Ass Effect or Mass Effect 3 Review

ASS EFFECT

For a game that vehemently denied any sort of gay gameplay, Mass Effect 3 made a 180.  I mean, the galaxy can be saved by a giant penis, you can romance any gender, and one of the possible endings is Adam and Steve (and some other dude) in a place very much like the Garden of Eden.  Let’s give a big, gay hooray.  All this however, is just rainbow sprinkles on the icing of the deliscious confection that is Mass Effect 3.

NOSTALIGIA EFFECT

If you have played any of the other Mass Effects and transferred your saves to the third installment this game is going to take you some wrenching situtaions that will pry tears from your eyes and cheers from your lips.  The galaxy is at war, a war it cannot win and the game pulls no punches.  People die, cultures are decimated and destroyed and worlds are shattered.  Your character, Shepherd, has been fighting this war for a while with a few companions and the galaxy has ignored his warnings.  Shepherd has seen friends die and so has the player, and these weren’t just red shirts; they were fully fleshed, living beings you have spent hours with (at least 60 if you played the first two games).  Shepherd has reached out and touched every part of this galaxy in big and small ways, you have done this, and Mass Effect 3 has not forgotten, and it will show you the progression.  It is fantastic and tragic and beautiful in small conversations or bombastic battle scenes the story is your story.

POSSIBLE EFFECTS

Even if you have never played Mass Effect before the game is very welcoming, allowing you to play as you like, not good or not interested in shooters then play it in story mode where battles are much simpler, bored with cutscenes and decision trees play in action mode, if you like chocolate in your peanut butter then play it in role play where you get to do both.  Add in different difficulty levels within these choices and six character classes that play very differently; the game loves you for who you are.  Everyone gets different variations of the main story based on if and how they played before, but even neophytes get a compelling story.  There is also cooperative multiplayer in which you play as soldiers fighting the war against the Reapers which is connected to you single player experience.

VISUAL EFFECTS

The game looks great, the locales are varied and interesting, moody space ships, lush jungles, the red sands of Mars; it’s breath taking and the Shepherd you make, male or female looks fantastic and stars in every scene.  The voice acting is top notch and the music very effective.  All around the game is solid and a pleasure for most of you sense (I haven’t tasted it, so…).

AFFECTION

Mass Effect 3 is a vision of what video games can be, emotionally engaging, mentally engaging, and a whole lot of fun.  If ever I were to use a tapestry metaphor I would have to with this game in that it blends character choices from at least 45 hours of gameplay, companions with humanity, personality and emotion,  meaningful character customization that allows you multiple ways to play, themes of friendship, heroism, war, and family, a stunning art style, and beautiful sound  into a breathing universe that is a wonder to explore.  Or, like a really cool tapestry with colors and pathos and stuff.

Choose Your Own Adventure

KINGDOMS of AMALUR review

In many ways it is your classic RPG, you’re the chosen one, the fateless one who can change the sad course the world is on, you can be a fighter, thief or mage, there are ogres, and kobolds, and brigands, there are forests and caves and swords and spells, and everybody has a quest for you to complete.  Where the game diverges is important, unlike in many RPG’s which ask you what you want to be when you grow up and you are stuck on that track until you complete the game, Reckoning allows you to play however you like and rewards you regardless.  Want to be a magic-using thief, or a warrior/sorcerer/ rogue, please do.  If you decide you want to specialize in a different kind of weapon or don’t enjoy shadow-slinking, fine, got to a Fateweaver and reallocate all your points to create a completely different build.  I loved this because I want everything; I want to see what my elf looks like in big, spikey armor, or what happens when I completely level up the fire spell track. Usually this means I have to try a different playthrough- not this time.  Being a rogue, which usually just frustrates the heck out of me, is something I can try for a bit to see how I like it.  It’s also friendly to new players or players who don’t like math and aren’t interested in finding the most dangerous build, if you find you made a mistake or miscalculation you are free to change it.  The system works really well, and all the possibilities are very well balanced, exceedingly well balanced, so I never felt like the game had one way it wanted me to play.

