what in the gosh darn heck
So it's been awhile? Excuses: overwhelmed by real life nonsense and also have spent a ridiculous amount of time gaming when I do have free time. Should I create a tag called 'still alive'? *** Also must note that I hate what they've done with LJ cuts :/
I kind of feel obligated to write about ME3 since I've not mentioned what I think of it (well, besides making the effort to create a silly romance fanmix) but unfortunately I'm in the camp of those who hate on the ending so, er, yeah, it's hard for me to think about the game without feeling slightly bitter! That being said, overall I did enjoy it, actually I was enjoying it a lot until the last few minutes. Even though the Extended Cut has greatly improved the endings they are still in my opinion, in a word: rubbish. I never expected much from Bioware because when it comes to endings - and storylines in general - I have noticed they are sadly uncreative and original. That being said, I would rather have some standard generic tale than the bull*insert-swear-word-here* that they came up with. I actually am quite frequently a fan of Downer Endings if they are done properly but that's not what the ME3 ending was, Bioware protectively calls it an artistic vision but it's pretty much as pretentious as it gets and if the ME3 ending is art, so is Twilight.
Reading science fiction has made me detest any form of Assimilation Plot and I can't help but see Synthesis as a type of Assimilation and the end result being a twisted Utopia or World of Silence. Contrary to what other people think, I really feel that life - and literature - has taught us that being organic is actually very significant to what makes us human because it imposes conditions such as disease and death upon us, morality and everything that comes with it is a key driving factor in being human. EDI talks in the epilogue about even conquering death - that combined with friendly husks/body horror/general creepiness/ridiculous perfect society and lame space magic make me detest the notion of Sythesis. Plus it's what the Catalyst wants you to pick and somehow taking advice from a deranged AI to me doesn't seem like the smartest idea. The same AI that told you that war between synthetics and organics leading to the extinction of one them (organics?) is inevitable but that sythesis being the solution is also inevitable? Either Catalyst is operating on Catch-22 logic or is a liar. I guess however, it's more likely certain people on the Bioware team who I refuse to call writers just dislike logic.
Anyway, /rant, I despite my strong dislike for Synthesis I can see why people like it because it's the 'happiest' of the endings since everyone lives - well, except Shepard thanks to good old heroic sacrifice - and society afterwards, well, 'heaven' I think is decent descriptive comparison. *** I was going to add some snarky comment about how Disney Sythesis is but er, I like Disney and their lame happy endings.
Destroy and Control I guess are the more *traditional* Bioware endings which quite frequently pop up in their games. Control = side with baddies and reign in God-mode, and Destroy, well, destroying the baddies is *usually* the good choice.
The way I see it, the majority of people who don't like Destroy dislike it purely because of the loss of EDI/the Geth (though there is the occasional Destroy hater who has put some thought into the matter and correctly points out that with Destroy it's very possible that 'the cycle continues). As Garrus says, humans want to save everyone (unlike the Turians regard it as a victory if only one if left standing). Personally I like that there is an actual cost to picking destroy, because choices shouldn't be easy. Despite people (rightly) going on about the evils of genocide I don't have a problem with it in ME3 because I still regard it as being less evil than Assimilation plus in a massive galactic war on the scale of ME3 unfortunately whole societies and peoples are going to wiped out. I don't see people mourning over the poor Batarians being wiped out because they're not fan favorites like the Geth and EDI, and so many species have already been wiped out by the Reapers in the past. I think moral victory is more important than society continuing so the ONLY option which allows you to get rid of the Reapers and the Catalyst, who are responsible for a great amount of evil and destruction, is the choice that I prefer /justification.
I guess to make up this ranting I'll have to make sure to write a post on the continued adventure of Eva Shepard which will actually include things about ME3 that I like! I do confess I am still enjoying multiplayer, despite the fact it does get boring at times fighting the same enemies on the same maps only not to be rewarded with great gear because the ME3 multiplayer gods want you to farm for credits until the end of time (***otherwise known as the day servers close).
Anyway, onwards and upwards, to a game that is fun? FUN!
