Token Female Gamer

While there are lots of games that I love, there are very few games that have changed my life. The most influential of this small list is the original Diablo.

A good college friend introduced me to the game and I was instantly hooked. Having no PC of my own I spent as much time occupying my friend’s computer as I could. It never seemed enough.

It was an incredible game, totally addictive and scary, but immensely fun. It was also the first game that made me actively want to pursue video games as a career.

Diablo was the reason I changed my major from Chemistry to Computer Science and it was a huge determining factor in where I eventually applied for jobs.

I can’t even imagine how different my life would have been had I not played Diablo or had I not loved it as much as I did.

Most gaming television shows are rather trashy, but I have recently discovered a new low, the gaming competition reality show. I realize that I’m a bit late to the party as these shows have been around for a while, but realty TV is something I usually avoid like the plague, so bear with me.

I learned about them when I was looking up information on pro female gamers and these shows have quite a few lady gamers participating each season. Since I’m always interested in seeing more ladies gaming, I couldn’t help checking them out.

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Hey Munchkin husbands everywhere, you are in luck. Play Prime World with your wife and get bonus stats!

The developers are trying to support mixed gender groups, yet are relying on Facebook account information to determine actual gender. Laughable and unreliable. Susana Polo of the Mary Sue summed it up best:

…the potential to incentivize seeing the players of the opposite gender as a statistic that needs to be maintained, rather than a basic fact of life (not to mention insensitivity to a spectrum of trans players). While that wouldn’t necessarily create an unequal situation in a population with equal gender ratios, in one with an admitted majority of men it has the potential to lead to players treating female players as a numerical advantage rather than fellow players, if the game’s balance favors these gender-based talents.

Read the entire article here.

Here’s an idea, instead of resorting to bribes, make a game that the ladies will want to play.

Uncharted 3 is the latest installment in the wildly successful Uncharted series. It follows Nathan Drake, a modern day fortune hunter, … you know what, screw this. Behold Uncharted 3, my biggest gaming disappointment of 2011.

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Look what I got for Halloween – the treat of imminent Xbox failure. I might just have to take this opportunity and dress up as an Xbox Basher, sledge hammer included. Always wanted to see the insides of that thing. =)

<3 TFG

Bioware’s epic sequel was a huge success; sold millions of copies and probably single handedly funded the new Star Wars MMO (well maybe not). Of course all the reviewers loved it, which automatically makes me suspicious.

Good reviews are a kiss/curse for me. Everyone seems to be talking about the damn game, yet I so rarely agree with the general media populace. Internal struggle ensues, which is why I tend to drag my heels.

Thus Mass Effect 2 managed to get shelved behind a bunch of other less controversial items. Plus, it had an extra strike against it because I played Mass Effect (the original) on the xbox. Ugh, playing with those stupid analogue sticks made me want to scream. I think it got a total of twenty minutes playtime before I vowed to torch the disk.

But I learned, and purchased Mass Effect 2 for the PC. If only I had gotten the original on the PC, I might have played it far more.

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Way back in the day, when Portal was first released, you know the dark ages of 2007, purchasing a game that I already owned didn’t seem worth it. Portal was bundled in the Orange Box, a Valve game extravaganza including such games as Half-life 2 (owned it), two expansion packs, and Team Fortress 2.

But the Portal section of the box made such huge waves, it peaked my curiosity so I ran a ‘portal game’ search. The result was a poor, browser based imitation that frustrated me within the first ten minutes. This just reinforced my resolve not to purchase The Orange Box and I carried on, blissfully ignorant.

Enter Portal 2 with its cooperative multiplayer. That’s a tag line that is sure to get me to sit up and pay attention. So I begged my buddy to play it with me and after hours of badgering he caved, but set this one requirement – I had to play the original Portal first.

Best blackmail ever!

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Castlevania, though one of the longest and most glorified franchises, has never really been on my radar. It’s a bit of a drawback really, because I don’t have any warm gushy nostalgia surrounding this franchise, to soften any of its rough edges. In short, I’m less forgiving.

This also means I am not usually drawn to any new Castlevania releases, but a friend of mine insisted that this was the greatest game to evAr walk to the earth, so it had to be tried.

Let the slandering begin.

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What a fabulously appropriate game for Halloween. Hauntingly moody backdrops frame a strange and perilous back-lit puzzle. It is missing a few pumpkins and there certainly isn’t any candy to be found, but it will evoke quite the appropriate mood. =)

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Everything I have read about Heavy Rain leads me to the same conclusion – this game is a critic’s wet dream. “Exhausting, exhilarating, and, crucially, involving” (PS Magazine). “Powerful and emotionally engaging narrative” (GameSpot). You get the point. It manages to push all the right “critic” buttons: innovative, graphics driven, and story rich.

The game reminds of me of all those sad depressing artsy movies about special people that somehow manage to win the Oscars time and time again. Those movies that are lauded for their craft, composition, and story; those movies that suck all the fun out of life and that I avoid at all costs.

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