The world is bright and beautiful.  They went crazy with their color palate, the dark dungeons have glowing flowers and luminous glyphs, the forests are filled with plant life and strange creatures- not all of which are trying to kill you.  There are details everywhere that show the love and dedication of the designers, moving cogs that are in motion in the background, clever looking doors, animal and plant life that is varied and alive.  The world is huge, but it never felt generic.

There is almost too much to do.  Everyone lost a locket, or a child, need s help with giant spiders and ettins, or cannot live without ten scorpion glands.  My advice, ignore most of it, play the main quest and then go back if you’re interested in more.  Every character is well and fully voiced, and they do love to talk.  The factions’ quests where you can join groups who focus in specific disciplines and have their own lore are interesting and worth investigating and between those and the main quest you have got at least 40 good hours of gameplay.  Sidetracking on the sidequests makes the story feel fractured, and while many of them are compelling, they’re not compelling enough to get mired in as you go back and forth to find/kill something and return for your reward.

Kingdoms of Amalur:Reckoning is fast-paced and fun.  Every button does something immediately after you press it.  Combos are easy to pull off, and every weapon is a different type of gameplay and you can use two at once, like bow and hammer, or staff and sword, or my favorites the chakrams (yes, just like Xena had).  It’s a joy for neophytes and RPG veterans both.  Amalur is fun to explore, vast, and easy to put down and come back to; it’s a game that gives you whatever you need to enjoy it however you want.

Only Mostly Dead

NEVERDEAD REVIEW

Your arms come off and you can still use them and decapitation provides excellent scouting possibilities.  You’re cursed with immortality, you cannot die, and you are forced to live with regret over past mistakes and with your flawed self.  Wow, what a great premise for a game.  I want to love it because it seems like such a big win on the mechanics and story front, unfortunately it doesn’t quite deliver on either.

In the game you are Bryce Boltzman, a demon hunter partnered with a snarky, sexy (?) blonde who can only speak to you with disdain.  She is human; you are not, so it would seem the fail situation would be that you allow her to die which could have been interesting if she weren’t such a bitch.  Bryce seems pretty self-loathing himself, so maybe this isn’t a problem that was a game killer.  The combat is frenetic and set in interesting and well-rendered locales all of which are very interactive, you can hurt enemies with architecture you destroy- good idea, and makes sense because in many games you can destroy mountains, but that window or wooden door is impenetrable.  Damage is shown by combats effect on your body, like your leg is torn off, cool, no HUD, easy to read, fine.  Game should be great.

THE PROBLEM WITH THE GAME

If you play it play it on easy.  Combat starts as pretty fun, electrifying yourself, setting fire to yourself, or tearing off your own head to solve puzzles or engage in a battle.  You can use your limbs as bombs or turrets by ripping them off and throwing them strategically.  The fighting doesn’t stay fun, the camera is hard to control, and the fighting is fastpaced and from all over, so I never got time to really play with the mechanics.  By the middle your body is falling apart all the time which wouldn’t be a bad challenge except who knows if one hit is going to ruin you or four, plus there are these grandbabies that roll around trying to ingest your head and if they do then game over.  You can never stop grandbabies from coming; kill one it is immediately replaced, so now not only can you quite see what is going on and you have been neutralized in combat, but you need to find your limbs or wait to regenerate them while these babies try to suck you in- it becomes an exercise in frustration.  While there are many ways to adjust and level up Bryce none of them make you any more cohesive and all of this is made even more strange by the fact you can not seem to hold yourself together after one hit and your abusive, fleshy partner in a short sweater skirt has no problem withstanding multiple demon attacks.  The final boss batte is absolutely no fun.

Neverdead has so much possibility with a few tweaks in every area it could be a great game, clearer combat, more abilities and ability slots (being forced to juice up your guns or your sword is stupid when you area faced simultaneously with enemies immune to one of the other), give a little more depth or a little more camp to the characters, they hover impotently between the two, combat that ends up being button mashing because there is not enough time to process or plan, and less grandbabies.  It seemed like they thought the game was too easy so they made you fall apart all the time and then try to avoid little monsters in the midst of combat.

Neverdead is worth a cheap look and definitely worth a sequel, but it never reaches it’s potential in its first outing.  It is original and smart, but the gameplay can’t keep up with it.  It’s really unfortunate that Neverdead dies about halfway through and it doesn’t seem worth your effort to pick up the pieces.  

