Back soon, off saving the galaxy.
Mar. 20th, 2012 08:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dicreasy2Sooo, no proper rebuild update this week. It’s not that I’ve not done anything because I have. Everything for the first stage of setting up the hood is complete, and I’m about halfway through the rotation so I can get the last couple of buildings packaged up and into the new hood. I’ve also done a lot of thinking about ages, made a couple of mods, and worked out how old all my characters are in human years. And in the process of doing all that, I’ve burnt myself out with regards to sims. So much so that I can’t even face the thought of posting my list and talking about what I need to do next, so I’m not going to. I’m having a complete break from the Sims for at least a week, possibly more, it all depends on how I feel.
Instead, I’m really enjoying playing the Mass Effect games, and since I missed being able to talk about ME and ME2 with my friends when Cait was playing, because I’m behind the times, you get to see my thoughts here instead. I give you all fair warning, there are spoilers for the games, especially the first one below. If you don’t want to know what happens, don’t read this. Enjoy.
I started on the main missions of the first game Thursday I think it was, and started to really love the game and the story, even with the bugs, but more on those later. I always faff around doing side missions first, for a couple of reasons. First, I like to level up and get to know the gameplay. I’m not good at combat, I freely admit it. I don’t generally play games with combat in them, and I die a lot when I do (even on easy), so I like to upgrade my equipment, level up and get to the point where I’m not having to continually replay a battle because I keep dying. Because when that happens on a main storyline mission, I get very frustrated and want to give up. Second I like to explore a world and get to know the universe the story takes place in. This has served me well in more games than I care to remember, so I continue to do so, and because I love to explore, I ended up loving the Mako, despite the fact I hated it at first. Hated, hated, hated it. But once I was used to the steering, (well, sorta, I still ended up trying to drive up walls on Ilos as I was avoiding obstacles), I loved it, and I would much rather have the Mako than the silly scanning and side missions in ME2, but more on that game later.
I did enjoy the side missions. I liked how much they added to the universe and how they set up things that became more important not only in ME but in ME2 (such as introducing Cerberus). My only complaint with them, is that they did start to become samey after a while. Go to a planet or moon, investigate a facility, either clear that facility to end the assignment or find information pointing to another, which is identical to the first, but with different cases and crates stacked everywhere. Rinse and repeat again and again. I get that that there is a limited amount of data space so things get recycled. Heck I can even buy the idea these facilities and space stations are pre-fabricated, modular buildings that have been mass produced for space exploration and colonisation. That makes sense to me. But it did get repetitive given there was only two styles of facility I think, and one space station, and I don’t quite get how every single mine can be on the same layout too. I would have liked a tiny bit more variety, not only in the layout of the areas, but also the tasks you undertook in the assignments too. At least, they are proper missions though, and not like in DAII where you pick up an item, and without any explanation know that someone is looking for it, and that you have to return it to them. They were rubbish side quests and I wish they’d never been included. At least in DA:O with those sorts of quests, there was an explanation when you picked up the item, and something hinting that the owner wanted the journal or whatever returned to their family.
I’ll talk a bit more about the story in a minute, but I just want to say that, for me, one of the best things about the game was the characters. When I shared my thoughts on DAII, I mentioned how much I’d loved the characters from DA:O, well I love the characters in ME as much as I love Alistair, if not more. Bioware did a fantastic job with them, and the fact that I can’t go and chill with Kaidan or chat with Liara in ME2 is killing me, much as I love Garrus and Jack. The only main character I don’t like, is Ashley who I think is a xenophobic bigot. “I can’t tell the aliens from the animals.” Really Ash? Really? Gah. I don’t like bigotry even in computer games, and my Shepard is the same, so she got booted from my regular squad as soon as possible and you can guess who I rescued on Virmire.
