The Reapers are here.

Mass Effect 3 seeks to drive home the point of an unwinnable war from the moment Earth is sieged and each step along the way as you try to claw to the hope of victory. Each task, each loose end, brings you one step close to unifying the galaxy to combat the Reapers and stopping them from ravaing the galaxy. But you won’t be able to do it alone…

Every character since the beginning plays apart in the finale, provided they lived through through both Mass Effect 1 and 2. While each character returns in some capacity – not all are squad members. Returning to your squad are four members from the previous games along with two new squad members (three if you have the DLC released on the first day, ‘From Ashes’). Not only does each character make an appearance - but their stories, even those with loose threads dangling since the first game, are resolved in satisfying, meaningful ways.

Gameplay-wise Mass Effect 3 isn’t terribly different from Mass Effect 2. There are upgrades to the combat and abilities to make them to use and leveling up and gathering equipment are some what amalgamations of the systems in both Mass Effect 1 and 2. Those looking for more RPG-like mechanics of the first Mass Effect should be pleased. It’s also worth noting that the ‘resource’ gathering aspect of the game has been streamlined from ME2 making it so you should only need to probe each planet once and you’re told where you need to probe to gain resources for the war effort.

Also worthy of note are Mass Effect 3′s Kinect features. What at first may seem like gimmicks enhance the game’s level of immersion and improve your combat effectiveness. Using Kinect, you can call out dialog selection during conversations and tell squad members where to go and what skills to use. It won’t make you rush out and buy a Kinect, but they’re nice touches that show what Kinect could mean to a core gamer.

Mass Effect 3 is also the first in the series to have multiplayer. ‘Galaxy at War’ is a co-operative expierence for up to four players. Playing it can help you in the single player game, but its completely optional – you can get the best ending in single player. ‘Galaxy at War’ allows you to play as numerous races in the Mass Effect lore, all of which are N7 special operations. You’ll gain levels, get equipment and modifications, and earn credits – just like in the main story. Each of the six multiplayer maps has players lasting ten waves. Every 3rd wave, your team will be assigned a random timed mission. If you fail, the mission is over and you’ll need to try again from the beginning. If you succede, you’ll gain a number of credits and keep going. Once you finish ten waves, you’ll play an ‘extraction wave’ where you’ll hold out two minutes before being rescued. Enough thought was put into Galaxy at War to make it more than an afterthought.

Mass Effect 3 is conclusion of Shepard’s story although Bioware has said it is not the end of Mass Effect. The ending is something that has already started polarizing the masses – some love it, many hate it, but if you’ve been invested since the beginning, you’ll almost certainly have strong feelings about it either way. That being said, this whole last chapter is a fitting conclusion – full of highs and lows - truly a ‘Return of the Jedi’ for the gaming age – you know… minus the Ewoks.

The Good

Left for Geth: I don’t play alot of multiplayer of anything any more and I find myself revisiting ‘Galaxy at War’ often. It’s a testimate to how good it is that you want to keep playing it long after you finish the game.

For Earth: Mass Effect 3 feels so well connected to Mass Effect 2 that I don’t see why you’d play this without having played the previous game (IE : Don’t.). It’s a rich rewarding experience that has much to say with its narrative that goes beyond the ‘Choose your own adventure’ format we started off with. The game truely feels alive when you begin talking with someone else who’s played, yet made entirely different choices.

The Bad

Its Over: That’s it. No more. Except for the inevitable DLC (because EA is greedy and that’s how they roll.)

The Ugly

Director’s Cut: Now that Mass Effect 3 has been released, if you play them in sequence, the first has … issues. Its a severely disjointed experience that’d benefit from some TLC to bring it into the fold to make the experience more consistant with the other two games. Get on it, Bioware.

It was a hard wait for Alan Wake after it’s announcement. Many delays and long periods of silence from its developer, Remedy, made the wait even worse. To cap it off, it seemed like the game changed direction more than once leaving many wondering what to expect upon its release.

The answer is easy – we received one of the best games of 2010. Even with its flaws, its wide sweeping narrative seemed like the opening to a much larger adventure. Unfortunately, despite the game’s critical success, it’s commercial floundering didn’t bode well for a sequel.

