Thursday, December 27, 2012

5 Hits and Disappointments of 2012

Another year passed! And what a year! Remember when the world didn't end? That was certainly something! A lot of games came out, too. Obviously I didn't review all of them, and some of the ones I did review came out in 2011 or 2010 or 1991 or whatever. Anyway, seems appropriate to do a year in review for the last week of 2012, right?

And, hey, when you go out to buy the stuff you didn't get for Christmas... maybe you'll think about some of this stuff first!


Disappointments

I'll start with the five games that weren't as good as they should have been or I thought they would be or didn't live up to the hype. Why tell you about the worst games? You can tell just by looking at 'em! Careful with these! Also, the "hits" go second so I can end on a high note.


5. Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition

Review
Sort of cheating to include this since the XBox version came out this year, but this game already existed on PC. I don't think I'd qualify this entirely as a "bad" game; I'm happy I played it. But with the amount of love I was hearing for the game and it's writing and universe, well, this is the definition of the word "disappointment," folks. Well, The Phantom Menace is. But you get what I mean.



4. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Review
The best feeling this game gave me was when I completed it. Not because it was a satisfying ending to an amazing journey, oh no. But because it was a freaking nightmare that wouldn't end and I had to beat it! This is like being wrongly accused of murdering your best friend and finally getting acquitted.  That feeling of, "It's finally over." Except your best friend is clearly still dead. Hm. That was a rather over-the-top analogy. Uh, that's the definition of "hyperbole." I'm... teaching you words now, I guess.


3. Assassin's Creed 3

Okay, so unlike Witcher 2 this is definitely cheating. Whatever. The point is that nothing I saw in the game made me want to play it. And this is a HUGE franchise that everyone loves. I hate that I am missing out! But I hate these games more! Ugh!


2. Borderlands 2

After continuing to play this game after the review went out, finishing DLC's and a second playthrough, I really wanted to like this game more. I loved the *potential* the first one had, and I wanted to see where it would go. Where did it go? Down the toilet. I've actually agonized over changing my review to one star. I decided to leave it at two because it's an easy enough recommend to a wide range of people still. But... damn you Gearbox! We're not friends any more!


1. Diablo 3

Sigh... I already mentioned Phantom Menace, so I'll compare this to Duke Nukem Forever. Ten plus years since Diablo 2 and this boring, lazy, mediocre, detached thing is what comes out. And there's still no console port! Why? It's not like this game is at all complicated like a lot of PC games can be! And what you may not know is that Diablo 2 was like a first true love to me. I'd been playing games for a long time, but I was in DEEP with that one. I did consider that maybe a lot of that had to do with being a semi-poor teenager. You know, you tend to play a game a lot more if it's the only one you get in a year. But, well, the game at the top of the next list challenges that notion...




Hits

Call these the "best of." But like the previous list, these are more personal. While they may not be the most mass marketable games out there (there's a distinct lack of Black Ops 2 on this list, see), these are the ones that just made me solidly happy.



5. Avengers Alliance

No review available.
Facebook games don't count as true, full-blooded video games! But good Goddamn if this one doesn't come as close as I think they ever will. It's still repetitive as hell and tries every cheap gimmick possible to steal your real world money, but I play this fucking thing like crazy. Here's an honorary spot on my list, you son of a bitch.



4. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Admittedly, I didn't play through this game more than once. Considering the game is meant to be played multiple times and I felt I didn't spend any extra time playing it other than that first thorough sweep, you could argue this doesn't belong here. But that's just because it's stressful, and I can't take it! This thing is an accomplishment and a unique experience. Much love, yo.



3. Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Robots! That turn into other things! And shoot lasers at each other! It's everything it should be! Nothing more to be said, next game on list!



2. Prototype 2

Check it out, my second highest spot is a game with only two stars. Weird, huh? Well, I had a blast with this game. It didn't do everything right, clearly, but the things it did do right were fucking great! This is one of those games I just reflect on now and then and think, "Should I just play it again? I already did everything, but... I don't know..." The problem with playing it again, though, is that it would cut into time I could be spending on the next game on this list.



