RENT

I picked up Generator Rex: Agent of Providence with the thought that despite it being for the 10-12 year old set, my five year old son might find it entertaining. I should caveat the rest of this review with the fact that we do not watch the show and had never heard of the series, but I am always up for a new game.

If you, like me, were unaware of the cartoon, here is the general idea: Nanites have infected everything and everyone on the planet, and they randomly mutate creatures. Some creatures manage to deal with the mutations and use them (such as Rex), but most go insane and become monsters. Rex can control his mutations and use them to neutralize the monsters and their mutations. He works for an organization called Providence, and they fight against the E.V.O.s (Exponentially Variegated Organisms). The main enemy is a bad guy named Van Kleiss.

The game is a basic hack and slash with a side scroll. You learn how to use all kinds of different mutations for different monsters and scenarios, such as jumping high or smashing through barriers. As you progress through the levels, you unlock new mutations you can use. When you kill monsters or break objects, you collect nanites that you can use to upgrade your weapons. Most level are a series of mobs followed one after another with an ending boss. There were two levels that did not follow that format: one was a motorcycle ride with a monkey E.V.O. and another that involved a ride on rock tablets through a tunnel while being chased by a huge boulder.

And that is when I quit the game. First, a boulder chasing you? Maybe a 10-12 year old would not understand why I found that irritating, but I am old enough to consider it a bit of a rip off. Second, the level was nigh unplayable for me. It involved a lot of timed jumps, and these are not my strong suit. I kept dying, and my frustration level kept going up. My husband took about five attempts to get through the FIRST section, but neither of us managed to get through the next one. Third, after an initial sense of awe and wonder, my five year old grew quickly bored with the game. He likes jumping and racing, so it had little to no appeal to him (although he did like me killing the monsters and perhaps I should rethink what a good idea this was). He would beg me to play, but he would wander off more quickly each time. Fourth, maybe it was just the DS controls, but I found myself relying on only one or two different weapons (I do not think I even unlocked them all) because switching back and forth required not only the buttons but the stylus and touchscreen. It was overly complicated for what should have been a fun, simple game.

Publisher:

Rent

I’ve played the Cooking Mama games off and on casually since they’ve come out. They’re fun games to play, and I was interested to see what they were going to bring to the table with Cooking Mama 4: Kitchen Magic for the Nintendo 3DS.

Cooking Mama 4 is very much like the previous games in which you are cooking recipes that start off in varying difficulties, from something easy like a grilled cheese to more complex recipies. Some can for sure be tricky and I know I had to repeat a couple just to get the gold rating.

Game mechanic wise, not much has changed. If you’ve played any of the previous games before, you will be able to grasp the controls quite easily. Not to mention since the controls are pretty easy in general, newcomers to the game will be able to get the hang of it after the first few dishes. I also really enjoyed the interface of the game. It felt smoother than from what I remembered, and it flowed quite well.

The other thing that I enjoyed was having the extra mini games. Those were fun diversions from playing the main cooking challenges, and I enjoyed unlocking more things that would update the look of mama and even your kitchen that you cook in! The game itself is extensive for a casual game, and it’s definitely something I’ve enjoyed on my morning commutes to work.

One gripe I do have is that I don’t feel that there’s much need for the 3D aspect of the game. It’s not used when cooking as that requires the use of the touch screen, and for what is used for, it’s nothing that you really need to have on in order to fully appreciate the game. In the end this is good as playing with the 3D on for too long does give me a headache, but it also makes me wish that I could play it on my DSi XL (because grandma over here likes her big screens).

All in all while I did have fun, I wasn’t blown away by the game. Now, to be fair I haven’t been able to play the multiplayer where you can have a cook off with your friends. But I don’t think that feature really would necessairly have added much to the general feel of the game. The game is fun, it’s great for casual gamers, and it’s not a bad addition to the 3DS library. I think that this game is definitely something that would be good for a younger generation than it is for someone like myself.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was the furthest thing from my mind for 2012. Yeah, it looks like a pretty RPG, but I don’t have time for that. I’ve barely scratched the surface of Skyrim, Final Fantasy XIII-2 releases in a couple of weeks, and don’t forget, Mass Effect 3 drops in about six weeks. I have my RPG fix, thank you. But of course, the developers just have to cross streams with Mass Effect 3 by offering weapons and armor that you can only get by completing the demo. So yeah, I downloaded it and played the entire thing, including the 45 minutes of additional exploration just for the ME3 goodies. The things I do for Mass Effect…almost shameful.

