Blog a Day 39of365: Everyone else is talking about it: ME2
I loved Mass Effect 2 and I honestly didn’t expect to. Although I could see why others liked the first game, I wasn’t very impressed. It just didn’t click with me. I hated the Mako vehicle bit and all the identical, bland planets amongst many other niggles. Strangely enough all niggles that fans seem to be all too keen to admit now that ME2 has come along and rectified these irritants (mostly by removing them altogether). Worst of all though I just didn’t find the storyline as compelling as I hoped.
Perhaps strangely I went on to love Dragon Age: Origins despite it having near identical game mechanics to Mass Effect 1 and as many flaws too.
So when it came to Mass Effect 2, I really wasn’t sure if I’d like it. Bioware in recent years were drawing 1-1 in terms of hits for me. It could have gone either way.
Fortunately I loved Mass Effect 2. Sure it had its flaws. Why there was the need to telegraph every single battle with the really obvious covering positions, I don’t know. That was plain sloppy. Plus the RPG elements were practically gone this time round. Something that I’m sure many people liked but I wasn’t so sure. However it was the storyline that hooked me.
Not the main storyline, that was very standard ‘end of the Universe’ fodder, nope it was the sidequests that hooked me. The ‘loyalty’ quests that explained bits and pieces about the various characters that I’d collected along the way. They could have been a little more in depth, perhaps focusing on just a few characters rather than nearly a dozen. However I still really enjoyed it. There were some great stories that I could relate to in some small way.
I’m looking forward to Mass Effect 3. It just might manage to be something incredible.
If you want to hear further rambling from me on Mass Effect 2, take a look over at Gamepeople. Be warned though: there are spoilers so don’t read it till you’ve finished the game!
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Blog a Day 38of365: Very nearly forgot..
This is the first day since I started doing the OneaDay thing that I’ve very nearly forgotten to write an entry.
It’s been a pretty lazy day which is why this will be more of a ‘Wot I dun’ teenagery style entry for a change.
I stayed in bed until 1ish. I was awake at 10 but lazed in bed watching Frasier then playing Bayonetta. Bayonetta is completely mental but I’m enjoying it so far.
When I eventually got up, I impulsively wandered off to Gamestation and traded in some old DS games that were lying about. I usually hate trading games in, not least because you always get a pathetic value back for them. However this time round I got £28. Excellent! Can’t remember the last time I had that much to spend in a games shop, especially not guilt free.
After a brief flirtation with possibly purchasing Red Faction: Guerilla, then Okami or Resident Evil 4. I ended up buying a £20 PSN card and saving the £8 for another time when the shop hopefully has Dead Space Extraction in stock.
Got home and queued up Crash Bandicoot 3, Flower and Final Fantasy 8. That was at about 3pm, it’s 11.30pm now and Final Fantasy 8 is still downloading…..cheers PSN.
My brief go of Crash Bandicoot 3 has reminded me that despite its dated graphics, I still love it. I’ve never actually owned it before, always borrowed it from a friend’s little brother (I say little, he’s 22 now!), so it’s nice to have my own copy at long last.
Flower is interesting. Not played it enough to have an opinion yet. Looks like it’ll be a nice, relaxing change of pace though. I figured it was about time I saw it for myself!
Then I spent late afternoon/early evening trying to write my Mass Effect 2 review for GamePeople. It’s done now but it was very difficult to get all my thoughts down in 800ish words. Really could have rambled forever on it.
Throughout the day I kept thinking how I must do my OneaDay shortly. I forgot. Until now where I suddenly realised I still hadn’t done it. World of Warcraft’s minimised in the background desperately waiting for me to return, which is exactly what I’m going to do now. ?
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Blog a Day 37of365: Week’s Roundup
Phew a busy week. This is being written hurriedly before I head to the day job for a shift too. At least I should have a bit of Sunday off except I’ll be writing up my Mass Effect 2 review then.
Anyway on with the week’s roundup:
First up, Broken Sword: The Director’s Cut for the iPhone, reviewed over at VideogameUK. Brilliant game, one that I’ve played many times over the year. The iPhone version is fantastic. Here’s a clip:
“Paris in the fall. The last months of the year, and the end of the millennium. The city holds many memories for me – of cafes, of music, of love… and of death.”
Isn’t that just a brilliant way of introducing a game? It sucks you straight in and sticks in your mind forever more. In the case of Broken Sword: The Director’s Cut, the start of the game may be a little slower than the original Broken Sword but the quality is still overflowing in this tremendous remake of an older classic.
