Spoiler Warning:
Mass Effect Part 6

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Feb 16, 2010

Filed under: Spoiler Warning 51 comments

So far our policy has been to include all gameplay – even the boring bits. But we do cut the inventory management screens. I don’t think anyone who has played the game would fault us for this. We could easily burn a several episodes worth of footage during the course of this series doing nothing but sorting and selling. There’s a reason the inventory is the most maligned part of the game. We might eventually do an episode where we talk through the system and demonstrate why it sucks. We’ll see. There’s a fine line between showing how boring and tedious something is, and passing along that boredom and tedium to the viewer.

A lot of people have noticed the short little “loading” pauses in the game. I gather these are not normal, and I’m assuming they’re an artifact of playing, recording, and streaming the game all at the same time.

Near the beginning of this episode I say, “If the Normandy can’t take on that thing, we shouldn’t trust ourselves in it flying through space.” Where “that thing” seems to be “Sovereign”. Uh. I have no idea what I was trying to say there? I don’t remember where I was going with that, but it came out as nonsense. (Really Shamus? You shouldn’t trust yourself in any ship not capable of taking on a Reaper? Well, good luck walking back to Earth, then.) The perils of this sort of series: Words are difficult to edit once spoken.

 


 

Stolen Pixels #169: A New Man

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Feb 16, 2010

Filed under: Column 17 comments

They should totally do this for Mass Effect 3.

 


 

Mass Effect 2:
Plot Analysis Part 3 of 3

By Shamus Posted Monday Feb 15, 2010

Filed under: Game Reviews 322 comments

Here we are at the endgame. All of my previous nitpicks were just objections over consistency or demands for more solid justification. It could all be patched in a sequel. But here are the gripes that caused me to write this series in the first place. This is where the story fell apart for me, which is a bad thing to have happen during the climax.

I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that this will be spoilers, so I shouldn’t need to warn you about that.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect 2:
Plot Analysis Part 3 of 3″

 


 

Carl Sagan – ‘A Glorious Dawn’

By Shamus Posted Saturday Feb 13, 2010

Filed under: Movies 42 comments

Only after about a thousand people emailed and commented saying I should link this:


Link (YouTube)

It’s amazing work. It’s a great collection of Sagan quotes and observations, and it stands on its own as a piece of music.

And because they didn’t work it into the song:

Billions and billions.

 


 

Experienced Points: Gears of Mass Effect

By Shamus Posted Friday Feb 12, 2010

Filed under: Column 75 comments

Where most people have the little Angel on one shoulder and a Devil on the other, each arguing over what they should do next, I seem to have an optimist and a cynic.

The optimist loves games, loves gamers, loves talking about games, loves stories, and looks forward to seeing where this brave new media goes over the coming years. The cynic hates DRM, is appalled at how much games have homogenized, and most of all is sick to death of lousy, lazy, incomprehensible, self-indulgent stories.

The optimist wrote this week’s Experienced Points article
.

Then the two of them sat down to have a chat…

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Experienced Points: Gears of Mass Effect”

 


 

Stolen Pixels #168: Venn Diagrams

By Shamus Posted Friday Feb 12, 2010

Filed under: Column 38 comments

Do you like Venn diagrams?

Well too bad.

 


 

Mass Effect 2:
Plot Analysis Part 2 of 3

By Shamus Posted Thursday Feb 11, 2010

Filed under: Game Reviews 202 comments

Commander Shepard

me2_new_shepard.jpg

Before we continue with the plot analysis, a few notes on the New Shepard:

(Fair warning: Rampant spoilers ahead.)

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mass Effect 2:
Plot Analysis Part 2 of 3″