Favorite Games of My Adulthood: Fallout 3

Side note: I'm really sorry it took so long for me to get this out. I'm lazy; sorry not sorry.

Bethesda has continuously been a great company in the gaming biz. They've brought us treasure troves like Skyrim, RAGE, and Dishonored but I know deep in my heart that the best creation Bethesda has is obviously Fallout 3. Now there will be people who are going to stomp their feet and yell because of how fantastic and "revolutionary" the Skyrim series has been, but I didn't get into the Elder Scrolls as much as I did Fallout. This brings my count of top five to my number four and here is exactly why this game earned it's spot in my heart.

Number 4: Fallout 3

Fallout - America's first choice in Post Nuclear Simulation. 

Fallout has been on everyone's radar since it was first released. I know I've heard Emalie go on and on about New Vegas when she first started playing it, and not to mention the following the franchise has as a whole. I played through the first two Fallouts and enjoyed them in general but I didn't enjoy them half as much as I did 3. Something about Fallout 3 just resinated with me. Be it the initial game play, the story line, or the love I have for decision based games, it really made a mark on me. Even to this day, I can still go back and play the game over and over, it never really gets old for me.

It's nothing I can really explain, it could be that I chose to play as a girl and the plot line follows as a daddy's girl, so in a way I felt I related and I just kind of lived out the life of my character in full effect. It could also be that this game is just ridiculously fun and a lot unlike games out there. It's really not your typical first person shooter. Since it is a Bethesda production, of course it has a lot of similar gameplay styling to Skyrim but is on a completely different level. In the process of customizing your character, you have dozens of options to completely shape the player and make it your own reality. Bethesda really goes into detail with their games to completely immerse you into this land that you want to make your own.

You, of course, have a lot of decision based aspects in the game and some of the choices in this game can really test the limits that you're willing to go to be reunited with your father. In most decision games, I always choose to be the good guy, at first, but after playing through the game a few times, I realized that playing the bad guy is a lot more fun, but mostly if you just want to get in constant shoot out battles which is always a good time. Not to mention that there are so many side-quests way beyond the plot to keep you going off gameplay for so long! Just what you'd expect from the brethren of Skyrim. Along those same lines, you can choose to upgrade certain skills about yourself such as speech, pick pocketing or thieving skills, explosives buff, all kinds of stuff. Again with the making your character exactly how you want them to be, there is endless customization to this game.

So, all in all, Fallout 3 was and still is one of my favorites. I don't think there will ever be a time that I don't want to go back and save Vault 101. The same goes for the rest of the games in my top favorites, it just nestled its way into my coveted top 5 and won't be moving out anytime soon.

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Bioshock Infinite: Would You Kindly Make A Second One? (SPOILERS)

As everyone pretty much knows, Bioshock is my favorite game franchise ever. This game has made me feel things for a video game, that I've never gotten before. Because of Bioshock, I literally strive everyday to try and become a somebody in the gaming world. Bioshock gave me the heart to actually want to go into the male-dominating world of video game creation and stand tall with the women that are already completely and totally successful in that field, so yes, you can say this will be a completely positive review on Irrational Games' new baby, and my new love, 'Bioshock Infinite'.

Irrational Games was, at first, the bane of my existence back in October. After the long awaited launch of Bioshock, I had been sitting back, looking at my calendar until the sixteenth (could've been later, I'm not sure at this point). That was one of the original set dates. Then I remember hearing a lot of commotion when I was in a GameStop and they were talking about Infinite. I chimed in as told them how excited I was for the game to come out soon and to my dismay, I was shut down. The so called GameStop geniuses looked at me like I was stupid and completely blocked out from the news and that I was insane for actually thinking that my beloved Irrational Games would put out what I'd hoped to be the best Bioshock yet, on time. With two more date changes, I was ready to throw away all hopes I'd had of ever getting my hands on Infinite. But thank the gaming Gods, the date was finally secured and locked in. 

March 26th at 9:00 AM, a package was at my door. I opened it up and tears welled in my eyes as I saw the gleaming plastic casing that held my sweet, premium edition Bioshock Infinite. I held it close to me that finally I was able to play as Booker Dewitt and actually understand what this game was about. I played with all of the little extras for a while and then popped the game in. It was glorious. The opening scene, or the "Press Start" clip I should say, made me cry. The music was already perfect, the graphics, just in the opening scene alone, were brilliant, and I was so ready to have my mind blown by the glory that was Columbia, and it did not disappoint.

From the beginning you're thrown into a familiar dark place. You, as Booker, are taken out to a dock where you're supposed to enter a light house to "get the girl and wipe away the debt" (don't forget that line, it's really important!) Inside the lighthouse, you're greeted by a dead body with a sack over it's head and thats how you know you're back in the world of Bioshock. You stumble upon this pod thing, kind of like when you enter Rapture for the first time, and all of the memories came flooding back. 

I won't give away too much about the game, but those avid gamers probably already knew that you enter the world of Columbia, a place so strewn with political and religious brainwashing and everyone is a devotee of the "Prophet" or Comstock. I think the political backing of the games is actually really interesting. It's a compete branch off of the founding fathers and how this land in the sky completely tore away from the "sodom below". It really adds a new element to the game as a whole. The same with religion; you get some of that from Bioshock 2, what with the whole following Lamb, but it's not nearly as prominent of a feature as it is in Bioshock Infinite. 

