Gaming Bliss!

Over the weekend I "finished" Mass Effect 2 and realized that the last two years have been extremely kind to me in terms of video games. There was a time when Japanese RPGs like those produced by Square Enix (Final Fantasy, Dragon Warrior/Quest) were the ultimate in gaming for me. I still look back on many of those games fondly and keep a copy of them on my shelf.

But in recent years, I discovered a company you may have heard of called "Bioware" who has changed my expectation of RPG gaming forever and raised the bar so high that the competition doesn't even fall in the same category.

Beginning with Neverwinter Nights, I was stunned with the length of the initial campaign and expansions included in the Diamond set. Easily 100 hours of gaming. Not to mention the freedom I had to micromanage my battle strategy or play a much simpler, faster game, scaling the difficulty to suit my playing style.

And speaking of freedom, Bioware has virtually ruined me for any new RPGs that ask me to watch cutscene after cutscene in which I have no choices to make. It used to be something special when a game at two or three endings. I've given up trying to count how many endings and game paths are possible in a Bioware game.

In Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic, I had the choice of following the path of light or darkness or anywhere in between. And naturally had to make several saves near the end when crucial choices began taking me down the paths of several very different endings.

I started playing Dragon Age Origins last fall and was once again stunned. Not only are there multiple endings, there are multiple beginnings! Six of them! Each with about an hour or more of unique gameplay! Not only that, but the people you interact with treat you differently throughout the game depending on the background you choose, or the race you choose, or how you treat them in the many instances in which you are given freedom to choose how you will speak or act.

This weekend I "finished" Mass Effect 2. I've put that in quotes because now that the game is done, I still get to play it! Back on my ship, my crew members all congratulate me on the big accomplished mission, while still being ready to explore the galaxy and take on smaller missions I may have missed the first time through! I nearly spazzed out in nerdly joy when I realized that even after 40 hours of gaming, I could still go back and comb the galaxy for the 8-10 quests I've since discovered online that I missed!

Woohoo! Bioware rocks!!