Hmmmm, well I suppose I can't really say much here because I haven't fully played Borderlands 2 but like the first one, I can tell it's already pretty damn addictive. I - for the most part - soloed the first game and the thing that I can already tell is going to irk me about the second one is that it's far more focused on being co-op and from what I've heard there are certain enemies that are impossible/very difficult to solo. I can see where they are coming from because certainly Borderlands is a game that is much more fun as a team but since I have a temperamental internet connection playing with other people isn't always an option for me. That being said, of course I'm going to still try to solo, and um, probably die frequently. Probably the main con with Borderlands 2 is the same complaint I had with first game, and I guess it's the problem I have with ALL games that have a heavy focus on loot - so much of it is useless trash. This problem I feel is worse with Borderlands than say, Diablo 2 because in Diablo 2 you also had a reasonable amount of space to hoard items (and even then I confess I created characters that were purely there for item storage). Also, much like in ME1, an inventory system which requires me to scroll down and look at each item individually in order to check whether or not it's worth using/hoarding is always going to frustrate me because it's needlessly time consuming.
Now that Roland has mentioned what is in the Vault in Borderlands 2 - if he's right about what's in there - I sense a very cheesy final Boss Battle coming up. The storyline for the first one wasn't exactly the most thrilling storyline but I did enjoy it even though I felt the main plot kind of got lost amongst the bazillion side quests. Thankfully, Borderlands 2 side quests do seem slightly more enjoyable, perhaps if for no other reason than the fact that I feel like I'm fighting in a different looking place, the environments in the first Borderlands were for the most part monotonously similar.
I have played a little as Zero (Assassin), but more so as Maya, the Siren. In the first Borderlands I've only played Lilith (Siren) extensively, though I did briefly try out Mordecai (Hunter). I do prefer Lilith's skill, Phasewalk to Maya's, which is Phaselock - though admittedly I haven't gotten Maya high level enough to fully realize her potential. The thing is, I just absolutely love invisibility as a skill, which is why I'm such a fan of the Infiltrator in Mass Effect. The challenge system in Borderlands 2 and the Badass Rank perks are really forcing me to play in ways that I'm not that keen on. The thing is, I could just ignore getting ranks but I just cannot resist completing challenges. That being said, I think I am going to have ignore certain challenges and just hope that they eventually get done because putting my character in constant near death situations just to get second winds and then sometimes dying and losing money is really not something I'm a fan of. In most games I usually play with caution because death isn't a good thing so the fact that this game REWARDS you from coming back from the brink of death, yes, it does annoy me because I think a skilled player shouldn't be in that situation as often as you have to be to complete all the multiple second wind challenges. Personally I enjoy shooter games where the smart thing is to snipe as many enemies as you can from a distance and then go in and murder everything else, which I often feel is the exact opposite of what I have to do in order to get these particular challenges done. It might be hard to believe, but spending half the game crawling around on the ground in a state of near death isn't my idea of fun.
Also, there is the Mechromancer:
On one hand, I feel like I am going to have a ton of fun playing Gaige, and that she could in fact become my favorite character since her action skill is so awesome but on the other hand I really, really dislike the fact that she is a high school girl dressed like a tsundere punk anime character. Not that I hate her appearance, actually I think she's pretty damn cute but because it's somewhat worrying who is going to find that look appealing. As an anime fan I've had enough of the ridiculous amount of moe/loli gothic punk characters that exist in anime and having it my games is a bit too much for me to handle. From her echo logs (3 and 4 are both pretty interesting), she is clearly a kid, an endearing kid but most definitely a kid who still has some growing up to do. I am slightly reassured by the fact that the highest demographic audience listening to her echoes are males 13-17 but still, the fact that Gearbox decided to make her the age they did reeks of lolicon to me especially since (according to good old Wikipedia, so perhaps not the most reliable source) the average gamer age is 37.
Basically if they ever release her official age and it's 15 years old I will pretty disappointed in Gearbox because I'm hoping that they at least make her 17-18 and in her final year of high school because even though she looks young I didn't think she looked high school age until I heard her first echo.
