Mass Effect has an involved story that can feel too drawn out at times, and rushed at others, but nevertheless there is a large chunk of story to the game. Action goes in spurts, often with long gaps in-between encounters, and there’s an almost dizzying number of side quests (assignments).

Darksiders is on the opposite side of that coin. The premise of the game, as well as the overarching story are engaging and well-written, and really pull you in, but once you’re there, it lacks any kind of depth. There’s not much in the way of side quests or bonus objectives, and, while it’s ripe with fighting, the encounters are largely filled with button mashing and mindless, repetitive slaughter of the same stock rotation of Hell’s minions.

So where do you strike that balance? There’s a large, gray area between complete, open-ended freedom that can become frustrating without any real direction, and a completely linear, albeit interesting, story that gives you a cut-and-dry set of actions to take at any given time. Somewhere in that gray area is a fine line, shrouded by the haze of the battling sides, but, should it be found, and walked with a perpetually calculating motion, a glorious game can emerge the victor, ripe with story and options, providing the user with variety and color, but giving them just enough direction so they can explore on their own without either being completely lost, or pigeon-holed down a straight tunnel lined with windows you can see out of, but never a door so you can experience what’s beyond for yourself.

An upcoming game that never really held my attention but is starting to now is Age of Conan. I like the unique classes and the potential that’s there, but I don’t know how I feel about not being able to craft until later in the game. The game looks a little bland in regards to everything appearing to be in a desert setting (kind of reminds me of Tabula Rasa in that sense). AoC does have the potential to really do well with its player-run cities, but those can be hit-or-miss. I’m still hopeful, though. If I pick it up, I’ll probably end up with the collector’s edition like I usually do- I’m a sucker for art books and in-game bonus items.

MMO’s aside, I have a slew of other games I’ve yet to finish: Doom 3, Final Fantasy III DS, Bioshock, Tony Hawk Project 8, Overlord, Dead Rising, Lego Star Wars II, and others I’m sure.

Following the link above, Engadget will soon be auctioning off the one-on-a-kind model for charity. Ben Heck also created the Xbox 360 Laptop, and, something I just learned, a Wii Laptop! I’m always impressed by how clean and “natural” his creations come looking. He also has a book out titled Hacking Video Game Consoles that I’d like to pick up some day.

Just.. wow. Some of the rag-doll animations looked too “rag doll-ish”, but it’s still unfinished and everything else is beautiful.

My buddy recently introduced me to Travian, a free online strategy game in which you build up a village. Simple but fun. It’s cool because you can take a few minutes to do some stuff here and there without having to play for long periods of time. Check out my village.

Vanguard fans, the server merge is happening next week.

I have not played enough of EVE to make a solid review, but I plan to play it some more over the next week or two and really get a feel for the game. I still wish upon wishes that Guild Wars wasn’t so boring; I’ve tried time and again to get into it, but it just lacks any kind of pull (aside from a beautiful world). Star Wars Galaxies had such potential, but they killed that real quick. Asheron’s Call is dwindling away after 7 some years in the industry. I hear Vanguard is pretty good, and that LotRO is worthwhile, too. I actually watched the Grammys with someone who was (is?) working on LotRO; that was really cool. (Oblivion is still fun, but it lacks human interaction being a single player title.)

(My writing felt really forced tonight; I’m out of practice :/)

(NSFW) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etVCUmgfMag

Entitled Internet is for porn, this is a World of Warcraft musical explaining why the Internet was born. Catchy music, and damn funny.

If you check out the above article, you’ll see that Multiverse is in talk with Fox Licensing to turn Firefly into an MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) Game. As Tim Buckley put it, if this is done half-assed, it would be an absolute abomination to the series. I’ve loved Firefly and then Serenity from the first time I viewed either, and the prospect of a game is intriguing, but I just hope they don’t screw this up.