Cosplay rage - The frustration and you

I'm well aware that this is generally supposed to be a gaming blog, but I feel strongly that cosplay fits in the realm that *is* nerdy.

I don't know how many of our (what so far, 4?) readers are into cosplay, or even understand what goes into making the beautiful costumes we see at conventions. There is a lot to it, and most of the time, there is more anger than one would probably like to deal with.

To make a good, recognizable costume takes planning, money (some, anyway... depending on how resourceful you may be), time, and patience.

Here's the issue that I'm currently faced with: I have (really) none of the things mentioned above. I planned as well as I could to work around work (full time office job, looking at your roof), and school. I know school wasn't much. It was a math class that I attended two days a week. And here I sit, with less than two weeks until I'm supposed to show off my mediocre seamstress skills as Batgirl (the Stephanie Brown kind) at Emerald City Comic Con.

Now, I'm raging because I clearly didn't figure into the mix that things would probably go wrong. Crafting dates have been missed, materials weren't gathered in a timely manner, and general chaos has gone on.

Crunch time is upon myself and the group of friends I will be attending ECCC with, and it seems to be showing. This isn't really much of an "I have a TON of interesting stuff to tell you about the wonderful world of cosplay" article, as it is a "hey kids, the moral of the story is plan until your head explodes" thing.

I will definitely update as time winds down for my lovely ladies of the DC Universe, so stay tuned for my inevitable rage.

-KT

Mass Effect 3 & The Kinect

Since Katey has been kind enough to join the not-so-respectable ranks of 'author' for our faux-journalistic escapades, I've decided to strap on my serious(ish) pants and start writing entries as though I actually intend people to read them.

Should you play Mass Effect 3 with the kinect?

Voice Command Guide for ME3

The answer is an ambiguous that depends.

I suppose the easier question to get out of the way is, does it work?  As long as you can manage to ensure that nothing else in the city makes a noise louder than a mild mannered gentleman's ahem while you're trying to issue your commands, you'll find that the Kinect works most of the time. In all honestly it worked better than I expected it to. Granted, I ended up rolling with EDI and Liara because my Kinect apparently didn't like hearing someone else call out Garrus' name, and it absolutely abhored the way I pronounce shotgun, but aside from that it seemed to get the gist of what I was trying to say.

Looking past the actual functionality of the voice commands, a lot of this decision rides on whether you give a rat's ass what your companions are doing while you're in combat.  If you're more into letting them do whatever they want (which is anything from decimating all life to picking their nose in a corner) then the only commands you'll get any use out of are switching your own weapons and using the 4th skill you probably don't have. I found these mildly helpful at best (possibly due the whole shotgun thing) and rarely used them.

Oh, and I guess there's the commands whose only purpose are for shits and giggles.
You can tell Bioware was hoping that using voice command would overwhelm you with that new technology feeling by all the absolutely useless opportunities they give you to use it.  At a doorway, you can say 'open' to do guess what, and during conversations you can recite a line to choose it.  Both of these things are more time consuming and less likely to work than their button counterparts, so the only real purpose of them being there is to make you fawn over how your 360 finally understands you, bringing you one step closer to eloping together.

I do feel obligated to take a moment and say that despite the fact that most of the time it's like trying to walk upriver through mud, reciting lines for conversation does have its advantages when you've decided to busy your hands with something else during those long conversations. Like stuffing your face with food or jerking off.

Now, if you're the kind of player that micro-manages your players, you stand the most to gain. However, how you play the game and what you want out of it still play a big part in whether you'll actually like it. If you're not a fan of real time combat and find yourself wishing whimsically for the days when turn based combat was in vogue, you might not enjoy the perks of a device that allows you shed all need for the menu systems that pause combat, seeing as that's what it was made to do. If the game stopping dead mid-combat doesn't break your immersion, and you honestly like the excuse to take deep breath and collect yourself enough to work out some tactics, you probably aren't going to take advantage of the system. Also, if you're really into the menu system because it provides you with the ability to use 3 skills simultaneously, you'll probably be disappointed with voice commands, seeing as you can only issue one command at once.  2 if you use it in concert with a button.

