Well, I finished the UEF campaign in SC, which was a good bit harder than the Cybran one if you ask me...even with the superweapons it took me a lot of effort to hold out against the raids on Black Sun.

I'll play the Aeon next, but I'll wait a little before I do that...can't really be arsed to go through the initial missions with them right now. But I'm looking forward to building the UFO.

I also progressed in Mass Effect. Cleaned up Eden Prime, got pwnt by the obelisk and made my way to the Citadel and the Council...currently looking for evidence to expose Saren. I lol'ed when that guy, Nihlus got shot. "I move faster on my own", yeah, to your friggin grave.

I had to fix the keymapping because the initial setup was pretty whack. Also a little bit disappointed at the minimal character development...the relatively few major skills and the lack of primary stats make it hard to distinguish between my own char and the other soldier I met so far, but maybe that gets better as the game progresses. Also, for a 'soldier' I'm pretty damn weak. I went down tons of time in the first mission...this clearly isn't the game to run in guns blazing. The whole "sitting behind crates shooting from cover" is so console that it's annoying. It's what developers use to make FPS combat doable on consoles, cfr GTA, GoW etc Very weak.

Other than that, the story is good, the atmosphere is brilliant, the codex very sleek and the acting outstanding. Very filmic. But I miss lightsabres.

Character development happens as you progress through the game. By the end even 2 soldiers will be very different if you want them to be. So don't worry. Also you'll get more character development as you move forward. Consider Eden Prime the tutorial level. Where you are now is the ridiculously long, tedious, boring ass section before the game actually starts.

heh, yeah, the whole "this is the universe and we will make you ask questions about everything that ever happened like you're some goddamned retard who accidentally made it to commander" feeol of the first 30 minutes was a bit heavy-handed at times.

I didn't mind too much tho, just leaned back and watched the conversations. In between playing SC and L4D I didn't really feel a need for twitchy action.

oh, ok. Are you off the station then and flying about the galaxy? It seemed to take hours and hours of gameplay before I was finally let free. Of course I was playing it on the xbox too, so maybe that was part of the problem.

I'm not off the station yet, but I'm guessing that's next. And I try to avoid playing RPG's on the xbox, even if have an xbox around and they come out months earlier than on the pc...like with Bioshock and ME. I could have played them before getting my pc but decided not to. But I can understand where you're coming from, early 2008 wasn't exactly a paradise for CPRG's.

I got RA3 but haven't installed it yet. Gonna play it after SC, I guess...then I need to get Forged Alliance, C&C 3 + expansion, play Company of Heroes...maybe I'll do that first. Added some games to my list btw, it's now:

DOY = don't own yet

Bioshock DONE
Supreme Commander (+ expansion?) DONE
Crysis (+ Warhead?) DOY
Medieval II expansion DONE
Mass Effect DONE
The Witcher Enhanced Edition DOY
Orange Box DONE
World in Conflict DOY
Spore DOY
Company of Heroes
C&C3 (+ Kane’s Wrath) DOY
STALKER/Clear Sky (when/if patched properly) DOY
NWN2 (+expansions?)
Dead Space DOY
Far Cry 2 DONE
Red Alert 3
A Vampyre Story DOY
3D Crayon Deluxe DOY
Braid DOY
King's Bounty DOY
Assassin's Creed DONE


I heard a lot of really good things about King's Bounty. Well, once they were past the initial hour or so...apparently it's something of a gem. Looking forward to playing RA3 in co-op with a friend, too. Oh and I found myself firing up Defcon again lately too.

lol...def con is the game I play when I'm traveling with my laptop.

wtf is 3D Crayon Deluxe?

It's actually called crayon physics deluxe, I misposted

http://www.crayonphysics.com/

Yea, that's a pretty decent game, though they screwed up the open world aspect pretty bad. And quitting the game is ridiculously annoying. But it's a damned good game otherwise... I enjoyed just randomly killing people that annoyed me.

Finished Mass Effect over the holidays, and it was awesome...but not legendary. Imho. The 'acting' is superb, it really feels like you're playing a movie. The story is involving and captivating if not quite as epic or surprising as BG2 or KOTOR. And technologically it's something of a miracle...some of the areas you visit are just straight-out WOW! (not WoW )

As usual, I found myself veering towards renegade status...but I must say that the more realistic acting and graphics make some decisions harder than they used to be. Kinda like the thinblood kid in Bloodlines.

(2.40 in this clip http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=radgFcslap4 )


So, great game with an epic feel, BUT...it has a few minor problems. For one, the buy/sell inventory is crap and console. One long list with all items in..with only 7 or so visible at a time. No way to group similar items or anything. The system of having items mark I-VI (or something) isn't BAD per se but just...not very inspiring. Having a few special named items gives you an idea of owning really special equipment, you know?

The combat system rubbed me the wrong way at first, but I got over it and appreciate it a lot more now. I didn't mind the side missions as much as everyone else seemed to...ok, 80% of all side missions take place in mine stations on some planet, but the missions themselves are usually just different enough to be enjoyable. I found the limited input from your party during the game more of a problem...ok, they give some remarks on what you do, but it doesn't seem to matter an awful lot in the end. I romanced Ashley while being a class-A psychopath, and she didn't seem to care as long as it wasn't anyone else pulling the insanity card.

Not that the character development was bad - Wrex is awesome. But if you're gonna make me take along companions, give them a lot of interaction.


All in all, great stuff. Mass Effect is basically KOTOR in a different setting without lightsabres, but Bioware did a stellar job creating their universe. Once you get past the whole "let me explain everything that everyone already knows to you like you're some kind of retard" phase of the game everything blends in organically. I reckon that ME 2 will surpass its original by miles, just because there is a familiar frame to work in now.

As a final note, my UGLY mug...with a hint of Picard in there. I give you, Jean-Luc Shipard!