From BioShock to World of Warcraft, see what games lead our list of ground-breaking titles that rocked the gaming world to its core.

It’s come down to this epic moment — in an industry that sometimes has more followers than leaders, these 20 titles changed video games forever.

“A fan-made project built using the RPG Maker 2003 engine, Marvel Brothel is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a video game where Professor X decides that the best way to further humanity’s acceptance of mutants would be by literally pimping out the heroines of the Marvel Universe to a never-ending stream of johns.”

I haven’t played the game, but from the review it seems quite ‘interesting’. Go check it out for yourself.

Video games based off of TV franchises are for some reason still prevalent in today’s gaming market. It seems as though every TV show is granted its own video game spin off. What makes matters worse is the fact that TV as we know it is only getting worse. How does one transpose reality TV into a half way decent video game? American Idol, Hannah Montana, and even Hell’s Kitchen all exist in video game form, but one question remains… Why?

The biggest problem with TV inspired video games is the lack of thought that is usually put into developing the game. The reason is quite simple. The name will sell, so there’s little reason to invest much time or money in the game itself. Also depending on the title, odds are the person purchasing the game won’t even be the one who ends up playing it. A parent sees a title on the shelves like Hannah Montana: the video game, and figures that their child loves the show and loves video games so the combination of the two must be pure gold. When in actuality nothing could be further from the truth.

Even quality TV shows usually spawn lackluster video games. The hit show LOST for example, is one of the most innovative and exciting shows on television today and yet the video game of the same name does nothing to capture the true essence of the show. LOST is a dramatic masterpiece full of suspense, mystery, and action, while the game is little more than a glorified Easter egg hunt.

As time goes on the chances of a TV series license producing a quality video game continues to diminish. The sad fact is that a video game does not need to be good in order to be successful; it needs only to make money. As long as popular show titles are being plastered on video game boxes and games contain vague references to past characters and plotlines these games will continue to sell.

But my impressions of FarCry have been pretty much the CryTek story: great graphics, embarassing story/voice acting, and very smart AI. Playing the campaign on the Realistic will make you a man, but nobody said that becoming a man wasn’t painful and frustrating at times. Bottom line, I can’t imagine why I would reccomend that anyone except diehard FPS fans go back and play the original, espescially now that you’ve got other options like Crysis / Warhead. Even if FarCry 2 just treads water creatively, it’s practically gauranteed to be a huge step forward from its predecessor.

Around Halloween, I set out to face my fears and beat God of War on God Mode. Now, the backstory to this is that before I fell in love with this series, I watched my buddy from college fail miserably and suffer horribly while trying to beat God Mode. And it looked really impossible. In a strange twist of game borrowing/lending I ended up having a copy of God of War 2 for a long time without having the original and I ended up beating that on Titan mode. It was one of the most intense experiences of my gaming life. But satisfying as hell. So it was a pleasant surprise to go back to God of War and realize that God Mode actually is nowhere near as painful Titan Mode. Granted knowing where chests are and knowing how to solve the puzzles in advance always makes a 2nd run through more pleasant, but I still surprised myself by taking out God Mode in less than a week. Even more surprising is that I lucked out on the final battle (if you’ve played it you’ll know what I mean) and ended up beating that within an hour and change. I had fully exected to spend a couple of days on that last battle.

Speaking of twists (go back I said it somewhere) it seems that PopCap has been reading this blog and decided to take my good advice about offering up higher resolutions for their games. I speak of their latest release, Bejweled Twist. Unfortuntely, I’m not a fan of the new “twist” gameplay mechanic. I think it’s clunky and awkward, espescially compared to the simplicity of the original swaps. It seems like something that should have been an added ability or gametype. Not a new default for the whole game. My mom is a diehard fan of the 2nd one and refuses to play this new one. Come on guys, if PopCap has lost my mom, then they’ve lost middle America.

Lastly, I’ve also started playing a game called World of Goo. Back in the stone age, I posted a link to Tower of Goo and its experimental game brethren. World of Goo is basically the all-grown-up version (yes, I know it’s been released for the Wii, don’t e-mail me your joke). And by that I mean, it’s an actual game. So far, so good. The only thing that bugs me is this notion that this gameplay is just earth shatteringly revolutionary. It’s not. It’s basically just taking flash-game physics and adding quality. And that’s to be commended, but it is what it is. It’s an f’ing ball of goo.