Alternatively, if a game's ability to 'draw you in' is important, you should seriously consider giving it a go. It's true that I had to repeat myself from time to time, but that didn't seem break the immersion nearly as much as I thought it would. I'd gotten so used to issuing commands vocally that I foolishly started thinking aw shit, they didn't hear me instead of I wish my Kinect would quit being an asshole. Having to sort out tactics hiding behind a box while things were shooting and/or screaming at me, and then having to execute those orders in real time and in a realistic manner well made up for in immersion what it lacked in success rate. I suppose this only works if you're not a cynical ass who refuses to meet anything halfway, so if you aren't going to try to like it, don't even bother.

The technology is new and its obvious, but I still think its a great step forward for more interactive gaming. I'm a big fan of using the voice commands, and aside from a very depressing half an hour when it was too loud to use it, my game never had to stop dead.  It had its issues, but that half an hour without taught me how much I really really enjoyed the system.

Also,
Dear Kinect:
Headset.
Love, Me.

End

Why Mass Effect 3's Ending Didn't Suck

Before I get started, I just want to say that I already know this post will be unpopular with a lot of you. I want you to know that I don't care, because I think you're all a bunch of babies. I should also say that these opinions are my own, and not necessarily KT or Amanda's (and certainly none of yours). Now that that's out of the way, I want to talk about why Mass Effect 3's ending didn't suck. Also, before you continue reading, please note that THERE ARE PROBABLY SPOILERS AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN'T BEATEN THE GAME. Of course, if you couldn't figure that out, I can't even...

These are what I have been hearing the most when people complain about ME3's ending:

• The ending was too short!
• There was really only one ending since no matter what you chose, the variations were so minute!
• I didn't like the little boy!
• I didn't feel like the ending was what MY Shepard would have done! Wah!
• There wasn't an epilogue for any surviving races! I wanted an epilogue for the quarians and the humans and the turians and the krogan and the asari and the nyancats!
• I wanted Shepard to live damn it!
• I jumped on the bandwagon and read that the ending sucked before I finished the game so of course I thought it sucked because I follow what others tell me!

I might have gotten a little mean there, but I'm just being honest. Why don't we look at those one by one?

It was too short.

Really? Really? I loved the series too, from start to finish, but I didn't need to see a whole MOVIE at the end of the game. The whole ending fight was the ending. If you pretend that you didn't fight and that it was a cutscene, then the ending was very long. I remember in Metal Gear Solid 4, you all complained about how the whole thing was basically a movie and that the ending was so long. Now, it's not long enough, even though it was pretty lengthy. There's no pleasing you!

Only one ending.

Okay. Let's make this clear before I continue: yes, I am aware that there is basically one ending, and no, I am not disputing that. What I will dispute is that it's a valid complaint. Why should Bioware have to have a ton of different endings if it's the end of the series (not to mention the other Mass Effect games endings weren't that different from each other anyway)? It's not like it's the middle of a series where anything could happen. It's the conclusion, the final one, and they had a plan in their head for how they wanted it to end. Fans, you do not OWN the series just because you played all three games and have your own ideas of how you wanted it to end. This is Battlestar Galactica all over again, and it's sad. Just because the game didn't end how you thought it would or thought it should have doesn't mean that the ending is wrong. Also, everyone seems to forget that they're supposed to get ONE ending, not five. It's based on what you chose, and there didn't need to be 10 options for those. You have every right to be sad that it ended differently, but you really shouldn't be up in arms threatening to burn down Bioware's building or something. Seriously.

The little boy sucked.

I'm going to make this one short. You all are complaining that it was a little boy. I bet if it took on a different form or was just a voice, you wouldn't complain. All I have to say is that if you didn't realize the little boy was only "the little boy" because Shepard chose to see him that way due to prior events, then you're dumb. Moving on.

My Shepard wouldn't have chosen any of the end options.