One thing I was a little wary of, is something that came up when I shared my thoughts on DAII with friends on AIM. I mentioned how I didn’t like that you could only talk to your companions at set places and how I felt like I didn’t know them. After mentioning this, Widget said that she was used to this, since that’s how it is in the Mass Effect games, and I admit that it worried me going into this game. However, it works in ME, whereas it doesn’t in DAII, and I’ll tell you for why. One, the little snippets of dialogue that your squad member share as you wander round places such as the Citadel show far more of their personalities than anything my DAII companions said wandering round Kirkwall. Two, I spent far more time chilling on the Normandy than I did in camp in DA:O or in Kirkwall not doing a quest in DAII. I think that having a closed environment that you have to spend time in, such as the Normandy makes this type of conversation mechanic work far better than the camp system in both DA games. You don’t have to spend that much time in camp in DA:O. You can go from quest to quest, not spending much time there at all. In fact I only go there to heal injuries and at the end of a quest if I’m going to quit the game so I know, if I don’t pick the game up for a while, that I’ve just completed something and I need to check my journal. But the way the map is set up, you can go from place to place, bypassing the camp almost completely (there are a few things you need to go to camp to trigger, but for the most part, you don’t need to go there). It’s a very similar set up in DAII. You can go from quest to quest and bypass your companions’ homes for most of the game. To me, if I can do that, then I’d like some way of getting to know them on the move, which I think DA:O does brilliantly. Three, the Normandy is far more compact and easier to wander round than Kirkwall in DAII. In the time it takes to go from the Hawke Estate to Ander’s clinic (including having to select a squad), I can wander round and talk to the entire Normandy crew. It all feels far more accessible and as if Bioware wants me to get to know these people, whereas I didn’t feel like that in DAII.
As for the story, well I loved it. It took me a tiny bit to get what was going on, and just what Turians and Spectres were, but that was because I went into the game completely cold, with no knowledge of the universe it is set in, and actually Bioware explained it all really well as the tutorial mission and the introduction to the Presidium went on. The longer I played, the more involved in the story I became, and once I got to Noveria, (after doing about 95% of the side missions) I really started enjoying myself. I think that the storytelling was first rate. There were plenty of twists and turns, but I never felt as if anything came out of left field. Even the idea of indoctrination had been hinted at with the strange noise that emanated from Sovereign when Eden Prime was attacked, and the revelation of what Sovereign was, and how it’d been left as a vanguard made perfect sense. In fact I found the story suitably epic and loved every minute of it, especially once I got to Ilos. From then on out, nothing could have pulled me away from my pc, it was AWESOME.
The only thing I would criticise with the game itself is how buggy it is. It’s one of the most buggy games I’ve played, (that’s something coming from a simmer) and there were a couple of times where I was worried that the bugs would stop me progressing. On Noveria I got stuck completely in a lift. It wouldn’t move, and I couldn’t move Shepard or activate the lift switch again. On reloading my last save the same lift bugged out again. This time Kaidan first of all disappeared from the lift, then ended up sunk down in the floor to his waist, and then when the lift doors opened, I was on the same level I’d started on. It hadn’t moved.
Then, later still on Noveria, once I’d made a cure, An Asari and her cronies jumped in, a conversation wheel came up, but I couldn’t select anything on it, and everyone not in my squad was acting like there was a fight going on. When I left clicked, I ended up shooting, even though Shep was standing there without her gun out. Once the Asari’s colleagues were dead, she just stood staring at me, all glowing with biotic power, while Shep did the same, but without the glowing. And the conversation wheel was still there. I couldn’t get out of it, but luckily, the autosave had saved right after the gunfight, and when it loaded, everything was as it should have been with the Asari dead, and the cure made.
The last big bugs I came across were on Feros where Liara first of all stopped following me, even though her command was on rally. I ended up going to where I wanted to since I got fed up with commanding her to move, and luckily she would teleport to my postion, then stand there like a lemon as Shep and Kaidan moved on before teleporting again. ‘Twas annoying. And then, just to finish things off, she started sinking into the ground when she teleported and we weren’t in battle.
But despite the bugs, I carried on and I’m so glad I did. I loved the game to bits.
I’m now playing ME2, and I’m enjoying it. As much as the first one? Well, no. Not yet. It’s like starting again and I’m still getting used to the game. I have redone the key binding to make it more like the first one and stop me hitting the wrong thing, but there have been some pretty significant changes to gameplay, including seeming to put more emphasis on combat. And like I say above, I’m no good at combat. As such, I’m dying a lot. Enough to start tainting my enjoyment to be honest, as I’m getting frustrated and am dreading fights. Plus I’ve gone from level 49 with a really badass pistol and bitchin’ armour to level 2 (well, 7 now) with a rubbish pistol and crappy armour. And I don’t have my team who helped me cut through geth like a hot knife through butter, so I’m having to try to find a new team that balances my Shepard and style of play well. Then there’s the fact that, as part of the new emphasis on combat, enemies have infinite spawn points, meaning it’s very easy to get pinned down if you don’t start moving towards where you need to go straight away. I like to clear a room first, I won’t lie, so I’m hating that fact. But the thing I’m finding most difficult to get used to, is the fact that one key does all. What am I talking about? Well, in ME, to take cover behind something, you walked up to it, and pressed the forward key (w in my case). To crouch, you hit control. To run, you hit left shift. In ME2, all of those are done by the same key. Default is space, but I’ve remapped it to e since I’m used to space bringing up my combat screen. But, and here’s the thing, that one key when pressed with the forward key is also the vault key. I’m finding that I’m running up to a low barrier, hitting e to take cover, and if I’m not careful and don’t take my finger off the w key quickly enough, I’m vaulting over my cover, right into enemy gunfire. It’s all very off putting, and I don’t think I like it. And that makes me sad.
