I don't play as many PC games as I used to, but Core Keeper has drawn me back in as of late. This top-down sandbox adventure game is bursting with stuff to explore and do, and has a style that's reminiscent of Stardew Valley. In fact, Core Keeper is what happens when Terraria and Stardew Valley have a baby.

There is so much to do in this game that it's almost overwhelming. Exploration and combat are the primary activities, but there's plenty more to occupy your time. You can:

• Build a base
• Mine for ore
• Build automated mining contraptions (so cool!)
• Raise livestock
• Farm crops
• Cook food (which boosts your stats)
• Play music with in-game instruments
• Catch fish
• Craft all kinds of tools and items
• Fight huge bosses
• Build boats, railways, and go-karts to get around the map quickly

Like Terraria, each world you play in is randomized. One of the joys of the exploration side of the game is stumbling upon what the game calls "scenes," hand-crafted areas that usually have neat loot to find. You'll stumble upon giant doors that only open when you use an instrument to play the notes inscribed on them. Other times it will be an abandoned house, often containing useful furniture or crafting stations within. The remains of giant creatures will often have neat stuff located nearby.

Combat is pretty simple, generally. There are three classes you can play as, with a fourth minor class: melee, ranger, magic, and summoner. The melee and ranger classes are both reasonably well balanced, but the mage and summoner classes need work. I've read that these were added towards the end of development, so hopefully some future balances will be made here (additional content is planned for the game, according to the developers).

If you're looking for a fun time-sink, this is it. Be sure to check it out if you haven't already.

Earlier this week Valve released a 20th (!!) anniversary update for Half Life 2. One of the major features added is developer commentary, which they shipped for Episode 1 and 2, but never for the original game. It's been very interesting to listen to the commentary so far (I'm only about half-way through the game), and I've learned several interesting things that I didn't previously know:

• In the very first platform puzzle, if you try to throw all of the crates out of the window (breaking the puzzle in the process), a new crate is spawned in while you aren't looking; very clever!
• Loot crates will typically drop whatever you're most in need of at the moment.
• Eli winks at the player when he says that Alyx is the only thing Gordon can't handle; I've played this game countless times and I've never noted that detail!
• If given long enough, seagulls will perch on the dune-buggy and poop on it! You can then clean the buggy off by driving through shallow water.

Also released was a 2-hour documentary on the making of the game, which I'm also about half-way through. It's always fun to peer behind the curtain on stuff like this.

Another recent video game I picked up on sale was Subnautica: Below Zero, a follow-up to the 2018 original. I really enjoyed the original; in fact, I still occasionally fire it up to play. This new entry, however, was only mildly enjoyable.

Crafting was a joy in this game, as it was in the original; there are tons of things to make, and you have to explore the world (scanning stuff in the process) to learn what's useful and what's not. The world is definitely much smaller than in the original, but the biomes are a little more diverse: they look vastly different from one another. Some of the biomes were fairly inventive as well (the floating lily pad islands being one memorable one). The story was mediocre, but what really bothered me was the lack of direction in the game. Most of the time you're not sure where to go or what to do. The original did a great job of nudging you in the right direction. In it, you would pick up distress calls from certain locations, each of which was usually near some point of interest that helped you progress.

In this title, however, there's none of that. Often, you just have to stumble upon the right place to move the story along. There are many maze-like areas of the world map, some of which were frustrating to navigate. This makes finding some of those key locations very difficult. All of the above-water locations were a nice new addition, but were equally confusing to navigate. This game either needs an in-game mapping function (maybe something that you have to craft), or it needs better nudges for the player. I eventually had to break down and look online for the location of a few key places; some of them are incredibly well hidden, which is odd given that they are key to moving the story forward.

I've already uninstalled this game (I don't envision playing it again), but it was fun while it lasted. I'll definitely check out any sequels that get made, if only because the first game was so memorable and fun. My verdict: C+.

Back in November, I picked up Doom Eternal on Steam during a weekend sale. It's a relatively old game now (released in March of 2020), but having kids means I don't game as much as I used to. I'm glad I picked it up on sale, because the game was a letdown. How this game got such stellar reviews is beyond me. Maybe it's a sign of the state of first person shooters these days?

As is expected from an id Software game, the game's graphics are stellar. Even on my old rig it looked great and played smoothly. That's about where my praise ends, however. Combat in this game is a chore. Ammo is super limited, which is clearly a design decision to force you to use the game's "glory kill" mechanic. Levels, though beautiful, are the now-typical arena-hallways-arena style design: fight enemies in an arena, then walk through some hallways (or do some jumping puzzles) to get to the next arena.

