Up late talking games & writing? You're...

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Games: I hit the 20-hour mark tonight in Mass Effect 2, and I've got quite a list of review notes going. Much, much more than I would have anticipated before starting the game, actually.
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To anyone who would say that Mass Effect 2 is indisputably better than the first game, I would ask what it was that they felt was lacking the first time around. I don't mean to broadly assume, but from those I've spoken to, it seems as though players who wanted a more combat-focused experience are loving what ME2 brings to the table. Players (like myself) who enjoyed the combat but were more interested in the story and characters seem to have some issues embracing it wholeheartedly. Your mileage may vary of course, but this seems to be a general trend I've observed.
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Although I don't want to spoil my review before it's written, one issue I've really been wrestling with is the developers’ decision to radically shift their design in order to bring total focus on the teammates Commander Shepard can recruit.
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Being able to convince someone to join forces with you and get to know them over the course of an adventure is one of the hallmarks of BioWare’s greatness, and it's certainly one of the things that made me a convert after my experience with Knights of the Old Republic. However, in every BioWare title previous to ME2, there has been a larger, overarching plot, usually involving saving the universe or something along those lines.
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Characters are encountered over the course of a player's travels as they attempt to resolve this big issue, and by choosing to engage in conversation with them, their particular backstory and (sometimes) hidden quest is revealed – BUT, this type of content has always been what could be properly categorized as sidequests. They’re there if the player wants them, but they are not the focus of play.
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In Mass Effect 2, BioWare has changed tactics and taken these hidden surprises a player had to work for, and instead put them front and center. Essentially, the main quests in the game ARE sidequests, and to be frank, I don't feel as though this tactic was successful-- for a couple of reasons.
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First, although there is an overarching plot, it's not able to be advanced until the player recruits a certain number of teammates, which basically forces them into a number of disconnected, random-feeling missions. Go here and meet this person. Go there and meet that one. The game explains it in the context of the plot, but this structure makes it nearly impossible to feel as though the game is moving forward. Rather than meeting someone on the way to accomplishing a goal, simply meeting them is the goal itself. There is little sense of drive. Having said that, I don't think that such a structure is inherently unworkable, but what puts the nail in the coffin for me is the sheer amount of characters to be recruited.
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At the moment, I have ten characters in my stable, with a slot for one more. With two characters on my team at the start of the game, this basically means that I've been through approximately eight core missions with the sole objective of recruiting someone. By way of comparison, I'd say that there have only been two missions which could be seen as advancing the main plot. The ratio here is way off.
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Making the situation worse is the fact that the player can only be accompanied by two characters at a time. With this structure, there is little opportunity to develop significant bonds or any sense of in-game camaraderie with more than a few of them. There just isn't time to have most of the cast mean much, yet getting these characters to join and completing their individual quests is the bulk of the Mass Effect 2 experience regardless of how much or how little screen time they get.
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As I go through the game and complete these missions, I can't help but get the sense that each one would be improved and feel much more significant if there were just less of them. It's not very meaningful to me to accomplish Mission X for Character Y when I’ve only used them once or twice, and there’s no real chance for dramatic build-up with the stop-start-stop rhythm the game has. There is no flow to progression; no feeling that things are building to a head. I've just been making frequent stops around the neighborhood, basically. Need a ride? Gotta drop something off? No problem.
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Further complicating things and detracting from the experience overall is that with so much focus on one person or another’s problems, there's little room for me to develop any feelings at all about the antagonists of the game-- and every good game needs a recognizable and present enemy. What would Mario be without Bowser? What would Final Fantasy 7 be without Sephiroth? In Mass Effect 1, Saren and the Geth filled this role quite satisfactorily, but this time around, there are so many people to meet and such a great number of errands to run that it's quite possible to forget that there's even a larger threat at all.
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I may be in the minority with this view, but I think the BioWare Character Sidequest System™ worked better and was more meaningful when it actually consisted of sidequests. The player could participate in the larger adventure and feel as though significant events were happening, yet still had complete control over when (and if) they took the time to take a break from saving the galaxy to delve deeper into someone’s problems. I'm not done with the game yet, but after the last 20 hours, I feel comfortable saying that this reverse-prioritization gives Mass Effect 2 a very haphazard, aimless feeling, and a central plot that fails to materialize. For a game that’s ostensibly about saving the universe, I can only see this as a bad thing.
