Warning: This article contains spoilers. I would, however, appreciate if you did not spoil anything beyond the point of the game that I discuss.

Areas spoiled: Honnleath, Morrigan's personal quest, Brecelian Forest, Brecilian Ruins

Previous articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Ah Christmas: a time of family, friend, food, and video games. One of my big goals over my two week Christmas break was to make substantial progress in Dragon Age Origins, and so far I've done a worse job with that than I had wanted to. If anything, Fiona has received less play time over the past two weeks than she would have if it were a normal work week.

Whining aside, I did manage to bust through a fair number of side quests, as well as the entire Brecilian Forest/Dalish Elves story arc, which has to count for something.

My playtime is now up to 37.5 hours according to my save file, and the game is still retaining a fresh and fun feel to it. A lot of times I'll be chomping at the bit to finish an RPG by the forty hour mark, however with Dragon Age I have a sneaking suspicion that my hunger for this game will not be sated by a single completion.

My starting party for these adventures was Fiona, Morrigan, Leliana, and Alistair. Random thoughts follow.

Honnleath

- I decided that my first stop would be the village of Honnleath, home of Shale the DLC/pre-order golem companion character.

- Upon arriving at the outskirts of the village I was immediately assaultde by a wave of Darkspawn. Clearly something was awry, and I had barely beat off the first cluster before running headlong into another pack of the vermin. It was going to be one of those days.

- Shale was petrified in the town square, and the activation rod that I received from the merchant didn't work at all. There was, however, a building to explore and so in I went. Dozens of Darkspawn later I found some survivors holed up behind a magical barrier.

- A little girl had gone missing, and in order to get the proper activation word from one of the survivors I had to save her. Go figure.

- The quest to save the little girl was actually pretty amusing. A lust demon disguised as a cat had the tyke enthralled, and the game allowed me to fast talk my way into a situation whereby I could kill the kitty-demon without harming the girl. It probably helps that I have all of my social skills maxed out.

- While doing the slide puzzle quest (ugh), the game bugged out on me and lost track of where the tiles actually were. The result was frustrating random clicking to arrive at the solution, since I could not see the results of my actions on the screen. I dislike slide puzzles at the best of times, and loathe buggy ones. Bad Bioware, bad!

- In the end I recruited Shale, and replaced the perennially-whiny Alistair with him. (After a few hours of dragging the golem around, I'm not so sure that it's an upgrade - I have an unfunny smart-ass in my party instead of a wussy baby. Gah.)

Morrigan's Personal Quest

- Somewhere along the way I found Flemeth's grimoire, and gave it to Morrigan as a gift. This triggered an optional side quest in which it is revealed that Morrigan's mother (Flemeth) unnaturally extends her life by possessing her daughters when her body is too old to continue.

- Since I have a thing for Morrigan (and her outrageous outfit), I decided that the only viable option open to me was to kill Flemeth, and so off I went to her hut in the marsh. When I confronted Flemeth she offered to give me her true grimoire as proof of her death, if in exchange I would lie to Morrigan. I decided that just wouldn't do, and attacked.

- Unfortunately a sloppy podcaster had spoiled what happened next for me - Flemeth shifted into dragon form and proceeded to beat the ever-loving crap out of my party. Ouch.

- After a humbling defeat I changed my party around a little: Fiona, Rascal the Mabari hound, Shale, and Leliana made up the second assault.

- My second attempt on Flemeth went much better, but it didn't take long for my lack of a dedicated healer to make itself felt. One by one my characters dropped, and it was only through some frantic clicking that I kept everyone alive long enough to injure Flemeth to the point where Leliana, as the only survivor, could deal the killing blow. Yikes.


Dangerous Travel

- After the fight I had ZERO healing potions remaining, and no components to craft more. This left me in the precarious position of needing to travel somewhere to buy Elfroot.

- Another (minor) spoiler I'd heard was that the Dalish elves stocked Elfroot, and so off to the Brecilian Forest I went, hoping not to encounter any random battles.

- Of course, as fate would have it I ran straight into the teeth of an ambush designed to kill Leliana. My party was killed on my first attempt. I tried to power my way through, not realizing that mages were involved, and that proved fatal.

- On my second attempt I spotted the assassin leader on the ridge above me, and so tossed out two Mass Sleep spells to pacify everything in the area, and then proceeded to burn him down. This turned out to be an excellent tactic: reducing the leader to zero health triggered the end of the battle. Like I usually do, I spared hiss life, and then continued on to the forest.

Dalish Encampment

- Upon arriving at the Dalish encampment and being introduced to the main story line there my reaction was: Werewolves?!? Really?!? It seemed so cliché, and I was prepared to be disappointed by a one dimensional plot. Boy was I wrong.

- I accepted all of the side quests from the elves except for Cammen's whiny appeal for a wolf pelt to help him get a lady.

- Lanaya, the apprentice Keeper of the Dalish, struck me as extremely bipolar. Within a two minute timespan she went from friendly to hostile and then back again. My crime in her mind: accidentally clicking on a chest twice.

- I respected the Dalish chests and other lootables, and only picked the herbs in the camp. When I got to the vendor I went wild buying potions and crafting components.

Brecilian Forest

- Into the forest I went, and started slaying wolves, werewolves, and bears. Everything was going well until I stumbled across my first Wild Sylvan. I killed the tree-beast, but it startled the hell out of me.

- Along the way I found Danyla, the elven woman that I'd been asked to be on the look out for. Danyla had been turned into a werewolf and begged me for death, and also to conceal the nature of her fate from her husband. I obliged, and when I returned to Athras I lied about what had happened to his beloved. It was a very touching and heartfelt quest.

- The quest involving the Grand Oak Tree and the mad man was amusing. I allowed both to live, and instead traded for the acorn from the hermit in order to obtain the bark from the tree. Both NPCs were very well written and well voiced.


- I disrupted all of the grave sites I came across in order to obtain the Tevinter artifacts. The grave site on the hill above the old oak tree was particularly nasty, and I died a few times before finally pulling out a win.

Brecilian Ruins

- The ruins continued the type of action that I had come to expect from the forest, with some spiders thrown in for good measure. My ample crowd control more than made up for my lack of healing, and I powered through most trash mobs without needing to quaff a single potion.

- I should take a minute to gush over how much I love Leliana's rogue abilities. When exploring I usually control her so that I can detect any traps before blundering into them, and discover secret doors. It also makes it simple to loot as I go, since I can (finally) unlock every chest without needing to switch characters.

- When the dragon appeared I was initially scrambling to set my party up for a nasty battle, but the beast proved to be a push over. Sad.

- I released the Arcane Warrior from his prison, and learned the specialization. Fiona is now an Arcane Warrior, although she has none of the skills learned so far.


- I also solved the elven ritual in the ruins. I made a mistake on my first attempt, which was easily corrected by using a (rare) reload. From my notes: (1) get the jug from the fountain an fill it, (2) put the jug on the alter, pray, and then take a sip, (3) empty the jug back into the fountain. Behind the doorway that opened I tried to be respectful and talk to the spirit there, but was attacked anyways. I'm not sure if there is a "right" way to deal with her, but I didn't try beyond my first attempt.

