It's a Big World Out There

Oh my god, it's almost the end of  February. How did that happen?

This guard will either get a promotion or a funeral. Well, a cremation

Skyrim came out over a year ago, which of course means I've now really started getting into it. No-one can ever accuse me of not being on the cutting edge of video game trends.

The adventures of Wruk the Orc ground to a bit of a halt back in December '11 but not for any good reason. It's not like I wasn't enjoying in the game, I just lost interest and motivation for what I was doing. I think it stemmed from the fact I wasn't straying too far from Whiterun and trying to level up my Blacksmithing without doing any real adventuring.

Kentucky Route Zero is a game you should play

Happy 2013 to you all. How's your new year been so far? Good? Good. Moving along.

Kentucky Route Zero is going to get some stick, which is a shame, because it's really good. It's incredibly interesting and made with a finely-tuned attention to detail.

Without going into too much detail of the set-up, KRZ is a point and click game about a man called Conway (and his dog) who's trying to make a delivery. The titular "Kentucky Route Zero" is the road he is told he must take. That's as much as I feel needs to be said, since any more does kind of ruin the impact of the game (and if you feel you MUST know more, you can read this review).

Twenny Twelve

Blog! I sometimes write you!

I'm doing this more out of necessity rather than want, as it's less than six hours till 2013 and I feel I should attempt to put a lid on this year, gaming wise. So here we are. I actually thought about doing a top ten list until I realised I haven't even played ten games that came out this year. So in lieu of that, here's something else.

Insert hilarious caption here.

Epic Loot

Oh god. I'm so sick. Bluuur.

Right, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but whatever. I WAS very sick, but now I am feeling much better. SO that's good.

Not had a huge amount of time for gaming recently, and not a huge amount of time in the future, to be honest. I've had a few assignments from uni on my mind, which means I haven't really been able to give much time to the important things. If I WERE to talk about video games, it'd just be me bitching about how unfair the Fire Temple in Ocarina of Time Master Quest is.

Videogames?

VIDEOGAMES!

Wahey. Jokes. But more on that later.

Borderlands 2 is still taking up most of my gaming time, which is to say, I am still enjoying it. Me and Harriet drifted apart level-wise, so we both started new Mechromancer characters together. There's something wonderfully cathartic about watching a pair of  giant floating robot torsos tear into a nearby pack of marauders. I really should at least finish the game once at some point, since I'm told the ending is worth seeing.

Another thing I have been playing is this;

This is sort of like Mario's private island.
With its own chalet and... giant statue of the owner

Diamond Ponies and Double Barrels

Right. Hard talk here for a second.

Tediore is the obvious choice for shotguns on Pandora. The super fast reload, combined with the explosive damage caused when you do, makes them an absolute winner. Hyperion weapons get more accurate over time, which is useless for a gun with only four shots and a spread projectile pattern. Dahl weapons have burst fire, which is moot. Maliwan weapons have the elemental edge but reload pretty slowly. And Torgue weapons make it IMPOSSIBLE to hit anything. So clearly, Tediore. It's the way forward.

Ahh. Good to get that knot of geekery off my chest. On to the game at hand.

You're god damn right it is

One Choice is No Choice; How TellTale Did Morality Right

Here's a weird admission. Up until recently, the most effective and difficult moral choice I've ever had to make in a game was in Fable III. At the beginning, the king offers you a choice of who to kill; some villagers or your childhood sweetheart. If you take too long, the king suddenly starts counting down from ten, at which point he will have both parties executed.

It's almost the perfect example of what a moral choice can be. Often in games, when presented with moral choices, we play tactically. We don't go with our gut, we try and "game" the system and play tactically. The moral decisions in BioShock, for example, aren't really about ethics, they're about whether or not you want upgrades now or later.

Sticking the time limit on a moral choice that doesn't immediately offer any advantages either way is a fantastic way of giving a moral choice weight. It worked in that first bit of Fable III and by god does it work in The Walking Dead game.