Feel the Game

A couple of weeks ago, I was remarking to Rhianna how much it made sense to introduce more complex haptic feedback to gaming over the next few years.  When the rumble pack came around, it was revolutionary.  At first, it was just a fun addition that added to the experience.  When your arwing was shot in Star Fox, you felt it.  And then, over the course of the next few years, the rumble featured prominently into many of the mechanics of the game.  Your controller would vibrate as you came closer to hidden treasures.  It would shake like a cell phone to let you know you received a message in game.  Rumble became refined enough that it could convey emotion in some cases, acting like your character's heartbeat.

But what if we've come far enough to enhance tactile feedback to all new levels?

"Yes, I do believe I'll be purchasing this game."

Enter Senseg: http://senseg.com/

This company is beginning the charge down what could effectively become the next revolutionary trend in the videogame industry.  Instead of simply touching a glass screen, you'd actually feel the textures and the movement of what was represented on screen.  In some cases, what you see wouldn't be what you got.  If you were, as an example, running your finger across sand, you'd feel sand - until you felt the presence of another object beneath it.

It could have applications beyond gaming, of course - someone who was blind could read a text message in braille, for instance.  But here, in the land of make-believe, all I can think about is the applications for my favorite pasttime.

On Senseg's website, they have an example on their opening page: Air hockey.  You'd feel when the paddle glided across the table.  You'd sense as the ball and the paddle hit against each other.  I'm not an insider, so I'm not sure about this, but you'd figure, if they learned to tweak things, you'd even be able to feel the subtle breeze that comes out of the real tables.

There are tons of other immersive ways to add this into gaming.  Specifically, I thought about Nintendo's new system when I first stumbled upon Senseg.

You're playing a game that requires you to explore your surroundings.  It'd probably some kind of point and click, so I'm specifically thinking about something along the lines of Zack and Wiki (a great game, albeit a little bit impractical at the beginning of the Wii's lifecycle, thanks to the wonky controls).  You know you have to look for an object in the sand - perhaps pieces of an amulet, or a bottle with a message in it.  As you drag your finger across the sand, it displaces the little grainy particles, until you suddenly feel a smooth texture beneath it.  Your character acquires the object, and it's because you felt it. 

Suddenly all kinds of options are available.  You could sweep leaves away from your view (this wouldn't work very well for the Wii U, as its tablet only has one point of touch with a capacitive input).  You could feel the curves and the slight heft of a chess piece as you moved it.  The sensation of water moving around your finger would be an unprecedented experience in a game.

Of course, this is only what's being talked about now.  Imagine all the possibilities that might be upon us in the next several years.  Sony recently applied for a patent on a controller that gets hotter or cooler depending on factors of the game you're playing:

http://kotaku.com/5951320/todays-best-discovery-sony-wants-to-patent-a-ps3-move-controller-that-gets-hot-or-cold

Some of the examples they gave: the controller get's hotter as your gun overheats, and it gets even hotter if your character is engulfed in fire.  There's room for plenty of other ideas here, as well.  Imagine your character falling into icy water, and sensing as the plastic of your controller adjusts to immerse you further into the narrative.

Of course, you have to tread carefully with that sort of thing.  You wouldn't want to damage the hardware, and you wouldn't want to hurt your customers.

Or would you?  TN Games (http://tngames.com/products) sells what they're calling Tactile Gaming Vests, that let you feel the game you're playing in an even more robust manner.  If you're playing Call of Duty, you not only feel the impact of gunfire, you sense what direction it's coming from.  Beyond that, you can tell the difference of the weaponry that's hitting you.  A knife slash would feel different than the bullet from a pistol.  The rapid fire would impact you in a much more rapid way than the brute force of a rocket blast.

And there are other routes that the industry is free to venture down, if they should so choose.  It would be difficult to implement, but what if you were playing a sword and shield game, and you wanted to be able to feel when your sword struck another player's blade, or their armor.  What if you felt a more robust sensation than just some rumble?

The possibilities are out there, we just need some geniuses to come up with them.