A few of the enemies were fun, with a number of callbacks to the original, but some of them were a real pain to deal with. I ended up having to lower the difficulty of the game just to get through it; some of the arena battles were just too much of a slog. The story is weak, though I didn't expect much in this department; all id Software games traditionally have terrible story lines.

All in all, I don't envision playing this game again. On my typical letter-grade scale, I'd give it a solid D (for disappointing).

While cleaning out my office this afternoon (some early spring cleaning), I found this blast from the past: an official hint sheet for the Castle of the Winds game for Windows 3.1. What a terrific game that was!

I remember ordering the full game directly from Epic MegaGames (yes, that Epic), and receiving both the 3.5-inch floppy and this sheet. I'm including some pictures of the sheet here for posterity, as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere around the internet. Now it has been!

For a little while now, I've been playing and enjoying Terraria, a side-scrolling exploration game (somewhat similar, from what I hear, to Minecraft). Its 16-bit vibe really hits the nostalgia button for me, not to mention that it's just plain fun.

That said, I think the single most attractive feature of this game is that you get to really explore a computer-generated world (no two of which are alike!). It's the exploration factor that attracts me most. Once I hit the "hard mode" portion of the game, it starts to feel like a grind to me. The discovery of brand new places and items is my carrot on the stick; once I've fully uncovered the map, the game loses its luster.

I think the same thing can be said for a number of other games I have enjoyed in the past, including ones like Skyrim. The expansive world is just plain fun to explore; there's always a new cave, or city, or ruin to find and explore. Quests can keep things interesting, but it's seeing new places that really gets me excited.

Are there any games out there that are, to some degree, solely about the exploration? I'm pretty sure that Dear Esther fits that bill (and I have yet to play it), but I'm wondering if there are others I've missed. I have to believe that purely exploration-based games have a market (see Beyond Eyes, for example). If anyone can provide recommendations for titles in this space, I'd love to hear them.

Back in 2009, I reviewed the original Torchlight. Now that the sequel is out, I thought I'd post a few brief thoughts on it as well. Note that I've only played the single-player aspect of this game so far (oddly enough, that's the kind of gaming I prefer). In short, not only does this game blow the original out of the water, it comes close (in my opinion) to doing the same to Diablo 2, which is my favorite action-RPG of all time.

The Good

Bigger Maps

The maps in Torchlight 2 are so much larger than in the first game, that it's ridiculous. There are tons of places to explore, including some sub-dungeons that are completely optional! Make sure you explore every nook and cranny; you might otherwise miss something awesome.

Level Randomization

The randomization of each level is mind blowing. I currently have five characters I'm playing (I've finished the game with two of them so far), and in every play through I've seen something different. And I'm not just talking about level layout; I've actually seen different set pieces every time I've played! Finding new stuff is always a thrill.

Great Graphics

I've seen lots of people complain about the look of this game, but I love it. Sure it may look "cartoony," but that's part of the charm. It's different. And it runs really well on my aging computer, which is always a plus.

New Classes

This time around there are four new classes to play. Although they share some features with the original game's classes, for the most part they are all unique and different. How you play each will change drastically, depending on the build you develop over time. There's a ton of re-playability right here alone! As of this writing, I've completed the game with the Berserker and the Engineer. I'm currently playing as an Embermage, and will try out the Outlander (which looked to be the weakest class) last.

Cheap

It's still only $20!

The Bad

No Respecs

Unfortunately, you can only respec the last three skills you've earned at any given time (for a price!). This makes it very easy to paint yourself into a corner with a lousy character build. Being able to respec all of my character's skills would be great, so I could try different builds on the fly. Hopefully someone will improve this situation when the modding tools are released.

Weak Story (Again)

The storyline in this game is pretty weak (as it was in the first one), and isn't as clear as it should be. I wasn't expecting much, though, so this is a minor gripe.

The Verdict

Torchlight 2 is a fantastic game, and has more fun-per-dollar baked in than any other game on the market. At only $20, the only question worth asking is why wouldn't you buy this game? A+

At midnight Pacific time last night, the highly anticipated Diablo 3 was released. Judging by all the negative tweets I woke up to this morning, I'm glad I didn't buy in to the hype. It seems as though virtually everyone failed to connect to the Blizzard servers last night, something you're required to do even for single player games.

