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What Mass Effect Has Taught Me
As the helpful men below will tell you, there is no problem that cannot be solved without the proper application of shotguns to people’s faces.
As seen in this thread, thanks to unfortunate cell-phone-cam lighting, my Cmdr. Shepard looks a little out of shape. Or, as one wag put it,
Your guy actually looks badass, except for his double-chin. I didn’t know the Normandy could fit through the McDonald’s drive-through.
Yeah, well, if you tell him he’s out of shape — he’ll stick a shotgun in your face. (Renegade +9)
Mass Effect is a triumph of storytelling over gameplay, because the combat system starts as horribly frustrating and painful, until you level up to the point where the combat system is pretty much irrelevant (“Oh, look, enemies – PEW PEW PEW – hey, thanks for killing them, party members!”). However, that aside, Mass Effect’s story, graphics, and presentation in general is not only like a Babylon 5 movie (both in scope and in, well, stealing the plot wholesale – which is fine, B5 did the same thing, space operas aren’t known for their originality), it’s a Babylon 5 movie that’s better than any recent Babylon 5 movie.
Between this game, the excellent Assassin’s Creed, and some other game everyone I know is going nuts over and I’m not even having the time to buy yet, tis the season to have no money.
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about 2 years ago
I’ve now learned that french fries are NOT a substitute for a blaster at your side.
about 2 years ago
Arrgh. I’ve promised not to buy it so that the fiancee can snag it for me for Christmas. With every blog post talking about how cool it is, I regret my decision more.
about 2 years ago
Punk-ass single chins …
about 2 years ago
I will quote the thread that you posted your pic on … because it made me laugh so damn hard
“I didn’t know the Normandy could fit through the McDonald’s drive-through.”
Anyway, loving both Mass Effect and Assassins Creed as well. Although as you say the story line seemed eerily familiar (only 2/3 way through I think now anyway) but the voice acting is fantastic and the graphics are good for a game of it’s scale.
about 2 years ago
I can’t wait to pick up Mass Effect. I grabbed Assassin’s Creed first because I knew I wouldn’t have to put as much time into it. As for Assassin’s Creed being excellent, I wouldn’t entirely agree. It’s a good game that could have been a great game. But, it does have the foundations for something amazing in the future if they can come up with:
- Less repetition, or at least the illusion of less repetition (3 cities with 3 sections and 3 guys who must be assassinated at 3 different times after doing 3 of the precursor missions in each of the 3 cities).
- Better combat balance (there is a “best” thing to do in roughly every situation in order to survive–hold down block and counter with X).
- More stealth! I guess it was just a bad expectation on my part, but I figured this would be closer to Thief but with elements of Prince of Persia rather than the reverse. The fact that it is actually significantly more efficient to blast through things instead of be stealthy annoyed me (possibly better: a “recognition” meter that goes up if you expose yourself too often [which causes more guards to appear/look for you]. An end-of-mission “you did this really stealthily” award and various levels of the award. Etc.)
Either way, I enjoyed at least the first few hours of the game and may end up finishing it at some point (I have the last block of assassinations to go yet). I still need to get the bad taste out of my mouth about the modern day stuff, though. Because none of the marketing pointed out that I would not, in fact, be a crusades-era assassin, and would instead be a future-era assassin living in my genetic memory, it rubbed me the wrong way immediately… not to mention, every time I go future mode I get wrenched out of the game and tend to put it down for the day.
about 2 years ago
Looks like that guy would like THREE sloppy joes.
about 2 years ago
I take it you’ve all tried, or at least seen, “It’s time to shut you up”?
Although there’s still plenty of places where the options are I’m a saint/Get on with it/I’m a cock, there are some dialogs where the negative options work really well. Threatening the Fleet Admiral after his inspection of the Normandy was fun, and definitely worked well. “Should I guess?” was another good one.
about 2 years ago
If there was a bit more action and a little less walking around, this would have been more than a rental for me. My brother on the other hand, loves this game.