Mass Effect 3 - First 3 hours…
I was late to the Mass Effect bandwagon. I bought both 1 and 2 for $20, brand new, on the same day and took my time spending 25 hours in the first one. I regret not being more meticulous about doing everything, because when I rushed through Mass Effect 2 in 41 hours (over the course of about 10 days) in preparation for the Mass Effect 3 release, I realized how cool the whole “save game transfer” system was… Anyways, Mass Effect 3 has been out for about 3 hours now and that’s how much play time I’ve put into it.
First impression right from the get-go, importing a ME2 save file is 100% better now. You are now able to choose from multiple saves from the same career instead of being stuck with the save from the exact moment you beat the game. In addition, you have a pretty sweet list of all the major decisions that will carry over for you to see. I think this did exist when importing a ME1 save, but I don’t remember it looking as nice. It’s also nice that your character starts at whatever level your saved character was.
The story starts and you feel right at home with the same epic Bioware story telling you’ve come to know and love. I have a Kinect, so the first time my FemShep gets to respond, I immediately noticed the microphone in the middle of the conversation wheel and thought, “Whoa, what if I SPEAK my response!?”, and proceeded to do so. The voice recognition works great for conversation. I feel like you have to speak louder that I’d like to, but that might be because I like to play my game a little loud. Using Kinect in combat proves to be much less useful. It’s almost always easier to just hold RB and select an option (let alone, hit a hotkey) than it is to try and yell your command and hope whatever you want to happen actually does.
The cover system is kind of “meh”. It’s my only gripe so far. They’ve definitely worked on it to try and improve it and you can tell it’s an even bigger part of the game. Moving from cover gives you nice little arrows to show which way you’ll leave cover, which is nice, but I’ve found myself rolling out of cover to just standing behind a short wall that Shepard wouldn’t couch behind no matter how many times (and how many different ways) I pressed or held A. I may just need to get used to some subtle changes that I’m not aware of yet. It’s not a deal breaker, but I’ve noticed it already.
Power upgrading has changed quite a bit. It seems like they kind of took ME1 and ME2 and picked the place right in the middle. There are more powers than ME2 for everyone, but it doesn’t feel like as many as ME1. Each power now has 6 levels. Each level costs that level number’s skill points to upgrade (i.e. a level 4 upgrade, costs 4 skill points) The first 3 are straight forward upgrades. The last 3 levels give you 2 options to pick from. It makes the upgrades a bit more complex, but also a lot more fun.
Choosing weapons is done the same as ME2 for the most part, except you have the option of choosing to leave a weapon type empty. Each weapon now has a weight assigned to it. The less weight you carry, the greater your power recharge bonus is. Maximum of 200%. There seems to be upgrades that allow you to make your weapons weigh less. I haven’t messed with the weapon upgrade system at all yet, though, so I can’t go into detail about that.
On that note, Mass Effect 3 has just finished installing on my Xbox, so back to the Citadel!
Xbox 360 Wireless Headset Problem
I’ve been having a strange problem with my wireless Xbox 360 headset that would not let it sync to player 1. It kept going straight to player’s 2-4 (even though there was no controller connected for those players). It turns out, after using a wired headset for so long, some sort of buildup inside the connector tricks the controller into thinking it still has a headset connected. I blew out the connector at the bottom of the controller and wiggled a toothpick around in all 3 of the holes and low and behold, it worked! I can’t be certain this isn’t going to crap out on me or anything, but I saw a lack of support for this issue on google so I thought I’d throw it out there and hope it helps someone.
Halo 3 Players now watches you in the shower..
Halo 3 Players is now watching you! I’ve added a History tab to Halo 3 Players on Facebook now! I’ll be saving an archive of all your old stats once a day (after you update your stats, of course) and you will be able to look at the progress you’ve been making over a variable number of days in several different stat types. You can see how your Kill-to-Death ratio has been improving (or not) or how many Killing Sprees per Game you we’re averaging 2 weeks ago compared to today! All the good stats are there, as well as my own true score (or best score, which ever you know it as) that combines your social and ranked stats (giving more weight and points to your ranked games, of course) and spits out a fancy overall score that you can compare against your friends to see who really is the best.
