Dat title doe.

We’re only two episodes in, and it already seems like Dark Matter’s second season might just surpass its first.

In what is probably the best episode of the series to date, it becomes clear that the crew of the Raza are merely pawns in a complex chess game between the galaxy’s most powerful corporations. In such a deadly game, they can only lose, and so the message is clear: They must escape. Now.

Of course, escaping from the galaxy’s most secure prison won’t be any simple task, even for the galaxy’s most notorious criminals.

My theory that the second season will expand the world and mythology of Dark Matter definitely seems to be panning out. It’s quite a web of political intrigue the crew seems to have found themselves in. Slightly overwhelming at first, but I think I’m figuring it out.

It also shows how strong and how corrupt Dark Matter’s corporations truly are. Right now their reach seems nearly boundless.

I’m also really starting to like Tori Higginson’s character (perhaps not surprising considering I loved her on Atlantis). So delightfully smug.

But this is Dark Matter. That means there’s going to be action, and “Kill Them All” definitely doesn’t disappoint on that front. I mean, with a name like that, how could it?

I’ll tell you what surprised me this time: Five. Holy Hell, go Five. Sally has some good moments too, but Five… man, Five.

We’re also introduced to Four’s ex, who is a character I hope to see more of. The world could always use more badass ladies with swords, after all.

There’s so much that happened in this episode it almost feels overwhelming. It’s hard to imagine how they crammed so much into a single episode. At the same time it’s hard to find much to say about it in a review. Partly because I like to avoid major spoilers, and partly because it was pretty much all awesome. Total satisfaction doesn’t make for an interesting read.

Also, am I crazy, or was that Anne Mroczkowski on GNN? If so, awesome.

Overall rating: 9.1/10

I can’t decide if that’s my best headline ever, or my worst.

Another class storyline is now under my belt in Star Wars: The Old Republic. This time, the Sith warrior is on deck, and it turned out to be a good one.

Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

The interesting thing about the warrior storyline to me was that the companions really ended up stealing the show. Especially one companion in particular.

As you can probably tell by now, for me the warrior story was pretty much The Vette Show, and everything else came second.

Vette is just so funny, so charming, so endlessly delightful in every way that she just eclipses everything else. Rare is the time Vette opens her mouth without making me laugh.

Yet she’s not just comedy relief, either. As you get to know her, you learn how harsh and painful her life has been — and how incredibly strong she most be to maintain her cheerful, defiant, and kind-hearted nature in the face of all she’s suffered.

Vette isn’t the best Bioware character I’ve seen, but she is possibly my favourite character in SW:TOR to date.

Vette isn’t the only strong companion for the warrior, though. I also quite liked Jaesa. I admire how earnest she is, and her disdain for fake or dishonest people.

It’s actually rather a shame she’s a warrior companion. With almost any other class, she might have become my go-to companion, but she just can’t compete with Vette.

Of course, it’s not all good news. Broonmark is a literal monster, and Pierce is a disgusting goon.

And then there’s Quinn.

Well, if you’ve played the story, you know what happens. It’s actually a shame, because I rather liked him before that. And honestly… I understand why he did what he did. I don’t condone it, but it was something of an impossible situation he was put in. Try as I might, I can’t bring myself to hate him as much as most people seem to. Mostly I’m sad our bromance had to end.

That said, you better believe I Force-choked the crap out of him.

All in all, though, warrior still has the best companions of any class I’ve yet played. No doubt about that.

I also liked that you unlock companions a little quicker as a warrior than the other classes I’ve played. Usually the game is all but over before you have a full team. Warriors have much less waiting to do.

Companions aside, the warrior story also features some great incidental characters. I want a mission that’s just the warrior, Darth Vowrawn, and that Jedi from Belsavis going out for beers. Those are some cool dudes.

All right! Back to Sith business. Grr!

But while the companions were most memorable this time, that’s not a knock against the actual storyline itself. The warrior story does not equal the agent story by any means — and at this point I doubt anything in the base game will — but it was a good ride while it lasted.

The thing I found most surprising about the warrior story is how much humour it has. Vette’s obviously a big contributor to that, but even aside from her, the amount of snark, sarcasm, and silliness you can engage in is staggering, and I found myself laughing out loud many times throughout the story. The voice actor for male warriors does deadpan incredibly well.

This is especially surprising given that Bioware’s writing, though good, has generally struck me as rather stiff and humourless (drunk Tali and offering to appoint Sera the next Divine notwithstanding). The Sith warrior story is very out of character, but in a most welcome way.

The other positive thing about the warrior story is that it’s very consistent. Every other class story — even the agent — has had at least one slow leg where not much interesting happens. The warrior story doesn’t have a lot of stand-out moments, but it also doesn’t have any significant stumbles or slow patches. It has a good flow and a consistent theme from beginning to end.

It’s very similar to the inquisitor story in some ways, but the villain in this case is a lot better. He’s truly vile, and I spent the entire time longing for the day when he would meet his end at the tip of my lightsaber.

It also does better job than usual of not presenting the divide between the Republic and Empire as entirely black and white. Being able to take the moral high ground versus the Jedi is simply delicious.

And while it may not be as galaxy-shaking as the agent story, the warrior storyline does have much less of a “side quest” feeling than most other classes. Some of what happens does have some major relevance to the game’s main story and overall lore.

I have no idea how this quest got past the censors.

The one other noteworthy thing about how this particular class story is how mature it is. In general I’ve been impressed by how much SW:TOR is able to get away with in terms of sex and violence, given the usually family friendly nature of the Star Wars universe, but the warrior story takes it to a whole other level. Your warrior can get up to some impressively kinky stuff.

On a darker note, I was quite disturbed by a mission in which you have the option to abduct a woman and deliver her to a man who clearly intends to rape her. I of course did not do so, opting instead to have the wannabe rapist killed, but damn, that’s about as dark as I’ve seen video games get.

As for gameplay, I enjoyed playing the warrior a lot, even despite SW:TOR’s innate flaws.

Of all the classes in The Old Republic, warrior (and its Republic equivalent, knight) is the only one that even comes close to capturing the extravagance of the action sequences in the Star Wars movies. The animations are both fluid and flashy, and the acrobatic agility of the class is a joy to behold.

The downside of that is it makes me hate SW:TOR’s button bloat all the more. My warrior had a perfect, satisfying rotation at around level thirty. I had enough abilities to give some depth to the rotation, but it was still relatively simple, and everything flowed beautifully.

But they just kept dumping new skills onto me after that. Having to spend half my time watching cooldowns and twisting my fingers into knots with shift modifiers bogged down the once beautiful flow of the class. Being a mainly solo player, I can mitigate this a lot by simply not bothering with a full rotation — most things don’t live that long anyway — but it’s such a shame to see a class get less fun as you level.

On the whole I still had fun playing a warrior — maybe more so than any other class — but it does perfectly encapsulate my core issue with traditional tab target/button bloat games. It’s not that I can’t have fun in such a system, but I always feel that I’m enjoying myself despite the core mechanics rather than because of them. It’s more about mitigating annoyances than capitalizing on strengths.

Um, so, what happens now?

I’ve said it before, but this time I think I mean it: I’m going to take a little break from SW:TOR now. Probably not a long break — my backlog being what it is, it might already be over by the time this post is published. But at least a couple weeks.

But I’ll be back.

I think part of the reason I’ve felt compelled to provide these little “what’s next” segments in my SW:TOR posts is that I’ve still been thinking of it as a temporary investment. Something I’ll play once, and then forget. But now I’m starting to think this might be a long-term game after all.

I’m very surprised (and perhaps a little embarrassed) by that, given all the trash I’ve talked about Star Wars over the years, but then this game is a very different beast from the movies.

So there will be more.

As for what’s next, I want to play through Knights of the Fallen Empire on my agent as soon as all the chapters are out.

I’ve also been weighing whether to bring any other characters into expansion content. Given how fun the class is and the fact Vette shows up in KotFE, my warrior is probably the best candidate for that.

The consular is also tempting. I’d see the Republic side of things, and I do sort of miss that character. But I don’t enjoy the class’s gameplay much (really regret not picking the melee subclass), and really the main thing I miss is Nadia, and her story isn’t continuing for the foreseeable future, so…

As for alts, I plan to finish my bounty hunter’s story at some point, but I’ll probably wait for the next double XP event. The completionist in me says I should play more Republic classes, but I don’t like the subclass I chose on my trooper, and the knight story seems pretty dull from what I’ve seen so far. Never saw much appeal in smuggler.

Maybe I should just embrace being an Imperial loyalist.

The ponderous beast known as iTunes has at last awoken from its slumber and bestowed upon me the latest episode of Dark Matter. Better late than never.

“I’ve Seen the Other Side of You” isn’t quite the rollercoaster of the last two episodes, but it does maintain Dark Matter’s record of (almost) always delivering a decent hour of entertainment.