This is how I do: Mega Man

A couple weeks ago, I talked about how one of the most popular video game series of all time needed a breath of fresh air.  Starting now, I'm going to make a habit of it.

Today, I want to talk to you about one of the video game industry's saddest fallen idols.  Mega Man used to be one of Capcom's shining stars.  Even as recently as 2010, the blue bomber was making headlines among fans and critics alike.  He was even in the running for third party characters people were petitioning to be in Smash Bros.

Unfortunately, over the last two years, Mega Man has become a joke more than a pinnacle of gaming success.

"Oh hey!"

Capcom's most heinous flip of the bird to Mega Man fans occurred last July, when Legends 3 was unceremoniously cancelled.  This was right after one of their other MM properties, Mega Man Universe, was eschewed into the netherworld as well.

Clearly, the blue bomber is not in capable hands.  That's where I'd like my imagination to come in.

Rather than continue making follow-ups to established venues in the various Mega Man subseries, I would suggest that they reboot the series from scratch.  There's plenty of great ideas that the first few games laid out, and, to retro gamers, they've aged well.  To make Mega Man and the robot masters more welcome to a newer, hipper industry, Capcom has to prepare to move away from the formula they've established.

I'd like to point your attention to two of the lesser known franchise entries in the Mega Man series. 

In Mega Man ZX, player's took control of either Vent or Aile, and proceeded along on a very Metroid-like adventure.  Throughout the game, players would attempt to defeat bosses and collect bio-metals, which essentially function as the powers of the robot masters of the original series.

Similarly, in Mega Man Network Transmission, the game feels like a later Metroid or Symphony of the Night.  The difference with this game is that Mega Man was an executable program that you could equip with various chips to alter his basic attacks.

This is what the series needs.  The separate levels of the classic Mega Man series was great for it's time, and it's a good nod to gamers who love the nostalgic feeling, but it isn't pushing the franchise forward.  Rather, it's taking you a step back.

Mega Man is a series that could benefit from an open world where you could retrace your steps and collect secret items.  The concept could have worked well before Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night popularized it.  Every weapon you acquire could have opened up new paths to better equipment.  You could bring back the upgrade capsules that Doctor Light loved to scatter around the world so much in the Mega Man X series.

As I said before though, you don't start new.  If you want to give fans some love while opening your games to a new audience, you toe the line between old and new.  Use the bosses from the first two games, but scrap their levels completely.  Redesign all of the characters from the ground up.  Mega Man has not aged well at all, and making him a chibi doll with a comically sized head was not his fountain of youth.

"Mega Man acquired: Cranial Tumor"

If you really want to give the blue bomber to someone who will treat him with respect and passion, throw him to WayForward or Retro.  Both of these companies have made some terriffic 2D platformers, and they could give him a breath of fresh air that is sorely needed.

That handles the graphics, but how does the game play? 

A modern day Mega Man needs to start like the later games in the universe continue to.  Don't start on the level select screen (hell, in this hypothetical version of the game, there ISN'T a level select screen).  With so many gamers playing these days, you need a tutorial stage of sorts.  Throw Mega Man into a sequence that has absolutely nothing to do with Doctor Wily or the robot masters (ostensibly) that will eventually turn against Doctor Light.

Mega Man was originally created as a lab assistant for Doctor Light (names not withstanding).  If you want to go that route, explore the origins of the two scientists work.  Have humanity's villains trying to steal the work from the laboratory.  There's so many avenues that you can go down at that point, but I'll give you one as an example.

At this point in time, Mega Man has not been outfitted for combat.  He's specifically meant to handle small tasks around the lab that humans would not be able to carry out easily.  Our robotic hero has the ability to survive extreme temperatures on both ends of the spectrum, he can take an obscene amount of damage, and he has an excess of strength - though at this point, he has no real firepower.  And to top it off, he's in cryostasis. 

An organization of bad guys raids the laboratory, and starts on their plan: transporting the disabled robot masters outside.  Doctor Light arrives at the lab to do some voluntary research, and comes face to face with the burglars.  They throw a gas grenade to put Light out, but he manages one last act before he succumbs to the vapors.  Just before he loses consciousness, he activates the button on Mega Man's cryostasis chamber.

