GameInformer's Top 200 Games of All Time Commentary

For its 200th issue, Game Informer's editors have created a list of the top 200 games of all time. Although you can't see the article online, there's a summary here. Just for fun, I’ve bolded the ones that I’ve played. However, in general, most of the coin-op games listed I played in best-of collections or on the NES. In either case, I did not play them when they came out and thus really could never truly appreciate the value of most of them. This means that for the most part, I didn't comment on them. I’ve also written up some of my thoughts on the rankings, presented below.

1 -- The Legend of Zelda (NES, 1987)
2 -- Super Mario Bros. (NES, 1985)
3 -- Tetris (PC, 1984)
4 -- Grand Theft Auto III (PS2, 2001)
5 -- Half-Life 2 (PC, 2004)
6 -- Doom (PC, 1993)
7 -- Metroid (NES, 1986)
8 -- Final Fantasy III (SNES, 1994)
9 -- Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES, 1990)
10 -- Ms. Pac-Man (coin-op, 1981)
11 -- World of Warcraft (PC, 2004)
12 -- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, 1992)
13 -- Super Mario 64 (N64, 1996)
14 -- Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3/360/PC, 2007)
15 -- Final Fantasy VII (PS, 1997)
16 -- Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (NES, 1987)
17 -- Chrono Trigger (SNES, 1995)
18 -- Resident Evil 4 (GameCube, 2005)
19 -- Metal Gear Solid (PS, 1998)
20 -- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64, 1998)
21 -- Super Metroid (SNES, 1994)
22 -- Contra (NES, 1988)
23 -- Galaga (coin-op, 1981)
24 -- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PS, 1997)
25 -- Street Fighter II (coin-op, 1991)
26 -- God of War (PS2, 2005)
27 -- BioShock (360/PC, 2007)
28 -- Diablo II (PC, 2000)
29 -- Half-Life (PC, 1998)
30 -- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (360/PC, 2006)
31 -- Tecmo Super Bowl (NES, 1991)
32 -- GoldenEye 007 (N64, 1997)
33 -- Super Mario Kart (SNES, 1992)
34 -- Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis, 1991)
35 -- StarCraft (PC, 1998)
36 -- Civilization (PC, 1991)
37 – Sim City (PC, 1989)
38 -- Mega Man 2 (NES, 1988)
39 -- Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox, 2001)
40 -- Gran Turismo (PS, 1998)
41 -- Resident Evil 2 (PS, 1998)
42 -- Pokemon Red and Blue (GB, 1996)
43 -- Final Fantasy X (PS2, 2001)
44 -- EverQuest (PC, 1999)
45 -- Final Fantasy Tactics (PS, 1998)
46 -- Grand Theft Auto IV (PS3/360, 2008)
47 -- Super Mario World (SNES, 1991)
48 -- Deus Ex (PC, 2000)
49 -- Guitar Hero (PS2, 2005)
50 -- Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS2, 2001)
51 -- Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, 2007)
52 -- Pac-Man (coin-op, 1980)
53 -- Battlefield 2 (PC, 2005)
54 -- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox, 2003)
55 -- Ico (PS2, 2001)
56 -- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3, 2009)
57 -- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (PS, 2000)
58 -- Mass Effect (360, 2007)
59 -- Adventure (2600, 1980)
60 -- Arkanoid (coin-op, 1986)
61 -- The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (GB, 1993)
62 -- Star Wars: X-Wing (PC, 1993)
63 -- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (N64, 2000)
64 -- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2, 2004)
65 -- Fallout 3 (PS3/360/PC, 2008)
66 -- Zork (PC, 1980)
67 -- Soul Calibur (DC, 1999)
68 -- Double Dragon (coin-op, 1987)
69 -- Dr. Mario (NES, 1990)
70 -- The Sims (PC, 2000)
71 -- Age of Empires (PC, 1997)
72 -- Mortal Kombat II (coin-op, 1993)
73 -- Rock Band 2 (PS3/360, 2008)
74 -- Tomb Raider (PS, 1996)
75 -- Super Bomberman (SNES, 1993)
76 -- Mario's Picross (GB, 1995)
77 -- Ninja Gaiden (NES, 1989)
78 -- Command & Conquer (PC, 1995)
79 -- Kingdom Hearts (PS2, 2002)
80 -- Final Fantasy II (SNES, 1991)
81 -- Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES, 1988)
82 -- Left 4 Dead (PC, 2008)
83 -- Okami (PS2, 2006)
84 -- Shadow of the Colossus (PS2, 2005)
85 -- Metroid Prime (GameCube, 2002)
86 -- Super Smash Bros. Melee (GameCube, 2001)
87 -- Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (PC, 1995)
88 -- Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (PC, 2000)
89 -- God of War II (PS2, 2007)
90 -- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii, 2006)
91 -- Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PS2, 2004)
92 -- Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (PC, 2002)
93 -- Skies of Arcadia (DC, 2000)
94 -- The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (GameCube, 2003)
95 -- Silent Hill 2 (PS2, 2001)
96 -- Counter-Strike (PC, 1999)
97 -- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis, 1992)
98 -- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS3/360, 2002)
99 -- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (PS2/Xbox/GameCube/PC, 2003)
100 -- Portal (PC/360, 2007)
101 -- The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC, 2002)
102 -- Heroes of Might & Magic III (PC, 1999)
103 -- Donkey Kong (coin-op, 1981)
104 -- Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3/360, 2009)
105 -- System Shock 2 (PC, 1999)
106 -- Resident Evil (PS, 1996)
107 -- Gears of War (360, 2006)
108 -- Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3, 2008)
109 -- Crash Bandicoot: Warped (PS, 1998)
110 -- Halo 2 (Xbox, 2004)
111 -- Tetris Attack (SNES, 1996)
112 -- Final Fantasy XII (PS2, 2006)
113 -- Earthbound (SNES, 1995)
114 -- Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (PC, 1998)
115 -- Command & Conquer: Red Alert (PC, 1996)
116 -- Advance Wars (GBA, 2001)
117 -- Fallout (PC, 1997)
118 -- Team Fortress 2 (PS3/360/PC, 2007)
119 -- Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (Xbox, 2005)
120 -- Mega Man X (SNES, 1994)
121 -- Lemmings (PC, 1991)
122 -- Panzer Dragoon Saga (Saturn, 1998)
123 -- NHL '94 (Genesis/SNES, 1993)
124 -- Warlords (coin-op, 1980)
125 -- Shadowrun (SNES, 1993)
126 -- Twisted Metal 2 (PS, 1996)
127 -- Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (PS, 1997)
128 -- Metroid Fusion (GBA, 2002)
129 -- Homeworld (PC, 1999)
130 -- Kingdom Hearts II (PS2, 2006)
131 -- Pilotwings (SNES, 1991)
132 -- Quake II (PC, 1997)
133 -- Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II (PC, 1997)
134 -- Borderlands (PS3/360/PC, 2009)
135 -- Final Fight (coin-op, 1989)
136 -- Star Fox (SNES, 1993)
137 -- Madden NFL '99 (PS/N64/PC, 1999)
138 -- Call of Duty 2 (360/PC, 2005)
139 -- Wolfenstein 3D (PC, 1992)
140 -- Diablo (PC, 1996)
141 -- Civilization IV (PC, 2005)
142 -- Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle (PC, 1993)
143 -- Assassin's Creed (PS3/360, 2007)
144 -- Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2/Xbox, 2004)
145 -- Unreal Tournament 2004 (PC, 2004)
146 -- Power Stone 2 (DC, 2000)
147 -- Super Castlevania IV (SNES, 1991)
148 -- Super Mario RPG (SNES, 1996)
149 -- Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (PC, 2002)
150 -- ActRaiser (SNES, 1991)
151 -- Fable (Xbox, 2004)
152 -- Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (PS2, 2003)
153 -- Asteroids (coin-op, 1979)
154 -- LittleBigPlanet (PS3, 2008)
155 -- Crackdown (360, 2007)
156 -- Gauntlet (coin-op, 1985)
157 -- Devil May Cry (PS2, 2001)
158 -- Pong (coin-op, 1972)
159 -- Battlefield 1942 (PC, 2002)
160 -- Thief (PC, 1998)
161 -- Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved (360, 2005)
162 -- Far Cry (PC, 2004)
163 -- Robotron: 2084 (coin-op, 1982)
164 -- X-COM: UFO Defense (PC, 1993)
165 -- Peggle (PC, 2007)
166 -- King's Quest VI (PC, 1992)
167 -- Doom II (PC, 1994)
168 -- Tempest 2000 (Jaguar, 1994)
169 -- Braid (360, 2008)
170 -- Ridge Racer (PS, 1995)
171 -- Bully (PS2, 2006)
172 -- Ikaruga (GameCube, 2006)
173 -- Lode Runner (Apple II, 1983)
174 -- Gunstar Heroes (Genesis, 1993)
175 -- Dig Dug (coin-op, 1982)
176 -- Castlevania (NES, 1988)
177 -- Tekken 3 (coin-op, 1997)
178 -- Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (DS, 2005)
179 -- NBA Jam: Tournament Edition (coin-op, 1993)
180 -- Max Payne (PC, 2001)
181 -- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3/360/PC, 2009)
182 -- Samurai Shodown (Neo Geo, 1993)
183 -- NFL 2K5 (PS2/Xbox, 2004)
184 -- Vagrant Story (PS, 2000)
185 -- Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island (SNES, 1995)
186 -- Marble Madness (coin-op, 1984)
187 -- Infamous (PS3, 2009)
188 -- Planescape: Torment (PC, 1999)
189 -- Kid Icarus (NES, 1986)
190 -- The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (Xbox, 2004)
191 -- Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2, 2004)
192 -- Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (GameCube, 2002)
193 -- Jak 3 (PS2, 2004)
194 -- Marvel vs. Capcom 2 (DC, 2002)
195 -- Ultima (PC, 1981)
196 -- Call of Duty (PC, 2003)
197 -- NHL 09 (PS3/360, 2008)
198 -- Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Xbox, 2004)
199 -- Tactics Ogre (PS, 1997)
200 -- Beyond Good and Evil (PS2/Xbox/GameCube, 2003)

