Tag Archives: Mass Effect 2

Working through the Trilogy (again)

Posted by Steve on March 26, 2012 No comments

Lately I have been suffering a little PTMED (Post Traumatic Mass Effect Depression, it’s a thing). I tried to go play some Old Republic, but found myself too distracted with all of the huge range of emotions I experienced with my playthrough of ME3. (Note, still liked the ending). As I have mentioned before, I never did a second playthrough, only the single story, and single save. The quick recap about this meant that I was able to experience the whole story in a very unique way. It didn’t get convoluted with alternate choices or multiple stories. (Not that there is anything wrong with that, just not what I wanted to do). I have now experienced the whole story, and I loved it.

So, what do you do with a story you just finished and loved? You experience it again! I made the decision to run through the whole story again, starting at Mass Effect 1, and working through the whole trilogy. I experienced a small snag in this though. My ME1 disk went missing! I had pre-ordered and bought the collectors tin for ME1 and had the tin, and the bonus discs…..but no game disk! I checked with Gamestop and they wanted $30 for a pre-owned copy (WTF!!!). Amazon had new Platinum editions for $19 (UPDATE, it’s $16 now!!!) with prime shipping so that’s how I went. It arrived on Friday.

To accompany this epic playthrough I also splurged and purchased the N7 branded G155 Personal Gaming Environment. I have a number of trips coming up that may end up with me in a place that might get boring. (assuming I don’t get out and take pictures.) So I picked up this case so I could take a 360 with me. I will probably have a post about the case after I get it wit photos and such.

So, I am now 10 hours into Mass Effect 1 and the experience is amazing. First off, it’s VERY difficult to transition from ME3 controls down to ME1, you can tell they improved on quite a bit. Outside of that, though, it’s been outstanding. It feels like one of those movies where I have been transported back in time and given the opportunity to make new choices, knowing what I know now! My favorite moment so far was meeting Wrex for the first time (again) with the Dialogue

Wrex: Do I know you human?

Me: * Not yet
* You will
* Shut Up

For those that are curious, I am playing through as BroShep. My first was with FemShep, and my Romance options were ME1: Liara (Duh), ME2: Garrus (Comedy Option), and ME3: Traynor (Stress Relief). I would be happy to explain these if you ask, but I think I know how I will steer things this time around. I will certainly keep you updated on the progress both here and on Twitter.

Farpoint 2010 The Returning

Posted by Steve on February 16, 2010 No comments

For those of you who are unfamiliar with conventions like Farpoint, it’s a small fan run convention up in Timonium Maryland. I have been to Farpoint a number of times and it’s become kind of a “home base” con for me. It used to be held at the Hunt Vally Marriot hotel but from what I understand there was some Staff issues that caused them to change venues to the Crown Plaza. I really have mixed feelings about the new hotel. I really loved the Marriot because there was ample space for small gatherings of friends for hang outs. The Crown Plaza was like everything all lumped into one very large room so it was one super big party. Like its own little Nerd Prom. So on the one hand you were more involved in Con related stuff, but missed out on the smaller gatherings. My hotel verdict is still out.

So the main reason for attending Farpoint was that Felica Day would be there. Given that she is a LA Native and a frequenter of most of the West Cost cons, having her at something in the east, and a small con to boot, was awesome. Also at the con was the premire of Trenches, the web series produced by Shane Felux of Revelations and Pitching Lucas fame. Also known as the sole reason I have an IMDB Film credit! Trenches, which you know from the earlier post, Officially debuted today at Crackle.com, but con attendees were allowed a early viewing of the whole series on Saturday. After the showing, Shane’s wife Dawn presented the DVD copy to Felica Day for her library. (Felicia Day was unable to attend the viewing due to her signing schedule.)

Also on Saturday I got to attend the Q&A Panel that Felica was holding to see her speak on many different topics. Everyone knows that She is an avid gamer but I was curious to learn what else she was playing. Turns out that she has a large stack of games that are waiting for her furious writing schedule to allow, and in the drive is Mass Effect 2. She also will be doing the voice of the Upcoming Wii Game Rock of the Dead, where she will be the Female love interest to none other than Neil Patrick Harris. The questions she answered ranged from the standard “what would you like to work on” to the obscure “What are the best desert places in LA.” (Which was answered in the most serious tone. BTW, she is a sucker for the cupcake places!) I did get the brief chance to meet up with her and talk a little about gaming and conventions (very very brief). She also wouldn’t give out her Xbox Gamertag (kind of expected) but did mention that she will be doing an Xbox Game with Fame event.

