Arby's #5

So I hauled myself out of bed this morning at about ten after being up until nearly four, though I'm not actually all that sleepy. Plus I get to look forward to a five hour day today, so I'm innervated all the more.

Right now we're trying something new at my job, so they're busy upstairs trying to get things rollin'. Today I at least have Brian to help me out with what we're doing today - tomorrow I have to do the same thing sans him. I'm pretty confident in myself, though, since I've seen similar things done a thousand times - it's always just a little different when you're doing it under fire.

So what's on my mind lately? A lot. How's Leigh feeling? I wonder if Sylvia's still asleep back home. How am I going to do solo tomorrow? When thoughts whir through my head, though, I tend to take a step back and take in a deep breath.

Keith's Favorite Games of the Last Whatever

5) World of Warcraft - I have an MMO history, I'll admit it. I've played all of the following: EverQuest, EverQuest II, Guild Wars, City of Heroes, Lineage II, and the titular WoW. Some I played for like two days, some for as long as three years. At the moment I'm without a game to waste all my time, and have been for a few months. Warcraft, though, became a little different for me once a bunch of my real life college friends delved into the world of Azeroth. Let me count (Willdo, Varixa, Twiddisell, Shivawn, Loriette, Tleilaxu, Arkanic, Senadino, Helgie) the nine people who play who I knew first in real life. I really don't think I would have played for half as long without our "secret channel," inside joke idiocy, and late night Perkins runs where all we talked about was our nerdy game. Thanks guys for making this game fun, for at least a little while.

4) Boom Blox - A Wii game I purchased at the beginning of June, I can't wait to play it multiplayer. Even single player, though, is pretty amazing. You remember when you were a kid and breaking things/knocking things over was such a satisfactory feeling? I see it in my niece when I build a lego tower and she sees its existence as solely an object to knock over. That's what this game's all about, throwing things at other things and watching them fall over. Awesome.

3) Portal - The funniest game I've ever played. Seriously. You know those awful Conker games back in the N64 days that tried so hard to be funny through parody and gross out humor? They pale in comparison to the monotone droning of GLaDOS as she taunts you with very limited emotion and feeling. As you try to avoid falling into radioactive pools while you navigate the facility, her ever word seems to be something a computer would calculate to try and motivate you to do the things she wants you to. In addition, she's experiencing an artificial mental breakdown. That said, though, the gameplay is amazing too, with enough to screw around with to keep you entertained for twice as long as the actual gameplay time.

2) Team Fortress 2 - A mindless shooter with character? I don't believe it. What should be a straight forward, TFC or QWTF port into the future was suddenly released in October. Valve's vision of a straight-up military shooter (it reminded me a lot of the modified class choices and look of the updated Wolfenstein game) gave way to a flock of Incredibles-animated, machinima-worthy characters. A streetwise runner from Boston, a crazy Russian in love with his gun, and a Scottish cyclops obsessed with explosives are included in the cast of a game that makes you laugh pretty much constantly. It's amazing how a little work on the character voices and models can make a game completely different.

1) BioShock - My most anticipated game of last summer and it really didn't disappoint. I don't think any other game could have provided the impetus to purchase a $300 video card just to run it - no PixelShader 3 support on the X800 sadly, so I picked up an 8800. My dire flaw nowadays is the fact that I don't really finish games anymore; it's hard for me to keep the motivation to push through to the end. This game, on the other hand, I marathoned and beat in two days, including a ten hour play day with Tony watching. People complain about the enemies all being similar (they're all people) or the guns being a bit generic. I saw the story, the conflicts of ideals, the dystopia of Rapture, and they all captivated me. Like System Shock and System Shock II before it, the gameplay was in essence basic, and not a lot has changed from Doom to these games. You walk around, you complete objectives. The difference is the atmosphere and the "feeling" of the game. I can't say any game before made me feel quote so sorry about the characters involved, namely the Little Sisters. Games like Quake are about twitch reaction, getting your heart beating, and excitement. BioShock is about feeling something, discovering something, solving a mystery.