What are you currently playing? 4.0

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Mass Effect 1 isn't really bad... it has a bunch of good ideas, but the combat, script, and sidequest level design are fairly underwhelming. I'm playing through it again right now and it's still pretty enjoyable in spite of its problems. The sequel is ten times better in almost every regard, though. Hope ME 3 will be as amazing as it deserves to be.

[gunswordfist]

Oh, Mass Effect 1 is certainly an example of good ideas in a bad package but I can't even bring myself to play the game anymore....until I HAVE to when I finally get Mass Effect 3 (which'll be for my birthday at best)

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Alright, since you guys admit that Mass Effect 1 is a really lackluster game and still say that ME2 is millions of times better, I'll give the demo a shot at least. Honestly, as a huge fan of KOTOR I REALLY wanted to like ME1 but it was just so slow and boring for me, personally. The story didn't get interesting until the last quarter of the game, and the combat felt so clunky and unsatisfying that I could have sword it belonged in a game from more than 2 gens ago. That wouldn't be such a problem if you weren't forced into so many combat situations throughout the game. I also felt that the enemy AI was incredibly stupid (but to be fair you're own partner AI weren't any better), and I also felt that there was little need to utilize the special abilities and different weapons at your disposal, killing most of the strategy factor that the game had going for it. If the 2nd game somehow improves on all of that stuff, then it may be the game that I had wanted the original to be.

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Mass Effect 2 is a lot better on a technical level. The actual plot is extremely underwhelming coming off of the original and the RPG elements are toned down a bit, but I struggle to think of any other way in which the first one surpasses it.

The most obvious examples are the combat, graphics, and performance. The shooting in ME 2 blows 1 out of the water. It's like comparing Deus Ex 3 to Fallout 3. The former is exciting and fun while the latter is serviceable at best. I don't really remember how well Mass Effect 1 runs on the Xbox, but the PC version is very demanding and will only run at a steady 60 FPS if your computer has some fairly decent specs. When the the port first came out, my system could barely even run the game; it was a 5-15 FPS slideshow. Even once you get it running steadily, it still chugs along at times and is a serious system hog. And for what? The graphics are about on par with F.E.A.R. on medium settings, but with worse animation. The game is just badly optimized. Mass Effect 2 runs very smoothly on a modest rig and has great graphics; they aren't award-winning or anything, but they look far better than those of the first one.

Moving on, the level design. It's not exactly "good," but it's better. Standard TPS fare; no more, no less. The hubs are smaller than the first game's Citadel, but they're a lot more interesting IMO. Also, the boring copy-paste sidequests and the utterly horrible Mako have been removed. Planet scanning sucks, but you can buy everything you'll want/need with less than an hour of that, so it's not really a big deal. The DLC packs Overlord and Lair of the Shadow Broker are very awesome and put nearly everything from the first game to shame by themselves.

Lastly, the script is so much better. I always thought the dialogue was incredibly stilted in the first game... while it's still kind of unrealistic and cheesy, the character writing in Mass Effect 2 is a huge improvement. I found myself really enjoying the conversations in ME 2 simply because of how much I liked the dialogue. Speaking of which, the Paragon and Renegade stuff is quite a bit more interesting this time around.

Honestly, though, the demo doesn't do the game justice, and I'm sure the ME 3 demo doesn't, either. Much like Eden Prime, ME 2's first level is by far its weakest. You'd be better off borrowing the full game from a friend or renting it if you don't want to commit to buying it.


On a side note, let's get old-school for a minute. We all know that Baldur's Gate 2 is still BioWare's best game.

[gunswordfist]

Oh dear God is Mass Effect 2's first level boring. Hell, the first two levels are boring.

[gunswordfist]

As of 12:19 AM of today, I beat the last boss in Assassin's Creed (hmm, reminds me of a certain boss) and as of 12:23 AM, I beat the game.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Okay, I have reaffirmed it. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Master System is way better than the Game Gear version. You can actually see what's coming ahead of you in this version of the game, and because of it there's less cheap deaths. The game still isn't perfect, Sky High Zone has way too many pit deaths, Aqua Lake Zone Act 2 is way too long, and Scrambled Egg Zone has way too many cheap hits- how I ever beat this on the Game Gear is beyond me.

But one thing I wish they would have re-used: If Sonic rolls into water he can skip across it like a stone. This is something I've never seen reappear in a Sonic game that totally should.

Oh, and Sonic The Hedgehog 1 Master System is pretty much the same but it seems a bit harder for some reason.

[gunswordfist]

Started on and am currently play Assassin's Creed 2. It reminds me of how Mass Effect 2 was refined. A lot of similarities even though they are two different genres.

