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Matthew Sakey noted here…

Every gamer has similar stories, of games that weren’t worth their money and games worth hugely more. We are just as thrilled with surprises as we are disappointed by games we had high expectations for.

Q1 2010 had maybe the largest gluttony of A+ releases of all time. Sadly my wallet is ever thinning and I wasn’t able to purchase all the games I wanted time of release so decisions had to made. Mass Effect 2 was one of the games that got pushed back in favor of Bioshock 2 and God of War 3. Final Fantasy 13 waits for the $20 price point.

For both Bioshock 2 and God of War 3 I got deals I was happy with at the time  but nowhere as good as the $10 dollars I got a new copy of Mass Effect 2.

Mass Effect 2 is the best Role Playing Experience I’ve ever been apart of. Note not “Role Playing Game”. Bioware has taken the pleasure of streamlining the entire experience of a ‘RPG’  but ultimately not really sacrificing anything. JJA does a better job of writing about the differences between the first and the second game and really I agree with most of what he says. I only want to talk about two most important aspects of the game and that’s the morality systems and the loyalty systems.

If given the choice in a game I will always play as the bad/evil/rancid human being. In trying to understand this phenomenon I believe it stems from in 95% of media you have no choice in being or following ‘The Saviour’. Mass Effect allows you to play either ‘Renegade’ where points are gained for apathetic and ruthless actions and ‘Paragon’ where points are gained for compassionate and heroic actions. Most of the time the outcome will be the same just approached a different way but in Mass Effect 2 the added layers make the choices much harder to make.

For the first 80% of the game I was taking the path of the Renegade but in turn shitting all over everybody including teammates. Really all this means is I was an asshole to everybody like I was in ME1. Compassion was thrown out the window and I didn’t give a crap about how anybody felt about me. I went as far as to have a very brief implied sexual encounter with an emotional teammate I hardly knew and sabotaged any growth in that relationship.

Late in the game I was becoming aware the end was near. I would have to take this team to the heart of ‘The Collectors‘ and I knew it was going to be a team effort. I started to become aware this team might not be as “Loyal” as I need them to be. I found Shepard becoming more compassionate and when asked to ask “Are You OK?” to a teammate I found myself asking that more then I ever did before. I also started making choices that didn’t go along with my run and gun fuck everybody Shepard I carried over from the first game. Mass Effect 2 without even knowing changed Shepard to a more complex character then I ever  thought possible.

The Loyalty system in Mass Effect 2 is maybe the largest stroke of genius in RP games of all time. In most RPG’s you either use characters becuase you have to or you use them because you like them. Mass Effect 1 I used Garrus the entire game becuase he was my favorite character. In turn I missed out using many characters becuase there was no reason to. The game even promoted that reasoning with the achievements for playing the game primarily using one teammate for a length of time.

For Mass Effect 2 for the best outcome you HAVE to use every character, at least for awhile, and work to earn their loyalty to the cause. In turn that makes you WANT to use every character for them to be ready for the final battle. Seriously I cannot believe nobody hasn’t come up with this before. Your team works for you but you have to work for them to work better for you. Every boss should be as involved in their employee’s lives as Shepard is.

The Loyalty missions vary in quality (as do all the missions it’s a long story and I’m not going to talk about it) but every character in the game I was able to spend enough time with and suffer no consequences for leveling mostly is a community task in Mass Effect 2. By the end I had a high awareness of what teammate would serve the tasks at hand and by the final battle you can choose what people you want to tackle the final boss with.

Despite every fault:

• Not enough mini games
• Long loads after death
• Cerberus Network/$DLC model
• Over simplified leveling, equipment choices, armor choices
• Not a single elevator (seriously the easiest inside joke they could have made of all time including one mandatory elevator ride)
• Thermo Clips (I liked the idea  of heat weapons of ME1. I think Bioware wanted to include the strategy of reloading and stronger cover mechanics in the sequel for some reason)

Mass Effect 2 really is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had. The final mission is seriously genius and even if one is having a hard time getting though the first game the second is a must play in my book. It’s fantastic. There is so much to discuss….

Statistics: Vanlandw Shepard Level 27 Vanguard. Traveled to 100% of the non $DLC planets. No active Missions or Assignments. 875g 45 of 54 achievements. Played on ‘Hardcore’ difficulty throughout the entire game. My final romance was with Tali. Implied sex with two female teammates.