Still, it’s better than a meatcube.

It was only about a year and a half ago that Bioshock smashed into the gaming scene like an overhyped meteor. Critical acclaim for this game would have had you believing that it was Jesus coming back in DVD-ROM form.

While many gamers complained that this was a watered down Kids-R-Us version of System Shock with hint arrows and infinite lives, others embraced it as the game of the year pointing towards it’s strong storyline and next-gen graphics. Well actually, a lot of the gamers who embrace Bioshock just pretended that the game is flawless.

Personally, I’m torn between the two lines of thinking. I’m generally not one to point to storyline when any aspect of the gameplay is weak, but I found the story in Bioshock (complete with grade-A voice acting) to be one of the most engaging I’ve ever played through. I had a hell of a fun time playing through the game twice. My biggest problem with Bioshock is that for all of its successes, it never lives up to the game it could have been. It’s like a naturally talented athelete who insists on skipping practices to snort cocaine.

All that said, I think Bioshock is a perfect candidate for my series on great games that have tragic, and painfully stupid flaws. Maybe 2k can take a couple of notes before finalizing the sequel. As always, I’m going to be very specific, so BE AWARE THAT SERIOUS GAME SPOILING SPOILERS AWAIT for everyone who hasn’t already beaten the game.

Would you kindly beta test the sequel?

5. Best soundtrack that you never get to hear.

Bioshock has one of the best soundtracks in recent memory. Too bad you wouldn’t know that from playing through the game. From the Andrew Sisters to Frank Sinatra the game is loaded with kitschy-cool songs…that fade out after about 12 seconds to be replaced with stereotypical and monotonous “tension” hums. The in game Rapture-Reminders are incorporated brilliantly over the citywide PA system. Why not execute more of the music with Rapture Radio in the same way? Inescapable mood setting. Instead, like most of Bioshock’s failings, they buried their own genius.

4. You barely get to interact with water.

In terms of concept for unique game setting BioShock must score near 100%. A retro underwater city. In terms of execution, it must score near 15%. Save for the intro, you’re dry and and on foot for the duration of the game. The fact that there are times when you’ll be playing this game and forget that you are actually 20,000 leagues under the sea is a travesty. While there are a couple of times when water is used creatively (mostly as background or something your peer at but can’t interact with) those times are few and far between. The missed opportunities for swimming, controllable submarines, scuba suits, rooms that suddenly take on water, etc. etc. etc. are mind boggling. By trying too hard to be thematically dark, they actually threw away a lot of their opportunities to be creative. By the time you’re spelunking the apartments and Atlas’s home for girls towards the end of the game you realizes that some of this crap looks like it could have been from a grainy DOOM mod. And that’s sad.

3. You transform yourself into a big daddy and the only ability you get is a limited screen view.

This is just so symbolic of the problems of Bioshock. Excellent concept, with an engaging explaination in the story, followed up by awful execution. How many gamers got excited and thought…”Oh hell no, they didn’t go there…oh snap! I’m going to become one of those things!” only to realize you just get your screen view shrunk into a circle. No awesome twisty arm to drill your opponents with. No charging stun / smash attack. No rigged rivet gun. Now you just moan and complain like a big daddy when you take damage. And trust me, you should be moaning and complaining.

2. Widespread insanity means no character interaction.

What a copout. You won’t be halfway through Bioshock before you realize that anytime you meet a character who isn’t a crazed zombie, they’re going to be crazy or dead pretty soon. I guess you can call Bioshock a survival/horror if you want, but this you against the world thing is getting pretty tired even for an FPS. How much more interesting would it have been to encounter single holdouts or small camps of survivors in Rapture who hadn’t succumbed? Or maybe some are in the midst of succumbing? Maybe some are fighting back and have optional missions for you. No, alas. There aren’t even any live cats for you to play with in Rapture.

