Mass Effect Review

Mass effect steps games out of the old guard of science fiction and drags it kicking and screaming into the world of Iain M Banks, Peter F Hamilton and Alistair Reynolds. There are probably other Authors who whould be name checked but these will do for me.

The story is set in a future where several alien races inhabit our milky way galaxy, at the start of the story at least, almost peacefully co-existing. Humans want a bigger voice in wider affairs and are being held back and seen as young upstarts by the galaxies old guard. There are several alien races and for the most part they seem to avoid the usual star trek cliches, although Krogans sounds and acts an awful lot like Klingons. The aliens are not constrained by tv budgets however and are of varying shapes and sizes that would never do for star trek as there is only so much you can do with some make up and feathers.

The galactic stage is set by an ancient race named the Protheans, who, though now extinct, seemed to rule the galaxy and have left behind many of their more interesting toys and ruins. The most important of which are the Mass relays which all races use to travel faster than light. These seem to be wormhole generators of some kind.

At the start of the game our hero commander Shephard is involved on a mission to investigate a Prothean artifact discovery on a human colony world. It turns out that a spectre agent named Saren has turned rogue and allied himself with a machine race named the Geth. Together they have attacked the colony looking for the prothean artifact. Saren gets to the artifact and activates it and receives a vision, Shephard hard on his heels arrives and also is given the visions, which are jumbled images of war between alien and machines. Shephard is knocked unconscious and when he awakes it's back to the citadel for debriefing.

The citadel is another ancient Prothean space habitat which has been taken over as a centre for galactic politics and commerce. Sounds very like Babylon 5 which I feel Bioware might have a little soft spot for. Don't take that as a criticism, I loved Babylon 5 when I watched it on first airing. It's a little hard to watch over now, however, there are still some fine sci-fi moments there. The citadel sees Shepard being made a spectre agent, think James Bond style free roaming agent, and given the task of finding out just what Saren is up too. You are given command of the Normandy one of Humankinds best warships and let loose on an unsupecting universe.

The game feels truly cinematic, it's structure is tight, with a good beginning, middle and end. I could imagine a Mass effect movie and I would be first in line for a ticket. I know it is derivative, but I think I might be more likely to see a Mass effect movie than the Night's dawn trilogy by Peter F Hamilton being made into a movie, but beggars can't be choosers.

Once in Command you can use the Normandy to fly to a large number of worlds and each of them have a main mission or side mission. The game is huge, possibly not oblivion huge but getting there. Like oblivion though the side missions become repetitive and I could never see myself completing each and every one.

As the story progresses you are drawn into an ancient story involving ancient enemies of all life. Again the shadows of Babylon 5 come to mind, or much closer the wolves from Alastair Reynolds revelation space series. The side colorings include racial hate between humans and aliens, and various love and politics sub plots. Saren is a interesting nemesis who for once isn't bad because it says bad guy after his name on the front page. He has looked at the situation and the coming storm and chosen a route that us emotional humans would never take. You may not agree with him, but in his mind he thinks he is saving the galaxy while the player is bringing down the storm with greater fury. 

The game uses the unreal engine, it looks very good for the most part though the environments were a little sparse I felt. Virmire and the citadel were the only environments that actually held any beauty for me. The characters are excellent with the alien race designs being particularly effective if slightly derivative. There is a motion blur and grain filter applied which takes some getting used to. Take note though you can go to the options screen and turn these off which I felt made the game look much better. I only found this out on my second play-through. The facial animations are also excellent. Though sometimes eyelids seemed to being doing their own thing in comparison to the rest of the face. On the whole though the graphics are good. There is a lot of texture loading, sometimes when a scene starts there is a good thirty seconds before all the textures are in place. I don't normally notice this too much but recently Rainbow six vegas 2 and Mass effect have been games I have been playing and it is really apparent in both. I presume the reason for this is to cut loading times and actually have the game up and running while the textures pop in. Note to developers, loading times are not really a problem for me, i would rather have a few more seconds sipping my coffee and waiting for the textures with a blank loading screen than seeing peoples armor textures pop up. 

