All registered Cerberus Network members (i.e anyone who didn’t pirate or buy the game second hand) will be able to download the Cerberus Assault Armor and M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun from 7pm GMT on the 9th Feb 2010 for free.
Cerberus Assault Armor:
Cerberus assault armor is designed for shock troops
Increases heavy weapon ammo capacity by +10%
Increases shields by +10%
Increases health by +10%
M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun:
The M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun is a longer-range shotgun with armor-piercing loads
This design also violates several intergalactic weapons treaties, so the M-22a is not distributed to militaries
Weefz insisted that I post this trailer to Mass Effect 2 as the first game was so awesome (so she says), even though they continue to promote it with a male lead.
I love Ubisoft’s new Prince of Persia game. It’s not perfect, but it’s as damn near close as I’ve ever seen.
Story
There’s an actual plot with actual personalities and natural sounding dialogue. It’s like they hired a real writer and everything! Elika is a great female character with her own motivations and while yes, she is the obligatory hourglass shape, she wears clothes and has more purpose in the story than just looking pretty and supporting the hero.
Plot exposition is very well handled. Cut scenes are kept short to give you the bare minimum of information that you need to get on with the game. They haven’t let that destroy the story however – those of us who actually enjoy narrative can continue the conversation whenever we want by pulling the left trigger. Plot points are nicely interspersed with character and relationship-building dialogue. They’ve hired some talented voice actors, too. I love it.
Death
The death cutscene is barely a second long – no frustrated bashing the button to try and speed up the same slow-mo death-panning shot you’ve seen a hundred times before, a la Mass Effect. It’s quick and simple and you’re back on your feet, ready to go again. Best of all, the resume point is the last flat surface you were on which is rarely more than 30 seconds back.
Some people might complain that this makes the game too easy but I completely disagree. I think it opens up the world for experimentation that much more. In the recent Tomb Raider demo I spent more time clinging onto vines being afraid to jump because I knew I’d have to do the whole tedious climb-jump-traverse-jump-climb again and again if I was wrong. Even worse, if the camera popped over to a weird angle just as I was about to jump, it wouldn’t even be my failure but I’d still have to pay the price. In Prince of Persia, you’re not afraid to try risky moves in order to reach that light seed that seems just out of reach because the penalty isn’t so bad after all.
Combat
Battles are… interesting. Well, they were interesting for a while. I was very proud of spending an hour or so working out how to break each of the special defences used by the bosses. Then I flipped through the manual and it was right there on page 14 :| After that, the battles got a bit tedious but then, combat isn’t really the point of this game at all. Prince of Persia is all about exploring the environments, and they are beautiful indeed.
That it for part 1. Come back in a few days to read more about the environment and the sheer joy of moving around in this world.
Yes, yes, yes. At £1 per hour, it’s very good value for money.
Why?
I love western-style RPGs. I love sci-fi settings. And I love taking cover during combat. I love Mass Effect. This game is almost made for me :)
There are flaws. I talked about Mass Effect’s dialogue issue back in December. The inventory interface is quite possibly the worst I’ve ever seen, as is the party selection menu. Still, I had so much fun playing the game itself that I don’t really care.
The Good:
Purpose – You have actual goals throughout the game that aren’t simply “shoot everything in sight”. Sure, that’s generally the means to your end, but at least there’s a purpose behind it.
Combat – The combat system is great. It’s like Gears of War but less frustrating. Gears feels like you’re wearing a huge chunk of magnetic armour and everything else is made of iron. Mass Effect gives you more control when running and it’s far easier to go around things.
Breadth – You have a giant world to explore. This isn’t a sandbox game but you can spend hours just exploring the Citadel and pick up lots of side-quests
A useful journal! Longtime readers will know, I’m a bit fanatic about RPG journals. This one does the job, though could have done with listing the target locations more prominently. Iinstead, you’re forced to open up every single item repeatedly, to find the nearby missions.
Force powers Biotics – These mysterious powers are great fun. There’s a little something for everyone – healing, direct damage, disabling, shields, sharpshooting… I love it. None of them look quite as spectacular as KOTOR2’s Force Storm, but the combination of Lift and an assault-rifle-wielding teammate looks impressively violent.
Advancement – I’m not sure if BioWare did a sneaky enemies-level-up-with-you but if they did, it was very subtle and much more satisfying than Oblivion. In Oblivion as you got more powerful, it never felt that way because even the lowliest grass-dwelling bandit mysteriously sprouted glass armour and would kick your sorry ass unless you specialised in combat. In Mass Effect, you can do the majority of the game in any order and it’s always challenging, but you still get the feeling of becoming more powerful.
The Bad:
The interface and dialogue system. The interface will need a whole post to explain, so I’ll save that for another time. Just trust me, it’s rubbish.
Uncharted worlds – These are fun to start with. The first time you get dropped on an uncharted world, it’s a breathtakingly beautiful scene. The next hundred and fifty seven times start to grate. Ultimately, the uncharted worlds all feel the same – drive around from way point to way point, drive in circles shooting something, fall off a mountain, find building, kill everyone, search back room (or for variety, upstairs back room), play unlocking mini-game, The End. But it’s the only way to get that level 50 achievement so, for some insane reason, I did them all. There’s no way I’m going for level 60 on another playthrough.
Repetition – The endless combat in corridors for the main quest does get a little samey after a while.
Achievements – If you collect gamerpoints compulsively, Mass Effect will swallow you for days. Assuming that you play as efficiently as possible, you’ll have to play the game all the way through twice and the middle four planets at least once more with different allies. Considering it took me around 40 hours to hit level 50 with almost all the sidequests, that’s something in the region of 80-100 hours to get all the gamerpoints. I’d advise you to rent Avatar: The Burning Earth instead, but you probably already did.
Tower of Hanoi – Has BioWare ever made an RPG that didn’t feature the Tower of Hanoi? I’ve been solving this puzzle for at least 15 years now. I know it was in KOTOR and I’m sure I saw it in another BioWare game. Here’s a compromise; show us the puzzle and have a character ask what it is. If we answer Tower (or Towers) of Hanoi we get a free pass, okay?
In summary:
It’s a brilliant space-shooter RPG. Mass Effect would get my vote for Game of The Year 2007.
Bioware have announced that the first Mass Effect content pack called “Bring Down The Sky” will be released on Xbox Live Marketplace at 7am on the 10th March 2008. It will cost 400 Microsoft points.
However, in order to access this new content (planet) Commander Shepherd must be in command of the Normandy spaceship. For this you will need a save game either a couple of hours from the start (or end) of the game. I know Weefz usually has about a bazillion different saves on every game she plays (if the game allows it), so she’ll be fine. I expect that future content packs will also have the same prerequisite; a (working) spaceship.
Look out for Weefz’s forthcoming review of Mass Effect.
All registered Cerberus Network members (i.e anyone who didn’t pirate or buy the game second hand) will be able to download the Cerberus Assault Armor and M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun from 7pm GMT on the 9th Feb 2010 for free.