The rest of the weekend was spent with my lovely wife (who tolerates me most of the time) and enjoying our 1 year anniversary, as well as Valentines day. I will spare you the mushy details but it involved awesome turtles and fishes. Also, there may or may not be pictures of me in BSG BDU’s doing possibly bad things to the statue in front of the hotel. I’ll go ahead and say, it wasn’t me! I swear, it was Alan Rickman who happened to be a surprise guest at the hotel and, and, man can that guy drink! (Honest!)

Returning from the Alpha Quadrant, or, Shore leave on Hoth

Posted by Steve on February 8, 2010 2 comments

Well, the snowpocolypse 2.0 has taken it’s toll on us, and the house. We got about 20+ inches of snow and spent most of Saturday and Sunday clearing it off the driveway and everything else. Some of my neighbors have drifts in front of their houses (mostly because of the plows) that measured up to about 9 feet tall! This of course meant that most of the time, not spent shoveling snow, was spent inside playing games. Sarah was on the Internets, until she picked up Overlord 2. Andrew was on Mass Effect 2, after he finished with Uplink, and I was playing Star Trek Online, no after there, it was all STO.

Over the weekend I have managed to make it to the rank of Lt. Commander, I have 4 different ships to choose from, and I have 5 bridge officers. (Also, I have at least 3 tribbles.) The long arduous road to Lt. Commander was painful right at the end, mostly because of the lack of realization that I needed to spend skill points to earn the promotion instead of just earn them. Made it all the way to Lt rank 11 before I figured that out. Once I had earned the rank I ventured back to the Sol Sector and attended my promotion ceremony. It was very touching. After that it was off to claim my new ship. I had actually been saving up energy credits for my entire career so that I could buy an extra ship so one Cruiser and one Escort. Since I am still new to the heavier ships, I will hold off on the pluses and minus until later. Instead lets go over some of the things I loved and hated about my time as a young Lieutenant

Things I loved:

Who needs friends with an away team like this? – Every time I had to beam down to a planet I always had an away team with me. For starters it was just me and my Engineering officer along with a few security guys, (those poor red shirts) but after a while I had my science officer, my tactical officer, and my ferengi, ok so he is a engineering officer too but he’s my token. Each officer has a special ability that they use on their own or by my command. Even coming around and reviving me if I get knocked out. It’s very helpful!

Autogrouping with Others. Now I know this may be a plus or a minus depending on the type of person you are but I found it to be very helpful. If you and 3 other people are working on the same mission at the same time (as is the case in most missions), it will auto group you together and adjust the level accordingly. The amazing thing about it is that without even sending a hail, everyone just worked together! This avoids all of the Awkward conversations and ninja tagging.

Dead Klingon = New Mark II Engine – Everything that I needed for my LT Career was found in loot. I had no need to spend credits on anything because it was all available in loot. This allowed me sell anything excess that I had looted and didn’t need so I could have the money to buy the second ship.

Things I Hated:

Oh god more Patrol missions – To boldly go where everyone has gone before. The patrol missions are really more of a love hate thing. I love that there is a large variety of types of missions, but they start getting repetitive after a while. Clearly they are meant to be filler around the other larger missions, so my advice….don’t run them back to back. Run one system, go do a main mission, come back and do another system.

No, mister Klingon, I do not want to enter an chance enemy encounter. – Flying around in sector space I found myself automagicly sucked into enemy encounters, which under normal circumstances would be fine, but these are on a timer, and the timer is ALWAYS ticking down from like 5 min to start. So I won’t be sitting around for 5 min for my “chance” encounter.

Still a tad clunky – Ok so this is an overall grievance. Unfortunately the game is still a little rough around the edges. There are minor glitches in the graphics, in the performance, in the interface. BUT… It’s a brand new MMO and it’s still finding it’s place and growing into some very large combat boots. After wittnessing the launch of SWG, EQ2, AOC, LOTRO, WoW, COH, and who could forget The Matrix Online! (Wow, I have tried a lot of MMO’s, and many of them from launch!) I can easily see how things will get ironed out and the issues are really minor. I have seen nothing that is a show stopper.

