"Dead Eye" Parker and RJ giving the #1 sign with Obama
That's my baller on the left. I think he's in the process of rabbit-earring Tony Parker.
Team photo with our baller president, y'all!
What the hell. Why don't I get to hold the jersey? Fuck you Ginobili; you weren't MVP!
That jersey looks like cardboard.
IWannaShakeThePresidentsHandFuuuuuu!
Never. I expected an actual trophy ceremony after I won, but this is actually way better. My Player season 2 starts now! I'm gonna kick so much more ass now that I'm not a rookie. I decided to leave the Spurs behind and sign with the Magic this season. Yeah, RIGHT after winning the championship. Who the fuck does that? My guy's such an asshole. "Thanks for the championship. See ya suckers!"
Side-note: I love that digital Obama is in this game. So unexpected, and so great.
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It seems that a lot has happened this week. Between receiving more info about the 3DS, the PSP NGP announcement, and some big-budget demos being released, there's a lot to get excited about this week. Not to mention the reminder of how many awesome games are going to be shipping this year courtesy of Ahmad_Metallic. Maybe this is a bad idea, but I thought I'd just condense everything into a single blog. Ya know, save the e-trees.
3DS vs. PSP NGP
Sony's NGP announcement is the biggest story of the week, and for good reason. New console/handheld announcements always give me that tingly feeling. It's a sudden combination of my gamer excitement and my tech enthusiast excitement that can't be simply described. I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about though. So yeah, the next PSP was revealed, and you can get all the juicy details by reading either Jeff's Giant Bomb article, or the more tech-heavy Tested article by Matt Braga. I recommend checking out Braga's article.
In one word: slick One of the more controversial additions to the NGP is it's dual analog sticks. Some people think it's going to finally give them proper gaming on a handheld, while others think that so called "proper gaming" has no place on a handheld, and dual analog sticks are a waste of time. I'm personally excited about them. The lack of dual analog was seemingly the most criticized aspect of the initial PSP design. The way I see it, this will finally allow handheld games to play in a way in which we consider "right". I know that the argument is that people don't want to play console games on a handheld when they could play them on a 50" LCD TV. That's a valid point, but there are counters to that argument too; the biggest one being that you aren't always at home. Playing console-style games between classes, on a road-trip, or on an airplane seems perfectly plausible. I guess my point is that I'm not going to be caught up in the crowd that has grown to be very opposed to the notion of more traditional gaming on the go. This is the first time a handheld appears to have provided the tools to make this a possibility, and that's very exciting.
Color me skeptical when it comes to the second touch surface Another stand-out feature of the NGP is the dual touch screens on both the front and back of the system. Is that not crazy? Both are capacitive which are unquestionably of higher quality than the resistive screen the 3DS will sport. Not to mention the front screen will display double the resolution of the first PSP models. That right there is pretty exciting. My biggest question mark is how they will end up using that rear touch surface. You're supposed to be able to make gestures to climb vines in Uncharted? Seems extremely sketchy to me. If nothing else though, having two capacitive touch screens is very interesting from a tech perspective. I'm not sure that's ever been done before.
Wireless N capabilities, GPS, and 3G connectivity are certainly nice features to be packing as well. Then there's the motion control tech. Throw in a quad-core GPU capable of producing graphics near the level of a PS3, and my mouth is officially watering. There's a hell of a lot of technology packed into such a small package; it's really incredible. A tweet from friendly neighborhood Gary Whitta said it best when it comes to today's technology:
People like to say "where's my jetpack?" It's your smartphone. 10 years ago just the idea of a device that capable would've blown your mind.
It's so true. People take current technology for granted. From purely a tech perspective, the PSP NGP is one of the most exciting devices I've seen in a long time.
Two hundred and forty-nine U.S. dollars you say? On the other side of the fence is Nintendo's offering, the 3DS. Recently a bunch of new info was made public. All of that can be read about via your favorite Italian's article on the subject, here. Since the 3DS has been a known quantity for quite some time, I'm sure you all know the ins and outs of it by now. If there is one particular feature that excites me on the 3DS though, it's virtual reality stuff that the gang brought up on the Bombcast. That stuff seems extremely unique and definitely is something I want to try. The addition of a single analog stick should allow for greater control, but still not to the level of a PSP NGP. I'm sure the proven stylus controls will make a difference here though. Everyone knows that the 3DS looks very cool already, and at the recently announced price of $250, it's looking like a bargain compared to the speculated prices of the PSP NGP.
These are very different devices. One will release in a couple of months, while the other may not even be out until 2012 outside of Japan. They are targeting different audiences, and really couldn't be much different from each other. For these reasons, I'm not sure there can ever be a winner and a loser. One may fail, and one may succeed, but they're such different products with such different ideas. At the moment, I plan on owning them both.
