Creative: The Making of the Layton Album

Art by AdamOne (the 3rd) Cartwright

The creation of the album we've dubbed Professor Layton & the Bay Harbor Butcher was an adventure, a trial in the face of extreme adversity, and an experience of personal growth for those involved. Though extremely cliché, these words are nothing short of truth. It's hard for me to recall many of the specific details, they were extensive, but I’ll do my best to convey them here. Some time back in November, 2011, after Juja and I had recovered from making Pixel Glass, gone on tour, and got back to our regular lives, we starting entering into Dwelling of Duels again, making tracks for the sole purpose of entering into the contest and becoming better musicians in the process. We never did particularly well, but it was a lot of fun and over the next year or so Juja had the idea to make a Layton vs Dexter themed song for one of the site's regular "free month" contests. I forget exactly why but there were a lot of delays involved with arranging the song, and somewhere through the process, perhaps in early/mid 2012, we thought it would be cool to maybe make an album based on that song concept. Being a bit over-excited, I had the artwork made the next week by my friend Adam, while Juja and I put together a list of the songs we wanted to record. 

We originally intended it to be sort of a "best/worst of Dwelling of Duels entries, plus the Dexter vs Layton song", but the more time we put into arranging the Dexter song, the more months of DoD we entered (which took away from arranging the title track), and the more track ideas Juja and I had for recording and including on the album... We just sort of had a bunch of fun ideas of “oh, let’s do this”, which is how we normally operate, and worked towards recording those songs, quickly bringing an 8 track album to 17 tracks, to 20. It didn't help that Juja was also helping me record tracks for original songs I was working on as well. We were busy guys, just having fun putting together music, learning more about recording techniques with each passing month. At one point I got Juja a better interface so he wouldn't have to record with a 3 second delay, and got myself a really nice headset so I could get an accurate feel for the music we were mixing. I also learned how to program drums, making my first attempt on a Puzzle Theme, but eventually getting pretty alright at it. I also learned a lot about editing, pitch correction, and mixing/mastering while experimenting on this project over the years.

Picture of the 36 hour recording rig

Somewhere in early 2012 I got really depressed for 6 months and stopped working on music altogether (except for shows with RE). I can't remember why I got so depressed, I don't want to. It hit me hard and didn't let up for a very long time. When I finally got out of my depression an unfortunate loss hit Juja and he couldn't really be reached for a few months either. We both got out of our slumps briefly to put together a December entry for DoD then Juja and I stopped talking for another 3 months. It wasn't that we fought or anything, we were both just going through personal stuff and didn't really make any progress on the album. Juja didn't play guitar, I didn't play accordion beyond any band-related obligations I had... But with time we both were able to recover, probably thanks to a call from my good friend Helios, who was moving back to the US from South Korea after 6 years of being away. In addition to being the other founding member of Random Encounter, Helios is someone I genuinely consider family, though we're not related. Over the years he’s pushed me to be a better musician, helped me find a direction, musical outlet, and encouraged me to keep at it when no one else (except my dear mother) would. The thought of him being a mere 3 hour flight away really inspired me... And after talking with Helios on the phone for the first time in a year or more, he agreed to fly in for a weekend and record whatever I wanted on piano, the instrument he had gone to college to perfect the art of. I booked the flight and spent a few weeks arranging the music, mostly the stuff he and I had always wanted to record as Random Encounter but had never got to properly do before he moved away... As Helios was engaged at the time (they got married later), and Juja wanted to also be involved to some extent, we decided to stream the weekend-long recording session. Despite 5 really important piano keys breaking in the opening moments of the recording session the weekend was a success. We recorded for a total of 36 hours, averaged 20-40 viewers (even well into the early hours of the morning), and finishing a whopping 30 songs!!! Despite being utterly insane, the experience reinvigorated us (at least myself) to get back on the proverbial horse and finish the album we started almost two years prior.

There was another huge delay in starting our album, the acceptance of Careless Juja live to Nerdapalooza, which in itself was an immense undertaking, but I already had most of my parts of the album recorded, and it would be good practice for the dreaded Layton solo, so I didn't see it as such a bad thing. In short, Adam (the artist), Juja, Helios, and a half dozen other musicians played some of our songs in a live setting. It was awesome and it was about this time that we hired Brandon Strader (who wrote his own version of the making of the this album here), a really talented guy we knew from DoD and from his album called Random Encounter (which I'd discovered while looking up my band on google). He seemed fairly approachable, so we tried to get him to help us arrange, mix, and master our title track, which needed to sound amazing... But in working with the guy it was really clear to Juja and myself that he understood what we were about, that he's really talented, and that he was just as passionate about our music as we were. While we didn't intend to outsource mixing our entire album, he was a lot more talented than us, extremely friendly, and open to the idea. Now, instead of simply re-releasing DoD tracks on an album, we'd be properly mixing them, re-recording parts, editing others, and really making every track sound as good as possible. Strader finished arranging the Dexter theme while Juja and I worked on the logistics of the live show.

Careless, Helios, Juja, and Ben (my nephew) at Walmart…

Shortly before the Nerdapalooza show

After the Nerdapalooza show, thanks to a mix of Strader's enthusiasm and the good vibes we got from playing the show, Juja and I immediately got to recording. I had just picked up a new recording technique called "recording with dynamics", which made my accordion sound significantly better than any previous method of recording, so though it was really unenjoyable to do, I felt it was right to go back and literally re-record many of the songs I'd spent the last 2 years recording... Including the dreaded Professor Layton solo that literally look me 3 months of daily practice to perfect, and 6 hours to record the perfect take. Sort of like the salmon commercials boasting that they "endure the worst to bring you the best", during the making of this album I broke two accordions (reeds popped out, mics broke), my home completely flooded with 2+ inches of water, twice, my water-pump system & AC broke the same day during the start of my big 4 day "heat-wave recording session" (no AC and no water to the building for 4 solid days of recording), the piano broke 4 additional keys when I started to record the touch-ups to Helios' parts, the computer with all the recordings for the entire album died, the backup hard drive with all the recordings was physically dropped (by me, carelessly down a flight of stairs) and destroyed immediately after the file transfer, there were technical failures at just about every recording session, everyone involved caught some pretty intense sicknesses, and Strader's car was shot with real gunfire after two of his neighbors got into a scuffle and decided to kill one another... I'm sure there are worse horror stories out there for album creations but I just wanted to illustrate the literal blood, mucus, sweat, and tears rendered into the tracks of this album.

