Since I can't seem to just play a single game at a time anymore, I've begun working through The Artful Escape in between sessions of Mass Effect Andromeda.
And why not? It's on Game Pass, and it's new, interesting, and fun. It was right there, waiting for me to try!
Anyway, it's something a little outside my normal type of game - although so far, it's very minimally like a traditional music/rhythm game. I'm hoping that the "Simon Says" portions don't get too difficult, because I'd like to see it through.
The visuals are trippy. The story is silly and light. The music is loud. I'm into it!
This is sort of a little thing (pun intended) but I find the scale in Mass Effect Andromeda to be much more appreciable than in the original trilogy.
Once you establish Podromos on the first explorable planet, Eos, you get a really good sense of the sheer size of things with your ship touched down next to the newly bustling colony. The ship is huge, but is still dwarfed by the collection of portable structures and equipment around it. And that's all settled in a small valley in one section of Eos.
It's cool to see/hear the shuttles coming and going, and each pod is packed with all sorts of tech doodads that really lend the world a believability that Mass Effect 1-3, having been made for older hardware, didn't often achieve. Especially the first game, where outposts on alien worlds were almost always just one or two simple, boxy buildings that were devoid of nearly all decoration.
There is, perhaps, a little more intimacy in the previous games because of this limitation - even the camera hugs Shepard closer, and with a tighter FOV - so the grand views of Andromeda aren't without their faults.
I have to give credit where credit is due, though. Mass Effect Andromeda is often a pretty game, if nothing else.
With Psychonauts 2 and Life Is Strange: True Colors finished, I'm back on Mass Effect Andromeda again.
I'm settling into a rhythm with this game now, and I don't hate it at all - running around planets and clearing out tasks to improve their viability is a bit mindless, but still fun. The lore of this game isn't as exciting as the original Mass Effect trilogy because all of those games is conveniently swept under the rug with this one.
There are definitely some things that bother me about this game though, particularly the graphics. I know I touched on this before, but I can't get over how weird some of the alien races look. Even the Asari (aside from Peebee) all seem to have this weird, dopey/sleepy look to them that grates on me.
Why do they all look like this? It's such a strange, pointless departure from the original games.
I still hate the Angara more, though. They look like the result of a bad plastic surgery.
I won't spoil the story for Life Is Strange: True Colors, but tonight I played through a section where the Haven community puts on a LARP for one of the town's kids, Ethan, and man was that touching.
This game is really great so far. It might be my favorite Life Is Strange game by the time I'm finished with it - thought Tell Me Why, which I consider an unofficial Life Is Strange game, is also right up there.
Psychonauts 2 was a bit longer than I thought it was - which is great - but I'm on the last bit now and with that game almost behind me, I had to get a new one started. I mentioned this the other day - that game is Life Is Strange: True Colors.
I'm a pretty big fan of the series now, even though my play-through of the second game is on hiatus for now. They're really the closest thing you can get to a playable show without the entire thing being pre-recorded FMV. I like that they aren't that though, because it's fun to take things in at your own pace, and explore the game's world on your own. It also feels less on-rails, even when it's not.
So anyway, the latest game, True Colors, is pretty good so far. The story is interesting and the characters are believable. I've actually had some pretty good laughs at the humorous bits.
It's a little disappointing that the game runs at only 30 fps on my Xbox Series X, but you stop noticing it after a while (as long as you don't play something at 60+fps just before jumping in). It's a beautiful game, though.
Between this and Psychonauts 2, I've been getting a heaping helping of incredible Unreal Engine games lately.
I'll have more to say about this game later, I'm sure. For now though, being only a couple of hours in, I'm impressed.
Join me as I juggle three games - Psychonauts 2, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Life Is Strange: True Colors - all at once!
To be fair, I'm just about done with Psychonauts 2. Still, I'll probably try to complete it and collect everything once I've beat the story, so... plenty of ground to cover still.
I'm still working through Mass Effect: Andromeda, which I've been playing in between other games, as a follow-up to finishing the original trilogy remaster.
I've been trying to keep an open mind about this game and so far, it's been better than I remembered it, with just a few annoyances here and there. I've gotten past the point where I quit playing the first time!
But that means I've now met the Angara for the second time and boy, I hate how these guys look. The male Angara look lion-ish and sort of serviceable, but the female Angara - Why do they look like that? Are they... cross-eyed?
It also really bugs me that the Angara are so bow-legged. They look awkward when they walk around, and it's hard to suspend my disbelief through all this.
I think I just expect more from the creators of the original trilogy than this. The Angara look like a first draft for an alien race in a game with a fraction of the budget this game had. They aren't bad, per se - just not up to snuff with what I know BioWare is capable of.
Anyway, I continue on... slightly disturbed, but undeterred.
I've been picking my way through Psychonauts 2 ever since it came out, and aside from gathering all the game's collectibles, I'm finally nearing the end of the game. It's been a fun ride so far, and I feel like the premise of the game - going into people's minds to help them sort out hang-ups - has aged extremely well.
I really like this game. The story is fun, the levels are diverse and interesting, the art and music are top-notch, and the heart of the game is just genuinely sweet. This game is a triumph for Double Fine!
Years after my original attempt at playing through Mass Effect: Andromeda, I'm back at it. I've started playing the game in earnest after finishing the original trilogy once more, via the Legendary Edition.
So far, so good, I suppose. I'm not very far yet - I'm on the first proper planetary expedition at Eos - and I haven't yet caught up to where I was when I quit the first time, which I believe was at the end of that sequence.
I replaced my dopey male Ryder with this one.
I didn't quit my first attempt because I disliked the game. Rather, it just didn't grab me the same way the original trilogy did, and some other game came out soon after (Fallout 4?) and I lost interest entirely.
