Screenshot of the Day: Tropico 3

I was really impressed with the procedurally generated shacks.

Tropico 3 is a simulation game much like Sim City, but instead of playing as the mayor of a city, the player is a dictator of a small island nation during the Cold War era. This means that in addition to running a stable economy and providing civil services, you also need to work to stay in power and manage relations with the US and the USSR, who will send heaps of development aid if courted properly.

I personally tried to stay in power by being a good leader: providing education and good fixed salaries to my people (there was even free food and housing for all students, a matter close to my heart). Educated citizens can produce processed goods, which are more profitable than the raw materials my economy would depend on with an unskilled labor base. Because of all this, I was liked enough that I could hold free elections and still stay in power. My democratic tendencies led to good relations with the US, which was nice.

That being said, I did play into the dictator persona a bit: on of my favorite systems in Tropico 3 is the dictator's personal Swiss bank account. Your score in game is increased by running a successful country, but also by funneling as much money as possible to your secret account. Under my mandated permit policy, 10% of the cost of every building project went to my account, and I paid bankers to divert a small percentage of each yearly national budget to my account as well. It was almost a victimless crime until I found out that I hadn't built enough housing and the professors I had hired were living in shacks behind the university-- I knew I had forgotten some part of the budget.

Screenshot of the Day: Baldur's Gate 2

I am unfortunately the person in the burning cage.

Baldur's Gate 2 is a (relatively) old fantasy role-playing game and is considered one of the best in the genre. In high school, a friend and I played the first Baldur's Gate to the point of memorizing the game, so it's a surprise I haven't played Baldur's Gate 2 sooner.

The opening of BG2 is beautifully done, but quite grim: the player character and their friends, protagonists of the first game, have been captured and is helpless in the dungeon of an evil wizard. The player is being experimented on and, by the time an escape is affected, some friends from the first game are already dead. It's a very dark place to begin a story, but it gives the player a range of immediately obvious emotions and motivations to act on right from the start, a thing most RPGs attempt to do by tired stereotypes like burning down a village the player character cares about but the player really doesn't. BG2 certainly can't be accused of a slow start.

Just so the mood doesn't get too dark, there are many things about BG2 that remind me it's just a game. Resting, for example, heals the player and their companions. During my daring escape from the wizard's dungeon, I decided we should bed down and take an eight-hour nap. Nobody came looking for the escaped prisoners that whole time, so my sense of urgency took a hit, but I suppose it's partially my fault for trying to sleep in the first place. One of my character's companions did question the wisdom of camping out a stone's throw from our former cages, so the developers at least thought of the possibility.

That last phrase sums up a lot of my experience so far with BG2-- the game is constructed for any sort of character the player might wish to construct. Dialogue options can make you an upright paladin or a sarcastic bard. Quest options can make you a down-to-earth pragmatist or a passionate idealist. Equipment and class options can make you a hard-hitting giant or a nimble thief. In the main story (to this point, at least), you can be motivated by revenge or power or the wish to save an old friend. Baldur's Gate 2 starts off like no other RPG I've played and continues to realize its potential as the player's choices drive the rest of the game.

Screenshot of the Day: Dragon Age: Inquisition

I had to stand like that because I was saying something important.

Dragon Age: Inquisition (DAI) is the third installation of Dragon Age, a series of role-playing games featuring magic, discrimination, complex moral issues, and, of course, dragons. In DAI, the player is the head of an organization called the Inquisition. It's a bit of a misleading name; Dragon Age's Inquisition focuses less on uprooting religious heresy and more on saving the world from being overrun by the forces of evil. The Inquisition usually follows this line of inquiry:
1. What's wrong?
2. How do I fix it?
3. (After fixing) Whose fault was it?

DAI has a larger scope than previous Dragon Age games-- the linear series of encounters typical of Dragon Age II have been replaced with wide-open areas full of side-quests and things to explore. There is, in fact, almost too much to do, and as a result of that, one of the interesting choices the player makes is what to leave undone; the Inquisition can't help everyone.

