The games are kept here, in the comfortable parlor room. Perhaps you can take a moment to browse through my collection, old and new.
For board games, card games, and party games, you should check out my profile at BoardGameGeek.com, where you can find games currently in my collection, as well as my ratings and comments on various games. I also highly recommend the site for people who really enjoy playing games. It includes forums featuring knowledgeable gamers and game designers, listings and ratings for countless games, and statistics on the most-played and best-regarded games. BoardGameGeek.com is an excellent resource for anyone trying to find a new game to play.
I list a number of computer games, console games, and live games below. It's a rather scattershot list of games, especially since interest waxes and wanes so quickly with most video games these days. Games that have really caught my fancy should eventually find their way into the following list.
| Current Games | |
|---|---|
| Gears of War | known as the must-have game for the Xbox 360, Gears of War is a very gritty, well-rendered shooter game set in the near future; people can't jump through the air with guns blazing; instead, they have to fire from cover and flank the enemy, maneuvering to control an area; the story mode is involving and sets up a good atmosphere, though it's not a very long game; it's nice to be able to play the campaign with Mike over Xbox Live; I haven't ventured into multiplayer skirmish games on Live yet |
| Halo 2 | highly anticipated sequel to the Xbox's flagship game; the multiplayer mode has seen varying levels of action on Xbox Live; while the Live players can be annoying and crude, the convenient multiplayer action is hard to deny; I also set up an eight-player LAN game for our holiday party (what a geeky family I have!) |
| Oblivion | much more focused follow-up to Morrowind but still sprawling and open-ended; I suspended play while involved with World of Warcraft, but Mark's visit (and a cold) precipitated a revisit |
| Warcraft 3 | Blizzard's latest real-time strategy PC game set in a fantasy world where heroes lead armies from four factions in large battles; I mostly play the user-designed "Defense of the Ancients" game these days, updated for the Frozen Throne expansion; I guess the core Warcraft game just doesn't quite capture the same magic found in Starcraft, even though the controls are much better |
| Past Games | |
| after life | a live game set between death and the afterlife that I developed for Enigma, UCLA's science-fiction, fantasy, and gaming club |
| Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic | while Mark and I have tried playing various turn-based strategy games together, the tedium involved in waiting for each other's turns to complete has often defeated our best efforts to stick with them; the Age of Wonders games offered up an interesting simultaneous mode, allowing players to take their turns concurrently, reducing the wait significantly; the games have also featured pretty magical effects, landscape-changing powers, varied spells, and an interesting multi-race dynamic; we just purchased this latest expansion, which provides a lot of useful features, like random map generation and magic item creation, as well as some additional game balancing |
| Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura | a fantasy-themed computer role-playing game by Troika Games, developers of the popular Fallout games; set in a steampunk world where technology and magic vied for supremacy, I particularly enjoyed its sense of character and setting; various factions, races, locales, and individuals had their own sets of intersecting beliefs, and your actions had long-lasting consequences on your reputation and the eventual fate of different parts of the world; it featured a point-based character development system and a game that actually made multiple approaches realistically viable (including gunslinging, thievery using gadgets or magic, wizardry, and even charismatic diplomacy) |
| Brute Force | squad-based, third-person Xbox shooter using four team members with different styles of play (heavy gunner, feral warrior, stealthy scout, and synthetic sniper); not nearly as engaging as Halo, and the third-person view limits screen space; AI management of uncontrolled squad members isn't well-developed, so you end up ordering leftover teammates to stay behind; now that we've completed the grueling campaign, I don't think the game will see much more play |
| City of Heroes | superhero MMORPG set in Paragon City, which has lost most of its famed superheroes to a recent alien invasion and thus needs new heroes to rise to the occasion; I played with PRISM, an LGBT/LGBT-friendly team; the game was very pretty, and the action was pretty fast-paced, but there wasn't much variety in the gameplay |
| Civilization IV | greatly improved 3-D rendered edition of Civilization; I have trouble maintaining interest playing on my own, since it can still bring out bad habits in micromanagers, but it's nice to play with Mark |
| Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge | this game jumped straight into the past games section both because I finished the game quickly and because I update my Web page rarely; I really like how the designers set up this 3-D dogfighting game, making it relatively easy to control even with all of the freedom of movement; they also included fun multiplayer modes that we play once in a while, though the viewing area gets too small on our TV for more than two players; I'm sure this game will see more action whenever I get around to subscribing to Xbox Live |
| Fable | highly-anticipated fantasy RPG for the Xbox; player actions help define how the character looks, behaves, and develops; fun voice acting and interesting gameplay, though the main storyline may be a bit short, and the base game can grow too easy; I stopped playing after Mark finished the main storyline |
| Freedom Force | excellent superhero game for the PC with campy personalities, bright costumes, and comic book panel art; the game was quite fun and flexible, but the optional custom hero design allowed for the development of some really unbalancing characters; the built-in cast had a lot more personality, as well as various weaknesses that forced team-oriented play |
| Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich | the sequel to the team-based superhero game held lots of campy fun and improved on various systems from the original; I played the game using only the included characters to avoid overpowering combinations, which helped my overall enjoyment of the game; unfortunately, the time-hopping plotline removed certain characters from play, which could leave unlucky players in the lurch if they spent too much effort developing those characters or choosing certain development paths; it still felt a little short, though the new scenario generator helps extend game life; the game also looks remarkably similar to the original, despite many years of available graphical improvements, regardless of the comic book art style |
