I was a big fan of Phantom Hourglass, and this is likely to be as good or better. Here’s a trailer for Spirit Tracks.

“This is the Only Level” is a fun little game. There’s only one level, but it changes as your repeat it. It’s essentially a puzzle/platformer. Fun way to kill a few minutes on a Friday afternoon.

Play “This is the Only Level“.

Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge of merit.

With Starcraft 2 slated for release in early 2010, you don’t hear much talk about Starcraft anymore. But when I look at my collection of older games and consider which I’d like to replay, Starcraft is always there. And I’ll always enjoy going back to it. I couldn’t do a Keepers column and not include Starcraft at some point.

Starcraft is the only decade-old game that I consistently see sold on store shelves alongside newer titles. I’ll look on the shelves and see Sims 3, Wrath of the Lich King, and Starcraft Battle Chest. There’s a reason. It’s the best RTS ever made, and it’s still fun. South Korea has made a national pastime out of the game. If you’ve never played Starcraft, you can get it for super-cheap now, and it will run beautifully on any PC you can find.

I know that Dragon Age is a great game. I love the story and the characters, and as long of a game as it is, I plan to play the game through to its ending at least once. But damn did the game piss me off last night.

It’s not just about the difficult battles. Those I can deal with. I can be more strategic, I can level up more before a fight, I can buy more healing potions. What I can’t deal with are bad controls.

First, adjusting the camera can be painful. Sometimes it lets you rotate and pan the camera, and sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t yet have a good grip on when you can and can’t, and it’s frustrating.

Next, I have difficulty at times telling which character is currently selected. This has led to me making a character at full health drink a potion, while the nearly dead character who actually needs it dies.

Lastly, I don’t know how to control where my characters move. My archers are constantly charging forward into melee with their bows equipped. I can’t get them to hold their ground.

So yeah – I die a lot. I really really need some tips on combat in this game. And I need to learn to save the game more often. Here are a couple links to Dragon Age: Origins combat and tactics advice that I found useful.

Dragon Age Forums Thread

Dragon Age Forums Thread

Giant Bomb Forums Thread

Last night, I completed Borderlands’s single-player story mode, using Mordecai the sniper. And while the gameplay is so addictive that I plan to continue playing multiplayer Borderlands with friends, I have to agree with reviewers that the ending is lame.

There’s now an interview online in which Randy Pitchford calls Borderlands 2 a “no brainer”. They’re not yet actually working on a sequel – first they’ll be knocking out a bunch of DLC. But when they do, here are a bunch of things I’d like to see from the game.

10- Destructible Environments

Imagine that a nearby explosion could knock bottles off tables and topple shelves. Imagine that an incendiary grenade could set a hut on fire. How about if you could destroy entire buildings Red Faction style? Yeah. It’d be cool.

9- The Ability to store items

So you find this awesome shotgun that shoots rockets. But you can’t use it for another 4 levels. You’ve got to carry it around with you. Or maybe your favorite weapon just became obsolete, but you’d love to give it to your friend the next time he’s online. You’ve got to carry it around with you.

If Borderlands gave you a personal locker of some kind, it would make inventory management that much better.

8- Vehicle Improvements

Going into the Dahl Headlands, vehicles begin to seem like a huge deal. There are bandit rocket car patrols and even a vehicular boss battle. But after that, things fall off. Vehicles become primarily a way to get from A to B quickly. Borderlands 2 will need more vehicles. Maybe single-seater motorcycles, three and four-seater cars with multiple turrets, maybe a couple APC or tank vehicles. A couple water vehicles and maybe a helicopter would be nice. An armored mini-mech like the kind that appeared in Butcher Bay would be phenomenal.

The randomization of weapons in Borderlands is wonderful. If they could work the same randomization into vehicles, it would be awesome. Vehicles with dual side-mounted shotguns. Vehicles with ram plates and wheel spikes. Vehicles with tank treads. Vehicles with mine-droppers and smokescreens. This alone would make me want to buy the game.

7- Character quick start

After finishing the game last night, I wanted to start a new game with a Soldier just to see what he played like. I had to sit through the entire intro, and then do the stupid tutorial over again. They need to provide a way to start a new character quickly. After the 4th time, that intro and tutorial gets OLD.

6- More than 87 Bazillion Guns

The diversity of weapons in Borderlands was fantastic. You know they’ll need to ramp it up for the sequel. Maybe a few new weapon categories like speargun or chain gun. Maybe a flamethrower or sonic weapon. Grenades that leave behind acid puddles for 5 minutes. Go even crazier.

5- Creature Diversity

While it’s true that there were multiple kinds of Scags and multiple kind of antlions, I wish that there were more than six or eight creature types in the game. How about doubling that? Fifteen or so seems doable. And I love the fact that each creature has a different critical hit spot – that needs to stay. I liked the game’s two or three unique bosses, and seeing more of those would be great too.

