Weregamer's Game Musings

It's pure luck (or maybe karma) that I even looked at this game, but I'm really glad I bought it for more than one reason. The day it came out, Tess had just that morning asked me what I had been playing, and I answered "Path of Exile". Her response was "Don't you ever play things with non-depressing titles?". If that conversation hadn't happened, I probably wouldn't have looked very deeply at the news of the release on Steam, and I might have missed a game that is both fun and innovative. Before I get into the ways in which the actual game design is innovative, I should mention two things. First, it's a really fun little game . I don't expect to be playing it fanatically, but it doesn't require a huge time commitment yet has some strategic depth and fun storytelling. I'll likely have it installed for a long time, playing it in short spurts when I haven't the time for a deeper game or am just taking a break. Se...

Among my circle of friends, it's taken as established fact that Squeenix hates its players. They haven't released a game since the departure of Hiromichi Tanaka that didn't contain something that showed this. Certainly the last Deus Ex title amply demonstrated the hatred, with the stupid "what, you were playing a stealth game? Naaah, it's an action game!" boss fights and, even worse, the grotesquely non-closing final voiceover in lieu of an actual ending cinematic and the parody of having multiple endings (you push one of four buttons, all next to each other on a console, and what difference it makes to the stupid final voiceover is too insignificant to spot). But the announcement this week about the pre-order "bonuses" for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided are a new low. The initial structure is the already-annoying "you only get a pre-order bonus if enough people pre-order" system, which is a travesty to start with. But even if you do play alo...