Moral Dilemmas in Walking Dead Episode 2

Even though I haven’t had much gaming time as of late, one of the games that’s really impressed me in the last couple of months has been the Walking Dead. Telltale’s point-and-click take on the zombie apocalypse is not only fun and thought-provoking, it’s also tense as hell and fraught with difficult choices.

One of the greatest aspects of the game is that it thrusts the main character, Lee, into some ridiculous situations that have actual ramifications on character interaction and the way the story progresses. Who do you save? Who do you let die? Do you steal? Do you spare your enemies? These are the kinds of things that survivors are forced to choose, and it isn’t always easy.

Interestingly enough, Telltale has released a brand new video detailing these choices in the form of the Walking Dead Episode 2 Stats Trailer. It’s cool to get a glimpse at just what other players have chosen to do (or not do) in this zombie-infested game.

Naturally, spoilers follow if you watch the video. Who’s played Eps 1 and 2 of The Walking Dead? What choices did you make? Go!

The Momentum of New Games

Tribes Ascend

For the last week, I’ve had the pleasure of a very rare thing in my life — lots of time to play video games. With the house to myself for several days, I’ve been able to play some CS:GO, Tribes: Ascend, Walking Dead Episodes 1 and 2, Dear Esther, Stacking and Diablo 3. These games represent just a small dent in the overall backlog, but it’s nice to have completed a few of them.

I’ve run into an interesting problem, though. I’m not quite playing the games I’m most excited about. For some reason, I’ve been choosing to stay away from them. At first, I thought it was maybe because I was not wanting to rush through those experienced, and instead savor them as much as possible. But then I realized that the bigger the game was, the harder it was for me to want to start it.

Now that I look back on it, I often dawdle instead of starting a big new game, even though I really want to play it. I think this is because big games require a lot of momentum to get through. Just like trying to push a heavy object, it takes a lot of force to get rolling, but once it does, it’s hard to stop. When I’m sucked into a huge game, it works just the same way. I need a few hours with it just to see what it’s like, and then after that, I’m completely sucked in. At that point, trying to get me to stop and do other responsible things is like trying to stop a boulder that’s rolling downhill.

Do you guys experience this kind of gaming momentum? If so, how do you deal with it? Do you find that it takes you a while to get started on new games, or do you just dive right in? Curious to hear how your guys approach it. Go!