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.