Sigh. Yep, loli characters in my games, I doubt that's ever going to be something I'm happy about :/
I kind of feel obligated to write about ME3 since I've not mentioned what I think of it (well, besides making the effort to create a silly romance fanmix) but unfortunately I'm in the camp of those who hate on the ending so, er, yeah, it's hard for me to think about the game without feeling slightly bitter! That being said, overall I did enjoy it, actually I was enjoying it a lot until the last few minutes. Even though the Extended Cut has greatly improved the endings they are still in my opinion, in a word: rubbish. I never expected much from Bioware because when it comes to endings - and storylines in general - I have noticed they are sadly uncreative and original. That being said, I would rather have some standard generic tale than the bull*insert-swear-word-here* that they came up with. I actually am quite frequently a fan of Downer Endings if they are done properly but that's not what the ME3 ending was, Bioware protectively calls it an artistic vision but it's pretty much as pretentious as it gets and if the ME3 ending is art, so is Twilight.
Reading science fiction has made me detest any form of Assimilation Plot and I can't help but see Synthesis as a type of Assimilation and the end result being a twisted Utopia or World of Silence. Contrary to what other people think, I really feel that life - and literature - has taught us that being organic is actually very significant to what makes us human because it imposes conditions such as disease and death upon us, morality and everything that comes with it is a key driving factor in being human. EDI talks in the epilogue about even conquering death - that combined with friendly husks/body horror/general creepiness/ridiculous perfect society and lame space magic make me detest the notion of Sythesis. Plus it's what the Catalyst wants you to pick and somehow taking advice from a deranged AI to me doesn't seem like the smartest idea. The same AI that told you that war between synthetics and organics leading to the extinction of one them (organics?) is inevitable but that sythesis being the solution is also inevitable? Either Catalyst is operating on Catch-22 logic or is a liar. I guess however, it's more likely certain people on the Bioware team who I refuse to call writers just dislike logic.
Anyway, /rant, I despite my strong dislike for Synthesis I can see why people like it because it's the 'happiest' of the endings since everyone lives - well, except Shepard thanks to good old heroic sacrifice - and society afterwards, well, 'heaven' I think is decent descriptive comparison. *** I was going to add some snarky comment about how Disney Sythesis is but er, I like Disney and their lame happy endings.
Destroy and Control I guess are the more *traditional* Bioware endings which quite frequently pop up in their games. Control = side with baddies and reign in God-mode, and Destroy, well, destroying the baddies is *usually* the good choice.
The way I see it, the majority of people who don't like Destroy dislike it purely because of the loss of EDI/the Geth (though there is the occasional Destroy hater who has put some thought into the matter and correctly points out that with Destroy it's very possible that 'the cycle continues). As Garrus says, humans want to save everyone (unlike the Turians regard it as a victory if only one if left standing). Personally I like that there is an actual cost to picking destroy, because choices shouldn't be easy. Despite people (rightly) going on about the evils of genocide I don't have a problem with it in ME3 because I still regard it as being less evil than Assimilation plus in a massive galactic war on the scale of ME3 unfortunately whole societies and peoples are going to wiped out. I don't see people mourning over the poor Batarians being wiped out because they're not fan favorites like the Geth and EDI, and so many species have already been wiped out by the Reapers in the past. I think moral victory is more important than society continuing so the ONLY option which allows you to get rid of the Reapers and the Catalyst, who are responsible for a great amount of evil and destruction, is the choice that I prefer /justification.
I guess to make up this ranting I'll have to make sure to write a post on the continued adventure of Eva Shepard which will actually include things about ME3 that I like! I do confess I am still enjoying multiplayer, despite the fact it does get boring at times fighting the same enemies on the same maps only not to be rewarded with great gear because the ME3 multiplayer gods want you to farm for credits until the end of time (***otherwise known as the day servers close).
Anyway, onwards and upwards, to a game that is fun? FUN!