Total Played 138/200. Wow. That's sad. I may have even played a few of the older ones a time or two, but I wasn't sure.

It’s hard for me to say whether this is a good or bad list, but this is the kind of thing I love to think about. I’ve played the vast majority of these games, barring the ones that pre-date my first console, which was around 1990. Of course, as I mentioned before, I didn’t play some of these games in a timely fashion (when they first came out), though I’ll try to limit my bias.

On first impression, I’m inclined to think that this list is rather good. Of course, everyone will find things to nitpick, but in general I like the list. Here are a few things that I would personally change:

Notable Snubs: Several games definitely deserve inclusion into this list. Here are some games that should have been included, in my opinion.

• Secret of Mana. Since SoM was on their top 100 list in their 100^th issue (78^th place), I’m going to let their own words do the talking. Personally, this easily cracks my top 50. Seiken Densetsu 3, although it was never released in English, is also an outstanding game that should be on this list. A beautiful game in its own right, Secret of Mana is actually an important release in Square Soft’s history. Other than a few Game Boy titles, this really is the first time Square ventured outside the Final Fantasy realm and explored what else the RPG genre has to offer. Secret of Mana’s stimulating, real-time gameplay and breathtaking settings came together to create a near Zelda killer – a feat no developer has even come close to achieving.
• Master of Orion: Arguably better than Civilization, though the former was more relatable and consequently more popular.
• Thief II: Many people consider this to be the best game of all time. I disagree, but it is certainly in the top 100.
• Paper Mario
• MechWarrior 2
• Wing Commander
• Shenmue
• Suikoden II
• Xenogears

Games That Shouldn’t Have Made This List

• Sonic and/or Sonic 2: While I’m sure Game Informer would have gotten a great deal of flak for including neither Sonic game in this list, they certainly should not have included more than one of these two. I would have supported including Sonic and Knuckles or Sonic 3d in lieu of Sonic 2, but, simply put, neither Sonic or Sonic 2 were that great compared to their contemporaries on other platforms, and there were even several other Genesis platformers, such as Vectorman, that were much better than the Sonic games, albeit less widely owned.
• Call of Duty 2(not CoD:MW2): There is no reason for Call of Duty 1 and 2 to both be on there. Although both games were strong, they weren’t different enough from each other to both warrant inclusion, when other sequels like Civilization II don't make the list. Sorry.
• Dr. Mario: For a game that was outclassed 6 years prior by Tetris, Dr. Mario should not have made this list. You may be nostalgic about this game (I know I am), but Dr.Mario simply does not compare well to its contemporaries, or even games that preceded it by half a decade. Or even other Smash Brothers
  
• Crackdown: While there is certainly a case for this game, I think that there are plenty of other games that warrant the spot that this game took, and that Crackdown is a borderline inclusion at best.
• Ridge Racer: While I loved playing this game at the time, it was simply the first good 3d racing game that I can remember. Otherwise, there wasn’t much special about it, and it was quickly outclassed by higher-quality games like Gran Turismo.
• Samurai Showdown: Simply weaker than its contemporaries, Showdown is a great example of a game that should never have been considered for this list.
• Mega Man X: I loved this game, but the Mega Man franchise is simply too short and too derivative for this type of list. With that said, Mega Man X is definitely my favorite Mega Man game. I will buy that Mega Man and Mega Man 2 were more revolutionary for their respective days (never played) but Mega Man 2 should most certainly not be ranked as high as it is.