Another interesting aspect about the political problems are the anarchist group called the Vox Populi. Lead by Daisy Fitzroy, it's this band of rivals against the Prophet and his reign. They fight to protect the little people, but in the midst of their presence, you learn they're no better than the Prophet himself. It brings about the question of who actually is "the false Shepard"  and who we actually choose to follow in the end. The same goes for the choice aspect of the game. It's no mystery that I'm a fan of "choosing your own destiny" games and there wasn't that many big choices in this game. I've been poking around to see if there are any alternative endings like they had in Bishock 2, but everyone seems to say that there is only one, so with all the choices, you'd think there would be a different outcome. 

In this new world, you don't have Plasmids or Eve, you have Vigors and Salts. The controls are a bit off and it's nothing you can't just easily adjust to. They really did a good job separating the two worlds of Rapture and Columbia and one thing I loved about Infinite was that they still had small little treasures from Rapture. In one sequence, Elizabeth opens a tear to Rapture and Booker says "A city underwater? How stupid." The fact that IG can poke at their own game is so heart warming to me. 

None the less, I promise you the game didn't disappoint in the slightest. If there was one thing I would change, I would have just made the game longer. I felt like it was easier to play through, even on the harder levels, but nonetheless, it was still amazing. The one thing that was so heavily debated about this game was the ending. Just about every one of my friends that played the game all agreed that the ending was one of the most mind-boggling sequences in the history of games. I kind of predicted it coming when you get near the end, but all the same, it was all over the place and will definitely leave you wanting more. 

So I leave you with this, if there is going to be a Bioshock Infinite 2, what would you hope to see out of it? Any predictions?    

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Top 5: Favorite Games of My Adulthood

So a while back on my old gaming blog, I did a top ten games of my childhood. I never finished it but it was fun to remember all the old games I used to play. Then I thought about how much my taste in games has grown so much over the past years, especially since I hit my adolescent and adult years. The spectrum of my favorite games grew and I had adapted into new favorites. I decided that it was time to mark up my favorite games of my more adult years and pretty much show you why these games deserve to be in my top five. So without further ado, I give you the first in the series and my number five.

Number 5: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Okay, now don't assume that I'm one of the jerks who sits online all day and screams various racial slurs at one another just because someone decided to camp. No, that's not why I love this game. This game received so much hype, so much hate, and from me, so much love. I cannot tell you how many times I've played this game and how emotional I got during it (don't make some smart comment on girls getting emotional when playing games either). When I first got the game, it was one of the first Call of Duty games I'd ever played. I never played MW1 until I got to a point in the game where I realized "Hey wouldn't it make more sense if I played one and then finished two?" And don't get me wrong, one was awesome. I liked it a lot, but two just trumped it for me. 

Two brought in a lot of things I like about video games. Not only does it have a great plot line, but the graphics on this game we're phenomenal. I hadn't seen graphics that realistic on a game before and I remember the whole time I was like "It's like I'm watching a movie!" The graphics were grade A to me and not to mention the immense amounts of detail they put into that game. At every spot you would see something so minuit and intricate that just makes you appreciate the hard work the team delivers to you. 

Another thing that hooked me was the characters. Ghost and Soap; easily two of my favorite characters in the Call of Duty series  I mean really, the people who thought Woods was the best CoD character were just the same idiots who thought that Black Ops was actually a good game. The allure I had toward the two was just an immediate thing and made playing the game all the more personal. On an embarrassing note, I would get so into the game that sometimes I would talk out loud like I was talking to Soap and Ghost. I would literally communicate with them while playing and going through the levels. Not to mention that I fell in love with Soap considering the fact that he met all the criteria of my perfect, war veteran, sweetheart. Another side note, I cried bawled when Ghost died. That scene where Shepard betrays you and shoots not only you, but Ghost in the face killed me. I sat on my couch, mouth agape for a good ten minutes and then tears rolled down my face as I realized one of my favorite video game characters was just shot and burned not only to die betrayed by a man they all looked up to, but to be left there and called a traitor, completely bashing their memory. It was obviously an emotional, video game moment for me, sorry not sorry. Side note: If you want to see some awesome Soap and Ghost cosplay, these two guys had this really awesome photo shoot of their costumes and you can see that here!

Along those lines, that plot though. The plot was perfect and not completely ludicrous *cough* Black Ops 2 *cough*. The fact that it all seemed so real and you watched as one of the most patriotic landmarks was burned to the ground was heart wrenching to watch. I swear, when you were in D.C., I got so patriotic and started screaming "U.S.A! U.S.A!" as I shot my way through the city that was once our Nation's esteemed capitol. And when you're in the burger place. That level was ridiculously fun. But I think the thing that hooked me was that, in a way, this was all somewhat plausible. Makarov was a brilliant villain and he made everything seem like it could actually happen. And the betrayal  I think that was the one thing that I knew marked this game in my memory. I didn't know that Shepard, who I thought was completely badass, would actually become my enemy in the end. That twist just completely shocked me to my core and I was so amazed and sad that it happened. I never knew that a video game would actually leave that much of an impression on me. 

And on a much more sentimental note, this game did a lot more than just take up time for me, it actually made me become a more proficient and avid gamer. Yes, in my childhood I played so many video games but I was never as active in the gaming world until I played this game. With MW2, I played online for the first time, I made my first online account, I became apart of a community, I discovered one of my favorite gaming websites/forums online and I knew that making video games and creating these amazing graphics and characters and plot lines was what I wanted to do with my career. It completely shaped me as a person and I owe a lot to it. 

So make sure to check back here at exploitgaming.blogspot.com and watch out for the next four of my Top 5: Favorite Games of My Adulthood!

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