly higher price, Steam has the entire Dawn of War-related game library, as well as a ton of others, for ninety-nine dollars. If you liked Warcraft III because of the hero units and don't mind losing the base-building and constant refreshing of unit upgrading per mission, buy this game!

Bioshock 2

I'm a big fan of this game's predecessor, clocking in at least four play-throughs. Not a big number, nor impressive, but, considering I'm done with most games after one...anyway! The story isn't really new or special, yet it's an entertaining ride the whole way through, even when the twists and turns can be seen coming almost right at the beginning. I will try to refrain from spoilers, though I suppose that is not always possible.

You are Delta, the first successful Big Daddy in the Alpha series, and you have seemingly risen from the grave ten years after the downfall of Rapture. Guided by visions of your once-Little Sister, as well as a shady businessman named Sinclair, it's up to you to put things right. It's a one-versus-an-army sort of game, and you're always one step behind the villains. That is my only real gripe with this game. You see, how many more games can be made where a high-powered, intelligent hero can't get through a zone because an omnipotent villain has done something to hinder him or her with exactly what he or she doesn't have the means to handle yet, but can't surely find nearby? To be honest, the game only requires you to follow a glowing arrow and dispose of enemies and you will be done with the game in under eight hours. No thinking necessary! That being said, the entire package is gorgeous, well-designed, and most importantly: fun.

While I did say the story was cliche, it nonetheless grabs hold of you immediately and rarely lets go unless you decide to take a breather and explore the levels, which are all exquisite even in their desolate state. From ruined diners to a hidden undersea lab, complete with burst rivets slowly allowing the ocean to claim it. This is possible because 2K decided to break the game up into well-defined levels rather than an open-world. Sure, you can't backtrack, but that sort of encourages searching the zones to marvel at everything that they have crafted...which leads me to the next topic.

A big plus of this game is the detail they've put into the "fluff." Splicers (the enemies of the series and former wealthy entrepreneurs who have spliced their DNA in excess) argue, dance, and fight with one another when you are still undetected. Their design has been revamped, where what was once just ugly has been upped to hideous. The audio logs of the inhabitants of Rapture, usually un-Spliced, you find while exploring are considerably better this time around and manage to convey hurt, fear, joy, and so many other emotions; most are recorded and stashed by the principle characters you encounter with the time stamps ranging from before the New Year's War to just minutes before you find the audio log.

The biggest plus, in my opinion, is the upgraded Little Sister section. As a Big Daddy it's your job and driving purpose to protect them, so when you adopt the little girls they ride on your shoulder, talking to you and complimenting their beloved "father," while you and she search for ADAM-harvest-able corpses. Like in the first game, I felt the need to protect them, even when you're given the option to harvest the child itself for exponentially more ADAM than being good, but in Bioshock 2 they have more personality and seem so much more human; any thoughts of being cruel were wiped clean when you're greeted with a wide smile and a comment on her day.

I could go on, but I said enough. Good, good game. I liked it much more than the first despite a few flaws, and while I can't say "buy it," it's definitely a must-rent.

Spider-man: Web of Shadows

What can I say? Spider-man is probably the best Marvel superhero...I mean, everyone knows about him, and practically everyone likes him! His powers are awesome, his villains interesting (mostly), and he's actually a fairly believable character...if you look past the whole superpowers part. The guy has real problems and moral dilemmas, as well as a general failure at social interaction. In other words, Spider-man is the everyday man's hero on a grand scale.

Getting to the review. Web of Shadows is a sandbox game, or an open world game, where you travel the city to stop crimes and see all the majesty of a scaled-down New York City in CG in complete freedom. In a sandbox game you are not limited to roped-off levels; instead, you're able to go from one side of the island to another and beat up people to your heart's content. There are story missions, which you activate by entering a glowing circle or talking to a hero/villain, but there are optional missions you can pick up and do in the meantime. Sure, you have to do missions in order, but there's so much you can do between them. What makes it better, you ask?

You are Spider-man. With web swinging, wall running, and massive agility you can basically zoom across New York and hand gangs, armored troops, and symbiotes their asses with effortless ease. Why? Because for all missions, optional and story, you gain experience points with which you can buy new additions to your moves. One might be an extra swing in your combo, the other might increase its damage.
What's better is that you have two forms: regular Spidey and Black Suit. The differences are mostly number of hits vs. physical damage to begin with, but after you supe up each suit, you'll find the Red Suit is a combo master with aerial proficiency, whereas the Black Suit utilizes symbiote tendrils and hits way harder.