But then something unexpected happened: I LIKED Kingdoms of Amalur.

If Dragon Age: Origins and Dungeon Siege III had a love child, this game would be it. It has all of the character creation and depth of DAO, and the hack-and-slash gameplay and bright colors of DS3. In many instances, it’s like a hack-and-slash version of DAO, but without a party–at least, I never got to the point of recruiting partymembers. There is a dialogue wheel like in DAO, and your character is silent like in DAO. The skills and leveling up trees are also a page right out of DAO.

However, there is no talent wheel that DAO and ME both have, which is very welcome. Instead of pausing the game to call up a wheel of all of your skills, you assign skills to different buttons on your controller, which is very much like DS3. It keeps the action smooth and seamless, two vital points for decent hack-and-slash gameplay.

It's so pretty!

It may sound a little like Skyrim, but there are two distinct differences: it’s third person POV only and there are bright, vivid colors. The coloring reminds me a little bit of the colors found in Skyward Sword and WindWaker in terms of how bright they are. The land is just as overrun from battle as Skyrim, but the environments are still beautiful. After playing so many “brown” shooter games, I can’t help but be wowed with the beauty of the colorful environments, characters, and creatures.

The visuals aren’t 100% perfect yet, though. The game suffers from a ton of texture popping problems. Normally texture popping is more of an annoyance than anything, but in this demo, they were downright distracting. Environments would only correct themselves when I walked through them. At times I couldn’t tell if what I was seeing was part of the environment or a beastie. It wasn’t a constant occurrence, but when it did happen, it was horrific.

Release date isn’t too far off, so I can only hope that these graphic problems can be fixed before shipping or at least with a day-one patch (even though these are far too prevalent). It’s too beautiful and fun of a game to have texture issues leave a permanent black mark on it.

That said, it didn’t prevent me from preordering the game. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is in many ways, an RPG made just for me: deep character customization, hack-and-slash action, beautiful and colorful environments, a fantasy setting, and big swords. The demo barely touched on the story, so I don’t know much about it other than it takes place during a war (shocker!), my character has unusual abilities that no one understands, and, um, my character was dead at the beginning of the tale. How’s that for intriguing?

Seriously, though, the things I do for Mass Effect. At least this time it paid off and has enticed me to look into this game that I would have readily dismissed.

Publisher: Screenlife
Players: 4 player vs
Genre: Trivia
Release Date: November 30, 2011

BUY

The Scene It? Series is always a great game to play with friends at a party. Gamers or not, the controls have always been easy to understand and the quizzes are fun to play. Besides, who doesn’t love proving they know more than their friends about Movies?

My Scene It? controllers from Box Office Smash and Lights Camera Action, have been sitting in our controller bin for quite some while. I was surprised and ecstatic when Screenlife PR contacted us with a chance to try their newest title for XBLA and PSN, Scene It? Movie Night. The game is a downloadable for 800 MS Points or $9.99 on Playstation Network.

My husband is a movie know-it-all, so I love playing the previous Scene It trivia games with him. But what he enjoyed most about Scene It? Movie Night is that the questions were really focused on the movies. The questions were relevant to the movie clips.

There are many types of sections in the game. Each game has 7 rounds that you play. It ranges from questions about a movie clip, to finishing the quote or putting movies in order of release. The child-drawn movie questions are back. There are fourteen question types that are combined in random ways. The last round is “quick pitch” which is a rapid combination of questions. The last round usually changes the outcome of the game.

There has been confirmation that this Scene It will get proper DLC support. There will be updated questions for download. The next pack will be a Sci Fi theme pack and will be available in early 2012. Let’s hope for some Serenity questions!

My only negative is that while I’m sure the game has a large group of questions to choose from, I’ve run into the same movie clip three times and a couple rounds of the same group of questions. I’ve played maybe eight to ten games with friends, so I’m pretty surprised to get the same questions so early.