Bulletstorm Demo
Ohai, Cliffy. I didn't see you there. I'm... not feelin' your game. Oh, Bulletstorm. I knew what I was getting into before I got into you. Somehow though, I expected to like you a lot more than I did. I may sound like the anti-gamer for what I'm about to say, but so be it. I really don't like games that pit the player against clocks and score systems as a primary means of fun and excitement. Scores are great, I love scores, but when they become the blatant focus of every mission in a video game, I get really turned off. I'm not sure how many of you played The Club, but that is exactly what I'm talking about. The game (from what I could gather via the demo) revolves around you running from the beginning of a level to the end racking up score by shooting guys in the head and doing rolls and maneuvers to keep a long combo. That was one of the most disappointing demos I had ever played since I had no idea that this system was the crux of the game. I had the same feeling after playing the Bulletstorm demo. Though I admittedly wasn't quite as disappointed since the art style and design is top-notch in Bulletstorm. The shooting feels OK too, but if the whole concept of the game is focused squarely on racking up score, then I'm not down with that at all. I can't be the only one that feels this way, can I? I like games like Prince of Persia (2008) where you just roam this beautifully designed world and explore. I like RPGs like Dragon age, or Mass Effect. I love me some sports games, especially NBA games. I even love rhythm games, like Rock Band, to death. Rock Band has a fairly heavy emphasis on score, but the main draw is the feeling of playing the music itself (at least for me). I'm getting rambly here, but my point is that score-centric games turn me off like no other. It feels weird saying that since so many early video games depended so heavily on scores, but that's just not what I enjoy about video games anymore.
The attempted humor of the game is the other huge turn-off for me. It can be amusing at times, but it just feels way too childish about 90% of the time. It's not the type of humor that I'm into at all. I'm sure other people will like it; my cousin I'm sure will love it. The guys on the Quick Look seemed to like it as well. It's just not my thing though, and I accept that. I don't want to talk about this game any longer. :P
Crysis 2 Demo
Crysis 2 seems to have substance backing up its looks My experience with Crysis as a series is fairly slim. I played probably an hour of the original on a friends capable gaming PC. Yo, that game looks gooood. The obvious aside, it seemed really neat. The suit powers were a bit overwhelming as I just jumped into a save game. Everything about it seemed really intense though. It had a much different feel from something like Halo. It felt... less contained. It's hard to describe, really. I liked it though. The only problem was that I've never owned a capable gaming PC in my entire life. I've always been just behind the curve. For that reason, I never got to spend any proper time with Crysis or Crysis Warhead. I was understandably excited then when I heard the game was coming to consoles. Knowing the reputation of the first games and how much horsepower they took to run, I wasn't sure how that would translate. That is until the demo was released a couple of days ago now. In short: I really like it. There are freezing issues, but I think it's safe to assume that problem will be fixed when a retail product ships.
The action seems to hit my pleasure spot perfectly. As mentioned in the Quick Look, it has a lot of similarities with the recent Call of Duty games. As everyone knows though, those are great games. I've been a bit burned out of the style lately, but Crysis 2 twists that style just a little bit, and I like how it turned out. It works on the gamepad by limiting your options, but that just makes it feel more manageable. In a multiplayer setting, more manageable is key. I love all of the over the top moves you can pull off such as the slide move and the boosted jumps. It all just gives me kind of a "Halo meets CoD" vibe. I'm sure part of my enthusiasm comes from the fact that I've put these games on the back-burner as of late, but it really seems like the kind of fast-paced, crazy shooter that I could really get into.
Brad brought up in the Quick Look how he was cautiously optimistic about the game due to him not knowing how the single player would be handled. I think this is an important point as well. I didn't play enough of the first Crysis games to really get a feel for the way the story was handled, but from what Brad was saying it seemed much more free and open. That sounds compelling. If it is just another Call of Duty style level-based progression system, then I would find that to be maybe a bit bland. This demo definitely did what was meant to do though. I'm now very interested in Crysis 2, and I'll be playing quite a bit more of the demo.
The Year In Games
As previously mentioned, Ahmad_Metallic has created a list of a ton of notable releases this year. It's fun to look over the list and figure out how many games you won't be able to afford this year. I've already made a nice little wishlist in the accompanying Wishlist Thread. You can check out which games I plan to buy this year, or sometime down the road, over in that thread. I'll give you a sneak-peak: Yo I'm gonna buy some BioWare games.
