Via Kotaku
Looks like the next Xbox Original Download will be BioWare’s Jade Empire, a title that I bought the for-reals disc for last year but never completed (I decided to hold out for Mass Effect instead). I’ll probably get it, because I’m a huge fan of downloadable media (as opposed to oh-so-inconvenient actual media) and maybe that’ll finally get me off my duff to start a new campaign and see it through to the end.
July 21st, $15.
We here at threevue are big fans of Gamefly, although I personally stopped my subscriptions months ago due to a lack of time and games to play.
They have some great deals going on right now for their pre-played games, like Mass Effect for $19.99, Bioshock for $24.99, and a deal I picked up for myself, Medal of Honor: Airborne for $17.99. I just checked, all of those prices are better than at half.com, and with free shipping. And I can’t even imagine what they’re charging at Gamestop for these titles right now.
I never thought I would be able to finish Mass Effect. I really wanted to because I liked it so much, but I have a bad habit of lovin’ and leavin’ games and never completing them. Especially when they are as massive as a game like Mass Effect is. The other day, though, I surprised myself (and my cat) by finally finishing it.
Much like RSV2, I was really surprised when I reached the end. The last time I played it was a few weeks ago, and although I felt like I was nearing the conclusion, I had no idea that I was saving it literally right before the final push. I enjoyed the very heroic, very cinematic ending, and I might actually buy the “Bring Down the Sky” DLC just to get a little more out of it.
The only thing I was disappointed with, though, was how after all was said and done, I wasn’t able to go back and do all the side missions I didn’t do earlier. There were some cheevers I wanted get that I can’t now without playing through it again (which I won’t), and the only reason I made my character a girl was for the human girl-alien girl love scene. That’s alright, I have an image in my head of how it went down. Mmmmm.
I live on the 32nd/top floor of my apartment building which allows me to do two things:
First, I get to act all cocky when there are other people on the elevator because I always trump them. Especially when I get on and there is already somebody traveling to the 31st floor, I like to stare them down while I slowly push the button right above theirs. I know they hate that.
Second, I like to pretend that I’m Commander Shepard on the Normandy, and this elevator ride is really just a load screen to the next part of my life. This works best when there are two other people and I can stand in front of them facing the door and pretend that one is a Krogan, one a Turian, and that the radio is us telling news of something I did/caused earlier in the day.
I haven’t had the time for any sort of extended gaming sessions lately, but the limited amount of nerding-out I have had has been filled with quality games. A few weeks ago, when I had more disposable time, it wasn’t a big deal to spend a few hours playing a bad game like Manhunt 2, or the Iron Man demo, because I knew something like COD4 or Mass Effect was only a finger away. Now though, free time is at a premium, and just like Tyler tells his boyfriends, it’s all about quality over quantity.
So, here’s a quick rundown. I usually play five to ten minutes of Patapon in the morning before school everyday (that’s the most childish sentence I’ve ever written). Some days, like today, I have a break, and get the chance to play Peggle between classes on my iPod. Before, if I didn’t have to work, I’d come home and spend some time destroying my little brother in COD4, but I haven’t done that in so long that I forgot what a kill-cam even looks like. My console game-time had been devoted to GTA4 lately, but other than driving a few guys here and there, I’ve barely scratched the crime-filled surface. I did just play through You Have to Burn the Rope, but that takes about as long as it does for me to ruin my chances with a girl (sub-30 seconds). But, like I’ve been saying, summer’s right around the corner.
Editor’s Note: Sorry for the jab, Tyler, but that’s what you get for not posting in six days.
I’m not even sure if I’m correct in griping about this, but because I’ve been playing a lot of Mass Effect lately, it’s something that’s been bugging me.
In the game, many different alien races are referred to, but none of their names are capitalized in the on-screen text. For example, there are the asari, the krogans, the rachni, and so on. According to cmu.edu, race should be capitalized, e.g. Martians, or Mexicans. I’m not sure why the aliens of the ME universe are all lower case, but then again, I’m not an English (or Salarian) major.