1. Mass Effect 3

Ohhhhhhhh! You knew this was coming! Yeah, buddy. This game has so much to offer! Engrossing characters, a living universe, gameplay, decisions, an addictive multiplayer mode. Ridiculous! It sets the bar so damn high for everyone else! There are still bumps, of course: the ending is silly, some bugginess, humans look weird, multiplayer feels slapped-together at times, maybe some other stuff. I'm still playing this game months later! Take THAT, doubts that a game could be as fun as it was when I was a dumb kid. And then there's free DLC? This game wins, no one else ever even had a chance.







Quick Bonus Crap!

One more list! Here's five games I still haven't played, but I'm betting should have weighed in on these lists somewhere:


5. Hitman: Absolution

Will it show Dishonored how stealth is done? Or are the sexy nuns really too big of an unnecessary distraction?

4. Warriors Orochi 3

KOEI released another of their bullshit hack-n-slash games. Been a while since I've been suckered into playing one of these, and I did just start a Gamefly account!

3. Max Payne 3

No Markie Mark? Maybe it's got a shot!

2. Spec Ops: The Line

Apparently this game has something called a "story." I'm not entirely sure what that word means. After all, this is a video game. Pretty sure video games don't have those. The question is, though, will that make up for the game being undeniably a "realistic shooter?" Those games tend to be terminally boring.

1. Halo 4

Self-explanatory, heh.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Dishonored

Rating: 2 out of 3 Stars (why only 3 possible stars?)
Genre: First Person Stealth
ESRB: M (cartoony blood and gore)
Estimated hours of gameplay (thorough play/quick play): 20/8
Developer: Arkane Studios 


Silent protagonist? Maaaaan. Corvo Attano, the player character, has a set name everyone calls him by and a face (he wears a mask, but you do get to see it) and a pre-determined past giving him opinions on certain characters in the game. Why not just give him a voice and a personality? Blarg. Ahem. Anyway... I didn't feel this was the most impactful game it could be, nor was it really bad. Sometimes a game is just a game, like Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. But let me talk about why it wasn't as easy to recommend.

Yup. Stealth happens.
I have a problem with stealth games. Mostly because they rely on patience. Although I did love Deus Ex one and three a whole bunch. Luckily Corvo has a sword in his hand at all times, so I decided to make him a swashbuckler! The game does allow for this by having a few dedicated powers, items, and upgrades that are less than beneficial to a straight stealth player. But it doesn't let you go all Arkham City on everyone; easily fighting simultaneous enemies with flawless kung fu prowess. Instead it just lets you outsmart them with tools, and overpower them with ridiculous bullshit. The funny thing is, I played on hard (3 out of 4 difficulty setting) and was being a drunken idiot through most of it yet I still had a pretty stuffed inventory. So if you want a hard stealth game or are just experienced in the genre, I'd probably recommend using the max difficulty right out the gate. All in all, there's some creative stuff in here. Probably more so than Deus Ex 3. But I just wasn't as drawn to it. Everything fit together too neatly, and so many options are too easily laid out. Basically, every level feels like there's no wrong answer. I like having multiple ways to beat something, but it's unsatisfying to have a notion that it really doesn't matter what I choose to do.

Although both of those Deus Ex's did have a super pistol...
The setting doesn't do much for me either. The whole steam punk thing had to be a major deal, you know? They were probably banking on that community to really get behind this game. I'm not any kind of authority on the subject, but I don't feel like this influenced the game in a big enough way. My understanding is that steam punk works well when at least one of two things happen: the technology is well thought out and offers a silly but oddly plausible way for the world to work OR the technology fits a feeling of a simpler time and has a kind of outdated charm to it. The latter one can be called "retro-futurism" and can be seen if you were to watch something like the old Flash Gordon serials. Obviously we know none of that stuff works, but there's a cute innocence behind the ignorant minds that created that schlock. Dishonored doesn't really do either of these. The world runs on whale oil... and that's it. There doesn't seem to be any downside to rampant whaling, nor is there any logic in how it advances the world. Somehow, whale oil both gives us an industrial age while also giving us electricity walls and sentry turrets and dudes who have really long stilts. There's no connection there. If the world ran on, say, diesel fuel, we might expect big vehicles with loud, clanky engines driving down the street. How did we get to lightning bolts and stilts? And that really feels like the end of the list, too. Iunno. Maybe I didn't dig deep enough. As far as old timey silliness? The game is gritty and cynical. So no.

