Sometimes a Christmas present can be a double-edged sword - not literally (well, yes, technically I suppose you could get a double-edged sword for Christmas, but that's not what I meant), but metaphorically, like the $20 Playstation Network gift card stocking stuffer I received.
The problem is, there are actually two games I'd like to get. A few months ago I did a post on the Telltale game The Walking Dead which I really loved - a game focused less on the run and jump aspect of the majority of video games and instead on building trust and relationships was a really neat idea, and one of my favourite gaming experiences of 2013.
So then when I found out the same company was creating a new game based on the Vertigo series Fables (which is one of my favourite comic book series, period), I got pretty excited. Early reviews were really positive and you get to play as Fabletown's sherrif, Bigby Wolf (who I've posted about here) and I've always been a sucker for the world created by Bill Willigham.
So things looked pretty simple, spend my $20, get a Fables game - awesome. Only then I found out that Telltale games was releasing a second season of The Walking Dead and this time you get to play as Clemintine (the girl that the main character works to protect in the first game), so now I'm in a tricky place:
Do I pick the Fables, or the Zombies...
Over the last few weeks I've worked my way through the five episodes that made up the 2012 video game, The Walking Dead. Unlike pretty much every other zombie game I've ever played, the 2012 game, created by TellTale Games focuses almost entirely on the interactions between people in a world based on Robert Kirkman's comic book series, The Walking Dead. In the game, you play a character, and this week's Genre Character, named Lee Everett (voiced by Dave Fennoy).
It's tricky to say why I like the character of Lee so much, as the way he acts and reacts in the game was pretty much up to me - rather than focusing on how many zombies you can kill, the game changes the focus to how you (as Lee) deal with a number of other survivors and try to either get along with them, ignore them, or act horrible towards them.
The first person you meet in the game (after the zombies take over) is a young girl named Clementine (voiced by Melissa Huchison), and together the characters travel across Georgia in an attempt to stay alive in a world overrun by the walking dead.
For my first time through the game, I basically looked towards the kid and whatever she seemed to like was the way my character chose to act - it seemed like kind of a strange way to go through the game, but at the same time, I felt pretty good being honest to this kid throughout the horrible events of the game.
If you've never tried a zombie game before, I would highly recommend it, and as very little of the game requires you to move with lightning speed, even newcomers to video games should be able to navigate their way through the game.