- When I finally ran into the werewolves again I chose to parlay with the Lady of the Forest. After speaking with her, I decided to bring Zathrian to speak with the werewolves and (hopefully) lift the curse.

- Zathrian proved to be stubborn, and when I tried to force him to be reasonable he decided to attack me. The resulting fight went well, with only Leliana dying in the middle of the melee. I had Morrigan lock down Zathrian with whatever CC she could muster (usually Cone of Cold), while Fiona tried to control everything else.

- In the end Zathrian lifted the curse on the werewolves, who frustratingly left without rewarding me or offering me their help. Perhaps when the final battle comes they will resurface - we'll see.


- When I returned to the Dalish encampment with news of what had occurred I decided to lie to Lanaya about Zathrian's involvement with the curse, and instead led her to believe that he acted heroically. Total horse manure, but as I said earlier, she's bipolar and unpredictable.

And that is that. My next destination will be Orzammar, which I have heard is the hardest of the four major quests.

Taking a page out of Evizaer's book, here is a quick run down of the MMOs that I played during this calendar year. The list is awfully long, however there are only a small handful of games that I paid money for - the rest simply failed to sell me during their free period. In roughly chronological order, here they are:

World of Warcraft: I came into 2009 riding high on WoW. Wrath of the Lich King had just been released, and although my guild tore through Naxxramas startlingly quickly, Ulduar held a lot of promise in our minds. By May I was disenchanted with the changes to the game, and quit.

Warhammer Online: While struggling with Warcraft, I took Mythic up on their offer of a 10-day WAR trial in March. While I had a generally decent time in tier one, I did not feel that the game was worth the (at the time) $50 up front investment (plus recurring subscription fee).

Guild Wars: Early in the year I tried out a free Guild Wars trial, and after a few nights of play decided to abandon it. The game's instancing was too much for me, and since I didn't have a static group to play with I always felt alone in the world. Perhaps I'd like it more now, but at the time it was not what I was looking for.

Free Realms: I participated in the closed beta of Free Realms, and transitioned smoothly into the full game when it launched. I had a tonne of fun, paid $5 for a subscription, and played the heck out of the game..... for two or three weeks until it all started feeling old hat.

EVE Online: A couple weeks after dropping WoW I started a 14-day trial of EVE, largely due to the fact that my best friend is an avid player. While I started out having a good time with the game, I quickly learned to loathe the "click-and-wait" nature of the game's mechanics. Although the long game in EVE is fascinating to contemplate, the minute-to-minute game play feels like a chore, and is the worst I've experienced in any MMO to date.

Aion: I picked up a key to the first closed beta weekend, and put a fair amount of time into the game. It was obvious from the start that this was simply a pretty WoW clone, with very little inspiration behind it.

Metaplace: While Metaplace was not an MMO, it was an attempt at creating a virtual world builder. I was worried about the game early on, and sadly my initial fears came true just recently. There was no real game here.... just some user designed SNES-era sites to see.

Ryzom: I jumped into Ryzom and quickly fell in love with the world and the game's unique skill system; I even ponied up $10 for a one month subscription. Unfortunately as I got deeper into the game I started needing a group to progress safely, and there was no population to support it.

Fallen Earth: When the Fallen Earth beta came out I jumped all over it - finally, an MMO that was not set in a high fantasy world- excellent! I loved the tutorial, but once I finished that and got out into the open world I lost all interest in the title. I found the game to be a pointless grind with awkward feeling (although innovative) combat and some downright irritating jump animations. I only have so much patience for picking up random bits of junk and pasting them together.

Spellborn: After hearing mention of the Chronicles of Spellborn a few times, I downloaded the game and invested a good twenty hours into it. I was having a blast. Sadly, I got sucked into DDO and had to choose between the two games..... Spellborn lost. I enjoyed the combat, thought the questing structure was good, and think that I might have to fire this up again in the new year.

Dungeons & Dragons Online: As previously mentioned, DDO roared into my consciousness late in the year, mostly due to the allure of permadeath play. I played for two months (and bought $50 of Turbine points) before hitting a wall in early December, and haven't logged on since. With the busy holidays out of the way I'll probably make my way back to Eberron soon enough.

Wizard 101: Wizard 101 has been the only constant all year. I started playing the game in early 2009 and have played once a week with my 10 year old godson since then. I let him control our activities (for the most part), and we've worked our way up to level 20. I love the micropayment model that KingsIsle offers, and really enjoy my time in this game.

I've been unable to find a good chunk of time to blog over the past couple of days despite having both days off. What little "me time" I have managed to eke out has largely been spent playing a bit more Plants vs. Zombies and some casual web games.

For those of you not interested in minutia, feel free to stop reading here.... I intend to bullet-point blog my past couple of days because I'm not terribly certain how they evaporated so completely, and I'm in the mood for some pointless introspection.

- I returned home from my Christmas travels on Sunday afternoon, unpacked, and managed to pump out a blog post by early evening.

- At 8:30pm Sunday I left for an ultimate frisbee tournament, which lasted until 2:00am. We placed a somewhat dismal 6th (out of 8), however we didn't lose a game by more than three points which is ridiculously close for indoor ultimate. (In fact, we could have been fighting for first had we scored two more points in round robin pool play.) The tournament served as a harsh reminder why over-eating sucks.... having to run my ass off for hours was harder than it had to be.

- Monday morning was spent recovering from the previous night's exertions. Relatively pain-free awakening.... but my muscles let me know how much of an asshole they thought I was by the evening. My quads still ache something fierce just sitting here now.

- Monday afternoon started with brunch with my wife, followed by some grocery shopping with half of the damned city. Following that chore, we headed out to Future Shop and Best Buy, and ended up bringing home a new television to replace our aging 27" beast.

- Monday evening consisted of cleaning up the entertainment center, moving the old T.V. out of the way, and setting up the new PS3 and T.V. with the existing Wii.

- This morning started out with my daily dog walk at the off leash park. I had to scamper home by 10:00am in order to put in a couple of hours of Wizard101 with my godson. We plowed through a pile of Krokotopia quests, one small dungeon, and dinged level 20. Good times!

- After finishing with Wizard101, I queued up approximately ten PS3 demos for download (highlights: Dante's Inferno, Fat Princess, Zen Pinball, The Bigs, Bayonetta), and then took off to run some more errands. Blargh. When I got home I had an hour left before I had to pick up my wife, and so I squeezed in a bit of Dragon Age Origins. (I'll have a new write-up for that soon enough.)

- This evening was consumed by making dinner, and then ironing in front of the Canada-Slovakia IIHF hockey game. Once the score got up to 4-0 for Canada early in the second period I grew bored.... blow outs are no fun to watch.

That brings me to this post.... I suppose I'll click 'Publish', and then see about messing around with Plants vs. Zombies again for a half hour before bed. I have a date with my wife and Professor Layton at 10:00pm.

I'd like to say that regular blogging will return tomorrow, however Bill is coming over for a rare guy's day, and we plan on geeking out with some board games. At the very least we'll be playing Pandemic, Nexus Ops, and Memoir '44. Should be a blast.

