That Other Vault

http://www.videogamevoters.org/

Do it for the games! Do it for our entertainment! Do it for this new art form! Do it for the future generation! Just do it!

.......that is all.

...and my jaw nearly dropped.

Spore Trailer

Methinks all video games ever made are about to be put to shame.


Except Tetris, with its damn annoying music...

My top ten (assuming there are even 10 really good characters in video-game land anymore, so expect a lot of oldies)

10. Mario - The man, the myth, the legend. The games of Mario the plumber almost single-handedly kept the video gaming business alive. As well, very few characters have aged as well as Mario, and even to this day the best platformers around are ones starring the short fat plumber from Brooklyn. (Notable Quote: "It's a me, Mario!)

9. Virgil Brummond - From Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscrua. He is a person you can gain as a follower from the beginning of the game, and is the most knowledgable in the group. Virgil is a follower of the Panarii religion, which believes that their chosen one is to be, to quote their scriptures, "born on wings of fire". When the zeppelin you begin the game on crashes, and not only are you the only survivor, but are unscathed as well....well, let's just say Virgil is a bit interested. He goes from a character you know nothing about to a valuable member of the team and a fully fleshed out person throughout the game. An interesting person, to say the least. (Notable Quote: "That's the way to show those bastar-- I mean...good hit, sir!")

8. Kain Highwind - From Final Fantasy IV. An ambiguous from beginning to end, not too much was revealed about Kain's past. The player can discover that his father was a source of influence in his life, being a dragoon before him. Beyond that, however, little is known about Kain. He is Cecil's best friend throughout the entire adventure and it seemed that he has the hots for Rosa throughout the game, though he never makes a definite move on her, instead leaving Cecil to her. In battle, his jump ability can save the battle from being lost with a bit of good timing and luck, which could perhaps be why he is such a popular person. Kain is sometimes called the definitive dragoon by those who've played FFIV.

7. Set - From Fallout 1. The head ghoul of Necropolis, Set does not like normies or super mutants. His style is to-the-point, and he takes little time to converse with the player before combat ensues or he has given the player his quest. The reason I put him on this list is because of how well he fits in his setting. He is grotesque, demanding, and has a very unique vocabulary compared to anyone else in Fallout. Some of his favorite phrases are "standing in my shadow", and "makes my shadow grow". His character has very good voice acting and the character himself looks particularly ugly, just perfect for a Necropolis ghoul.

6. Link - The Hero of the Legend of Zelda series (but I'm SURE you knew that, right?) The ever-silent hero stars in some of Nintendo's best games and in one of the best action RPG series of all time. There is little to tell beyond his prowess with many types of weapons and his problem solving skills. Link is just a really fun hero to use in games.

5. Samus Aran - From the Metriod series. Who every other female hero (and probably a lot of male heros) wishes they were half as good as. Unlike most overly sexed up heroines of today (Lara Croft, the DOA girls, etc.), Samus rarely tries to show off her body in the middle of a battle against metriod and the beasts of Mother Brain. Many older game players admit that the biggest shock of their video gaming lives was beating Metriod for the NES and finding out that Samus was, in fact, a woman. A somewhat ambiguous character, all one really needs to know about her is that she is a bounty hunter, and in most early Metriod games, that's all you really learned, though as the games progress and the consoles evolve, the developers begin to slowly flesh out the past of Samus in her games (Though there are other sources if you MUST know).

4. Cecil Harvey - The Hero of Final Fantasy IV. His character development blows most Final Fantasy characters out of the water (sadly, that isn't saying much). He starts as the head of the Red Wings, which is the airborne division of the military of Baron. When Cecil gains the courage to question some of the King's actions, he is stripped of his title and sent on a mission to destroy a nearby village of callers. Eventually, Cecil comes to terms with his dark past and becomes a paladin. He goes on to discover some of his ancestry and saves the world from a madman wanting to destroy it, etc. Still, when it comes to character development, Cecil has more within three hours of playing Final Fantasy IV than Cloud Strife has throughout all of Final Fantasy VII. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

3. Cao Cao - From the Dynasty Warriors and Romance of the Three Kingdoms series. Cao Cao is the head of the Wei people, who, when they finally become established, rule in the north. The games tend to make Cao Cao look the villian, though this isn't very true. It takes some true insight to see past the bias that the games instill within the player to like Shu and hate Wei. However, when one gets past the bias, he/she can see how interesting a character Cao Cao really is. He in, indeed, much more interesting as a person in the novel and in real history than in the games.

2. Kerghan the Terrible - From Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura. The very first necromancer to have ever lived. He was alive many millenia before the events in Arcanum take place, but he was banished to a place called "The Void", which is a place where only those whom death was too good for were sent. In the Void, there is a skewed passage of time, which not only prolonged his death, but allowed him much time to experiment with the corpses around him. He studied the effects of the transition from life to death, and the pain involved. Eventually, he passed on himself, and as he lay with all of the others in the "Great Dead Sea" he felt something that he hadn't had in the longest of time....peace. He then made a decision, using his unsurpassed magickal prowess, he was able to resurrect himself and continue his work. His quest became clear. To him, life was the source of all pain, suffering, and agony, therefore, he took it upon himself to end all life in Arcanum. Of course, there is the small matter of getting out of the Void, a matter that his magick, no matter how strong, couldn't solve.

1. Richard Grey/Moreau (AKA, The Master) - From Fallout. The main boss of Fallout, and a freak of a being. The Master's story is quite compelling, and depending on a person's point of view, he could be considered not to be a villian at all (in his mind he sure wasn't). He was exiled from the place from whence he came (Vault City) for murder, though the charges were questionable. He eventually helped other people escort caravans and such. He discovered that mutants were coming from the northwest of the general location in suprisingly large numbers. He mounted an expedition with a few other people to find the source, and he found it. After getting very far into the base they were ambushed by the machines of the place. All but two people were killed. Harold was knocked out and became a sort of mutant, though he and Richard never saw each other again. Richard Grey, however, was knocked in to a vat of green goo. He was submerged for weeks, possibly months. When he came to, he was in immense pain, though he managed to crawl out of the vat. After awhile the pain began to subside, and his mind actually began to feel more clear than ever before. He began to change, he observed as his own body reached out and absorbed a rat into his system! He soon began to experiment on dipping animals that wandered by into the vats, and noticed that they mutated in strange ways. He came to the conclusion that he should begin dipping people into the vats, though he got carried away and absorbed the first "visitor" upon arrival into his body. He even absorbed the person's very thoughts, their minds became one. After more people began to wander into the base, he began to dip them in hopes of creating perfect beings like himself. They were all failures, and he just decided to absorb them. Eventually, however, he dipped a person who was a bit different, he had a low radiation count. This person became stronger, smarter, and all around better than a normal human, and Richard Grey was very pleased. He came to the decision that if everyone on the planet were the same, there would be no war or violence. If everyone became one of these super mutants, conflicts would fade out from life. Therefore his prime directive was born, he calls his goal "The Unity", and take upon himself the title of "The Master".....the rest is Fallout history.

Pic of The Master --

....there you have it....holy jebus I can blabber on!

http://web.syr.edu/~bwlee/fun_stuff/shii_song.swf

And you expected something violent and/or sexual? Even evil has its soft side!

Click and learn about the dangers of DHMO. You will thank me for showing you the light!