Rayman Origins Review

YOUR NEW JOYBOX

Rayman Origins is jubilant and joyful, ebullient and effervescent, vivid  and vivacious.  If asked to describe it more visual terms I’d have to say it’s like those shampoo commercials where they throw brightly colored limes, strawberries, and various types of melons through  a refreshing blast of water (which always makes this bald guy want to buy shampoo and get a fruity and possibly alcoholic beverage).  The game is a colorful platformer filled with personality and joy.

The characters are endlessly optimistic and covered in smiles, and the backgrounds are creative and motley.  There are tundras with fragile looking ice towers and architecture made of frozen fruits and canned food.  There is an undersea level with exotic and gelatinous tentacle life and colorful and dopey fish; there is a desert with boiling teapots and strings of chili peppers.  The game is all hand drawn animation and is in constant and organic motion one would describe as frolicsome.  It is hard to get upset with this game even when things get rough because of its cheerful, bouncy brashness.  Add to the vibrant visuals a musical score that uses everything from didgeridoos to banjos in happy melodies.

Anyone can play this game, even this frag who is easily frustrated with platformers.  It allows for a range of ability levels, for the practiced and experts there are added challenges, timers hidden areas, hard to reach collectibles, but the neophytes or clumsy  can run through the level just to see it and make it to the end.  When you fail you are immediately brought back to the beginning of the segment you had trouble with and you’re never asked to repeat long stretches because you missed one jump.  Co-operative play is fun as well; two or more players of various skill levels can help each other out and revive teammates who have made a mistake or experts can race each other or search every cranny.  The controls are responsive and feel right; I never felt cheated or wondered what I did wrong.  Each section of the world plays with the physics in a way that makes the game feel fresh each time, so the challenge lies in mastering that instead of being bombarded by more enemies or a series of perfectly timed jumps.

It is rare to find a game chockfull of fun and oozing joy out of every pixel.  It is a wonder to watch and a blast to play, and the price has already dropped by half.  If you are looking for a game you don’t need to analyze or wrestle with, a game you can play with friends, a game that feels like Saturday morning cartoons then you must pick up Rayman Origins. It is sure to make you smile.

MUSCLE MEN IN WIGS, KICK BUTT ASIAN LADIES AND MORE!

Mountainous shoulders, a gravelly voice, a dark attitude, and white skin used to be all you could find in video game protagonists, and don’t get me wrong, most of those things I love long time, but then they’d inevitably throw in things that threw me like a helpless and slutty female love interest. GAH! This trend has been changing to include different genders, different races, different ages, different body types and different sexualities.  In 2011 game developers have continued to expand the berth and reach of their characters; here let me show you.

Stereotypes used to be the only way we’d see anyone not straight or white in games, black folks spoke in street slang and were dressed as any 80’s rap star and their crew, Latinos were mostly ignored and when they appeared were gang members, women might be the smart librarian types who had a crush on you and worried for you as they fed you information about your goals, unless they were being kidnapped or running scantily clad and screaming from a whorehouse.  Protagonists were firmly in their 20’s, and never missed a day at the gym or their last cycle of steroids.   That is changing. Here’s a breakdown of what we got to see in 2011:

IT’S not as SMALL a WORLD AFTER ALL; race relations in 2011 games

ASIAN

Dead Island -Xian Mei was a possible protagonist, her accent was pretty dreadful, but she was a Chinese secret operative good with blades.

Bulletstorm- Ishi was a supporting character, best friend and cyborg, he was honorable, tattooed well-muscled, and after his cyborg implants struggling to hold onto his humanity.  He had no accent and acted as a reminder to your protagonist of the consequences of revenge.

Saints Row the Third- Johnny Gat didn’t last much past the start of the game, but he was funny, smart, sarcastic and ass-kicking, and he didn’t do one kung fu move.  He was Asian American and head of the Saints.

Portal 2- Schell was the protagonist, she said nothing, but gave me a very Ripley from Aliens feel.  Even when a psychotic AI was insulting her weight, intelligence and parentage while making her wade through a series of devious and lethal puzzles Schell didn’t debate her antagonist, insult her or drop to her level; she just got things done.  She had nothing to prove to no one.  She’s awesome.