As for the characters, like I say, I’m still learning the game, but Jack is awesome, and it’s great to have Garrus back, who I love and was always in my B team in the first game. I was very happy to see him. Not so happy when I kept getting attacked by varren when trying to help him, but there you go. I was also really pleased to see Joker again, and Dr Chakwas. I really miss Kaidan and Liara, as I’ve mentioned. Not just because I found Liara sweet and I romanced Kaidan, but because they were my A squad and we kicked arse! As for Miranda and Jacob, well they’re Cerberus so that taints my view of them. Oh yes, I don’t much like the fact that I’m being forced to work with Cerberus when I spent so long tracking their bases down and wiping them out in ME. However, I’ve come to terms with it only by telling myself that Shepard has no choice in the matter, and by doing them over every chance I get. What’s this? Information that could implicate Cerberus? *uploads to Alliance* Oh I’m sorry. Were there two other choices? I … didn’t see them there.
The story has me intrigued, and apart from having to work with Cerberus, I’m liking it. I’m still very much in the first act, so I don’t have much more to say. I know it sounds like I’m whining and that I don’t like the game, much how I sounded with DAII, but that’s not true at all. I am enjoying myself, it’s just taking some adjusting to the new gameplay, and there are things I desperately miss from the first game. (Being able to talk to my squad where ever I want, even if I just get a generic line, rather than waiting for a prompt on screen while looking at something. Having the radar map always on screen. A health bar. Being able to explore alien worlds rather than running that stupid, boring and annoying scanning and mining mini game). But, I do like a lot of the new features that aren’t related to combat. I like the new galaxy map for instance, and the side missions seem like they are going to be more varied. Oh and I really like the new hacking mini games. I hated that decryption mini game from the first one. Really, really hated it to the point the only reason I did it was to gain XP. So I do like it, much more than I liked DAII, and so, if you want me, I’m going to be saving the galaxy with this BAMF:
(Guys you have no idea how odd it is to hear her speak with an accent so different to the one she’s been speaking to me with for the past 18 months, but it is so much fun making decisions as her).
Instead, I’m really enjoying playing the Mass Effect games, and since I missed being able to talk about ME and ME2 with my friends when Cait was playing, because I’m behind the times, you get to see my thoughts here instead. I give you all fair warning, there are spoilers for the games, especially the first one below. If you don’t want to know what happens, don’t read this. Enjoy.
I started on the main missions of the first game Thursday I think it was, and started to really love the game and the story, even with the bugs, but more on those later. I always faff around doing side missions first, for a couple of reasons. First, I like to level up and get to know the gameplay. I’m not good at combat, I freely admit it. I don’t generally play games with combat in them, and I die a lot when I do (even on easy), so I like to upgrade my equipment, level up and get to the point where I’m not having to continually replay a battle because I keep dying. Because when that happens on a main storyline mission, I get very frustrated and want to give up. Second I like to explore a world and get to know the universe the story takes place in. This has served me well in more games than I care to remember, so I continue to do so, and because I love to explore, I ended up loving the Mako, despite the fact I hated it at first. Hated, hated, hated it. But once I was used to the steering, (well, sorta, I still ended up trying to drive up walls on Ilos as I was avoiding obstacles), I loved it, and I would much rather have the Mako than the silly scanning and side missions in ME2, but more on that game later.
I did enjoy the side missions. I liked how much they added to the universe and how they set up things that became more important not only in ME but in ME2 (such as introducing Cerberus). My only complaint with them, is that they did start to become samey after a while. Go to a planet or moon, investigate a facility, either clear that facility to end the assignment or find information pointing to another, which is identical to the first, but with different cases and crates stacked everywhere. Rinse and repeat again and again. I get that that there is a limited amount of data space so things get recycled. Heck I can even buy the idea these facilities and space stations are pre-fabricated, modular buildings that have been mass produced for space exploration and colonisation. That makes sense to me. But it did get repetitive given there was only two styles of facility I think, and one space station, and I don’t quite get how every single mine can be on the same layout too. I would have liked a tiny bit more variety, not only in the layout of the areas, but also the tasks you undertook in the assignments too. At least, they are proper missions though, and not like in DAII where you pick up an item, and without any explanation know that someone is looking for it, and that you have to return it to them. They were rubbish side quests and I wish they’d never been included. At least in DA:O with those sorts of quests, there was an explanation when you picked up the item, and something hinting that the owner wanted the journal or whatever returned to their family.
