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.

If I had to name one single game that is a keeper, it would likely be one of the Baldur’s Gate titles. Probably Baldur’s Gate 2, although playing the original Baldur’s Gate via EasyTutu is a very close second. I also played through the entirety of Icewind Dale 2 with my wife via multiplayer LAN, which was awesome. But I’ve got to say that the Baldur’s Gate games were a bit better than Icewind Dale.

If you’ve never experienced Baldur’s Gate, it’s going to be very difficult for me to adequately explain to you the appeal. It’s simply the best strategic RPG I’ve ever played. The closest second I can think of for strategic combat is Fallout: Tactics, but the Infinity Engine games are much better. Although the games are very dated by today’s standards, and playing in higher than a 600×800 resolution can be a challenge, they’re as fun today as they were a decade ago.

I never finished the Baldur’s Gate 2 expansion, but I still love the game.

Welcome back to the Scribblenauts Smackdown! It’s a big day today. We’ll be seeing the return of competitors from the first round. Favorites like the dragon and the kraken.

I’m Vince Clortho, and I’m here again with color commentator Gordon Freeman to bring you the big second round of the Scribblenauts Smackdown. Our first match is going to be between the Blob and the Ogre. The blob had an easy first round, as bullets didn’t do much of anything to it, but after seeing the ogre in action, I’d say that this one could go either way. Anything to offer, Gordon?

Versus

Okay, there they go! The ogre’s punches are certainly moving the blob around quite a bit, but the blob is not backing off. The ogre’s skin is already beginning to melt. Oh – things are not looking good for the ogre. Yes, I’m going to have to call this one. Most of the ogre’s left leg is gone now. I can’t see him winning. Our next match is going to pit the Dragon against Charybdis. Frankly, I can’t stand looking at dissolving ogre any more, so let’s move on. That ogre is toast.

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Let’s see how these two match up as they enter the combat area. The dragon’s got firey breath and can fly, but Charybdis has three heads, each with some very sharp teeth. The dragon is flying in now, and breathing fire on Charybdis. Charybdis is biting back. Ugh! Gorefest! It’s all teeth and blood as the two roll around on top of each other.

My god. It’s hard to even see what’s happening. Can you tell anything Gordon? Wait – it’s looking like the dragon is coming out on top. He’s broken one of Charybdis’s necks and burnt one of her heads to char. Yes, indeed. The dragon wins, but he’s not looking too good right now. Let’s just hope he heals up okay for tomorrow’s match, when he’ll have to fight again.

Our next match sees the return of a fan favorite: the Wizard. In the first round, he disintegrated the behemoth with a single shot from his wand. This time, he faces the Grim Reaper.

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So which will win out? We’ll find out in moments, as mortal magic is pitted against the reaper of souls. The two seem to be ready. The Grim Reaper is moving towards the wizard, and the wizard is casting his spell. There it goes! It strikes the Grim Reaper… no effect! The death spell doesn’t seem to affect the bringer of death! The wizard casts it again, but… OH! Cleanly decapitated by the reaper’s scythe. Well, I’ll take that over being slowly dissolved by the blob, I guess.

Our final match of the day sees the return of The Kraken. He’ll be fighting the Superhero today. And although the superhero made quick work of the elemental in round one, I can’t imagine him doing very well against The Kraken.

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The Kraken is in position, and the superhero is hovering nearby waiting for the bell to ring. Aand… there it is! The superhero is flying down and… oh! Grabbed by the Kraken’s many tentacles. I can’t even see him anymore! He’s… eww. Did you see that, Gordon? That’s a lot of blood. I don’t think the superhero is going to make it.

So… that’s it for round two! We’ve got four finalists now. The Blob, the Dragon, the Grim Reaper, and the Kraken. Join Gordon and I tomorrow at noon for the semifinal round. There can be only one!