Mass effect is an rpg, It has all the trappings, xp points, huge range of customization of characters and differing classes, some are good with biotics, read magic some are good with technology and others are grunts. The game has a few basic weapon classes, assault rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, pistol and there are grenades and various armors and upgrades to them. As you level up and find or buy weapons your characters go from being unable to hit a target an inch away to sniping for miles and taking out lesser enemies with one shot instead of forty.

There are the usual sandbox conventions, you can go to any mission in almost any order and go off the beaten path and level up before taking on the big missions, which I would recommend. Missions are broken up in bite-size, or maybe unreal engine sized chunks with loads in between disguised by elevators. There are missions, mostly on the citadel which include meeting a certain character and then doing something or killing someone for them. The main missions basically move you from point a to point b with lots of enemies in the way. There are small puzzles and the usual little blind alleys to go down and find better weapons upgrades etc.

The conversations in the game are interactive, which means you are given a few responses to choose from a list at each junction in the conversation. Some interactions will go a certain way whatever you do, others will be dictated by your choice of diplomacy or idiocy. There are a few times when your choice will mean the life or death of certain characters. In some instances you must have your charm levels full before certain options become available. One particularly memorable instance is when you are given the options of saving one person or another, both are in different directions and going one way to save one of them mean that you won't have time to go back for the other before a nuke goes off. Either choice doesn't affect the outcome of the game greatly but if you want to have some romance I suggest saving the girl.

Combat is unwieldy at first and it seems like a case of spray and pray with wide reticule weapons. As you level up you see your shots hit the cross-hair dead on and you sniper rifle doesn't wave around quite so much. Finding or buying better weapons improves your damage with each shot greatly and adding special ammo and upgrades to each weapon also improves their effectiveness. You see you character from a third person view, though you can hold the left trigger in to zoom into a first person view. there is also a cover system which is sometime clunky to get in and out of but is worth mastering as it helps greatly. The vehicle section of combat in the mako is reasonable, though I have to confess I did prefer to fight on foot. It does get you from A to B quickly however and it's weapons are satisfactory. It has a rapid fire pulse weapon and a rocket launcher type weapon. With all the upgrade capabilities on offer to the rest of your armory and technology I found the omission of upgrades to the Mako puzzling. The a.i. for the most part is fairly basic and standard though at times they can be really really stupid and stand still in the open allowing you to pick them off, not even moving properly into cover after you shoot them a few times. There are some good set piece battles and all the environments for the major missions vary and make a good stab at structure being dedicated to function rather than nice level design. 

The soundtrack to the game is adequate, there are some nice scene setting mood musics. Weapons and explosions are suitably heavy sounding although tinged with a little sci-fi electronica.

The game allows you to save at any point unless you are in combat which I found very helpful. There are some checkpoints where the game saves automatically, though you can turn this off. The menus for upgrading and buying and selling seem complex at first but after a few hours into the game you soon find them simple. On second play-through familiarity really does pay off.

Achievements are solid enough, mostly given out for using each of the weapons, and abilities a certain amount of times. There is 100 points for completion, and also more points for a second completion, which certainly encourages a second play-through of the main story. I received 390 points on my first play-through, this was only really completing the main story, and it took me 18 hours. I will play through the game again and will probably attempt to grind my character up to level 70 for those achievements. The game has much replay value as you can go back and find out what it would have been like to say all the nasty things you were too frightened to say the first time in case you wrecked the game and didn't get the proper ending. 

There is no multiplayer here, and nor is it needed, it isn't that sort of game.