I’ll talk a bit more about the story in a minute, but I just want to say that, for me, one of the best things about the game was the characters. When I shared my thoughts on DAII, I mentioned how much I’d loved the characters from DA:O, well I love the characters in ME as much as I love Alistair, if not more. Bioware did a fantastic job with them, and the fact that I can’t go and chill with Kaidan or chat with Liara in ME2 is killing me, much as I love Garrus and Jack. The only main character I don’t like, is Ashley who I think is a xenophobic bigot. “I can’t tell the aliens from the animals.” Really Ash? Really? Gah. I don’t like bigotry even in computer games, and my Shepard is the same, so she got booted from my regular squad as soon as possible and you can guess who I rescued on Virmire.
One thing I was a little wary of, is something that came up when I shared my thoughts on DAII with friends on AIM. I mentioned how I didn’t like that you could only talk to your companions at set places and how I felt like I didn’t know them. After mentioning this, Widget said that she was used to this, since that’s how it is in the Mass Effect games, and I admit that it worried me going into this game. However, it works in ME, whereas it doesn’t in DAII, and I’ll tell you for why. One, the little snippets of dialogue that your squad member share as you wander round places such as the Citadel show far more of their personalities than anything my DAII companions said wandering round Kirkwall. Two, I spent far more time chilling on the Normandy than I did in camp in DA:O or in Kirkwall not doing a quest in DAII. I think that having a closed environment that you have to spend time in, such as the Normandy makes this type of conversation mechanic work far better than the camp system in both DA games. You don’t have to spend that much time in camp in DA:O. You can go from quest to quest, not spending much time there at all. In fact I only go there to heal injuries and at the end of a quest if I’m going to quit the game so I know, if I don’t pick the game up for a while, that I’ve just completed something and I need to check my journal. But the way the map is set up, you can go from place to place, bypassing the camp almost completely (there are a few things you need to go to camp to trigger, but for the most part, you don’t need to go there). It’s a very similar set up in DAII. You can go from quest to quest and bypass your companions’ homes for most of the game. To me, if I can do that, then I’d like some way of getting to know them on the move, which I think DA:O does brilliantly. Three, the Normandy is far more compact and easier to wander round than Kirkwall in DAII. In the time it takes to go from the Hawke Estate to Ander’s clinic (including having to select a squad), I can wander round and talk to the entire Normandy crew. It all feels far more accessible and as if Bioware wants me to get to know these people, whereas I didn’t feel like that in DAII.
As for the story, well I loved it. It took me a tiny bit to get what was going on, and just what Turians and Spectres were, but that was because I went into the game completely cold, with no knowledge of the universe it is set in, and actually Bioware explained it all really well as the tutorial mission and the introduction to the Presidium went on. The longer I played, the more involved in the story I became, and once I got to Noveria, (after doing about 95% of the side missions) I really started enjoying myself. I think that the storytelling was first rate. There were plenty of twists and turns, but I never felt as if anything came out of left field. Even the idea of indoctrination had been hinted at with the strange noise that emanated from Sovereign when Eden Prime was attacked, and the revelation of what Sovereign was, and how it’d been left as a vanguard made perfect sense. In fact I found the story suitably epic and loved every minute of it, especially once I got to Ilos. From then on out, nothing could have pulled me away from my pc, it was AWESOME.
The only thing I would criticise with the game itself is how buggy it is. It’s one of the most buggy games I’ve played, (that’s something coming from a simmer) and there were a couple of times where I was worried that the bugs would stop me progressing. On Noveria I got stuck completely in a lift. It wouldn’t move, and I couldn’t move Shepard or activate the lift switch again. On reloading my last save the same lift bugged out again. This time Kaidan first of all disappeared from the lift, then ended up sunk down in the floor to his waist, and then when the lift doors opened, I was on the same level I’d started on. It hadn’t moved.
