Like any good RPG, 'Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning' is adept at digging its claws into that part of your brain that just loves accomplishing things.
Amalur's user interface is designed much like a massively multiplayer online role-playing game, liberally sprinkling yellow exclamation points and markers all over your mini-map in order to show you where to quest next.
In 'Amalur,' each person believes he has an immutable destiny, one that defines how, and how long, he will live. Until you come along. But of course, your character is the anomaly, somebody who can change both his own fate and the destinies of the people he interacts with. So, naturally, it's up to you to save the world.
It's easy to think of a role-playing game as an amalgamation of two main components, narrative and gameplay, jammed together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes, they fit together nicely; other times, they're as awkward and frustrating as that one weirdly-shaped 'Tetris' block that always falls into the gap where you need an L.
One of the successes of Kickstarter is that it takes the guesswork out of greenlighting games. Publishers of larger games have to carefully choose which titles they publish, lest they lose a bunch of money on a quirky game that doesn't sell. Kickstarter is all reward, no risk, since nobody has to pay if the project isn't completely funded.
Game ideas on Kickstarter have found loads of success, even when they're not as unusual as 'BlindSide.'
Kickstarter can get customers invested, both literally and figuratively, in a game before it is released. With nothing but an idea, a bit of video and a few screenshots, a developer can start building a loyal fan base.
Music has always been an important part of the 'Final Fantasy' series. The popular role-playing games have typically featured catchy, eclectic soundtracks filled with beautiful orchestrated melodies.
One of the best games to play with a significant other is Nintendo's 'Super Mario Maker,' for the Wii U, which lets you build and play your own Mario courses.
A great JRPG captures that feeling of going on an unusual adventure, of bringing a ragtag group of heroes from famine to fortune or steering cold-hearted villagers away from indifference.
Why would it matter to anybody if a game developer talks about a project that they worked on ten years ago that was canceled? It really bums me out to think about how many of those games have been lost to time.
Between 'The Godfather,' 'The Sopranos,' 'Goodfellas,' and the countless other mob stories that have been both critically and commercially acclaimed over the years, it's not hard to see why a game like 'Mafia Wars' works.
Modern video games like 'Mass Effect' and 'Uncharted' cost tens of millions of dollars and require the labor of hundreds of people, who can each work 80- or even 100-hour weeks.
Unraveling the threads of a good game story is like solving a well-crafted puzzle. After a lengthy, sometimes difficult journey, the pieces click into place, and you're rewarded with the satisfying payoff of a job well done.
Sure, when you think 'World of Warcraft,' you might picture the nerdier set - those who may have sacrificed hygiene and sleep to reach one more experience level. But the truth is that 'WoW' is populated with players of all sorts of backgrounds, from rural housewives to NFL punters.
Most strikingly, 'World of Warcraft' allows you to live a veritable second life. Girls can pretend to be boys; boys can pretend to be girls; human accountants can pretend to be elven mages.
