Knight's October-November Schedule

I couldn't be more excited for the end of October to roll around. It kinda reminds me of last October, when Fallout: New Vegas and Fable 3 were both released a week from each other. A shame that Fable 3 didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but New Vegas more than picked up the slack.

SO! We've got a bunch of games coming out. I've been steadily saving up for them for most of the year, but that doesn't mean they won't cause some financial troubles down the line. I've been a lot more careful about buying games recently, but it doesn't help that the games coming up are sequels to those few that I pretty much vowed upon Cavalry that I'd purchase.

--

October 25 - Battlefield 3

Ever since Battlefield 1942, these games have been a guilty pleasure of mine. It also helps that Bad Company 2 is one of the few competitive online multiplayer games that I'm actually decent at. All of the trailers for it look fantastic and it seems like they've put some work into making the campaign good for those of us who won't be skipping it altogether. I'm very excited for this, and it sounds like EA's going all out to try and lock down some of Activision's player base for themselves, so that can only mean good things... initially.

November 8 - Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

I've been flip-flopping on this, so I might end up waiting on it and save myself a little money. But I love the Call of Duty series. The campaigns are usually pretty exciting, the multiplayer is addicting, and it helps that it's pretty much the one game that I can expect most of my friends to pick up. But this is only a couple weeks after Battlefield 3, and I'm not really planning on being bored with that game after only fourteen days. I've had Bad Company 2 for a year and I still play it.

But MW3, I'm still itching to see how the campaign will progress. For all its nonsense, MW2 had a pretty damn magnificent campaign, perfectly-paced and cinematic, and if MW3 can even so much as match its predecessor, then I'll be happy.

November 11 - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

This is the one game I would forsake all others to play. Oblivion was pretty much a launch title for the Xbox 360, and I've found a reason to keep playing it ever since. The visuals look amazing, Skyrim itself looks fantastic and alive, and I've invested enough into the storyline that I'm interested to see how things have changed in Tamriel after the Septim bloodline was severed and Cyrodiil fell into decline. There's just so much I want to see, and I just... there's all that...

I WANT TO SLAY A DRAGON!

November 15 - Assassin's Creed: Revelations

I remember playing the first Assassin's Creed for the first time and not thinking very highly of it. I tend to think it was just the circumstances, but even so. Assassin's Creed II, though, had my full attention. It was fun and awe-inspiring romp through Renaissance-era Italy, not to mention an historically-accurate one. I thought Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood would be the series cash-in, but boy was I wrong on that one; it turned out even better than its predecessor by a wide margin.

AC: Revelations will be the third game in the series in three years, and it doesn't look like the quality has dropped at all. We'll see Ezio Auditore da Firenze traveling through Constantinople for what appears to be his last ride. There are few video game characters that I'd say are worthy of having three games all to themselves, but Ezio was definitely one of them. I'm glad they gave his story the focus it deserves. Heck, they've pretty much followed his life from birth and, with Brotherhood, continued to do so well into his 50s. Not many games can boast that.

--

On November 16th, I'll be taking out a loan. >.<

DLC Review/Retrospective - Fallout: New Vegas - "Lonesome Road"

"If they matter... if history matters... we'll see at the end of the road."

The opening moments of Fallout: New Vegas see you shot in the head and left buried in a shallow grave somewhere in the Mojave. Somehow still clinging to life, you're rescued and brought to the town of Goodsprings, where Doc Mitchell cares for you until you've made a full recovery. This is not the beginning of your story, the Courier's story, nor is it the end - but it was meant to be.

Enter Ulysses: the original Courier Six. The man who was supposed to deliver the Platinum Chip in the first place, but backed out of the job when he saw that you were next in line. Aware of what he'd be carrying, and knowing full well that the job was very likely a suicide mission, he stepped aside in the hopes that you would be killed before you even made delivery. Obviously, this didn't happen, much to Ulysses' disappointment.

But who is this other courier? Why does he want you dead?

Throughout Fallout: NV and it's subsequent add-ons, this story arc quietly builds in the background. A throw-away comment here, an oddly-named item there, until eventually it comes to a head. And it all begins with you sitting in a cave somewhere in the Big Empty, hearing Ulysses' voice on a holotape, the contempt he has for you and everything you've supposedly done. And in the closing seconds, he makes a solemn promise:

"At the Divide, he and I... there, we'll have an ending to things."

And he would be right.