I would recommend this game to anyone, yes it's a hardcore rpg. It doesn't feel like say Blue Dragon or Eternal Sonata though, for one the story and dialogue make those two seemed penned in pre-school. The combat is real shooter style combat. The stats are all there but hidden under sneaking up on a Geth while your team keep it pinned down and placing your shotgun to it's head and blasting it into pieces. When I completed the final boss fight I felt truimphant, I genuinely am really looking forward to Mass effect 2 now, and I was never really waiting for this one. I hope our next adventure with Commander Shepard is as much fun as this one was.

Mass effect has a steep learning curve, everyone should persevere with this rewarding and brilliant game.

Spoiler warning for Mass Effect 2: I think the Reapers will transfer their consciousness into the Mass relays and in that way stop all ftl travel as a first strike and then convert the resources of the mass relays into ships and soldiers and then fan out and take over planets. This will confine the game to the citadel system or whatever system Shepard is in at the start of the game. Until they can get the small mass relays working and fight back.

Scoring

Graphics 8

Gameplay 9

Story 10

Level Design 8

A.i. 7

Total 84

Rainbow six vegas 2 Review

Rainbow Six Vegas is a first person squad based shooter, it is set in Tom Clancy's Rainbow six counter terrorism squad universe and follows the exploits of an elite counter terrorism squad as they combat a terrorist threat in Las Vegas. This game follows on from the first Vegas game, though you will have to try real hard and do some research to follow the story.

To be fair this is the type of game that doesn't really need much story, you go here shoot all the bad guys and then go on to the next place and shoot all the bad guys, sure a story would be nice but in all fairness Ubisoft know that the audience for this game doesn't really give a damn. There is some nods to the first games story where you find out that one of the Rainbow team has turned traitor and is arming and aiding the terrorists, in this game you are ultimately on his trail while you stop his terrorist chums from blowing things up.

During the game you save some hostages and a stadium full of people get gassed before you can save them, however it all feels disjointed this time compared to the first game. There are no real cut scenes of note with the longest coming at the end of the game and the story is mostly thrown at you by talking heads in your helmet heads up display, similar to Graw. By the time I got to the end of the game I didn't even remember the bad guys name, possibly I never knew it.

The biggest criticism of Vegas 2 is that it is really just a new campaign for the first game, maybe if they had labelled it as such and charged a tenner less they might have got less backlash and whole lot more sales. Still I may sound harsh but I would not hesitate to recommend this game to any fans of the first, if you liked the first Vegas then please get this one, you won't be disappointed.

Vegas is a first person shooter with elements of third person built in, when you hold the left trigger near a wall you switch to third person view and go into cover, where you can blind fire or pop your head out and snipe carefully, the game is built around this mechanic and you will have a much harder time if you play using the normal fps view and neglect the cover system. The weapons are many and varied, the usual rifles, pistols, sniper rifles etc. with a smattering of grenades. You can rappel down the side of select buildings and take pot shots using your pistol from the ropes. Tactics play a big role in the game, though you can get by being gung ho and going it alone your squad can be very effective, there are literally hundred of times in the game where you are outside a room with terrorists, how you enter the room is paramount to the ease of the game. You can slide a snake cam under the door and examine the amount and position of terrorists inside and then send you men to one of the mandatory second doors into the room, you then tag terrorists for them to take out and enter the room together and headshot the lot in one go, well that is what you try to do, sometimes you pull it off, others you don't.

The games levels are well designed, there is always a thought for form and function in these games which is to be applauded, all the structures are real world structures with good reasons for you being there. There are sports centers, a theatre, convention centers, construction sites, rail-yards, industrial factories and plush villas. All seem logical and correct, maybe even modeled on real world locations.

Vegas 2 uses the unreal engine, it has terrible texture loading at the start of each scene, why? just keep the screen black while they load! That aside the graphics are satisfactory, the characters are well detailed and animated, the environments are at times good, but mostly adequate, there is no real wow factor with the graphics in this game but also no real game breaking flaws either. 