Game Series Where the Wrong Game was Chosen:

• Max Payne 2: Max Payne had a great single-player campaign and ushered in bullet-time, but Max Payne 2 was simply a much better game overall. While it could be argued that Max Payne was more the more ground-breaking of the two, the games were released only a few years apart and the second game was much, much more fun to play, in my opinion.
• Quake: Quake II was a fun game, but Quake was the first truly 3d first-person shooter, and one that really broke new ground. The music was done by Nine Inch Nails, for Pete’s sake! I can still remember playing this at my uncle’s company on a LAN for the first time. It was something special.
• Soul Calibur II: Soul Calibur was a fun game, but this pick was made on balance and variety of fighting styles, things that SCII had much more of.
• Unreal Tournament: Unreal Tournament may be the better shooter today, but Unreal Tournament was the first game of its type and broke the genre wide open. Although both are probably strong enough and different enough to warrant inclusion (Unreal 2004 is much faster and its vehicles and new modes help to differentiate it), Unreal Tournament was simply the better game when compared to its contemporaries.

Games that are more than a little high or low on the rankings:

• Half-Life (29) and Half-Life 2 (5) should be switched: I think both of these games are phenomenal, however, Half-Life was clearly the more groundbreaking of the two. Half-Life was the first FPS that I can remember being exhaustively modded, and is ultimately remembered as being one of the most modded games of all time, but it was first known for its incredible single-player campaign. Half-Life featured the best plots of any FPS to that date and its AI was years ahead of its time. If my best friend were to ask me which one to play today, I would say Half-Life 2, but this list is replete with other instances of games with superior sequels, though the originals were more groundbreaking at their time and are thus included in this list.
• Fallout 3 (65): Some people may argue that this is one of the best games of all time, but I know more than a few people, myself included, that literally could not play more than a few hours of this game. While many have called it a first-person shooter, Fallout 3 is simply a VATS game with great graphics and an outstanding story. In my opinion, it is simply a first person shooter for people who hate first person shooters, again with a great story. Fallout 3 might just be one of the only games on this list that is a bad game, in my opinion. While I am willing to grant it a spot based on peer reviews, 65 is way too high.
  
• Braid (128): Although short, Braid was priced as a value game, and it more than delivered value. Braid is simply one of the best, if not the best, platformer to date. I would have placed Braid in the top 100 games.
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (64): This may be just my opinion, but I think this is still the most fun GTA title to date and is one of my favorite games of all time, even today. San Andreas was an outstanding combination of open-world sandbox play, an RPG-esque leveling system, a wide variety of mini-games, and shooter elements. While I will give a nod to GTAIII as a revolutionary game, GTA’s attempt at realism (particularly vehicle handling) was not terribly entertaining, nor did I enjoy the fact that the game would sometimes slow down dramatically and the controls always felt a little sluggish. I would probably swap the places of GTAIV and San Andreas, and probably drop GTA IV a little bit more.
• Burnout 3: Takedown (144): Burnout 3, in my opinion, is definitely better than #144, as it’s one of the best non-hardcore racing games this side of Mario Kart. I would have ranked it around #50.

Other comments:

It’s interesting to see how GameInformer ranked some brand-spanking new games. Uncharted 2 (56), Batman: Arkham Asylum (104), Borderlands (134), Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (181) and Infamous (187) all make the list. I haven’t played Arkham Asylum or MW2 yet, but aside from those, these ratings feel relatively acceptable to me. Borderlands might be a touch high, but it definitely deserves to make the list. Uncharted 2 also seems a bit high; I would have put it around 80 or 100. Modern Warfare 2 feels too low, based on my impressions of the game pre-launch.

My biggest complaint with this list is that some franchises seem to only receive one or two mentions for several similar games while other franchises receive many more (the Call of Duty and Zelda games are less different from each other than other franchises such as the Sims that only warranted a single mention). Ultimately, I think it would have been better to list these similar games together in a single listing and treat them as a single body of work, if they are very similar to one another, or list them separately and make the list more competitive. GameInformer tried to split the difference, and I think it doesn’t work out.

Ultimately, it should be recognized that putting together a list like this is nigh-impossible, so although it may be fun to criticize individual choices, in many cases its simply better to leave lists like this a little bit shorter.

-Jon

Over the Weekend: Adventures in Kaiserreich

The past two weeks have been pretty exciting for me, gaming-wise. I spent the first half of the week continuing to play Borderlands, and got in a little bit of playing time with Dragon Age: Origins starting on Thursday. I had a LAN party over the weekend with a few friends of mine, and as such I don't have enough to write about DA:O yet.

Kaiserreich, the game that I played over this weekend, is another matter. Kaiserreich is a mod for Paradox Interactive's Hearts of Iron II that simulates an ahistorical World War II scenario in which the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) won World War I instead of the Entente (World War I's historical victors).

I'm a huge fan of complex simulation games. As a kid, Sim City 2000 and Civilization II were probably my two favorite games, and I've spent countless hours playing their successors, Sim City 4 Rush Hour and Civilization IV. My favorite aspect of playing games is that it gives me the opportunity to try hundreds of different experiences, and battlefield/theatre of war command games present an entirely different experience from almost anything that you could find in the real world. Europa Universalis II (which I'll probably write about later this week thanks to its recently-released For The Glory expansion) was the first game that got me hooked on the nation-building genre, and is still my favorite, but I've also really enjoyed playing Paradox's Hearts of Iron II.

In my opinion, Paradox's offerings, while they can be a little buggy and difficult to learn, are far and away the best strategy games out there. While the Total War games have comparable campaigns in terms of scope, they are really battlefield simulations tucked into a shallow framework that gives meaning to each battle. Paradox's games tend to eschew the traditional battlefield focus in favor of diplomatic, economic and societal focuses which emphasize the difficulty of effectively governing and building a nation rather than simply winning battles. They also generally allow players to play as any number of different countries or government entities which existed at a certain point in history, rather than limiting players to a handful.

Hearts of Iron II, being the most war-focused Paradox game, has more in-depth combat mechanics than other Paradox games. Still, the emphasis of the game focuses on fielding a strong army rather than scheming unique strategies for individual units. Within the main game, there are several different screens which allow you to control nearly every aspect of your country and its government.

After selecting a country and scenario and starting the game, you will be presented with a map of the world and several different game screen options from which to control your nation. On the main screen, you can see a map of the world, and a summary of your resources, along with lists of provinces, army units, navy units, and air units you control. Additionally, You can view the world map in a number of different ways, as there are several different map modes. The territorial map is pictured at right, but there is also a terrain map, a weather map, an economic map, a supply map, a revolt map, a victory point map, a diplomatic map, a region map and an area map. Each province is clickable, and doing so provides details about its terrain, resources, owner and controller, industry, transportation network and more. Units are also visible and can be issued commands on this screen. Finally, there are several tabs above the map which allow you to visit the other five main game interfaces. In the next few paragraphs, I'll discuss some of the more relevant ones.

