Working on Content and Additional Crap

Its about that time that I need to vomit some more words onto your screen.

So we are renting games from Gamefly as fast as we can and reviewing the ones we feel like. Such as we just played Mass Effect obviously and tried out Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom. Kingdom Under Fire really didn't hold our attention as much as we hoped as it was great in the blurp that we tried on the XBL demo but as a full game it gets to the point that even the game makes you wonder why you are playing it. The gameplay was fun as well as the customization that all of us love but it is only multiplayer on Xbox Live and there is not enough of a story to keep you in like Mass Effect in. Don't get me wrong now, the graphics were superior and if they can continue on their series I could probably give the game a "more than a rental" review, that is to say that we didn't like this game enough to buy. That is probably why we sent it back for Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and kept Mass Effect to rent out the new Advance Wars DS game. Those game will more than likely get reviews from us as they warrant it more than Kingdom Under Fire.

Me and Barry are mostly the review writers here so we will continue giving our junk 2 cents on the industry, new games, and whatever the hell we feel like. Player 3 is really our editor and David isn't more vocal of our crew, he really doesn't care for blogs. His name may be on the wall but I'm three times more important than him, you will mostly see him on Gunbound but he peaks his interest time and again for whatever game we are trying.

I'll post this here. I agree with Barry here enough not to post my own review, so I'll just add whatever I can.

What else can you expect from Bioware. They know console RPGs that Americans can appreciate as much as the asian anime looking staples flooding the genre. Not that I don't love those games too but damn is it nice to have variety.

You may remember Bioware from a little game called Knights of the Old Republic or Star Wars: KOTOR as many people refer to it as. What an awesome game that was and what else can you expect from the makers of KOTOR than a fresh new IP that is amazing in a lot of new ways.

All I can add from Barry is that the engine that they run the game in is fantastic. Not only does it fluidly handle all of the action during combat and exploring but even involves the "cutscenes" or dialogue in a way that doesn't make you ever think it is pre-rendered. I see very minimal FMV (Full Motion Video) in the game and I am happy for it. All the cutscenes look like you could do that instead of elaborate choreographed battle scenes. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't your attention without the over-the-top showings that your local Final Fantasy or [Insert RPG Here] offers.

Read Barry's review for more insight as to why this game is "so effing awesome."


So that's it until the next review for me. Down the pipeline we will probably get a review on Radiant Dawn from Player 3 and a review of Advance Wars: Days of Ruin from me. And plan on doing a belated look at The Orange Box and the new Turok game.

Mass Effect

Mass Effect

Foreword: I have never really made it a point to play RPG’s. It has never really been interesting to me to specialize in anything and have “powers” that you can get and skill up and have “levels”. Mass effect has changed that for me, and I now realize that even though some RPGs can be diluted down to a crappy 3^rd or 1^st person shooter, it is better not to. So just keep in mind that this is the first RPG that I have felt utterly compelled to finish.

Story:

In the year 2148 the human race found an ancient technology on Mars, this technology allowed the humans to travel at FTL speeds (faster than light) and reach beyond the galaxy. This discovery is hailed as the single greatest in all of human history. The technology to hurl objects across the galaxy is called Mass Effect. This leads to human’s first contact with other alien life, Turians, a battle then ensues. Instead of destroying each other, a peace

ful pact is struck between the races. This is where you come in about quarter of a century after the discovery of the ancient ruins you play as a custom created character whose name will inevitably end with Shepard. You are at the command of the Normandy, a joint venture between the Turian and Human alliance. The Normandy is one of the most sophisticated and advance warships out there with stealth technology that renders it “invisible”.

The main story in Mass Effect is just plain good it doesn’t wax on ab

out nonsensical bullshit for filler; it is a genuinely great plot. The story really draws you in and makes you a part of it rather than being some no name that doesn’t get recognition for their efforts. The Ending is truly one to behold not too overdramatic but defiantly will keep you on the edge of your seat. I cannot emphasize the quality of the story, great writing and great story elements. The main story is long, in quantifiable terms its on the order of ten to fifteen hours of actual play, it can get even longer if you are one of those that like to complete side quests. The side quests will keep anyone busy for a while, and extend game play time for a while. It took us roughly 25 hours to finish the story and poke around a few systems and complete random quests.

Game play:

The fun really starts from the get go, you get to make a character. For some this is the best part of the game, just because they can make the goofiest looking twat they can think of, or in our case make the most pissed off looking SOB…ever. The character customization doesn’t give a lot of wiggle room although there is enough space to really customize the look. One thing we noticed after we completed the game was that we had become akin to our little Bobby Sheppard. It felt somewhat alien to play as something that wasn’t Bobby Shepard, but change is good, and fun.