I don't really hate anything yet, but there are a lot of little things about the game that are sort of collectively annoying:
I don't like how virtually everyone in the game is young. As far as the story is concerned, it makes some sense, but it doesn't feel like Mass Effect because of that.
The idea that the game's pseudo-narrator AI, SAM, has to be fused to your character's mind in order to save them from death is dumb.
The Frostbite engine (along with BioWare's stable of graphic artists) is capable of some amazing visuals - but it sure didn't seem ready to take on the close-ups required for a game like this. I especially don't like the way the Krogan and Salarian NPC's look, compared to their original Unreal counterparts.
The exploration camera's FOV is too high, and it creates a fisheye effect when you're running around exploring.
There are too many points/currencies/etc. going on for purchasing new equipment and upgrades. It's very confusing.
Combat seems accidentally difficult at 30fps.
A friend of mine, who played through the game when it launched, assures me that Andromeda is actually a decent game that just got a bad wrap. I might come away with that opinion too. But it's too early to say.
Anyway, I'll continue playing and will report back as I go. Reviewing old games is fun!
I completed Mass Effect 3 for the second time, finishing out the remastered Legendary Edition trilogy. Like Mass Effect 2, I had almost no recollection of playing the original game 9 years ago, and so it felt like a new experience, save for a few bits here and there that had stuck with me.
Like my other posts, there might be spoilers in here. So if for some reason you've not played these games yet, it's a good time to stop reading.
That's right - this dude is back to finish the job he accidentally started two games ago.
It's funny - going into the Legendary Edition, most of my memories were of the first game, and I always considered that one my favorite by a long shot. I still look back on it fondly, but after playing them all once more, back-to-back, I feel a little different about it. Both ME2 and ME3 are excellent games, each telling an entertaining story, and each refining the experience in its own way. The sequels also feel more fleshed out and more focused than the first game, and just all around more polished. I'm not just a fan of the first game now; I'm a fan of the entire trilogy.
Emotion runs high in the third game. It opens with a full-scale Reaper invasion of Earth, and has Shepard flee in order to rally the other races of the galaxy to help stop the annihilation of all sentient life. At every turn you are reminded that the battle rages back home as you hop around space trying to make friends, recruit allies, and fight back the enemies.
The finality of it all is palpable, and this leads to many great moments in the story. For example, I'd had Garrus on my strike teams throughout all three games, and so at one point, when I took him up on some downtime at the Citadel, he and Shepard shared a really fun moment as they took turns shooting at clay pigeons. It was touching to see these two friends, who had been through so much, take a minute to appreciate each other as the fight of their lives loomed.
I also made a late-game decision to romance Liara, who Shepard had kept at arm's distance throughout the trilogy, and that lead to many satisfying sequences as the game drew to an end.
It was powerful to see all these characters grow throughout the series, and to show love for each other before taking on the final mission, which none may survive. It is a credit to all the work BioWare did with these games that those moments feel so real.
Weirdly, there is no boss fight at the end of ME3. That is something I did not remember. Instead, you face a series of difficult enemy encounters that lead up to the finale, where you can choose one of three potential futures for the entire galaxy. I was glad for no boss fight, but I still don't like the run-up to the end sequence. The AI you meet when you activate the Gauntlet is strange, and I don't like how it has to explain the entire story to you, to tie everything together. The story itself is fine though, and even though the ending of the game was altered a bit since the first time I played ME3, I didn't really feel like it needed it.
I chose to destroy the Reapers, along with all non-organic life, and it was good, though I was sad to see Legion be killed. I was surprised at the end, when after the Citadel was destroyed and all Shepard's friends had gathered to say goodbye, I was treated to one final scene where it is pretty heavily implied that Shepard survived the ordeal. That I had never seen before, but I guess you can get that small change to the ending if you manage to grow your defense force to a certain size.
So I did enjoy the game and conclusion pretty thoroughly, but I had a few gripes too, as usual.
I am still not a fan of the way Ashley Williams' appearance was changed. It still looks really overdone compared to her modest introduction on Eden Prime in the original game. I get that she has advanced in her career and gotten past Shepard, who she bonded with in ME1, but no other character in the game was redone in such a ham-fisted way. It's honestly distracting.
Though Ashley was the biggest change, I felt like all the women of Mass Effect were sexualized more, to lesser and greater extent. I'm not a prude, so I don't mind if games dare to venture into that territory - but after the modest start with ME1, where the focus was the story, and all the men and women had somewhat realistic proportions, ME3 (and to some extent ME2) just got sexier - for no reason other than, I'm assuming, to be more of a spectacle. This change isn't as prevalent in the Legendary Edition, since the characters all use the same model assets throughout the remaster, but it's something I noticed in my original playthrough and something that just felt off this time around as well.
Finally, though I appreciate all the added content the included DLC provides to the game, I didn't really care for the odd change in tone it carries with it. In one new sequence, you're lead on a wild goose chase around the Citadel after a failed assassination attempt on Shepard - okay, fair enough. This endeavor eventually includes every member of your crew in the same fight, which is fun, but throughout this segment, the characters make an endless series of action-movie type jokes. The jokes are funny, and I did have a good time hearing the lighter side of the crew, but this happens in the middle of saying goodbye to old crew members who you might never see again, working diplomacy between proud and jealous alien races, and preparing for what might be the final fight for all sentient life. It jut feels like too big a departure from the otherwise serious tone of the game.
Anyway, those are pretty minor complaints. I spent many, many hours playing through the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and I loved the experience all over again. The Mass Effect trilogy is a masterpiece.
Now... maybe it's time to finally give Mass Effect: Andromeda a proper playthrough?