When Mega Man exits the chamber, he realizes what is happening.  Step 1 is getting Doctor Light to safety.  This portion of the tutorial explains the movement portion of the game.  You'll learn how to jump, climb ladders and dodge enemy attacks.  Upon exiting the laboratory, Light wakes up, and tells Mega Man that he has to stop the burglars from making off with the robots.  If they were able to somehow corrupt the robot masters, they could be used as a force for evil.  Of course, with no firepower of his own, Mega Man can't really do too much to slow the enemies down.  Light manages to describe the location of an energy blaster he was building for the city's police that runs on a self-recharging energy source.  It's in the lab, and it's on the way through the robot storage facility.  The map and quest system are described here (the map would be very similar to Castlevania or Metroid, where you'd see rooms as boxes - save rooms and teleports would look yellow or red so the player could distinguish them properly).

Mega Man continues to be on the defensive until he procures the blaster (a hand held weapon at this point).  After that, his quest changes.  The robots have nearly all been acquired, and they are being shipped out of the building into a truck by the freeway.  Megaman ends up giving chase and finally catches up to them outside the laboratory.

At this point, we are introduced to a new villain.  This guy is military, and he stole the bots to commandeer the city for ransom.  Mega Man moves to stop him, but out comes Guts Man from the back of the truck.  He's been tweaked somehow, and moves to attack Mega Man.

Equipped with a measley, underpowered blaster, Mega Man can't do much against Guts Man.  This boss battle isn't meant to be won, and once Mega Man loses 75% of his health, he takes a knee, and is forced to watch as the bad guys take their leave, Guts Man and the rest of the robots in tow.

Over the course of the next few hours of the game, you learn that the military guys captured Wily and are using him to augment the robots to secure various places in the city.  Light refits Mega Man with new armor, and amplifies the blaster that he uses so that it is a permanent fixture to his arm (his hand could flip and expand inside the blaster, leaving room for the muzzle).  The energy source is connected to his processor unit, which allows it to be more concussive and damaging.

Of course, as the game plays on, and Mega Man takes on the 14 robot masters from the original first two games, we discover that Wily is working with the military guy, who eventually is usurped by Wily (now that he's been financially empowered, he can do just about anything - like work on a huge, skull shaped fortress).

Sure, it's a little drafty, but the feng shui is awesome!

The big difference beyond the story is that each of the boss zones are connected by one major overworld level.  If you want to fight Metal Man, you have to go to the factory/foundry from the streets for the first time.  Once there, you gain access to a save point and a teleporter facility, but that initial exploration is required.  If you want to fight Guts Man, you have to go to the construction site.  For Bubble Man, you have to go off to the shore.  It would really freshen up the game, and give it that modern day feel that the series as a whole has been missing lately.

New Console Incoming

T-Minus 30 days and counting.

Don't get used to the frequency that I put out these blog posts... I'm not too sure I'll be able to focus as much as I want to in the next couple weeks due to work on my book and the game.

I just couldn't help myself.  Did you know that we'll be playing the Wii U in less than a month?

I have been waiting as patiently as possible for Nintendo's next system.  E3 2011 was like Christmas to me - there's always something surprising about Nintendo's new hardware, and I wasn't dissapointed by the idea of a tablet controller that amplifies the way that we play.

We know what it is, now, and we know what it's capable of:

• Two SKUs will be available on November 18th: a $299 model that's basic, and just comes with the system and the tablet controller, and a $349 model that includes a game, some accessories, and a discount to their premium internet service (among other things). 
• Nintendo is coming into the modern age with it's own answer to Microsoft Live and PSN with their Nintendo Network.  Whether or not it integrates well with the rest of the software remains to be seen.
• None of the games coming out with the system utilize a second tablet controller.  Nintendo is focusing on what they've branded asymetrical gaming - the idea of one person getting a different experience than the person next to them.
• The tablet controller is a nice way to remove all the muddy hud elements from your main screen.  While some people might find it jarring to move from the main screen to the one in your hand, it might make gameplay more immersive.
• The delay on the controller is less than 1/60th of a second.  For some people, that means the controller in your hand will be able to display game content faster than your television.
• One of Nintendo's least talked about apps, TVii, looks to be a nice way to integrate your streaming video services (Hulu, Netflix), your cable television, and your DVR. 
• The Wii U has one of the most robust launches for a new console.  While some of the games are coming late (Darksiders 2, Mass Effect 3) and others are multiplatform (Assassin's Creed 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2), this is the strongest batch of software that's launched alongside a system since perhaps the Dreamcast.

Personally, I'm very excited for the New Super Mario Bros. U, Zombi U and Rayman Legends, but I've also been patiently biding my time for when I could get my hands on Darksiders 2 and Assassin's Creed 3.  I wanted to experience those games for the first time on the new tablet controller and see whether or not they impressed me.

What are you expecting from the Wii U?  Do you even think you'll be able to get a hold of one?  Last time Nintendo released hardware, it took people months, almost half a year to get their hands on them.

Nega-Mike

I was hesitant for some time to begin writing this particular blog post because it vilifies a specific person.  Rather than omit my feelings purely to help one anonymous person on the internet save face, I decided to instead just let them remain anonymous.

As some who read either of my blogs may know, I've begun considering independent game design.  This was a very difficult thing to do because, truth be told, beyond crafting story, I have very little to offer to a traditional game design team.  What I can do is try my best at bringing together other talented individuals to make a game that I envision.  At this point, I'm designing the game by taking assets from multiple sources and trying to make something coherent, and, ultimately, enjoyable out of it.

It's also been revealed (I think) at some point, that when the time comes, I am going to reach out to the Kickstarter community to try and help the game with some final phase funding.  This includes making sure that the game is present with magnificent art and sound.  By that point in time, the game is going to be completely done on the programming front (at least in it's base form - I'm still toying with the idea of making secondary modes to add replay value).

Over the course of my time with various communities on the web, I came across another indie developer who is much like me.  He's a designer, first and foremost, and he has very little skill to speak of, besides a very, very silver tongue.

The big difference is, this developer... this Nega-Mike... has already finished and released his first game.  It was a wonderfully received game too.  Most people who have played it have nothing but good things to say about it.

Of course, this doesn't absolve him of a tremendous amount of douche-baggery.  Let me explain.

On Kickstarter, your main focus is creating a product or a service, showcasing it to that community, and offering rewards in exchange for funding.  Typically, the campaign consists of a video that displays your appeal to the intended audience.  They want to see you, reaching out to them, knowing full well that you need their help to make your product or service a reality.  If you're developing a product, it's highly recommended that you have a prototype ready to display in that video, or at the very least, through screenshots.  Screenshots can be concept art, however, so it's more beneficial to see a video in motion.

Every project is a story as well.  Your primary goals are to explain why the product has to be made, and, perhaps more importantly, why it has to be made by you.  Beyond that, it's also very important to tell people where there money will go.  You can't just pick an arbitrary monetary amount and hope that the Kickstarter community is going to side with you based on your desire to see your project succeed.  Furthermore, a little humility goes a long way.

Nega-Mike missed all three of these primal Kickstarter virtues:

First, when describing what made the game tick, the closest Nega-Mike could get was mentioning that hey, this is a charming game with original ideas.  In his original campaign on Kickstarter, he didn't have a prototype ready, and the video didn't show him at all.  It was only a mock-up of what the idea was eventually going to be.

In his second pitch to the community, he straightened a few things out.  His video was altered to focus on the request for support, though it looked even less professional than the first time.  In it, Nega-Mike looks like he just rolled out of bed and is struggling to explain the project (until it moves forward into an overlay, where he can read from a script).  The sound quality of the video is terrible.  However, his plea seems genuine in this iteration of the campaign, though he defends it vehemently when others begin to poke holes in the pitch.  He put very little thought into this Kickstarter campaign, and shockingly, the community, which is very wary, did go to bat for him.  I continue to be offended by how little he researched his own project's needs, and the terrible level of communication he still has with his backers.