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…Of course, there's still time to pull things together and drive it home with a bang, but based on my time spent so far, I'd say that BioWare’s going to have to pull off one hell of a trick to do it.
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Spent last night and part of today playing (surprise!) Mass Effect 2 on 360.
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So far it's been a wonderful to return to a universe that I fell so hard for the first time around, and at the same time, I felt a bit of dismay over some of the changes. I’m still extremely early in the adventure so I’m not going to shoot my mouth off just yet (plenty of time for that later) but I will say that the game isn’t be the “insta-10” that some readers might have assumed I’d peg it as.
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While on the topic of Mass Effect, if you haven’t played the first game, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing so before starting ME2. To that end, cool guy Andrew Doucet has created a pretty kick-ass PDF that clearly and concisely guides players to a full 100% completion of the original Mass Effect. I used it myself on my second playthrough, and ended up finding a few quests I had never seen before. This PDF is good stuff.
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In the meantime, I had a ton of stuff to clear out of the inbox, so here it goes:
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Games: I had the chance to play a pre-release version of the new title coming from Nathan Fouts over at Mommy’s Best Games – Shoot 1UP. I really can’t say enough good things about Nathan and what he’s doing. The guy’s ideas are just spot-on in so many ways, and this new title is no exception.
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Shoot 1UP is a vertical shooter where the hook is that each life collected appears onscreen instantly. By collecting 1UPs, the player rapidly amasses a swarm of clone ships raining shots on the enemy. The cool thing about it was that the spread of ships could take up the entire bottom of the screen, or they could be retracted to the size of a single ship. Even better, when they’re spread out, they combine energy and unleash a massive laser that continuously blasts from the middle of the swarm.
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If you’re a shooter fan, this is some pretty cool stuff going on here. It’s fresh, it’s original, and best of all, it features a boss that attacks with detachable robo-breasts. For more info, click HERE and look for the game to hit Xbox Live Indie in February.
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Games: Chris Vandergaag over at The SideMission is having an easy-to-win contest with the prize being ANY GAME OF YOUR CHOICE! If you’ve got a funny FPS story to share, you’ve got some good odds at winning. Check it out HERE.
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Comics: If you’re going to be in the Seattle area March 13-14 this year, the best ‘con in the Northwest has got something good going on. The Emerald City ComiCon will be hosting none other than living comics legend Stan Lee himself.
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Stan needs no introduction, but if by some freak happenstance you haven’t heard of him…
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Stan "The Man" Lee, whose legendary comic book career has spanned over 60 years, is the creative mind behind many of the biggest names in the comic book universe, including co-creating Iron Man, Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Hulk, Thor and numerous others, and his body of work is far and away the most extensive in the history of comic books.
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The Eighth Annual Emerald City ComiCon will be taking place March 13-14, 2010 at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center in beautiful downtown Seattle, Washington and Stan Lee will be appearing on Saturday only.
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For a complete list of events, guests, activities, ticket prices and times, visit THEIR SITE.
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…Now, back to Mass Effect 2.
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The in-laws are in town (Hi Bob and Mary Ann!) and we've been spending quite a bit of time with them since they traveled from a great distance away to hang out. A great, great distance, actually.
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Contrary to the stereotype, my in-laws are the best kind of people, and it's been nice to watch them spend time with the baby. Besides that, whenever they’re here we tend to eat out quite a bit, so the whole thing is basically a win-win-win.
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My writing schedule is a bit off-kilter, but that's a small price to pay for the quality family time we've been having in exchange. I'm very glad they're here.
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Games: Since my copy of Mass Effect 2 will be arriving in approximately 3 days (no same-day shipping? Bah!) I’m not playing anything lengthy or substantial... everything stops when the game gets here, so I'm keeping my slate is clean as it can be.
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In the meantime, I wrapped up Ninja Blade and turned in the review. You should see it go live shortly. I had an absolute blast with that title, and it was the perfect way to interrupt the extended string of RPGs I've been on lately. If you are not opposed to the idea of a game that uses QTEs as a primary mechanic of delivering action, this one is a doozy.
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Following that, I moved on to XBLA’s Axel & Pixel. A quirky, eccentric point-and-click with loads of personality, I fell in love with it after just a minute with the demo and did not regret purchase of the full version. The review for this game should be done soon, but basically it was a delightful little Adventure-style game from some talented people in the Czech Republic that focuses more on accessibility and charm than brain-bustingly obtuse puzzles. Finished it in about four hours, but it was pure pleasure all the way through.