The story's ok, so I won't go into it here; I'd rather you experience the story, but I will say there are multiple endings depending on if you make Red Suit (nice - hero) or Black Suit (aggressive - villainous) decisions. Ultimately only two decisions you make matter, but the game has subtle changes depending on what you do and which suit you really choose to play. Of course, you can switch between the two at any time with the press of a button (analog button), so don't worry about being limited to just one.

Overall, this game is actually really fun. It has its flaws, and if you're not a big fan of bright, colorful, nerdy series' you might want to stay away; however, if you want to play a nearly perfect sandbox game, put aside Grand Theft Auto IV and pick this up.

Warhammer 40,000: Winter Assault

My goal is to finish something before I review it for you. Due to the soon-to-be discussed nature of this game, I wouldn't be able to make the deadline if I decided to beat it before updating. I've played for 9-12 hours, so far, almost nonstop and I'm only about a third of the way through.

If you're not familiar with the series, then you and I are in the same boat. The intricacies of the plot that goes along with the tabletop model game is mind blowing if you try to absorb it all at once. But that's really not necessary to pick up this game. First off, it's an expansion to Dawn of War, which was an excellent game...second, it's one of the only real-time strategy games that has had me repeating levels due to failure after failure. I have not had to do that since I was twelve and first played Warcraft 2. This game is hard. It's not impossible, though I haven't tried out any difficulty above Normal. I won't.

On to the gameplay. It's a strategy game, so a lot of your time is spent micromanaging seperate units with their own varying statistics and specialties. Dawn of War game you a brief glance at the weak troops in a few of their missions, but once you can actually control them...they're more complicated, weaker, and over all some of the most obnoxious pixelated people I have ever dealt with. Your hero, of sorts, has his own troop, and they suck. Sure they can be amazing, but to make them so you have to spend time and precious resources to summon up his sidekicks. They are expensive and pretty quick to drop, so I typically let the hero buddy absorb bullets while my weak "Imperial Guard" soldiers fire off what has to be bean bags at the Orks with their nasty bloody axes and guns the size of panthers. By the end of every mission I've lost ninety percent of my forces and am struggling to push back the tide of superior enemies, and I honestly can hold my own in practically every RTS out there.

Your team (when playing as the good guys) is a pathetic United States National Guard-ish faction who are known for merely running and shooting, and then having those corpses turn into a barricade against tanks and the like. Maybe I exaggerated, but I've been told I'm not far off. I can't decide if the British company who created the series was taking a jab at America, or if they just felt like having a miserable group to make the other, more expensive faction models seem that much better. Regardless, the Guard is like a colony of ants up against spiders...scratch that: bears.

Anyway, the story for this expansion sucks. I'm not trashing the series as a whole, just this expansion. I know, I know, it's an RTS...how many variations of "build things and kill the other guys" can you come up with? Dawn of War made missions with the same objectives feel unique, though, and that game's story was intense, if simple. In each level you got story to accompany the build-kill format that was pretty cool and dark. It was all about the defense and reclamation of a besieged planet, and gradually became a fight against an impending resurrection of a demon that could lay waste to galaxies. It won't spoil anything in telling you that, as a whole, you win and lose at the same time.

Winter Assault shares no characters and the story is pretty much identical, only without any of the motivating forces of its predecessor. Your hero is dull, the enemies unnamed and generic, and then there is the whole brutal difficulty. I can't say I recommend this game to anyone but WH40k die-hard fans who also like getting their pc gamer egos crushed repeatedly.

Resident Evil: Outbreak

Sorry for the delay in posting. I'm way behind, but I've been really busy. And yeah, yeah, it's a Friday...

As I've written before, I love zombie stories, games, movies, and anything else that can be about the living dead. Resident Evil is wonderful, its sequels just as good, and so today I'm going to cover one of the debatably canon spin-offs: Outbreak.

This game is unique as far as Capcom's superpower series is concerned. While the setting is the same (Raccoon City), none of the characters are. Instead of getting a highly trained S.T.A.R.S member to play as, you have a large cast of regular Joes who have managed to avoid infection and are now working together to escape the city and all of its terrifying monstrosities. Also, instead of having one lump story, the game is divided into chapter-style levels.

