Although Invisible War was a decent game, it failed to live up to its name as a Deus Ex sequel.  The game wasn't bad but in an attempt to simplify many of the mechanics of the original Deus Ex it removed much of what made it unique.  So the question commonly asked on the internet was... would Eidos Montreal create a worthy prequel to the original Deus Ex?

Yes.  Yes they did.

Gameplay in Human Revolution feels just like it should - like an updated version of the original DX.  The free-form augmentation system is fantastic, letting you buy whatever you want whenever you want as long as you have the Praxis for it.  This does have a downside in that some players are reporting being overwhelmed by all the options at the beginning of the game but once past that the system provides a great deal of flexibility in customizing your gameplay experience.

Open sesame.

And let's be clear on one point - this is not some half-complete console port.  I play games on the PC and nothing is more frustrating than dealing with limited ports from console-driven control design.  I'm looking at you, Borderlands!  Human Revolution is not a halfway complete console port.  Kudos to Eidos Montreal did a fantastic job making me feel like they created an actual PC gaming experience.

On the story side of things I was very satisfied with how things progressed.  There were a few twists that were telegraphed a little too much but for the most part the overarching narrative and the conspiracy it centers on kept me entertained throughout my playthrough, aided by two features.  One was the side missions which I could pick up as  break from the plot which expanded on the setting, and two was the discovery-based nature of how the setting itself is presented to you.

There are a number of locked doors and computers in HR which serve no other purpose than to allow you to access setting background information through pocket secretaries, ebooks, and emails.  Some gamers might think this is a waste of time but not only did finding them enrich the HR experience, it drew a number of connections between HR and the original DX.  Emails from Manderly and news reports implying the future founding of UNATCO for instance have no effect on the plot but help cement HR firmly within the DX universe.

There has been one criticism leveled against HR that I think is fair.  Unlike in the original DX, there is no way to resolve HR's "boss fights" with nonviolent or even nonlethal means.  It would have been interesting to have these other options, but considering some of the later plot points of HR it makes sense that Adam Jenson didn't have access to the methods JC Denton used to defeat some of his more memorable adversaries.

But with that said, my reaction at the end of the game is a statement on how much I enjoyed it.  When faced with all four possible endings before me, I sat there and thought about it.  I knew I could just reload the game and pick the different endings to see them all (and ultimately I knew I would) but I still wanted to decide which I would choose first; which would by "my canonical ending."

Problem was there was no good ending - I felt like I was trying to choose the least of four evils.  And that only mattered to me, I realized, because I had become invested enough in the story to care how it ended.

As a side note, it's been revealed that Eidios Montreal is currently working on Thief 4.  If they can for for Thief what they did for Deus Ex then I'm going to be throwing more money their way soon.

And one more that's a little more recent...

But the Famicom version takes the cake.

Our debate never actually came to a conclusion after an indefinite break was taken for eye bleach.

Now then, it's been a couple months since I mentioned looking forward to playing Borderlands, so I thought I should post a follow-up. I played the game pretty intensely for a while, running through two playthroughs on my first character, a Siren, once as a Soldier, and a little as the other two classes. Most of my gameplay was single player but I got in quite a few multiplayer sessions with a couple of my friends that were a blast.

From skag hunting to fighting off the denizens of the Eridian Promontory, the game as a whole was extremely fun. It wasn't without its issues but unfortunately that seems to be standard for PC games nowadays. Regardless of some of the minor issues, I got more than my money's worth on Pandora.

For starters the mission-based system lets you hop in and out of the game for shorter sessions and still feel like you were accomplishing something. It also meant a fairly steady influx of quest XP so you never really felt like you were stagnant. Between the short quests and the fact that enemies respawned, you were always able to just go out throw lead around whenever you felt like it.

The ability to rearrange your character's skills and the ease of doing so (it just costs money, which is plentiful) really let you play around with customizing your character as you go. There was more than one occasion where I'd find a weapon or class mod that suited a certain playstyle so would just re-spec and switch over whenever I wanted.

It's hard to find a Borderlands forum where people aren't complaining about the end of the game. I admit it's the weakest point of the story, but Borderlands isn't about telling some grand epic, it's about giving you a gun to go shoot things and take their stuff. It's unabashedly a bullet-driven character-building engine, and in that regards it succeeds at its goals.

The biggest problem with Borderlands on the PC out-of-the-box was its multiplayer capabilities. It uses GameSpy as its multiplayer client, which caused all sorts of headaches for my friends and me. I heard many players using third party VPN-like products to get multiplayer working, but proper port forwarding fixed our issues, though it was still a hassle that we shouldn't have had to go through.

