Mass Effect (PC): Red Tape...

I decided to take a break from doing side quests and do one of the main plot worlds.  I decided to go to Noveria and learned very quickly that my status as a Spectre may allow me to operate outside the law if needed, it does jack all when it comes to corporate red tape.

Shepard is sent to Noveria to investigate the geth.  Upon arriving, she learns that Liara's mother, Matriarch Benezia is there, doing something for Saren.  It is immediately clear what needs to be done.  Find and confront Benezia, but there is one problem.  The corporate bureaucrats won't allow Shepard to leave the station he/she lands at.  To get out of the station and proceed with the mission, Shepard must perform a few tasks at the station to earn a pass to the garage where he/she can then get the MAKO and continue chasing Benezia.

While you are on Noveria to investigate geth sightings, the main foe on Noveria are the Rachni.  It turns out, Saren had hired one of teh corporations that had labs on the planet to carry out research on a Rachni egg that he found in a hulk.  It turned out that the egg was a Queen and still viable.  They then hatched the queen and used her to create an army of Rachni.  However, the Rachni got out of control and escaped the lab.  It becomes Shepard's job to clean up the mess.

After clearing out various rooms full off rachni, you enter a secure lab.  In here, you find Benezia and the Rachni queen.  After dispatching her commandos, Benezia reveals what has happened to her and what she was doing on Noveria.  This dialogue may only occur if Liara is in the group, which for me she was.  After Benezia is defeated, the Rachni queen uses one of the dying Asari to speak to you.  In the end you are given the option of killing or freeing her.

Noveria gives the player some interesting choices.  From the beginning, the player must decide if they want to have Liara around for the confrontation with Benezia.  There are also choices to be made in regards to how you obtain the garage pass.  Finally, you have the choice with how to deal with the queen.

Playing through this area made me realize how bland and generic the side quests and the planets they occur on are.  Most planets are mountain and valley type surfaces that you drive around the MAKO on and search for anomalies, resource deposits and debris.  There is usually also a location that is the objective of a side quest as well.  The side quest locations use one of a few different layouts depending on the type of facility they are supposed to represent.  But all of them end up being the same.  Clear out turrets and other above ground defenses using the MAKO, enter building and clear out hostiles.  Find objective and use, talk to or kill depending on the mission.  Maybe there is a short cut scene with a minor decision that affects your paragon/renegade guages.

After Noveria, I set out to do more of the side quests that I have but realized just how generic they are compared to the story quests.  While I know more effort is put into the main quest line, it would be nice if in a game like this that has dozens of side quests, the side quests were more varied and had more thought put into them.  They just seem copy/pasted with different flavor text.

All in all, I am finding my interest waning.  Maybe I should just abandon the side quests and finish the main story.  But I want to do them, if only for the story and bits of lore that they add.  Maybe I just need to step back and play another game for a few hours, either by bumping Mass Effect for another PC game for a bit, or going back to Radiant Historia.  The third option would be to add something to my now playing from my Wii or PS1.

I have recently acquired quite a few games due to steam sales, the new humble bundle and a gift from my mother.  In all, I acquired Borderlands GOTY, Trine, Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds: Survivor, Audiosurf and Lego Star Wars III.  I have fired up Borderlands and Trine to take a peak, and since Audiosurf is Null, my rules don't apply.  Maybe I should start my humble bundle project and play one of those games for 6 hours before returning to Mass Effect.  I think a break is needed.  We'll see.

Update: Keeping the Train Rolling

Just a quick update.  Since my last post I have put another few hours into Mass Effect.  I will write another post when there is something to write about though.  I decided to tackle one of the main story missions and am still in the middle of corporate wasteland.  Want to wait till I finish that mission before posting an update on that.

As for Radiant Historia, I haven't played it much recently.  Just over 3 hours since I started this blog and 6 hours total.  Its not that I don't like the game.  Its more that playing it requires at least an hour per session and when I have that sort of time I either want to fire up Mass Effect or my guild mates in WoW want me to log on and run some dungeon with them.  Hopefully I will get around to playing this more though, so I can keep my posting varied between the games I am playing.  I also plan to decide on a Wii and possibly a PS1 game to throw into the mix as well.