Every time I revisit a game that I haven’t played since my TV shuffle, I’m always surprised at how good they look in HD. Case in point: I played Mass Effect for the first time in a while last night, and I was blown away by how clear and sharp it looked. On my old set, the game always had this haze about it, and was a little blurry at some points. I forgave the visual imperfections, though, and attributed them to the fact that there was so much content on the disc that some aspect was bound to suffer. But now that I’m playing it in the Def that it was meant to played, I can clearly see every wrinkle in Wrex’s scrotum-face, and I respect the game that much more.
Now, if I can only get a Wii game to look like it was made sometime after 1998.
I wish I could say that I’m not in line with this image, but deep down inside of my emotionally-crippled, blackened coal lump of a soul… I sort of agree.
Thanks to calloftheday.net
Mark:
Writing about Mass Effect is like making love to a double-jointed hermaphrodite; there are so many options, it’s hard to decide where to begin. Let’s start with what’s always most important, though: is it fun. That I would have to say no. It is not fun, it is work, but it’s the awesome kind of work that you want to do when you are not doing it, and the kind of work you want to be good at. When I talk to someone in the game and they ask me to go on one of their random errands, I don’t exclaim, “Yes! I get to go find your sister in some star cluster trillions of miles away! I can’t wait!” No, but I do it, and when the mission is complete, I get a sense of satisfaction that not many games can offer. It’s this feeling of accomplishment that keeps me coming back to the game, because I always know that there is so much more for me to do that haven’t experienced yet.
Gameplay-wise, Mass Effect has a few things left to be desired. The cut scenes, voice, and character acting are amazing, but the in-game graphics are definitely not going to win any awards. But when I think about how much the game has in it, and how vast its universe is, I totally forgive it. Also, the players are pretty clunky and don’t have the ability to maneuver like I would want a character in an action game to. The leveling up elements are cool, but this game contains just about as much RPG-ness as I can handle. And don’t even get me started on the vehicle driving.
Overall, the exploration, story, and character development of this game more than make up for most of what I consider to be its faults, but this is still a very genre-specific game. If you’re into large-scale, slow paced, story driven games, then you will love Mass Effect. If not, go play Dynasty Warriors, nerd.
On a side note, Chris Grant from Joystiq wasn’t very happy with this game at the beginning, but he just said on Tuesday’s podcast that the last 5 hours were really, really good, and changed his mind a little. So, I’m going to revisit this review when I finish it. Which will probably be never.
87/100
Russ:
I’ve waited a long time for this game. I played a little bit of BioWare’s darling Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on my friend’s original Xbox in 2003 but never got a chance to finish it. That and I had the ending spoiled for me, so I didn’t even want to finish it. Once I bought my Xbox 360, I got my hands on Jade Empire, another BioWare darling, and got about 1/3 of the way through it before deciding that I really just wanted to play Mass Effect, and I was content to wait for it. So really, for over four years I was itching to get my hands on (and complete) a completely new BioWare game.
I don’t know if I can convey the mixed feelings of elation and disappointment I had while playing Mass Effect. I liked the new, non-RPG heavy combat system, and the dialogue, and the driving parts. I played through the first time as a super-nice guy, helping any and everyone. I looked forward to being a bad guy on my next playthrough, and seeing the differences in my gaming experience. And that’s where it all fell apart. During my second time through I realized that being a bad guy really didn’t change anything - I was still going to eventually beat the bad guys and save the universe, I was just going to be an asshole about it instead. And when all is said and done, you could blow through the story in like 8 hours, if you ignored the (tedious) side-quests. So, the majority of the game is doing things like search for rare elements on random planets throughout the galaxy. And while I praise the Xbox 360 achievement system as a whole for urging me to do things I normally wouldn’t do in a game (and prolonging my experience), the achievements in Mass Effect are there to force me to do the things I’d rather not be doing.
And the “romantic subplot” was shallow, juvenile and useless. No boobies.
82/100
Tyler:
Plain and simple, there is just too much to Mass Effect, and what there is, isn’t really blowing my mind. The biggest disappointment of the game is the repetitive nature of the side quests. Let me give you an example:
It’s not as fun as it was promised. See, I thought I would be exploring more open and uncharted worlds… not running through scripted levels. Also, one thing that I know bothers me more than it should is the amount of pop-in(when an object shows up on the screen all blurry for 3 seconds before the hi-res graphics kick in and it sharpens up to high detail). Add to that the loooooooooong load times and a weapons system that is built from the ground up to deny you the pleasure of playing the game from most angles and you can see why the epic story and fresh aesthetic couldn’t turn Mass Effect in to a game of the year.
