While Sony has made several blunders in the current gen console war one of the biggest was allowing Call of Duty 4 to go multi-platform. The game has become such a runaway success that it could have single-handedly changed the face of the war as we know it. Perhaps equally as big was allowing Grand Theft Auto 4 to go multi-platform. Although the game sold about 45/55%  on the PS3 and Xbox 360 respectively, there are rumblings that the next installment in the GTA series may become a Playstation exclusive by default.

Wait, what the hell are you talking about?

As has been documented, Rockstar was notably unhappy with the limitations of the DVD-9 format on the Xbox 360 and how it affected GTA 4. As we’ve all seen though, both versions of the game are practically the same. The rumblings this time around though are seem to be much more boisterous. Early rumours have Rockstar threatening to not release GTA5 on the Xbox, but that begs the question: Why? Why sacrifice all the money you would undoubtedly make by only creating the game for one console?

Although one can never account for backroom dealings and shattered business relationships, there is really only one answer.

They want their game to be good.

Was GTA4 lacking on the Xbox 360? Of course not. It was Game of the Year. It recieved rave reviews across the board. But could it have been better? WOULD it have been better if it had only been released for a single console? Of course. This applies to any game released on any console exclusively though. What makes this time around special is that the GTA developers may in fact be willing to part with the extra revenue in order to better perfect their craft which seems absolutely ludicrous in our current economic standings. It is not to say that Rockstar would be the first group to sacrifice sales for art. It is however to say that doing so now could prove to be an earth shaking event that has an indelible effect on how Video Games are made.

In a world driven by profit, and in an industry not well renowned for being bohemian, this kind of move would be as surprising as it would be dramatic. A triple-A developer openly supporting both their own art and A specific console could sway other third party developers to do the same. It would also give other developers a comfortable “out” to abandon a platform they wouldn’t want to develop on for fear of not returning enough profit. After all, in such hard economic times, it’s surprising that more companies aren’t already doing this and attributing it towards a need for the betterment of the game as opposed to monetary restrictions. Keep in mind as well, if Halo 3, Gears of War and Metal Gear Solid 4 have shown us anything, exclusive games can still sell ridiculously well regardless of being exclusive.

That being said, the whole “pursuing art” argument could simply be an excuse from Rockstar after the fact. Rockstar has a contractual obligation to produce 3 exclusive games for the PS3 as reported by the Hiphopgamer (through an interview with an industry insider) and other sources. We know one of these games is Agent, another one of these games may supposedly be the somewhat forgotten L.A. Noire, a sandbox game set in the 1930’s. GTA 5 would probably be not all that different than 4 regardless of development time and console exclusivity, and if L.A. Noire is factored in, that would mean all of the three promised exclusives would be off the table.

If one wanted to be even more pessimistic, this could be seen as also be seen as a moving away from Microsoft has the prime conduit for producing games. Take-Two openly denied Microsoft’s exclusivity bid for Bioshock 2 while EA is now releasing Dead Rising 2 on the PS3. Capcom has also recently confirmed a concurrent release of Lost Planet 2. Along with a slew of exclusives for the PS3, this could seem very dramatic, but there are still a lot of positives for the Xbox.

Don't worry cousin, beeg American teetee's will probably come to all platforms (minus Wii)

Even though EA has clearly made Dead Rising 2 multi-platform, the status of Mass Effect is still up in the air. Microsoft also has Epic, Bethesda and VALVe onboard as companies who are much more enamored with Microsoft than they are with Sony. And of course, staying with the pessimism, Microsoft has one very, very big asset. A seemingly inexhaustible amount of money. Everyone has their price, and a company as rich as Microsoft can probably name yours.