Thirdly, I have heard rumor on the internet the the 3rd Humble Indie Bundle is coming tomorrow.  This means more games for my backlog really.  It is a pay what you want pack of indie games where part of the proceeds go to charities and you get to decide how the money you spend is divided.  The third installation of the bundle will include Trine, Shadow Grounds and Shadow Grounds: Survivor.  Also included is the prototype for Jack Claw and a pre-order for Splot.   Honestly, Trine is the only one here that hold any interest for me, but the cause is good, so I still plan on purchasing the bundle.  Of course I will give each game a fair chance before I decide if it is something I like.  If not, I will null it, no big deal.

This also gives me an idea for a future project, probably when Mass Effect is done, or Mass Effect 2 if I decide to continue that series.  And that would be to put at least 6 hours or beat every game from all three indie bundles.  Of course, games that were included in incomplete states will not have to meet my normal rules, though I may play them enough to post about them once.  Games under this category would include Cortex Command (campaign mode has yet to be released), Jack Claw (only a playable prototype at the moment) and Spots (I don't think there is even a playable prototype out yet).

Mass Effect (PC): Bringing Down the Sky

During my last couple sessions, I worked mainly on side quests and exploring the galaxy.  A large portion of that time was spent doing the quest added by the Bring Down the Sky DLC.  The content came with the game when I purchased it on Steam, though I had to register the game with Bioware's site to get the download and key to unlock the content.  I will note that installing this content pack was very annoying with the Steam version of the game.  Before I could install it, (I installed this and Pinnacle Station before I started playing), I had to launch the game and actually start briefly so the registry files could be created and the DLC installer could find the game.  This wasn't the real issue how ever.

The real issue was the installer itself.  When it asked for the game code, I would enter it and hit next.  Then the installer would immediately fail.  After some internet research, I found that the installer never worked properly with the Steam version and to get it to work, when you got to the screen where you enter your code, instead of entering it, you had to force quit the installer using the process manager, which would then bring up a backup installer which would work with the Steam version.  On a side note, the installer for Pinnacle Station worked flawlessly the first time.  Why Bioware never properly released Bring Down the Sky with an installer that worked with all PC versions, be it the disc, Steam, or other Direct Download service, I can't say.

Technical issues of getting it installed aside, the DLC was good fun to play through, though short.  The whole quest took around 70 to 80 minutes to complete, including the optional objectives.  The premise of the mission is that an asteroid that was being moved into orbit around a human colony planet for mining was hijacked by Batrian terrorists and set on a collision course with the planet.  The size of the asteroid is said to be about twice that as the one that wiped out the dinosaurs on earth, so an impact with the planet would practically wipe out all life on that planet.

When Shepard and company arrive on the asteroid, it is approximately four hours from impact.  Shepard is informed that she, yes I am playing a female Shepard, can avert the impact if she can shut down the three fusion torches that are propelling the asteroid.  Shepard's team must fight through each of the torches stations to get to the control room and shut it down, with each successive torch adding something new to the mix.  While the layout of the facilities are the same across the board, the arrangement of the objects in the main room for each one is different.  Also the defense put up at each station gets stronger with each one you disable.

After the first torch is disabled, Shepard encounters the lead engineer of the asteroid's crew.  He fills Shepard in on what is going on and mentions that he hasn't heard from three of his engineers who were out at perimeter stations.  This sets up the optional portion of the quest where Shepard can repair a broken relay to learn the locations of these posts and then investigate them to find out what happened to the engineers.  He also tells Shepard that the next torch has proximity mines planted around it and that they must approach on foot to be able to avoid setting them off. 

After I took out the second torch I went and explored the asteroid, finding the bodies of the three engineers and stumbling on the main part of the base, taking out its external defenses.  I couldn't enter at this time, however since it was locked and required a key to get past.  So it was onto the third and final torch.  This torch had the most interesting layout, as there were raised platforms I could position the team on.  To add more fun to the mix, defensive drones were also being used against us.  After shutting down the last torch, I was confronted by a mercenary in the employ of the terrorists.  Being a charming commander Shepard, I talked him into abandoning his employer to save his own hide and was given the key to the main facility.

This triggered the final portion of the quest in which Shepard had to go to the main base and take out the leader of the attack.  This provided a good challenge since the main room where the combat took place was circular so cover was only good until some of the enemies circled around, then you had to move and take up new positions. Once the henchmen were all cleared out, the leader showed his face.  Using the surviving crew of the asteroid as hostages, he gives you the choice.  Sacrifice them to try and kill him or let him escape and save the crew.  I chose to let him go, at which point he states to insure I don't follow him, he has set up bombs around the facility that I must diffuse to save the hostages. 