Thankfully not even that could keep the Champion of Light down. Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is a sudo-sequel / side story game set within a fictional TV show, called Night Springs, that’s styled like the Twilight Zone. Phew.

Night Springs appeared on TVs in the first game, but American Nightmare poses that Alan Wake, before becoming a big time novelist, wrote episodes for Night Springs. Now Alan, after the semi-cliffhanging events from the first game is trapped in an episode he’s written of Night Springs, being pursued by an evil version of himself, called Mr. Scratch. Mr. Scratch is a manifestation of the evil darkness from Calderon Lake from the first game that is trying to escape to the real world – but Alan must try to navigate Night Springs in an effort to stop Mr. Scratch from escaping into the real world, destroying his life, and killing his wife, Alice.

Alan Wake’s main mechanics remain. You’ll still collect manuscript pages, find TVs and radios which add flavor to the story, and use your trusty flashlight and fire arms to defeat the taken, physical evil manifestations of the darkness.

Speaking of firearms and flashlights, the combat hasn’t changed much. Additional weapons and enemy types do make it feel more fleshed out. Make no mistake, American Nightmare is more action-y than the original. Action seems more faced pace and quick ramps up as you move through the game. Or should I say re-tread.

See, American Nightmare is clever, tedious, frustrating and brilliant all at the same time. The game takes place in three main settings: a motel, an observatory, and a drive-in theater. However, taking a page from Bill Murry’s classic, Groundhog day, you’ll be revising these locations. But even though you might be taken aback at first, its done tastefully without being tedious. In a way, I wish there’s almost been more to it – the game has a very distinct ‘adventure’ quality to it on your first run and over time that is replaced with the need to survive.

Unfortunately, American Nightmare earns a demerit for some technical issues I had. I reached a couple combat points late in the game that caused significant, inexcusable slowness that almost made the game unplayable. Being the stubborn stalwart hero – I soldiered on.

Ultimately – I’m glad I did. For fans of the original, this is a fairly worthy additional chapter. In spite of the gimmicky nature of the narrative and technical issues, American Nightmare drives my want for more story. Alan Wake’s combat has never been its strong suit, but American Nightmare does enough interesting things to raise the bar and prove that Remedy could be more creative with the game’s combat if given the chance for a full sequel, which hopefully someone will green light.

The Good

Go Scratch: Mr. Scratch is elegantly handled and the flavor text in the TVs in the game world provide a reason to grow to hate him quickly in a short amount of time.

Needs bulletproof vest that says ‘Writer’: LEVEL UP! Alan Wake’s combat has evolved to level 2! Alan Wake’s combat has learned skill: How to be fun.

The Bad

That Guy: I almost wish they’d gone the other way and made an even MORE story driven expierence than the original. I understand the reason they didn’t want to and couldn’t – but American Nightmare almost feels like a test bed to show how they could demonstrate improved combat. 

The Ugly

St-st-st-stutter: I don’t recall having any of these performance problems with the original and here we are two years later. Inexcusable.

And the answer is the same as it has been the last few times – yes and no.

For those who missed the early 90s arcade scene or somehow avoided every movie theater arcade on the planet – The Simpsons Arcade is a four player beat’em up. Bart, Homer, Marge and Lisa must rescue Maggie when she gets mixed up with Smithers during a … Jewelery store robbery? Uh… sure. Ok, so this comes from an era where the characters in the Simpsons were far less defined. Maggie replaces her pacifier with a diamond and Smithers kidnaps her – so its up to the most animated family on TV to get her back.

You’ll fight a wide array of nameless thugs that never appeared on the show and run past series regular characters like Principle skinner, Moe, Barney, and more. Eight stages later, you’ll be at a fairly predictable ending and get to do it all again – you can run through the whole thing in around 45 minutes to an hour.

To extend it’s playability, there are numerous options you can set to change how lives are divided amongst players, difficulty, what stage you start on, and even if you play the US or Japanese ROM (which reduces enemy damage and increases the number of health pickups amongst other things). Half the fun of these games is also the multiplayer experience, so you can either play locally or online with up to three others.