Microsoft made Rockstar rich. Rockstar took at least 30% of every sale from the GTA4 expansion pack, along with the millions of dollars they recieved from the exclusivity deal itself. Ultimately, beyond all of this industry wheeling and dealing as well as speculation, it just doesn’t seem like anyone can resist the siren song of the greenback. Perhaps that’s why I find it so interesting that the such a bohemian notion can be expressed by Rockstar. Even with evidence showing that it could be legitimate and genuine (undoubtedly in the exclusivity of Agent), I’m still not convinced that such dedication to art can even exist in our modern day industry. If it does come to pass though. it might just spur on the innovation and advancement in the industry that some believe is lacking. And if this kind of innovation can occur when times are tough, imagine how sweet it could be in times of plenty.

Gameplay
Fallout 2 has a simple gameplay system, but it can be a little confusing at the start. The battles are turn based with an AP system (action points).

For example: you have 10AP, a punch costs 3 points, a kick costs 4, a shot costs 5 and walking costs 1.

There’s also the character building system where you must spend points in Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck (The famous S.P.E.C.I.A.L).

With this, you will be able to make completely different characters each time you play the game.

You can be a sniper so you can kill your enemy from afar, but if you prefer close combat, you can go unarmed and destroy your enemy’s chest with a punch, or train in big guns and use a minigun to turn your enemies into pieces.

Customization
S.P.E.C.I.A.L.

Strength
Basic attribute for pretty much everything. Increases how much weight you can carry, melee damage and HP. Every weapon has a requirement of strength that can modify your accuracy with it.

Perception
Important for many skills (Lockpick, First Aid, Doctor, etc.), this attribute determines how long and far your character can shoot without missing, and it helps you detect traps.

Endurance
Attribute that also modifies your HP, determines your resistance to poison and radiation, and it reduces the chance of fracturing a bone and receiving a critical strike.

Charisma
Attribute that increases the skills Barter and Speech, also determines the number of NPCs that will follow you. A high Charisma means more people are going to like you.

Intelligence
Intelligence helps you speak with NPCs. Characters with high Intelligence will be able to ask wiser questions and will be able to answer wiser too, and some quests can be finished only by talking. This attribute also increases the number of experience points won with enemies and quests.

Agility
Attribute that increases attack and defense, and influences most of the skills. It also increases the amount of Ability Points you can have.

Luck
Attribute which influences the gambling skill and increases the chance of inflicting a critical strike, but also increases the chance of random encounters.

The character building system also has traits, which let you choose two characteristics for your character like Kamikaze, Chem Reliant, Small Frame, Jinxed, etc. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages.

Story
You are the chosen one of your Vault sent to recover the GECK – Garden of Eden Creation Kit – which can transform even the driest desert in a rich land full of life. That is the main story, to know the rest, play it.

Every city has its own history and problems, it is up to you to help or not. The ending is open, your actions during the game can change the game’s ending.

Conclusion:
Fallout 2 is absolutely one of the best RPGs ever, it will give you hours and hours of fun. You can do almost anything you want! I’ve already beaten it 13 times, and every journey had its unique moments. It’s really hard to get tired of this game.

When Blizzard went to make Diablo, they had hired Condor Games in 1995 (give or take) to do the job for them. Eventually in 1996 they had acquired them, and Condor games became known as Blizzard North; all the while they kept toiling away, creating a game that would be a great hit. Let’s fast forward to the game; I’ll save the Blizzard Entertainment History Lesson for later.

Released on January 2nd, 1997, Diablo was an action RPG with a dark fantasy setting. Diablo is set in the fictional world of Sanctuary, in the kingdom of Khanduras. In the Town of Tristram, something sinister is definitely afoot. The opening sequence is bleak and very grim, instilling a feeling of hopelessness. When that finishes, you are kicked to the splash screen preceding Diablo’s terrifying laugh.

When you begin to play you are given the choice of three separate character classes to play. I won’t go too far here, but one focus on direct combat and taking hits, one specializes in magical ability, and the other is a ranged bow wielder. Though that’s what they should be, you can often twist the way you develop your character so you can have ridiculous archetypes like the melee fighter that can chain cast fireballs with ease, or the wizard that goes into combat with a sword and board.