One fun thing about DAI is interacting with characters from previous Dragon Age games. There are several encounters with the protagonist of Dragon Age II, whose actions in DAI are determined by the choices I made while playing Dragon Age II.

Overall, Dragon Age: Inquisition is an impressive piece of work, striking at a delicate balance between open-world and story-driven gameplay.

Screenshot of the Day: The Witcher 2

A conversation with the troll under the bridge.

The Witcher 2 is a fantasy role-playing game in which the player controls a 'witcher,' a sort of superhuman monster hunter. I started playing The Witcher 2 almost immediately after finishing The Witcher, and it's the same game at heart; the player travels from region to region, fighting monsters, solving problems, and usually creating new, bigger problems. Many factions compete for the witcher's loyalty, leading the player to think carefully about what they're trying to accomplish and why.

This next paragraph is really boring: the combat system in Witcher 2 is probably the biggest change from the first game. Dodge rolls have been added, which I see as a disappointment. In the first game, directional dodges were acrobatic and required double-tapping a key. In my opinion, single-tap rolls are too easy to overuse in every battle-- they don't look right and lessen the need for creativity. I could, howeer, just be playing the game wrong.

All in all, The Witcher 2 is a solid RPG, more accessible than The Witcher and with a story that makes slightly more sense (so far).

Screenshot of the Day: The Witcher

They call him "White Wolf" because his hair is white, right?

The Witcher is a fantasy role-playing game in which players control a 'witcher,' a sort of superhuman monster hunter. Interestingly, a big part of witchering is research and preparation for battle. My witcher was tasked with clearing ghouls out of  a crypt. I asked a few villagers what they knew about ghouls and then bought a book about undead creatures for more detailed information. After that, I was able to collect specific plants and use them to make a magical oil that would do extra damage to ghouls. I made another potion that would allow me to see inside the dark crypt. Actually fighting the ghouls only took a few minutes.

The Witcher is based on a series of books, the Witcher Saga, written by a Polish author. The game was developed by a Polish company and is probably the most famous RPG to come out of Eastern Europe. I'm enjoying the methodical witchering so far and am looking forward to seeing where the story goes. The Witcher has two sequels, and according to popular opinion, each one is better than the last.

Screenshot of the Day: SimCity 4

Citizens of Marseilles can now enjoy eating at a local Chick-fil-a.

SimCity 4 is a simulation game that allows players to build and manage virtual cities. It's a game my brother and I have played for a long time, developing such strategies as "spend huge sums of money until your city's debt unlocks a government bailout" and "build only one road from the suburbs to downtown and place ten tollbooths on said road so that it costs each citizen $20 to commute to work every morning." It's a very flexible simulation and is good practice for budget management: municipal spending for utilities, healthcare, education, and more needs to be carefully balanced to keep city funds in the black.

There are, to be sure, a lot of unrealistic things about SimCity 4: I always cut the fire department budget because a single fire engine is all that's needed in most cities to keep fires in check. Even if a city is a utopia of health, wealth, and education, citizens will complain and leave forever if income tax is more than 15%. Municipal income, then, has to come from other places. In the city in the screenshot above, a large chunk of the budget comes from bus fares and a government stipend I receive in exchange for allowing an army base, missile range, and federal prison to be set up in my city.

SimCity 4, first released in 2003, is widely held to be the best of the SimCity series, and it still holds up as one of my favorite creative games.

Screenshot of the Day: Borderlands 2

Compare the detail level of the gun with everything else.

Borderlands 2 is a first-person shooter set on an alien planet that's a bit like the wild west. Things are broken down and people generally fend for themselves. As far as I can tell, it's a game about finding increasingly better guns and using them to shoot at increasingly tougher enemies. The combat is very dynamic; players can hide behind cover and snipe or run in, punching enemies or anything in between.

The story, unfortunately, is very linear and based on the assumption that the player wants revenge on the game's antagonist. A cast of wacky characters exists to help the player, and so far I've ended up disliking all of them. Borderlands 2 is in many ways designed as a multiplayer cooperative game and I would probably enjoy it a lot more if I was playing it that way.