Lonesome Road has you tracking down Ulysses through the Divide: a massive fissure that's formed in the middle of a once-thriving city of the Old World. Here, the wind is strong enough to tear the skin from your body, irradiated soldiers from both sides of a dead conflict wander in a haze of insanity, and mutated creatures lie in wait just below the surface. It's very unlikely that you'll find your happy place here. This is a depressing, emotional, and heart-breaking road you must travel, but I couldn't think of a better way for this game to come to an end.

This is your story. Your road. You're here because you want to be, and you can leave at anytime. But if you keep walking... you're gonna see some things.

The Divide ain't what it used to be.

The first thing you're going to notice about the Divide is, well, that it's pretty damn big. You begin on a cliff overlooking the whole of it, and it's just an amazing sight to see. I just sat there staring for a bit, and eventually said to myself, "Shit, I gotta walk through that." The Divide ain't pretty like Zion; it's a very intimidating piece of real estate. This is made even more interesting by how it was designed. Unlike the other three DLC hubs - The Sierra Madre, Zion, and The Big Empty - The Divide is actually one long road, winding through ruined cities, collapsed tunnels, across highways, and down into the giant fissure. You're still free to come and go and explore as you please (and there are still a ton of places to poke around), but since you're always moving forward through the landscape, you're never quite sure where you're going to end up next.

In this sense, Lonesome Road definitely has the most variety out of all the add-ons. Each of the locations in the Divide are unique from each other in some way. They're very competently-designed, and clearly show that Obsidian intended to go out with a bang, throwing as many eggs into that proverbial basket as they could. Buildings collapse into the fissure, earthquakes will knock things off of shelves, and debris constantly blocks your way. But wait! You can remove that debris by seeking out discarded warheads and setting them off with your trusty detonator. Time the explosions right, and you can take out some advancing enemies, too.

There are new armor sets, new items, new achievements, and new weapons, such as the "Red Pulse," which is pretty much an automatic rocket launcher. (It's as awesome as it sounds.) The only real downside is that since the Divide is an undesirable place to be, there isn't a surplus of NPCs to talk to. In fact, besides Ulysses, you'll only have your companion to talk to, but I'm not sure if I should spoil who that companion is. Not a big deal, but it was fun to discover who you'd be traveling with (and also figure out said companion's backstory.)

So what can you expect from the ending? Well, I can say that it was definitely a satisfying one, and will have vastly different outcomes depending on your decisions, a few of which were pretty tough for me to think through - and one of which can draw direct comparisons in terms of severity to the infamous Megaton decision from Fallout 3. So severe, in fact, that the Mojave Wasteland itself will be affected in some way: a first for FO DLCs.

And what of Ulysses? Again, I can't say much about him or his vendetta against the Courier. But rest assured, he has a very good reason to hate you, and it's not a reason that will sound completely out of the realm of possibility either. (Actually, I found myself thinking that I probably would've done the same thing in the Courier's shoes.) As Ulysses once said, "Couriers sometimes don't know the messages they bring."

Lonesome Road marks an end for the story of the Courier, a story that I've been following with much enthusiasm for the better part of a year. In that year, I've seen Obsidian create what I believe to be a masterpiece in the RPG genre: a game that not only aspired to have a great story, but great characters, locations, sidequests, world-building, and a level of immersion second to none. And then they decided to take things a step further, by creating a set of add-ons that could be collectively seen as a sequel in its own right.

Bethesda may have continued and updated the Fallout property, but Obsidian Entertainment refined it to the point of near-perfection, creating a product that trumps its predecessor in nearly every way. The franchise simply could not be in better hands, even if Bethesda decides to make the eventual sequel themselves. Obsidian know the lore, inside and out, they know what works, what doesn't, and how to tell stories within the universe that pack the hardest punch. I don't think I've played a game where a developer has had such a tight grip on such detailed lore and knew exactly how to wield it.

Fallout: New Vegas, along with all of its DLC - Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road - has been one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. It will most definitely go down as one of the best games I've ever played, up there with Knights of the Old Republic and Dragon Age: Origins.

Obsidian (and Chris Avellone, especially) should be proud of themselves, and it's my hope that they're allowed another crack at the property. My dream would involve Obsidian, Fallout, and the Skyrim engine, but only time will tell.

This is an end for the Courier, but I hope it's not the end. Either way, all roads lead home, and for now, the Courier's right where he needs to be.

Game Review(s): Dead Island (Link)

I think I've written three different reviews for this game, and none of them ended up here. What a shame. But it was mostly on account of the circumstances. The owner of Obnoxi.us gave me the opportunity to rant on his website, and my Amazon review of the game is the "most helpful" over on that end (for now; people tend to slam critical reviews back into the depths). So... blaaaah. Don't think this'll happen too often, but if you'd like to read what I thought of the game, here are the two places to do so!