Character customization comes in the form of equipment. There are multiple types of equipment to be found, and the best drops in a lustrous goldenrod color, signifying  a “Unique” item level. All this aids you in your main quest: Go below the town of Tristram, traverse 16 levels of Hell (Dante would be overwhelmed), and restore peace and tranquility to the troubled Kingdom.

Easy wasn’t part of the job description.

When you begin your travel, you may encounter a wounded man outside of the Cathedral who heralds the quest “The Butcher.” If you didn’t, you are lucky. If you did, you are in trouble. Having to fight something like that at the infant levels in this game is very, very difficult. Not to mention you may almost urinate when you hear his battle cry, and then proceed to book it out the door and demolish you.

Minor complaints aside, they handled the quests real well. The quests you get are randomly chosen, but in the end, it all brings you to Diablo.

Once you finished up the main game, you can opt to go through higher difficulties like Nightmare and Hell, or you can test the ropes online with random strangers or friends. Online is where this game shines since it offers a ton of replay value if you have friends to play with. Making friends out of strangers, though, is a possibility as well.

If you crave the short part of the review, here it is: Diablo is a unique type of RPG that offers vast replayability and a ton of fun. It’s a really inexpensive game, so if you want a distraction from life, pick it up.

Overall:8 1/2 stars out of 10.

Preface

Everyone has an opinion. There’s a rude saying that compares opinions to a part of the human anatomy that practically says one’s opinion is worthless. So why read any reviews? If you’re not a terrible cynic you may be able to pore through a handful of reviews, develop and understanding for what sort of lens the reviewer sees games with and define some sort of truth from the fluffy words of praise or harsh criticisms that would have no tangible value.

You might be thinking, “Get to the review already!” or “Stop wasting my time and give me your score!” but without a preface you may not understand the “lens” I see games through and how to get what you need from my opinions. If you really can’t stomach anymore though feel free to jump ahead and read the review.

So what does any of this mean for my reviews? Why should you care what I think? Some would claim that the big boys writing up game reviews on their ad-congested sites will proudly throw a bold ‘9′ to ‘10′ up for the right price. I’m the farthest thing from that. Not only am I not getting paid for a specific opinion (and who seriously would?) but I’m going to tell you exactly what sort of lens I look through when I play a game.

I’ll admit that I’m hard to please with games. Like many of you, I’ve played them as far back as I can remember, but they are a fierce passion for me. When I play a game and I’m up to my neck in “fun” or “frustration” a sliver of my mind, somewhere in the back, will ponder something along the lines of “This part must have been hard to code“, “They must have run out of time and rushed this part” or a multitude of similar thoughts.

General Review

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations! I apologize if the previous four paragraphs felt unnecessary but hopefully that was ample preparation for this review.
Fallout 3 is an ambitious, sandbox game similar to Bethesda’s previous well known title, The Elder Scrolls series. In this game you play the “Lone Wanderer”, a former vault dweller, who has left the safety of his subterranean home to find his father in the post-apocalyptic wasteland that was once Washington D.C. This game offers you a lot of freedom, so much that if the player chooses, the ultimate motivation may end up not being to search out your paternal unit but to abandon the main story and romp about the wasteland doing what they please. Best of all, the player even gets to decide what their character looks like and wears.

As is the tradition of RPGs, Fallout 3 features stats, which are called skills in this game, that dictate your proficiency in using and repairing of weapons and armor, communicating and bartering with people and a plethora of other factors that influence your game experience. While the player can sneak by, outwit or run from danger the game is primarily a shooter.

With the charm and immersion offered from this bleak but fleshed-out world, along with the flexibility in play style and the ease of the VATS (Vault-Tech Assisted Targeting System) the game should have no trouble appealing to anyone above the target audience age (16 and older in the U.S.) The violence, gore and demoralizing wasteland is not for the young or weak at heart.

Some players end up not only molding their respective characters’ abilities, but their identities as well. After spending hours in the Wasteland and making choices time and time again the players’ gestalt realizes a character (hopefully) as real as the world Bethesda Softworks has presented.