87/100
Ok, maybe not everything. It’s still the worst, most frustratingly controlled vehicle in video game history (maybe next to the bike in Paperboy), but just like genital herpes, after spending some time with it, it’s not as bad as I thought. In the last days playing Mass Effect, I’ve learned that it can actually be a pretty sweet ride. What else is going to get you over the rough terrain of the volcanic planet of Metgos, deep in the Argos Rho cluster? Not your mom’s Mini Cooper, I’ll tell you that much. Actually, it’s a lot like a 14 year old Thai boy, you have to finesse it a little before it gives you what you want, but if you force it, it’ll tighten up on you.
What I’ve had to do to wrap my mind around the controls is just to throw out everything I’ve ever known about about video game vehicles, and start from scratch. The thing about the Mako is that it’s overly simple. Instead of using the modern standard two-stick control, it uses the left stick to move forward, backward, left, or right relative to the camera angle, not the front of the vehicle, while the right thumbstick controls said camera. It takes getting used to, but with a little patience, it can make you the happiest guy in Phuket.
I’m now a couple hours in to the space-exploring epic, Mass Effect. Even though I know I’ve only scratched the surface of what’s in store throughout the rest of this game, I like it so far. The story is the best part for me so far. So much so that I almost wish it was made as more of an adventure game, with little to no action at all, kind of like an Indigo Prophecy style title. The action sequences in here are a little clunky and sometimes even confusing, but the rich dialog and great voice/character acting makes it enjoyable. I like the character creation, too. I made this pretty badass girl named Maggie.
I have a few more hours before work today to play, with a little time set aside for laundry. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a little deeper into it.
To my ever growing disappointment, I still haven’t received my copy of Mass Effect from Gamefly after a whole week now (I have my fingers crossed for it being in my mailbox today). I have a question for all our faithful readers though (Russ and Tyler), should I just keep it? I’m torn because I can take all the time in the world with it without having to buy it, but if I do take a really long time, I’ll be wasting rental time with Gamefly. The “buy it now” price on Gamefly (from here on out referred to as GF) is about 44 bucks, which isn’t a bad price, so I’m not sure if I should just buy and have my next game sent out already (Blitz: The League. Blech), or play it for awhile and decide later. Are you glad that you bought it? I’m hearing extremely mixed reviews on it, actually as I type this I’m listening to the Joystiq podcast where one guy loves it and another guy…not so much.
So, let me know what you think, and then send me 44 dollars.
Now that pretty much every game worth playing has been released for the holidays, I am left with a lack of money. Luckily though, after a few finals, I will have a surplus of time. Therefore, I’ve put together a tentative gaming schedule for the holidays up until school starts again.
For the moment, I’m going to continue playing Assassin’s Creed until I finish it or it gets boring, whichever comes first, with evening sessions of COD4 multiplayer whenever us threevuers can all get together on the same virtual battlefield. After that, I’m going to finish Super Mario Galaxy (I’m about halfway through). I plan on turning that into Gamestop, and picking up Mass Effect. I don’t want to start ME until the post X-mas game drought, when I can spend a lot of time on it.
I’m sure, like the best laid schemes o’ mice and men, this plan will fall apart as soon as some unforeseen awesomeness comes out. As a matter of fact, Samus and Leo are both looking at me right now, asking me how I could neglect them after we’ve spent so much time together already. Don’t worry guys, I’ll be back.
The power is out in patches all over Oahu due to some stormy weather, and I was sent home from work. Luckily, we here at Pearl City have power, so I have a little catching up to do with Mass Effect.
As the only threevue.com editor that currently owns Mass Effect and Rock Band, I feel it is my duty to give a progress report on these two titles. I switch from one to the next every other hour as I’m playing. It is sometimes difficult to go from rocking people’s socks off to exploring desolate planets, but a gamer’s job is never done.
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