I recently completed Mass Effect 2 and then straightaway played Mass Effect 3. In fact, Mass Effect 3 and my worry about being unable to avoid spoilers for any longer were the reasons I decided to buy a new 360 back in February and I am still surprised I managed to avoid spoilers for this long.

I have blogged about Mass Effect 2 and my love for it before:

• Things I’d like to see improved in Mass Effect 2
• It’s time for Mass Effect 2!
• Mass Effect 2 – First Impressions
• Mass Effect 2 – Some more thoughts
• Mass Effect 2 – “Oh no, here comes disc 2″
• Mass Effect 2 – “Who observes the Observers?”
• Mass Effect 2 – Oh yes, there was that whole saving the galaxy thing..

Finishing the game in the end was strange. In some way I felt like I had spent so long playing it [over two years with several far too long breaks] that I expected more from the end than I got out of it. The ending was somewhat climatic, but the lame final boss fight [lame mostly for the character rather than the boss fight itself] and the ending that just seemed to end left me feeling a little disappointed. Additionally, just like with Mass Effect 1, I wanted the ‘perfect save’ which included saving all my squad members, as well as having everyone’s loyalty which was tricky with the last addition of Legion and the kidnapping of the crew.

Despite this I loved the game and it is definitely one of the best ones I have ever played for reasons mentioned in previous posts, as well as the great missions towards the end of the game, such as Joker’s rescue of the Normandy. Seeing squad members develop over the series was fantastic, too, and brought home BioWare’s extraordinary writing.

Mass Effect 3 started off with a bang and emotional. Leaving Earth and seeing the kid from the vents climb into a shuttle just to see said shuttle obliterated by a Reaper beam sent me crying and established the high stakes and dangers from the start.

Mass Effect 3 had many fantastic moments and scenes. Some of them include:

Seeing previous main characters reappear and play a pivotal part in the game. This includes the Rannoch, Palaven and Tuchanka missions. Having my experience shaped so much through the course of two games particularly came through with Tuchanka where my game played out with the following criteria:

• Having Wrex and Mordin survive Mass Effect 1 and 2 respectively.
• Mordin being loyal in Mass Effect 2.
• Having spoken to Mordin enough in Mass Effect 2 and getting him to sing in that same game.
• Saving Maelon’s data in Mass Effect 2 to ensure Eve’s survival.

Of course not having those would still have had the same mission, but with different characters to replace them and definitely not with the same experience and I love that the game can take all that information to shape my experiences.

Seeing previous side characters appear was great, too, such as Jacob or Thane, as well as seeing the impact they had on Mass Effect 3 and the changes they had gone through since the second game. At times it felt like they were just lining up to appear in a mission, but for the most part it was organic.

General character development yet again made the game as great as it is, as well as the writing. Too many moments made me laugh and there were a lot of emotional moments, such as Grunt’s end on Utukku, which at least for me wasn’t an end at all.

There are some things that I didn’t like about Mass Effect 3. They include:

• The Reaper fight on Rannoch with its bad design and pointlessness.
• Conrad Verner’s side mission. Whilst his appearance made sense in the context and it was lovely to see him over the series, the solution of his mission seemed incredibly unlikely and far-fetched though it was lovely to realise that the mission only played out this way for me due to a mission in Mass Effect 1 and the right choices with Conrad in Mass Effect 2.
• The dream sequences.
• The end.

The end of the Mass Effect trilogy deserves another post.

On Friday I spent close to 12 hours playing LA Noire, most of this with a housemate of mine. Turns out we found the perfect equilibrium – he does most of the driving whilst I investigate with both of us deciding whether suspects are telling the truth. Having put in about 20 hours into the game in total I’m really appreciating its pacing and the story and setting are convincing.

Saturday saw me completing Mass Effect 2 again. I finally completed it a couple of weeks ago, but didn’t manage to save everyone I wanted in the final mission and, knowing I yet again wanted the ‘perfect save’ for Mass Effect 3, I spent a good two hours replaying the end until everyone survived. It only took four attempts.

The rest of the weekend went entirely on Mass Effect 3. My single player save game tells me I’ve put in 23 hours and I’m estimating another maybe six on the multiplayer which is far more enjoyable than I expected it to be, not to mention challenging if the other players don’t play it properly or just run off.

Mass Effect 3 so far is every bit the game I expected it to be – the missions are varied and the story carries on well. It already makes me sad that this is the final instalment of the series. Just like the second game I am in awe seeing how the decisions of my previous games are shaping this one. Whether it is a main character referring to former events or characters, such as the Shadow Broker agent reappearing.

Its inevitable downsides are that sometimes it lays on a bit too much trying to bring every character in, such as the Fan’s appearance again. Whilst his appearance was plausible, his avoided death with the sudden appearance from Jenna wasn’t. I am also not too happy that my character’s facial information didn’t get imported properly and I’m now finding myself saving the galaxy with someone who doesn’t look like the person I’ve spent over 200 hours with.

I can’t wait to find out what happens at the end!

..finding that the 360 hard drive with my games saves, particularly my Mass Effect 1 and 2 games saves, wasn’t stolen after all.

Now I just need to read through my posts about Mass Effect 2 to remind myself what I’ve done when I last played it almost a year ago!

• Things I’d like to see improved in Mass Effect 2
• It’s time for Mass Effect 2!
• Mass Effect 2 – First Impressions
• Mass Effect 2 – Some more thoughts
• Mass Effect 2 – “Oh no, here comes disc 2″
• Mass Effect 2 – “Who observes the Observers?”
• Mass Effect 2 – Oh yes, there was that whole saving the galaxy thing..

I have a lot of film and game soundtracks already and some of them are my favourite things to listen to at any time. Some of those include [listed in order of most frequently played according to my Last.fm profile]:

• John Williams – Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, etc..
• Howard Shore – Lord of the Rings
• Michael Giacchino – Lost
• Inon Zur – Dragon Age
• Hans Zimmer – Pirates of the Caribbean, Batman Begins, etc
• Murray Gold – Doctor Who
• Jack Wall and Sam Hulick – Mass Effect
• Martin O’Donnell – Halo
• Alexander Brandon – Deus Ex
• Christopher Lennertz – Gun
• Nicholas Hooper – Harry Potter
• John Powell – Mr & Mrs Smith
• Jeremy Soule – Fable, Elder Scrolls Oblivion
• Andy Price – Robin Hood [BBC drama]
• Jesper Kyd – Hitman Blood Money

I need more!

Suggestions, please!

I know that several people reading this blog are reading it, because they know me through gaming or gaming communities and they’re probably disappointed that there haven’t been many gaming related posts in recent months. Of course, there’s that whole argument that I blog for myself which is true, but I do know most of my audience on here.

So what happened?

Around April my gaming practically stopped. First it was me being busy and stressed and then I had to sell my 360, as I couldn’t afford it for the time being. Those who have known me for a long time know that this is by no means the first time, something similar happened back in May 2008 and it took me just over a year to buy another one as I ended up moving around like a crazy person and wasn’t settled long enough to justify a gaming console. However, in those 13 months I still fully kept up with all the gaming news and remained active in some gaming communities. And I tried playing some PC games, amongst them Deus Ex, Call of Cthulhu and the Sims 2.

Bring on summer 2009 and here I am back in full on gaming mode with another 360 playing everything I’ve missed out on and some old favourites, like Halo 2 and 3, SCDA and new games, like Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2. The latter I’ve yet to finish due to originally dragging it out and later being unable to. Yes, the game I have, in conversation, called ‘the best game I’ve ever played’™ is still incomplete.

Since May I’ve tried playing a few games.

There was the Sims 3 which keeps me captivated for a few days or so and I then get bored of the game glitching on me. Nothing new there, I seem to pick that game up every quarter or so.

There was Deus Ex which I’ve tried playing again. This time I got used to the controls fairly quickly and made better decisions on upgrades. As such I have a, what can only be described as kick ass pistol and I’ve actually progressed through the game reaching a major twist in the story and being able to make decisions affecting the outcome of the game. But strangely it bored me and I’ve stopped playing it.

I’ve tried playing Dragon Age again, this time on PC, obviously. I originally said I didn’t like Dragon Age much [the comments on that post are hilarious!], but later changed my opinion as I realised I didn’t dislike, but rather expected another game instead and allowed my initial opinions to stay with me until completion. That’s not to say that the game doesn’t have issues, but it’s also a lot better than I give it credit for. However, I don’t like the PC controls. I have reached Ostagar with my human, female noble, but don’t see myself progressing much, as fighting the controls for 40h+ doesn’t seem like my idea of fun.

I’ve played and completed KotOR for the seventh time. Playing it on the PC for the first time meant I was able to use some of the mods to improve the game and I’ve also been able to yet again discover new things about the game, despite playing the game with my usual female light side soldier. I have nothing but praise for that game and the PC version is incredible, especially the controls. Let’s not mention the bugs at this point though..

The only reason I replayed KotOR was to have it all in the back of my mind [not that I actually needed to!] to replay KotOR II. Which has issues with Vista. Which doesn’t work on my laptop. I’ve tried patches, searched the internet for hours, downloaded a copy seeing my retail disc didn’t work, reinstalled my disc based version.. Nothing worked.

Moving on to a recent game I’ve played, GTA San Andreas. I’ve had a love/hate relationship when it first came out which has continued. I like the game, even love it at times, but its missions can be so incredibly tedious. I played it a few weeks ago over a long weekend that I was too ill to leave the bed or do anything. In fact the only time I could play GTA was when the flu medication had just started working and I was able to stay focussed for a couple of hours before hideously failing every mission again. As it stands I have just completed several mission in San Fernando.

So why am I not playing GTA now instead of writing this blog post? The answer originally was going to be that I don’t know, but in the process of writing this post I’ve realised that it’s not actually the games themselves [minus KotOR II, of course], but rather the platform.

I’ve given PC gaming a chance by trying several genres and playing some games at length, but at the end of the day all the games are incredibly buggy and have me despair at DRM issues [which is a whole other thing I'm not going to go into at this time] and the controls suck. For me. Playing on my laptop with keyboard and mouse isn’t comfortable. It’s not intuitive and even hours down the line I still had to take a step back with Deus Ex or San Andreas, though painkillers can probably be blamed a little for the latter one! I understand that I’m in the minority, but I can’t get used to it. There are so many great games I’m missing out on, like Deus Ex, but I don’t think I will ever be able to enjoy them.

As for where that leaves me with gaming as a whole? I’ve stopped keeping up with gaming news around April this year. I read two sites’ RSS feeds on a daily basis and skimread the others when I can be bothered. I’ve been getting annoyed with the general reporting of gaming news for a while and love reading GJAIF, but it’s more than that. I dislike what happened to the gaming community, going after new big titles like it’s the best thing ever only to completely forget a title exists after a week. I dislike the constant criticisms on everything. I dislike most of gaming ‘culture’. Yes, the freaking cake is a freaking lie and the fucking princess is in another fucking castle. We know this.

I’m aiming to finish Mass Effect 2 by the end of this year, hopefully, as I’m looking to borrow a friend’s 360 for a short while. I would also like to finish Fable 2 and have a crack at Red Dead Redemption as Rockstar hasn’t let me down so far. As for buying my own 360 I’m unsure at the moment as I have far too much on my plate.