The Basics

Visuals – They’re good. Whether you can get to see all the fancy bloom, water, light and shadow affects depends on how powerful your PC is. I can’t really tell you what it looks like on the Xbox 360 or PS3 but I imagine it’s no slouch. In the post-apocalyptic world your color palette is somewhat limited to various shades of worn and ruined yellow, grey and brown. For the areas that do not sport these melancholy hues the game uses a filter that makes the entire world look aged. Some people like this artistic choice while others don’t. Personally, I got used to it and forgot about it.

Gameplay – Plenty of freedom and fun. When I couldn’t outwit someone verbally or swipe a key from their pocket I would reload my game just to see how many ways I could get around a conflict. This was even something I’d do for combat. When approaching an enemy I’d try settling the dilemma by running in firing my assault rifle, decimate the entire room with explosives or (my favorite) my opponent with a single well-placed rifle shot.

Sound – It’s okay. I’d like to praise the sound design of this game but can’t do so in good conscience. The music fits the dramatic tones and futuristic 1940s themes and the sound effects are never that distracting or irritating. My dissatisfaction rests primarily with the voice acting. Liam Neeson does a great job voicing the player’s father and a few of the other voice actors delivered believable performances. I understand that when you’ve got as many characters as this game has and ALL of them speak, time and money quickly run out. However, this does not excuse the awkward acting and repetitive voice clips. Such flaws not only chip away at the player’s immersion into the game but they are annoying,

Score

I don’t like the idea of trying to quantify something as abstract as the experience of playing a game. Instead, I use what I like to call the AUSE system. Each letter in AUSE represents a level of enjoyment, as delineated below.

A – Awful

U – Unsatisfactory

S – Satisfactory

E – Excellent

I really do hope you read my preface, because you still might find yourself a bit confused even if you have.

Fallout 3 – Awful

I really wanted to give this game at least a Satisfactory but, after discovering the presence of a multitude of bugs (both small and large) and flaws, I can’t rightfully say it’s satisfactory. After installing the recent update I experienced AT LEAST two crashes a day and in my search for answers, I found that a large number of people were wrestling with similar or worse frustrations not just on the PC, but also with the XBox 360 and PS3 versions. One mission in the main storyline was almost completely broken and I was only able to get past it after cleverly working around it. Even before the patch I found myself opening up the console and learning commands to fix the problems that were left in the game.

I have Bioshock on my computer and, despite experiencing many drops in frame rate and choppy sound, it never crashed. These show-stopping bugs in Fallout 3 were not a result of my computer’s inability to run the game but rather some very poor coding.

I’m sorry Bethesda, but I can’t save Big Town if you’ve given me no robots to repair.

I’ve worked as a Quality Assurance Tester and have studied game design. Not only does Fallout 3 have more bugs than a suspiciously cheap motel but  the game designer seems to have forgotten their number one responsibility, “Be the advocate for the player.” For example, like most modern game developers, the designer failed to realize that not all gamers own a HD set up so the tiny menu text is nigh unreadable. I’m looking at you, Dead Space.

So, in the end I choose Awful over Unsatisfactory for one reason. If Fallout 3 were an eagerly anticipated car that had a broken fuel gauge, a radio that gets only a few stations, no air conditioning and an engine that gives out at one point in your commute or whenever it feels like, it means the car wasn’t properly manufactured. It is particularly reprehensible when hundreds of people, if not more, encounter these flaws, especially when they paid for what they were led to believe was a finished product. Giving us a new coat of paint and seat covers (in this case, downloadable content) isn’t going to fix any of the existing problems.

The ending sort of sucks too.

N is an indie computer game developed by Metanet Software. It’s 100% free, and for a free game, it packs a hell of a lot of content. The levels are each unique and challenging and what I truley love about this title is that it’s just pure platforming. No storyline, no background story, no cutscenes, no bullshit. Just pure running and jumping.