Suicide Mission requires important player choices these were mine. Vents: Tali Squad Leader One: Garrus Shields: Samara Squad Leader Two: Garrus Escort: None (stupid mistake I was caught up in the moment oh well) Final Team Miranda/Grunt (thinking balance Miranda Maxed out Warp skill Grunt powerful weapons really I don’t think it mattered who I choose you don’t need a single skill other then incinerate).

Time Played 48h.57m. I blew all my credits on upgrades before going though Omega-4 relay so I only had 19811 left over.

I went though a phase where I was going to mine and deplete every planet in the solar system out of spite for the Milky Way but abandoned that idea. Ended up with 861940 Palladium, 1003447 Irdium, 827969 Platinum, 147037 Element Zero left over at end game. Suggestion: Don’t  play the mining game too much I would suggest to just mine the planets with “Rich” content but make sure to travel to all planets to get bonus missions  and experience.

Update: In a move I don’t understand at all after the great usage of licensed music for the end of Mass Effect 1 the credits roll over a nondescript instrumental. Guess they ran out of budget money this time around.

One of these days I’m planning a Paragon female bi-sexual run.

Nobody seemed very happy about my final choice so before Mass Effect 3 comes out I  might replay the final 10% of the game and change a few decisions I disliked and screwed up on.

I also forgot to mention why this post is titled what is is. Shepard is seriously hysterical. There were multiple times I was laughing hysterically at him. There is a part where he can dance with a woman on a loyalty mission that is so funny. Also don’t forget Shepard slugging the reporter.

“I’ve had enough of your disingenuous assertions” BLAM!´Seriously that is so funny.

Considering the recent drought of content at my sister site they.misled.us I’ve decided on “calling it”.

Time of death: July 13, 2010

After over a month of complete and utter inactivity they.misled.us has officially passed to the world of the dead. Today I felt the need to bring the world “up to speed” on the unsudden demise.

After years of flourishing content and fever a once live community has dwindled to the activity of a young boys Lemonade Stand. A non-prospering  largely ignored corner of the road/internet left for bitter tasting memories.

Regardless, I implore everyone to please browse the ever standing ARCHIVES of past successes to remove the sadness brought by recent sadness. A once loved and nurtured section of the World Wide Web has been brought to it’s bitter end. You will be missed they.misled.us, only time will tell if you will return from the grave and surprise us all.

R.I.P.

At first I wasn’t going to write a post about Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things but I found something I wanted to share 262 pages into the book.

As has been apparent to us from studying hoarding, we may own the things in our homes, but they own us as well. Objects carry the burden of responsibilities that include acquisition, use, care, storage, and disposal. The magnitude of these responsibilities for each of us has exploded the expanding number of items in our homes during the past fifty years. Having all these possessions has caused a shift in our behavior away from human interaction to interaction with inanimate objects. Kids now spend more time online, playing video games, or watching TV alone in their rooms than interacting with family or friends. Possessions originally sold on the promise that they would make life  easier and increase leisure time have done just the opposite. Often both parents  work longer hours to support an ever-increasing array of new conveniences that lead to spending less and less time together.

For as long as I can remember things have always interested me. People’s living quarters and their belongings have the ability to distract. After watching a few episodes of the show “Hoarders” it was facinating the see the way people can live their lives having so much crap.

Never was I the extent to the cases in the book but I think most have some of the traits of even extreme hoarders. Only up till recently I was able to part with many things I’ve held and moved with me since college that I haven’t used in years. It wasn’t difficult to part with  the items but part of me still wonders if it was the right thing to do. Though rougher parts of my life I’m sure still today at times find comfort being surrounded with things and things I truly value.

Regardless I wanted to write something to bring  attention to a book and topic I found extraordinarily interesting. Rather then even attempt to summarize something better the review from the New York Times does the job perfectly.

To those who need to understand hoarders, perhaps in their own family, “Stuff” offers perspective. For general readers, it is likely to provide useful stimulus for examining how we form and justify our own attachments to objects.

