ten bucks to anybody who can explain to me why mass effect is an example of quality game storytelling. i just finished it and still have absolutely no clue why everyone has a gigantic fucking hardon over this game. it's almost fun to mess around in, if you can look past the wide variety of design flaws, but it's just a startlingly average game.

i actually swore audibly during the scene when that fucking seizure-inducing hologram is explaining the entire story to shepard, and when confronted with the question of why the reapers are such dicks, the hologram actually said I DON'T KNOW, WHO CARES. seriously, what the fuck? is that the best you can fucking do? the whole game is full of shit like this, where they clearly didn't feel like putting a little bit of thought into the ideas present in the story, but this was really the worst. yeah bioware, don't even try justifying what the hell this game is all about, we just want to get to the alien fuck scene.

Because ME actually tries to have proper storytelling with character interaction and stuff instead of silent characters and message boxes with anime artwork slapped under the boxes.

Also, maybe you just didn't get it. Do you know why that one t-rex ate that one baby stregosaur millions of years ago?

yeah i was really psyched about alpha protocol when i read about what it was, and what obsidian was aiming to do with it, but i checked out some videos and it doesn't look too good. it's really strange. like the way the game's concept and execution is described and the way it has looked in various videos doesn't seem to be the same game. it kinda SOUNDS like a really interesting rpg, but LOOKS like a really generic shooter. i really HOPE it's just the way they're marketing it, and i guess it could be, since it's kinda hard to really make a trailer that shows quality rpg stuff. but i guess i'm just a little worried that it'll be very light rpg stuff wrapped around an otherwise uninteresting shooter, which is kinda what the videos indicate. it kinda has this shitty action movie feel to it, which is exactly where i had hoped a game like that would not go.

man, really? that is profoundly disappointing, i've actually been trying to ignore any gameplay videos or anything so i'm not TAINTED or whatever, but i sure hope that all of that is just marketing so that it'll sell more. i will be really disappointed if it turns out to be your average dumb shooter. i've read a couple of articles about it that tout it as an rpg, but hey who knows, guess we'll find out...

ten bucks to anybody who can explain to me why mass effect is an example of quality game storytelling. i just finished it and still have absolutely no clue why everyone has a gigantic fucking hardon over this game. it's almost fun to mess around in, if you can look past the wide variety of design flaws, but it's just a startlingly average game.

i've always thought this! i never thought mass effect was a particularly good game or even a particularly great example of WRITING IN GAMES. i found pretty much all of mass effect 1 to be flat as a tack, especially the characters. the worldbuilding was kind of well done i guess, but overall, i just thought mass effect 1 was good, not GREAT or FUCKING AMAZING.

i'm going to sound like a broken record here, but give number 2 a shot. i've already said what i thought about 1, but 2... doesn't so much fix the problems with the story as it does finds a way around them. there's not much story in mass effect 2, probably about 6 story missions total (less than mass effect 1, to be sure), but a lot of the game is spent RECRUITING AND TALKING WITH YOUR SQUAD and the character interaction in the second game is amazing if you ignore miranda because, well, 90% of her character's appeal is SEXY HUMAN FEMALE. i don't know, i didn't really love the first game, but the second is easily one of my favourite games of recent years because of the character interaction and the scale of the whole game. it retcons a bit of stuff from the first game which is inevitable, some of it in fairly major ways, but i guess... ahhh i don't know, i think mass effect 2 in general AS A GAME and as an experiment in character building pays off really well.

(it also has a fantastic soundtrack)

love it.

tried playing a little bit of final fantasy 13 but it gave me appealing suicidal thoughts so i stopped playing it

maybe i will play it again some other time

Don't play it hundley! you have so much to live for

Don't play it hundley! you have so much to live for

i can feel my mind
slipping away

I'm shocked at you for even considering such a thing Hundley. Or maybe you just didn't have the advantage of watching someone else play Final Fantasy XIII, because it helps immensely to avoid heartache and regretful decisions in my opinion.

Although even then, my brain cannot help but have flashes of "Well if that chick was in MY party, I'd know exactly what I would..." and about that far into the sentence I know exactly what I am trying to avoid here.

Still haven't gotten around to beating Final Fantasy XII. I'm apparently really close with my save, but I still can't tell if it's actually worth beating or not. Maybe I can meditate over this while I play Final Fantasy VI all the way through.

Just finished Secret of Monkey Island SE and Portal.. two games in two days. Currently addicted to bullet hell shmups..

I'm shocked at you for even considering such a thing Hundley. Or maybe you just didn't have the advantage of watching someone else play Final Fantasy XIII, because it helps immensely to avoid heartache and regretful decisions in my opinion.

Although even then, my brain cannot help but have flashes of "Well if that chick was in MY party, I'd know exactly what I would..." and about that far into the sentence I know exactly what I am trying to avoid here.

i made the mistake of listening to jamie when he posted HEY FINAL FANTASY 13 ISN'T SO BAD a while back and went out and actually bought it shortly before he came back and said NEVERMIND THIS IS THE WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE. now i'm inclined to give this game a chance simply because i dumped 30 bucks on it on ebay. the game has a couple days to impress me before i throw it on ebay or just trade it in at a store.

Still haven't gotten around to beating Final Fantasy XII. I'm apparently really close with my save, but I still can't tell if it's actually worth beating or not. Maybe I can meditate over this while I play Final Fantasy VI all the way through.

i actually had the same experience. i'm like a few minutes away from beating the game but i got totally disinterested and never bothered beating it.

Beat: Batman Arkham Asylum, and FF7.  Thinking about DLing FF8 or 9 (when it comes out) off the PSN

Also playing League of Legends still.  I'm undefeated in Twisted Treeline (a 3v3 map, as opposed to 5v5) as of right now (watch I'll lose the next match now)

Just finished Secret of Monkey Island SE and Portal.. two games in two days. Currently addicted to bullet hell shmups..

Hahaha, we're on the same game playing schedule I see.. Just finished Portal and playing Secret of Monkey Island SE on my PS3 for the first time. I'm enjoying it a lot. I wish the old-school Adventure genre would make a comeback.