According to Flash Gordon, you can just crash a rocket into stuff to get everywhere.
What does this mean for the story? Well, it's functional. Like I said, Corvo can't talk. So forget any kind of, like, characters having human interactions. It's very "point A to point B," and wastes little time on frills like "How did these people get so organized so fast?" What puzzles me is why the game starts with Corvo coming home from some mission. Why couldn't we play or at least see that mission so we can understand why he's so good at being a stealth video game guy? Then there's this deus ex machina guy who keeps showing up and rambling some cosmic nonsense. He has no purpose. Just an excuse to give the player cool powers. And without getting into spoilers, a large part of the story is actually oddly like something that happens in Deus Ex one. It's weird because it's oddly specific. Like, it's not something you'd expect in a steam punk game, but of course it works in a cyber punk game. So my reaction to all of this is just to shrug my shoulders.

I found this on the internet to explain my feelings on this story.
Conclusion:
Still a good game with no real faults. But I don't really feel the urge to recommend it for any particular reason. If you really dig stealth games of all kinds, though, go ahead and give it a whirl.

Although... there's another stealth game out recently that features a dude who can say words. Haven't played it yet.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Rating: 1 out of 3 Stars (why only 3 possible stars?)
Genre: RPG
ESRB: M (cartoony blood)
Estimated hours of gameplay (thorough play/quick play): 105/40
Developer: 38 Studios, Big Huge Games 

Holy balls, I finally completed this game. See those hours up there for "thorough" gameplay? That's no joke. It's possible that could be much more as I started to get pretty methodical as I ran through some areas. Towards the end, I was getting pretty tired of the side quests, but I did pretty much all of them save for a couple. I also even played the DLC... both of 'em (they were on sale around the time I got the game, I was duped!). But I blasted through the main story on the second one. I did all there is to do in the first one, though. And in the end, I managed to get 100% completion on all achievements across the board. Pretty confusing that I did so much considering the one star rating, right? Don't mind that. I'm just a completionist and a crazy person; this game is a dirty trick to a person like me! If this review isn't enough, I'll have a list at the bottom again with all my grievances itemized out. Sometimes a summary just isn't enough, man. Need to show just how deep the hate goes. But this game had a "dream team" of developers working on it. What went wrong?

This is what a real dream team looks like!
R.A. Salvatore was the big name slapped onto the writing of this thing. I think he just made the lore or something. Probably the main character's story, too (let's call the player character "Fateless One"). But I doubt he would have had a major hand in the design of all the side quests. I don't see how it would matter either way, because all of these things are completely uninteresting. I suppose the idea of the world being completely tied to destiny and the player being the one person who is immune to fate is workable, but none of the things he does grabs me. Every side quest is either someone or something is lost in a cave, so the Fateless One is asked to go find it. All of the creatures in this land operate outside of what we human players can grasp logically. First of all, they all have gibberish names. And there's no thought to these gibberish names. Like the main villain's name is "Gadflow." That doesn't strike my mind as "impressive" or "daunting" or "threatening" or "regal" or any kind of characterization. It's just a bunch of letters slapped together. Things like skeletons are called "Faer Gorta" and elves are called "Seelie Fae" or some bullshit for no reason other than to make things feel more original. And there are just humans and elves in this world. Sure, they come in different flavors like the Dokkalfar and the Almain... but I really couldn't tell you which is which. Basically, they don't FEEL real. They are not creatures shaped by their world or lives. Just a bunch of frilly words in a frilly world. If you want these things and maybe some PERSONALITY to go with it, the Dragon Age series is much more gripping. Hell, Skyrim is much more involved. And they slapped boobs onto the design of their Argonian women. What does a reptile use boobs for? To seduce mammalian males? To assimilate amongst the other women? Is that how evolution works? Arg. I'm off topic because those games are much more interesting.