This point really gnaws at me. On one hand, I'm disgusted that you have to connect to a remote server to enjoy a single-player experience. I've seen some claims that this was done to prevent cheating, but we all know that this policy is about software piracy. Who really cares if I cheat while playing by myself? No one, that's who.

On the other hand, I use Steam all the time, which is an (albeit loose) analogy to Blizzard's Diablo 3 strategy. I typically connect to the Steam servers before I play, though for virtually all of the games I own, it's not a requirement. Perhaps it's the fact that you're required to connect that bothers me. It's one more online account that I'd rather not deal with.

A few journalists in the gaming world have predicted that this is the future of single player gaming. Only time will tell whether or not that's true. Maybe this launch will sour people's opinions enough that mandatory online gaming will be deferred for a little longer. As a single-player gaming enthusiast, I certainly hope so.

For those who live under a rock, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim was released ten days ago. I'm already nearly 70 hours into this game, and there's still a ton of stuff I haven't done. That said, I figured I'd post a few quick thoughts about this game. In short, this is easily one of the best games I've ever played.

There is simply too much to do in this game. You could spend all day making potions, crafting items, enchanting items, or simply exploring the world, all without ever starting a single quest. I found myself completing many of the "miscellaneous" quests long before I joined any particular faction, or started along the main quest line. There are still giant chunks of the map that I have yet to visit, which is incredible given that I'm so far in.

The game's graphics are outstanding; head and shoulders above Oblivion's engine. I'm really impressed with the draw distance, and every dungeon, cave, and mine has a unique feel (fixing one of Oblivion's few failings). It's also silky smooth on my system, running on the "High" detail level. Story lines have been interesting so far (though the Thieves' Guild seemed a little weak), and I'm loving the Dragon Shout abilities. Blasting an enemy off the top of a mountain is so incredibly fun.

I do have a few complaints. The user interface on the PC is pretty terrible, though I'm hopeful that a mod will come along soon to fix that. Voice acting is good, but some of the voices are reused way too much for my liking. Perk points (a new way of leveling your character) are too rare. Give me 2 or 3 points per level, not just 1! Finally, as is usual with this type of game, there are still quite a few bugs. Another patch is coming after Thanksgiving, which should hopefully smooth out some of the rough spots.

If you like role playing games, and you enjoyed the previous Elder Scrolls titles, you'll like this title. It's an instant classic in my opinion, and has taken its rightful place in my "best games of all time" list.

Having recently completed Portal 2, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on the experience. As usual, I played it through on the PC, so my review comes from that vantage point. I have yet to try the co-op portion of the game, so my thoughts are limited to the single player experience.

The Good

Writing

As usual, the writing from Valve is top notch. The dialogue in Portal 2 is really funny and Stephen Merchant is outstanding as Wheatley, the personality core. If for no other reason, you should purchase this game for the hilarity alone.

The Story Arc

Though I found the overall story a little predictable, the execution is well done. Lots of back-story on Aperture Science and GLaDOS is uncovered, providing some really neat "aha" moments.

New Puzzle Elements

Several new puzzle elements have been added to the mix including light bridges, lasers, and various forms of physics paint (the latter of which I found really entertaining). These all added interesting twists to how you ended up using your portals.

Look and Sound

The graphics and sound in the game are stellar, as usual. I really felt like a part of the world while playing through the game.

The Bad

Loading...

Load screens are way too frequent in this title. This is a problem Valve needs to solve first and foremost for their next game. Each of their games has always been heavy on load screens, but this was ridiculous. I'm guessing this was a limitation forced on them by the gaming consoles which they support.

Console-itis

Valve has always delivered top-notch PC experiences, but here the console-itis bleeds through. The menu system is clearly designed for console controllers, and game engine options were surprisingly anemic. Very frustrating.

Too Short (Again)

The first Portal suffered from an incredibly short gameplay experience, and Portal 2 sadly has the same problem. I finished the game in about 6 hours, which is pitiful compared to the 20 or 30 hours or so it took me to play through Half-Life 2 the first time. My hope was that this game would have been much longer.

Single Solution Puzzles

Most, if not all, of the puzzles in the game have essentially one single solution. Portal allowed the player to come up with various solutions to the game's puzzles; but here, each puzzle is designed with one solution in mind, which was a letdown.

Gripes aside, this is a game everyone should play. It's a whirlwind of good game design, with hilarious writing all the way through. I give it a solid 4 stars.