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Will probably start Contra ReBirth on WiiWare tomorrow, and if I blew through that than I've got a couple more things that should be quick plays to help me pass the time until Commander Shepard makes her return.
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Writing: Completed the longest chapter I've done so far for the new book, and even though it's rough and will undoubtedly need some serious editing, it felt great to get it in the can. With that chapter done, I can officially say that the book is now in the home stretch. Of course, it won't be done when the last word is written, but just knowing that the finish line is in sight puts a smile on my face and gets me pumped to keep going forward and get it put together.
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TV: Finally got around to watching the season premiere of White Collar that we've had lurking on the DVR. Considering the incredible cliffhanger that the writers dropped in our laps at the end of last season, I have to say that they did a respectable job of bringing it full circle and moving the series into a new direction. I was a little leery that they’d pull it off, but the wife and I were both satisfied… Chalk up another positive karma point for the USA Network . Now, to find time to get back to Burn Notice…
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Games: For those of you who've been paying attention to the Puzzle genre lately, you may have been hearing the name ‘Capy’ popping up lately, and for good reason. Nathan Vella, co-founder and president of Capybara Games and his team have crafted some strong titles worthy of attention, and they've got more in the pipe sure to make a splash.
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I recently had the opportunity to ask Nathan a few questions about their current smash Critter Crunch, the studio and more. Here's what he had to say.
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Hi Nathan, thanks very much for taking the time. To start off, what should people know about Capybara Games (and how did you pick the name?)
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Capy started out of the Toronto IGDA, and spent years toiling in the realm of cell phone gaming. Although in hindsight it wasn’t the best platform, we were just so excited to be making games that it didn’t matter to us. Once that excitement wore off, we decided it was time to make games for gamers, and managed to almost simultaneously convince SCEA to let us bring Critter Crunch to PlayStation Network and Ubisoft to let us develop Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes. It’s been more than 5 years, at least 7 of our 9 lives, and some crazy stress-related health-issues… but it’s also been the best thing ever.
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As for the name “Capybara Games”, the short version of the story is that, with a big group of founders, agreeing on a name was impossible. So we decided to vote, and via the democratic process we chose to name our studio after the world’s largest rodent. Thankfully it was a better name than some of the other (god-awful) suggestions.
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How big is your team, and what are their backgrounds?
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Capy is over 20 people now… and every time I say/write “over 20 people” it sounds quite huge. We’ve got fairly large art & programming teams, an audio director, a couple producers, a small but insane design team, a writer and so on.
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We have people with crazily different backgrounds, from biological engineering, to television, to sweeping floors in a warehouse. I think the one thing that brought us all together was the desire to actually make games, rather than to just be a cog in the wheel of someone else’s game.
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There are a lot of me-too puzzle games available today, but Critter Crunch stood out as being a new twist on expected formulas. How did you come up with the concept and mechanics?
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Our creative director Kris Piotrowski pitched us the idea for Critter Crunch one day – I believe he was hooked on Meteos at the time (though, technically, when are we all not hooked on Meteos?). We had a pitch meeting, and he broke down the core concept for Critter Crunch basically as it appears in the game now. Once we started working on it we ironed out a lot of details – chaining, combos and the like – but Kris’ core concept was sound from the get-go.
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Two of the most important factors in Kris’ core concept were: you control an actual character (with personality), and the puzzle mechanic is entirely based on feeding/eating. From there, it was just baby-steps to Biggs, Krunchatoa and barfing into your son’s mouth.
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Were there aspects of the game that didn't make it to the final version? Anything left on the cutting-room floor?
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We had a bunch of critter concepts that didn’t make it. We actually had a fully implemented Zombie critter that only ate poisoned critters… but it kinda just sucked. No matter what we did with it, the game was less fun with the Zombie. So we nixed it and were better for it. There were a few other really different critters as well, but we always wanted to make sure the game was tight, and even as it stands now there are a lot of different critters in the game.
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Since Capy started out on the iPhone, were there any particular challenges or difficulties bringing Critter Crunch to the PS3? Additionally, any plans to bring Critter Crunch to other platforms?
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When SCEA got behind Critter Crunch, we took the iPhone version and scrapped all of it. Sure, we kept all the gameplay, the scoring system, the feel… but we knew we had to make every element of the game as tight as possible for the PlayStation Network crowd. We redid how critters pop so you could add critters to chains mid-pop (something that was impossible on iPhone). We also had to make all the logic work online, which necessitated a lot of rejiggering. All in all, Critter Crunch on PSN is Critter Crunch as we always wanted to make it.
