Humour
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Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Stab. Stab. Listen. Stab. Stab. Steal. Stab.
01:14 PM - Monday, November 19, 2007 - by Tim
Assassin’s Creed. Seems like they should have called it Repetition Creed. It’s a fun game, and enjoyable, but at the same time it seems really sloppy when you do the exact same thing for every mission.
A) Arrive at city of choice.
B) Gain access by blending in with a conveniently placed group of scholars, who stand in one spot until a stranger decides to mingle with them. Despite the outstanding climbing system in the game, you can’t breach a city by climbing over its walls, just through the door above the guards.
C) Once inside the city carry out the exact same tasks, in a quantity left to your choosing.
- Sit on a bench and eavesdrop a conversation. Because these people always discuss their private business in crowded places, and right near benches.
- Pickpocket a guy who has a map, or who, for some reason, has decided to write down on a piece of paper all of the known weaknesses of your target.
- Find a fanboy of your target (the guys preaching to an audience about how great the guy is), then punch him three times until he tells you everything.
Additionally you can find someone from your Assassin brotherhood who either fucked up and needs you to kill someone in exchange for information, or who fucked up and lost some flags which you need to collect for information. Also, he lost these flags while running all over the rooftops, and didn’t bother to stop once he realized his backpack had a giant fucking hole in it or something. “Oops, lost another one. Damn, there goes another one. Sonuva… I’ve lost all my flags. I’ll wait here and ask for someone to pick them up for me.”
If you feel like a good Samaritan, you can save all of the citizens being harasses by guards, all of whom are apparently thieves, and are about to die for it, but never get killed no matter how long you sit there and watch them get beaten, or how many times the guards say they’re going to kill them. Then once you save them they will either “Go home and hide” or “Tell their sons of your heroism”. If they’re a woman, they let you know “They were just about to be made off with”. And I’m paraphrasing, but the dialogue is word-for-word the same every time.
Then you finally get to go after your target, which ends up being the only variable in each mission. Currently I’m not quite sure what I benefit from seeking out all investigations as opposed to just doing the minimum number and then killing my target. It doesn’t seem like any of this information really changes the fact that I’m just going to walk up behind the guy and kill him in front of a hundred people anyway. And then have a ten-minute conversation with him as he lay dying, while his guards must be standing there waiting for us to stop chatting.
It just seems like there was so much more potential here that wasn’t used. I mean, instead of five methods of collecting information (pickpocket, flag collecting, brute force, eavesdropping or murder) and using them for every single mission, they should have made, say, ten methods and then mixed them up for each mission.
Like what about breaking into someone’s house to steal information? Or eavesdropping from directly overhead, atop a building. Or dangling someone off a rooftop until they gave you the information you wanted.
I hope that they maybe flesh it out a little bit in Assassin’s Creed 2, because what else there is to the game is outstanding. And even all of this stuff is really great, you just have to do it over and over and over.
As far as Mass Effect is concerned, I have a feeling it will be Christmas before I complete this first game. Now that the initial rush of excitement over the game is out of the way, I feel like I’ve settled in for the long haul, for what seems to be truly a gigantic galactic space opera. For at least my first play-through, I’m determined to experience it all, which includes zipping around the galaxy on a ton of side missions.
I’m still waiting to see if higher level weapons and armor really look all that different, or if they use the same models with different color schemes. So far pretty much every assault rifle I’ve come across looks exactly the same, even when they’re made by different manufacturers. While I assume most people won’t care, part of the reason I enjoy RPGs is so that as I work to advance, my character looks cooler and cooler. If at level 60 I look the same as I did at level 1, that’s sort of a bummer. So as a mid-twenties soldier right now, I’ll have to see what I get later on. I’m only around the IV and V versions of weapons and armor, and I’ve seen a couple of VI versions in stores. Maybe once I get around level 30-40 I’ll see some new models.
Registration for Digital Overload 2008 opens at 8pm EST this evening. Check out the website and forums for more details!
Digital Overload Pre-Registration is now open
08:37 PM - Monday, November 19, 2007 - by Tim
Registration is now open. Remember, you have to have payment submitted prior to December 1st to get the free event t-shirt with your badge.
News: Stab. Stab. Listen. Stab. Stab. Steal. Stab.
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Stab. Stab. Listen. Stab. Stab. Steal. Stab.
01:14 PM - Monday, November 19, 2007 - by Tim
Assassin’s Creed. Seems like they should have called it Repetition Creed. It’s a fun game, and enjoyable, but at the same time it seems really sloppy when you do the exact same thing for every mission.
A) Arrive at city of choice.
B) Gain access by blending in with a conveniently placed group of scholars, who stand in one spot until a stranger decides to mingle with them. Despite the outstanding climbing system in the game, you can’t breach a city by climbing over its walls.
C) Once inside the city carry out the exact same tasks, in a quantity left to your choosing.
- Sit on a bench and eavesdrop a conversation. Because these people always discuss their private business in crowded places, and right near benches.
- Pickpocket a guy who has a map, or who, for some reason, has decided to write down on a piece of paper all of the known weaknesses of your target.
- Find a fanboy of your target (the guys preaching to an audience about how great the guy is), then punch him three times until he tells you everything.
Additionally you can find someone from your Assassin brotherhood who either fucked up and needs you to kill someone in exchange for information, or who fucked up and lost some flags which you need to collect for information. Also, he lost these flags while running all over the rooftops, and didn’t bother to stop once he realized his backpack had a giant fucking hole in it or something. “Oops, lost another one. Damn, there goes another one. Sonuva… I’ve lost all my flags. I’ll wait here and ask for someone to pick them up for me.”