What really makes this game so good in my opinion is how it's delivered. You have many characters to choose from, all of which share the story of the game, but each have different sidestories that change events and give you a different perspective of what's happening. Also, each have different stats, though that ultimately changes very little; flavor stuff mostly, yet some are really cool.

Everyone I've met has their favorite character (or two), and you are rewarded for sticking with them throughout the game. You see, because of the way the game is designed, chapters give you points for avoiding damage, how quickly you completed the level, items -key items, which I will cover shortly-, and how many of your team survived. THAT is another thing that is awesome about this game. You aren't forced to go it alone: you have two other characters to traverse the deadly locales. What's more is that the AI-controlled teammates don't feel like escort missions that litter other games; instead they play as slightly stupid, yet very helpful players. It's kind of like playing with somebody who's not quite used to the game, but knows the mechanics. What helps is there's a set of "talk" commands to relay distress or warnings, as well as an ad-lib button to hear some "conversations." Another apect of this will be covered later.

These guys and girls will protect you, heal you, gather ammo, etc. Their main function when I play is being a portable storage box. Since you're not Leon with a magical shrinking atache case, you can only hold four items, unless you play as Yoko (my favorite) with her bookbag. Your allies, too, have open spots that you can hand over story items and herbs, though you have to be careful, since they will use healing items and ammo...it's a risk you sometime have to take.

Back to the rewards system. There are key items and files scattered about levels that take up no space in your inventory, as well as character-specific key items that you can read while playing. Everyone has a different text when you read it as them, which is pretty cool and entertaining. There are also events you can witness if you hit a mark at a certain point, kill a super tough enemy before they're supposed to die (big mistake, usually), or have found a secret item. These events range from an extra cinematic for the items or speed run, to an entirely different and challenging new end-level boss, though sometimes they merely result in one of your teammates dying in an un-canon fashion...here's looking at you Yoko.

Now, these points add up as you complete levels and you have to be able to do something with them, right? Resident Evil 5 took a note from this system, in fact...there's a large shop in the menu screen. At the shop you can buy new costumes (everyone has at least one), high resolution portraits, cinematics, music, and new characters who are just re-skins who share a main character's story-- that being said, the characters do have different stats than their base's.

Stats are pretty simple, though there's no way outside of just messing around in levels to find them out...no listed place to see them in-game.

1) Health: How many hits your character can take

2) Strength: damage you do with melee weapons and how quickly, if at all, you can move items to barricade doors or brace a door from the bashing arms of zombies (yes, this was the first RE game where a door between you and zombies did not mean safety).

3) Accuracy: how much damage you do with firearms and, in Kevin's case, if you hold the ready position button for long enough to charge up and hit HARD.

4) Relationship: Some characters have conflicting personalities, so you have to earn trust and help them for them to reciprocate. I've actually had Kevin fall to his death because Mark refused to help me up a ledge. I didn't work at getting him to like me. Don't make the same mistake.

5) Resist: This is arguably the most important stat...it's how fast the T-Virus spreads throughout your system. This leads to...

You are infected, or perhaps your body is slowly losing its will to fight off the virus. If you open your inventory (which does NOT pause the game) you can see your heart rate (health) and a climbing percentage of infection. When that hits one hundred percent it's game over. Yoko, has miserable stats in every other field, but she has the absolute slowest rate of degeneration; Jim has the fastest...it's sad, but he kind of sucks at everything except being a whiny, yet amusing character. So, in essence, the levels are timed.

If you couldn't tell, I love this game despite its numerous small flaws which are associated with the good stuff I covered; however, none of the problems are game breaking. What you get is a classic-style Resident Evil game which focuses on the citizens rather than the heroes. It makes you re-examine those bullet fodder enemies from RE2 and 3...or, it did for me.

Assassin's Creed

Ubisoft is known for its quality games, and Assassin's Creed doesn't let them down. Well, mostly.

The good of this game makes up for a few slight issues I have with it, so I'll start with them. Altair, the protagonist of the game, is pretty cool. He's not a good man, technically, but his ideals are surprisingly noble- killing those who are responsible for greater evils is justifiable, if not required, in order to maintain a peaceful society. By joining this guild of assassins he's trying to protect the nation (what will become Israel) at the expense of his life of freedom, because the guild really ends up being militaristic and almost prison-like in order. So, the story's pretty good and the majority of the characters are figures from this age in history...very neat.