Although when I first started to play the game I treated it much like an FPS, I soon realized that I had way more fun to have. The actual combat and power selection is devised into two different radials that will display your abilities and your available weapons. The menus are very unobtrusive and when selecting either one, time in the game will stop, allowing the user a chance to take a breath and formulate their plan of attack. Even in heated battles the menus do not feel clunky or a nuisance to operate, they become second nature to operate and memorize.

Movement through stages is very fluid and interaction between the NPCs is very well done. Voice acting is top notch and there is a huge amount of scripted dialog.

Combat is a really integral part of the game and it does it very well. Everyone can choose from four different weapons and can decide to train in a certain few, although later in the game you can have inter-class specialization. The powers or abilities will vary between what you wish to place your points in. For example if you place a lot of your points in assault rifle training then you will get appropriate powerups, like overkill. This newly gained ability can be used in conjunction with you assault rifle to provide better accuracy and rate of fire. It doesn’t just have to be weapon upgrades but it can also be powers that defend you and fuck up space pirates. The way these systems are put together is really slick and lends itself to gamers of any genre.

Combat isn’t limited to ground pounding with your squad but it is split up with your vehicle, the Mako. The Mako is a 6 wheel drive vehicle that can pretty much scale anything and will make short work of anything that wants to tango. The armaments on the Mako are pretty substantial which includes a mass accelerator main turret and standard machine gun. The vehicle controls are personally not a favorite of mine but its easy to get use to, now traversing endless planes on a world might seem boring not when you have jet boosters. The jet boosters on the Mako give the vehicle a slight upward boost so if you decide that you would rather turn the canyon walls into a half pipe and try to do a 1080 you can sure as hell try. Most of the fun I had in the vehicle aspect of the game was driving like a jackass, bobbing and weaving to dodge fire then boosting to take pot shots at unsuspecting foes.

My only nit pick is the vehicle controls, the movements are turret centric rather than a vehicle centric movement scheme. What I mean by this is that when the turret is turned 90 degrees away from center and you push forward on the control stick you do not go anywhere. Also when the turret is looking rearward going forward (with respect to the vehicle) you now have to pull back on the control stick. It doesn’t ruin the game although I would have liked some more options to change the control scheme.

Interface:

Mass Effect’s UI is very streamlined, with menu functionality and great intuitive controls. Nothing becomes frustrating, at least not as far as the menus go. There isn’t too much bulk to Mass Effect, it keeps the users input limited to pop up menus and radial selection menus. Nothing feels out of place when running through dialog menus which are very similar to other Bioware games. The game really doesn’t have all that much to distract the user with when they first start up, its pretty much to the point.

Graphics:

Pretty graphics are not everything, but god damn does it help. Mass Effect’s graphics are astonishing it is very obvious that the people at Bioware took their time on detail. Everything in the game looks great and textures are starting to become photorealistic with light effects that are amazing and not overwhelming to look at. This is one game others will look to for guidance as Bioware has really set a new standard. With that said I do have a few gripes about them, on our first play through there seemed to be a lot of texture pop-in; now that were playing through the second, third and fourth times its less noticeable, yet still prevalent. When I say that do not construe it as “huge graphics glitches” or “not next gen look” I am only nit picking because there is so little to do so on with Mass Effect. Now I am sure there is someone that really hated the game for that exact reason, but it is such a small concern in a game that is so absolutely expansive.

Sound:

One area that many gamers don’t often look for in games is the soundtrack, unless it’s a guitar hero game. Some games will try to pass off crappy songs as in game music or try to blow you away you with orchestral scores. Mass Effect does a great job of blending the mission music and instance music as well as its main scores for cut scenes. It is not overbearing or intrusive when you discover a new world or kill your boss it is great background music that does set a great tone for the situation. And even when going to a map or to a menu the sound is not repetitive and annoying it is very pleasing to hear. This can be seen if you own the OST for Mass Effect, most of the songs are less than two minutes long which shows that the attention was directed towards meshing the songs to specific points rather then having a song come in media res just because there was a good riff and sort of sounds good.

Once again there is just one or two nitpicks, when I play a game I am using all my senses, not just my eyes I like to hear and see new things from great games Mass Effect delivers; except that there are a few sounds that I can pick up that sound awfully familiar. I am not saying that the game uses that old Lucas Arts sound clip for a falling shot person. It is more like some of the option menu beeps are very familiar with the ring of a PSP selection menu, or the sound of being shot into FTL travel sounds like old reused stock noise. But once again those are VERY picky gripes nothing that will tarnish the beautifully polished veneer of this amazing game.

Final word:

Buy this game! Even if you are not a RPG fan when you start to play around with this game the game just feels alive.

Now to stay consistent with our ratings I would go ahead and say this is up there with great story and visuals of Assassins Creed and Halo 3, but I will go one further and say it was much better. So mathematically I have a range of 91-100 to work with, and although I had one or two nitpicks I cannot in any healthy state of mind give it something less than 98/100.