Pyromania

Back in 1999 programers created a tongue and cheek mod for quake called Team Fortress, which was later bought by valve and sold. Team fortress was a class based multiplayer game where two teams: Blu and Red, fight over "Intelligence" simply because the other team exists. In 2007 valve released a sequel, with an updated source engine onto xbox, playstation and PC (Later added to mac). The PC version was changed to free to play and was encouraged to make their own levels. Valve introduced micro-purchases, in game items that can be purchased for real currency, creating an in game economy (http://tf2spreadsheet.blogspot.com/) that buys and sells items by how rare, demand, and difficultly to get. To advertise the game, Valve created "Meet the ___" to show off each of the classes. After five years, Meet the Pyro has been released, starting an in game ARG (Augmented reality game). This event is similar to usual holiday events, where players can complete an objective to earn an exclusive item, but by equipping the goggles (Provided on log in), you see the world through the eyes of the pyro (See video). Valve makes a lot of money off of these updates, by charging the player 2.59 for a key to open an exclusive crate that is time limited. Each crate has one item that cannot be obtained through crafting or randomly throughout the game, and often has a "Strange" weapon that counts how many kills you have gotten with it. at 2.59 a piece, nearly every player will end up buying at least one.

Mass Effect 3 (New Ending DLC)

Mass Effect 3 is a game made by Bioware and published by EA in 2011, and is meant to be the finale in the Mass Effect series.  The series follows an Earth commander named Shepard set in the distant future. Without giving any of the plot points away, the series focuses on Relays that allow travel between galaxies possible. The Relays were built trillions of years ago by an unknown source for a different cycle of life, and currently allow species to interact and cooperate/kill eachother.  In the third game, an enemy you learn about in the first two (indirectly) known as Reapers, comes to kill off the intelligent civilizations of this life cycle. The game is an RPG (Role playing game) and throughout the game you make difficult choices that kill off entire species to save others. These are the biggest choices you are forced to make in the series, but the original ending does not portray these. The original ending gives you a choice of color: Green, Red, or Blue. Before choosing an ending, the game gives very little information, for red they give a single sentence of what will happen. Each choice shows the same ending with a different hue, with the idea you will imagine what happened differently. The Green ending was incredibly vague and only accessible from playing multiplayer or from searching for 100% of the single player. Bioware faced a huge backlash by the players, who claimed their choices did not matter in the end (Included is a video of what players thought of the ending, and to prove how vague the ending is, It's not a spoiler to watch it...[Mostly because it doesn't show whats being activated]). In a pressured decision, Bioware produced a 1.8 gig (or 1,800 megabyte) add on, that added more clarity on the choices, and a video showing the end result of each civilization. The game does not go into detail as many would prefer, but it answers several of the initial questions regarding the ending. In the first play through, Red was the only path that made sense, and would benefit the universe. With the increased clarity, both blue and green were a difficult decision. Red is the safest ending, with blue and green making a morality choice. Personally I spent three minuets trying to decide between which ending to choose, and finally decided on blue. As a joke ending, Bioware created a [Refusal] option; the premise being that Shepard walks away from making the choice and everyone dies. Although this ending is completely out of character it is a hilarious way to end the game, especially with so many people complaining about the previous ending.

Play Create Share

Modnation racers is a 3D racing game created by United fronts, A branch off of Media Molecule (The game company behind Little Big Planet, 2D plat former), that continues the family friendly environment with the ability to design and use vehicles, characters, and courses. The game features a simple campaign to introduce the drifting  control mechanic and to give out items to make creating easier. After completing a few races, and agreeing to a very long Terms of Use contract, the player is launched into the "Modspot" a large playground-esque location which supports up to 30 people driving around. The game makes a mistake in this location, and quickly teaches the players about Creation xp. To level up, the player can either race online (100 xp for the winner), or create something (character, kart, or track) and have others download it (100 xp for a download, 20 for a view, 5 for a race). There is no cost to download the creations, but players can quickly notice that creation xp (from others downloading their items) is more easily obtained than racing xp. Rather than creating original pieces or working on art skills by recreating other images onto characters/karts, nearly all of the players do the bare minimum and exchange "Download for Download" where they boost (to cheat to increase their score) to reach the highest level. The racing portion of the game is a lot more involved than Mario Kart, featuring a unique Drift system, that fills up a Boost meter that can be used for both boost and shield. In its initial launch the game had incredibly long load times, which caused its game rating to suffer (by reviewers), and for all create games the game only becomes fun after the first month. With the first update, Load times were cut down to two minuets, rather than five or six. Tracks gradually became more and more involved and the community reached its highest point sometime in 2011 (A year after its launch), at that point they stopped making DLC (Downloadable content) and the game slowly devolved as the creators found better outlets to create.