X-Men Destiny- Aimi Yoshida is a playable character, a young immigrant who has found she’s a mutant.

LATINO

Shadows of the Damned- Diego “Hotspur” Garcia was the first Mexican identified protagonist I’d ever seen in a top tier game.  He was sexy, tattooed, kickass and obsessed with his penis and a fucked up white girl.  The game took his cultural heritage into its art design and really benefitted from it.

Saints Row the Third-Angel  DelaMuerte, a former masked wrestler voiced by Hulk Hogan.  He was obsessed with pain and testosterone, but had an honor code that was his own, a real Latin sensei. 

Saints Row the Third- Shaundi (?) I don’t know if she was latina, Italian, or other, but she kicked ass, had a harsh tongue, was fiercely loyal and took no guff.

L.A. Noire took place in 1950’s L.A. and made sure to include all the folks living in the city at the time giving prominent time to Latino’s and African Americans.  While the characters were not protagonists the game did give a feeling of racial views of the time and struggles  due to race.

BLACK FOLKS- ( I can not say African American because some were not African or American)

 Dead Island- Purna was a possible protagonist.  She was an aboriginal ex police officer gun expert.  I would have to call her The Original Aboriginal, because that is something I have never seen in a game.  Sam B was a giant black rapping brawler.

Saints Row the Third- Zimos, Pierce Zimos was a classic pimp who spoke in autotune.  He was done well though; he was who he was and made no excuses for it, the man loved the ladies, loved his style, and loved spreading love.  Pierce was your right hand man, intelligent, witty, a chess pro, stylish, sexy, just fucking cool.  Pierce was definitely a full person and one I loved having at my side.

Gears of War 3- Cole is a superstar, endlessly confident projecting optimism and bad-assery.  He was a football hero turned soldier.  He’s super cool and great fun, and Gears 3 they give him something amazing, a look into what he was and what he’s lost.  A look at what he means to others.  In the game he is the world everyone lost, the innocence and bravado where our biggest conflicts were on the sports field where we cheered our heroes on.  Cole is their symbol, he knows it and does his best to live up to it for them so their world is not so completely dark.  Fantastic.

Bioshock 2; Minerva’s Den DLC- Charles Milton Porter, a brilliant African American scientist in Rapture, was a great character, tragic, honorable, proud, lovely.  He did not bow to the pressure to be anything but what he was, he attempted to make Rapture better, and had a powerful sense of self that could not be diminished. 

Skyrim- Red Guard- Well, it’s a race and people in the game, some of them are even wandering the world.  Look, not everyone is white, and they didn’t make orc the black stand-in.  Good for them.

Infamous 2- New Marin = New Orleans- I don’t know if setting can count as race, but Infamous 2 takes us out of the New York City-esque cities in every other game and makes it distinctly southern, and in it are southern folks.  The game also references Hurricane Katrina.  Infamous 2 gives real love to the city of New Orleans by portraying it beautifully and showing other games there are other great places to set games.

AGE

Dead Space 2- Issac, the games sexy, armored protagonist is not twenty.  His age is unclear, but his hair is gray and he moves and interacts with the world as is he has lived in it and lost something.  He is not a soldier, he’s an engineer, he’s great.

Dragon Age 2- Keeper Mathahari is lovely. She’s the elvish Keeper of their lore and their history, their leader and protector.  She is powerful and gentle.  She is wise and motherly.

Uncharted 3- Sully is Drake’s best friend, companion and father figure.  He’s gruff and funny and sexual and sincere.  He keeps up with Drake, watches his back, guides him, but never feels like he’s found the fountain of youth- they let him be his age, spry and strong, but not superman.

Saints Row the Third- Cyrus Temple and Phillippe Moren are both antagonists and 60.  They are not feeble or addled or the but of jokes, and Cyrus you do not want to fuck with. Oh Silver Daddy Bear, can’t we just hug it out?

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record- Frank West is middle-aged, a little worn down, and round in the middle, but he is sexy and gets the job done.

GENDER

Games have often included women, but games in 2011 showed a variety of types of women.  Some of these women have been listed in other categories, so will not be mentioned here.