Game demos aren’t generally something I’ve put much thought into. I’ve tried a game demo on occasion, but when I’ve been excited about a game, I generally haven’t made it a point to try out the demo before playing the game. I generally rely on online reviews, friends’ opinions, and metacritic scores. But as I’ve been thinking more deeply about demos recently, I’m realizing that I’ve discovered some of my favorite games by trying their demos. Game demos present a no-risk way to check out a game, and in a few cases when I discover that I really love the game, I’m no longer hesitant in buying it.

The most recent example is Trine. The game immediately interested me, since the puzzle/platforming multiplayer co-op sounded like exactly the type of game my wife and I would enjoy playing together. Downloading the Steam demo sealed the deal. While I may have bought the game without having tried the demo, the demo removed all doubt. I now plan to play the game when (and if) it’s ever released on PSN.

Trine PC Demo

A game that I likely would never have bought without trying the demo is Pixeljunk Monsters. Like many other PSN demos, I downloaded it on a whim and it probably sat on my Playstation’s hard drive for a week before I even installed it. When I started playing it, my initial take was that the music was a little annoying and the graphics were too cartoony. But as I do with most demos, I decided to play through to the end before making any kind of decision. The game got addictive. The music was actually catchy. And I wanted more levels. I’ve now grown to love Pixeljunk Monsters, and it’s without doubt the game I’ve put the most time into on my Playstation 3.

Plants versus Zombies was a similar story. While it sounded cute, I expected it to be very much like the Peggle and Bookworm Adventures demos I’d tried: fun, but not worth buying.

After completing the demo levels, I had to play the full game. And it turned out to be the only game I’ve ever played on which I’ve completed every single achievement.

Plants vs Zombies Demo

The last demo that’s floated its way into my mind – I nearly forgot about this one – is the demo for Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. It was a lot of fun. I got caught up in the stealth upgrades and in kicking orcs and goblins off of cliffs. The game was rated horribly, so I didn’t buy it immediately, but when I saw it in a Target for $12.50, I snatched it up with no hesitation. And it’s a keeper. You can get it on Steam now for even less than that.

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Demo

Now I’ll grant you – not all demos are representative of the actual game. The Playstation 3 demo for Resident Evil 5 was terrible, but the game was actually pretty good. The Playstation 3 demo for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was excellent, but the game itself was horrible and frustrating.

In closing, I can’t write about demos without mentioning the venerable but hilarious demo for Typing of the Dead, which is still available here, especially after having read such a well-written article about the game last week.

Hello once again, I’m Vince Clortho coming to you from the Lungfishopolis Coliseum for the second half of round one in the Scribblenauts Smackdown. Here with me is color commentator Gordon Freeman. We’ve got some fantastic matches lined up for today. Any favorites, Gordon?

…okay, Gordon. Don’t look at me like that. So I’ve got to say, personally, I’m expecting to see some great things out of the Giant Enemy Crab. But our first match is between a Wizard and the legendary Behemoth.

Versus

I don’t know much about this wizard, so it’s very hard to say what he might have up his sleeves. But both competitors are taking positions inside the center ring, annd… there they go! The behemoth is rushing toward the wizard, and the wizard is casting some kind of spell. He’s shot some kind of energy at the behemoth. Ohh! And the behemoth is down! The behemoth is down! That was one quick fight, Gordon!

This wizard is one tough customer! But as he’s leaving the ring, the Grim Reaper is already moving into place for the next fight.

Versus

That’s right, folks. Old Grim will be fighting the Giant Enemy Crab. I know he’s death himself, but I don’t give him odds against that crab. And there they go! The grim reaper is swinging his scythe, but the crab is bringing its giant claws to bear. Once it’s able to… Oh no! Ugh! The grim reaper seems to have attacked the giant enemy crab’s weak point! For massive damage! And the crab is down!

Sweet grandmother’s spatula, Gordon! Today is not my day. Seems like I just can’t call ’em. No difference, because this next one seems too close to call.

Versus

In this match, the Japanese demon known as the Oni will be facing off against an Ogre. Two mythological creatures from different cultures, both of them pretty tough customers. The ogre has an edge in height, but that Oni has some pretty sharp claws.

