When multiplayer was announced for Mass Effect 3, the Internet had its usual snit-fit. You know the drill: cries of "EA sucks!" (fair enough), "why must every game have multiplayer?!?" (a bit dramatic), and "Mass Effect is ruined forever!!!" (guys, take your meds).

But against all odds, multiplayer in Mass Effect 3 is quite good. It's not strong enough to be a full-price stand-alone game by any stretch of the imagination, but as additional content for an electric single-player experience, it's some pretty sweet icing on the cake of awesome.

Before you fret, let me assure you that you don't need to go anywhere near multiplayer mode to enjoy the single-player experience. There is SOME overlap - you can enhance your fleet's potency by clearing missions in multi - but the game can be beaten without bothering with it. (Luckily, there are giant battlecruisers just lying around on planets in the single-player, so you can boost your military that way instead.) You can also promote your maxed-out multiplayer heros to the war effort, which is a neat little tie-in feature. Of course, it probably goes like this:

Multiplayer Dude: "I've fought off hundreds of Cerberus goons and rogue Geth - I'm ready for battle!"

*Gets off shuttle; gets immediately stomped on by 200-story Reaper.*

But hey.

Multiplayer only offers one mode at present, which is Wave/Horde/Whatever Mode that you've seen a dozen times before. (I'm sure future modes will be added if multiplayer takes off, for a modest fee of course, because EA.) Ten waves of increasingly ferocious baddies invade whatever stage your crew is in, and you have to wipe them all out while not getting disintegrated. There are also sporadic missions tossed into the mix, like eliminating key targets or tagging a bunch of relays within a certain time frame. XP and CASH PRIZES!!! are awarded for each successful wave, with a big bonus payoff for surviving the whole assault and reaching the shuttlecraft in time. (Actually, reaching the craft is easy... surviving two minutes of on-rushing face-eaters while the shuttle pilot looks for the 'land' button is the hard part.)

XP is used to gain levels and boost your skill tree, just like in single-player, while credits are used to purchase expansion packs full of goodies. (You can also buy said packs with Live points, because EA.) Magic: The Gathering fans will be familiar with this concept: there are three tiers of packs, and the more expensive ones guarantee you at least one Uncommon or Gold card, which translates to an elite weapon unlock or a new race for a character class with its own skill tree. (Rottenwood trivia: my favorite Uncommon Magic card was the Serra Angel, and my favorite Rare was Underworld Dreams.) The whole thing is designed to be as addictive as possible, but as someone who fought off the Magic bug in college, I'm immune to Booster Pack-itis. But caveat emptor.

It's good stuff. The servers run smoothly, matchmaking takes seconds (which is easy enough with only one play mode), and there are three difficulty tiers so you can more or less avoid the shrieking powergamers and achievement hunters by staying in Bronze or Silver. Actually, clearing Bronze (easy enough with competent players) is probably a better payout than the inevitable Wave 5 wipe in the higher tiers. My crew and I can crush a randomized Bronze map in 18-20 minutes. ME3's gamer pool seems to be of higher quality than average and most players are at least semi-aware of the crazy notion of 'teamwork,' although you still get some Rambo kill-farmers who haven't quite figured out that six extra kills is worth 1% of what you'd get for clearing the mission. There are a lot of British people on there, for some reason. And creatures called 'women' with weird, soft voices.

It's not perfect - players can't seem to grasp that the Geth units my Quarian sabotages are on OUR side for about 20 seconds - but it's much, much better than expected. Nice work, B-Dub.

This blog will not contain any specific spoilers regarding Mass Effect 3, but will be full of gentle teasers and suggestions, so read accordingly. These will not involve the ending - I'm certainly going to blog about that in the future, but I want the controversy to percolate a little more before dipping my beak in. But anyhow, if you insist on "GOING IN FRESH!" a la Frank Costanza, keep on movin'.

We good?

Good.