The technology tab allows you to view the technologies that you will produce throughout the game and control your nation's technological research. On the left side of the screen are a number of "technology teams" which are used to research technology. Each nation can research between one and five techs at a time, but can have many more tech teams than these. Each of these tech teams has a skill level and individual specialties, as noted by the small icons under their name. While skill level provides a base rate of research, specialties increase that rate when a team's specialties match the specialty demands of a particular tech. Put in simple terms, specialties mean that you will want tech teams like Ford working on tanks and motorized infantry research while leaving nuclear weapons research to Albert Einstein. There are many, many different techs available in the game, so your teams will always be busy.

The production tab allows you to control your nation's economic activity. The two most important areas for any country are at the left and upper right portions of the screen. The left side of the screen is devoted to production, and allows you to build implements of war as well as infrastructure. As you can see in the screenshot, Italy is currently producing a series of motorized infantry units, a battleship, a tank, another motorized infantry unit series, and a bomber. However, due to its limited production capacity, only the first three are currently being worked on. Green units are currently being produced at full capacity, while yellow means that a unit is being produced at partial capacity, and orange means that a unit will not be worked on until objects above it in the queue have finished or production capacity is expanded.

Production capacity is controlled at the top right of the screen, along with several other economic activities. The total amount of economic activity for a country is equal to its modified IC, which stands for industrial capacity. This IC is divided between five different economic activities, namely consumer goods, production capacity (the topic of the previous paragraph), supplies, reinforcements, and upgrades. Consumer goods are required to keep the populace happy, especially during times of peace. During times of peace, citizens are willing to accept less consumer goods. Certain government choices can also reduce the amount of consumer goods an economy requires. Most players think of consumer goods as simply mandatory wasted IC, which is true in many cases. Consumer goods also supply money, which is used by tech teams to conduct research at full capacity. Supplies are consumed by army units at all times, and can also be traded away. Reinforcements allow you to place lost soldiers, while Upgrades allows you to upgrade obsolete units after your tech teams make new technological discoveries.

All of this economic activity requires resources, which can be found to the left of the production sliders and on the main screen. IC requires energy, metal, and rare materials to function, and all units require supplies and sometimes oil to operate effectively. You can track your production and consumption of these supplies on either screen, but there is also a trading interface if you are endowed with an excess or shortage of a particular resource.

The last main screen is the diplomacy screen, which allows you to control your nation at its highest level. Political orientation sliders are a hallmark of Paradox games, and Hearts of Iron II is no exception. Each nation has its own set of sliders which dictate its government type, values, and several different aspects of its society. For example, the Italian Federation (a reactionary federation of Italian states governed by the Pope in the Kaiserreich scenario) has a National Populist style of government with a closed (controlled) society, some free market enterprise. It also has a standing army, and its ruling body is hesitant but willing to go to war generally. However, given the current state of the world, they desire to intervene in current conflicts and world affairs. Each of these sliders has a different set of effects on player's diplomatic and economic options; for example, the Interventionism/Isolationism slider controls the cost of conducting diplomacy, the difficulty of normalizing relations with other countries, the amount of dissent created by declaring war, and the level of consumer goods that its populace demands. Global events, the influence of other nations, and even the player can control the orientation of the sliders throughout the game.

Also featured in the diplomacy screen is a list of government figures, which can have smaller but more manageable effect on a country. Most of these figures can be replaced at a cost of some dissent, which in turn reduces IC. However, the Head of State and Head of Government can only change from events, such as elections (which you will receive every few years in a democratic country), or deaths/coup d'etats (generally in more authoritarian societies).

On the left side of the diplomacy screen is a list of all countries in the game, together with a list of excess resources that they produce. As you might imagine, diplomacy and trading can be conducted from here. In the center of the screen is a list of the currently selected nation's diplomatic relations, along with its belligerence rating, which is basically a measure of naughtyness which controls the willingness of other countries to declare war on it, and the cost of declaring war on it. In the top right corner of the screen is a list of diplomatic actions that you can take on that country.

As you can see, the control that players have over a nation's affairs is already quite comprehensive. Yet once war is declared players must also manage their nation's army in war. War is conducted in a much more macro sense than most other RTS games, but is still more strategic than other games with a similar focus, such as Civilization. First of all, nations tend to specialize in one or several unit types that are a reflection of its resources (it is hard to field an army of tanks if you don't have much oil to run them) and its warfare doctrines, which are developed on the technology screen. Army composition generally determines the best way to fight with an army. However, there are also other considerations. Armies attack and defend more successfully when they have support from adjacent territories, air support from fighters or bombers, if their landing beach has been shelled before attempting to land, and if they have the proper equipment for fighting in certain conditions (for example, tanks don't fight well in hills, mountains, or cities). They fight less effectively when crossing rivers, when they have been repeatedly bombed or shelled, are cut off from supply, or are being flanked from one or more sides. The tactics of World War II are reproduced fairly effectively (encircling troops through the use of blitzkreig is the best way to deal with them), and the AI does its job reasonably well in combat. All in all, while you are still only giving general move, attack and context-sensitive support commands to your troops, Hearts of Iron still does a good job of giving you a feel for combat.

This post ended up getting pretty far off-track from what I originally wanted to discuss, but I will try and salvage some value regardless. If you like strategy games and are looking for something different, I highly recommend giving Hearts of Iron II or Europa Universalis a try. They are very difficult games to learn, but the payoff, in my opinion, is well worth it. There is simply nothing like it.

-Jon

Windows 7 Impressions

The last week has been a bit slow for me as a gamer. Usually I'll only play new games for about a week or two before a new game comes out that grabs my attention, but Borderlands has been a highly resilient experience and I haven't really found anything in the last week that has pulled me away from it (Next week: Dragon Age: Origins). I've been replaying the game, which I purchased on Steam after my Xbox died, and having a good time of it with a few of my friends.

Anyways, in the spirit of keeping my blog updated (see the sticky note in the top right corner of my desktop?), I've decided to type up a few of my thoughts on Windows 7, as it may pertain to a few of you.

I purchased my copy of Windows 7 before it released and installed it on release day. Although I have Vista installed on my laptop, I'd never taken the leap with my custom-built desktop, which was still sporting the ever-stylish Windows XP.

