The Game Dame

I haven’t officially discontinued my WoW account, but I’ll probably do it this week. I realized after looking at SpartanUI that the lovin’ feeling is completely gone. A few months ago, I would’ve absolutely LOVED this UI. It’s clean, stylish, and out of the way. But now I look at it and I think two things:

1. It looks a heck of a lot like Aion’s UI. Wouldn’t surprise me if some add-on developers got some under-the-table “help” from Blizzard to combat the competition.
2. It made my skin crawl to think about playing the game again: leveling, button-pushing, doing dailies, putting up with pugs…

I just got this really depressed feeling like I have let my friends down by having zero interest in playing the game.

It is interesting learning about Aion, but I’m not sure about when I’ll go back to playing that either. It’s also very button-pushy. As in: push button one, wait for cooldown, push button 2, wait again, take a potion if necessary, flash heal, repeat.

The game I’m enjoying most right now is Fallout 3. It’s very immersive. It’s like BioShock meets Oblivion. I’m totally geeking out on it!

I finished Bioshock last weekend. I had planned to review it for the blog this week. However, today I read this brilliant review. Mighty Ponygirl says everything I would’ve said and more. She is definitely a better woman than I am since she actually slogged through one of Ayn Rand’s books in order to compare the game to Rand’s philosophy. (I admire someone willing to take one for the team. Especially when it’s not me.)

Anyway, I won’t be reviewing Bioshock. So go to Feminist Gamers and read Mighty Ponygirl’s review instead. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Games I’m Playing Right Now

• World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade
• BioShock
• Final Fantasy XII (kinda, it’s been a long while)

New Games I Own & Can’t Wait To Play

• Mass Effect
• Project Sylpheed: Arc of Deception
• Blue Dragon
• Halo (don’t have 2 or 3 yet)
• Kameo

Games I Don’t Own Yet But MUST One Day Soon

• LittleBigPlanet
• Halo 2 and Halo 3
• Whatever Oddworld Inhabitants cooks up next

Any thoughts? (No spoilers, please!!)

I got BioShock in the mail for my birthday yesterday! I opened up that bad boy as soon as I got home from work. I played the first 45 minutes or so of the game. The visuals are incredibly stunning. They are the best Xbox 360 graphics I’ve seen to date. Everything looks detailed, real, and touchable. The art and theme reminds me of Oddworld, some of my favorite game art of all time.

It’s a dark game. And I mean visually dark (humor color unknown as yet, if it exists). You start the game off by configuring the screen so that it’s JUST light enough to see. I had to turn down the lamp in my living room so that I could see better. I still have a bit of trouble seeing things. I’m pretty sure that’s part of the design, to keep you in a state of tension. The sound design is intriguing. I’m 50% deaf in one ear so sometimes the radio voice who guides you is a bit tough to understand.

I’ll give it a full review soon!