Legions of people, from children to adults, became fans of Star Wars after seeing the first movie. Continuing from that point until today, Star Wars has continued to be a franchise that has been fervently followed by phalanxes of fans. I always enjoyed the Star Wars franchise. I watched the movies umpteen times. I have read novels and comics. I have even read some Star Wars fan fiction. But, I don’t think that I would ever call myself a devotee of Star Wars. I never felt compelled by the Star Wars franchise to go out of my way to envelope myself in the franchise. But, now that has changed and I have found the franchise that is my Star Wars.

Mass Effect is a multi-tiered franchise that I have bought into hook-line-and-sinker. I played the first game about a year ago and I couldn’t quite come to grasps with the special powers. I started the game again during this winter break and everything clicked: the special powers became an integral part of my play experience, I got pretty good at using the sniper rifle, and the story was compelling enough to stop me from doing every single side mission and just continue with the story until I was satisfied. I could do this partially because I knew that I would play through the game again and again.

After I finished the first game I purchased all three of the novels from Amazon and I bought one of the comic books. I started to look at some of the fan fiction online. But, I truly knew that I was completely under the Mass Effect spell when I started thinking about fan fiction that I wanted to write about Mass Effect. I can recall exactly the moment when I smiled and I realized that I had my own Star Wars. No longer did I have to yearn to feel the same feelings that Trekkies or Marvel Zombies felt, because I had found my own nerd Mecca. I found the world that I could escape to and I would know the history and the personalities that inhabit that world. I finally have found the game that I can pull my nerd penis out and compare it to other nerds’ penis’.

I know that Mass Effect won’t have as wide of an appeal as Star Wars because it is a mature rated franchise. But, I think that is why I have latched onto it so readily. I am an adult and I like the adult themes in such a franchise. The original Star Wars was a movie that was made to appeal to adults, but once Lucas saw the money making opporotunities present selling the franchise to kids that is when Star Wars really went out of this world. Jar Jar Binks is a direct result of Star Wars wanting to appeal to everyone at once. The prequel movies showed us that instead of being everything to everyone, they should have been special for those who loved the original trilogy. The prequels should have been a thank you to those who kept Lucas fat and living lavish on his ludicrous California land.

I am happy that Bioware chose to keep the Mass Effect universe something for mature audiences. I am glad that I won’t see Saturday morning cartoons (even though The Clone Wars is awesome) about Mass Effect, there won’t be a Christmas special and there won’t be a new Lego game every six months. Mass Effect is a franchise for those people who were disenfranchised by the prequel trilogy’s rape on all fronts. I am happy that I have found such an interesting universe to play in. I hope everybody finds their Mass Effect.    

Friday’s rumor concerning Bungie and a MMO first person shooter the studio might be developing got my gears turning thinking about the possibilities of this endeavor. Now, the news, a word which I am using in the most liberal of senses, is just a rumor and can’t be taken as an assurance. The thing about the news that I find interesting is that we may be entering into a world where FPS’s and sports titles might be going towards the MMO model. Which is a model that I think these companies want to explore, this may even be a testing ground for a completely digital library. But, who will win this arms race?

Much like the rest of the computer gaming world, most companies are trying to get a piece of that MMO pie. Companies have been watching how much Blizzard is pulling in on a monthly basis from its hit MMO, World of Warcraft. Fans have been saying for years that sports games could easily go subscription, because many fans could tide themselves over with a roster update. Similarly, FPSs could easily last a few years by putting out map packs and weapons packs.

It seems like these yearly franchises change things because they have to make a new retail product every year. They change things that many people find useful instead of refining them and making them better overall. Madden ‘06 had a feature called QB Vision Control, which many people found awful but many of the people who I played Madden with thought the “cone” was a really good idea. I am sure that there were people on both sides of the argument who had sound reasons for their opinions. In the ‘07 and ‘08 versions of Madden it was optional and, finally, in the ‘09 version it was taken out completely. This is actually a better example of iteration, but why couldn’t they keep the option in for those people who liked the option.

Shooters have been working hard to split themselves between two markets, but they have also been trying to shove other market ideas down our throats. Activision was working on a MMO Call of Duty for Asia, but that hasn’t been released in the West. EA/DICE had their Battlefield: Heroes game, but it didn’t fare too well in Asia or America. The companies are trying to do what they want instead of doing what consumers want. A Chinese consumer is much different than a consumer in Chicago, Illinois. A consumer from London wants something different from a consumer in Fukuoka, Japan. If they want these games to work they need to make the games that the people in that market want.