"Obnoxi.us" Review

-

Amazon Review

What I'd Like To See In DA Three. (The rest of this post will not rhyme.)

In which I make silly geek-demands that I have no business making.

It was like passing through the tail-end of Willy Wonka's Boatride of Terror: the day when I realized that I'm completely over Dragon Age 2. It was a great fucking day, brought about by BioWare's admission that, hey, the game wasn't all it could've been, that they'd be taking fan feedback seriously and trying to appeal to fans of DA:O a little better. (If you read between the lines, you could also kinda see them explain that some of the changes they made to the franchise were done because they absolutely had to. Possibly even forced to. Possibly. Doesn't matter anyway.)

They've promised a bigger, better, and richer experience with the inevitable sequel, using a proposed map for the next game, which is about 4 or 5x the size of Ferelden, to drive this point home (and they apparently also highlighted the map for DA2, which was about the size of Rhode Island compared to the other two maps).

Yes, talk is cheap, especially after BioWare went on the offensive after the release of DA2, but I don't know; the way they've talked openly about their mistakes, acknowledging the specific little things they could have done differently or better, that really got to me. It was like the BioWare I had supported had finally resurfaced after two years of Facebook games and shitty DLC. Maybe they have, maybe they haven't. We'll see. But the important thing is that I'm hesitantly pulling myself back onto the bandwagon. Kudos to Mike Laidlaw for accomplishing that with his openness and professionalism; it really goes a long way... David...

Anyway, with the load of ideas that have been thrown around by both BioWare and the community, I've thought up a small list of things I'd like to see in the sequel. Some are negotiable, and the inclusion/exclusion of some will probably keep me away for good. Don't mean to sound high or mighty or insinuate that I am in possession of a high horse, but knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have bought Dragon Age 2 on release, so I'll be on the lookout to ensure that doesn't happen again.

1. Multi-Purpose Dungeons (And Dungeons In General)

BioWare have already stated this wouldn't happen again (and also stated the dungeon snafu was one of the things that may, or may not have been, forced upon them), and they've already proven they're not as open to this strategy by releasing DA2: Legacy minus anything resembling that accursed place. But just because they're trending toward variety doesn't mean they shouldn't up the quality of the dungeons while they're at it.

The dungeons were on my list of things that needed to be improved from Dragon Age: Origins. The Deep Roads were arguably the most frequented locations in the whole game - hell, they pop up in both of the books, too - but they weren't very pleasing to the eye. In fact, they were downright bland at times. Lots of claustrophobic tunnels with very little variety beyond which direction they led you.

Why can't these dungeons look a little more stunning at times? Why can't they bleed the lore that's been put behind them? Wouldn't it be great to turn a corner in The Deep Roads and walk right into some long-abandoned capital city of the dwarves? I don't know. Maybe even less dungeons and more unique locations would be a better solution. Whatever they decide, I'd like better visuals, more detail, and fewer places that feel like an honest-to-goodness maze, like Kirkwall.

Also, less Kirkwall.

2. Kirkwall

Seriously, anything resembling Kirkwall will drive me right up the wall and into Bethesda's arms. Look at Kirkwall like Eidos Montreal looked at Deus Ex: Invisible War, as everything that should not go into a sequel.

3. Armor

This has been brought up a lot on the DA Forums, and it's been interesting how much this has made me think. BioWare want to stick with their decision to give companions "iconic" looks, which is what Dragon Age 2 did with mixed results. They essentially cut the player's ability to customize their companions with the armor that could be found along the way. It didn't work because: 1) It meant that unless you found an upgrade for your character, almost all of the armor you looted in the game was useless. 2) Your companions, with the exception of Aveline, wore the same outfits for ten years. 3)

...Wait. What were we talking about? Dragons or some shit?

Oh, yeah. It meant that you had to live with BioWare's shamelessness for the remainder of the game. It was something I wasn't very fond of in Mass Effect 2 and its implementation in Dragon Age 2 didn't make a believer out of me.

But even though BioWare are opting to keep this system, they're going to expand upon it, granting each companion several sets of "iconic" armor, along with reintroducing the time-honored system of customizing your companions' stats. This means that while you can't alter their appearance, you can still equip them with armor and mess with their stats. Giving a companion boots with +2 stamina won't change their boots visually, but they'll still have that +2 stamina.