So you play a ninja, or ninja shaped man-person, and your goal is to get to the exit door. Sounds easy enough right? Well now throw in some switches and buttons and some frustrating enemies, and hey, you have N. The enemies are very well designed, and well suited for each level, and the challenge each enemy offers is unique and often times frustrating. You have: Automated Robots, Lock-on Robots, Lock-on Missiles, Targeting Lasers, Snipers, Steel Thwomps, and Sliding Rocks. All of these can kill you, and you can’t do a damn thing about it except dodge and run. That’s what makes N unique from other platforming games, in most games you have the option to eliminate enemies, in N you must run to survive. Oh yeah, don’t forget the landmines, sit there waiting for you to fall or jump into them.

The levels range from a piece of pie, to a walk through the bowels of hell, and I wish I was kidding, some of the levels are so timed that it may take you 100 or more times to beat that single stage. Despite the complexity of some parts, each level is well designed in the way that it’s completely beatable, and it’s open to be beaten as you like. You wanna be that risky mofo that runs toward danger? That’s fine, you’ll still find a way to beat the level. You wanna be the cautious kid that takes it slow and logically? That’s fine too, you’ll probably do better than the risky mofo.

Top off all this platforming with some user-based content, and you’ve got yourself an A+ game. That’s right, you can access other people’s levels and play extra levels just for sheer fun. There is a huge range of levels to play, and level types range from ridiculously difficult, to do nothing to win, to even art created with blocks.

If you want to take N a bit farther, or you want more platforming goodness, there is also N+, available for the PSP, DS, and the XBL marketplace. With N+ you get portability to platform in the game, while you platform in real life, and more original content. Though N+ is not free, the game completely deserves it’s price. Either way, if you enjoy platforming, N or N+ should definitely be one of the titles you check out.

F.E.A.R. is in fact not a horror game, but a first person shooter with paranormal and horrific undertones, you’ll run into the occasional freaky occurrence here and there but it’s more shooter than anything else. That being said, the game is still pretty creepy with random occurrences of ghosts or demons popping up and voices being heard. However you don’t feel this creepiness throughout the game, actually when you are in combat, you feel none of it, the paranoia becomes fun for a while.

The scariest or creepiest parts of F.E.A.R. lie completely in the sounds, and the lighting. Even when you are not in combat there is intensive music playing, and often you’ll find yourself jumping at bit at sounds of yourself moving and sounds of the environment. There were many times throughout F.E.A.R. when I jumped because of my own shadow, it’s unnerving.

The combat is your standard FPS configuration: run, duck, shoot, rinse and repeat, but F.E.A.R. does have some notable weapons. Aside from the regular submachine gun, the usual pistol, and the typical shotgun (which you will use a lot), there is a particle blaster, a repeating air missile gun (my personal favourite), and a nail gun. The gunplay is fun but horribly repetitive, and it’s very possible to become bored of the firefights by the end of the game. Monolith does occasionally through in a mech or a super solider fighter here and there but it’s again the same kind of fighting.

The graphics are good for their day and age, though there are some performance issues like frames per second drops during graphic intensive times, but overall F.E.A.R. plays well. The environments are overly repeated and sometimes it feels like the developers simply copy and pasted parts to make a level. However, one thing this game does excel at is it’s level design, there are times (often in later levels) where the path isn’t so clear, and you have to look around a bit more to find the right way to go, but this is vanquished by the linearity of the levels, there is only one path, and if you stray from that path you will either a. die, or b. hit a wall.

Despite all of the game’s flaws, the story is wonderful, even if it is broken up into minuscule pieces until the end of the game. This was something I had a problem with, there was no even flow of story coming. Throughout the levels you’d find pieces of data that act as background information for the game but you never really get a full blast of what’s going on until the end of the game.

If my judgment sounds straying it’s because the game has lots of up points and down points. F.E.A.R. is a great game, but with some fixing it could be much better. Overall I’d call it an average title, so if you have nothing else to play, you can pick up F.E.A.R. and not be disappointed, but if this game was still at retail value I’d say it wouldn’t be worth a full buy. I heard F.E.A.R. 2 is more polished than F.E.A.R. 1, so I will have to check it out and report back.