If you’ve been a fan of Halo 3 Players, this update should work great for you because I have been keeping track of gamertags for almost 2 months now (which means, if you’ve been using Halo 3 Players, you should have some information ready to graph on the History tab!). If you haven’t heard of Halo 3 Players or aren’t a member yet, what are you waiting for?! Show off your stats to all your friends! Scream from the roof tops how much you love Halo 3 by putting a profile tab on your Facebook page! Slap a box on your main profile for some more Halo 3 love! Compare your own stats against all your friends who are also using Halo 3 Players! There’s lots to go, so go do it! Why are you still reading this?
Halo 3 Players 2.x
Halo 3 Players was updated a few weeks ago. Most of the initial bugs have been squashed with only 1 main feature still left to be finished. I’m working on Challenges now and they should be back very shortly. The new 2.x version is a complete rewrite of the old Halo 3 Players. Since Halo 3 Players has been my first ‘real’ project, I did learn quite a bit from it and was able to improve a lot of things in the new version. So besides the nicer look and extra features, it also works better behind the scenes (and is even a little more modular so I can improve stuff even more without breaking other things). If your a Halo 3 Player and have a Facebook account, you should definitely check it out! It blows the other 2 or 3 Halo 3 applications out of the water and I’m not just saying it because I wrote this one. I promise you if you try out Halo 3 Service Record and Halo 3 Gamer Card and think they’re better than Halo 3 Players.. I don’t know. I’m confident enough that Halo 3 Players kicks them to the curb that I include links straight to their app right here..
GTA IV: What Could Be Next??
I might add a few more Mini Reviews if I come across something interesting while playing and remember to blog about it, but for now, I’d like to do my ‘wish list’ for the future. I’ve beaten the story but I’m by no means done with GTA IV. I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in about what I’d love to see in the next few iterations of GTA. One of the things I’ve been most excited about GTA IV is that when looking back at GTA III, each successor (Vice City and San Andreas) out did GTA III in size and features and I’m pretty certain that the successors to GTA IV will do the same.
Number One. Chicago! Maybe I’m a little biased, but I’d LOVE to see a game set in a Chicago-esque city. Although I list this as ‘number one’, my list is really in no specific order. I just think Chicago should be in the running for city’s remade for GTA. It’s big. It’s got history. It’s got diversity. It’s got everything you need for a good game. If they could pull out and maybe expand into Chicago’s suburbs a little bit too, that would be great!
Number Two. More indoors! There’s a lot to do in Liberty City this time around. I won’t be done ‘doing’ everything for quite some time, but I’d still love to see more. The problem is, there’s so much to do, that GTA IV makes you feel like you can do everything. So your experience is slapped in the face when you run into a doorway that doesn’t open. It’s great that I can go to Burger Shot or Cluck’n’Bell to get some health and a gross sandwich, but why can’t I go inside the restaurants I take my dates and have a meal that advances the clock 30 minutes and costs a little more? I think it would be asking a lot to have the ability to go inside EVERY building, especially since building are locked in real life. But it sure would be cool. x=P
Number Three. More clothes! I need to break the More category into a few numbers. More clothes would be awesome. There are only 4 places to buy clothes in Liberty City. That’s kinda cheap considering the size of the city.
Number Four. More Attractions! Rockstar wet my appetite with comedy and cabaret shows but i would have LOVED to see more. I’m not totally certain how the schedules worked but I’m pretty sure that after you saw a comedy show, the next comic would appear there the next day. I think it would be cool to have a real schedule. Maybe check show times online. And definitely more acts. And maybe throw in some plays or even some longer content. I’d sit and watch a 20-30 minute play if it was as humorous and well put together as the rest of the city.
Number Five. More weapons. I don’t know if it was just me, but it seemed like the weapons were limited this time around. Maybe I just never saw/found one (very possible) but a silenced handgun would have been awesome! Trying to kill pigeons is really hard when every time you shoot one, you have cops on your ass because they heard the gun. Not a HUGE amount of new weapons is needed, just a couple.
