So,  I have been continuing my journey and spending more time playing Crysis 2. While not as immersive as Mass Effect games, (what game is?) I have to admit I'm liking the game more and more.    The graphics are good and the story line is good.

I have to adjust my thinking for this game.  In first person shooters, I'm usually a kill any enemy that moves type of guy.   I hit a level in Crysis 2 where there are two heavy armored vehicles in my path.  I'm driving a heavy armored vehicle.  I have to get out of my vehicle and use my cloak or else I die quickly.   I must have tried 10 times to use C4 to take out the vehicles and I got as far as taking one out before dying.    After quite a few failed attempts, I realized that I can cloak, move to hiding place about half way across the map, decloak, recharge cloak power, and then move on past the two heavy vehicles and go on and acheive my objective.   Sometimes avoiding conflict is a good option both in games and in real life.   The cloak is a wonderful tool in this game.

I find the aliens to be pretty cool and the game so far is a very clean game.  By clean, I mean not a lot of blood and guts or inappropriate sexual scenes.   The only thing I don't like about this game is the cursing and inappropriate vocal language.  Why game developers insist on making game players listen to cursing and bad language escapes me.   I can overlook it, but I hate it when it comes to younger players having to be exposed to such language.   Why can't we develop games that default to no bad or offensive language and if you want cursing, you can go into the options menu and turn it on?  That approach would make gaming so much better for younger gamers.   I guess that's a question that's right up there with the other big question... How can I have 150+ cable channels and never be able to find anything good on television??   I guess I will never know the answers to either of these haunting questions?

Crysis 2 is interesting in that at certain points in the game it will unlock new music and allow you to go into the extras area and play game music tracks.  Sort of cool.   So as of today, I give Crysis 2 a rating of 8.6.  It may go up as I progress through the game.   I am definately going to keep playing it and will most likely consider picking up Cryis 3 when it comes out in the near future.

Until next time,

Romulan

So, over the weekend I didn't have a lot of time for gaming.  Other things like yard work,  shopping  and cooking out on the grill took most of the time.   I did swing by Gamestop and picked up a couple used games that I have been keeping my eye on for a while.

Friday night I played some Mass Effect 3 multiplayer and participated in the Exorcist operation by bioware.   The goal was to take out 1 million phantoms globally.   I only personally took out about 2-3.   Phantoms are pretty nimble and challenging opponents due to having shield barriers plus the ability to be quick on their feet.  I found that using incinerate grenades seems to be very effective.    No post yet from bioware as to whether the global operation was successful or not, but we should know in the next day or two.  Hopefully, a reward pack will be awarded.

I also found a little time to take Crysis 2 off the shelf and take it out for a spin.  I've had it now for a couple weeks but never found the time to play it due to my focus on building up my characters in ME3 multiplayer.    Graphics on the game were definitely good and it seems interesting.    Going back to a first person shooter from an RPG just feels like a step backwards to me.  I'm going to keep playing it just to make sure that I give it a fair chance.  But, the story line, is no where nearly as immersive as ME3.   More on Crysis 2 as a I progress.

As I mentioned in the start of this log, I found time to swing by Gamestop.  While I was there, I went ahead and picked up Alpha Protocol for $12 and Fallout 3 for $7.    Toss in a Powerup rewards of 10% off both of them and the deal just keep getting sweeter. The icing on the cake was when the dude selling me the game (certain it was the store manager), went back and pulled a brand new copy of Alpha Protocol and gave it to me for the used price.  He mentioned that they haven't sold many and he'd like to move it out and I'd probably rather have brand new copy.    That was a really cool thing for him to do.

And that my friends, is why I always like to shop at the Gamestop that is very near to Target in Fayetteville, Ark.   The store manager there is really cool about providing excellent customer service.  There is another Gamestop like 3 blocks away, but I will always be local to this particular store just because they are professionals at being friendly and providing good customer service.

Anyone have thoughts on Alpha Protocol and/or Fallout 3?  Which should I play first?

Until next time,

Romulan117

well I just finished the Mass Effect single player campaign.  Since I first played Mass Effect 1 last Thanksgiving, this series has catapulted to my all time favorite game series.... Period.   There has been a lot of complaints about the ending of ME3 so I avoided all spoilers and wanted to see it for myself.  I guess I am one of the few ME fans who think the ending is just fine.  I hated to see Shepard go,  but the ending in my opinion was both creative and appropriate. Sometimes hard choices that require sacrifice have to be made.  Life does not always have a fairy tale ending.  When the chips were down, Shepard "Got it done.".  I remain a happy ME fan.

in fact, I'll go as far to say that I was ok with a day 1 DLC.  It made me feel that my CE edition added that much more value.  As for a new ending, I don't need it, but respect Bioware's decision to provide an alternate ending for those that were disappointed or bent out of shape..

As to the future of the ME franchise,  I hope and suspect there may be a prequel featuring the young Commander Shepherd's beginning.  Who know maybe the game will take the character background users selected in ME1, ME2 or ME3 and uses them to build the story line for the game.  For example selected that I was an Earth born sole survivor.  A game that altered based upon my background selections would be very cool.

Just finished Mass Effect 2. Wow what a game. Granted, I mined resources a lot and played some DLC, but it took me 41 hours 31 minutes of game time to finish.  I am still going to go back in and explore other solar systems and download some more DLC.

It seemed like a halo-novel that I couldn't put down.  I love the fact that the game uses RPG to shape the story line but moves into 1st person shooter for combat.  I hate turn based RPG.  Mass Effect 1 and 2 are the first RPG games that I have ever spent enough time with to finish.   Great job Bioware!

As for me,  best game of 2011 - Mass Effect 2.   This is something considering that I paid $99 for Call of Duty MW3 Hardened edition and have been more excited over ME2.  It cost $12.95.   Quite an irony... Most anticipated  game of 2012 - Mass Effect 3.   Pretty sure I'll be pre-ordering a collector's edition soon.

Well that's my first blog.  I'm on Xbox live as Romulan117.  Friend me if you want to talk about Mass Effect...

Later

Romulan117