Gamer Banter is a monthly gaming discussion of multiple bloggers. More info is here and please contact Terry from Game Couch if you wish to take part.

May’s topic is set by Cat at carocat.co.uk: Which game character do you identify yourself with most/least and why?

Today’s entry for the ‘You really shouldn’t do this again as it’ll just be embarrassing’ list: Suggesting a topic for Gamer Banter at the beginning of the month, because I couldn’t get motivated about last month’s topic and then being late with my post, because I’ve not even spent one minute thinking about it due to so much going on in my life. Which I know is just an excuse.

I originally had the idea about the topic not because I already had a post in my mind, but because I wanted to actually force myself to think about game characters and what draws me to some of them and not others. I have always played games for their story and my favourite games tend to be roleplaying games made by BioWare which tend to have very deep character development. Alistair, Carth, Garrus, HK-47, Mira [not a BioWare, but an Obsidian character], Mission, Morrigan and Tali are just some of them I’ve fallen in love with over the years. Some of them for their witty dialogue, others for their excellent voice acting, backstory that perfectly fits with the character’s actions or generally powerful moments.

HK-47: Query: Can I kill him now, master? I’d like ever so much to break his neck. It’s been a long time fantasy of mine…
Revan: Maybe later…
HK-47: Did you hear that meatbag? I will be back!

But it’s not just BioWare RPG’s, there are many more characters I’ve fallen in love with over the years. Some that come to mind now are:

• Pey’j from ‘Beyond Good and Evil’.
• That wise cracking soldier from ‘Full Spectrum Warrior’.
• Leo from ‘Deus Ex Invisible War’.
• The NPC’s from ‘Destroy all Humans’.
• Lady Grey in ‘Fable’.
• Kent Paul from ‘GTA Vice City’
• The grunts from the Halo series.
• Diana from all the Hitman games.
• Rico Rodriguez in ‘Just Cause’. Strangely I didn’t like him so much in the sequel.
• Munch from ‘Oddworld: Munch’s Odyssey’.
• Serious Sam!

I’m glad games are evolving to the standard they are at now. For example Mass Effect 2 [which I still haven't completed!] blows me away every time I play it. The impact decisions of the first game have on the experience are extraordinary guaranteeing different experiences for everyone.

I hope there are going to be many more characters in games to fall in love with!

Have a look at the other Gamer Banter posts. They aren’t as rushed as mine!

• Pioneer Project: The importance of character creation
• Silvercublogger: Will Sing Opera For Italian Food
• Game Couch: Gabriel Knight
• Aim for the Head: Friends Through The End
• Extra Guy: Who I Identify With
• Next Jen: I’d Rather Be Me
• carocat.co.uk: A rushed love letter

I’ve finally completed Dragon Age Origins and overall it’s the first BioWare game I’ve mostly not enjoyed, despite wanting to like it all the way through. The last three hours were painful and, although final bossfights tend to let me forget how much hassle they were moments after beating them, I still can’t forgive DAO after half a day and feel I’ve wasted far too much time on this game.

So wasting another 40 minutes on a spoileriffic post that shouldn’t be read by anyone who hasn’t completed the game yet [@PCurd, I'm looking at you!] to allow me to vent, seems perfectly reasonable to me.

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First the good things:

• The writing is brilliant which is to be expected from BioWare.
• The voice acting is good, especially with Kate Mulgrew and Claudia Black.
• Morrigan, Zevran and Alistair are great characters.

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Onto the bad things:

DLC. I hate that the game gave me conversations with people for missions that could only be played if I’d pay and download the content. I get that you want to make money, EA, but that’s low. A Mass Effect 2 like Cerberus network on the main menu would have been much better.

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I hate how the game has messed me around with the party members. This is actually my biggest dislike of the game. Overall the game sucks if not playing it as a rogue. I wasn’t playing as a rogue, but instead as my default female warrior and by the time I realised the error of my ways I was past the beginning part and in no mood to go back. I also never had some of the more popular characters for various reasons:

Characters I didn’t have:

• I never met Leilana. I heard she is an amazing character, a great rogue and whatever else. Even though I spent hours in the first town and thought I’d explored everything I never found the tavern/pub and never met her. By the time I was told where to find her, the place was overrun by orcs darkspawn and I couldn’t get her.
• I couldn’t find Wynne after originally telling her I didn’t want her to join me just that moment after completing the Mage’s tower, even though both her and the internet told me she’d hang around there in case I change my mind. She didn’t.
• I started the game when I didn’t have the internet and never remembered to download Shale after that.

Characters that abandoned me:

• Zevran. Turns out my approval rating wasn’t high enough and I didn’t just lose my only rogue, but also an unstoppable archer and pretty much the only one, except Morrigan, with any ranged attacks. Losing Zevran made me stop playing the game back in November.
• Which brings me to Morrigan. My only witch and the only character I’ve used consistently since the beginning. Her entropy spells were brilliant and something I relied on, especially since Zevran’s death. Alas she left just before the last few hours of the game.

Characters that were in the end:

• Sten sucks and even though he was one of the remaining characters, I didn’t choose him for the final battle. I built up his two handed fighting early on, but no matter which tactics I chose he still couldn’t kill a fly.
• The dog/Hawkes was actually better than Sten with fast attacks. I still can’t believe it.
• Gimli or whatever the dwarf was called. Never thought much of him, he didn’t seem to die all that much though.
• I tried developing Alistair as a tank early on, but never quite succeeded. He died often and early, even if trying to deflect some of the attention to my main character with threaten or other talents.

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Other things I didn’t enjoy:

It’s just like Lord of the Rings:

Before I started playing the game I was sure that I’d like any game that positively reminds me of Lord of the Rings. After all, I like books, the films and, especially the soundtrack. Here are some reasons why it didn’t work for me with DAO:

• The score, whilst definitely listenable in its own right, feels too much like a bad copy of Howard Shore’s excellent Lord of the Rings score. This is particularly obvious during the orcs darkspawn sequence at the end of the intro story.
• Orcs. I know they’re called darkspawn, but they look just like orcs! Half the enemies look like this charming fella.
• Gimli. Maybe I’m discriminating against dwarfs, but the companion looked just like Gimli. And sounded similar.
• Ents. There’s this part in this forest doing this thing for this elven clan [I played it in November, so shoot me for not remembering or bothering to look it up!] and there’s a talking tree. A slow talking tree talking about tree things. Come on, couldn’t you have picked a bush or a waterfall or something instead, BioWare?!
• Not remembering all that much about it now, but I recall the cutscene at the end of the prologue copying one of the LotR battles almost verbatim with rain, build up of tension and the first mistaken arrow fired by the good side. I think I’m thinking of Helm’s Deep, though again it was back in November that I played it.
• The clichéd ‘look, here are your secretive dwarfs, your reclusive elves, your humans that think they’re all that that’. Would mixing the formula up a little really have hurt anyone? As far as I’m aware, though correct me if wrong, DAO is based on a whole new universe not based on any other canon? It’s like handing someone a carte blanche and they just copy something that’s already there.

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As evident by now most of my frustration with the game stems from the inability to pick up characters, good and developed characters I’d learned to rely on abandoning me without any option to change that and the fact it felt just like a cheap version of Lord of the Rings to me. That isn’t all though.

The Fade: I have never been fond of dream sequences in games or anything that randomly changes the game dynamics for no reason at all. Jade Empire did this by having the main character die and fight through the afterlife back to life. Cue a lot of messed up blue swirls and generally randomness. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 had me stop playing at a point where it took away my entire squad for a mission. This is a game I’d spent five or more long levels playing it as a squad based shooter just for them to turn around and change it. I’m all for innovation in games, but don’t change the dynamics for just a short strech just because you can.

Orzammar: This isn’t so much criticising the dwarf place, but rather long sequences in general. Entering Orzammar starts a billion and one quest leading through three main maps and countless houses and pubs with more quests up to the point where I lost the will to live or rather play the game. But oh, that wasn’t it, no, there’s a whole lot more to go in some deep underground roads that lead to even deeper underground roads and, you guessed it, even more underground roads. Due to the mission layout it wasn’t actually possible to leave the deep roads once starting the quest and I ended up spending several days in identical looking caves relying on my map fighting some dragons and darkspawn. Mass Effect 1 kind of did the same, the bits on Noveria and Feros were too long with no option to return and do some sidequests in other locations. If I know that the game will just dump me at the same place for many hours it makes it difficult for me to come back to it.

The final fight: After doing this and that and so on and so forth, the game cuts to the Landsmeet, the evil guy gets killed [at least he did in my game] and then the endgame starts. This is where I lost interest in the game. Morrigan left and voila, I was without my strongest character just as I’m about to fight all ogres known to exist and what seems like all the orcs ever made. For hours and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours. This is where I lost interest in the game. Thanks to IM conversations I actually know how much time I spent on the end:

• 2.10am – Morrigan leaves me.
• 2.20am – I start fighting in the first area after choosing my final companions. Bye bye Sten, hello Hawkes [the dog], Gimli and Alistair.
• 2.40am – Got bored of fighting. Already.
• 3.40am – Changed the difficulty to casual after dying on my fourth attempt to defeat the first of two of the orc generals I had to fight in the market of Denerim.
• 4.02am – According to an IM convo I was on fire at this point. As in literally. Which greatly amused the person I was talking to. Also at this point I was surrounded by about five ogres.
• 4.14am I finally enter the castle. Cue another three floors of the same stuff I’ve done before. It did make me wonder though, how did the ogres ever make it through the castle doors?
• 4.26am – I hit level 20. I’m playing on easy. I’m majorly struggling.
• 4.39am – Rooftop, cutscene, dragon, final boss, yey.
• 4.41am – I’m dead.
• 4.43am – I’m dead.
• 4.45am – I realise I have no chance on Earth of defeating the final boss with the characters I have.
• 4.47am – Google reveals there’s a glitch, huzzah!
• 5.16am – Game completed after 26 minutes of firing a trebuchet dealing 47 damage with a five second reload at a boss with 4100HP. That was.. fun.

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The obvious question is, why did I keep playing it if I didn’t like it? Well, initially I waited for the game to get better, but then I reached the point sometime after the Fade where I realised I’d invested too much time into the game to not finish it. I like to complete games and after 32 hours [which is where Zevran left] it was simply too late to just ignore it. There are things I enjoyed about it, mainly the writing and the different ways the story is influenced, though it did make my game so much more difficult as I was missing vital characters.

I’d want to play it again just to see what would be different, but I don’t think I can.

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I last played Mass Effect 2 and yet it feels much longer. I don’t really have any valid excuses either, though there was the annoyance of losing two hours of gameplay when my housemate picked up the game to “I’m not doing anything, just walking around talking to people” and being ill. After that I barely had any quiet time with my housemate off work, a friend staying with me for nearly a week and other things. Plus then there was Splinter Cell multiplayer to be played, too.

Tonight I’ve got the flat to myself and from Friday onwards I’ll be here alone, so it’s about time to start playing this again to avoid having anything else spoiled!

Now, where was I? Oh yes, there was that whole saving the galaxy thing.. Based on my last post I was just off to the Krogan homeworld to hopefully see Wrex and to complete some of the missions there. I’ve also got a lot of mining in front of me, as I want to fully upgrade the Normandy and my weapons. Mining is just too cumbersome to be real fun.

