My favourite for a while has been Team Fortress 2. It’s gameplay is balanced, varied and provides opportunity for both team and solo work. More importantly, I could pop in, play a round or two for some 20 minutes, then pop back out without being drawn in too deeply.

Recently, however, Valve changed things up a bit. I won’t repeat their post, but the short of it is that players that play more are rewarded with special items. My first reaction was “Yay, presents!”, that is until I realized what it meant: to get them I have to grind. It’s like a recovered junkie learning that Kellog’s started putting heroin in their cereal.

I understand that Valve has a stake in keeping the community alive; New players see an active community with a supportive publisher and decide to purchase the game. Still, I suppose I’ll need to retreat back into the single player indie games that don’t care about me after I’ve purchased their product. Fortunately, that genre has been doing quite well for itself.

• World of Goo
• Braid
• Crayon Physics
• Osmos

This screenshot is an example of the poor attention to detail in Fallout 3. Doctor Li has just informed the three of us that someone needs to go inside the irradiated chamber and activate the water filtration pump. I know what you’re thinking: “Isn’t that super-mutant standing behind Lyons immune to radiation?” Why yes, yes he is. Unfortunately Lyons seems dead set on insisting that either she or I go in. Ugh.

The first hour or two of Fallout 3′s gameplay is brilliantly engrossing, to the point that I found myself emotionally invested in the game. It’s unfortunate that the illusion was broken in the finer details (sloppy NPC pathfinding, diversionary side-quests, incorrect gender pronouns). I went from being my character in another world to controlling a faceless digital puppet in a series of traditional CRPG mechanics. Shame, that. I had just started getting into the game too.

As a follow-up, I went back to try the game again. I figured I could make the game playable by avoiding the elements that eroded my suspension of disbelief. I intended on avoiding NPCs and the primary plot, y’know, trying to just fend for myself. Unfortunately, the game shows its frayed edges all the more at that point. I suppose the magic’s lost.

When I visited the Science Centre, I was immediately put off by the raised prices and the corporate branding. Several exhibits were run down or broken and nothing felt new or exciting. The Body World exhibit was interesting, but not worth the extra admission cost. They wouldn’t even let me take photos (although they did try to sell me DVDs, calendars and coffee mugs as I exited the exhibit).

The contrast the museum provided was refreshing. I’d been there just as frequently and there was just as much construction, but I had a grand time. I wandered from era to era and stared slack-jawed at the collected artifacts. Two hours and a couple dozen photos later, I left feeling satisfied.

Maybe it was the focus on education, maybe it was the weather that day. Honestly, I’m not sure. All I can be certain of is that I’ll be going back to spend a day there, and next time I’ll be taking my time.