- Like a bolt from the blue, ArenaNet has announced exactly how much of your money they would like to take from you. And it is surprisingly similar to another recent game. The three available editions are:
- Digital Edition - $60 - The game, access to the beta weekends, headstart access, and an in-game item
- Digital Deluxe - $80 - The above plus some additional in-game items
- Collector's Edition - $150 - All of the above plus the obligator statue, art prints (plus frame!), art book, and soundtrack
- So begins the five stages of grief as I come to terms with the fact that there is no way I can afford that collector's edition. Even the deluxe edition seems like a stretch, but I can at least rationalize it.
- A few others have already picked the options apart. Which edition (if any) are you giong for?
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- There seems to be some consternation about the ending of Mass Effect 3. Chances are, if you are reading this blog, that you either have played, are playing, or plan to play at some point in the future. In any case, I don't know what the ending is. But anyone who has followed the series to this point is probably very invested in how the trilogy wraps up. Bioware released a flowchart showing how the suicide mission in ME2 would turn out depending on your decisions. I'm hoping the at some point down the road they do the same thing for ME3. Just not yet because I want to finish the game. I have a vague guess at how the game ends, but I'm really bad at making predictions.
- I haven't been able to play too often over the last weekend (house guests and my daughter's birthday curtailed my gaming for a few days). But the nights I did play saw me up much later than is good for my aging self. As I've advanced in the game, the twists and turns in the story have driven me to keep playing one more mission. It's almost like the Civilization "One More Turn" trap, only each mission is thirty minutes long.
- I continue to dislike most of the shooting dudes stuff, mostly because I'm slow and the game is so very fast and confusing. I did stick with the Casual difficulty, though. Dropping to Narrative mode would make me a failure as a gamer.
- On the other hand, this is as good as Mass Effect has ever been by giving you hard choices to make. One character just made me an offer last night before I went to bed that has my head spinning. I know that if I follow my gut, it will hurt the war effort in the long run. But I can't bring myself to sacrifice my principles, even with the galaxy at stake.
- And that's why I keep playing. Even when I told myself I would wait. Even though I need to get some sleep. Even though I'll regret it in the morning. Actually, I never regret it that much.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- THIS IS A ZERO SPOILER ZONE! SPOILERS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SPOILERS, I WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO THE INTERNET. GIVE IT A LOOK SOME TIME.
- Monday night, I told my wife that I didn't think that I would buy Mass Effect 3 because I don't really have to time to dedicate to it. Tuesday night, I played Mass Effect 3. I'm not even sure what happened in between those two points.
- If I had to point out what pushed me over the edge, it would be that I had to know what happened to my Shepard. With everyone talking online about playing, I knew that I could not leave Shepard's story incomplete. She had been through so much already, even death for a time. I wanted to see her fight to its completion. I was particularly happy when the import screen showed me all of the important decisions I made over the last two games.
- Funny enough, Syp and I both picked the same stopping point last night. After working my way through the opening levels, I knew that reaching the Citadel again was a natural place to break.
- Like with SSX, I see how age, lack of practice, and late night gaming have eroded my gaming skills (if skills I ever had). I turned the difficulty down to Casual and I'm actually considering Narrative mode just to avoid any frustrations I have with the combat. Funny to think that just a couple weeks ago I was shaking my head at the idea of focusing on the story over gameplay in an RPG. But as the Mass Effect series has improved as a shooter, the less that I want to do that. Oh well, at least the option is there for me.
- It is going to be slow going for me, saving the universe an hour at a time. But I'm going to see this end of this series no matter what.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- I returned to SSX the last two evenings to resume my conquest of the nine deadly descents. My first session left me dissatisfied, so I actually waited a couple of days before going back. Although I still find myself frustrated, my problems are starting to fall away.
- On top of my frustration with the controls, I've found that there are some terrible difficulty spikes. The deadly descent runs are particularly grueling, each requiring multiple attempts to finish. Then there is the ever-so-helpful option to skip a race if you screw up over and over again. They will even give you the XP and credits as if you won, like a backhanded consolation prize. Thanks for reminding me how much I suck, EA.
- Stepping outside of the World Tour mode taught me something important: I started to notice when various drops fed into the same run. So by the time I was on my fourth race down the mountain, I could anticipate the lower half of each run and I was much more confident in pulling off tricks. Since you jump from peak to peak in the World Tour, you don't get the same opportunity to learn the tracks. I suspect that repetition will be a big help as I progress through the game.
- Explore mode ended up being a lot more interesting than I expected. All you have to do is choose a peak and run it, either as a race, trick, or survival event. While that seems simple, the mode really allows you to learn a mountain top to bottom. I was able to set three silver medals and one bronze and I look forward to improving on those times.
- I feel like the game is slowing unfolding in front of me. As long as I stick with it and get past all of the frustrating parts, there is quite a lot to like about SSX.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
- As mentioned in my last post, I dove in with both feet for the new SSX. My first night with the game was odd. I didn't have a chance to try it until after midnight (I had many chores that evening) so I could not play very long. But no matter how late it was, I was not going to miss my chance to try it out.
- The tutorial starts you in freefall which is an amazing way to learn the new controls. I tried out the new the right thumbstick option for grabs and it is unbelievably intuitive to make grabs. Pushing left on the stick starts a left hand grab, right for right hand, and up for both hands. That's fine for basic tricks, but you can then add a quarter circle or flick across to grab a different part of the board. Add in some flips, spins, and tweaks and there is a hug collection of tricks you can doing very easily.
- At least, they were easy in the air. Once I got onto the ground and had to deal with steering, prewinding, and jumping, I completely lost my cool. My thumb completely fell back on its SSX 3 memory and started jamming buttons. It was a very frustrating experience.
- On the positive side, I really like the new music in the game. I looked over the track list and did not recognize any of the songs. And the only musician I knew was Skrillex, but only because that name comes up a lot. I've never heard any of his music. So like in SSX 3, I'm hoping to discover some music that it completely new to me.
- The game really is beautiful and it sounds great. The courses are a mad blur as you speed through them. I understand why all of the reviewers say the old games feel sluggish in comparison. I just hope my old hands and mind can keep up.
- At the end of the night, I was left feeling disappointed. I know that some of that was because I was tired. And I know some is that learning the controls will take some time. But I will be back to try again.
© 2012 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
