_ As a bite-size postmortem to my Way of the Samurai 3 obsession-gasm, I haven't played that game in earnest since that glorious weekend of release. With plenty of great new things coming out, and tons of games I've started and haven't finished (Gay Tony, Dragon Age, Lost Winds 2...), I haven't hunkered down for serious playtime in Samurai-land. The experienced happened, and I'm not diving right back in right away. While it goes against the basic idea of a game that you think is great, its a gam I've consumed and I'm fine with that.

I think that speaks to he ability of a game, for a gamer, to have a quick consumption and still exist as a thing you come back to. I don't watch Crimson Tide with any level of regularity, but I always come back to it and declare it my favorite movie of all time. True story. Perhaps the greatness of a media thing isn't how many hours you log with it, but how satisfying a thing it is.

Lookin' at you, Activision PR.

_ As it happens today, I think I've found my new, season long obsession today, and its name is Tropico 3, coming to 360 in February.

Shut up, I don't have a PC.

I downloaded that demo today, and as demos go, its freaking ACE! Everything's unlocked, build functionality wise (I gather) and they give you two missions to sink into. No saving, obviously, and you can't continue an island once you've met the goals. But until then, the game's all yours! Instead of putting the nail into Dragon Age, I spent about 4 hours playing this demo.

So far as I can tell, its going down the detailed road that SimCity has generally turned away from since SimCity 4. I'm not laying down an electrical grid or mapping out evolving city zones. However, I can zoom down to street level and get a detailed report on every citizen that I have under my dictatorship. Within minutes of doing the tutorial, I was glazing over with the joy of excessive city management detail. And to boot, it looks excellent! I reckon this is roughly what SimsVille would have been, but couldn't have, without a sinister hook like the tropical ruler setting.



_ I'd really like an X-Com "reskinning" of Dragon Age. Marinate on how awesome *THAT* would be! Chances are, this new 2K shooter is some FPS-ification of that franchise. But what I really want is tactical gameplay with great character interactions and a commitment to "Aggressive Grey" in the same vein as BioWare's latest.

_ Have you played Echochrome? Better still, have you heard its soundtrack? Echochrome is just amazing. I bought it on a whim, and proceeded to fall loopy for its amazing string quartet soundtrack. I'm going to have to score that score on CD at somepoint. And, seriously, the game is super slick.

_ Oh yeah, I started playing Uncharted 2. Its really good, I guess. Whatever....

... I dunno. Does it bother anyone else that everyone's hailing this is as this great game experience, and a real step forward for games as a medium, and all its doing it making the best playable action movie thats ever been done? Say what you will about the voiceless protagonists in Fable II or Dragon Age, but I'm more invested in those characters that I'm allowed to forge than in these well crafted avatars for me to guide through a cinematic destiny.

Not to say its not well done/nigh flawless execution, and very fun. But if you're going down that games-as-art road, Uncharted 2 shouldn't hang out very deep into that conversation. The best example of storytelling using music shouldn't be an audiobook with a soundtrack behind it.