Some Posts Formatted Correctly, Some Not

I apologize for the posts that don't format correctly.

Most of the posts I make nowadays are through e-mail, but depending on the client I use, they either format correctly or not.

I will try to make sure future posts are sent via the e-mail client I know does the right thing.

The EA Podcast sucks!

I listen every week to Major Nelson's podcast, to four self-important
people talk about all the cool gadgets and equipment they can afford to
buy, and about their privileged lifestyle.

I put up with it week after week because they frequently have good guests
and interviews and because it is game focused.

I've listened to several of the Jeff Green hosted EA Podcast and it's just
pathetic. Not only is Jeff unable to flex his comedic muscles, but his
co-hosts are irritating and the subject matter is often inane.

Listening to descriptions of EA offices or continual interviews with Sims
developers is just tiring.

While GFW Radio may have had a hardcore audience, maybe the EA Podcast's
audience is casual?

I dunno but I'm unsubscribing. Sorry Jeff, but no more.

Alistair Broke My Heart But He Paid For It!

While I had been playing Mass Effect 2 I had forgotten the sorry state I had left my Dragon Age: Origins' game in. My third playthrough of the epic fantasy RPG was with a female character named Amber, one who had fallen truly/madly/deeply in love with Alistair.

While Alistair was a tough cookie to crack, crack he did, and he was also quite in love with Amber. But when it came time for the lands-meet, that pivotal moment in Dragon Age where you decide who should rule Ferelden, Amber's love betrayed her!

Amber named Alistair king, and then named herself queen, but Alistair said "Nay" and that was that. He dumped her, and she was not a happy camper.

Following that slap in the face, I reloaded the game, fought through the whole lands-meet mess again, and then chose the reigning queen to continue her rule. Also chose to make Loghain into a Gray Warden, and to put sweet Alistair to death!

That shows him, doesn't it?

So after finishing Mass Effect 2 last night, I started up Dragon Age: Origins again, loaded the game, and thought, "Should I reload and give Alistair a second chance?"

NO! Alistair is dead, Loghain is the new companion, and the Blight must be stopped!

The Glory of Mass Effect 2

I completed my first playthrough of Mass Effect 2 just a day shy of two weeks after picking the game up. And I have to say, this 45 hour plus playthrough was glorious!

First of all, believe the critics and gamers who tell you this is less an RPG and more a shooter. While the game has lots of dialog, a fantastic roster of characters and a incredibility well written story, it is very light on stats and there is no turn based combat at all.

Matter of fact, if you played Jade Empire then this will remind of that a game a bit. It had character development, a very basic equipment system, and a number of fighting styles, but it was an action game heavy on characters and story. So is Mass Effect 2.

But that's not to say either game is bad. Both games in my opinion are awesome! But if you just finished Dragon Age: Origins or are expecting an experience just like the original Mass Effect, you better realign your expectations.

What you can expect is a story driven game with, as I mentioned, a wonderful cast of characters, some awesome battles, and some really great questing. It does offer some RPG trappings, things like character levels, new equipment, and lots of different skills, but they only color the proceedings and don't directly impact it as much as in other RPGs.

By this I mean that you really don't see the effect of all the leveling or the new weapons as directly as in many other games. So while combat always feels satisfying, and some of the level design is really clever and can often feel dynamic and fresh, the powers and skills can feel somewhat generic.

And the cast of characters can also sometimes feel very generic when used in combat. This is one of the reasons why each recruitable character has a loyalty mission associated with him or her.

And it's that progression of moving through the game, recruiting characters, helping them out, and performing other sidequests along the way, that really propels Mass Effect 2, keeps it interesting and fresh.

And it really helps that during the game new types of game play are introduced, some just wrinkles on the existing style, others more varied and interesting.

But regardless, if you liked the first Mass Effect you have to play this game. The lighter RPG aspects might upset you, but the spot-on shooting, great story, and wonderful cast of characters will thrill you. They thrilled me!

It's All About The Characters (Mass Effect 2)

You could say Bioware's latest RPG, Mass Effect 2, is a great game and you'd be right. Maybe you like the shooter action, which is well done. Or the cinematic story, which is excellent. Or maybe the RPG underpinnings, which are quite respectable.

And all those elements, when combined, of course make it a great game. But what ties together the action, the story, and even the RPG elements, are the characters.