If you feel like a good Samaritan, you can save all of the citizens being harasses by guards, all of whom are apparently thieves, and are about to die for it, but never get killed no matter how long you sit there and watch them get beaten, or how many times the guards say they’re going to kill them. Then once you save them they will either “Go home and hide” or “Tell their sons of your heroism”. If they’re a woman, they let you know “They were just about to be made off with”. And I’m paraphrasing, but the dialogue is word-for-word the same every time.
Then you finally get to go after your target, which ends up being the only variable in each mission. Currently I’m not quite sure what I benefit from seeking out all investigations as opposed to just doing the minimum number and then killing my target. It doesn’t seem like any of this information really changes the fact that I’m just going to walk up behind the guy and kill him in front of a hundred people anyway. And then have a ten-minute conversation with him as he lay dying, while his guards must be standing there waiting for us to stop chatting.
It just seems like there was so much more potential here that wasn’t used. I mean, instead of five methods of collecting information (pickpocket, flag collecting, brute force, eavesdropping or murder) and using them for every single mission, they should have made, say, ten methods and then mixed them up for each mission.
Like what about breaking into someone’s house to steal information? Or eavesdropping from directly overhead, atop a building. Or dangling someone off a rooftop until they gave you the information you wanted.
I hope that they maybe flesh it out a little bit in Assassin’s Creed 2, because what else there is to the game is outstanding. And even all of this stuff is really great, you just have to do it over and over and over.
As far as Mass Effect is concerned, I have a feeling it will be Christmas before I complete this first game. Now that the initial rush of excitement over the game is out of the way, I feel like I’ve settled in for the long haul, for what seems to be truly a gigantic galactic space opera. For at least my first play-through, I’m determined to experience it all, which includes zipping around the galaxy on a ton of side missions.
I’m still waiting to see if higher level weapons and armor really look all that different, or if they use the same models with different color schemes. So far pretty much every assault rifle I’ve come across looks exactly the same, even when they’re made by different manufacturers. While I assume most people won’t care, part of the reason I enjoy RPGs is so that as I work to advance, my character looks cooler and cooler. If at level 60 I look the same as I did at level 1, that’s sort of a bummer. So as a mid-twenties soldier right now, I’ll have to see what I get later on. I’m only around the IV and V versions of weapons and armor, and I’ve seen a couple of VI versions in stores. Maybe once I get around level 30-40 I’ll see some new models.
Registration for Digital Overload 2008 opens at 8pm EST this evening. Check out the website and forums for more details!
News: Digital Overload 2008
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
The deluge
04:50 AM - Friday, November 16, 2007 - by Tim
So let’s talk video games, it’s been a big week. Here are my opinions.
Lynching some Kane
The aiming in Kane and Lynch is pretty much exactly like the Hitman series. This is to say, a little clumsy and not very accurate. Single player (from what I’ve played of it) strikes me this way: Great characters, great voice acting, all wrapped into so-so gameplay. Not bad gameplay, but just not great as I was hoping for. Also lack of online co-op? Are we living in the 80s now?
Now, Fragile Alliance. While this online mode suffers from most of the same gameplay problems as the single player campaign (aiming), it has fast become my new addiction (replacing painkillers and pudding as the previous title holders). While the game mode may not be anything that is technically outstanding, as far as I’m concerned the social aspect of the game more than makes up for it.
As a regular deathmatch type game I would pass right over it without a second glance, but the tension and paranoia that comes from knowing that at any moment that “buddy” of yours behind you could be deciding that you’re not making it to the getaway car, and the sheer temptation to consider the same fate for anyone standing between you and more money, are more than sufficient for a really good time. I’d consider a Fragile Alliance tournament at Digital Overload if I could figure out a way to make it work. But regardless I definitely plan to have this game networked at the event.
This game brings out a side of me I’ve never seen before. I can be a jerk, but I’ve never been a greedy jerk before. I just can’t help myself. I see them jumping the fence to the getaway car, carrying what is rightfully my money… their back turned, completely vulnerable… it makes for some interesting second and third rounds. But I have no problem sleeping at night.
Though the mode is not without a downside. First of all, the game has an annoying bug whereby it gives you some nondescript error half of the time when trying to join games. This is annoying in and of itself, however any time you get this error, it dumps you to the beginning of the game, and you have to click through six screens just to join another game. It’s awful, and I really hope they patch a fix for this.
Because also, it dumps you to the main menu after you’re done with a game too. Now I get this for ranked matches, you don’t play with the same people and just rack up score. But why does it dump you from social matches? What is the issue here that I have re-invite my friends to a match after every game? Very obnoxious.
Still, when you get into a game, it’s a load of fun. If you’re not keen on buying a game just for the multiplayer portion, maybe just rent it and see what you think. The single player story is very good, the characters are great. For some people that will be enough, for some it won’t.
The Creed of the Day
Assassin’s Creed is visually one of the most stunning games I’ve ever seen. The texture quality, the environment, and most of all the animation (character animation is a biggy for me, as a lot of games have fancy graphics, and then characters that walk/run in terribly unnatural ways) are all out of this world. It really is an absolutely gorgeous game to look at.
As far as the story, I won’t ruin the “twist” for you, even though it’s revealed in the first five minutes of the game, I’m not too sure about. Unless there’s some new revelation towards the end of the game, so far I can’t even see why this story is necessary. Players of the game should know what I’m referring to. But I haven’t beaten it yet, so who knows how it will turn out.
I have no real gameplay gripes yet, but I do have concerns. Primarily that we’re only given three types of mini-missions with which to discover information (pickpocket people, eavesdrop, and flat-out pummel them for information). While right now these things are enjoyable to do, we’re tasked with killing nine people throughout the game. The idea that this is all I’m going to be doing for the next ten or so hours of gameplay worries me. But again, I’ll hold actual complaint until it’s actually bothered me.
Other than that, Altair’s voice just frustrates me. Everyone else in the game manages to have an accent, and yet Altair is the only 21st century American in the year 1191. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it jarring. I think he should sound more exotic. I suppose there’s one explanation (though it still makes no sense to me), but I can’t talk about it without spoiling the story. And to avoid angry emails, I won’t go and do that.