If you would like to explain to me why I'm wrong about any of these topics (or why I'm right!), please do. I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)
I've finally gotten around to setting up some PC hacks to free my Kinect from the shackles of everyday Xbox-life. Props to eroticfishcake for supplying me the link to a nice starting point for all of this. If anyone else is interested, here's that link: http://openkinect.org/wiki/Main_Page
In order to set this all up, you need to have some form of compiler. I happen to have Microsoft's Visual Studio since I've previously taken classes that required it. Most of the instructions give examples for Visual Studio, so it's probably the easiest program to use. All other programs and files--of which there are many--are available through links on the installation instructions page. I did the set up to use in Windows, which actually seems more complicated than the setup for other operating systems, but I wasn't about to go try and find my Ubuntu install disc. Anyway, the process involves a bit of DOS work, a lot of file downloading and copying various files, pointing programs to the downloaded files, then compiling everything and testing. It's not super difficult to figure out if you're into computers; it just takes some time to feel everything out. If you're not that type of person, you should probably stay away. I decided to make a couple of videos showing off the very basic tech-demo programs that are given to you after setting everything up. There are three tests, and I have very little idea what any of them are actually meant to do. Well OK, I do know what one of them does.
(Pro-tip: The volume on these is low. You may need to crank it up a bit.)
Tests 1 & 2:
Test 3:
There you have it. Those are just a few very basic tech-demoy tests, but I hope to take this further as I learn more about all of this stuff. There's a list of potential project ideas on the above-linked site that sound like all kinds of crazy. Things like: a virtual keyboard, 3D object scanning, 3D drum kit, a sign language interpreter, and all kinds of other crazy projects. Most of those may never be completed, but it's cool thinking about them. I'd bet that once Microsoft releases some official tools for this thing, people are going to go crazy.
As little as I have at the moment, it still feels like an accomplishment. I'll be sure to write a "part two" to this if I ever am able to implement some truly awesome stuff.
Note: If a game released in twenty-aught-nine can still be spoiled, then consider this a spoiler warning.
All of the goods in a single box I'm glad to be finally experiencing a game that I should have experienced day one. That game being Dragon Age: Origins. I recently bought the Ultimate Edition(!) that comes with a full second disc of DLC to pre-install. There's quite a bit of content there. I've been slowly working my way through the three traditional DLC packs and a bit of the regular story stuff. This has already been one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a very long while, so I thought I'd roleplay a bard and ramble to the masses regarding my wheelings and dealings.
I'd already played a bit of this game before, so I wasn't completely cold going in. I'd already experienced the mage origin story, so I went for the human noble this time around. I wanted to be a heavy-armor-wearing, damage-dealing warrior, so that seemed like my best bet. Named my character "LaJustin". That's kind of an inside joke type deal, which I still find amusing. But anyways, I found the noble's story to be alright. I have only one other to compare to, but this one had some good moments for sure. I can't be 100% sure here, but I think that guy that you meet next to your mother is a romance option. I was going through his dialog tree and I started getting options that seemed like they could lead to intimate relations. I was like: "Whoa, hold on there buddy! I thought we were just friends!". Not that there's anything wrong with a male character romancing another male, I just didn't expect to even have that option. I definitely can appreciate the freedom with things like that. I decided to court the nice lady elf though. That scene where the guards bust in totally caught me off guard. Did they have to kill such a nice lady-friend? Moving along. Pretty fun origin story is the point.
Next was the obligatory trip to Ostagar. I have to say, for a required opening section, this is actually not a bad one. I think that it's a combination of the well-designed scenery, the plot points that are being laid out at this time, and all of the interaction with various people in camp that makes Ostagar interesting. There's the prisoner that hasn't been fed. There's that whole restricted mage gathering (so mysterious!). Also the dog trainer guy that gives you the quest to help the dogs. There's just a bunch to see and do for such an enclosed area. There's not a whole lot to say beyond that though. Starting that signal fire after the fighting starts is the game's first big battle scenario and it's fun. The beginning especially, where you are running across that long bridge as the battle rages around you, is great. The last time I played the game, I had seen Duncan and the king die in battle, so I wasn't shocked or anything this time around. That's a rough moment though. I felt so helpless watching them get crushed. (It's a good thing the Ultimate Box includes the "Return to Ostagar" DLC so that I could eventually come back and take some revenge, which I did.)
Hello, miss lady! Then I was at the point where I gain Morrigan as a party member. I should state right now that I absolutely love nearly every character in this game. They are all either unique, funny, interesting, useful, or most commonly a combination of those things. Even if they're dicks at times, I always love them for it. Morrigan is no exception, and she's probably my favorite character in my party thus far. First and foremost, she's a pretty lady, I'm not gonna lie. I immediately dumped a bunch of gifts on her in hopes that she'd "warm up to me". She started out so rude towards me, but has since warmed up quite a bit. The dialog trees with her are made really fun and interesting when you have to always be conscious of her no-nonsense personality. When you start to decipher her personality a bit, you realize exactly how you have to act around her and how she'll probably react to certain situations. This is true enough of any of the characters in the game thus far, and I find that to be extremely rewarding. Really. I'd even venture to say that the character personalities and potential interactions are better than in Mass Effect 2, and those I thought were phenomenal. I find it extremely hard to leave Alistair or Morrigan out of my party because I then wouldn't be able to hear them go at each other with often vicious insults during a casual trek across town.