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Over the last two days, I've been playing Sonic CD on my brother's Android. Not as bad as it could have been since all of the controls are on the screen. Still a bit frustrating though. Anyway, I played through a few levels and this is the most I've played the game since before that, I just played the PC demo years ago and the 360 demo this year and I've liked what I played.

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So apparently it's cool to hate on Mass Effect now and talk about how shitty it is. Picked up the third one today, and it's pretty awesome. Easily better than the first two. The whole day 1 DLC thing is stupid, but everything else about it is great. I really don't understand the large amounts of impotent nerd rage surrounding this release. I think "gamers" are by far the worst thing about gaming.

[Spark Of Spirit]

So as you all know I've never actually played Resident Evil 4, but watched a friend play random segments one time. I just played all the way up to the "Resident Evil" title as the villagers enter the chapel.

First let me say that, I really thought I was going to die several times as I escaped the house (and stupidly let them in by shooting the window, grabbing the shotgun and dodging the chainsaw guy on the roof. I jumped off and ran towards the gate as they gave chase after me right before the bell rang and saved me. That was pretty intense. Survival horror, indeed. The Wii controls are really easy to get used to, and they seem to give you quite a bit of ammo and green herbs (this surprised me quite a bit) but even if this makes it seem easier, I'm not really feeling any less threatened by enemies who do a lot of damage if they hit you and since they come at you pretty fast, the extra ammo is welcome.

The kick is a bit overpowered, no? Near the beginning I was one-shotting villagers, then ran in for a kick and weaved out again. It seems strange to me that a kick hurts more than a bullet. But hey, at least Leon's not punching boulders. A strong kick is far more believable than that. I'm not really sure how far I'll make it, since I'm not very good at any kind of item management in games beyond hoarding and I have a bad aim, but I am enjoying myself. Also, the behind the camera position makes the controls way better than the ones from the old games like I said about Revelations, meaning that I can focus more on where I am in relation to enemies.

So far, so good.

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I honestly think the game plays better with the traditional control scheme, but the Wii remote is implemented well in RE 4. Glad you're enjoying the game; it only gets better from there.

So that day 1 DLC for Mass Effect that everyone was raging about because they thought it was important to the story? Nothing but fanservice for people who played the first game and extra flavor text dialogue about the Protheans. Hilarious.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Glad you're enjoying it. As for the kick, it can be pretty powerful, but this game can still get challenging enough at some locations where it's easy for you to get swarmed by enemies, even more so than in the opening segment of the game. As for item management, this game is a lot more lenient than other RE games. If you purchase expanded inventory space then you'll have a ton of room to keep all of your weapons and healing items, and it never really becomes too big of a problem. You also replenish ammo by finding it lying around or by killing enemies, so that shouldn't be a problem either. What I really like in this game is some of the set-piece moments. Now let me stress, when I say set-piece moments in this game, its nothing like what that would mean in a modern game like Uncharted or the like. Its not just pushing a button when prompted to and then having the game play itself for you (though QTEs like that are present in this game). Instead, you're usually presented with an intense situation in the form of a swarm of enemies or a boss fight or a truck driving at you or many other various obstacles that can kill you, but its up to you to think fast and find a way out of it, which is what I absolutely love. The game doesn't hand hold you and tell you exactly what to do, but trusts that you're smart enough to utilize you're weapons and environments to your advantage, and for that its set-piece moments are actually fun and rewarding to play through, IMO.

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Oh my fucking god Mass Effect 3. This game is only for people who played and enjoyed the first two games (and imported files from both, with Wrex surviving the first one and everyone surviving the second), but holy shit. It's amazing. I didn't think it could get much better than the level on Tuchanka, which was absolutely epic, but the very next mission on the Citadel proved me wrong. I've been grinning like an idiot throughout this entire game, except for two very emotional parts that genuinely made me sad. I feel sorry for all the nitpickers and bangwagon-jumping fools who blindly hate on ME 3, because it's truly excellent. Best part of the series. Easily.

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Oh my fucking god Mass Effect 3. This game is only for people who played and enjoyed the first two games (and imported files from both, with Wrex surviving the first one and everyone surviving the second), but holy shit. It's amazing. I didn't think it could get much better than the level on Tuchanka, which was absolutely epic, but the very next mission on the Citadel proved me wrong. I've been grinning like an idiot throughout this entire game, except for two very emotional parts that genuinely made me sad. I feel sorry for all the nitpickers and bangwagon-jumping fools who blindly hate on ME 3, because it's truly excellent. Best part of the series. Easily.

Thanks.  This is the first good thing I heard about the game because I've been avoiding reviews and anything else that could be possibly negative or postitive towards it.