Anyway, so far it’s a good game. I’m not sure I feel it lives up to my expectations, but it deserves a full play-through before decide. So far I consider it a $60 well-spent though.
Effects of Mass
This is the big one. This is the one you monkeys have been emailing me about, and asking me on XBL and the forums about. This is Sparta. Wait, I mean this is Mass Effect.
I’ve got about 15 hours in the game so far, and though I’m a loooong ways from even completing it a first time, I do feel I’ve played enough of the game to formulate opinions on it. This may take many a paragraph.
We’ll start with character creation. It’s pretty powerful, and while I’m not sure you could create look-alikes of “anyone” you wanted, I think most people will have no trouble creating a version of Commander Shepherd that suits them.
I spent a good twenty-to-thirty minutes in character creation, between deciding what class and backgrounds to take (soldier, orphaned in an attack on his colony, willing to do whatever is necessary to get the job done), and creating the actual look of my guy. Hairstyles are pretty much all short for both male and female (this is the military, folks), and there are a nice selection of scars to add character to your… character. I wish more MMOs offered scars as an option. The scars on the males are a lot more garish than the females. You can’t really create a disfigured chick. I went with a nice long chin-to-ear scar on my guy.
The only facet of the character creation that bothered me was the eye selection. Most of the eyes were just either too wide (like walking around in a constant state of surprise), too droopy (like walking around in a constant state of being Rocky Balboa), or too exotic. If you want to create an Asian Commander Shepherd, you’re all set. But they don’t really work for anything else.
I’ll warn you that once you get into the game, you don’t really get too much of an extensive tutorial. You get the basic button functions, but I found there was a lot of stuff left to be figured out, especially with combat. It’s not terrible if you’ve played KOTOR, but people who haven’t might be a bit lost in the inventory/squad management screens. Maybe not though.
That said, there is a lot of KOTOR familiarity in this game, while still being fresh. KOTOR players will definitely feel right at home though.
The graphics in Mass Effect are outstanding, particularly the environments. I’m constantly amazed by the new planets I travel to. There is a slight obnoxious graphical tendency that so far as proved to be my biggest gripe with the game, and that’s the texture pop-in. I recall it happened occasionally with Gears of War as well, but I find it to be far more frequent in Mass Effect. Essentially when you load a new area, or a new cutscene, sometimes the game gets going before the textures have finished. So for 3-5 seconds you’re looking at blurry, vague models, and suddenly the gorgeous textures load and everything looks pretty again. It clearly doesn’t hamper gameplay, but it is a bit distracting.
Another minor annoyance are the constant pauses when the game loads a new area, or auto-saves your game. Though this one really doesn’t detract from the game, and I can’t fault the game for saving and loading (it is software, after all), you will notice it.
Moving back to some of the good stuff, I find combat to be really enjoyable, however there is a bit of a learning curve. It’s all real-time, so that’s a big change from KOTOR. It will take a little while to really wrap your head around the in-combat controls, and using the radial menus (which pause the game) to issue commands to your squad mates. Overall I think the combat works well. Just don’t get discouraged if it frustrates you right off the bat.
As far as your squad, they’re a mixed bag, I guess. More often then not they immediately grab all of the good cover spots in a firefight, and you’re left standing there like an idiot. They are useful in combat about as often as they get themselves killed like idiots. I took an ability called Unity (might be for Soldiers only), which revives my squad in-combat, which is useful because, well, they’re dead a lot.
The voice acting in Mass Effect is, for the most part, really really good. There’s even an alien race called the Elcor that speak in monotonous tones, and thus have to preface every statement with the type of sentence it’s supposed to be, similar to the robot in KOTOR (HK-whatever his name is). It’s pretty amusing.
Aside from the main mission, there is no shortage of things to do in Mass Effect. Right from the early game you’ll be coming across side quests and task that people need done. Exploring uncharted worlds is a fun little past time if you’re into that sort of thing. Not only does nearly every world you visit have its own very unique look (and there are a lot of worlds you can land on), but there are all sorts of stuff to find there. When you touch down in the Mako (that ATV thing you’ve seen in the videos), your map will show you the location of 2-3 points of interest, usually a mineral deposit you can survey, or some debris you can check out. However there are other things on the planets that will only show up on your map if you drive around and get near them it seems.
Driving the Mako is like a little game unto itself. This thing can scale near-vertical surfaces, and it also uses thrusters to sort of “jump” so it’s become a little hobby of mine when climbing mountains to reach the apex and then burn the thrusters, throwing the Mako all the way down to the bottom. It doesn’t take damage from falling, so it’s just good clean fun.
As with KOTOR, and as you’ve been told you would, you get to make a lot of choices in this game. Now obviously I won’t know the extent to which some of these early choices are effecting the game until I’m on my second play-through and making different choices, but there are some situations where the effects of your decisions are immediately apparent. I decided to play through as a Renegade (Dark Side, for you KOTOR familiars) the first time through, and a Paragon (Light Side) the second time through. So I’m making all of the cruel and bastardly decisions, as hard as some of them may be. Sometimes I find myself surprised at what they let you decide to do. On more than one occasion when making these choices I’ve though to myself “Nah, I’ll just say this, the game wouldn’t let me actually be that much of an asshol– oh shit, I did just execute that hostage.”
You could probably rush through the main mission in twenty-hours or so, but I think you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t experience all this game had to offer, at least once. Even all of the lore scattered throughout the game is interesting and ties together. Actually a good portion of the codex (your collection of information about planets, species, etc) entries are voiced-over, and I could be wrong but the guy doing the voice over sounds remarkably like the voice over guy from Crackdown (someone said it was Frank Welker, original voice of Megatron, but I can’t find him credited for it officially).