I’ve finally landed on Tuchanka. Krogans really are a friendly bunch, aren’t they? Overhearing a conversation between two of them reminded me of a post about the voice acting in games on the Guardian website today. Mass Effect 2′s voice acting is spot on and I could feel the emotion behind it, even though the two Krogans were just standing there motionless.

“You look well for dead, Shepard. Should have known the void couldn’t hold you.” – Wrex.

All the Krogans I’ve encountered so far are extremely bitter, though they clearly have enough reason to be with the genophage and general council politics. The conversation between the two Urdnot Krogans re their children and families was interesting though. All in all they remind me a lot of Klingons though which makes Michael Dorn voicing Grunt a stroke of genius.

“Takes me back to the old days. Us against the unknown, killing it with big guns. Good times.” – Wrex.

The Krogan Rite of Passage can only be described as boring. The first two waves were far too long and the Thresher Maw at the end was just the plain old ‘shoot it with everything you’ve got while strafing’. Would have liked to have a bit more of a challenge there.

Decided to do the Tali loyalty mission and I can’t believe it’s taking me to the Flotilla! I’ve been wanting to see the Flotilla since I’ve first heard about it during the first encounter with Tali in Mass Effect 1! I liked seeing the trial, though it was quite predictable. I didn’t share the information found on the Alarei and instead defended Tali using her past of saving the Citadel.

“It’s fun watching you shout.” – Tali.

Other missions I’ve completed were the Jack loyalty mission which wasn’t that impressive, though the confrontation between her and Miranda certainly was [Thanks to @CooperHawkes and @HeartbreakRidge for advising me to not immediately do it after Miranda's to keep the loyalty of both, although it could have been due to my high paragon], and a ship that was taken over by the geth and needed to be repaired within a few minutes which also wasn’t all that impressive on its own, but fit in well with the whole game.

Loyalty missions left are the ones for Thane and Samara. There’s also one more squad member to get, but I’m not sure where to find him or her. Stats: 54 hours playtime, 345GS and a whole lot of mining still left to do..

Continuing from where I last left the game I decided to finally complete one of the Liara missions.

Traipsing around Illium I obviously looked for the terminals in the wrong area and ended up spending a good ten minutes trying to figure out what I was meant to do. After hacking all five of the terminals I got the conversation option to tell Liara that it wasn’t any of the five suspects and the original intelligence date must have been incorrect. All good, however, I could have finished that mission after two minutes had it given me the conversation option after the first terminal I hacked which was terminal 5 at the bottom of the stairs from Liara’s office. It’s a shame that the game didn’t really pick up on that.

“We can disobey suicidal orders? Why wasn’t I told?” – Garrus.

To be fair, although I’ve played about eight hours of the game in the last two days I’ve done very little. Most of it was spent mining planets which, as @JoeGizzle pointed out weeks ago, is extremely soul crushing. I invested into the scanning upgrade very early on, but each planet takes about five minutes and only increases the resources by 5-10k if I’m lucky. I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong either..

“I’ve never considered cross-species intercourse. And damn, saying it that way doesn’t help. Now I feel dirty and clinical.” – Garrus.

Garrus has definitely become my favourite character. His writing has improved so much and pretty much every conversation makes me laugh. Thank you, BioWare writers and equally shame on you for not making him more interesting in the first game!

“It’ll either be a night to treasure, or a horrible interspecies awkwardness thing. In which case fighting the Collectors will be a welcome distraction. So, you know, a win either way.” – Garrus.

“Wait. That metaphor just went somewhere horrible.” – Garrus.

I’ve done some other missions, like the Miranda loyalty mission and picking up the Justicar, neither of which were particularly interesting or memorable. The game seems heavily based around Asari again and I’d really like to see more of the Salarians, Turians or Batarians. As for the Krogans, I’m on my way to the Krogan homeworld now..

Stats: 48hours playtime, 295GS, all characters minus the unknown one recruited and remaining loyalty missions left from Jack, Mordin, Grunt, Tali, Samara and Thane. Off to Krogans!

As soon as I started carrying on from where I left the game earlier I was prompted to change discs. Even though I know that Mass Effect 2 only uses the second disc for it’s middle section, or at least that’s what I remember reading, it’s still a sign that I’ve made considerable progress and that the end of the game is near.

“The geth might get me, but I’m not going to die from an infection in the middle of a battle. That’s just insulting.” – Kal’Reegar.

I liked the mission to pick up Tali; having a planet that damages shields in direct sunlight is an interesting way to spice up the missions and it was quite nice to see and encounter other Quarians though I’m still disappointed I’ve been unable to visit the flotilla! Bringing Tali back to the ship I loved the interaction between her and Jacob at the end of the debriefing where Jacob encourages her to familiarise herself with the ship’s AI. If looks could kill Jacob would be dead by now and it was a nice reference to the first game and the Quarian/Geth story that happened before the events of Mass Effect 1.

“There are no decent galactic dating services. To have a shot at romance you need to talk to people.” – Loading screen.

Jacob’s loyalty mission was interesting as for once someone turned out to actually be responsible and unrepentant instead of just being misunderstood and having a nice family reunion. Garrus’ loyalty mission was similar showing off that the game really is going into a different direction. Not everyone in the galaxy is good or can be turned to the ‘light side’.

Grunt is funny and I never thought there would be any Krogans with a sense of humour. I look forward to his loyalty mission on the Krogan homeworld and am of course hoping to run into Wrex there.

I much prefer the mission layout to Mass Effect 1. Going on main story missions was always a bit of a hassle as they took forever, but Mass Effect 2 so far has had missions that were just right in length and didn’t require me to spend ages on the same planet running back and forth through the same corridors talking to the same people. Noveria was a particularly bad example. Not having to spend ages outfitting characters is also a bonus as it allows for a more flexible quad though I currently prefer a combination of Garrus and Jack.

I don’t like the levelling system at all. It’s incredibly limited to the first game and I miss levelling up when and where I can rather than having to wait until the end of missions.

“You know what else is bad for business? A broken neck.” – Garrus.

Illirium is beautiful and has a lot of exploration, but at the same time it’s the first planet in the Mass Effect universe that reminds me of Star Wars or, more precisely, Coruscant during Episode 2. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it makes me wish they’d have made it differently as I don’t feel the Mass Effect universe is quite as up to scratch in comparison.

Liara has had the most unbelievable change from Mass Effect 1; she’s changed from a naive archaeologist to some kind of high powered business woman. I didn’t think it was possibly for the writers to make her even more unlikable, but the writers have definitely proven me wrong!

“He showed me some of his schoolwork and asked if we could dance crazy. We did that when he was younger.” – Thane [about his son].

If there’s anything BioWare games have taught me, it’s to look out for hints on the story to come. I missed them on my first KotOR playthrough, but caught them on my first Mass Effect 1 one when the council discusses if I can make a decision that will ultimately result in the death of some people. That conversation is just after completing Feros and not too long before having to sacrifice either Kaiden or Ashley and the whole Wrex thing. So Garrus asking what I would do if someone betrayed me set all the alarm bells ringing. I’ve previously likened Miranda to Kreia from KotOR II which, admittedly, was not a BioWare game, but followed the same principle and it’ll be interesting to see if she will betray me and, if so, how.

The Ghost ship? Apart from it being far too much like Prey, a game I hated, it also had a trap so obvious even flashing neon signs with ‘It’s a trap!’ wouldn’t have made it more obvious. Admiral Ackbar would have been proud.

The thought of Keepers having been something else before being transformed by the collectors is an interesting idea. I’ve noticed that they are still on the Citadel and have been reparing it since the attack by Sovereign and it’ll be interesting to see if there’s even more to them than has already be revealed.

Shepard: “I couldn’t do this without you, Garrus.”
Garrus: “Sure you could. Not as stylishly, of course.”

“The Collectors killed you once and all it did is piss you off. Can’t imagine they’ll stop you this time.” – Garrus.

As it stands I’ve got 275GS, roughly 32 hours of playtime and two squad members and a majority of loyalty missions to go. I’ve also killed my fish, though I kept feeding them!

As I’ve mentioned in my last post I met Garrus and the conversation has been brilliant. Upon returning to the Normandy, Shepard smiled which is one of the first times Shepard has smiled all together and it was quite nice seeing it reflected what I was thinking, too. It is nice to see Garrus and more so seeing him alive and well. All the interactions with the crew and former squad members such as Joker, Doctor Chakwas and now Garrus have been great. True, some seemed a bit too much reminiscing about the good old times, but perhaps that’s just because I’ve been playing Mass Effect 1 so much lately.

“Some women find facial scars attractive. Mind you most of those are Krogan.” – Garrus.

“Hey, Commander, we got Garrus back! That’s great, because he was totally my favourite. With that pole up his ass.” – Joker.

“There’s something about him. I just want to hold him close and whisper, “It will be all right”. – Kelly [about Garrus].

“With barely contained terror: You drive a hard bargain, human.” – Harrot [after convincing him to let the Quarian set his own prices].

The prison ship was interesting yet very short. I expected to be double crossed the minute I spoke to the guard, though I expected a full blown prison riot instead. The concept of having a prison ship for prisoners of all worlds for a fee is an interesting idea though as it allows each respective government to ignore what is really happening.

Exploration would have been nice though; the two side characters presented on a silver platter at the beginning were interesting, but there wasn’t enough.

“Shit, you sound like a pussy.” – Jack.

I’m not sure what to think of the combat so far. I miss the Mass Effect 1 combat and leveling system and this seems very limited. It’s a shame the squad members only have limited abilities and I can’t have a mixture of Liara/Tali and several biotic or tech powers each. I’m also not all that sure that I’ve understood the equipment menu, but seeing that I’m not struggling against enemies, I guess I’m all good?

The game does seem very easy, or at least the combat is. It’s shifted from enemies already present in a room and lack of cover to having cover coming out of your ears and being rushed constantly which I don’t think is varied enough. I’m playing this first playthrough on normal [which I always do with new games] and the only time I’ve had a little bit difficulty, which is to say I’ve died once, was closing the shutters in Garrus’ hideout, but that was only as I rushed to the switches expecting enemies to come at me for the end of time.

The options don’t seem to work that well either. Just like Mass Effect 1 I’ve set my squad to use only their defensive powers and abilities independently, yet they always use Overload which I would class as an offensive power.

“Ok, Shepard, glad you’re back, but keep an eye on that last one. We can only hold so much crazy.” – Joker [about Jack]

“It seems like Garrus has finally worked that stick out of his butt, but now he’s trying to beat guys to death with it. I can’t believe I like the old Garrus better.” – Joker

The first genuine dilemma occured on a Cerberus assigned mission to locate and secure an imprisoned Cerberus’ agent. The agent was interrogated and the information saved in a computer. EDI informed me that “the information could adversely affect Cerberus if it were ever circulated publically” and the options available were to upload the date to the Alliance or to Cerberus or keep it for myself. One would assume that the order is ‘good’, ‘without consequences’ and ‘evil’, yet whilst I wouldn’t have hesitated to help the Alliance as much as I can in the first game, I’m not sure it is something I’d fully support now as there have been plenty of changes I don’t particularly agree with. Yet on the other hand Cerberus has been helpful bringing me back from the dead and giving me a ship, but I’m under constant surveillance by EDI and clearly not fully in charge. Keeping the information to myself could prove useful in the future, perhaps using it to gain information from Aria or others.. After deliberating it for a while I decided to upload it to the Alliance.

