Here's another characteristically disjointed blog post about my recent gaming activities. In case anyone hadn't noticed, my primary Internet activity consists of simply keeping track of my own gaming habits via a small YouTube channel, and any blogging duties will always take a backseat to my incessant video uploading (partly because it's far easier to just record some gameplay and write a quick paragraph or two rather than having to take time out of my busy schedule to actually write anything more in-depth about what I've been playing). With that clarification out of the way, this is what I've been doing since my last GB update;

Witcher 2 ends with a cliffhanger (or, to be precise, a ladybird) but otherwise does a respectable job of clearing up most of the important plot-related questions the player might want answers to at this point. As a whole TW2 leaves me somewhat cold - and the act of playing through it was accompanied by a fair amount of frustration - but I can't argue with the fact that the game's sheer ambition and great atmosphere makes it one of the true must-have titles of 2011. Impressive visuals aside the game was clearly designed from the ground up to work well on consoles, however, as there's absolutely nothing in this third-person dialogue-heavy realtime action RPG which strictly requires a PC or even - which is the most important point for me personally - caters particularly much to the tastes of old school PC RPG fans (i.e. fans of Wizardry, Might & Magic, Ultima and similar classics of the genre).

Now that I've finished both Witcher games once I have to conclude that I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the series and what CD Projekt RED is trying to do in gameplay terms, but the whole choices & consequences aspect is impressive so there are still plenty of reasons to go back and explore the roads not taken during my first playthroughs. An early example is this mini-boss fight in Witcher 1, which I have never seen despite having played the prologue quite a few times now (always went for the other option during the attack on Kaer Morhen).

One of the disadvantages of buying a new computer is that you tend to lose some save files in the process (thank the Gods for Steam Cloud, though!), and this was the case for me with BFBC2. Restarting the game and playing through the missions I had previously finished was accomplished a lot faster than expected, though, and this can in no small part be credited to the fact that a higher frame rate (exceeding 60 FPS most of the time) and better overall performance makes twitch-based shooter gameplay that much easier to handle. BFBC2's strongest feature apart from great sound design is definitely the feel of the core shooting mechanics themselves, and a silk-smooth frame rate is necessary to enjoy such aspects fully.

The new hardware also exposes BFBC2's graphical flaws, however, as its often painfully obvious that the game engine was designed with the current generation of consoles in mind. Still, in the thick of the action you don't have time to study individual textures and pieces of level geometry, and the PC version's anti-aliasing also goes a long way towards providing a smoother presentation.

These 3 minutes, while not bad in and of themselves, capture the full range of emotions at display in the entire Crysis series. CryTek is the new id Software in more ways than one; not only do they push hardware boundaries with each new release - they also seem hilariously incapable of crafting an intelligible story about actual human beings. Crysis 2 is by far the most effective of their games as far as narrative development goes, but it's telling that the only "character" in that game which undertakes a rich, transformative journey throughout the game's storyline is the Nanosuit itself.

Now, I'm the first person to admit that the plot and dialogue of a video game can be absolutely inconsequential as long as the gameplay holds up, but it's interesting and somewhat jarring to see the unparallelled graphical fidelity of the Crysis games exist alongside the outdated action movie clichés which define the game's storytelling. While it's obvious that games have not come a long way in delivering quality narratives, I feel like almost any generic but modern shooter (with the exception of CoD and Gears of War) has at least a bit more drama and psychological realism than what CryTek seems able to muster.

At this point, I have completely lost track of how many times I've restarted Drakensang: The Dark Eye and then quickly abandoned the game in favor of some other, somehow more pressing gaming commitment. To be fair, part of the reason for this is that Radon Labs RPG ran rather poorly on my previous computer, and hopefully the game should be easier to get into on my new rig (then again, the autumn is full of promising releases so who knows how far I'll get this time...).

Once again I've rolled a new character, and this time I tried to keep things simple by choosing a Warrior. Despite having realtime combat, The Dark Eye's pacing is *very* relaxed and clearly rewards a methodical approach. There's no fast travel within the rather area large maps which means that a lot of time is spent slowly traversing the game world, and it's a good thing there are plenty of barrels to destroy along the way and some idyllic high fantasy scenery to look at...