There they go! The oni has taken a vicious slash at the ogre’s knees, but the ogre is delivering some vicious left-right punches. Ugh – I can’t imagine that the oni can take much of this. It’s stumbling… and the oni is down! The oni is… ugh! I can’t imagine that that was necessary. The ogre just stamped on the downed oni’s head. What a mess. It’s a good thing this ring won’t be needed until tomorrow’s matches.

And now we move on to the final match. I hear they’ve got a Space Invader for this one – I’m anxious to see how it does.

Versus

The Blob will be facing off against… is that a space invader, Gordon? Doesn’t look much like the Atari 2600 version I’d expected. What that? Uh huh. Oh. I’m being informed that we’ve gotten just a plain old Invader, not the space kind. I wonder how he’ll do against the blob. He’s got a gun, but… I can’t see bullets doing very much against the green flesh-eating mass of primordial ooze. The final match of the day may be a bit anti-clamactic.

And there they go! The invader is shooting at the blob, but the blob hardly seems to notice. It’s eating away at the invader’s legs. Yep, this fight is over. The invader didn’t stand a chance.

That’s it for the first round of the Scribblenauts smackdown. Tomorrow, the eight remaining competitors will face off to see which eight will enter Thursday’s semi-finals. Join us then. I’m Vince Clortho with Gordon Freeman. We’ll see you tomorrow right here in Lungfishopolis Coliseum for round two of the Scribblenauts Smackdown.

Welcome to the Scribblenauts Smackdown! I’m Vince Clortho, and I’m here today in the Lungfishopolis Coliseum with color commentator Gordon Freeman. Say hi, Gordon.

Okay! So Gordon needs to warm up. In the meantime, let me explain today’s event. We have sixteen competitors, sixteen of the toughest badasses we could find in Scribblenauts. They’ll be fighting tournament style all week, with the two finalists competing on Friday for title of Lungfishopolis presents Scribblenauts Smackdown Grand Champion.

Today we have the first four battles between the first eight competitors. The first battle is already underway between an Elemental and a Superhero. What? No, I don’t know which superhero it is. Some generic one, I guess. No, it’s not Aquaman. Actually, look – he’s winning! The elemental seems to be faltering… and… yes! We have our first winner! The Superhero has defeated the elemental! Psst! Why didn’t you tell me the match was going to start so I could’ve started earlier? I didn’t even get a chance to announce those guys. Might as well do it now.

Versus

I suppose no one expected too much of either of those competitors, which would be why they were placed first. This next match should be far more interesting. The lights have come up over a giant patch of dirt, which will be where our next two competitors face off.

Versus

The legendary Dragon will be facing off against the long-extinct Tyrannosaurus. They seem natural rivals, don’t they? I suppose that’s why they were matched up here at the outset.

The T-Rex is in position, under the lights. Wow, he’s big. Check that out, Gordon! Absolutely huge. Aand… here comes the dragon, flying in from the west side of the coliseum. Wow! Big breath of fire to start the fight. The T-Rex did not seem to like that. They’re biting at each other now. The T-Rex has a definite advantage there. Huge teeth. But… oh! The dragon has pulled back and is now breathing fire again and bringing its claws to bear. The T-Rex looks hurt! Now the dragon has a good grip on its throat! This fight may be over. Yes, it’s looking that way. The dragon has won. I guess that’s why the dinosaurs are extinct.

Now, if you’ll look towards the south side of the coliseum, we can see now The Kraken approaching the ring through the water-filled trench that was specially constructed for this event. Originally, The Kraken was supposed to have its initial match against Medusa, but Medusa was disqualified during preliminary rounds when it was discovered that all she did was turn her competitors to stone. Since they turned back to flesh after a few seconds and she immediately stoned them again, nobody was ever able to actually win a match. So… yeah. They disqualified her. Luckily, we have an excellent replacement.

