Tag Archives: Shepard

PAXEast 2012

I am back from PAXEast 2012 and I have a few days of recoup before I have to head out on another business trip! (oh the life of a jetsetter #notreally). I wanted to throw out some thoughts on PAXEast before I had to run off again, and I am finally awake enough to do so!

First of all, PAXEast has gotten HUGE!!!!!!! (Seriously, it could use some more exclamation marks, it’s that huge.) They expanded this year to include more of the convention center. So much so that I didn’t even find some of the show floor until Sunday, because it was hidden behind some of the crazy big displays. I followed my basic rule of “No standing in a line for 2 hours to see a demo/trailer that I can just watch on Monday”. Which means, or course, I hardly got to see any of the good demos on the show floor. Seriously, if I can’t see the demo from outside your booth, I am not going to waste 2 hours of my con to watch 5 min of footage!

Aside from all of that, there were some great things to see there! Borderlands 2 looks amazing as usual. Assassin’s Creed 3 was there, but the only thing they had on the outside of the booth was the same trailers we have already seen. Those were my two big finds. Lots of small booths and little games to see, but I think it was a bit overwhelming due to the glut of booths and the overpowering of some of the big names. Farcry actually has a bus! A FULL BUS!

I attended the show with a friend and Podcast Co-Host, RetroNick, so there was lots of visits to the Retro Gaming rooms. After all these years I learned that if you have a second controller hooked up while playing Duck Hunt, you can control the duck! Also, I apparently can identify the sound of the atari 2600 game Surround from across the room. You guys remember how hard Space Ace was?

The Table Top area was also kind of screwed up. Last year there were tables everywhere and you could pop down and play whatever you liked. This year the Magic folks and the D&D folks had ½ the room reserved for their games. So you would go in and see tons of tables open, but couldn’t sit unless you were playing an “Authorized” game. The open gaming area was very small and always packed.

The main theme of the con, at least from our point of view would have to be Mass Effect. Tons of great Cosplayers from ME there. The panel was great with awesome information, and the chance to sit and talk with some of the writers was outstanding. I swung by one of the rooms and just asked about the time of their signing and the person I asked was the lead writer for Mordin. We talked about the script and choices. Big highlight to my trip.

Overall, great trip. Looking forward to next year!

If you want to see some of the various media I took at PAX, check out these links!
Walkthrough of the PAX East floor

Mass Effect Photo Set
PAX East Photo set

Working through the Trilogy (again)

Posted by Steve on March 26, 2012 No comments

Lately I have been suffering a little PTMED (Post Traumatic Mass Effect Depression, it’s a thing). I tried to go play some Old Republic, but found myself too distracted with all of the huge range of emotions I experienced with my playthrough of ME3. (Note, still liked the ending). As I have mentioned before, I never did a second playthrough, only the single story, and single save. The quick recap about this meant that I was able to experience the whole story in a very unique way. It didn’t get convoluted with alternate choices or multiple stories. (Not that there is anything wrong with that, just not what I wanted to do). I have now experienced the whole story, and I loved it.

So, what do you do with a story you just finished and loved? You experience it again! I made the decision to run through the whole story again, starting at Mass Effect 1, and working through the whole trilogy. I experienced a small snag in this though. My ME1 disk went missing! I had pre-ordered and bought the collectors tin for ME1 and had the tin, and the bonus discs…..but no game disk! I checked with Gamestop and they wanted $30 for a pre-owned copy (WTF!!!). Amazon had new Platinum editions for $19 (UPDATE, it’s $16 now!!!) with prime shipping so that’s how I went. It arrived on Friday.

To accompany this epic playthrough I also splurged and purchased the N7 branded G155 Personal Gaming Environment. I have a number of trips coming up that may end up with me in a place that might get boring. (assuming I don’t get out and take pictures.) So I picked up this case so I could take a 360 with me. I will probably have a post about the case after I get it wit photos and such.

So, I am now 10 hours into Mass Effect 1 and the experience is amazing. First off, it’s VERY difficult to transition from ME3 controls down to ME1, you can tell they improved on quite a bit. Outside of that, though, it’s been outstanding. It feels like one of those movies where I have been transported back in time and given the opportunity to make new choices, knowing what I know now! My favorite moment so far was meeting Wrex for the first time (again) with the Dialogue

Wrex: Do I know you human?

Me: * Not yet
* You will
* Shut Up

For those that are curious, I am playing through as BroShep. My first was with FemShep, and my Romance options were ME1: Liara (Duh), ME2: Garrus (Comedy Option), and ME3: Traynor (Stress Relief). I would be happy to explain these if you ask, but I think I know how I will steer things this time around. I will certainly keep you updated on the progress both here and on Twitter.

The Single Play-through.

Posted by Steve on March 7, 2012 2 comments

The long awaited trilogy ender Mass Effect 3 came out yesterday. I picked up my copy from GameStop, pausing quickly to ensure the cover is set to FemShep, came home and got everything ready. I set about migrating over my save games from the previous ME games, just as I had done before. Thankfully, it didn’t take long since I only have the single character, the single play through. One run, one set of decisions, one story….my Shepard story.

Mass Effect is one of those epic adventures that BioWare has created to have a bazillion different choices along the way and different outcomes. They do this to increase the playability of the game. It’s a great idea and it makes the game full of possibilities. The problem I have with this is that the story is not done yet. I haven’t reached the end.

People have told me that it’s like reading a book more than once, or watching your favorite movie again. The difference being that, when I do that, it’s the same story. It hasn’t changed, branched off, turned evil. All of the decisions in the book/movie are the ones I enjoyed and delight in experiencing because they still lead in the direction of the ending.

Mass Effect allows you to change the path you take to the ending so drastically that it could be considered (and often is) a different story. This isn’t so bad except that I knew that it wasn’t over yet. Mass Effect 3 is supposed to be the ending we are all waiting for.

Imagine if you will, you are watching Star Wars: Episode IV. The first watch through is great, you are rooting for this young do-gooder Luke who flirts with Leia, crys over his aunt and uncles deaths and then goes off and helps the rebels win against the evil empire. Now, say you watch it again, only this time, Luke abandons his aunt and uncle, flirts with Chewbacca, sells out Han Solo to Jabba, and steals the Falcon to use on the Death Star run to blow up the Death Star, only to demand money from the rebels to do so.

Now you have to wait till Empire Strikes back comes out. You are now invested in two very different story lines. Yes, you can play them individually, but when it comes to an important decision in the next installment, The good side was ok, but the bad was so much fun and OH MY GOD WHAT DO I PICK?!?!?!

By playing through just the once, from 2007, when ME1 came out, to now, I have had one story. My Shepard story. I lived with my decisions, be they good or bad, I have made my choices, and lost a few people. When I wander around the ship, I get flashbacks to events that happened there. They are not muddled with other play-throughs, they are the memories of Shepard, they are my memories. No confusion, no regrets.

Now, I need to get back, apparently the world needs saving…..again.