Reflections on Saving the Galaxy Mass Effect Style
You may not want to read this if you haven’t played Mass Effect 3 but I’ve tried to keep it spoiler free
So I was thinking of what to write next and I’ve spent the last 40 to 50 hours playing Mass Effect 3. I’ve taken my sweet time with this and really tried to enjoy it and savor every moment of my Commander Sheppard’s trilogy ending experience. Besides the Xbox, PS3 and PC version of Mass Effect 3 there’s also the ioS Mass Effect Infiltrator game for $6.99 and the Mass Effect 3 Data Pad app.
The Mass Infiltrator game on ioS controls like your typical touch screen controls which provides a very clunky experience and often irritates the user. I played the first two levels and gave up on the game.
What I like is the Mass Effect 3 Data pad application. This data app provides you access to Alliance news, Mail, Media, Galaxy at War and Codex. The keys for me for this app was the Galaxy at War section this provides the player with a view of the map and how well from a percentage stand point how ready you are to defeat the Reapers. You start at 50% ready when you start Mass Effect 3 and throughout the course of the game doing the main missions and side missions you increase your galactic readiness. There is no skill required for the data app, click a system, pick a planet and send your ship to battle after a set period of time from 1 hour to 6 hours you’ll receive credits and your galactic readiness will increase. You start with 3 ships but over the course of completing missions you earn credits to buy more ships, better shielding, more readiness points. I’ve used this app a ton to help me in my battle against the Reapers and highly recommend that anyone playing Mass Effect 3 who has an ioS device get this FREE application.
There are a couple of things that I don’t really like about Mass Effect 3 mining and the lack there of a proper explanation on what Galactic Readiness is and why it’s important to your game.
We all remember how terrible the mining in ME 2 was well they’ve streamlined the process but god damn it just eliminate this useless feature. So how it works is you send off a beacon and EDI let’s you know there is an anomaly in the area. Once an anomaly is detected you go to the planet and start scanning. Scanning will detect where you should shoot a probe (unlimited probes!!!!) and generally after collecting whatever it was on the planet it’s time to head back to the Citadel and hand over the object to the mission giver. The catch here is that you can’t simply press the LT trigger to the beacon to scan the systems if you do it to much you’ll alert the Reapers and they’ll come ready to kill you.
When you start the game and do a couple missions your brought into the war room and your shown the galactic map and which outlines how infested the universe is with Reapers. Throughout the course of the game you need to procure war assets and increase your galactic readiness that will help shape the final battle and outcome in the game. I strongly believe the game did a piss poor job in explaining all of this to me.
What also surprised the hell out of me was the multiplayer and how fun, addicting and competent it is. The premise is Horde mode with 3 other players against 10 waves enemy forces. During the course of the match there are some objective based waves were you’ll need to hack terminals for example on top of killing on the baddies that are trying to kill you.
There is an RPG element into this as well that I really like. You can pick your class and race and set your character up. What skills do you upgrade, what weapons and upgrades do you attach. Most importantly through micro transactions or through earning in game credits you can unlock more characters and better weapons. You receive the starter pack when you first start the game. The recruit pack costs 5,000 credits and is a way great way to upgrade and unlock basic weapons, mods and characters. The veteran pack is 20,000 credits or 80MS points to buy which includes 5 random items or characters and 1 uncommon item. The Spectre pack is 60,000 credits or 160MS points, which includes 5 random items or characters with at least 1 rare item. In my experience of playing online I have yet to encounter your typical 14 year old tea bag mother cursing douche bag yet and that’s made me want to go back and play more.
Well I think I’ve avoided any spoilers and now I’m off to hopefully finish the game after milking it and doing every side quest I could.
read moreWalking Dead Episode 1 A New Day
Just because you like herds of zombies and a well-stocked shotgun doesn’t mean you automatically like the first episode of five from Telltale games and The Walking Dead A New Day . It was released last week on Xbox live for 400MS points.
The game starts off with a gentleman by the name of Lee Everett riding along in the back of a cop car on his way to prison for a crime he may or may not have done. Somewhere on his journey to his 8 by 8 cell the zombie apocalypse starts. Injured and freaked out Lee makes his way to a suburban neighborhood and comes across a young girl named Clementine and now it has become his duty to ensure she stays alive and safe and return her to her parents.