Free running and parkour are the core mechanics of the game, allowing for a fluidity of movement previously unseen in a large-name game. This allows for rapid movement with the simple and effective controls they give you: large effort/attention moves are done by holding the right trigger, whereas the more relaxed and inconspicuous moves are done without it; I have yet to find a game with a better setup, honestly. It takes a minute to get used to them, but in five to ten minutes you'll be leaping from rooftop to rooftop, eluding guards with ease, because you will probably be spending most of your time trying to escape the scene of a crime.

Combat is incredibly easy to handle. You attack with the X button, guard with the right trigger, and if you tap X while guarding when an enemy nearly hits you, you'll counter. The counters are flashy and usually involve instantly killing the enemy. Altair moves deliberately, wasting no time or energy with a dramatic flourish; instead he strikes ruthlessly, though the moves are sometimes serpentine and always morbidly fascinating. As you finish lesser missions such as helping out a citizen being pushed around by guards, you'll complete requirements to unlock the assassination missions, and if you do more than required you get health upgrades.

Now we get to the big problem with the game...as nice as the controls and over-all visual appeal are, the game is repetitive. There are four types of lesser missions: save the citizen, eavesdrop, quell propaganda, and help out a fellow assassin. You have to do more than a hundred by the end of the game, since there are three massive cities that you jump between as the story progresses. In order for it to remain fun, you've really got to make things insanely tough for yourself before even beginning the event. For instance I stepped in to help out an old woman from being hassled by four guards, threw a knife and killed one, ran around the corner to pick up a super guard (a Templar - crusader dudes), then spent minutes dodging their attacks and picking off one or two so that more arrived. By the time I decided to wrap things up I had to take out about 15 guards and the Templar, using -by choice- the little short sword/knife. That kind of mission can be made fun, but collecting enemy flags for a fellow assassin is ridiculous and impossible to spruce up.

That's it, though, the rest is great! This game is not worth buying new, but if you see it at a local used game store, such as Gamestop or whatever, for less than thirty dollars, grab it. You can always sell it back if it ends up becoming boring after completion.

Stubbs the Zombie

Another zombie entry...sorry. Anyway! Have you heard of this game? Very few people have, and most have forgotten already.

Stubbs the Zombie (Rebel Without a Pulse) was a failed Bungee-offshoot game, released shortly after Halo 2 (maybe before, but whatever). In it you're a stylish zombie with an abnormally good IQ for a rotting brain-eater who infects and leads your brethren to complete destruction of a 1950s themed Utopian metropolis. When I read about the game, my eyes grew wide with eager anticipation-- it was an original idea! Where your buddies would be blasting zombies in some other game, you're gnawing on throats or eating brains.
Outside, with feet sliding on the rain-slicked driveway, I ran to my car and drove to purchase it, and before long I was at the main menu. So it began. In a matter of moments you've found vibrant colors and stylized, humorous citizens just waiting to be partially consumed, so you shamble rapidly in their direction only to find out a horrifying truth: this game is awful. The controls are good, and familiar, but don't seem fitting for this game...the reason why is that they're the exact same controls as in Halo.

Moving in Stubbs reminds me of the Ice Temple in Link to the Past, where your feet skitter aimlessly and unnecessarily as you cross the zone. Attacking is primarily melee-based, and we all know that Halo featured the awkward B-button swing whose only purpose felt like to appease the cries of "He's right there! Why can't you just hit the bastard!?" many people shout in first-person shooters. So you can swing your hands, grab people, and that leads to biting heads to infect your victims.
The other moves you can do...well, you can throw your spleen as a grenade. Shocker. The other move, however, caught me off-guard: your hand can skitter around on the ground in an excellent imitation of Thing. This is actually a pretty cool feature, but ultimately fluff in the long run. Only the spleens and infection are important, because your human opponents carry guns and you don't run. By infecting nearly all the unarmed civilians, you've built up an army of seven to fifteen zombies all under your command. I'm not saying you can exactly order them to attack the enemy of your choice, but their numbers are overwhelming to all but the most well-armed, and because it's by our Halo-makers vehicles have to be included. Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe the only real difference with the vehicles is a re-skinning and slight frame editing. That's where the spleens come in handy...there and large groups when you're outnumbered.

