Friday Meanderings - Amazing Adventures, Mass Effect Leviathan, Dead Space 3 and More

I haven't gotten my act together with regards to reporting/discussing some of the numerous RPGs I am reading through right now, but I'm working on it. Amazing Adventures is on the top of the list, as I plow through Jason Vey's take on the pulp genre, as powered by the SIEGE Engine. While the core conceit of the C&C-powered D20 mechanics are here at the heart of it all, AA has enough changes to make it stand out on its own. It's got some interesting design choices. I'm hoping to have some more detailed analysis of the system next week.

After a hiatus from Mass Effect 3 I have resumed the Leviathan DLC and picked up the Omega DLC. I've enjoyed Leviathan, despite two distinct hang-ups early on. Sometimes putting something aside for a while and coming back to it later lends clarity of vision to what needs to be done. Anyway, it's  fun resuming the adventures of poor doomed Shepard once more. Still interested in seeing what Bioware Montreal's vision for the next Mass Effect is going to be...I enjoy being a non-toxic fan who actually appreciates the level of work it took to make these games, can you tell?

I also picked up Strike Suit Zero and the preorder for Skyrim Dragonborn DLC as birthday presents for myself. You know you're getting entrenched when two out of three of your purchases are just expansion content for existing games! As it is, Strike Suit Zero looks potentially interesting but the controls were terrible (for me, YMMV). I'm going to give it another shot when I feel the urge to experiment with customizing them to taste, but right now, despite the fact that SSZ harkens back to a day when we all loved Colony Wars and Free Lancer, it's control scheme feels nothing like them. I'm not someone who normally uses a joystick and traditional flight control schematics, though...and am also left handed, so maybe those are where my issues are coming from.

Skyrim is probably the game I really need to sink myself into next. I've only played a few hours of it according to Steam, and the game has been out for over a year, as well as the source of a great many internet memes. I'd like to have the campaign under my belt in time for the Elder Scrolls Online to arrive, as well (even if there's a thousand year gap between the two games).

I also picked up "Map Pack B" for Resident Evil 6. Not sure why, to be completionist, I guess (it was 160 Microsoft Points...$2, so cheap). I've played some RE6 multiplayer now, and while I enjoyed it (and was actually fairly engaged and even doing well) it didn't strike me as having the sort of legs the ME3 multiplayer (or even Max Payne 3 MP) has.

Outside of the above DLC packs and one indie game (SSZ) that got greenlighted, there's the looming specter of Dead Space 3. Some noise has been circulating about the in-game cash shop it apparently comes with. I may wait a few days until after the reviews are out to see just how much of an impact this cash shop feature has. It's yet another unwelcome boogie man from the EA monetization process, but one I'll happily ignore if its not "in your face" or built around a tedious in-game mechanic designed to encourage you to buy coins or items from them to avoid being punished by the game.

Dead Space 3 doesn't arrive until February 12th, so maybe I'll change my mind by then and grab it. We'll see. Two other games are on the horizon which I must get: Crysis 3 and Gears of War: Judgement. Man, I am such a mainstream gamer, aren't I? Dissing in the indies, buying into the big fully-monetized triple-A titles. Defending Bioware. Sigh.

I have Zero hipster cred!

Monday Recap

My ME3 multiplayer handle is docfuturity

No column, article or game content today...hopefully by this weekend I will have some time to sit down and write a new series of articles that tie into the existing projects, including the Golmadras articles for AD&D and the Sarvaelen series for Legend/RQ/BRP. I might even try to do some new material for Chirak, or post up some existing content I've had lurking about.

This weekend I had a couple modest milestones in the world of video gaming: two single-player campaigns I had been slowly working on over many months (a few minutes here and there) at last concluded: Quake 4 (one of the last of the "old school" shooters or one of the first of the new school, depending on how you look at it) and Modern Warfare 3.

This was my second play through on Quake 4 (the first was back on the 360 when it first came out). I think I enjoyed it more now, but it was interesting seeing how the game has aged, and also how id's old school shooter design still resonates. It was funny playing a game again with health and armor counters, healing through health kits and armor pieces, and a metric ton of ammunition randomly scattered about. I don't know whether finding a health kit in the heart of an alien empire or a regenerating health meter is less realistic anymore....with shooters, you sorta go with whatever your audience will ignore for the sake of a good time, I guess.