I think that releasing a retail product in America with map packs and weapons packs that continue over a few years would work with this market. Americans want something to buy and many of them want a single player campaign. But, once people are finished with single player and they have played a hundred or more hours of multiplayer they want something new. You can just look at the sales of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare map packs to see how much people want to continue the game that they enjoy.

I think that Bungie and the Call of Duty team will be battling each other soon enough to bring out the first MMO first person shooter, or at least the first subscription based FPS. EA will have a subscription soccer game within the next two years. These companies need to learn how to approach this correctly, because if they don’t approach it right and they keep screwing up the market. The whole change to a subscription based FPS is going to take much longer than it needs to take.    

My computer runs constantly. There are times when I put it to sleep, but I rarely ever shut it down. I usually only restart it if there is a system update or if my computer hasn't been restarted for a week or two. I am sure that most people are like me in this respect. Computers are just as much a part of our lives as a refrigerator, TV, or radio (Hell! Nobody uses the radio anymore. Do they?). I have noticed that I have started to treat my console much like a computer in this sense.   
 
In the afternoon, when I get home, I sit down, turn on my heater, and turn on my PS3 or Xbox 360. At times I play a game, but, more often than not, I usually just let the thing idle away. I might watch a TV show that I stream from my media server, I might listen to some music or a podcast, but most of the time I just turn it on and I end up not doing anything on the console. I know that this isn't very eco-friendly of me, but it has become a compulsion. I want to see if any of my friends are online. I want to see what people are playing. I want to see the new sales that are going on in the respective stores (Microsoft, Sony: "These sales really do work."). So, my console has become just another appliance that I keep on.
 
With more and more options that are open to us, we have started to use our consoles just like Kaz Harai dreamed about during the PS2 era. These machines have become our media centers, streaming everything we need to our TVs and surround sound systems. Which makes me wonder, when will these machines be integrated into a PC? Will they always be a separate box? When the day comes that they are integrated into PCs, will I have to have 2 PCs or just two screens to facilitate my need to multitask?  
 
I am completely happy with this current generation of hardware. Like many other people, I am not really looking toward the horizon to find the next console. I am happy right now. I think there is so much that these machines can do that will keep us interested for another few years. But, I do realize that there is a change coming and it is going to change the hardware that we keep in our homes. I wonder what kind of change there will be and whether that change will be in the correct direction - the direction the consumers are tending toward.

Every year during the Christmas break I play an obscene amount of games. It has been this way since I was a kid. I got one game every year from my grandma. I would play the game all Christmas break until school was back in session. I would continue the game throughout the year until it was finished. But, that bulk of time during Christmas would be a haven for me. I remember some of my Christmas highlights: Super Mario World, A Link to the Past, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, etc. When I look back at these games I see them for the classics that they are, but they also keep the memories of those wonderful times near at heart.   
 
This winter, being alone in Japan, was especially difficult for me, because this was my first Christmas away from my family. Luckily my friends and co-worker kept me pretty busy, so I didn't really think about missing my family too much. I also speant an abundant amount of time with some good games. I was engrossed in Forza 3 once again. I literally put in 20 hours during this break. Which is and isn't astonishing, because I put in over 100 hours into Forza 2.  
 
I have become pretty good at Forza over the last few years. I don't think I am good enough to go online and battle it out with the drift masters that populate the leaderboards. But, I do think that I can hold my own. One of the greatest things about Forza is that it has made driving "normal" cars fun. I, like many other people, would rather drive a Honda Prelude instead of a Farrari Enzo. Yes. It is a lot of fun to drive those speed demons, but I think it is so much more fulfilling to get behind the wheel of a car that I might actually be able to drive.   
 
The career mode of the previous games was pretty straight forward; you race easy races first, later harder races unlock. But, this time the career mode, which is set up like a calandar, seems much less repetative. Because if I finish a race and I don't finish first I know that I can just go back and choose that same tournament during a different season, or I can just choose the tournament from a menu.   
 
