For all the time I've spent playing games recently, it feels like a real shame to leave this blog inactive, especially since I've found I've got some stuff on my mind recently in regards to games. So I've decided that the best way to continue this blog on a consistent basis is by only covering one game at a time. That way, I can do multiple entries a week and don't get overloaded by doing a hella long entry. I may talk about a couple of games at a time, but most of the time it'll just be a report on my experience with one specific game.

In my last lengthy blog post, I mentioned being frustrated over having finished Dead Space, because it left me with no focused story-driven game to engage myself in; I was just left with odds and ends games like Geometry Wars and Rock Band, games I like to play for 30-60 mins a day and then put down. I try to fill this void by finally spending some time with GTAIV, but this didn't work. I'm starting to think I'm destined to spend an hour or so with that game every three months or so and then put it down again. There's just nothing that grabs me about it right now. Maybe I should just start again. Or maybe I should conclude that everyone is wrong and that game is bullshit and sell it on eBay.

So, a couple of weeks ago, I finally found a game to fill this void. Inspired by its frequent mentions on recent editions of the Giant Bombcast, as well as the recently released DLC, I decided it was time to spend more time with Fable II, one of my favourite games of 2008. It's still awesome. The DLC offers some cool stuff. I could argue that a 2 hour quest and some items doesn't justify a 800 point price, but I don't feel too bad about it, especially since I love the game so much. But aside from the DLC, I got much more pleasure out of just playing through the game again. I only beat it once before, with my almost totally good character (he did do some bad stuff, as demonstrated by his beautiful young complexion), and obviously for my second playthrough I decided to change things up a bit.

So this time I created a female character whose major strength was skill and whose favourite weapon was her trusty pistol, and made her "pure evil", that is a character of evil morality, but pure intentions, meaning that even though I spent plenty of time in the Temple of Shadows earning bad-girl points, I also feasted solely on tofu and celery. I also played as a bigamist and a bisexual, with three husbands, all of whom gave my character kids, and three lesbian lover wives. It was good times.

Not that much changed playing the game through a second time, although I did get to experience the full wonders of the Temple of Shadows for the first time. I was a lot of fun doing evil shit, so much so that I decided to create another evil character who was not only totally evil but totally corrupt as well, so he was a complete asshole. Also for my pure evil bisexual bigamist I decided I was going to play through the game without buying any real estate. It does add a certain element of challenge, as you have to work a bit harder to make money without the constant influx of rent money, but I still found it relatively easy to make a lot of money by buying goods from stalls during sales and selling them during shortages. There is something oddly satisfying about making money this way, almost as much as buying real estate to make money to buy more real estate, which is one of the real joys of Fable II.

Also I spent a lot of time doing the jobs. Oh, so much time spent doing the jobs. So many blades forged and beers poured. To liven things up I listened to the Bombcast while performing my menial tasks, which felt less rewarding and satisfying the second time, even though I didn't hate them as much as some people did. My totally evil character never did no jobs; he just stole shit and killed dudes for stuff.

So yeah, Fable II is still amazing. That game is really special. It delivers what the first Fable promised and so much more, in a very charming and engrossing adventure. I have nothing but good things to say about the game...apart from the fact that you can't get all the achievements without buying Pub Games, which I refuse to do. I'm going to spend some more time with it in the future, as I never beat the game with my totally evil character, and may try to create a good character who is totally corrupt, to counter my pure evil character. If they release more DLC, I will also buy that and try it out.

So that's it for now. There's plenty more games I'll be chiming in with some thoughts on in the next few days or so, including one game that is driving me insane, and another that I am absolutely in love with. Until then.