Dragon Age 2- Avelinne the by the book warior woman wo can do anything and falls to pieces when trying to woo a man.  She’s a powerful redhead whose physical endowments are masked in armor.  She’s hard and soft.  She is a loyal friend and doesn’t flirt with you.

                Isabella knows hows to get under your skin and into your pants.  She uses her sexuality to keep everyone off balance.  She loves her fluid sexuality, but doesn’t glamorize it.  It is who she is and she will not take pride in it or show shame about it.  She is a pirate queen.

                Merril is powerful, focused and naïve.  She blinds herself to the danger she is in sure she can control it, she goes against the wishes of her Keeper and tribe to try to help them.  She is sweet and gentle, but she practices the most dangerous type of magic, and somehowit all fits with her.  She is beautifully written.

L.A. Noire- June Ballard is a seasoned actress, charming and hard.  She has got her public persona, but she also has ambition and knowledge about how hard it is to be an aging woman in the industry.  She will get what she wants.  She knows fame costs and she’s been paying, but she will not show you her struggle only her sile.

                Jessica Hamilton wants to be an actress.  She’s 15 and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to be famous.  She shows herself as weak and innocent, but she is not.  She’s a young June Ballard.  She doesn’t need your judgemnet or morality.  She knows there is one way to succeed and if you’re not in the game you don’t understand it, so she’ll show you what you want to see.  She is young and incharge of her sexuality.

X-Men Destiny          X-men Destiny, like the X-men universe has a variety of strong female characters and these are represented.  While the game is not great it is obvious the developers loved the characters and universe and presented them well.

Uncharted 3 Elena the hard-nosed, headstrong and sweet reporter Drake loves, and Chloe the sexy bad girl Drake had sex with are both worth seeing.

SEXUALITY

 Dragon Age 2 Anders, the brooding mage, talks about his doomed man-0n-man relationship and will do you if you flirt with him, as will the sexy tattooed elf assassin.  Isabella will do anyone, and Merrill doesn’t care about your gender either.  

 Fallout: New Vegas Arcade Gannon will follow you in his sexy geekiness and talk about homo activities and for the ladies there is Veronica Santangelo.

A Closed World lets you choose your gender and explores coming out and gender issues.  If you haven’t seen it it’s free and it’s beautiful.  It’s also short a a flash game.  Find it.  Love it.

Dance Central 2 may not have explicitly gay characters, but they make no gender distinctions, and check out Angel- that boy seems pretty gay to me.

Skyrim- The characters make no gender distinction and you can gay marry any character able to be married.  No one in the world makes any bones about it.

On top of this many role playing games that allow you to choose and create your avatar do not make a difference between the genders.  Saints Row the Third lets you make a character, dress them however you like (your guy can have lady hair,  wear sexy skirts and heels if you like) which allows you any spot on the gender spectrum and at no time in the game defines your character’s sexuality.  Role-playng games allow you to choose your race as well, and Dragon Age 2 even has different family member character models to fit the look you choose for your character.

2011 shows us that more folks are being welcomed into games, more types of heroes exist.  It’s refreshing that we seem to get more every year and that they play larger roles and move outside of stereotypes.

Maybe I'm Not a Gamer

Maybe I'm not a gamer

It's a strange realization to come to.  the shelf in front of me is filled to bursting with PS3 games I have played through- most multiple times.  I have an Xbox360 as well. And a podcast. And a blog on video games.  I created a video game design course for high school students.  How could I not be a gamer?  If I'm not then who is?

It came to me most clearly when I was playing Uncharted 3, but it has been working its way to the surface like a splinter in skin.  I think I was shooting through another wave of enemies, annoyed about aiming and their fucking armor, and that I was a mass murderer, and I was remembering how I was just doing this before and hating it, but I just wanted to find out what happened, or if it ever got any better.  Then there was Batman Arkham City where I got tired of criminals being everywhere and me having to pay attention so I didn't get taken down while I was looking for a hot spot on my map that never manifested.  Bulletstorm- God! more folks to kill?!  And some voice in my head said, "Dean, these are video games.  You are hating the part of video games where you play them."  I gave that part of my brain the finger.