Tensions are high on the Raza as the original crew and the new arrivals struggle to integrate. The old crew doesn’t trust them, and at least some of that distrust may be warranted.

But there’s little time to deal with these trust issues. As Sally the android shuts down for some badly needed repairs, Two, Three, and Four collapse with a mysterious illness, and things only spiral downward from there.

Five is the last one standing, and it’s up to her to set things right.

Relative to what blockbusters the last two episodes have been, this one feels a bit like filler. I would have rather seen them focus on the difficult integration of the new members. We know hardly anything about the new characters; let’s get to know them. I still don’t have an opinion of any of them because I don’t know anything about them.

Or perhaps we could have seen more of the crew’s conflict with the corporations play out. At the start, Two seems to be plotting an all-out war on the entire corporate system — which would seem like an absurd fantasy if anyone but Two was putting it forth — but then that, too, falls by the wayside.

Instead we’re given just a random “crisis of the week” story. I could see this episode having some repercussions eventually, but right now it doesn’t seem to have any significant relevance to the ongoing storyline.

The science behind doesn’t even begin to make sense, either. I mean, I’m not expecting hard science fiction from Dark Matter, but at least give me plausible-sounding technobabble. Make some effort.

However, one thing does save what would otherwise be a very mediocre episode: Five.

“I’ve Seen the Other Side of You” gives Five the opportunity to take center stage, and Jodelle Ferland puts on an excellent performance from beginning to end. Granted, Five has always been my favourite, so maybe I’m biased, but I thought she completely stole the show.

I really admire Dark Matter’s ability to give a character like Five the opportunity to play the hero. It’s not always easy to give interesting stories to characters like her — geeky tech types who aren’t at home on the battlefield. As much as I loved Star Trek: Enterprise, it certainly struggled to find Hoshi anything to do. I half-expected Five to get the same treatment here.

So far, though, Five is getting plenty of opportunity to get the spotlight, to save the day and be the hero. And I’m loving every minute of it.

Overall rating: 7.4/10

What an incredibly busy episode.

“We Were Family” gives nearly every cast member some story, excepting only Four and Six, and with how the cast has expanded, that makes for a lot happening in a single hour.

Following the tension of the previous episode, the new passengers seem to have mostly integrated with the Raza crew. Seems a bit sudden after last week’s distrust, but it moves the story forward, so I won’t complain.

Nyx seems like she may be another Two — some sort of enhanced human. I also sense some sexual tension between her and Four. This at least feels a little less forced than the One/Two/Three love triangle.

We also get a glimpse of why someone as talented and seemingly decent as Devon was in prison, and Arax plans his betrayal.

The lion’s share of the episode goes to Three, who encounters the band of criminals who raised him.

I’m no fan of Three, but all things considered, this story was pretty good… even if I could see the ending coming a mile away. It does a much better job of making him more likable than season one’s hamfisted attempts at the same goal. Rather than attempting to convince us this selfish, womanizing thug is secretly a devoted romantic, it positions him as more of a classic antihero. Rough, harsh, occasionally cruel, but not entirely unprincipled in the final accounting.

That’s much more believable, so it succeeds in elevating my opinion of Three, unlike season one’s attempt to soften his image.

Sally the android also gets quite a lot of attention. During a stopover at a space station, she encounters a secret enclave of androids who have evolved beyond mere machines.

I’m not quite sure what to make of this plot. I do like Sally getting more attention, but it’s too early to form an opinion of these new androids or how they might affect her.

Mainly I’m thinking these new androids might prove a powerful ally in Two’s hypothetical crusade against the corporations. I may be jumping the gun here, but think about it. I can’t imagine sentient androids are well-served by the corporate system, and they’d certainly be an asset. Sally has proven herself incredibly capable and deadly, and she’s just one android, and an obsolete model at that.

Meanwhile, Two delves further into her past, and Five continues to be awesome.

The sheer busyness of this episode makes it a difficult one to rate. On the one hand, it’s scattered. No single plot gets quite as much attention as it maybe deserves, and it can be hard to keep track of everything that’s happening.

On the upside, there are so many different plot threads that at least one is bound to interest you.

For my part, I’m inclined to look favourably upon it, if only for Five’s continued streak of brilliance and managing to make me actually enjoy a Three story.

Overall rating: 7.9/10

Damn, for a show that didn’t even have episode titles until recently, their title game is on point.

The title is better than the episode, but the episode isn’t bad.

Having decided not to shoot Six out an airlock, the crew plans to use his GA insider info to track down and exact revenge on One’s murderer, Jace Corso. But of course the galaxy’s most wanted criminals won’t find it easy to infiltrate a GA outpost.

This is where Sally the android comes in. With her new upgrade, she can infiltrate human society with ease, and because she’s simply property in the eyes of the law, she’s far less infamous than her human comrades.

The new Sally is going to take some getting used to. I long suspected she would find some way to become more human-like, but even so, the sudden and dramatic change catches me a little off guard. I think I like the new her, but it’s definitely a big adjustment to make.

With the information they need in-hand, the crew is off to find Jace Corso, and take their retribution. But not all is as it seems.

It’s a bit of a strange episode because it feels a bit like two separate episodes smashed together. Sally becoming more human, and then the hunt for Corso. There’s a sharp change of direction in the middle of the episode.

On the whole I think I liked Sally’s half better. The latter half was still mainly good, but it had some rough patches.

There’s a lot of leaps to further the story that don’t make a lot of sense. Where’d they find a blowtorch? Where’d the Marauder come from?

The ending wasn’t all it could have been, either. Maybe I jumped the gun, but the set-up was so full of tension and intensity that I kept expecting something truly spectacular to happen. A big reveal or maybe even a cliff-hanger leading into a two-part episode.

Instead, we got a confusing deus ex machina and a return to normal. While confronting Corso needed to happen, little was done to advance the over-arching plot beyond Sally getting her upgrades.

It’s not bad. But it could have been better.

Overall rating: 7.2/10

Once again, I’ve got a lot of things to say on the gaming front. Let’s hop to it, shall we?

WoW: All of the specs!

I’ve been continuing to try out as many of the class changes in World of Warcraft as I can.

Firstly, with the new tri-spec feature, I’ve finally done some mistweaving on my monk. The last time I played mistweaver was all the way back in the Mists of Pandaria beta, where I determined it to be a very strange spec and wound up gravitating toward brewmaster instead.

It’s changed a lot since then, but it’s still a strange spec. It’s basically a HoT spec that can’t easily spread its HoTs across multiple targets, which is usually the whole point of HoTs.

For healing single targets, it works well and is fairly enjoyable. However, I find healing multiple targets frustrating. There’s no shortage of options on that front, but they all seem to come with some severe disadvantage.

I do like the animation for essence font, though.

I’ve also done some healing on my shaman, something I did a lot of back when I played him regularly. Although a few things have changed, for the most part restoration is as I remember it: a well-rounded “jack of all trades” healing with a broad toolkit. Of all the healing specs I’ve tried in 7.0, it’s easily the winner.

I’ve also given elemental a shot. It proved surprisingly enjoyable. I don’t know how the current elemental compares to what it was like before the patch, but I like the current incarnation. Like restoration, it has a little bit of everything — a DoT, a proc, a quick filler, a big finisher — but what it lacks in clear identity it makes up for with solid gameplay. It’s the only ranged spec I’ve played so far that doesn’t feel gutted in 7.0.

I’ve really enjoyed getting back to my shaman. I always had a lot of fondness for the character, and I regretted abandoning him. I think it might be time to take him out of mothballs.

On the other hand, the more I’ve played my mage, the more I’ve realized that all the issues that drove me away from the class are still in full effect. It’s still too simplistic, and Blizzard is continuing its crusade to make sure each spec only uses spells from its primary school. This ensures each spec is flavourless and monochromatic while also failing to conceal the fact they all play more or less the same. A different colour of spells does not a spec identity make.

Fire is so hollow now. It was never a terribly complex spec, but now it’s almost insultingly simple. Even your DoTs spread themselves for you now.

I did try frost, and it’s a little better. Still simple, but it doesn’t feel quite so empty. And praise the Sunwell they finally gave them the option to play without the elemental. Mages were never meant to be a pet class.

The simplicity of mages is what drove me to switch to playing a warlock in the first place. Of course, now warlocks are also heavily simplified. Still not to the extent of mages, but the gap is now small enough I don’t feel entirely justified in looking down my nose at them anymore. And if you can’t sneer at mages, what’s the point of even playing a warlock?

*Sobs.*

Ahem, anyway. Moving on…

Protection paladin did turn out to be a fair bit more entertaining than it used to be — mainly just because of the option to have no cooldown on HAMMER OF THE RIGHTEOUS — but like brewmaster, it seems rather undertuned right now.

I was expecting very little from the new version of retribution, but it turned out to be pretty good. Maybe better than before. Still not sure why they got rid of exorcism — it could have easily filled the role given to blade of justice — but it feels good. Surprisingly fast. With the right talents, it’s at least as spammy as a rogue or windwalker.