To the great relief of all, Mass Effect 3 is a spectacular game. It has some minor issues - a few visual bugs during dialogs and transitions, a few disc swaps too many - and BioWare never did quite find an intriguing way to do galactic exploration. ME1 had the boring planetside treks on the cruddy Mako, ME2 had the tedium of probing for minerals, and ME3... well, you go into a system, ping it with some kind of prize-finding sonar, and then explore what you find. Of course, the Reapers find you after two or three pings and then chase you out of the system - yeah, it's silly as hell. I kept expecting the game to play 'Yakety Sax' from Benny Hill as I eluded the poor Reapers for the 57th straight time by simply steering out of orbit. Mercifully, this function is non-essential unless you insist on doing all of the small secondary quests and securing every last war asset.

But the core game? Delicious, and even better than ME2, which is no small feat. All of the major issues of the series - the Reapers, the Genophage, Quarian-Geth relations, Cerberus, character baggage, etc. - are in play, and can be resolved in a number of intriguing and satisfying ways. (Well, presumably. I've only seen them all play out one way, but I'll give B-Dub the benefit of the doubt.) Combat is essentially a gussied-up ME2 with improved cover mechanics, but it ain't broken, so fixin' was not required. It was nice to have grenades back, for sure. A few beloved ME1 features - most notably, the ability to make special storyline choices with enough Paragon/Renegade mojo - were restored to much rejoicing. Talking a bad guy to death? It's back, baby! (Although honestly, I only really buy that from FemShep - Jennifer Hale's voice could conceivably make people do things they might not want to do. MaleShep's performance isn't as convincing.)

Villain: "Finally, the evil plan I've been plotting for 30 years comes to fruition!"

Shepard: "Your plan is not very nice. Wouldn't you rather surrender and spend the rest of your life in jail?"

Villain: *Thinks it over.* "Yeah, you're probably right. Can I hitch a ride to prison with you guys?"

It reminded me of one of the things I loved from ME1 - those awkward conferences with Hackett after your Renegade maneuvers turned a delicate situation into a senseless bloodbath. Ol' Hackett always assumed it wasn't your fault, the poor bastard.

Newbies to the franchise should be warned that ME3 is VERY 'inside baseball' - tons of fan service in the form of memes, recurring characters, jokes about player complaints, and a lot of long conversations about things that new players will have no reference pool for. Oh, and yes, the sex scenes are tame again - the ME1 backlash ruined it for everybody. (Although I wrote it into my own mental script. The first time I made love to Ashley, of course it'd be passionate and R-rated. Now, three years and 800 pounds of drama later, Shepard and Ashley just kinda knock it out and don't even bother fully undressing.) I wonder how the dialog and scenes play out for new Ashley romances... so many treasures in ME3 that I'll never have a chance to dig up. You can play the game twice (full Paragon and full Renegade) and still leave 20% of the content on the table.

But anyways, this is already too long, and I'll be blogging about this dumb game for weeks, so if you thought you missed me during my gaming media blackout, you may come to regret those feelings. Hope everyone was well in my absence.

I gave ME3 a 9.5, for the record. Would've been a ten but the minor bugs and silly exploration keep it from the promised land. And the ending? Well, that'll be quite a blog. (Hint - it's gonna remind a LOT of people of Deus Ex: Human Revolution's ending, and we all know how calm that was.) Boshtet!

With Mass Effect 3 now trickling into the public data stream, I'm going to hide out in my Undisclosed Location for a while and unplug. Gotta stay spoiler-free! I will be getting my gaming information via pigeon, as nature intended.

Behave yourselves while I'm gone!

