In just five days of play, Guild Wars 2 has managed to wreak havoc on my usually-sharp ability to make up my damn mind.

Those five days, beginning with Saturday's head start access, have seen me create one character after another. It's not because I'm dissatisfied with any of them. Quite the contrary, in fact. While the mage-types still lie outside of my comfort zone, playing my human thief and asura engineer feels like slipping easily into a second skin. Every one of those characters, though, has found herself standing in a part of the world fundamentally different from the others. Each one is in a different city, showing a different culture, a different history, and different priorities.

Five days, five alts, five stories to tell. It appears I will see every low-level area Guild Wars 2 has to offer, even if I despair of ever letting myself get to what comes later.

To understand what Guild Wars 2 has done to me, there is one crucial fact about my general play preferences you must know, and it has nothing to do with my strange history with the MMORPG genre. No, the most important thing to know about me as a player is that I put 100+ hours each into Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, explicitly because I could see on my compass and map that there were areas of the world I hadn't explored yet, and I was compelled to explore them all. I can't help it.

Guild Wars 2 has a very thorough map. On it, you can see not only the local points of interest, but also where quests lie, where skill points sit, and where quick-travel waypoints can take you. And on top of all that, there's the little red icon that has doomed me.

The little red icon signifies something called a vista point. As you walk around the world, you encounter little flapping banners, usually on the highest point in any given area. Get yourself to the top of the building, or the mountain, or the room, and you can trigger a panoramic cut-scene highlighting the area you're in. (It's very similar to the feeling of sending Ezio to the top of the nearest tower for a panoramic view of Rome in an Assassin's Creed game.)

I have developed a bit of a vista view problem, and I don't mean my tendency to forget that GW2 doesn't have Safe Fall. (Yes, I have splatted all five of my characters.) The map tells you exactly how many of these there are not only in each zone, but in the whole world. There's one just around the corner. Who cares if that area is level 15 and I'm still level 6? Surely, I can climb just one more mountain...

It's become a new variant Civ "just one more turn" sickness. Guild Wars 2 tracks and quantifies everything I do, so I know just how far I have to go and where the end goals are. 301 heart quests, 507 waypoints, 716 points of interest, 202 skill points, and 266 vistas. Surely the vistas can't be that challenging to collect. 200 and change, I must be able to manage it, right?

I have as yet completed fewer than 20 of them. And given how particularly tricky the ones in Asura areas are to get to, I think I have a very long road ahead.

Apparently if you build it, I will come.

While insatiably exploring the world, I've also come to love how different the stories and the environments for each character race feel. The art and architecture, from level one onward, convey the weight of Tyria's history. And the scale is extraordinary. Norn are half again as big as humans, and Asura barely knee-height, and yet the cities dwarf everyone.

Sure, walking through Divinity's Reach, it can feel a bit silly being surrounded by doors and ceilings that a giant wouldn't graze the edge of, when the tallest human around might be six feet on a good day and in heels. But the views are so lovely that I find myself generally not caring. It's one of many conceits a player learns to accept for the sake of making the game itself work better. Like location-based events: sure, a pack ox may be walking back and forth between a trading post and a town with some regularity, so protecting it makes sense. But must the giant wasp queen always be spawning right when I happen to be running through the forest near it?

The spirit of cooperation that I first noticed in an early beta weekend event still endures, and is what makes participating in overland events worth it. When twenty souls are hacking away at a massive boss, or valiantly surrounding an escort target to defend it from waves of attackers, it feels almost cowardly not to lend a hand. They may not need your help, but surely working together for a common goal, and participating in the world around you, is better than ignoring your fellow man. After all, you may need the help of a stranger yourself sometime soon.

I dive into MMORPGs without doing any research first. I prefer it that way; I like to learn by doing and to gain understanding through exploration. There comes a moment, when taking that approach to a game, where after an awkward beginning you think you have things sorted out and you understand what's going on. You start feeling confident, maybe like the world is actually a little to confining for your boundless ambition, talent, and skill.

Then you discover the next area, and the one after it, and zoom out and look at the full world map, and you realize how small you and your understanding really are.

The last time I was as eager to step off the proscribed path as I am now was back in 2005, when I was a wee newbie EverQuest II scout and realized that I could, with some difficulty, walk from the Commonlands (Freeport's 10-20 zone) to Antonica (Qeynos's 10-20 zone) if I wanted to. It meant going through both level 20-30 zones on the way. On foot. Surrounded by creatures that vastly out-leveled both my stealth and my stabbing. I was level eleven, and it took me about two hours of real-time to do.

That was the day I got hooked on a game that I kept playing for close to six years.

Guild Wars 2 isn't punishing me for stepping off the path and seeing just how much danger I can put myself into. On the contrary: the system of icons and achievements explicitly encourages me to explore the world. And if I'm impatient enough to be doing it while under-leveled, well, that's on my own head. And I love it.