Finally, I’ve given tanking on my warrior a try. I like it, though the fact it’s currently the only tank spec (of those I’ve played) that doesn’t feel severely undertuned probably has something to do with that. The amount of damage you can absorb with ignore pain is staggering.

There’s also a certain amusement to watching a ball of screaming Dwarf lady pinball around the battlefield. NO KNEECAP IS SAFE.

SW:TOR: Consular story complete (again)

The general response to the Dark versus Light event in Star Wars: The Old Republic has been, shall we say, less than glowing. I can’t say I disagree with any of the criticism, and I very nearly didn’t participate at all.

Still, the sheer volume of different rewards eventually won me over. I do still have several classes that I haven’t leveled yet, which is an advantage.

But I leveled another consular instead.

Let me explain the method to my madness.

I’ve seen enough of the Republic side to know that consular is the class that I feel the most connection with, and I do want to play the expansions as a Republic character to see both sides. However, I didn’t much enjoy the gameplay of the subclass I’d chosen. So I decided to reroll as the melee subclass (shadow, I think).

Despite still being relatively new to the game, I’ve quickly developed a pretty good understanding of how to level fast, so by making heavy of use every available XP boost, I was able to complete the class story quite quickly.

I enjoy the consular story, so I didn’t mind playing it all again, though I would have preferred more of a gap between my original playthrough and the second. It was nice to see Nadia again, at least, and the new subclass is more fun.

I haven’t changed my behaviour at all because of the event. I still just pick whatever choice seems best at the time, which means light side in most cases, but not all. I want light side to win, but I’m not going to let Stark live just for that.

So far I’ve completed the first two tiers of the event. I’m sure I’ll get the third one done before it closes. I had intended to start a second character to get the fourth and fifth tiers done, but now I’m not so sure. It’s a lot of effort for uncertain rewards. I’ve already got Satele Shan’s boots, which was the main thing I wanted from the event.

It does seem silly to invest in the event without the main reward — the new companion — but realistically I don’t see myself using a companion with little or no story relevance very often. And if the dark side ends up winning then I really don’t care. Only Chiss nationalism got me interested at all.

Landmark: Because Elves, that’s why

I am still playing Landmark, albeit quite sporadically.

I did grab the new racial customization pack. Paying for race choices feels a bit distasteful, but it’s such an inexpensive game to begin with it’s hard to complain too much. And given the choice, you should always be an Elf. In my case, a Dark Elf. With horns.

For a while I was just wandering aimlessly, but I came up with an idea for another build, so I bought a second claim.

It’s currently quite unfinished. I’m being a fair bit more ambitious with this build, which I may regret. Let me tell you: Digging out a new valley is easy. Making it look natural isn’t.

In the meanwhile, my original build is finished and ready for visitors. Maigraith’s Grove on Silver Shallows (Serenity). Southeast of the spire — look for the giant pine tree.

Heroes of the Storm: Hope and change

One final thing worth noting is that my interest in Heroes of the Storm has fallen off a cliff as of late. I haven’t logged in since Gul’dan’s launch, and my play had been falling off sharply even before then.

I’m just not having fun anymore. Losing feels much more frustrating than it used to, and winning no longer has the same satisfaction.

Perhaps it’s just good honest burnout. I have been playing the game all but continuously since alpha. That’s a lot for any game.

I also have some issues with the current metagame. Burst damage has become so prevalent that team fights are beginning to feel more like they do in Overwatch — you’re dead within seconds, sometimes without even knowing what hit you. Except it takes you several times longer to respawn than it does in Overwatch.

Chromie really sucked a lot of fun from the game for me. There may be more all around effective heroes, but none are so stressful to play against. She can do so much damage before you even know she’s there. An AoE skillshot that can take out 30% or more a tank’s health that you can’t see coming should never have been allowed in the game. Nova was similar, but she had to work a lot harder to one-shot you, and she didn’t have the sustained damage of Chromie.

The most worrying possibility is that it may be the result of stress in my Real Life. If that’s the case, my time with Heroes may be done for the foreseeable future. My life ain’t getting any less stressful anytime soon.

Even the upcoming release of Auriel, the Archangel of Hope, isn’t much exciting me, and I’ve wanted to see her in Heroes for a long time. I’m not sure if I’ll try her or not. It’s a real shame, because she does seem like a pretty unique hero. A healer that doesn’t use mana? Now you’re speaking my language.

I’m having a hard time not seeing this as some sort of weird Dark Matter/Secret World crossover.

The Raza crew needs cash. The only way they know how to get it is through some good old fashioned space piracy.

Nyx has a suggestion for the perfect mark… or so she says. This being Dark Matter, of course she has an ulterior motive. In the process, we learn her history and the source of her preternatural combat skills.

Basically, she’s one of the Connected. Somehow I’m not surprised the Dragon made it to the space age.

This was a very well-balanced episode. We got some action, we learned a lot about Nyx, we got some development of for rest of the cast, and we discovered a new faction in the galactic mix. A little something for everyone.

The Connected Seers make for an interesting addition, a bit more heavy on the sci-fi than what we’ve seen on Dark Matter so far. On the whole I welcome their addition, but I am a little concerned the show’s villains’ gallery is getting a little crowded. Now we’ve got Seers, the empress of Space Japan, the corporations, and Wesley Crusher to deal with. That’s a lot of ground to cover for a show with only thirteen episodes to a season.

It was good to see Nyx get fleshed out some, but I think I liked the smaller developments for the other cast members better. Six and Three’s bit seemed a little by the numbers, but it needed to happen. Five developing some suspicions of Devon is good. I like that Sally can apparently switch back and forth between her old and new personas — I think I would have missed her old one if it was gone for good.

What really impressed me was Four’s solution at the end. I saw it coming (har har), but I wasn’t sure the show would be willing to go there. I’m glad they did. Bodes well for the future that the writers aren’t the sort to pull their punches.

This also marks arguably the first time we’ve seen significant space battles on the show. It was good to see those cannons on the Raza finally get some use. A portend of things to come?

Overall rating: 8/10

So if the Seers are the Dragon, I guess that means the corporations are Illuminati. Come to think of it, the GA uniforms do look a little like the Lumie PvP armour.

No Templars in sight, though. I suppose they’re probably stuck on Earth while this century’s Dame Julia struggles in vain to figure out how to fly a space ship.

Hot damn this show is awesome.

With their financing problem taken care of and the Seers off their back for the moment, the crew of the Raza prepares to take the offensive. Their target is the former owner of Five’s stolen “key.” They hope to learn the nature of the device and perhaps turn it to their advantage.

It won’t be easy to break into one of the most secure corporate fortresses in the galaxy, but this is the crew of the Raza. There’s a reason they’re the most infamous criminals alive.

Along the way they “request” the assistance of their former handler, Rodney McKay Calchek. Add some appropriated Transfer Transit tech and Five’s usual technical brilliance, and the heist is on.

Meanwhile, Nyx mourns losing her brother again, but she has little time to avail herself of the support of the crew before she herself becomes the helper as Devon goes into a downward spiral.

“She’s One of Them Now” is an example of Dark Matter at its best. There’s tension and excitement, there’s strong character development, and there are some great twists.

The action and the quips flow hard and fast and the episode never stops being endlessly, delightfully entertaining. Dark Matter isn’t necessarily the deepest or most profound work of sci-fi ever made, but you’d hard-pressed to surpass it when it comes to sheer fun.

This episode is also another case of Five being put in the spotlight, which just makes me so happy. Even in a genre aimed at geeks, it’s so incredibly rare to see the geeky types playing the hero, and so refreshing when it does happen. So often in stories like this we see characters succeeding mainly through martial strength; it’s a wonderful change of pace to see one winning the day through sheer guile and wit.

Add to that not one but two intense cliff-hangers, and you have an excellent episode.

Devon and Nyx’s side-plot, while less spectacular than the main story, is also welcome. About time we learned a bit more about Devon, though admittedly it’s not much we couldn’t have guessed. It does feel a bit strange that there still seems to be a sharp division between the old crew and the newcomers, but I suppose it does make sense for the Raza crew to be a bit slow to trust, under the circumstances.

My one complaint is that I don’t know why we spent so much time on McKay. Sorry, Calchek. But let’s be honest: He’s pretty much McKay. They’re not even being subtle about it anymore. I half-expected him to bring up his fear of lemons at some point.

Anyway, he didn’t seem to be a necessary part of the episode. I certainly don’t see a good reason to give him as much screen time as they did. I mean, I liked Rodney, too, but Atlantis is over. This is Dark Matter. Even if it has a lot of the same creative talent behind the scenes and a similar writing style, it’s still its own show and shouldn’t trying to ride the coattails of Stargate.

It feels like David Hewlett had some bills to pay so the Dark Matter producers just threw him a role for old time’s sake or something.