Number Six. Date visible? Besides the mini-games and shows, your dates involve you entering and then exiting the place you want to go. Maybe offering a ‘skip’ button but showing the date would be cool. Sitting at the bar where you overhear more conversation. Dancing or drinking at the club (BTW, more clubs?!). Those types of things. The dialog that happened on dates and hangouts with your friends were great but it would have been cool if there was a little more and it was combined with the actual date. Again, a ‘skip’ button would be required cause I don’t want to sit through EVERY date.
Number Seven. Speaking of Mini-Games. What’s up with not being able to play a game of pool with your buddy in multiplayer mode?? I figured this was a no-brainer until I tried to get to any of the activities I liked to do in single player during multiplayer. The whole city is open to you in multiplayer to fight in, but what if you don’t want to fight? I like cruising around with my friend and if we had the opportunity, going to the comedy club or playing some pool sometimes.
If you haven’t noticed a trend here, it’s MORE! You did everything so great this time around the only way to go is to add MORE of what you’ve already perfected! With a game as great as GTA IV, it’s going to be hard to top but if anyone can do it, I know Rockstar North can! /me counts down till 2010 when I’ll probably have to wait till for this game to come..
GTA IV: Mini Review 10: Complete
Not 100% yet, but I’ve finished the story with both endings. Wonderfully done. I laughed. I cried (almost!). I actually FELT things while playing the game. There’s not much I can say about it without giving away anything so I’ll just say that 35 hours later, I still want to play more GTA IV.
GTA IV: Mini Review 9: AdSense
Since I started my GTA IV Mini Review’s, all my AdSense ad’s have changed to thing like “Police Ringtones!” and “Become a Police Officer”.. or other various non-related ads. I’ve seen some AAA ad’s, some ads for car safety. Even a Honda ad or two. Way to target, google! Way to target!
GTA IV: Mini Review 8: The Story
I’ve really started to get into the story. My stats say I’m at about 45% right now and I’m not sure how much it will be when I complete the story this time (There are supposed to be 2 different endings, plus all the random side missions and stuff) but I really don’t care how long I have left right now. Each mission I do makes me want to start a new one to see the next piece of the puzzle. The characters have been built so well. I love some of them. Hate others. Don’t really care about others. Some people I tolerate because I need their friendship to hold up so I can use their ‘special gift’ but would just as soon shoot them in the head if I was in a weird mood. Everything was so well thought out. I also finally got far enough that the story has taken over and I’m not as inclined to get side tracked doing some other random shit. I’m loving it. That is all. I can’t say much else about it without giving stuff away so I’ll just say that I love it.
GTA IV: Mini Review 7: Drunk Driving 2
So, it seems that MADD is upset about GTA IV’s drunk driving simulation. Obviously (and it figures) they have yet to actually ‘play’ GTA IV and are just raising a stink because someone told them solely that the act of drunk driving was available in the game. I understand that people are upset at this game because of the franchises history and because most people are morons and don’t do any actual research before the shit hits the fan, but it just bothers me so. If MADD was to actually PLAY the game and experience the drunk driving portion they would come across 2 revelations. The first would be that drunk driving pretty much sucks. Depending on how drunk you are, of course. But I’ll definitely have to take back my post about drunk driving being awesome. After the first time or 2, it’s just not that fun. The second thing about it is that they were probably never told that you can just hail a god damned taxi to get where ever you want to go when your drunk as well. I’m 99% certain no one has come out to tell them this. People who don’t play don’t get that a ‘sandbox game’ like GTA IV is only really as evil as the person playing it. You have lots of options, but that’s all they are. Options. This has been rehashed over and over again so I won’t bore anyone any more. But let’s just give the game a rest and if your going to come out and attack the game, play it first. Find some things that just happen and that you have no control over that you don’t like. Don’t shoot someone random pedestrian in the head with your pistol just to see the blood splatter on the wall and then complain that it’s possible to do that in the game. You did it.
GTA IV: Mini Review 6: Line of the day
As heard on liberty city’s radio station WKTT.. “Boob’s are gross. They’re disgusting! Put it away! Don’t make me pull out my boob knife and give you a vasectomy!”
