TallGuyCalif's Computer Gaming and Entertainment Site

Tag: RPG

  • Kinda liked the Mass Effect 3 ending!

    Even though I haven’t played any Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, nor the iPad game (though I did buy it when it was a dollar a week or so ago), I finished the Mass Effect 3 story line and didn’t mind any of the 3 endings I tried. There are some spoilers below, so if you still have plans to finish ME3, stop reading now.

    Because I didn’t do all those extra things mentioned above, my galactic readiness level was stuck at a miserable 50%, so there was no hope of Shepard living happily ever after. The final sequence begins after a fairly brutal cutscene where all the troops are wiped out (well, except for a gravely wounded Shepard who soldiers on, plus a couple of others, whom I won’t reveal so you can still have some sense of wonder when you play it. After Shepard opens the Citadel, he is confronted by an AI (the Catalyst) that says he needs to choose between controlling the reapers or killing them. There are a couple of other choices that I’ll describe too. I had read that there was a choice to merge organic and machine, thus creating a hybrid lifeform, but I must not have met some criteria, so that wasn’t presented.

    Annoyingly, there is no way to save the game during this sequence, so to see various endings, you should play the whole 20 or so minute sequence again and try a different choice. This is disappointing, since the one thing that denotes Bioware games is the good writing, yet they want to make us suffer. Instead, we should be able to save to explore all the possible options and get all that good writing and story. Anyway, after the first playthrough, I learned my lesson: the game autosaves at various points, so Alt-Tabbing out and killing the game, then copying the Saves folder allows easy restoration to the previous point.

    The first time I tried, instead of choosing to destroy the Reapers or control them, I shot the AI. That pissed it off, so the reapers went ahead and destroyed all life. But, Liara left a time capsule for the next epoch so they could fight the Reapers and the epilogue scene shows that someone managed to do so 50,000 years in the future. OK, so I made a difference.

    Next, I decided not to make a decision, which also pissed off the AI and resulted in the same ending as above.

    So then I destroyed the Reapers, killing myself in the process. The Normandy was pulled out of the Mass Effect system and crashed, but they survived. EDI, the ship’s AI was killed by the same effect that nuked the Reapers, since she was a machine. So the crew survived and I stopped the Reapers. Not bad…

    Lastly, I decided to control the Reapers. In this case, Shepard became an AI, replacing the Catalyst, and converted the Reapers to be good. The Normandy still crashed, but EDI survived and the Reapers helped rebuild the Mass Effect gates. Not a bad ending at all – eternal “life” and the Reapers on our side.

    So, while Shepard didn’t get to live a long and happy life chasing women and aliens or alien women, in the end, it wasn’t nearly so depressing as all the stories I had read. A fairly good ending to the series.

  • Coming to terms with how my Mass Effect 3 game will end

    I’m well along in the final mission sequence of Mass Effect 3 and should be able to wrap up the game in the next few days. I hear that there are hours of cutscenes left, so perhaps they will exceed the remaining game play.

    Yesterday, I read ahead in the IGN walkthrough and read about the endgame options. I didn’t read the details of the fights to get me there, so I will still have the joy of exploring and learning how to manage the tough enemies between me and the Citadel. It turns out that because I haven’t played multiplayer or the iOS game, I have no hope of getting the best ending in which everyone lives. In fact, though I did all the side missions and gained as much support as I could, it looks like I will have to pick an ending where Shepard dies, the Earth is devastated or destroyed, and probably the whole crew will die. But at least I should be able to stop the Reapers.

    Yesterday, I was pretty depressed about it, but I’ve decided that I will put up with it and finish the game. Perhaps if the iOS game goes on sale for $1 again, I’ll buy it and retry the end game if I can boost my readiness level to see if I can do better. I can’t imagine spending much time playing multiplayer to boost the galactic readiness level, but I may try and see.

  • Fighting the plot in Mass Effect 3

    I’ve been mostly enjoying Mass Effect 3, but like so many Bioware games, including Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 2, I am feeling excessively constrained by the plot the writers have constructed. Though I have done all the side missions, I don’t have any feeling of making a difference in the universe. Sure, all the NPCs I meet know Shepard, but none of my actions are making any difference in the plot, which is smothering and oppressing me.