Oh really? Your Shepard? Shepard isn't yours. Shepard is a character, created by Bioware, and they gave you the amazing ability to control him/her while still limiting your options to the story line, and they did no differently here. Then again, I feel like the only people complaining about this specifically are the people who created a Shepard so evil that they would have punched the little boy and let the reapers kill everyone. That, of course, makes no sense as a legitimate option since Shepard would have given up long ago if he/she wanted to let everyone die.

I wanted epilogues!

This is the only one I am remotely sympathetic towards, because everyone wants to see what happened afterwards. However, I still don't think this is an argument worth fighting for. Mass Effect is a very cinematic series, obviously. The ending itself was cinematic. It ended like a movie, people! It ended with the final, sad scene and then rolled credits with a surprise at the end (and you DID stay to see the end, didn't you?). Plus, the ending was already relatively long. You wanted epilogues with all the races? Really? Because that would take an hour. If your argument is that they could have shown the important races, well, who's to say what race is important? What if my favorite race is the krogan, but the endings were for the turians, asaris, and humans? I'd be more upset than if there were no epilogues, and you would be too. You'd be up in arms, just like you are now. So calm the fuck down.

Shepard died.

Yes, Shepard died. Deal with it. It's the end of a series, and it felt right for his/her story line to come to an end this way. If at the end everything was completely happy, we'd have complainers about how it wasn't realistic and how the series can't end with everyone happy and going about their lives. What was important about the ending is that Shepard had to choose between some VERY difficult decisions, and Bioware had every right to make this the ending if they felt it was the most appropriate option.

I hate it because everyone else does.

I swear at least half of you fall into this category. Let's face it, this is the internet, and the internet tends to cause bandwagoning. I bet if that same half didn't read anyone's comments before and instead just played the game and came to their own conclusions, most of them wouldn't hate it.

Now, why I liked the ending.

Look guys, I liked the end of Mass Effect 3. I really did. I felt like everything was appropriate and everything was explained to a satisfactory level. I was sad and emotional during the entire ending. It was with great heartbreak that I made the decision that I did as Shepard, and I liked that the game ended there. It felt right, as I was controlling her throughout the entire series. Her life ended, and so my experience should also end. I also liked the ending because although this is the last game in the actual series, the way it ended leaves it open for more games to occur in the same universe. Maybe we can have a new set of problems with a new hero! Maybe you'll get to be whatever race you want! Maybe it'll be set 3000 years in the future with a new race! The beauty of it ending the way that it did is that it leaves the door open for so many more things. 

I'm (sort of) sorry for being rude, but I am so sick and tired of people getting up in arms about things not ending the way they felt it should end. Maybe you should write a game series and set events how you want them to. But, you didn't write this one. So, as Chris Crocker said about Britney, leave Bioware alone!

-Katey

New Bawkables Writer!

Hi guys. I promised I'd get something up here and introduce you to myself. My name is Katey, and I'm a new writer for Bawkables! I grew up in the same town as Amanda and KT back in the day, and like them, I've been gaming forever.

   To give you a quick rundown of who I am and what I like: I grew up in the pacific northwest, in a small town in Oregon, and lived in Portland for many years before moving to Seattle for a little bit to work. I love gaming, though my first console was a Playstation 1. I DID play a lot of PC games before that thanks to my dad and always having a modern PC in the house. I grew up playing a lot of platformers and JRPGs, but my current favorite type of game to play is an action-RPG. 

   When I'm not playing games or out doing something, I usually watch tv with my boyfriend. I just finished taking him through Doctor Who and also Battlestar Galactica. We're trying to get through Caprica and Firefly next. My guilty-pleasure TV shows are Glee and New Girl. I know. Shut up.

   As for what I'll be writing on the site, it's going to be mostly editorial pieces and previews for upcoming games. I don't have the time to actively review games and, due to school, it usually takes me a while to beat them too. 

   Nice to meet you :)

The Old Republic : Master and Apprentice System

A thought about the Master and Apprentice System

"Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody power, the other to crave it."

