Game Review: Lord of the Rings Online: Shadow of Agmar

Ah multi-player online games. Big, fun and complete and total time-sucks. Where free hours go to die. The reason I haven’t been able to solve either the Health Care or immigration crisis this week is due to taking Lord of the Rings Online out for a spin. What a great way to lose yourself for a few hours (day, months, etc).
You strap on your sword/bow/staff and go walk a mile in the shoes of a Tolkienesque hero. Or a mile in your bare, furry feet if you decide to have a hobbit character.

As a game LOTRO plays just like World of Warcraft. Same controls, combat system and quest system. Of course, unlike WOW’s Tolkien-inspired setting, you have an actual Tolkien setting with LOTRO. I’ve gotten drunk at the Inn of the Prancing Pony and wandered around Bag-In. I’ve defended a farm from a giant spider attack and earned the name “Spider-Foe.” I’ve seen a Ringwrath stab a ranger with a Mogul blade. I’ve even done a quest for those nasty Sackville-Baggins folks who have inherited Bag-In now that Frodo and Bilbo have left the Shire. In other words I’ve pretty much immerse myself into Middle Earth.

The setting will draw you in, but the game has bunch of ways of keeping you playing. In addition to the standard leveling (I’ll sleep/eat/take a shower right after I hit level 20) LOTR introduces “feat” these are special tasks like using your special moves lots of times (Shield Bash! Kick to the Head!) or killing lots of a particular type of monster (44 orcs…45… 46). The reward is a special bonus or a nifty title (strangly enough “bunny-slayer” is not available) that you can impress your friends with. Anything to keep you playing. And you will keep playing. And playing. And playing.

Game Review: The Political Machine

I have finally gotten both my hands on The Political Machine and the time to play it. The Political Machine is a computer game that combines both my addiction to politics and my addiction to computer strategy games. And what that adds up to is a wonderful waste of time. PM puts you in the role of a campaign manager for the 2004 political race. In addition to the very recent Bush v Kerry or Bush v Gore you can do match-ups like Condi Rice v Hillary Clinton or Howard Taft v Arnold or whatever you want. You have all the moves of the modern campaign, including fundraising, speeches, ads, and slimly political operatives. Political issues are done very well. They move up and down in importance depending on the attention that you give them. If you spend a lot of time and money on outsourcing of jobs you can increase both your standing on the issue and how important people feel it is. Fun, cartoonish graphics give the whole thing a light, funny feel.

This game reminds about the line about the dancing bear: “You don't knock the bear's dance, you are just impressed that the bear is dancing at all.” I love the idea of this game and had fun playing it. But, there is a long list of things that I would change about this game. There are no primaries or debates. There are a lot of stats for each candidate like experience and intelligence and I have no idea how they affect the game. I should have different strategies running the campaign of Arnold or Al Gore, but the game give me little hint of how to take advantage of the strength and avoid the weaknesses of each. More depth is needed in almost every part of this game.

That said, it's fun and easy to play and you don't need to be a total political junkie to play. Hurray for the dancing bear!