The next step of my journey brought me to the town just North of Ostagar. I think this is probably where most people end up after leaving with Morrigan. I took care of some random business there. I also picked up Sten by freeing him from his cage. That Sten's a tough nut to crack. I'm still working on him. Maybe one day he'll pour his guts out to me. That conversation would be fairly humorous considering how other conversations with him have gone so far. It's like he's an undercover agent trying to keep his background on a need-to-know basis. I do appreciate the occasional stark contrast of his personality in comparison to all of the other loquacious fellows I've met in Ferelden. After picking him up, I headed strait to camp to meet my personal traveling Dwarf salesman and his hilarious son. I feel kind of bad calling him hilarious, but I never get tired of the excitement he exudes as I ask for his assistance with enchantment. "Enchantment? ... ENCHANTMENT!". Other camp activities that night included dirty deeds with Morrigan. Thank you gift pack DLC. :P
I made the choice from there to take on one of the three quick-and-dirty mission DLC packs. First up was the "Warden's Keep" DLC just for the reason that it gives both nice equipment, and an infinite storage chest. I figured--knowing how I role in games like these--that the storage chest would be supremely useful. The mission itself was interesting, albeit rather short. I had expected that going in though. It was fun getting some history on earlier Grey Wardens and ultimately confronting the last of the survivors of their battle. Turns out he has been researching blood magic and torturing subjects in the process. I let him live, but I made it clear that he'll no longer use subjects in his tests. I have no idea how his research is coming along as I haven't been back to visit him in his lonely tower.
I haven't actually run into a dragon quite yet. Totally want to though. Infinite chest in hand, I then decided to take my talents to South Beach. No wait, it was just a little village in order to rescue a deactivated pile of rubble. AKA: the "Stone Prisoner" DLC pack. I got a bit mixed up though and accidentally activated the "Return to Ostagar" DLC quest instead. I decided to roll with the punches and headed back out to the recently decimated Ostagar. It was probably a little soon to do this one since the DLC was seemingly meant to take place quite a while after the events of the initial Ostagar battle. There should be hordes of Dark Spawn there just following a battle like that, but as stated in game, the Dark Spawn are far less entrenched than suspected. This was a fun little romp back through the once-great, now-icy and barren Ostagar camp. Collecting the former king's armor pieces after killing each Dark Spawn general was extra satisfying. It all concluded with the resurrection of the Ogre that killed the King. I killed the shit outta that dude! If only Duncan had let me fight in the battle in the first place. I then wrapped up by giving the king's body a nice funeral. Morrigan--being the practical woman that she is--wasn't too happy about that, but I've had to piss her off a couple of times before that, so it was nothing new (Here's another gift, baby!). I stashed the king's armor in my infinite chest since I couldn't currently wear it, and headed to my initially intended destination. I was off to find the Stone Prisoner.
This is another one hour mini-adventure. It nets you a sweet golem ally though, so I figured that would be interesting. I had no idea. Shale's a flat out amazing character. I love him. Not only is he strong in combat, but his personality is top-notch. He insists on referring to my entire party as "It", even though he calls other select humans by their names. I'd love to see him set up an online dating profile:
" It must be made of stone, like me. It mustn't be in connection with a control rod, or under anyone's control in any way. It must enjoy the death of any and all bird creatures. These are my conditions. "
OK, enough fanfic. This mission was worth the time. Fighting a demon that had possessed a kitty cat is probably the best reason to play through this (other than Shale). The sad part was my inability to stop demon kitty from turning into demon-kitty-girl, and then just strait-up demon. I felt genuinely bad after letting that guy down by not saving his daughter. I wonder if anything significant would have come of saving the girl. Something to check out next playthrough I suppose. It took me a while to figure it out, but I eventually discovered that swapping out crystals would change Shale's crystal color. I found that neat. I've been having issues finding legitimately good crystals so far though. They've all bee cracked or flawed thus far. I'm sure I'll come across better ones at some point.
Despite all indications, I am indeed aware that attention spans on the internet are often limited. All I can say is that for this I apologize, because I aint done yet.