Upon completing that mission, I received a message from someone called Billy. Who is Billy?

“A stubborn enough person can survive just about anything.” – Zaeed.

“‘Citadel’. A film by Risa Uvardsen.

“Why don’t you just go to Fishdog Food Factory. Ask for their Tummy-Tingling-Tuchanaka Sauce.” – Turian shopkeeper.

One of the things I would have loved to have seen at least a snippet of in Mass Effect 1 was Francis Kitt’s theatre production of Hamlet featuring an all Elcor cast designed to let the viewer judge Hamlet on his actions rather than emotions. The Elcors are quite fascinating, although perhaps a little bit too reminiscent of HK-47 minus the desire for constant killing. My wish has been fulfilled! One of the advertisment stands in the Citadel had a short advert on it, including this Elcor quote:

“Insincere endorsement: You have not experienced Shakespeare until you have heard him in the voice of Elcor.”

I have started endorsing stores on the Citadel and I’m already getting the feeling that this is going to be a problem later on with me endorsing every store. Also curious why every endorsement gets me paragon points!

“I’m Commander Shepard and this is my favourite store on the Citadel.”

“You look out there and sometimes it’s just like… you know, there’s all this… it’s like… you know?” – Joker.

A little while ago I’ve finally met Kaiden on ‘Horizon’ and we parted ways on rather bad terms. The conversation with him sort of echoed that dilemma I had earlier whether or not my loyalties lie with the Alliance, Cerberus or myself and I found myself trying to explain that there’s a bigger picture to everything whilst knowing that’s a standard excuse.

It’s interesting how the game makes me think about good or bad and that there’s not really an ideal way. Yes, the Illusive Man orchestrated the attack on Horizon, but civilian losses aside it gave us a chance to explore it and the Collectors would have most likely attacked another colony instead anyway.

I’ve also been thinking about the choices that carried over from Mass Effect 1. Side characters aside, I’ve had conversations with the council, seen the arguments between Udina and Anderson and met Kaiden. Had Kaiden died would I have seen him as a picture at the Normandy crash site instead of Ashley? Saying that, it did bug me a little seeing her picture there. The Normandy crash site mission was beautifully done, yet she didn’t die in the attack on the Normandy but months before that on Virmire. As for the council, would Anderson or Udina have put a new one in place? Who would have reinstated my Spectre status?

“I’ve been around. Ran with ganges, wiped out some gangs, joined a cult. Kept the haircut. Murder, assault, kidnapping, drugs, stealing, arson. Done it all. And that’s the boring shit. Piracy, theft of military craft, destruction of a space station and vandalism. That was a good one. There is no reason I should be alive but I am. You know why? Instinct. It’s worked for me so far and I’m not going to change.” – Jack.

I am now on about 23 hours playtime and I’ve got Zaeed, Mordin, Garrus, Miranda, Grunt, Jacob and Jack on my team. Achievements stand at 210GS. Time spent mining is about an hour. Next up: Recruiting Tali! Fingers crossed I’ll get to see the Flotilla, even though part of it was detroyed by Cerberus.

I finally started playing Mass Effect 2 Saturday evening and so far I am loving every second of it!

Just over two hours in and I am in love with #masseffect2. I already don’t want it to end!

So far I’ve done very little fighting and a lot of exploration. The following are some of my thoughts and they’re completely spoileriffic, obviously.

.

• The first cutscene was great. Seeing the Normandy in action for the first time and seeing familiar faces like Doctor Chakwas [such a great voice!] and Navigator Pressly was an added bonus.
• Playing the first part on the Normandy was intense, especially going from the loud noises to the part where the hull was broken with nothing but the sound of breathing.
• The awakening sequence and the part that followed getting off the station felt very similar to the beginning of KotOR II on Peragus, including being guided by a voice and figuring out what happens. I hope that Miranda doesn’t turn out to be like Kreia.

“Is this a volunteer job or am I being volunteered?” – Shepard.

• Armor modifications are great, although I had to resist the temptation to use pink armor!
• ‘Freedom’s Progress’ was interesting, but seriously, what are the chances to run into Tali there of all places?! Surely the galaxy is huge enough?
• It’s great to see Joker again, although with all of Cerberus abilities of the Lazarus project, why couldn’t they fix Joker’s condition to make him more resistent in case something happens to the Normandy v2?

“What can I say, I’m a people person.” – Kelly.

Like some creepy kid staring at the back of your head in comp sci you just want to punch him but he’s “special” and sets fires or something. – Joker.

• I like the new Normandy a lot, it’s got toilets, crew quarters, a cook and real beds! Mass Effect 1 almost had me believe that real beds were outlawed in the future!
• I’m very suspicious about Jacob. He comes across as being far too nice.
• Getting drunk with Doctor Chakwas was great. Gives it a more realistic feel and her mentioning her possible inappropriateness then was a great touch.
• Conversations have received such a big overhaul, characters move more or even stand up and sit down during conversations. So far I’ve especially liked the animations during conversations with Miranda on the ship.

“We’re off to kick the collectors right in their daddy bags. That’s enough for me.” – Ken.

• Love the references in the news to Toombs, Kahoku, Chairman Burns, the Shepard foundation.. Almost sad hearing Ashley mentioned.
• I bought a space hamster!! And it squeaks! I knew about the fishtanks, but didn’t expect that. Also bought some fish and both of the Mass Effect books released so far. Great little detail!
• The personalised advertisements on the Citadel are scary, although I assume it’s a lot like Google ads.. Interesting how the five I’ve watched all told me to get a job though!
• Shame to hear Chora’s Den is closed, although to be fair that place was dodgy anyway with Fist running it, C-Sec investigations with undercover staff and a full on assault.
• I can’t believe my favourite non-approachable NPC from Mass Effect is back! And he’s still trying to get a replacement after over two years! One would have thought that he’d ignore it by now what with the near destruction of the Citadel and all..
• I loved the Krogan discussing the fish in the Citadel. Felt pretty sorry for him when I dashed his dreams by telling him there aren’t any fish in the Presidum lakes!
• Pretty disappointed that I can’t explore the Presidium area. I would have loved to see what, if anything, has changed. I believe that also means that I won’t get to see Sha’ira again, unless the news reports are true and she is leaving the Presidium for another area before the game is over.
• Buying drinks in certain bars isn’t a good idea. Especially when said bar is called ‘Afterlife’!
• Shepard’s dancing has definitely not improved!
• Hello Fist! Hello Helena Blake! Whilst I appreciate running into Mass Effect 1 characters to give the game the ongoing story, it makes the galaxy seem a lot smaller. Having just a handful of previous NPC’s with others perhaps referenced would have been better. And I believe the woman with the unborn baby in Mass Effect 1 was also in one of the shops on the Citadel still arguing with her brother in law.
• I can’t believe I have to buy fuel!
• Getting used to the new mission layout and the completion screen at the end of each will take a while longer getting used to, just like the revamped hacking system which reminds me a lot of another game I’ve forgotten the name to.
• The game feels very overwhelming at parts. The Citadel is full of flashing images, sound and while it feels a lot more real, it’s also a bit too much. And then Omega is just taking it that step further! I don’t even think I’ve seen half of that station so far! The bars and clubs on both stations are crazy, especially the ‘Afterlife’ with the fires as decoration!
• Garrus!!

So far I’m about nine hours into the game with 105GS unlocked and four squad members: Miranda, Jacob, Mordin Solus [The Professor] and Zaeed. I’ve just met Garrus [Archangel] and I’m about to shut the blast doors to prevent the mercenaries from invading via the basement. Seeing and talking to Garrus has been absolutely delightful so far, I’ve really started to like him in my last Mass Effect 1 playthrough which was the first time I’ve used him properly.

Knights of the Old Republic is the game that got me into gaming. I remember playing it at work [in Spanish!] not understanding a word and not really knowing what was going on. All I remember is walking around in a beautiful environment talking to people and completing missions. Shortly after its release I bought an Xbox with the game and played it for about a week until finally completing it. I remember being stuck on Korriban [that freaking pillar!!], dancing on Taris and the big twist. A rainy Sunday afternoon that’s forever in my memory. The game had such an impact on me that I also watched Star Wars for the first time as I’d never been exposed to it as a child.

Jade Empire and Fable were the next big role playing games. The dream sequence in Jade Empire initially made me angry until I realised how well it worked with the story and I didn’t know anything about Fable beforehand either apart from Peter Molyneux’s promise of ‘growing a tree’ and ‘decisions that will impact the world’ neither of which were actually in the game. I still enjoyed every minute of it though.

Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords on the other hand was spoilt for me early on. Prior to the game’s release I knew who the main bad guy was and whilst I still loved the game [Yes, I love both KotOR's equally!], it wasn’t the same experience as being able to experience everything myself.

Mass Effect came out in 2007 and I tried my hardest to stay away from any videos or articles about the game, until I caved two days before its release and ended up watching all the videos Gametrailers had of it which was quite a lot! I saw how the different classes affected the gameplay [not that it matters seeing I always play a soldier anyway!] in an area I now know to be on Virmire shortly before encountering another beacon and every time I get to the area I think about watching the videos, even on my just completed sixth playthrough.

I’ve mentioned how many things I know about Mass Effect 2 so far in this post and there are only a few more things I’ve read on Twitter about it, such as a character called ‘Subject Zero’, loyalty and crew missions and how annoying the mining is. Of course I have heard how everyone loves the game, but I didn’t expect anything else!

As I am typing this, the second Mass Effect 2 disc is installing on my 360′s HDD. I’ve completed my sixth Mass Effect 1 playthrough a few hours ago and finally have the character I want with all sidemissions bar those pesky collection ones completed.

Ciara Shepard, Earthborn level 60 paragon soldier with Assault/Sniper Rifle specialisation and sole survivor of Akuze, although based on a later sidemission that is obviously not true. Her love interest is Kaiden Alenko and Ashley Williams died on Virmire having been with the Salarian troops when the last geth staged an attack. Decisions made:

• Allowing Fist to live.
• Sympathising publically with aliens several times.
• Letting the Rachni Queen escape.
• Convincing Wrex to destroy the facility on Virmire.
• Refusing to hand over Cerberus files to an agent of the Shadow Broker.
• Convincing Helena Blake to abandon her gang.
• Saving the colony on Feros and convincing the ExoGeni rep to rebuild it.
• Saving the trapped scientists on Asteroid X57.
• Having Chancellor Burns look into legislation for biotics.
• Convincing ‘Father Kyle’ to surrender.
• Saved the Council.
• Suggested Captain Anderson as the Human Council member.
• Suggested to the fan he might be better suited staying at home with his wife.

I’ve also found the shifty looking cow twice!

Time for Mass Effect 2!

In no particular order:

iPhone Sleep Cycle: my nights with a strange bedfellow [Guardian]: Sounds like a great iPhone application. That and some games make me really want an iPhone. Damnit!

Cutting to the choice [EDGE]: Great post about multiple choice in gaming.

New Xbox Live Indie Game explores Office Politics [Joystiq]: This post pointed out Indie games to me and I’ve played many great ones since. Office politics is simply brilliant. Tumblr post one and two.

The player: cheat codes [Guardian]: A post that’s proved controversial in the comments. Personally I think it’s up to everyone whether they want to use cheats or walkthroughs. I’ve only ever used cheats a handful of times, but regularly rely on walkthroughs or internet searches.

