A little over a week ago, I started playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order on the Nintendo Switch. I'm "late to the game" on this one, but better late than never, right? I heard about this game only because I hadn't used my Switch in over a year, and my friend Meg expressed a desire to continue to play a Breath of the Wild game she'd started about a year earlier. So, as I watched her play the game, I looked online for anything that might play more to my interests. I've always liked cooperative games (games you can play with other people in the same room as you) to ones that you play alone on a computer or a game platform like the Nintendo Switch. And that's when I discovered that waaayyy back in 2019 (before Covid was even a thing...can you imagine?) this game came out and was rabidly enjoyed by its fanbase. So, I bought a copy and started playing it with friends. And I'm here to tell you that I've had SO MUCH FUN.
If you're a comic book fan, you really should give this game a go. You can play up to 80 characters in the Marvel universe, and like I said above...you can team up. Each character starts out with a pretty basic superhero package, but you can level your character up by performing cooperative missions called "Infinity trials" and unlock all kinds of nifty stuff. There's a whole laboratory section of the game that you can go into to further customize the synergies and power that your four person team can do. If you pick characters that have similar abilities (Hulk and Thor for example are both "heavy hitters") this allows you to synergy your attacks together for spectacular amounts of damage against the foes on the screen. The game also has a level cap of (I think) 300, and you start out at level 6. So...you can play for a really long time, and there's always more to explore. My friend and I have been playing a game for over a week now and we are like level 35 now, which shows you just how far we are into the game.
Right now, I'm alternating between Spiderman, a hero called Crystal, Wolverine, Captain America, and Nightcrawler. I've wanted to play Doctor Strange, so I'll probably play that character next, but we just unlocked Cyclops and Colossus so those are strong contenders for wanting to explore. If you think that most video games might be too complicated for you, and you are intimidated...I would say, "I think that this will not be a problem with Ultimate Alliance 3." The reason: both Meg and I are old fuddy duddies, and we don't have the best response time on the controllers. So we play on friendly difficulty level.
Aside from that, the strategy of playing comes more from timing, team composition, energy management, and just dodging enemy attacks. There are no fancy button combos to memorize or special attack patterns to use on the joystick. There are also some really challenging puzzles, and some mechanics that you must use in order to bring down bosses. One of the more difficult bosses that we faced was Dormammu in the Dark Dimension. You had to hit him with rocks that you picked up, but you needed to charge the rocks with Dormammu's own attacks before you threw them at him, or they would do no damage. So that was a lot of fun, once we realized what we had to do.
As for the story, it is a ton of fun. The big bad is Thanos, and he's trying to collect the Infinity Gems. In this alternate universe, the Infinity Gems are scattered through the cosmos and we are trying to get our hands on them before Thanos and his Black Order can beat us to it. I imagine that there will be a pretty incredible boss fight with Thanos before this is all over. There were also three expansion packs that are available for the game that I purchased and downloaded. These unlocked the Fantastic Four, some more game to explore in Doctor Doom's kingdom, and a bunch of new abilities and alternative costumes for characters.
Anyone else out there own a Switch? If so, have you played Ultimate Alliance 3? Please let me know in the comments.
Man Eater, a shark video game coming out that echoes the shenanigans of Grand Theft Auto, allows you to play the role of a shark going about eating people and doing "shark things." I've got to admit that I'm intrigued. I've been afraid of sharks all of my life, but there's something mesmerizing about watching this shark just chomping people and things pretty much 24/7. Check out the trailer below from the E3 2019 gameplay.
The shark is huge too, like probably the size of a school bus. I think that just makes it that much more fun to want to play. At about the two minute mark, this shark just jumps onto a boat with no hesitation, tail whips a person into the shadow realm, then jumps onto another boat 20 feet away like it was Batman... the realism in this game is amazing and terrifying.
Also, as an open world RPG, I think you could choose to be a good shark or a bad one. Always killing people (for example) has its negatives in that people start to hunt you (not that you can just take them out in huge numbers), but I'm sure they'd eventually get you. I also love that there's a meter that measures how much you are actually terrifying the local population. Yet, even at its highest setting, I bet there are people that still go for a swim.
It just wouldn't be fun otherwise.
How about any of you reading this post? Ever have a desire to be a shark?