Screenshot of the Day: Marvel Heroes 2015

I can see why Marvel toned down the character color palette for the movies.

Marvel Heroes 2015 is an MMORPG in which players control Marvel superheroes and click on Marvel bad guys until they fall over. The game is certainly complex and has a lot of interesting powers to use and heroes to play as, but neither the gameplay or the story have bowled me over so far.

One thing I don't like about the gameplay is that when you click on an enemy, your hero attacks only once. This means a lot of clicking is necessary, as opposed to other games like Dungeon Siege in which a character will continue attacking after one click.

One thing I don't like about the story is that every single player is a superhero. I can't see any good way around this in a Marvel MMO, but it's hard to feel super when the streets are full of people with the same amazing powers or better.

Marvel Heroes 2015 isn't necessarily a bad game, but I haven't really found a good reason to play it.

Screenshot of the Day: Lord of the Rings: War in the North

The eagles! The eagles are coming!

Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a co-op hack and slash game set in the wide world of Middle Earth. Some Lord of the Rings games, like Lord of the Rings Online, get this setting right (in my opinion), but War in the North falls into the much larger camp of games that would make most Tolkien fans cringe. Players control a human ranger, an elf, and a dwarf-- they may as well be called Faragorn, Flegolas, and Flimli. The only thing that sets this party apart from their canonical inspirations is that the elf uses magic spells in a way that would surely make Tolkien roll over in his grave. The main goal of this party is to stop some pseudo-wringwraith named Agandaur, but as I play this game, I try to ignore the story as much as possible.

With all that said, I think War in the North is a lot of fun. Three-player co-op is relatively unusual, but it works well in War in the North, utilizing the classic tank/dps/support model. I played Flimli, the sturdy dwarf whose job it is to take hits while Faragorn deals damage and Flegolas casts protective spells. Playing the game with other humans makes the terrible story more funny. Combat is complex enough to be interesting, but simple enough to be relaxing.

War in the North isn't the best game, but it's mechanically sturdy and an entertaining to play with friends.

Screenshot of the Day: Two Worlds II

I don't know how you aim with the sun in your eyes like that.

Two Worlds II is a role-playing game that mixes story and an open world that plays a lot like a mediocre installment of Elder Scrolls. The fantasy world of Two Worlds II, as far as I played at least, is completely generic except for the one twist that the race called orcs are on the side of good for once.

What made Two Worlds II stand out to me, besides the hilarious title, was the weirdly high level of blurriness in cutscenes and when walking around the world. I did have my graphics set to low, but the haziness can't all be attributed to that. Whatever was going on, the world of Two Worlds II was dream-like in that it was populated with characters and landscapes that were blurry until focused on. It's almost like it was a second world. Maybe the title does make sense after all.

Screenshot of the Day: The Stanley Parable

The boss must be a heavy reader.

The Stanley Parable is a prime example of a "walking simulator," a game where player input is limited to walking around and basic interaction with various objects. The Stanley Parable is generally considered to be one of the cleverer games in this genre and features a narrator telling a story about life, games, and stories themselves. This very meta discussion takes place as the player wanders through an abandoned office that holds many surprises and different outcomes based on which path the player chooses to take.

I personally enjoyed The Stanley Parable, and while it wasn't as funny as I had hoped, there were enough interesting choices and unexpected twists to make a few hours exploring this office worth the time.

Screenshot of the Day: Metro 2033

Not many dare to brave the tunnels alone

Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter with strong story and horror elements. The setting is in the name; after a nuclear war flattens Moscow, the only people who survive are those who were in the underground metro tunnels at the time of the bombing. Metro 2033 is one of the most immersive games I've played recently-- the crowded tunnel-communities are full of details and people and stories going on outside of the player's influence. Setting the spoken language to Russian in the game options helps make the atmosphere even more believable.

The combat is quite good; every gun has a unique feel and fights are balanced to be harrowing and difficult, but not to the point of frustration. Ammunition is used as currency in the world of Metro 2033, which encourages players to shoot sparingly as they are literally firing money. In a subway system full of mutants and monsters, Metro 2033 is less about running around guns blazing and more about surviving to help the characters the player cares about.

