Mass Effect 3: New Ideas in an Old Format

On March 6th, America was rocked with the release of the final installment of the Mass Effect Trilogy. Even now, two months later, the game still grabs onto people shirts and pulls them into game retailers across the country and the world. Commander Shepard is back and is taking the fight to the Reapers.

The History of the Three
In 2007, Bioware released a new videogame, Mass Effect. The new RPG/ third-person shooter received very high review as well as some scandal. Many people argued for an AO (adult's only) rating upon seeing naked alien women in the game during a sex scene. After the debates, Mass Effect went on to win several awards including A Game f the Year award and Best RPG award. During combat, the player, playing as Commander Shepard, uses a combination of weapons from assault rifles to snipers and biotic powers (Force powers on steriods) to find and defeat a rogue SPECTRE (galactic government agent). You eventually found out the agent worked for an ancient race of machines called the Reapers. The Reapers are hell bent on harvesting all intelligent life in the galaxy. As Shepard, you must save the galaxy and get some alien booty while your at it.

Hot on the heels of the success of Mass Effect, Bioware released Mass Effect 2 in 2009. Even though Mass Effect 2 received many awards, it strayed from the RPG elements that made Mass Effect 1 a #1 RPG. Mass Effect 2 focused mainly on the combat aspect of the game versus the RPG and story elements. A distinct lack in the variety of weapons as well as an enemy that barely fits within the universe of Mass Effect lead it to lower scores than its predecessor. One redeeming quality about it was the variety in situations you would experience; from fighting off crazed robots onboard a science vessel to arguing against an alien much taller than you are (and better armed). Of course not all situation revolve around fighting. Some touch on the bedroom. Like in the first Mass Effect, you can choose to "romance" certain crew members (depending on which gender you chose during your character building).

Throughout all three games, one great thing is the ability to transfer a character from one game to the next. Doing so grants special abilities and unlocks. In some cases it makes earning achievements (or trophies if your a PS3 owner) much easier.

Earth as a battleground
In the previous two games, you could never set foot on Earth even though you could prance around shooting aliens at a whim on any other. You could visit it and see it in the Galaxy Map (navigational tool) but never touch it until Mass Effect 3.

In the start of the game, you are on Earth due to the knowledge of all that you have "done" across the galaxy as both a SPECTRE and a freelancer. As the Reapers invade humanity's homeworld, you finally get to take your first steps on Earth as you fight your way off. If you rush the level,  it is possible to finish the level in less than 10 minutes on the hardest difficulty. Once the level is complete though. no more Earth for you until the last 1% of the campaign.

Originally described as a thriving world of peace and prosperity, Earth is reduced to rubble and smoldering ash as the Reapers ahrvest the humans. As you return, it seems like Dr. Seuss' worst nightmares.

Get Help
Of course, you can't return to Earth until you get reinforcements.  You have to play politics across species and the galaxy just to try and take Earth back. Yeah the Reapers try to stop you, but I think Lawyers would do a better job at stopping Shepard than a 500 foot tall machine with laser eyes.
Curing manufactured genetic diseases and destroying thousands of robotic servants are just two political things that take place.

Fighting
Not much is different between ME2 and ME3 in terms of fighting except when it comes to weapons and abilities. In ME2, you could win the game with justa a sniper and a shotgun with no powers. In ME3, the massive amount of weapon varieties as well as the biotic abilities make for varied combat situations. You can just run through the game with a boom stick and say "I win". Without your powers, you dont stand a chance. When you combine the different weapons, insane powers, and the combat maneuvers you can do, ME3 hit the motherload of fun.

Multiplayer
Unlike the previous ME games, ME3 has added a multiplayer feature similar to Gears of War's Horde mode. You can choose which enemy, place, and difficulty to fight on. Ten waves of pain and an extraction and the match is over. It may sounds short but even an easy match is going to take an average of 20 minutes. At the end of each match, exp and credits are evenly given out among those who finished. Using the credits, a player can buy different packs (from Recruit to Spectre) to unlock characters and weapons as well as equipment that can be used during the match.

Like in the campaign, the player can choose between different classes as well as different species for each class. Never before have you been able to play as any other race other than human. You don't have to stick with one character though. As you use a class, the level increases cumulatively across all characters in that class up to level 20 where you can "Promote" that class and gain help in the campaign during the final missions. Promoting resets the level of the class down to one but doesnt reset what characters you have unlocked.

(Personally, I found that the Quarian Infiltrator works really well. Just saying.)