I went over this in my mind, trying to figure out why BioWare was just soldiering forth with this system with such abandon. But honestly, this system makes sense to me. I'm going back in my mind, reliving the 3d BioWare games that I've played (KotOR, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect), and I can't really remember any armor sets that I particularly loved. I pretty much stuck with the Sith Master Robes in KotOR, the Spectre Armor in Mass Effect, and I wasn't really satisfied with any of the rogue armor in DA:O until I played through Awakening and found the Blackblade Armor.

The customization was always there, but the visuals for the various armor pieces were typically bland, or they were just copies of other armor sets with different colors added. There's a reason for this, though. (I think!) Let's focus on Dragon Age: Origins, and let's say you want to make a set of armor to be used in-game. First you have to design it, write the stats, and model it in-game, but then you have to re-model it to fit the body-types of elves, dwarves, and humans, because unless there are restrictions, all of the races can wear most of the armor. Then you have to remodel that set again to fit the body-types of female elves, dwarves, and humans. So, to make one set of armor in DA:O, you essentially have to make it six times over.

This probably explains why Sten just looked like a bigger human, so they wouldn't have to make each armor seven times.

Thinking of this, and then realizing, "Shit, they usually try and cram a lot of items into the game, too," and "How many other RPGs have customizable companions... or even companions, for that matter?" made me much more open to these "iconic" looks. It frees up the developers to focus on giving companions various looks that make sense within the context of the game, along with unique body-types, and also hopefully gives them more time to focus on the armor sets for the player character. Hopefully. All of this hinges on BioWare's commitment to this system. If it's one big cut corner like Dragon Age 2 was, then I see no redeeming factor there.

And I do hope this system is not applied to the player character. If I find some silly-looking boots that are clear upgrades, I want to have to live with that!

4. Set Character

I did not like Hawke in any way. I didn't like his prefab backstory, how he went on autopilot during the time jumps, and I didn't like his family or his rise to power. (Or that silly blood mark across his face that was never freaking explained!) I didn't like being forced to care about him either. Your sibling dies in the first five minutes: So fucking what? Mass Effect gave you more wiggle room in terms of character creation than DA2 ever did, and the Dragon Age series is the one out of the two that traces its roots back to D&D!

A set character worked for Mass Effect, it worked for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, it worked with The Witcher 2, but it doesn't work (and hasn't worked) with the Dragon Age series. Dragon Age: Origins was unique, in that by the time you got past Orzammar, you could have a character that was almost completely incomparable to a character of another playthrough. The origins made the game an interesting, entertaining, and completely replayable experience. I would hope that DA3 brings this back in some way. Keeping the voiced protagonist, which seems to be the preference of the majority (unfortunately), kinda ensures that a Dragon Age game with multiple playable races isn't very likely.

Even so, multiple origins for a single race wouldn't be out of the question, would it? I don't know; having all that freedom to define my characters the way I wanted was what made DA:O one of my all time favorite games. Losing that freedom in DA2 was heartbreaking. I would love to see it return in some form.

5. Party Banter + Me

Someone brought this up in the forums, and David Gaider said that they're playing with the idea. If so, I would definitely like it. What it seemed like they said concerned the party banter, and being able to somehow contribute to it. That would be a great freaking idea. And heck, it doesn't even have to include the player character; how about if Fenris and Varric say that they're gonna play cards at The Hanged Man that night, you can actually catch them there and drop in on their game. The party banter in DA2 always made me feel like the NPCs were playing a better game than I was.

6. Character Design

After a lot of thought, I think they were on the right track with the redesigns made in DA2, but I still think they need a little tweaking. The elves, specifically. They just weren't very consistent; some bordered on cartoony, others looked like Greys, and at least one looked like he missed the bus to Final Fantasy XIII. The other races worked out pretty well, though.

7. Thedas

This is the big one for me.

The world of Thedas has very rarely felt all that immersive. If it's not the near-barren world zones that ruin the feeling, it's all the load screens you have to pass through to get anywhere. If it's not the uninspired level design, it's the day/night toggle. The Dragon Age Scenario has just never been a place that made me stop and awe at the scenery, take in the sounds, or force me to explore everything. BioWare have gotten by in recent years by crafting stories and situations that kinda make you forget that you've already been down this brown tunnel or that Orzammar only has one path running through it.