4- More humor

One of my favorite moments in the game is when Nine Toes is introduced – the still image overlay to the right is hilarious. But how many of those are there in the game? Six or eight? And how many are funny? That’s the only one I can think of. Programatically, adding more would be super-easy. The only investment is paying a comedic writer to come up with the stuff. Borderlands does humor very well – I loved the conversations and voice recordings of the insane archaeologist Tannis – there just needs to be more of this humor in the game.

3- Different characters

In a sequel, you wouldn’t want the same four characters. Roland kind of bugs me, and Lilith is annoyingly arrogant. If any character remains, it should be Brick. He is quite simply awesome. Mordekai would be my second choice for a carry-over, but I think keeping only Brick would be best. Other characters might include a different Siren – perhaps with different and more diverse Siren powers.

A PC psycho character might also be a lot of fun. His ability could be brief bouts of increased fire rate and unlimited ammo. He could eventually gain skills that would let him leap from one vehicle to another, Mad Max style.

I’d also like to see more diverse skill trees. Perhaps branching ones like the skills trees from Champions of Norrath, where the skills branch out and sometimes rejoin.

2- Better QA

I’m not sure if it was only the PC version, but Borderlands was super-buggy. Online play required router configuration, Gamespy connectivity stinks, voice chat doesn’t work, and the PC interface feels like a bad console port. Also, sometimes when I pick up a weapon it equips itself. It’s intermittent, and I HATE it. Borderlands 2 will need better quality assurance.

1- Better Story

The number one thing I’d wish for from a Borderlands sequel would be more story. Hunting an alien vault on a new world should be fascinating and magical: hunting down small clues to the aliens’ existence, finding ruins with incredible artifacts, and seeing others’ amazed reactions.

I’d also like to have seen more of an ending. I’m fine with being able to continue playing after completing the game, Oblivion-style, but perhaps a better explanation for the chick who magically guided you through the game, a cutscene showing the amazing vault, or maybe the automatic awarding of an orange-level loot item. Just something more satisfying.

I’m sure that Borderlands 2 will have lot worth playing, I just thought it would be fun to create my own feature wishlist.

I’m sure lots of people have thought about the kinds of games they’d make if they found themselves in hte role of game designer. I guess I’m no exception. I thought it’d be interesting to share three games I’d like to see made. Heck, if I were in the position to make these decisions, I’d make these games myself.

1- A Mech Roleplaying Game

I’m a big fan of the Mechwarrior games. I love designing the mech down to the nitty gritty details such as where the heatsinks live, and the fact that the ammo for the chest-mounted autogun is stored in the left arm. I love balancing weight against heat consumption. I don’t think that this complexity would be a detriment, because the people who don’t like that aspect can just choose a pre-configured mech.

I like the fact that the gameplay isn’t lightning fast. While energy weapons like the PPC and mass drivers like the autogun hit the target pretty much instantly, missiles really should take 2-3 seconds to reach a medium-range target. That’s why missiles have a lock-on. Mechwarrior Mercenaries really started started taking the game in the direction I’d like to see it go. You complete missions, earn money, and use that money to purchase better weapons and refit your mech. If you earn enough, you can even build a better mech. But I’d like to see it go even further.

How about a mech game without the Mechwarrior license in which there are scenes and portions of missions where you actually need to exit the mech? How about some personal interaction that doesn’t take place over the radio while you’re in a cockpit? Maybe even a few action scenes where you’re not in a mech. Rivalry between mech pilots, optional missions to get specialized new mountable weaponry, maybe multiplayer where you have a pilot and gunner inside the same mech. That’s what I’d like in my mech RPG.

2- A Semi-Casual Gladiator Game

Back in the age of door games, I played a gladiator game with a number of friends. None of us were ever online at the same time, and we were playing on a BBS via dial-up connections. This gladiator game didn’t even have ASCII graphics. We read text readouts that told us the results of our daily fights. We’d create gladiators, rolling them up like D&D characters, equip them with various weapons, and schedule them to fight against each other. Some of our gladiators would win, others would lose, and the owner of the winning gladiators would gain reputation and money. Occasionally, a gladiator would be killed in the ring, which sucked for the owner. But it was a great game.

I would love to re-envision and reboot this game. It would be like an anti-MMO. It could be a massive multiplayer online experience, but it would likely be limited to fifteen minutes or so per day. How long can you spend scheduling fights and occasionally purchasing new weapons or armor for your gladiators? If you’re really obsessive, perhaps 30-45 minutes. But it wouldn’t be the kind of time sink that World of Warcraft is. Perhaps we could add 3D-rendered scenes of the fights being played out, and anyone could go in and watch replays of the various battles. That’d be cool. But still fairly casual.

3- A Vehicular Battle game

I’m not talking about Carmageddon, Twisted Metal, or Mariokart. My game has no power-ups. I’m talking about a game in which you start with a rusted-out old 1977 Ford Maverick with no windshield and a couple of steel sheets armoring the sides. Maybe it’s got a front-mounted machine gun that can fire in a 60 degree arc forward. As the story progresses, you can purchase armored and weaponized motorcycles, vans and sports cars. You can replace blown-out tires with puncture-resistant and solid rubber varieties, replace your engine with an electric, fuel cell, or air pressure power plant, and customize the location and strength of your armor. You can buy a turret or cupola for the roof of larger vehicles, but you’ve got to manage how much space and weight various items takes. And of course, many of these items are expensive, and it’s tough to find someone who can install them properly for you. You can buy high-power halogen headlamps that can blind opponents, razor hubcaps to shred the wheels of cars you sideswipe, and dropped weapons like oil, mines, and smoke.

