While the recent Star Wars movies don’t do much for me, the franchise’s spin-off games really get my geek on. The latest source of time suck has been Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR). (I know it’s been out forever. I usually only buy “previously played” games, which means I’m perpetually behind the times.)
I’m a geek, but I’m not quite geek enough to know anything about the major PC game developers. Consequently, seeing a particular logo on a game in the store doesn’t have any predictive value for me. But I’m getting the sense that Bioware, developer of KotOR and the delightful Baldur’s Gate (BG) series of games, knows what I like.
KotOR has a lot in common with BG. Both are role-playing games, and both give you a fair amount of leeway in just how your character will turn out. When I start these games, I’m always intrigued by the prospect of crossing over, morality wise. Of course, I invariably wind up with a player character who is a total cosmic brown-noser. Virtuous behavior is the monkey on my back, and in KotOR, I’ve got so many light-side points that my companions are forced to wear sunglasses. It’s nauseating, but I can’t help myself. I’m overwhelmed by goody-goody impulses, at least in a gaming context.
Speaking of those companions, it’s very weird hearing one of them voiced by someone who sounds exactly like Kin Shriner. (I was amazed to find out it wasn’t him.) It causes some nerd confluence in my brain, as all of my geekdoms – soap operas, super-heroes, and gaming – crash together. Every time this KotOR character opens his mouth, I wonder how Scott Baldwin from General Hospital wound up in a galaxy far, far away. (The same thing happens whenever Green Arrow shows up on Justice League Unlimited. I wonder why he’s fighting crime instead of plying Susan Moore with booze and trying to trick her out of her bastard son’s Quartermaine inheritance.) I find the KotOR character to be kind of a tool, so it’s actually a useful distraction.
But generally the voice work is great, especially by Jennifer Hale as prissy Jedi Bastilla. Trust me when I say you’ve probably heard her before. Don’t believe me? Check out her resume.
Somehow, despite every indication being that I’d love it, I’ve managed to resist trying City of Heroes. There’s something about on-line gaming that just seems like an admission of defeat to me. I already spend too much time gaming. I already spend too much time on-line. It would be like baking crack into pizza crust. I’ll just wait for the sequel to Freedom Force. (Come on! It’s the gaming equivalent of a JLA/JSA crossover. You expect me to resist that?)