KoA does have boobs, too, if that's what you're looking for.
That touches on the next thing: the art. The big name slapped onto this part is Todd McFarlane. While the landscapes, flora, and cities are all very pretty there are a number of things off here. For one, all the women are hot and all the dudes are buff. I could chalk this up as a fault of the genre, but this game is rated M and filled with war so I assume there's some level of grittiness to it. You know, like Lord of the Rings or Conan or even fucking Star Wars. Having everything be so Goddamn shiny just makes me think I'm looking at porn or something; everything's plastic and the feelings are forced. It doesn't help that the level design for each area is so simplistic it feels like baby's first assignment at game design school. It's just a bunch of assorted polygons with no attempt at coherent living spaces and little thought to flow. Of course, I doubt Mr. McFarlane would have had a hand in that. I do wonder what the fuck he thought of the faces in this game. These people look so damn inhuman and yet not cartoony enough. Trust me, I like both anime and cartoon faces alike, these people look downright alien to me. And they often have some kind of bug or something that makes them look cross-eyed. At times the texturing is ineffective, too, so the end result isn't a stylized visual but something that's reminiscent of the previous generation of consoles.

This is what people look like. All of them.
Gameplay has that same half-assed feel to it as well. Don't get me wrong, I know these people worked very hard on this game. I just don't know what the fuck went awry. The big name attached to this area would be Ken Rolston, who has previously worked on Elder Scrolls 3 and 4 (AKA Morrowind and Oblivion, respectively). And he decided to surprise everyone by making a game that is incredibly similar to Elder Scrolls. The key differences here are that it's in third person and the combat plays more like Dynasty Warriors or God of War with all its combos and such. This is just a myriad of near misses. I'd say a large part of the problems stem from the lazy camera. Literally, it's a stubborn mule that struggles to follow the player. It clearly is programmed to do things like pull out when combat starts and aim at the action, but it takes solid seconds for it to kick in! Another problem is the sticky controls. I can't imagine this slipping by the QA team. At random times buttons don't work for a split second, or they awkwardly play catch up as you frantically mash them to get them to function. So many animations suck the dexterity out of the player. When I was a rogue, I used the bow because the animations were much more manageable. Forget the extra range, I actually wanted to stab things and not shoot them! When I respec'ed and became a mage, I used the meteor spell at all times regardless of enemy type due to the fact that it would ALWAYS cast even if I was clearly interrupted. And the ice cloud spell had the longest animation ever but was comparatively both weak and impractical to everything else! Ack, I'm getting too specific. As a final point, the talent system in this game is drab; each point is too obvious with nothing game-changing to look forward to. Take Skyrim for one example: investing fully in blocking lets you run with your shield in front of you, knocking aside anyone in your way like some kind of Captain America. Almost every talent tree has at least a couple things in it like that. That's what we want! Not sinking 5 points into making daggers doing slightly more damage, then sinking 5 points in making bows do more damage, then 5 points in making attacks slightly more damage as poison, then 5 points for an ability that doesn't scale with level so it's useless past level 5. Ugh! And the skills (professions?) are lame, too! I have to stop... I made a list for all this at the bottom.
And Skyrim came out just a few months before KoA. That game lets you be a kitty cat!
Part of me feels bad because I know this game is pretty well-loved and has a little following, which is unfortunate since the company that made this is totally fucked. But part of me doesn't give a shit. I don't wish ill on the people who made this game, I hope the next projects that each work on are great. Maybe they'll come up with some ideas that don't suck. I'd describe this game as a cross between Fable and Elder Scrolls, but without the goofing around that the former has to offer, nor the incredible depth upon depth that the latter does. What does it offer instead? Nothing. The word for this is "derivative."

Conclusion:
I don't know who would appreciate this game. Maybe someone with the same blind loyalty to Western RPG's that you'd normally find in a fan of JRPG's? You do get a lot of game hours for your buck, if that's all you really want.





Time for bitching!


1. The A button keeps fucking up. It sometimes take a lot of effort just to "click" on something like a flower or to choose a chat option.
2. L and R triggers do not compensate for being pressure sensitive, you have to press them all the way down to register. This means there's an added split second delay to blocking and ability use. Since this game requires timing (as most all games do) this is a stupid mistake.
3. Clicking the stick to run sometimes takes a bit of coaxing.
4. Pacing! The main story moves slow and then slower. It hits a high note, then slows down again. What is this?!
5. Cannot change buttons. Can do some changes like setting clicking the left stick to sprint, but I wanted more!
6. Cannot press up to wrap around on saves menu.
7. Fastest weapon in the game is still slow. This is a personal gripe because I want to be Goddamn nimble!
8. All combat revolves around stunlocking enemies and avoiding being stunlocked.
9. No quick save button.
10. Resting is a Goddamn mystery. Have to find an inn and figure out which NPC is the innkeeper. There is nothing specific to point the player towards this feature.
11. No "Wait" feature.
12. Day cycle is unclear. Have to look straight up at the sky to figure it out since it's always so bright out. This makes items with modifiers dependent on the time of day very clunky. More importantly, it has no influence on NPC's so what's the point?
13. Sleeping NPC's are 100% aware of their surroundings.
14. Commands randomly stick.

