I am a Pod-Person.

I have to be. Otherwise I would not be so addicted to an RPG type game.

I'm a first-person-shooter goober. I like to keep it simple, running around like a thick headed tool shooting people in the face and solving more complex puzzels with a well-timed hand grenade. Ever since I can remember I've enjoyed first or third perspective simulations and shooter titles. Always have, figured I always would. Trobule is that game developers are having to broaden the capabilities of their games in order to keep them complex enough to be interesting. Nothing makes a game more complex like a crap-pot load of abilities and resource management.

When someone says to me "RPG" I think of Final Fantasy ad nauseam, endless repetative actions and random battles with turn based combat that makes me wonder why I didn't play a rowdy game of checkers instead. Boring.

Now however games like Mass Effect and most recently Fallout 3 and Fable 2 have shown me that compromise can be a very good thing. The new RPG is a mix between the excitement of a first / third person shooter coupled with the ability to manage certain character abilities and manage resources to augment game-play. This, I like.

I had pre-ordered CoD:WaW and have been playing the beta. About a week before it released I happen to find myself at the GameStop where I had pre-ordered it. I found myself there because on the way to Rugby, ND. to go hunting with a buddy, we got stalled in Minot when a winter storm closed Hwy 2 east of Minot and all otehr alternate routes were likewise fubar. Hunting weekend: Fuck-O.  Anyway, so now being ticked off and bored I suddently wanted to feed the "I want a new game now" jones and decided that WaW duidn't offer that much over CoD4. I cashed in my credit on the pre-paid title and decided to get something else. I had been really interested in Fallout 3 and because of the advertising for the game and my complete dunder-headed ignorance about the Fable series, I bought Fallout 3.

Played it for two days and I was impressed. However, my brother was playing Fable 2 as were a few of my other friends. Fable 2 has a co-op element, Fallout 3 does not. So, I went and rented Fable 2...

... 36 hours later without sleep I realized that I can no longer make fun of those WoW addicts (okay, maybe a little). It was crazy good. It helped that while I was just getting started in the first quest that my brothers icon floated into view and he gifted me two very powerful weapons. THEN another guy on my friends list (thank you Darkness Prevails) floated in and gifted me 450,000 gold pieces. THAT my friends is a good start.

I kept the love going by gifting a few things to some other friends who had just started playing the game and this capability adds a nice plus to the title.

I proceeded to play the game for a week and finished off my first character go-round. I re-rented and am now half-way through my second character go-round. This is one of the best games I have ever played and I am planning on purchasing a copy. I am also planning on buying Fable from the Arcade and playing it as well for some of the back story.

Go BUY Fable 2! If you don't you may find a pod next to your bed.