Completing the game with each the characters also unlocks promotional material, but unfortunately the content is kinda lame.

The bottom line is that if you’re looking to play The Simpsons Arcade game – this is the best way to do it. Your ten dollars is buying you a fairly basic copy of a classic arcade game, not really a souped up version of it. If that is what you’re looking for, you won’t be disappointed. If you’re looking for more – just move along because there’s nothing to see here.

The Good

Memories… Oh Memories…: Nostalgia is a beautiful thing. If you remember playing this when you were a kid – you might recapture some of those memories…

The Bad

Arcade in title, Arcade in length: Simpsons Arcade is a fast burn. You’ll finish it in no time flat. So, that being said – it took me 8 ‘Quarters’ to play the whole game. I would have spend two dollars to play the whole game in the arcade (if you could find it) so figure that if you’re going to play it four times, you’ll get your money’s worth.

Spit shine: There are a couple visual filters (sharp and smooth) – it is setup for sharp on default which seems to pixelate the game extremely badly. I switched it to the smooth and it’s alot better – but you’ll need to keep in mind you’re playing an arcade game that’s being brought into your home through what basically amounts to magic. Don’t question it.

The Ugly

Missed opportunity: So Turtles in Time got a 3d remake – which was… not so good. It seems like The Simpsons Arcade was prime for an HD remake, but we’re just getting a port. Too bad.

Many have attempted to dethrone WoW’s reign; none have succeeded. However, The Old Republic stands the best chance of any.

Combine ‘Star Wars’ with the talent of Bioware, of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect fame, with the money and marketing power of EA.

You would get the truly ‘Massive’ game that is ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic’.

The words ‘WoW killer’ have been tossed around – but this isn’t fair. The Old Republic (or TOR) is a logical extension of everything MMOs have been for the last decade; it’s an evolution, not a revolution.

One of the first things you’ll notice after creating either your Sith Empire or Republic character is that every NPC in the entire game is voice acted. Every quest. Every vendor. Furthermore, every character class is its own unique story.

This means that even if you were completely happy with every decision you made on each of your play through of each class, you’d need to play through eight times to discover all of the unique content the game has to offer.

The upshot of is that this is the most immersive MMO you’ll ever play – so much so that for the first few dozen hours, you won’t recognize it’s MMO-ish mechanics for what they are. It does so well telling its story; drawing you into the world, that it feels like a single player game.

TOR does stumble a bit after the first planet or two. The side quest mission design erodes slightly and you’ll notice some grind creeping in. However, it’s forgivable when your main story quests actually seem matter in the world.

If the mission design is missing anything, it’s branching quests. I understand that branching quest paths are probably logistically inefficient (players would likely only see two thirds of your content – the opening quest and one of the two possibilities) – but that doesn’t make me want to see them any less.

TOR is very solo friendly – almost too much so. It’s been easy for me to play when I want to with my main, a Sith Warrior/Marauder, or with as part of a four person group when doing heroic quests or ‘flashpoints’ (a sort of raid or large quest).

If anything it seems like TOR’s player base is a bit… anemic. Sometimes there will only be ten or less people playing in the same area as I am. The max I’ve seen in the same area is maybe 60 or so.

Even if you can’t find someone to play with, you’ll get an NPC companion early on – just like in KotOR. Each class gets 5 companions – many of which are unique. They each have their own personalities with likes and dislikes. You can even gain or lose their favor through the conversations you have. Conversations are much like those in KotOR or Mass Effect; you selecting the tone you want and your character says something along those lines. TOR also keeps KotOR’s light side / dark side system – allowing you to earn points through your actions; its even possible, although bizarre, that you can be a light side Sith or a dark side Jedi…

Another of TOR’s unique areas is space combat. Space combat is on-rails; playing much like Star Fox. Each mission, you’re given an objective with limited time to complete it; objectives range from destroying fighters or turrets – to escorting a ship through enemy space. Its rewarding and a pleasant distraction from the ground combat game.

