I've been a laggard the past few weeks. Rather, I've spent my free time gaming instead of writing about it. What have I accomplished over the past two weeks?
Black Ops is done, as are two play-throughs of Black Ops 2 on normal and veteran. I collected all worthwhile achievements and put the game away. Normally I spend a few months post-campaign playing multiplayer, but I let my Xbox Live subscription expire in July and just have no interest in playing with herds of prepubescent ten-year-old whiners. I'm really just not that interested in Call of Duty multiplayer anymore.
I enjoyed Black Ops 2, but as I've mentioned before the franchise is really growing long in the tooth. My favorite Black Ops 2-ism? The fact that you can customize your gear loadout at the beginning of each level. My least favorite Black Ops 2-ism? The storyline had such potential but was just poorly told. Most of the celerium subplot is utterly senseless if you fail to rescue Karma - in fact, it is never explained at all if Karma is kidnapped.
After Call of Duty, I picked up Dark Souls again after a four-month hiatus. I was roughly halfway through a NG+ play-through. I spent the past weekend polishing off a few achievements, cleaning up the last few bosses, and blasting Gwyn into a pile of cinder (yay pun). I'm ready to begin my NG++ play-through. This time around I merely have to defeat Sif once again and reach the giant blacksmith in Anor Londo to pick up the remaining two achievements.
Going back to Dark Souls has taught me some things about gaming that many players never seem to realize. The game has some technical problems (most notably a low framerate in certain areas), little plot to speak of, and little direction, but it still manages to be - in my opinion - a more engaging game than the last three Call of Duty titles (that would be back to Modern Warfare 2, which was amazing). Why? I suspect it's mostly because the player is forced to explore on his or her own. There's a sense of wonder and investment that Call of Duty has lost.
Don't get me wrong - Call of Duty is a solid franchise and I still enjoy the games. They are all of impressive quality. I'm just yearning for some innovation.
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