Oblivion: RolePlaying [UESP.net]: Found in the comments from the previous Guardian post. I’ve used uesp.net myself plenty of times and I’ve posted about Oblivion a lot. This is taking the game to a whole new level though!

Eat three meals a day at the appropriate times (or less if you are poor). Breakfast should consist of grains, rice, bread or fruit. Lunch can be more bread, fruit, and vegetables. Save the meat and potatoes for dinner, along with your character’s preferred alcoholic beverage.

A post from the producer of Splinter Cell Conviction regarding the lack of a multiplayer versus mode [Ubisoft forums]: I am really disappointed with that. Whilst I’ve always liked the single player of Splinter Cell games, like SCDA, it’s the multiplayer that’s always shone through. Yes, a co op mode is great, but is that going to keep me playing for months or even years after it’s release? SCDA was released in 2006 and it still has a fairly active community and I’ve played it almost daily since last November due to it being different. Very unhappy about their decision and it’s made me reconsider if I really want the game day one.

Gamesradar‘s Assassin’s Creed 2 review and guide: Loved this game a lot and I’m very much looking forward to the DLC, although that will have to wait until after Mass Effect 2!

Assassins Creed 2 glitch [GameSpot forums]: As much as I liked Assassins Creed 2, this nearly turned me off the game minutes after it started. Thankfully that was the only major glitch I encountered and was fixed with a simple reboot.

Blood sugar sex magik: examining Dragon Age’s Morrigan [Destructoid]: Great post!

I was never quite sure how to feel about her — and I mean that in the best way possible. She’s extremely useful in combat, but she’s also the most unrepentantly amoral character in the entire game. Her sarcasm and occasional (and very, very brief) moments of goodness makes her strangely likable, yet I never, for a second, trusted her.

Chasing Alistair [EDGE]:
It’s no secret that I love Alistair and this column makes me realise I’m definitely not the only one!

I don’t know how it’ll work, or what I’ll do with it when it comes. But I do know one thing: I’m in love with the next king of Ferelden, and before this is over, he’s going to make me his Queen. Or he’s never getting his armour back.

Space Cow and Shifty Looking Cow [Mass Effect wiki]: Came across the space cows randomly during one of the sidemissions and googled it just to find out what they are. Made it my mission to find the shifty looking one and was successful after over thirty minutes! Time well spent? I don’t know.. However, I absolutely love this description from one of the designers on the official Mass Effect forums:

I love the history of the Shifty Cow easter egg. When the character artists designed the space cow with two extra arms, Preston, our lead designer, was a little creeped out. His comment was “You can’t trust any animal that can milk itself.” Those extra little hands look so… grabby. So Preston came up with the idea of Shifty Cow. Turn your back on him, and those creepy little hands are going to go to work. Kiss those credits goodbye.

Progress made, now down to only 14 tabs! Back to Mass Effect I go!

I’m currently on my fifth playthrough since the game’s release, although only the second one on this 360 as I sold my original one back in 2008 and had to delete the saves. I still love the game as much as I did when I first played it and when I first completed it, but there are a few things I would like to see improved in the second one. Perhaps some of these improvements have been announced before, but I haven’t read or watched anything about the game since last summer due to not wanting anything spoiled with the exception of the ‘fishtanks’ article, the one announcing the celebrity cast, the news that Jack Wall will again be scoring the game and the save import.

In no particular order:

• A better use of the A button. Currently the A button is both run/sprint and interact and more often than not I find myself running just to trigger a conversation or look at a sign.
• Fewer doors that are just scenery to give the impression of a much larger area. Noveria is a particularly good example for this. The main administration section has at least four doors that are just part of the scenery and inaccessible. Don’t show me areas I can’t access, it takes away the realism.
• The inability to talk to some people. Sure, many people in the game don’t have anything to talk about or repeat a set number of phrases, but some, again especially in Noveria, can’t be highlighted in the first place. Why let me highlight this ERCS guard yet not the one ten metres away?
• Only being able to talk to party members on the Normandy. Of course people would rarely consider the heat of battle to talk about their problematic upbringing or the imminent death of their entire species, but there’s plenty of downtime on planets in between missions. Time that could be spent with a little chat here and there to break up the constant collecting and fetching. Dragon Age Origins had a good system in allowing some private chat on missions with only the very private and intimate ones in camp.
• Too many weapons upgrades. Yes, customisation is awesome, but there are limits. Too many different bullets/heat sinks/combat sensors/barrels/combat optics/stabilizers for every single weapon and party member. Talking about items..
• Too much loot. Of course realism would dictate that every killed person drops an assault rifle, a shotgun, a pistol, a sniper rifle and their lunchbag and even though Mass Effect doesn’t enforce this a hundred percent all the time there are still far too many items. That’s excluding storage containers and wall safes.
• Money is worthless. Due to the game having far too much loot and the shop items rarely being better than items already equipped money is entirely useless. In my current playthrough which is about 40% into the second one with this character I have over 8.8million credits and I wouldn’t even be able to gamble that all away!
• The hacking/overriding system. I like the button sequencing, even though I don’t tend to be a big fan of Quick Time Events or the like, but seeing the game drops far too much loot and there’s no point in selling it, it’s too easy to just convert it into Omni-gel and use it to bypass all the hacking and overriding.
• Inconsistent gameplay settings. I’ve just realised that for some reason unknown to me my difficulty setting has reverted from hardcore down to veteran. I’m not sure when it happened, but even completing this playthrough will not unlock the higher difficulty. Why did the setting change?
• Party members weapons selections. So Wrex has this ability with the shotgun which obviously means he never uses the shotgun. If I want him to use it, I first have to get him to switch and only then can activate it. This is only a few seconds, but when pausing/unpausing during battle surrounded by multiple enemies it’s a few long seconds.
• Thresher Maw’s. I still can’t stand them..
• This. BioWare, please elaborate.

Apart from the well written main quest and the conversations and the general tone, there are conversations between different party members along the way. KotOR did this and Mass Effect tried to make the long elevator rides more bearable.

Alistair early on seemed interesting and quickly became my favourite character, although he’s fairly useless in battle next to my warrior. The best party conversations so far have all involved him, however, and I wouldn’t want to miss out on them, even though I still don’t fully like his actual voice.

Talking to the witch:

Alistair: “Why do you always go on about how stupid I am? I’m not stupid, am I?”
Morrigan: “If you need to ask the question…”
Alistair: “Because it hurts my manly feelings you know. All one of them.”
Morrigan: “Then I’ll be sure to write you an apology once all of this is over.”
Alistair: “I was educated by the Chantry. I studied history. They don’t make stupid templars.”
Morrigan: “Then I must have been mistaken. I’m very impressed.”
Alistair: “No you’re not. You’re not even listening to me.”
Morrigan: “My, you are smarter than you look after all. Your Chantry must have been very proud!”

—

Morrigan: So you met this sibling of yours?
Alistair: Half-sister, but yes.
Morrigan: And she turned out to be an insufferable hag?
Alistair: You’d have liked her. You two have a lot in common.
Morrigan: And you let her berate you? Without punishment?
Alistair: It’s moments like this when I truly appreciate the difference between you and me.
Morrigan: (Scoffs) ‘Tis moments like this when I truly wonder at the difference between you and a toadstool.

—

Morrigan: You… do not truly think I look as my mother does, do you?
Alistair: Have you really been thinking about that all this time?
Morrigan: I am simply curious.
Alistair: And not insecure in the slightest, I’m sure.
Morrigan: I think I look nothing like her.
Alistair: I don’t know. Give it a few hundred years and it’ll be a spot-on match.
Morrigan: I said that I look nothing like her!
Alistair: All right. Got it. Totally different. I see that now.

—

Chatting to the dwarf. Think Gimli, just drunk:

Alistair: What? You’re… you’re drunk, aren’t you?
Oghren: Eh? Was that a question? It didn’t sound like a question.
Alistair: How in the Maker’s name do you manage to be constantly drunk? Are we even carrying that much alcohol with us?
Oghren: Jealous, huh? (Laughs)
Alistair: A little, yes. Why can’t I be drunk all the time? I never get to be drunk.
Oghren: You know, if you drank more wine, you would whine much less.

—

Talking to Zevran, the guy with an Antonio Banderas’ accent:

Zevran: So are you a very religious man, Alistair? I am curious. I believe I heard you say you were raised in an abbey?
Alistair: I was raised in a castle. I was schooled in the abbey. As far as being religious… I don’t know. Not especially. What about you? Not in your line of work, I expect.
Zeveran: Why do you say that? I happen to be quite devoted, in my way, as most Antivans are.
Alistair: Truly? But you kill people. For money.
Zeveran: And I ask forgiveness for my sins from the Maker every chance I get. What manner of monster do you think I am?
Alistair: But… you ask forgiveness and then you go right on with your sinning?
Zeveran: The Maker has never objected. Why should you?
Alistair: I… have no idea.
Zeveran: Well there you go. Perhaps you ought to think about asking for a little forgiveness yourself, hm?

—

And after ‘experiencing the thrill of romance with Alistair’:

Oghren: So. With the boss, aye?
Alistair: Pardon?
Oghren: You and the boss. Rolling your oats.
Alistair: I don’t know–
Oghren: Polishing the footstones.
Alistair: –what you’re–
Oghren: Tapping the midnight still, if you will.
Alistair: what are you going on about?
Oghren: Forging the moaning statue. Bucking the forbidden horse. Donning the velvet hat.
Alistair: Are you just making these up right now?
Oghren: Nope. Been saving ‘em.

—

Zevran: Might I offer you a bit of advice, my good friend Alistair?
Alistair: I like my hair the way it is, thank you.
Zevran: Truly? As you wish… though my advice is regarding something else completely. It has to do with your recent… exertions with your fellow Grey Warden that I overheard.
Alistair: My…? Oh.
Zevran: It did seem as if you just got going when all grew quiet. You are… feeling all right, yes? Perhaps you are tired?
Alistair: We aren’t talking about this, are we? Did I hit my head?
Zevran: I have some roots from home that you may chew if you need energy. As for volume, perhaps you ought to try arching your–
Alistair: Whoa! Whoa! Awkward!
Zevran: You Fereldans are so finicky. How will you ever learn how to pleasure each other unless you talk about it?
Alistair: not listening! La la la la la!

—

And then there’s this..

Alistair: Do you really know what’s going on here? The Blight, the civil war… I really wonder how much of it you understand.
Dog: (He wags tail happily.)
Alistair: We’re all special… big parts to play. Even you. Especially you, in some ways. You are the mabari. You guard one of the most important people–
Dog: (Excited Bark)
Alistair: What?
Dog: (Excited barking!)
Alistair: You… you want to play? But I’m talking. Why doesn’t anyone want to hear me talk?

Well, as it turned out several weeks later, I was the one winning the voucher and it finally arrived this week plus it’s one featuring ‘Star Wars: The Force Unleashed’!

@Gamedigital: Thanks to everyone who voted for our charity partner and congratulations to @carocat who has won the £100 voucher! #

Thank you very much!!

I have so far used £28 from it to buy the Mass Effect special edition [which makes it the third version of Mass Effect I've owned!] and the FallOut 3 expansions pack disc. Suggestions on what I shall spend the rest on?