―Darth Bane

Disclaimer:
I have not done any research into the possibility of TOR integrating a system similar to the one I talk about in this entry. It could be that they, in all their infinite wisdom, have something planned just like this. I don't have any knowledge about TOR's plans for the future, and like it that way.  Surprises make me happy. 

I don't know how much I buy into the whole 'rule of two' thing from the Sith, but I do believe that the relationship between a Master and Apprentice is something that gives a lot of depth to the Star Wars universe, Sith and Jedi alike.  

Seraphki - My  Pretty Sorcerer.

For the Jedi, the relationship between Jedi and Padawan has always been represented as a deep bond that is uncharacteristically tolerated in the Jedi world. Teachers of the Jedi way generally have their panties in a twist about letting your emotions obstruct your logic, discouraging indulgence in any sort of personal relationship, lest it confuse your rationality. Or cause fear, and we all know where fear gets you.  However, in the movies as well as many stories in the expanded universe, many dramas revolve around the loss of a Master, betrayal of a Master, ect.  It makes sense, considering that's bound to be the most common source of Jedi emotion, and lets face it: a story without ANY emotion might get old after a while. Think about it: the episode where Spock goes all crazy cause he desperately needs to bang something? Interesting as hell! Chaining down emotions only makes it more interesting when they're unleashed.

Then we have those crazy Sith.  The relationship between Master and Apprentice for the Sith is just good old' fashioned evil fun. I mean, at first glance, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why in the world would you train someone if, by taking them as apprentice, you update their goal in life to becoming your DEMISE. "Aaarrggg... curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!"  However, Sith are crazy evil and therefore their motives can't be rationalized, and that's not the point anyway. The point is, it's a big ol' dollop of opportunity for writers to create all sorts of amusing mayhem.

The goal of this whole rant is to point out one simple fact: The master and apprentice relationship is important to the Star Wars universe.  Therefore, its my belief that it's current representation in TOR is... lacking.  Right now it seems more like a convenient quest dispensing mechanism than anything.

As of now, the storyline provides you with a master (or a few, depending on how many you kill) that does nothing but send you on quest after quest. While some good plot lines come from this, I think it would add some depth if the Master and Apprentice system were player based, and the current 'Masters' were simply high ranking Jedi or Sith NPCs (or whatever) who see you as a convenient source for delegation.

Why in the world do you want this?

Imagine that you're just starting out; You've got a fresh new copy of the game, and you're excited to take on the Universe. You're wandering around the starting area, completing your various quests, and you notice that there are a lot of high level characters around, inspecting the new blood. Imagine there are arenas that you can compete in to prove yourself, and therefore win the favor of a high level character. Imagine having a high level character ask you to complete a quest that THEY invented to prove your worth. You check their card and see that they've successfully trained 3 apprentices, and that they're a very renowned player. Imagine the excitement and realism this would add! Interactions from NPCs can be cool, but I guarantee no NPC will cause the excitement that a player who as established themselves as a badass in the game will.

When I used to play Ragnarok, the first hunter to max his level on my server once helped me out with a quest cause he was bored, and I was lucky. I was SO excited and flattered, being able to say that 'Meepo helped me with a quest!'... Imagine a renowned character taking you under their wing! 

In today's MMO world, interactions from high level characters can be... unsavory. A lot of them couldn't care less about a newbie character, cause the POINT of the game is to make YOURSELF a badass. But if you could help yourself by helping others, and you had to actually act like a human being in order to gain this facet of renown...
I like the idea. Obviously.

Now imagine that your character has grown old. You've seen and conquered the universe, and you've run out of things to do. You've become bored of the arenas, done all the flashpoints, and are looking for something new. Now imagine there is a space on your character's profile, their legacy if you will, that shows how many characters you took as apprentice, and the general proficiency of these characters. A whole new dimension of renown is added to the character, and a whole new opportunity to do things once you've become tired of the rest of the game. Gameplay between two friends would be pushed to another level, the more experienced player feeling responsible for the younger character's progress, since their reputation would be on the line; People without younger level friends would be left to scout low level worlds for good potential Padawans or Apprentices. New titles like Trainer of Heroes start cropping up for people who've trained a certain number of people who have now maxed their levels.  Trainer of Champions for people who have trained a certain number of people who have an arena ranking over a certain threshold.

