Game you're playing. How far you are.

[General Alexi]

Finally getting my first playthrough of Mass Effect done. I like the game overall, but it's a bit... clean for me. 'Spose I'm just too much of a post-apoc fan to have an adequate appreciation for the beauty of the game

Punching a female reporter, committing genocide, and being a racsist asshole is to clean for you?

[Yonmanc]

Finally getting my first playthrough of Mass Effect done. I like the game overall, but it's a bit... clean for me. 'Spose I'm just too much of a post-apoc fan to have an adequate appreciation for the beauty of the game

Punching a female reporter, committing genocide, and being a racsist asshole is to clean for you?

Uh, yeah?

[Stainless]

I'm assuming you thought blowing up megaton was a deep and meaningful emotional decision

[General Alexi]

I'm assuming you thought blowing up megaton was a deep and meaningful emotional decision

The only thing deep about that decision was the hole it left afterwards.

[Yonmanc]

Finishing point look out in fallout 3 for the 3rd time. 200 hours total.

lol why?

Run one was male good karma, run 2 was female evil karma, and run 3 is male neutral. and seeing the different effects of lady killer and black widow is pretty cool.

Not that cool when you think an about it. They changed speech rolls a bit, but didn't aadd that much else. I thought that with the lady killer perk, i'd be just that, and my guy would be able to nail all the wasteland booty he wanted. Instead, it modified speech rolls, for like, 3 people in the whole game. My speech was already at 100%, so it quickly became useless. And how come none of the other male characters seemed to respond to the fact I was a lady killer? Wouldn't some of them be jealous?

[Psychoul]

lol why?

Run one was male good karma, run 2 was female evil karma, and run 3 is male neutral. and seeing the different effects of lady killer and black widow is pretty cool.

Not that cool when you think an about it. They changed speech rolls a bit, but didn't aadd that much else. I thought that with the lady killer perk, i'd be just that, and my guy would be able to nail all the wasteland booty he wanted. Instead, it modified speech rolls, for like, 3 people in the whole game. My speech was already at 100%, so it quickly became useless. And how come none of the other male characters seemed to respond to the fact I was a lady killer? Wouldn't some of them be jealous?

Yes, and i think this has been discused... no matter though.
....
Well.... i really want to play starcraft 2 beta also. Im going to somehow magically get it and see if i can do a custom map or something.

[Nameless_One]

I'm never in any good betas. I want to be in starcraft 2 beta bad, I'm probably going to upgrade my computer just for that game since I played the original so much.

There are still no system requirements revealed about SC2 right?

[inomel]

Nothing confirmed anyways. SC2 made the front page of 'PC coming soon', which means little more than nothing, too.

[Frater Perdurabo]

There's a cracked AI beta out there for SC2, try looking for it. My brother's been playing it a lot and I'll probably give it a go soon, but fuck I am so busy with university now and too addicted to Counterstrike on the side.

[Nameless_One]

Oww, Blizzard...i think that guys are using some drugs during 6 days for a creative mind and working just 1 day in a week.

[Manoil]

Finally getting my first playthrough of Mass Effect done. I like the game overall, but it's a bit... clean for me. 'Spose I'm just too much of a post-apoc fan to have an adequate appreciation for the beauty of the game

Punching a female reporter, committing genocide, and being a racsist asshole is to clean for you?

It's the art style I'm referring to. The writing is top-notch, and the voice acting is better than most, though still lacking in some places. I like the game, but I'd prefer to be roaming the Wastes rather than small empty areas on other planets with no real meaning to me.

Post-Apoc has the advantage that it is dually-layered from the start; there was the world prior to its destruction, and the new one created by its downfall. Everything from the art to the actions and decisions available have the opportunity to reflect not just the old world but the changes brought on by the new. Infrasturcture and Societies rise and fall, ecosystems undergo dramatic transformation, and the methods of survival and success alter based on all of it. Personally, I see it as a much more dynamic setting.

[Blargh]

top-notch

Ahahaha. The second game is even worse. Worserer.

[Manoil]

Well... yeah. Not top-notch. But with depth enough that it stunts most games these days in comparison.


All the same, you really thought the sequel was bad? I haven't gotten a taste of it yet-- what was your take on it overall, concerning the plot, dialogue, and art direction?

[Kashluk]

Finally getting my first playthrough of Mass Effect done. I like the game overall, but it's a bit... clean for me. 'Spose I'm just too much of a post-apoc fan to have an adequate appreciation for the beauty of the game

Punching a female reporter, committing genocide, and being a racsist asshole is to clean for you?

