What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid

Hey! It's been awhile. I've been taking a break from Doom, of course. The straw that broke the camel's back was the release of Borderlands 2 while I was trying to slog through Masters of Chaos.

Borderlands 2 is very fun. I think I loved TVHM even more, with the exception of shit like Badass Pyro Threshers. Playing a Siren, rabid enemies didn't bother me so much. It's way above and beyond the quality of the original in story and locales and all the crazy gun stuff, though I never got behind E-tech weapons, whose fire modes are just not what I needed on Maya. Handsome Jack is a great villain and the whole game does a good job of being goofy while highlighting an undercurrent of seriousness that's there for anyone who wants to really sit down and think about some of the darker stuff that goes on during your playthrough. The enemy and health bar variety in TVHM is a great way to enforce the importance of gun variety, even the much poo-pooed fire weapons, which are invaluable for taking down stuff like rabid skags and other high-HP but only red-bar enemies. The DLC isn't exactly as interesting compared to the original's (sans the Underdome) but still fun.

McPixel was a fun throwback to the 8-bit adventure games I grew up with, sans confusing text parser and multi-screen inventory puzzles. Sometimes I wish the game had more depth, as the two-click puzzles only involve grabbing an item and then using it somewhere else. As WarioWare as the stages are, an additional step would...actually be pretty work intensive, but certainly appreciated. Still, it was a lot of fun, even trying to gold plate that final bonus round.

I haven't finished Fallout 3 yet, but I'm most of the way through the main Story. It's a very different game than the other FPSers I've played, much slower-paced and truth be told not interesting combat, but it's the exploration that's the main draw, and if you want a realistic simulation of what it's like scavenging the assorted nameless areas in the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Washington D.C., then Fallout 3 is there for you. I love Galaxy News Radio and the little interactions you get with some of the NPCs. The levelling system is a pretty big "meh" coming from BL2, which just has more interesting powers all around vs. the somewhat more realistic DC wasteland. What really justified this probably year-old purchase was gunning down slavers on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Saints Row the Third is an absurd cavalcade of the goofiest shit wrapped up in a light package. The actual game blows by pretty quick but the surrealism escalates quite fast, with bloody cartoonish game shows, a paramilitary invasion, zombies, and Burt Reynolds. And the S&M horse cart chase, with exploding horse carts. And, well, you'd have to play it yourself to see. The plethora of side-diversions (streaking, car-surfing, base jumping, etc.) are cute but aren't really enough to keep the game going once you've conquered Steelport. Still, I enjoyed playing the comic-bookish anti-hero, what I'm assured is a departure from the previous two outings. And the character creator is a ton of fun to play with!