A Green Mushroom

KOTOR II recently got it's first patch in years to make it run better on modern hardware.  That, along with a community pack of bug fixes and content restoration on Steam inspired me to revisit the game. I had played a handful of hours of KOTOR II when it first released.  I loved the original KOTOR but I never got beyond the first few hours of the sequel.  It was a buggy mess that wasn't worth the effort. Fortunately, with the updates available, it's a much more stable game.  And seeing it run at 1080p was pretty cool too.  Good job patches! Again I found myself tired of the game after only the first few hours.  This time not because of bugs but because of old gaming sensibilities.  This game just feels clunky.  It doesn't hold up to modern ease of use and control standards.  There are menus upon menus and lots of un-intuitive control schemes. Once again I find myself done with this game without fully experiencing it.  But, t...

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Oh man, this was a mixed bag.  I played enough of the game to remind me that I love this game.  It's one of my favorite games on the original Xbox, but it's seriously showing its age. It seems like all of the Star Wars games on Steam are from the PS2 / Original Xbox era and none of them have been updated or optimized for modern PC gaming.  I had to give up on Knights of the Old Republic on PC after less than half an hour.  I couldn't deal with the bad controls, crazy resolutions, and old menu interface. I played enough to make me miss this game in it's original form.  So, I looked around and noticed that an updated and optimized version exists on iOS.  I picked it up in a heartbeat.  I'll definitely be playing that one soon. Jade Empire: Special Edition Don't buy this game.  I couldn't get it to launch.  I fought the good fight and did almost an hour of troubleshooting because I really want...

If I were playing this game on PC I would be tactical.  I would be pausing all the time to issue orders and micro-manage my characters.  I would basically be playing this the same way I played Dragon Age Origins. But I picked it up on PS4.  It feels great to run into a battle swinging away.  I charge in, activate some abilities, destroy my enemies, and move on with my day.  It's quick and satisfying. It's all because of the input device.  With a console controller in my hand it feels great to tear through enemies.  With a mouse and keyboard it's nice to take my time and plan out every move for every character.  It's amazing how much the input device can change the feel of a game. I got a few hours into Dragon Age Inquisition and noticed something weird about normal difficultly.  It's not fun for either playstyle.  The enemies are too easy to stop and be tactical with my approach.  But they're slightly too hard to demolish ...

Most of you heard last week that Star Wars The Old Republic is going free to play .  This really isn't a surprise since their subscriber numbers have slowly been dwindling.  At this point it's hard for any quest based MMO to have a subscription model since they're immediately competing with World of Warcraft and it's 8 years of expansions and polish.  Even if that game has a huge intellectual property, like Star Wars, behind it. When SWTOR was released I said that the only way I would play it is if they dropped the subscription.  Now that there will be no subscription I will most definitely be playing.  I don't know how much I'll like it, but I'll give the game a try.  I really enjoy Bioware RPGs and would have loved for SWTOR to have just been a new single player RPG when it released.  I never thought that it needed to actually enter the MMO space.  If they had made KOTOR 3 I would have bought it on release day. Anyway, you can find a...

A lot has been written about Dragon Age II.  There are good blog posts and reviews that discuss the overall game, but I haven't seen much said about my favorite design choice. In past Bioware games there has always been a good/evil scale that your character gets placed on.  The more you say and do good things the more you slide towards the good side of the scale.  Do dastardly deeds and verbally eviscerate others and you'll slide towards the evil end. Dragon Age II does away with this moral scale.  It's unbelievably liberating.  I can choose whichever dialog option I think fits the situation instead of feeling like I have to make my character play a part.  I love the smart-ass answers, but it's something I wouldn't have explored in the Mass Effect series because my Shepard is a good guy.  He doesn't give flippant answers.  That wouldn't be nice. My Hawke, on the other hand, is a smart-ass with a tough exterior but a heart of gold.  H...

When Dragon Age came out I poured 46 hours into it in the first few weeks but then I just stopped.  It was such a long game that I lost motivation to complete it.  After getting the itch for old school RPGs I decided it was also time to dive back into Dragon Age: Origins.  If you've never heard of the game think something along the lines of a Mass Effect in a fantasy setting with super gorey and brutally difficult combat. Dragon Age is brutal in a good way.  It's a real test of skill, the likes of which is rarely seen in today's games.  When I originally played I did normal difficulty the whole time and would end up stuck on fights for upwards of 20 tries.  This time, if I get stuck, I crank the difficulty down to easy and kick some ass.  Then I bump it back to normal after the fight. With this in mind I said to myself, "Fuck it, time to kill a dragon."  What a fantastic idea.  An epic and bloody battle ensued and I emerged a dragon sla...

What is the pull of an MMO over a traditional RPG?  The stories are weaker or lacking entirely.  There's a huge grind to get from the beginning of the game to the end.  At the end of an MMO everyone works for hours on end to increase stats ever-so-slightly.  If PvP is worldwide then all the experienced players gank the noobs.  All of our achievements can look lackluster as soon as a new expansion comes out.  Groups can take hours to find.  Certain content is locked out except for one time each week when we can attempt it.  Other players can treat us like shit.  And for all this we pay subscription fees or dole out our money to microtransactions. Despite all of that, I want to play an MMO.  I've been burned out on MMOs since about a year ago when I canceled my WoW subscription.  I dabbled in a few that released this year but none of them held my attention for longer then the first month trial.  I know I was burned out and to...