I know it's a bit late to talk Modern Warfare 3, but I have to say that I can't tell if the MW3 single player campaign was just unusually lackluster or if the Call of Duty formula (it's very, very formulaic) is starting to wear thin. I still enjoy the multiplayer (well, to be fair I enjoy the component of multiplayer that lets you play solo) and the black ops and survival missions are a lot of fun....but the resolution of Price's tale of endless vengeance against Makarov felt just a bit drawn out here. I look forward to a future Call of Duty from Infinity Ward that is not about Russians invading the US and Europe, or how the only guys in the world capable of surviving for three whole games are British Special Forces units gone rogue.

I mean, it seems to me that China or even the Middle East would be a better fit for a Modern Warfare title right about now...

I'll make a prediction, though: a future Call of Duty title will be highly futuristic, maybe even Mass Effect style futuristic, and will take place in Spaaaaace....! And I would be very happy if they did something like that, actually.

Either way, I had to finish MW3; after blowing through Spec Ops: The Line I sort of felt obligated to scrub the grime away with a clean, white-washed game. I admit, though, Price and his motives (even his allegorical name) looked a lot more suspicious in light of playing Spec Ops....

"I got your Heart of Darkness right here. Where my boot is. Up your arse."

I picked up Mass Effect 3 for the PC over the weekend and am glad I did. I don't know why but the multiplayer experience is a more solid and generally better experience on the PC, and I am surprised to say that I am enjoying it more using a mouse/keyboard for controls than the Xbox controller (for whatever reason the Mass Effect series on PC doesn't allow for controller use). This is not the norm; usually third-person perspective titles are generally easier to manage with a controller, and tend to be optimized for the experience (I tried Spec Ops: The Line both ways, for example, and found it much easier to manage with the controller than the keyboard and mouse).

Anyway, having a lot of fun with that....more so even than with the conventional MMORPGs. I want do delve more deeply into Guild Wars 2, but I spent the weekend in a state of mind where playing MMOs started to feel draining. I played a fair amount, in short spurts....but a fair percentage of play time was really "standing motionless" as I'd get the boy to lay down for a nap, then go to play, find myself tired as well and go nap. Or he's wake up. Or it was time to cook. You name it. But I did get a few hours in on both.

Overall Guild Wars 2 is a more interesting and engaging experience but I was put off by the early release crowds. It's difficult to explain, but the short version is its possible to be in a public quest like, "Help the farmer walk over here" and have 120 people all escorting him at once while demolishing menacing spiders you can't even see on screen....so I decided to wait a while and play when the crowds thinned a bit.

I was about to run out of time on Rift and decided to play it a bit, see if I wanted to continue. I extended my time a month, and then sunk a fair amount of time into my Bahmi rogue. What I've noticed about Rift is it's a very rich game, lots to do, in a Wow-esque way, and the rift events and invasions add a special dynamic element to it. But after I hit my early level 20's (past the point at which the game is free to play for everyone) regular players get sparse. Moreover, the grindy element of questing gets noticeable when they keep sending you to roughly the same area over and over, which may be why a lot of people say they like all Rift has to offer, except for the soloing. The game can play like this for hours: find quest hub town, gather 3-5 quests in area, do those quests, come back and turn in, then get 3-5 more quests at the same hub for the same region. Over and over.

So I think I'll continue with Rift....but only because my slow pace on the game makes it less intolerable. It's a game I can play for 1-2 hours and feel satisfied about, but if I tried grinding it for a really long session I would find it tough to stay interested (or awake, judging from my efforts to do exactly that this weekend). In the meantime, I may play a lot more Guild Wars 2 soon, but I like that I can enjoy that game (with its buy-once-play-free model) forever and ever. WIll enjoy more GW2 just as soon as the new player mobs thin a bit and I can see what's happening on screen!

Post-Labor Day Weekend Recap: Guild Wars 2, Mass Effect 3: Leviathan and More

Well, I haven't got any articles or new material in queue right now so for the moment it's just more of me blathering on about stuff I'm into at the moment (which, as you may have noticed, seems to be mostly a mix of D&D and video games).

My wife and I grabbed Guild Wars 2 this weekend. I enjoyed it, played a few hours, can safely say that the game is very dynamic and does a lot for the MMO design by culling the best concepts from across the board and adding in a distinctly new feel and pace. It's a fantastic game. I'm intrigued to see just how much of the original Guild Wars is in there, in the sense that GW2 plays very little like its predecessor, yet so many bits and parts evoke that Guild Wars style, from the looks (much sharper but still "Guild Warsian") to the soundtrack and general ambience.