At this point in my journey I decided that Alistair's plan to get Arl Eamon's help in Redcliffe was the proper course of action. It turns out that town went to shit recently. I quickly found myself in the thick of an undead invasion. As I was listening to people in town describe the attackers, I was just thinking: "Really Dragon Age? Zombies? Fuuuu!". It did turn out to basically be a zombie attack, but within the context of Dragon Age, it worked fine. The game didn't suddenly turn into RDR Undead Nightmare or anything. I gathered supplies and soldiers for the mayor and guard captain to help ward off the zombie attack. That stuff felt tedious, but maybe I just made it tedious. I actually looked up that quest online to make sure I didn't miss any preventative measures that I could have taken. Turns out I would have missed a couple of good soldiers if I didn't, but that's probably the last time I'll look up any quest for this game. Looking up quests takes away all of the mystery and magic of games like these, and I should have known that. Oh well, it didn't take too long to get things underway and put an end to the undead threat. After it was over I strolled into the bar and asked the new bartender lady for a heroes welcome. Did I mention that I loved this game's dialog options? After saving the village, I was free to go bust up that castle and finally get to talk to Arl Eamon, or so I thought. I got into the castle just to discover that the Arl's boy was possessed by another demon! After my last encounter with a demon, I was a little scared that the kid would die. A mage that I freed earlier then informed me that I had a few options to resolve this situation. I could:
Kill the boy, and the demon with it.
Sacrifice the boy's mother in order to create a entrance into the Fade where I could then destroy the demon without killing the boy.
Go to the Circle of Magi in order to ask for help from the mages. This complicated option would save both the mother and the boy.
Being the kind-hearted human being that I am, I had to go with option number 3. Would it take an amazingly long time in comparison to the other options? Yes, but I just couldn't bring myself to kill an innocent if I didn't have to. And so I was off to the mage's tower for the first time.
Circle Tower's in the middle of a lake I used my skills of persuasion to convince a guard to let me cross the river to enter the mage's tower. I was expecting to talk to someone and quickly get some help, but what I found was--as Doc Brown would say--some serious shit. The tower was under attack and the Templars were there, ready to initiate some kind of plan that involved killing everyone in the tower to clean it out and make sure that no demons are let loose on the world. Oh Dragon Age, you so crazy. It appeared I had no choice. I was thrust face first into a story mission that I had intended on completing at a later date. I told the head Templar that I'd fix this mess and I went in not at all knowing what I was in for. It started as the standard combat section type deal. I was climbing a tower, fighting mages, occasionally finding cowardly men hiding in closets. You know how it is. But then, then I ran into this crazy looking demon that was standing over a body.
Before I knew it, he had condemned me and my party to a dream land that was supposed to be inescapable. It was awful because the first dream I had was one where I had to talk to Duncan. He got mad at me and I stuck him with my blade. I'm pretty sure he was a demon though, so it's all good. At this point I moved on to another dream land, and I was pretty confused at this point. Turned out that I needed to conquer eight separate dream worlds and rescue my party from their nightmares. I tweeted something about this section of the game being crazy when I was about halfway through, and a bunch of people told me that they thought that this dream section was the worst section of the game, super long, nearly made them stop playing, things of that nature. I was super surprised by all of the hate. I mean I could understand it to an extent as I felt similarly at first. When I first started this and figured out that I would have to work my way through semi-puzzly sections by transforming into various things, I thought two things. One being "why am I forced to do this? I need my party back!" and also "wow, all of this back-tracking is tedious". At some point though, all of it just kinda clicked and I started enjoying it. Some of the transformations you acquire are actually really cool. My character, being a warrior, wasn't able to transform into anything before, so I enjoyed that aspect a whole lot. There were also a ton of permanent stat increases laying around, so exploring every corner of these dream worlds was encouraged. At the end of the day, it was a really nice change of pace from literally everything else that I'd done up to that point. Tedium was indeed present, but I can get behind some well-structured tedium every now and then. I eventually confronted the demon that trapped me and my party and I took that dude out. This section was the most challenging of any I'd faced in the game so far, so I was relieved to be free of it. I then made my way to the top of the mage tower to stop this attack. Turns out a dude was trying to transform all of the mages into demons, so I had to ice that fool. Literally, Morrigan's ice spells were already super powerful at this point. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I picked up Wynne as a party member before I hit the dream land. She's a nice healer, but her personality seems a bit bland from what I've seen thus far. Haven't had a lot of time with her yet though. So anyways, I saved the day and finally got the head mage's help with saving the little possessed boy back at Redcliffe castle.
Map of the dream world. Kill all demons... now! I then found myself back at the castle with the mages there waiting for me. Only one of my party mages could enter the Fade to fight the demon possessing the boy, so naturally I sent Morrigan. To make a somewhat short story even shorter: Yo, she killed that demon. After exiting the Fade, it seemed all was well. I would now need to talk to Arl Eamon about giving us some assistance, but wait! turns out Arl Eamon is too sick to speak, or even be conscious. Blast! I am now forced to travel to a town that I can't honestly remember the name of right now, and collect some sacred ashes that have healing powers of legend. Arl Eamon must be saved!