First of all: you kill like thousands of people(humanoids?) through-out the game, so punching one annoying chick isn't actually 'gritty' or 'dirty' in my book. Second: choosing to let a species die out without interfering since they were pretty much fucked up to start with instead of allowing the destruction of all known life in the galaxy doesn't really seem morally ambiguous to me. And well, being a dick and (interspecies-)racist was just as heart-warming as choosing the dark side in KOTOR. You either walk old ladies accross the street and help little kittens get to college or you're a mass-torturing child rapist.

[Blargh]

Streamofunconsciousness begin :

It's like playing a particularly vegetative piece of cheese cloth as you would attempt to play an ill-tuned harmonica. A cloth made from cheese. Where the cheese is the essence of 80's Action Film homage/parody (charitable/honest), and the cloth has holes. Many holes. Holes made from plot. Unplot. Brainholiday !

A stunning depiction of what I felt to be one of the most memorably egregious instances. Yes.

The laughable Cerberus ret-con. Yesterday generic villainous mook squad, today an organisation so clandestine, it has a logo, which is ubiquitous and its existence and purpose public knowledge. Now directed by a man so Enigmatic, he didn't exist before the tie-in novels, so Subtle, everyone seems to know of Him and his Agenda. So Shrewd, his claims regarding operational oversight examined in light of an alarming frequency of Cerberus activities going tits up lead to the disappointing conclusion that he is either woefully incompetent ; or that Shepard underwent a partial lobotomy during revival. The only redeeming feature the character of <CANCERMANUNDERSTUDY> has to cling to is Martin Sheen.

Circular reasoning ! Result : nausea ! Succinctly displayed during interactions with the lovably vacuous intergalactic scum posse (or their not so varied stand-ins) and/or NATO, In Space ! Paraphrase :

'We won't help you, you TRAITOR, because you are working for Cerberus.'

Disregard the entirely rational argument that their withheld support forces this dubious association upon the player. And then they permit you, TRAITOR, to leave without a murmur nor a sigh. More accurately : more unplot.

Then there is the ultimate binary non-choice, to wit, to more spoilarz:

Disintegrate <SPACEBUTTERFLY> with <EXPULOCEANS> !

OR

Give <SPACEBUTTERFLY> to <CANCERMANUNDERSTUDY> and only <CANCERMANUNDERSTUDY>. Not <BUREAUCRATRETARDCLIQUE>. Not <HANDWRINGERCLUBINSPACE>. Inviting <CANCERMANUNDERSTUDY> to make a <GENOCIDESMOOTHIE> into another <CTHULUINSPACE> from <NOTHUMANS>.

In light of <CANCERMANUNDERSTUDY> and the deceit/ineptitude/spacerepublican dichotomy, <IDIOTGROUPIE> would be a superior candidate.

This is the Capstone. This variety of Make-a-Choice-that-doesn't-change-anything is everywhere in the Mass Effect universe. Along with seemingly every person you can spare from the first game. Continuity nods rife, cheap and as unsatisfying as the inability to dispatch Your Choice of Nice/Apathetic/Prick template responses to all those Heart Foundation approved, Consequence Free e-mails.

Even then, with <NEWMOOKSQUAD> dealt with, their fleet of one permanently grounded, their house raped and their next of kin set alight, nothing has changed. The unplot is circular. The events of Mass Effect 2 could have not occurred, and the end point would be essentially the same. It was a holding pattern.

Bioware are clearly on a winner with their understanding that Choice obstructs Narrative - they have built an Illusive Game.

Genuinely laughed when the ultimate speed bump was revealed as 'Weak Point'. A pity this momentary lapse of design philosophy did not reach further.

Would have been a much more honest experience had they just defenestrated the RPG and brought in yet more FPS. All the depth of a teaspoon. Ehue.

[inomel]

try looking for it.

Is it online only? One of the reasons that turned me off to Sc2.

[Frater Perdurabo]

try looking for it.

Is it online only? One of the reasons that turned me off to Sc2.

What do you mean? Like I said, it is the cracked AI - so you can only play against the AI and not against other people.

However, I'm not sure if you need to be connected to the internet to play, sorry.

[Caleb]

No internet required...the AI is getting pretty decent. Played it out, and well, starcraft always makes me need to play DoW2....about halfhway through or so. Can't wait for the expansion!

SC2...I have some issues with it, we'll see what they fix in retail release. Also wondering if they'll add in more units during the subsequent chapter releases/expansions...kind of wishing I could see blizzards take on the necron/etc since starcraft is just one big warhammer ripoff in the end(check out the new protoss units....it's kind of sad really. I think GW would have won the lawsuit if it was mirrored so closely like this time).

[inomel]

What do you mean? Like I said, it is the cracked AI

..it's kind of sad really.

Thanks. Looks like I'll buy the bradygames HC and catch up on my reading instead of spending $300+ on a game with 'yearly' expansions.

[Caleb]

I meant compare eldar to protoss.