If you're like me, you like webcomics. A lot. It's an unhealthy obsession, and the last thing you need is more.
With that said, I have some webcomic recommendations to make, hopefully flagging some you may or may not have missed along the way.
Girly Online - Josh Lesnick's sequel to CuteWendy. Largely, I recommend this because of Lesnick's ever-increasing talents, which is a rare find in comickery. It's incredibly vulgar, off the wall, random, stupid, and yet... incredibly charming.
Least I could Do - Ryan Sohmer's writing and Lar DeSouza's art style come together and create one of the funniest and best comics out there today. Though the earlier stuff features some absolutely godawful artwork, it still manages to be hilarious, a fair bit vulgar, nerdy, and has some of the worst advice you could ever take from a man.
XKCD - Nothing more than a regular stick figure comic at first glance, but it doesn't take long at all to realize just how genius this thing is. There aren't a lot of comics that can pull off humor in physics and math.
Questionable Content - Indie music and the people who listen to it. It's a fantastically humorous comic, has a great overarcing story to it, and is just relevant enough to the mainstream for just about anyone to get.
Sinfest - Actually... You probably already have this bookmarked. However, Tatsuya Ishida is a force to be reckoned with. Who else can utilize a vaguely Calvin and Hobbes-esque style, Easternize it oh so subtly, and make it last as long as it has and STILL be a superb comic?
Looking For Group - Another one by LICD forerunners Sohmer and DeSouza, this comic takes a lot from fantasy tales of old, with a particular inspiration from Warcraft. Fantastic characters, solid story, and... well, Richard. You'll see what I mean.
Three Panel Soul - The remains of Mac Hall... And all for the better. While a full story has been ditched, it is instead a rather intriguing investigation on Ian McConville's art style, and furthers a lot of the one-shot humor which Mac Hall is known for. What's particularly great: no two strips look alike. Don't be surprised when the art style changes radically from strip to strip.
Gone with the Blastwave - A visually amazing style, and one of the slowest-updated comics I've ever seen, with the exception of my next comic recommendation. It's incredibly funny, with a bit of a Red vs. Blue style of humor in a post-apocalyptic world.
Lackadaisy - I wouldn't make it a point to post a furry comic, largely because of the stigma they have in pop culture, but... Seriously. This is one of the best drawn comics around, and features a great concept: Take the Roarin' 20's, prohibition-era crime-laden atmosphere in St. Louis and replace people with anthropomorphic cats. You'd be surprised how well this works. Always reminded me of "Cats Don't Dance," a WB animated movie in the late 90's, and that is a VERY good thing.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Activision vs. Harmonix
In a story that would make any sane man go "WTF?!"...
The PS3 version of Rock Band comes with a slight... Issue. Unlike what was previously promised, the GH3 Les Paul controller does NOT work with the PS3 version of Rock Band. Harmonix was pretty surprised by this.
Well, according to this, Harmonix was totally on the ball. They'd already had the patch made and ready for about two weeks, submitted it to Sony, and it was ready to be released over PSN for automatic download once you plugged in the Rock Band disc.
Well, according to THIS, Activision says Harmonix is full of shit, and Activision's been trying to reach an agreement with Harmonix for a while now which keeps getting turned down.
Now, let's look at this carefully. What does Harmonix have to gain from disallowing GH3 controllers to be playable solely on the PS3 version? Well... Not much. With individual instruments not due out until February, there are a lot of people wishing they had a second controller for RB, thanks to two different duel modes and a full band mode that needs two guitar controllers to play. They're at nothing but a disadvantage.
What does Activision gain from the GH3 controller not being playable on RB? An edge on its opponent. People don't want to pay for a product they feel is inferior, especially when there are plenty of Guitar Hero controllers available to play GH3 with. Of course, this doesn't make much sense, either; with RB's individual controllers arriving so late, there are people who want individual controllers -now-, meaning they go to the GH controllers. Purchase of these controllers goes to Activision, and increase sales. This is a benefit, right? Apparently, Activision must not have thought so, as they still seem to be trying to reach an "agreement" with Harmonix.