The upgrade process was very simple. Although I'm pretty sure I clicked through for a clean install of Windows 7 like the upgrade advisor said I should, the installation process ended up upgrading to Windows 7, leaving all of my drivers intact, and moving all of my old installation files to a Windows.old folder. The process took about an hour

While I haven't truly put Windows 7 through its paces yet, my first impressions are pretty positive. Windows 7's interface is nearly identical to Vista's, save for the obvious differences to the taskbar. While I was hesitant at first to accept the taskbar appearance change, I think I've come to like the new one more overall. Unlike the old bar, in Windows 7 the taskbar shows previews of pages you can open if you hover your cursor over the corresponding icon on the bar (see the three Firefox windows open above). This is pretty useful and is definitely an upgrade over the Vista system, where you could only see the name of each window. Smaller taskbar icons also allow for more windows to fit onto the taskbar.

A key difference for me was also the addition of gadgets, which are surprisingly nice. I have installed two. The first is a webmail gadget which checks your email periodically (I think that's how it works, though it does seem to pick up on new email pretty fast) and chimes when you have new e-mail. When I first log on, the gadget is one of the first things I look at and can save me a bit of time if I don't have any new mail. It's also great to have when I'm multi-tasking, or working on a document for long periods of time, as it does a good job of alerting me when I have new mail. The weather gadget is also fairly nice, since it saves me the trip to weather.com every morning.

Vista's visual changes are take-it-or-leave-it, (I'm on the take-it side) but one other nice graphical addition has been the inclusion of dynamic backgrounds. Windows 7 allows you to set your background to change periodically, which is a nice touch if you get tired of looking at the same thing all of the time. I have a nice rotating setup of art from games that I'm following or a fan of, as well as some Halo 3 pictures I've taken while playing that game.

Performance-wise, I haven't had anything to complain about. One of my concerns when I was making my purchase (I opted not to go for Windows 7 professional, which includes some XP reverse-compatibility pack) was that I would be able to play all of my old games. All of the games that I have tried to play on it have run just fine. While I haven't booted up my copy of Sim City 2000, I have booted up copies of Alpha Centauri and some pretty ghetto Paradox Entertainment games, which have both worked very well on the new platform. Moreover, I haven't had any issues with drivers (though I'm running the 32-bit OS and I'm told that the 64-bit versions of Vista and Windows 7 have most of the driver-related issues). Since I didn't upgrade from Vista to Windows 7, I can't comment on the framerate changes I've seen in some of my games yet, but I can say that my framerates are not noticeably down from Windows XP.

On the included applications side of things, I also haven't noticed much of a difference, but Paint does seem to have a few more drawing options, which I've actually made use of for a project I have been consulting on. You can see the fruits of my labors at the right (sorry, can't share images from the project, but this will give you some idea of the additional capabilities). Notable additions include transparent colors, additional commonly-used art pieces (arrows, thought bubbles, speech bubbles, etc.) and different brush styles. While we're not exactly looking at Adobe Photoshop for Windows here, the additions are pretty substantial and were a nice surprise.

I've bulleted most of my other application-related observations to save me time trying to tie all of them together.

• WordPad still does not have spell-checker, so you're going to still have to buy MS Office or go download OpenOffice for free.
• Internet Explorer 8 is still worse than Firefox.
• Vista's new games are back in Windows 7, though they got rid of my favorite one, Inkball. Chess Titans is definitely the best of the bunch if you haven't seen Vista's game selection.
• Windows Live is another promising addition, but unfortunately I haven't done much with it other that look around.
• If you're a math teacher, there's a handy-dandy math writer. You can do all sorts of crazy crap now.
  
• Microsoft Security Essentials (not included but launched recently) is a great freeware security system.
  

If you were sitting on the fence about getting Windows 7, hopefully this article has given you a little more information. I tried to include most of the information that was relevant to me, hoping that you would find these same considerations important to you as well. In general, I'm pretty happy with my purchase, though there is nothing terribly special about the new OS. It's just a slightly upgraded experience that has some additional graphics support (DX 10 and 11). If you're tight on money, or happy with XP, feel free to stick with it, but if all of the bells and whistles in Vista and Windows 7 appeal to you, by all means, Windows 7 seems like a pretty harmless upgrade.

One of the benefits of a small readerbase is that you get 1 to 1 feedback, so if you have a question about some aspect of Windows 7 you don't see covered on other blogs/websites, I'll check for you!

-Jon

Borderlands Initial Impressions

Well, I was planning on doing a full-blown review of Borderlands later this week, but 15 minutes into yesterday's play session my Xbox died (E 74 error message). So, while my Xbox flies away to Texas for a new GPU, I decided to write up my thoughts on Borderlands for the time being.

Simply put, Borderlands is fantastic.

Borderlands plays very much like a first person shooter with RPG aspects, and is similar to games like Mass Effect. In its first person shooter aspect, it plays very much like original Halo. Your character can hold between two and four weapons at a time, depending on how far you've advanced in the game, has a shield which automatically recharges after a short period of not taking damage, and a health bar that does not recharge. Key differences include Borderlands' compass, which generally provides the same information as Halo's radar but in a different format. You also have a deployable special ability depending on your character, which can be a turret, a hawk, an invisibility ability, or an all-out melee-only rage. Cover is handled in much the same way as Halo, meaning that instead of "wrapping" to cover with a button press as in Uncharted 2, Mass Effect, or Gears of War, you simply duck behind cover manually, as in Call of Duty or Halo.

As an RPG, Borderlands is like many others in that it allows you to customize your character in a number of ways. Although your gender and appearance is tied precisely to your class, there are plenty of substantial customization options to choose from. Like most other RPGs, Borderlands allows you to also customize your character's specialization as you level. Each of the four character classes has a skill tree, allowing players to specialize in one or two different roles, depending on your level. In addition, each class has an assortment of class mods that give them and sometimes their teammates passive bonuses. Oftentimes, these bonuses are to a few skill levels, but other bonuses include team ammo regeneration, team health capacity and regeneration, team shield capacity and regeneration, damage increases, and even team experience bonuses.

Borderlands' item system is probably the most dramatic way of differentiating playstyle irrespective of character class. In an earlier article, I listed some of my favorite elegant game mechanics, including Diablo's item system. Borderlands uses a similar system to Diablo II's Magic and Rare items. All of the guns in the game have one or more mods (four or five at most) to basic things like clip size, fire rate, zoom, accuracy, reload speed, and raw power. There is also a coloring system to items to differentiate them in power level relative to other guns that can be equipped at the same level. Generally speaking, an item with its name in green that can be equipped at level 10 is going to be better than a white-named item that can be equipped at the same level. This increase in power level is generally a result of having more or better weapon modifications to some sort of base item. Since there are also different gun companies in the game which tend to feature different sorts of bonuses, weapon statting in this game is truly a deep subject. As you play through the game, you will probably identify a few types of modifications that you like best.