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Taking Critter Crunch to other platforms is something we’re definitely interested in, and looking into. We actually love Critter Crunch, and had a freaking blast making it, so bringing it to other platforms is not out of the question. However, right now we are busting our asses on new projects including Heartbeat for Wiiware and our collaboration with pixel-genius Superbrothers and music-genius Jim Guthrie called Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP for iPhone/iPod Touch, as well as something else we can’t talk about. With all that going on, you can understand that we’ve got our hands full. Technically, we have our hands overflowing. We’ll be revisiting Critter Crunch once things die down just a little.
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Now that you've had time to get more feedback on Critter Crunch, is there anything about it that you’d change or do differently?
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I definitely think we made the game a little too hard near the end (something you pointed out in your review, as did others). While many people enjoyed it getting super-tough, others didn’t enjoy it so much. We’ve addressed this in the patch that should be out anytime now. In the end, we love our games hard, but we’re not afraid to correct it if we go a little too far : )
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I also think that, with more time, we could have found some way to incorporate pooping into the game. We had limited time and chose to go with barfing, but I guess we can save that in case we ever get the chance to do a sequel.
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Can you tellus a little more about the projects you mentioned in the pipe?
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As I mentioned earlier, we’re working on a bunch of stuff that we’re insanely excited about.
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Heartbeat is a wiiware game being developed by a small team at Capy, and although there hasn’t been anything much in the way of news about it, that will all change soon enough. It is definitely far from anything we’ve done in 2009, and has a distinct music focus.
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In terms of Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP, it is Capy’s return to iPhone after a long hiatus, and I can’t think of a better way to do it than with Superbrothers and Jim Guthrie. S&S is definitely unlike anything on iPhone right now, and we’re working to make it a feast for the eyes, ears and fingers.
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On top of that, we have some rad stuff that if I talked about, I would be killed. So, all in all, we’re so swamped with amazing projects that most of us skip lunch, dinner and sleeping.
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Infinite thanks to Nathan Vella and the rest of Capybara. These folks are certainly a studio to keep an eye on, and for those who’d like more information, visit their website HERE. Also, make sure to check out both Critter Crunch (PSN/iPhone) and Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (DS) – Both are excellent titles that have earned my personal seal of approval, and they’re well worth the price of purchase.
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Having some trouble sticking to my normal update schedule this week, but I've got some great stuff lined up in the next couple of days-- you'll definitely want to stick around. In the pipe are interviews with Nathan Vella (Critter Crunch, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes), Nathan Fouts (Shoot 1UP, Grapple Buggy) and Kirby Krackle, nerd rockers supreme. In the meantime, help yourself to a stiff cup of Coffeecola…
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Games: Dangerously close to RPG overload, I'm proud to say that I put it in high gear and pushed through to the end of Divinity II the other day. I didn't complete the game with 100% (which would actually be an enormously huge amount of content to get through) but I did earn the last few levels I needed to put myself past the insta-death threshold during the final battle and credits rolled. Look for the full review at GameCritics soon.
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In the meantime, I decided to go in a completely different direction for the last few days prior to Mass Effect 2’s release (WOO!) and start getting caught up on my action titles. The first one in the queue was FromSoft’s Ninja Blade, and it's a hell of a thing.
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Although I've heard some people call it a ‘poor man’s Ninja Gaiden’, that's an awfully dismissive and lazy way of describing it. (Especially since Ninja Gaiden SUCKS.) From where I'm standing, Blade is a much more approachable and exciting experience than anything Itagaki’s ever turned out, and I will take Ken Ogawa over Ryu Hayabusa any day.
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The game takes place in a parasite-infested Japan where evil worms have violated the citizenry and turned them all into various sorts of growling, drippy mutants. Following a bizarre sort of logic, the only force capable of cleansing the country are a group of super-ninjas who take on the biggest and baddest creatures roaming loose. Suffice it to say, this game is not trying to shed light on the human condition or bring any serious issues to the table… it's all about completely insane, extreme balls-out action and unbelievably over-the-top set pieces that explode with adrenaline.
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The graphics are fantastic, the action controls well, there's lots of variety and the game also sports lots of little touches that help push it over the top for me… things like being able to completely customize the colors of the main character's costume, the slo-mo flip as he leaps out of a wall-run, and the way From has implemented Quick-Time Events (QTEs) in order to deliver some of the most absurdly awesome action sequences I've ever seen.