Screenshot of the Day: Deadlight

Good thing these people had their seatbelts buckled

Deadlight is a 2.5D platformer set in a zombie apocalypse. It's a great game to look at whether the player is being led through a series of narrow rooms and hallways or across an abandoned overpass. Both the player and the zombies are dark silhouettes against the bleakly colorful world. In more practical visual design, it's usually clear what can be jumped on and what can't, an important distinction to make in a a platformer.

Zombies are frightening in Deadlight because, while the player carries a large axe, a clever stamina system makes it difficult to fend off more than one or two zombies at once. It's thrilling to escape a room full of undead, leaping out a window to freedom at the last second.

Screenshot of the Day: Prison Architect

Here comes the bus

Prison Architect is a simulation game in the same vein as the Tycoon and Sim series. Prison is a strange premise for such a game, but the game itself works well-- players keep a penitentiary up and running with power, water, food, laundry, lots of other things, and, of course, lots of security guards and locked doors.

While I would prefer a less grim setting, Prison Architect has all the aspects I like in simulations-- easy-to-use interfaces, intelligently working AI, and people carrying things from place to place in the well-oiled machine I create. Of the sim games I've played, Prison Architect is most similar to School Tycoon (haha, jokes). Really, though, I found myself having to build a cafeteria and hire enough janitors in both games before the prison and school buses arrived, respectively. The big difference is that I built holding cells in one and classrooms in the other.

Screenshot of the Day: Orcs Must Die! 2

Don't ask why

Orcs Must Die! 2 is a tower defense game with an action twist. The well-chosen title is the game's main objective, mechanic, and story element. The player builds a series of traps to poke, burn, freeze, and in other ways disable aforementioned orcs (the ones that must die). The player also controls an action-RPG character who can assist the traps in finishing off wave after wave of orcs.

The big thing that stands out to me about Orcs Must Die! 2 is how polished it is. I suppose that, as a sequel, a good level of polish is expected, but from the very start, this game is easy to understand and control. It's very easy to place and remove traps and very easy to tell what's going on and where the holes in your defense are. However, OMD2 is far from easy. I've found most levels to be very difficult, in fact, but because of the smooth design, the challenge comes from the scenario and not from clumsy mechanics. In my limited experience with tower defense games, Orcs Must Die! 2 is a simple gem of intuitive gameplay and reliable fun.

Screenshot of the Day: Titan Quest

That's me in the red chiton.

Titan Quest is a third-person RPG set in the world of Ancient Greek myth. I certainly enjoyed the concept as I enjoy Greek mythology and don't see too many games with that setting. As far as I've played, though, I haven't encountered anything in the mechanics or atmosphere that make it different from the standard fantasy RPG. Fighting hundreds of satyrs feels quite similar to fighting hundreds of goblins in another such game. This lack of distinctiveness isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it meant that playing the game wasn't as exciting as I had hoped.

The real reason I stopped playing Titan Quest is that it got very difficult very quickly, at least for a gamer of my skill level. By the second major area, I didn't feel like my character was either Greek or a mighty hero. The only thing I had left to play for was enjoyment of the combat, and it was too click-heavy for my liking. Titan Quest is a decent game, but it's not my cup of tea.

Screenshot of the Day: Dwarf Fortress

Dwarf Fortress graphics don't get any better than this.

Dwarf Fortress is an open-ended base-building and adventuring game, but these words don't do it full justice. In a previous post, I talked about a future of procedurally generated RPGs, and Dwarf Fortress is the closest game I've seen to that dream. Players determine what kind of world they want, choosing things like size, harshness, and age, and said world is generated, complete with civilizations, heroes, and histories. My world is called Boksmata, and I decided to start with only five years of history.