Released by Popcap Games in May, Plants vs. Zombies caught a lot of core gamers off balance this spring, and proceeded to suck them in with its bizarre concept and quirky charm. The title is essentially a tower defense game that pits you and your gardening skills against a seemingly endless horde of undead across fifty levels.

The core concept is simple: at the start of each level you are shown the type of zombies that will be attacking you, and you must then select a limited number of plant types to defend yourself with. Plants are broken down into a number of different types: energy sources (which provide you with sunshine to plant more seeds), direct attackers (which pelt the incoming zombies), fortifications (which temporarily block zombies), special attackers, and one-time attacks/defenses. The sheer variety of available plants allows you to customize your garden however you would like, and prevents the game from becoming dull like most tower defense games inevitably do.

Actual game play starts off slowly, but rapidly builds to a frenetic click-a-thon, before (hopefully) subsiding to a measured pace by the end of each level as your well-placed defenses make mincemeat of the incoming horde. Quick, smart action is needed early on as you build up your battery of sunshine-generating plants that will power your entire operation, while fending off the first tentative zombie attacks. This delicate balance takes a bit of practice to achieve, but after you've played a few levels you will get a feel for how long you can put off planting attackers while the zombies are shambling towards you.


The tempo of each level ramps up quickly, and before long you will be gathering sunshine and fortifying your yard rapidly in order to have sufficient defenses in place for the first (of up to four) huge waves of zombies. Waves are where the real danger in each level lies, and it often pays to save enough sunshine to use your area of effect one-time-use plants at the beginning of these dangerous assaults in order to thin the herd to a more manageable level. Assuming you go into each level with a plan in mind, you will eventually reach a point where all of your static defenses are in place, and you can concentrate on using your one-time attack plants to control hot spots and keep the zombies in check. With skill (and sometimes a dab of luck) the last zombie will fall dead before any of them can get to your house.

To add a layer of complexity to the game, periodically you will see money or gems drop on the play field that you can click on to collect. This money, as well as the bonus that you receive for completing each level, can be used to buy new plants, more plant slots, special defenses, and all manner of tools for the zen garden mini game. This currency mini-game is completely optional, but totally addictive - it's tough to resist picking up the money as it appears, and saving up for the next big purchase.


As if this all wasn't enough, every few levels the game will throw a curve ball at you, and present you with a level that has you defending your garden playing a variety of different mini-games. These range from whack-a-mole game play to planting defenses without having control over the plants that you have to work with. Every ten levels the zombies switch their attacks, and you go from defending your front yard, to your back yard, and finally your roof. Each different area presents different challenges, and with the exception of the roof each must be defending in both the day and the night. (Mushrooms become available for use during the night, but the sun doesn't shine.)

If this still isn't enough to satisfy you, completing the main game mode unlocks the first of a huge pile of mini games, that allow you to earn more money to keep playing. There is an incredible amount of content packed into this gem of a game.

Plants vs. Zombies is an absolute blast to play, and everything from the playful graphics to the crazy plants and zombies showcases the wacky sense of humor that underpins this wonderful title. As I said in a previous blog article: I don't like zombies, don't enjoy tower defense games, and don't play Popcap Games..... but I love Plants vs. Zombies anyways!

Final note: Steam has Plants vs. Zombies on for $7.49 as a part of their Christmas sale, so if you haven't played it but want to give it a shot, now is a great time to buy.

Hope that everyone had a great Christmas this year, enjoyed the time with their family, and received some neat new toys. In my case my beautiful wife decided to resolve my console quandary for me:

Also note the awesome board game in the background. That was great fun tonight as well!

When it as released two months ago, Runic Games' Torchlight caught a lot of people off guard, and proceeded to blow them clear off of their feet. Although many bloggers have long since burned through one or two play throughs of the title, I only just finished my first two days ago. Torchlight, to me, was the perfect pick-and-and-play game, and I interwove sessions of the game between my Dragon Age Origins marathons. It is a great way to kill half an hour due to the low commitment required to play: simply fire up the game and kill stuff. What could be simpler?

Torchlight - which was put together in eleven months by a lot of the same people who produced the first two Diablo games - hearkens back to my high school and early university days. Despite the amazing success of the Diablo franchise there have been relatively few action RPG titles released in the intervening years (and those that have come out have been lackluster).

My Play through
Since individual opinions on a game like Torchlight may vary based on how the player chose to approach the title, I feel that it is important to lay my decisions out front. I played the game on the "Hard" setting and chose an Alchemist as my character. All but one of my skill points was sunk into the "Lore" (pet) tree, and so by the end of the game I was toting around six imps and two golems in addition to my Lynx.

The Good
Let's not beat around the bush here: Torchlight is an excellent hack and slash romp that can suck you in, and, if you're not careful, devour your soul. The core game play of this title is pure distilled fun; click on your enemies to unleash all manner of outlandish attacks and then collect mounds of loot. Within minutes of starting the game I could see that Runic Games had taken everything good about Diablo, ramped it up a notch, and then added a glossy layer of candy-coating over the entire package for good measure.

The graphics in this game are very well done. Like World of Warcraft, Torchlight has a cartoony art style that serves two purposes: it looks great and it runs smoothly on older systems. While some Diablo fans might want a grittier atmosphere, in my opinion the more light-hearted design does not detract from the overall experience.


Dungeon crawling forms the bulk of the game play, and it is implemented fantastically. Controls are simple, and for the most part all you will be doing is clicking to move, clicking to attack, and pressing a few hotkeys to quaff potions and use less common abilities. Simplicity is a boon here; no one wants their killing spree to be interrupted by complex clicks and arcane short cuts. Smash skull, loot corpse, repeat.

The Bad
Of course, like any game Torchlight is not all sunshine and roses. There were a few things that bothered me while playing that I just could not let go of, especially near the end of the game.

First and foremost is the sheer amount of gear that drops from the hordes of enemies that you dispatch. It won't take long for you to fill your bags up, and then you will need to offload stuff to your pet and send it back to down to liquidate the crap. In general this gear shuffling is necessary at least once per dungeon level, and often times more.


The sheer quantity of gear would be less irritating if such a huge percentage of it was not pure unmitigated crap. For every two hundred items that you pick up off the floor, you might find a use for one. Everything else is vendor trash, and that can get a little cumbersome. Thankfully it doesn't take long to skim an item's stats and decide whether or not it's an upgrade.

My other gripe stems from my choice of character. Game play for a lore-heavy Alchemist becomes extremely degenerate and boring from level twenty onwards. The type of Alchemist that I built was extremely dependent on his pets to the point where he could barely kill a single trash mob on his own. Even after pumping up my dexterity and gun skill, my best tactic was to maintain my two pet buffs and spam Fear to keep mobs away from me at all times. Stopping to attack with my weapons was neither viable nor safe in the end game, and so I became a simple accessory for my imps and golems. I cannot speak for other classes, but I'm assuming that this sort of poor late game mechanics are isolated to relatively few builds.

In summary
Despite those two complaints my overall experience with Torchlight was extremely positive, and I am looking forward to giving the game another play through with a different class sometime soon. If anyone has recommendations for exciting and engaging builds, I'd love to hear them.