    In the game so far, I have had the choice to kill or save the Rachni (I chose to save them, though I don’t know whether that will be a good idea in the long run), cure the Krogan genophage or not (I did), and I had to make a choice to kill an entire race. At the end of a long and nasty fight that someone should smack the Bioware devs for (more below), I had a choice to either kill off the Geth or the Quarians. In either case, Legion dies, but in the latter, Tali kills herself because I sacrificed her entire race. I call bullshit! The great Commander Shepard should have been able to separate the two forces and broker a peace rather than having once side wipe out the other. Not knowing the consequences, I first chose to support Legion and the Geth, which ended badly for the Quarians. Hating that outcome, I redid the horrible Reaper boss battle and tried the other way, which was better, but not much. I read from the IGN walkthrough that if I had certain criteria met in my imported save file, perhaps I could have saved both sides somehow. Again, what a stupid design?!? You mean doing the side missions to save the Quarian general and their fleet from the fighters didn’t give me enough pull to make them see reason and back off? Come on!

    I have a hunch this is just the beginning of me not liking the stupid either/or plot choices, and I know enough people have complained about the ending that I’m sure I won’t like that. I’m just at the point where I am about to be funneled into the final sequence of missions, which is another characteristic of Bioware games that I don’t like. And if this one, like Dragon Age 2, only gives me bad choices, I’ll be pissed (and yes, I’m prepared to be pissed).

    So back to the Reaper boss battle on the Quarian/Geth homeworld: Did anyone actually think that was fun? In the battle, you need to keep a laser target designator on a certain area of a huge reaper that is shooting at you and if it even comes close to hitting you, you die and start the whole thing over. And you need to do that for several weapon strikes, so even if you manage to stay alive through a couple, you can still be killed and have to start over. Sure, once I figured it out, it wasn’t terribly hard, but it was never actually fun. This is why I don’t play some of the old console games, like the early Metal Gear games – the penalty for even a small screw up is huge and therefore, I don’t see it as fun.

    That being said, there are a couple of very clever sequences the Bioware devs included that they should be commended on. Getting onto a Geth dreadnought through a damaged entry tunnel and being able to use magnetic boots and move all the way around the tunnel was very cute. The mission where Shepard virtually treks through a Geth server was also very creative and unique. So someone had a spark of creativity when doing those missions, but they made up for it and fell back to lazy design when I had to choose to wipe out the Geth, which depressed me.

    So I will soon be done with ME3 and will not play multiplayer, I’m sure. The lousy experiences with this game have even made me wary of Bioware’s Star Wars MMO, though if it ever goes free-to-play, I may need to try it.

  • Had to restart Mass Effect 3

    Though I was several hours into Mass Effect 3, I decided to restart with an imported character from Mass Effect 2. I read some things on IGN’s excellent ME3 Wiki and Guide that made me realize I had messed up by not importing my character. Without importing, some known characters didn’t even show up in ME3. Some of my choices in ME2 may come back to haunt me in ME3, but so far, it has been OK. The other thing that made me want to restart is that I had been getting a little too far in the main plot, so some of the early side missions were about to be cut off so I couldn’t finish them.

    The biggest change so far is that I met up with the crazy tattoo chick, Jack, while rescuing the students from Grissom Station. The end of that mission goes way better when Jack is present, because one of the students died in a scripted scene in my first play through, but with Jack present, the student didn’t die (though he did have a lesser role). A few of the dialogue choices throughout the game are different too, based on the choices I made in ME2, and that may come to haunt me when I’m dealing with the Krogan and the genophage cure. We’ll see.

    The only odd thing is that I didn’t import my ME1 character in to ME2, so ME2 didn’t know that I had chosen Ashley to be killed rather than Kaidan, so Kaidan was alive in my first attempt at ME3, while Ashley is alive in my new one.