Then there was the Wiiware great Max and the Magic Marker, also reviewed for VideogameUK. Great little game that’s particularly worth a look if you’ve got kids.
The WiiWare service available to Wii owners is quickly becoming the best source of some great and unique titles that you just can’t get elsewhere. Besides the likes of Square Enix and Telltale Games producing some brilliant conversions, players have also been able to enjoy the delights of more niche titles such as Frontier Developments’ Lostwinds and now, Max and the Magic Marker.
On the same day Dark Horses of 2010 appeared on Resolution. I argued the case for Phantasy Star Zero alongside Martin Gaston’s case for Tatsunoko vs Capcom and Sinan Kubba’s case for The Agency.
We’ve all heard of the Phantasy Star series, right? What do you mean “no”? It was a brilliant series of RPGs back in the day, with the Mega Drive versions being my particular favourites. Think Final Fantasy but different, and you’re almost there. In the case of Phantasy Star Zero, it’s not actually much like the Mega Drive classics, but that’s not stopping me looking forward to it.
As a change of pace, a review of Shadow Complex as part of my Considered Gamer column for GamePeople. It’s written in a different style than my other work but I like it.
Shadow Complex on XBLA is a mix of glee and sorrowful violence. As we hear in the finale song, this is a real experience of ‘light and dark, day and night’. Out of this contradictory affair though comes an experience that is surprisingly grown-up and a lot of fun to play.
My first piece for Ve3tro appeared on Thursday with a review of Darksiders.
Darksiders is nearly a great game but lacking in any real unique selling point, it doesn’t quite manage to be worth playing over the games that it borrows so liberally from.
A hack n slasher at its heart, Darksiders starts depressingly slow. For the first few hours it really isn’t very exciting. The action is extremely slow paced and War, the main character, feels far too underpowered.
The week closed with my regular fortnightly Rumo(u)r Killers commission for TheGameReviews. This time it’s on a new Twisted Metal game, the PSPGo relaunch and the chance of Sonic 4 (written before the official confirmation, typical!). The full article is over at TGR but is a bit awkward to cut and paste snippets from and do it justice.
Next week there’ll be reviews of Vandal Hearts: Flames of Judgement, the Flips interactive books, Mass Effect 2, Bayonetta, A Boy and His Blob and Chime.
Now to go head to the day job. Joy.
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Blog a Day 36of365: Twitter made me do it
So as I was stumped for an idea for tonight’s entry I let Twitter choose for me. Thanks to various random strange people for coming up with some odd ideas!
So…
Refrigerators…..erm. They’re brilliant. Especially if you don’t houseshare so the fridge is just yours rather than having to divide it up into a few different sections and suffer the smell of the rotting food that your lazy housemate hasn’t thrown out. I’ve had three memorable refrigerators in my time.
The one at home that I currently use is a fridge/freezer combo thing and quite a decent size. Much taller than me. Always full of vaguely healthy and useful things though. And random sauce bottles too that I’ve lost track of but I keep them ‘just in case’.
The second one was the one that I shared with 6 other flatmates while in my first year at University. You know it’s bad when while at a lecture about prisons, I learnt that prisoners on average get larger rooms than the rooms in my University accommodation. Excellent. The fridge was also tiny. Ridiculously tiny in fact. With 7 of us using it, you could only really store 2-3 things each. Completely pointless most of the time. There’d always be someone stealing space too. Damn people.
The third one was the fridge in Stafford where I lived for a year while doing my Msc. Much better student place. It was old RAF accommodation and despite the fact that walking back from the student union in the dark was lethal (no street lights and a ditch perilously close to the pavement), it rocked. I only had 2 housemates and the fridge was much bigger than the previous University fridge. One of the housemates left after Christmas, leaving me all her food (yay free food) and the other was hardly ever in and never seemed to eat. So I had a fridge to myself. Brilliant. It also gave milk immortality. Had a bottle of milk in there once for over a month and it still looked ok and smelt ok. I didn’t actually drink it though. It was my science experiment until it vanished one day. I assume the elusive housemate threw it out. Or maybe she drank it and that’s why I never saw her again…
iPad: I don’t really have any interest in the iPad yet. I don’t think it’s really for me. I have an iPhone. It’s lovely but I don’t really fancy owning a giant iPhone. It’d never fit in my pocket and it’d be a right nusiance. I suppose at least I could probably hit a mugger with it. It’d make a great torch too.