For low level characters, it adds a level of excitement above and beyond being accepted into a stellar guild. For high level characters, it gives you something to do when you've done everything you can with your character, and you're looking for something else to do to gain yourself some renown.  It just. Makes. Sense.

I understand that there's a really good reason they hobble a high level character's ability to help you level up. I've been in a game before where they hadn't yet instituted such rules, and high level areas would be rife with high level characters spawn-camping all the bosses while low level characters sat around the edges of the map leeching the experience.Without control, too many people abuse the system and the game becomes less fun for those who are there to play for realsies.  However, that doesn't mean it shouldn't happen ever. 

If you were to institute certain restrictions, (e.g. Once you take an apprentice, you can't take another until said apprentice reaches a certain level.) it could be balanced enough to make it fun. Especially if you gave extra motivations to the high level character (Legacy points anyone?)  and integrated special game mechanics for this.

Now, since I'm avidly argumentative, even with myself, I've made many good points to myself about why this wouldn't work.  I've also attempted to argue back.  I decided to write out 2 of those arguments, for funsies.

Wouldn't that kill those carefully plotted storylines they came up with?

But Amanda! I say; Wouldn't this severely effect how the current storyline unfolds? Good question other Amanda! While this is a good point, my rebuttle is that a lot of your interactions with the current NPC 'Masters' aren't unique or personally involved.  Admittedly, I haven't played through all of the class storylines, but it seems to me that the characters assigned to be 'Masters' for your characters act as much like your masters than the random people you encounter in town that ask you to do things for them.  They never accompany you on missions, (though, to be fair, for the Sith this might be more accurate) and they rarely teach you anything. They just have you do their bitch work. Hell, the guy who teaches you skills is a random ass dude in the nearest temple. I feel these characters would be more suited to being cast as politicians within their respective fields, taking an interest in you as a way to gain favor or popularity within whatever political system they're batting for. For example,  in the Jedi world, this could mean a member of the council who has taken a special interest in you.

I think it would be much more interesting if your 'Master' was a player character that could either send you on quests (much like you send your current companions on randomly generated BS quests) or go with you to accomplish other quests assigned by NPCs. Said character could also be your 'trainer' for new skills, and all you'd need is another section in your companion window. (You could even pay THEM for it: more motivation for high level characters)

What if nobody likes you enough to be your Master?

There is already a companion system, use that to make a dummy-master. Dun. If you had a 'dummy-master' to start with and then picked up a player character master, you could either kill your dummy-master (if you're a Sith) or just tell your master to meet you on Alderaan for a cup of tea and then never meet them (if you're a passive agressive Jedi).

You do realize there are more than just Jedi and Sith, right?
Yeah yeah, but Jengo had Boba, and Luke threw around the word 'cadet' which I think suits other classes perfectly. It still applies. (Grow your own Chewbacca kit!)

I'm tired of writing now.

End.

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Oh look, more shit to climb on.

STATUS: COMPLETED

RATING: 4/5

I'm going to make this short and sweet, since I'm on my lunch break.

It's a little overdue, but I played through Uncharted 3 a while ago. I'm a huge fan of platformers/adventure games, and the Uncharted series is no exception. While it usually takes me a bit to get used to the shoosting over-the-shoulder combat style, I really enjoy it. Naughty Dog improved on the combat system yet again in this game, focusing more on melee. Even though I didn't play through a ton of it, the melee reminded me a lot of Batman: Arkham Asylum. Drake is throwing and dodging punches, and finishes with a dramatic, slowed down knockout (or kill, since he's clearly a mass murderer at this point) blow.

The platforming felt the same as the other two installments. Don't know where to go? Look at the wall, there's probably some slightly different colored bricks to be used as hand-holds. CLIMB ALL THE THINGS!