I could go on about how great Mass Effect is. It’s very clear that Bioware put a lot of love and hard work into the game. It does present with some minor technical flaws, but the game is so massive in both scope and story that these little imperfections can’t do a think to detract from enjoying the game, for me at least. If you’ve been anxiously awaiting this game as I was, I definitely think your excitement is justified.
I haven’t forgotten about Super Mario Galaxy, I just… haven’t even opened it yet.
Digital Overload 2008
12:27 AM - Saturday, November 17, 2007 - by Tim
Preparation for Digital Overload 2008 has officially begun! We will be opening pre-registration for the event on Monday November 19th for those that want to secure their seat at the event early.
Until December 31st, badges will be $45 per person. The badge price raises to $50/person through January, and $55/person from February until the event.
If you pre-register before December 1st, you will get a free Digital Overload 2008 event t-shirt with your badge. Pre-registrants received between December 1st and December 31st will have the option to purchase an event t-shirt for an extra $5 (limit one per person). T-shirts will be $10 in January and $15 after January 31st. Extra event t-shirts will be available at the event for $15.
We will also be offering spectator passes at the door again this year for $20 each. Spectator badges allow someone to come into the event and hang out, but not to bring any equipment in, or participate in any of the tournaments or contests.
The official Digital Overload forums are open once again, so you can start connecting with past LANmates, find room and ride shares, and discuss the upcoming event.
I’m pleased to announce our first two sponsors for Digital Overload 2008, SUMO and Speak Servers! SUMO is joining again for the second year in a row, and will be providing Digital Overload 2008 with more of their great beanbag chairs that were a huge hit last year!
Speak Servers is the Official Digital Overload VoIP Provider for DO2008! They will be supplying the entire event with VoIP, a first for the event, and definitely much welcomed!
We’ve also released some tournament information for DO2008. We’ll be holding tournaments for Team Fortress 2 (PC), Call of Duty 4 (PC), and Halo 3 (XBox 360) at the event. Stay tuned for more information on new tournaments, prizes, and how to sign up for the tournaments in advance!
Additionally we should have some official hotel information for you soon.
So don’t forget to come back on Monday and secure your event registration. Digital Overload 2008 is going to be an incredible event!
News: The deluge
Friday, November 16th, 2007
The deluge
04:50 AM - Friday, November 16, 2007 - by Tim
So let’s talk video games, it’s been a big week. Here are my opinions.
Lynching some Kane
The aiming in Kane and Lynch is pretty much exactly like the Hitman series. This is to say, a little clumsy and not very accurate. Single player (from what I’ve played of it) strikes me this way: Great characters, great voice acting, all wrapped into so-so gameplay. Not bad gameplay, but just not great as I was hoping for. Also lack of online co-op? Are we living in the 80s now?
Now, Fragile Alliance. While this online mode suffers from most of the same gameplay problems as the single player campaign (aiming), it has fast become my new addiction (replacing painkillers and pudding as the previous title holders). While the game mode may not be anything that is technically outstanding, as far as I’m concerned the social aspect of the game more than makes up for it.
As a regular deathmatch type game I would pass right over it without a second glance, but the tension and paranoia that comes from knowing that at any moment that “buddy” of yours behind you could be deciding that you’re not making it to the getaway car, and the sheer temptation to consider the same fate for anyone standing between you and more money, are more than sufficient for a really good time. I’d consider a Fragile Alliance tournament at Digital Overload if I could figure out a way to make it work. But regardless I definitely plan to have this game networked at the event.
This game brings out a side of me I’ve never seen before. I can be a jerk, but I’ve never been a greedy jerk before. I just can’t help myself. I see them jumping the fence to the getaway car, carrying what is rightfully my money… their back turned, completely vulnerable… it makes for some interesting second and third rounds. But I have no problem sleeping at night.
Though the mode is not without a downside. First of all, the game has an annoying bug whereby it gives you some nondescript error half of the time when trying to join games. This is annoying in and of itself, however any time you get this error, it dumps you to the beginning of the game, and you have to click through six screens just to join another game. It’s awful, and I really hope they patch a fix for this.
Because also, it dumps you to the main menu after you’re done with a game too. Now I get this for ranked matches, you don’t play with the same people and just rack up score. But why does it dump you from social matches? What is the issue here that I have re-invite my friends to a match after every game? Very obnoxious.
Still, when you get into a game, it’s a load of fun. If you’re not keen on buying a game just for the multiplayer portion, maybe just rent it and see what you think. The single player story is very good, the characters are great. For some people that will be enough, for some it won’t.
The Creed of the Day
Assassin’s Creed is visually one of the most stunning games I’ve ever seen. The texture quality, the environment, and most of all the animation (character animation is a biggy for me, as a lot of games have fancy graphics, and then characters that walk/run in terribly unnatural ways) are all out of this world. It really is an absolutely gorgeous game to look at.
As far as the story, I won’t ruin the “twist” for you, even though it’s revealed in the first five minutes of the game, I’m not too sure about. Unless there’s some new revelation towards the end of the game, so far I can’t even see why this story is necessary. Players of the game should know what I’m referring to. But I haven’t beaten it yet, so who knows how it will turn out.
I have no real gameplay gripes yet, but I do have concerns. Primarily that we’re only given three types of mini-missions with which to discover information (pickpocket people, eavesdrop, and flat-out pummel them for information). While right now these things are enjoyable to do, we’re tasked with killing nine people throughout the game. The idea that this is all I’m going to be doing for the next ten or so hours of gameplay worries me. But again, I’ll hold actual complaint until it’s actually bothered me.
Other than that, Altair’s voice just frustrates me. Everyone else in the game manages to have an accent, and yet Altair is the only 21st century American in the year 1191. Maybe it’s just me, but I find it jarring. I think he should sound more exotic. I suppose there’s one explanation (though it still makes no sense to me), but I can’t talk about it without spoiling the story. And to avoid angry emails, I won’t go and do that.