I seem to have been quite lucky with the competitions on Twitter lately! Here’s hoping this trend will continue!

Game music is an integral part of the game playing experience so it’s hardly surprising that most of the game music I own is from my favourite games and it’s also probably not very susprising that I listen to the game music of some games a lot.

These are all gaming related soundtracks that I currently own and I do most definitely recommend all of them:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Christophe Beck.
• Beyond Good & Evil by Christophe Heral
• BioShock by various. [Previous post on it here]
• Burnout 3 by various.
• Burnout Takedown by various.
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay by unknown.
• Crysis by Inon Zur.
• Deus Ex by Alexander Brandon, Dan Gardopée, Michiel van den Bos and Reeves Gabrels.
• Deus Ex Invisible War by Alexander Brandon.
• Fable by Russell Shaw and Danny Elfman.
• Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter by Tom Salta
• GTA III by various.
• GTA Vice City by various.
• GTA San Andreas by various.
• GTA IV by various.
• Gun by Christopher Lennertz.
• Halo 1 by Martin O’Donnell and  Michael Salvatori.
• Halo 2 by Martin O’Donnell and  Michael Salvatori.
• Halo 3 by Martin O’Donnell and  Michael Salvatori.
• Halo Wars by Stephen Rippy.
• Hitman 2 by Jesper Kyd.
• Hitman Blood Money by Jesper Kyd.
• Jade Empire by Jack Wall.
• Mass Effect by Jack Wall and Sam Hulick.
• Splinter Cell Chaos Theory by Amon Tobin.
• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic by unknown.
• Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords by unknown.
• Star Wars Republic Commando by unknown.
• Stubbs the Zombie by various.
• The Elder Scrolls III – Morrowind by Jeremy Soule.
• The Elder Scrolls IV – Oblivion by Jeremy Soule.
• And anything done by the Video Game Pianist [and it's even better his music can be downloaded for free on his site].

My Last.fm stats aren’t very surprising to me. Within my top 100 artists the following game soundtracks are among them:

• Mass Effect – 349 listens.
• GTA [all] – 277 listens [this should be more, but unfortunately most of them are untagged and I'm too lazy to tag them correctly!].
• Halo [all] – 271 listens.
  
• Deus Ex [all] – 198 listens.
• Video Game Pianist – 178 listens.
  
• Buffy – 164 listens.
  
• Beyond Good & Evil – 143 listens.
  
• Jade Empire – 121 listens.
  
• Fable – 114 listens.
  
• KotOR [all] – 112 listens.
  
• Gun – 105 listens.
  
• Oblivion – 73 listens.
  

There some soundtracks I’ve been unable to find, however, including:

• Assassin’s Creed
• Black
• Broken Sword
• Call of Duty 4
• Destroy all Humans
• Freedom Fighters
• Hitman Contracts
• Just Cause [especially the chilled out music playing when parachuting/gliding!]
• Oddworld games.
• Rainbow Six Vegas
• Splinter Cell Double Agent.
• Voodoo Vince
• Wallace and Gromit in Project Zoo

Those who know me know that I like to play video games. I like a variety of games, as the list of my favourite Xbox games shows, as well as many 360 games, such as Dead Rising, Oblivion, Mass Effect, Rainbow 6 Vegas and other games more commonly referred to as ‘kiddie games’.

I have been known to play through the entire night, on occasion even weekends when a new title I have been anticipating gets released and I don’t even want to think about how many hours I have spent on Halo 2 or Rainbow 6 Vegas combined over the years. In fact, I realised the other day that it had been two years since I had last played Halo 2 yet could still remember the locations and spawn times over every single weapon on all the Halo 2 maps [with the exception of Waterworks that is!], including specific strategies.

In addition to that I read about video games, listen to some video game music, talk about video games and have worked in the video games industry and will most likely do so again.

I have written about games politics on this blog before; once praising the state of Delaware launching a campaign to make parents aware that games carry ratings and another time on how Germany passed a new legislation disallowing games on the index to be advertised in shops back in May 2008.

It was speculated among people on Twitter early during the first news of the shooting In Winnenden that somehow games would be blamed for this and whilst it initially seemed like they were wrong and fellow students mentioned how he never had much to do with computers this soon changed and suddenly video games are everything people talk about.

Cue the arrival of the ‘usual suspects’ and right at the front of it all Christian Pfeiffer [do yourself a favour and read his Wikipedia article!] who I strongly believe to be someone on his path to becoming the German Jack Thompson. Coincidentally he has just completed a study into the behaviour of teens which has concluded that 15 year olds play around two hours a day on the computer, ergo addicted and are also xenophobic and prone to violence.

However, unsurprisingly all concentration since the weekend is on video games. Every now and then I hear in a debate the quiet whispers of ‘We’re still looking into gun laws’, but the majority of the media is about gaming. For example, the radio news in the late afternoon only briefly mentioned the letter Tim K’s parents had written yet spent a considerably longer amount on gaming addiction. Also curious where all the different outlets are suddenly finding all the supposed game addicts.

Phoenix, one of the political news channels in Germany, has dedicated much of yesterday’s programming on the issue of video games by calling up experts, broadcasting live from several press conferences and having discussion rounds. These are some of my tweets during the press conference and a documentation from 2007 [Gewalt spielen] that Phoenix broadcasted:

• Far Cry 2 a more brutal game than Counter Strike?
• Anyone in Germany interested in games should watch the pressconference on Phoenix and shake their head in disbelief..
• Yeah, right.. A documentary about gaming with a ten years old playing GTA SA. Cause it’s the game’s fault, not the retailer, obvs. /sarc
• Another: “I broke a kid’s jaw just ’cause.” He DIDN’T say he played games, so what’s that got to do in a documentary about violent games!?
• LOL: “He also plays real violent games” as they’re showing King Kong [that linear game to the film] and Jedi Academy in the background.
• “I want to feel like a man, so I play shooting games.” Just where did they find these people?!
• Kid’s theatre: ten kids all pretend to stab each other [Macbeth], somehow that’s meant to be better than playing a game? Really? How?!

And about a discussion group later on:

• Christian Pfeiffer is the German Jack Thompson..
• Apparently STALKER confuses history. I thought that game was set in the future in a different reality?!
• @capo42 It was yet anther joke. Pfeiffer, some random ex addict who wants to ban games, two defending games, but host didn’t give them much.

I have yet to see gamers make much of an impact in any of the documentaries or reports I’ve seen, this whole situation is again just people talking about gamers and not with them and journalists are scrambling to get anything together leading to badly done documentaries that don’t help the situation. Tell any gamer that King Kong is a ‘real violent’ game and they’ll laugh as a vast majority of us has seen much worse from BioShock to GTA to games depicting any of the wars.

Yet it seems like there’s not much coming from the gamer community. I see silent protests everywhere from gaming accessory companies giving away free T-shirts ["I don't vote game killers"] to flickr groups in which people post pictures of themselves with captions [For example: "I have killed many people with shotguns in Halo. I have never killed anyone in real life. Not because there are no people. There are no guns. Not in my life"], but nothing that substantial enough.

Gamers just have this instinct to get defensive everytime the topic turns to gaming which perhaps is a result of ongoing bitter console wars or perhaps it’s just a sign that they feel misunderstood by society at large that has yet again pointed the finger at them. Some reactions I’ve read on blogposts and internet forums over the last days have also been discraceful and almost made me ashamed to be a gamer. Some gamers just use expletives, others talk about illegally importing all future games and the like. How can gamers expect to be taken seriously if there are so many bad apples in our midst?

On the other hand I, too, have been getting angry at some of the comments I’ve heard over the last days from the people wishing to ban/restrict games, however that is mainly just aimed at the ignorance and uneducated nature of them. Some examples:

• Several programs claimed that the driving force behind gaming is that gamers are able to be God-like, control life and death, feel powerful and reign destruction all of which are things I wouldn’t even place on the list of top ten reasons why I game.
• It’s been mentioned that gamers have less social contact which I’m sure has been true at some point, but with more and more people having access to the internet and online gaming I believe that’s something that isn’t true any more.
• According to a documentary people playing games waste their time which may be true for some games [I do not believe Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing has any redeeming features, sorry!] yet not for most others. Sure, some see Counter Strike as a simple game to practice headshots, others will see it as a game that teaches communication, tactics, judging of situations and most of all teamwork.
• The fact people make up games that don’t exist, such as the game that pays 35000USD extra for letting someone bleed to death or where cutting off every limb with a chainsaw gives extra points.
• Specifically citing blackmailing/beating up shopkeepers in The Godfather as bad which after all is taken from a [arguably] Hollywood classic from 1972?

The main problem at the moment is, however, that the whole situation is nothing but everyone running around like headless chickens. A boy or rather teenager has gone and killed 15 people and committed suicide. People are scared as nothing appeared to be wrong with him and I doubt we will ever find out the real reasons behind his motives which can be anything or nothing.

Gaming isn’t a mainstream past time, most people don’t have access to a high end PC or consoles and it is a foreign concept to them meaning gaming has to be explained to them and gamers have to act responsibly and not just blindly defend their stance. It is still a new industry and people have a right to ask why there have been an increased number of shootings or stabbings in recent years when gaming has only now become so popular and weapons have been around centuries.

That’s why I do think gamers have to do a better job at, well, being gamers. There have been over 35 studies in the last years about the effects of video games and whilst most have been inconclusive some others have proven games increase the level of tolerance with violence or increase aggressiveness. Sure, others at the same time have disproven any findings.

Gamers have to participate in future studies, it is our responsibility to educate others about our hobby, just like it is the repsonsibility of many game companies. Active approach, active positive explanation of games needs to happen from gamers who have to enter this discussion with the politicians and the groups that are against gaming.

And at the same time all those calling for measures need to listen. The whole situation currently is a big mess with politicians abusing the fact it’s a major election year for their own purpose by demanding and condemmning whatever comes to their minds. Germany already has the strictest gaming laws in Europe and many games available in other countries aren’t available here and whilst many gamers would like games to be seen as culture they know not every game deserves to be called that just like a dime novel isn’t a great work of literature. Rushing into action without fully investigating the entire background of the shootings and having discussions about this isn’t what you have been elected for by the people.

I have to admit I’ve been finding it difficult writing this post as there has simply been too much information in the last days and I have not been sure what my opinion on the matter is. I don’t think the attitude of some gamers in defending every game blindly is commendable as there are many games I wouldn’t consider enrich anything, yet of course the same can be said from films. And others are works of art and again, the same can be said about films.

Some games are taking it a bit far; I was honestly shocked by Manhunt and have not played the second one and there have been moments during Condemned that have affected me a lot, although I have always been a ‘jumpy’ person and do not watch horrofilms. And there are gamers that actively wish their games to have more blood or graphical content which could be considered questionable.

And I feel rather angry at being chucked in this big pot of people that play games and having to be told I just play games to feel like God. Yes, I play a lot of games, but that’s not everything. I’m still an individual person with many interests including knitting [One day I'll blog about that, too. Maybe if they talk about banning wool soon..] or reading books.

And I hope that a tweet I made yesterday will not be true..

Mark my words: A large number of videogames [16+] will be banned in Germany by the end of 2009.