Cheese: I like cheese but I’m quite boring about it. I don’t like blue cheese or smelly cheese. In fact I only really like cheddar, cream cheese, Monterey Jack and mozzarella. Unlike my mother I don’t have a strong urge to add it to every recipe possible.
Chocolate bars: I love chocolate. It’s my one big vice considering I rarely drink, I don’t smoke and I generally try to eat vaguely well. My favourite chocolate bar of all time is the Maverick, made by Nestle I think. It contained caramel, raisin, biscuit and toffee pieces. It was perfection in chocolate form. But like all good things, it had to come to an end and it was discontinued. So now my favourite is Galaxy. I could eat ridiculous quantities of it if I had no self control. When I get to my 80s I’m going to live on Galaxy and curry.
Socks: I don’t generally wear socks. I tell a lie. I have for the past 6 months but that’s down to my poor recovering broken foot which really doesn’t like the cold or being unprotected in any way. Before that though I never really wore socks. Even in the winter when my feet were freezing. I hated my feet feeling constrained. Now I don’t have the choice. Bugger.
Chopsticks: I can’t use chopsticks. I really can’t. I just don’t have the dexterity for it and I’m also too lazy. That’s all I have to say really on chopsticks.
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Blog a Day 35of365: London Paddington
I don’t get to go to Paddington Station very often at the moment. A shame as I love it in my borderline country bumpkin way.
I love the architecture of it and the grandeur. You really don’t get that at Swansea train station (it’s a dump) and my other favourite train station: Manchester Piccadilly is too new looking and shiny. Paddington looks old and wonderful.
It’s constantly a hive of activity. Usually a hive of near abusive commuters who would probably walk over you if they needed to. There’s the downtrodden looking station staff who again secretly (and not so secretly) hate you. Most of them I end up pitying because they look so miserable. I can only remember one member of staff who smiled at me. He seemed really happy to everyone, but the other staff still sneered at him.
I still love it though. It makes me realise I’m in a ‘proper’ city where everyone’s too busy to care about the slightly lost looking person from South Wales. The best part is when I’m stuck and need to ask a question, I get treated with even more disdain because of my South East English accent which automatically makes them assume that I should know what I’m doing. Not their fault that I’ve lived in Wales for over 20 years and I’m a complete tourist in London these days.
I have a set routine at Paddington when I have an hour to kill. I don’t tend to leave the station but I like peering out from the entrances to the metropolis. I’m within walking distance of Edgware road, an area that I used to know very well when good relatives of mine lived near there. But I’d rather not go. I’m pretty sure I’d like to keep my rose tinted views of it from over 10 years ago than see the reality. For now at least. One day I’ll go back.
Instead I stay within the safety of the station. I wander around the various overpriced food places that I never see anywhere else. The idea of a sushi place seems like madness round my way and even the Burger King is £2 more a meal than in Swansea! I wander around the M&S Food place for a bit contemplating a ‘healthy’ lunch. I don’t bother. I hang around between the cash machines and the Orange shop, phoning my Mum to let her know I’m fine, then texting a few friends.
Eventually hunger gets the better of me and I go mad. I always end up getting Burger King despite mentally complaining about the price. Always a Chicken Royale with Cheese meal. Then I go back to the seats between the cash machines and the Orange Shop and eat it.
In Swansea (which sounds more and more bumpkinish) we don’t have a Millie’s Cookies or a Krispy Kreme. I end up spending a fortune at both. Usually buying £5 worth of cookies and a huge box of Krispy Kremes. The first time I went to Krispy Kreme I made the guy at the stall laugh. I was completely bewildered at the choices on offer and couldn’t decide. I had a friendly chat with him and eventually he helped me choose so I had a good variety of types.
I’m more experienced with Millie’s Cookies having regularly gone there at Manchester Piccadilly when I visited my then boyfriend. I love the cookies far too much.
Invariably I have an awkward 3hr journey home. Trying to cram in a box of Millie’s Cookies along with a box of Krispy Kremes. I look like someone desperate for diabetes.
I can see why London gets old for those living there, especially Paddington. But I love it, and its potential. It’s somewhere I’d love to go to more often. Once upon a time I’d go every few weeks to stay at the relatives. Much less touristy experience and I still loved it.
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