Next, when he originally came to Kickstarter with his idea, Nega-Mike aimed incredibly high.  He asked for well over $10,000 for a project that, as far as people could tell, hadn't even made it past the brainstorming stage.  While it would have been a struggle to justify that amount as is, where the money was going was never distinctly revealed.  In fact, he never even asks for money beyond jotting down a goal in the first place.  He asks for people's support, but that's a very ambiguous request.

The second time he campaigned his game, he cut his request in half.  The price was much more reasonable, but he still was very vague about where his money was going.  He mentioned that he had a three person team, and that with the money available to them from Kickstarter, they would be able to cease performing freelance work for other developers and focus entirely on their personal project.  There was no distinction between whether that money was going to art, music, programming or anything of the like.

Finally, his lack of humility was his downfall.  I was so offended by how he was presenting his idea and his campaign that I actually began actively stalking this guy around the internet.  He heaps mountains of praise on himself, and throws away good advice because he's too proud to accept it.  His narcissistic self-entitlement obstructed his path forward for every single step of the way.  Beyond that, though, he aggressively insults anyone who tries to give him a golden nugget of wisdom.  Someone told him, "you need proper accounting" so that the funding goes to the right place.  Rather than say "thanks," and move on with it, Nega-Mike sarcastically insisted that the person who gave him the advice go to every person on Kickstarter with a campaign and offer them the same wisdom (he never did heed that advice - not entirely anyway).

It wasn't until I dug deeper that I realized Nega-Mike was actually a disingenuous assplug at his very nature.  You see, in his Kickstarter, he claims that he has a three person team: a designer, an artist, and a programmer.  It wasn't until after the Kickstarter closed that he went looking for a programmer to replace the one that had already decided to step out (during the campaign, no less). 

In his "for-hire" topic, he tells potential candidates various needs for the project.  Originally, he asks for 6-12 months of commitment of full-time, high priority work.  Keep in mind, this project ended in June, and Nega-Mike told all of his backers that he would have the game shipped to backers in October or December, depending on where you're looking on the project page.  Not only is his work ethic here questionable at best, but it shows just how he preys on the naivete of the people who are willing to support him.  Further, he offers his programmer a paltry 200 per week for what he describes as work that would have to be top priority.  He later changes his stance, saying that the work would be 4-6 months of part time work, but at this point, he is either revealed to be a liar at worst, or entirely unreliable at best.

Nega-Mike absolutely offends me, to a degree that I've never been while searching on the internet.  He misrepresents his project every step of the way, and when called out for his transgressions, he   does everything he can to hide the truth.  He doesn't meet his deadlines, he tries to rob his audience blind, and he's a gigantic douche about it to top everything off.

I feel torn regarding his project.  I know that over 800 people backed his game.  Part of me wants Nega-Mike's game to collapse, so that he realizes that he can't get away with this kind of treatment of people.  But I don't think it's fair for those people who supported him to be robbed blind of their money based on promises that he's still unable to fulfill at this point in time.

What it all comes down to, is that Nega-Mike is what's worse for the independent gaming industry right now, and he should be ashamed of himself.

No, Go On...

Of all the new shows that have popped up this season, Go On is probably my favorite.  I haven't laughed out this loud at something since Scrubs went off the air.  There's a lot of reasons that the show is tied for the number 1 new comedy this season.

Now, I'm biased, because I love me some Matthew Perry.  In this outing, he's doing Chandler better than Chandler, but there's some real emotion there beneath it all.  It comes very close to toeing the line of comedy noir.

As is normally the case, the pilot was kind of flimsy.  You could tell that there was potential, but it could have really gone either way at that point.  Over the course of the following five episodes, I can clearly say, this series is hitting home run after home run.  It hits all the buttons it's supposed to.

To top it off, even though Matthew Perry brings his best to the table, he doesn't steal the show.  The rest of the cast does an admirable job.  And let us not forget the writers, who are able to craft the hell out of this bright and funny new series.