Of course, without a plotline the game wouldn’t be much of anything. How about this:

After the American electoral system was revealed to be a farce in the 2020 elections, political upheaval led to dozens of riots across the country. In 2027, the United States split into three countries: The United American Republic, consisting of most of the America midwest and western states, has its capital in Denver. The Democratic States of America encompasses most of the East Coast, and has its capital in Philadelphia. And the Free State of California, with its capital in Sacramento. Many areas of America were not claimed by any of the three countries, most notably sections of the Dakotas, Nevada, and Utah. Law enforcement in rural areas became neglected and road piracy became common along certain trade routes. These gangs of pirates and bandits grew in power, and armed vehicles along the highways became a real threat. Gangs of motorcycle pirates, roadblocks with mounted machineguns, and dreadnaught-style tractor trailers now rule the roads between populated areas. Walled cities, not seen in the civilized world for centuries, once again became the norm. And the demand for armed road escorts grew…

I’ve just been reading about a game called Shank. It’s a sidescrolling beat-em-up, but with a very unique art style. Quite cartoony. I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.

When I was a kid, I used to play an amazing game called Crossbows and Catapults. It wasn’t a video game – it involved hurling actual plastic chips via mini elastic-powered crossbows and catapults. It was truly awesome. As an adult, I managed to get a copy which is sitting safely right here on my shelf.

Armor Games’s Crush The Castle brings much of the same joy in destroying large structures using a catapult. Give it a try. Smashing stuff always makes a Friday better.

Play Crush the Castle

Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge of merit.

The game has spawned a franchise and is one of the best-known Playstation 2 games out there. Its well-implemented analog controls and fighting mechanics are legend. It brought us some of the first quicktime events. And it brought boobs in video games into mainstream acceptance. Kind of.

Honestly though, while I had some minor issues with the second God of War game, the original is a true classic. Few people will argue that. The game is as addictively fun as it is brutally difficult. Fighting a huge wave of minotaurs and gorgons, balancing across that narrow wooden beam while jumping spinning blade wheels, climbing up a sheer stone cliff while dodging falling boulders – it’s all in a day’s work for my man Kraatos.

I just read a fantastic Dragon Age: Origins review from CVG, and it’s gotten me even more excited to play the game. And although I’ve ben excited about a Baldur’s Gate-like pseudo-turn-based RPG for some time, what’s gotten me really excited about Dragon Age is the game’s setting.

Let me quote a couple sections from the CVG review I’m linking.

Humans are the dominant race in Ferelden. Dominant in some extremely unpleasant ways. Until a few hundred years ago elves were the slaves of humans. In theory they have been freed, but those who live in cities remain second-class citizens, forced to live in slums, either begging or finding menial work in human houses. A small number of elves broke away to live in the Dales; these ‘Dalish’ elves are attempting to recover their lost culture. Bitter and vengeful, they kill all humans who wander into their territory.

The dwarves live in the Frostback Mountains, fiercely independent and embroiled in their own complex politics and caste system. The treatment of the elves by humans is (if you’ll pardon the pun) dwarfed by the attitude this underground race show to their own casteless kin.

Mages are feared and loathed by all. Those demonstrating magical skills are separated from their families as children and sent to a Mages’ Circle. A mage is vulnerable to possession by demons, or to the allure of deadly Blood Magic. They must live under the control of the soldiers of the Chantry, the presiding human and city-elf religion, serving in the army.

…

Dwarven culture, incidentally, is fascinating. It has a caste system, where dwarves are born into the same role in life as their same-sex parent. Your family will be nobles, warriors, smith, artisans, miner, merchants or servants, and this will not change. Should a servant marry a noble woman, his son would remain a servant while his daughter would live in the upper echelons. And then, as mentioned earlier, there are the casteless. Either because of ancestral disgrace, or because they went above ground for too long, these dwarves are stripped of their identities, their ancestry removed from dwarven history. They are unrecognised by all society. It’s abhorrent. Exploring the city’s slums is distressing. But you’re an outsider (unless you’re playing a dwarf, of course) so how much is it your place to object?

Based on what I’m reading here, this world is more intriguing than Baldur’s Gate’s Forgotten Realms world that was cribbed from the associated Dungeons and Dragons setting. It would seem that Bioware has really done a fantastic job of creating a world with distinct races and cultures. And despite my own misgivings about dwarves and elves being present, I’m loving what I’ve heard about the game.

My copy of Dragon Age: Origins should arrive in the mail any day. Until then, I suppose I’m happy playing Borderlands and Trine. Definitely too many games this time of year.