After talking to Jason for a bit a few things about Mass Effect came to light that I thought I mention as an addendum to my previous post.

While we both agree that the core storyline experience was great, we also agree that some of the side missions were a bit weak. There were definitely some good ones, but a lot ended up being more shallow than I’d hoped for. Additionally they all mostly followed the same structure of “learn about something, go to that planet, shoot a few guys, you’re done.” More could have been in this area to make things a bit more well rounded. Though I did think some of the Citadel side quests were more interesting and I completed most of those.

Another thing that would have added to the game would be more interesting loot progression. There’s really no unique items in the game. As Jason said, everything is just “gun 1″, “gun 2″, “armor 4″, etc. This takes away from some of the vested interest in your character.

Overall still a great game though. I’d give it a 9 out of 10.

Last night I beat Mass Effect. At the end I barely realized that I had put nearly 40 hours into the game. This is a big deal for me, since I usually am bad about beating games. (It’s true unfortunately, though I am getting much better about it.) I can say that, overall, it was one of the best experiences I’ve had playing a console RPG.

Sure there were a few technical faults (really bad texture pop-in, load times, basically things that wouldn’t have been there if they’d cached the game to the HD) but in general Mass Effect was a very polished gameplay experience that drew me in. The “moral choices” didn’t really go that deep, but the voice acting and conversations were done so well that it still managed to add a lot to the story line and experience.

I’m going to definitely do another play through in the near future. Next character will be a hardcore jerk, I think.

One thing I really liked though was that the game didn’t end with a cliff hanger. It actually completed the story line so you felt some sense of finality. But they left enough open that there will be a sequel (or two). I’ll be ready and waiting for it.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat is actually the first Call of Duty game that I’ve really played, let alone bought. While the others were supposedly quite good (the second one in particular I guess) I never really was into the whole WW2 thing very much. Battlefield 1942 was about as much as I got into WW2 FPS games to be honest. The latest COD game however, is set in the present day (or slight future, something like that) and that suits me just fine.

Single player is pretty cinematic and entertaining. I haven’t gotten very far in it though, because the vast majority of my time has been spent playing multiplayer. This is where the game really shines in my opinion. It has a quasi-RPG-esque system where you level up (gain rank) by accruing experience through game matches. Most of the XP will come just from killing enemies, but you can also gain big bonuses by completing challenges for various weapons (kill x people, get x headshots) or other activities (blow up x cars, sprint x miles, etc.). There’s a ton of these that you progressively unlock as you level up. As you gain levels and complete challenges you’ll also unlock additional weapons and gear. It’s a nice system that always gives you a goal to work towards, which keeps the player engaged and really interested in doing well not just for the sake of it.

Technically the game is very impressive. There are a couple minor multiplayer issues that need to be resolved (minor bugs) and the net code has some prediction that makes you scratch your head occasionally, but all in all it’s really solid. For my money, this game has the kind of polish and attention to detail that makes it a contender for game of the year.

But then again I did just get Mass Effect. That’s another post entirely though.

I picked up Assassin’s Creed today after work and after playing it for a few hours I can say that it’s a remarkable technical achievement that has a lot to offer but does have some flaws that stop it from being as good as it could have been. Still, I’m not disappointed with the fact that I purchased it. Some word on the internet is that it’s “the most over-hyped piece of trash ever” and that “it fails to deliver in every way possible.” Well, neither of these are really true in my opinion. Yes, it was a very hyped game, and yes, it does fail to deliver in a couple areas that it probably should. But is it not entertaining? Hardly.

First, the bad points.

The primary problem is that the game lacks variety. This can either be a huge deal to you, or something that’s a bit of a bummer but not the end of the world. I’m in the latter camp. You could argue that most games are actually the act of performing repetitive tasks over and over again. The differences come in the presentation of how you execute those tasks. In AC they are lacking some of that presentation difference, as well as staying a bit too lockstep with their mission formula to accomplish the major goals. Some more variety in the types of challenges would be nice, but the lack of variety I mostly have a problem with is that the way you accomplish these goals is somewhat limited. There’s still some choice involved, but the outcome is essentially the same each time, leading to a game experience that is more linear than I expected it to be. As someone who can’t get enough of free-roaming games this is the biggest problem with AC.

A secondary issue (for me) is that the combat is a bit weak. This stems mostly from the fact that a design decision was made that the combat system should be focused on a more realistic style. While that’s all well and good it doesn’t necessarily translate to a great game experience in my opinion. It’s not too bad, it just (again) lacks some variety. If they’d made it so that the enemy AI would attack at you a bit quicker (and more than one at a time) and give the player some additional moves to avoid/counter attacks, thus increasing the challenge put on the player, it would be a far better experience. Still, I’ve found that by not leaning on the “defensive stance” system like a crutch and maneuvering my character a bit more quickly around the attackers it produces a slightly more cinematic and exciting fight sequence.

Now the good.

The environments are really something amazing. Graphically speaking this game is masterwork. From a character perspective it’s even more impressive, in terms of both art and technical achievement. The animations themselves are extremely fluid, and their new system for animation blending and fast transition is pulled off wonderfully. The result is some of the most eye pleasing animations I’ve ever seen in a game.

And that’s good because with the great free running system you’ll be looking at a lot of different animations. It also makes it (mostly) a breeze to get around the game; something that’s very welcome since one of my personal favorite aspects is the exploration aspect. Some people have complained that the collection tasks are boring, but I don’t mind them, and think they’re a good way to hunt around and explore the city. It’s things like that which let me use my imagination a bit, and that definitely adds value in my book.

The story, while a bit hokey, is also turning out to be pretty interesting. It’s one of those things where I just suspend my disbelief (like when you’re watching an action movie) and it’s not too hard to swallow. The execution (outside of the previously mentioned gameplay flaws) is more than acceptable, and while I’ve heard the game leaves off with a cliffhanger I can only hope this means that there will be a worthy sequel that addresses some of the problems I and other reviewers have mentioned.

Overall this is a solid game that – depending on how hyped up you were for it and what you were expecting – could either be a satisfying adventure/platformer/free-roaming hybrid or could be somewhat disappointing. If you’re really on the fence about it, rent it first. There’s no excuse not to rent, and if you’re someone who enjoys games like this I don’t think you can go too wrong buying it either.