In the end, I recommend Scene It? Movie Night for people that want a fun, trivia game to play with friends. It’s easy to pick up and learn how to play and everyone loves testing their movie knowledge skills against each other. I hope they continue to offer DLC for the title and make it a more robust trivia game. My recommendation….Disney DLC. ^_^

RENT

The sequel to Earth Defense Force 2017, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon takes place on an Earth that is once again devastated and infested by giant alien insects. Naturally, only Earth Defense Force can stop them. it’s up to you and your team, Strike Force Lightning, to defend the city of New Detroit against the otherwordly invasion by deestroying the hordes any way you can (even if that means using a building to crush them into an alien insect version of crunchy peanut butter).

 I’ll be honest: I’ve never even heard of the  Earth Defense Force series of games so I didn’t have any expectations when I loaded this up on my Steam account. The game is a third-person shooter, and you can play through a Campaign, Survival  or Co-op mode, each consisting of your generic military dude working his way through wave after wave of alien insects. As Pvt. Hudson would say, it’s  a straight up bug hunt and that’s it. There isn’t much in the way of character customization, there isn’t much in the way of story, but there is a lot in the way of killing big alien bugs. A lot. It was super boring after about ten minutes.

Now, my finding this game boring could be due to a few factors. First, I mainly stuck to Survival Mode because I didn’t have any Steam friends to play Co-op with and I got tired of there being no checkpoints in Campaign (you die, you start the entire mission from the start). Second, because there isn’t a story this is mainly a game where you repeat the same thing over and over again, horde after horde of gigantic alien bugs you have to make your way through. Grinding, in the video game sense, is not my forte and it makes me very sleepy very quickly. Third and finally, I had issues with trying to control the camera and my PC on a massive scale. This one I’m willing to take on as user error since I’m not the most expereinced computer gamer beyond the point and click story games. I feel like I would have had less issues (and less motion sickness) if I were playing it on a console istead, but like I said that’s definitely a personal issue and not a game issue specifically.

The good points of the game were that, before it got old hash, mowing down huge bugs was just good old fashion fun, especially in a destructible environment. All the vehicles scattered about the city streets could blow up, all the buildings could crumble to the ground, and both could damage anything around them in the process. Again though, playing single instead of multiple player made the process of destruction seem to drag on forever (the entire game itself isn’t very long - three chapters, each consisting of five missions), and I feel like if I had friends to destroy stuff with I would have been left with a more enthusiastic attitude toward this game. If you’re a lonely bug hunt like myself, you’ll be left with the feeling that you’re destined to repeat Groundhog’s Day until you reach that final mission. If you have it in you to reach that final mission.

Rating:

BUY

I will first admit that I have not played the previous Saints Row games. I’ve heard good things, but they just never appealed to me. That is until I saw promos for Saints Row The Third. The game itself just looked so over the top and fun because it wasn’t taking itself seriously. Plus their promo stunt at E3 with the carwash was pretty funny. So not long after it was released my boyfriend and I picked up the game and I’ve been having a blast!

To start, character creation is over the top. It was honestly hard to decide if I wanted to first play through as a guy or a girl. I did wind up choosing to play as a girl, and decided to re-create Christina Hendricks to the best of my ability. I do however plan to go back and make some over the top juice head muscle man for fun for another play through. And also to the devs: Nice job adding in some signature moves done by WWE wrestlers!

The game itself can be seen very easily as another GTA, and I know it’s been compared as such many times in the past. I must say though that with all of the similarities, unlike a GTA game, I’ve been playing through all story missions, most side missions, and I’ve been doing random mayhem for kicks. With a GTA game I’ll do the first mission or so, not bother with side missions, and go straight to the mayhem. Then I’d give up on the game and move on to the next. I honestly can’t fully pinpoint what exactly makes Saints Row The Third catch and hold me more, but it does. And it’s going to make me go and play through the previous games at some point.

I thoroughly enjoyed the world that was created for the game. It seems huge, and there are several city sections that you can explore. I think one of my favorite zones though is when you are sent into cyberspace and everything turns Tron-like. It’s pretty creative and was seriously unexpected. But on top of that you have to play through some old school like games in order to break through a firewall. I’m talking things like old school text adventures. But cyberspace aside the city is well done and everything in it looks fantastic!

Story wise it stays engaging. You start off playing as Johnny Gat and leading a bank heist. Now unfortunately this bank is behind another rival gang ring who does not appreciate the Saints. Needless to say this heist doesn’t go over that well, Johnny doesn’t like the tone of the ringleader of the rival gang, and due to this a giant plane winds up crashing. This is where your character comes in. You play as the leader of the Saints and you have to work to rebuild the Saints from the ground up (considering the other gang took all of your assets).

