The "Straight Male Demographic"?

Recently it came to my attention that a fan of BioWare was disgruntled about the fact that Dragon Age 2 had male characters hitting on the main character (in this case a male). 


The Escapist led me to the BioWare forums where David Gaider tore the gamer a new one for his homophobia, and I honestly cannot be prouder of Gaider. I just wanted to applaud the man publicly for his stance on the reality that (I know this may be a shocker for some) not all gamers are male, and, if they are, not all of them are straight.


We're not all straight males in the gaming community. Why is this such a hard concept to grasp? The fact that BioWare has made a game that actually has wide appeal (and it isn't the first time that this has happened, Dragon Age: Origins had bisexual characters) is, I think, a step in the right direction. 


The person that originally posted the topic "Bioware Neglected Their Main Demographic: The Straight Male Gamer" put his thoughts in an eloquent, if misinformed manner, and was thoroughly chewed up and spit out by David Gaider in probably one of the most amusing ways I could possibly think of.


Kudos to you, Mr. Gaider, this just reaffirms my life's goal of one day working for BioWare.

Stop With The Shaky Camera Already!

I know I'm not the only one who's annoyed with this.


I can't be.


I can't imagine a time or place where shoddy camera work or really crappy stability of a camera could be misconstrued as a "gritty action sequence." If I can't see anything happening in a shot, I personally grow angry. If I wanted horrid camera work, I'd watch a wedding home video.


I started this post because I wanted to watch the Bourne trilogy, a very solid series of films that should stand as in the top ten of all trilogies ever made...and I just can't watch Supremacy or Ultimatum. 


Why? Because of the shaky damn camera work in every single fight scene of the Supremacy and Ultimatum. The reason for this shaky camera work is the changing of directors from Doug Liman in Identity, to Paul Greengrass for Supremacy and Ultimatum.


I respect Greengrass as a director, the rest of Supremacy and Ultimatum? Fantastic. Just top notch filmmaking, with a great director at the helm.


The man just cannot do action scenes properly.


Doug Liman did an excellent job with Identity, allowing for the fight choreographer's work to stand for itself, and the actors and stunt men to do their jobs. The scene where Jason Bourne stabs a man with a simple Bic ballpoint pen? I couldn't stop laughing. I had to go back at least four times the first time I watched that scene just to see Bourne stab the living hell out of another man with a Bic pen.


But with Greengrass' directing in Supremacy and Ultimatum, it just made every fight scene (one of the main draws of these films, let's face it) unwatchable. 


This vexes me.

Dragon Age 2: First Impressions

I came home this evening to a beautiful sight: an unopened manilla, padded envelope with a shrink-wrapped copy of Dragon Age 2 nestled inside sitting on my front porch. I picked up the envelope and hurried inside, tearing that envelope open with a speed only matched by the desire to play the game.

I slapped that disc into my XBox and sat down to play a very promising game. Dragon Age 2 opens with one of several cut scenes involving a clean-shaven dwarf and a Seeker of the Chantry. What follows is an engrossing story and a brief interlude of your new character, Hawke, being thrown into the fray following the tale the dwarf is weaving to the Seeker.

Combat is VERY changed from Dragon Age: Origins. Gone is turn-based combat. This game is fast-paced, with your attack button (in this case A on the XBox 360) judging your swing speed, and however fast you can tap your thumb. It is by no means a button-masher, however. You have your switchable list of abilities (your original three set to the X, Y and B on your 360, and an alternate three abilities that can be activated with these buttons and holding the right trigger.) that can be used any time they're not on cooldown. 

The music, as with any BioWare game is top notch, with an engaging, enriching score that will keep your blood pumping and your thumb not far from the attack button. 

Dialogue trees are unchanged from the original and the Mass Effect games. Why fix something that isn't broken? 

The sound effects and visual effects are brutal. Playing as a rogue, I was just flailing away with a pair of daggers, hacking down Darkspawn as if Hawke had a pair of chopsaws for hands. Blood, gore and chunks of Darkspawn littered the landscape (and my character's face). 

Blood, as with the original Dragon Age flies everywhere. Your character, dog, sister, brother and mother are almost always covered in it, and the Darkspawn appear to have fire hoses in place of veins. While this may not be entirely unrealistic, it certainly is over the top, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The voice acting is top-notch, and your character finally has a voice! No longer do we have the silent, dummy expressions for our characters, and we can watch them fully realized on the screen. While it may not be what we personally would say in such situations, the folks over at BioWare have given us a decent interpretation of what could be said in such circumstances.

All in all, I'm really very happy with the way Dragon Age 2 turned out (so far, I've only played for a half hour, and I have a much longer review planned later) and I can't wait to see how the story goes. 

If you haven't gotten your hands on it yet, hop to!

A Gem of an RPG

This is kind of a dark time for gaming. Early in the year, no real games coming out since Christmas, the companies want to give the folks a little time to replenish their monetary supply for the upcoming spring and summer titles. 

This means I really don't have much to do in the way of gaming until that time. So I look to the XBox Marketplace and the Wii Marketplace for some sort of relief from the monotony. And that's when I found Final Fantasy IV: The After Years.

At first I was curious when I saw it on the Nintendo Wii's marketplace. "Final Fantasy IV was a hell of a game... the After Years?" I read the description, and it turns out it was a direct sequel to FFIV!

Hell yeah, I downloaded it as fast as I could. It was only 800 points, which is about $8 when thinking in terms of real monetary value. How could I possibly go wrong with a Final Fantasy that only costs eight bucks?

I was more right than I could've imagined. Set 17 years after Final Fantasy for, you play as Cecil and Rosa's son, Ceodore, a young candidate for the Red Wings whom Cecil so famously began his career with. Constantly reminded of his lineage, Ceodore is tired of hearing of Cecil the Paladin and Rosa the White Mage. He wants to be his own man, and sets out to do so.

Just as he's beginning his quest, however, Ceodore and company realize that the moon, which was made whole by the actions of Cecil, Rosa and company, has split, revealing itself to be two moons, and the tower of Babil has grown from deep beneath the surface of the planet once again.

What follows is an engrossing, engaging storyline that is a worth successor to the Final Fantasy IV legacy, full of magic, intrigue and the charming presentation of a Super Nintendo title complete with the fun midi music and character sprites that filled me with a nostalgia that didn't break its hold for a second.

If you've got the time, and an extra eight bucks lying around, I highly recommend picking up Final Fantasy IV: The After Years on the Nintendo Wii. And if you don't have a Wii, I'm just awfully surprised.

A Career-Oriented Gripe

I know this topic has probably been done to death considering the recent economic woes that most have been experiencing, but I really do have a legitimate gripe. It's more of a Catch-22 in this case with regards to the complete and total inability to find a job as a recent college graduate.

I graduated Magna Cum Laude from DeVry University in October of last year with a Bachelor's degree in Game and Simulation Programming with a 3.7 GPA. I'm not at all trying to brag about my accomplishment, I'm just stating a fact here.

I've been working at Office Depot for a year and four months now, and while I do enjoy the job, the people and the work. I cannot stand the fact that I have a degree that is essentially going to waste. I've been searching for work for five months, and still haven't found anything. 

I know this is the current state of this country and of most of the world, the economy is in the toilet and we're all feeling the pinch.

The problem isn't the economy, I don't think that's slowly, ever so slowly turning around. The problem is the fact that no one's really willing to take a chance. They're looking for experience, three years or more. 

My question is this: How can I ever pick up experience if I'm not able to land a job in the first place?