Some further reading touching up on things I’ve mentioned [some links are in German and you'll have to use a translator]:

• World of Bullshit [taz]
• Zu schnell geschossen [Die Zeit]
• Winnenden und der Mörder, der nicht in den Kram passt [Handelsblatt]
• Amok Koma [Spreeblick]
• Streit über Computerspiele neu entbrannt: “Killerspiele sind Pornos für die männliche Aggressivität” [Tagesschau.de]
• Comment: German shooting linked to Far Cry 2. Really? [Gamezine.co.uk]
• Violent Video Game ban requested in Germany [Gamezine.co.uk]
• Why Do Americans Own Guns Again? Teen Kills Mother Over Halo 3 [Gamezine.co.uk]
• Merkel für unangekündigte Kontrollen bei Waffenbesitzern [Spiegel Online]
• Programmhinweis [Stigma Videospiele]
• Killerspielverbot: Bayern entscheided Donnerstag [Stigma Videospiele]
• Sind Computerspiele „Kulturgüter“ oder handelt es sich hierbei um „Schund“? [Deutscher Kulturrat] [.pdf book download]
• Jeder siebte Jugendliche “sehr” ausländerfeindlich [Welt.de]
• Einen Amoklauf lernt man nicht durch Counterstrike [Welt.de]
• Neuntklässler spielen täglich 130 Minuten am PC [Welt.de]
• Niedersachsen drängt auf strengere Altersfreigabe [Haz.de]
• Schäuble: “Was läuft schief in unserer Gesellschaft?” [Deutschlandfunk]
• Schluss mit dem Gewalt-Tabu [Pfarrer Thomas Hartmann]
• Gehet hin und prügelt euch [Focus.de]
• Games do not kill. Guns do.
• “Ich wähle keine Spielekiller” [3Dsupply]
• Computerspiele unter Beschuss [piratenbrandenburg.de]
• Winnenden und die Schuld der Medien [Spiegelfechter.de]
• Researchers Suspect “Perfect Storm” of Political Opportunism in Game Violence Studies [Game Politics]
• Wird sich die Gesellschaft zu einem wirksamen Jugendschutz durchringen? [Zeit Fragen]
• Amoklauf durch Gewaltspiele? [Krawall Gaming Network]
• KFN profile for Christian Pfeiffer [KFN.de]
• Malte Behrmann, Vorsitzender GAME e.v. [Malte-Behrmann.de]
• Armin Laschet
• “Wir verkaufen nicht an Amokläufer!” [Bam-Stevinho.de]
• Wieder die ‘Killerspiele’ [Gamestar.de]
• Was Sie über Videospiele wissen müssen [Stern.tv]
• Über GTA und Aggression [dreisechig.net]

Image sources: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Phoenix program links: 1 | 2| 3|

• Assassin’s Creed: As I mentioned in my ‘first impressions’ post I wasn’t too impressed with Assassin’s Creed. My opinion didn’t much change throughout playing the game. There were many, many moments in which I hated it and was close to breaking the disc and very few good moments, such as the twist in one of the two storylines and a couple of funny moments when escaping/fighting. All in all it was very repetitive though and just a wasted opportunity all around.

• Lego Star Wars: The complete saga: I loved the previous two and the promise of extra levels/areas, more characters and two player Co op over Xbox Live was just too hard to resist. Matt and I played some of it the other day and whilst it has it’s issues, such as camera angles and the inability of advancing both player’s saves, it’s still a lot of fun.

• CSI Hard Evidence: I’m a big CSI fan, especially CSI Las Vegas [the original one] and for that reason it was clear to me that I’ll get the CSI game. I previously played the one on the Xbox, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and it should have really told me a lesson that CSI games just won’t be any good. Ever. There are a few things that save the game though, such as the voice overs being done by the original cast [with the exception of Jorja Fox [Sara Sidle]], complicated and intriguing storylines and the Las Vegas helicopter flybys.

• SWOS – Sensible World of Soccer: I was looking forward to this game for a while as I have some good memories to playing the Xbox version. I played a few games of it, but it’s going to take some time to get back into the flow.

• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare: I’ve never liked any of the previous ones. Against popular belief that is not because they were set during WWII, but rather that they felt slow, sluggish and featured uninspiring levels. Number 4 in the series is set in the near future and has a much better feel to it. It’s faster, has a really intriguing story and some great levels. I’m not too interested in the multiplayer at the moment, but the single player has definitely grabbed my attention.

I really want to play some BioShock again, especially as a few extras have been released and the game was very good, albeit too short.

There is also some extra Oblivion content, which has been sitting on my 360 for weeks and not yet been played. I never did finish the ‘Shivering isles’ expansion pack.

Oh and Mass Effect. I think enough time’s gone past now and I can play it again without constantly being reminded of my first playthrough.

And then there’s my Nintendo DS with Hotel Dusk that’s waiting to be completed or at least played a little more so I can find out just what the game is meant to be all about!

I guess I won’t be bored!

Cat

Personally I think that’s a great idea. Games only seem to be in the press whenever another school, mall, college shooting happens, regardless if the assailant ever played a game. There are still too many people that have no idea just how far games have come; someone I was talking to recently hadn’t played a game since Tetris. Compare that to games like Mass Effect that are a completely different level.

And all the people that don’t realise that games aren’t just for kids. According to a BBC study, the average age of UK gamers is 28.

Cat

• Overlong tutorial.
• Tutorial computer voice. Can she speak any slower?
• Too many too long cutscenes. Who cares I was demoted? Why did the guy with the beard go on about it so much? Why did I have to bother listening in to the conversation with the doctor and the woman? Why are they so long?
• Camera angles. Yes, I know you can move them, but but I really don’t like them disappearing behind walls mid fight. Games should know better by now.
• Fighting. Who the hell came up with that? It’s like Fable, but even more unimaginative. Press one button, press the same button, oooh, press the same button again…
• Cutscenes. They are so annoying, they deserve to be mentioned twice.
• Horse riding. First of all what is the point? Second of all do they have speed cameras in the Holy land? Has no one ever seen someone go a little faster on their horse? Why do I raise suspicion for trotting along instead of nearly going backwards striding. They must have had horse messengers or peopel in a hurry. Surely?
• Blending in with scholars and no one sees that big sword on my body?!
• He can’t swim… Why not? He’s a trained Assassin for Christ’s sake. Training since he was little. And they forgot to teach him how to swim?
• Tearing display. The game may look shiny, that doesn’t excuse the tearing display.

The worst thing about the game is that it feels so automated. Yeah, you can jump along beams, climb buildings, but it’s not really you doing it. All you need to do is hold the right trigger and move the thumbstick to climb or hold the trigger and press A to jump. Press A to hide in a group of scholars, then put the controller aside until you’re where you want to be..

People have said it’s got some Prince of Persia in it, but Prince of Persia is a very different and far superior game. It requires you to time jumps, direct the prince to where you want him; it needs reflexes and a clear strategy on how you’re going to get somewhere. Assassin’s Creed fails.

And I thought he was an Assassin, secretive, in the shadows, yet he is supposed to help citizens, thus drawing attention to himself?!

Of course Mass Effect was so good that no other game will be able to compare for a long time [ever?], but this is far worse than I though. So far anyway…

Cat

In Gaming:

• Mass Effect – Thoughts after the first completion

  People always seem to deal in extremes, best and worst.

• Mass Effect – First impressions

  Mass Effect is a game I’ve been wanting to play for almost two years now.

• Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is in the making!

  The news that made my day: Ubisoft are currently developing a sequel to the very successful game ‘Rainbow Six Vegas which was released last year.

• Mass Effect – Six days to go..

  It’s all over now, I am now completely in Mass Effect mode and cannot wait for it to come out, as I’ve mentioned before.

On TV and Films:

• TV online

  Considering I was ill for quite a while now I was unable to sort out some things in the house.

• Hitman [Updated]

  The Hitman movie that has been in planning for several years is finally released in the United States tomorrow and on the 30th in the UK.

• The Simpsons

  So many people say that the Simpsons have not been funny in many years.

In life:

• Have I become who I wanted to be?

  This is something that had me thinking for a few days now: Have I become who I wanted to be?

And everything else:

• Women on the internet and on Xbox Live

  Against popular belief women do exist on the internet.

• Cooking and some free rice

  As I was cooking dinner tonight I started to think.

And some stats for the whole on November:

• Views: 11574
• Posts: 26
• Comments: Approximately 300 including my own.

Thanks for stopping by. :)

Cat

• Ask me for my favourite film and the list will include anything from Star Wars, Lord of the Rings to films like Ever After, About a boy, Human Traffic, Goodbye Lenin and anything in between.
• Ask me for my favourite music and I’ll tell you I listen to anything.
• Ask me for my favourite book and it’s books from Patricia Cornwell to Sophie Kinsella, old classics and Sci-Fi books.
• Ask me for my favourite game and things are similar with games spanning all sort of genres from Role-Playing to Action and shooters.

I have, however, never been able to specifically name a single favourite of either of those.

Mass Effect has all the potential of being an amazing game. Promising storyline, a big gameworld to explore, great graphics and innovative features. But most of all it promises to involve you directly and make you feel for your decisions.

Some of the reviewers say:

Mass Effect is a great science-fiction novel in videogame form. Meaning, it mixes the highest caliber of pure story with the decision-making and raw action of the best games.

Personally, it’s the best game I’ve ever played, but even if you’re not a hardcore sci-fi nerd like me, Mass Effect is a transcendent experience, the new standard-setter for what a game can be.

OXM US

It’s a rare thing when a game comes along with the power to move a player emotionally… Mass Effect takes interactive entertainment to breathtaking new heights.

Gamespy

One of the most cinematic games of all-time, something that’s definitely helped by a fantastic story, great writing, movie-quality direction, and strong voiceover work.

Team Xbox

I completed Mass Effect on Monday evening and had a total of 52 hours of total playtime. During that time I had to make decisions that not only involved in the death of one of my party members but also other people in the game. I went to places like the moon which was by far the hardest mission in the game, got promoted to Spectre and committed several crimes. Not to mention smuggling, selling drugs and scanning robots.

This is by far the best game I have ever played and I urged everyone to play it. I cannot wait for future downloadable content and the other two games.

Cat

Be aware, there may be spoilers to the sidequests.

Initial impressions:

• It is a very big game. Many planets, many people.
• It is incredible beautiful.
• There are only a very limited number of loading screens. For example it’s possible walking round the entire Citadel Station [the main area with council, shops, bars, medical, security, embassies and much more] without a single loading screen.
• Apart from the game’s main story there are many underlining stories, such as Xenophobia with aliens distrusting humans, humans distrusting aliens and personal vendettas.
• There are some interesting moral decisions, such as whether genetic treatment for babies with a possible fatal condition is good or if experiments for ‘gifted’ children can cause problems later on.
• The voice overs and dialogue options are superb.
• The music.
• The extremely powerful scenes, such as but not only the Council meetings.
• Some great side missions, such as:
  • Being interviewed for TV.
  • A ‘religious’ sect with a leader named ‘Father’ Kyle.
  • Hostage situations.
  • Illegal experiments.
  • Whether a dead soldiers body should be used to conduct experiments that can save thousands or be given to the husband.