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Although some may be put off by the number of QTEs, any game that lets me ride a motorcycle in freefall, jump it off of airborne cars and crash it into a flying school bus in order to incinerate the inside of a worm the size of a skyscraper can include as many QTEs as it wants to. I'm not done with Ninja Blade yet, but so far it's a massive, smoking, shuriken-throwing thumbs-up.
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Just a couple other quick notes before I sign out for the evening... I got the chance to spend a few minutes with Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes on DS, and from what little I saw, I definitely wanted to see more. I would have, in fact, except that the wife also liked it and immediately laid claim… also, Dark Void was released this week. It's definitely been one of the titles I've been most looking forward to, so the amount of negative reviews it's gotten has been pretty disheartening.
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As one of the people I follow on Twitter quipped this morning, hopefully this will be another Bionic Commando situation: most reviewers seem to hate it, but the ones who really know what's up recognize that it's a quality title, and well worth the attention. We hope, anyway…
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TV: Just gotta say that I'm glad American Idol is back on. If nothing else, seeing hordes of clinically insane people humiliate themselves on national TV always brings a smile to my face, and becomes a great bonding moment between the wife and I.
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That said, I do have to admit that I miss Paula Abdul a teeny little bit because her absence reduces the whack factor… even more than Paula, though, I will definitely miss Simon-- if this does indeed turn out to be his final season on the show. As far as I'm concerned, he is the heart, soul, and backbone that keeps the show going and I can’t honestly say that I would be as excited or interested in watching next season if I knew he wasn't going to be on it.
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The guy is so rich by this point, I doubt there's any amount of money that the AI producers can offer to keep him on, so instead I will wish him luck in (reportedly) bringing his version of X-Factor to American shores. Gotta get my Simon fix somehow.
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Now, if he would only hire Paula on to be his co-host, we'd be set...
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Games: So, I've been putting in a lot of hours with Divinity II, but tonight I sincerely contemplated quitting the game in a blind rage and walking away from it, despite making it all the way to the last boss.
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It's a shame, since I’ve sincerely enjoyed the vast majority of it. A lot of it is just flat-out brilliant, really. Most of what takes place on the ground is interesting, intricate, detailed and fresh enough to keep my attention despite having recently played through three other RPGs in the last couple of months. However, not everything takes place on the ground.
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Put simply, the dragon parts of the game just suck. At no point do you ever have the advantage of being an airborne blowtorch, raining death from above. Instead, the developers chose to stuff each area full of all kinds of bogus anti-dragon weaponry that basically makes every second a desperate struggle for life. I had been greatly looking forward to ‘earning my wings’ in this title, and once I had them, I wanted to hand them right back. I never would've predicted how completely non-fun this aspect of the game is, but it's basically the opposite of enjoyment. Slogging through these dragon parts has been painful.
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Having gritted my teeth and powered through, I thought the worst was behind me, and I was looking forward to watching some credits roll this evening, but wow... was I mistaken.
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One aspect of Divinity II that I have not seen discussed in any of the reviews I've read is that the game takes a very stark approach towards the level of the player's character. If you are below the level the developers think you should be, you take excessive amounts of absurd damage and die in a heartbeat. However, if you enter the same area above this ‘correct’ level to be at, then you're effectively invincible. It's not a matter of being tough enough to survive, it's more like a difference of night/day or black/white. You can either do it or you can't, and it's extremely rare that you can be under-leveled and push through.
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The system has been on display for the entire game and for the most part, it hasn't been too bothersome. With plenty of places to explore, it was always very easy to pick a different location that was at a more appropriate level rather than die and reload dozens of times in a spot that was too tough. However, during tonight's session I was able to make it all the way to the last boss only to find that he was able to one-shot me in (literally) less than one second.
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Obviously, my level was too low.
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This was incredibly frustrating for a number of reasons, first and foremost that I feel that if I was able to make it to the boss in the first place, that he should have been manageable-- especially since the area that he's in is impossible to leave once entered. I very nearly erased my only salvageable game save, and if I actually had, then I would've been completely unable to finish the game and been left with no way to continue. The fact that that was even a possibility is terrible game design, and incredibly disrespectful of the player.