This isn’t a review per say as MMOs are constantly being worked on. As of this writing, there is quite an uproar in the player community over recent changes to the Player Vs Player side of the game that make the Sith Empire a bit over powered. But these sort of things are to be expected and will hopefully be fixed.

The best praise I can give for The Old Republic is that is should raise everyone’s expectations. I haven’t had this much fun with an MMO since Ultima Online’s initial release. TOR is easy to play like WoW, with a story that rivals the Matrix Online’s, and an unparalleled diversity of content. MMOs can tell competent stories – The Old Republic does just that.

Impressions Note: These impressions are based on my time playing my level 25 Sith Warrior / Marauder and level 8 Bounty Hunter. My copy of The Old Republic and 60 days of play was provided by EA for the purpose of this review.

As far as games go, the 3DS has still had somewhat of a rough time – but Super Mario 3D Land is the first in a new wave of titles to attempt to change that.

Super Mario 3D Land (SM3DL) is the next in Nintendo’s ‘Retro-neo’ phase of game design – taking older games and applying new technology in interesting ways in the vein of ‘New Super Mario Bros.’ and ‘New Super Mario Bros Wii’.
SM3DL is more in the vein of Mario Bros. 3, but with the level design allowing you to move deeper ‘into’ the scene. Certain areas almost have a Mario 64 level of freedom, moving away from side scrolling, giving them more complexity.

The tanooki suit from Mario 3 makes a return, allowing you to glide in levels. Even boss fights are reminiscent of Mario 3. But while trappings and fan service (even one of the levels is essentially the pixel art of the characters from the original Super Mario Bros.) are distinctly Mario 3 – the difficulty is toned down and accessible for any series newcomer. Even the ‘super guide’ makes a return to help you maneuver in levels you having difficulty with or allowing you to even bypass them – but in my play through I never even encountered it.

SM3DL is somewhat light on content if you only play the game to reach the end – but the real fun comes in collecting the three special coins in each level to unlock extra levels. Unfortunately, any sort of multiplayer got left on the cutting room floor – this is purely a solo affair – which is surprising after what a smash hit NSMB Wii was.

The exemplary part that is note worthy about SM3DL is that for the first time I felt that the 3D effect wasn’t just a gimmick, but truly added something to the experience. While its unfortunate that it’s taken around 9 months to get a game to feel like this – the fact that I can say that is truly amazing in and of itself.

SM3DL will sell 3DS systems – there’s no doubt in my mind about that. And it deserves to. SM3DL is the game that the 3DS needed at launch. That being said, it’s here now and it’s great. If Nintendo can keep up the momentum – then it might be a system that I’m not ashamed to own.

The Good

It’s-a-me Mario! : A Nintendo system is usually judged by the quality of the Mario game that comes out for it. The 3DS got a stellar opening show.

Service the Fans: Everyone will find something to like about SM3DL – long time series fans hailing the return of tanooki or new comers that are discovering the magic for the first time.

The Bad

And its over…  : Nintendo has not been one to embrace the new online services market – so its unlikely we’ll see DLC for SM3DL. So that being said, if you’re not a completionist – you might be disappointed at the game’s length.

The Ugly

No one likes Luigi : SM3DL is purely a solo affair – and while that’s not a bad thing – putting in a 2 player mode, even if it required passing the system, would have been nice.

Review Notes: Our copy of Super Mario Bros 3D Land was supplied by Nintendo for the purposes of this review.

So it should come as no surprise that Skyrim is everything you’ll want it to be and more. Gone are things you thought you’d miss, like weapon’s degradation and the level of granularity for upgrading skills, but don’t. Added are things you never knew you wanted, like duel wielding weapons/spells, a streamline character creation system, and crafting systems for potions, weapons and armor.

There’s someone out there that’s going “They dumbed it down for a console audience” – and that was my first impression as well. However, after spending over 50 hours in Skyrim, I’ve noticed two things: 1) There aren’t a terribly large amount of mechanical differences between Oblivion and Skyrim and 2) The changes that were made were things that we were hampering the experience for new players.