Steam has unleashed their Christmas sale on an unsuspecting audience, and it's a doozy! The sheer number of games that are on sale should be enough to satisfy anyone; there are easily a hundred titles with their prices slashed (and often deeply). Unfortunately, the two games that I immediately looked into are both sitting at full price: neither Zuma's Revenge or Darkest of Days is on sale right now. I shall bide my time. I'm good at the waiting game.

Unfortunately the question that I asked back in June was answered last night: Metaplace will not survive its beta phase and will be closing its doors permanently on January 1, 2010. When I first visited Raph Koster's venture back in June I was met by desolate worlds. Seeing only 47 users online at a single time was not uncommon, and as I continued to visit over the course of the next few months things did not appear to be picking up - in fact the population appeared diminished with each new visit.

Its a shame: I really like what Metaplace was trying to achieve - empowering people to build their own virtual worlds in order to hang out, show off, host event, and socialize is a great concept. Unfortunately, creating anything more complex than a simple decorated room was complicated (for a casual user like myself), and I gave up trying after not too long. Still - I loved the ability to embed worlds in a browser, and I used that technology extensively when I highlighted my favorite worlds over the course of a few months.

In the end the product's largest failing was that the technology felt too old. Metaplace graphics were reminiscent of those that you would find in the early SNES era, which is not good when the other big offering in the virtual world building space is full 3D. (And being web-based in no excuse in a world that contains things like Quake Live.) Additionally, the responsiveness of the Metaplace platform was often lacking, and I remember having to wait for the screen to fully render for up to thirty seconds at a time, and then visibly clunk along loading new tiles as I moved my avatar around the screen.

Hopefully Raph and the other Metaplace developers will bounce back from this, learn from their experiences, and wow us with their next project.

From reading gaming blogs and listening to video game podcasts it is clear that people choose to spend their money in different ways when it comes to investing in their entertainment. Some folks feel compelled to buy every game as soon it comes out, trusting that the pre-release buzz is accurate, while others take a much more conservative approach, doing their homework before dropping any of their hard-earned cash.

Personally I find that I am a confused shopper: if a game is released in a franchise that I'm a fan of (e.g. Final Fantasy) then I can't get my credit card out of my pocket fast enough, however for any other game I am slow to invest, and often wait for a public consensus to form - or better yet a sale - before buying it.

Day One Purchases
I can count on one hand the number of games that I bought on the first day that they were released this calendar year: Dragon Age Origins and Torchlight. Interestingly enough, the two were picked up for completely different reasons.

Dragon Age Origins exemplifies a fanboy purchase: I am a big RPG fan (and have been since my NES days) and I enjoyed the Baldur's Gate series back when they were released. In a rare move, I actually preordered Dragon Age from the local Electronics Boutique, and picked it up the first day that it was available.

Torchlight, on the other hand, was bought for a reason that may seem odd to readers who do not also have their own blog: I wanted to be a part of the conversation. In the lead up to Torchlight's release the game was getting overwhelmingly positive press from a number of sources that I trusted, and for a change I wanted to be able to read and write about a game as it was being consumed by the community, instead of months afterward.

In both cases I put my money forward with no assurance that the game that I was buying was actually going to be enjoyable to me; I put my faith in the developers and the community that these products would be solid fun, and thankfully they delivered in spades. Decisions like this are never easy ones for me to make, however.

The Waiting Game
My default mode of operation when buying a game is to wait for a while before buying it. Since my money is valuable to me I do not want to get stuck with a game that promises to be fun, but utterly fails to deliver. This has happened enough times in the past that I'm always wary.

When a game comes out that I'm interested in I'll usually do a few things:

• Play a demo, if one is available. If it is, I'll have enough information to make an informed decision - if not, I have some more work to do.
  
• Devour and blog/podcast commentary on the game, filtering by commentator's that I've learned to trust.
• Check Metacritic for the average score, and read a couple of high and low reviews to get a feel for the various opinions.
• Check the Gamers With Jobs forum for some further opinion if I'm still on the fence.
  

While that may seem like a lot of work for a single decision, the last thing I want is to waste even more time and money on a bad game, or something that is not up my alley.

If my research does not convince me that the game is worth full price (and, in my opinion, precious few games are!) then I will jot its name down on a list, and start to watch for it to be discounted either online or in the stores.

Crimes of Opportunity
The rise of Internet video games retailers and the cutthroat competition between them has led to a third type of purchase decision: the fire sale purchase. Between Steam, Direct2Drive, and Impulse there are always a good half dozen or more games deeply discounted at any given time, and the sales are constantly being updated. The shopper in me just cannot resist seeing a game that I'm vaguely interested going on sale for $5, and as a result my backlog has grown to an unreasonable size in just a few short months. Sadly I can't seem to find any self control.... and maybe that's not such a bad thing since I'm refraining from most $60 purchases on day one.

Taking a page out of Sunmurma's book, here is a list of twenty songs that I really enjoyed this year. Not all were released in '09, but my first experience with each of them came during this calendar year.

All of these artists are Canadian and all but one are on independent labels, so you haven't heard of any of these songs.... well, that should explain why. Much like independent video games, it would be a crying shame if you just assumed that music produced by unsigned artists was somehow inferior to the stuff churned out by the big boys. Canadian indie music is booming right now, and you'd be cheating yourself if you didn't click through and take a listen to at least a few of these tunes.

Clicking on any of the links will take you to a site where you can listen to the track as well as browse other tunes by the same artist.

#20: Said the Whale - Camilo (The Magician) - A powerpop track that's heavy on the guitar. The chorus to this song has an annoying habit of getting lodged in my brain, and taking hours to get out.

#19: Shout Out Out Out Out - Remind me in Dark Times - Described as "dance punk", Shout Out Out Out Out never fails to produce interesting tracks that reverberate with me on a primal level. This particular song slowly builds over the course of a minute, but becomes riveting as soon as the distorted vocals kick in.

#18: Beast - Mr. Hurricane - A powerful track that boldly blurs the line between rap, funk, and electronica, with some gospel-like elements thrown in for good measure. Undefinable perfection.

#17: K'naan - Dreamer - As a rule I'm not into hip hop, but Somolian-born rapper K'naan forces me to make an exception. I had a tough time picking just one of his songs from his list, because they're all so catchy, political, and reminiscent. His upbringing shines through his music, a bright beacon of hope for all of us.

#16: Coeur de Pirate - Commes des Enfants - You don't need to understand French to fall in love with Béatrice Martin's music - every song is heartbreakingly beautiful. This folksy tune often rolls through my head despite having lost most of my French more than a decade ago.

#15: The Eatons - Firestarter - Candy-coated alt rock... that's how I'd describe this song, and I mean that as a good thing. I dare you to listen and not bob your head throughout the song, the infectious drumming just makes it too hard to resist.

#14: Gonzales - Working Together - I have no idea what genre to pigeonhole Gonzales into, and this song does nothing to resolve my confusion. It's campy - but in a good way - and playful in the extreme. Everyone should have this much fun.

#13: Pony da Look - Flatlands - Creepy: that's the only way to describe the music of this all girl band. Close your eyes as you listen and I'm sure you'll be transported to the dark world described by this song.

#12: Metric - Sick Muse - Of all of the bands on this list, Metric is by far the biggest, and one of only two that I have ever heard on a main stream radio station. There's no denying how well suited this alt rock number is for Emily Haines' stellar vocals: it just rocks.

