Addiction

Aight. It turns out that my latest obsession is NFS - Most Wanted - not books, not music, a game. *ahem*

There is much that I love about it - the mad rush of defeating Blacklist # so-and-so; the joy of being able to crash into anything without concerns of money and insurance; the gloat-value of winning, mwhaah; the small gamotine** marks on my fingers; the power to take over the word more mwhaha ... uh, well you get the idea.

Having a story behind the game-play is a great idea!
Being able to create multiple profiles on one game is another five star idea!
But no customization for a female player?
Really, now.

One basic premise of the game is that that the player (gamer?) is a guy. And will only ever be a guy - and this is a bugger. The interface, having a hot chick and a buddy type anonymous guy help you out on the side - are all designed with a guy in mind.

To their credit, EA has been ostensibly non-chauvinistic - there are kick ass women racers that the gamer comes up against. But the basic assumption is a total bummer for a female gamer.

The Mia chick is hot - and has a body to die for. But given that I am, um, of a female persuasion, all it does, is to serve as a not-so-subtle reminder that I should spend that time at the gym instead of vegetating at an xbox console.

The villian chappie* pops up once in a while to throw a line or two at you. Dialogs like "I'm gonna take your ride and your girl" almost completley ruin an otherwise top-notch user experience - oh, okay, female user experience.

Notice the almost - that's important because the rest of the game totally lives up to my newbie-gamer standards.
Well I remember liking Carbon better, but this one is also great fun.


* terms like these are dead giveaway that I'm a girl, woman, babe, chick, vixen, bitch, whatever.
** gamotine, like nicotine