I'll talk more Guild Wars 2 later, because this game does a lot to move the entire concept of the MMORPG into the future, but playing it resparked an interest in my other MMO love, RIft, which I also played more of. Rift is more traditional, but it is traditional with some innovative twists, and playing it in contrast with GW2 actually improved my appreciation for it; Rift is dynamic and open world in a different way, with a metric ton of oddities to collect, pursue and figure out, but in a very methodical fashion. GW2 is almost frenetic in its pace, so the more leisurely approach in Rift suddenly feels sort of distinct. The fact that I can't even play WoW for two minutes before deleting the game again is only helping the case for the future of MMOs. There are some very good games out there now, and they all blow WoW out of the water. Forget about numbers; if the discerning gamer prefers quality and substance over volume, there's a veritable buffet of MMORPGs to choose from.

And despite all of the MMO madness I still somehow managed to fit in some Max Payne 3 time (I absolutely love this game, it's storyline is oozing noir and bullet time in the best way possible) and I am methodically working my way through a new Mass Effect play-through, this time with male Shepard, and on the PC (having just acquired ME3 on the Labor Day sale). Also, it's really difficult to play games on the TV while Marcus is sleeping; his room is positioned so he can look through his door (which he is now able to reach and open from his crib) and see the TV. He gets very frenetic when the Xbox is on. Dad likes hearing sound but doesn't have any headphones with a good reach, so its easier to hide in the study where the PC provides more options and is not visible.

(Which means yes, I own or have owned all the Mass Effect games and DLC on both PC and console, making me officially Bioware's bitch.)

I also snagged Mass Effect 3: Leviathan and while its good so far I seem to have gotten stuck on the creepy base with the mind-controlled miners. Can't figure out if I'm overlooking something (a security terminal) or if the game is bugged out on me.

 

EDIT

So I had a long bit here about my general dissatisfaction with gaming followed by a bit of clarification that I have bipolar tendencies which often cloud my perspective on things, and sometimes gets in the way of my sense of enjoyment in RPGs. After some thought I realized that this was yet another case of "feeling off" so I figure I'd better just snip that bit away and leave the remainder of the summary as follows:

Read more AD&D Premium books, will comment on lots of interesting bits and observations soon!

My Saturday campaign wrapped up at long last after almost three years, retiring their Pathfinder characters at level 14-15. It was a satisfactory conclusion and I am happy to see another high-level campaign die, albeit spectacularly.

I am tempted to play 4E again but my Wednesday group has talked me into going for a new low level Pathfinder game instead. I'm going to start a new one in Chirak. But I really have an urge to play 4E. I like that system, at least the way I run it. I am continually bothered by the fact that the hobby seems to have run into an outer threshold that won't allow it to grow past a certain point, or at least be accepting of whatever interests we all prefer.

I think, in the end, I'd be happy if WotC also reprinted the core for 4E with full errata and updates, to go along with their reprints for 1E and 3E. That would go a long way toward aknowledging that D&Ders are a diverse lot, even if we ourselves tend to decry the "others" amongst us who are busy having the wrong type of fun.

More gaming articles to come as soon as time permits!

The Shooter Report

When I'm not working my ass off, playing dad, running tabletop on Wednesdays and the occasional Saturday, reading, cooking, or cleaning, I am enjoying the time honored tradition of gunning down virtual foes in digital land.  So here are a few more games I tried recently that are worth talking about (or warning you about...). As always, I remind you that I am not always playing these games for very long (especially if the initial experience was horrendous) so my comments will be based on the actual length of time spent in the game.

Bulletrun

Not sure what to make of this. I played it a bit, and noticed that it felt like a competent shooter which tried hard to emulate the control scheme and even the feel of Call of Duty. It's basically a shooter title portrayed as a lethal gameshow event of the future, where glamorous gun-stars blow each other up then get resurrected to come back into the fray; it only has two play modes, one of which was team deathmatch and the other I don't know because I couldn't find a game. On my brief play through I noticed the following features/issues:

1. The match lasted a long time. It was basically a "whoever has the most kills wins after 15 minutes" type of approach and frankly felt excessive.

2. Quick match making was troublesome....I tried several times to get into a game, any game, before it finally took.

3. Starter characters have almost zero customization; the game's cash shop is built around making you look prettier, although you can earn cash to unlock stuff. One full game was just short of enough cash to unlock one interesting trait; at 15 minutes a pop, it was clear that doing it the free way would be tedious. I didn't stick around long enough to see if the game supported the "pay to win" concept, a deal-breaker by far (looking at you, APB).