I was pretty much convinced after three episodes, but this morning, when I caught up to the 6th, I knew for sure I had to advocate the hell out of it. 

Each of the episodes focuses on a specific member of Ryan's (Matthew Perry) loss support group.  You see, he's there because his wife died shortly before the start of the show.  Other people in the group are there for other reasons.  Danny came back from the war overseas to find out his wife had conceived a child with another man.  George is old, crotchety and blind.  Sonia is a crazy cat lady.  As the show proceeds, each of the members of the group work together with Ryan to figure out what's going on with life after loss.  It's an often hilarious and charming formula that just plain works.

One of the main reasons the series is working out so well is that it's not taking itself too seriously.  Yes, there's some deep stuff beneath the surface that the characters are working on (a lot of death).  But they make light of it in some very creative ways.  And of course, Matthew Perry being Matthew Perry doesn't hurt the show at all.

Comedy Gold.

Go On airs every Tuesday at 9 on NBC.  Except for next Tuesday.  Stupid presedential debate.

This is How I Do: Mario

Every now and then, you get this supreme notion of what should be changed, or risked as it pertains to a video game series.

In particular, there's been one idea that I have that meshes very well with one of the ones that IGN's Brian Altano talked about recently.

When Mario 64 came out, it made the biggest roundabout for the series since it jumped from Atari and Arcades to the NES with Super Mario Bros.  Since then, things have become slightly stale, with the exception of the two Galaxy titles.  They were a breath of fresh air, but you can't really go back to them without feeling like you're beating a dead horse.

You need to take what you have already established, with an idea like Mario 64, and expand upon it.  We live in a day and age where we can effectively see a seamless Mushroom Kingdom.  There doesn't need to be a hub world.  There doesn't need to be paintings or portals to jump into that separate you from one theme and the next.

Instead, let me explain what I think would be an interesting twist to the classic 3D Mario game.

The very first time you leave Peach's Castle, you can see the world stretching out before you.  In the distance, hills that you can actually ascend peek out over the houses of the people.  Some of these houses - and those that dwell within them - can be interacted with.  Many are there just to give a feeling of realism.  As you pass through the village, you can see a toad child chasing around a green koopa troopa.  As you approach the pair, you learn that the child is crying, and the koopa troopa takes off into the horizon.  You speak to the toad child, and are informed that the koopa troopa took the child's favorite tanooki doll.

This may not be the first quest you get, but it's simple enough to explain the parameters to you.  A quest-giver has assigned a need to you, and it's your job to deliver.  As Mario, you run out into the wide open of Mushroom Kingdom to track down the sneaky koopa thief.

 If you let the tanooki go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

That's it.  That's how the game starts.  You don't have Bowser kidnapping Princess Peach to start.  Hell, if you really want to produce a decent narrative, you don't even have Bowser show up at all for an hour or two.  You're giving Mario a chance to see the world through ordinary circumstances for a few precious moments, and then...

Bam.  One of the biggest airships Mario has ever seen shows up behind the darkened, smiling clouds in the distance.  By this point, Mario's already been awarded a star or two (the day and night cycle doesn't start until after the first few explanatory events are passed).  You know that you have to race back to the castle to save Peach.  You use all the moves in your arsenal to try and reach it, but you're just not quick enough.  The airship blows a hole in the roof of the castle, and Bowser, on an oversized anchor, descends down within.  We hear Peach cry out, and then in the next few moments, see the king of the koopas as he's winched back into the battleship, Peach grasped tightly against his side.



Not actual size.

I'm going to give you a bonus just for sticking with me this long.  If you want to give the game some semblance of linearity, lock certain things out until you acquire a certain amount of stars.  Or, if you want to step away from a dated method of blocking content until the right time, have it so the tried and true power-ups that have made Mario famous return in some fashion, but are unavailable until certain goals are reached.  Oh no, all the fire flowers burned up in a drought caused by one of magikoopas schemes.  Looks like you're going to have to go to the desert land and climb mount cliche to get a wild fire flower to bring back to the flower fields to plant.  Once you do that, they start showing up around the map in places that you would need them to advance.