#11: Chad VanGaalen - Willow Tree - If you listen to this folksy little number while distracted you'll probably come away thinking it's a quaint little uplifting tune. If you listen to it again, this time paying close attention to the lyrics, you'll realize how morbid it actually is.

#10: Justin Rutledge - Greenwich Time - I don't like country music - in fact I despise the majority of it. This tune is a rare exception; the smooth vocals and unassuming guitar and drum beats slowly build into an compelling sing-along-at-the-top-of-your-lungs chorus. I can never help myself.

#9: Final Fantasy - The Butcher - Owen Pallett sings and plays violin. That doesn't sound too compelling, does it? Well, give this one a listen and I think you'll side with me in believing that the violin rocks.

#8: Dan Mangan - Robots - Winner of this year's CBC Radio 3 Bucky Awards for Best Song, Dan Mangan's music - and particularly Robots - is perfectly suited for his gravelly voice. Robots need love too, you know.

#7: illScarlett - Nothing Special - You're going to have to take my word for it that "Nothing Special" is an amazing song (assuming that you're not adverse to a bit of ska) because I can't find a free version of it online (likely because illScarlett signed with Sony for this album). Here's a link to the equally awesome "Take it for Granted" from the band's website.

#6: The Weakerthans - Tournament of Hearts - This band has been around for a long time, churning out record after stellar record. Catchy in the extreme, I love the take on alt rock that The Weakerthans bring to the table: a little more sugar, a little less grit. (Plus, what other band would write a song from the perspective of a cat?)

#5: Stars - The Night Starts Here - What I love most about the pop sounds of the Stars is that nearly every song is a duet. Torquil Campbell's smooth voice compliments the gorgeous vocals of Amy Millan, and the result is always something beautiful, intimate, and often tinged with a hint of melancholy.

#4: Holy Fuck -Lovely Allen - Give this one a minute to build, and then just sit back and bask in the sheer perfection of the complex beats and melodies that stitch together this acoustic masterpiece. Then consider that Holy Fuck shuns the use of computers, drum machines, or other such instruments when crafting their songs - they're just incredibly talented musicians.

#3: Creature - Alive - Depending on who you talk to, Creature either plays "dance punk" or "alt pop"; whichever label you prefer, this song is pretty much pure distilled awesomeness. The lyrics serve as punctuation for the groovy beats that will get your blood pumping.

#2: Tokyo Police Club - Tesselate - This was my summer song; I remember driving home many a night, adrenaline still buzzing after a game of ultimate frisbee, with the windows rolled down and Tesselate pouring into the warn evening air. This band deserves every bit of recognition that they gathered all year, which included an appearance on the Late Show with Letterman.

#1: Elliot Brood - Without Again - Alt country? Banjo rock? Death Country? Whatever these guys play its a mind-blowing combination of foot-stomping beats, plucky strings, skillful harmonica, and raspy vocals. I keep meaning to catch an Elliot Brood show when they roll through town, but so far have missed each one. Definitely my favorite artist right now.

Hope you've enjoyed listening to these tunes as much as I have had writing about them!

Warning: This article contains spoilers. I would, however, appreciate if you did not spoil anything beyond the point of the game that I discuss.

Areas spoiled: The Circle Tower

Previous articles: 1, 2, 3, 4

Play time over the past couple of weeks has been limited, however I was recently able to get Fiona through the entire Mage Tower story line. It helps that this particular segment of the plot was a heck of a lot shorter than the Redcliffe story arc. In total I spent five hours liberating the Circle, which brings my total time played up to twenty-seven hours.

Since I've complained about gearing for my mages in the past, it is worth pointing out that the Mage Tower gave me a lot of opportunity to re-outfit both my main character and Morrigan. I broke down and put helms on both of them, although I feel they look utterly ridiculous; you can't argue with the stats though. One thing I will not do is change Morrigan's robes away from the set that she came with; some lines are not meant to be crossed!

My starting party was Fiona, Morrigan, Leliana, and Alistair.

Random thoughts and observations, as always, follow.

On the Lower Floors

- Upon arriving at Lake Calenhad Docks and bullying my way onto the island and into the Circle Tower I encountered Gregoir, the Templar-Commander who I pissed off so badly when I helped Jowan during my origins story. My loathing for the man was quickly replaced with pity as I realized that he was a sniveling whiner, just like Alistair. Perhaps this cry baby attitude is fostered in the ranks of the Templars? Or maybe it's a side affect of lyrium addiction.

- Seeing that the Templars were beyond useless, I decided to take matters into my own hands and search for surviving mages myself. It wasn't long before I stumbled across Wynne and, without realizing what I was doing, accepted her offer of help. The game immediately forced me to bench another party member, and in disgust I chose Morrigan. I hadn't wanted a healer for my play through and have specifically avoided giving either of my mages restorative spells.

- The summoning puzzle(s) were simple and tedious. In doing them I got annoyed with having to open my codex over and over again to figure out what to do - I couldn't seem to locate a hotkey or setting to take me straight to the information.

- Somewhere along the way I fought a group of blood mages, and when I was presented the opportunity to spare the life of one of them, I did so. I still have a soft spot for all magic users. Despite pitching a royal fit the last time that I showed friendly inclinations towards a blood mage, Alistair remained silent this time. Maybe he's gotten used to me flaunting his wishes.

- The sense of heightened corruption with each new room in the Circle Tower was really well done. The changes were subtle at first, but by the end were gloriously grotesque.

On the Fade

- The encounter with the sloth demon was downright creepy, and instead of an epic battle I was surprised to find myself enthralled and alone in a section of the Fade. Nice twist.

- It didn't take long to figure out how obscenely overpowered the mage I've built is - the ability to pop off Cone of Cold, Paralysis, Horror, Sleep, and Mass Paralysis all in rapid fire sequence (if necessary) is disgusting. Despite fighting solo for much of the Fade, I only every had to engage a single enemy at a time.... and it was usually immobilized. I'm surprised how well my crowd control build turned out.

- Swapping staves on the fly proved to be very useful. Demons in the fade are susceptible to either fire or ice attacks, and resistant to the opposite element.

- Cone of Cold followed by Stonefist is ridiculous. I can one-shot anything aside from a named elite or boss.

- I heard a few complaints about the Fade sequence on the last episode of The Combobulater, however I found the details that the host was annoyed with to be overstated. Particularly, Emeny had railed against the shape changing, claiming that it took a few seconds to swap forms. In truth it took at most one second to shift, which was more than acceptable. Personally I think the entire section was well done, and a lot of fun.

- The final battle against the Sloth demon in the center of the Fade was somewhat confusing. The demon died a number of times and then immediately resurrected in a one of two different forms. When I finally killed him I was beginning to wonder if I was doing something wrong because he kept respawning. The entire fight was trivialized by the two lyrium veins in the middle of the arena that allowed me to periodically refresh my mana.


On the Upper Floors

- Upon escaping the fade I went back to killing a mix of blood mages and demons room by room in the Tower. Aside from one encounter with a slavering corpse and an Arcane Horror I made it through without dying. That damned horror killed me a good three times though.