There's Mr. or Ms. Shepard of course, the bad-ass that saved the world from the Reapers but didn't quite finish the job. And there's his trusty pilot Joker, but there are other characters from the first game, some that make cameos in this game, including Ashley Williams, Tali, Wrex, and one or two others.

But some of the new characters are great additions, including the wacky Mordin Solus, the Salarian scientist who talks a million miles an hour and is just as happy to kill as he is to heal. And Miranda Lawson, the gorgeous genetically modified human, nice as could be but quite lethal.

Thane Krios is by far the coolest looking addition, the Drell assassin, and Jack, aka Subject Zero, is the illustrated woman, covered completely in tatoos with a mouth that would make a sailor blush.

There are of course more characters, but suffice it to say the characters in Mass Effect 2 not only look cool and are useful in a battle, but they also have stories and related quests that are interesting and really pull the game together to make it so special.

Mass Effect 2: Best RPG Ever?

There appears to be universal acclaim for Bioware's latest RPG, Mass Effect 2. I don't think I've heard one negative criticism of the game, and everyone loves it.

I like all Bioware games, even the original Neverwinter Nights, which had the weakest single player campaign of any RPG, and I also love Mass Effect 2.

The interesting thing about Mass Effect 2 is that it has the right combination of role playing and shooter action, and it throws in some strategy and a couple of puzzle-style mini-games for good measure.

It has something for everyone.

So will this be Game Of The Year for 2010? Is it too early and will a game released later in the year nab it? Will Bioshock 2 or Final Fantasy XIII beat it out? Will Alpha Protocol or Fallout New Vegas take the prize?

It's hard to say, but it's clear that Mass Effect 2 deserves the praise it's getting and it's a game people will likely be playing for many months to come.

Lastly, if Bioware plays its cards right and releases DLC at opportune times during the year, they can keep people thinking about Mass Effect all year long.

Can A Shooter Really Be An RPG? Is Mass Effect 2 An RPG?

Bioware clearly made shooting as integral to the experience as any RPG
elements it put into Mass Effect 2, but can you REALLY call it an RPG?

First off you could argue that Bioware's first REAL console game was
Jade Empire, and I only discount Knights of the Old Republic not
because it wasn't meant to reside on the console but because it was a
very top-heavy RPG, one that was a great game for RPG purists to play
but not for the faint of heart. And although Bioware called Jade
Empire an RPG and few doubted it, the only RPG elements it really
maintained were a deep story, conversation trees, and interesting
characters.

But Jade Empire featured combat that was repetitive and simplistic and
it had little in the way of character development or inventory
management. And I'm not knocking the game, it was an excellent game
and one that I was glad to play all of the way through. But was it
really an RPG?

And so that brings us to what makes a game an RPG, and why could Mass
Effect 2 be one and a game like Bioshock only be a shooter?

Some will say it's the "R" and "P" (Role Playing) in RPG that makes a
game one or not. So while Mass Effect 2 and Jade Empire both let you
choose to help or kill, to take the high road or low one, and to be
one type class of character or another, Bioshock doesn't.

In Bioshock the story is set and you simply wander through the game
world and soak it all in, participating in battles, upgrading powers
and selecting weapons, but outside of deciding whether you should help
or kill the Little Sisters, you have little choice.

So does that mean if a game only has certain aspects of that role
playing experience that they really aren't RPGs? I've heard Desslock
say that a game like Final Fantasy, or most Japanese RPGs, aren't RPGs
because you have no real choices in the game and that statistics and
classes aren't sufficient.

I guess I would argue that a game like Bioshock really has RPG
trappings, and that why Final Fantasy isn't in the same class as a
game like Mass Effect 2 or Fallout 3 in terms of the interactivity it
offers, it is arguably an RPG.

But if Bioshock is an RPG, is Grand Theft Auto San Andreas one as
well? It lets you gain levels in skills. Or how about dedicated first
person shooters that offer the ability to select class and skills?
Where does it stop?

In the end I think it has to be a combination of elements, things like
role playing choices, character development, and story progression
that tell us whether a game is an RPG or not. So while Mass Effect 2
may not have a ton of character development or inventory management
options, it has some, and it has role play choices in spades. And
while a given Final Fantasy doesn't offer much in the way of role
playing choices, it does offer enough of the RPG trappings to make it
an RPG.

And given this definition of an RPG, one would think Bioshock falls a
little short. As does any game with only a smattering of RPG elements.