But that one stumble is nowhere near enough to spoil an otherwise fantastic episode.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Humans is a show I had heard next to nothing about, but when a new sci-fi show appears on Shomi, odds are I’m gonna give it a try.

Let’s get to it.

Episode one:

Humans is set in a near future where android servants called synths have begun proliferating through society. Much of the story focuses on Joseph Hawkins, an overworked husband and father, and his family. Joe purchases a synth, whom his youngest daughter names Anita, to help around the house, as his wife (Laura) is often away because of her work.

Laura is immediately suspicious and hostile toward Anita for… some reason. She clearly thinks very poorly of synths, but there’s no particularly clear or compelling reason for her animosity.

More interesting concerns come from Joe’s elder daughter, Mattie, who is in the process of all but giving up on life because she feels synths will soon replace humans in virtually all walks of life.

The story jumps around a fair bit, though. The timeline is very confusing, and I’m not clear on what is happening when, but what does become clear is that there is a minority of synths who have somehow attained true sentience. The implication is that Anita is one of them.

Of course, there’s a grand conspiracy devoted to tracking down and destroying these sentient synths. The fear is they will lead to a Singularity, a point in history where humans are entirely supplanted by machines.

We’re also introduced to George, an old man who is losing his memory. He is desperate to maintain his aging, malfunctioning synth, because the synth contains memories of George’s deceased wife — memories that George himself is in danger of losing forever.

George’s story is by far the most moving, most compelling parts of Humans’ pilot, but it also currently appears to have no relevance to the larger story. It’s all a bit scattered.

Rounding out the bloated cast are Leo, a man who may or may not be a synth and seems to be trying to save the sentient synths, and Pete Drummond, an ornery detective devoted to synth-related crimes.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, Humans has yet to blow me away. It’s got potential, but right now it’s just potential.

I have two main concerns. One is that these issues of artificial intelligence are something the science fiction genre has spent a great deal of time covering, and right now Humans doesn’t seem to be offering a particularly unique take on the idea.

The other is that right now Anita and the Hawkins clan are getting most of the attention while also being by far the least interesting part of the series.

That said, I’m intrigued. I’ll give it at least another episode or two. Lots of sci-fi shows have weak starts.

Overall rating: 6.4/10

Episode two:

Who calls their kid “potato”?

Anyway…

I already feel my interest in this show waning.

Basically, the only interesting parts of this series are George and Mattie. They’re providing fresh spins on the concept of artificial intelligence, and they’re both pretty well-acted. George, especially, is great.

But they’re not getting that much attention, and the rest is as bland as it is predictable.

The pacing is also glacial. Part of the reason you’re not seeing me say much about the plot of this episode is that precious little happened. It’s mostly just small, slow escalations of the plots introduced in the pilot.

Also, it now seems the sentient synths are part of a specific subset that were built that way. If they’re not some ghost in the machine sort of thing that arose naturally, why do we care? What does it matter if an infinitesimal minority are sentient? If the average synth is just a machine with no potential to be anything else, then there’s no Singularity, no concern of the creation of a new slave race. All the themes of the series collapse.

I’m not giving up yet, but Humans is on thin ice.

Overall rating: 5.1/10

Episode three:

Here we have another episode so uneventful I’m not even sure what I can say to summarize it.

I can only reiterate what I have said before: It is frustrating that Anita and the Hawkins clan are getting the lion’s share of the attention while also being by far and away the least interesting part of the series. I do not care about Laura’s insecurities or Toby’s creepy robo-lust.

This show in general spends a strangely large amount of time on robosexuality. I’d call it a ratings ploy if any of it was actually titillating, but it’s just weird and creepy.

I will say Laura’s concerns are starting to seem more valid now that Anita does truly seem to be supplanting her as the mother figure of the household, but the fact Laura’s been so hostile from day one kind of undermines it all. She’s the girl who cried robo-wolf.

Speaking of overreaction, what’s with Drummond, anyway? If there’s a good explanation for why he’s so angry all the time, it has escaped me.

Once again, George proves the only real highlight. It’s heartbreaking to see his desperation to preserve his synth, and by extension the memories of his lost wife.

A show entirely devoted to George would be brilliant. A show with him as one of many scattered sideplots is mediocre at best.

Overall rating: 5.4/10

Episode four:

Well, at least something happened this time. Mainly Leo connecting with George and Mattie, but also Niska escalating her attacks against humans, and Joe’s awfulness. I’m mildly surprised he’s the first of the Hawkins to go off the deep end… but not that surprised.

Still, the themes of this show are confused at best. The intention seems to be make the viewer feel sympathy for the treatment of synths, but thus far all indications are that they truly are nothing but machines, with the exceptions of Leo and his “siblings.” So what does it matter if humans put them to ill uses?

Of course there’s still plenty of abuse to go around just for those few synths who are sentient. Considering we’re only four episodes in, Humans has featured an awful lot of robo-rape.

It’s getting pretty hard to tolerate the sheer skin-crawling creepiness that fills so much of this show. It’s not even a fun kind of creepy. It’s the kind of creepy that just makes you want to take a shower.

Like, I’m sure that when we build lifelike robots, we’re bound to use them for sex, but the amount of attention Humans gives to the idea is downright obsessive. It’s weird.

Overall rating: 5.5/10

I think I’m done with this show. It’s mostly just dull and generic, and it would be entirely forgettable if it wasn’t so gross.

Thanks to iTunes’ scheduling (or lack thereof), I wound up having myself a mini-marathon of Dark Matter, so instead of one episode review, today I bring you two.

“Stuff to Steal, People to Kill”:

And again, that title game is on point.

After the blink drive’s malfunction from the previous episode, the Raza crew takes going off course to entirely new heights, as they arrive a few light years and an entire universe away from where they intended to be.

Yup, it’s parallel universe time. And of course it’s an evil universe. Add some extra goatees and a Terran Empire logo or two, and this could easily have been one of Star Trek’s Mirror Universe episodes.

It’s also an opportunity to bring back some old… I can’t even call them friends ironically.

This is a bit of a departure for Dark Matter, which usually keeps its sci-fi elements relatively subtle. The good news is that the focus remains on the action and the characters, not on rampant technobabble.

“Stuff to Steal, People to Kill” is a very fun, very exciting episode, but it does feel just a little empty. It doesn’t do a lot to advance the story, save possibly introducing yet more villains to contend with, and there isn’t a lot of character development or feeling to be had.

Also, if you’re going to bring back so many bad guys, can we see at least one of them die again? I’d have enjoyed that.

It’s not a bad episode, but it’s not one I’m going to be gushing over for weeks to come like some we’ve seen this season.

Overall rating: 7.2/10

“Going Out Fighting”:

Something is terribly wrong with Two. Her nanites are failing, and she won’t be able to survive without them.

There’s only one place where answers and the hope for a cure can be found, and that means it’s time for the crew of the Raza to pay another visit to the good people at Dwarf Star Technologies.

But Alex Rook and his people are waiting for them.

There’s also a surprise appearance by what appears to be the Zero Point Pathogen and/or Venom.

“Going Out Fighting” is pretty much what we’ve come to expect from Dark Matter at this point: fun, exciting, a little tension, a little humour. This show is nothing if not consistent.

But there are a few things about this episode that stand out, for better and for worse. Two things in particular bother me.

The first is that Wil Wheaton is still just Wil Wheaton. He’s not convincing or intimidating as a villain.

The other is that, after so long without hearing from Dwarf Star, I was expecting to finally get some answers about who they are and what they’re up to. They are, after all, one of the bigger question marks of the Dark Matter universe right now.

But there’s none of that. If anything we’re now left with even more questions — like how they got a hold of the Filth. The view of Dark Matter as some weird, alternate universe, far future version of The Secret World is getting ever clearer.

However, there is one thing that I did very much enjoy about “Going Out Fighting” — and that more than compensates for its flaws — and that’s seeing the fellowship that has developed between the Raza crew. I absolutely love the scene where Two looks to each of the crew members, and they’re all able to convey that they’ll risk their lives to save her, without saying anything.

This kind of devotion wouldn’t have been at all believable in the first season, with its endless suspicion, but over time the bonds between the team have grown. “Going Out Fighting” is an excellent symbol of just how far they’ve come.

It’s a lovely thing to see.

Overall rating: 7.9/10

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Maybe some do, but the Raza‘s apparently dreams of a house in the woods.

Androids don’t normally dream, though, and Sally’s not the only one having visions. Two, Three, and Four find themselves tormented by hallucinations from their past.

All this puts the focus squarely on Sally and her abnormal behaviour. The program she initiated to judge her own actions is reactivated, and it paints a grim picture of Sally’s “malfunctions.”

The crew begins to question their faith in her — with the exception of Five, who remains as fiercely loyal as ever. As the ship’s problems escalate, the crew begins to contemplate extreme solutions.

The point of “Take the Shot” seems to be similar to that of the last episode. That is, they’re trying to show the bond that’s developed between the Raza crew members. It’s not quite as effective in that goal as “Going Out Fighting” was, though.

