Role-Playing

Keep a tissue at the ready as we bid Tim a fond farewell. But before he takes his final bow, we explore the light and dark sides of BioWare with Star Wars: The Old Republic and the Mass Effect 3 demo. Plus The Horror Geek tackles Final Fantasy XIII-2; surely it can't be worse than its predecessor... or can it? Featuring Tim "Yup, I put my name first" Spaeth, Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Richard Naik.

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As someone who grew up loving the Choose Your Own Adventure paperbacks, finding titles to play on my PSP that were essentially the same thing blew my mind—rather than turning the concepts into a clunky platformer or simplistic action game, the good people at Laughing Jackal translated the books themselves into text-based adventures with short minigames replacing the dice-rolling and combat that real-life readers would have performed.

More than Just Eye Candy

HIGH Gorgeous illustrations and plenty of heartthrobs for all persuasions.

LOW A little lacking in the romance department for an otome game.

WTF Since when did Hijikata of the Shinsengumi swear like a sailor?

You Face a Dúnadan Now!

HIGH The environments and weapon/armor models look great.

LOW "Defend this point for X amount of time" wears out its welcome fast and early.

WTF Three people defeat an entire siege by themselves. Maybe Aragorn should have taken them with the Fellowship instead.

So, the Mass Effect 3 demo. I hesitate to bring it up, but I can't let it pass without making at least a few brief comments. First off, I really hope that the game addresses Ashley's radical make over... if the game hadn't told me that's who it was, I never would have recognized her, and I don't mean that in a good way.

The Dragon of Dojima's Looking a bit Paunchy

HIGH Playing baseball with kids on the beach.

LOW The slow trickle of new moves makes combat painfully stale.

WTF "You have learned the art of pole dancing."

Going by the reception of Nintendo's 3D update of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, there is much love for the Nintendo 64 classic even today. So it's not surprising that a group of very dedicated and talented fans got together to recreate that world in Minecraft.

Busywork: The Game

HIGH The fast-paced, flexible combat system and final boss.

LOW The mind-numbing, endless repetition.

WTF Is every daughter in the kingdom in some sort of peril?

Skyrim is a huge and uneven game, and I will be discussing many of its high points. In the spirit of getting the bad news out first, however, I want to discuss the game's secondary quest, concerning the civil war between the Imperial Legion and the Stormcloaks led by Jarl Ulfric of Windhelm. There is much to admire in the way this quest is set up, but as a world element and gameplay series it falls short in several respects.

Unicorns, Specters and Dragons, Oh My!

HIGH Completely overrunning the enemy with an army made up entirely of chimera and dragons.

LOW Dedicating 30 minutes to a stage, only to die and have to start all over from the beginning... AGAIN.

WTF Opalneria's gravity-defying boobs.