TERA Closed Beta Hands-On

I was lucky enough to have time to both visit PAX East and try Tera's Closed Beta at home earlier this month as part of Gamespot's recent promotion. I've been following TERA for quite some time, and was impressed with how polished the game was when I visited En Masse Entertainment's booth at PAX East. Unfortunately, when I got home and finally logged in, my experience did not reflect my impression from the exposition.

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In Tera, you play a recruit of The Valkyon Federation, a relatively peaceful coalition of races under a militaristic government. At the outset you are sent to a newly-discovered island to both train and assist the Federation. All races and classes start on this island, and this is where the story begins to unfold through a primary chain of quests that you follow throughout the game. There are many, many sub- and side-quests, but there is one gigantic story arc that unfolds as your character strives to cap its level.

To this extent, Tera bills itself as lore-driven, but in reality the low-priority of the story is evidenced throughout the game: from the weak character fly-in introduction, to the placement of "Lore" within the tera.enmasse.com game site at the bottom of its respective submenu. The premise is interesting enough, but the story boils down to Hulk-like simplicity, "Enemies invading, defend, smash!"

The interface will feel immediately familiar to veteran MMO players

Tera also describes itself as the first true action MMORPG, and this is actually pretty accurate. World of Warcraft, the standard by which any MMORPG will ultimately be compared, uses a click-to-select interface. The action in Tera takes place in a behind-the-shoulder view and combat feels a lot like an over-shoulder action title, complete with combos depending on your class. The controls combine the best of PC and console-like gameplay. In some ways the action feels like a mash-up of Tales of Symphonia and World of Warcraft. Combat is dynamic and based more on skill and timing than gear. Most classes, particularly the melee classes, have a three-part combo attack where you hit your primary attack three times and it chains them together, doing more damage with the final attack of the three. Certain abilities proc a second "free" ability that is activated when the combo completes. It is sometimes desirable to stop your combo midway to avoid or defend against an incoming attack.

This makes for exciting, compelling combat. You can move your character out of the way of incoming attacked, use blocks on-the-fly if you class supports blocking, and use environmental objects to impede foes. Attacks and incoming hits feel like they have impact. Spells and other magical abilities look beautiful, and are fun to cast over and over again. This is a good thing, too, because you will be casting and attacking in the same pattern over and over and over again in the early levels.

Think this attack looks cool? Good, because you'll be seeing it a lot

As exciting as the action may be, gameplay gets repetitive. Every single quest - ALL of them - involve killing a set number of enemies or gathering a certain number of items... by killing the enemies holding those items. There are stories behind each quest, such as:

• (Villains) have appeared and threaten the encampment: Kill them!
• (Villains) have appeared and are killing our livestock: Kill them!
• We need to take this key area to move forward. Kill the residents so we can advance!
• (Villains) have appeared-

Questing gets monotanous quickly, but it is also the only way to gain experience and level up. This is a shame since PvP combat can be so dynamic, you currently cannot gain experience through Tera's battleground system like in World of Warcraft, according to the PAX East booth staffers. In short: You will be questing and killing the same things over and over again. If you want to level a second character you will be going through all of the same quests again to do so. It is truly punishing on the player, and a model that was made obsolete years ago.

NOW what do you need me to kill?

There are seven races and eight classes, and every race can become any class. This is nice because you can pick the race you like without feeling pigeonholed into something unattractive (or vice versa) because you like a particular class. Despite the variety of classes, however, they still fit into the common mold of Tank, Damage Dealer, and Healer. What's worse is that there is less variety in classes and roles than in existing MMOs. If you want to tank, you need to be a Lancer - who happens to have extremely boring animations - or a Warrior, which works like an Evasion tank. There is really only one viable healer, though, in the Priest. There is a Mystic, but for end-game raiding Mystics are far less desirable, is my understanding.