Has anyone else noticed that the Batman's costume is becoming more and more reminiscent of something you'd find in HALO or another first person shooter? Take for example this latest iteration done by Kingdom Hearts creator and Final Fantasy designer Tetsuya Nomura:
What you're seeing is a re-imagined caped crusader for Square Enix's Play Arts Kai line of action figures. And yeah, the Batman looks like he's ready to kick some ass but it also looks like he's just a wee bit evil (which I guess is the point).
Seriously though, with regard to other superheroes I don't think I've noticed costume changes that have slowly morphed from tights in the 1960's into full on body armor like the kind worn by Master Chief in other characters. Superman is pretty much the same as he was. The same goes for Spider-Man and Thor. Iron Man was always in a prototype body armor so that doesn't count. But the Batman? No, he wasn't. In fact, this is what he used to look like (golden-age Batman):
Nowadays, instead of holding a gun, the Batman would have one just pop up off of his armor and shoot some kind of weapon out that blows our minds for its flashy effectiveness.
So my question to you is this: why is this happening? Why is his costume changing so much?
I thought about it last night and the only thing I can come up with is that Batman is a very popular character with boys, and boys play video games. The marketing department at DC Comics knows this, and they've chosen to make the costume more and more sinister with ridges and spikes. It's been a slow process...so slow that I haven't really taken note of it until I saw the picture up top. Note the similarities between what the Batman is wearing and the lean armor worn by this hunter in the video game Crysis (click to EMBIGGEN).
Muscles are well defined, weapon is very spikey, and there's lots of detailing all over the skin-tight bodysuit. Anyway, I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this matter. Would you agree that the Batman's uniform is slowly turning into video game military-style combat armor? And if you do agree, do you think it's being driven by first-person shooters like Crysis? I look forward to reading your comments.
Were you around twenty years ago? If so, you may remember the arcade game "Dragon's Lair." It was the first video game that I can recall that charged fifty cents at the arcade. I used to go there with a friend on Friday night and go through ten bucks in quarters trying to finish it. I never actually made it to the dragon, so watching this playthrough was kind of fun because it allowed me to see the ending that I never achieved myself.
Boy, video games sure have come a long ways. But there's a certain charm to Don Bluth's animation that still
makes me smile today.
I got kind of confused with the book tour post for Ellie Garratt's new book Passing Time and published it/unpublished it. You may see it in your Google Reader. That post will go up on Wednesday, so I'm sorry for the confusion. If you would like to visit Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog today, he is hosting Ellie Garratt on schedule.
My friend Kevin is gonna make me want to play a pandarian before this
post is over. *Shakes fist at Kevin!
Today I would like to introduce you to the first of two "Kevins" that I met while playing World of Warcraft. I still don't know what this particular "Kevin" looks like in real life as I haven't met him, but I've talked to him on the phone and on ventrilo and he's a fellow druid lover (although I thought his character's name "Shribryn" was far cooler than the one I picked, which was "Velanna"). I hope to introduce you to the other "Kevin" soon. I sent him some interview questions. The other Kevin was my raid leader and guild master of "Requiem" (a very handsome fellow I might add) and we dominated our server for about five years. Plus we were a top 200 guild. That's sayin' a lot for those of you who don't know what that entails. That other Kevin went on to raid with the guild "Elitist Jerks" after I left, which is a "top 10 in the world guild" on the server Mal'ganis US.
Anyway, this first Kevin (and my good buddy) wants to take you on a little nerdy history of Azeroth. So those of you that like video games and/or fantasy stories may enjoy this entry. As a side note, I think those of you who "despise" video games because they take boys away from reading should check this attitude because video games are just "graphical" fiction with the best possible "choose your own adventure" engine. To explain further, it would be like an author of fiction hating on another "author of fiction" simply because they get all the attention and their product looks way better. In other circles...we might call that jealousy (a topic for another time). So yeah, jealousy does not become you my dear...
Anyway...take it away Kevin a.k.a. "Shribryn"...
As some of you may know, Mike used to play a lot of Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft (WoW) and in fact, it is in that game where I met him. Since I’m assuming some of you have never played WoW or don’t know anything about it, I will explain a few basic facts. WoW is an MMORPG which is shorthand for saying it is a multiplayer online role playing game and Azeroth is the world where most of the game takes place.
Comment from Mike: Graphics continually improve. I remember when I thought this
looked good. This is what Wizard 101 looks like LOL.