Most of the missions deal with you working to get more income, members and to rid the streets of Steelport of the other gangs who are after you. The side missions can be fun little jaunts to help other members of the Saints, or to earn money by Insurance Fraud, blowing things up with a tank, or escorting hookers to safety from bad pimps. Oh and escort Escorts and their clients around town. And then there’s some of the over the top weapons, like the massive dildo bat. Yes this is one of my more favorite melee weapons just because of how ridiculous it is. Plus it’s quite fun to run around beating down citizens of Steelport with it.

However sometimes the missions can be a bit frustrating. There were some where I had to keep repeating parts just due to some glitches, for example my partner not wanting to get into the getaway car and drive me to the next part of the mission. But in the end I guess you can say that it makes it a bit more rewarding once you complete it, though honestly it got a little too frustrating at times.

But one thing that I absolutely loved about the game was the phone interface that you used to do missions, get upgrades, call for backup and set your GPS. It was very nicely done and easy to use. The map that you could reach from there was also fantastic and seemed easier to navigate and read from the last time I played a GTA game (Liberty City to be exact).

Overall, Saints Row The Third is amazing and engaging. I’ve been playing it for hours, and I’ve watched the boyfriend play (and beat) the game. I’ve enjoyed it both ways, plus I like that with certain decisions I’ll be playing a different game than he did. If you haven’t picked up the game yet, I highly recommend snagging it during potential after Christmas game sales, or even used from Amazon or GameStop. The best part is you really don’t have to play the previous games in order to play this one, but like me you may want to just play them after playing this third installment. Also? The Professor Genki DLC was totally worth it.

As Marcus was most likely still in the Slab during this time frame, RAAM’s Shadow instead focuses on Kim and Tai’s original squadron, Zeta, which at one time included Val and Barrick. Barrick is an uglier, angrier version of Marcus, and Val is a hybrid of Anya and Sam. Even though none of these squad members have as much depth as the usual Delta team, it’s a bit refreshing to play as completely different characters.

Rating:

BUY

Before I get into my Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary review, I have a confession to make first. I have never played a Halo game before I picked up this one. Some may say this makes me the best reviewer for the game, as I have no nostalgia to fall back on. Some may say that this makes me the worst reviewer for the same reason. In terms of seeing how well Halo has withstood the test of ten years time, I’m really the best person for this job. But, for better or for worse, this is what you get. And before you start flinging the tomatoes, please read the following sentence first: despite some of the outdated mechanics and the severely outdated level design, I relished my entire Halo experience.

Just in case you are like me and never thought of playing a Halo game before this year, here is a brief plot synopsis. Mankind is at war with an alien race simply called “the Covenant.” One of the space marines’ fleeing ships is attacked by the Covenant, and p the stupids–they must waken Master Chief from his cryosleep to save them all. Sadly, he isn’t able to save them, so they had to settle for saving the ship’s AI and preventing the Covenant from learning about Earth. What starts out to be a simple shipwreck and a search for a weapon that will wipe out the Covenant quickly spirals into uncovering a secret that could destroy all sentient life as we know it.

Sound familiar? It should. It’s a sci-fi plot line we’re all familiar with–particularly with two of my favorite franchises, Mass Effect and Gears of War–but it’s also something we have to remember came 10 years before any of these other games employed it. It’s best not to dwell on that fact, or you’ll start to become disappointed with current games, especially any games that include zombies.

If that doesn’t disappoint you, then the level design definitely will. While I can see how innovative Halo must have been back in the day, it doesn’t resonate well with those who don’t have a nostalgic tear in their eyes. Every level is virtually the same: a circle. You may circle upwards, and you may wind downwards, but it’s still a circular pattern. Even two different worlds looked exactly the same due to their identical walls and identical circular paths. To make matters worse, after you reach the big revelation about the Halo and the Flood, you get to run back through the levels again…but this time it’s backwards!

However, despite these typically major flaws, I could not stop playing the game, be use it’s just so gosh darn fun. Even though I couldn’t count on my marines to do anything useful besides absorb bullets, and even though I would get overwhelmed with the sheer masses of the Flood in later levels, I really loved every minute of it.