It was right though.  I only want the story.  I have been playing games more often on easy, because the fighting is my least favorite part.  Games where there is more to do after the story don't interest me.  I didn't touch the challenge rooms in the recent Batman games, nor do I much care about the extra stuff in Saints Row the Third (although there is some character dialogue, so I have played much of it).  Multi-player in games I won't go near, user generated stuff in Infamous 2- meh.  But I have played both Dragon Ages in more time then I spent watching TV this year.

So what am I and am I alone?  Can I be a gamer and not enjoy the elements of game in gaming?  I'm not looking for mastery, I don't take pleasure in challenging my fingers or reaction time, I don't enjoy a challenge.  I just want the story to unfold, I want to see a world, I want to know its characters, I want story all around me in every choice, and as soon as that is usurped by>insert quick time event here< or *more meat throwing itself in front of my gun* or !This boss can only be harmed after it x's and you y and then only by fire attacks unless it's blue!  I do like getting new powers and pretty new outfits, but even this is strange, because in playing Castlevania: Lord of Shadows, I repeatedly wondered why they didn't give me the cool powers to begin with, because fighting was no fun- I didn't think I should have to do anything to earn them.

What is wrong with me?  Am I what is wrong in gaming?  Am I the one insisting games be easier and ruining it for everyone?  Maybe I am or maybe I am asking that games work as hard as Portal did to encourage me to play, to experiment, to examine the environment.  Maybe I am asking for new tropes, and gaming to be a little more true to itself like L.A. Noire where I couldn't just mow people down in traffic and there was a gravity to each corpse.  I don't want more games where I'm a hero trying to save a wife/girlfriend/child/ city by killing thousands and being improved by their deaths.  I think we need to ask games to be more and not have three tricks and 17 environments, and not to have weapons and powers that really only allow us to survive the next level and don't change the gameplay at all.

I'm not sure if I'm crazy or an asshole, and I'm really not sure if I'm a gamer.

A Very SEGA Christmas

As children grow older, the magic of the Holidays fade into embers. Each one holds a different heartbreak when the wonders of myth are shattered by reality. The easter bunny never hopped, the tooth fairy never flew and Santa began as a marketing campaign by Coca-Cola. It's a crushing moment for every child when it's revealed that their parents have been lying to them for a lifetime. Fantastical tales lead way to mistrust during the inevitable tumultuous teenage years. But one fateful year in 1994, magic returned to Christmas for this teen.

I grew up an unabashed Nintendo fanboy since Santa got me the NES Deluxe set for the Christmas of 1987, at the tender age of 9. It had me transfixed from day one. The NES introduced me to Mario, Simon Belmont, Samus Aran, Erdrick, and a host of warriors, mages and heroes. I conquered King Koopa, Dracula, Mother Brain, and the Dragonlord with the help of my new friends. We spent countless hours together in my room, running through a seemingly endless stream of adventures. I thought the tales would never end, until high school approached in '91 and there was a new kid on the block. Sonic.

That blue ball of blast-processing speed had me green with envy. He had a slick attitude no one could deny from his edgy spikes to his impatient toe-tapping idle animation, looking at me as if to say, 'C'mon, I'm waiting for you to get off your ass and give me some speed.' From my first glances of the SEGA Genesis at a demo kiosk at Sears, my head was filled with golden rings of possibility. Shortly later we went home together, and I quickly forgot about those old friends, I had Sonic on my side.

Years passed and my childhood wonder gave way to grungy indifference. Nirvana was on the airwaves, and I couldn't care less about anything. Apathy was cool and so was I, while outfitted in an effortless flannel and Doc Martins. It was fun to lose and to pretend. Meanwhile, secretly, I was playing games as ravenously as the boy I once was sitting cross-legged in the living room inches away from the console TV. But I wanted more. Myst had been released in '93 and I was hungry for the next-generation CD technology, which heralded an age of limitless potential for gaming. Video-integration, massive storage, more game than you could ever imagine, it was all too much for me to take. Without a PC in the house, the new horizon looked dim. Even in the darkest times, there was a glimmer of hope far in the distance. I read an article in SEGA Visions about the upcoming game Lunar: The Silver Star. It looked like an epic journey, greater than Dragon Warrior, more grand than Final Fantasy, more moving than Ultima. That sealed the deal, I had to have the SEGA CD.