As discussed a while back in this space, a digital movement called Operation Rainfall had been created to encourage Nintendo to localize three acclaimed RPG titles for the Wii. These games - Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Pandora's Tower - have been successes in other markets (including Japan and Europe) and hardcore American gamers really wanted to get their hands on a copy. Sadly, this seemed unlikely, and this was the last proverbial straw in the growing conflict between Nintendo's die-hard gamer demographic and the legions of Wii Fit enthusiasts that had (allegedly) stolen their favorite publisher away from them. Some poorly-worded statements from Nintendo bigwigs seemed to confirm the fears of the hardcore: Nintendo had given up on trying to please the 'core gamer.

However, Operation Rainfall wasn't going to shout or criticize. Their plan since Day One has been to kill them with kindness, and it has worked amazingly well. Xenoblade was officially announced for localization in December, and a few days ago, The Last Story was also confirmed. Pandora's Tower almost seems inevitable now, barring a total blackout at the registers when Xenoblade drops. (And pre-orders are already at six figures, as O.R. places as much stock in advertising these games as they did in getting them localized.) If sales are decent for these games, it will be a big win for all parties.

I'm a proud (if somewhat passive) member of O.R., and it's easy to see why they've been so successful:

- They have resources.

- They are INSANELY organized. Seriously, there have been shuttle launches with less planning.

- Their discipline is spotless - every word that comes out of them is polite, civil, and to the point.

- They understand that Nintendo is a business, not a charity, and frame their arguments accordingly.

- When Nintendo agreed to localize Xeno and Last Story, they switched to "Thank You!" mode and made terrific videos, letter campaigns, and gift thingies to all parties involved. They didn't get what they wanted and say "finally, you idiots see the light."

In short, they're the opposite of 99% of the stuff you see on the Web. And that's why they were addressed directly by Nintendo and the major gaming press.

Now, it's not as if Nintendo is some benevolent entity here. Localizing a game that's already made isn't a huge investment (doubly so if they port the European versions), and O.R. has basically agreed to tirelessly promote their software for free. Add in Nintendo's dire 2012 Wii line-up, and there's a chance they would've ported at least one of these games anyhow to make a desperate attempt at relevance. But there's no way they'd have ported all 3, and this is a nice goodwill gesture. Throw in O.R.'s goodwill gestures in return, and we hav eone of the few publisher/consumer dynamics in this business that isn't defined by pure rage and hostility.

And that alone is worth celebrating.

I've gone through three phases of fandom for the first Mass Effect since it launched:

After Playing It: "Some flaws here and there, but overall, a fantastic space opera with an intriguing universe, great characters, and highly satisfying missions."

After Playing ME2 And Going Back To ME1: "Holy crap, is this game slow. The inventory is awful and omni-gel is the dumbest thing ever. Thank Gosh for sequels!"

I've come around, though, with enough time to process the whole shebang. Mass Effect 2 only gets to be a rip-roaring adventure because the original did all the hard work of laying down the foundation of an engaging sci-fi universe. ME2 gets to blow up what ME1 worked so darn hard on.

Creating a believable, interesting sci-fi universe is, like, hard. All of the biggies have done it - Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. - but both leaned heavily on Rubber Forehead Aliens and Green-Skinned Alien Babes to populate their realms. (To be fair, Mass Effect has Blue-Skinned Alien Babes in the Asari, but they're an elevated parody of the trope and a powerful race in their own right.) Now obviously, humany aliens were borne from a limitation of special effects, but it has pervaded a large portion of our science fiction experience. Sci-fi gives us infinite worlds at our fingertips, and yet we always populate them with beings that are basically like us, but with black dots on their neck. A lot of this, of course, is rooted in our innate human desire to bone aliens.

So BioWare makes a concerted effort to craft a ton of races that fall out of the humany comfort zone. You've got the humanoid-but-decidedly-alien species like the Turians (avian-ish raptor dudes with mandibles), Krogan (dinosaur-like bipeds) and the Volus (asthmatic Space Jews). Then you actually get alien aliens! The Hanar (third-person speaking jellyfish thingies), Elcor (big, lumbering something-or-others who don't emote), and whatever the hell the Vorcha are. And you can't bone any of them.

