Online/Multiplayer

War sucks. I've fortunately never had to deal with it myself, but that appears to be the general consensus. Lots of people get killed/injured, resources are wasted, and infrastructure is destroyed. It's an all-around bad deal for most everyone involved. Over the years there have been several films that have portrayed this perspective successfully, but no games. Why?

The Return of the Orange and Blue

HIGH Wheatley's voiceovers.

LOW The frustration from a particular puzzle at the end of the underground area.

WTF Who knew the turrets had such heavenly singing voices?

In the last entry, I spent a lot of time talking about what signing up for Final Fantasy XIV was like, how you create your character, and how the game compared to Square's previous MMO, Final Fantasy XI. Moving forward, we'll be taking a look at my first few days in the game's world and how everything works.

She has a Medical Degree. In fashion. From France.

HIGH My co-op partner's reaction to me falling onto a springboard and being flung to my death.

LOW If I think of one I'll you'll be the first to know.

WTF Has anyone ever seen Chell and Zoey from Left 4 Dead in the same room at the same time?

As someone who spent many thousands of hours (and no, I'll not state the exact number here—it's been repeated enough times on the podcast already) with Final Fantasy XI, few folks were more excited than I when Square Enix surprised everyone at E3 a few years back with a trailer for Final Fantasy XIV. Longtime fans knew SE had been working on a new MMO for some time, but when the trailer debuted with Galkans, Tarus, and Elves, it was extra cool—if only because we were basically getting a high def sequel to FFXI.

While I still have it fresh in my mind I want to put down my thoughts about the single-player campaign in Portal 2. I haven't played any of the co-op, primarily because of the mysterious, ongoing problem with the PSN. However, I completed the solo campaign, and while I agree with many of the criticisms Michael Barnes made in his review at No High Scores, I greatly enjoyed Portal 2. I don't think it's a 10/10 masterpiece, but it is a very good game.

Evolving into Irrelevance

HIGH Starting the first stage and being greeted by a screen full of faceless baddies and an earful of cheesy, pulse-pounding electronic music.

LOW The hour-long final stage.

WTF Do we really need to see the same unskippable cut-scene every time a spell is cast?

I polished off Portal 2's single-player mode earlier. The campaign started losing its luster for me somewhere in the neighborhood of Chapter 6 or 7, and after that point I found that I needed to break up my play sessions into no more than three or four puzzles at a time to avoid burnout/boredom. Consequently, it took me a lot longer than I had originally anticipated, but it's done now.

Bungie has wanted to tell the Halo story from a new angle for a while. Apparently, it had grown tired of telling and re-telling the story of a lone space marine cliché in the middle of a clichéd fight with invading space aliens. It's first attempt at breaking out was 2009's Halo 3: ODST, a game that didn't even feature the Master Chief.

It tried again with 2010's Halo: Reach. This time the story revolves around a squad of similarly-skilled marines. This should have been the perfect venue for Bungie to stretch its legs, but anyone who played it probably noticed that Reach also fell victim to the cliché bug as demonstrated by this Machinima video.

I'm not very good with the Demoman. In the hands of a skilled player he can be the most powerful force in the game, but he and I just never meshed that well. So this article should be taken with a grain of salt, as I am by no means a Demo expert. That said, I do pick up the bagpipes from time to time. Indeed, until a fairly recent update the Demo was the one class that could be legitimately called overpowered. How is that, you ask? Well, take a swig of the ol' grumpy bottle and have a listen.