The multiplayer and single player game give you points for killing enemies, you get five to ten points per kill plus a 2-3 point bonus for style, say killing using blind fire, at long range or close quarters. As you gain XP you rise through ranks which unlocks weapons and clothing. There is no real benefit to this, the weapons are only slightly different, and it's just as easy to kill with the first weapon you are given than the last unlocked, same goes for the armor and clothing, it's all for looks, as four bullets to the body will kill irrespective of your gear. Certain camouflage and guns show that you have played the game a serious amount of time, it's all about social standing online.

It also appeals to the completionist and the score junkies. There is a gauge along the bottom of the screen at all times which shows how close you are to the next rank. The just one more go syndrome is there to get your score just that little bit higher and rank up. It's as usual completely pointless, but it can and does suck in an awful lot of people and that isn't a criticism.

One of the best things about vegas in my eyes is the co-op story mode. You simply have a friend take over from one of the team and have them jump in and out seamlessly from your game. Stuck on a particular area, call a friend in to help, simply put I think that co-op story modes are essential and within reason every game should have one. Things like Dark Sector, Call of Duty 4 Bioshock and Orange Box were crying out for co-op play. GTA 4 really should have had co-op play in every single player mission. I realize that this is a processor intensive and lag inducing feature, but surely Call of duty 4 would have been much more fun to work through the story with your friends.

The normal multiplayer modes are all there, death-match, teams etc. It is the terrorist hunt mode that I feel is genius. You have up to four human players against 50 a.i. bot terrorists. It's hard work but it's fun and I have met and chatted with some entertaining people while playing it. It's a great fun watching others after you have lost your two re-spawns, urging them on with mounting excitement as the number of terrorists dwindle. This mode has it's flaws though only five or six terrorists are in the map with you at any one time and once one dies another spawns, sometimes right behind you.

A.i. is excellent especially in terrorist hunt probably due to the flaw mentioned above, you can be guaranteed that if you can't see them in front of you then they are about to sneak up behind you. When in battle they use cover well, though sometimes stay in cover beyond being sensible as you get right in close and hammer them when they reload. There are no real boss fights, just areas with many terrorists that take a lot of working through, the final battle with a chopper and about twenty terrorists is a doozy and I never even tried it on my own. With two human players it becomes much more manageable.

The now normal checkpoint system is used and there are a few times when you wish that the checkpoints were a little closer together, however it's nowhere near as game breaking as some games.

I played through the games single player mode twice, once on my own and another time with a friend, also played a ton of multiplayer, I ended up with 405 achievement points, which I feel was a little stingy for the amount of time I put into the game.

Scoring

Graphics 7

Gameplay 8

Story 4

Level Design 9

A.i. 9

Score 7.4

The potential problem with Trophies on the PS3

First let me state my position on Achievements on the Xbox 360. I really like the whole concept that Microsoft introduced here. It might not be the first time a game has given out awards and unlockables. There have always been easter eggs and unlocks for playing a game through on Hard mode or collecting all the hidden objects etc. The clever thing that Microsoft did was make a console wide system out of it. What are the components of this system?

1)

Each game has an points tied to in game actions like completing the game or doing something which can take minutes or hours.

1000 points for each retail game to be given out by the developer as they see fit

200 points for each arcade game as above

Games may add up to 250 points for downloadable content

2)

A score that is visible to others, wether you are online or off, thanks to the gamercard system which is essentially a microsoft hotmail style passport. Your achievements are stored on a microsoft server for all to see.

3)

The hard drive is a closed system. You can't copy to it practically in any way without hacking or additional hardware. Only recognised authorised software can put anything onto the drive.

These are the main components of the achievement system. The third point has led to many criticisms, for example you can copy music from a cd to the hdd but not video from a memory stick. Why restrict the freedom of the user to use the drive as they wish? especially when big name games like unreal tournament need it for user mods. One quick and easy answer, if you could copy freely you could take your game save, where for example you have 1000 points unlocked in Call of duty 4 and upload it to the net and allow anyone who wants to cheat their way up the score rankings an easy ride to the thousand points by downloading it and copying to the xbox 360 hard drive.