The races are fascinating. There are some genuinely unique races, like the rock-like Aman and large, blue Baraka. There are some bizarre choices, as well. The only thing I can say to a race such as the Elin, comprised entirely of scantily-clad young girls with ears and tails, is that they seem designed specifically to cater to lovers of "Kawaii," Japanese for lovable and cute. Either that or pedophiles.

Each race has its own racial talents that do not materially impact the game, just like World of Warcraft, but they are all begging for their own lore and starting areas, particularly the Aman, who were formerly a slave race. Instead, they all get lumped in together in the opening quest series. It is a real shame to have such creations devoid of similar creativity in lore.

Some of the races are very unique. Others not so much.

There were additional themes throughout Tera besides repetitive quests and two-dimensional storyboards, there was also an overwhelmingly cynical community. One might argue that a game not yet in production cannot have a community, but it was clear from the moment Player One entered Tera that the world was populated with the disgruntled remanants of prior MMORPG games. These were no noobs: These were long-time former players of Everquest, World of Warcraft, and Star Wars: The Old Republic.

The MMO staple chat box positioned unimaginatively at the bottom-left of the HUD (heads-up display) endlessly streamed comparisons between dozens of prior MMOs that failed to live up to the standards of the Beta participants. There might be one question about Tera for every fifty comments about how "Guild Wars did this" or "World of Warcraft did that." At one point the phrase, "Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker" started filling chat, a meme exclusive to Trade Chat in World of Warcraft.

It is worrying that there was so much cynicism and "been there, done that" attitude before the game has even launched. It indicates that, once Tera is made public, its denizens will be the same folks that complained their prior MMORPG was not good enough.

And you need how many of what from which creature?

Finally, it is impossible to discuss Tera without at least mentioning that its entire female population and half of its male population is hyper-sexualized. By hyper, I mean you could find most any of its characters on a catwalk somewhere, modeling the latest in Valkyon armor.

That said, en Masse covers most every possible type of attractive creature. The men can be one of three archetypes:[list=1]

Boyishly cute like Orlando Bloom or someone out of Twilight.

Rugged and manly like Hugh Jackman as Wolverine or Viggo Mortensen

Affable but still attractive in a grandfatherly way like Ian McKellenThe women can be one of two archetypes:[list=1]

Angelina Jolie in Gia

Card Captor Sakura

Hey lady, nice... eyes.

In all seriousness, all of the humanoid females have gigantic breasts and wear high heels: ALL of them. Now for me this is wonderful, since I like breasts, legs, and otherwise attractive women. However, it is so pervasive as to be distracting from the game itself. Every time you pick up a quest - be it to kill tree spirits or enemy soldiers - you subconsciously want to lay the questgiver.

The super-cute Card Captor Sakura lookalikes - with selectable animal ears and tails - also wear super-short skirts and low-back tops. It is also distracting in a way that makes me uneasy about myself, and we'll leave it at that.

Tera women are very detailed, anatomically speaking. Very. Detailed.

All that said, the character models are technically excellent. Built with the latest Unreal engine, every character is infinitely customizable from cheeks to jawline, from hair color to adornments. It makes for a wide variety of faces, though it would be nice to have a way to modify the bodies, as well. A portly female lancer would actually be pretty fun to play, in my opinion. Even as a main (character), you would certainly have no shortage of eye candy in Tera.

Those easily offended by sexist or stereotypical portrayals of their gender (or the opposite, quite frankly) may want to steer clear of Tera, or get their soapbox ready.

All in all Tera might be worth playing for a few hours just to see the potential of its combat system and lush environments - a lot of work has obviously gone into this game. Unfortunately there is nothing showing the game has any more value than a bargain free-to-play MMO, which is a shame for something so beautiful on its surface and full of potential at its outset.

If you are interested in joining Tera's Open Beta test, you can find instructions at the following web address: http://tera.enmasse.com/news/posts/open-beta-test.

This was my first year at PAX East, despite having lived in Boston for over six years, now. It takes a special kind of person to allow her husband to abandon her with three kids to go to a video game convention for the day (and much of the night). As such, I was only able to get in for one day of the expo, but what a day it was!

The Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) is the largest video game exposition on the U.S. East Coast. It is an opportunity for small studios and large studios alike to get exposure to gamers, feedback, and press coverage. Hardware manufacturers, energy drinks, vendor booths for used games and gaming dice, and all manner of assorted gaming tie-ins were also present. Not having been before, I could have done this many ways, but I chose to wander aimlessly from one shiny booth to the next for about four hours or so, whereafter I watched Danny O'Dwyer's (Gamespot staffer) presentation, followed by an evening of food and drink around Boston with O'Dwyer.

How many Gamespot staffers can you name?

In the course of my wandering I found WAY more attention was being lavished on derivative and franchise PvP shooters than they deserved. Lines to get into Borderlands 2 were over an hour long. Ignoring the headliners, though, you could walk right up to many of the Indie booths and put hand to controller of unreleased titles within minutes. There were many indie gems to be found in the sold-out show.

BEST IN SHOW (in no particular order)

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• Monaco: What's Yours is Mine - This was by far one of the most interesting games at PAX East. You are part of a heist and your team needs to puzzle through the respective "job" without being discovered or - if discovered - make a break for it. The visuals might be confusing at first glance, but it makes use of a very cool, real-time updated line-of-sight function that is both elegant and beautiful. It's kind of like a real-time Kill Dr. Lucky.

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• Mark of the Ninja - Picture the original NES Ninja Gaiden with updated graphics, more fluid animation, a stealth component, and platforming puzzles. Yes, it was that good. It's coming to XBox Live Arcade, no Steam support is planned according to booth staffers, unfortunately.
• Antichamber - Antichamber is tough to explain. I have to imagine that it is an accurate recreation of what it might be like to trip on acid or shrooms, though without having done so myself it's tough to say. The game looks amazing though, as an extremely colorful first-person puzzler that reminded me of the film, "Cube." You have to watch some gameplay if only to see something almost completely original in the world of video games.

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• League of Legends - This game has been out quite some time, but the booth was ridiculous, and its fans absolutely ravenous. There were dozens of cosplayers for the Riot Games contest, and they were loving every minute of it. Great booth, great fans, great atmosphere. You just loved being there.
• Firefall - A free-to-play MMO FPS? That's been tried before, and the results were- not great. This one has some serious pedigree, though, with a very slick graphics engine and team-based gameplay that was a ton of fun. The worlds are vast, original, and you can't help but want to explore. Being F2P is going to help, too, though it remains to be seen how much the paid items "enhance" gameplay.
• Airmech - This intriguing action RTS has tons of appeal to anyone that enjoys transforming robots and real-time strategy games. Bonus points if you loved Robotech.

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MOST DISAPPOINTING

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• Primal Carnage - The basic concept is excellent: One team plays humans with various classes and abilities, the other dinosaurs, ditto. The T-Rex is a tank, you've got flying Pterodactyls, velociraptors, etc. The graphics and audio are fantastic. The problem was that in their effort to keep the game as simple as possible, it became oversimplified. It was difficult to locate teammates, dead dinosaurs to refill health, the attacks were awkward to aim as a dinosaur, and most required cracker-jack timing. With an overhaul of the HUD and better controls, this game might be a serious contender for the next amazing multiplayer FPS, but I left sorely disappointed.
• Loadout - It's like Team Fortress, but with extensive weapon customization. The only problem was that the game was having issues, at least on Friday, and it was tough to get beyond the this is a Team Fortress 2 knockoff mindset, no matter how much I wanted to give it a shot.
• Bean's Quest - Good Lord was this a stinker. I love Indie games and I love platformers, but this mexican jumping bean with ADHD was not for me. The bean never stops jumping, and requires only the directional pad to operate. After twenty seconds it was all I could do not to yell at my avatar to stop jumping around like a toddler on Red Bull.
• Orcs Must Die 2 - Want multiplayer? Sure! So long as it's a local client, meaning on a LAN. Otherwise it's the same game with more traps and an additional avatar. I was hoping for more varied environments and Steam-supported multiplayer gaming via the internet, but the development cost was apparently too high, which is too bad, as I loved the original. This could have been like Portal 2 in terms of multiplayer goodness.