Anyway, so far it’s a good game. I’m not sure I feel it lives up to my expectations, but it deserves a full play-through before decide. So far I consider it a $60 well-spent though.
Effects of Mass
This is the big one. This is the one you monkeys have been emailing me about, and asking me on XBL and the forums about. This is Sparta. Wait, I mean this is Mass Effect.
I’ve got about 15 hours in the game so far, and though I’m a loooong ways from even completing it a first time, I do feel I’ve played enough of the game to formulate opinions on it. This may take many a paragraph.
We’ll start with character creation. It’s pretty powerful, and while I’m not sure you could create look-alikes of “anyone” you wanted, I think most people will have no trouble creating a version of Commander Shepherd that suits them.
I spent a good twenty-to-thirty minutes in character creation, between deciding what class and backgrounds to take (soldier, orphaned in an attack on his colony, willing to do whatever is necessary to get the job done), and creating the actual look of my guy. Hairstyles are pretty much all short for both male and female (this is the military, folks), and there are a nice selection of scars to add character to your… character. I wish more MMOs offered scars as an option. The scars on the males are a lot more garish than the females. You can’t really create a disfigured chick. I went with a nice long chin-to-ear scar on my guy.
The only facet of the character creation that bothered me was the eye selection. Most of the eyes were just either too wide (like walking around in a constant state of surprise), too droopy (like walking around in a constant state of being Rocky Balboa), or too exotic. If you want to create an Asian Commander Shepherd, you’re all set. But they don’t really work for anything else.
I’ll warn you that once you get into the game, you don’t really get too much of an extensive tutorial. You get the basic button functions, but I found there was a lot of stuff left to be figured out, especially with combat. It’s not terrible if you’ve played KOTOR, but people who haven’t might be a bit lost in the inventory/squad management screens. Maybe not though.
That said, there is a lot of KOTOR familiarity in this game, while still being fresh. KOTOR players will definitely feel right at home though.
The graphics in Mass Effect are outstanding, particularly the environments. I’m constantly amazed by the new planets I travel to. There is a slight obnoxious graphical tendency that so far as proved to be my biggest gripe with the game, and that’s the texture pop-in. I recall it happened occasionally with Gears of War as well, but I find it to be far more frequent in Mass Effect. Essentially when you load a new area, or a new cutscene, sometimes the game gets going before the textures have finished. So for 3-5 seconds you’re looking at blurry, vague models, and suddenly the gorgeous textures load and everything looks pretty again. It clearly doesn’t hamper gameplay, but it is a bit distracting.
Another minor annoyance are the constant pauses when the game loads a new area, or auto-saves your game. Though this one really doesn’t detract from the game, and I can’t fault the game for saving and loading (it is software, after all), you will notice it.
Moving back to some of the good stuff, I find combat to be really enjoyable, however there is a bit of a learning curve. It’s all real-time, so that’s a big change from KOTOR. It will take a little while to really wrap your head around the in-combat controls, and using the radial menus (which pause the game) to issue commands to your squad mates. Overall I think the combat works well. Just don’t get discouraged if it frustrates you right off the bat.
As far as your squad, they’re a mixed bag, I guess. More often then not they immediately grab all of the good cover spots in a firefight, and you’re left standing there like an idiot. They are useful in combat about as often as they get themselves killed like idiots. I took an ability called Unity (might be for Soldiers only), which revives my squad in-combat, which is useful because, well, they’re dead a lot.
The voice acting in Mass Effect is, for the most part, really really good. There’s even an alien race called the Elcor that speak in monotonous tones, and thus have to preface every statement with the type of sentence it’s supposed to be, similar to the robot in KOTOR (HK-whatever his name is). It’s pretty amusing.
Aside from the main mission, there is no shortage of things to do in Mass Effect. Right from the early game you’ll be coming across side quests and task that people need done. Exploring uncharted worlds is a fun little past time if you’re into that sort of thing. Not only does nearly every world you visit have its own very unique look (and there are a lot of worlds you can land on), but there are all sorts of stuff to find there. When you touch down in the Mako (that ATV thing you’ve seen in the videos), your map will show you the location of 2-3 points of interest, usually a mineral deposit you can survey, or some debris you can check out. However there are other things on the planets that will only show up on your map if you drive around and get near them it seems.
Driving the Mako is like a little game unto itself. This thing can scale near-vertical surfaces, and it also uses thrusters to sort of “jump” so it’s become a little hobby of mine when climbing mountains to reach the apex and then burn the thrusters, throwing the Mako all the way down to the bottom. It doesn’t take damage from falling, so it’s just good clean fun.
As with KOTOR, and as you’ve been told you would, you get to make a lot of choices in this game. Now obviously I won’t know the extent to which some of these early choices are effecting the game until I’m on my second play-through and making different choices, but there are some situations where the effects of your decisions are immediately apparent. I decided to play through as a Renegade (Dark Side, for you KOTOR familiars) the first time through, and a Paragon (Light Side) the second time through. So I’m making all of the cruel and bastardly decisions, as hard as some of them may be. Sometimes I find myself surprised at what they let you decide to do. On more than one occasion when making these choices I’ve though to myself “Nah, I’ll just say this, the game wouldn’t let me actually be that much of an asshol– oh shit, I did just execute that hostage.”
You could probably rush through the main mission in twenty-hours or so, but I think you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn’t experience all this game had to offer, at least once. Even all of the lore scattered throughout the game is interesting and ties together. Actually a good portion of the codex (your collection of information about planets, species, etc) entries are voiced-over, and I could be wrong but the guy doing the voice over sounds remarkably like the voice over guy from Crackdown (someone said it was Frank Welker, original voice of Megatron, but I can’t find him credited for it officially).