Throughout '94, I showed every article I ran across in my GamePro, SEGA Visions and VideoGames magazines to my parents. "Isn't that cooooool?", "Real Interactive Video!", "Hot Animations!", "I could play Dragon's Lair at home!" My tactics were anything but subtle. My poor, poor parents, what I put them through with my boundless admiration of video games. Persistence paid off that year.

Christmas morning of 1994, I popped out of bed extra early that day. The stockings were hung by the TV with care, and presents were wondrously wrapped under the twinkling lights of our douglas fir. My dad fixed eggnog in the next room and the house was filled with the sweet scent of nutmeg and cinnamon. My brothers filed in, wiping sleep from their eyes and took their places around the tree. Our living room was a Norman Rockwell portrait he forgot to paint. We all received a few rounds of gifts, socks, sweaters, and books.

Before we got to the bigger gifts, my mom handed out our stockings. I had one present within the oversized red fleece sock with my name emblazoned in gold glitter puff paint upon it. A bag of chocolate-covered espresso beans. Yum! I had recently developed a taste for these little sweet caffeine-rich confections, so I hurriedly opened the bag and popped a few in my mouth. Then it was the big moment. Our final gifts.

My Dad passed me a hefty box, and my eyes lit up brighter than the sun. Before he could say anything, I ripped into the package, and oh glory of glories, there it was, sitting on my lap. My next-level gen 2 SEGA CD! The side-situated one with the top-loading tray. I nearly leapt off the floor with excitement, and let out an extended squeal of girlish glee, to my older brothers' dismay. It came packed with Sewer Shark, which featured devastating digital video of live actors and explosive CD sound!!!! Sooooo cool!

Before I my heart could reach it's resting rate, my Mom handed me two smaller gifts. I feverishly destroyed the wrapping paper and beheld the wonder and majesty of Sonic CD and Lunar: The Silver Star. The whole reason I wanted the system to begin with was staring at me with glistening silver leaf detail on embossed lettering. True Role-Playing! A Boundless Love Story! An Epic Adventure! And Instant Classic! It was all too much for me to take in at one time. Through misty eyes, I endlessly thanked my parents, and retreated to my room where I began the real journey to the next level.

I closed my door, carefully extracted my future machine from it's box and gingerly placed it upon my throne of honor beside my genesis in my entertainment center. I turned on my franken-system and was greeted with a whole new experience, a menu screen with a satellite view of the Earth and the moon, and a pulsing rainbow-fill of the SEGA CD logo. Dazzled, I sat there and watched the logo flip, and rotate around the heavens. My buddy Sonic was the first one in the tray. My eyes melted as I beheld him rendered in full animation. Sonic boom, sonic boom, sonic boom, trouble keeps you runnin' faster. Wicked! After finishing off a couple of worlds, I remembered I had another present from my stocking that tempted my tummy, chocolate-covered espresso beans. Mmmmmm, rich, dark and delicious.

Then I popped in Lunar: The Silver Star, which began one of my longest continual journeys in video games to this date. I traveled to Burg to meet up with Alex and Nall at the memorial to Dragonmaster Dyne. I met all sorts of companions along the way, talked to ancient dragons and watched with heartbreak as my hometown burned to the ground. It was an emotional roller-coaster fueled by caffeine-filled nuggets of perfection.

I couldn't rip my face away from the TV, it was one of the most fantastical tales I had ever witnessed. And I was enthralled by the real voice acting. Everything else faded away for those hours, I didn't speak to anyone, I did nothing but stare at the TV and pop beans. My mother would knock on the door every couple of hours, "Jay, lunch!", "Jay, dinner.", "Jay, breakfast.", "Jay, are you ok?". I was better than ok, I had reached the next level, and the view from atop was paved with iridescent CDs glittering in the sun.

Two days later, I had destroyed Ghaleon and saved Luna from his wicked mind trap. Sonic had travelled through time to destroy Dr. Robotnik once again. The sewers were clean of rodents and my boss had a few sparing kind words to say. My sleep-depraved eyes had grown weary and my controller slipped from my hands. I turned the knob on my TV to the off position and the screen disappeared into a single glowing dot. Then I nestled under the covers and took one last swig of my half-full Coca-Cola bottle sitting beside my bed as I drifted off to dreamland.