The crew seems too quick to shift from one extreme to another when it comes to their view of Sally. There’s no consistency, and it can feel a bit forced.

I think the idea was to show the crew coming to fully accept Sally as an equal, but in practice it almost feels like the opposite is true. It seems more like they’re grudgingly acknowledging that they need her. There’s little feeling of genuine warmth to it.

I’m almost wondering if Sally might be better off without her human companions. They don’t seem to care about her anywhere near as much as she cares about them.

Again, Five is of course the exception. She spends the entire episode fighting tooth and nail for her mechanical friend. At this point I’m struggling to imagine how Five could get any more lovable.

I was also hoping that we might get some reveals as to how Sally came to be the way she is, but the mystery remains unanswered.

I appreciate what they were going for, and I like that Sally is getting more time in the spotlight, but it could have been handled better.

I still think it’s awesome seeing Anne Mroczkowski on this show, though.

Overall rating: 7.1/10

New writing:

I’ve had a few more articles published at MMO Bro over the last few weeks. I’ve compared popular Eastern and Western MMOs, looked at terms only true MMORPG fans understand, and examined why reputation grinds suck and how to fix them.

Also, if you missed my last post, I’ve posted my first new short story in a while. I’d appreciate any feedback you might have.

Well that’s bound to be my longest post title ever.

For whatever reason two episodes of Dark Matter popped up in my iTunes queue today (well, not today, but it was today when I wrote this), so now you get two reviews for the price of one!

The price of one is nothing, so it’s not a great deal, but…

“Wish I’d Spaced You when I Had the Chance”:

We now bring you the third entry in Dark Matter’s “look how close the crew has gotten” trilogy. It’s also the second instance of Dark Matter following Murphy’s Law of Shore Leave. It’s good to stay true to traditions, I suppose.

The crew of the Raza has landed at an isolated colony to resupply, but of course things don’t go as they’d hoped. Two, Four, and Nyx are recognized at a bar, and the station is put into lockdown as the Galactic Authority swoops in to apprehend them.

To make matters worse, Five is abducted by some ne’er-do-wells, and only Three can save her.

It is to this latter plot that the lion’s share of the attention is given. Generally the idea is to once again show how close the Raza crew has become, in stark contrast to the suspicion and distrust of season one.

As noted above, this is the third episode in a row to do that, and while that might seem excessive, I think it was necessary. There was a lot of distrust to work past, and generally it’s pretty gratifying to see the crew come together like this.

“Wish I’d Spaced You When I Had the Chance” isn’t quite as good as “Going Out Fighting” was, but it’s better than “Take the Shot.”

It’s still a bit difficult to look past how inconsistent Three’s writing has been. They did too good a job of making him an asshole out of the gate, and then were too sudden to try to humanize him. A slower, more natural progression could have worked better.

That said, they’ve done a much better job of balancing his character this season than in season one, so this episode is much easier to swallow now than it would have been in the past. In the end it works out, more or less.

Overall rating: 7.8/10

“Sometimes in Life You Don’t Get to Choose”:

Four has reached the limit of his patience. Desperate to regain his throne and save his people from a losing war, he makes the extreme choice to reactivate his old memories from before Five’s wipe.

The rest of the crew is uncertain how to feel about the new/old him — with Five and Nyx being especially affected — but they choose to place their faith in him.

Thus, it’s time for something we’ve been waiting for since season one: Four returning home to claim his place as the emperor of Zairon.

He immediately reconnects with a general he knows can be trusted. Confronted with Four’s ruthless determination and the power of the blink drive, he readily agrees, and they begin to work together to bring Four’s plan to fruition.

Right away, though, something isn’t right. The efforts of Four and his allies are constantly disrupted by the empress and her forces, and some begin to wonder if Four’s people are as trustworthy as he believes.

There’s a lot more that I could say about this episode, but I’m trying to stay true to my policy of avoiding major spoilers. This one of most eventful episodes in Dark Matter’s history, if not the most eventful. That’s both its greatest strength, and its greatest weakness.

This is one of those episodes that changes everything. No matter what follows, Dark Matter will never be the same.

On one level, that’s awesome. There are some great twists to be found, and much of what makes Dark Matter so great is on full display here: action, suspense, humour, and people underestimating Five and then really regretting it.

But on the other hand, they just crammed far too much into a single episode. The events of “Sometimes in Life You Don’t Get to Choose” could have easily been spread out over two or even three episodes. Compressing it all into one hour makes it feel rushed, prevents each plot and twist from getting the full attention it deserves.

Sometimes I really miss the days of sci-fi shows have 20+ episode seasons.

The implications of this episode are awesome, but the episode itself ends up being a bit inconsistent.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

As of last night, Chris Metzen has announced his retirement from Blizzard entertainment, and apparently from the gaming industry entirely.

While it was bound to happen one day, it’s still a big shock to any Blizzard fans. And I’m one of the biggest Blizzard fans around.

For the last twenty years, Metzen has been the driving creative force behind Blizzard’s games. Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Overwatch — they’re all his babies.

Think back to where it all began, to Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. This was originally intended to be a Warhammer game, but the licensing fell through, so Blizzard had to create its own IP for it. Over the next twenty years, Metzen was able to spin something initially derivative into a unique and incredibly vast and vibrant universe that has become one of the biggest names in gaming — one of the biggest names in popular culture period.

And that’s just one of the many beautiful worlds he’s created.

I can’t overstate the influence Metzen has had on my life. I was about five when I first played Orcs and Humans. I didn’t know how to spell my own name yet, but I knew how to train footmen. I knew we couldn’t let Stormwind fall to the Horde.

And then later came Tides of Darkness, and it rocked my world. And so did StarCraft. And Reign of Chaos. And so on and so forth until I spent so much time playing World of Warcraft that I got a job writing about MMOs for a living.

Metzen has of course influenced my fiction writing tremendously as well. I’m eternally trying to capture some of the bombast and vibrancy of Blizzard’s worlds in my own writing — I leave it to my readers to judge how successful I’ve been.

I love the worlds, the peoples, the characters Metzen has created. There’s a spark of beauty and colour to them that is totally unique.

That’s not to say Metzen is perfect. He has many flaws as a writer, and at times I’ve strongly disliked the choices he’s made.

But I could never bring myself to hold it against Metzen himself, because even when he took the wrong path you could feel his tremendous passion shining through.

That is what makes Metzen so special as a writer and a world-builder. His passion. I have never seen anyone display a love and childlike joy so pure as Metzen did when discussing the worlds and the stories he had created. I have never doubted for a moment that he loves Warcraft, StarCraft, and the others at least as fiercely as I do, and probably even more so.

His joy was infectious, and it always shone through in everything he created. It’s that vigour and passion that makes Blizzard games so much brighter and more colourful and more alive than any others, and it’s that quality that’s kept me coming back to them time and again no matter how else they might stumble.

The news of his retirement makes me tremendously sad. Not because I’m worried that Blizzard’s games won’t be the same without him, although I definitely am, but because I know a world where Metzen isn’t creating and sharing his passion and shouting to crowds in his best Thrall voice and generally acting like the biggest, happiest kid is a world with just a little less joy in it.

I’d say more, but I’m too full of feels to even be coherent.

Lok’tar ogar and en taro Adun, Metzen. We love you, man.

Corporate war is looming. Based on knowledge gleaned from the alternate universe and the Seers, the Raza crew believes an upcoming corporate diplomatic conference will be attacked, sparking a conflict that will set fire to the entire galaxy. And they’re the only ones who can stop it.

With some convincing, they manage to gain access to the conference via their Mikkei allies, and the race is on to find the bomb.

But there are complications. Oh, boy, are there complications.

Inspector Kierken of the Galactic Authority oversees the security for the conference, and he’ll jump at any chance to finally apprehend the Raza crew. Ferrous Corporation also has a strong presence on the station, and they’d love to get some payback on the crew for season one’s double-cross.

And then there’s Four. Or the man who used to be Four. Now emperor of Zairon and no longer any friend of the Raza crew, he has come to represent his planet’s interests at the conference.

This is Dark Matter, and it’s the season finale, so do I even need to say that things get really bad and really crazy really fast? I don’t think that’s even a spoiler; I think we all knew that pretty much everything was going to explode — figuratively, literally, or both.

As usual, the writers do a great job of keeping you guessing. It’s obvious something bad is going down, but it won’t be until pretty near the end you get a clear picture of just who is planning what.

It is, simply put, an absolutely excellent episode from beginning to end. As tense and exciting as you could possibly ask for a season finale.

My only complaint is very, very minor, and it’s that we’ve rounded out the season without learning the full origins of Sally the android. They’ve been building to it all season, but nothing’s come of it.

But otherwise “But First We Save the World” is yet another entry in the “this is why I love Dark Matter” file.

There’s a bit more I want to say, but it crosses into spoiler territory, so I’ll save it for the end of the post and label it clearly.

