I'm gonna take a break on most of gaming for a few months. I lended the PS3 to a friend, sold the 360 and will put my PC in a storage room. There is a PhD thesis to be written...

I am not much of a trophy/achievement hunter, but with BF:BC2 being so generous with its trophies I decided to go for my first platinum trophy with this game. A poor decision. Because that last one was a real bitch: Getting 20 Destruction 2.0 kills. I also finally got all awards now (platin stars with XM8 and tanks). Yeah, played to much of that game in a way too short amount of time. (btw after the SP and unlocking everything in the MP I lended the game out to a friend for half a year or so). My head and hand hurt. I overdosed basically. Now, that I can play the way I want I kinda do not want anymore. But there still are the 20 kills with the Huey remaining. Still quite a task considering it is broken on consoles. I certainly will not go for level 50. That's madness. Im 36 now.
 
Also all that Battlefield on consoles (1943 and BC1+2 are my main Battlefield experience, since I only looked briefly into BF2 and BF2142) kinda sold me on buying BF3 for the PC. I hate mouse&keyboard for shooters with a fiery passion and my PC is used for all kind of games but usually not (online) shooters. But these games bummed me out: 
I play to win a round. Not to rack up scores. One reason why it took me so long to get those trophies and awards is that I could not break my habits and could not stand by idle while others just went for kills. Playing this way is hard in so small games. The matchmaking is not very good. I usually do not like server browsers - I always feel that I am falling prey to packs of way better players from clans who just farm the average gamer for kills - but at least you get full games. 
Which usually leads to more fun in general, because more people go for the objective and the higher player count makes "Conquest" work in the first place. Conquest on consoles on games which often only have 16-20 players is no fun. You just run around without "meeting" the enemy.  Rush works much better for consoles I think , though winning by sitting next to a flag feels more "gamey" than blowing up stiuff (I liked Killzone 3s Objective mode. Nicely covering up that you just press a buttons.) 
 Also it is annoying that you have no control over the sqauads. Often there were 8 people in a team and I could not get into a squad, although it was not apparent that people "belonged" to each other. Either give us full control, or just force single players in squads. Along those lines: auto-balancing ... or lack there of. And our favourite: the all sniper team. See exibit A. Thank god for "2 snipers/team" servers (I played BC2 a bit on PC too, FYI.) Though I think that the shotgun recon is often the better "assault"-class. 
  
  

So I suck at flying all the choppers in Battlefield Bad Company 2 (+Vietnam), both with the gamepad on the PS3 and mouse&keyboard on the PC. Since BF3 will feature jets - and I surely played my fare share of pseudo flight sims back in the day (TIE Fighter), and know its more fun with a stick, I was wondering if I should get a joystick. Does this make sense? Because I really do not want to invest into an elaborate flight control system with pedals etc. or clutter my desk with it. Only the stick. Will this help me out? I wanted to go for the 50 buck range. Any recommendations?

Ok, so I played a few other games since the last post, I come to that in a different blog post. I only wanted to get one thing about Portal 2 off my chest real quick. spoiler free

To set things straight right from the beginning. I really love this game! The controls (I played PS3 version, which played as good as Portal 1 with mouse&keyboard.), the setting, the characters, their development and voice work, and also the graphics are holding up pretty well - in large part because of the unseen amount of 
dynamic environment, which effectively breaks the solitude. I really liked the fact that they got rid of most of the momentum and timing based stuff, and made the game more puzzle orientated. I had a great time, and beside Dead Space 2 it is a GOTY 2011 contender for me (so far obviously).

But is it just me or are the actual puzzles way easier than in the first game? I finished the game in two rather short sittings, even quite late in the evening. Maybe I developed a severe case of "portal vision", but it felt like that you really spend the most of the time just transversing the room with relative ease, and look at everything that is availale. The presentation of the puzzle then already gives so many clues about the solution, that they end up being quite simple. Especially if you take into account that the respective newly introduced mechanic is likely the key to success. Most of the times a puzzle took me longer than average, it was simply because I overlooked a spot, not because the solution was so tricky. I just recently finished the first game, and I remember it to be less handholding and less dependant on visual clues.

I hope Valve has more up in his sleeves when it comes to DLC.

Man, a lot of time has passed since my last "game status blog post". Let's get right to it. 
 

Mass Effect 2

DeadSpace (1&2) 

Killzone 3 and Move 

Civ 5 and the rest

... especially in science-fiction games 
 
As a citizen of a nation (Germany) which is usally depicted as a Nazi or Mad Scientist, or a combination of both, I always wonder where we have gone in Science fiction games. It makes sense, that we do not show up in present day games as much. Many games are about killing stuff, and thankfully Germany is nowadays a (relatively) peaceful country, mostly know for the soccer world cup 2006, Bratwurst and the Oktoberfest (yes, these are GB-links, go figure). 
 
Ok. Take Mass Effect for example. This is set in 2183. The german language and culture has been around, in some form, for well over 1000 years. Considering the recent trend in german population growth (hint: it is negative!) and given my lack of success with the fairer sex, it might as well be that there are no Germans around any more in 200 years ;) 
 
But I do not want to make this a Germany-thing. Where are the other nationalities? (Again we are talking about SciFi here.)  It is hard to believe, that they just would disband their cultural heritage and language. Also I think it is perfectly reasonable that English will continue to be the lingua franca of humanity. Mostly because it is not very hard to learn. So it is save to assume that in most games the characters will communicate in English, while being raised with a different mother tongue. Cetainly in the rather near future games like ME. Even if they would speak a common galactic language to communicate with aliens, I guess everyone will have an accent. While this is not made transparent to the player, one could mimic it with just giving them a regular accent in English. What I am saying is: A future Italian will speak Klingon wiht an italian accent and not an english one. (A am aware of the existence of a universal translator in Star Trek, but just work with me here.)
 