The first two DLCs for Borderlands were released a little while back, and there's where you start to see the problems with the game - or more likely the publishing company. The PC version was delayed for some time (as were patches for the base game) and when it was finally released, it included SecuROM. In fact, the latest Borderlands patch on Steam actually installed the Borderlands SecuROM files on your computer whether you wanted it or not, it just left them inactive until you added the expansion pack.

That was pretty much the end of Borderlands for my friends and me.  With other games being released that we wanted to play, we didn't really see the need to mess with SecuROM.  SecuROM itself isn't a dealbreaker for me, but there are so many other options out there at the moment that I don't have to mess with it to be entertained.  It was the last straw for the two gamers I usually played online with though.  After struggling with their multiplayer connectivity issues SecuROM was enough for them to bail completely.

According to Steam I've logged over 100 hours of Borderlands, and I've enjoyed every minute of it.  The game isn't complex and the story isn't deep, but it's just fun.  My only concern is that Gearbox seems to be looking to continue released DLC for it and if they want to succeed, they're going to need to make sure that they can ditch the SecuROM that's been convincing players not to continue to buy their products.

Borderlands has been described as a FPS version of Diablo II, which is a fairly accurate description.  You are given a choice of one of four classes, each of which has three skill trees which you can choose from to customize your character to your liking.  Loot seems to be a big part of the game, and the constant variety keeps you engaged by ensuring there's always the possibility of something better than what you have dropping from the next enemy.

Especially now that the XBox version of the game has been released, there are plenty of videos on youtube, as well as Borderlands' own web site showing game play off, but the one that was the most helpful to me was a co-op playthrough I found on giantbomb.com.  This half-hour video features four-player co-op play and some accompanying discussion by one of the players an observer.  The discussion answers some related questions and discusses aspects of play that weren't directly shown and is very informative.  There are also screenshots and videos on the Borderlands site, as well as the skill tree for each of the four classes for anyone who wants more information.

After doing some reading, I think I'm going to try out the Siren as my first character.  Apparently I was the last person to decide what as I was going to play.  To paraphrase a discussion I had over IM with a friend I'll be playing Borderlands with:

Me:  BTW... I'm thinking siren in borderlands
MD:  LOL no kidding.  I already knew that Fishboy would be Mordecai, You'd be Lilith, Rav would be Roland and I'd be Brick.  'Cuz those are our universal archetypes.
Me:  Heh.  Wait... I'm a chick?
MD:  me = do that one thing, Rav = do it all, Fishboy = be a ninja, you = be a fucking bastard shitcock sneaky twink 

I guess that makes sense... I am a Legion player after all.

Looks like Clear Sky is going to move up my to-play list.

Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer, Robber

I while back I finished playing through S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl. I picked the game up when it was on sale on Steam and have thoroughly enjoyed it.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. takes place in "The Zone," the area surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear power plant where a second nuclear disaster lead to the appearance of physics-defying anomalies and the artifacts they produce.  You play as an amnesic Stalker plying your trade (artifact retrieval) while trying to piece together your past. Along the way you'll have to contend with  anomalies, radiation, hunger, military forces trying to lock down the Zone, bandits, and mutated... things.

In-Game HUD

I'd characterize S.T.A.L.K.E.R. primarily as an FPS but there are aspects of other genres thrown in. Depending on your play style stealth can be extremely important. There's also an inventory system that demands you manage your weapons, armor, and equipment closely. You want the best that you can find but you also want to be able to carry your loot out of the ruins. There are artifacts you collect which can grant different bonuses to you, most of which also have penalties if you equip them, making them a mixed blessing. However with the variety of artifacts you come across and the limited "slots" to equip them (only five) you can mix and match to gain net positives in most areas with little difficulty.

Inventory - Early Game

Weapon acquisition, selection, and customization can be a large part of the game since ammo calibers can vary wildly between weapon models. If you can't find any rounds for the new assault rifle you picked up then it's just going to be dead weight. And even if you have ammo, if it can't accept the scope and grenade launcher attachment that you have on your current rifle, is it worth the upgrade? On more than one occasion I've chosen a slightly weaker gun just because I could max out its attachments and I knew enemies in the area carried compatible ammo I could use.

Inventory - Late Game

One of the reasons that weapon choice plays a large part in your game experience is that you're not always guaranteed to hit what's under your cross hairs in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. The accuracy of your firearm plays a large role in determining how precise your shot is, as well as your physical state - walking provides a significant penalty while crouching provides a bonus. Your right mouse button also 'aims' with whatever hardware the gun has, increasing accuracy but lowering your movement speed. On the defensive side of things your armor will mitigate a percentage of incoming damage, but all damage you take degrades the armor's condition (thus degrading its protection).

