Monkey Island 2 is still one of my greatest games of all time. It's one of the few games I've mostly memorised since I first played it back in 1993/94. I even got it on iOS to relive the craziness.
Yet somehow the recent sequels lack the same verve and I find myself lacking the patience I had to complete them.
This is a good game, but not as good as the first two. The regular cutscenes are irritating, the difficulty is sometimes badly out of whack, and the cover mechanic takes away some of Max's crazy cinematic heroism.
Regardless, the story and voice acting kept me playing. The graphics are great and, despite Rockstar's history with PC games, runs well.
ME3 pulled off a complete non sequitur in the final 10 minutes of the game. I liked the game a lot, but they way Bioware handled the ending was poor. They tried to pull off a Deus Ex style ending, but forgot to throw in the "screw your choices, AI" ending.
They don't even give you some backstory as to why Joker is making a break for it or even how your team got back to the Normandy. Even if we ignore the starchild, Bioware's normally excellent storytelling abandoned them in that moment.
Bioware aren't just artists, they're also software engineers. Part of that business involves listening to your users and ensuring that their experience meets their needs and the product is fit for purpose. The "Artistic Integrity" defence only holds up if the viewer is not a key part of the entire experience (normal, non-interactive art) - once it relies on them it has to keep them on side.
And even Charles Dickens, one of the literary greats, tweaked the ending of one of his books in response to feedback more than a century before Bioware even started. Sometimes you've got to take it on the chin and accept that you're wrong, even if your intentions were genuine.
Badgers just brightened up my day. Although I think I saw one of the bear's victims on my way home this evening...which rather takes the edge off it...
While Nvidia are delivering stronger cards, they're often coming along after AMD's offering at a similar level. If a good chunk of customers have already jumped on the 7970 bandwagon, the power of the 680 could be irrelevant (Even the power of the 7970 is good enough for 99%+ games). If Nvidia manage to beat AMD to market in the next big series jump then things will get interesting.
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