This is pure speculation, mind you, but an "agreement" usually has terms in these situations, right? Harmonix wasn't looking to pay or be paid for their completely voluntary work to fix a problem with their game, and have constantly made open-arms approval of Activision and their GH controllers. Activision, on the other hand, feels there's still some issues to be settled first. It could be a monetary value, or a stock issue, or something completely arbitrary.
Or, we could go with the more realistic option and say Activision got caught in a rut when it turns out Harmonix fixed the problem, and Activision doesn't like looking like the lazy one, and is trying to save face. This isn't exactly surprising, as damage control is a large part of big business [for reference, see the Jeff Gerstmann issue at GameSpot, as they do fantastically horrible damage control on that whole problem]. However, this just feels as if it were a completely childish debate. While Harmonix did butt heads and claim it was Activision's fault before, they had since redeemed themselves by fixing it, and everything's ready to go as we speak. So why the hold-up, Activision? What issues hold back the ability to make some customers happy?
Maybe it all comes down to a money issue. However, I'm more inclined to believe Activision's just getting greedy with its newest total acquisition of Guitar Hero, and doesn't want to give Rock Band any edge whatsoever, looking at it from a strictly competitive point of view.
Which sucks, 'cuz, damnit, I need a second guitar for RB!
The PS3 version of Rock Band comes with a slight... Issue. Unlike what was previously promised, the GH3 Les Paul controller does NOT work with the PS3 version of Rock Band. Harmonix was pretty surprised by this.
Well, according to this, Harmonix was totally on the ball. They'd already had the patch made and ready for about two weeks, submitted it to Sony, and it was ready to be released over PSN for automatic download once you plugged in the Rock Band disc.
Well, according to THIS, Activision says Harmonix is full of shit, and Activision's been trying to reach an agreement with Harmonix for a while now which keeps getting turned down.
Now, let's look at this carefully. What does Harmonix have to gain from disallowing GH3 controllers to be playable solely on the PS3 version? Well... Not much. With individual instruments not due out until February, there are a lot of people wishing they had a second controller for RB, thanks to two different duel modes and a full band mode that needs two guitar controllers to play. They're at nothing but a disadvantage.
What does Activision gain from the GH3 controller not being playable on RB? An edge on its opponent. People don't want to pay for a product they feel is inferior, especially when there are plenty of Guitar Hero controllers available to play GH3 with. Of course, this doesn't make much sense, either; with RB's individual controllers arriving so late, there are people who want individual controllers -now-, meaning they go to the GH controllers. Purchase of these controllers goes to Activision, and increase sales. This is a benefit, right? Apparently, Activision must not have thought so, as they still seem to be trying to reach an "agreement" with Harmonix.
This is pure speculation, mind you, but an "agreement" usually has terms in these situations, right? Harmonix wasn't looking to pay or be paid for their completely voluntary work to fix a problem with their game, and have constantly made open-arms approval of Activision and their GH controllers. Activision, on the other hand, feels there's still some issues to be settled first. It could be a monetary value, or a stock issue, or something completely arbitrary.
Or, we could go with the more realistic option and say Activision got caught in a rut when it turns out Harmonix fixed the problem, and Activision doesn't like looking like the lazy one, and is trying to save face. This isn't exactly surprising, as damage control is a large part of big business [for reference, see the Jeff Gerstmann issue at GameSpot, as they do fantastically horrible damage control on that whole problem]. However, this just feels as if it were a completely childish debate. While Harmonix did butt heads and claim it was Activision's fault before, they had since redeemed themselves by fixing it, and everything's ready to go as we speak. So why the hold-up, Activision? What issues hold back the ability to make some customers happy?
Maybe it all comes down to a money issue. However, I'm more inclined to believe Activision's just getting greedy with its newest total acquisition of Guitar Hero, and doesn't want to give Rock Band any edge whatsoever, looking at it from a strictly competitive point of view.
