Wow…once again is all I can say after beating Mass Effect 2. It improves on the original in almost every way possible; except for the occasional sound glitch (I mention that because towards the end of the game it happens frequently enough to be annoying). As a matter of fact let me go ahead and get my gripes out of the way now:
-Load Times: This is the year 2010, not 1999. I should not have to suffer through whole one to two minute load times each time I want to go from one section of the ship to another, which is small compared to the whole LEVELS that load in the same amount of time.
-Money: I don’t think this is true in ME1, but in ME2 there is a finite amount of money, meaning bad things. Namely, there are a ton of upgrades for weapons and armor and the ilk throughout the game. But whether it was a developmental error or what not, your first play though you can only purchase 80% of all the games upgraded items. Of this I am sure because I completed every task and extra quest in the game and still never had enough money.
-Leveling: So in the first ME1 you could reach level 60 by doing pretty much every side mission available, which is fine since in ME1 there are a ton of side missions. But in ME2, the overall game is shorter, including the side missions. To compensate, you can only reach level 30 in ME2, but then again you cannot. The reason why I say this is you cannot actually reach level 30 unless you transfer a high level character from ME1. I guess it’s a kind of series loyalty bonus thing, but really, restricting your levels is kind of a dick move. That being said, you can easily beat the game at level 20.
-Resource grinding: Is annoying and the game basically forces you to do it; at least, if you want the best possible ending. If you don’t care about that, I advise that you should, trust me. Basically, you have to mine planets for rare minerals, and it’s kinda annoying. It’s not as bad as other people have said, but it did grind on my nerves several times. But, it’s worth it in the end.
-The cover system: Has never been abused as it has been in this game. I mean really, all you have to do is wait until you get to a section with waist high walls (that actually came from Zero Punctuation) and boom, you’re in an “ambush”. It’s sadly predictable.
All gripes aside, here are the epically good things about what I consider about one of the best games ever made:
-Story: This is one of the best story’s ever told (combining both ME1 and ME2, and the grand potential of ME3). You come for the gameplay, but you stay for the grand scale of things.
-Choice. Harping on the story of the game, your decisions affect the outcome of the game greatly. You still can go all good or darkside, but be careful, because these decisions can affect how much money you make throughout the game and if people will literally live or die.
-Combat: Is awesome. I played my first game as a Vanguard class (excels at high defense and engage the enemy at close range, and has a decent), but after that started a new game game as an Infiltrator (sniper class that can go cloak and cause enemies to burst into flame or hack robotic enemies), and have to say the Infiltrator is light years above and beyond any other class. I highly suggest it. Trust me, makes all the combat in the game much easier (aim for the head). I dare say that playing the Infiltrator makes the game too easy, as I have started a new game as a female Infiltrator and I am burning through the game in half the time.
-Stat system: Easier to use, plus it include upgrade to makes your team better to a specification you could use (like doing more damage vs. AOE damage).
-Timing: The game knows just when to end, personally believing it is not too long nor too short.
I could go on, but this is a great game. If you have an Xbox 360, buy it, play it, live in good health.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
MASSive
I have decided to hit the loyal readers with TWO posts since I have been away a while.
Alright, I picked up and finished Mass Effect. The first one, not the second. Wow…..this is all I can say.
I know I am probably behind the curve about this one, but I was just blown away by the graphics, the story, and the combat system! It’s all amazing. I will start at the beginning:
You start as Commander Shepard, which can be a female or male depending on your choice, who is sent to investigate a distress call on a colony world. What ensures afterwards is a scaling story or survival. I won’t get into detail; I absolutely refuse to get into details. Shedding even a couple do not do the epic space story justice. We can just cut to the combat. It’s an action RPG type of combat system, so you control mainly yourself and tell you squad mates advanced commands, like to use their powers, take cover, or assign which weapon they should use. That last one is pretty important because your squad mate will not do AI weapon switching, no matter what. That’s more a good thing than anything else. The AI is smart enough to handle most combat without you holding their hand, but when you’re surrounded, it helps to have some set combat tasks assigned.
So, will you die during combat? If you’re anything like me, then the answer is, yup. I died at least 20 times throughout the entire game. That’s nothing compared to the amount of deaths I incurred while playing any Halo, but the load times in the game are long enough that an death is quite annoying. But, no battle is impossible with a set number of commands and some proper use of the hiding system. I would actually like to think the combat is something like that of Gears of War, except no reload minigame you have to do and there are 3 as opposed to 2 of you. Also each squadmate has their strengths and weaknesses, thus before going into each battle it’s good to have a proper balance of each characters powers. Here is where the concept falls, though…I admittedly beat most of the game using nothing but combat heavy characters. I even beat the final boss using just brute force as opposed to any real tactics. This is not to say I went through the entire game this way, but something tells me I could have just picked my most combat heavy characters and dropped the hammer on anything I saw. I still had a great time with it though.
After beating the first game, I went to my local GameStop the next day and got Mass Effect 2 (note: I haven’t beaten the game, but have logged in 7 hours) and having played it a bit…I am hooked. It picks up right were the first one leaves off and thrusts you straight into the action. What the first game had was a ton of downtime, but this one is a constant stream of action and story. Where in the first game I still say straight brute force is king, this one makes using your tech and biotic powers an absolute necessity to survive. I will give my full thoughts on it later….
Alright, I picked up and finished Mass Effect. The first one, not the second. Wow…..this is all I can say.