I apologize for not remembering a ton of the story details, as I played and finished this game very close to it's release in November. It's been a while... Maybe part of the reason for that, other than my truly awful memory, is that the story just didn't grip me as much as Uncharted 2's story did. In that game there was all the adventure (duh), drama (both romantic and not), and the intensity of the journey Drake goes through to find his treasure. This title HAD the adventure, and a little bit of the drama, and yeah the intensity, but it seemed to be lacking something. I will admit that the desert part where Drake kinda loses his marbles was pretty cool, but I wasn't as into it. I honestly think that, and one other part (which I won't go into, for spoilers sake) were the only real parts of the game where I was thinking "oh god, this shit is crazy."

Once again, the graphics, and imagery in the game were stunning. The artists should probably get a medal, or at least a gold star. The environments and the characters were VERY well done. They even fixed Chloe's terrifying eyes. (Her eyes looked super weird, like she was some scary demon trying to suck your soul out.)

I'm running out of time on my lunch, so I think I'm done for now. All in all, I really did enjoy this game, I just think that Uncharted 2 was the best out of the trilogy.

TL;DR - Great, beautiful game, but not as strong as 2.

-KT

Ubisoft's Prince of Persia : Epilogue

100% BITCHES

STATUS : [COMPLETED]

RATING : [5/5]

So this is the DLC for Ubisoft's Prince of Persia game. It came out a long time ago, but I haven't gotten around to playing it in a while. My discovery of it was a mingling of joy and frustration. Joy at there being more Prince of Persia, frustrating cause my beautiful 1000/1000 achievements all of a sudden became 1000/1250.  I'm a pretty big fan of the whole Prince of Persia series, and I think this one was my favorite. I (obviously) played it to exhaustion.

I don't really want to go on - but I've now completed the DLC and have 100% of the achievements once again *flex*.

The story was an epilogue (whoda thought?) of the main story. It takes it a little bit further, and give you a nice cliffhanger. Didn't really answer any questions you had at the end of the main game, but definitely hinted stronger at the possibility of them making another game.

Gameplay and everything was just the same, was just one last chapter.

All Excellent, all reccomended.

Yada yada.

[TLDR] Me Gusta.

End.

Uncharted : Drake's Fortune

INDIANA GATES!  ...OR BENJAMIN JONES.

STATUS : [COMPLETED]

RATING : [4/5]

KT has been playing wing-woman for this game for a few years now. Yes, I know, its exactly my type of game. It's a platformer, likes to adventure, charismatic personalities, lots of shooting things, likes long walks on the beach, and has a story somewhere between Indiana Jones and National Treasure. On paper, I could marry it.  And now that I've jumped into bed with it, I can say it wouldn't be the worst idea I've had.

I'm not 100% IN LOVE with the game. I mean, I like like it, but I dunno if I like like LIKE like it. I did rush it a little bit, and I have been going into mass overdrive with the games lately, so I feel like any hesitation I might have for it might be the worry that I'm pregnant from some other game.

Shit just got weird.

Anyway, the series might be on par with my love for the Prince of Persia series. Especially since there are some from that series that are just 'okay'. In any case, it can hang out in my 'preferred series' pile.

I'm obviously in an odd place to be writing right now (Whats that floating in my drink?) so I'll try my best to battle my pleonastic ways, and attempt a laconic entry. (Though I seem to be off to a bad start)

ART:

Well done, considering how long ago it came out. There were some obviously awkward bits, but that's to be expected. Environments are well done. People are a bit shiny though. I know, I know, 'welcome to early next-gen art'. Meh.

GAMEPLAY:

Platformer + 3rd person shooter.  Prince of Persia + Gears of War. 

I wish it was more platformer/puzzles, less shooter, but it was fun anyway.

They set up the achievements trophies pretty well; it was hard to ignore the clamour of my completionist side, attempting to coax me into a second playthrough on easy in order to obtain the missing ones... but since I'm trying to get as much PS3/Wii gaming in as I can before I leave, I'm going to continue on.