My first play session in Boksmata had me controlling Jasro Thrunion, one of the first humans. I walked around a hill for a while and ate some snow, then saw some ravens. I decided to attack a raven as was presented with a series of menus. I needed to first choose what part of the raven to strike at (head, neck, right wing, left foot, and about twenty other choices), then choose exactly how to strike. Should I try and stab this raven through the upper body, or just attempt to step on its wing? I eventually killed the raven, and, not knowing how to cook it, ended up just licking the carcass for nourishment. That night, Jasro made the mistake of sleeping out in the open and was killed by bogeymen.

Dwarf Fortress, at version 0.40.05,  is still a work in progress, but it already has a huge number and depth of systems. There are different actions for detecting an odor in the environment and detecting the primary odor in an environment. As I see things at the moment, DF is my procedural RPG except for one huge, huge element: polish.

In its current state, Dwarf Fortress is unplayable for most people because of its difficult, complex, controls and abysmal graphics. DF is made with ASCII art and controlled exclusively by keyboard. Even with the power of wikis and 'newb' mods, learning how to play Dwarf Fortress takes a huge amount of time. I'm glad that such an ambitious game is out there, but I might not be able to fully enjoy it at the moment.

Screenshot of the Day: Rome: Total War

Great formations, bad graphics.

Rome: Total War is a strategy game with both a world map where players build up cities and move armies, and a real-time strategy portion (shown above) in which battles are carried out. It's lauded as one of the best games in the Total War series, and the Roman setting is one I particularly enjoy.

Playing as Rome is great because you can conquer the known world while still following a generally historical course of operations. Players start out controlling just a few Italian cities, and can expand the Roman Empire as they please. The battles a surprisingly tactical, and small forces can triumph against the odds if they have better formations and organization.

Screenshot of the Day: Minecraft

Welcome to my mountain-castle.

Minecraft is a block-based game about creation, exploration, and survival. It also happens to be the best-selling computer game of all time, clocking in at 16,000,000 sales (World of Warcraft is next highest with 14,000,000). I would guess that Minecraft's massive popularity is probably because of three things: the huge range of things to do, the feeling of ownership and creation, and the easiness of introducing other people to it.

When you start a game of Minecraft, you're dropped into a world with no items and no great indication as to what to do. Do you want to climb to the top of that mountain? Go ahead. Do you want to pick those flowers and throw them at NPC villagers, or do you want to dive into that lake and punch that squid? Sure. Do you want to build a massive skull castle into that cliff face and surround it with a moat of lava? Now you're talking. Now, the reason that Minecraft isn't a completely directionless sandbox is that you do need to survive, battling hunger and zombies alike (at least in survival mode). I built the castle pictured above as a refuge from monsters in the night, and it's kept me mostly safe so far.

Next is the sense of ownership that comes from living and building in a unique world. Minecraft worlds are procedurally generated, so you know that all the jungles, plains, and villages you come across are unique to you. You're the only person who's ever built in your world, and as a result, the creations you make feel more special.

Lastly, Minecraft is a great game to talk to other people about. Most players have lots of stories about adventures they've been on and lots of screenshots of architectural wonders they've created. The creative side of Minecraft makes it one of the most, a-ha, constructive games out there, and spending twenty hours in Minecraft feels a lot more justifiable (to me, at least) than spending twenty hours playing through a bog-standard RPG or other such game. To top it all off, a popular and easy-to-use multiplayer mode means that friends have the chance to play and build together.

It's a pretty great game.

Screenshot of the Day: Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

The guard changes at midnight in Genericville.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is an action RPG set in a standard fantasy world. It's a shame when 'standard' and 'fantasy' belong side by side, but that's the feeling I eventually got from this game. It does everything from being sent on a mission by a dying old man to having a humble village guarded by men in full armor. I usually still enjoy these 'standard' RPGs, but two things ultimately ended my run through Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. First of all, the art style didn't really click with me and, in my uninformed opinion, made the game feel a lot less exciting than it should have been. The chunky characters and cartoony villages made me feel like I was in a world where nothing was edgy or unique. Secondly, all enemies respawn. If I go out questing and kill a giant spider, that spider will be back in its place in a day or two. Kingdoms of Amalur isn't necessarily a bad game, but nothing about it convinced me that it was really worth my time.