Over the Christmas holiday, I purchased Dead Space on Steam (happily, for only $7). The game was a major letdown on a number of levels, but there's one nit in particular that I'd like to pick. I was really struck by how dumb the game assumed I was. Often, direct audio cues (i.e. the spaceship's computer) would tell you exactly what to do. Here's a typical example:

The player enters a room filled with radioactive debris. Upon entering said room, the ship's computer announces, out loud, that the room is locked down due to these dangerous conditions. In order to lift this lock down, all radioactive debris must be removed. To further complicate matters, the debris can only be removed when an airlock to outer space is opened (again, all of this is announced by the computer). A monitor in one corner of the room displays, in what would realistically be a 200-point font, the text "open airlock." Using this computer opens the airlock, and the player is then free to remove the debris.

Sadly, a number of other games make this same assumption; namely, that I as the player am generally unable to figure out how to proceed on my own. I think this is what draws me to the games that Valve develops. Every Half-Life title ever released assumes from the outset that the player is smart. Clues are always provided as to how to proceed, but precious few hints are explicitly stated. Portal is another perfect example of this. The user is instructed (via the narrative itself) how the portal gun works. It's then up to the player to figure out how to use it to proceed through the game.

As a gamer, I would much rather developers assume my intelligence, rather than my stupidity. It simply makes a game that much more fun to play.

This year's E3 has come and gone, and I thought I'd post a few thoughts on various things introduced at the event. To make things easy, I'll organize things by platform.

PC Gaming

Portal 2

This may be the game I'm most excited about. Whereas the first Portal was an "experiment" of sorts, this second title looks to be a full-fledged game. The puzzles sound much more insidious (physics paint!), and the new milieu of the game looks incredible. Portions of the trailer I watched are very funny, as can be expected. And hey, it's Valve we're talking about here. This will definitely be a winner.

Rage

id Software's new intellectual property looks incredible. Part racer, part first-person shooter, this game looks like a boat load of fun. It's pretty, too, as expected with titles from id (humans still look a little too fake, however; they need to drop the 'bloated' look). I'll probably pick this one up when it's released.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

If this game is as fun (and as deep) as the first one was, I'll definitely buy in. If it's as lame as the second one was reported to be, I'll skip it. Nevertheless, the trailer looks great.

Nintendo Wii

Lost in Shadow

This upcoming adventure game looks really impressive. You play as the shadow of a young boy, separated from him at the beginning of the game. The ultimate goal is to reach the top of a tower, where the boy is being held. But the twist here is that, as a shadow, you can only use other object's shadows as platforms. Manipulating light in the environment looks like a large part of the puzzle mechanic. This is another very inventive title that looks promising.

Zelda: Skyward Sword

What's not to like about a new Zelda title?

Kirby's Epic Yarn

Kirby's Epic Yarn has an incredibly unique art design. This time around, Kirby is an outline of yarn, and moves through a similarly designed environment. I've seen plenty of comments around the web poking fun at the seemingly "gay" presentation of the trailer; but this looks like an inventive, fun game to me.

Donkey Kong Country Returns

I was a big fan of the Donkey Kong Country games back on the SNES, so I'm really looking forward to this one. Some of the older games were ridiculously difficult; hopefully some of that difficulty will be ported over. The graphics in this one look fantastic.

Epic Mickey

Mickey Mouse goes on an epic adventure, using various paints and paint thinners to modify and navigate the world. The fact that this game includes a Steamboat Willie level, complete with the old artwork style, is epic in itself.

Nintendo DS

Nintendo 3DS

The next iteration of Nintendo's hand-held looks interesting. I'd have to see the 3D effect in person to get a good feel for it, but all the press I've read has sounded promising. There are some neat sounding titles coming for this new platform and, if they're fun enough, I may just have to upgrade.

XBox 360

Kinect (AKA Project Natal)

I'm not exactly sure what to think about this. I've read in several places that Microsoft really butchered the unveiling of this tech, opting for 'family-friendly' titles similar to what's already on the Wii. That being said, Child of Eden looks like a phenomenal title that makes terrific use of the new technology. Only time will tell how this stuff works out. I think it's funny, however, that Sony and Microsoft are just now trying to catch up to Nintendo in motion control. Nintendo gets a lot of hate from the hard-core gaming community (a small portion of which is justified), but they're obviously doing something right; otherwise these companies wouldn't be entering this space.

I'm sure there are a few items I've missed in this rundown, but these are the ones that really caught my eye. For those of you who followed this year's event, what are you looking forward to?