Then, later still on Noveria, once I’d made a cure, An Asari and her cronies jumped in, a conversation wheel came up, but I couldn’t select anything on it, and everyone not in my squad was acting like there was a fight going on. When I left clicked, I ended up shooting, even though Shep was standing there without her gun out. Once the Asari’s colleagues were dead, she just stood staring at me, all glowing with biotic power, while Shep did the same, but without the glowing. And the conversation wheel was still there. I couldn’t get out of it, but luckily, the autosave had saved right after the gunfight, and when it loaded, everything was as it should have been with the Asari dead, and the cure made.
The last big bugs I came across were on Feros where Liara first of all stopped following me, even though her command was on rally. I ended up going to where I wanted to since I got fed up with commanding her to move, and luckily she would teleport to my postion, then stand there like a lemon as Shep and Kaidan moved on before teleporting again. ‘Twas annoying. And then, just to finish things off, she started sinking into the ground when she teleported and we weren’t in battle.
But despite the bugs, I carried on and I’m so glad I did. I loved the game to bits.
I’m now playing ME2, and I’m enjoying it. As much as the first one? Well, no. Not yet. It’s like starting again and I’m still getting used to the game. I have redone the key binding to make it more like the first one and stop me hitting the wrong thing, but there have been some pretty significant changes to gameplay, including seeming to put more emphasis on combat. And like I say above, I’m no good at combat. As such, I’m dying a lot. Enough to start tainting my enjoyment to be honest, as I’m getting frustrated and am dreading fights. Plus I’ve gone from level 49 with a really badass pistol and bitchin’ armour to level 2 (well, 7 now) with a rubbish pistol and crappy armour. And I don’t have my team who helped me cut through geth like a hot knife through butter, so I’m having to try to find a new team that balances my Shepard and style of play well. Then there’s the fact that, as part of the new emphasis on combat, enemies have infinite spawn points, meaning it’s very easy to get pinned down if you don’t start moving towards where you need to go straight away. I like to clear a room first, I won’t lie, so I’m hating that fact. But the thing I’m finding most difficult to get used to, is the fact that one key does all. What am I talking about? Well, in ME, to take cover behind something, you walked up to it, and pressed the forward key (w in my case). To crouch, you hit control. To run, you hit left shift. In ME2, all of those are done by the same key. Default is space, but I’ve remapped it to e since I’m used to space bringing up my combat screen. But, and here’s the thing, that one key when pressed with the forward key is also the vault key. I’m finding that I’m running up to a low barrier, hitting e to take cover, and if I’m not careful and don’t take my finger off the w key quickly enough, I’m vaulting over my cover, right into enemy gunfire. It’s all very off putting, and I don’t think I like it. And that makes me sad.
As for the characters, like I say, I’m still learning the game, but Jack is awesome, and it’s great to have Garrus back, who I love and was always in my B team in the first game. I was very happy to see him. Not so happy when I kept getting attacked by varren when trying to help him, but there you go. I was also really pleased to see Joker again, and Dr Chakwas. I really miss Kaidan and Liara, as I’ve mentioned. Not just because I found Liara sweet and I romanced Kaidan, but because they were my A squad and we kicked arse! As for Miranda and Jacob, well they’re Cerberus so that taints my view of them. Oh yes, I don’t much like the fact that I’m being forced to work with Cerberus when I spent so long tracking their bases down and wiping them out in ME. However, I’ve come to terms with it only by telling myself that Shepard has no choice in the matter, and by doing them over every chance I get. What’s this? Information that could implicate Cerberus? *uploads to Alliance* Oh I’m sorry. Were there two other choices? I … didn’t see them there.
The story has me intrigued, and apart from having to work with Cerberus, I’m liking it. I’m still very much in the first act, so I don’t have much more to say. I know it sounds like I’m whining and that I don’t like the game, much how I sounded with DAII, but that’s not true at all. I am enjoying myself, it’s just taking some adjusting to the new gameplay, and there are things I desperately miss from the first game. (Being able to talk to my squad where ever I want, even if I just get a generic line, rather than waiting for a prompt on screen while looking at something. Having the radar map always on screen. A health bar. Being able to explore alien worlds rather than running that stupid, boring and annoying scanning and mining mini game). But, I do like a lot of the new features that aren’t related to combat. I like the new galaxy map for instance, and the side missions seem like they are going to be more varied. Oh and I really like the new hacking mini games. I hated that decryption mini game from the first one. Really, really hated it to the point the only reason I did it was to gain XP. So I do like it, much more than I liked DAII, and so, if you want me, I’m going to be saving the galaxy with this BAMF:
(Guys you have no idea how odd it is to hear her speak with an accent so different to the one she’s been speaking to me with for the past 18 months, but it is so much fun making decisions as her).