Basically, it had potential and threw it away by not bothering to work with a new control scheme. The game is incredibly charming, yet this hardly-tweaked recycle of Halo bothers me to no end. To be honest, I'm letting my disdain for all things Halo to skew my review; however, this game is NOT worth buying, and that's me stepping back and looking at everything as objectively as possible.

Resident Evil 5

When I first saw the teaser trailer back in aught-who-cares I was excited. Very excited. So much so that I had to restrain myself or I'd go on a zombie-punching spree in the streets. Luckily I have excellent self control...lucky for the innocent citizens on the prowl at that hour, I mean.

I'm a Resident Evil fan through and through; zombie outbreaks make for some of the best horror stories, and often they have a deeper meaning. Look at the Romero films! Those are about society changing into a mindless mob where those who use their minds and so on are the outcasts, left to fend for themselves in a deteriorating world or be torn apart and join the ranks of the "walking dead." Long. Sentence. I'm off-topic, sorry. Resident Evil 5 is awesome, but at the same time a little chunk of my soul was bitten off and gnawed upon forever. Without any spoilers I'll explain my likes and dislikes of the game.

The good: Chris Redfield's return to the series.
Chris is the kind of character you feel proud playing. He's a good man, a staunch defender of those who are wronged, and he's got the skills to handle anything next to a nuclear blast at ten feet. It's been years since we've had a good Chris game, since I don't really like the Code Veronica iterations ...and our boy comes back swinging full force!

The bad: Wesker.
I like Wesker more than basically any villain out there...he's cold and calculating. In fact, he puts those terms to shame. As the villain, Wes has got at least 3 games under his belt where, if he wasn't your antagonist, he played a major part in slowing you down. Thus we hit my dilemma: I love Wesker, but as the primary antagonist of this game...

The ugly: This incarnation of the weapon system.
If you played Resident Evil 4 you're no stranger to purchasing and upgrading your weaponry. It was incredibly fun in RE4, though it didn't feel like it this time around. Between missions you have access to a store and as you progress more junk is available. Sounds good on paper, yet in delivery there's not this overwhelming feeling of buying or upgrading out of necessity since you can just replay chapters and reap the diamonds and other loot from them. What it boils down to is that you can technically buy everything and upgrade it since, along with the store, you've got an infinite capacity storage locker.
New weapons in each of the firearms categories are nothing more than a rock-paper-scissors game: one will have the highest firepower, one will hold more ammo, and the third will reload quickly. What's sad about this is that only one of them will end up being used after you've beaten the game, and that lucky gun is the high damage one. With every level you get points, and with those you can purchase infinite ammo for each of the weapons you fully upgrade. This means that you'll never reload and that giant ammo capacity is useless. See where I'm going with this?

Don't jump to conclusions about my negative review on that, though! I love this game. It's excellent in almost every way, but if you're looking for the "best of the series"...stick with Resident Evil 2-4; they're all pretty evenly matched.
-RE2's story is delivered from two perspectives, giving you an interesting look at Raccoon City from both characters' eyes.
-Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is my favorite because of its sheer size. You see so much of the city, you truly feel helpless when it's namesake appears, forcing you to flee...guns really don't hurt him. Also, its main character is Jill, who is incredibly cool. Maybe my favorite of the core characters.
-Resident Evil 4 sends you back into the role of Leon S. Kennedy, the rookie from 2 who became absolutely hardcore. New controls, new weapon system, and its only problem is that there are no true zombies.

Anyway, I will one day review each of those, so I'll leave it at that. Rent RE5, decide if you want to buy it after the trial period.

World of Warcraft

A controversial pick, some might say. Who cares? I have no problem admitting I played arguably the geekiest game out there. This is going to be a tough one for me to stay polite, but I'll just let loose with my thoughts.

World of Warcraft, or WoW, is a joke. While the gameplay is solid and refined, it's essentially the same thing in repetition for hours and hours on end. You have ten species/races and two factions you can choose from. For the factions you get the Horde and the Alliance, neither of which is truly good or evil. The races are divided evenly between those two- on the Horde side you have Orcs, Trolls, Tauren (Cow-people), the Undead, and Blood Elves (think magic junkies); on the Alliance you have your staple Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Night Elves, and the Draenei (religious aliens). The thing about it is, that there's truly no difference between the races by the maximum level of 80, aside from maybe a tiny bit of damage done or health; everything else is simply a class issue.