Well, actually...

It's a funny story! ME1 offers three romance options - Human Kalenko for the ladies, Human Williams for the fellas, and Asari Liara for either. So of course, fans demanded romances with Garrus the Turian and Tali the Quarian, 'cause they were way more interesting. Allow me to remind you that Turians are basically bipedal RAPTORS whose bodily fluids are outright toxic to humans - but that is no matter! Garrus is an amazing, lovable dude and the ladies wanted him, even if it would be nothing more than big hugs and cursing fate for alien biologies. BioWare shrugged and said 'sure,' and Garrus become a love interest in ME2. Once again, ME2 gets to cash in on ME1's efforts. (The fellas are slightly better off, as Quarians CAN have sex with humans. Kinda. It requires civil engineering-like planning and enough antibiotics to choke a Thresher Maw, but it can work.) Like all Quarians, Tali's face is never shown, so her appeal is largely in her stellar voice acting and engaging personality quirks. If there's a more adorable mechanically-inclined Space Gypsy that lives in a vaccuum suit, I'd like to meet her!

For bonus points, the aliens tend to hold the stronger hand in the Mass Effect world. Humans are relatively new to the scene, although we're advancing fairly quickly thanks to the trademark Ruthless Human Ambition no video game can be without. Still, humans ain't squat when compared to the entrenched Council Races (Asari, Salarians, and Turians) and it's a big deal when Shepard becomes a Spectre - the equivalent to a universal problem solver with minimal oversight. Overall, ME does a good job of illustrating the bigotry on both sides of the human fence without turning into a Very Special Episode. Shepard's run as a Spectre will go a long way to proving that humans are capable of joining the intergalactic community, and if you choose to use this opportunity to go around pummeling shopkeepers and taking part in arms dealing, well, you proved the smug jerks right. Nice job.

ME's overarching plot - the good guys versus a race of ancient murder-bots - is not terribly inspired, so it's the smaller moments that fans are drawn to. Ashley Williams seems like a cliche Frankenstein (the love child of her two inspirations, her namesake from Evil Dead and Vasquez from Aliens) until you get to talking to her, and she turns out to be a scorned military brat with a deep religious streak. Sadly, you don't get to point out that the Bible was fairly specific on not killing people, which Williams is exceptionally good at AND fond of, but there's always a loophole for those things. Oh, and she likes poetry. And seems like she's racist, but really isn't. And she wears normal, functional, non-hooker clothes around the ship. She's actually kinda great. Her male counterpart Kaidan Alenko is less engaging - he's like a well-meaning block of wood - but maybe that's my straight guy bias.

Anyhow, there IS a game tethered to all of this, but do you really need the details? You're familiar with BioWare, no? Conversation wheel, morality choices, that sort of thing. The action was okay for its time, but since video game combat evolves by the microsecond, it already feels stale. ME1's gunplay lacks the adrenalized elegance of its sequel, and is hampered further by gear micro-management and the worst vehicle combat this side of... well, Combat, the old Atari game with the little square tanks. After a while, you'll wish the mercenaries would go away so you could talk some more... which is weird to say, but there it is. You won't remember many of the firefights, other than some good setpieces against Liara's Mom and arch-villain Saren.

What you WILL remember, though, is that first gorgeous vista view of the Citadel. Or a pissed-off Wrex shooting at fish on Virmire. Or the basic cable sex scenes that somehow sparked a Web-wide scandal. ("My son Timmy saw a digital character's breasts! If only there had been some kind of legal guardian to protect him from a product with a legally-mandated age restriction printed on the box!") All of this is backed up by the best voice-acting in the industry - this CANNOT be stressed enough. I gamed back when voice acting never existed, and then when it became an exciting novelty. Folks, I cannot tell you how bad game voice-acting used to be. Resident Evil? That was pretty much standard fare until companies like LucasArts and BioWare/Black Isle stepped up, realizing that their stories and gags might have more punch if they came from someone more qualified than a mumbly intern who doesn't know which word to accentuate in a sentence.