Careless Juja

Around Nerdapalooza we hosted a Kickstarter, got lots of help from 8bitX and Nerdapalooza advertising it, and reached our goal in the final hours. I really can't emphasize that without the help of our Kickstarter backers we really couldn't have afforded to put the album together... While putting together a track listing a few weeks later, as we looked at a 35+ track album, we deduced that the average Compact Disc can only hold 70 minutes of music, and that we'd promised to deliver all of the 35 songs. It didn’t take Professor Layton to tell us that we needed to change what we had a problem on our hands… I firmly believed that a two disc Layton album would be a bad idea because I felt the Dexter vs Layton theme wasn't dynamic enough (we didn't have enough music from Layton and didn't want to add more songs as we were already behind schedule) for an epic 2 CD's of music. We also didn't think that people would want two back-to-back discs of our music and didn't have any new ideas for additional album art that fit the theme. Still, we wanted to make sure that all our backers got everything we promised, so in the end I came up with a pretty interesting idea for another album concept, which we could work on after Juja, Strader, and I finished the Layton album.

Interior Album Art

After the recording phase was complete in April (it took a lot of time to coordinate our efforts with the various guest drummers/artists), Juja and I were fairly burnt out (I also juggle Random Encounter, a half-dozen musical collaborations, and Juja works on other music projects too), so we took a breather of sorts while Strader worked his magic... Well, that’s actually sort of a lie... I was working with my good friend Peter Pepper to write the script for the "other album" while Juja and myself were arranging/recording songs for it. In early June, we got a message from Strader saying he was almost done and we spent the entire weekend of June 14th in back and forth conversations in a three way chat, listening to tracks, finalizing, and tweaking the entire album. It was at this point that we decided to throw in the Punch Out song, because it sounded good and Juja had jokingly posted the song to the Careless Juja facebook page as “something that has nothing to do with the Layton album.” This is also where Strader went from “really awesome mixing guy” to “really insanely awesome mixing guy” in my books.

Victory picture from the Airport Terminal I slept in

During that weekend I realized that I’d forgotten to record the intro jingle to our intro track and recorded it using the musical typing feature (literally using my computer's keyboard) while on a flight from Atlanta to Boston. I got a bunch of looks from other people on the plane... Also, at the last possible minute of the final day, Juja informed Strader and I that the intro piano bit in the Layton song was completely wrong... He had apparently transcribed it wrong years ago and had forgotten to fix it. Luckily Strader is a super chill guy and literally 6 hours before the final mixed/mastered tracks were to be submitted to the CD printing company, I recorded the updated version of the piano tracks, he mixed them in, and they made it into the final cut.

I write all of this before the album has been released, little over a week before our album premiere/release/listening party on 8BitX.com [update: posted 1 day before the release], before anyone besides the three of us has really heard any of the tracks, and I'm unsure how our album is going to be received… I do know that I'm proud of our new album, that we probably couldn't have made it any better. My personal goal of creating & releasing these songs to the world has been a success, so I am without regret, though admittedly it would be cool if people beyond us enjoy this too. Juja and Strader are of a similar mindset, and we sincerely hope you enjoy our latest creation: Professor Layton & the Bay Harbor Butcher.

Capturing Game Footage

Capturing "Footage"

I've been traveling a lot these past two weeks so I missed a post... However, I'm hoping to make up for this by offering a few extra video posts from time to time because I've started recording myself and myself playing video games! As boring as this sounds the process is actually made amusing thanks to the fact that I'm comically awful at games and the dialogue between myself and my girlfriend, StatzMeister. My interest in recording playthroughs started with the birth of Nanogamers, watching my friend Helios mow through the minions of darkness. It seemed like fun and capturing game footage didn't seem like it could possibly be difficult for me, because I've done my fair share of recording, short-films, and video-editing.

We started off by trying to capture footage of the game Thief on my Playstation 4. The PS4 has a built-in video-capture function, so I thought it would be pretty straight forward. Something like:

Step 1. Plug in a microphone.

Step 2. Push the capture button twice.

Step 3. Stop when you feel done and edit the video footage in the PS4's native video-editor.

However, the process described above does not function as advertised. 

First, it was a bit of a nightmare getting a quality PS4 headset that didn't turn our dialogue into a laughably jarbled recording. It took us some time to find a microphone that would capture both of our voices. However, despite this setback it turns out that the PS4's native capture button only captures footage in 10 or 15 minute increments. This would be acceptable except that there is no indication as to when it stops recording your footage(!), meaning that you just sort of have to set a 15 minute timer and remember to double-tap the capture button every time the timer goes off. The final straw in our PS4 came capturing adventure was when we discovered that you can only record 5 videos for a given game before the capture function stops working for that game (without any indication!). We've been unable to find a fix for this either, but some articles online have suggested that Sony intends to fix these issues in the future.

The upcoming game capture we're working on

Helios, an old and dear friend who is heading the Nanogamers movement, saw our frustration and kindly gave us a capturing device called the "Game Capture Pro HD." It comes with some very basic editing software and was extremely easy to set up. For a second night in a row StatzMeister and I sat down to play Thief 4 only to be thrwarted by the fact that the HDMI output of the PS4 is HDMI-P, meaning that it's protected, specifically preventing us from streaming/capturing footage on devices like the one i'd just purchased. A few Youtube videos offered fixes using a splitter, but ultimately we concluded that this was inaccurate. Again, Sony is expected to make a patch that fixes this in the future, but the future is vague and far away... 

Fortunately the release of Dark Souls 2 on the X-Box 360 (which took a "mere" 4 hours to download) inspired us to think outside the box (rather, inside the x-box). Realizing that the Xbox 360 (and Xbox One) naturally supports game capturing we just needed to figure out a way to capture the audio of our talking. I rigged up a recording system entirely apart from the Game Capture Pro rig, and in a few short minutes we were off to a good start! The Game Capture Pro HD was pretty much as easy to use as advertised. Install, click, and go.