I am a grad student, and have been among non-native english speakers for around 10 years. These people speak it at a relatively high level, or at least talk about rather difficult stuff - well they are scientists, and you can understand them perfectly well for the most part. First there is a distinct lack of characters with "pure" different national background, and second, if they are present they do not transport this very much due to a english native-speaker voice actor. 
  
I realize that many games are developed in North America, but in science fiction, only showing North Americans and Brits, seems strange. Sometimes they throw in the occasional Russian or Chinese character, but without any accent. I guess many games will sell better with a American protagonist. But at least, why do not give a nod to other countries as well. (I only can think of Tomas Sevchenko - the main protagonist of Killzone 2, but also he has no accent.)

Talking about ME again. Actually I have to give this game credit for Kaidan. But the reason for this blog post, was my knowledge that Miranda Lawson's face was modeled after Yvonne Strahovski, which is of polish descent. Why not go all the way and make Miranda a polish woman? Do developers thing they added enough diversity with the aliens. I meet a couple of young polish women over the last years, and I find their accent quite charming. I admit that the overall loveliness of those ladies, might have added to my impression. 
 
So please give us some diverse characters with really diverse voice-actors as well. It is not like they have to do the writing. No, Americans with xyz decent, who can't even really speak there ancestral language. Just ring up some foreign theater schools, and I bet you find a lot of people who have an excellent command of the english language and get the accent just right. 

PS: Sorry, for any mistakes.

So I spend most of the last week evenings and an incredible "I have no life, I am a geek."-weekend on Mass Effect 1&2. I know I am late to the party. Obviously I am through with 1, and I think I am at least in the last third of the second game. I yet have to complete three loyalty missions and then await the installation of the reaper IFF. I am happy that I continuously played this on the 360, so I could transfer my safe file. I own ME1 for PC, and there was the option of playing the second on the PS3, which probably would have saved me quite a bit of money on the DLC (got all story DLC), but at the end of the day would have sucked to use a predetermined backstory in 2.  
 
The way I play RPGs (good guy, always get the 'charisma/persuasion' stat up as high and soon as possible) a playthrough evolved, that might not be possible with the comic In the QuickLook video. Most notably I talked Wrex into trusting me. I am not happy with how Ashley was handled. I got flirty with her, but we never kissed, and I politely turned her down before Ilos. My Shepard really did not dig her being a xenophobic space redneck. But in ME2 her picture was on the table and the whole scene on Horizon was (probably) as if we would have a "full relationship". I am currently with Miranda.
 
I will continue with this save in ME3, to have a "natural playthrough", but I see myself playing through all games again so I can get the outcome/romance that suits my ridiculously nice Shepard, including a Happy End and him being completely faithful the whole adventure through.. (If they do not employ the "Protagonist sacrifices himself in final mission" plot element. Which is overused IMHO.) 
 
I might try "Insane" on all of them, at some point, but I am not sure if it is feasible with a class other than soldier. The controls and generally the combat in ME1 were terrible. But I played on normal and set powers to active. After some upgrades Wrex and Tally were doing most of the killing. Including the final boss. I doubt you can do this with a Shepard that is as sturdy as the Soldier. And on the other hand: In ME2 I am doing most of the killing, I am not sure if other classes have the firepower e.g. against heavy mechs.

I was playing BF:BC2 Vietnam yesterday evening, and again it puzzled how many people just not get some parts of this game. Projectiles drop down. Why do you not get this as soon as you are not handling a sniper rifle?  It sure is fun killing other tanks across a good third of the Phu Bai Valley map, just knowing you basic video game physics.

Well, we were discussing "stuff" in the lab today. Which reminded me that no one ever attempted to make one of the greatest 80ies toy/cartoon-franchises into a game. But I think the technology is ready for it now. DINO RIDERS You ask why? Allow me to illustrate. 
 

After 2010 is done I am looking forward to a bunch of new titles. A lot of these come out pretty soon, and apparently just did not make the holiday season, ore were intentionally pushed back. No particular order (Wow, a lot of Bioware up in here).
 
Dragon Age 2 
Well in the beginning I was not much invested in this. Dragon Age Origins was an impulse buy. But the story and world of DA were the most involving for me in a long time. The old school RPG (PC) throwback was also refreshing. Running with a party, top down view etc. Many dialogue options. Really roleplaying my character, instead following a linear path - especially in my relations to other party members. I cared more about them then any other video game character recently (RDR on the backlog still.)

Mass Effect 3 
Currently I am on the first game still. But I can already tell that this is gonna be great. 
 
Shogun 2
Ok. So I love the concept of Total War. The mix between empire management and real-time battles. The is in my opinion "per definition" the perfect strategy experience. However I found the last two games somewhat unsatisfying. Either extremely easy or incredibly hard. Also hindered by technical problems. I haven't played Napoleon much yet, but it seems to be the same thing compared to Empire. Just get mortars, and see your enemies crumble. When you take artillery out of the equation, that might turn out pretty good. Also skill trees for agents seem to be a good idea. I only hope my PC can run it (at Full HD max settings).
 
Star Wars: The Old Republic 
I am an ex-WoW-addict. Even did the high-level raiding & obesity thing. Thankfully that is over for years now. Although many hardcore MMORPG people may be skeptical about SWTOR, I thing the focus on personal story is a good thing. Allowing a tighter much more small scale experience for more casual players. Imagine playing Mass Effect with other people, in a even cooler universe. 

Battlefield 3
Just my preferred way of shooting fools online. You know. In the face. BUT WITH A TANK THROUGH THE WALL!
 
Also noteworthy: L.A. Noire, Killzone 3 and both Warhammer 40k games (1, 2)