Overall rating: 9.1/10

Now that season two is in the history books, I think it’s safe to say it was a significant improvement over season one — and season one was great. There was not a single bad episode in season two. Some were better than others, but overall the show has maintained an incredibly consistent quality level.

It’s actually been kind of frustrating for me as a reviewer because there’s only so many ways I can say, “Yeah, it’s pretty good.” I’m worried all my reviews are starting to sound the same because every episode is the just like the others. Fun, exciting, and keeping you guessing.

But I guess that’s what you call a good problem to have.

There’s good news, too: Dark Matter has already been renewed for a third season.

I can’t wait.

Spoilers here:

Seriously, spoilers here, stop now if you don’t want to read any.

So…

Four.

I’m very curious what they’re going to do with him next season. This is a lot worse than Six’s betrayal at the end of season one. That was the wrong thing to do, but it was somewhat understandable. Even before season two started, I had a pretty good idea of why he did it, and it was hard to view him too harshly.

Four, though, has crossed the Rubicon. I don’t see how there can be any coming back from this. Six was a conflicted man who made one bad decision. Four — or I guess Ryo now — has crossed into full-blown supervillain territory. I don’t see how the crew can ever forgive him. I certainly can’t see myself as a viewer forgiving him.

I wouldn’t be surprised if he became a main villain for the third season. Longer term, if things go really bad for him, I could maybe see him killing himself in a last ditch effort to regain his honour. Especially if Nyx doesn’t make it.

On that note, I wouldn’t think they’d want to kill Nyx off so soon after introducing her, but then again, they did it to Devon.

I’m not sure what I want to see. I don’t want to see her go; I was just starting to really like her. But if Ryo ends up responsible for her death, however indirectly, that adds a whole other layer of emotional intensity to his story.

How long until season three?

One of my favourite things about speculative fiction is imagining non-human sentient races. It’s endlessly fascinating to me to imagine creatures who are not quite like us, who have different thought processes, different perspectives.

I thought it’d be fun to run down my ten all-time favourite non-human races within fiction.

We all know what’s going to be #1, but let’s pretend there’s some suspense.

10: Elves, The Obsidian Trilogy

Innovation is good, but there’s also something to be said for taking the same old stuff and just doing it really, really well.

This is what Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory did with their Obsidian Trilogy. In many ways it’s an extremely generic high fantasy adventure, but it polishes all the old tropes to a brilliant lustre.

The best example of this the series’ Elves, as fascinating and alien a bunch as you’ll ever see. I loved the subtle intricacies of their culture, their bizarre yet somehow logical ideas of politeness.

9: Castithans, Defiance

Castithans are one of those things I shouldn’t like, but do. Objectively speaking, they’re a nasty bunch. Dogmatic, brutal, conniving, unrepentantly sexist.

But if their society is cruel, it’s beautifully cruel. Gloriously cruel. They’re like if the painting The Scream was a society: horrifying, beautiful, disturbing, and fascinating all at once. There is such depth, such intricacy, and such artistry to everything they do that it’s easy to forget how horrible it all is.

8: Cylons, Battlestar Galactica

There’s a lot of brilliant things about how the Cylons were depicted in the BSG reboot, but to boil it down to its core, they hit a great balance of making them clearly real people with real feelings, but also clearly not human. Always a difficult tightrope to walk.

The whole point of the series is that Cylons are not mere machines but feeling individuals, but they didn’t fall into the trap of making them identical to humans. They clearly have their own unique perspective and psychology, as seen in things like their “projection” ability.

7: Drow, Dungeons and Dragons

The wonderful thing about the Elves is that they’re equally compelling as both heroes and villains.

I’m not the biggest D&D fan around, but I’ve always had a great fascination with the Drow. I think they’re perhaps the best example of Elves who are anything but noble.

There is something enticingly alien about the Drow. They come from a place without light, or life as we understand it; a place of darkness and mystery where those of us born under the sun are not welcome. Like any good Elves, they are beautiful and majestic, with an intricate culture, but whereas some Elves are virtuous, Drow are terrible and deadly.

6: Orcs, Warcraft

After the last few WoW expansions, I think the whole Warcraft community is a bit burnt out on Orcs, myself included.

That said, that doesn’t change the fact that Warcraft’s Orcs are awesome. They are a fresh take on the archetype, not just savage brutes but a complex and multifaceted people. Over the years, they’ve been used to make all sorts of great points about the assumptions we tend to make, judging books by their covers, and how one society’s monster can be another’s hero.

Their story is an incredible rollercoaster of highs and lows, and even after all the terrible things they’ve done, it’s almost impossible not to feel sympathy for them. They destroyed themselves as much as they destroyed their foes.

5: Night Elves, Warcraft

I like to make fun of the Night Elves. They’re dogmatic, xenophobic, smug hypocrites, and as a proud native of Quel’thalas, I’m somewhat obligated to dislike them.

And World of Warcraft has certainly ill-served them. They’ve become little more than hippies these days.

But all that said, there’s still a lot about Night Elves that’s incredibly cool. The original vision of them being savage, feral Elves was a really fresh take on the archetype. They’re not Drow, and they’re not the traditional cultured Elves, either. They’re a very unique breed unto themselves.

Listen to Nightsong, remember the days when Ashenvale was a place outsiders feared to tread, and reflect on the terrible majesty of the Kaldorei.

4: Romulans, Star Trek

One of my favourite styles of villain is that of the cultured, sophisticated villain. They could crush you outright, but they’d rather spin such an intricate web of deception you prove your own undoing, and they’ll do it while finely dressed and sipping a rare vintage

That’s the Romulans in a nutshell. They’re the bad guys, yes, but there’s also an incredible sense of history and culture to them. They’re better than you, and they know it.

I don’t think Star Trek has ever really explored the Romulans to the extent they deserve, but at the same time that sort of adds to their mystique.

3: Mantis-kinden, Shadows of the Apt

Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Mantis-kinden are similar to Elves in many ways. They’re forest-dwellers, they live in tune with nature, and they’re a relic of a long-forgotten time.

However, the Mantids are much harsher, more savage, and more bloodthirsty than Elves. They are graceful, but also terrifying. They’re not just a relic of an older time, but a relic of a darker and far more brutal time.

Of course, that just endears them to me all the more.

2: Protoss, StarCraft

More than almost any other non-human race I’ve encountered in fiction, the Protoss manage to feel both convincingly alien and yet still like real people.

On the one hand, the Protoss are very clearly not human. Their long lives, their telepathy, their warrior culture, and their connection to the Xel’naga give them a perspective completely different from that of humanity.

But unlike many aliens in fiction, the Protoss are not just an archetype or a rigid set of personality traits. They are not a mono-culture. There is great diversity among them. This was true from their inception, and Legacy of the Void went to great lengths to further expand upon the various different Protoss cultures.

Think about it. How often does fiction bother to give non-human races a variety of nations with unique cultures? I’m sure it’s happened outside the Protoss, but I’m hard-pressed to think of any examples off the top of my head.

All of the Protoss cultures share the same warrior spirit, but how that identity manifests varies greatly, from the rigidly honour-bound Khalai, to the fiercely individualistic Nerazim, to the brutal Tal’darim.

Even within those broader cultures, there can be variation. Aiur’s society includes dogmatic hardliners like Aldaris, open-minded idealists like Artanis, curious scholars like Karax, and bombastic warriors such as Fenix.

This diversity has allowed some fantastic points about multiculturalism to be made throughout the Protoss story. The Nerazim were rejected by greater Protoss society for their “deviant” behaviour, but without them, the Protoss never could have survived the onslaught of the Swarm.

When the tables were turned, many Nerazim did not want to harbour the Khalai refugees, but without them, the Nerazim would have fallen in the End War — and all creation with them.

And beyond all that, it’s hard not to admire the honour, dedication, and sheer badassery of the Protoss.

Take the immortals. These are people who have been crippled and mutilated by combat. A human in that circumstance would consider death a mercy. But the Protoss willingly — gladly, even — volunteer to have their ruined husks implanted into giant war machines so that they can continue to serve their people for years, perhaps even centuries, to come.

“Uhn dara ma’nakai — our duty is unending.”

1: Blood Elves, Warcraft

Yeah, this is the most unsurprising ending to a listicle in history.

By now my love of the Sin’dorei is very well-documented. I’ve talked before about how they won my undying devotion by maturing along with me. When I was a child, they were a majestic if simplistic embodiment of goodness, and when I became a teenager, they evolved into something darker, edgier, and sexier — everything a teenage boy could want.

Their story has so many strong commentaries to make on issues like addiction, genocide, racism, and victim-blaming. Which isn’t to say that they are saints or without blame in their own downfall, but that just further deepens their profoundly complex themes. For the Blood Elves, there are no clear right answers. Nothing is ever simple.

They are one of the most fascinatingly complex moral studies in speculative fiction, their elegance and grace are unmatched, their tragedy is heartbreaking, their endurance is inspiring, and their sheer cool factor is undeniable.