- The encounter with Templar Cullen was awkward. He's the guy who had hit on my character within five minutes of the game starting, and he gushed about his emotions to me from behind a demon's force field.

- Somewhere near the top of the tower it struck me that this entire plot arc was very reminiscent of a Harry potter novel. An order of mages infiltrated by practitioners of dark magic who decide to revolt? Hmmm.....

- The Harry Potter parallels were hammered home when I encountered Uldred. Not only does the man sound like Serverus Snape, but he looks a hell of a lot like Voldemort! The fact that he was torturing First Enchanter Irving didn't do anything to dispel the effect.

- Upon completing the main tower quest line I told Wynne to stay with the tower, and had Morrigan rejoin my party. My healer-less journey can now continue unimpeded!

- I never solved the 'Watchguard of the Reaching' side quest in the tower. Although I thought I knew the order to click the statues in the Grand Hall, I could never get it to work. Owain, who is mentioned in the codex entries that support the quest, is curiously missing after the Circle Tower is cleansed and so I'm wondering if hunting him down is a key to the puzzle. I could look the solution up in a FAQ, but I've resolved not to do anything like that.


Next up: some side quests and then the Brecilian Forest. I'd also love to locate Jowan, who the Arl of Redcliffe had allegedly shipped off to the Circle Tower.

I've been a Final Fantasy fanboy since Square released the very first version for the NES two decades ago. When I heard the news that they were accepting sign-ups for the open beta, I immediately rushed to the submission page to put my name in the hat.

I'd like to point out a couple of recent podcasts that have topics that may be of interest to readers:

Active Time Babble, ep. IV
World of Warcraft fans will want to tune in for the interview with Greg Street (aka Ghostcrawler, Lead System Designer) and Cory Stockton (Lead Content Designer) of Blizzard. The 1Up crew discuss the Cataclysm expansion with the developers in a fair bit of detail, including the motivation behind many of the design decisions that were made. The interview can be found at the top of the podcast, and runs for twenty minutes or so. (The remainder of the show is spent discussing Dragon Age in a relatively spoiler free manner - I only had to fast forward once.)

Gamers With Jobs, ep. 166
The guys discuss "dickishness" in online discussions about video games, which is something that plagues many forums and blogs. Not only do they go through the various types of jerks that you will find online, but they also take a stab at explaining why people can react so viscerally to seemingly meaningless and frivolous topics. The main take-away: don't be a dick.

My apologies for the lack of commentary over the past two weeks. My gaming time has been more limited than usual (due in part to the busy nature of the Christmas season), and what time I have had for gaming has been divided amongst so many titles that there is no coherence to my activities.

In lieu of posting something insightful, here are the games that I have played in the past two weeks (excluding that awful demo, an amazing flash game, and some wicked Mario action). This list is always available in the upper-right hand corner of the blog.

Dragon Age: Origins - I'm still chugging along, but I have a hard time playing DA:O unless I know that I'll have more than an hour to myself. I love to immerse myself in the experience, and that is impossible for me to do without a good chunk of free time. Expect another post on my journeys soon.

Torchlight - I'm rapidly approaching the end of Runic Games' fun little romp. I use this title as a pick-up-and-play game when I know that I don't have a lot of time available. It's been fun enough, but like Diablo I know that it won't suck me into endless replays.

Plants vs Zombies - I don't like tower defense games. I'm not a PopCap fan. I think that zombies are dumb. And yet despite all of these negative predispositions, I'm absolutely in love with this game. Go figure.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village - My wife wanted to try this game out, and so I picked up a copy from EB Games for next to nothing. Almost every night before going to sleep she cuddles up on my shoulder and we solve a few puzzles together - it's a really nice end to the day.

A Boy and His Blob - Another wife-game. We've been slowly working our way through this wonderful remake of a childhood memory for about a month now, and are in no rush to reach the end. The game succeeds on so many levels, and I'm dreading finishing with it.

Wizard101 - I'm still playing this MMO weekly with my godson, although last week's romp had to be called off due to an unexpected trip to the hospital. (He's okay.)

Roguelikes - I have an on-again, off-again love affair with roguelikes, and recently I've been feeling the urge to play one again. I've dabbled with Triangle Wizard and Slash'EM, and intend to try out Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup in about five minutes.

Noticeably absent from this list is:

Dungeons & Dragons Online - I want to play DDO, but like Dragon Age it is a game that I feel I cannot play unless I have a solid chunk of time set aside for it. Unfortunately for DDO, this means that it is in direct competition with DA:O and that is not a fight that an MMO will ever win. Thankfully DDO is free to play, and so I'm not throwing money away by not logging on - my Turbine points aren't going anywhere.

As I mentioned last week, on Saturday my wife and I trekked over to Bill's place to visit with him and his wife, and we brought along a sealed copy of New Super Mario Bros Wii for the evening's entertainment.

After their twins went to bed at 8pm we had a couple of hours to do battle. Here are some memorable highlights, in no particular order:

- My epic "win", which involved using one less continue than Bill's wife. Bill actually used the most continues, although my wife did an awful lot of hiding in bubbles to prevent herself from having to die on the tricky jumping sections.

- The initial mad rushes to steal as many power-ups from the item blocks as possible, which eventually gave way to trying to share the rewards as the levels got trickier.

- The first time someone discovered how to pick up another player. Even better, the first time someone figured out how to throw someone into a pit. (It was Bill, and he accidentally threw my wife to her doom, and was so mortified that he pleaded for forgiveness.)

- The first time I managed to throw Bill's wife into a pit. Muhahahaha!

- The chaotic nastiness that the fortresses and castles represent. Wow, they can be tough with four people jumping around.

- Bill's inability to tell Luigi and Mario appart when both had the ice flower power-up.

- Bill's wife and I trying to leap over a pit of lava at the same time. She managed to get a tiny bit higher than I did, and so headstomped me into the pit, but flew up into a Thwomp and died as a result. Hilarity ensued.

- The desperate cooperation after wiping on a fortress for the second time. Impassioned pleas for a player to play safe whenever the other three were dead or bubbled.

- Bill and his wife dying to the same Thwomp three or four times in a row.

- Cake at the half way mark. (Not a lie.)

- After spending the entire first boss battle in a bubble for safety, my wife exiting her bubble and using me as a springboard to grab the magic wand as it descended.

- Accidentally picking each other up whenever we had the pinwheel hat. Screaming at each other to knock it off.

- Bill's wife picking me up, and then jumping in a pool of lava to kill us both.

- Bill and I cooperating to kill the second boss by taking turns stomping him. We did this in response to wiping on the boss our previous attempt due to everyone trying to stomp him at the same time.

- Bill and his wife teaming up to kill me by advancing the screen on a sand level where I had to wait for a geyser.

- Laughing so hard it hurt. Repeatedly.


All in all, the New Super Mario Bros. Wii is an absolute riot when four friends play. Although I'm sure I'll have a great time single player, I cannot wait for the next time I get to play some "co-op". My next chance will be when I head to my parent's place for Christmas - my brothers and I have a match scheduled in between wild bouts of table tennis.

In search of a game to serve as a counterpoint to my recent Dragon Age adventures, a few days ago I set my sights on a first person shooter that had been released on Steam last month.