The game is a simple concept. In exchange for $15/month, each player starts with a few basic abilities and your character improves through a combination of leveling to gain new abilities and gear to make you more powerful. The combination gives a feeling of improvement that can be addictive. This isn’t a particularly new idea but when Blizzard released the game, they hit the sweet spot. When their game came out in late 2004 there were only about 6 million people playing MMORPGs. In under a year the number jumped to almost 13 million and many of them were playing WoW. In the United States alone, they had to open almost 200 servers to accommodate the traffic, each essentially their own little world.
Growth in MMO Accounts per year. Impressive, eh? It reminds me of the explosion
that the iPhone experienced (or the iPad) or for that matter, Apple. Only Apple
did it better. Still, a company would be proud to have this kind of growth.
I will never forget the day in game when I got a whisper from a guild of casual players asking for help against some of the game’s harder content. After a few failed attempts, one of their druids bombarded me with a constant steam of private messages and our conversation continued long after his guild gave up the fight. Within a week, I recruited Velanna (aka Mike) and a few of his friends to join my guild. Mike’s character is in the picture below on the far right. I’m next to him in tree form.
Having the name <REQUIEM> floating next to your character was pretty damn cool.
People all over the server basically treated you like a celebrity because you could clear
all the content on hard-mode. It really taught me how working together as a team
with someone is the best way to play a game. Some of our guildies were such
attention whores. They'd sit in all their epics and legendary gear at some high
trafficked location in the game and just go idle so that people could "marvel" at all
their cool stuff. The psychology behind video games is fascinating.
As you can imagine, finding long-term friends in an online game like WoW is hard. During the time I was in charge of recruiting for the guild I noticed a consistent trend that every month we’d lose around 10% of our members. That might not seem like much but it essentially means over the course a year, guilds (teams of players) will look completely different than they did a year earlier. Beating the ‘boss’ in the picture below took ‘playing’ 4 hours a night, 3 days a week for almost a year. Only about 5 people remained of the 40 that were there from the start.
The <REQUIEM> Bad-assess. Seeing these pics brings back memories.
That is the nature of the game and the trap of MMORPGs. They suck you in with the promise of a fun social experience but it eventually becomes a grind. As Penny Arcade perfectly summed up in their GIFT cartoon (below), the anonymous nature of a game like this means you will find a greater percentage of idiots and it’s a test of your interpersonal skills if you want to find a good friend. Of the thousands of people I met in the World of Warcraft, Mike is the only one I talk to on occasion.
Click to Embiggen
A few weeks ago, Blizzard sent me a 10-day pass for their latest expansion, Mists of Panderia. I’ve heard some good things about it and despite my misgivings, I decided to check it out. At first, it was weird to play as I couldn’t remember any of the buttons to press but it came back quick and so did the nice feeling of falling into the world of Azeroth.
Oh the peril of a huge sword is just too hard to resist
standing underneath and sneaking a screenshot.
The newest Warcraft storyline is based on Chinese and Asian legends and the world they created is breathtaking. The first thing I noticed was just how good the new areas look despite the game’s age. In addition, the questing is streamlined, there are better tools for new players, and the game’s mechanics are simpler. One huge improvement is the addition of the tools added since the Lich King expansion that helps players find groups. The LFR/LFG system minimizes the playtime needed at the highest levels so there’s no longer any need to devote a year of your life to experience all the content. I can attest that is a good thing.
Of course, there are things I didn’t like. Now that that it is easier for players to access the highest-level content, the designers have decreased the challenge to accommodate players that don’t take the time to understand the game’s mechanics. This seems to have made some players even lazier as many don’t seem to bother to move when they are ‘standing in fire’ as they know healers can keep them alive. Despite that, the latest expansion is a definite win for Blizzard.
The one thing Blizzard can’t change is the fact that no online experience can replace real life interaction and the rise of mobile gaming on Iphones/ Ipads/ Androids is stealing potential customers. As you can see on the chart at the top of the post, the MMORPG industry has stagnated for over the last 4 years and mobile gaming has been a big reason. Games like Angry Birds or Words with Friends are cheap, have little of the social stigma and place little/no time demands on its customers. There’s nothing Blizzard can do about that but I don’t feel too sorry for them. They still have millions of subscribers paying $15 every month and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
Even with the positive changes to the game, my return to Azeroth was short. I know from experience that the time demands are still too much and my completionist nature can’t handle it. I’m not leaving Blizzard’s domain entirely as the new Starcraft expansion is/was released on March 12th so if any of you are interested in playing, my player ID is jebei#674.