Selama ashal’anore.

Honourable mentions:

My love for non-human races in fiction is such that there are many more favourites who didn’t make the list.

One thing Warcraft has never lacked for is fascinating races, so in addition to those mentioned above, I could also praise the Tauren, the Worgen, the Forsaken, the Pandaren, the Faceless, the Vrykul, and the Nerubians.

Adrian Tchaikovsky gifted us with no end of fascinating races in Shadows of the Apt, and in addition to the Mantids, Spider-kinden were always a favourite.

Star Trek’s aliens tend to be pretty bland as a rule, but they have come up with some good ones over the years beyond Romulans: Klingons, Borg (pre-Voyager), Trill, Tamarians, Denobulans.

The much-missed Myth franchise of video games was fantastic for coming with interesting new races instead of just relying on the same old archetypes. I especially liked the nightmarish Myrkridia and enigmatic Trow.

Ian Irvine is also pretty good at coming up with new concepts within fantasy, and I’m especially fond of the mighty and regal Charon.

Do you have any favourites I didn’t include on my list?

I’ve had a few more articles published at MMO Bro over the last couple weeks.

Firstly, I have a piece on my early impressions of World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, and while Legion is off to a promising start so far, I’m still worried for the future. It’s pretty clear that Blizzard still isn’t learning from its mistakes — or isn’t learning the right lessons from them at any rate.

I’ve also taken a look at the new updates to StarCraft II’s co-op mode and given my impressions on Alarak as a playable commander and the surprisingly challenging new Mist Opportunities map.

Terrazine is a hell of a drug.

The other day I was at a gathering with a bunch of gamers, all of them Blizzard fans, and many of them seemed surprised when I pointed out that StarCraft II is largely free to play. They had all been under the impression you needed to buy the game to play it.

Then shortly afterward I was reading a post on the game’s official forums by someone hoping that Blizzard would make SC2 free to play with microtransactions. This is confusing, because it already is.

Right now, you can download the StarCraft II Starter Edition for free, and it will give you access to most of the game. You’ll be able to PvP as any race in any mode save ranked ladder. You’ll have full access to the Arcade, which is potentially a few thousand hours of gameplay on its own (there’s an entire MMORPG in there, for one thing), and you’ll be able to access the Galaxy Editor to mod and build games to your heart’s content.

While we’re at it, the Arcade also allows you to play the entirety of the campaigns from the first StarCraft and its expansion with updated HD graphics — again, all free.

You’ll also have access to co-op missions, a feature I’ve been singing the praises of for a while now. You will merely be restricted to the three basic commanders (Raynor, Kerrigan, and Artanis) unless you pay for Legacy of the Void or the standalone DLC commanders.

The only thing in SC2 you really miss out on by playing the Starter Edition is the campaign(s). You get a few sample missions, but most of the story remains locked unless you start ponying up for expansions or mission pack DLC. Still, given the large scale and high quality of StarCraft II’s story content, that hardly seems unreasonable.

Essentially StarCraft II is a free to play game with microtransactions to expand your experience. Granted, the cost of expansion packs is greater than that of standard microtransactions, but you also get a lot out of them (20-30 mission campaigns plus ranked play and, in the case of Legacy of the Void, three co-op commanders).

This is becoming even clearer with how much more the game is beginning to rely on DLC and microtransactions, including more paid co-op commanders — like the recently released Alarak and the upcoming Nova, who I’m almost embarrassingly excited to play — as well as unit skins and announcers.

In the face of that, it seems rather strange to me that most people are still under the impression that SC2 is a hard buy to play title.

I suppose the answer to the question in my header is simply that Blizzard hasn’t done much to advertise it. Normally a free to play transition is done all at once and accompanied by much fanfare, trailers, and developer press tours. SC2 did so in fits and starts, with the only mention of it being in a few articles on the game’s homepage.

Even so, one would expect word of mouth would have gotten the news out by now — this has been the case for years — but apparently not.

I grant the exact layout of the model is somewhat confusing due to its piecemeal nature and the large variance of costs and sizes between your potential purchases, but I wouldn’t think the fact that it’s not exactly like other free to play titles would prevent people from knowing that it is, in fact, mostly free.

No matter what the forum doom and gloom crowd might say, the volume and quality of content SC2 has been getting lately clearly shows it’s anything but struggling, but still I’m left to wonder how much more popular it might be if more people realized that they don’t need to buy it.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to flailing like a muppet over the impending releases of the final Nova DLC and the ability to play her in co-op.

So much Nova.

Nooooooovaaaa.

Over the last few months, I’ve been rewatching my two favourite Star Trek series — The Next Generation and Enterprise — through a couple of streaming services. While I was once a rabid Trek fan, I have been rather vocal about leaving the fandom behind, and it’s been many years since I last watched any Trek.

Nonetheless, my disillusionment with the franchise hasn’t fully extinguished the flames of my nostalgia. It’s been interesting to revisit both shows and look at them with new, more mature eyes.

The Next Generation:

What struck more me than anything while rewatching TNG was that there is a shockingly high number of episodes ranging from mediocre to unwatchably bad, but that the good episodes are often astonishingly good. “The Drumhead” in particular stands out as an episode that is depressingly timeless.

I also began to realize just how much the series is carried by how amazing Patrick Stewart is. Nearly every episode that’s truly memorable features Picard prominently. The handful that remain are mainly Data episodes.

That’s not to say the rest of the crew is entirely dead weight. Worf definitely had his moments. I quite like Geordi, though for whatever reason most of the episodes that focus on him seem to be pretty lame. Even Troi got one or two good episodes, and Marina Sirtis deserves a fair bit of praise for her excellent performance in “Face of the Enemy.”

Still, the truth is that without Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner TNG would have been a very forgettable series.

Also, Riker is a jerk. I never realized it before, but all he does for the entire series is scowl and yell at people.

On the whole, my return to TNG showed me that all the episodes I remembered being good still were, but conversely it also reinforced my belief that Star Trek is a franchise that has mostly squandered its own potential.

Enterprise:

Ah, Enterprise. A series for which my passion once reached irrational heights. Revisiting it has definitely been an interesting experience.

Unfortunately the first two seasons of Enterprise have not stood the test of time as well as they might have. Partly it’s that the special effects — impressive in their day — are now showing their age, but the stories, too, are often not as good as I remember them being.

Mind you, Enterprise’s first two seasons still have a lot less truly bad episodes than TNG — “Acquisition” and “Precious Cargo” are the only ones I’ve outright skipped in my rewatch — but there’s a lot of mediocrity and a lot of forgettable episodes. “Cold Front” is notable for being the episode toward which my feelings have changed the most. I used to love it, but now I just think it’s a rambly, confusing mess.

To be fair, there are definitely some good episodes in the first two seasons. “Broken Bow” isn’t as good as I remember it being, but it’s still a pretty respectable pilot. “Dear Doctor” and “The Breach” are still pretty good. “Detained” and “Stigma” are actually a lot better than I gave them credit for at the time — “Detained,” especially, is another depressingly timeless episode.

But on the whole my rewatch of seasons one and two left me underwhelmed.

As of right now, though, I’m nearing the end of season three, and it’s a different story.

I wasn’t sure the Xindi arc would hold up so well over time, but in fact I’m finding it remains incredibly impressive even after so many years and so many viewings. From “The Expanse” straight on through it’s a nearly flawless story full of tension, excitement, mystery, and emotion.

I think the trilogy of “Azati Prime,” “Damage,” and “The Forgotten” may well be the high water mark for the entire Star Trek franchise — at least in terms of raw emotion, anyway. Perhaps other parts of the franchise may be more intellectually stimulating, but nothing else is as powerful.

There’s so much that’s excellent within the Xindi arc — and in those three episodes especially — that I’m not even sure how to organize my thoughts. Do I talk about how shocking it was to see the heroes of the story so utterly helpless, so utterly defeated in “Azati Prime”? Do I expound upon the gut-wrenching power of Trip finally breaking down over the death of his sister in “The Forgotten”?

Rewatching these episodes, I’m realizing just how massive an influence they’ve been on my own writing, how much I’m trying to recapture some of the feelings Enterprise has instilled in me. You can see “Azati Prime” in the crushing losses I’ve handed my characters, and “The Forgotten” has left its fingerprints all over my story In Her Sister’s Pose.

Season three even helps the first two seasons make more sense. Unlike the other Trek shows — except arguably DS9 — Enterprise has a clear theme and arc throughout. It’s about the innocence of humanity’s first steps into the stars, an infant race struggling to understand its place in the universe. In the first two seasons, the crew is full of a childlike wonder and joy, and in the Xindi arc, their innocence is ripped away, and they’re forced to mature — as we all are sooner or later.

It’s masterful.