That's where my most recent save has left me. I'm really liking this game a whole lot so far. The codex in this game--similarly to Mass Effect 2's codex--is faaantastic. Really really great stuff. It may even be better than Mass Effect's to be honest. There are just so many little scraps of paper that you find all around the world that get thrown in there and reading through them provides seemingly endless entertainment. One way that you can easily identify a video game's greatness is looking up at the clock and realizing that you've been playing for much longer than you had realized. This has happened to me every time that I've played Dragon Age. After recently finishing Mass Effect 2 and naming it my GOTY, I didn't expect Dragon Age to be on quite the same level. I was wrong. This game is incredible.
I have Dragon Age fever a year and a half after its initial release, and I'm loving every minute of it.
I finally got my room painted and my Brandon Roy fathead up. It took a lot of sanding and hard work to get it up correctly, but it was worth it. Funny story: I was playing Dance Central with that Brandon fathead up behind me. Now I'm not sayin' there wasn't some kinda glitch. All I'm sayin' is that I earned an achievement for the game taking a picture while two people were dancing, when in fact I was alone.
10
points
Booth Buddies0 Have a Freestyle photo taken while 2 people are dancing.
Today has been a pretty boring day. I've been parading back and forth from my bedroom to paint, back to the kitchen to eat something. A little bit of video gaming has been thrown into the mix as well.
This whole situation started because I got a Kinect for Christmas, and decided that I would make it fit in my bedroom, since there's not enough space in the living room. So I planned on just rearranging, but then decided screw it, I'd wanted to repaint for the longest time. I decided on an off-white for the walls, and grey for the floor (yes, I can paint my floor). It sounds bland, but I have some plans to spruce it up nicely. Anyways, I've come up with an arrangement that will hopefully allow for plenty of dancin' space. Oh, and adventurin' space; don't forget the adventurin'.
As I'm waiting for the paint to dry (as I've been doing off and on all day), I just wanted to write this blog mostly out of boredom. Since this will more than likely be my final blog of the year though, maybe I should make this into more. (The next section was inspired by RiotBananas :P)
I want to say thank you to everyone at Whiskey Media that were able to be part of the development and maturation of Giant Bomb, as well as the sister sites. Seriously, Giant Bomb is an amazing accomplishment. You think about all of the bad events that took place back when the GB crew all worked together at Gamespot. Jeff was fired for shitty reasons, and next thing you know there're staff jumping ship left and right. Navarro went to Harmonix, Ryan quit, and not too long after that, Vinny and Brad quit. Before all of that, Rich Gallup had left to pursue another challenge as well. My current video game home, Gamespot, was falling apart. Little did I know, something even bigger and better than Gamespot was being built. Giant Bomb was a breath of fresh air for me when I first joined. Those How To Build A Bomb videos pretty much sealed the deal that this would be where I would spend a lot of my internet time. The staff have worked their butts off the be honest and interesting journalists, and for that I thank them. But it doesn't end with the staff.
The community is what makes Giant Bomb. I want to thank all of you guys and girls for being so awesome and helping shape Giant Bomb into what it is today. Whether it was through the Wiki, the forums, user reviews, lists, guides, or what have you. You all have done a tremendous job making this a special place to hang out. Really guys, thanks.
Well, I'd better go check to see if the paint's dry. This has been a good use of my down time. I wish everyone who reads this a happy 2011. Keep being cool.
Note: Yeah, I beat Mass Effect 2 a few days ago. This blog is indeed about that (as well as why it’s my GOTY). Don't like it? Don't eat!
**Spoilers below**
So the first time I was able to play Mass Effect 2, it was borrowed from a friend. That was months ago and I only got to pay probably five to six hours before he wanted the game back. So I got a good taste, which had me dying to finish the game for the longest time. Well, I finally bought the game for the low, low price of $9.99 during a Black Friday sale. I feel like I should have paid a lot more, but I won't complain. I've been playing it in chunks ever since, and I finally wrapped up the story a few days ago. I guess this is as good a time as any to talk about what I liked, and didn't like so much about the game.