Moving at the speed of the internet, a video leaked to youtube with a trailer for Dead Rising 2 has prompted Capcom to confirm that there is a second Dead Rising game in the works and that it will be on the XBox 360, PS3 and the PC! You can see the aforementioned video here

This time around it looks like the protagonist is clearly not Frank West, but some similarly strong chinned man that fancies matching his hair with his sporty bike jacket. The zombie infested mall sandbox has been given a theme swap and now puts the player in some sort of luxury resort casino called Fortune City.

Dead Rising was developed and distributed by Capcom, Dead Rising 2 will still be distributed by Capcom but developed by Blue Castle Games, a developer that until now has only made a few sports games. As with all fast breaking news, details are still scarce but when it’s considered that the first Dead Rising has established a fan base and Dead Rising 2 will be multi-platform there’s little reason, other than Blue Castle Games’ repertoire, that it won’t play or sell well.

First of all, what do these casual games have anything to do with us ‘real’ gamers? Veraliis suggests that for some reason gaming becomes less fun because his grandmother is playing Peggle. Really, I don’t care at all. If I play a game because of my e-peen, I’ll at least compare myself to others that play the same game, not people that are playing an entirely different game.

Secondly, it’s not like there are suddenly less real games coming out because of these casual games. Almost all developers that make these games are new to the market. There are almost no renowned developers making flash games or easy downloadable games, unless they have already been doing so from the start (PopCap, for example). Most developers that make these kinds of games are new to the market, just looking to make a couple of bucks and using video games as a medium. These are honestly not interested in video gaming, but just see it as a business. They will never make real games, and will continue to pump out bad games until they stop making a profit.

10/10, best game of last year

So Veraliis, could you please tell me how casual games are destroying the PC? It’s the medium that’s probably suffering the least from the fad of casual games. Other systems suffer from renowned developers, like Ubisoft, making bad minigame collections or amazing Imagine games. Have you ever looked at the shelves of the Wii in a game store? At least 50% of it is pure, unfiltered crap. And do you know why? Because the Wii hasn’t got a download service for new games. You can just download your crappy games from the internet on your PC, but for the Wii you have to buy them.

The flood of casual games can be annoying, yeah. But it’s never more than a minor nuisance. The PC definitely isn’t dying because of this.

PC Gaming: First off, the price tag: the make or break point. PC gaming is expensive, but not as costly as everyone would lead you to believe. Many people who criticize the PC’s hefty price tag are often not aware that it will only cost about $600 dollars to make a good gaming PC, and maybe not even that, if you simply need to update a few old outdated parts. For example, a good solid graphics card that I found that will be able to play Crysis on a good frame rate (45-50 fps) would only cost me about $160. Plus, a decent sized Hard Drive should only cost about $40, and by decent, I mean about 500 GB. Getting away from the hard ware, another factor is how the actual games play: often, this is the part where people can get COMPLETELY biased. Many people will use the keyboard and the mouse for the PC controls, my preferred gaming setup. However, it’s easy to see why some people like controllers better than keyboards. For example, one argument for the keyboard is hot keys anywhere. On the controller, games will often allow hot keys, but you don’t really have the advantage of using any key for access to one of your guns. On the other hand, it can get a little confusing if all you use are hot keys.

Console: Ahh, the good ol’ console. I have a lot of childhood memories on these things; like Majora’s Mask, my favorite game ever, Mario 64, Goldeneye, Banjo-Kazooie…ahh, memories. Enough of the nostalgia goggles, time to get onto the meat. Just like I started out the PC argument, I’ll bring up price: console wins this one. With both the 360 and the Wii available for $199, it’s easier to afford gaming. Plus, you can also buy games used, making it easier for you to afford rent. On the other hand (other hand is available for everything.), PC has Steam, which has a lot of deals going on all the time. For example, recently, Half-Life was available for $0.98. The Orange Box is now available for $30. Plus, you can install multiple times, directly onto your Hard Drive, never having to worry about the hassle of discs scratches. If you have a 360, or a PS3, then you will probably have friends to play with (not saying PC players don’t have friends), for many reasons. For one, it’s cheap, and, people will prefer consoles for online gaming as they don’t have to worry about computer specs (not that it’s confusing), and of course, money. Money money money money money. Consoles will have access to some pretty cool multiplayer games, almost as cool as the PC games, because developers tend to cater to them. Bigger market = MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY. MONEY.