Eventually (as in, before next week, because I have to share my experiences with Kotaku) I will actually advance in my story, get beyond the starting woods and villages, and get to the serious business of vanquishing my enemies. But for now, I am content to explore the world, from every vantage point it has.

There have been plenty of cool cloth and papercraft Skyrim props over the past several months. Kotaku reader and crafter Shannon Clawson looked at those and said, "P'shaw! Amateur hour!"

Well, he probably didn't say that. But he did get inspired to make this Nord helmet out of real steel, and he sent us some great pictures.

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This video shows the process behind the helmet. I have a feeling that Clawson's workshop has better tools than even Eorlund Gray-Mane's Skyforge. I wonder if every time you ask to buy something from Clawson, he says "Gods be praised!"

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Imagine a Defender-style video game where you had to jog across the entire floor of a building to play it. No, wait; don't imagine that. One Japanese-born game designer already did. And it's pretty great.

Based on drawings that Keita Takahashi came up with, the folks at Babycastles—who periodically put up exhibitions of beautiful and weird video games in New York City—spread out a side-scrolling shooter over 20 screens in Manhattan's Museum of Art and Design. Players then had to hunt down and scramble to the screens where the action continued in order to win.

If you've played Takahashi's games, then you know that the man's brain comes up with infectiously bizarre concepts. The one on display in the video above isn't quite as crazy as those games but it's damned fun. I got shoved out of the way a few times when rounds were being played. That was okay, though because I've never seen a shooter played quite like this. And I probably never will.

Man, I still don't know if I'll like Far Cry 3 as much as I like Far Cry 2, but if there's one thing Ubisoft's marketing campaign has convinced me of, it's that the tiger attacks will be delightful.

Here's one more reason to get your hands on a Vita: Dragon Fantasy Book II, the sequel to NES-style iOS JRPG Dragon Fantasy, is coming to Sony's portable system (and PlayStation 3) next year.

Hit the PlayStation Blog for more details on this old-school-styled RPG, courtesy creator Adam Rippon. Or you could watch the video footage I shot when I checked out the game at PAX East earlier this year (although Rippon says a lot has changed since then).

Rippon is also showing off the game at PAX Prime this week, so stay tuned for more impressions within the next few days.

What makes Adventure Time so special? What needs to be in the video game based on Pen Ward's quirky and adventurous Cartoon Network series in order for it to maintain the charm and essence of the show?

For an enormously obsessive fan like myself, a lot of it has to do with the characters and the humor. So I'm curious to see if the protagonist duo—Finn and Jake—are as in tune with each other as they are in the show. And I want to know what villains they'll be up against, and how those battles will play out.

I asked Pen Ward about the most important aspects of the game that retain the feel of Adventure Time. He told me about the animation, which he promises is phenomenal. And he told me about some of the bosses in the game, that are just as silly and ridiculous as characters you'd expect to be on the show.

"I've become a real fan of Paul Robertson's animations and pixel art," Pen Ward told me in a phone interview this week. He spoke excitedly about how the game's art is unfolding. Fans will expect anything based on Adventure Time to stick with the TV show's bizarre, reality-distorting animation, so it's essential for Hey Ice King to follow suit.

Ward says these animations have directly led to one of his favorite aspects of the game: boss battles. He described one of these ridiculous fights to me:

"Paul Robertson animated one of the many bosses, who is a bear with a big chainsaw on his back. Which is super funny and good-looking to me. It reminds me of Earthworm Jim-style bosses that blew my mind when I was a kid. So many bosses are really funny-looking and weird."

But the main "villain" is Ice King, as the game's title suggests. If you're familiar with the show, though, you'll know that Ice King is barely much of a villain at all. [Vague season three/four spoilers] Especially once the show really starts fleshing out in seasons three and four, Ice King is more of Finn and Jake's annoying buddy. He wants to be their friend more than their arch nemesis. [end spoilers]

As Ward said, "He's really more of a nuisance. He does crummy stuff to Finn and Jake. He walks the line, but he never has to be the villain. Finn and Jake feel sorry for him a lot of the time. They're just trying to teach him. He's not a villain in this game, really. He's just annoying. And they're trying to tell him please knock it off. Please."

Ice King is indeed still up to some nefarious things. He's stealing all of Finn and Jake's trash to create statues of the princesses across the Land of Ooo. Ice King has an extremely weird, obsessive thing with all the princesses. And Finn and Jake's moral code refuses to let him get away with his creepy plans. Ice King, using that knowledge to his advantage, basically sets them up for a "game" (Ward's words) to come and rescue said statue princesses. It's a simple plotline, nothing too complex. But Pen Ward described Ice King as the Bowser of the Adventure Time game.