This game begins like most of the others. Four hundred years have passed since the Oblivion crisis. You’re a prisoner on your way to be executed for unknown crimes along with a ‘traitor’ to the empire and head of the resistance. You’re about to be killed when a dragon, which hasn’t been seen in ages, lays waste to the town. It isn’t just any dragon, but the prophesied Aludin The World Eater, a dragon said to bring about the end of days.

Players then learn they are ‘Dovahkiin’ or ‘dragon born’ meaning they are one of few capable of speaking the dragon’s language, used to cast special magic, and might be able to help slay or banish Aludin.

The main plot has plenty for you to do and will see you running all over Skyrim. To make things more interesting, dragons randomly populate the world – so you can expect a ‘boss’ fight of sorts at random times when dragons show up.  Furthermore, there are a number of side quest lines you can complete like joining the Mage’s College of Winterhold, joining the Dark Brotherhood, the Thieves Guild and more. There are also innumerable smaller quests that populate the world, along with randomly generated quests that the game’s AI comes up with on the fly. There is almost an unlimited amount of game for you to enjoy.

That being said, I found that the ending of Skyrim’s main quest line somewhat abrupt. I was in the last quest and didn’t even realize it when I started my final combat and ended the game.  It wasn’t nearly as personal and didn’t grant me the satisfaction completing Oblivion did.

The one other criticism is that Skyrim, like all games in the Elder Scrolls series, is glitchy. Very glitchy. Aside from my console locking up once, getting stuck once and a giant killing me and launching me into low orbit over Tamriel – my experience had no game inhibiting hiccups.

If you’re into open world games, this is it. I haven’t played Uncharted 3 or finished Modern Warfare 3 – but I think my search for this year’s Game of the Year is over. Bluntly – I’ve not had as much fun playing anything else this year.

The Good

The only game you’ll ever need: Skyrim is huge. You could probally invest well over 100 hours and still not experience all of the content.

Streamlined, not dumber: Many mechanics are somewhat streamlined while layering new content on top of it – this does not mean that they’ve ‘console-ified’ it. They’ve also made early decisions less critical.

Pretty! Oh so pretty!: … For an Elder Scrolls game. A lot of time has gone into overhauling how the game looks and it pays off. It may not be the best looking game of this holiday season but there’s something impressive about a entire town’s guard fighting a dragon.

The Bad

Runs out of fire: I found the main storyline’s ending couple quests to be … lacking. Your mileage may vary.       

The Ugly

I can haz DLC?: You know its coming. It’s just a matter of when.  Oh, and no horse armor, please.

Since the ending of the last game, Gotham has closed Blackgate Prison and Arkham Asylum in favor of opening a new super prison in a walled off section of city called ‘Arkham City’. In this rundown part of the city, criminals roam free and are looked over by Tyger, a private security group, who report to Dr. Hugo Strange. Strange has a plan for Arkham City and its society of super villains… and an ace in the hole: he knows that Bruce Wayne is Batman.

Where Arkham Asylum played it safe by confining itself to a small group of well constructed villains from Batman’s rouges gallery, Arkham City opens itself up, offering up more of Batman’s villains than Asylum and interconnects them well. Mr. Freeze, Victor Zsasz, Penguin, Two Face and more are present, including a terminally ill, Joker.

Arkham City succeeds where most superhero video games fail because it treats the character with the utmost respect. The story feels intelligent drawing upon the lore behind Batman’s villains and incorporating the story from the first game creating an experience that pushes closer to perfection.

Where Arkham City pushes story a clear step further, combat is a step forward, then a step back. Gone is the combat’s rigidness, but it’s replaced by inconsistency. Moves that should connect don’t, timing seems less important – it overall feels less solid than Arkham Asylum did. At the same time, it’s less structured and more varied. Gadgets, combos and character upgrades play a greater role and enemy encounters are more organic, with less rigid combat vs. stealth setups. So maybe it’s more like half a step forward, half a step backward.

The formula from Arkham Asylum hasn’t changed – Arkham City still follows a Metroidvania design philosophy: play, find a bunch of things you can’t get to, play more of the main story, get a new gadget, go back and find those places are now accessible. However, where Arkham Asylum fell apart towards the end, Arkham City excels and provides the most satisfying jaw dropping ending I’ve seen in a while.