At this point Shepard has 3 minutes to find and disable all the bombs, while being attacked by drones.  Diffusing the last bomb ends the quest.  Shepard is given a choice of rewards.  I chose the Quarian armor since Tali was still in her original suit and I hadn't found any up to this point in the game.

Over all, this was a short yet enjoyable DLC.  It gives the player a rather straightforward story with some options that effect the morality rating of the player and has different outcomes based on those choices.

Radiant Historia (NDS): Walls of Text

I haven't actually put much time into this game since I decided to breath life into this blog.  Maybe an hour or so of play time.  The main reason for this is the amount of text in this game.  I'm not saying it is bad for a game to have a lot of text and story, just usually I tend to reach for my DS when I want a shorter gaming session or I don't have time for a longer gaming session.  That is the advantage of hand held systems, is that in theory they support short sessions well. But the amount of text in Radiant Historia makes a short session hard.

I have been finding that a cut scene/ plot exposition point can take from 10 to 20 minutes (probably exaggerating, but they do feel this long) to click through if I read the text at a conversation pace, making the appropriate pauses and all.  Which makes sense since the story is revealed through dialogue.  How ever, because the cut scenes take a significant amount of time to go through, a short session is hard to do.  It wouldn't be as noticeable if these scenes were in frequent, but they are not.  In my last hour of play, I went through three cut scenes which amounted to about half the play session.  All this means, to make progress, I need to be able to devote at least an hour to every session with the game, and with the cramped controls on the NDS, an hour is about as long as I can go without my hands feeling cramped.

Sure I could use the stylus to control a lot of the action, but the d-pad and buttons feel more natural for this type of game.  I don't mean to rag on the game.  It is very fun.  I just wish it could be played in shorter bursts, if needed.  As it stands, this game would have been better suited for a console where long sessions are easier.  And its not like jRPGs can not be done well and support short sessions.  The ports of Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 4 did this well, as did Nostalgia.

Rant over.  I would still recommend this game for any jRPG fan.  I have stated I am not a huge fan of the genre, yet I find this game very fun.  And in essence I wouldn't change the dialogue either.  It makes for a good story in this case.  I just wish shorter sessions were easier with this game than they are.

Mass Effect (PC): More to Do

Liara T'Soni

What a difference three hours makes.  The first three hours or so of the game is very linear since you need to convince the council to make you a spectre before you can take direct command of the Normandy.  But, once you have that command, the game really opens up.  There are at least a dozen sectors you can go to explore and each one has one or more star systems to explore and with each system are numerous planets.  While you can't land on every single planet (I mean who would want to try and land on a gas giant anyway) you can still find things by surveying them.  These surveys are for a number of optional side quests that encourage exploration.  And even when you can't do anything at all with a planet, there is still a short blurb about it and a listing of its characteristics, lending to the detail of the game world.

After becoming a spectre I decided to pursue one of the story quests to rescue Dr. Liara T'Soni.  While I would have loved to just jump into exploration and side quests, I knew I wanted Liara as one of my companions through out the story as she is the equivalent of the Adept class for the PC.  My other companion that I will be using mostly is Tali, who is the equivalent of the engineer class.  Since my Shepard is a soldier, this team gives me equal ability in combat, tech and biotic skills.

Tali'Zorah nar Rayya

I did spend some time exploring, discovering the fate of an excavation team and attempting to rescue a kidnapped ambassador.  After these explorations and side quests, I decided to return to the citadel and see if any new assignments had opened up and to see if I could get any new licenses for my trader.  While there I helped a few people mainly by mediating.  I don't have a problem with this at all.  It makes the spectres more than just covert operatives.  It gives the sense that the people of the citadel and other areas respect a spectre's opinion and advice.  It adds more depth to the world.

One thing I will say, how ever is that some of the scripted encounters can be tough at low levels.  I found both the encounter before entering the mine and the one with the Krogan to be rather difficult for a level 10ish squad to deal with.  Both encounters took multiple tries before I found a strategy that worked.  Although, I do see this as a good thing, and as I have leveled, I do notice that I am becoming more accurate and I am doing more damage.  I was apprehensive about how much effect the RPG mechanics were going to have on the shooter mechanics and I am pleased with the result.