(Kart: WoonaStuck intellectual property of http://woonastuck.tumblr.com/ (Egophiliac)  [Characters owned by Hasbro], created by a friend nicknamed Omega)

Violence and Absurdity

The open sandbox crime game is always a subject of controversial debate among the media. In 2006 Volition Inc created the first saints row video game, telling the fictitious story of the start of a gang "The Saints", to help fight back against the other gangs of the city. Throughout the first game it was modeled similar to the Grand Theft Auto series, and did not get much notice. Despite its initial tone, several spots of the game featured over the top missions and side things to do. Fans fell in love with these zany missions, such as streaking across the city evading cops, and in 2008 they created Saints row 2 with the promise to not attempt to compete with GTA (Grand theft auto), but to create a brand new experience. Saints row 2 begins, and quickly pokes fun at a plot hole it intentionally creates, the player dies in the first one. At the end of saints row 1, the player is blown up on a ship in the middle of the ocean, as a joke they bring him back placing him in Jail with nth degree burns and the need for a complete facial (and or gender) reconstruction. After hastily breaking out of jail, all of the characters you meet quickly ask if there is something different about you. By the second game, the saints began to create a name for themselves with the cash they made from their initial city and decide to go to a new city to fight the gangs there. Instead of taking over shops and fighting off gang activity, the game prompts you to use Absurd tactics such as "Septic Avenger" (Using a septic truck with a turret, to cause as much damage as possible.) to gain control of districts. The current installment of the game is no different in Absurdity, with the introduction of both "Professor Genki's Super Ethical Reality Climax" and the "Nut shot" button. Professor Genki is a Mascot cat scientist who asks you to compete in a Japanese gameshow, in which you have to fight through a maze of mascots as fast as possible. The other feature is the nut shot, which is a combat feature that changes according to distance, weapon, speed and direction, in which you charge at the opponent and hit them in the nuts in some form or another. As always, there is a movement to stop the game from being accessible by the public, but with jet bikes, tanks, jets, and squid launchers this game is far from normal and therefore is impossible "to try this at home".

Earth Defense Force 2017
Published by D3 in 2007, Earth Defense Force 2017 or better known as simply EDF was a cult classic for the Xbox 360. EDF was a third person, over the shoulder video game where the player gained increasingly less realistic guns as they progressed. Starting out with only a single machine gun, to eventually unlocking the Genocide gun which levels the entire city.  The premise of the gun is very simple: Aliens are attacking Earth, and you are the only one competent enough to stop them. Although you spawn with nearly 60 EDF troops, nearly all of them either kill themselves or are taken out before you even get to the first fight. The game begins with large space ships dubbed "Ravagers" which are only seen overhead. Quickly after they arrive, they begin to drop giant insects, mainly ants that spit acid. After fighting ants off of Tokyo, the game introduces robots, spiders, and jets all of which drop a weapon drop granting a random weapon. The most enjoyable part of the game is the explosive weapons, which make up most of the arsenal, sends ants flying and buildings crumbling in a single hit. However most of the other weapons are nearly impossible or impractical to use, such as an acid-spitting shotgun, which in a game of unlimited ammo, can only shoot 100 shots. The Game supports 2 player, drop in drop out gameplay which enhances the arcade style of the game. Ammo is unlimited, and there are five difficulty levels allowing for ease for new players. 

Kirby Air Ride

     
        Kirby Air Ride for the Nintendo Game cube,  a game created in 2003 developed by HAL Laboratory was a simple to pick up and play racing game that is appropriate for all ages. Kirby was one of Nintendo main mascot characters with several previous console exclusive games following Kirby's quest to eat  every food object she can find; It never really explains what Kirby is planning on doing, but I know it involves food.  In previous adventures Kirby wandered around sucking up enemies and using their powers to fight. Kirby games have a cartoon animation style with a two dimensional side scrolling game play.
      Unlike her earlier games, this game is in three dimensions rather than in a two dimensional side scrolling. The game is also focused mainly around four player competitive game called "City Trial". In City trial, players have to drive around the city looking for blue boxes filled with power ups to build up their car and alternative vehicles. After seven minuets the game cycles into a single event, such as a race or a stunt competition. The game is colorful and the control are incredibly simple, Control stick to move, and any other button to brake. Alternatively the game offers the ability to only play the races/events allowing practice or to simplify game play. Another mode "Top Ride" features a top down racing, with the ability to see the entire track and players at the same time, which is much more difficult to control. This is a timeless game, but as Gamestop has stopped purchasing and selling gamecube games, may become difficult to purchase.