   My fifteen minute play through suggested there's potential here, but not enough to recommend this game over other F2P shooters, especially Blacklight: Retribution which is a very solid and enjoyable game, and even though Blacklight has a cash shop I still haven't figured out how it benefits me, too much fun playing it.

I wonder how much time and money it takes to look this cool in Bulletrun

Team Fortress 2

I don't even know what to say about this anymore. I loaded it up (again) to check out the co-op experience recently added (Mann vs. Machine or whatever). The game inevitably throws me into the tutorial mode (maybe I need to skip that sucker) and in doing so I am reminded that TF2 is a game about spazzy super-fast characters, insta-kills, general insanity and a total lack of cohesion in the classic old-school style. Uninstall, scrub brain, move on, enjoy videos about characters without playing. This is the third or fourth time I've tried to play TF2 and I can't get ten minutes in before I question why it is so popular. I guess I know, but it's just not my cup of tea: TF2 is in the same genre as Nexuiz, Unreal Tournament, Quake Arena and other older-era shooters where characters move ridiculously fast, cover is something you duck behind while mouse-strafing faster than a jackrabbit, and there are no chest high walls because the dude who's crouching is also dying. In other words: a game that appeals to a very specific segment of PC shooter fans who don't grokk realism or an attempt at such in favor of characters who can mouse spin faster than a normal human could ever manage without passing out.

I mean, I could be wrong....but it doesn't matter, something about TF2 just rubs me the wrong way.



Counter Strike: Global Offensive

I've only played beta so far, but the game unlocks...tomorrow, I think (writing this Monday night). I decided to get in on the newest iteration. I've played the old version, and it's sort of lacking in this day and age, though I can see within its crusty shell the bits and pieces of a game that would have been far more interesting five or ten years ago (had I been more into shooters back then....bear in mind, my engagement with this sort of game is a fairly new phenomenon, a sort of liberating assertion that youth is not the sole requisite for enjoyment of games in which you play a murderhobo with a shotgun).

Anyway, the beta is kinda cool, but the maps so far seem a bit small compared to what I'm used to in other games, although it does keep the focus tight. They have a bot mode which is always commendable, though I noticed that the difficulty ratchets up from "retarded" to "lethal every time" with virtually no step in between. Also, the bot mode seems sort of hollow and just less interesting than regular competitive mode with live players. This is in contrast to some other bot modes I've enjoyed, such as Black Ops or Gears of War 3, where bots seem just fine and (usually) act smarter than your fellow man, so I would suggest there's more of an issue with the way they are programmed in the game than with bots in general. But I plan to play more pvp directly once it goes live. For the pre-order price ($13.49) it was hard to resist.

UPDATE: since I wrote this CSGO went live and I've been playing it a lot more....it's matches are pretty quick. About the worst thing I could say is, "some of these guys are damned good," but given the lengthy history of this game that's no surprise. I do have two observations after playing a bit: is it just me or do the terrorists always lose? And, sorry to those allies who died thanks to my twitchy gunfire! I'll get better, I promise.

This game does have its claws in me, and I like that I can play it in short bursts and feel satisfied. The maps are, as I mentioned earlier, very "tight" so the angles of approach and accompanying strategies become apparent for each one after only a few playthroughs.

Max Payne 3

I'll get this out of the way right off: I liked the multiplayer so much in Max Payne 3 I went ahead and bought the season pass. This is highly unusual of me (last and only time I did this was with Gears of War 3). It's that fun. Not everyone would agree.....the vast majority of players in the new player zone  might disagree and some of the people I spoke with seemed downright frustrated. I had two suggestions for them:

1. try the softlock mode if they weren't already (hard lock is for the mouse/keyboard people, I think)

2. Get a controller. This game is clearly optimized for controllers and might be accused of being a proper console port, but I'd say that Rockstar did that in a good way.

So I haven't even played the single player campaign yet and I can't get enough of the multiplayer in this game. It's third-person perspective, you get a random mook of various nationalities and ethnicities, and you shoot the hell out of all sorts of exotic locales (with many more available in the DLC). It's wonky, it's got a variety of additional play modes I am looking forward to exploring. Most importantly, after two games in the noob zone I felt so bad for everyone I was ganking (averaging an impressive KTD ratio the likes of which I've never seen before) that I moved myself over to the full regular game experience because it wasn't fun blowing away all the noobs with their enigmatic control schemes on the keyboard tripping them up.