Gearbox has also found a way to make some of the weapons feel very different from one another using several particularly unique weapon mods. Some of the more unusual weapon varieties include shotguns that use shotgun shells but actually shoot rockets, weapons that have burst firing (shoot more than one bullet/rocket at a time), and three varieties of elemental procs.

The grenade mods are another highpoint, as Gearbox substantially differentiates those as well. Although I wish that there were more levels of each grenade type available, there are a number of different grenade effects, such as sticky grenades which stick to enemies (duh), longbow grenades which teleport to their target instead of flying through the air, grenades that steal life, "cluster" grenades that spawn additional explosions, and grenades that are more powerful against health, shields, or armor.

The best way to experience Borderlands is clearly co-operative play. While the singleplayer mode is entertaining, working with teammates to take down baddies is ultimately much more satisfying, and potentially much more rewarding. Since there is no loot-sharing mechanism, I recommend playing with players that you know, but I've also played a few games where guns were shared reasonably well by complete strangers. Voice chat over Xbox live is fantastic, as it makes it much easier to coordinate with your teammates, but most of the encounters in this game can be successfully attempted without much strategy. Borderlands does a good job of letting you know when your teammate is down, and where your teammates are at all times.

One of the disappointing aspects of Borderlands is its reward system. While the aforementioned badguys often drop good loot, the best way of acquiring loot in this game seems to be scouring chests. While I haven't beaten the game, the easiest way for me to get loot at various points thusfar has been to find an easily accessible chest or couple of chests, create a game, loot the chests, start a new game, and repeat as desired. Complicating matters, there is one example of a chest in the first third of the game that seems to dole out level 22-25 items although all of the surrounding enemies are only level 15. Additionally, in the second area, there are two weapon chests in town. Starting a new game, looting the chests, and selling the guns back to the vending machines is only a three or four minute process, and is basically an infinite money cheat, if you have the patience to run it over and over.

With all that said, Borderlands is still an outstanding game, and is easily recommendable to fans of first person shooters that might be looking for something a little bit new, Fallout 3 players that wish it was actually a first person shooter, or loot whores in general.

And honestly, who isn't a loot whore?

-Jon

World of Goo Name Your Price Update

Well, 2DBoy published their sales data for the first week (they've extended it) of World of Goo's Name Your Price sale. Turns out, this was a pretty profitable sale for them (see a list of #sales at each price point to the right, courtesy of Rock Paper Shotgun). 2DBoy is very happy with the sales that they made using this price point.

By launching this sale a year after release, 2DBoy has minimized losses of likely sales, while driving additional players to play World of Goo and generating a ton of positive sentiment and word of mouth advertising from fans. In addition, this sale increased purchases made on other services (week over week sales at full price on Steam were up 40%!).

I won't say that this is a model everyone should follow, but its always nice to see a developer (even an indie one) take risks with pricing and distribution.

Here is a link to the full data.

-Jon

Uncharted 2 Review

Uncharted 2 - Player of Game Review
Innovation: 8/10
Mastery: 9.5/10
Overall: 9/10

If you've been following the hype and reviews of Uncharted 2 in the news, it should come as no surprise to you that Uncharted 2 is one well-executed game. For those that don't, Uncharted 2 is a behind-the-shoulder shooter/adventure hybrid that succeeds in almost everything that it does. From its well-written and genuinely funny story to its cutting-edge technical graphics and its streamlined, cohesive gameplay, Uncharted 2 ultimately delivers an excellent, well-polished experience.

I first played Uncharted 2 during the tail end of the free multiplayer demo and was blown away by the tight controls, effective utilization of cover, and variety of game types and maps available in the game. To be precise, most of the game modes that you will find in the game are similar to other multiplayer offerings in the shooter genre, but with subtle tweaks that make Uncharted 2 feel fully distinct, especially once its cover and climbing mechanics are accounted for. In several levels, there are portions only accessible by climbing or jumping, and moreso than other shooters, knowing jumping or climbing shortcuts allow you to move around much quicker.

Although I knew I would continue to enjoy the multiplayer aspect of the game, the quality of the singleplayer campaign was a pleasant surprise. Composed of both adventuring and shooter segments, the campaign is paced brilliantly and features an outstanding story based on Marco Polo's legendary expedition to China. The adventuring segments are probably the weakest aspect of Uncharted 2's singleplayer offering, due to their highly linear nature. This, in my opinion, is generally due to the fact that while some paths are obvious, other paths are forced onto the player. Multiple times during the game, I repeatedly attempted a very makeable jump simply to find that Nate would not grab onto the ledge or grip the wall because it was not how I was intended to proceed. Nevertheless, the adventuring segments do break up the action effectively, allowing you to destress yourself between Uncharted 2's intense shooter sections.

The shooting segments of the game, like the adventure segments, are usually on rails. As in Halo (another favorite game of mine, notice a trend?), the linear style of the shooting sequences allow the developers to more tightly script the action sequences, making the second-to-second play much more enjoyable in these segments. With that said, there are often several ways to move through the action sequences. Although you'll rarely notice it, there are oftentimes many different ways to tackle an encounter, and when I died, I often attempted to tackle the encounter another way. For example, in one sequence you approach a city center from one direction, and are trying to work your way around to the other section. You can stay where you are, and try and fight at a distance, move clockwise around the circle and attempt to take out a gun emplacement before the enemies swarm you, attempt to move counter-clockwise around the circle so as to avoid the stationary gun's fire, or charge right into the middle of it all and stay behind cover while shooting the enemies up with your close ranged weaponry. Oftentimes, your tactics will be dictated by the weapons you happen to be holding at a time.

Stealth is another way to tackle some of the game's shooter segments, and at times Naughty Dog forcefully pushes you towards it while at other times you are left to decide what is the best way to proceed. There are many times in the game where enemies will walk by a ledge you are hanging off of, allowing you to throw them down a cliff. Each of these clips comes with a snarky line courtesy of Drake, which definitely reinforces and rewards this behavior. While it is rare that you will be able to complete most of the encounters in the game using stealth, there are definitely several points in the campaign where you can accrue ten or fifteen consecutive stealth kills if you are careful and patient enough.

The plot of Uncharted 2's campaign is also worth applauding, as it is another of Uncharted 2's high points. Without spoiling too much, the plot revolves around Marco Polo's return from his expedition to China, and ties into the legend of the Cintamani stone. While this basic plot serves primarily as a vehicle to move from exotic locale to exotic locale, the finer details of the campaign are very well put together. First and foremost is characterization, which is easily the best in any game I've ever played. Drake is a very funny and lovable character, and his unique personality really makes the game's plot shine, even outside of cutscenes. His co-stars are also done well, each has their own priorities and system of beliefs, and are usually relateable in their own unique ways, although the game's main villain could have been developed a bit more. One of the biggest complements that can be paid towards a game's story is that it would make a great movie, but in this case, I would go one step further and actually see it in theatres (and I never see movies in theatres). It is just that good.