I attribute some of it to the fact that this is the first shooter I’ve ever played that fully implements and requires effectively swapping between two different weapons. Unless you develop a smooth rhythm between jumping between your two weapons, you will not survive any onslaught, especially when entering the Library. With most games, you typically fall back to using only your favorite weapon and use others when you have to, but with Halo, there is really no time to pick favorites. You have to get comfortable with a wide variety of weapon combinations or you will hear Master Chief scream like a little girl a lot. At first it was a little annoying, but as the game rolled on, I learned that this facet is part of what makes the combat so fun. You never feel like the combat is bland because you’re always switching things up.

To further help matters, the controls were absolutely perfect. I never once felt like the sensitivity was too high or that the controls were laggy or twitchy. It just felt right instantly, as though I had played the game ten years ago–which, as I’ve said, I hadn’t. If only every shooter felt the same from the beginning of the tutorial.

So while old game is definitely old, old game is fun, even to someone ten years too late to the party. As much as I’ve fought against it, I’ve become a Halo fan and I now want to play all the other games in the series. Well done, Bungie. Well done.

I was pretty bummed when my Xbox Dashboard updated and the UFC tab had the old fight on it. Then reports came out that UFC application would not be updated until December 20th in time for the UFC 141. Even UFC posted about it!

This may be only available to certain users, but I was able to get the UFC application working and found that it’s updated with all the latest fight information! Amazing videos about all the fighters in UFC 140. You can make your picks as well as see who your friends picked to win. Basically it’s my husband and I fighting to see if Mir or Nog is going to win this Saturday.

Voting is easy and you get a plethora of information on the fighters. Not only the Tale of the Tape that shows all the measurements/age/history of the fighter, but also the last three fights and the outcome of those fights.

Check out this video where I walk through the available options. I am so excited to continue to play with this application. The amount of pre-fight content available is staggering. Currently it shows I can order the event for $0, but I’m pretty sure that will change when the application does go live.

After finishing my second beta weekend, and with the NDA lifted, I wanted to splurge about how much I love the new Star Wars: The Old Republic – and how I don’t see it as an MMO. And that’s what’s getting me to play it (I’m not much of an MMO player).  A Bioware game through and through, there are a lot of things that I love and that have got me excited for the release this December. A warning for possible spoilers, though I’ve done my best to avoid anything major.

As of now, I’ve levelled two different classes into their mid 20s, and my partner has played two as well – Sith Inquisitor and Smuggler for me, and Sith Warrior and Republic Trooper for him. We played on PvE servers for the most recent beta, and got to see both the Imperials and rebel scu – I mean, Republic side of the galaxy. I won’t deny – we ended up playing dark side for all of them. Sorry, no screens from the gameplay – I forgot, and was too busy playing! 

1. The Voice Acting

Bioware has lauded this as the main reason for what makes this MMO different – and there is no escaping it. YES this makes the game different, it’s engaging, it’s hilarious, it made me interested in the characters and what they were doing. The voice acting is amazing, not only for your PC and companions, but for everyone you interact with as well. Nuanced, talented and varied, the voice acting adds a level to this game – and honestly? This is what makes it a Bioware game to me. 

2. Companions

You get a variety of companions based on what class you play, and your actions in the game affect their opinion of you. It’s an affection system, with them approving or disapproving of what you do – and you can go in the negative! You also gain experience from interacting with your companions! Which I thought was a great motivator. 

Your companions are engaging – if they’re present when you’re in a conversation with an NPC, they often chime in. As they start to like you more (based on conversation approval/disapproval and gift giving), they want to talk to you about your life and theirs. They have interesting back stories, are the types of companions you want (one word – WOOKIE), and make the game more immersive. 

My example for this is the smuggler merchant you get with the Smuggler class, Corso Riggs. A chivalrous farm boy who went to find adventure after personal tragedy, his attitude fit perfectly with the swarthy, snarky smuggler I was playing. He’s sweet, he’s tough, and he’s on your side. To me, he seemed cater made for someone wanting to find the ‘Bioware touch’ in this game – loved him to bits. He makes me want to play Republic, when I’m a pretty hardcore Imperial!

3. The Stories & Writing

I’m not a classic MMO player. I’ve looked forward to SW:TOR because of the RPG aspects, and I don’t think Bioware let this one down. I think it’s been worth the wait – and I can remember when they announced the Star Wars MMO all those years ago. The quest lines I got involved in were engaging, got me charged – and I can’t wait to play again because I want to find out what happens. Even side-quests seem worthwhile and have stock – in many ways, because of the voice acting. 

