Role-Playing

Second Skin is a 2008 documentary by Juan Carlos Piñeiro Escoriaza about MMO players' "second skin"—their avatars and virtual life. While looking at those into titles like World of Warcraft, EverQuest, Second Life, and others, MMO players' lives seem like an easy target for humor, Second Skin manages to avoid that.

So, the Mass Effect 3 "extended cut" DLC amending the old endings came out. It's a free add-on and I'm pretty sure it provides an auto-save right near the end of the game for those who may not have a file at the appropriate point—I was positive that I didn't, but when I booted the game up, there it was. It could be my imagination, but I'm guessing the developers included this save as part of the DLC to avoid further outcry.

I don't often think about the ESRB rating system (apart from the fact that I generally support it) but my oldest son asked me a question today about the difference between ratings, and I had to pause a moment before answering.

A Witcher's Work is Never Done

HIGH The moment when the combat clicks and Geralt slices through five or more attackers with ease.

LOW Twenty minutes of pure exposition before the game's final moments. Very clunky.

WTF Being tossed into the story with no clue who any of these people are if you didn't play the first game.

Needs Mayo

HIGH The final battle with the Dragon.

LOW Walk back to Bluemoon Tower? I just $&*#!@ came from there!

WTF Who keeps leaving explosive barrels all over the kingdom?

Another Visitor! Stay a While. Stay... Forever

HIGH Solving an obscure puzzle in an imaginative way and being rewarded with sweet, sweet loot.

LOW The final section is more irritating than challenging.

WTF Casting advanced spells in battle requires a bizarrely intricate mouse pointer dance, and your so-called "mage" doesn't remember any of them at the start.

The almost universally laudatory critical reaction to Xenoblade Chronicles has heaped ambitious praise on the project. Not content to appreciate Xenoblade's design on its own merits, many critics have asserted that it points the way towards "saving" the JRPG. There are good reasons to be dubious of this assertion. For the moment, though, I want to focus on something Xenoblade gets right, and the best way to do it is by focusing on something it gets very wrong: Valak Mountain.

Haven't had much free time in front of the consoles lately, but what little time I have had has been going into Dragon's Dogma.

Patchwork Heroes

HIGH The playable credits sequence.

LOW Losing track of my character over and over.

WTF Giant chicken boss!

Early on, Mass Effect establishes that the Citadel Council forced humanity to establish colonies in dangerous parts of the galaxy, then refused to offer aid when those colonies were inevitably attacked. The existing power structure is only interested in humanity's ability to serve as a buffer against its enemies, not in helping us thrive. Despite all this, humans get a comparatively sweet deal.