Which sucks, 'cuz, damnit, I need a second guitar for RB!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Mass Effect
If you're aware of Bioware's not-so-long history and amazing track record for making really fucking awesome games, and you happen to have an XBox 360 handy [or maybe you bought it for this very reason], you probably already own Mass Effect. More than likely, you're enjoying it. A lot. And with good reason. In spite of some of its nastier flaws, the game manages to rise above and beyond the shackles that hold it down, but every now and then, these flaws just kinda knock it in the face like a door in the night when you're on your way to the toilet.
The story behind Mass Effect goes like this: It's been 26 years since Humankind has managed to make contact with an alien race... In fact, they made contact with a lot of alien races. What's more, these guys have a whole damn government organizing all these religions, creating a high-order Alliance Council which maintains authority over the entire Milky Way galaxy, and this Council's been around for a great deal more time than humans have had the chance to fiddle around with technology. At the beginning of the story, you find your character Shepard is being considered to become a Spectre, the right hand of the aforementioned Council, an elite task force that stands above the law and gets the job done, no matter what. Even crazier? Shepard would become the first human Spectre ever, meaning this is a pretty damn big deal. On a mission with a member of the Turian race [who is, coincidentally, with you on the mission to review whether or not Shepard is even worthy of becoming a Spectre], the main conflict rises in the form of Saren, a sort of real bastard who shoots your advisor and tries to blow up the whole facility which you are investigating. He's got control of a mechanical race called the Geth, a lethal force which, under the right leadership, have been a great big problem for the Alliance races. With Saren looking like he's taking the Geth on the eventual path of galactic domination, it's up to Shepard and his allies to hunt down Saren and save the galaxy. Throughout the game, you'll find a whole wealth of extremely tough decisions, plot twists, potential backstabs depending on your decisions, and a great deal of backstory which further flesh out the incredibly well-thought out and inspired universe created in Mass Effect. There's no shortage of motivation to push you through the story, and you can easily take a break from the intense plot to do some sidequests which will continue to throw more moral choices and great character depth to further enrapture you.
One of the best aspects of the story is how utterly interactive it is. Much in the vein of Bioware games, you have near-full control of how your main character looks, acts, and plays. Right from the start, a database is accessed, attempting to pull up Shepard's files, but are instantly corrupted... So, you, as the player, reconstruct the profile as you see fit. The only major control you have over the look is the face and gender, though what is here rivals even Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in terms of options. It may not quite have the hair options you might like, and it may not be quite as micromanaged, but it's a whole hell of a lot easier to create a good-looking, human face, and you'd be hard-pressed to see two Shepards that ever look exactly alike. From there, you also figure out a backstory for your character, choosing from three options which determine a fair amount of the psychological history and whether or not your parents totally bit the dust. You also decide on a particular class you want, each specialized between three main aspects of gameplay style, from Combat [use of guns and straight-up damage], Biotics [the "Force" of ME, creating shields, throwing and lifting people, et cetera], and Tech [the "buffers," which help eat away shields, destroy weapons, and allow for hacking and unlocking], and each of the six available classes mix up these abilities for a variety of ways to play. Each class dramatically affects how you play, and force you to utilize different strategies in each and every conflict you come across. The only real problem at the start is a lack of a real tutorial, only offering a short blurb of information which doesn't really give you a grasp of the mechanics, though it's all manageable as you progress further and get more involved.
There are three main portions of gameplay: Adventure, On-foot Combat, and Vehicle Combat. The adventure portion will feel very familiar to anyone who's played a Bioware Game since KotOR: Very RPG in its execution, picking up quests from strangers, interacting with locals, shopping, et cetera. What makes these sections so utterly enthralling is the dialog tree, which features far better choices for conversation than ever before. Unlike KotOR and Jade Empire's rather clear-cut "good and evil" options, you're now given a few neutral options alongside "Paragon" and "Renegade" choices. Paragon is the good cop, where you try to reduce the body count as much as possible, and to come to the morally best results possible, and Renegade is the bad cop, where you pretty much play a total dick, doing whatever is necessary for the job, even if it costs people their lives. The great things about these decisions is you still benefit just about the same no matter what you do, and each decision still radically changes the situation, so the choices you make actually matter. It's very easy to get wrapped up into the story because of this, and is easily the highlight and most important aspect of the game.