Now achievements have changed the way I play games. I think about the achievements before I play, go online and see the best tactics to get the most points. Games now reward multiple playthroughs, collecting all the collectables etc. What does the score mean? Nothing at all, and everything when you compare yours to a friend who also has an xbox360. The friendly rivalry for points has seen me buy stinkers of games just because they have an easy 1000, for example King Kong and Avatar: The Burning Earth.

Now as someone who has been playing games since the late seventies, I have never really needed much motivation to play games. Sure, I have had times when girls or some other hormonal imbalance has seen me leave games alone for say six months at a time, I have always game back. However, not since I could see clearly and simply that I was more of a game geek than my friends list, have I tried so hard to complete games fully and on the hardest difficulties.Think of this what you will

Now with rumours of trophies being implemented onto the PS3 I felt I had to write some of my fears down.

Firstly There must be a clear score or ranking system, I can understand that there may be some copyright issues here, but all the controllers look the same and hardly anyone sues. Surely Sony can get a work around and have a system where I can clearly see a score which shows time and effort put into my games without having to go into my home apartment which probably will need me to be online. Maybe a ranking like call of duty with an awful lot of subdivisions.

The trophy system sounds pretty silly, as in the first point it's the score that counts. Sure I can go into someone achievement history and see that they completed Halo 3 on legendary if I want to, and all the thousands of other achievements that they have.  Sometimes I meet someone online and go into their profile and compare games, I hardly go much further than seeing that I have same or higher scores in certain games.

The point is that if they implement a similar system you are going to end up with thousands of trophies after a few years. not even the PS3 has enough polygon pushing power to show all of these on your virtual mantlepiece. So they will be scrolled arounds in a menu just like the xbox360. With no score you are going to have to do an awful lot of digging to see how good someone is.

The last point is the most important, as mentioned before microsoft locked the xbox360 drive into their own rules. Some might say that it so that you can't have custom themes without buying them, The main reason I think is copy protection for xbox live arcade games. What about gamerscore boosting? Think about it if you could copy savegames then you could get a hold of a save with all the unlocks and voila instant gamerscore godhood.

As is usual with computers anything can be hacked, and for a while people were indeed doing this. Microsoft were clever though, going on in the background of an achievement is all sorts of technical trickery, like recording the time and date of the achievment but more importantly the gamertag and the console serial number. Once devices had been sold to allow save trading microsoft simply banged the lid on it by wielding a hammer from on high and wiping the false scores out. Score cheating is a dirty word in most circles and from my standpoint here it seems like they won and you can pretty much say that a gamerscore is a reflection of the amount of time, money and to some extent skill and dedication of someone you meet on Xbox live. Xbox live being the main weapon here, with Microsoft having copies of the data they can run searches on it and find irregularities like all achievements being unlocked in a microsecond etc.

Now where does the PS3 stand here, on a quick inpsection using google I found numerous saved games that i could easily download and copy to my PS3, I don't even have Call of duty for it but at the moment there is a savegame on it's drive which shows that I have played it all through on veteran and unlocked everything possible. What will happen when the Trophies go live, will I be awarded them all for Call of duty, a game I have never put inside my PS3?

If so isn't the whole system completely invalidated right out of the box?

Have Sony even paused for thought on this? The open nature of the PS3 is touted as a plus.

Before i get hate mail I am sure they have, however the question is valid and how are they going to work around the fact that there are loads of savegames out there to download which could potentially see me getting every trophy created first day.

If I was them I would not look at old savegame data. The first thing to do would be to tag each savegame with an encrypted tag which shows the psn id and the console serial number, and any other identifying into they can think of and then start from scratch. It will be a bummer to have to play old games again to gain trophies, but I am sure if the game was good enough then that isn't too much of a hardship.

Otherwise the outcome will be a farce, with rampant trophy cheating rendering the whole system invalid.

If anyone has any info on this then please provide me with a link.