Shepard, meet SR-2. SR-2, meet Shepard. I'm a sucker for a game that tells an interesting story. While many people may say that the story in ME2 is a step down from the story in the first ME (and I may agree with that), it's still great. To very quickly summarize: Shepard is forced to assemble a team of the universe's best soldiers to take into uncharted space in order to destroy a collector base that is under the control of the reapers and the Harbinger. Because of the basic story premise, the focus shifts from the more guided experience of the first game, to a free-form, character driven story this time around. I really liked that and thought BioWare pulled it off really well. At no point did I feel like there wasn't anything to do. I was also never confused as to where I should be going. Choosing when to recruit soldiers, whether or not to help them with their loyalty missions, and exploring their back story and personalities was nothing short of amazing all of the way through. Every now and then, big story events will pop up and you'll be off to retrieve some special item vital to the mission. Those events came every so often; just enough to mix things up after I'd been tirelessly recruiting my badass crew. In general I thought the story was handled very well. The premise is exciting enough, and assembling and getting to know my team was the best part. If there is a weak point though, I'd have to agree with the people that said that the end is a bit weak. That may be an overstatement, because the whole end sequence is actually pretty awesome, but the final boss battle didn't quite live up to the rest of the game. To be honest the end of the original ME wasn't fantastic either from what I remember, but in ME2 they just strait up throw a giant skeleton robot at you. I mean OK, it kinda makes sense, and they do explain that the reapers are trying to build giant human reapers. But I just didn't think that that fit in the rest of the Mass Effect universe, from what I've seen. Here I am, battling wave after wave of collectors on this god-forsaken collector base, and I’m expecting a showdown with the damn Harbinger, or at least that collector that he's controlling for most of the story. But no, I get to fight what is essentially a giant robot skeleton. I didn't know that I was actually playing Brutal Legend... or something. I don't want to hate on it too much, but it just seemed out of place, that's all. After I killed that abomination, I blew that base the eff up, and Joker flew us out of there like the ace pilot that he is. (By the way, if anyone chose to go the route of not totally blowing that base up and instead poisoning the whole thing, how did that work out?)
Thane. He's great. As I mentioned before, recruiting characters and exploring their back stories was the best part of this game for me. I won't go through every character, but a couple in particular were very well done. I really loved Thane Krios (that's a great name). He's the Drell assassin that's supposed to die soon from an illness. The loyalty mission involving his son, while maybe not the most action-packed, was very interesting. There was a nice interrogation section in there, as well as some on-foot tailing. It all lead up to stopping Thane's son from following in his father's assassin footsteps. It was a touching moment when I stopped him. What really made Thane awesome though was BioWare's idea to have the Drell, as a species trait, be able to recall past events and memories with perfect clarity. As you probably remember (assuming you've played the game), the way BioWare conveyed this was by having Thane constantly have flashbacks that were made interesting with cool lighting effects and camera work with close-ups on his face. It really sets the Drell apart from the other races as it happens quite often in conversation. It's stuff like that that makes you realize how much thought goes into every aspect of the fiction in Mass Effect.
Samara. Equally as great. Samara, the Asari Justicar, was another of my favorite characters. The whole idea of the Justicar is an interesting one. Basically Samara is a crime fighter with a black and white morality code. If someone does wrong, she kills them. Simple as that. This leads to a situation where Samara is forced to track down one of her daughters and kill her. This is one of the better side missions in the game in my opinion. The way that you have to track her down and then lure the daughter to you by mingling in a club. The way that you then choose in the end to help Samara kill her daughter, or help the daughter kill Samara instead, was a big moment. I chose to help Samara, just because I felt like her never-ending journey should finally be completed. Plus, if this was what she felt like she had to do, then who am I to stand in her way? Shes does do everything in the interest of peace, after all. I'm glad that I helped her complete her goal, because she ended up dying in the suicide mission (oh noes!!). She was the only character that died, and as far as I can tell, it was because of a misunderstanding of exactly what the game plan was. I sent her off thinking that her mission was one thing, but it was really another thing. Oh well, I feel like she had lived a very long time already, and had completed her goal earlier. She died happy.
The one aspect that I felt the original Mass Effect could really improve on was the basic action controls. Of course, as we all know, that aspect was most definitely improved upon in 2. The once troublesome Mako was replaced (in DLC) with another vehicle that was more of a hovercraft. It controlls really well, and just navigating and driving that thing around was a lot of fun, even if everything else about those missions happened to be a bit boring. Most importantly, the on-foot action was great. The shooting in particular feels nice. I didn’t so much care for the cover mechanics though. The shooting could have been even better if the game had less clunky cover controls. To me it felt comparable to the feeling of playing GTA IV. I’m not trying to say the cover mechanics are the same in these games, but I’m saying that both games’ cover mechanics felt sub-par compared to the rest of the action; they could have been a lot better.