BioWare has made some of the most best-selling RPGs of all time, yet it's a company like CDProjekt (with only one previous game to their name) that brings a populated world to life, with NPCs that have jobs, actually perform those jobs, and go home at night. There are conversations, day/night cycles, lush environments, and the lore is always making an appearance. Then you have Eidos Montreal, whose first game ever just happened to be Deus Ex: Human Revolution. My point being, I don't see why BioWare has never tried to go the distance when it comes to their RPGs, specifically with Dragon Age.

Mass Effect has definitely made the attempt. Places like the Citadel from ME1 and Omega from ME2 definitely had some work put into them. I would hope the DA team puts forth equal effort for the eventual Dragon Age 3.

--

So, I guess the main point of this article is: I'm dearly hoping that the DA team will actually, I don't know, try and make an RPG worthy of their reputation... and budget. You'd think that a company with six studios to their name would be able to create a product that aspires to rise above stuff like this.

9/11/01

My dad had been getting ready for work that morning. Circumstances had been such that my sister and I had been asleep in bunk beds situated right next to his. Personal circumstances, so I won't go too much into detail there. Not wanting to wake us up, he was always very quiet getting ready, and the TV was always turned down low so that we always slept through it. His routine was to watch The Today Show when he put on his shoes (and when he polished them, if it was necessary). Then he'd leave the room, grab a cup of coffee, and be off for the day.

He'd been watching the coverage for a little bit: the North Tower of the World Trade Center burning. At that point, it was some grim accident: mechanical or human error. He didn't stop getting ready; not out of insensitivity, but there was just no reason to dwell on it. It was terrible, yeah, but it's a fact of life that the world doesn't stop for terrible. There was no reason to suspect it would be anything more than what it was at that moment. The North Tower was burning, but it would surely be stopped. There would be casualties, but things would be under control before things got any further.

He tied his shoe and looked back up just in time to see United Airlines Flight 175 careening toward the South Tower. The video angle changed, and a fireball bloomed from somewhere outside the frame. At this point, you have most of waking America focused on this event, since the coverage of the damaged North Tower had begun earlier on, just before the top of the hour, and nearly every news operation on the air had been interrupted only minutes before the second plane. Many, many people saw this live. And at that point, it was pretty obvious to everyone that it wasn't technical or human error. This was intentional. We were being attacked by airliners carrying our own citizens.

Now, I can see my dad in my mind just sitting there trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. There are some things you just can't process very well so early in the morning, especially before your first cup of the day, so I can't imagine how many times he'd paused to try and think out what he should do. Apparently, he called our neighbors and a few members of our family, all of whom had already been watching as the second plane hit. Everyone was already awake to what had happened. It had been a nation-sized bucket of ice water over our collective heads.

Well, their heads. My sister and I slept. I can see my dad wondering what he should do with us, as well. He eventually decided he shouldn't worry us. He left for work and left us sleeping while, for lack of a better term, America freaked the fuck out about what was happening in New York. Things were at a fever pitch already. Thirty minutes later, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon in Washington D.C. - three miles from The White House.

While we slept, things went absolutely nuts. Commercial airliners were falling out of the sky, filled with passengers, directly into what would be considered high-priority targets. Most of the government buildings in Washington D.C. were being evacuated, complete with videos of people making their way out of The White House. This is not something you want to see when you think your country might be on the verge of war: the seat of the Executive Branch of government being emptied.

There was also a small problem at the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), which amounted to them reporting that they had been out of contact with several planes. Meaning that they had no real way of knowing how many planes had actually been hijacked or where they might be going. Major cities all over the United States went about evacuating what they deemed high-priority targets. The (formerly-named) Sears Tower in Chicago, Illinois. The Los Angeles and San Francisco International Airports. Disneyland and Disneyworld in Anaheim and Orlando respectively. The Mexican border was closed. Then there was the unprecedented ground stop of all airline traffic going in, out, and through United States airspace. The US was pretty much closed for business.

It was at about this time when my mom burst in and woke us up. My mom and dad had been divorced several months back, so she had pretty much climbed through a window to get us awake and dressed, since she was minus a key to get in. Just to give you an idea of how much misinformation was flying around that day: she'd heard The White House had been hit, as well.

"We're being attacked! Come on, get out of bed and get ready!" She was pretty frantic. Kind of all over the place in terms of what needed to be done vs. what should be done. She had to run back to her house get ready for work, since she had left in a considerable hurry, but she wanted us to eat something and, oh yeah, get ready for school. Like I said: all over the place, which was especially confusing because "all over the place" she is not. But we weren't in Washington D.C. or New York. We were in California. She was kinda sure that we should still get on with business as usual. She must have flip-flopped on the school thing a dozen times before she was out the door.