In conclusion, I personally prefer both choices. Gasp, I own both a gaming PC and a 360, plus a Wii. In the end, you get your games, so either choice is fine. You should upgrade a PC every 5 years, and a new console comes out every 4-5 years, so it all works out either way.

Review done during v0.28.181.40d.

Dwarf Fortress

What do you get when you mix ASCII graphics, short, angry people, a complex system that allows you to construct entire towers made completely out of fat, and a user interface so unintuitive it’s like pushing the fat kid into a pool of molasses? You get the sadistically awesome game known as Dwarf Fortress.

Before I begin this review, I would like to point out the game is still in alpha, meaning it is nowhere near complete. The user interface and graphics are one of the last things that are going to be updated, as well.

Gameplay: 9/10 Gameplay should be the most important aspect to any gamer- After all, you play games to enjoy yourself, possibly through the enjoyable plot, the fast-paced action, or seeing the fruits of your labor. In Dwarf Fortress, it’s all about living as long as you can: fighting past the wilderness at first, to try to battle off slowly growing larger waves of goblins and kobolds, before your entire fortress collapses in on itself. In this regard the game is very fun for people who enjoy micromanagement: There’s always another problem that needs to be fixed, and the constant upkeep you need to do is part of the fun. Some of the fun is learning what does what in the game’s world- I’d mention some, but that would just spoil it.

Replayability: 9.5/10 Considering that every dwarf, every piece of landscape, every story is randomly generated, there is nigh-infinite replayability here. Once you understand the game’s mechanics it’s fairly easy to properly set up a fortress, and the only things in your way from having your fortress last forever is your own mistakes and your computer’s ability to handle so many dwarves running around. A major part of the game’s replayability is challenging yourself; such as building an artifical waterfall or messing with temperatures and causing a catsplosion. However, without challenging one’s self, the game becomes a monotonous grind.

Music: 3/10 The game only has one or two pieces in it’s entirety, a single guitar bit that goes on for about five minutes before looping. It’s not bad and it fades into the background after a while, and you can simply turn the sound off if you’d like. A larger variety would be nice, but the current song is fairly appropriate. To be fair, the game is still in the alpha phase, and this is one of the things added later in a game’s development.

Graphics: 2/10 As we all know, graphics are what most people first see when they hear about a new game, and in that respect Dwarf Fortress currently fails. The dwarves are represented by smiling faces, and every creature a symbol that can be typed. Sometimes multiple creatures are represented by the same letter, which can confuse players who just want a quick glance at the enemy (because they’re ALWAYS enemies). However, long term players claim to be able to see past the bad graphics and tell what it represents, claiming that it exercizes creativity when they imagine what the scene before them looks like. While it’s true you could get used to the ASCII graphics, most gamers don’t wish to do so, and may turn away before they find out more about the game.

Overall (Not an average): 8.5/10 If you’re a fan of micromanagement and can handle odd visuals and a single song, then Dwarf Fortress is a game for you. You’ll spend countless hours digging out rooms and creating cat launchers, exploring all the odds and ends of this strange game. However, if you’re not a city building fan or don’t like the ASCII graphics, then this will not be the game for you. However, considering the price- Free- It’s worth a shot!

Short Version:

Pros: Interesting, complex, great fun once you understand the interface and graphics. Any issues with the game and you can tell the game maker himself about it- Where it’ll get fixed with the next update, if it’s an easy fix.

Cons: ASCII graphics may make some people shy away from the game, unintuitive gameplay, high learning curve, a few bugs.

Dwarf Fortress is available here. For more information on how to play Dwarf Fortress, check the Dwarf Fortress Wiki.