    So, yes, I did waste a few hours, but I was able to re-do the missions more quickly with the imported character than before. Besides, imported characters are high-level and have way more abilities than freshly rolled ones. So I don’t regret restarting at all, other than the cognitive dissonance of Ashley being alive.

  • Started Mass Effect 3 and now it takes all my spare time!

    I made the mistake of starting Mass Effect 3 on Sunday and now it is taking all my spare time. ME3, like its predecessors, is a well-written, mostly great looking RPG with third-person cover shooter elements. The game starts off with the invasion of Earth and our hero Shepard’s escape to rally the galaxy to fight the Reapers. Then it turns into a conventional mission-based RPG with some missions that move the plot forward and side missions that provide allies or better abilities. Because the overarching goal is to gather support against the Reapers, the distinction between plot missions and side quests is much more blurred than in conventional RPGS. In my opinion, this is a good thing: if my world were under enemy occupation, fetch quests and kill ten rats quests would seem like a colossal waste of time, but quests to gain support would be okay.

    The graphics in the game are typically very good. As with other Bioware games, the textures for armor and such are not quite up to par, but even with all settings maxed, I get great frame rates at 2560×1440. Unfortunately, the cut scenes are probably ones rendered for the original Mass Effect, because they look horrible. The scenes right before a mission that show the shuttle bay on the Normandy seem quite low-res, as do the Mass Effect Relay movies where the Normandy is launched through space. Even some of the shuttle landing sequences look unnatural and not smoothly done. These lousy cut scenes hurt the continuity of the game. On the other hand, the female characters’ bodies are lovingly rendered and look perfect, even under the low-res armor.

    The game is split between wandering around on the Normandy, interacting with crew and passengers, visiting the Citadel space station, dealing with government officials and criminals and more, and the missions on various planets and space stations throughout the galaxy. The problem with Mass Effect games is that after a certain point, you get funneled to the endgame missions, and, (per ME2) if you try to do other missions after that point, consequences are dire. I’d prefer that not happen, so I’m trying to be careful to not get too far in the plot while my mission list is still huge.

    Overall, I am enjoying ME3 very much and it takes all my spare time, while other games go unplayed… OK, so it isn’t a mistake to play ME3, but it is one to think of having free time again.

  • How Star Trek Online offers a different challenge from most MMOs

    I will not declare complete knowledge of MMOs by a long shot, but Star Trek Online is different from all the MMOs I’ve played (or tried). These differences add a bit of complexity, yet most MMO players will find things familiar enough that it will not be an issue.

    The biggest difference between STO and conventional MMOs like WoW, LOTRO, Conan, etc., is that we need to manage the leveling and equipment of the main player character, one or more starships, and some number (between 4 and 8) bridge officers. Now having helpers occurs in many games, such as the helpers in Guild Wars (sorry, I forget what they’re called), or the companions in LOTRO for captains and lore masters, but STO’s level of customization, skill choices, and how they affect gameplay are unmatched.

    Since the best part of STO (in my opinion) is starship combat, I’ll talk about that first. There are 3 major classes of starship: escorts are quick and pack lots of firepower, while science vessels have powerful buffs and heals (yes, really, for starships – shield or hull restore, and so forth), and cruisers are slow all-rounders. Ships also have levels, from low-level ships with few weapons and slots that you get early in the game to studly ships we would recognize from the TV shows that we get as admirals (think Enterprise D and E, Voyager, and Defiant as examples from each of the 3 classes). As we get better ships, we also get better equipment for them. Quantum torpedoes or plasma beams or tetryon beams, etc. Each ship has slots for fore and aft weapons (varying number, based on level and class), engine, shield, deflector array, and consoles to provide engineering, science, and tactical buffs. The items that fit there are found as loot, given as quest rewards, bought in stores, or on the Exchange from other players. In short, it is essential that players keep their ships up with the best equipment, just as I keep my LOTRO lore master up with the best armor and weapons I can get.