There's the beginnings of your story and your game right there Nintendo.  You're welcome.  That's free.

Borderlands 2 is the Bomb

For whatever reason, as of late, I've been playing games that are way more casual.  I'll get the games off of xbox live, or something off of gog.com, but there universally not as "hardcore" as the games that are coming out for consoles these days.

I decided to remedy that last week.  I'm a very traditional impulse buyer, but besides a game that I bought for Rhianna that appealed to her ladygamer persona (I can make her pretty!?  AND SLUTTY!?), there hasn't been much purchased since... hell, I can't remember the last game I purchased before that.  But when I started seeing comments about Borderlands 2 on reddit, I was intrigued.  I had already played the crap out of the first one, and loved it, but for whatever reason, I wasn't sold on the sequel.

Bored at work one day during my lunch hour, I hovered around on a couple of the game boards, checking out what was going on with the game.  Nobody even really said anything detailed about it, but just hearing it over and over was like pounding in my head.  I decided to pick it up that day, and haven't regretted it one bit.

For the first few days, I was actually unable to wake up at a normal time.  My body was aching for more Pandora, and I had no choice but to mosey over to the living room hours before the buttcrack of dawn to get in some more playtime.  Despite the fact that I've been able to slow things down a bit, the game hasn't ceased to impress at all.

First of all, the writing.  It's not like it's classy - far from it.  But the persona of the game, all of its wit and charm, is one of the best, if not the best in the history of gaming.  Now me, I love my story as much as the next guy, but I've never liked the idea of sitting and waiting to hear the questgiver tell you why he wants you to perform his task so much.  In WoW, I would speed read through everything - I still learned as much as I would have through the formal communication, but at a much quicker pace.  In BL2, I have no desire to cut anyone off, because they're all so hilarious.

You don't say.

Beyond all that, though, there's a subtext that's clever and driving.  There's real emotions underneath the grit, the grime, and the cartoony feel of these characters.  I want to know what they've got to say, because I want to know what makes them tick.

The characters aren't the only major boon to this series.  The first game was a wonderful step in a new direction for shooters, and for RPGs, but it didn't really change the face of gaming through its story.  It was a dull grind (which I was ok with... that's what I signed up for).  After the weak yet arduous trudge through Diablo III's Sanctuary, I wasn't really keen on another grindfest.

The sidequests in the first Borderlands were quirky, but all of them were nearly exactly the same.  It was a very cookie-cutter game, and it got in its own way a lot of the time.  For Borderlands 2, the side-quests themselves have enough personality to drag you away from the main storyline for hours at a time.  On top of that, they aren't the same old "go here, kill this" quest that you're used to.

Not that it would have even been a problem in the first place.  You see, BL2 does an excellent job of managing its gameplay within the world that encompasses it.  There's one quest a few hours in that takes you into a sewer and...

Well, I'm not going to spoil it.  Suffice it to say, Gearbox was on the ball as far as pop culture went.  In the first hour of the game, unless I was mistaken, I saw three references to Doctor Who... or in some cases, Constable What.

As if the series didn't offer a plethora of customability before, the bonuses they offer you in this game are uncanny.  Not only can you slap your favorite shade of post-apocalyptica on multiple vehicles this time around, but you can tinker with your character to your heart's content.

I call this guy "Pimp Daddy".

Of course, that means that you can customize the way they look, not just the way they fight.

The gameplay itself remains largely the same as the first game, but they polished the crap out of it.  Enemies no longer watch you kill them.  They take cover, they roll around on the ground, and they make you pay the price for being careless.  But more than that, the enemies are dynamic.  The first game had a very shallow bucket from which to pull its baddies.  BL2, on the other hand, could throw so many at you that it's easy to lose track of the individual strategies that should be used for each of them.

On the replayability front... well... let's just say I'm a level 21 on one character, and I've barely done any of the main quests so far.

If you like the idea of a hybrid shooter/RPG, there's no reason not to get Borderlands 2.