Another point I am trying to figure out is what weapon upgrades to use.  I hope that becomes more apparent as time goes on, or that they don't have a major effect on the game.

As I stand now, my part is at level 14 after six hours of play.  I intend to do more exploration and side quests for the time being.  Maybe go and play through the DLCs as one of my next goals.  As for now, this game is staying in the now playing list.

Mass Effect (PC): Taking aim at RPGs

Mass Effect is an action/shooter RPG from Bioware.  I have to say I am a fan of Bioware, having enjoyed playing the Baldur's Gate games, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age: Origins and KOTOR, though KOTOR is the only one I beat.  Mass Effect though seems to have the same pull on me as KOTOR did.

In Mass Effect, you play as Commander Shepard, an officer aboard the SSV Normandy.  The game starts with the Normandy on a shakedown mission to retrieve an artifact from Eden Prime, however, when the Normandy arrives, they find the settlement under attack by the Geth.  Apart from some initial walking around the Normandy gathering info, the player is almost immediately thrown into the action on Eden Prime with two NPC companions.

The game is an RPG/FPS hybrid.  It controls much like a standard FPS, except the targeting reticule is rather large and your actually chance to hit your target within it based on your character stats. Many other RPG elements, such as experience and morality are prominent in the game as well.  While the player is Commander Shepard, Shepards, gender, class, background and appearance are chosen by the player.  The class effects what skills the player will have access too, while the background gives Shepard points towards renegade and or paragon, depending on what background you choose.  The paragon/renegade morality system affects things such as dialogue options and what side quests are available later on.

The game also has an achievement system within it.  While this isn't a selling point, or a feature I look for in games, Bioware actually made the system more than just bragging rights.  Certain achievements confer bonuses to your current and subsequent play troughs.  These bonuses could be small boosts to stats or additional skills that you can have Shepard train in.  Its a nice touch and gives the player more reason to try and earn them than just gamer points.

Currently, I am about three and a half hours into the game.  Up to this point, the game has been linear, going through Eden Prime to find the artifact and then conducting an investigation in the Citadel to prove that Saren has gone rogue.  As a result of my investigation, I have been made a Spectre and assigned with stopping Saren.  I believe from this point the game opens up greatly, and will give me plenty of options on how to proceed.  A quick look at the game map shows that there are many places to explore and many of them have no connection with the main quest.  I have heard there are many side quests, both in the Citadel and throughout the galaxy.  I also have the Bring Down the Sky and Pinnacle Station DLCs to play through as well.  Finally, on my party select screen there is still a character greyed out, meaning I have one more person to recruit to my party as well.

That said, I think my next course of action will be to find the final companion and then explore some of the side quests before continuing in my hunt for Saren.

Radiant Historia (NDS): A Unique Concept

Radiant Historia is a Japanese style RPG developed and published by Atlus.  I will admit here that my experience with JRPGs is rather limited and confined mainly to the offerings of SquareEnix and overall I am not really a fan of the genre.  I prefer RPGs that allow the player to define the protagonist as they see fit.  Being able to at least choose the class and personality of the player.  In my limited experience, which consists of dabbling in Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and Golden Sun games for the most part, JRPGs are more like adventure games than true RPGs.  The stories are linear with predetermined characters who have set personalities.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing as it allows for the story to make extensive use of the characters personalities as a plot devise, but it also limits the amount of role playing the player actually gets to participate in.  In the end, I have found this genre to relegate the player to directing battles and purchasing gear to allow the story to progress.

That said, I am finding Radiant Historia to be rather enjoyable.  The game even gives the illusion of player choice with the split time lines mechanic.  This mechanic also happens to be the main gimic of the game, but more on that in a bit.

The plot of Radiant Historia revolves around a war between Alistel and Ganorg.  The games backstory states that long ago, the fall of an ancient empire started a process of desertification of the continent on which these two nations reside.  As the desert expands the nations fight for what arable land remains.  The game follows Stocke, the player character (PC), who is a member of Alistel's Specint unit.  Upon setting out on his first assignment, Stocke is given the white chronicle.  Stocke soon discovers this book allows him to travel through time and fix mistakes he made during the mission.  After completing the first quest, which serves as a turtorial, Stocke must choose whether to remain with Specint or join his former comrade an friend, Captain Rosch's unit in the army.  This choice creates two time lines, the real history and the alternate history.