ME2 is a much stronger game than ME1, but I've come to appreciate what the original brought to the dance. It tells a fairly typical story very well, and populates it with delightful characters and great moments. More importantly, it crafts a universe that gives BioWare a chance to tell two of the greatest video game adventures ever told. ME1 is like a solid drummer or unselfish straight man - it won't get the shiny awards or adulation, but true fans realize how important their work is.

And if nothing else, it gave us Shepard's unspeakably bad dancing animation. For which we are forever grateful.

Didn't get a chance to try the multiplayer yet - the EA/Cerberus/Whatever Network wasn't running properly. Forgivable for the demo period, but if this is another Revelations kinda deal with a scattershot server, I will be ANGRY SHEPARD.

But yes, the game.

There isn't much content to fuss over - you play the opening scene and a random combat-heavy encounter from mid-game - but I liked what I saw. (Although one wonders why there were so many story customization options for a demo... does it really matter if it's Kaidan or Ash saying 'hey, Shepard!' for a trial play?) Any fears that the game would take place almost entirely on Earth - fears caused by Dragon Age 2's highly limited geography - are unfounded. Ol' Shepard is back in space before the opening credits are done.

The other segment seems to involve a quest to rescue a fertile Krogan from a Cerberus lab. Sure, the Reapers are coming to annihilate all life, but Wrex is really horny, so what's a little pit stop for a friend? (For the unaware, Krogans were slapped with a genophage that rendered them mostly infertile after their latest war, due to their highly combative nature and general desire to kill everything in sight, including each other. It seemed more chivalric than genocide.) Sure, it's silly to be doing sidequests while Earth is literally being overrun and blistered, but on the other hand, it cracks me up to see Shepard leading his team on some kind of Krogan dating service.

"My people will help you, Shepard. But first... you gotta get me laid."

The gameplay is quite similar to ME2 (gosh, Rottenwood, really?), but I liked some of the changes. Weapon cycling is easier, there are more hotkeys to map on the ol' controller, and they brought my beloved grenades back. Health doesn't auto-regenerate anymore (but shields still do), and there seems to be more emphasis on melee. The best addition, though, are the more robust skill trees - more options, and more choices within those options on how to customize your squad. Thank Gosh for that Arrival DLC, which put Shepard on ice and justified yet another reset to Level 1. Shep has accomplished a lot for someone that forgets their profession every time s/he goes on vacation.

And boy, they weren't kidding with that Ashley Williams remodel. I don't often comment on the HAWTNESS of digital characters, but I bet my MaleShep is glad he stayed faithful to Ash through ME2. Hello nurse!

Is it March 6th yet?

*Pictures G.O.B. bursting onto stage and dropping an entire deck of playing cards.*

In less than a month, Mass Effect 3 will be on the shelf. In terms of fan anticipation, there's nothing quite like it: there will be games with bigger sales figures, but ME3 has to do EVERYTHING. It has to continue the franchise's elegant evolution of the Western RPG. It has to cap off a beloved trilogy with a satisfying, meaningful climax that doesn't tarnish all that came before it. (And what's the average success rate on that? 30%?) It has to cleanse the sins of Dragon Age II. It has to take dozens of player choices and somehow weave them together coherently. If it kills Shepard, it has to do so in a way that isn't trite and predictable. It has to do my laundry in my sleep. It has to be perfect. Or very, very close.

Modern Warfare X will be a smash hit for merely existing. It only needs to BE to become a success. BioWare fans, though, aren't so easily tamed. We are well-read, media savvy, and posess champagne tastes. We don't have expectations - we have DEMANDS. We've been eating caviar for so long that we'll simply throw anything else back at the server's face. We're rather awful, honestly. But we're gamers with real money. We're an audience worth courting. And ME3 is prom night - time to see if we'll put out.