The only ‘bad’ aspects so far:

• Not being able to access the Journal when looking at the Galaxy map. Yes, it’s an absolute minor point, but still annoying!
• The party members don’t feel as they did on KotOR I and II. There isn’t as much incentive to learn their backstory.
• Kaiden Alenko has the same voice actor as Carth Onasi from KotOR. I keep wondering what Carth is doing there and how he escaped ‘Star Wars’!
• Seth Green’s voice acting is great, but whenever I talk to his character, Joker, I get reminded of this outtakes video he did.
• Thresher Maws. They literally scare the shit out of me.

The game takes many aspects from games that I love. Some are:

• Minor elements such as persuasion ['Charm'] and threat ['Intimidate'] from the KotOR series.
• Being able to make a speech. KotOR again [KotOR II, Dantooine].
• News stories that are affected by the actions in the game and maybe slightly altered for the ‘masses’! Deus Ex Invisible War.

Some of the great quotes so far:

She may save more lives in death than she did in life.

Homecoming quest

“The environmental suits protect us against diseases.”
“Ah. Well, I’ll try not to sneeze!”

Conversation between Kaiden and Tali.

Put the Normandy in my hands and I’ll make her dance for you. Just don’t ask me to get up and dance, unless, you know, you like the sound of snapping shin bones!

Joker about his ability to fly and his condition with weak bones.

This is an amazing game which my post probably doesn’t even reflect. Well worth the wait. :)

To finish it off, a random quote from Matt that came up on msn which had to be included:

I mean, not ZOMG, but like, WTF.

Cat

And as a very last thing, this very much reminds me of myself at the moment.

Players will encounter an intense solo campaign that uses new tactical possibilities in various locations around Sin City. As expected with one of the pioneer franchises for online multiplayer Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will also break new ground in both co-op and adversarial modes, while providing unprecedented interaction between the solo and multiplayer modes.

March 2008 cannot come quick enough!

In other news, Mass Effect is coming out in [at the time of writing] in just over 27 hours. Finally!

Cat

In Gaming:

• Assassin’s Creed finally [?] out this week

  The wait is over and the game is finally out.

• Mass Effect Launch trailer

  The Mass Effect launch trailer is out and makes me want to play the game even more.

• Review: Splinter Cell Double Agent

  Looking through old files on my PC, I’ve come across this, a review of Splinter Cell Double Agent I wrote for Ignition in November last year.

In TV:

• One Tree Hill

  First there was Dawson’s Creek, then the OC and somewhere in between there is One Tree Hill.

In Blog:

• Consider it blogged – Why Bloggers can’t be trusted

  Found during my travels in the blogsphere.

• Blog Community Writing Project Update 1

  Just a little reminder, the Community writing project is underway and you have until this weekend to submit your entries.

• Blog community writing project.

  This is inspired by Sha’s suggestion over on Matt’s blog who hasn’t blogged in quite a while

• You know, I know you’re here..

  I’m a bit like you.

• New look

  So I finally wanted to be different and distinguish myself from most other wordpress.com users by getting the CSS upgrade and using a different theme.

In life:

• Still bored…

  This is more or less a continuation of my other post a few days ago in which I said I was feeling really ill.

• Bored

  I’m simply bored of being ill now.

And everything else:

• Couple of things

  All of these have been sitting on my desktop for weeks and don’t really warrant an extra post.

• Some Facebook, a bit of Myspace.

  Pretty much everyone these days is registered on a social networking site and more or less active.

Cat

The story revolves around an ancient alien prophecy stating that every 50,000 years a portal opens that separates the “normal” universe and a realm beyond, releasing an ancient artificial intelligence that will harvest all organic life, and the time of their return is approaching. As the first human Spectre—sworn defenders of galactic peace—Shepard’s mission is to halt the advancing armies of Saren, a legendary Spectre agent gone rogue. Saren has mysteriously taken control of the Geth, a race of rudimentary A.I. networks, whom he intends to use to shape the galaxy in his image, and to exact revenge against humanity for their perceived injustices against his people.

Wikipedia

In the meantime I think I’ll read the Mass Effect book again which is the prequel to the game.

Cat

Infact checking my RSS feeds, it seems that everyone everywhere is just talking about Mass Effect. Especially Ctrl-Alt-Del which in the last year has become my favourite webcomic and there was a whole series dedicated to it here. This is my favourite one of them:

Only 10 to go and counting…

Cat

I’ve moved, watched Heroes [amongst other stuff] and played too much Halo 3. This blog also has a new domain – carocat.co.uk

• Blame Halo 3

  This is an excellent parody on people that are playing too much Halo 3, myself included. Oh and as we’re on the subject of Halo 3, head over to my new ‘My Halo 3‘ page which has my stats and some screenshots. Cat EDIT: Came across the lyrics as well now. Enjoy!

• I’m going to be busy in the next few months…

  … playing many games.Yep, it’s that time of year again, the Christmas rush is under way and many promising games are coming out. Sadly there are also way too many games I am looking forward to play, not to mention all the games that I am still playing, including Project Gotham Racing 4 and of…

• So it’s been a while

  I will personally prosecute everyone that says moving house is easy. It really is not. Couple that with my mobile breaking and me being ill and I can safely say it’s been a ‘fun’ time. Technically I’m still ill, I’ll need a few more days to get my energy back, but at least most of [...]

• Heroes

  Every year various TV stations are competing for the viewers by bringing newer and bigger things to our screens. Some raise to cult status withing weeks, others are a little slower to capture the viewers hearts.I always seem to be catching on to the hype late. There was Lost which I gotten bored of…

• Welcome to http://carocat.co.uk

  As Ashish already pointed out [and he noticed within minutes!] this blog now has a new domain and no longer includes the .wordpress.com.I bought carocat.co.uk quite a while ago, mainly to reserve it as carocat.com was already taken and I wanted to make sure that this one is mine, especially as I…

• I have the keys!

  As of yesterday I finally have the keys and can start moving and setting up furniture. Not too sure if the actual move is something to look forward to, but the final result will be worth it. View of the fireplace and the mirror above it! Currently I am aiming to have fully moved by Tuesday, [...]

Cat

Yep, it’s that time of year again, the Christmas rush is under way and many promising games are coming out. Sadly there are also way too many games I am looking forward to play, not to mention all the games that I am still playing, including Project Gotham Racing 4 and of course Halo 3.

So which games am I going to get over the next few months?

Carry on reading this post, however, be aware that there is a selection of Youtube videos and several images.

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Tomb Raider Anniversary [Release 26.10., November via Downloads].

This game came out last week for the Xbox 360, however SCI are promising to release the game via downloadable content on Marketplace in November, so I’m holding out for that. You simply cannot beat Lara Croft. I’ve loved the series since the second game and have just dug out my ‘Legends’ copy this weekend to give it another spin. Reviewers say it’s a massive improvement to the series, so it’s looking very promising!

The official trailer

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The Simpsons Game [Release 02.11.].

The Simpsons are everywhere this year; the series is in season 19, the film was released in Summer and now a new game. The game is unrelated to the film and infact appears to be more of a GTA/Sandbox type game in which items have to be collected, missions completed, but the player is able to roam around in between. It is also a parody of several other games, such as ‘Medal of Honor’ is ‘Medal of Homer’, ‘Everquest’ is ‘Neverquest’ and ‘Grand Theft Scratchy: Blood Island’ an obvious reference to ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’. The demo level released a few weeks back is funny and promises a great game.

The official trailer

The trailer for the NeverQuest level

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Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga [Release 9.11.].

A few years back I’ve fallen in love with the Star Wars films, the story and pretty much everything related to it. I simply love the games of recent years, including the ‘Jedi Knight’ series, the ‘Knights of the Old Republic’ series and of course ‘Lego Star Wars’. It all started with Lego Star Wars which was released back in 2005 and featured the ‘new trilogy’, Episode I-III with a minor bonus level set in Episode IV. A sequel featuring the ‘original trilogy’, Episode IV-VI followed in 2006 after the first one was immensely successful and received great reviews. On the Xbox 360 version it was also possible to download the characters of the first game.

This new one features all six films and has revamped and extra levels not present before. The most exciting addition however is the introduction of Co-op via Xbox Live. A must buy!

The official trailer

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Assassin’s Creed [Release 16.11.].

I’ve been very interested in this game for a very long time. It’s all about being an assassin during the crusades combined with beautiful graphics and big accessible cities. And I’m still looking forward to this game, however with all the delays to it [it was meant to be released in Spring '07] and the continuous over exposure with countless videos I am definitely not as hyped as I used to be. That didn’t stop me from preordering the special edition, including a figurine of Altair, the main character, though!

The latest official trailer

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Kane and Lynch Dead Men [Release 23.11.].

I first heard of this game last year around the time ‘Hitman: Blood Money was released. I was intrigued as it was made by the same people that made Hitman and had a new approach including two vastly different characters and what seemed to be an intriguing story. Couple delays and videos and news later and I’m again not that hyped any more. It seems to be much more of a shooter than I imagined and the characters appear to be very similar. Nevertheless, it seems to be highly polished and it does still intrigue me to an extent.

The first official trailer

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Mass Effect [Release 23.11.].

Only 24 days to go until this game finally comes out. Everyone who knows me knows just how much I go on and on and on about it and cannot wait for it to come out. This game infact deserves it’s own post if not it’s own blog dedicated to it.

It is created by the same people that made two of my all time favourite games, ‘Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic’ one and two and Jade Empire which sadly was way too short.

The game is set in the future where humanity has discovered an abandoned alien lab on Mars thus allowing them to use the technology for faster space travel. With it came the discovery of other alien races, the council and enemies. The pre story is explained in depth in the book ‘Mass Effect; Revelation’ which came out a couple of months ago and is well worth a read even if you’re not intending to get the game.

Mass Effect is an RPG looking to revolutionise gaming. It consists of several planets, many characters to interact with and a compelling story.

Only 24 days to go..

The latest official trailer

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Too many games, too little time!

Cat

Time for another podcast, yes, the ConsoleMonster podcast number 8 [or 7, part 2] is out now. I’m not too sure if I like it, James seemed to have been on a little Vendetta and left a lot of stuff in that I thought was going to be removed! But, of course I’m only joking and James would never do such a thing!

Anyways, this comes a just after my last post on the ConsoleMonster podcast number 7 [which I forgot about and only posted a week after it was released!] and is a little shorter than the previous one.

Episode 8 – Console News & Debate (Part 2)

In the second part of our debate, our host James along with John, Cat, Scott and Chris continue our ramblings about the following Console news and topical debates:

* Manhunt 2 Gets ‘M’ Rating
* Do Real Time Strategy (RTS) Games work on consoles?
* Tank Rush!
* Fireworks!
* Assassins Creed – John concerned, Cat excited and wot not
* Multi-platform gaming damaging overall quality?
* The Simpsons Game – Doh!
* Cats love for Simpsons Hit and Run – Medic!!!
* Cats Xbox 360 Elite – Crisp and Shiny
* What we are playing?
* Yoshi Ringtone!

Length: 26 Mins
File size: 9 MB

This podcast is slightly different to the previous one, it is a lot more random with fireworks in th background [It was the Reading festival and I just happen to live close to it...] to me wanting to buy Simspons Hit and Run again which I think is a quality game.

Any comments are welcome and thanks for listening [if you do that is!].

Cat

Issue 7 of Ignition is now out. Inside:

Preview - Mass Effect.
Reviews - Gears of War, Call of Duty 3, F.E.A.R, Viva Pinata.
Features - XL, The Book of Games Volume 1.
Plus a great competition!

Go and download it now!

Cat