After recording enough content for two episodes in one sitting, the only thing left to do was sync the talk-audio with the video in the built-in editing software. I set the volume levels between the in game volume and the audio of us talking so one wouldn't overpower the other too much and it was pretty much ready to upload to youtube. This was a pretty interesting trail and error process and I'm happy to share it.

Gaming Review: Playstation 4

Note: Feel free to skip below to the picture of the PS4 if you don’t want a story.

Winter 1997

It feels like ages ago when the Playstation first came out in 1994. I’d looked at magazines article about it, played one at a friend’s house, begged my parents for one (with Final Fantasy VII), and somehow, in 1997 I was fortunate enough to get one for Hanukah… FF VII the following night of Hanukah… and a memory card the night after that (still Hanukah)… You can see that my parents have a good sense of humor. When I first turned on the Sony Playstation I was impressed at the graphics, the flashy visuals on my demo disc, the audio CD-playing capabilities (the first instance of a gaming console that did something that wasn’t directly video game related), the quality and diversity of the music on the games I subsequently played, and the added depth and storytelling capabilities this new machine could produce. I experienced fear through Resident Evil, sadness and frustration through Final Fantasy VII, and I loved every moment of it. Though the controller was strange, and the whole external memory card thing was a new and frustrating concept in the N64 era, I was willing to look past this for games like Tekken 3, Parappa The Rapper, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil 3.

Driving to school in my tank during the PS2 Era.
It was a different time...

By the time announcements were being made for a Playstation 2 I was well aware of just how significant of an upgrade it would be. Playstation 2 games looked significantly better than anything the Nintendo 64 was capable of, the upgrade to dual shock controllers meant the FPS was now a viable genre on the console (as opposed to N64 and PC only), and I’d already had my sights on Red Faction, the first game that advertised a “completely destructible environment.” There were even talks of the PS2 being able to one day play games online somehow but almost no one seemed that interested in that feature at the time. As I was still young and gaming hadn’t really become a mainstream thing, my parents somehow acquired one and completely surprised me on Hanukah with a PS2 and Red Faction (in one night because the PS2 didn’t come with a demo disc), followed by a memory card (the following night), and for a second time Sony raised the bar on what we could expect from video games. This was a clear improvement over the Playstation and is widely viewed as one of the most successful consoles ever made. Even well into the early life of the PS3 massive hits like God of War II were still being released on the PS2 and I’ll fondly remember it for its broad diversity of inexpensive games.

Cue the Playstation 3, which I had been hearing about even before rumors were being whispered in my social circle. It, combined with its competitor: the Xbox 360, would truly be the next generation of gaming, complete with cutting edge graphics, internal memory, online gaming that worked, social elements like “Trophies”, a wireless controller that didn’t eat AA batteries in under a day, and the ability to cure cancer (through the Folding@Home application everyone was encouraged to download)! As a poor college student I really wasn’t able to afford the PS3 until well after the preorder units were sold out, so I did what I thought few others would do and camped in line outside my local Best Buy for 3 days to pick one up.

Happy Folks with new PS3's
(Dan on the far right)

The experience of the line could be described as a cold Florida winter, complete with hot Florida afternoons, sunburn, mosquitoes, and plenty of rain. Even though I was 23^rd in line (The first person in line waited 7 days!) I was able to keep my spirits up because I was there with my friend Daniel, and a few other people I knew from college. We somehow got electric power, finished our finals papers (it was finals week), occasionally played Playstation 2 games on one person’s generator, read books, camped in literal tents, ate food out of cans, and shared stories around the light of a mosquito repelling wick. The memories from that week will always stay with me, especially combined with the news that I’d passed my calculus final which I’d taken just before leaving school to wait in line. Though most of the people in that line sold their PS3’s for a quick buck, Dan and I lovingly kept our PS3s. Since the initial release I’m told that PS3’s are no longer backwards compatible, but mine still is, a treasure and testament to my trial. A few weeks later I was also able to pick up another PS3 for my brother-in-law, Frank (one of my friends subsequently got hired by Best Buy and told me when the shipments were), as it was apparently impossible to get a PS3 in the state of New York.

It’s hard for me to realize just how long ago the PS3 release was because in many ways that winter in 2006 was the beginning of my adult life, so as people started mentioning rumors of a Next Generation of gaming consoles I’ll admit that I was entirely uninterested. The graphics from the Playstation 3 already impressed me, and I was content with the controller’s decent layout, the integration of blue-ray, internet services, and the free online network (PSN).

To clarify why I'm a bit Sony biased: In addition to not having to shell out $15/month for a PSN+ subscription just for Netflix I often prefer(ed?) to play games on the PS3 over the Xbox 360 because somewhere between Rainbow 6: Vegas, R6V2, Uncharted, God of War, Skyrim, Assassin’s Creed 2, Dead Space, Demon’s Souls, Battlefield 3, and countless PS1/PS2 games I can still play on my PS3, an Xbox controller just feels foreign to me. I should mention that I also own an Xbox 360, play it with some regularity, and I'm not someone who only likes Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft products. They all have unique aspects I appreciate.

An actual slide from the Sony Playstation 4 E3 Presentation

As someone who’s been playing and loving Playstation games for over a decade I decided to give Sony a chance to explain why they wanted to phase out a system I thought was already pretty good in favor of one that wouldn’t be backwards compatible (even for new PS3 games!), and finally watched the various reports from E3. Despite being one of the most painfully one-sided “debates” (the Xbox One presentation vs the Playstation 4 presentation) in gaming history I tried to remove myself from the extraneous information (SONY SUCKS! XBOX SUCKS! Etc.) and focus on what the new generation of consoles meant. 

The new generation?

With a virtually identical lineup of games (I’m not a fan of zombie games), a $100 price tag difference, the lack of video camera (I’m not a big fan of having a video camera that’s attached to the internet in my bedroom), and a controller that I prefer, I decided that I was going to go with the Playstation 4.