15. Have to get NPC's to forget about you by breaking line of sight and stealthing. Not sure how this makes sense. Also, breaking line of sight causes aggro'ed enemies to forget you.
16. Rolling in the wrong direction! Player character will sometimes roll in the direction the avatar is facing rather than the direction you are pressing!
17. Unable to see NPC names/level at appropriate times.
18. Ranged attacks can miss due to target doing an up and down animation. I understand they can dodge stuff, but it makes no sense to miss when they are doing things like casting.
19. Persuasion cannot go above max, but NPC's can. The % chance to succeed at persuasion is archaic.
20. No jumping? This is a much bigger deal than I think the developers realize since this greatly diminishes the feeling of exploration. Especially as there are many tiny things that hinder movement that a regular person could easily jump over.
21. Soundtrack features a song that sounds a bit like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxHkLdQy5f0&feature=related
22. Paying for training bullshit: you have to be within a RANGE of minimum and maximum skill to use a trainer for that skill. ALSO you can cheat the system by respec'ing to be in the correct range then buying the skill and then respec'ing back since it lets you keep the point. Each trainer only trains you once! That is the only limitation needed! The skill range thing is awkward and confusing! And trainers aren't always clearly labeled as to what they train. If you don't have the proper skill, it tells you so but not what skill! Stupid!
23. Terrible targeting. Not only is it completely unnecessary for melee combat, but usually causes you to MISS what you are trying to hit.
24. No indication what a weapon is other than icon. Some of the icons are hard to understand, so this is awkward.
25. Movement speed while stealthed is so slow! I think the stealth skill improves it, but why are there not more things to improve it further like talents or item modifiers?
26. High level rogues have a passive that causes attacks to pass through them. This can trigger while blocking and therefore will cause you to fail at trying to counter-attack.
27. Hybridization requires an even split in trees, and the required amount of points in each is so high it can penalize the creativity it is meant to encourage.
28. Stealth as a common ability? Only a dagger wielding rogue really finds this useful. I know coding enemy AI to respond to this is kind of a big deal, but it would have been nice to have different abilities for that RB button depending on class.
29. High levels have nothing to spend points on. Level 37 is the bare minimum to get to the top tier destinies, so I take that to mean they wanted players to get that far. I ended up wasting talent points for like 5 or more levels just to get there.
30. Thresh = super gods? They just constantly spam shit and fly around. They are so much more annoying than anything in the game. If like 6 of these dudes ganged up they would be far more threatening than any of the bosses... and the last boss is a "god."
31. No concept of difficulty. I played on hard and nothing was difficult. But that's not the issue. Enemy design has no thought to it, so bad asses feel like pushovers and little idiots feel like kung fu masters. This is most apparent when doing the arena fights since there's warnings to how hard each fight is.
32. "Epic" gem misleading! I thought it was just a higher tier of gem, but they are specifically meant to go into an epic gem socket... which I never found.
33. Up on the D-pad turns on aggressive mode. It does nothing unless you attack first!
34. Blacksmithing sucks. Gear you make from it is super shitty. No sets, no purples, and no sockets!
35. Alchemy sucks. Experimentation just leads to pre-determined potions that do not improve based on skill. No logic to gathering materials. I guess Skyrim/Oblivion is just the best there is for this.