Once I was in the regular area with experienced players I felt more comfortable; these were people who "got it" and although I saw accusations of hacks flying around, the people so accused were clearly not hacking, because I wasted them plenty and often....I think our entitlement gamer culture can't handle the idea that they might simply not be very good at something; "I  can't be bad at this, no! It must be the other guy is cheating. Yeah, that's it." Mhmm. (exception: boosters in MW3; those guys suck)

I'll report more on this game soon enough. It's addictive fun, and maybe I'll even get to see the single player experience at some point. It's definitely moving into my "continue to play" corral.

(UPDATE: Finally got to try the single player. Another story-driven hit for Rockstar, I'll have to devote a future blog just to talking about this game. Interesting stuff.)

Follow up on the Other Games

Still keeping up with Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, if only because I'd like to unlock everything, and it's still actually fun. The moment it goes from "fun" to "grind" I'll be closing it out, though.

I played a bit more Gotham City Imposters. Was startled to find myself in a game with a couple level 600 dudes. How does that even happen? These were extremely good players. If the game starts to fall into that pit, as they often do, of games dominated by a handful of elites to the detriment of less experienced players then I may eventually give up. We'll see. Is it even possible to get level 600 under ordinary circumstances in that game? How many hours would that take? If one reasonably advances about 3 levels an hour, which seems about right for my game experience so far, then to reach level 600 would require 200 hours of play time invested in the game.

I would get very, very sick of fake Batmen and punky Joker-wannabees after about hour 60, I think.

Not quite related, but I decided to clear out Rage to make some room on the hard-drive. I think I was about 1/2 of the way through the campaign, but despite some very comfortable shooter elements, I'll be honest: playing through Quake 4 again recently, and anticipating the Doom 3 HD BFG edition has only reminded me of id's old greatness, and Rage falls short. They should have left the car combat parts out and gone for classic id formula, instead of making it a crude faux-sandbox/Fallout wannabe with some fun but hollow drive-y bits. Or, they could have made it a real sandbox game. If Rage had actually been like Fallout 3 or GTA IV, instead of a pretedn cardboard mockup of the same, it would have done a lot better, I think.

Finally there is the aforementioned Blacklight: Retribution. I'm only playing an occasional game here or there, but I remain impressed at this free to play title. Still haven't figured out what their motivation is to get me to buy stuff with money. Still haven't seen direct evidence that it's got a pay-to-win element. If I keep playing, I may eventually buy stuff just to support them, because the game is very smartly designed and provides a very solid experience so far. Not a match yet that wasn't interesting or enjoyable.

Hulk Reviews Mass Effect 3

I stumbled across this reviewer in Raptr by accident, but even while channeling the spirit of the Hulk, he does far and away the best job I've seen yet of explaing why Mass Effect 3's ending is so appropriate and well done. I could go on about this, but I think I'll let the Green Dude explain it himself. He does a great job!

Multiplayer Madness: Mas Effect 3, Call of Duty, Black Ops, and Gears of War 3

Spoiler Alert! ME3 discussion ahead (but no ending stuff yet)

Mass Effect 3 at 22 hours in plus several hours of multi-player time has left me with some head-scratching issues. I'm looking forward to getting to the end and finally seeing what all the brou-haha is about because right now this game is excellent, delivering some deep closure and interesting tales about the many personalities surrounding Commander Thera Shepard (my femshep), from finding out her only potential love interest Jacob was involved with another woman and she missed the boat to seeing the tragic fate of Mordin Solis and good old Thane. Very sad Thane, lemme tell ya.

At this point in the game I've learned about poor Thane and Mordin, reunited briefly with Jacob, seen an inspiring tale on Jack, gotten Kaiden back, Garrus of course, Miranda (bitch), and am now on the Quarian quests with Tali. I am getting all sorts of closure, and my storyline is distinct to my pre-ME3 choices, especially with interesting bits like the fact that in my storyline poor Kasumi died fighting the Collectors, and Ashley bought it back in ME1. I am wondering what sort of content a person experiences in ME3 if they did not survive with the bulk of their crew intact through ME2....I only lost Kasumi (because it just didn't feel right not to lose someone) but if someone had lost several characters.....even key characters such as Tali and Garrus....hmmm. That would be a shorter game, I imagine.

