T w e n t y S i d e d
They should totally do this for Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect 2:
Plot Analysis Part 3 of 3
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’
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
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
Mass Effect 2:
Plot Analysis Part 2 of 3
Commander Shepard
 |
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″
Spoiler Warning:
Mass Effect Part 5
A reminder: The goal of this series isn’t to make a comedy laugh riot. We’re not really trying to be MST3k. It’s all unrehearsed, which means sometimes we’ll get things wrong, make mistakes, or fail to say enlightening things. You should view this more as being on the couch with us while we play, and not see it as an extended version of Unskippable.
I liked it better when you couldn’t hear me and everyone assumed I was saying these brilliant, incisive things. Now Josh has fixed my audio levels and you can enjoy witty observations about how red the terrain is. Clever material, that. Stayed up all night writing it.
We debated a lot on whether or not we should include the full Mako sections of the game. I was in favor of cutting the game to remove lengthy sections of driving and / or combat, and distilling the experience down to the story and some representative fights. I was worried the non-story bits would just be twenty minutes of dead air, mumbling, and throat clearing. That turned out to not be a problem, and now I can see there is a certain need to give the viewer the whole game without editing. It’s actually a good rule of thumb: If we can’t fill the time with commentary then we probably shouldn’t be covering the game to begin with. (Which is why we’ve dismissed Borderlands. Too much combat that looks more or less the same from the viewer’s perspective. We’d run out of stuff to say before we left the tutorial.)
But the inclusive approach does lead to episodes like this one, where basically nothing happens.
From The Archives:
Control
A wild game filled with wild ideas that features fun puzzles and mind-blowing environments. It has a great atmosphere, and one REALLY annoying flaw with its gameplay.
Trusting the System
How do you know the rules of the game are what the game claims? More importantly, how do the DEVELOPERS know?
Starcraft 2: Rush Analysis
I write a program to simulate different strategies in Starcraft 2, to see how they compare.
Autoblography
The story of me. If you're looking for a picture of what it was like growing up in the seventies, then this is for you.
Shamus Plays LOTRO
As someone who loves Tolkein lore and despises silly MMO quests, this game left me deeply conflicted.
PC Hardware is Toast
This is why shopping for graphics cards is so stupid and miserable.
Final Fantasy X
A game about the ghost of an underwater football player who travels through time to save the world from a tick that controls kaiju satan. Really.
Tenpenny Tower
Bethesda felt the need to jam a morality system into Fallout 3, and they blew it. Good and evil make no sense and the moral compass points sideways.
Stolen Pixels
A screencap comic that poked fun at videogames and the industry. The comic has ended, but there's plenty of archives for you to binge on.
Shamus Plays WOW
Ever wondered what's in all those quest boxes you've never bothered to read? Get ready: They're more insane than you might expect.