Painkiller: Resurrection
Painkiller: Resurrection is a badly named mess of a first person shooter that makes you want to immediately turn off your PC just to make the pain stop. It's truly atrocious, and I wish I were exaggerating.

The hour that I sunk into Painkiller was one hour too many, and I should have taken the hint during the tortured monologue that forms the game's introduction that I was about to set foot in a low budget FPS. While the comic book style art during the introductory sequence is nice to look at, the voice actor ruins the effect; he sounds like he is reading his cue cards for the first time as he stumbles through his lines (or perhaps given the content he was forced to work with, maybe he just wanted the hurting to stop). The games protagonist is (allegedly) a cold blooded assassin who goes out of his way to tell the player how much he enjoys murdering people - well, except when it's by accident - who dies trying to save some unintended victims of one of his schemes, is sent to hell, and then has to kill a whole bunch of monsters to redeem his soul. Riveting stuff, I know.

Graphically, Painkiller: Resurrection is run of the mill - it neither excites nor disappoints. The first level is set in a demon-infested cathedral that, architecturally speaking, seems to be extremely non-functional as a place of worship. As a deathmatch arena, on the other hand, the cathedral makes perfect sense. Enemies within the demo consist of a couple types of demon which are reminiscent of the old Doom games. The music is done well, as are the weapon sound effects. On the other hand, the main character constantly blurts out one of three or four different phrases as he kills enemies. For example: "This is madness!" or, "Die!". It gets annoying and repetitive in a hurry.


I could forgive lackluster aesthetics if the game was fun to play, however it most certainly was not. Like most FPS games, your avatar has health and armor and can pick up a variety of weapons and ammunition from the environment or defeated enemies. The weapons I came across in the demo were the starting weapon (which can shoot an odd projectile that lodges in the scenery when fired, and then can be retracted later on to hit enemies in a straight line) and a shotgun/grenade launcher combination. Nothing too bad here yet.

What drove me absolutely insane was the complete lack of game balance. Enemies in the starting zone hit for roughly a quarter of your life if they land a melee or ranged attack. Unfortunately for you, most health boosts that you can find restore a single point of health (of your total 125) when you pick them up. Much rarer are health boosters that seem to restore half of your total hit points. This means that if you get hit, unless you're lucky enough to find a rare big health pack, you will be unable to recovering those lost hit points for a long time. This becomes a problem quickly.

Furthermore, the developers of Painkiller: Resurrection seem to have a fetish that involves spawning hordes of enemies behind a player immediately after they clear a section of a level. This is extremely obnoxious, and smacks of immature game design. While I fully support attacking the player when he least expects it, it is asinine to habitually spawn packs of demons behind a player five seconds after an area is cleared. Before long I was more worried about areas I'd just cleared than I was of the unknown areas in front of me, and that's not a fun feeling.

As a final note, the most ridiculous aspect of the game is the frequency with which enemies fly apart into hunks of unidentifiable bloody meat. I have not seen gibs done so childishly since the days of Quake 1, and even the over-the-top gibs in Rise of the Triad at least had some distinguishing features to them. Not so in Painkiller - gibs fly out in the exact same compass directions every time, and disappear into the ether as quickly as they arrived. It's just bizarre to watch.


In closing, stay far far away from Painkiller: Resurrection; even the free demo is simply not worth your time or bandwidth. As an FPS game it manages to fail on almost every level, and the sense of immaturity that pervades the title will be unappealing for anyone who has graduated primary school.

Steam: link
Demo parameters: one level
Release date: Now
Cost: $29.99

So I have to wonder.... given all of the recent hoopla, will the developers of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 just go ahead and add in a Hot Coffee easter egg to their game?

This coming Saturday an epic battle will be taking place over at Bill's house. My wife and I are heading over for dinner and some gaming, and we'll be bringing a sealed copy of the New Super Mario Bros Wii with us. I picked the game up last night at a local Electronics Boutique, and it will remain in its packaging until we are ready to fire it up for some four person mayhem. No one can have any practice, you see.

We could play the game cooperatively, but even if we set out with that in mind there is no way that peace will last.

The battle lines are already drawn; in some respects the battle lines have been entrenched for close to a decade. The main combatants will be myself and Bill's wife, however the two of us will form frequent temporary truces to kill off Bill - just because we can - while my wife will be left more or less alone to wreak whatever havoc she feels like. It usually works that way no matter what video game the four of us play - Boom Blox was the most recent example, but Mario Kart Wii and a variety of Mario Party games exhibited many of the same tendencies. There's just something fun about beating the hell out of Bill... what can I say? (And besides, I'd rather not poison my own marriage by picking on my wife.)

I look forward to a few hours of laughing at our juvenile antics, cursing each other out, and playing a good old fashioned platformer.

The 2009 releases are all but finished, with only a few stragglers left to trickle out the door in the run up to Christmas. It was a damned fine year for gaming, at least in my opinion, and happily the future looks bright as well.

Below is a list of the games slated to be released in 2010 that I'm looking at with an eye towards purchasing. A few of these would be day one buys, but the vast majority would wait until the price drops; gaming is so much more affordable if you have patience, especially with all of the digital distributors constantly running insane sales.

Role playing games
Mass Effect 2 (PC, January 26)
Final Fantasy XIII (Ps3, March 9) - This game almost ensures I buy the system
Golden Sun 3 (DS)
Dragon Quest IX (DS)

FPS games
Bioshock 2 (PC, February 9) - I'm worried a sequel will lack the magic of the original
Half-life 2: Episode 3 (PC) - Not announced, but can Valve really go another year without it?

MMOs
Final Fantasy XIV (PS3) - Only if no subscription required

Other games
Dante's Inferno (PS3, February 9) - Despite the offensive advertising, I'm intrigued
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising (PC)

And, of course, any interesting indie games that make their way to Steam and just beg to be played. It's going to be another great year.

Warning: This article contains spoilers. I would, however, appreciate if you did not spoil anything beyond the point of the game that I discuss.

Areas spoiled: Denerim Market, Haven, The Hidden Temple

Previous articles: 1, 2, 3

Finally, a new look for Fiona. After leaving the Circle of Magi in the first hours of the game, I was finally able to acquire some new mage robes that suit Fiona's renegade nature far better than the conservative starter gear. This particular set was picked up from a vendor in Denerim and although I found it hideous at first it has had time to grow on me.

I have now played approximately twenty-four hours of Dragon Age Origins, and I'm still enjoying every minute of it. I'd probably be much farther along if I could consistently find blocks of one hour or more with which to play - I just can't justify firing the title up if I know I'll be online for any less than that.

On the Denerim Market

- On my way to Denerim I was ambushed by Zevran, the Antivan Crow assassin, who I beat down handily. After the battle I was greatly amused by his banter and allowed him to join my party despite the fact that he immediately tried to get in bed with me. (Not to mention Alistair's sullen pouting - I swear, Alistair is a spoiled child who hates not getting things his own way.)

- Upon entering Denerim I decided to switch up my party, and ran with Fiona, Alistair, Morrigan, and Rascal (my Mabari warhound). This meant benching Leliana who had been under-performing in my opinion, despite being useful as a lock pick.