| Halo | flagship first-person shooter game for the Xbox, this is the first FPS that I've enjoyed, partly because of its engaging cooperative campaign, but it's a console game, so it might not count to most hardcore FPS gamers; though this is in the section for "past games," we still play multiplayer games once in a while; though I'm not a bad player, I'm far from a master, especially now that I play it only occasionally; at least I don't get dizzy anymore; I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel |
| Jade Empire | BioWare's follow-up to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic after giving the sequel to another company for development; more arcade gameplay, rather than strict RPG interaction; still uses a very black-and-white model of morality; game feels rather short but pretty fun and varied while it lasts, though the storyline doesn't match KotOR |
| Miskatonic University | a multi-session live game set in the 1935-1936 academic year of H.P. Lovecraft's university of occult studies; the game included live sessions scheduled over the course of a year, along with emailed action plans and continued role-playing between games; in fact, a number of participants were purely Internet players, interacting with others only via email, though their impact seemed pretty limited; unfortunately, my "evil" character died an untimely death early in the final session of the game with a variety of enemies overestimating his importance in the grand scheme of things |
| Sacrifice | highly-acclaimed RTS played from an over-the-shoulder view of your wizard, who's the walking source of your armies; a very beautiful, humorous, and engaging game that I enjoyed for quite some time; certainly a unique game, featuring mix-and-match spells, soul-stealing, deformable terrain, sky-diving cows, and floppy-eared manahoars |
| Second Life | while still a massively multiplayer online game, Second Life focuses on social interaction, customizable 3D objects, and scripting; a very innovative system allows for the in-game creation of interactive objects and a personalized avatar, utilizing uploaded textures, sounds, and scripts; unfortunately, some performance issues and the need for a massive time investment, especially since editing is all in-game, discouraged me from continuing my subscription; it's an interesting advance toward a commercially viable virtual world, and I'd be happy to see something like this succeed |
| Shadowbane | a player vs. player-oriented massively multiplayer online role-playing game featuring player-built cities; I played this for a while only to find that there are far too many abrasive and unpleasant online personalities for me to enjoy this kind of game; many of the players attracted by this game, and many online games, massive or not, seem to fall short of simple courtesy, much less the lofty political strife that the developers had hoped would develop; while there were friendly folk about, it doesn't take too many troublemakers to detract from the experience; in addition, there were far too many bugs and performance problems; MMORPGs seem to have pushed software quality standards lower than ever, since people defend poorly produced games by pointing at all of the other released disasters |
| The Sims | cute and addictive "dollhouse for adults," in which you guide families of simulated people on your PC, fulfilling their needs for food, rest, fun, hygiene, and social interaction, while advancing their careers so you could buy more interesting objects for houses that you could design; while we've known many people to play the game obsessively for a good while, all of our friends have eventually kicked the habit; without many real long-term goals to achieve, we eventually ran out of interest in the hassle of maintaining simulated friendships instead of real ones, I guess |
| The Sims 2 | Mark and I ventured back to the world of the Sims in this more goal-oriented edition of the game; the newly three-dimensional world offers a greater sense of time (Sims age through five stages of life) and consequence ("genetics," goals, and behavior); less tedious than the original game, but it hasn't seen too much play due to competition from other games |
| Spirited Away: The Live Game | Aaron and Kirsten's live game featuring a special occasion at Aburaya, the Japanese bathhouse for spirits, dragons, and even the occasional divine being; while I was kept extremely busy during most of the game as one of Yu-baaba's trusted servants (I helped thwart an escape attempt and some thievery), running here and there doing tasks while being berated by pushy guests, I still had the satisfaction of helping the other players have a good time; I did learn that I should be grateful not to work at a restaurant |
| Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic | an amazingly cinematic Xbox RPG set 4000 years before the Galactic Civil War shown in the original Star Wars movies; players can choose to follow either the Light or Dark Side of the Force, though the "evil" choices often make you feel like a surly thug, rather than a master of dark mysteries; even though I'm not a rabid Star Wars fan, there is something to be said for getting to wield a lightsaber and seeing cinematic duels whenever you go into combat |
| Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords | another anticipated sequel to a highly regarded forerunner; gameplay is similar but more complex, though morality is still a bit too black-and-white; the graphical engine is showing its age, but new gameplay features increase the depth of the game at the price of complexity; Mark finished the game and told me not to bother |
| Starcraft | Blizzard's extremely popular sci-fi real-time strategy game, featuring three races battling for galactic dominion; my friends and I played the Brood War expansion constantly, especially as a way to help keep in touch after college |
| Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines | pretty RPG set in White Wolf's World of Darkness; though it uses an FPS interface, the game focuses on the RPG aspects; I've heard that it ends up being rather combat-oriented though, which discourages me from continuing, especially since I have some trouble with the interface; I lent this out to Tommy for a few months, and I haven't played since I got it back; it certainly requires some time investment |
| World of Warcraft | highly acclaimed MMORPG set in Blizzard's well-known Warcraft universe; after about a year of downtime, my brother convinced me to resubscribe to the game, starting a character from scratch on the Boulderfist PvP server; there are certainly a lot of annoying people who have nothing better to do than pick on lower-leveled characters, especially with so many characters stuck at the current maximum level of 60; after a good while raiding with D.O.M., I've managed to unsubscribe again |
| X-Men Legends | a multiplayer Xbox "dungeon crawl" game featuring the X-Men; AI limitations and the fragility of some of the characters have limited general interest, but it certainly has a lot for X-Men fans; I finished the game, but I wasn't too impressed |
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