The on-ground combat looks like it plays a bit like an over-the-shoulder shooter in the same vein as Gears of War. You switch between a variety of four weapons, you lead a squad of two other soldiers, there are cover mechanics, the method of attack plays out differently depending on your weapons and abilities... However, playing it like a run-n-gun shooter is a very lovely way to get totally reamed. There's a surprising amount of strategy involved in combat, thanks in part to the rather offensive AI and, more importantly, the combat wheel. By holding down the right bumper, you open up a circular grid of abilities that you and your allies currently have. By aiming the screen at enemies and clicking an ability, you can formulate a turn of combat, commanding your allies to use their abilities or to help yourself. This may sound like it slows down combat into a real RPG, but in an effective way, it actually makes things a bit more intense. Each ability has a good deal of cooldown, meaning you have to be careful not to waste all your abilities on a single opponent, since you'll essentially be gimped against the next wave of offenders. Throughout the earlier levels, it's practically required to use your abilities to survive, and though it seems like a bit of a hassle at first, it becomes second nature as you get better and better at the game.
Your abilities are gained through level-ups, which aren't quite as complicated as the D&D rules of KotOR. Out of the list of abilities available to you based on the class you side with at the beginning of the game, you can choose to spend a few points per level on bettering your use over certain weapon types [between Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, and Sniper Rifle], armor [even opening up a higher level class of armor], and even a special class-unique point list that betters a collection of abilities all at once. It isn't hard to come by these level-ups: Anything from killing enemies to completing quests to even some of the more plot-related interactions and searching through things gains yourself some experience, so there's never a short supply of experience to grab at every corner. While level-ups don't come all too often, it's just frequent enough to keep you at just the right level to handle anything the game throws at you, so long as you're careful.
The vehicular adventuring and combat... could be better. Throughout the game, you'll find a variety of planets that you can land on which have nothing to do with the main story, but gain you quests, items, information, and so forth. These planets, along with some of the story-specific ones, are where the Mako, your six-wheeled buggy/armed tank and your primary form of transportation in more gravity-inclined landscapes, is supposed to shine. However, the Mako often behaves in ways you really prefer it didn't. It's rather floaty, flips over a good amount, and drifts like a sled on a baby-oil slicked, iced over hillside made of butter. It's still quite manageable and would be perfectly tolerable if it weren't for the generic, frustrating planet "designs" which feel more like the designers threw in a bunch of mountains haphazardly with absolutely no regard to any sort of sanity. I make it sound worse than it actually is, but it's pretty frustrating to wind up in a valley with mountainsides that are far too steep to traverse without whispering to yourself, "c'mon, baby, you can do it, make the hill, make the hill, c'mooooon..." What's more, every now and then, you'll wind up against a selection of enemies on a few planets while in the Mako, and because of the poor controls, it's difficult to actually manage to hit and run without completely missing your target. Even given the rather accurate submachine gun attached to the vehicle alongside a pretty damn good cannon, it doesn't work unless you actually come to a full stop and aim, which is bad when you're also trying to avoid startlingly accurate enemy fire. Combine this with some of the bad planet design as I've mentioned and you'll find yourself getting stuck every so often, unable to move, getting yourself blown away rather quickly.
The interface with which you equip your characters is a great idea... in theory. However, unlike previous Bioware titles, this game features an inventory system which is a bit of a pain. You get equipment and upgrades for said equipment and weapons all very often, and with a limit of 150 items, your inventory gets very full very fast. It's easy enough to get rid of items by selling at any shop or reduce the items to Omni-Gel [which is used for repairing the Mako, opening locks, et cetera], but the stuff isn't organized very well; an item might be listed as ranking higher than others, but there's a lot of lower-ranked armor and weapons which are actually better than some of the higher-ranked counterparts, meaning you have to sort through the stuff manually. If there were a way to organize it yourself, or to organize everything by certain variables, this wouldn't be much of an issue, but as it stands, it's a cumbersome system. Though it's no gamebreaker, it'll leave you just selling everything in your inventory at regular intervals and just replacing it by all the newer stuff you get during exploration.