Final verdict: For a starter MMO, I give Star Trek online a good 7.5 out of 10 Tribbles. But I reserve the right to change this score after 1: I play more since it doesn’t really end and, 2: Time mends all glitches.

Just in time too as tomorrow I will be venturing back to Rapture for Bioshock 2!

Snowpocolypse 2.0 or What do you do with a drunken Yeoman?

Posted by Steve on February 5, 2010 No comments

So it’s supposed to snow for the next, like, 48 hours solid bringing around 24 inches of cold insanity with it. I have finished Mass Effect 2 and have no Bioshock 2 to take it’s place. (Yeah, I think I should have slowed down on that one.) So what am I to do with all this time on my hands and locked indoors. I guess I could spend time with my family…….yeah well We know I do that enough and Snow time is Game time! Yesterday we had gone to the mall to take care of some appointments and I just happened to walk into the Gamestop, you know, by accident. There I see it, the Star Trek Online box, just calling to me. The following is the conversation that took place:

Me: Ooooo STO! And Look at all the stuff you get!

Sarah: So if you want it, get it!

Me: But… But… Wait a sec, why aren’t you fighting me on this?

Sarah: Am I supposed to tell you not to get it? If you buy it, then I will get to play it too!

Me: I Love You!

So safe and warm did STO come with me home and get installed. I managed to Create Captain Boothby of the U.S.S Wizzer last night and began my exploration of the galaxy (the other galaxy, not the one I just finished saving from the Reaper/Collector attacks, you know, so we can keep this straight.) I am not sure I am ready for a good enough review at this point, so here are a few key points that I have found so far.

Upon loading into the game I noticed that the first Intro mission was Glitchy as all hell. At first I thought my system wasn’t good enough to handle it, but when I got to the rest of the game it ran just fine. The only thing I could think of is that That certain battle had WAY too much going on it it and it over taxed the system. But I guess that’s a good way to weed out people eh?
Flying your ship looks Amazing. The graphics are outstanding. I would put this about half way between EVE Online and the Space side of Star Wars Galaxies. Your control over the ship is a bit more hands on and granular than Eve, but not as twitchy at SWG.
The ground game is not bad. It probably could use a little more polish, but it’s new so I will give it a chance. Nothing has stood out as “bad”, but nothing amazed me either (unlike the space side)
I have had the chance to do a variety of missions and it plays out like “Episodes” of the show. You can do Diplomatic missions, combat stuff, and exploring and sciency type things. So there is something for everyone!

I think that will do for now. Feel free to message me in game if you would like and remember to stay warm!

To Boldly Have Gone. or Mission Accomplished

Posted by Steve on February 3, 2010 No comments

Here I am, only minutes after finishing Mass Effect 2, and I am still processing all that happened. I may end up actually replaying from my last major save point because I am not completely happy with some of my choices. For now I am going to let them bake in my head and deal with the consequences. (And mourn the loss of Jack, Grunt, Thane, and the Colonists. In the words of Joker: “Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit, What the Shit!?”

This also means that I am now un-distracted until next Tuesday! A fact that I am sure Sarah and Andrew will be happy about. (Or not.) In the mean time I have to say that I have become increasingly tempted by Star Trek Online based on what I have seen about it online and the few friends who have tried it. I am probably only slightly less of a Star Trek fan than I am a Star Wars fan. (Which is to say, pretty damn rabid.) Although I do not own any Star Trek costumes, and I am not sure I will any time soon, I have always enjoyed the shows and the inspiration they provide. I loved many of the other trek games, even though they were widely un-popular. I even have a copy of the Star Ship creator lying around here somewhere. I am curious to the designs of the ships and to see the variants. Ok damn, this is really not helping.

Maybe if I go read the Next Gen Tech Manual I can get my mind off it.

And yes, I have it.

And the Original series one.

The DS9 one too.

Oh God I need help.

