How To Enhance Your Edition of Baldur's Gate

After the release of the latest patch for Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition (version 2014) I finally shelved it. The most recent patch ended up introducing several more bugs, so until that game finally gets all the issues ironed out, I went back to my GOG.com copies of Baldur's Gate 1 & 2. In all honesty, I've come to conclusion that BG:EE isn't really worth the $20 admission cost. Baldur's Gate is a very long game with a massive amount of content to experience, so do we really need yet more content? Because three new characters, a handful of new areas, and an arena mode are the only features that BG:EE adds that cannot be found through mods (which, I might add, are completely free).

So here is my own personal list of modifications that I use for Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, and the order in which I install them:

I Hate Job Hunting

Is there any worse experience than job hunting?

I've been unemployed for about a year and a half, and having sent into dozens upon dozens of CVs, I've had two interviews, and a whole lot of bugger all! And the longer you can go without work, the bigger that dreaded gap on your CV gets, which only makes employers more gun-shy about hiring you. Really, there are no words in the English language (or any other language) to describe my complete and utter disgust at just how much effort and just how much preening narcissism and self-serving whoredom is needed just to get an interview...at which point you're told, "Sorry, you're just not what the company's looking for."

I...fucking...hate it all! It's having doors slammed in your face over and over. It's being told again and again that you're a worthless piece of rubbish. It's being told that there are a thousand people who are willing to do this job, so what makes you so special? Having to pad the CV. "Personal Branding." "Networking." Polishing up the LinkedIn profile. It's all so bloody narcissistic and yet dehumanising at the same time. I'm told that I just have to work on "selling myself" when "selling myself" is something I typically associate with prostitutes. I think the worst decision our civilisation ever made is when we decided to let market forces dictate everything we do, so now we're forced to turn ourselves into pretty little commodities to be sold on some cold, inhuman job market whose only aim to get as much out of you as possible whilst giving as little back as is humanly possible. You're just a resource to be exploited; hell, the word is right there in the moniker the hiring department chose for itself: human resources.

Great Games That Actually Suck: Fallout 3

And now we come to the very nadir of my "Great Games That Actually Suck" series - Fallout 3. Now, don't misunderstand me - Fallout 3 is far from deserving the title of "Worst Game Ever;" instead, it's simply mediocre. But in a way, that makes it all the worse, especially considering that Fallout 1 & 2 are considered some of the greatest RPGs ever developed. Had Fallout 3 been a true stinker, we might have laughed at it as we would an Uwe Boll film and thought no more of it. Instead, it's practically offensive with its mediocrity, like following up a masterfully-prepared filet mignon with stale bread.

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..."