The Playstation 4 promised:

•  Better Graphics.
• A larger storage space on the Hard Drive (from 60gb to “500”gb [actually closer to 410gb])
• More processing power [speed]. (roughly 2.5 times more)
• More Memory [another component of speed]… Than my computer.*
• An improved online network (PSN+).
• Easier online interactivity with friends through screen streaming/sharing integration.
• New games that my PC can’t run (Dragon Age: Inquisition, Thief, Watch Dogs, etc)

*I should clarify here that I’m not a huge PC gamer and that beyond Starcraft 2 at low-spec my computer has serious issues running most games.

Victory!

I didn’t see that huge of an improvement in the graphics from the PS3 to PS4 (or 360 to Xbox One for that matter) in the videos, didn’t have much money, and felt like I could live with what I had (Pokemon on the 3DS!!) until either Dragon Age or Thief came out, so I didn’t plan to get a Playstation 4. However, a week before the release of the PS4 I got an urgent message from my sister asking if I could use my awesome contacts to pick up a PS4 for Frank (the same Frank). I told her my friend had been fired from Best Buy years ago but that I’d stand in line for her on the release day to pick one up. The day before I stood in line, my sister (who has a track record of being awesome) told me to pick one up for myself too as a Happy Hanu-Christma-Ka-birthday-thank-you present. So, at about 5pm on release day my girlfriend and I went to Walmart and asked where the line was. We were surprised to find that we were the first ones in line! It seems that preorders were managed much better for this generation of games, that they made more of them to go around, and that people who really wanted one didn’t have to quit their jobs to pick one up. A mere 7 hours of waiting (indoors!) later we walked away with two Playstation 4’s! Because we are responsible adults we refrained from trying to play one of them until after work on Friday. 

The following is my report:

Photo by Mon Dean

The first thing that impressed me was the size of the Playstation 4 and its sleek design. Half glossy/reflective-black, half flat-black, and half the size of the original Playstation 3 it’s aesthetically pleasing and something you’ll WANT to showcase. Though people have already made fun of it for a supposed “wobbling issue”, unless you live directly next to a train station or on a boat the average person won’t notice that it wobbles slightly when intentionally wobbled. When I plugged it in, a colored light crossing the top of the PS4 caught my attention and the guide book informed us that the color of light is used to indicate different things, like if it’s overheating. The Playstation 4 controller is also a significant improvement over the Playstation 3 controller, offering improved triggers, better grip, a touch pad, a “share” button (that allows you to easily share your screen with friends or the internet), and a few features that require a PS4 video camera attachment to use. It's hard to quantify in words just how much better this controller is so I found a picture:

The new controller

Though there was a “Day 1” patch that took all of 5 minutes to download/install and a bunch of terms and conditions to agree to, I was ready to play in under ten minutes from plugging it in. However, an issue with the PSN not working prevented me from logging into my old PSN account. In this age it’s to be expected that a launch console might not have working internet capabilities on the day of its release (like Diablo 3 or the Sims), so I was impressed that it was up and fully operational by Saturday morning. Luckily you don’t need the PSN to play games, and gaming happens to be the reason I wanted a PS4 in the first place. Regarding the basic interface, they’ve condensed a lot of the menus that used to be scatted across my PS3 “desktop,” like putting all of the video viewing services (Huloo, Netflix, etc) into one tab. It’s fairly convenient and while subtle these are the sorts of things that made me feel good about the PS4.

Once I was able to log in I took a few minutes to also look at the PSN+ (the PS4 comes with a 1 month free subscription to the Playstation Network +), and felt like it was almost identical to the way it was when subscribed on a Playstation 3. This was the only technical “shortcoming” I’ve experienced thus far in the things that were promised though I’ll admit I’m not much of an online gamer so this has little effect on my opinion of the system. However, despite the PSN+ requiring a monthly fee, Netflix and other video-services do not require you to subscribe to the PSN+ fee to be used. This was a surprise and a clear advantage over the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, which both require you to pay for a Gold Subscription each month (~$15) in addition to your monthly Netflix/stream service fee.

IN GAME GRAPHICS!

The only game I own for the Playstation 4 is Assassin’sCreed: Black Flag so I have a limited perspective to share. For starters, the notorious Assassin’s Creed Series loading times were dramatically reduced. I can’t begin to express how happy this made me. When the first loading screen for the vast open world appeared and went away in under 15 seconds I understood that even without vastly superior graphics the PS4 is a vast improvement over the last generation. Once the world loaded, most of the important visuals of the game, the water, the scenery, and the weather looked fantastic! Thought the character models often resembled good PS3-level graphics (which isn’t a bad thing at all) I noticed subtle improvements to detail like actually having stray pieces of hay fall off the main character after brushing through a hay pile, or splinters of wood flying off a boat after it gets battered with chain-shot. I also noticed that the backgrounds were actual locations you could visit, as opposed to two dimensional painted pieces of scenery!

Who knows what new adventures await?

It’s just the start of the new generation so don’t know if the Playstation 4 will show as vast an improvement in graphics as the jump from the launch PS3 games to the latest releases, but I’ll attest that I’m already happy with how it looks, the huge reduction in load times, the capability for a higher particle/model count, and the improved controller. While there are probably people who will knit pick at this generation of consoles for one small thing or another there is no doubt in my mind that the Playstation 4 is the best console I’ve played. Though it doesn’t boast an enormous array of titles, the ones available are massive blockbusters that will easily take as much time to complete as Super Mario World, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mario 64, Luigi’s Mansion, or a Halo game (the major launch titles from previous generations). I’ve already started having a good time and I think that the vast majority of people who get one will feel the same way.

For a more detailed review on the PS4 check out this page.
To read about how they made the PS4 check out this article.

Game Review: List of Recommended RPG's

Olde school storytelling

A few friends asked for recommendations on solid, plot-based, RPG's (for the Xbox 360, PS3, or very crappy PC), that don't require a pointless level grind. With this in mind I'd like to present you with a list of the best RPG's I've ever played. Yes, it's a fairly lengthy list but you'd probably rather spend 5 minutes reading about a game than invest hours and money on the back end. This list is entirely SPOILER FREE so you can read it and not have to worry about me ruining anything beyond how generally awesome these games are.

