30 Days of Video Games Day 21

Game with the Best Story:

This one's tough.  One of my gut reactions is Portal 2, because it expanded on a world that we knew so little about but wanted so much more from.  And yet I still feel like I can choose a better one.  Amnesia gives me the same reaction, but I haven't played it enough to declare that one the winner.

I think I'm going to have to go with Killer 7 on this one, too.  I loved the characters, and the twisted sense of the world in this game.  The story really kept up with the idea of twisted, too, because that plot is all mixed up.  The world is so convoluted that they released an entire book explaining what the hell happened.

This is your brain on Killer7.

But the game had a kind of flow to it that really fit the atmosphere.  You get the idea that even the Killer 7, probably the greatest team of assassins in that universe, is nothing but a pawn in the face of global politics and Illuminati   The idea of good and evil gets lost in this whirlwind of activity between the US and Japan.  It kind of speaks to the idea that no matter how much you think you know about the world, there's so much that you can decipher through a hundred different lenses that everything has to become new again.

30 Days of Video Games Day 18

Favorite protagonist:

Let's see... this one's pretty difficult.  Well, I can get rid of a lot of potential answers by eliminating silent protagonists from the race.  I like Gordon Freeman, Chell, Chrono, and Mystery Guy from Bioshock enough, but you can't really connect to them without any kind of dialogue.  People who just yell and don't really give a lot in the way of plot or thoughts also don't count , so Link, Mario, and others along that line also get eliminated.

Phoenix Wright makes the nomination list for actually having a personality and for being relatable.  Edgeworth also too as well.  Duke Nukem is also note-worthy, but I'm not sure I can justify him as my favorite protagonist.  Same goes for Raz from Psychonauts.

Note: Here, I had to take a break from writing.  I couldn't decide on anyone being a particularly stand-out protagonist.  So I changed my line of thinking.

I'm going to change my line of thinking to a great creation by a game developer.  And I'm going with the protagonist of Amnesia: The Dark Descent.  He doesn't throw out awesome one-liners, but Amnesia isn't the type of game that would need that.  Instead, we're set up with a protagonist who intentionally loses his memory, and who has a completely unidentifiable enemy force hunting him.  He's the perfect protagonist for what Amnesia sets up.

In regaining some sense of his past (since that seems to be the goal of every amnesiac in video games), we get a first-person view of Daniel's experiences beyond what happens in the goddamn creepy castle.  Instead of letting us watch what happens, we maintain complete control.  That keeps everything about as terrifying as Frictional Games could possibly want it.  Plus, I actually care about this protagonist's back-story, something I can't say for many of them, apparently.

30 Days of Videogames Day 15

Post a screenshot from a game you're playing right now.

I could do this for a lot of games.  CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Game One: Team Fortress 2 -

I love TF2, but that shouldn't be a surprise to anyone reading this.

Game Two: Osmos -

A still screenshot does not do this game justice.



Osmos is a really neat game that came with my Humble Indie Bundle.  It's a really neat (and occasionally frustrating) time-waster.

Game Three: Spiral Knights -

Spiral Knights seems like a free MMO-Lite.  You get set up in a party with three other people you don't know (unless you actually have friends) and kill monsters for greater wealth and therefore, weapons.  Even when I think I'm not going to play, though, I use all my energy (think along the lines of a Facebook or Twitter-based game that only allows a certain number of actions a day) to post weapons on the auction house.  I'm rich, beyotch!

Game Four: Tropico 3 - 

It's kind of like a politically-twisted Sim City.  You're a small island in the Caribbean in the middle of the Cold War.  Both superpowers want your alliances, and give you financial aid.  The main objective is to stay in power and accomplish any objectives you may have in that time frame.  The key is balancing development with the environment, and capitalism with communism.  You also have to make sure your army can take on any rebels that might rise against you.

Game Five: Amnesia: The Dark Descent -

Goddammit this game is scary.  This game is freaking scary.  I have made so little progress into this game because the atmosphere is so damn scary.  Easily one of the best videogame gifts I have ever been given, maybe the best.

Seriously, it's so freaking scary.