A popular complaint that I would hear about ME2 before I got the chance to finish it for myself was that the RPG mechanics had been stripped out in favor of the more action-oriented experience. This is true to an extent; however, it really didn’t bother me as much as I’d thought that it may. The armor and inventory stuff was made super simple. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because even though things like that are common-place in RPGs, they can definitely be annoying. This is the way to move a genre forward. ME2 is a much tighter and less convoluted experience because of these changes, so there’s really no reason to complain. That said though, I wouldn’t argue at all if BioWare found a way to work some more traditional RPG trappings back into Mass Effect 3, as long as they find a way to do it in a new way that isn’t cumbersome. Of course every character still has special skills that you can spec out however you’d like. That meant lots of potential for mixed play styles and combat variation. I always made sure to have a couple of powerful biotics by my side when I went into battle. Powers like Heavy Throw are amazingly useful when there happens to be a bottomless pit just feet behind your enemies.
Shepard can throw dark too, if you so choose. I was forced to rely on my comrades for biotic techniques such as those, because I chose to play as a soldier. If I had to guess, I’d say most people that played ME2 played through as a soldier, at least the first time. I only say that because it seems like the most familiar and easy way to play. Just equip incendiary ammo, point, and shoot. This was a great way to play; super enjoyable. I did find myself wishing I had some biotic powers of my own though towards the end of the game, if only to mix things up a bit. Immediately after finishing the game I actually went in and started a new game, this time as a biotic using lady Shepard. I haven’t gotten very far into this next playthrough, but I’m really excited to do a lot less shooting, and a lot more throwing dudes around this time. As if one playthrough at a time isn’t enough, I also started another one, this time continuing my soldier with the new game plus option. I’m planning on that game being the one that I use to beat the game on Insane difficulty and get that pesky achievement. I figure at level 30 (or whatever I am at this point) I’ll be ready for that challenge. Being able to keep your weapons into the next playthrough is awesome. Having to choose between a badass sniper rifle and a badass assault rifle in my first playthrough was a tough choice. This time I’ll pick up that sniper rifle.
So, as you can see I’m not at all done playing Mass Effect 2. Even after exploring every side mission and character that I could find, and reading about all of the in-depth details on this amazingly crafted fictional universe, I’m still chomping at the bit to get back into my new playthroughs, and probably play more of a Renegade role this time. This game just compels me to want to know everything about it. That, more than anything else, is the reason that this is my favorite game of the year two-thousand and ten.
I haven't been on Giant Bomb much lately. I decided that I needed to take a little break since I've basically been using this site every day for a very long time. Well, I made it several days, but the Quick Looks piled up and I've decided to return and catch up on everything. Oh Giant Bomb, how you've been missed.
I had two of my wisdom teeth pulled last Monday morning. That was an experience. My lower left tooth was impacted, which means it was almost completely sideways and pushing against my other teeth. It definitely needed to be pulled, which would make my top wisdom tooth useless. Well, it just so happens that that top tooth had a cavity, so I was more than happy to get rid of that one too. My right side's wisdom teeth are fine and my dentist thinks that I should be able to keep them forever, provided I keep them clean. So anyways, I'm a big wussy and decided I wanted to be knocked the eff out while they removed the teeth. It worked out really well as I don't remember much of anything after the dentist saying "are you starting to feel that medicine?". When the extractions were over, I was pretty slow to become fully aware of my surroundings. I'm sure this lead to some funny moments, only a couple of which I can recall. I had a pretty nice nurse there helping me throughout the appointment. After I started to wake up, she said something along the lines of "You can go home and play Black Ops now.". At that point I barely remember yelling out "No! I play Rock Band!". That was later confirmed to have happened by my mom who was also in the room. Kind of embarrassing; I hope that I didn't say anything that's even more embarrassing. I also remember being walked out of the room and exiting through the back door. At that point I remember saying "Oh we're going this way?". The nurse half-jokingly explained that they didn't want to frighten the other patients by having me walk out the front. I thought that was pretty funny.
I was at home, wisdom teeth removed. What do I do? That's right: Stop using Giant Bomb and play the Endless Setlist 3 on Rock Band 3. There is a clear loss of wisdom at play here. These are two things that I would normally have a very tough time carrying out. I was planning on doing the Endless Setlist 3 at some point, but it's funny that I finally pulled the trigger not long after having my wisdom teeth removed. The ES3 (for short) takes god-damned forever. You smart fellows probably already knew that, but even knowing that there are 83 songs to play through, it seemed like a really, REALLY long time when actually carrying it out. I decided to go through it on Guitar since I was also working towards the HOPO-cidal Maniac achievement. Still a no-go on that one, but I'd bet that I'm super close. I'm actually about to go check that out right now, and maybe play a bit more in pursuit of it if I deem myself close enough.
There's more that I could talk about (like sports!) but I'll save those things for my future blogging ventures. I'm glad to be back, and god dammit that Multimedia Celebrity Poker QL was phenomenal.
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