    The player also levels and gains skill that affect various aspects of shipboard and ground combat. Players can choose science, engineering, or tactical emphasis, each of which gives unique special abilities as the player levels. Choosing one player class does not prevent using other ship classes, however, so my tactical captain uses an upgraded Constitution class cruiser. Player equipment is important, so players need to always use weapons, armor, and shields appropriate to their level. There is also the concept of a player “kit” which provides additional ground combat abilities based on the player class. Since my guy is a tactical captain, he has grenade abilities added by the kit. Previous engineer captains I’ve had could summon phaser turrets and healing devices. The player skill tree has changed significantly since I last played, so I am still getting used to the new (and, so far, better) format.

    The player also has helpers in the form of Bridge Officers (BOFFs). They level up as BOFF skill points are assigned by the player to certain skills for each BOFF. These skills provide space and ground combat abilities that are essential to winning fights, so keep your BOFFs up with their skills. The BOFFs can’t use their skills if they are knocked out in combat, so you also need to make sure they have good armor, weapons, and shields (though they can be hand-me-downs from the player). You can customize BOFF appearance, outfits, and name when you recruit them.

    There is even a new concept called Duty Officers that can perform tasks for the player and they help the player gain prestige and I don’t know what else. I’ve just reached the level where I can use Duty Officers, so I don’t yet know the full story there.

    So STO requires the user to manage skills for the player and the BOFFs, as well as gear for the player, BOFFS, and ships. As such, it is a little more complex than most MMOs but starship combat in the Star Trek universe makes it worth it.

  • Star Trek Online Videos

    I’m enjoying Star Trek Online so much that I made a couple of videos. I bought the Constitution class cruiser upgrade, so I wanted to show it off, too.

    The first clip is sector space leaving Sol and heading to the Delta Volanis cluster.

    The second, much longer, clip shows one of the random encounters that occur in clusters. In this case, I got to fight some Orion pirates. You can see that the cruiser is not very maneuverable, but gets the job done. You can also see me pick up some of the “anomaly” crafting materials, including the frequency matching minigame.

    If driving starships around and blowing stuff up sounds like fun to you, try Star Trek Online.

  • Enjoyed Saints Row the Third

    I thoroughly enjoyed playing Saints Row the Third! This is the first Saints Row game I’ve played, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I did expect something like GTA IV, but with wackiness, and that’s essentially what I got. The plot isn’t terrible, but you can do lots of other things besides the plot, as this is an open world game. As you get reputation and money, there are many helpful upgrades to your health, your weapons, your vehicles, your Homies, and your cribs and strongholds. The driving in the game is nearly as annoying as in GTA games, but you seem to be able to get away with a lot before people start shooting at you. As you buy up shops, crack houses, apartment buildings, etc., your income and control grow, but the added benefit is that you can run into a shop that you own to get rival gangs and the police to stop following you. This becomes important, as there are endless supplies of enemies.

    I played some of the game in co-op mode, which is great! A friend could join me (since I was the newbie, she joined my game) and help me through missions. The joining player keeps their abilities, including weapons and vehicles that the hosting player may not have earned yet, so my friend was able to summon VTOL jets for us to kick butt in. Co-op vehicle are great, because one of us drives and the other can target enemies and shoot them. Solo vehicle play is more of a challenge, because one player has to do both. Therefore, to compensate, the game makes the missions a little harder when playing with a partner. Since I played on the PS3, voice chat was seamless and worked perfectly.

    In the game, you fight several rival gangs, each identified by colors (red, green, and blue) that are visually different from the purple color of the Saints. You also fight the police and a military group called STAG. Most of the time, rivals don’t attack you on site, though if you wander into one of their gatherings, watch out! If you hit one of their vehicles or do something too naughty in front of the cops, people will start shooting at you. When driving, usually you can bump cars and pedestrians with immunity, but sometimes, an enraged motorist will chase you for miles, occasionally ramming you. The best bet in this case, is to stop, get out, and shoot the bastard.

    Though I made a previous post about morals and not enjoying killing innocents, Saints Row the Third didn’t give me many qualms. For the most part, hitting pedestrians doesn’t kill them, and mostly the people who you kill intentionally need killing. Yes, the game involves drugs and hos, but you don’t see anyone using drugs, and only the baddies abuse their hos, and in many missions, you rescue hos.