*****
Thanks Kevin for taking me down a stroll through memory lane. I do miss playing World of Warcraft with <Requiem> a lot. However, I made a choice to quit playing so that I could get my mojo back with regard to writing (to play something so incredibly creative destroys my own creativity), to start getting in better physical shape, and to concentrate on goals I wanted to make which are namely: to buy a house and get my retirement all set up nicely and maybe do some traveling (if there's any money left). All of that is really difficult to do when you are raiding four nights a week, and people are depending on you to show up because you have the gear that allows them to tackle the difficult content. However, there's nothing like a game to show you the people that have no ability to do math and to point out those that may have an IQ of around 80. You quickly learn to distance yourself from those people, as they will waste all of your time. It sounds ruthless, but that's the way it is.
Any of you watch the trailer? It shows actual game play. Pretty impressive in my opinion. Have a great Monday.
I like the way the Diablo angels look with wings made of white ribbons.
I've always played Blizzard games, and Diablo 3 is no exception. When I played World of Warcraft, I would spend an hour a day combing the forums for strategies and/or reading patch notes. Diablo 3 is no exception. I wanted to show you a list of interesting facts that I found. But to understand them, you might need some information first.
My favorite class to play thus far is the demon hunter. I like how lean
he looks, and the dual wielding crossbows that shoot out like machine guns
is kind of awesome-looking. It makes me feel powerful.
The game has several layers of difficulty of which "Inferno" is the hardest. Hardcore is a kind of character that you make that when it dies, there is no resurrection. The object here is to be so confident and skilled that you play a flawless game. So here's the list:
On average players have created 3 characters each. I thought this was interesting. I have exactly three characters. Hmmmm.
80% of characters are between levels 1 and 30. This is also me. I haven't had time to play because of writing and/or editing commitments I made with friends online that I wanted to get done, and because the drama with my dad is unending (since mom went into the nursing home in April he's lapsed into a terrible depression--a thing I did not expect).
1.9% of characters have unlocked Inferno difficulty. The only person I know personally that is doing this right now is my really smart friend Kevin, who goes by Modhne in-game, and runs the most successful guild on Ravencrest-US and has done so for the last four years. It's called Requiem--I always liked the name.
54% of Hardcore players chose a female character. I wonder why this is? Two of my characters are females--my barbarian (I love smashing things to bits) and my sorceress (I love smashing things to bits)...hmmm maybe I'm using Diablo 3 as therapy... I must say that smashing things to bits does help alleviate the stress that I feel whenever I get another phone call telling me that dad is headed to the emergency room or that mom has missed yet another dentist appointment because she threw a fit (mom has severe dementia). In case you don't know, I live in a different state and am unable to render much assistance right now because I dropped two weeks of vacation in the last two months to rush to their aid. I have a job where the only time off you take is done with vacation or sick leave. We do have a care provider hired to help dad every day though and that's been a big help.
Fan art. This is a witch doctor. Pretty cool huh?
Do the ladies of Diablo have all the style? Is that why
so many men are playing female characters? I guess I'm
assuming more men are playing than women...
The majority of Hardcore deaths (35%) occur in Act I Normal. I'm surprised by this. I thought that people would be more prone to die in Act II or further on. Maybe they just underestimate things.
The most common level 60 build in the game is only used by 0.7% of level 60 characters of that class.
Below, you will find a 7 minute animated sequence called "Wrath" in which the angels go up against the demons and specifically Diablo. It was made by Blizzard. And who doesn't like epic battles between angels and demons (here's looking at you, Ciara)? But I'm guilty of this too. My own book SLIPSTREAM is ultimately the first installment in a story/slugfest between angels and demons. If you have the time, click play, sit back, and watch the tale unfold. If anything, the storyline of Wrath is good writing (and we all like good writing tied with strong paranormal images of kickass-ness, right?).
I know Alex C. is playing Diablo 3. I have yet to make it out of Act II yet. I kind of like group play so if the people I play with are busy doing their level 60 characters, I kind of find something else to do.
So do any of the above statistics surprise you? Do you think it's okay for a person to use video games as therapy for real life? Have you ever tried a video game personally, or do you shun them and shun those who play them?
Is there a reason not to like hype? In what may arguably be the most anticipated game of the year, Blizzard Entertainment's community manager who goes by the name Bashiok on the Diablo 3 forums said, "I too worry that we won't be able to meet the expectations people have built up for themselves. Part of my job is managing people's expectations, so... eh... stop it. Stop thinking about how awesome this game could be. Just imagine it's a new M. Night Shyamalan movie. Sure Sixth Sense was amazing and Unbreakable had its moments, but this right here is the sequel to The Village ... or The Happening ... or Signs ... or any of the movies besides the two I first mentioned. So just like, lower those expectations, but still definitely buy the game please, and everything will be just fine. K?"