Earlier this week, I picked up a copy of the 2004 title Thief: Deadly Shadows from Steam. Last night, I found out the hard way that the game doesn't auto-save your progress; my character fell from a lofty spot, died, and I lost a couple of hours of progress. This got me thinking about the state of auto-saving in video games today, something that I now clearly take for granted.

Back in the day, games never auto-saved your progress. One of the earliest titles I recall using an auto-save feature was the original Far Cry, which (in actuality) used a checkpoint saving system. I'm sure there were titles before that which used an auto-save mechanism (the first Serious Sam might have used one back in 2001). Since that time, nearly every game I've played has had some form of an auto-game saving mechanism.

Take one of my current favorite games, Torchlight. With regards to saving your progress, it lies at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from most old games: you cannot, at any point, manually save your progress! In essence, it only auto-saves, nothing more. What a change from having to consciously remember to save every so often.

Going forward in Thief: Deadly Shadows, I'll have to remind myself to save every so often. Otherwise, I'll end up wasting more time like I did last night. Live and learn.

Steam is hosting a holiday sale through January 3rd, with some titles discounted as much as 80% off! I picked up a couple of indie games during this sale (and might grab a few more at these prices). The first title I picked up was Samorost 2, and it only cost $2.49. That's still a little steep in my opinion, seeing as over half of the game is available for free on the web. But the title is a fun, cute adventure style game set in a very imaginative world.

The second title I picked up is by the same crew, and is called Machinarium. This game is much more substantial, and has a number of very difficult puzzles (I'm currently stumped on a few of them). The artwork is fantastic, the soundtrack is highly enjoyable, and the characters are adorable. There's no dialog; each character speaks using a thought bubble. But the stories they tell are amusing. It's hard not to fall in love with these characters, much in the same way I did with the Pixar movie WALL-E.

Be sure to check out the Steam store before January 3rd. There are some terrific discounts on some great games, so now's the time to pick them up!

A recent update to Torchlight has added achievements to the game. There's no way to see them in game (which is a bummer), and I wish they had progress bars that gave you an idea of where you were in the midst of collecting each one. Those nits aside, this is a great addition to an already great game. As of this writing, I'm only 15% complete, but I look forward to trying to grab as many as I can. Some of them look awfully difficult! It's a shame they didn't have this in the game from the get go...

Update: Here's the global achievement list for your perusal.

The upcoming Demoman and Soldier updates to Team Fortress 2 will add a crafting system into the mix. Apparently, blueprints (i.e. "recipes") will be available in some fashion that will show you how to combine items together to create new items. This is a bizarre addition to this game. With this announcement, players are already complaining that Team Fortress 2 is devolving into a role-playing game. To be fair, however, the lines between game genres is blurring over time. Borderlands is a great example of a first-person-shooter mixed with traditional role-playing-game elements.

I'm going to give Valve the benefit of the doubt with this upcoming update, though I agree this is a odd direction to take this game. Knowing Valve, however, I won't be surprised if this change turns out to be a great addition to an already great game.

Having played through it a few times now, I thought I'd post a few thoughts on Torchlight, the action role-playing game I've talked about a time or two here on the site. For those who don't already know, the game is essentially a Diablo 2 clone (with, what I would argue, are terrific updates). Read on for my take on this title.

The Good

Diablo 2 Clone

Few would dispute that Diablo 2 is one of the greatest (if not the greatest) action RPG's ever created. Often times, clones of stellar titles like that are weak. Thankfully, with Torchlight, that's not the case. Many of the developers who created Torchlight worked on Diablo 2, so they know how to make a triple-A title. All of that know-how has been put to good use here. At some level, Torchlight feels like a re-imagining of Diablo 2. It's as if the developers simply brought the look and feel into the 21st century, and that's a terrific thing.

Loot, Loot, and More Loot

By far one of the best attributes of this game is all of the loot that enemies drop. Magical items are great fun to find, and they drop with just enough frequency to hook you into looking for that rare, unique item. Set items are equally fun to find. This feature alone makes this game a collector's dream.

Great Performance

The game runs like a dream on my system, and works well on nearly all systems (so I've read). A netbook mode is even included to boost performance for older or underpowered systems. Being able to run the game on older hardware is a terrific design decision, especially in this age of ultra-realistic looking titles.

Great Looks

Despite it's ability to run on older hardware, Torchlight looks great. The cartoony atmosphere is fun to look at, and nearly all magic spells and character abilities result in terrific visual delights. Things can sometimes get confusing (especially when battling large groups of monsters), but in the end, the chaos adds to the fun.