Like Uncharted 2's singleplayer, Uncharted 2's multiplayer is also a complete and satisfying package. There are several game modes including an impressive twist on capture the flag, king of the hill, a king of the hill variant in which only one hill is up for grabs at a time and teams must capture all five in order to win, deathmatch, team deathmatch, elimination, and two different cooperative modes. In the first cooperative mode, players attempt to bring a treasure back to their base as many times as possible, with the caveat that each successful attempt makes the next attempt harder. The second is basically a cooperative version of the best segments in the Uncharted 2 campaign. Each of these modes also contributes to a participation-based levelling progression system similar to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's skill system, along with unlockable multiplayer character models, giving players added incentive to lengthen their play sessions.

These modes are supported by a well-balanced weapon system and Uncharted 2's terrific cover system. The weapons all feel fairly powerful and are all useful for different occasions, although I personally feel that grenades are a little too powerful, and should be made weaker but more plentiful.

Overall, Uncharted 2 is a platform-defining game. Although I only purchased my PS3 in September, Uncharted 2 is the first game I have played that validated my purchase, comparing favorably to Metal Gear Solid 4 and Valkyria Chronicles, two of the PS3's staple games. The singleplayer game is gripping and genuinely funny; the multiplayer is well-paced, refreshing and balanced. Anyone who owns a PS3 needs to play this game. Uncharted 2 is the very definition of a killer app.

-Jon

Happy Birthday World of Goo/Name Your Price

I spent a little bit of time doing some reading today and found a neat promotion going on at the World of Goo website. Apparently, the game has now reached its one year birthday, and to celebrate, its developers at 2D Boy are selling it at...you tell them.

That's right, World of Goo is on sale for the price of whatever the hell you want to pay. Personally, I downloaded it a year ago after playing the demo (which was spectacular) with my brother and didn't regret buying it at that price. Regardless, I heartily recommend that you purchase this game. World of Goo is definitely one of the more "oddball" games that I have played, and there is more than enough content for you to enjoy. World of Goo is compatible with PCs, Macs, as well as Linux, so as long as you aren't stuck on a home-brew OS you should be able to enjoy it.

Oh - you can also gift it to a friend using the above method, as well. Just don't go too crazy.

A quick conversation with one of my friends reminded me that a few musical artists have done this over the years, the names that came to mind being Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead. I've never seen the numbers on a promotion like this but sales quantities and average sale price would be awfully interesting numbers to me.

I wonder how many people are going to fork over more than the MSRP $20?

-Jon

Halo 3 ODST Review

Halo 3 ODST - Player of Game Review
Innovation: 7/10
Mastery: 8.5/10
Overall: 7.5/10

Before I begin this review, I should state unequivocally that I am a huge Halo fanboy. Although I try to play every well-reviewed game on the systems I own, the genre that I cover best is the First Person Shooter. The genre has come a long way since Wolfenstein, the first game of its type that I played. We've come from having a wide variety of strictly-better-than guns at hand to limiting ourselves to a handful; we've added vehicles and stationary guns; moved from a static health health system to health which returns over time; greatly improved artificial intelligence; progressed from not reloading to reloading mini-games. Not all of these changes work for every game, and in my opinion, Bungie's Halo franchise has just about perfected the genre.

Halo 3: ODST's campaign is a hastily-put-together, rough-around-the-edges experience that just so happens to contain a few of the most fun moments I've ever had within the genre. While the campaign is short and the out-of-mission point A to point B sections of the game are awful, the in-mission segments of the game are absolutely brilliant. There are two very well put-together vehicle missions, a great stand on the top of a tower in the center of the city, and several other highly-controlled and well-scripted missions that Bungie excels at. Of course, if you are a fan of open-world, sandbox gameplay experiences, you might resent how linear these missions are. But linear missions also allow the developer to create a more cohesive, tightly-knit narrative or experience, and on this occasion, there is definitely a great payoff. They also compare favorable to the more open-world experiences, which I found to be tense but ultimately unfulfilling.

I'll be the first to admit that Halo 3: ODST isn't exactly a value-packed purchase. Even at $50 (which is what most places are charging for it now), there is not all that much content to go around. I spent around 8 hours playing the game on my first play-through, and while I didn't look behind every corner, I wasn't going for a speed run either. The side story doesn't add much at all to the value either; it's basically a series of sound bites that you listen to while you're traveling from point A to point B.

Still, there are some other bright spots to the game. As the owner of a 360 with a paltry 20GB HD, I actually thought that the disc with all of the campaign maps wasn't a terrible inclusion; I was able to clear up a lot of space that had been used for DLC. And for all of you new Xbox 360 owners, ODST is actually a better value in my opinion than Halo 3, since it comes with everything you need to play 100% of Halo 3's multiplayer with no additional fee. Just keep in mind that your health is going to be working differently in multiplayer than it did in the campaign.

Firefight is the last thing I should talk about. For those of you not in the know, Firefight is Halo's take on Horde mode from Gears of War 2. And, like Horde mode before it, it is a ton of fun when you are playing with your friends. However, for some reason Bungie decided that it would be a bad idea to include matchmaking for Firefight. Let me say that again. Firefight has no matchmaking support whatsoever. This means that you will need a few friends if you want to play Firefight, which can be tough to get together, especially if your schedule is not incredibly open (read: not in high school or college). To me, this is a huge deal-breaker, as matchmaking support for Firefight would have added immensely to its value, and is a no-brainer. Oh well.

Overall, Halo 3 ODST is a middling game with some outstanding single-mission experiences and Firefight sans-matchmaking in store for the Xbox 360 and Halo faithful. For players who don't own a copy of Halo 3, ODST is a must-buy, since it includes everything that you'll need to enjoy Halo 3's multiplayer, Firefight, and, in my opinion, a campaign that is superior to Halo 3's.

Aion Impressions

I've been playing a bit of Aion over the past few weeks, participating in both the end of beta and the first few weeks of release. Having recently reached level 20, I thought it would be a good idea to take a step back and evaluate some of what I've seen in this game.

It's very difficult to give an accurate, comprehensive review of a game without leveling to the level cap and participating in all of the end game experiences that are provided for players. Regardless, I thought it would be a good idea to type up some of the things I like and dislike about the game. Since I've spent all of my time playing on the Elonian side of Atreia, some or all of my comments may not apply to the Asmodian playing experience.