- The Denerim market contains some great NPCs. From the delusional Chantry matron who keeps mixing up her scriptures with food references, to the eccentric smith Wade, to Master Ignacio and Sergeant Kylon, the entire zone is brimming with character.

- Speaking of Ignacio, I decided not to take him up on his offer of work. I've no interest in going out of my way to be an assassin.

- I was extremely irritated by the bizarre and repetitive card game that you play with Isabela to learn the Duelist class. I never did figure out how to win; it seemed like dumb luck with no chance to influence the outcome. Perhaps only warriors can win?

- The Blood Mage house in the center of Denerim was a shock to the system. I found myself having to beat strategic retreats on a frequent basis to avoid being slaughtered, and pulling technique seemed to become increasingly important as the instance wore on. The final boss was nasty, and whenever I let crowd control slip on him something bad happened - I barely got through that fight, and only Morrigan survived.

- The first time you get hit by a fireball in Dragon Age it'll scare the hell out of you. Especially if you don't see it coming because the mage is hiding in a room off to the side. Ouch.

- Tactically, I also had to learn to use "Hold Position" instead of "Free Move" when battling through the Blood Mage enclosure. This because very useful in all future battles.

On Haven

- After completing all of the Denerim Market quests I made my way to Haven to see about finding Brother Genitivi. I rearranged my party again before leaving because the lack of a rogue was driving me mental: Alistair was left at home in favor of Leliana, which left Rascal to tank.

- The atmosphere in the town of Haven is creepy - especially when the young boy recites his long rhyming chant. Very well done.

- Given the atmosphere, it didn't take long to pull back the curtains on the delusional cult that had set up shop in the town. (Not that the normal Chantry isn't delusional - but the citizens of Haven took it to a whole new level.) I killed the shopkeeper in self defense to discover the slain Redcliffe Knight, and then the entire town was on top of me. It was a bit odd that killing one man behind closed doors could illicit such an immediate response, but that's RPGs for you....

On The Hidden Temple

- After clearing out the Chantry in Haven I finally was able to meet Brother Genetivi, who turned out to be a shifty fanatic who has stary eyes for the Urn of Sacred Ashes due to its significance to the Chantry. I didn't trust him from the start, and was as evasive as possible every time I had to speak with him.

- Annoyingly, the game decided to teleport me up the mountain to The Hidden Temple. I would have rather walked, thank you.

- The encounters within the Hidden Temple were fairly straight forward, with a good mix of magic users and melee soldiers sent in to harass you. Drakes and Ash Wraiths also occasionally appeared, but since both are significantly hindered by frost effects my two ice-focused mages made quick work of them.

- It is probably worth mentioning that I still have no healer in my party, and neither of my mages can use even the lowest level healing spell. This is intentional - I have no desire to min-max my characters away from the ideas that I had for them when I started the game. So far healing potions have kept me afloat, and I just CC as much as possible while DPSing everything down quickly.

- After killing Kolgrim at the back of the temple (his offer was a little too lunatic to be considered) I headed onto the mountain top and used the horn he dropped to summon the so-called reincarnation of Andraste. The dragon kicked my ass in roughly thirty seconds - I didn't stand a chance. The battle was so lopsided that I opted not to try again, and instead pressed forward into the gauntlet.

- The gauntlet presents the player with four "tests of faith", which I figured would not be particularly good for my heathen mage. Not so! The riddles were fairly simple, and I solved all but one. The battle against clone of my party was tough, as they can dish out a tonne of DPS and CC (as mentioned above) and it took me three tries to win. The bridge puzzle was a nice change of pace, and I solved it relatively quickly after mapping out all of the mechanics on paper. Finally, the walk through the fire was rather silly, as depicted below:


- With the ashes secured (and my armor back on) I headed back to Redcliffe and revived Arl Eamon. I received a crappy staff as a reward, and was told to go do other quests while the Arl prepares to try to unite humankind.

- I tried to have Jowan set free, but he was sent away to the Circle of Magi. Since that is cruel and unusual punishment, my next stop will be the Circle tower where I hope to break the Chantry's hold on the mages and rescue Jowan. Sadly, I doubt the plot will allow for at least one of these outcomes.... but we'll see.

The Company of Myself, created by 2DArray, is an amazingly mature game for a developer still working his way through college. Love, loss, and loneliness are the three main themes of the title and are woven into a poignant story that compliments the sometimes-cerebral game play. Although the entire experience lasts less than an hour, the themes that are presented will still be with you hours later.

The Company of Myself is a platform-based puzzle game that feels somewhat like Braid, although with more of a sense of direction. Like all of the titles on Kongregate, the game was created in Flash and so has all of the advantages and disadvantages that you would expect from such a game. The artwork is simple but clean; while it will not blow your mind it fits well with the abstract narrative that underpins each level. The music is particularly noteworthy, and you would be doing yourself a disservice to play with the haunting melodies muted - to me they form a core part of the experience.

The game's controls are straight forward and taught to the player on the fly: arrow keys move, 'a' interacts with objects, 'r' restarts the level, and spacebar has a variety of actions depending on the context in which it is used.

Levels start out trivial, but soon require a decent amount of experimentation, planning, and puzzle solving to complete. The main play mechanic is the ability to perform a set of actions, and then press the spacebar to reset your character to the starting point of the level. Once reset, your previous actions are replayed by a shadow copy of yourself and you can solve otherwise intractable problems by interacting with your former self. This sequence can be repeated many times, and some levels require complex planning to get multiple copies of yourself to certain locations on the screen.

All of this is interesting and fun, but The Company of Myself is truly defined by its story. As much as I'd like to discuss what transpires and my interpretations and reactions to events, I feel that the game is best experienced with no knowledge of what is to come. I will say that I had a truly tough time with one part of the game, and the ending did nothing to assuage those feelings.

Give The Company of Myself a try the next time you have a free hour - you won't regret it.

People are talking about Bioware's announcement that SW:TOR will allow players to enlist AI-controlled "Companion Characters" in their groups to help them with their quests as if it's a new and horrible innovation.

It's not, and it isn't.

Dungeons and Dragons Online has allowed players to purchase hirelings for a while now that do exactly the same thing that Bioware is proposing: fill a spot in a group when a human player is either not wanted or not available to take the spot.

Hirelings do not destroy MMO grouping, and are neither the dominant or preferred solution to filling up a group. The simple truth is that an AI character can only be made to be so smart, and is never a full substitute for a player. Even when players are given precise control over the positioning and actions of the NPC it is suboptimal: one player is now managing two complex tasks instead of one, and thus is less likely to excel in either role.

On the other hand, making non-human groupmates available within an MMO is an excellent way to promote small group and small guild play. It becomes much easier to run an instance if you can still fill up a group even when there are not enough friends and guildies online at the same time. Not everyone wants to PUG all the time, and thus providing an alternative (but suboptimal) solution to the problem is better than no solution at all.

The doom and gloom echoing from some corners of the MMO blogging scene over Bioware's announcement are just not in line with my experiences. Even in a game where NPC groupmates are available, pick up groups will still flourish. When given the choice between deploying an AI helper and gambling on a random stranger to fill up a group, the majority of a game's player base will always choose flesh and blood over machine code.