Gameplay aside, this game looks very good. Featuring some of the best animations and graphics in the industry, this game will create figures which, no matter how alien they are, feel very believable. Everything gives off an appropriate highlight and sheen, especially the eyes, which could even rival Pixar quality. The story-related planets look fantastic, with great atmosphere and expert design, each of the races look great, the list goes on. The big problem, however, has to do with texture pop-in, which is frequent and a little annoying. Every now and then, the textures of characters will be completely nonexistant, leaving only a colorfully blurry husk of character model, filled in with detail after a few seconds. It's jarring, and is a bit of a kick to any level of immersion with the characters at times. The level designs also suffer from pop-in, but it's not quite as noticeable. There are a few frequent loading issues in the middle of areas; you'll find yourself walking through a level, and, without warning, you'll see a "loading" icon on the screen and everything halts all of a sudden. There's no set locations for these; they sort of happen randomly as the game calls for it, and, alongside some stuttering framerate on occasion, it slows the momentum of the game down a fair amount. Luckily, the game doesn't rely heavily on timing, so these issues don't mess up the game by any stretch, but it's just a further lack of polish which some extra development time could have helped.
The audio quality of the game is, as per usual for Bioware, stellar. The soundtrack evokes a sort of 60's or 70's sci-fi style mixed with modern quality and composition, which creates a proto-retro futuristic sound which is a bit stereotypical but works so perfectly and sounds so great that it fits the atmosphere completely. Sound effects are somewhat forgettable, but match the situations quite well [note to prospective players: know the sound of the overheating of your gun; it'll save your life]. The voice acting is fantastic, with some great performances from known voice actor stars as Jennifer Hale [Bastila from KotOR, Naomi from MGS] and Keith David [the leader of the Saints in the game Saints Row]. Each of the alien races have a particular vocal quality that is very distinctive, and even through these set qualities, each and every character, even the strangers, have drastically unique personalities, and nearly every single figure performs amazingly well.
Mass Effect isn't the savior of Western RPGs by any stretch, and there are far better games out there... But not very many at all. Though not quite insane in length [the main story can be completed in a little over a dozen hours, and coupled with sidequests, about thirty or so hours overall], it keeps you locked in from start to finish, and even offers a great deal of extra content, achievements, and even more replay value. It's very difficult to see even a great deal of the game's content and story in a single playthrough thanks to several ways to tackle each mission and quest, so it's not likely you'll be putting the game away any time soon. In spite of its flaws, it proves yet again why Bioware is one of the best in the industry, and it proves you don't need a name like Star Wars attached to create one of the best sci-fi epics to come around in a very long time.
Story: 10/10 - Indepth story, great characters, solid plot twists, and a fully interactive plot.
Graphics: 9/10 - Some pop-in and framerate, but it's hard to deny this game looks beautiful.
Gameplay: 8/10 - The inventory menu can be a pain, the vehicular exploration and combat sorta suck, and the framerate and loading can get in the way, but it plays well overall, and is a load of fun.
Sound: 9/10 - Soundtrack's not really catchy or too memorable, but it, alongside the voice acting, fits perfectly well.
Polish: 7/10 - It's got quite a few technical bugs and such, and though it's nothing that destroys gameplay thanks to a forgiving autosave feature, it could still be much better.
Overall: 8.6 - If you like Bioware, or RPGs, or fantastic stories in general, you need this. If not, it's still worth checking out.