The writing does not let down in my opinion, and stays true to what Bioware has established themselves as – great writers of story AND dialogue. The lines the characters use are hilarious, snarky, cruel etc. — I listen to it all, because I want to know what they say and how they react. And yes – you can flirt with lots of people hah. Which I loved (and may have done, making poor Corso incredibly jealous).

4. The connections to KOTOR

Yes! They are there! In any of the classes I played, it was possible to come across side quests that related back to things that happened in KOTOR. It tickled me pink to see this – to see what happened to some of the people and places. 

Seeing Taris a few hundred years after the orbital bombardment was stunning. Learning what people think of Revan (you know I have a soft spot) got me giggly. There’s more too, but I don’t want to give too much away.  

5. Alone or with friends

My first beta weekend I was playing by myself – I got in, and my partner didn’t (much to his dismay). I can be pretty anti-social, so I went at it alone. I mostly followed my class quest story-line. It was easy enough to do – though I did find random groups for some flashpoints and heroic (harder) group missions with relative ease. This past weekend, my partner and I were able to play together almost from the get go, because we chose complimentary characters – we were on the same starting worlds. It was fun to see the quest lines (you watch other classes as a spectator – and get to see the cut scenes), I loved the cut scenes, I loved the dialogue – it felt like a co-op RPG most of the time. There were the two of us, and our two companions, kicking ass and taking names. And we were all out of bubble gum. 

When you’re in a group, you roll for dialogue options – but are still rewarded if you are the one to speak or not and there’s a dark/light side choice involved. NPCs also acknowledge that you’re in a group a lot of the time, which I was surprised by.

6. Expansive worlds, environment/presence

The worlds feel big – and honestly? I found them beautiful. They aren’t Skyrim quality, but for an interactive, expansive galaxy, I found the landscapes and cityscapes made you feel small. I wanted to look at them. I wanted to go through them. The architecture suits Republic or Sith, and it adds to your experience. I am the type to get in the head of my characters, and think about where we’re going and why, and the environments helped do that.

As well, the music in the game is amazing. I love the Star Wars themes, and a lot of them make a reappearance, in addition to new themes. It changes based on battles and location, and it can really add things to not only fights, but cut-scenes and quest lines. 

7. Light Side/ Dark Side — ethical quandries

If you want to be evil, you can be really REALLY evil in this game. I don’t have as much experience with the light side choices, I won’t deny. You can shoot people in the back when they don’t do what you want, you can threaten to torture children, you can electrocute prisoners to gain information from them, take bribes, or sell plague cures for profit – and more! 

Sure you could do this in any other MMO, but in this game you hear it all. Once more, this is where the voice acting really shines. When you threaten people, they beg and plead, when they die, they scream and cry. I wanted to see how far my character could go – how evil and malicious they could really be. You hear the indignation, you hear the suffering… and you end up feeling bad for it. 

8. Multiple games

Overall, I think it’s obvious that this game has been in the work for as long as it has been – and that it’s been worth the wait. The care and time put into it shows – it’s amazing. I don’t know what else to say about it. I want to play each of the classes because I want to experience their story lines, companions, loves, hates, trials and tribulations. I’m going to sink a lot of time into it. But I think it’ll be worth it. I never felt like I was grinding, because I loved the stories, the side quests, the voice acting and interactions. Classic MMO players may not like it because it is an MMORPG – with stress on the RPG.  There is a lot you can do in SW:TOR. Whether it’s questing, grinding (if it’s your thing, not mine), there are space battles (simple, but I won’t deny I loved them), exciting PvP warzones that are a game (huttball) or actual combat. I tried them all, and I liked them all. You can go do different activities based on your mood – and you get rewards and experience for all of it. 
As well, there were visible and worthwhile improvements from one beta to the next (a month’s time) – so I have no doubt only more time and love will go into keeping it amazing. I want to see the end games – I want to see if there are ends to these characters stories. For the few months I played WoW way back when, I can’t ever remember thinking anything remotely like that. Sounds more like a stand alone RPG, eh?

I’m eagerly awaiting mid-December – when my pre-release access opens and you’ll all stop hearing from me. Needless to say, I’m concealing the real reason for my ‘staycation’ this holiday season.