1. The endings are a disaster.

You know what? I would have been cool with just two variations of the game. Having simply two distinct stories that unfold during the game. And Bioshock never really touted multiple endings as its strong point. But as it stands, the Bioshock endings make Fable look like Fallout. Obviously, the only real choice you make in the game is whether or not to kill the little sisters. But the effect is has on the story is so minimal it’s painful. Adding insult to injury is the fact that both endings suck. As the coda to an epic underwater adventure that probably consumed a couple weeks of your life, you’re treated to a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it afterward before being spat back onto the main menu. And since you’ll probably notice that there’s no multiplayer option there, you’d think they would have gone the extra mile for the story.

Speaking of storyline, my honorable mention for the stupid list: why the hell doesn’t Andrew Ryan just command you to kill Atlas (or otherwise do your bidding) once he knows who you are? Although Ryan’s suicide is dramatic and powerful it doesn’t really make much sense. Granted he’s not the picture of sanity, but why would such a strong character kill himself when he’s still got options? Not to mention he leaves the damn self-destruct override key lying around with you, Atlas’s lackey, as the only one left alive in the room. What the hell was he thinking?
So it will be interesting to see where the sequel goes from here. I’ve heard mumblings that they were planning a prequel where the action would surround Rapture’s downfall, but the trailer seems to indicate something in the future. As it stands, the conclusions offered up in the first one were so short that it would be easy to work around them. So long as 2K takes my list to heart, we should be in for a perfect game.

Honestly, a fee-based battle.net?! It’s really like they sat down and came up with a list of ways they could start alienating fans and become the Microsoft of the gaming world. This is pretty much just straight up greed and the fact that it’s so thinly veiled behind nonsensical corporate PR jargon makes it come off as even more obscene. Obviously, rolling around in the slop of WOW subscription fees for the last couple of years hasn’t changed Blizzard for the better.

Anyone who bothers to read Video Game news already knows the DRM issues that EA is facing right now. In case you haven’t, EA has put limits on how many times you can install their latest games Spore and Red Alert 3. Also, the people that pirated the game had Spore out for download without the DRM before you could even buy it so it obviously deters no-one who cares.

Now the company is facing a backlash of gamers that are Boycotting EA until the issue is resolved. And now I ask myself if I am going to be in that group? It is a hard question. EA has never been my favorite publisher, but they own so much of the video game market that alot of the games coming out have something to do with them. I have been waiting for Dead Space since I heard about it as Resident Evil 5 is still far away and really does not look all the scary anyway. And no, as much as I want to this will not turn into a post about survival horror.

Not to mention that I love Command and Conquer games so I would be losing out on those as well. So will I boycott EA? Would that be a stupid move for a gaming site? I have not really made up my mind yet. I would like to help send a message to them, but at the same time I do not want to miss out on games that I want to play. I do think that DRM is stupid, so I am leaning towards the boycott.

What are you guys going to do? Can you sway me one way or the other? I am sure there are many points of view on this, help me decide.

Dont fuck with Stay Puft!

Here is the list in no particular order. Yes, I am aware they are numbered, and therefore in some sort of order but they are all special. I love them all equally.

10. Snipers sure are skilled players that do not annoy me at all.

9. I really enjoyed that good tea-bagging and I deserved it as well

8. None of you playing right now is a homo

7. My aim sure is poor as I can’t seem to kill anyone

6. You guys are not all fags

5. I don’t think the other team is cheating, they are just better than us.

4. That guy is not gay, he is just skilled

3. I did not do anything sexual to you mom and/or dad

2. I loved playing with you all, you do not suck

1. I am only 5 foot 7, 130 pounds and you could kick my ass easily.

Hot Night Elf, Blizzard Style

A reader over at the consumerist had some trouble with Blizzard. He tried to download a copy of Diablo II from their digital store, but the download didn’t work. Blizzard’s customer service tried to help him do it again, but that also failed. They then suggested to just buy it at a store. So he bought the game three times and would like some money back.

I tried to purchase a digital download of Diablo II from blizzard.com’s online store two weeks ago. Everything seemed to be going fine until I attempted to download the file and it failed. I checked with my online account and it showed that the order ‘failed’ in one section of my account, but was ‘queued’ in another part of my account. So, I called customer service and spoke with a guy named Joshua. Joshua said he didn’t see anything wrong on his end, but that since I saw ‘failed’ on my end, the charge wouldn’t go through, so I wouldn’t be able to get the download. To solve this, Joshua placed a second online order for the digital download – directly over the phone. Click to continue story…