The story behind Mass Effect goes like this: It's been 26 years since Humankind has managed to make contact with an alien race... In fact, they made contact with a lot of alien races. What's more, these guys have a whole damn government organizing all these religions, creating a high-order Alliance Council which maintains authority over the entire Milky Way galaxy, and this Council's been around for a great deal more time than humans have had the chance to fiddle around with technology. At the beginning of the story, you find your character Shepard is being considered to become a Spectre, the right hand of the aforementioned Council, an elite task force that stands above the law and gets the job done, no matter what. Even crazier? Shepard would become the first human Spectre ever, meaning this is a pretty damn big deal. On a mission with a member of the Turian race [who is, coincidentally, with you on the mission to review whether or not Shepard is even worthy of becoming a Spectre], the main conflict rises in the form of Saren, a sort of real bastard who shoots your advisor and tries to blow up the whole facility which you are investigating. He's got control of a mechanical race called the Geth, a lethal force which, under the right leadership, have been a great big problem for the Alliance races. With Saren looking like he's taking the Geth on the eventual path of galactic domination, it's up to Shepard and his allies to hunt down Saren and save the galaxy. Throughout the game, you'll find a whole wealth of extremely tough decisions, plot twists, potential backstabs depending on your decisions, and a great deal of backstory which further flesh out the incredibly well-thought out and inspired universe created in Mass Effect. There's no shortage of motivation to push you through the story, and you can easily take a break from the intense plot to do some sidequests which will continue to throw more moral choices and great character depth to further enrapture you.
One of the best aspects of the story is how utterly interactive it is. Much in the vein of Bioware games, you have near-full control of how your main character looks, acts, and plays. Right from the start, a database is accessed, attempting to pull up Shepard's files, but are instantly corrupted... So, you, as the player, reconstruct the profile as you see fit. The only major control you have over the look is the face and gender, though what is here rivals even Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in terms of options. It may not quite have the hair options you might like, and it may not be quite as micromanaged, but it's a whole hell of a lot easier to create a good-looking, human face, and you'd be hard-pressed to see two Shepards that ever look exactly alike. From there, you also figure out a backstory for your character, choosing from three options which determine a fair amount of the psychological history and whether or not your parents totally bit the dust. You also decide on a particular class you want, each specialized between three main aspects of gameplay style, from Combat [use of guns and straight-up damage], Biotics [the "Force" of ME, creating shields, throwing and lifting people, et cetera], and Tech [the "buffers," which help eat away shields, destroy weapons, and allow for hacking and unlocking], and each of the six available classes mix up these abilities for a variety of ways to play. Each class dramatically affects how you play, and force you to utilize different strategies in each and every conflict you come across. The only real problem at the start is a lack of a real tutorial, only offering a short blurb of information which doesn't really give you a grasp of the mechanics, though it's all manageable as you progress further and get more involved.
There are three main portions of gameplay: Adventure, On-foot Combat, and Vehicle Combat. The adventure portion will feel very familiar to anyone who's played a Bioware Game since KotOR: Very RPG in its execution, picking up quests from strangers, interacting with locals, shopping, et cetera. What makes these sections so utterly enthralling is the dialog tree, which features far better choices for conversation than ever before. Unlike KotOR and Jade Empire's rather clear-cut "good and evil" options, you're now given a few neutral options alongside "Paragon" and "Renegade" choices. Paragon is the good cop, where you try to reduce the body count as much as possible, and to come to the morally best results possible, and Renegade is the bad cop, where you pretty much play a total dick, doing whatever is necessary for the job, even if it costs people their lives. The great things about these decisions is you still benefit just about the same no matter what you do, and each decision still radically changes the situation, so the choices you make actually matter. It's very easy to get wrapped up into the story because of this, and is easily the highlight and most important aspect of the game.
The on-ground combat looks like it plays a bit like an over-the-shoulder shooter in the same vein as Gears of War. You switch between a variety of four weapons, you lead a squad of two other soldiers, there are cover mechanics, the method of attack plays out differently depending on your weapons and abilities... However, playing it like a run-n-gun shooter is a very lovely way to get totally reamed. There's a surprising amount of strategy involved in combat, thanks in part to the rather offensive AI and, more importantly, the combat wheel. By holding down the right bumper, you open up a circular grid of abilities that you and your allies currently have. By aiming the screen at enemies and clicking an ability, you can formulate a turn of combat, commanding your allies to use their abilities or to help yourself. This may sound like it slows down combat into a real RPG, but in an effective way, it actually makes things a bit more intense. Each ability has a good deal of cooldown, meaning you have to be careful not to waste all your abilities on a single opponent, since you'll essentially be gimped against the next wave of offenders. Throughout the earlier levels, it's practically required to use your abilities to survive, and though it seems like a bit of a hassle at first, it becomes second nature as you get better and better at the game.