The reason I mention all of that is because the factions are only there to create a false sense of camaraderie with whichever one you choose. In all honesty, it's foolish since with the "good" comes a form of childish racism towards people who play the other side. Who am I to judge Blizzard's decisions, but I'm just throwing in my two cents.

Down to business. The main problems with WoW in my opinion stem from its popularity. With x-million members worldwide playing, Blizzard has a steady stream of income flowing in and inasmuch they know they don't exactly have to pump out new things quickly. With each expansion has come a new continent and either a new race or class, but the core of the game hasn't truly changed much since the game first came out. Classes begin to feel stagnant almost immediately, and Blizzard handles this by introducing a number of monsters that give higher experience per kill...only the experience bar is considerably longer with each level. It's like the description of a heroin addict's fix. You know, the one about chasing a dragon and never being able to catch it? Only you CAN reach maximum level...it just doesn't feel that much different, and you're probably still using those starting-out spells more than the ones you purchase every few levels.
The more sinister problem is that WoW, being so profitable, is a big, shiny target for those who capitalize on exploiting it. Keyloggers circulating the internet are now being designed to steal your password, and with it your "hard-earned" gold and gear. Sure, that sort of thing has been around practically as long as the internet...but not as intensely. I'm pretty careful when browsing the internet, yet I've had my account hacked twice! At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if the number of WoW-password keyloggers triples in the next year.

Overall, the game's fun...it's just not worth the money or time it takes to get to the fun stuff in the game. After a while (too long), I've finally quit it, and I feel much better now that I have.

Fable

Fable, Fable, Fable. How ambitious a game, and how dreadfully disappointing it ended up being. By now, most people who are into the videogame scene know about Fable's history, though I suppose I can elaborate for those who aren't.

Fable had an interesting premise back in the day: the life of a boy in a medieval fantasy setting. Sounds mundane and cliche, right? The creators, however, boasted the feature of the world shaping itself around the actions of said boy, though, which was amazing. A tree planted near, say, a pond would grow as the "years" progressed, eventually standing proudly at an enormous size. Not only that, but they promised your actions could change the cities' prosperity or general attitude of its citizens. Both of these turned out to be hot air. Fable, instead, was nothing more than a standard action-RPG with chapters focusing on parts of your character's life. Yes, you could make some people turn bitter and possibly evil, yet you never widely effected the world...you could be evil, but nobody really reacted that much differently to you. By the end of the game, regardless of your previous decisions, you could still choose whichever ending you wanted! Nothing like a horned demon (a sideeffect of making cruel choices and beating up innocents) saving the world by destroying a blade or whatever.

As much trash as I talk about how unimpressed I was by the game, it still looks pretty good! I mean, visually, it's a treat. Despite all of its broken promises, Fable is still FUN, which is what I count as a game's strongest factor. I play a good guy in nearly everything-- it's just so hard to deny a grieving widow a chance to secure her threatened farm from bandits and greedy mayors, which I don't think was actually IN the game, but that's a pretty common quest in the genre. Fable, though, through charming -if simple and sometimes crude- dialog makes making such a decision as torching the farm and cackling madly seem a little...justified. Hard to explain why, but you'll see if you pick it up.

Another good point to the game is the leveling system. To clarify: there is no typical leveling system; instead you get points from stringing together combos, much like a classic arcade scoring system with multipliers helping you get a high score. In Fable you have abilities which are divided into three schools. Magic, Melee, and Ranged which rack up points through their usage on enemies. Melee and Ranged have some other name, but that's basically what they are. The melee section is comprised of strength, health, carrying capacity, weapon proficiency, and devastating close-range move upgrades. Standard stuff, really. Magic is all upgrades for the spells and a mana pool thing. Ranged, oddly enough, focuses more on stealthy junk and crits, though there are some crossbow/bow abilities included, too. It's a simple system, yet it works extraordinarily well! With the weapon proficiency ability, you don't technically get any better with or have access to more weapons...instead your character puts on about 100 pounds of muscle at its maxed-out point and you can swing your massive 2-handed mace as if it were feather-light. Character tweaking was one of the few promises Fable delivered on, and quite adeptly.

The story's cliche, the characters unoriginal, the world small and obnoxious to navigate, but even so it managed to be fun enough for me to buy the PC "expansion." While I don't actually advise purchasing the game like I did, don't pass it up if you have a chance to play it!