This split time line serves as the main mechanic and plot device of the game. Stocke must use the chronicle to travel between the time lines to insure history follows the correct course.  Way points in the time lines are created when the player is presented with a choice of action.  Some actions can result in a game over, while others simply allow you to continue and others yet have an impact on the other time line.  In the end though, which option you choose at each point is irrelevant as Stocke can always go back to that point and make a different decision.

The other main mechanic is the battle system.  In battle, the player is thrown into a turn based combat where the enemies are place on a 3 by 3 grid.  By manipulating the order of attack and using different skills, the player can put the enemy in unfavorable positions and unleash combos.  This creates a simple, yet deep system that is very rewarding as the player has to balance many different tings.

So far, I have put about 4 hours into the game and I would say it feels like half of that was clicking through dialogue.  This isn't a bad thing necessarily, since the story is engaging and the characters are not really annoying as I have found characters in other JRPGs.  The amount of dialogue would surely be a detriment if there was no way of skipping it when you go back to make a different choice at a decision point, but since you can rapidly skip the text, I can't complain.

In the time that I have played, I have completed the prologue and started the first chapter for both the alternate history and the real history.  In the first chapter of the real history, I saved a merchant who was supposed to make a delivery to the mines, which then allowed me to progress in the first chapter of the alternate history where I had to stop the Granog army from getting through the mine.  I haven't really run into any tough battles yet, except for a minor boss fight when rescuing the merchant.  Seeing as the boss fled at the end of the fight, I highly suspect that this boss will be the traditional recurring boss fight in which every encounter with him sees him stronger and with some new ability.

The main difficulty in so far has been in attrition.  your characters do not recover health or mana over time so to heal, you must stay at an inn, use mana to cast healing spells or use items.  You can also use a mana crystal at a save point to fully restore your party, but the crystals are expensive and thus a limited resource in the early game.  This forces the player to try and be efficient in combat, even against trash and makes moving around the map strategic as the player decides whether he really should engage that group or try and avoid them.

Overall, I will say this game is promising.  Expect another update after I progress a bit more.

A New Direction

I have been following the CRPG Addict's blog for a few months now and I have to say that what he is doing, intrigues me.  He has set some rules and is systematically playing through CRPGs starting from the mid 80's to present in chronological order.  He is a self professed addict and is using the project as a way to do something productive with his hobby.  I am similar in some ways with my game playing, though different as well.  My problem is starting a game, playing if for a bit and then getting distracted by either real life or another game.  By the time that distraction is past, I either have no motivation to continue on in that game, have forgotten what I am doing, or have yet another distraction come up.

To remedy this, I created an account on the backloggery. The site allows users to post their game collections and the status of each game, whether it is unbeaten, beaten or completed.  There are also specialized status' called null and mastered.  Null is used for games you want to show in your collection, but have no way to truly win.  Mastered is used to denote completing a self imposed challenge to increase the difficulty of the game beyond the normal scope of the game.  An example would be a speed run, or a mega buster only run in a Megaman game.  This worked for a while to motivate me to make progress on my games, but lately is seems that is doing the trick.  Which brings be back to the CRPG Addict.

I figured I would take his example and impose a few rules, and use a blog to track my playing and thoughts about the games I am playing.  So, my rules that I will do my best to follow are as follows:

1. Only one game from each system that I own can be in my now playing.  These are the games I will be writing about on the blog.  Null games do not count for this purpose, though they may get occasional posts if something interesting happens or I have something to talk about regarding those games.


2. A game must be played for at least 6 hours unless beaten in less time before it can be removed and a new game can be added.  I considered making the time longer or even requiring beaten status to remove it, but that would just make it feel like a chore.  The blog will allow me to document my progress better than the backloggery site can anyway.


3. For each game, a blog post should be made when the game is added to the now playing list after a bit of play to introduce it and my initial thoughts on it.  Another post should be made when the game is removed.  That post should give a good idea where I left off if the game is still unbeaten and my final thoughts when beaten.  Interim posts should be made as needed as well.  (I will shoot for roughly 3 hours worth of gameplay for each post.

Well thats about it for now.  Should be posts for Radiant Historia and Mass Effect soon.