One thing that really has kept me interested is the online store. Users can upload livery, cars, tuning setups, etc. You can even have your own digital storefront. Which makes it easy for me to buy that Love Hina paint set for all my favorite cars. But, the real god-send is that I can download tuning setups. In Forza 2, if I was stuck during a certain race but I knew that I had the best car for the job, I knew that it was probably the fault of the tune of my car. This time, in Forza 3, when I was stuck during a race because of my cars performance, I just went online and searched for tuning setups and purchased a setup. Many of these setups are free or very low priced. I don't have the time or patience to change the calipers, or add or subtract air from my tires, but it is wonderful that there are people who do have time to do that kind of thing. I don't have any problem giving them some in game currency for their efforts either.  
 
Forza 3 is going to be one of the few games that I have all of the achievements. I had a great Christmas in Japan. I had a great time playing games. I think that Forza 3 had a part in my enjoyment of both. I might even go back to finish Forza 2, but I will have to make a crib sheet of my good tuning setups. I guess that it shouldn't be too much work to put those numbers into Forza 2.

I’m not sure if I am meant for MMORPGs. I just deleted DC Universe Online from my PS3. I was pretty stoked to play this game when I heard that it was going to be exclusive to PS + users. I have been continually compensating for my purchase of PS +, but finally I was getting something other people couldn’t have and some people actually wanted.

When I downloaded the game last week I wondered why the PSN download was so small, but when I got the game up I realized that I had downloaded a client to download the actual game. Now, I may be wrong, but I don’t think there is anything written on the PSN page for the game that says the game would be a 15GB download. But, once I was started I was in it for the long haul. I decided there and then that I wanted to play this game (I really had no choice). After 10 hours of downloading, I had to update the game which took 3 hours.

After the initial download of the game, I was fettered. But after the 3 hour update, I was wandering towards pissed off. I was finally able to get into the game last Saturday afternoon JST, which is around 12 A.M. or so CST. I was able to finally create my character. The character creation was pretty intuitive and easy to use. I made a sexy character that had no visible super powers besides being able to get free drinks for the rest of her life.

I ran through the tutorial level and punched some dudes, after which I finally came to the games main hub which, for me, was a little difficult to navigate. I am sure if I had more time with the game I would come to be a hub master. During my 30 minutes or so in the main hub walking around and getting my bearings my game froze. I had to leave so I didn’t try to start it back up after resetting my PS3.

I came back to the game a few days later and there was another 2 hour update. Once I let this install, I had already started to despise the game. I know that this is a beta and there are going to be many problems. But, I am also a new user and even with freezing problems being fixed, the problems with long download times probably won’t be fixed. I’m not sure if it is Sony’s PSN servers, SOE’s DC Universe Online servers, or because I live in Japan, but one or all of these made the game extremely slow to download.

Once I got the game running after the update I got into a mission. The mission was pretty easy to figure out and it was challenging but not imbalanced. I died a couple of times, but started to kill the main objectives when my game crashed again. This time my screen went nutty. A text prompt popped up informing me that my game file was corrupted and that I would need to delete it and then reinstall.

I played the DC Universe Online beta for about 3 hours in total. I probably will never return to the game again. I can’t waste twenty hours of my time downloading a game that might not work in the end.

Being somebody who has never played an MMO before the whole experience was pretty enlightening to me. I have stacks of games at home that are ready to play; all I need to do is put them into the drive and go. But, for a game that needs so much love and care to run, DC Universe Online isn’t for me right now. Maybe down the road if the game turns out to be a runaway success and I hear from people that I am mission out on the second coming of Christ, then I might return to the game. But, until that day comes I got too many games to play to let my PS3 sit idle for hours at a time.    

I played through the Costume Quest demo last night. I am going to buy the full version tonight when I go home. I know that I am not the only person who let this one fall through the cracks. I just heard about this one the other day while I was listening to the Weekend Confirmed podcast. I haven't been playing my Xbox very much lately, so I don't know if the advertisements for this were pretty subdued or not. I do know that one the PS3 there was a panel on the opening screen for the Playstation Store (that little thing that shows you six new products on the store), and it was on there for a couple of weeks. I just didn't know what the game was or what it was about. I never heard anybody talking about it, and it is so difficult to get information from the PSN Store. I never took the time to go any deeper than looking at the picture and deciding that it was probably a title meant for the younger crowd.  
 