In writing this I've noticed that pretty much all J(apanese)-RPG's I've played have a lot of level grinding and had to be omitted...

MASS EFFECT (Series)
PC, PS3, XBox 360

There is a reason that the entire title is in bold. This is easily one of the best Sci Fi series ever seen or experienced. It has as much depth as the Star Wars Extended Universe and is only a mere 3 games long, compared to the 100's of books and dozens of video games in the SW Galaxy! What's more, it's made by the same people who did Baulder's Gate (sort of) so each save carries over from one game to the next, bringing with it the weight your prior decisions, and you can get the entire series in a bundle for around $30 which is a total steal!

Just how open ended is MASS EFFECT?

Why is this series great? No level grind. Tight main story. Lots of decisions that will affect the rest of the SERIES! That's right, if you capture the obscure side-quest bounty dead or alive in the beginning of the first game, that decision will carry over through the rest of the series! You might change his life and he might create a mercenary group dedicated to slaver prevention (he himself was enslaved as a kid) and help you out in the second game, or reappear in the third game to repay the favor of saving his life. Alternatively, he might be in a prison in the second game still, or escape and try to murder you based on other decisions you make. He can also just die because you killed him... Note: This specific scenario is purely hypothetical and not in the game so I can avoid spoiling anything.

It's the 1000's of little things like that which make the entire series remarkable. Also, next gen graphics, great music, and a great story line don't hurt either. The plot is so fantastic in my mind that I'm even writing two songs about powerful moments in the second game! I can't really reveal the story without spoiling the game for you beyond: Galaxy In Danger! Go save it! but it's strengths lie within being a storytelling game with strong companion interaction elements. Lastly, it's an action RPG so don't expect any of that turn-based stuff. If you like sci-fi at all do yourself a favor and buy this game. You'll be hard pressed to regret it.

Dragon Age: Origins
PC, PS3, XBox 360

A fantasy game with the same makers as MASS EFFECT (more or less). It plays like KOTOR (which i'm omitting from this list because I'm assuming that you've already played and beat them) or other real time RPG's but is actually just turn based just posing as real time. It's also very open ended. Seriously. You can be evil, good, or shades of grey and your decisions carry out through the rest of the game and subsequent expansions. Really. This game is all about the shades of grey and having to make really tough decisions you'll need to live with where there is generally no truly "good" decision. MASS EFFECT does this a lot, but I feel like Dragon Age was better at having decisions with no good outcome. Some of the 'lessor of two evils' scenarios are tough to work out in your head and I've found myself trying to do good or evil only to realize that I've done the opposite of what I intended because I didn't think far enough ahead (there are instances where the equivalent of a holocaust is actually considered kind of a good thing because of extreme circumstances and the whole "best good for most" principle).

"Well, sh*t! There goes the fruit harvest"

Dragon Age has some great game mechanics, lots of social interaction, good plot, and a really strange religion whereby man ventured into the realm of god (not ours), didn't show humility, and now god is trying to slowly kill humanity for their arrogance by sending an infection that turns people into demon-mutant things called Darkspawn. It's got every fantasy element you could possibly want (elves, werewolves, dragons) and the only awkward thing is the fact that the sequel: Dragon Age 2 isn't nearly as open ended at all, especially if if you're going to make "evil" decisions, and doesn't seem to take anything you did in Dragon Age: Origins into consideration. I'd say that the sequel felt really oddly linear and non-open ended when compared to Origins or the "Awakening" expansion (which is totally worth it), and even though they'd improved the combat system a lot in the sequel I was displeased with the lack of options and the lack of things that crossed over from the first game. it was also very black or white in terms of good/evil, which was lame. Perhaps my expectations from Dragon Age: Origins were just unreasonable. Perhaps I should have just not expected anything more then an solid linear RPG with redundant levels, horrible loading times, and a fairly good plot in Dragon Age 2...

"Not the face!"

Dragon Age: Origins is fairly old and retails for ~$15-$20. I can't stress enough that if you like fantasy at all that this game is completely worth your time (though you can skip the sequel entirely)! Oh, and as a word of the wise mages are awesome in this game. You should probably play one of those and never play a 2 handed-weapon wielding warrior, because they're just not fun to play. No one I know who chose 2 handed weapon warrior said to themselves "Wow, what an excellent choice of class I've made," because it's not that good. One last thing I forgot to mention... The first hour or three of the game is completely different based on the class/race you've picked. So an extremely high replay value! Here's to hoping Dragon Age: Inquisition (3) lives up to this gem.

The Witcher (Series)
PC, PS3, XBox 360
(or The Witcher 2, both are good and you don't really need to play them in order. Available on GOG.com!!!)

The story of a lone hero

While the above games are "collaborative epic fantasy/sci-fi" where you walk around with a team of dear companions, the Witcher is about one amazing monster hunting badass going solo to save the world from great evils. This is the game that influenced a lot of how I (and by proxy my band) look at what monster hunting should be like... (Castlevania being the other major influence). The main character is amazing (depending on how you play the game), diverse (depending on how you play the game), and dark (no matter how you play the game). Another HUGELY open ended experience where you can randomly declare someone is a witch and have them executed just for looking at you funny. There are lots of dialogue options and you can either lone wolf the game something akin to a Germanic monster hunting loner, or socialize it up and have every maiden in the land swooning over you (and more if that's your thing). The Witcher is much like an old German Grimm fairly tale in feel (in all the awesome ways), and was the great monster hunting epic I was waiting for! I know i'm being redundant but it even references things like Koschei (an ancient spider for some reason) and has a super-detailed alchemy system that would give Professor Snape a run for his money! Like the above, no level grind. One thing that separates this series completely from other games is the combat system which is timing based and involves swapping weapons based on what you're fighting (silver for magical creatures, steel for mortals, etc), switching fighting styles, stances, etc... The combat system has a place in my heart because it reminds me of all the German Long sword training I know and is again "Timing Based", where you need to click the attack button at the right times to make the best use of your enemies' openings! My only complaint is the loading times on my crappy computer, but that's probably my fault. I really can't wait to see what Witcher 3 looks like!

