I have typed and retyped my words over and over, never finding the right way to express this loss, not capable of hitting the right chord. I just don’t know what to say that has not already been said so eloquently by many others.

I lost a friend on July 3^rd, a friend that I had personally never met and barely interacted with, despite that I considered Ryan Davis a dear friend. Ryan has been part of my life for a number of years and it wasn’t until his untimely passing that I realized how much a part of it he was.

I am hardly ever separated from a device that will drive audio into my ears, and because of that, Ryan is always around….he is like Superman in that way, always there to save the day. That daily commute just won’t be the same without him. The trip to the grocery store where his laughter makes the most monotonous of tasks something I look forward to. The times at the gym where I had to wait a good five minutes to continue my workout because he had me laughing so hard I couldn’t catch my breath. The days at work where it was almost too much to take, having him around to bring me in off the ledge with a laugh or some crazy story.

I could go on, but we all know that Ryan was a big part of our lives, in whatever capacity we consumed him. Ryan will continue to be a part of our lives as we carry that huge heart and soul of his around with us. One of his magical gifts was the ability he had to make a connection with you.

Thank you Ryan for all that you have given me over the years. I am so happy to have had you in my life, you truly had an impact on me. I love you Ryan, I will miss you duder.

ME2 - Lair of the Shadow Broker

The latest Mass Effect 2 DLC is a great addition to the Mass Effect narrative and sets up some interesting hooks for the eventual 3 in the series.   While the Firewalker pack to me felt like here’s a vehicle mission, Kasumi and the Overlord pack seemed nice to add some narrative that did meld in some other parts of the Mass Effect fiction and offer a solid Mass Effect 2 gameplay experience.   That leads us into Lair of the Shadow Broker (LOTSB), which continues along the lines of Overlord, expanding the fiction and setting some interesting plot points for Mass Effect 3, and does feel like a main story mission.

LOTSB returns you to Illium to meet up with Liara again, however this time Cerberus has whipped up some info on the Shadow Broker, and they have a feeling that this might bring her into the fold a little.   I’m not going to get into story specifics, because that is what makes Mass Effect so engaging, it’s a great game…but also has a fairly interesting universe to immerse you in.     

Without going too much into the story, if you hooked up with Liara in ME1 the dialogue between her and Shepard is great.   It feels very natural, and leaves you smiling here and there.   Also if you hooked up with another person in ME2, she will have something to say about that, which I thought was nice.   I was bummed that she doesn’t really interact with your other team members, I specifically brought along Garrus and Tali for this reason, but Liara doesn’t chat them up at all.   I found it very interesting that Liara was a much colder person in this version.   In ME1 she seemed more the innocent, here she has had some bad experiences which shape her into a much more vengeful and obsessed asari.   The story in this DLC is very good, starting off with a CSI type investigation all the way thru to the end where you finally encounter the Shadow Broker.   If you like the Mass Effect universe, it’s worth the points.

Gameplay wise it’s Mass Effect 2, there are not too many new elements on that front.  There is the sky car chase scene that can be seen in the trailer for LOTSB, but it didn’t seem to control all that great, or maybe it was just a short enough section that I didn’t really feel it until the end of the scene.   It’s a cool addition for sure, one that I would like to see explored more in either future DLC or in ME3.   You do get to add Liara to your team for this specific mission alone, so you can spec her out and have access to her powers (including bonus power Stasis if you re-spec).   The Paragon/Renegade flashes are back…and they seemed speedier this time around, found myself missing 2 of them.   Also there is some new environmental stuff toward the end when engaging enemies on the Shadow Broker’s ship, it’s nothing that will blow your skirt up, but it’s fits into the location (which it’s   the coolest location in ME2 for me) perfectly.   The main boss fight at the end is cool, I was floored that melee was brought into it, but it felt more interesting to me than any of the other boss fights in ME2.   This one had some variety to it, whereas most of the ME2 boss stuff was, “Yo, see that guy?   Shoot him, then shoot him some more.”

All in all, if you are hooked on the Mass Effect series…you should pick this up.   If you enjoyed ME2 but just aren’t hooked into the universe, this DLC does really feel like a main story mission…they didn’t just slap it together…it feels solid and really fits into the game.  

I really like what Bioware did with this DLC, it expands on the ME universe in a good way.   It’s not just a meaningless mission, it can hold some emotional value for some Shepard’s out there, adds a vehicular chase element which could be cool in the future (give me space combat), story elements that could hold some weight in ME3, and possibly one of the coolest location pieces in Mass Effect.