Saving the Galaxy, aka, Wintereenmas

Posted by Steve on February 1, 2010 1 comment

Wow so this weekend flew by at FTL through a Mass Effect Relay. Sarah had to head down to Richmond for an appointment so that left me and Andrew at home for Wintereenmas! Add on to that the snow all day Saturday and that sets up the perfect conditions to sit on the couch with Food and drink close by and focus attentions on what needed to be done to save the Galaxy. Andrew was armed with Bioshock 1 on the upstairs and I with Mass Effect 2 Downstairs, I believe we saw each other once or twice through the day. I think the only real break we took was alternating taking the dog out, Shuffling off to Dinner at Hard Times Cafe (Through the snow), and then of course getting the dog to throw up because he got into the chocolate (Not my Fault! He is just really Nosey!)

So Micro Review time! I have spent a lot of time in ME2 so far and have no collected all but 1 of my crew and done their loyalty quests. I have scanned probably about 1/3 of the systems to 100%, and am trying to finish up every side quest on my way out to the Omega 4 Relay. I would like to speculate that I am maybe about 1/2 through the whole game. So lets just run down the list of loves and hates:

Loves:
This is only a small small selection of things I love about this game

The whole galaxy is yours to explore, and it’s Beautiful. I could spend hours just flying around and checking out all of the different Nebula’s.
The Seamless Conversation trees. This was a great part of ME1 and continues to be awesome in 2
Moral Choices out the Yin Yang! So many times I was faced with the choice of “Do I do what is Morally right, or Do what I need to keep my teem member happy so he performs well.
In Depth Story. Any time a story makes you want to sit on the couch ALL DAY LONG means they did everything right. Big time Movie directors and writers need to take a serious look at how games like ME do things. The writing for a 20+ hour game ends up be 100 times better than your standard movie.
Fun Mini Games. In Assassin’s Creed 2, there were Subject 16 mini games that got a little frustrating. Their length and complexity detracted from the rest of the game. Thankfully ME2 didn’t follow in that. the Hacking and Bypass mini games are just right. I can see that in the future they may start getting more complex but none of them seem like they would detract.

Hates (or maybe just Dislikes)

I wish I could say that there was no dislikes but there is always something.

Too Much Choice. I know this seems like a silly thing to dislike but I ran into it in Assassin’s Creed too. When there is too much to do, you can easily loose focus on what needs to get done. I know they are also trying to build the game so that there is some re-playability but with So many different team members, and only be able to take 2 of them at a time, I am missing out on interactions and dialogue that would be nice to see.
Mining Mini game. Mining sucks. Pretty much any game I have played that had mining in it, it’s sucked. It’s a way to get the player to sit and waste time to get the resources they need to continue. Very rarely do I see mining integrated into a fun system. Mining in ME2 takes forever (even with the upgrade) and I ended up with Way too much of one Mineral and not enough of another.
Glitches. No game is without them unfortunately. There was one point where I found myself walking through the geometry and out into a blank space. Had to reload. Also the “Skip Conversation” button should never be tied to the “Select Conversation Tree” Far too many times I went to skip a line of Dialogue because The Character speaks too slowly and I had read the subtitles faster and it selected the next default conversation piece. Very annoying.

This is all very early speculation as I have not finished the game yet but it’s all based on what I have seen so far. There will be much more playing. Of course I only have about 1 week left until Bioshock 2 comes out. I think that will be another Upstairs game so Sarah can watch along. This will also give Andrew the chance to play ME2 downstairs with the DLC on the downstairs system. In the mean time, I need to get back and play!

Training week…

Posted by Steve on January 25, 2010 No comments

So I am in training all week for . The training class is located in the Ballston Common Mall in Arlington VA, and is right across from the Gamestop. The Gamestop of course has a metric F^%$ton of posters for Mass Effect 2 that are taunting me. I have managed to avoid all the various advertisements and trailers (with the exception of print posters and the like). I would very much like the experience I have in game to be un-spoiled. With some of the big name games I have been trying to do that more and more. It seems that lately some of the games are approaching “Avatar” levels of advertising and showing so many in-game videos and screen shots that it boggles me why I should even play the game any more! I probably would have seen all the important parts. (I know I haven’t, but still) So with Mass Effect 2 and the upcoming Bioshock 2 (another sequel!) I have avoided it all. I pick up ME2 tomorrow and will dive in tomorrow evening.