Likes:

• Beginning area: The starting area of the game plays very smoothly and is fun. NCSoft has wisely decided to design menacing enemies to fight against--you won't be spending your first few levels slaughtering giant ants or garden rabbits.
• Graphics: Aion is gorgeous, and looks much better in-motion than it did in the screenshots I saw before I purchased the game. I have a higher-end system (2.4 ghz Quad core, 9800 GTX, 3GB ram), but I was able to play the game with a great framerate at 1680x1050 resolution with most of the settings maxed.
• Back-to-basics gameplay: This may not be a plus for you, depending on your particular preferences, but the pace of play in this game is definitely a little slower than World of WarCraft's. Although I've only played until level 20, to this point most of my combat involves maximizing cooldown usage. While you'll still obviously be doing all of your own targeting, the game helps you stay on target. If you are a melee character, your character always follows your target around if your target runs or is not right in front of you, provided you've activated auto-attack. This differs from World of WarCraft, where you have to chase down fleeing characters, or opponents can run through you, forcing you to turn around if you want to target them. All in all, Aion plays a little more like World of WarCraft's predecessors in the combat department.
• There is a ton of information about NPCs available to you: When you are questing, you will notice that all quest NPCs relevant to your objectives are displayed on the mini-map and the game map. In addition, many of the mobs and nearly all of the quest NPCs are clickable inside of quest descriptions. By clicking on them, you can read a little bit of background on the NPC, see some information pertaining to what region of the world they inhabit, and where to find them. This is particularly useful for areas that you have not explored yet.
• Personal stores: Have some useful loot to offload? Simply set up a store (hotkey Y) to put your items up for sale. While Aion has an auction house, the auction house costs money to use, and if you are in an area where people will find your wares useful, you can sell your items posting fee and commission free simply by setting up shop anywhere in the world. Once you have placed items from your inventory into your store and set prices (the game even helps you by making price recommendations), you can set a store message and click to immediately set up shop. I've had a number of people buy tradegoods and random armor/weapon drops from me. In addition, the game remembers what you put in your store, and what price is it set at, meaning that once you have stocked your store, anything that didn't sell during your first session is saved for the next time you open your store. This makes setting up shop a breeze, and is basically something I always do if I get up to watch tv, make dinner, or work around the house. It's also a great way to make you visually AFK if you're grouping.
• Item "gemming" system: Most of the weapons and armor in this game have sockets. Players can customize their armor by adding different runes into these slots. Although there don't seem to be any "rune words" or bonuses for gemming an item with a particular brand of rune, the gem system is definitely one of my favorite things to see in a game. From a developer standpoint, it makes designing armor much easier, since players can use one set of armor to do many different things.
  

Dislikes:

• Size of the main cities: Transportation in the game is a huge issue, but nowhere in Elonia is it more frustrating than the capital region, from what I've seen. Getting from one end of the capital to the other can take around five minutes, and if you want to get to an outlying hub for a quest or two, that can add an additional three or four minutes to the trip. The cities are so large, in fact, that there is actually a set of teleporters (2) to make travel easier. The main problem with these, in my opinion, is that they cost money to access, which frustrated me whenever I turned in a quest and ported back to the entrance just to remember that I needed to hand in another quest before porting back. Note to developers: Don't make your game frustrating. There is a big difference between challenging and frustrating. Challenging is when players can become frustrated fighting a monster or boss, but when they ultimately beat the boss, all that negative sentiment they've been building up makes victory all the more sweet. Frustrating is when you have mechanics in games that never provide for this experience. I'm never going to feel good about the hours I've wasted walking around your game because the transportation system is slow and inadequate.
• Charging for everything: This goes a bit off of the point I was making at the end of the last bullet, but in this game, almost nothing is free. Money is very easy to come by, meaning that transportation, resurrection, item fees aren't overbearingly expensive, but I personally get annoyed when multiple costs are imposed on game actions.
  
• Gold-farming spam: This has been widely reported on game websites, but farming spam is much worse in this game than it ever was in World of WarCraft or other MMOs I've played. Generally, I would say I received a gold spam broadcast about every second or two, and would receive a private message advertising a currency website about once every five minutes. I realize that fighting gold spammers can be difficult, but NCSoft has had over a year to fix it. Blizzard has definitely stepped up their game against gold farm spamming. I expected that NCSoft would have done a better job.

Overall, I've enjoyed the time I've spent with Aion. Aion is definitely the most polished MMO that I've played since World of WarCraft, and reminds me a lot of Dark Age of Camelot, which is probably the MMO that I've enjoyed the most. At the same time, Aion has made me re-evaluate how I spend my time playing games. While there was once a time in my life that I didn't mind spending hours upon hours questing or needlessly running around cities that are too big for their content, in the last few years my time has been at a bit more of a premium. While I've enjoyed the time I've spent with Aion, it has also made me realize that the MMO genre in general is just not the best use of my limited time.

-Jon

PAX Show Impressions, Part Deux

In part 1 of this post, I talked about the exhibition floor at PAX this year, but the real reasons that you should go to PAX are here in part 2. What makes PAX stand out from all of the other gaming conventions in my mind is that it is the only convention that has a solid, well attended exhibition hall and several gaming areas replete with almost any game that you can think of, in both traditional and digital formats. While the exhibition hall floor was certainly exciting, I had more fun meeting people and playing games in the console and boardgame freeplay areas.

In both areas, the order of the day is to find something to play and someone to play with, sign out a game and/or some controllers, and go have fun playing whatever the heck you want. In the boardgame area, I had the opportunity to play several different boardgames, mostly with complete strangers. Nevertheless, I had a great time. The game that I probably enjoyed the most was FFG's Battlestar Galactica, an epic game in which some players, who turn out to be Cylons, are working against other players who are trying to navigate the ship through 4-6 rounds of play. I was playing with a group of four players who had travelled up to the convention together, and another player who, like myself, had never met them before. Ultimately, BSG ends up being a very social game; and although I'd never met any of the other players before, we still ended up having a blast (I lost).

The console free play area had a few copies of basically every non-portable system, from the NES to the Playstation 3, hooked up to 30-something inch HDTVs. After walking around the floor for a bit, a game of Halo 3 caught my attention in which two players were playing with max movespeed, minimum gravity, and the spartan laser cannon. Although I'd never met either player before, they invited me to grab a controller and join in on the action. A few hours and several game modes later, we found ourselves calling it quits for the day. Other notable games I played were Smash Bros. and Goldeneye on the N64 (which I remember being a little bit faster than it actually was).

If you've never been to PAX, I heartily recommend you do so. The tickets are cheap, the hotels are reasonable (if you have family in Seattle or Boston, even better), and the other attendees are great. I, for one, will definitely be going back again.