    There are a number of very funny surprises that happen later in the game, so I won’t divulge them here, but there are many laughs in the game. The music is great too, from the music as you are doing missions to the radio stations in the vehicles. Very well done!

    So I finished the plot mission, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely done. I haven’t finished all the upgrades or neighborhood takeovers. Besides, since co-op play is so great, I will keep the game handy so I can play it with my friends.

    Saints Row the Third is wacky fun and well worth playing!

  • Finished main quest in Skyrim – Time to Move On

    Gaming has been odd for me lately. Many of the people in my kinship in LOTRO have dropped out of playing, as grinding for gear at level 75 gets old really fast. I have been on LOTRO a few times in the last couple weeks working on my lower level characters primarily, but my heart isn’t in it.

    Meanwhile, I’ve been enjoying Skyrim a lot. Mostly… There is a huge amount of content in Skyrim, some of it dynamically generated, so I could go on playing for ages, but it gets a little tedious. So I finished up the Skyrim main quest line over the last couple days. I’m already the leader of the Companions, the Mage school, and the Dark Brotherhood. I saved the Thieves Guild and fixed up the Bard guild. I haven’t chosen a side in the war yet, mostly because both sides are scumbags, so neither appeals to me in any way.

    So I’m going to step away from Skyrim for a while. I see there is a new update (1.6) that will allow mounted combat, which sounds kinda cool, but is only beta for PC, so I’ll wait until it is final. I also had the thought of trying a speed run through Skyrim to see how how low a level I could be to complete the game. I imagine it could be done at level 20, but am not sure. Could be fun to try. But not just yet. And, of course, when Dawnguard comes out, I’m sure I’ll have to send even more money to Bethesda (via Steam) to check it out, though I don’t really have any desire to be a vampire.

    I think next, I will try to finish Uncharted 3, then maybe move on to either Saints Row 3 or Final Fantasy XIII-2, all on the PS3. And I also think I will get back into Star Trek Online. I haven’t jumped back into STO because I lost my gamepad setup file when I rebuilt my PC (oops, forgot to back it up, because it was buried in the Program Files folder of STO), and I have been reluctant to spend the time to figure it out again.

    I will keep LOTRO on the back burner for now. I may end up buying the next expansion dealing with the Riders of Rohan, but not until release date nears.

  • Are Fantasy Game Developers all Conservative?

    I’ve played many of the most popular fantasy/RPG games and I’ve noticed a very common theme: the past was always better than the present. So does that mean all the game developers are conservative? I don’t mean political conservative, which I’m sure most aren’t, but believing the past was better and it’s too bad it changed and got worse kind of conservative.

    In so many games, the past was “more powerful” and otherwise better than now, so the protagonist has to run around lots of ruins and find powerful ancient artifacts and secrets to fight the current evil. In Dragon Age, the Wardens were powerful in the past and rode flying mounts. In Elder Scrolls (Skyrim, Oblivion, etc.), the Dwemer had amazing technology and the heroes of the past had amazing powers. In the Lord of the Rings, Men and Elves of the past were greater and could make rings of power, an art long since lost. Even in the Harry Potter universe, the witches and wizards of the past could make artifacts well beyond what could be made today. There are many more examples, but I don’t want to bore the reader. Think about the games you’ve played – if they were set in a fantasy world, wasn’t the past better and now the ruins of the past hold the secrets that will solve the current problems?

    Sure, there has to be some sort of goal in the game, and it is easy to come up with some powerful artifact from the past that will solve the problem. But that doesn’t reflect real life, so why would it be appropriate in a fantasy world? In real life, technology advancements make things better than the old ways, so how about a game where the player has to invent new powers or abilities based on old abilities? Sure it could all be scripted out and such, but wouldn’t it be better for the protagonist to come up with something new that nobody had ever seen rather than “oh, you’re a Dragonborn. Go talk to those guys and they’ll train you up…”?

    So, game developers, the past is typically NOT better than the future, so quit pining for the old days and make games that properly look to a brighter future (as appropriate to the period setting of the game). Then we will all be shocked and surprised about an original plot!