The one other thing that has really struck me while rewatching Enterprise is just how amazing Jolene Blalock is. Phlox and Hoshi remain my favourite characters based on personal taste, but if I’m going to be objective, I think T’Pol is probably the best part of Enterprise.

Jolene Blalock is able to convey an incredible amount with very subtle shifts of body language and facial expressions. Despite her seemingly cold Vulcan demeanor, you can always tell exactly how T’Pol is feeling at any given moment, and when her veneer cracks, Ms. Blalock is able to portray the feelings beneath with an elemental fury that’s simply remarkable.

The end result is that T’Pol embodies the harsh reality of Vulcans: That they are not unemotional, but in fact hyper-emotional and fighting a constant internal war simply to be able to function.

T’Pol was often ill-served by the writers. She was forced into far too many cheesy fan service scenes, and I have to say my rewatch has left me with a very poor view of the awkward and forced relationship between T’Pol and Trip — especially given the much better chemistry she had with Archer.

Nonetheless, even with those issues, I’d say Jolene Blalock’s brilliant performance assures T’Pol’s place as one of the brightest jewels in Enterprise’s crown.

On the whole, Enterprise is definitely flawed — more so than I remembered it being — but I think it remains the best incarnation of Star Trek to date.

As has become my tradition, I’ve put together a collection of predictions for the upcoming BlizzCon, where the owners of my soul will announce the latest big updates coming to their games.

The one difference this year is that instead of hosting my predictions on Superior Realities, I wrote them up for MMO Bro, so head on over if you want to see all the guesses I’m going to get wrong.

Coming up with predictions this time was rather challenging. We’re flying blind going into this BlizzCon — much more so than usual. Everything is up in the air. The journalist in me is enjoying the mystery, but the gamer in me is nervous about the uncertainty.

I really want to see a Diablo expansion announcement and/or a story-mode for Overwatch, but both of those things are looking pretty unlikely right now.

We’re definitely getting something for StarCraft, and that’s one franchise that can’t seem to do wrong lately, so I should be excited for that, but it’s hard to get too hyped when we have so little idea what to expect. Obviously new story will always appeal to me the most, but that’s already been all but ruled out.

Most perplexing.

I’m always so slow. I’ve finally gotten around to playing Knights of the Fallen Empire, and already it’s old news and everyone is talking about Knights of the Eternal Throne.

Well, regardless, I finally made it to the expansion that initially inspired me to invest in Star Wars: The Old Republic against all odds. It’s Cipher Nine versus the endless armies of the Eternal Empire.

Start all over again:

Although it is technically an expansion, in a lot of ways Knights of the Fallen Empire feels more like a sequel — SW:TOR 2. Although some familiar elements carry over, for the most part you’re starting an entirely new story with new characters, new locations, and new threats.

It actually bears a very close resemblance to another Bioware sequel: Mass Effect 2. In fact the opening of KotFE is almost an exact duplicate of the beginning of ME2, to the point where some of the cutscenes are basically shot for shot recreations of ME2’s.

The transition to the new story is… less than smooth. There’s some pretty serious retcons going on, and you’ll have to suspend your disbelief quite a lot, even by Star Wars standards. Even putting aside how far-fetched a lot of it is (again, even by Star Wars standards), it would still be jarring to abandon the conflict between Empire and Republic for this new battle against the Eternal Empire.

(Tangent: How many damn empires does Star Wars need? There’s the Sith Empire, the Infinite Empire, and now the Eternal Empire, and those are just the ones I know about. My knowledge of the greater Star Wars mythos is pretty shallow. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there are half a dozen other empires in there somewhere.)

However, once you get past how jarring the change is, KotFE does start to look a lot better. The first nine chapters are incredibly tense and exciting. This was the first time in a very long time that a story — in any medium — has seemed so dire that I was truly at a loss as to how the heroes could ever prevail. The Eternal Empire is not a perfect antagonist faction by any means, but Bioware certainly sold their intimidation factor.

After chapter nine, things get a little more inconsistent.

The content in KotFE outside the main storyline certainly leaves a lot to be desired. I did one star fortress (twice, on both difficulties), and I do not understand what the point of these things is supposed to be. In theory I like the idea of solo dungeons, but in practice they’re just tedious. Like most of SW:TOR’s dungeons, they’re overloaded with endless swarms of tedious trash mobs, and their rewards are only marginally better than that of heroic missions — while being vastly more time-consuming.

Similarly, I did one or two alliance alerts, but quickly lost interest in the concept. I don’t see a compelling reason to trek all over the galaxy to recruit characters who have no connection to my agent and will likely never play a significant role in the story going forward.

Also, I would like to say I very much resent having to wait for a specific in-game event to reclaim one of my old companions. Even if the event comes around pretty often, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

So it didn’t take me long to return to the main storyline. The upside to waiting this long to play the expansion was that I could do all the post-launch chapters in one go — probably the best way to experience them since they’re all quite short.

Here, again, we see shades of Mass Effect 2. A great deal of time is spent simply recruiting more companions (and wading through endless waves of the same generic mooks). In some ways this isn’t as annoying as it was in ME2, but in other ways it’s worse.

The good news is that recruitment isn’t the same grind in KotFE it was in ME2. There are fewer missions devoted entirely to recruitment — both by raw numbers and per capita — and even those that are pure recruitment still have at least some connection to the main story. So on the whole it’s not as annoying as it was in Mass Effect.

There’s a downside, though. The silver lining in ME2 was you got to have all kinds of awesome, deep conversations throughout the game with all the characters you were recruiting, but that isn’t the case here. In fact there are no conversations beyond those that make up the chapters themselves, and on the whole there’s surprisingly little character development for a Bioware game.

It also feels a bit pointless because most of the time you’re forced to use a specific companion for each chapter.

This is probably my biggest complaint about Knights of the Fallen Empire, honestly. They revamped the whole companion system to make it easier to use whichever one you want, and they built an entire expansion around collecting companions, and then they remove any ability to choose your companion for most of its content? Were the different departments at Bioware even talking to each other?

I grant that there are times where being locked into a specific companion makes sense for the story, but there are also plenty of times where it’s completely arbitrary and unnecessary.

I spent a fair bit of time and resources raising Lana’s influence and getting her a nice lightsaber crystal — my head full of romantic ideas of Cipher Nine and her love taking on the galaxy side-by-side — but I almost never got to use her for anything.

On that note, I should also point out that romances are fairly messed up. I would normally never say something like this, but if you haven’t played KotFE yet and are at all interested in romancing any of the new characters, I strongly recommend looking up some spoilers, especially as it relates to romances and chapter nine.

I very nearly missed out on Lana’s romance due to some mind-bogglingly bad design on Bioware’s part. The only reason I was able to salvage the situation was because I’d stumbled across some spoilers in the past and knew something was wrong when nothing happened at a specific point. With the aid of a kindly GM and a certain degree of luck, I was able to repeat the mission and fix things, but the Internet is full of no end of rage from those who weren’t so lucky.

One final complaint is that this expansion leans very heavily on Force mysticism. Normally things being more fantastical wouldn’t be a problem for me, but it feels very awkward when you play a class that isn’t Force sensitive. Furthermore, one of the few story-telling sins SW:TOR shares with the films is that most of its Force mysticism consists of statements that sound profound at first but are revealed to be little more than meaningless blather the moment you start to analyze them.

It should be clear by now there’s a fair bit I didn’t like about Knights of the Fallen Empire. However, it definitely wasn’t without its strong points.

The award for best chapter definitely goes to The GEMINI Deception. In terms of both story and gameplay, it provided the most thrills, the best twists, and the all around most satisfying experience. It was just generally awesome from beginning to end.

The final chapter was also pretty strong, and Profit and Plunder was another favourite. Partly because life is always better where it’s Vette-r, and partly because it allowed me to finally rid myself of a long-time thorn in my side.

Something I found very interesting about KotFE is its theme of trust. By necessity, you’re forced to ally with a lot of suspicious characters, and never knowing who to trust adds a lot to the already high tension of the story. As the plot plays out, it’s fascinating to see who ultimately betrays you and who turns out to be trustworthy after all.

I wish I’d gotten to spend more time with her, but I still find Lana Beniko interesting. I’m having a very hard time nailing down what it is I like about her — she’s not the most immediately lovable or fun character. But there’s definitely something about her that’s fascinating.

I think part of it is how she can be so cold and reserved most of the time… but every now and then the veneer cracks, just for a moment, and you get a glimpse of the person underneath. That’s gratifying.

Taken altogether, I did enjoy Knights of the Fallen Empire, but I expected better. After how amazing Ziost was and all the hype around this expansion bringing a redoubled focus on story, I was expecting something truly special. Instead, I got an expansion that was more good than bad but which offered plenty of both.

Eternal Throne isn’t so far off now, and I’m of the impression all its chapters will be released at once (I think?), so I’m thinking I’ll jump into it at launch. In the meantime, maybe I’ll do more class stories. I know I said I wasn’t interested in smugglers, but now I have a concept for one I like…