Since this was my first experience with a Telltale game the conversation tree was interesting and I had live by some of the lies I had Lee tell. When someone has a question to in the game your presented with three options and the fourth is not to say anything and remind silent. You have a limited time to choose an answer. There was a situation early on in the game where I lied to Herschel and later on in a cut scene he called me out on lying to him. So be careful on what respond with, as it will affect this episode and as well future episodes.
Don’t worry you’ll get to kill a lot of zombies throughout of this game with axes and ice picks and you’ll even have to decide on several occasions who should live and who should be eaten by the zombies. My favorite chapter in the game was the motel level where there were about 5-6 zombies that you had kill. You had to plot your way around the level to kill the zombie’s quietly in order to not to startle the rest of the herd. This brings me to my only complaint of the game, which are the controls. You use the left stick to control Lee and the right analog stick. You use the right analog stick to interact with the environments and to fight off zombies if they attack you. I just found it this cursor took up too much the space on the screen and often led to me dying repedately.
If you enjoy the Walking Dead comic and television show and can live by the decisions you have your character make you should really pick up episode 1.
read moreMy Pax Purchases
My first day in Boston I wandered over to Gamestop to pick up SSX and FIFA Street for $39.99. I’ve briefly popped in both games and have to say they were a lot of fun more importantly $20 off each game and less sales tax. Win!.
My first move once inside the Boston Convention centre was straight to Astro Gaming to pick up a wireless mixamp and a 2012 upgrade kit for my A40′s. The gentlemen manning the astro booth was incredibly helpful and even showed me how to place the new ear pieces on my A40′s.
The Wireless mixamp was a breeze to hook up once I got home from my flight. Since I had the previous wired mixamp hooked up. All I had to do was plug in the power source for the new wireless mixamp and than plug in the optical cable and turn it on. Next up was to put three triple A batteries into the RX (receiver), install the belt buckle, plug the headphones into it and the chat cable into the unit, power it up and were done. Once I turned on the Xbox muted my receiver and enjoyed my 7.1 surround sound into my ears.
Gunnar Optiks
On the last day of PAX I wandered over to the Gunnar Optiks booth to try and score a deal on a new pair of glasses. I got a pair last year however my biggest complaint was how heavy the frames were otherwise I enjoyed my purchased. I picked up a pair of MLG Phantom Neptune’s. There blue in colour with the yellow tinted lenses. In case your wandering I use the Gunnars frequently at work to avoid eye strain or after a night of little sleep I wear them to keep me going.
New Trent iCurve IMP70D 7000mah External Battery Pack
Before PAX I listened to the @thevowel discuss on the Major Nelson podcast how he just ordered a new external battery pack for conventions and while we all know how bad the iPhone battery is I decided this was a worthy investment for $45.99 from amazon.com but the kicker was no shipping to Canada. So this device has two USB ports one to charge and Iphone and one to charge an iPad and since I carry both devices this is a win. The good news is I really didn’t have a personal need for it but I did charge a few friends phones. I started writing this article at 1:53 pm with 62% battery on my iPhone and at 2:30 pm I’m 93% charged which is pretty impressive.
I also managed to pick up one of the official PAX shirts.
Pax Day 3 Recap
Sunday marks the last day of PAX where tired legs roam the show floor for the last time. Queue’s are generally the shortest on Sunday as well. It’s the last chance for 60 thousand people to see the games, play a tabletop game and most importantly the single reason we all go to PAX is to see our friends.
My Sunday plan off attack was to give the show floor a final walking and checkout Trails Evolution, Gunnar Optiks, The Witcher 2, Minecraft. I also watched people play Max Payne, Borderlands 2, Ghost Recon Future Solider which looked really good but I really didn’t want to spend my last day queuing for hours.
The first game I played was Trails and if you played the original Trails you’ll love this. The demo I got was a 3 player verus race on the same screen. The race consisted of 7 heats with points associated for winning each race but you lose points for crashes. If you somehow manage to crash which you will you’ll be automatically placed at the next checkpoint. You’ll respawn and start driving as soon as the last player goes through the checkpoint.
Next up I wandered to the Gunnar Optiks booth where I booked up a pair of the MLG Phantom Neptune glasses.
I left the show around 3pm, wandered around Boston for a bit, went bowling and called it a night.
read more