BioWare isn't totally outmatched here. They're one of the industry's elite developers when E.A. isn't puppeteering them excessively. They have a rich cast of beloved memes and characters that give them a huge head start creatively. They've got all the resources a AAA house could ask for. BioWare is part of the machine now, yes, but they still have the beating heart of the artist. They know the stakes. It still stings them when they're rebuked. ("I KNOW YOU FEEL THIS, SHEPARD!") In short, BioWare gives a crap.

There's a lot of talk about Skyrim 'changing the game,' but Skyrim is completely inadequate when compared to anything that BioWare does well. Writing, voice-acting, characters, pacing, big moments... Mass Effect is a legitimate space opera; Skyrim is a gray dirge. The only comparison is that they run on the same consoles. Dr. Mordin Solus of ME2 has more personality in his toes than the entire Skyrim voice cast does combined. (All five members of it!) It's like comparing apples and wooly mammoths.

Skyrim was 2011's Game Of The Year; a victory akin to Michael Phelps taking silver at the Special Olympics. Will 2012 be the year of Mass Effect 3? A 'Return Of The King' sorta deal where we celebrate both the game and all that came before it? Or will BioWare jump the shark and get devoured by us pirahna-like fans? I can't wait to find out.

'Cause I'm Rottenwood. And Mass Effect is my favorite trilogy on the Citadel.

__________________________________

Like I said, it's gonna be all ME all the time up in here until launch, barring an occasional blog about Lollipop Chainsaw. So you've been warned! Look for individual blogs on ME1, ME2, ME memes, BioWare in general, and my ME3 demo impressions. Or don't. Like I care. Jerk.

There's a big buzz in the GameSpot community (and gaming in general) about this site's recent rash of 6 or 7 scores for major releases. Theories abound for this phenomenon:

"They're trying to get more hits by being overly negative." - theoretically possible.

"GameSpot is trying to become the American Famitsu!" - fair enough.

"GameSpot hates the Vita!" - too stupid to even reply to.

And so on. Yet, I shall wield Occam's Razor and go with the most boring (and therefore likely) scenario:

GameSpot is finally following its own review standards.

*Ominous music plays.*

By GameSpot's scale, a 7 is 'good.' I'm sure we've all had this conversation before, or one like it:

"What did you think of Movie/Game/Album X?"

"It was good."

In a way, it's a left-handed compliment. You honestly meant that the product was good, but there wasn't anything remarkable about it that stuck in your head. You were entertained for the running time, but you aren't exactly endorsing the thing. There's an undercurrent of "there's something better on the shelf."

And thus, Kingdoms of Amalur gets a 7.5 or whatever. I played the demo, about 90 minutes or so of content. On a generous day, I'd call the game 'good.' If you need an action-RPG fix that looks nice, knock yourself out. But there are a dozen games I can name off the top of my head that trump it in almost every department. Amalur is "good," if I'm feeling benevolent. But it shares a genre with Planescape: Torment and BioWare's best: the bar has been set. We know what 9+ games are like, and Amalur ain't big time.

Review sites have been giving away 8.5-9.5 scores like Halloween candy, and people's expectations shifted along with them. It's understandable that anything less than an 8.5 for a AAA release is seen as a slap in the face: 8.5 has become the new baseline for anything that doesn't make your console explode when you boot it up. GameSpot is essentially trying to turn back time, so it's not going to be a smooth process, especially at first.

But we shouldn't punish GameSpot for the sins of their entire industry. (And GameSpot themselves were once part of the over-scoring scene, so they're not innocent either.) Once 6-7 becomes the 'average' score, we'll all benefit from much more rational reviews that seperate the 'good' from the unmissable. I wanna see a 9+ and go "holy crap!", not "yeah, that figures." A near-perfect score should almost be an event.

So good on you, GameSpot, for fighting inflation. Your user tools may be swirling down the john (a blog for another day), but your integrity is back on the mend. Give 'em hell.