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!
PC, PS3, XBox 360

A typical random encounter in Skyrim

Where Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind was a completely open ended world you could do ANYTHING you wanted, it was really hard to find out where you were going, where the next quest was, and often times you'd accidentally kill someone important to one of the game's faction quests (the thieves guild, fighter's guild, mage's guild, and others have you kill important members of rival factions). Oblivion and Skyrim make the series playable to the more casual gamer and are basically a giant open world with a rich plot, super rich back story to the world (lengthy books are available within the game similar to MASS EFFECT and Dragon Age), and a world you can actually explore and find things that your friends may have never come across. It's pretty dapper like that. For instance, Helios told me a rumor about a cave in the center of an island where the vampires dwell. Having never seen them I follow his verbal landmarks and found the creepy-as-hell guild hideout and was admitted (to their guild) on the spot for finding their secret base, which had been hinted at in various books throughout the game and by certain characters who would talk about vampires. These games have a good story but it's not really the central focus somehow, so don't think of them as being story-driven, though it's certainly rich in story. You'll know what I mean when you play it.

Storming the very gates of Oblivion!

The focus of the game is mostly exploring a great world and becoming whatever you want. By the way: Always make your own custom class! Just trust me on this. If you want to murder people and steal their loot you can. If you want to be the best wizard ever they have a story arc built into it for that. If you want to save the world from the armies of Oblivion (a kind of hell), you can become a crusader and do so. If you want to be the king of insanity... well, you get the picture. The main plot is oddly optional (once you beat it, the game continues on like nothing happened) and, get ready for it... the game levels up with you, and you only level up skills that you use, which makes for a really neat character creation/leveling system. You should be aware that the games feature strict real time combat and, once again, it has a HUGE back-story for the series that ties all the way into the original Elder Scrolls (an ancient PC game that's for the less casual gaming crowd).
So what's the difference between the two games?

Graphical Comparison

Oblivion: Traditional fantasy setting, older than Skyrim (worse graphics), nice story, nice guilds, but probably is neigh unplayable if you've played Skyrim because Skyrim is so much more pretty (unless you get it for PC and install the various beautification mods that enhance the graphics, which will take you a few hours). Also, no real dialogue options, just a sort of linear "here's the story, go affect the world in any way you'd like." It's well written and you've got many ways to accomplish a given task, including an extensively customized magic/item creation system, so in spite of a linear plot you will still feel like you're in control for the most part, you just might not care as much. Oh, I should also mention that quests within each guild get progressively more and more awesome and don't kill your chances of joining another guild. You can beat the entire game 100% in one play through. Stick with each guild quest chain if you start one because they get fantastic! Lastly, try to get the "Ultimate Edition" or anything that says "Includes Shimmering Isles Expansion." You'll thank yourself later.

Skyrim: Norse Themed RPG where you ultimately Hunt Dragons. It's fairly recent ($), perhaps one of the best fantasy RPG's of all time (up there with Dragon Age, better graphically, but no comparably "deep" companion interaction, though you can get married and have kids if that's your thing). Where the above games are all more about interpersonal relationships, this series is about decisions and exploration. That's not to say that the characters don't have depth, because they have lots of depth. Their paths just don't interact with yours to the same degree as other games so you don't become too attached. There is some chatter, but it's far from the game's focus. The alternate skill-use based leveling mechanic is also really cool and creative. Skyrim reintroduces dialogue to the Elder Scrolls series and allows for multiple quest options. You can be evil or good and the game doesn't zing you (No +5 evil, +4 good!) or make these decisions have any big effect on the rest of the game (beyond the quest and a few missions related to that quest that follow) but it's still really nice to have an option at the end of almost every quest. As with the above i'll advise you to pick EITHER a proficiency in light OR heavy armor, not both. Pick your skills carefully because there are no "do overs." Also be ready to have literally a half dozen ways to accomplish almost every task (Skyrim has one of the better stealth systems in gaming!)
Both games are well written, just expect to follow a predestined story as opposed to controlling the story (aka, it's just like any rpg prior to 1999 or the entire critically acclaimed Final Fantasy series).  Comical aside: Even corporate rivals like Square-Enix and EA have admitted in press conferences that Bethesda's Skyrim is pretty much the gold standard of current gen RPG's and readily admit that it's the RPG by which all other RPG's will be judged.

Fallout 3 (collector's edition) or Fallout: New Vegas
PC, PS3, XBox 360

The same game style as Elder Scrolls (same company) only set in a post apocalyptic 1950's Mad Max setting with laser guns, robots, and sharply dressed villains. It's kooky, dark, funny, and scary at different parts which means it has good diversity. It plays in real time but has a feature called V.A.T.S. where you can target your opponents in a turn-based style move and watch a cinema of the action in a sequence similar to the new "Sherlock Homes" films. The plot is about finding your dad, Leim Neison, who left home: An underground fallout shelter put into use just before the Chinese nuked the US. It has a fairly straight forward good/evil meter that follows your every action, and the quests are fairly diverse. My only regret is that most of the quests feel like the same quest with the difference of a single dialogue option at the end, or a different lever you switch (one kills stuff, one saves it, etc). It's a very fun game series and one of the best post apocalyptic games I've ever seen (I don't mean to bunch the two games together in one explanation, I just didn't get enough time with New Vegas for a solid review of it). It's also one of the best sand boxes I've ever played in. Just watch out for the radiation! Also, just an FYI, if you start playing with New Vegas they made a number of improvements to the series that make going back to Fallout 3... difficult...

V.A.T.S. can't save you from a mutated bear!

Fallout 2 
PC only (old game that has minimal requirements and is available on GOG.com!!!)

Justin Sweet's amazing art for Fallout 2

This is the original story driven open-ended game for your home computer. It's awesome.
It looks like Diablo 2 (isometric top/down view), doesn't have leveling/grinding requirements, and 90% of the time combat, even the 2nd to last boss fight, can be completely avoided. It can be turn based or an action-rpg with the click of a button in "options," it's got some nice voice acting, and is incredibly open ended... and dark... Did I mention that it's really sinister and dark? Entire cities enslaved through drugs. It contains prostitution, slavers, and child labor! You can become a washed out boxer turned junkie if you play your cards wrong. Fallout has a really weird world with a very Mad Max feel to it (same fallout world as seen above, only much darker). I personally preferred this game to Fallout 3 because there's a lot more dialogue and combat felt more optional which fit my character build, unlike in Fallout 3 where you need a combat specialty to be effective.