That is, unless you have the Catwoman DLC installed. The DLC, while fun, sabotages the base game’s pacing. If you buy the game new, download the Catwoman DLC after finishing the base game.

Overall, Arkham City inches us closer to Batman perfection and provides another demonstration of what superhero games should be. Perfect? No. Am I eagerly waiting to hear about the inevitable third game? Yes.

The Good

I am batman… again: Rocksteady took the idea of ‘If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.’ and applied it in most of the right ways – save for combat which feels … off.

Everyone hates the bat: The villains list for Arkham City is impressive to say the least. Chances are your favorite is here.

More content than there are gadgets on Batman’s utility belt: Arkham City has a plethora of side content you can explore at your leisure (even after the end of the game) including 400 Riddler trophies – and there’s even more if you have the catwoman DLC.

The Bad

Just out of reach: Combat is deeper in this game, but it feels just slightly off. I found that I was ‘out of range’ of certain enemies at some points or that I couldn’t pull off attacks like I used to in Arkham Asylum. It’s more nitpicky than anything, but it is frustrating when you need to restart a fight because your ‘flow’ is knocked off by the game responding weird.

The Ugly           

No keys: No Batmobile this time. And the Batjet only makes a quick appearance. While no vehicle play is probably for the best until they can get it exactly right – let’s hope we get the keys to the kingdom next time around.

Rage tries to be many things. A first person shooter, driving game, mini-game collection, role playing game, and open world game. Unfortunately, it fails in a multitude of ways.

Most of Rage’s first person shooting feels clunky. Most weapons feel loose and weightless and combat doesn’t get interesting until the more advanced weapons. Most enemies either take cover or running straight at you, making gunfights feel bland.

Rage has many minigames. There’s a luck based dice gambling game, a music rhythm game (this seemed glitched as each of the five waves had the same notes), a ‘war’-esq collectable card game, and a version of five finger fillet. None of these is terribly good; they’re just brief, shallow distractions.

The ‘RPG’ elements are limited to looting corpses and picking up random items. You can sell these items or learn recipes to make stuff you’ll likely never use.

The driving is the only thing that resembles anything remotely fun and amounts to maybe ten percent of the game. Races are mostly optional, but you can participate to get extra parts for your cars.  Otherwise, driving is only done in the two overworld locations getting from linear mission to linear mission. So much for ‘open world’.

The third of the game’s three discs has multiplayer racing and co-op missions, but these don’t help raise the experience beyond mediocrity.

Even Rage’s story is weak. ID Software’s titles are never known for their stories; Rage is no different, despite its feeble attempt. It has a razor thin plot, some of the least compelling cast of characters ever, and the story feels like the prolog for something greater, but it ends abruptly.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: In the not too distant future, humanity goes underground in vaults arcs to survive a nuclear holocaust asteroid colliding with earth. Some stragglers left on the surface pick up the pieces; others go crazy from radiation turning them into ghouls mutants. One group of vault arc dwellers, called the enclave authority, use advanced technology to rebuild the government through force. You awaken from your vault arc and eventually join the resistance.

In spite of everything, Rage is beyond pretty. Running at 60fps, it feels smoother and has more detail than any console game – but like most ID games, it feels like the technical demo waiting for someone else to make a game with it.

It’s impossible to recommend Rage. It’s a bland mess of half-baked ideas strung together incoherently. Even its most promising ideas prove frustrating because they weren’t developed into anything fun.

The Good

Magic the Rage-oning: Rage Frenzy, Rage’s card game minigame, is the most fun of the minigames. You’ll find cards in the world and collect them to boost your deck, but it’s unfortunate there aren’t more cards, unique cards, and online play.

The Bad

The Thing Resembling a Story: Rage’s story reminds me of a zombie. It gets up, shambles around, don’t really go anywhere, then keel over.

The RPG mechanics: The collecting of stuff, in-game economy, and crafting systems are very ‘me too’ but shallower than most.