Left to Right, Gaijin Games developers Alex Neuse (@AlexNoisy), Andrew Hynek, and Bozanimal

MOST SURPRISING

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I was not expecting to see Lollipop Chainsawat PAX East, much less the star in uniform on-site in front of a burned-out bus. I walked by several times before I got up the nerve to get a shot with her, then I accidentally grabbed her butt as I went to walk off (seriously). I had my arm around her shoulder for the picture - pretty standard, nothing weird - but when I went to remove said arm it brushed up against her tush. She didn't seem bothered by it, but I was a bit red-faced. Then proud. Then ashamed again. It was a mixture of emotions really.

The point is: Sex still sells.

ULTIMATE WINNERS

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By far, the cosplayers won over the attention of convention-goers. What time wasn't spent staring at a screen, attendees spent checking out their costumed peers. Everywhere you went there were folks dressed up in mech costumes, elves, popular game characters, and an absolute slew of League of Legends cosplayers. The latter cosplayers were by far the most impressive as well, and warranted many of the (blurry) pictures taken:

ESCAPE FROM MT. STUPID LIVE!

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Really, PAX East was just an excuse for me to meet Danny O'Dwyerand some of the Gamespot staff. Danny did a presentation about how he went from Gamespot blogger to Gamespot staffer in the past five years. I've known Danny for years, now, and it was by far the highlight of the show, for me.

To embarrass him as much as possible, the video that got him off the ground, in my opinion:

[video=cSFnwTf95b8PvTHb]

Thank you to all the Gamespot staff that took time out of the show to chat with me for a few minutes, and especially to Danny, who was kind enough to bring a Wenlockfrom London for my kids. They love the little guy. Er, girl. Creature. Thing.

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ADDITIONAL SHOW IMAGES
If you want to check out all my images from the show, including booth shots, you can view them in Bozanimal's PAX East 2012 Gallery.

Mobile gaming is hot right now; hotter than platform or PC gaming, in terms of hype. Every developer and mom-and-pop is vying for a multi-million dollar success story like Angry Birds, Jetpack Joyride, or Temple Run. The majority of these games are simple, quick to learn, and as easy to put down as they are to pick up. You know, "casual." But for developers the biggest lure is that mobile titles are inexpensive to produce relative to console and PC titles, offering potentially big margins.

In the gaming enthusiast communities, however, mobile games tend to draw a lot of ire, though only some of it is deserved:

• The Wii doesn't hold a candle to the iPhone in terms of shovelware
• "Free to play" generally means, "Free so long as you only play for a few minutes every couple hours."
• Awkward controls
• Intrusive Facebook and other social networking integration
• Social networking that makes no sense in context of the game
• Micro-transactions

Jetpack Joyride

All that said, mobile gaming has a lot going for it, as well: Alongside services like Steam and XBox Live, it is one of those rare places in the video game industry that a half-dozen people can get together, create truly original content on a shoestring budget, and - potentially - earn a significant profit. Considering how limited original content can sometimes be, what with us celebrating over 25 years of Mario Brothers, Ryu Hayabusa, and franchise after franchise of military shooter, it can be refreshing to, say, karate-chop some fruit or take a joyride on a jetpack without having Master Chief, Sonic the Hedgehog, or other long-time character favorites tied-in to boost sales.