I was very pleased that among my very first trophies were: 10 Headshots, 30 Headshots, Kill 50 with Pistol, 100 Headshots.  *Gaston-ian Grin*

Anyway. Oh yes, of course, as with many/most platformers, I couldn't help but scoff at the utter convenience of it all. I realize that's something that's difficult to combat, don't get me wrong. It just makes me scrunch my nose a bit. I do my best to tell myself that there are billions of adventurers out there who DIDN'T have a convenient rope hanging down next to the convenient stone moulding that would be reachable but for a conveniently half-destroyed pillar... but obviously those poor suckers died of starvation, and no one wants to hear THAT story. So we're hearing the story about the guy who not only was a badass, but was SUPER lucky.

It helps a little.

DESIGN:

Good level design. They did a good job circling the environments and reusing the same rooms without getting boring. Some games don't pull that off gracefully, or they don't try it at all and just spend a shit ton of money making a linear environment that never doubles onto itself.

STORY:

Like the story. The main character is a little unbelievable, but if you just relax your brain and don't think about it too much, you can enjoy his delightful charisma. The 'partner in crime' reminds me of Bruce Campbell's character in Burn Notice, which isn't a bad thing.  The chick is spunky, but pretty generic.  

Plot is good. Follows your cookie-cutter tomb diving experience, but those are enjoyable, so no complaints.

Alright, I'm done. 

[TLDR] Good game. If you think you'd like a 3rd Person Shooter version of Prince of Persia with an Indiana Jones-esque story, go for it. Took me less than 8 hours to take down, so you're not betting much.

Mass Effect

STATUS: COMPLETED

RATING: 3/5

I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to make this kinda quick...

With the impending release of Mass Effect 3 just around the corner, I have made a vow to play through Mass Effect 1 and 2 (yet again) on the XBox 360. If you know me, you know that I am MUCH more of a Playstation 3 girl, and generally don't even turn on my XBox, unless I have people over, and want to play something silly like Dance Central. I don't like the controller, and I'm not particularly a fan of the user interface on the dashboard. But that's neither here, nor there.

I went into starting this game, fully aware that Bioware made significant changes in the second one, so I expected it to be a lot different. And I was NOT (but kind of a little bit) disappointed. I absolutely hate the sham of a cover system, and the combat in general feels very stiff. As far as I can tell, (because I've mostly had the volume turned down, and keep getting distracted by Amanda playing other games on a TV not six inches away from the one I'm playing on) the story and writing are still very well done.

I'm only about 4 hours into the game, and keep getting very frustrated, to the point of almost rage-quitting. BUT, I am determined to get through this game, just so I can move on to the delight that is Mass Effect 2.

We'll see how this goes, I suppose.

I'm going to bed now.

EDIT:

I finished the game.

Summary of my feelings towards it: eh. While I am happy with myself for playing through it, I can clearly see that Mass Effect 2 is the superior of the 2 (so far) installments. My rage concerning the combat and cover systems subsided as I continued playing. I had to stop myself from doing the side missions, and just focus on the story multiple times, but part of me wishes that I would have done a bit more. /shrug... maybe later.

OH YEAH! And (because I didn't think to ask before...) I now know what Joker's deal is. Finding this out definitely makes his little bit in ME2 WAY more epic. I <3 Joker.

On a fairly related note... After I finished ME1, I thought to myself "hmmm... I think I'll continue this Bioware/Mass Effect obsession, and play through ME2 on the XBox as well." So ventured forth into the Terminus systems yet again, on my way to saving the galaxy. I was well into the "Archangel" mission, when I was overwhelmed by too many mercs, and died. SOMETHING happened... whether it was a demon, the weather knew I was taking a snow-day from work, or the XBox became sentient and got hungry, and figured it was a good idea to eat my progress, preventing me from continuing. Regardless of WHAT it was, I'm mad at it. I HAVE the achievements for the bits that I played, but there is no longer a save file for ME2.

THIS is one reason for my continuous love for the Playstation. *knocks on wood* (hehe... wood...)

AHEM... I'm probably rambling now...

TLDR - ME1 is a great game with its flaws... Not as awesome and epic as ME2. I raged for a bit.