Ending
Here comes the part that is probably the most controversial thing in all the ME games. I won't spoil it, but it makes it seems as if all your choices throughout the whole series were in vain. I had brought a character from ME1 through all the games and was so pissed that no matter what, all my choices were useless. Let's just say Bioware dropped the ball when they said that the ending was "artistic".

Overall
Overall, I found very few, if any, problems with the game. It was well written and designed (except for the ending). If it wasn't for that awful ending, I feel ME3 would've gotten a 10/10. With the ending, it only gets a 9.5/10. I can't give it a perfect score merely from the fact that they screwed me over with the ending and a company as well known as Bioware shouldn't have put that out there feeling it would appeal to their audience.

Score: 9.5/10

New Games for the New Year

Mass Effect 3
Commander Shepard is at it again. It's time for him to save the galaxy again from destruction at the hands of the Reapers. The evil, sentient (thinking for you non-scientific types), machine race has finally made their presence known to all. Earth has been taken over by the Reapers and Shepard needs to rally the galaxy's many races in order to save Earth, humanity, and the rest of the galaxy. Just remember, the past can come back to haunt you.

Take command of the Normandy and your team to rally species to your cause in the main story. Or, take the battle online to fight against the odds in localized battles. Choose to play as the powerfully biotic Asari or kick ass as a battle-hardened Krogan.

Halo 4
The Covenant is shattered and humanity has begun to rebuild. The virulent Flood has been annihilated. Stranded in space after nearly being destroyed by the ultimate super weapon Halo, Master Chief Petty Officer John - 117 and his trusty AI companion Cortana have somehow floated towards an artificial world.

John's last words to Cortana rang out at the end of Halo 3 as he entered the cryo tube, "Wake me...when you need me." Now, Cortana needs him. Awakened from his cold slumber to a ship burning around him, John quickly reunites with Cortana and reaches the end of what is left of the ship. All that laid before him was washed in blue light coming from a gaping hole in the side of a planet. With a ship full of weapons, the Chief needs to figure out why he ended up there and find a way out from an unknown enemy/

HALO-ween

Happy HALO-ween everyone (not Halloween). I just wanted to update on my HALO costume. I finally finished and painted my shoulder pieces. They turned out really well. I used the designs from Kirrou (They looked the best). After spray painting them black and hand painting the details on the sides of them, they are ready for HALO-ween and the release of Halo CE: Anniversary.

One thing I built from scratch is the assault rifle from HALO CE. I did not use a single plan for it except draw the basic shape and cut out the cardboard. I made two sides of the rifle then used strips of cardboard between them to give the desired width for it. It took me only an hour and a half the build it, but it took longer to paint it.

I did a base coat of gunmetal grey on it using spray paint. After that dried, I used black acrylic paint to add the details. After adding a barrel tip and fake flashlight, it was done. It took me more than four hours to paint it, but it was worth it.

In the end, I now have a full set of ODST armor, an assault rifle, and an airsoft ODST pistol. I get a feeling HALO-ween is waiting for me.

Could Battlefied 3 beat Call of Duty

In two words: HELL YES!!! This game is amazing. I absolutely love this game. It is so fun.

I used to like Call of Douchey more than Battlefield until I discovered Battlefield: Bad Company. The realism was amazing and their was nothing more fun than detonating C4 on a wall to blow up it and the person behind it.

The Multiplayer is the main point of Battlefield 3. Multiplayer is what Battlefield has always been about. Even though there are only 24 players per match (on the Xbox 360), chaos reigns down like Hellfire. There is nothing scarier and more awesome than a jet duel in the skies leading to a plane crashing right in front of you and destroying the bui.ding you were heading into (this happened twice in one match). There are a few bugs, but that is to be expected especially on day one. Vehicle combat is amazing, except for the helicopters. They are much more difficult to fly than in any other Battlefield game. Other than that, the ovarall experience of multiplayer is about a 9.5/ 10.

There is not much to talk about when dealing with the campaign. It isn't bad so far (I haven't finished it yet). It is very different from Call of Duty. You die alot faster even on Normal difficulty. It takes alot more skill to do the campaign then it did before. I would probably give the campaign an 8.5/ 10.

In total, I would think Battlefield 3 may not beat Call of Duty, but it will set in motion the way for Battlefield to hopefully take Call of Duty's top spot on the list of shooters.

Overall score = 9.5/ 10

ODST Armor Build

I did it. I have joined the prestigious 405th armor community. I have built my own suit of Halo ODST Armor. Was it worth the time, blood, aching back, and cramped hands to build it. I'd like to think so. Most, if not all, threads on 405th.com says it takes about 2 months to create a suit. I did it in 3 weeks (after skipping a few steps). There was no way I could (or would) use fiberglass and resin, bondo, and cardstock paper to make the armor. I don't want to go broke making it. So, I made it out of carboard boxes and duct tape. I used the same plans as everyone else and it turned out fairly well.