Even still, console and PC gamers can get pretty defensive whenever a mobile game garners any amount of press (source). That anyone would say something like Angry Birds could "barely be called a video game," is surprising considered the origins of the medium. The first video game ever was Table Tennis, played on an oscilloscope (Source). Almost any game for the Atari 800 - Pitfall, Frogger, Asteroids, Zork, Zaxxon, Centipede - had about the same depth as what might be considered a modern casual game, and couldn't begin to approach iOS (the iPhone's Operating System) titles like Illusia or Zenonia. If the original Super Mario Brothers for the NES were released today, it might even be termed, "barely a video game," if Angry Birds Space meets the criteria.

Dragonvale - A mash-up of Harvest Moon and SimCity (Review)

There seems to be more than just an association between casual content and mobile platforms, though, but also the conclusion that developers would forego console and PC games for mobile platforms, and therefore for casual games. It's understandable to see where someone might draw this conclusion. Companies only have so many resources, so if they're focusing on mobile games, they might be shifting away from console and PC games.

Fortunately for all gamers, this conclusion does not make sense. Just because mobile gaming is profitable does not mean publishers will abandon or even marginalize other platforms. There is also no evidence to support that any developer has moved from platform or PC gaming to mobile gaming.

If anything, platforms and PC games are taking in more in terms of total revenue than they have at any point in the history of video games, Indie developers are more successful than they've been since the shareware era thanks to low-cost distribution service providers like Steam and XBox Live, and big-name titles are as pervasive as ever. If anything it is more difficult for large developers to compete on platforms with low development costs due to the low price of entry for competitors.

Zenonia 3 - Action RPG (Zero Wing English)

Large-production games like Skyrim and Diablo 3 are like blockbuster action movies. Angry Birds is a romantic comedy. Just because people are watching romantic comedies doesn't mean studios will suddenly stop making action movies, and vice versa. Neither does one becoming more popular or having wider margins mean that the other is going away. So long as there is a profitable audience for both, they can peacefully coexist.

Yes, Angry Birds is a ridiculous success for what amounts to a reskinned version of Tank Wars, but it is not going to cause Blizzard, for example, to stop making Starcraft in favor of making iPhone apps. If anything, Blizzard is more inclined to expand their staff to write games for the new platform.

Further, there is also no evidence that games are getting worse, though "worse" is understandably a subjective term. In recent years you have had dozens of highly-rated, original games such as Limbo, Capsized, Braid, Team Fortress 2, Bioshock, Portal- it would be easy to continue.

Triple Town - Turn-Based Strategy w/ Ninja Bears

So please, there is no need to maintain a "mobile platforms are ruining everything" attitude. There is much great fun to be had from so-called casual games like Plants vs. Zombies, and there is nothing restricting developers from making hardcore games but their imaginations. We should be encouragingnew games and those making them regardless of platform. For all we know a casual title might inspire some developer to go on and develop the next Ocarina of Time.

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-Disclosure-

Opinions and speculation of and by Bozanimal are his own and not those of Gamespot.com or its affiliates. Bozanimal is not a Gamespot employee, and is not affiliated with any gaming companies in any way.

Several links within this article may lead to external sites. Neither Bozanimal nor host Gamespot.com or affiliates are responsible for the content of those sites.

All screenshots in this Blog are original shots taken from actual gameplay for this entry.

Index of Editorials by Bozanimal

I'm almost ashamed of myself. I have done something I never thought I would do: Signed up for Twitter. I've managed to hold out through Geocities, MySpace, and Facebook, but I've folded to Twitter. It is practically its own form of communication. It's tied into everything, and with marketing promotions, tie-ins, FUSE, and exclusives coming through Twitter, and PAX East on the immediate horizon, I finally jumped on the bandwagon.

Mostly I plan to use it just to enter contests and giggle at dannyodwyer's antics, though.

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Disclaimer: My Twitter feed may, from time to time, contain adult content and links to sites containing adult material. My Twitter feed is my own and is not affiliated with Gamespot in any way.

Holy Crap!

