Geek Week: Day 3 & 4 - It's All About the Games, Baby

Missed a beat yesterday. Life called, y'know?

As a gamer for much of my childhood until now, I'm always interested, however mildly, in what the industry is doing in general. However, as I stated at the beginning of the week, I am now and have been for years a solid PC gamer. Thus developments like the Wii U, PlayStation Vita, and Kinect, while somewhat fascinating, are probably things I won't personally own or use very often. For me, it's all about the games.

There are some huge titles being shown off this year. Here are some that I've found most interesting.


Far Cry 3

While not one of the aforementioned huge titles, I'm kind of excited about this. I didn't even know they were making a sequel.

Far Cry has an interesting history. The first game came out in 2004 as the first release from developer CryTek (makers of Crysis). This established the developer's penchant for gorgeous graphics, tropical island settings, and putting "cry" into their game titles.

Far Cry 2 was really a sequel in name only. It came from a different developer (Ubisoft), with a completely different setting, different characters (including the protagonist), and different tone to the story. They were both great-looking first person shooters and that's about all you could say.

I bought Far Cry 2 under the mistaken assumption that it was from CryTek and would be much like Crysis. It wasn't. That disappointed me a lot at first. And while the game did have some glaring flaws, it was a solid, open-world shooter in most respects and quite a lot of fun once you unlocked the game's vast variety of weapons.

Far Cry 3 takes the series back to a tropical island setting... an island full of insane people and you have to escape it. Sounds fun. The following gameplay trailer shows a little bit of character, action, and the game's thematic emphasis. Looks interesting. In a developer interview, one Ubisoft employee admits they were "taken to school" with some of the flaws of the previous game. It sounds like the game will remain open-world but with some significant improvements over last time. If they've learned from their mistakes, Far Cry 3 could be a whole lot of unfettered, insane fun.

Content advisory: some strong language and violence.

Batman: Arkham City

I'm somewhat confused by the premise of this game. So there's a whole section of Gotham City where criminals run loose? Hey, mayor! Bomb the place. Watch your crime rate drop like crazy.

I'm somewhat excited and somewhat annoyed about what I've been seeing with Arkham City. The exciting bits are the enhanced "Detective Mode," the new setting, and the seemingly open-world feel of the game. Arkham Asylum's environments were fairly large, but Arkham City, naturally, seems even more expansive. It'll be fun to fly around it all as the Dark Knight swooping down and taking bad guys out.

Here's what I don't like: Catwoman. I've never liked the character. The idea of having someone who's like Batman but morally ambiguous is a potentially interesting idea, but Catwoman's design, mannerisms, and actions are all about one thing: sex appeal. *groan*

There was a trailer entirely featuring her which really made me not want to play this game. Did she really have to look like that, Rocksteady? C'mon.

At least Christopher Nolan will almost certainly treat the character with more dignity in The Dark Knight Rises next year. Until then, we have Arkham City.

Metro: Last Light
Most of the gaming press and people who played it refer to Metro: 2033 as an underrated game no one played. That may be true. I picked it up on a Steam sale early this year to test out my new graphics card's Direct X11 capabilities.

Despite being set firmly within the post-apocalyptic genre, Metro had a unique feel to it mostly due to Ukrainian developer 4A Games. You spent much of the game traveling through the old Moscow metro system inhabited by humans and mutants alike.

Some of the most fun parts of the game where stealthily sneaking through enemy metros by taking out their sources of light and knocking them off one by one. Looks like there'll be a lot of that going on in the sequel which is reportedly about civil war between humans rather than the external threat of mutants like the first game. It also seems to feature destructible environments which is always a good time. Plus the trailer features a Portishead song. Marks for that.

Mass Effect 3

Awwww yeaaaah. I'm already sold on Mass Effect 3. I am going to buy this game. It's getting increasingly rare to see something truly new and excited in video games. The Mass Effect series is a first. It is the first modern RPG series to present you with hundreds, maybe thousands of choices large and small allowing you to carry those choices and their consequences on the story from game to game.

Bioware claims this has always been a planned trilogy. I guess so. Like a lot of trilogies parts 2 & 3 seem to have more in common with each other than part 1. My concerns are mostly of the nitpick variety. Although Mass Effect 2 was a great game, it was a giant character fetch quest when you got right down to it. But it was also one of the most personal games I've ever played. It was great to see so many callbacks to the choices I'd made in the first game.

I'm really hoping for a lot of interesting and cool stuff to happen in the conclusion. Since Bioware doesn't have to consider how your choices in ME3 carry over to a sequel, they should be free to make a huge variety of endings. Check out the awesomeness below.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I wasn't that excited about Skyrim in my most anticipated games list at the beginning of the year. I am now.

Skyrim promises a massive open world with exploration of diverse locations, fights with dragons, numerous weapons and skills, and the best bang for your buck in gaming. Most of the gameplay I've seen is combat-oriented. I'd prefer to see some more footage of the towns and settlements. I've always loved exploring those and working my way into various factions and guilds and, of course, breaking in and stealing things.

I did have a lot of of fun with Oblivion, but the flaws prevented me from playing that much of it. Fallout 3 became one of my favourite games of all time. Bethesda has a great track record for making game worlds that invite you in and Skyrim looks like the best yet.