But a key element I've heard about the complaints on the ending are that there's no wrap-up or closure. I don't know (yet) what these people are talking about, having tried to avoid spoilers compliments of the bizarre outraged fans who are so vocal about the "ending." So I have to assume that it must go south toward the end or something. We shall see. Honestly, I'm expecting to get to the end and see a really "bad" ending in the sense that something horrible happens.....but remember, I absolutely LOVED how my poor character had to sacrifice herself at the end of Dragon Age: Origins. I am not someone who decries tragedy. Now, if the tragedy was senseless (like a bad horror movie) I could imagine some outrage. We'll see, I guess. Shouldn't be too much longer.

Anyway, I've started to finally "get" the multi-player approach in ME3 even though I think 10 wave rounds is ridiculously time consuming for online matches, and it means I can only engage in such when Marcus is occupied with mom or napping/asleep because you can't pause a MP event without dying and irritating your allies. Also, their "pack rewards" you can buy with in game curency or microsoft gold are kind of fun, like card boosters. But you get so much XP and gold for a single successful 10-wave mission spending real money to buy them seems silly.

So far the ME3 multiplayer is lacking a few key elements that I am happy to note the Call of Duty and Black Ops franchises have gotten right: specifically offering a form of single-player which works. I've really enjoyed Black Ops for the better part of a year and a half now because I can sit down and play a mode with bots in the "practice mode" that feels almost like the real thing (except the bots often act more normal, like "in game" characters instead of teenagers and man-children hopped up on cheetos and po rocks....except for the occasional odd moment when they get stuck on terrain or something. The bots, not the teens and man-children, I mean!)

Call of Duty 2 introduced Covert Ops missions which while fun were just vignettes of what we already had in the single player experience. Call of Duty 3, however, introduced a survival mode and much better black ops (are they black ops? Covert ops? hmm memory faulty) which are actually fun to play and often go beyond aping what we played in the single player campaign (which remains as delusionally fun a mess as always).

The survival mode, however, is a lot of fun either solo or co-op. The solo mode is a "survive continuing waves of attackers" that I think stops after 10, but don't quote me on that because I can't remember if I lived through wave ten last time or died on it. But it's got all the cool level up mechanics and perks, and as you advance it even lets you "buy" or hire special ops teams of bots to come to your aid.....neat features. It's something that feels kind "meh" the first couple times, but then it starts to steamroll, perks start unlocking, new maps start to unlock, and pretty soon its just as compelling as the practice mode in Black Ops, with the added perk that dropping the game when baby wakes up doesn't have to instill rage in any living allies.

All of these games, though, are still not quite as cool as Epic's Gears of War 3. I'm on break from GoW3 because I frankly played a lot of it....and it's not something I can play with Marcus awake either, as its one of the few games he doesn't like; he clearly gets agitated at the noises from the game, no surprise there; in contrast, he all but passes out to the smooth space music of Mass Effect. So GoW3 is definitely a "when baby is asleep and dad has time" game for me. But Epic knows how to make these games, including an excellent range of multi-player events you can populate with bots, and bots can even fill out incomplete regular matches. It's also a much better third-person shooter game than Mass Effect 3, which is a game that likes to kill you frequently with akward sticky terrain that your avatar will try to seek cover from when you didn't want to, or which won't let you take cover when you want it. And of course the cheap deaths of enemies coming from an unseen angle. This is why the ME3 multiplayer is best with people (since it doesn't have a bot option)...if you solo, death is always, inevitably, right behind you. I haven't made it past wave one yet, even with upgrades and perks, in a "one player private match." it's just easier to do MP with people. Plus, I learned ages ago that you mute everyone in-game on Xbox Live, period. It makes for a much more satisfying experience, as I am sure anyone with XBLA and a gold subscription has learned.

Anyway, just rambling for fun. My son is #1 in terms of attention and focus these days, and his daily growth, his endless curiosity, his sudden mobility and his complete adoration of mom and dad is absolutely fascinating to behold and utterly endearing......but it's nice to still have a "strategy" to scratching the computer gaming itch, which is still a good outlet for daily work stress! My nightly raptr and Steam statistics tend to skew along the lines of 0-1 hour a night, an occasional rare 2 hour night, and then suddenly once every two or three weeks Mom is kind enough to wrangle the boy for a few hours and you'll see an 8-10 hour spike (which is what Monday was all about, thus why I am stoked about so much ME3 progress at last).