Your abilities are gained through level-ups, which aren't quite as complicated as the D&D rules of KotOR. Out of the list of abilities available to you based on the class you side with at the beginning of the game, you can choose to spend a few points per level on bettering your use over certain weapon types [between Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, and Sniper Rifle], armor [even opening up a higher level class of armor], and even a special class-unique point list that betters a collection of abilities all at once. It isn't hard to come by these level-ups: Anything from killing enemies to completing quests to even some of the more plot-related interactions and searching through things gains yourself some experience, so there's never a short supply of experience to grab at every corner. While level-ups don't come all too often, it's just frequent enough to keep you at just the right level to handle anything the game throws at you, so long as you're careful.
The vehicular adventuring and combat... could be better. Throughout the game, you'll find a variety of planets that you can land on which have nothing to do with the main story, but gain you quests, items, information, and so forth. These planets, along with some of the story-specific ones, are where the Mako, your six-wheeled buggy/armed tank and your primary form of transportation in more gravity-inclined landscapes, is supposed to shine. However, the Mako often behaves in ways you really prefer it didn't. It's rather floaty, flips over a good amount, and drifts like a sled on a baby-oil slicked, iced over hillside made of butter. It's still quite manageable and would be perfectly tolerable if it weren't for the generic, frustrating planet "designs" which feel more like the designers threw in a bunch of mountains haphazardly with absolutely no regard to any sort of sanity. I make it sound worse than it actually is, but it's pretty frustrating to wind up in a valley with mountainsides that are far too steep to traverse without whispering to yourself, "c'mon, baby, you can do it, make the hill, make the hill, c'mooooon..." What's more, every now and then, you'll wind up against a selection of enemies on a few planets while in the Mako, and because of the poor controls, it's difficult to actually manage to hit and run without completely missing your target. Even given the rather accurate submachine gun attached to the vehicle alongside a pretty damn good cannon, it doesn't work unless you actually come to a full stop and aim, which is bad when you're also trying to avoid startlingly accurate enemy fire. Combine this with some of the bad planet design as I've mentioned and you'll find yourself getting stuck every so often, unable to move, getting yourself blown away rather quickly.
The interface with which you equip your characters is a great idea... in theory. However, unlike previous Bioware titles, this game features an inventory system which is a bit of a pain. You get equipment and upgrades for said equipment and weapons all very often, and with a limit of 150 items, your inventory gets very full very fast. It's easy enough to get rid of items by selling at any shop or reduce the items to Omni-Gel [which is used for repairing the Mako, opening locks, et cetera], but the stuff isn't organized very well; an item might be listed as ranking higher than others, but there's a lot of lower-ranked armor and weapons which are actually better than some of the higher-ranked counterparts, meaning you have to sort through the stuff manually. If there were a way to organize it yourself, or to organize everything by certain variables, this wouldn't be much of an issue, but as it stands, it's a cumbersome system. Though it's no gamebreaker, it'll leave you just selling everything in your inventory at regular intervals and just replacing it by all the newer stuff you get during exploration.
Gameplay aside, this game looks very good. Featuring some of the best animations and graphics in the industry, this game will create figures which, no matter how alien they are, feel very believable. Everything gives off an appropriate highlight and sheen, especially the eyes, which could even rival Pixar quality. The story-related planets look fantastic, with great atmosphere and expert design, each of the races look great, the list goes on. The big problem, however, has to do with texture pop-in, which is frequent and a little annoying. Every now and then, the textures of characters will be completely nonexistant, leaving only a colorfully blurry husk of character model, filled in with detail after a few seconds. It's jarring, and is a bit of a kick to any level of immersion with the characters at times. The level designs also suffer from pop-in, but it's not quite as noticeable. There are a few frequent loading issues in the middle of areas; you'll find yourself walking through a level, and, without warning, you'll see a "loading" icon on the screen and everything halts all of a sudden. There's no set locations for these; they sort of happen randomly as the game calls for it, and, alongside some stuttering framerate on occasion, it slows the momentum of the game down a fair amount. Luckily, the game doesn't rely heavily on timing, so these issues don't mess up the game by any stretch, but it's just a further lack of polish which some extra development time could have helped.
