Book Review: Morris Berman - "Why America Failed"

It should be rather obvious at this point that it is not "Morning in America" any longer. Rampant unemployment, a shameful level of poverty, a healthcare system that denies coverage to millions, crumbling infrastructure, a supposedly-matchless military that cannot find victory in either Iraq or Afghanistan, a gridlocked government...the list goes on. So the question is, then, where did America go wrong? And how can it get back on track?

Great Games That Actually Suck: The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim

As a child of the 80s, I was a pretty Nintendo-obsessed kid. The NES was the greatest gift anyone could ever bestow upon the world, and every game made for that console was beyond reproach. Nintendo could do no wrong in my eyes, and I considered every NES game released to be a masterpiece, regardless of whether or not it was actually developed by Nintendo.

That is, until my parents brought me a game they had purchased at a garage sale - Where's Waldo?

Great Games That Actually Suck: Mass Effect 2

The first Mass Effect was a game that was somehow enjoyable in spite of itself. Looking at its individual parts in isolation, it wasn't a very good game at all - the combat was generally dull, lifeless, and lacking in intensity, the weapons were bland and generic, differing only in some numerical statistic, planetary exploration was often tedious, and the game's dialogue system seemed intent on offering up paraphrases that bore no resemblance to what your character would actually say. Yet in spite of these flaws, Mass Effect created a compelling, believable universe that harkened back to the Golden Age of Science Fiction and seemed to offer huge array of possibilities for future installments. But alas, it wasn't to be. If the first game was a flawed attempt at making a Space Opera RPG, then its sequel is a half-hearted attempt at making a very generic sci-fi shooter.

Great Games That Actually Suck: The Witcher 2

I can't recall a game that received more hype than The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. No, not from the sycophantic gaming press (who will gush over anything, provided there's advertising revenue at stake), but from the fans, who will simply not shut up about its "brilliant" storytelling and the "mature" attitude the game takes towards the player. Hearing all the near-unanimous praise, I purchased The Witcher 2 for the same reason many did, I think - as an alternative to the wretchedly awful Dragon Age 2.

"I wanna be a durrrrgon..."