I turned on the TV as she was leaving, and saw the twin towers of the World Trade Center churning out smoke for the first time. It left an impression, and it was tough to comprehend at the time. I mean, until then, I hadn't really known what the World Trade Center was - or what a "terrorist attack" was for that matter. It's the stuff a 13-year-old probably/definitely wouldn't know, so I only knew as much as the newscasters reported. We were under attack. There were people trapped on the upper floors of the towers, many were jumping out of windows 100 stories up to escape the spreading flames, some holding hands with others as they fell. I got dressed quick and started watching TV out in the living room while I waited for my mom. The South Tower collapsed about then. Not too long after, the news reported United Airlines Flight 95 had crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The North Tower collapsed just before my mom arrived to take us to school.

On the way out, the news was reporting a white airliner flying through restricted airspace over Washington D.C. The guesses at the time were actually "proven" correct later on down the line. It was a doomsday plane: a military aircraft designed during the Cold War, stocked with Air Force and government personnel, used to ensure that the government would still be able to function in the event of a large scale attack against the United States - specifically a nuclear attack.

But before being dropped off at school, we usually picked up a friend of mine since his house was along the way. I knocked on the door and he was the one to answer. I could see his family gathered around the TV in the living room. I remember feeling kinda silly when I asked him if he was going to school. He smiled and looked at me like I'd gone dumb. "Dude, have you been watching the TV?"

That look must have been what had finally done my mom in. She called at him from the car, "I'm probably going to keep them home today, too!" I took that as my cue to get back in the car. My friend grinned a little at my very obvious situation and closed the door.

We got back on the road. All of the music stations had switched over to news broadcasts, most of the chatter involving the towers' collapse, the implications, etc. The way back to my mom's house crossed several major roads through the city. I don't know if it was all in the timing, but I didn't see a single car on any road, in any direction, the entire way there.

The rest of the day involved me sitting in front of the TV trying to sort out the blur of information. The attacks ended after the collapse of the South Tower, but it didn't really feel like that. Every single minute afterward was another in which something could happen. Another plane. A bomb. We didn't really know, but we quickly discovered that we had very good imaginations.

--

The US is a pretty big place, but we don't really treat it like one. We like to think that anomalies localized in one area can reoccur at any place, at any time. Looking back, I can almost kinda smile at how wacky things got during the rest of 2001. But really thinking about it helps me remember the palpable sense of fear that was literally everywhere I went. Nineteen hijackers crashed four planes on 9/11, but the way people talked, you could swear there was a terrorist just around every street corner in America.

Maybe they'd attack schools. Maybe they'd attack our school. Maybe they'd bomb a city. Maybe they'd bomb our city. They could be fucking anywhere! Even in a smallish town like mine, there was a popular rumor circulating that one of the hijackers had worked at the local post office before heading out to the east coast. This wasn't true, of course, but it was a testament to just how paranoid we became. In everyone's eyes, the next attack was aimed at them personally.

The paranoia just got worse as the days went on. The clean-up efforts in New York City painted a grim picture. When a firefighter's trapped, they can activate a device that sends out a shrill noise that helps rescue workers find them. During those first couple of days of news coverage at Ground Zero, that's all you could hear in the background. Dozens of them going off at once from somewhere in the rubble.

The anthrax attacks started no more than a week or two after 9/11, which involved a series of letters laced with deadly anthrax spores being mailed to several prominent newscasters and two US senators. Suddenly, not even the postal service was safe.

The paranoia continued to grow well into October. When Halloween came around, most parents in town were too afraid to let their kids go door to door, let alone eat candy that could be laced with deadly anthrax. My mom took my sister and I to the nearby church for Halloween, which was a first. The funny thing: it seemed like everyone else in the neighborhood had the same idea. The place was absolutely packed. Somehow, everyone got it in their head that taking their kids "trick or treating" (if wandering between candy booths can be considered such) would keep the deadly anthrax at bay. But the church did ease everyone's worries, I'll give them that.

Meanwhile, we had already invaded Afghanistan. There was very little opposition on our part.

I think we had all mentally written our government a blank check. Every time President Bush spoke, he was this unifying presence that found a way to replace our fear with something a little more productive: patriotism. It was an extreme feeling of "we're on our own." We were the target of this attack, so we have to take charge and ensure that it never happens again, subconsciously adding "whatever the cost." We wanted to do whatever it took to feel safe again, to feel like we did on September 10th: not scared of the mail, or candy, or flying, or Muslims.

What happened next is well-documented.