Lots of references to things you love.

Oh, you can also target people's body parts (crotch and eyes included) with your attacks, which is very cool (see V.A.T.S. in Fallout 3) because you can force people to move slower, drop weapons, etc... Lastly, it has lots of references to pop culture, sci fi, Monty Python (like a "bridgekeeper who asks you three questions") in its random encounters. If you can get through the first hour of gameplay (character creation and plot introduction) you will likely be hooked for life... There's a game called Fallout 1 that many enjoyed but I never was able to get a working copy of. I'd still recommend for a die hard fan of the Fallout series because of the sheer volume of recommendations from my friends.

Arcanum: Magic Works and Terra Obscura
PC only (old game that has minimal requirements now available on GOG.com!!!)

A super-sweet 3rd person RPG (isometric top-down view ala Diablo 2) with D2/Fallout 2 era graphics and minimal level grind requirements. Like with fallout 2 you can switch from turn based to real time game in the menu screen but where Fallout 2 focuses on specialty perks you have some incredibly diverse super powers at your disposal that dramatically affect gameplay. As far as fantasy games go four friends of mine (and many of the designers of Project Eternity) describe this as the best of its type. Period. I'm hard pressed to disagree. The only thing you might find frustrating is if you don't focus your hard-earned experience points on talents that boost your ability to "hit" things.
Aside on power-leveling in Arcanum: There's a place in the game early on where you can level up to the max level in about 20 minutes of level-grinding (It's called "Liam's cabin") so leveling in this game doesn't really have to be an issue if you find yourself getting overpowered regularly. I normally avoid this exploit though because it's generally not needed.

Unique dialogue options for characters who were "raised by wolves"

Build giant spiders just
like the ones in Wild Wild West

Arcanum has a really detailed plot, a riveting main story arc where people think you're the incarnate of an Elven deity, regardless of your current physical form. It boasts dozens of quest options for every place of importance you go, most of which affect the ending of the game. It also has lots of hidden locations on the world map, hundreds of side quests, and... Did I mention it has some good voice acting too? It's not fully voiced but the characters with voices do the game justice. The way you play the game also strongly effects your experience in the game world, giving it high replay value. You can be a skill specialist (fighting/healing/stats/etc), Mage, or Technologist (build potions, giant mechanical spiders, guns, etc) and the entire world is based around the fact that science and magic cannot function together. Your alignment towards either (or neither) affects this. Your race (elf, dwarf, halfling, human, half-human, half-orc, half-ogre) and gender also strongly affects social interactions with just about every person in the game, and if your intelligence is too high/low, or if you take a strange character background at the start of the game (stuff like "Snake Handler's Kid" "Raised by Wolves" and "Idiot Savant") the entire game has some new dialogue options just for you. Oh, and of course you can be good/evil/selfish-mercenary/neutral/stupid. For instance, the main characters all yelled at me because I played a mentally handicapped Half-Ogre. In addition to their hatred (because I was half ogre and most people in that game are racist), almost everyone in the game tried to take advantage of me for personal gain, spoke in all caps, and (I kid you not) one of the main good characters actually said "YOU GO HERE [points to a place on your map] AND MAKE ALL THE BAD GUYS DEAD! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?" without even giving me a reason why I was supposed to help him beyond the promise of shiny things and tasty food. That interaction (as with most key characters in the game) was also fully voice acted...

You can disintegrate things (really, its awesome!), build/interact with dozens of deep party members (or not), bring the souls of the dead back from the abyss just to chat with them (and they have completely new/unique dialogue options because they are aware of being dead) and other things make this game truly a gem. Like with MASS EFFECT/Dragon Age it's very character interaction based (fallout 2 is like that as well), and the entire game's soundtrack is an amazing cello quintet by Ben Hogue, one of my all time favorite soundtracks in gaming. You will not be let down by this game... unless you build your character poorly in character creation and get eaten by wolves.

Baulder's Gate
PC only (old game that has minimal requirements now available on GOG.com!!!)

Universally accepted as the best pre-1999 traditional fantasy RPG by just about everyone, Baulder's Gate laid down much of the ground work for fallout 2 and Arcanum. As with its successors there are lots of social interactions, a turn based vs real time button, but instead of a steampunk or broken 1950's world Baulder's Gate focuses on the DnD world. It also uses the D&D 2.0 rule set and you can either build a team of people in multiplayer or seek companions you can regularly interact with, most of which are voiced (one of which has a magical hamster). This was one of the first games to allow you to truly affect affect your team and their views on the world (one of my favorite features in MASS EFFECT and Dragon Age) because the same company made all three games (sort of). Technically there's a minimal Level Grind in this series but it can be avoided by going through the "open ended world" in the order the game suggests. What's that mean? It means that when they tell you to go somewhere first, that's where your characters would be best suited going to (based on your level), so don't deviate too much on the world map unless you're looking for a real challenge early on in the game.

If graphics and gameplay have minimum standards for you to play a game, go to GOG.com and download the patch that upgrades BG 1 to the same graphics as BG 2 and merges the two games into a nonstop experience of awesome. You should probably just do that anyways because the plot from the first game and your saved game from the first game can carry over directly into 2, which starts at the very end of 1. Oh and be sure you save your files after BG2 because they also export to Icewindale and Never Winter Nights!

Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines 
PC only

You play as a vampire in the VTM world (very dark) where the old testament God made Cain the first vampire and his grand children 23 times removed are vampires living in 1999. It's a "period piece" game set in 1999 (real time action rpg) where the bleak world is coming to an end and everyone is afraid of Y2K. Your goal is to survive, not be noticed as a vampire in the human city of LA, and try to stop this world from ending while getting involved in lots of politics (blood feuds, vampire socialites vs anarchists, werewolves, demons, etc). There's a fair amount of replay value here because your "breed" of vampire and dialogue options and play style but the game is more affected by your style of play. For instance, I was a crazy, well-intentioned, sooth-sayer vampire who wound up talking to stop signs (no, really), loved order (instead of anarchy), and was out to save the world from destruction (Note: I got the "cool" ending).