Do you think this is weird? Whacko? That the guy has gone insane?
Why would anyone tell their audience to lower expectations?
All I can say is that I have always loved games by Blizzard and the thing that appeals to me so much about the Diablo world is that it is so incredibly dark. Cindy Borgne probably said it best when she reviewed my upcoming book and said that it was a "dark urban fantasy." It was like she had this x-ray vision into the kind of things I like to read and pulled it out in one sentence.
The Diablo world is a no holds barred dark fantasy almost (but not quite) without hope. It's a sword and sorcery but with an epic storyline. Demons are everywhere doing terrible things. It has great blood and destruction animations. The kind that make the hairs on your arms stand on end. And when certain sounds play over your speakers, you actually feel scared. And no matter who you play, your character always looks incredibly hot.
I remember playing the first one and kicking down the door to a room filled with corpses of townsfolk that had been flayed by a demon called the Butcher. He uttered "FRESH MEAT!" and chased after me with a cleaver. I was totally not expecting it and he was really hard to defeat.
Diablo 3 comes out sometime between April thru June depending on the rumors. For me, it can't be soon enough.
My question to you is, are you going to play? And do you think that there is ever a time that hype is bad? Please watch the trailer below. It's pretty amazing for a video game and is the opening cinematic sequence.
Mild disclaimer => I own a Razer Lycosa gaming keyboard and a Razer mouse and they do a great job. What you are looking at on the screen of amazing device below is Firefall, a full-fledged online first-person shooter for the PC. Razer (the company that makes some of the coolest gaming gear) says Firefall, and other PC games, will run on its Project Fiona tablet in Windows 8 (time to say adieu to Windows 7).
Yes, I'm a geek, nerd...or whatever you want to call it. THIS does excite me. I know Patrick is probably rolling his eyes. In one sentence...this is not the tablet for you if all you want to do is play Angry Birds.
Here's the skinny:
1) Under $1,000. That's important because it competes with the iPad and is obviously going for the same market.
2) Intel Core i7 CPU--WOW! Quad core baby (all i7 processors are quad core in case you didn't know).
3) SSD memory. This is tech speak for Solid State Drive. You know those flash drives that you use to store your manuscripts on so you don't lose them when your computer chokes? Picture that only larger, roomier, with no moving parts and instantaneous retrieval and upload of information. My gaming p.c. has had solid state drives for two years. They're incredible.
4) Dolby Home Theater Audio on a Windows 8 interface. Damn. Plus you can play most p.c. games for Windows on this tablet using Ivy Bridge.
5) Dual stick controllers and feedback. If you are shooting a machine gun, you'll feel it vibrate.
Are you excited yet? Watch the video below and you'll see how the keyboard and mouse hook up to it to create a full transformational tablet to p.c. experience.
Have a great Thursday. Tomorrow I'm playing host to author Ciara Knight because I begged her for an interview. :)
So I've been playing Skyrim on the weekends. My character is level 12, and I've killed three dragons now. I just wanted to post some screenshots for you because I think the game is so visually stunning. Note: You can click any of these to make them bigger. And yes, this is really what the game looks like through and through. Clouds move, I get stuck in blizzards, I hear footsteps coming up behind me, shadows change, day turns to night, etc. It's completely engrossing and has really consumed my writing/reading time. But truthfully, I'd rather play Skyrim than read 90% of the fantasy that is presently being written. It's like being in your own "visually stunning" book. I read somewhere that it broke a billion dollars in just a couple of weeks. Pretty amazing if you ask me. Some of you may ask, why are guys not reading? Well the answer is in these screenshots. Boys eat this stuff up.
This is me and Lydia (the girl on the left) climbing the steps of the highest mountain in the world to consult with the mysterious Greybeards about magic. Not far from us is a badass ice troll that I finally killed by burning him down with magic flames from my fingertips. Note the beautiful mountains. And yes the clouds do move in front of the mountains sometimes obscuring them.
This here is actually Lydia and I after having killed said ice troll in the above caption. We climbed the rest of the way without my horse that got spooked and ran off. The encounter with the Greybeards was fascinating as they taught me how to use my Dragon Voice.