Hmmmm, well I suppose I can't really say much here because I haven't fully played Borderlands 2 but like the first one, I can tell it's already pretty damn addictive. I - for the most part - soloed the first game and the thing that I can already tell is going to irk me about the second one is that it's far more focused on being co-op and from what I've heard there are certain enemies that are impossible/very difficult to solo. I can see where they are coming from because certainly Borderlands is a game that is much more fun as a team but since I have a temperamental internet connection playing with other people isn't always an option for me. That being said, of course I'm going to still try to solo, and um, probably die frequently. Probably the main con with Borderlands 2 is the same complaint I had with first game, and I guess it's the problem I have with ALL games that have a heavy focus on loot - so much of it is useless trash. This problem I feel is worse with Borderlands than say, Diablo 2 because in Diablo 2 you also had a reasonable amount of space to hoard items (and even then I confess I created characters that were purely there for item storage). Also, much like in ME1, an inventory system which requires me to scroll down and look at each item individually in order to check whether or not it's worth using/hoarding is always going to frustrate me because it's needlessly time consuming.
Now that Roland has mentioned what is in the Vault in Borderlands 2 - if he's right about what's in there - I sense a very cheesy final Boss Battle coming up. The storyline for the first one wasn't exactly the most thrilling storyline but I did enjoy it even though I felt the main plot kind of got lost amongst the bazillion side quests. Thankfully, Borderlands 2 side quests do seem slightly more enjoyable, perhaps if for no other reason than the fact that I feel like I'm fighting in a different looking place, the environments in the first Borderlands were for the most part monotonously similar.
I have played a little as Zero (Assassin), but more so as Maya, the Siren. In the first Borderlands I've only played Lilith (Siren) extensively, though I did briefly try out Mordecai (Hunter). I do prefer Lilith's skill, Phasewalk to Maya's, which is Phaselock - though admittedly I haven't gotten Maya high level enough to fully realize her potential. The thing is, I just absolutely love invisibility as a skill, which is why I'm such a fan of the Infiltrator in Mass Effect. The challenge system in Borderlands 2 and the Badass Rank perks are really forcing me to play in ways that I'm not that keen on. The thing is, I could just ignore getting ranks but I just cannot resist completing challenges. That being said, I think I am going to have ignore certain challenges and just hope that they eventually get done because putting my character in constant near death situations just to get second winds and then sometimes dying and losing money is really not something I'm a fan of. In most games I usually play with caution because death isn't a good thing so the fact that this game REWARDS you from coming back from the brink of death, yes, it does annoy me because I think a skilled player shouldn't be in that situation as often as you have to be to complete all the multiple second wind challenges. Personally I enjoy shooter games where the smart thing is to snipe as many enemies as you can from a distance and then go in and murder everything else, which I often feel is the exact opposite of what I have to do in order to get these particular challenges done. It might be hard to believe, but spending half the game crawling around on the ground in a state of near death isn't my idea of fun.
Also, there is the Mechromancer:
On one hand, I feel like I am going to have a ton of fun playing Gaige, and that she could in fact become my favorite character since her action skill is so awesome but on the other hand I really, really dislike the fact that she is a high school girl dressed like a tsundere punk anime character. Not that I hate her appearance, actually I think she's pretty damn cute but because it's somewhat worrying who is going to find that look appealing. As an anime fan I've had enough of the ridiculous amount of moe/loli gothic punk characters that exist in anime and having it my games is a bit too much for me to handle. From her echo logs (3 and 4 are both pretty interesting), she is clearly a kid, an endearing kid but most definitely a kid who still has some growing up to do. I am slightly reassured by the fact that the highest demographic audience listening to her echoes are males 13-17 but still, the fact that Gearbox decided to make her the age they did reeks of lolicon to me especially since (according to good old Wikipedia, so perhaps not the most reliable source) the average gamer age is 37.
Basically if they ever release her official age and it's 15 years old I will pretty disappointed in Gearbox because I'm hoping that they at least make her 17-18 and in her final year of high school because even though she looks young I didn't think she looked high school age until I heard her first echo.
Sigh. Yep, loli characters in my games, I doubt that's ever going to be something I'm happy about :/