I could go on about how great Mass Effect is. It’s very clear that Bioware put a lot of love and hard work into the game. It does present with some minor technical flaws, but the game is so massive in both scope and story that these little imperfections can’t do a think to detract from enjoying the game, for me at least. If you’ve been anxiously awaiting this game as I was, I definitely think your excitement is justified.
I haven’t forgotten about Super Mario Galaxy, I just… haven’t even opened it yet.
News: AC Launch Trailer
Friday, November 16th, 2007
Digits
03:21 AM - Monday, November 12, 2007 - by Tim
I’m just going to go ahead and throw this up here for the edification of any who didn’t know, and also to hopefully stem the tide of emails I know I’m going to receive on the subject. Altair is missing a finger on his left hand to accommodate the wrist blade he uses. However CAD characters only have four fingers, and it looked a little bizarre with the middle one removed, so I just decided to ignore that particular character detail. And I didn’t see the point in drawing five-fingered characters one time out of over a thousand comics just to then remove one back down to four when it’s really not that important for the sake of the comic.
I do think that that detail is a pretty cool feature of the character, so I wasn’t trying to “diss” on Altair by omitting it, I promise.
Also, bonus points to those who get what the “creed” is a reference to.
I’ve weaned myself off painkillers, and I started back to work yesterday after a nice little vacation. I’m eating regular foods, and there’s no real pain in the gaping sockets where my wisdom teeth used to be, so that little adventure is behind me.
I did start doing some comics in advance again (two yesterday, two today), not because I’m having surgery again, but because… well, we all know what happens tomorrow.
I’ve given it some thought, and I think I’ve worked out a game-plan for when Assassin’s Creed, Kane and Lynch, Soldier of Fortune, and the EQ2 expansion all arrive at the same time.
Kane and Lynch gets first attention with Fragile Alliance. I’m going to jump online and see if anyone is playing, and how it is. I’ve seen the video footage, I’m just really dying to see how the mode measure up in actual play.
Then definitely some Assassin’s Creed, followed by a short bit of Soldier of Fortune just to giggle at all the blood and gore, but then it will probably be stuck on the shelf for a rainy day. Then back to Kane and Lynch and Assassin’s Creed in an alternating back and forth sort of thing. You see, by planning ahead I can maximize limited gaming time. Or something like that.
The Everquest 2 expansion will just wait a day or so. I don’t have a level 70 character, so I’m not involved in the mad rush to level 80, and I’m not starting a Sarnak character, so I don’t need to get on and elbow out all the other Sarnak newbies for those level 1 giant rats. I’ll just mosey my little Defiler on down later and check things out.
AC Launch Trailer
11:53 AM - Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - by Tim
They really do put together some pretty attractive trailers for this game.
News: Digits
Friday, November 16th, 2007
Digits
03:21 AM - Monday, November 12, 2007 - by Tim
I’m just going to go ahead and throw this up here for the edification of any who didn’t know, and also to hopefully stem the tide of emails I know I’m going to receive on the subject. Altair is missing a finger on his left hand to accommodate the wrist blade he uses. However CAD characters only have four fingers, and it looked a little bizarre with the middle one removed, so I just decided to ignore that particular character detail. And I didn’t see the point in drawing five-fingered characters one time out of over a thousand comics just to then remove one back down to four when it’s really not that important for the sake of the comic.
I do think that that detail is a pretty cool feature of the character, so I wasn’t trying to “diss” on Altair by omitting it, I promise.
Also, bonus points to those who get what the “creed” is a reference to.
I’ve weaned myself off painkillers, and I started back to work yesterday after a nice little vacation. I’m eating regular foods, and there’s no real pain in the gaping sockets where my wisdom teeth used to be, so that little adventure is behind me.
I did start doing some comics in advance again (two yesterday, two today), not because I’m having surgery again, but because… well, we all know what happens tomorrow.
I’ve given it some thought, and I think I’ve worked out a game-plan for when Assassin’s Creed, Kane and Lynch, Soldier of Fortune, and the EQ2 expansion all arrive at the same time.
Kane and Lynch gets first attention with Fragile Alliance. I’m going to jump online and see if anyone is playing, and how it is. I’ve seen the video footage, I’m just really dying to see how the mode measure up in actual play.
Then definitely some Assassin’s Creed, followed by a short bit of Soldier of Fortune just to giggle at all the blood and gore, but then it will probably be stuck on the shelf for a rainy day. Then back to Kane and Lynch and Assassin’s Creed in an alternating back and forth sort of thing. You see, by planning ahead I can maximize limited gaming time. Or something like that.
The Everquest 2 expansion will just wait a day or so. I don’t have a level 70 character, so I’m not involved in the mad rush to level 80, and I’m not starting a Sarnak character, so I don’t need to get on and elbow out all the other Sarnak newbies for those level 1 giant rats. I’ll just mosey my little Defiler on down later and check things out.
AC Launch Trailer
11:53 AM - Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - by Tim
They really do put together some pretty attractive trailers for this game.
News: CoD4 GameDay
Friday, November 16th, 2007
Fragile
12:24 AM - Friday, November 9, 2007 - by Tim
So the release date for Kane and Lynch got pushed up a week. It’s really six of one, half-dozen of the other. Originally it was scheduled to come out the same day as Mass Effect, now it’s coming out alongside Assassin’s Creed.
The more I see of the single player campaign, the more it interests me, but without a doubt the primary draw for me has definitely been the ‘Fragile Alliance’ multiplayer mode. The mode in which you and a small group of other players are tasked with robbing a bank. So not only do you have to worry about completing said act of robbery, but then you have to worry about the other players. Because why split the money 6 ways, when you could split it 5 ways, if you catch my drift. So the name of the game becomes betrayal in an attempt to escape with as much of the loot in your pockets as possible.