-KT

Heavy Rain

PRESS X TO JASON

STATUS : [COMPLETE]

RATING : [4/5]

For those of you that know me, that's NOT a reference to my boyo, but reference to a point in the game where you're looking for your son, and the only thing you can do besides wander around is press 'X' which makes you yell 'JASON'. And you do it a lot.  

You had to be there.

Anyway.

There are a few qualms that I have with the game, but let's start with what's good about it: the story. And, rightly so. Its pretty  much what the entire game is about.  This isn't your average videogame, where the gameplay is the point. Its a different take on what a videogame should be; its more an interactive movie than anything. Its like when you were a kid, reading those choose-your-own-adventure goosebumps books. Throughout the story, there are many decisions you can make, and things you can screw up that effect things in ways you wouldn't even think of.

The story is about a serial killer : the Origami Killer. It kind of plays out like an interactive episode of Criminal Minds. The serial killer kidnaps kids and leaves them to drown in rain water. You've got 4 characters: an FBI Guy with cool Minority Report toys, A dorky and possibly crazy father whose kid has been kidnapped, a chubby but likable alcoholic of a Private Detective, and an sexy insomniac Journalist lady whose personal boundaries are questionable. You don't know who the killer is, and I honestly had no idea until the end. Most of the time, watching shows or movies of the same genre, I like to pick out who I think the killer is. I'm generally pretty good at it.  I guessed a lot in the game. And, looking back, I have that begrudging respect for the game, as I realize how obviously it led me to false conclusions. It's a great story, and if you like murder-mystery type stories with a hint of criminal psychology, you'll probably dig it.

Many games have branching storylines. Unfortunately, with most of them, you can tell exactly when they're going to branch and what will happen when you make the decision you make. Heavy Rain does so well at hiding those branching points that its nearly impossible to tell what will and won't effect the storyline. And even when you do spot them, you don't know what effect it will have in the long run. They've done such a good job, I spent the entire game convinced that every single button I pressed lead down different path. It's probably not true... probably... but the point is, I don't know. It gave me the distinct impression that there are thousands of different branches of storyline. Hell, KT spent most of the game telling me how she'd ended up doing a bunch of things different, and how there were areas I'd gone that she'd never seen, and vice versa. 

They also implemented a pretty good game feature : no game over.  No matter what happens, you can't just go back to the last save and try again. There is no save, its all autosave. Whatever happens, the story keeps on rolling. You fuck up and die, that's part of the story now. If you're quick on the draw you can restart the console, but its generally more fun to just ride it out and see what happens.

The game is one big quick time event. There isn't much gameplay to speak of, aside from that. You walk around and wait for prompts. Then you follow the prompts. Sometimes you have to be quick as hell to pull it off, sometimes its frustratingly misleading. But that's just about all there is for gameplay. While I generally like more gameplay than that, it was still pretty enjoyable. Some of those quick time events got INTENSE.

Some minor complaints:

A lot of it is fixed camera.  While it might be nostalgic to be brought back to the days where a camera-switch results in me walking in awkward circles because down just became up, its not a nostalgia I necessarily ENJOY. Walking is kind of like driving a boat, instead of pressing right to go right, you press right to FACE right, and then hold a trigger to walk. Its awkward. I understand WHY they did it (looking around triggers many event options, so they wanted the ability to look without walking) but that doesn't make it less awkward. And last but not least, there are a lot of times when you've got a bunch of options in front of you. Unfortunately, instead of these options being spelled out, they're represented by a plethora of optional buttons. Sometimes these are obvious. An arrow on a glovebox probably means that if you press that arrow, you'll check the glovebox. However, sometimes they're MUCH more ambiguous, and you end up doing exactly what you were trying to avoid doing. About the time that THAT happens is about the time you remember that awesome 'no save' feature and glare at the screen for a while.

Oh yeah, and replay value up the wazoo.

[TLDR] You like Criminal Minds? Or Bones? Also those choose-your-own-adventure Goosebumps books?  Give it a go. Doesn't take too long to beat.