There are also varying degrees of good and evil actions you can follow in the game that affect your character's morality. As far as level grind, you only put points into "talents" and there are 5 max points you can put into any talent, so in under 5 levels you can max out fighting and in 5 more you can max out health if you're concerned only with combat, which is real time. Speaking of which, I recommend using guns... a lot... A few fights towards the end of the game involve flying enemies or people with guns in long hallways... and I took hand to hand combat, regretting every moment of it... Anyway, it's a fantastically deep world, it's fully voiced, it's fun, and does a good job at being creepy and bleak without lapsing into what most would call emo. It's got a variety of locations from the city streets of LA, to run down tenements, to haunted houses, to beaches, to sewers, to the Danger Danger Gallery in Philly, er... I mean a Nosforatu lair. The music is also really worn and fitting.

Bioshock
PC, PS3, XBox 360

An action RPG FPS with super powers! In a distopian alternative 1960's themed game that questions capitalism, socialism, free will, and God you go to "Rapture", an underwater city free from the confines of taxes or morality, and try to survive as you're hunted by Splicers (those who have modified their genes so much that they've lost their frail grip on reality). Entirely unlike Bioshock Infinite it's survival horror. Most people would also agree that you should only play the sequel, Bioshock 2, if you don't mind following the same general model a second time, told through a slightly less powerful story.

Bioshock is powerful, has a great story (which is hard to understand until halfway through the game but stick with it!), and is a good example of a society without law. It's completely linear, there are no dialogue options, but I wasn't upset by this because it's got a lot of options as to how you play. If you think of it as a more of a survival-horror FPS (very limited ammo) and less of an RPG it's very open. You can hack robots, shoot things, not shoot things, use only a crowbar to bash in the skulls of your enemies, or use ADAM, which is a form of superpower people can inject into themselves. Leveling also isn't important in this one so long as you tag skills fitting of your style of play. It's basically an HD remake of System Shock 2 with a new plot, set in 1960. Don't look this one up online though or you'll instantly bump into some massive spoilers.

Psychonauts
PC, Xbox but backwards compatible

"I work for the road crew."
"My red sign helps me work on the road."

Technically more of an adventure/action game than an RPG, Psychonauts is one of the best kid-friendly stories I've ever played. It's surprisingly deep and remarkably fun. You play as a kid training to be a Psychonaut, a soldier who can enter the minds of the enemy, and you're at a sort of summer camp to become one. The gameplay revolves around you entering the minds of people and running amok in their imaginations. It's fully voiced, stylized, lots of fun, and completely strange. It almost feels like a mix of Hey Arnold (awkward kid-friendly social interactions), Invader Zim (same lead voice actor, lots of really weird moments), and maybe a Tim Burton film (in a very good way). There's a wide diversity of locations in the game (science labs, spooky castles, Tokyo) and it's (again) fully voiced with a top notch group of voice actors and great music. Just beware of the soul crushing difficulty spike at the final boss.

System Shock 2 
PC only (an old game that has minimal requirements now available on GOG.com!!!)

It's the precursor to Bioshock, Dead Space, and Portal, all in one. Imagine a large dark ship where your only friend is a woman locked on the bridge of the ship. She's watching you through video cameras, telling you how to set things right, and make good your mutual escape through a busted intercom system. You both are opposed by the ship's AI, a humorless voice that basically tells you to sit tight and wait for your oxygen supply to run out. System Shock 2 is the very definition of a survival horror rpg/fps and just like Bioshock you can go full FPS, full stealth-crowbar-FPS, rely solely on your psychic super-powers, any mix of all of the above, and level up your skills appropriately.

Something has gone wrong on the Von Braun

 It's fantastic, a masterpiece, and is directly responsible for the masterpieces that are Bioshock and Dead Space. I even wrote a few songs about this game! While the graphics are a bit dated this game still delivers thrills, jumps, and scares better than most modern games (aka the Resident Evil series after RE3) and has one of my favorite soundtracks! There's also some extremely good level design that's gone into it that makes you feel like you're on a real spaceship that wasn't designed by idiots who were looking to add needless levels to a video game. I mention that because I hate hallway simulators and this isn't one. You should also play this game because the series has repeatedly been credited as having the #1 Video Game Villain of All Time (or #2, second to Kefka in some instances)! This game is very near and dear to me and perhaps you'll understand why after you've played it. But... If I told you anything more I'd risk spoiling something. Get it...

Red Dead Redemption
PS3, XBox 360

Lastly, I recommend a western game where you play as a gunslinger looking to redeem himself (as the title implies). Sure it's Grand Theft Auto with horses, but the setting is fantastic. You can dastardly tie women to train tracks, you can sell moonshine, you can be the lone ranger (it's actually more fun as the good guy). The story is one of the better ones in gaming. The gameplay is neigh flawless (though they certainly pit you up against a lot of enemies at times and you'll find yourself killing off entire populations of bandits), the voice acting is fantastic, and the soundtrack is really good. The true beauty I think you'll find though is in the setting.

Bounty Hunting Side Quest: "Dead or Alive"

While you're going places, your "partner" or companions will chatter with you about "modern" politics: Things like "The gov't shouldn't be allowed to send a law man into our town and tell us how to run things" or "Ya' know some guy tried to get me to put my money into a FEDERAL bank?! I'd never trust such a thing" or other really deep moral, political, and philosophical thoughts of the day... Like women suffrage. Why do I classify this in a list of RPG's? Because it plays like one and has a deep plot akin to one, and when I want to play an RPG this game feels like it's in that category, though the main story is extremely linear. It's quaint, different, and grasps the deep setting well. At worst it's an amazing sandbox with a solid plot you can completely ignore with a really fun multiplayer mode. Last but not least, make sure you get the Red Dead Zombie expansion, which is included in the game of the year edition at no extra charge!

So that's my list. They are all good depending on what mood you're in. All of these games have massive spoilers so beware looking them up on things like wikipedia. I'd suggest the games' official sites or just outright buying them.