But it’s not that simple, because let’s say you decide that your ol’ pal Joey has just about outlived his usefulness, and you’d like a bite of his slice of the pie. So you off poor Joey. Well now he respawns as a cop, tasked with taking out his former partners in crime, with a nice little monetary reward for him as incentive. Not only that, you’re now tagged with a giant “I’m a jerk who betrays his friends” label in the game, and everyone is going to think twice about turning their back on you again.
Also, the money you escape with is accumulative, and places you on the leader boards. The more cash you get, the higher up you go.
In general it sounds like a really new, fresh and exciting multiplayer experience, with a lot of temptation there to back-stab and double-cross to make off with the loot, just like real criminals, but appropriate consequences to (hopefully) curtail the moron who thinks he’s just going to smoke everyone right off the bat and take all the money for himself.
In my fantasy the whole game mode plays out like that one scene from Heat, where they take down the bank and then there’s a huge shootout in the street.
My concern comes due to lack of information. In fact, since I first saw the article that revealed the Fragile Alliance game mode and what it was about, I have not seen one shred of additional publicity/info on it. And the game is out in five days. So what does that mean? I guess some would argue that the whole game itself has been under-hyped and under-advertised, but I really hope this turns out to be the gem I know it should be. I’m not so much worried about the single player stuff, as it’s by the people that did Hitman. But Hitman has never had a multiplayer so… well, here’s hoping.
In the meantime, Call of Duty 4 is providing more than adequate entertainment. Someone told me that the game actually has a whole single player campaign, but I really don’t care enough to find out. The level design for the multiplayer matches is outstanding. I love all but one level (that flat level with the missile silos).
Actually, it’s enjoyable enough that I thought I’d host a little GameDay for Saturday (11/10/07, tomorrow). We haven’t done one of those in ages. Shortly before 4pm EST I’ll clear a bunch of space in my friends list, and accept invites from people who have CoD4 in their “Played Games” list (to be sure spots go to people that actually want to play CoD4). Then I’ll create a party at 4pm and people can join in and we’ll play for a bit. I don’t know for how long, I guess just until I don’t feel like playing any more.
Fragile Alliance Trailer
11:10 AM - Friday, November 9, 2007 - by Tim
Well, here’s some footage from the Fragile Alliance game mode… that’s something (thanks Daniel).
CoD4 GameDay
05:44 PM - Saturday, November 10, 2007 - by Tim
That was a lot of fun. It almost had to be canceled on account of Xbox Live issues, a lot of people couldn’t connect, getting the “Downloading Game Settings” stall from beta. It started working about five seconds after I posted that it would be postponed (go figure) and we played for a little over an hour.
If you couldn’t join due to network issues, I may try and do another one, maybe Monday night. Before I get distracted with Assassin’s Creed.
News: Fragile Alliance Trailer
Thursday, November 15th, 2007
Fragile
12:24 AM - Friday, November 9, 2007 - by Tim
So the release date for Kane and Lynch got pushed up a week. It’s really six of one, half-dozen of the other. Originally it was scheduled to come out the same day as Mass Effect, now it’s coming out alongside Assassin’s Creed.
The more I see of the single player campaign, the more it interests me, but without a doubt the primary draw for me has definitely been the ‘Fragile Alliance’ multiplayer mode. The mode in which you and a small group of other players are tasked with robbing a bank. So not only do you have to worry about completing said act of robbery, but then you have to worry about the other players. Because why split the money 6 ways, when you could split it 5 ways, if you catch my drift. So the name of the game becomes betrayal in an attempt to escape with as much of the loot in your pockets as possible.
But it’s not that simple, because let’s say you decide that your ol’ pal Joey has just about outlived his usefulness, and you’d like a bite of his slice of the pie. So you off poor Joey. Well now he respawns as a cop, tasked with taking out his former partners in crime, with a nice little monetary reward for him as incentive. Not only that, you’re now tagged with a giant “I’m a jerk who betrays his friends” label in the game, and everyone is going to think twice about turning their back on you again.
Also, the money you escape with is accumulative, and places you on the leader boards. The more cash you get, the higher up you go.
In general it sounds like a really new, fresh and exciting multiplayer experience, with a lot of temptation there to back-stab and double-cross to make off with the loot, just like real criminals, but appropriate consequences to (hopefully) curtail the moron who thinks he’s just going to smoke everyone right off the bat and take all the money for himself.
In my fantasy the whole game mode plays out like that one scene from Heat, where they take down the bank and then there’s a huge shootout in the street.
My concern comes due to lack of information. In fact, since I first saw the article that revealed the Fragile Alliance game mode and what it was about, I have not seen one shred of additional publicity/info on it. And the game is out in five days. So what does that mean? I guess some would argue that the whole game itself has been under-hyped and under-advertised, but I really hope this turns out to be the gem I know it should be. I’m not so much worried about the single player stuff, as it’s by the people that did Hitman. But Hitman has never had a multiplayer so… well, here’s hoping.
In the meantime, Call of Duty 4 is providing more than adequate entertainment. Someone told me that the game actually has a whole single player campaign, but I really don’t care enough to find out. The level design for the multiplayer matches is outstanding. I love all but one level (that flat level with the missile silos).
Actually, it’s enjoyable enough that I thought I’d host a little GameDay for Saturday (11/10/07, tomorrow). We haven’t done one of those in ages. Shortly before 4pm EST I’ll clear a bunch of space in my friends list, and accept invites from people who have CoD4 in their “Played Games” list (to be sure spots go to people that actually want to play CoD4). Then I’ll create a party at 4pm and people can join in and we’ll play for a bit. I don’t know for how long, I guess just until I don’t feel like playing any more.
Fragile Alliance Trailer
11:10 AM - Friday, November 9, 2007 - by Tim
Well, here’s some footage from the Fragile Alliance game mode… that’s something (thanks Daniel).