I finally played the demo after hearing so much about it over the last week or two. I thought the demo was pretty brilliant. The art style was very eye catching. It seems like its reminiscent of Psychonauts, but it seems much more flat. The dialog in the game, while only textual, was funny and playful. I really liked the way that the dialog stopped at certain times and continued without the need of a button push, at other times. This might have been the first time that I have noticed that most of the RPGs that I have played have always needed a button press to continue the dialog (I am sure there are some out there that do not need tactile feedback, but I just have never played any of them).  
 
The RPG elements of this game were pretty subtle, but still present. I really like the use of traditional RPG elements like turn based attacks, but with elements of action as well. This game reminds me of Deathspank, which was made by another former Lucasarts luminary.  
 
I have really come to enjoy downloadable games much more in the last few years. I really respect the work that goes into these titles. I like that companies like Double Fine can make a small title like this and, hopefully, make a profit on it. I also like that because the title is small I can play through it and feel satisfied at the end, but I also feel like I would like to come back again soon. With Deathspank, I played through the first game, but before I finished the first game the second one was already out, so I bought the second game but have not played it yet. I think that is the response that these companies want out of their consumers.  
 
Costume Quest left a great taste in my mouth. I really enjoyed playing the game. I really liked the 80's style movie aspects of it. It is a game that is good for kids, but there are so many elements that would make it fun for an adult to play; Viva Piñata had these same elements. I think that this will be a good game to play through during my winter break. Double Fine has already released a DLC pack for winter. I can't wait to have a few days off from work and just play until my heart’s content...then play something else when I am finished.

I have been thinking about how much time I spend playing games. My play time has grown exponentially over the last few years. I think that this is directly correlated to two different reasons: the increase in the number of good games and the opiate of online RPG elements in most games now.

I have been playing games off and on since I was about 10 years old (my parents didn’t have the money for a NES). When I was younger I played the same game till my fingers evolved into the controller. When I got a little older and had a part time job, I started to buy more games. But, with the pull of friends and parties, I started to not play games very much. Now that I am finished with college and I have a normal 9-to-5, I have a lot of time to sit down and play games.

Each year more games come out, but, more importantly, more awesome games have been coming regularly. I have been buying up a lot of old PS2 games that I wanted when they were full price. But, I have also been buying a lot of new games. The quality of the games and the stories being told are getting exponentially better. Game of the Year contests are having a difficult time keeping track of all of the great games that come out every year. I remember a couple of years ago when Burnout Paradise came out, so many people forgot that it came out in January that it made the Game of the Year debate much more difficult in the end.

Playing games online has become a much more time consuming endeavor. Starting with Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, gamers have been inundated with games that use RPG elements to keep the player enthralled. The unlock system that shooters use today has kept players from migrating from game to game because the player feels invested in the game. What’s the point of unlocking weapons if I don’t get the best weapon in the end? And, with the addition of DLC games have the chance to keep us going after that last unlock for many more hours.

I am happy that there are so many great games that I want to play. I am really happy when I find one that keeps me interested for over 20 hours. But, I am afraid that because of this my consumption of other art and media has dipped drastically. I wonder if the number good games has had an influence on companies who make “budget” titles. Has their revenue shrunk? Or is their business model just as profitable now as it has ever been. If having too much to do is a dilemma; it’s a good dilemma to have.

I was just checking out the themes marketplace on Xbox Live and something concerned me. Themes are advertising. Whether you are Dr. Pepper, Wendy's, or Your Shape Fitness Evolved. The themes that are on Xbox Live are advertising for a product of some type. Yet, most movies and products in the marketplace have come to understand that they cannot sell their themes. But, Microsoft and other publishers, on the other hand, feel they can rightfully charge for themes because they hold the attention of the audience. 

I like these products. I like to have a cool theme on my Xbox. I like to have cool avatar items. I wish my avatar had a lightsaber. But, I really can't justify spending $5 on a lightsaber, or even $2 on it when it is on sale. I would really love to have a Rayman Raving Rabbids theme, but I'm not going to spend $3 on it. I don't want a Your Shape Fitness Evolved theme, and I imagine that the type of person who would buy that theme probably also wipes their ass with dollar bills. 

I really would like to know how much money Microsoft and other publishers make off of these premium themes and avatar items. I also wonder how many of you, in the giantbomb community, buy these items. Are you happy with your purchases?