36. At some point in the game I had this objective marker show up that said "Quest Complete". Terribly misleading since it had nothing to do with what quest I was actually tracking.
37. D-pad functionality not fully explored. Up is aggressive mode, left and right are health and mana potions (which is useless since LB can access these and it pauses the game), and down does nothing. I wanted a "wait" button, among other things.
38. Nothing to spend money on! Ended game with millions of dollars. No gear to buy, no vanity items, and giant houses were fucking free. What gives!
39. Strange mana costs. At end of game, had a build where spells seemed to cost nothing but my shitty little scepter still stung my reserves. Yet mana still regen'ed super slow.
40. No difference in ending "Fate shift" (AKA super move, finisher, musou mode, whatever) early or at last second as it still takes the entire bar.
41. Too many mage active skills. Ended up spec'ing in a summon over a heal since it would eat up more points (in order to reach the top tier destiny). Had to remove a fire spell so that I could use a better fire spell. No way to cleanly have access to everything I spent points on.
42. Fate shifts trivialize all encounters, even those that hinder it since you can use a fate potion.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

5 New Video Game Genres

Many people complain that too many games come out that are the same genre. Usually this complaint is about first person shooters, third person shooters, cover shooters, or shooters in general. I could say the same is true of fantasy RPG's. But I don't hate those, there's just a lot of 'em. People who hate shooters tend to like RPG's, though. Funny how that works. And back in the day, just about every game was either a side-scrolling platformer or a side-scrolling beat-'em-up. The reality is that most every genre still exists out there. You just have to be willing to look for it. If you weren't so Goddamned lazy and did that, then MAYBE the video game industry would pump out more of the genre you like. Also, you'd have to be willing to pay money for it. I'm looking at YOU, PC point-and-click adventure game enthusiasts!

Ahem, at any rate. Uh... hey, what if things were more like Japan and there was all kinds of crazy bullshit out there for you to watch videos of on YouTube but never buy? I thought of five new genres I'd love to see. I might actually play these things, too! ... maybe.



5. Motion Control Dance Fighting

Hip-hop-kido. Legit.
Alright, maybe not this one. But there are a shitload of dancing games out there and there's at least one fighting game on the Kinect, so this is the bridge in the gap between girly games and games for people who actually play video games!

Hell, Batman: Arkham Asylum was originally supposed to be some kind of bullshit rhythm game. I could totally see it! Only that version would probably be the Adam West Batman instead of Kevin Conroy. Whatever, I'd still want to be the black ranger from Power Rangers over Batman.



4. Free Form Racing


I have a big problem with racing games. For me, games are at their best when I feel like I can explore and forge my own path and journey and blah blah. And racing is the exact opposite of all that because you just follow the fucking road. Sure, there are shortcuts and stuff. But that's not really defeating my point, now is it?

So... I just want to, like, Skyrim my way around in a car. If I happen to go off sweet jumps or turn out awesome tricks? Bonus points. Just let me be free, man.

And also there should be people and things to run over. I mean, there has to be, right?



3. Single Player MMO

I always hear people say how they'd love to play an MMO version of something. Usually it's Pokemon they're talking about, but it can be other things. But why? Why do they want that? How would re-packaging something you hate in a frilly new outfit improve things? This is like putting a new paint job on your clunker of a car and expecting it to feel like driving a powerful, new muscle car.

So here's the solution! Either make single player games that FEEL like an MMO, or port existing MMO's into single player versions. I know I'd play WoW again if I could have a Dragon Age-style party system and not deal with other people (especially if it was on fucking XBox, for crying out loud). At the same time, what is playing an MMO really like when you're alone? There's just a shit load more "NPC's" and spam, that's all.

Of course, the game might get an Ao rating if it realistically mimicked the public channels of an MMO. Wuh ha!



2. Create-a-Character: The Game


Have you ever spent hours perfecting your custom character only to get bored of him/her after playing the game itself for a few minutes? I know I have. So why are we kidding ourselves? The create-a-character mode should BE the game!

I know there's stuff like Second Life and other things where there's little to do outside character creation. But I don't think that's enough! Just how far can this rabbit hole go? I want to know.

And then I don't want to actually do anything with it. At most it'll be a funny anecdote later on in life, but no actual gameplay! Genius!



1. Kinect Games You'd Look Cool Playing


One of the biggest problems with Kinect and most other motion control games is having to stand up. That's so awkward, man. Look at Kirk up there, all confident and cool. That's how we all want to be when we're playing video games. That'll never happen, but we'd like to think we'd look this cool when gaming!

Just lounge around, issue orders with a single gesture or catch-phrase. Calmly take a drink of your preferred beverage while the NPC's in the game flip out. If it's something like Mass Effect, you'd quip about making time for love with a blue-skinned woman and get bonus points if you don sunglasses at the end of your statement.

Or, you know, games where you don't flail your arms like an idiot in order to do everything. That'd be a good start.