Pets

I've already written about this terrific addition to the game, so I won't rehash it again. In short, this feature had better be in every action RPG from here on out!

Randomized Levels

With only a few exceptions (boss levels, mostly), all of the games levels are randomized. As a result, no two characters will ever see the same level layout twice. I've run across several traps and sights on my second and third times through that I didn't see before. There's no telling what I have yet to see, which I think is great.

It's Cheap

At only $20, how can you possibly say no to this game?

The Bad

Difficulty Scaling

Difficulty in this game is, on the whole, quite easy. But it scales in a strangely uneven way. On my initial play through, I played on the "Hard" difficulty level, and I was able to defeat all but one of the bosses with ease. The final boss is so much harder than all the previous bosses that the change is quite jarring. Likewise, all of the general enemies are very easy to up to the final boss level. All of the subsequent levels (in the never-ending (?) Shadow Vault) are substantially more difficult. This unevenness is hard to justify.

Weak (and Short) Story

The story is fairly weak, and relatively short (only about 30 levels worth of the game), but were we really playing this for the story? No, we probably weren't.

Only Three Classes

There are only three player classes you can experience: Vanquisher, Alchemist, and Destroyer. A few extra classes would have been welcome.

Skill Point Redistributions

If you do a bad job of distributing your skill points in the game, the final boss can become essentially impossible (as I found out on my first play through). There's a semi-official mod available that adds a "respec" potion to the game, allowing you to redistribute your points at will. At some level, having this ability from the get-go would have been welcome (though, it admittedly would make the game even easier).

The Verdict

This game is pure fun, no doubt about it. The price couldn't be better for what you get. I've played through the game with 2 of the 3 classes so far (I'm currently working my through with the last of the 3, the Alchemist), and I'm looking forward to going through again, trying different character builds in the process.

The "high definition" remake of Serious Sam: The First Encounter is being released tomorrow on Steam! Watching the trailer for this game should bring back some fond memories for anyone familiar with this title. I'll probably pick it up very soon, as I remember having a blast with the original. At only $20, what is there to lose?

Speaking of $20 games, I still highly recommend Torchlight. I have yet to beat it, simply because I did a terrible job of creating my original character, therefore making her too weak to defeat the final boss (as embarrassing as that is to say). Oh, and the "Hard" difficulty is just that. It was a breeze early in the game, but the final levels are murder! Anyways, I created a new character and have pumped her up with all the right stats (she's now a death-bringing tank). The other character classes are just as fun to play, and I look forward to spending more time with them.

Hopefully other equally great games will come out at this price point. With the price of most games today eclipsing $50 or $60, it's hard to justify not picking up a cheap, fun title to play for the upcoming holidays.

Last night, I purchased Torchlight on Steam, based on the positive reviews I've been reading about the game. At only $19.99, it's a definite bargain. I've only played about two hours worth so far, but man is this game fun! Torchlight is an action-style RPG, much in the vein of Diablo (in fact, it's made by a bunch of old Diablo developers). The graphics are beautiful and cartoony, spell effects are fun to watch, and the voice acting is pretty decent. But what I want to focus on in this post are the pets your character can have.

When you start a new game, you get to choose a pet (either a dog or a lynx-style cat), which you can then name. Your pet travels around with you and can aid you in battle. It will attack enemies if you put it into an aggressive stance, it can carry loot for you, and it can even wield items: a couple of rings, two spells, and an amulet. You can even send the pet around to gather up loot on the dungeon floor!

By far the best ability, however, is that your pet can travel back to town to sell items for you! Can you believe that? No longer do you have to teleport back to town to sell your unwanted loot. Just load up your pet with the stuff to sell, tell it to go back to town, and it will. The obvious downside to this is that you lose your pet's abilities and assistance for a while, but it's oh-so-worth it in the long run.

I'm having a blast so far with this game, and I'd much rather be at home playing it right now than at work. I definitely recommend checking it out. For only $20, it's a great value!

It seems the good folks at Valve have released a Halloween-themed update for Team Fortress 2. I haven't played TF2 in quite some time now, but this is a good excuse to jump back into the game. A total of 5 new achievements are being offered, but only for a limited time.

I think the holiday themed update is a very interesting idea, and it's definitely something that not too many games have done in the past. Stuff like this always makes me hope that Valve isn't purchased by some other entity. I can see the bean counters at a place like EA saying, "we don't have the time or money to develop this kind of thing." With any luck, Valve will remain an autonomous studio, and will continue to crank out great content like this.