The audio quality of the game is, as per usual for Bioware, stellar. The soundtrack evokes a sort of 60's or 70's sci-fi style mixed with modern quality and composition, which creates a proto-retro futuristic sound which is a bit stereotypical but works so perfectly and sounds so great that it fits the atmosphere completely. Sound effects are somewhat forgettable, but match the situations quite well [note to prospective players: know the sound of the overheating of your gun; it'll save your life]. The voice acting is fantastic, with some great performances from known voice actor stars as Jennifer Hale [Bastila from KotOR, Naomi from MGS] and Keith David [the leader of the Saints in the game Saints Row]. Each of the alien races have a particular vocal quality that is very distinctive, and even through these set qualities, each and every character, even the strangers, have drastically unique personalities, and nearly every single figure performs amazingly well.
Mass Effect isn't the savior of Western RPGs by any stretch, and there are far better games out there... But not very many at all. Though not quite insane in length [the main story can be completed in a little over a dozen hours, and coupled with sidequests, about thirty or so hours overall], it keeps you locked in from start to finish, and even offers a great deal of extra content, achievements, and even more replay value. It's very difficult to see even a great deal of the game's content and story in a single playthrough thanks to several ways to tackle each mission and quest, so it's not likely you'll be putting the game away any time soon. In spite of its flaws, it proves yet again why Bioware is one of the best in the industry, and it proves you don't need a name like Star Wars attached to create one of the best sci-fi epics to come around in a very long time.
Story: 10/10 - Indepth story, great characters, solid plot twists, and a fully interactive plot.
Graphics: 9/10 - Some pop-in and framerate, but it's hard to deny this game looks beautiful.
Gameplay: 8/10 - The inventory menu can be a pain, the vehicular exploration and combat sorta suck, and the framerate and loading can get in the way, but it plays well overall, and is a load of fun.
Sound: 9/10 - Soundtrack's not really catchy or too memorable, but it, alongside the voice acting, fits perfectly well.
Polish: 7/10 - It's got quite a few technical bugs and such, and though it's nothing that destroys gameplay thanks to a forgiving autosave feature, it could still be much better.
Overall: 8.6 - If you like Bioware, or RPGs, or fantastic stories in general, you need this. If not, it's still worth checking out.
The Beginning
Yet another entry into the already overly-cramped, heavily opinionated blogosphere-o'-doom, it seems. The first question is: Why should I care? What here is so original that it demands my attention? Why the hell should I devote five minutes of my time to this guy's post?
Okay, so that was three questions, shut up, I'm new at this.
To roundabout answer these questions, the chief point here is to chronicle my thoughts on things that have to do with my careers of choice: artist and game designer.
Alright, I'll give you "artist" as a career is just a fancy way of saying "living with my girlfriend and mooching off while I muse about the subversive meaning behind each episode of Squirrel Boy on Cartoon Network.
The reasons for chronicling these thoughts isn't just for my own amusement; I also hope to inform the readers as best I can on matters, and to possibly offer advice, random tutorials, tips, and other synonyms for "helpin' with shit that otherwise might be kinda hard."
Good luck to me, yeah?
Okay, so that was three questions, shut up, I'm new at this.
To roundabout answer these questions, the chief point here is to chronicle my thoughts on things that have to do with my careers of choice: artist and game designer.
Alright, I'll give you "artist" as a career is just a fancy way of saying "living with my girlfriend and mooching off while I muse about the subversive meaning behind each episode of Squirrel Boy on Cartoon Network.
The reasons for chronicling these thoughts isn't just for my own amusement; I also hope to inform the readers as best I can on matters, and to possibly offer advice, random tutorials, tips, and other synonyms for "helpin' with shit that otherwise might be kinda hard."
Good luck to me, yeah?
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