romk.im

Star Trek® The Video Game is now 50% off. 

Context: the game is 50% off on the day the movie premieres. I wonder why.

Taking a closer look at the new Wolfenstein game, I absolutely love what they did with the protagonist. How do you modernize a pixelated iron jaw blonde hero from 21 years ago? Like this. It’s really well done.

I don’t think I remember seeing this solved better in any other remake/reboot before it. 

The Mass Effect Action Figures on thinkgeek are on sale. But why the hell is Garrus holding the M-98 Widow instead of Legion?! Seems like a pretty significant “exacting detail” to slip thru Bioware’s licensing department.

NERDOUTRAGE!

Metro: Last Light – FOV Locked, DX9 Workaround, Aim Assist Enabled By Default

Last but not least, aim assist is enabled by default in the PC version. 4A Games has not provided any in-game option to disable it, therefore PC gamers will have to open %APPDATA%\Local\4A Games\Metro LL\user.cfg and set aim_assist 1 to 0.

Obligatory: THE RANGER MODE. Experience complete immersion. No HUD. Less Bullets. Brutal Combat. Hardcore. Aim Assist. The way it was meant to be played.

Aim assist is on by default? And it cannot be disabled in the menu? This is great news for CS:Source players, but what about those of us who want to play without training wheels?

Interesting reddit comment on Mass Effect:

When playing ME1, I feel like I am watching an awesome sci-fi movie; the storytelling and cutscenes are just over the top enough. In ME2, they changed the narrative tone a bit, and it felt more like a high quality TV show, like BSG or something. The narrative tone in ME3, however, just felt like another video game. Everything is just MOAR EXPLOSIONS MOAR VIOLENCE!!!!11!!!1! Put another way, ME1 would be a Ridley Scott movie; interesting, intriguing, and beautiful. ME2 would be a Spielberg movie; over the top, fun, and exciting. ME3 felt like a Michael Bay movie; the plot is stupid and makes no sense, and everything is so over the top all the time that it leaves no room for anything to be exciting; it all fades into a bland, dull roar after a while.

That comment really made me think about Mass Effect.. And yes, the overall tone and feel of the games absolutely did change as the series progressed - but I don’t agree with the overall movie/director comparisons.

I absolutely agree that Mass Effect was a beautiful unique sci-fi and unique gaming experience, but I think the original game will be remembered because: 1) it set the standard for modern western roleplaying games 2) the scope of the universe was amazing, but Bioware was clearly still defining the universe 3) Bioware was still refining their story telling/character defining techniques, so nothing really felt all that natural. 1

In Mass Effect 2 all the slower paced elements (like the endless Mako driving and horrible inventory system) were completely removed or dramatically improved. And more importantly the universe felt a lot more complete and the game really found its core shooter mechanics and improved pacing between the dialogue/option driven story sequences. It felt more fluid, the characters felt a lot more human.

In Mass Effect 3 all the loose ends were tied up, in the most extravagant sci-fi story ever created in a game - which just also happened to contain the best shooter mechanics I remember ever playing. I feel like the series found itself: story telling, gameplay mechanics, character definitions, everything was just better. I don’t think it was perfect, for example many story elements became more linear and felt outside player control, but man it was big and breathtaking. I think it will be years until I feel that way about a game again. 

I don’t feel the games got cheaper or stupider as the series progressed, if anything I feel the “run errand, find key, open door” sub-quests got somewhat less silly and the pacing helped with immersion. 

Metacritic scores for the series (PC version):

1. 89 of 100
2. 94 of 100
3. 89 of 100

Personally I would rank the series #3, #2, #1 (in that order), but that is because the latter two games surpassed the original in every way - remember that the original game instantly became the gold standard for the genre. Seen isolated for its time, the original score is spot on. But the genre progressed rapidly, thus the following two games were a lot better both on their own and in comparison. 

I recently replayed all the games. I couldn’t stomach the Mako driving sequences in #1, so I didn’t play more than a few hours. In comparison I blew thru #2 and #3 and enjoyed every minute of it (I almost felt sad when it was over).

1. *see the Dragon Age games that hit in the same timeframe, you can see how Bioware continuously improved their story telling techniques. 

BioWare talks possible Mass Effect spin-offs - Garrus, Illusive Man or Javik to star?

[…] Walters can’t make his mind up. “Aria. The Illusive Man. Kai Leng. Any henchman. The list goes on. I think most of them could have successful spin-offs of their own in some fashion.” Aria, it’s worth remembering, got storefront billing in Mass Effect 3’s Omega DLC - on the strength of your adventures together, would you say she’s got leading lady potential? And what about Mr Illusive? I reckon he’d do rather well out of a prequel set during the First Contact War.

Regarding the timeline: I am not sure I would really enjoy a pre-Sheppard era game. Bioware would be unable to add new in-game technology to the universe, as it technically couldn’t surpass anything we have already seen in the three first games. 1

More so, from a player perspective it would be a little like watching Titanic: you kinda know the thing is going to sink at some point. A story where you know the outcome for the protagonist is just not particularly engaging. Even if it would be interesting to find out how and where the Illusive Man amassed all that wealth and power, as a player you would know that he is going to end up a lunatic with a bullet in his head. 

1. See Star Wars I-II-III as an example where this went horribly wrong: the tech in the prequels is far superior to any and all technology available to both the empire and the rebel forces 20+ years later. 

What explosive diarrhea feels like.

Things that will never happen again: this. 

Movie ratings:

IMDb: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%

Game ratings:

Metascore: 96/100
User score: 9.2/10

Most licensed games are considerably worse than the original movie, but GoldenEye was a rarity: the game was actually a lot better than the movie.  

Obligatory cannot unsee. 

And there was much sucking it down.

My wife hates my new pajamas pants. Yay.

Pre-order via the Bioware Store:

Masterfully sculpted and painted by the artisans at TriForce, the ME3 full-scale replica is the most authentic representation of this weapon available on the market. It is hand-finished and hand-painted to precision quality.

Limited Edition of 200 pieces produced worldwide.

Nnnnnnnnnnmmmnnnngggh…

My new favorite sub-reddit is /r/GamesTheMovie.

A place to share YouTube videos that tell the entire story of a game. Usually a compilation of all relevant cutscenes into a single (and often lengthy) video. 

See Star Wars: The Old Republic - The Jedi Knight example.