Token Female Gamer

When I find myself desperate for excuses to do anything but write a review, it’s usually because the subject matter ended up being rather disappointing. Borderlands 2 sadly falls into this category, as I have been struggling for weeks to come up with something praise worthy to write.

But I can’t let that stop me anymore, productivity must continue!! (Never give up, never surrender!!) With my house clean, laundry finished, caffeine and snacks at the ready, I am all out of excuses; its time to sit down and get this review done. Wait, what am I writing about again? Oh right Borderlands 2…hmm is that a spot over there that I missed dusting? Clearly my bout of Borderlands 2 induced ADD is persistent.

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Oblivion was quite effective at smothering any desire I might have had to play other Elder Scrolls game. Being the victim of poor character choices and frequently lost in the vast empty abyss that was the world of Oblivion (aptly named) made quitting quite easy and overlooking Skyrim easier still.

But then I finished Mass Effect 3 and found myself pining for something similar, something new. Skyrim seemed like the obvious candidate; though thinking about it now, Dragon Age probably would have been a closer match.

Whatever the case, Skyrim was recommended to me and, thanks to my fabulous friends, loaned to me, since I still couldn’t bring myself to purchase a copy. Seemed like the perfect solution as I expected to dislike the game and return it a week later.

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These are all games that I have played in the past, games that I find not only historically significant, but that have also made a huge positive impact on me as a gamer.

Some of you might notice that my list actually consists of twenty games, not ten. Well, I’m really bad at picking favorites and they all seemed so important, plus I really wanted a diverse selection

Tetris, Super Mario Bros 3, Final Fantasy 8, Tomb Raider 2, Diablo1+2, Starcraft, Myst, Journey, Zelda windwaker, Animal Crossing, Civ 3, Pokemon, mortal kombat, quake, Baldurs Gate 2, gauntlet, Heroes of Might and Magic, Overlord, Professor Layton and The Curious Village, Portal.

If given the option, I always pick female characters. Thankfully more and more games are making either gender available to play, but even in games where gender is assigned, I will go with the female option as my first choice.

Even though I have tried playing male characters, I simply don’t identify with them as much, which does impact my enjoyment of the game. My interest really wanes quicker.

This doesn’t mean that I never play games with male protagonists. If the game is good enough, it transcends gender. For example, Diablo 2’s necromancer is by far my favorite class, which only had the male gender as an option. On the other hand in Diablo 3, because either gender was available for each class, I made all my characters female.

Deer Hunter! What is up with this game? Why is it so darn popular? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND!

There have been over twenty Deer Hunter games made in the past fifteen years, spanning various platforms. Its wide spread success has spawned other hunting simulation games, such as Bird Hunter, Carnivores, and Trophy Hunter.

Seriously, what about shooting Bambie is fun?

Both is really my preferred answer, but since that isn’t quite accurate I will attempt to be more specific. As I am a huge fan of both genres, in much more then games, it took a while to figure out that I do really have a preference.

In movies and TV I strongly lean in the Sci-Fi direction, while books are much more middle ground. But in games I seem to prefer the fantasy setting, its certainly what I play the most of.

This is very likely related to my proclivity for role-playing game, which are often in a fantasy setting, rather then the more sci-fi first person shooters. But I’m not sure if my preference is because of game mechanics or genre preference.

Whatever the case, my final answer is fantasy. =)

It’s incredibly difficult to make a sequel better then its predecessor. On the one hand you have the fans that loved the original and any derivation is anathema; while the opposing side demands improvements and beyond, the game must evolve. It’s an almost impossible task that sequels must face.

The most successful sequels in my opinion are ones that make the player forget all about the predecessor, by either being such a huge improvement or by reinventing the entire concept. A small example: Diablo 2 increased movement speed so much that returning to Diablo was painfully slow.

Tomb Raider 2 is a great example of a game that made vast improvements, while still remaining faithful to its antecedent. While it was very obviously a sequel, in that most of the games mechanics stayed the same, most of them were fine tuned to create an even better and more flexible experience. The story was better, the graphics were better, the levels were better, and the guns were better, creating an overall just better game.

Guild Wars 2 is my choice for game sequel that reinvented itself. While it still maintained the look and PvP focus, the game mechanics are vastly different and I think much improved. Guild Wars 2 is simply a far superior game, though still plays as an MMOrpg. They clearly learned from their first effort and decided to try something rather different, which really makes the whole game stand out from the crowd.

Diablo Butcher Room

While I don’t really play scary games anymore, there are a few scary moments that have lived with me forever more.

One of them is the Butcher from Diablo. His terrifying “Fresh Meat” taunt was made even scarier by the random level design. Though he would only call out once a character entered his general vicinity, it was impossible to know where what the hell he was located. The rest of the level would see me inching along, trying desperately not to run away, but dreading the moment that the Butcher would ambush my character. This inevitable occurrence ALWAYS caught me by surprise, even though he announced himself from multiple screens away.

The other was the first Aliens Doom mod. The mod itself was fun, but the brilliant thing about it was that the entire first level was empty. I had no idea of course and was totally stressed out the entire level. Proof that my imagination is a thousand times scarier then anything anyone else can come up with.

While I have been rather grumpy about the copious amounts of games that have been released of late, it has proven to be a rather interesting experiment.

Experiment, yeah lets call it that. It somehow lends legitimacy to my excessive video game playing of late. All in the name of research, of course. Must have enough data to support a reasonable conclusion which is, in short, that I clearly like some games more then others.

Shocking right? See, all that research was worth it. Okay so it was a rather forgone conclusion, but what I didn’t expect was how fast my preferences aligned themselves, with each new game release shuffling the order of preference around. For example when Guild Wars 2 came out, it immediately became the highest priority game. Borderlands 2 being next didn’t make much of a dent, but Torchlight 2 did.

And let me just conclude by saying I’m glad all these games came out before the Mists of Pandaria expansion because had it been reversed I might have never even given them a try. My World of Warcraft addiction is alive and kicking and not leaving room for much else.

My current order of preference is:

WoW:  Pandaria > Torchlight 2 > Skyrim >> Guild Wars 2 >>>Borderlands 2 > etc…

Today is the release date of Borderlands 2. Some of my friends have made this an ‘official holiday’, aka staying home sick to play the game. Having not played the first one (its still sitting in plastic on my to play pile) I dont quite understand the need to use up a sick day.

But the developers including Ellie, a character design that goes totally against traditional female stereotypes, certainly peaked my interest. This sort of thinking out of the box with female characters is really something I want to support.

So I will at least try the game. But since I dont really know anything about either game, do I play Borderlands first? Does it matter?