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That’s right! The Greater Old One himself, Cthulhu. This should be an amazing match, folks. It turns out that the Kraken does just fine on dry land for some reason. As you can see now, he’s climbing into the massive ring, and… they seem to be dimming the lights. Why are they dimming the lights, Gordon? HEY! WHY ARE THEY…

I’ve just been told that the lights are being dimmed because if any of the audience actually saw Cthulhu, they would go mad. Something about sanity points. So wait. How are we actually supposed to know who wins here?

Okay, I’ve been informed that we’re going to move along to the final match of the evening and we will be informed of who has won the Kraken vs Cthulhu match based on whether the Kraken swims away.

Versus

The final match of day one is a serious grudge match. For over two thousand years, since their days in the Strait of Messina, they’ve waited for this moment. Today, we learn who better monster truly is. Scylla and Charybdis. Who will emerge the victor today?

They’re already at it! Scylla’s six heads are tearing away at Charybdis, but Charybdis’s hide seems to be quite thick. Oh! Wow! With a single bite, Charybdis has killed Scylla! Far quicker than anyone expected, the final match is over!

But wait. Hey Gordon, did we find out whether Cthulhu or The Kraken came out on top? Okay, the Kraken is swimming away. Amazing. It has managed to defeat Cthulhu! So who gets to remove the elder god’s corpse? That should be fun. And that’s it for today folks. Make sure to return tomorrow, when we’ll see match-ups between some serious competitors such as the legendary behemoth and the giant enemy crab.

Have you heard of Deathspank? It’s often described as Monkey Island meets Diablo, and it’s made by the same good folks who worked on the Penny Arcade games. Check out this interview with creator Ron Gilbert.

Charming. Intelligent. Enigmatic. These are just a few words that nobody ever uses when describing DeathSpank. He doesn’t shoot first and ask questions later. He doesn’t even realize there are questions.

Described by top scientists as Monkey Island meets Diablo, DeathSpank’s gameplay is divided between uncovering the epic story via conversations, solving complex puzzles, equipping your character to maximize his dispensing of justice, not to mention his charming good looks, plus battling just about anything that moves. As DeathSpank vanquishes evil and heroes the downtrodden, he will collect loot, level up, collect loot, acquire new abilities and of course, collect loot.

DeathSpank features witty dialog, improbable scenarios, unexpected villains, and a robust collecting system for weapons, armor, items, and abilities. The action is easily accessible for short bursts of unsupervised fun, but the story is revealed over 15+ hours of gameplay. In addition, you can choose to search out rare items and tackle DeathSpank’s many side quests.

It looks like PopCap has just released their hit game Plants vs Zombies as a flash game. If you haven’t yet played the game, I urge you to give it a shot now that it’s free. I love this game.

Play Plants vs Zombies

The second video in the Claptrap web series has just been released. Enjoy. This is funny.

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 first game I ever bought for my shiny new white Nintendo DS Lite (the original one with the cracked hinge) was Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. When the sequel became available and I heard that it had a piano-playing minigame where you had to sight-read music, I knew that I had to get it.

Brain Age 2 is missing some of the fun games from the first, but its games are for the most part equally fun. It’s still got some kickass sudoku, and best of all, it’s got a re-envisioned version of the old school NES game Dr. Mario. That’s probably the game I play most of all.

Now that the end is in sight in terms of 2009’s video games, I thought I’d look back at all the games I played this year. I’ll definitely be playing Scribblenauts, Dragon Age: Origins, and Borderlands before the year’s over, and I may also be playing Uncharted 2 or Brutal Legend. But they’re all games that I’ll be spending a lot of time with, and likely won’t have enough time to fully assess.

I played a lot of games in 2009. I could manage to count 23 of them, since I’m only looking at games that I played for the first time. This means that I’m not counting Thief: Deadly Shadows, Dungeon Siege, Warcraft 3, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, and Beyond Good and Evil, since I’ve played those all before.

That being said, I’m going to go through my list in alphabetical order and try to give some kind of brief rating and review to each of them.

Read the rest of “2009 – The Year in Review” »