A dragon that I killed in single-hand combat. It swooped out of the sky at me but by this time I've got all steel armor that has enchants on it and a pretty awesome sword. I had to heal some during the fight but I can do that with my restoration magic. I just took cover behind trees so it couldn't get me with its breath weapon. Then I kicked its ass.
Me and my house thrall Lydia. She's my complete servant, always addresses me as "My Lord" and whatnot and fights by my side. She's pretty powerful.
Another screenshot from a different angle. Not how awesome the water looks. It's incredible to me that it looks so real. I've swum around and caught fish with my bare hands in it. Pretty cool, huh?
Skyrim is a game where you can do just about anything. You can walk over to mountains, explore buildings and ruins, jump off of cliffs...the world is so real and so incredibly detailed that the grass sways in the wind and the tree leaves flutter. You can customize your character so completely that you determine the shape of their nose, the color of their irises, and the style of their hair. Each item is so intricate that you can rotate it in three-dimensional view and find clues on the actual item on how to solve a puzzle. I found a gold dragon claw set with rubies that when I turned it over, discovered how to open a magical portal deep in a dungeon. I did so, defeated scores of raving monsters, and got my first powerful magical item. It was pretty awesome.
It's also a game that has inspired countless online memes. Checkout Skyrim Hoarders in a google search. Below, click on the short video and watch. You may ask yourself...why? Why would someone collect all that? The answer: because YOU CAN!!! The video is only 13 seconds long. In this game, you can own a house and store anything you find in your home. You can organize it or just throw it in a room. As you can see, some guys are having too much fun with this by collecting junk, skulls, or even bodies.
If you would like to add me as a friend, my "handle" on STEAM is "kavrik519". We can chat while playing :)
As Deckard Cain's niece, Leah, struggles to make sense of her uncle's mysterious and disturbing notations, she bears witness to a dark vision. Azmodan, Lord of Sin, towers over the fragile young woman, swearing his armies of the burning Hells shall pour forth into Sanctuary, ravishing the world and all hope of resistance.
This cinematic game footage offers but a glimpse into the gritty, evolving story of Diablo II. Please take the time to watch it. The trailer is thrilling.
I sampled some of this game when I attended Blizzcon 2009 (Yes, I am that much of a geek but in my defense...some of my guildies attended too--I was really into World of Warcraft). The character class that I played in the few minutes that I was allowed to sit at the computer was the Monk, and man...I could lay waste to hundreds of demons in just a short time span.
All I can say is three words... "COMBAT. MAGIC ITEMS." Is there really anything else a person could want? I'm so excited for this game that when it gets released, you may not hear from me for a week unless you log onto Battlenet and play with me. Maybe I'll do a Diablo III give-a-way so one person who comments can join me in purging the world of the newest Prime Evil!
Diablo was groundbreaking when it was released. I played Diablo II for months--again--because it was groundbreaking.
I expect Blizzard will once again snatch the coveted "Game of the Year".
Matthew MacNish...Steph Schmidt...I'm calling you two out! I know you play video games. Don't make me face the demon hordes without you.
I've been playing this game with my friend Dillon on the p.c. and it's pretty sweet. Check out the trailer below...it's really sad and just might make you cry (not kidding). Have a great weekend.
I watched a little of E3 on G4 this weekend and there's some exciting stuff coming out. However, nothing looks as good as the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim which is set to come out just before Christmas this year. The graphics in this game are seriously jaw-dropping. You can walk everywhere in the world that they've created and there's so much detail that the world looks real. I mean, you can examine individual plants if you want to. Additionally, dragons can swoop down on you at random (they are each programmed with their own types of behavior so you never know what they are going to do) and you can choose what weapons go in each hand (and gain more powerful spells if you use both hands to cast the same one). Plus there's over a hundred individually hand-crafted dungeons and dragon words that you can use once you've killed a dragon (and thus unlocked them).
The preview for this game is truly jaw-dropping. If you like games and you like fantasy, I totally think you should watch this whole thing through (Yes I know it's 14 minutes long but if you like games you should have no problem with sitting and watching 14 minutes of the most mind-blowing fantasy game walk through you've ever seen) and be excited for it as I am. My XBox 360 is going to get a workout come fall and what an exciting one it will be. I agree with the announcer at the end of the video that it may just be game of the year.
Also for those of you waiting for a breath of Diablo III...I guess Blizzard was completely silent on this project at E3.