Nostalgia is a funny thing. The brain tends to gloss over the negatives of our past and cast memories is a warm, fuzzy glow. There is a reason many people still feel attracted to former partners even after a bad breakup; you repress the negative memories and the positive ones are brought to the fore. It's a natural response: Stressful events become blurry and happy events take over. It's not unlike an old movie where the director would smear petroleum jelly on the camera lens to give it a soft, dream-like quality.

The same holds true in video games. Though I've been playing since the Atari 800, Dragon Warrior made me a gamer for life. I can still tell you where the Stones of Sunlight are located. Yet going back to grind slimes outside Tantegel Castle to level up seems tedious alongside modern titles that feature story-driven quests and dynamic battle sequences. At least, it would seem tedious if playing Dragon Warrior didn't make me feel like I was ten all over again.

Therein lies the influence of nostalgia: Certainly if Dragon Warrior were released in a vaccuum today, without any of the brand good will it has built over the years, it would be panned. Yet, I still have fun pulling it out once in a while for some soothing, turn-based action.

So I found myself flummoxed when I read through the recent review of The Simpsons Arcade Game. I do not own an XBox 360, but have fond memories of playing the game in various arcades back when they were relevant. You know, back when "Eat my shorts" was considered edgy humor. The game had voice clips and art from the show, which was a rarity at the time. It was terrible, but you played it anyway because in 1991 you loved The Simpsons. Tom McShea wrote the review, and received some flack for his scathing opinion of its repetitive combat and nonsensical story. In the comments he wrote:

We re-review older games with the same standard as every other review because you still have to spend your current time and money with the game. It's being re-released in 2012 so you have to decide if it stacks up against the many choices out there. Many older games hold up fine, many others falter. We tell you which is which. Though, like always, you can disagree with our assessment.TomMcShea

This is what got me thinking about nostalgia and how it plays into our opinion - and sometimes defensiveness - of beloved older titles. The Simpsons really was a terrible game, and there was no excuse for playing it with titles like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Neo Geo machines, or the six-man X-Men Arcade machine at hand unless you were a huge fan of the show. I was a huge fan of the show, though the game was never one of my favorites. Still, I have fond memories of my childhood in the arcades, and - judging by the comments in the Gamespot review - so do many other Gamespot users.

So how do you treat an old favorite? Do you do two reviews for a ported title? Do you factor nostalgia into its score? Do you just talk about how faithful it is or is not relative to the original? Do you factor the price at its release into the review? Or do you go Gamespot's route, and just look at it as if it were a new title released in a vaccuum?

[video=6349807]

Mostly I agree with the Gamespot policy: Is the game good relative to competing titles as of its release, regardless of whether it is a port or not? This is what matters from a scoring standpoint. That said, ports of old titles deserve a footnote, because gamers looking at these titles are by and large going to have played the original. Those gamers want to know how faithful the port is to the original, and whether they will enjoy it as much today as they did back then, regardless of whether it's good or not on an absolute basis.

Nostalgia is a funny thing, because it affects modern perception of histroical events to which we have attached emotion. An old game can be terrible and still be enjoyable, after all. This is important: Nostalgia can make a game that was great at the time, like Operation: Wolf, still relevant today despite the fact that far superior titles might be widely available.

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-Disclosure-

Opinions and speculation of and by Bozanimal are his own and not those of Gamespot.com or its affiliates. Bozanimal is not a Gamespot employee, and is not affiliated with any gaming companies in any way.

Several links within this article may lead to external sites. Neither Bozanimal nor host Gamespot.com or affiliates are responsible for the content of those sites.

Index of Editorials by Bozanimal

I have a big problem with the nomenclature used by financial markets, specifically the terms, "Security" and "Savings."

Secure
firmly fixed: firmly fixed or placed in position and unlikely to come loose or give way
not worried: untroubled by feelings of fear, doubt, or vulnerability
reliable: reliable and unlikely to fail or be lost

The problem here is that securities are not secure. Enron stock was a security, but there was nothing secure about holding that stock. Further, anyone investing in stocks is, generally, worried at least to some marginal degree. Securities convey the wrong impression of what financial instruments are, and the general public should call them what they are, instead: Investments.