An Empty World: If you spend tons of time building nice outdoor environments – put some content into them. Even worse, don’t have a message pop up that says ‘HEY – LET’S DO A SIDE MISSION NOW’ – it breaks the immersion you’re working so hard to create.

The Ugly

This is ZZzzzZZZzzz….: Rage is late to the party. By six or seven years. Released earlier in the 360’s lifecycle – I might feel differently, but compared to shooters, Rage doesn’t play well and attempts to compensate in other areas for it’s primary gameplay mechanics feeling sloppy. Rage commits the greatest crime of ANY entertainment medium: It’s boring.

Final Recommendation: There are other, better FPSes out there. Pass on Rage.

Notes: Our copy of Rage for Xbox 360 was provided by Bethesda for the purposes of this review. Campaign was completed to 100% on normal – played all of the mini games and a bit of multiplayer.

“Knights of the Old Republic 2” and “Neverwinter Nights 2” aren’t terrible games but they don’t hold a candle to their predecessors, and this year’s “Alpha Protocol” was a downright abortion. So I booted up “Fallout: New Vegas” with low expectations.

Fundamentally, “New Vegas” is nothing more than a glorified retail “Fallout 3” mod. Sure, it’s an entirely new world with new quests and new characters, but also new bugs. A lot of new bugs. This game needs the Orkin man and Terminix folks to join forces with the makers of Raid bug spray. I encountered plenty of glitch game issues, some broken quests, horrendous loading times, issues where I got stuck in the terrain, and more. However, “New Vegas” is a conundrum in that it’s fun in spite of itself and at some points, even better than “Fallout 3.”

“New Vegas” sees you as a courier who’s taken a job to deliver a “platinum chip” to the city of New Vegas, but on your way, you’re ambushed in the Mojave Desert and are shot in the head. You wake up to find the chip gone and revenge the only thing on your mind. But through getting your revenge you’ll end up taking part in a grand plot that will seal the future of New Vegas and the denizens of the Mojave.

When you aren’t getting stuck in mountains or having weird dialog problems, you’ll be doing major and minor quests for any number of the hundreds of NPCs in the game. You’ll find yourself aligning yourself with one of four major factions, some of which prove mutually exclusive as the game continues. These different factions have different ideologies and affect the ending of the game. Companions you pick up and the minor factions you find will also play into the ending you get, making each decision even more meaningful.

The VATS pseudo-turn based combat system is back along with the skill and feat system of “Fallout 3.” In fact, most of the gameplay systems are relatively unchanged. The lockpicking and computer hacking minigames are back, some of the skills are tweaked ever so slightly, there are some new crafting elements that have been expanded upon and the companion system has been upgraded. The companion system probably received the most work, as your compensations can now store items, equip things you’ve given them, be healed and given rudimentary directions. Some even have their own quests.

All in all, “New Vegas” can be best described as “‘Fallout 3,’ but sometimes better and with more bugs.” If you didn’t play “Fallout 3,” start there, it’s much cheaper. If you loved “Fallout 3” and can put up with “New Vegas’” quirkiness, you’ll probably enjoy it just as much.

The Good

What happens in Vegas… : “New Vegas” has so much to explore and is filled with a lot of the quirkiness and charm of the previous games. You’ll always be finding new things as you explore the wastes and the factions provide you with a decent level of direction and purpose in the world.

Nice Touches: Obsidian was smart. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.  So the majority of the game is left the same from “Fallout 3.” Minor tweaks were made, but nothing earth shattering.

The Bad

What the Frak?: I don’t know how in the h–l this game passed QA testing. I understand that it’s an open world game and they’re crazy to test, but there’s no reason it should take minutes to load regions of the world or save my game.

The Ugly

That’s it?: “Fallout 3” originally wouldn’t let you continue playing after you finished the game and the public outcry made Bethesda fix this in one of the DLCs that was released. But for some reason “New Vegas” ends in a way that also blocks off your ability to keep playing, and for seemingly no good reason. And this is on top of the ending feeling somewhat weak to begin with. I’d rather just keep exploring the wasteland.