I started the first week of October with the idea to make  the armor as my Halloween costume. I didn't realize how many parts there were until I printed out the designs for just the elbow pieces. SEVEN PIECES for just an elbow pad. I had my work cut out for me.

Shin guards were next. They took forever to cut, score, and fold. SO MANY ANGLES! I ran out of regular tape so I had to use duct tape to make it. Several of the small details of the guards were lost due to the thickness of the duct tape, but it still turned out well.

Now came the helmet. After spening several days cutting out every piece needed for it, I got to work putting it together. I had read that alot of the plans online were not all made to scale which kind of scared me. I thought the helmet wouldn't fit. I test fitted it so many times during construction. I was so relieved when it was done and it easily fit over my head.

The torso armor was the lastpiece to make. I had a week and a half till Halloween and I barely had the design printed out. I hurried as fast (and accurate) as possible to get everything cut out. X-acto knives hurt when they go through cardboard. I spent three days in my room hurrying to get the pieces together. When they finally came together, a rush of relief came over me. My armor was complete (not counting my shoulder armor, but that'll come later).

Painting was the next step. Spray paint comes in so many different colors but smells just the same. I did a base coat of grey and a second coat of black paint. I hand painted the UNSC logo onto the front chest piece and painted the letters onto the neck. It looked pretty good in the end.

Now, I am simply waiting for Halloween as well as the release of Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary.
HALO FOR THE WIN!!!

Does Gears of War 3 = Perfect?

SPOILER ALERT!!!!! I will be

Imagine revving up your chainsaw bayonet and slamming it through a Locust's backside. That is what Gears of War is about: blood, gore, and blowing #@!% up. Is there anythign wrong with that combination? HELL NO! Can it get similar at times? DEFINETELY! I am not saying that Gears of War 3 is not a great game. I just have a few qualms about it.

For  me, if the story of the game doesn't entice me, the game isn't a true success. This is a problem for me. The story is the same as the last two games: SAVE THE WORLD!!! The only difference is the way that you do it. Instead of invading the Hollow or using a giant bomb, you just simply activate a device that kills anything with lambent cells in it. THAT'S IT!!! Sure Dom dies, but he just wanted to be with his wife in the end. Way to go Epic Games, you made several million dollars on a game that used the same style and story just with new guns.

The gameplay itself is nothing new, but is still good. The new weapons like the retro lancer and One Shot heavy sniper work well in the game.

The new horde mode works out very well. The boss fights are intense and the difficulty goes up at a nice pace. Beast mode on the other hand was kind of a let down. It is only twelve waves short and definately needed to be longer. I made it through the whole beast mode in one match (with 3 other players).

Overall, that game not half bad. I certainly liked the game, but it wasn't on my top game of all time. It deserves probably a 9.5/10 because there were some elements that needed work.

Does Gears of War 3 equal perfection. Of course not! (That s reserved fo HALO)

Two worlds = Same Things

Stephen Lang will never be able to escape his type cast. In the movie "Avatar", he played as Colonel Miles Quaritch, a hard-ass military leader who cares simply about survival. He commands the military forces on Pandora and at one point takes control of the entire settlement. He wants to kill the Na'vi (blue people to people who don't care) and take the Unobtanium. Using Jake for information, he blows up the Na'vi hometree while drinking a nice cup of coffee. He eventually dies trying to kill the Tree of Souls, but that's beside the point.

In "Terra Nova", Stephen Lang plays as Commander Nathaniel Taylor, another hard-ass military leader in command of a settlement. He works only for the survival of his people and to kill the Sixers (renegade group of colonists). He wants information to know what the Sixers are up to. A girl is found that escaped from the Sixers and he needs to "gain her trust" so she will tell him everything.

"Avatar" and "Terra Nova" are almost exactly the same. Avatar is set in 2152 while Terra Nova begins in 2149. Earth, in both cases, is suffering from a distinct lack of air quality and overpopulation. The opening scene of the director's cut of "Avatar" showed an extremely crowded city and people wearing masks, showing tha air quality sucks. "Terra Nova" talks about a world where families cannot have more than two children and the consequences of having more can be severe.

Both shows/movies start the the same way; someone gets recruited. Jake Sully is recruited to go to Pandora in "Avatar", while Elisabeth Shannon is recruited to travel back in time to "Terra Nova".

In the end, both of these are just about EXACTLY the same. They are just different enough to avoid copyright infringment.