The ramblings of a bearded crazy person

Archive for the ‘Games’ Category

The 12 Games of Christmas – Day 12 – Deus Ex

“In the future the world was dark and scarry.” In the year 2052, human civilization is on the brink of collapse. A deadly pandemic known as the “Gray Death” is taking a huge toll on the world’s population. It has no cure, but a synthetic vaccine, Ambrosia, lessens the effects of the virus. However, it […]

The 12 Games of Christmas – Day 11 – MDK2

“Hello, Earth. Who’s your daddy? Why, yes, I am.” Day 11. The penultimate day. Tomorrow you will learn what the greatest game of all time is. But today, we come closer to it than ever before. For those who haven’t played the first MDK, (which you should,) MDK2 starts out with a brief retelling of […]

The 12 Games of Christmas – Day 10 – Portal 2

“I think we can out our differences behind us. For science. You monster.” Portal 2 is a continuation of Portal. If you haven’t heard of Portal, you must have been living under a rock for the last four years. Portal was an experimental puzzle game that Valve wasn’t sure was going to be a huge […]

The 12 Games of Christmas – Day 9 – Half-Life 2: Episode Two

“I realize this moment may not be the most… convenient for a heart-to-heart.” Before I even started making the list of my favorite games, I decided that with game series that span multiple games, only the best game out of that series would be eligible, even though I like all of them. Because if I […]

The 12 Games of Christmas – Day 8 – Left 4 Dead

“Francis.” “Zoey.” “Francis?” “Zoey.” “Francis!” “Zoey!” Left 4 Dead is a zombie shooter game. You run around, and you shoot lots of zombies. Many zombies. Lots of times. Over and over. SO WHY IS IT SO FUN? Each game is different. The AI Director runs in the background, monitoring what’s happening in the game, and […]

The 12 Games of Christmas – Day 7 – Return to Castle Wolfenstein

“HALT!” The year is 943 AD. Heinrich I is busy conquering Europe with his army of zombies. A helpful wizard seals Heinrich in a magic tomb, where he won’t be any trouble. 1943 AD. Nazis discover the tomb, and work on trying to resurrect Heinrich to win the war for them. You are American special […]

The 12 Games of Christmas – Day 6 – Skyrim

“I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee…” The Elder Scrolls series has been responsible for hundreds of lost hours. A quick disclaimer: I may be biased toward Skyrim because it was just released last month, and I haven’t gone back and played Morrowind or Oblivion again […]

The 12 Games of Christmas – Day 5 – Riven

“Cho…?” I first wandered the Age of Riven fourteen years ago. And the beauty of this place is just as captivating in 2011 as it was in 1997. Riven is not your average fantasy land. It feels like a real place. Everything is very well thought out, and you feel like this place could perhaps […]

The 12 Games of Christmas – Day 4 – SimCity 2000

“YOU CAN’T CUT BACK ON FUNDING! YOU WILL REGRET THIS!” I’ve played the entire SimCity franchise, starting with the original SimCity, up to SimCity 4. (I don’t really consider Societies a true successor; it was not developed by Maxis.) But SimCity 2000 has always stuck with me as being the best of the series. It […]

The 12 Games of Christmas – Day 3 – Minecraft

“That’ssssss a nice everything you have there…” When I was a lad, I built lots of stuff with Legos. (And when I wasn’t a lad.) Always impossibly big things that ate all of the Legos. Because building huge things is lots of fun. Enter Minecraft. Minecraft is about building things using cube-shaped blocks of different […]