I've found a way to make Skyrim more gratifying: be a total scumbag.

After pumping up my Sneak, Pickpocketing, and Alchemy skills, I've discovered a penchant for burglary, muggings, and slipping poison into people's pants for laughs.

"Hrm... what's that wet feeling in my steel britches? Is my bladder acting up again?"

*Sees toxic, bubbling liquid running down his leg.*

"Well, crap."

For some reason, being evil in a high fantasy setting is more fun than it is in Fallout. Fallout's in a wasteland; everyone's already bordering on being a self-serving sociopath anyhow. But these noble Nordic warriors never see me comin'!

The more I dig into the game, the more it gets me. I love playing with the Alchemy set in my house, although you'd think it would raise some health or odor concerns. Then again, I already have a dresser full of old cheese and dead animal reagents, so my guy must be used to funk.

The combat is too goofy and button-mashy for my tastes, so other than backstabs, I use magic for my carnage. Well, mostly I use OTHER people to do it via illusions and necromancy, 'cause my dainty dark elven hands don't like getting messy. Unlike most RPG adventures, though, roguedom is a VERY valid combat technique: backstabbing does 15 times the damage (or more!) with the right perk and gear. A very pleasant discovery.

The story is pure oatmeal, but that's okay: ME3 is less than a month away. I'll just play in the sandbox until then.

_________________________

Fair warning: there will be an intolerable number of Mass Effect blogs in the coming month. 'Cause I'm a BIG STUPID JELLYFISH.

I can see why people love Skyrim. I can also see why I might not be one of them.

I've played just about every Elder Scrolls and Fallout game, and the prospect of dragging myself through another land of peril isn't quite as appetizing as it should be. The Fallout games, at least, have a radio full of unsung classics to keep you company - Skyrim just has your sidekick quietly following behind you as you walk through the woods for half an hour. Mind you, I enjoy walking through ACTUAL woods, with the nature and the fresh air and all that, but digital woods? Their appeal isn't nearly as strong.

The new breed of RPG - Mass Effect 2 in particular - has revealed a deep and dark secret about some of us gamers: we ENJOY linearity. I know, I know, it's disgusting. But we do. I know I do, at any rate. ME2 is designed explicitly to move you from encounter to encounter, ensuring that you're always engaging in quality content. You have to remember, I'm old. I've been gaming for 25 years. I cut my teeth on the old Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy games, where you did nothing but walk around for 50 hours. The idea of spending a gaming session doing nothing but wandering the woods until I find a cave with a minor encounter inside of it? No dice. Not at this point in my career.

I suppose I could just hop from story quest to story quest (the ones I've done so far have been great), but I suspect I'd be underlevelled and underskilled for the tasks ahead. And in the interest of fairness, the levelling system is pretty righteous, rewarding you for improving your skills rather than mashing monsters or completing quests. The ability to improve yourself via diplomacy or cunning is very, very cool. (For the record, my character is a dark elf who emphasizes sneaking and dark magic.) The skill trees - done in a zodiac format - are awesome, other than the terrible UI implementation where you can't see the whole tree at once.

But I dunno. Weapon combat is rather awkward - consisting of flailing limbs bouncing off of hitboxes - and kiting renders most enemies pretty harmless. (Well, except for that giant I met while exploring the east... one hammer blow killed me and sent me flying at least 100 feet in the air. Now THAT'S entertainment, even if I lost 10 minutes of progress.) The vast wealth of weapon and spell options is incredible, though. If only there was a better way to access it all - the 'favorites' function is awful and really needed to be done as a ring menu. Maybe the PC version has a slicker interface?

I'm sticking with it for now, though. I love burgling the townsfolk at night, especially since the game only has three voices and I'm already sick of them.Stealing that smug shopkeeper's entire fortune was bliss! Selling some of it back to him was just icing on the cake...