There are a lot of other bosses that you may or may not have expected to make an appearance. Marceline will cross paths with you as the big bat creature from season one. That's not entirely surprising, as she made an appearance in Cartoon Network's browser-based game. And she has definitely put up a fight in past episodes of the show itself. Donny the grass ogre, also from season one, is not much of a surprise either. He was a "boss" in the show, too.

But how about Gunter? Tiny, harmless little penguin Gunter? Pen Ward wanted to save the surprise on what kind of a boss battle that'd turn out to be, but Gunter is not an expected villain. Even if he is Ice King's pet.

However, much to my dismay, the Nightosphere—basically a hell-land ruled by Marceline's father, Hunson Abadeer—won't be making an appearance in the 3DS game. How cool would a Nightosphere level be? Maybe next time.

Want a pony? How very old-fashioned of you. This isn't 2006, you know. It's time to upgrade to demanding a dragon, and World of Warcraft has you covered.

Blizzard has just shown off all the new mounts coming with Mists of Pandaria's launch next month, and there's not a pony to be seen among the lot. There are, however, little death zeppelins, giant birds of prey, some kind of creepy bug, a shaggy yak, and, by far my favorite, dragons—sorry, Cloud Serpents—in an array of colors.

So, when you want to go faster, ride up into the sky, or simply show off with your shiny new pandaren? The dragons have got you covered. Have a quick peek at some of the most interesting below, or hit up the official site for the full set.

Get Ready to Saddle Up [Blizzard]

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It's one thing for a video game to be called immersive when you're staring at a single screen in one direction. But when you're sitting in a room surrounded by power pellets and aggressive ghosts of Ms. Pac-Man, you feel like you're living inside a game of the arcade classic.

Shot at this past weekend's Babycastles Summit, the video above shows how a crazy design idea by Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi came to life at New York's Museum of Art & Design. This 3D Ms. Pac-Man blurs the lines between digital and physical play, just like other projects that were part of an exhibition of Takahashi's work at MoAD. We'll be bringing you video of the other real-world video game tweaks later this week.

In what appears to be a first, two women's hockey stars will appear as playable athletes in a sports video game simulating a professional men's league. NHL 13 will feature Hayley Wickenheiser (above, left), of the Canadian women's national team, and Angela Ruggiero (above, right) of the United States national team, alongside Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and other all-time greats in the game's "Be A Legend" mode.

Last year, gamers were given the chance to play as female hockey players in NHL 12's "Be A Pro" mode. But the athletes were all user-created. NHL 13 will feature the full likenesses of both stars, who have both won four medals in Olympic competition.

"The EA Sports NHL franchise took a big step last year by including female characters to create a more inclusive experience for female hockey fans," Wickenheiser said in a statement provided by EA Sports. "I'm excited to be a part of NHL 13 and hope that the addition of women's hockey legends will encourage greater participation in hockey from young women everywhere."

In "Be A Legend," gamers essentially play a Be A Pro career as an all-time great, with the goal of breaking records, hitting career milestones and fulfilling other tasks. Ruggiero and Wickenheiser will also captain two teams, comprising all time NHL greats, that are playable from the game's Play Now, Online, and "Battle for the Cup" modes.

Wickenheiser, 34, was the first female professional at a position other than goalie. She is a three-time gold medalist and two-time tournament MVP in Olympic competition. Ruggiero, 32, has one gold, two silvers and a bronze from Olympic competition and played professional in the Western Women's Hockey League and Canadian Women's Hockey League following a standout college career at Harvard.

NHL 13 releases Sept. 11 in North America and Sept. 14 in Europe.

Do yourself a favor: play some levels before you read the help in McPixel.

You may not know what to do at first when the point-and-click game by indie developer Mikolaj 'Sos' Kaminski starts up. That's okay. You'll probably wind up triggering something very funny. Like kicking everyone in the junk.

The humor in this one-touch adventure game is so sharp and sudden that reading any instructions might spoil the guffaws. McPixel puts players in the titular role of a dude who has to prevent stuff from blowing up. Each chapter strings together five levels where you have 20 seconds to stop the scene from exploding. Sometimes you have to make a snake on a plane swallow a bomb or figure out how to douse a stick of dynamite. Whether you win or fail, you get pushed through all five sequences until they're all complete.

McPixel's laughs come in crude and goofy fashion. One level has you punch a guy on a doctor's examination in the stomach, which makes an explosive shoot out of his butt. Parodies and homages to things like Mortal Kombat and Pokémon lurk inside McPixel's 100 levels, throwing jokes at your face in super-fast fashion.

Everything feels frantic in McPixel and that's the best thing about it. If you're someone old enough to have enjoyed classic LucasArts games like Full Throttle, you'll love how the game—which first came out for desktops—channels the bizarre logic demanded by old-school adventure games. The gags in McPixel follow that kind of thinking to absurd ends. Buy it. It's freakin' hilarious.

McPixel [lite version, free; full version, $1.99; iTunes]

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McPixel [lite version, free; full version, $1.99; Google Play]