I know I am probably behind the curve about this one, but I was just blown away by the graphics, the story, and the combat system! It’s all amazing. I will start at the beginning:
You start as Commander Shepard, which can be a female or male depending on your choice, who is sent to investigate a distress call on a colony world. What ensures afterwards is a scaling story or survival. I won’t get into detail; I absolutely refuse to get into details. Shedding even a couple do not do the epic space story justice. We can just cut to the combat. It’s an action RPG type of combat system, so you control mainly yourself and tell you squad mates advanced commands, like to use their powers, take cover, or assign which weapon they should use. That last one is pretty important because your squad mate will not do AI weapon switching, no matter what. That’s more a good thing than anything else. The AI is smart enough to handle most combat without you holding their hand, but when you’re surrounded, it helps to have some set combat tasks assigned.
So, will you die during combat? If you’re anything like me, then the answer is, yup. I died at least 20 times throughout the entire game. That’s nothing compared to the amount of deaths I incurred while playing any Halo, but the load times in the game are long enough that an death is quite annoying. But, no battle is impossible with a set number of commands and some proper use of the hiding system. I would actually like to think the combat is something like that of Gears of War, except no reload minigame you have to do and there are 3 as opposed to 2 of you. Also each squadmate has their strengths and weaknesses, thus before going into each battle it’s good to have a proper balance of each characters powers. Here is where the concept falls, though…I admittedly beat most of the game using nothing but combat heavy characters. I even beat the final boss using just brute force as opposed to any real tactics. This is not to say I went through the entire game this way, but something tells me I could have just picked my most combat heavy characters and dropped the hammer on anything I saw. I still had a great time with it though.
After beating the first game, I went to my local GameStop the next day and got Mass Effect 2 (note: I haven’t beaten the game, but have logged in 7 hours) and having played it a bit…I am hooked. It picks up right were the first one leaves off and thrusts you straight into the action. What the first game had was a ton of downtime, but this one is a constant stream of action and story. Where in the first game I still say straight brute force is king, this one makes using your tech and biotic powers an absolute necessity to survive. I will give my full thoughts on it later….
Sprint finally made some kinda iPhone killer
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!!!!!
Now on to the tech!
A couple weeks ago I used my Sprint upgrade to buy an HTC EVO 4G about one week after it’s release. My wife wasn’t too pleased with the idea at first, but after I bought it I let her play with it for one night, and now she hates her Palm Pre and absolutely demands that I buy her an Evo. I will make this brief since I have several things to speak about.
-It’s fast. Very fast. It’s 1GHz SnapDragon processor combined with Android 2.1 and HTC Sense 2.1 overlaid on it makes the device absolutely seamless in just about every task.
-The 8MP camera on the back takes absolutely gorgeous pictures, and the 1.3MP camera is good for video chat, though it’s a feature I have yet to even use.
-The 4.3 inch screen just makes me a happier person. Anything I want to do, from web browsing to texting to writing blog posts (The last blog post I wrote was made using the Android OS with Docs To GO), a big screen is more a bonus than anything.
-Whether you love Android or hate it, no one should shun its absolute versatility, for when you need it. I have already tethered with my phone with my computer and used the internet, albeit at slower speeds than I’m used to, it’s useful in a pinch. I also have used Google Navigation to find my way around Orlando. Heck, I used my Evo with Google Navigation the ENTIRE way from Xenia, OH to Orlando , FL. It took 18 hours and was very hectic (got lost only once in Atlanta).
- Multi-Tasking is a giant benefit. If I am not using the navigation, surfing the web, or listening to podcasts, the ability to switch between any of them at any time is just awesome.
In short, everything you read is probably the same across the board no matter what cell phone review site you go to. It’s an awesome device capable of many things. If you have Sprint and are ok with the $10 premium data plan, I say go for broke.
Now on to the tech!
A couple weeks ago I used my Sprint upgrade to buy an HTC EVO 4G about one week after it’s release. My wife wasn’t too pleased with the idea at first, but after I bought it I let her play with it for one night, and now she hates her Palm Pre and absolutely demands that I buy her an Evo. I will make this brief since I have several things to speak about.
-It’s fast. Very fast. It’s 1GHz SnapDragon processor combined with Android 2.1 and HTC Sense 2.1 overlaid on it makes the device absolutely seamless in just about every task.
-The 8MP camera on the back takes absolutely gorgeous pictures, and the 1.3MP camera is good for video chat, though it’s a feature I have yet to even use.
-The 4.3 inch screen just makes me a happier person. Anything I want to do, from web browsing to texting to writing blog posts (The last blog post I wrote was made using the Android OS with Docs To GO), a big screen is more a bonus than anything.
-Whether you love Android or hate it, no one should shun its absolute versatility, for when you need it. I have already tethered with my phone with my computer and used the internet, albeit at slower speeds than I’m used to, it’s useful in a pinch. I also have used Google Navigation to find my way around Orlando. Heck, I used my Evo with Google Navigation the ENTIRE way from Xenia, OH to Orlando , FL. It took 18 hours and was very hectic (got lost only once in Atlanta).
- Multi-Tasking is a giant benefit. If I am not using the navigation, surfing the web, or listening to podcasts, the ability to switch between any of them at any time is just awesome.
In short, everything you read is probably the same across the board no matter what cell phone review site you go to. It’s an awesome device capable of many things. If you have Sprint and are ok with the $10 premium data plan, I say go for broke.
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