Daimon's Lair

I've been playing Bioshock quite a bit but I'm nowhere near the end--it's a surprisingly long, deep game. I knew my wife liked it but now that I'm into it I've really been enjoying it. If my wrist problems hadn't flared up I'd probably be playing a lot more of it.

There are two things I really like about the game: (1) blending RPG mechanics with a FPS--and doing it really well. It's not a dungeon crawler RPG, it's a true FPS. At the same time, blended in with the tactical approach you HAVE to take is deciding what to upgrade when, how much money and ADAM to invest in things. . . . And how many Big Daddies to take on. I love the fact that the semi-bosses are also semi-optional. You have to fight Big Daddies to get ADAM, but you don't necessarily need to get maximum ADAM to beat the game. Also, you get to pick and choose your battles. Each big Daddy patrols a certain sector and, for the most part, won't attack you unless you start it. That gives a lot of options for ambushes--or, if you're low on supplies, you can backtrack when you've got the ammo and health that you need.

(2) The incredibly deep story. It helps that Andrew Ryan reminds me a lot of my central character, Azriah Shepard, except off his psych meds :P. I can see the real dangers posed by gene manipulation, but I defintely have a rosier outlook than the game portrays. Still, the way you see each of the side characters' lives transformed by ADAM and the corrupting influence of plasmids is incredibly powerful.

I've been re-trying COD4 also. Still like the campaign and am neutral on the multiplayer. I might try Gears of War instead now that the bugs seem to be all ironed out. My wife's probably gonna get me back into Fallout 3 as well.

Which helps forestall my Halo 3 addiction--though my unwillingness to pay for DLC when ODST will include that has a definite influence. My Xbox Live Gold trial is almost up, so I should probably break down and pay up. But Halo 3 isn't much fun when I'm limited to endless matches of Social Slayer (ack).

I love Bungie, but it's for my own good that I'm staying away from the Halo universe. At least, until ODST drops in September. (Wow, I'm going three months without Halo--impressive, neh?) *My wife's probably laughing her ass off as she reads this. Right, honey?

Anyways, my kids are threatening to destroy my carefully organized shelf of cleaning chemicals so I should probably go.