You can try sprinting in and gunning everyone down, but unless you have armor far superior to your opponents' weapons there's a fair chance they'll take you out before you can get them all. Likewise running from cover to cover constantly spraying lead doesn't result in many hits. Most fights you actually have to strategize your approach. My tactic of choice is to sneak as close to the targets as I can get, crouch behind cover, aim, and use the lean keys to peak out for quick bursts before ducking back out of sight before you get gunned down. Because the landscape isn't open the targets may find some cover of their own, requiring you to sprint to a new location with a better view and repeating the process.

Annotated Map of the Zone

Although nothing on the scale of Oblivion, the game world of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is relatively open to exploration. There are a few areas that are mission-gated but otherwise you're free to wander the Zone completing optional side missions and accumulating equipment to use or sell. Occasionally you'll receive a message on your PDA of a friendly camp under attack that you can help defend, and if you do you can return to a nearby NPC for a reward.

I've seen complaints leveled against S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that the story is weak but personally I enjoyed it. I will say that the story is not spoon fed to you, and in that regards it reminds me of Half-Life 2, where much of the back story was conveyed through context. While many of the main story missions do provide plot information, the game doesn't assemble everything into a neat package and provide you with a summation of what's going on. But if you just click through the missions you can still follow Strelok into the heart of the zone for the endgame.

There are no "Oh no! Plot twist!" alarms throughout the game but if you pursue all of the leads you have, then you are rewarded with the ability to put together the last few pieces of the puzzle to find out what really is going on with the Zone. I appreciate the questions that are finally answered and feel that the search is worth it but I can understand how some gamers prefer a more straightforward story.

From a gameplay standpoint S.T.A.L.K.E.R. was in enjoyable experience but the game's subtle strength is its atmosphere. You start in a relatively urban area with only a few scattered buildings but their various states of disrepair foreshadow the deeper areas of the Zone.  As you procede, you find former industrial areas that has been long abandoned and are now crumbling apart.  Ruined vehicles and other machinery are scattered about and everything feels old, dirty, and broken.  The sky overhead is almost always ominously overcast but occasionally the sun peeks through directly.  When it does it almost feels alien, washing out the landscape.  You really get the impression that bright cheerful sunlight just doesn't belong in the Zone.

You don't just take in the environment visually - the music and ambient effects help immerse you into your surroundings.  On more than one occasion I dismissed sound effects as being looped for mood until their source suddenly leaped out and catch me off guard.  The tension created by knowing if the source is nearby and preparing to jump you or distant and interacting with other AI can lead for some enjoyably creepy experiences.

Surprise Attack

On the enemy side of things S.T.A.L.K.E.R. keeps the supernatural and mutated threats rare and usually springs them on you when the human threats lull you into a false sense of security.  S.T.A.L.K.E.R. quickly trains you to deal with human enemies, and that only highlights the appearance of these "monsters."

I can remember in vivid detail the first time I encountered a bloodsucker and a poltergeist - the former due to the way it watched me deal with some mercs before springing out of the darkness where it had hid and the latter due to the great environment in which they're first met.  And that's not even considering the first controller you come across.

Considering S.T.A.L.K.E.R. can be found in bargain bins at this point, it's definitely worth picking up if you can find it.

I haven't really kept up with the video game hobby in a while so when I was asked to contribute I had to think a while before I came up with something I could actually write about.  In the end I wound up agreeing to write an intermittent series on some of the older PC games that I've played as a sort of "blast from the past," starting with Deus Ex.

With the launch of the Iron Agenda keeping up with Game Scribe posts (let alone here) is going to be a challenge for me, but Moondog and Ravious certainly maintain regular updates.  If you're interested in following a few gamers' romp through their virtual playgrounds be sure to check out their site!

Unfortunately the tour was cut short before it reached international fame when Mic's blaring rendition of Sabotage kept his wife from going to sleep upstairs.

WHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! *cough* *wheeze*

When my fiancee had to bow out of our gaming session last night we wound up traveling to Luke's house for some Rock Band. While I'm not sure my opinion of rhythm games has been flipped around completely like Chad's I still had a lot of fun. I just think that what made the game so enjoyable for me was the social aspect - acting like a drum-beating lunatic along side my friends. I don't think I'll pickup Guitar Hero or anything (aside from the fact that I don't own a console that would play it) but I'll definitely be willing to throw down with my band mates again in the future.