The lights are on
I'll try to keep it short this time for you ADD folks, and for this time-challenged professional. Most of my time has been spent playing Mass Effect 2, and it's as addictive as ever. First, loading your save file from the previous game with all the consequences of your earlier actions intact make for a persistent universe and more cohesive storyline. Speaking of, the premise is outstanding, setting the stage for an epic tale of journeymen (and women) with tenuous allegiances and questionable motivation. It's rare that any game encourages you to consider the consequences of any chance meeting with even the most seemingly insignificant character, but that's what BioWare has accomplished, and it makes for a deep, rich experience in a fully realized fantasy universe.
I'll try to keep it short this time for you ADD folks, and for this time-challenged professional.
Most of my time has been spent playing Mass Effect 2, and it's as addictive as ever. First, loading your save file from the previous game with all the consequences of your earlier actions intact make for a persistent universe and more cohesive storyline. Speaking of, the premise is outstanding, setting the stage for an epic tale of journeymen (and women) with tenuous allegiances and questionable motivation. It's rare that any game encourages you to consider the consequences of any chance meeting with even the most seemingly insignificant character, but that's what BioWare has accomplished, and it makes for a deep, rich experience in a fully realized fantasy universe.
What helps is that the same varied and comprehensive dialog trees return, enhanced by a feature that allows you to interrupt discussions with a specific action. That ensures conversations are more fluid and realistic than even before. Combined with improved combat that allows for better protection behind cover and abilities that can be mapped to specific buttons and the action likewise takes on a more active, and interactive, aspect. Some suggest that jettisoning the inventory management system assists with this approach, however, I enjoyed that setup as it was a practical tool and allowed greater control over anticipated combat situations. Instead, your time is bogged down with more minigames for unlocking weapons, equipment and materials. And those materials are then used to upgrade your inventory or add probes, fuel, etc. to manage yourself, your squad and your ship. While these tasks aren't broken or necessarily poorly designed, I find that they are an impediment to a more streamlined and entertaining experience. After all, should a ship's captain really be wasting his own time scanning planets, hacking equipment, or otherwise micromanaging. I suppose it's a matter of taste as I preferred the old inventory management system, still it's an annoyance in an otherwise stellar game.
What helps is that the same varied and comprehensive dialog trees return, enhanced by a feature that allows you to interrupt discussions with a specific action. That ensures conversations are more fluid and realistic than even before. Combined with improved combat that allows for better protection behind cover and abilities that can be mapped to specific buttons and the action likewise takes on a more active, and interactive, aspect. Some suggest that jettisoning the inventory management system assists with this approach, however, I enjoyed that setup as it was a practical tool and allowed greater control over anticipated combat situations.
Instead, your time is bogged down with more minigames for unlocking weapons, equipment and materials. And those materials are then used to upgrade your inventory or add probes, fuel, etc. to manage yourself, your squad and your ship. While these tasks aren't broken or necessarily poorly designed, I find that they are an impediment to a more streamlined and entertaining experience. After all, should a ship's captain really be wasting his own time scanning planets, hacking equipment, or otherwise micromanaging. I suppose it's a matter of taste as I preferred the old inventory management system, still it's an annoyance in an otherwise stellar game.
Dragon's Age: Origins is another BioWare title that is a more traditional sword and sorcery RPG. The story promises to create a rich, deep fantasy world of good vs. evil with its share of quests and exploration. However, this is no hack and slash affair. It's true that the combat controls are similar to Mass Effect's radial design, which in itself had a fair learning curve. But it's deeper, adding layers of concentric circles for additional actions. Initially this setup is somewhat intimidating but like Mass Effect should become less so with practice. In the meantime, the backstory is intriguing and the real time combat seems impressive, despite the relatively lengthy animations that almost make it feel like a turn based RPG.
BioWare is notable for its deep storylines and consequential actions. Whether Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect or other titles, your choices influenced your character and story progression. Quantic Dream is another developer that is developing a reputation for impressive interactive storytelling. The maker of Indigo Prophesy has created another title that boasts branching storylines directly impacted by your actions. The Heavy Rain demo is brief but provides a good introduction to the game. If you've been following it, you know the production values are top notch, from design, textures, body and facial animations to lighting, environmental FX and score, it nails the film noir/hard boiled sensibility it's after.
What's most impressive with the demo is the characters and branching dialog. There is real character in faces and facial animations that help these avatars stand apart from the crowds of generic ones we're used to. Likewise, the dialog is more realistic, with pauses and interjections that are believable. Nevermind that one scene played out very differently when choosing between two replies, helping alleviate my concerns about replayability somewhat. Another concern is the controls, where you need to press three buttons in succession to shimmy along a wall instead of one or none in many modern action adventure games. As intriguing and impressive as Heavy Rain is, it's difficult to shake the feeling that this is a rental.
Another demo I've been playing offers a very different experience but one that deserves recognition. Battlefield: Bad Company 2's Rush multiplayer mode can be sampled on the Port Valdez map. I should note that BFBC is my favorite multiplayer game, and Battlefield 1943 likewise is a beloved game. Still, I was disappointed by BFBC 2's beta. Aiming and vehicle controls felt too loose and made playing more challenging than it needed to be. I'm not sure what build the demo represents, but I assume it's a later build not just due to its timing but also because the controls feel more tight this time around.
I'd read that developer Dice in fact made scores of changes to the code and weapon and vehicle controls were among them. If the demo is an indication, they were successful. I can now hit distant targets with the medic's machine gun and maneuver tanks and four-wheelers with relative ease. In fact, my KDR is about 0.7 which is what it was starting out in BFBC. These improvements erase my biggest concerns, and along with workable mics (a first for Dice, LOL) and relatively little lag, this game promises to be even better than its predecessor. I'm having tons of fun with the demo, so hopefully its a good harbinger of things to come.
Well, so much for keeping this short. LOL. Apologies for my long winded ways. Hope it provided some good info on games you might be interested in.
I like all of those games.
I'm not going to even think about buying bad company 2 until I know for sure tnat they greatly improved the campaign.
lol, boo. i thought the bfbc campaign was great fun. no it's not mw, but it was still solid, imo. sorry you didn't like it, but check out gi's review. they say in fact that it IS greatly improved.
I Dunno if i should get me 2, as i never funushed the first ine, as i just kept dieing in the mako sections
you'd definitely appreciate me2 more if you played me1. tho if you want to avoid the mako you might have to skip me1 (it doesn't return for the sequel). but i encourage you to stick with it, it's worth it.