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It was also frustrating because I feel like I'm ready to be done with the game, and I have the developers holding me back for what amounts to 'just because'. There is no real rationale for forcing me to keep leveling even though I've completed the critical path. If they were so desperate to have me see all the extra content they created, then it should've been part of the required play and not categorized as optional. This kind of heavy-handedness was not nearly as apparent earlier in the game, since I was wrapped up in exploring the world. I naturally worked with the system since I played in a semi-completist fashion, but now that my path is clear and I've done everything I felt like I needed to do, it's just an obstruction that's rapidly degrading the amount of respect I have for the title.
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After venting on Twitter and taking a few hours away, I decided to give it one more try and see if I could earn another level or two over the next few days. I'd hate to walk away from the game at this point, after having worked so hard and done so much, but it's as though the developers are working overtime to try and make me as irritated and unhappy as possible.
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When creating challenges, it shouldn't be the developer versus the player… it's unfortunate that Divinity II’s developers don't seem to understand this particular lesson. Take away the game’s overly-aggressive death-dealing and what remains could have been a masterpiece, of sorts. As it stands, it's a severely flawed title that could've been so much more.
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Welcome back to Drinking Coffeecola, and my apologies to everyone who's been disappointed by the lack of updates lately. I honestly can't believe it's been so long since I last posted, but it's been one thing after another and if the truth be told, Mr. Sandman’s been sneaking up on me lately while I haven't been looking.
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Bastard.
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Anyway, on with the show…
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Games: Finished up Terry Cavanagh’s VVVVVV the other day, and the review is in the can.
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Overall, I thought it was pretty brilliant, but I do have to say that it pushed my aggravation button a few times too many towards the end. Nothing terrible, but it took me a little longer to finish than expected because I had to take a few de-stress breaks. YMMV.
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I don't think I've mentioned it previously, but I also just played through The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces on the Wii. I don't know what's going on over at XSeed, but those guys are on a roll lately. First, Half-Minute Hero rocked my world, and now they've come up with a Wii game that I actually had a pretty good time with.
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Evidently, it's based on an anime that I've never heard of, but now that I've played the game, I'm interested in tracking it down. About a group of fighter pilots who are also cloned/immortal children, the story was interesting enough to keep my attention between missions and the gameplay is classic Ace Combat flight stuff… which makes sense, since it's produced by the same team. In fact, I liked Sky Crawlers better than the last two actual Ace Combat games, to be perfectly honest. Look for the review at GameCritics shortly.
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If you click this link, it will take you to my review of Dragon Age: Origins – Return to Ostagar. This much-awaited (and delayed) DLC was available for something like twenty-four hours before it got yanked off of Microsoft’s servers.
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Evidently, there was some sort of issue with specialty-class abilities not working properly, although I played through the entire mission and didn't encounter any problems. Hopefully it will be back up soon for those of you looking forward to it, although I will caution you to not get your hopes up too much... it's fairly unimpressive.
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All that stuff aside, I'm still cruising through Divinity II, although I guess ‘cruising’ is probably not the right word. The game has been fantastic for the bulk of play, but now that I’ve finally gained access to the much-hyped dragon transformation that is one of the game's biggest selling points, things have gone off the rails a bit.
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It's still fun and I’m still enjoying it (sort of) but the developers have made some really bizarre choices with regard to how they implemented the dragon and how it interacts with the world... really unexpected, and not in a good way. The review is half written now, but I still have a ways to go before seeing credits roll.
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Video: Only partially games-related, this YouTube link shows a video of a guy on a dirt bike and doing totally impossible Trials HD stuff… IN REAL LIFE. If you played Trials, then this will absolutely blow your mind. Even if you haven't, it's still pretty damned impressive. Many thanks to Doug Walsh for sending in the link.
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Food: Just one last quick thing-- last weekend, the wife and I decided to pick up some sunchokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes) and give them a whirl. I had never cooked or eaten them before in my life, but the guy at the vegetable stand made them sound pretty good so we went for it.
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The method of cooking he suggested was that we boil them like potatoes and then make a mash of them with a little cream and butter added. That's exactly what we did, but the end result was shockingly sweet and quite creamy, and not in a pleasant way. The flesh of the root was too rich and cloying; if I had put a little sugar and some cinnamon on top, I honestly believe I could have passed it off as a dessert.
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If any readers have some suggestions or favorite recipes to use with the sunchoke, I'd love to hear them… this “mashed potatoes” preparation totally did not work for me, but I'd like to give them another try made a different way.
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