CoD4 GameDay
05:44 PM - Saturday, November 10, 2007 - by Tim
That was a lot of fun. It almost had to be canceled on account of Xbox Live issues, a lot of people couldn’t connect, getting the “Downloading Game Settings” stall from beta. It started working about five seconds after I posted that it would be postponed (go figure) and we played for a little over an hour.
If you couldn’t join due to network issues, I may try and do another one, maybe Monday night. Before I get distracted with Assassin’s Creed.
News: Fragile
Thursday, November 15th, 2007
Fragile
12:24 AM - Friday, November 9, 2007 - by Tim
So the release date for Kane and Lynch got pushed up a week. It’s really six of one, half-dozen of the other. Originally it was scheduled to come out the same day as Mass Effect, now it’s coming out alongside Assassin’s Creed.
The more I see of the single player campaign, the more it interests me, but without a doubt the primary draw for me has definitely been the ‘Fragile Alliance’ multiplayer mode. The mode in which you and a small group of other players are tasked with robbing a bank. So not only do you have to worry about completing said act of robbery, but then you have to worry about the other players. Because why split the money 6 ways, when you could split it 5 ways, if you catch my drift. So the name of the game becomes betrayal in an attempt to escape with as much of the loot in your pockets as possible.
But it’s not that simple, because let’s say you decide that your ol’ pal Joey has just about outlived his usefulness, and you’d like a bite of his slice of the pie. So you off poor Joey. Well now he respawns as a cop, tasked with taking out his former partners in crime, with a nice little monetary reward for him as incentive. Not only that, you’re now tagged with a giant “I’m a jerk who betrays his friends” label in the game, and everyone is going to think twice about turning their back on you again.
Also, the money you escape with is accumulative, and places you on the leader boards. The more cash you get, the higher up you go.
In general it sounds like a really new, fresh and exciting multiplayer experience, with a lot of temptation there to back-stab and double-cross to make off with the loot, just like real criminals, but appropriate consequences to (hopefully) curtail the moron who thinks he’s just going to smoke everyone right off the bat and take all the money for himself.
In my fantasy the whole game mode plays out like that one scene from Heat, where they take down the bank and then there’s a huge shootout in the street.
My concern comes due to lack of information. In fact, since I first saw the article that revealed the Fragile Alliance game mode and what it was about, I have not seen one shred of additional publicity/info on it. And the game is out in five days. So what does that mean? I guess some would argue that the whole game itself has been under-hyped and under-advertised, but I really hope this turns out to be the gem I know it should be. I’m not so much worried about the single player stuff, as it’s by the people that did Hitman. But Hitman has never had a multiplayer so… well, here’s hoping.
In the meantime, Call of Duty 4 is providing more than adequate entertainment. Someone told me that the game actually has a whole single player campaign, but I really don’t care enough to find out. The level design for the multiplayer matches is outstanding. I love all but one level (that flat level with the missile silos).
Actually, it’s enjoyable enough that I thought I’d host a little GameDay for Saturday (11/10/07, tomorrow). We haven’t done one of those in ages. Shortly before 4pm EST I’ll clear a bunch of space in my friends list, and accept invites from people who have CoD4 in their “Played Games” list (to be sure spots go to people that actually want to play CoD4). Then I’ll create a party at 4pm and people can join in and we’ll play for a bit. I don’t know for how long, I guess just until I don’t feel like playing any more.
Fragile Alliance Trailer
11:10 AM - Friday, November 9, 2007 - by Tim
Well, here’s some footage from the Fragile Alliance game mode… that’s something (thanks Daniel).
CoD4 GameDay
05:44 PM - Saturday, November 10, 2007 - by Tim
That was a lot of fun. It almost had to be canceled on account of Xbox Live issues, a lot of people couldn’t connect, getting the “Downloading Game Settings” stall from beta. It started working about five seconds after I posted that it would be postponed (go figure) and we played for a little over an hour.
If you couldn’t join due to network issues, I may try and do another one, maybe Monday night. Before I get distracted with Assassin’s Creed.
News: Mah teef! Mah teeeef!
Thursday, November 15th, 2007
Mah teef! Mah teeeef!
12:18 PM - Monday, November 5, 2007 - by Tim
Well, I am alive and recovering just fine. I appear to have lucked out with the whole wisdom-teeth removal process, and so far am experiencing none of the nightmare stuff you read about. Thank you for all of the emails of support, advice and general well-wishing.
Went in Friday morning, they started an IV sedation and I was out within minutes. Woke up about an hour later with a mouth stuffed full of gauze, and pretty groggy. Went home and slept for a few hours, then I was up watching TV and eating (pudding, applesauce, yogurt, my diet of the last few days), and generally doing pretty fine. Haven’t had any severe pain or discomfort, and no real swelling. The barrage of drugs they put me on probably has something to do with that. Also, the percocet is nice.
I’ve recently been able to add soup and macaroni and cheese, and scrambled eggs to my list of foods I feel comfortable eating. Right now my primary concern is avoiding dry sockets, so I’m still taking it slow and easy, but overall the experience has not been at all as bad as it could have been.
As all of the comics are done for this week, technically I don’t have to go back to work until this Sunday, and that’s a tempting proposition. I am enjoying relaxing and vegging out on some games, but I have a feeling that will last another day or two before I start going stir crazy and have to do something productive, so we’ll see.
The Simpsons is… well, if you love the Simpsons, it’s a great game. It’s like playing one super-long episode of the show. However if this game were put out with any other characters, it would be a pretty run-of-the-mill title. So take that into consideration if you wanted to buy it. Simpsons humor = +2 full letter grades to the whole game.
And Call of Duty 4 tomorrow… that will be fun. I’ve been itching for it since the beta ended, and I’m definitely psyched to try out some new maps for a change.
Now, back to my drugs.
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