GTA IV: Mini Review 5: Multiplayer Chaos
“Oh shit. I’ve got 3 stars and I’m stuck on a roof.”, I heard my buddy say over my headset. “Ok man, try and stay tight up there. Kill as many cops as you need to to stay alive, I’m on my way to grab a helicopter. I’ll pick you up.”, I replied. The helicopter wasn’t nearby at all but I knew once I got it, i could make short work of getting back to my friend and plucking him out of the cops range. I finally got to the helicopter and having never flown one, was surprised on how well I did handling it. I saw 2 other players, both with a different shade of blue marker in a car below and I started to fire the helicopters guns. Trying to maintain good aim and also stay in the air is not an easy feat, but I managed. After destroying the car, I continued to help my friend take out the cops and fly away to safety. All the while, admiring the explosions and constant chaos going on around from the psuedo-safety of my helicopter.
GTA IV: Mini Review 3: Random Shootings
I just finished a mission that involved my killing of someone. When the mission was over, I was on a roof top and all of a sudden, 2 guys came up the fire escape and started shooting at me. After killing these guys, the cops heard the gun shots. I found some cover behind a wall on the building next to the one I was on and hid there for a minute. One cop came up the fire escape and started crossing the bridge to find me. I started to target him from behind cover and was just about to come out and take my shots when the cop gave up and headed back downstairs..
GTA IV: Mini Review 1: Cars go BOOM!
I was cruising around my home street. Stole a car and the passenger was stupid enough to stay in the car. So I had some fun and drove like an ass hole. Then, he surprised the crap out of me by kicking ME out of the car when I slowed down a little and wanted to fight. I kicked his ass and took some of his money.
I then got back in my somewhat damaged car and started heading for my next mission when I saw some black smoke coming from the hood. I was at an intersection with a few cars so I decided to continually crash into the car in front me until my car caught on fire. Another unexpected thing happened while doing this. My car died. It took a few tried to get it started again. When I finally caught on fire, I got out, got a safe distance away and waited. It takes longer for a car to explode now. When it did, though, it looks amazing. In old GTA games, when 1 car blew up next to other cars, they would all explode pretty quickly but I was able to sit back and watch the chaos of people running from their burning vehicles and rolling around on the ground trying to put out the flames on their person.
Capturing video on a Mac. (Xbox 360)
I was kind of bored tonight so I was searching my good friend Google for some good ways to transfer video from my Xbox360 (or any component video output) to my trusty macbook pro for editing and publishing. Just for fun. Halo 3 lets me ‘record’ my matches and clips, but it’s rather limited when it comes to putting together a decent ‘movie’. That and with the imminent release of Grand Theft Auto IV, I figure I’ll have plenty of stuff to piece together and have fun with. I’ll admit that my search wasn’t extensive, but what I found was that there were not a whole lot of good suggestions being thrown around. It was either video capture devices that only seemed to have composite inputs or things that cost an arm and a leg. That was until I came across BlackMagic Design’s BlackMagic Video Recorder. This seems to have just been announced a week or so ago and isn’t coming out until July, but for $120 it gives you component, composite and s-video inputs and automatic conversion to h.264 format for iTunes. The software sounds like it’s going to make it all really easy to do too. After the craptastic things I’ve read about other’s software, I’m looking forward to this and may have a review for you all come July. For those of you who might stumble over here looking for ways to convert video from your xbox or playstation to your mac, keep an eye on that one.
Halo 3: AutoUpdate Released. What still needs fixing?
The first AutoUpdate for Halo 3 was just released last night (or morning, depending on where you are and what you consider ‘night’) and addressed a few issues people were having with Halo 3. The largest and most noticeable change has to do with the melee system. The short answer says that, in Halo 3 v1.0, if 2 people both tried to melee within 100ms of each other, whoever had the most health would survive and the other person would die. Some cases would seem partially random because if one player took even 1 extra bullet, he would lose the melee contest and the other would walk away. In v1.1, there’s some lea-way that says if you have considerably more health than your opponent, you survive and they die. If the health is too close to call, you both die. I was able to notice this in the first couple of games I played but it really didn’t change much as far as how I play or anything. It’s a good fix. Other than that, not much will be noticed.
Since this update is out of the way, all we can do now is look forward. What still needs to be fixed for the next update? I’ll start my saying that some of these things I was hoping would be resolved in this first update, but I won’t be too picky about that. Bungie does good work and I’ll patiently await v1.2. Please note, these probabilities are just my own little estimates and really have no weight to them at all.