"I didn't put money in the stock market. To me that's like Vegas without the dancing girls — none of the fun, no gambling or dancing or drinking — and you don't get to participate." George Clooney, Esquire, Jan 2012

Savings
money saved: money set aside for future use

The problem here is that savings is too often attributed to accounts that invest in stocks, bonds, and other financial products that can potential lose value, including loss of principal. A 401(k) retirement savings account or 529 college savings plan is not investing in safe financial products such as CDs or Treasury Bills, they allow participants to invest in a wide array of products such as S&P 500 index funds, international investments, and company stock.

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Proposal to regulate certain financial product terminology
Bank products and investments backed by the full faith and credit of the government are generally the only financial products that might be considered secure. Therefore, it would be desirable to see FINRA or a similar regulatory agency disallow the use of "security" and "savings" from financial instruments that are not, in fact, safe in advertising with the general public. This would prevent confusion and misuse of the terms with non-affluent investors in marketing promotions and sales pitches.

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-Disclosure-

Opinions and speculation of and by Bozanimal are his own and not those of Gamespot.com or its affiliates. Bozanimal is not a Gamespot employee, and is not affiliated with any gaming companies in any way.

Links within this article may lead to external sites. Neither Bozanimal nor host Gamespot.com or affiliates are responsible for the content of those sites.

The Warcraft Hunter's Union, a World of Warcraft Hunter fan site, recently ran a contest that required participants create original posters in the vein of Successories' famed posters. Frostheim, who runs the site and writes for WoW Insider, gave the following example as inspiration for participants:

I created several entries for the contest that did not win - which isn't surprising considering some were out-and-out bad - but I have published them here for your entertainment, regardless:

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And, probably the worst of the lot, was the one originally inspired by the three Hunter Talent Trees: Beast Mastery, Marksmanship, and Survival. Each tree has its own "feel," and I tried to capture that with pop culture references. However, the execution needed more massaging in Photoshop. That, however, requires time, and time is a premium, for me:

The holidays were kind, this year. The triplets were polite and generally well-behaved, making out like bandits. My wife loved the presents I got her, which included The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, among other things (In short: awesome game, poorly aging graphics, wonderful bonus CD). We had a ton of food, saw lots of family and friends, and were generally given many reasons to be thankful.

Steam Holiday Sale
The undercurrent this holiday season - unbeknownst to my wife - was the Steam Holiday Sale that had been going on for half of December. I have been playing World of Warcraft since October, but the Holiday sale piqued my interest in acquiring new games for the first time since Super Mario Galaxy, which I bought used back in 2010. My World of Warcraft account is now set to expire at the end of January.

The past two years of blockbuster titles have been primarily filled with derivative franchise titles and "me-too" first-person shooters. My Top Five Most Anticipated Titles of 2011 were mostly duds. The games I've been most interested in - in retrospect - are all indie titles, a mixture of old-school platformers, base defense games, and rhythm titles with strong game mechanics, great music, and/or novel artwork.

When all was said and done I came away from Steam with 16 new games representing a wide range of genres:

• BIT.TRIP.BEAT
• Bioshock
• BIT.TRIP.RUNNER
• Braid
• Capsized
• Frozen Synapse
• Jamestown Deluxe Pack
• Limbo (Completed)
• Orcs Must Die! (plus expansions)
• Osmos
• Peggle (Free)
• Plants vs. Zombies
• Portal 2
• Super Meat Boy
• Trine

While my time in Azeroth is soon coming to an end, I am now flush with games to play in my spare time!

Working at the Buy More is a thankless job. However, with my two-piece set bonus I get +10% reputation gains with the Nerd Herd faction.

I'm wearing the below attire right now, sitting in my cubicle here on casual Friday. Every once in awhile someone will get the joke, and for that it's worthwhile. Apologies for the image quality; it's a camera-phone, what do you want?

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