While I wait for my Xbox 360 to be returned from the grave I was struggling on finding something I felt like playing  on any other platform. When my 360 bit a bullet I was about three hours into Mass Effect 2 and I REALLY wanted to continue playing Mass Effect 2. For about eight days I didn’t touch a video game and it was fantastic as I was able to spend some time doing other hobbies and activities.

While at work at Thursday and having just a horrible day all around I was mentally thinking about fleeing, hiding and playing video games all night. Thinking about what games I already own nothing sounded like fun and had a rare retail bug and decided “ef it”. My mind was made up and I was going to buy a new game <gasp> not on sale.

The first game that came to mind for reasons I’ll never be able to decipher was Uncharted: Fillion’s Fortune.

Shit, I mean “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune“.

To get this out of the way the player character of the game (Nathan “Nate” Drake) looks, sounds and is clearly inspired by Nathan Fillion somehow. Hell they share the same first name and I’m not alone in this deduction. Nathan Drake feels just like Malcolm Reynolds without having any tough guy qualities or notable skills and is written to be WAY too likable.

All the while mowing down countless human lives like a serial killer. Again I’m not alone in this deduction.

The non-playable cut scenes are well put together and the game’s strongest point. Drake and his token love interest (had to Google the name here I couldn’t even remember) Emily do have strong chemistry and you can genuinely tell in the game the actors were in the same room and that is a rarity in video game voice acting I’m sure.  On the disk there are “making of” videos that show how they filmed the motion capture (example here).

Completion stats for anybody interested. Took me 9 Hours 10 Minutes per my save game time to finish the game on “Hard” difficulty and was able to find 40 of 60 “Treasures” and earn 660 of 1000 “Medal Points”. After taking 10 mins and grinding a series of easy silver level trophies in the end I earned 74% of the trophies (37 of 48).

Uncharted is a game that is victim of needing to give the player something to do. An adventure game finding treasure and searching ruins with limited to no action just isn’t going to sell the units needed to make such a beautiful well acted game. Thus Mr. Nathan “Fillion” Drake became a sharpshooting mass murdering nice guy and Uncharted became Pitfall with Bullets. This I’m not saying is a bad thing I beat the game in two five hour sittings.

I’m too old for this shit. Undecim: 2

Update: (This update is bullshit I wrote this before even saving a draft) After doing some research on Drake apparently he’s based partially on Johnny Knoxville.

I also wanted to note that the “Everyman” trend in video games protagonists  is getting frustrating. Nolan North (VA f/ Drake and the guy from Shadow Complex ect) has been behind many of these characters that I ultimately end up disliking. North does good work but devs need to stop having “everymen” have the ability to kill countless people and overcome countless impossible odds. It’s a trait I don’t identify with behind the barrel of a gun in games for some reason. SOMETHING needs to set you apart from everybody else. Gordon Freeman is a theoretical physicist and has the hazard suit. Drake has a cute smile and a stylish pair of jeans….and apparently the abilty to absorb 300 bullets over the course of his adventure in paradise.

I believe my thoughts in regards to this trend and Uncharted is the rate of enemy encounters. If Uncharted was a three hour game and had less encounters more the action would feel warranted. On the flip side if the game was about fishing treasure from the bottom of the ocean with an appraisal mini-game in between I would complain the game is boring and needs more shooting.

Update 2: (A real one) I forgot to mention I have no idea how this game only got a “T” rating from the ESRB. 90% of the game you are violently using firearms directly upon human beings with blood coming from all hits. Also characters will say “god damn” and “shit” and there is smoking. I guess limbs must be flying and the “F” word must be said at least once to earn “M”. I guess Drake is so charming the ESRB folks decided to let him slide.

Update 3: Yahtzee says everything else I forgot to mention here.

As a younger man diet was never anything I worried about. Time moves forward and I’ve found a large interest in processed foods, ingredients, and ultimately how deceiving food can be. After watching Food Inc and reading Food Rules that two hour commitment was enough to make one frightened to eat lunch. After reading a blurb about “What You Don’t Know About Orange Juice” was enough for me to be interested in the history and creation of one of my favorite beverages severed cold.

Squeezed by Alissa Hamilton: The book ended up being a lot different then I thought it would be. Going into it I thought (as I’m sure most would) the book would answer the question “Is orange juice good for me”? If they were going to write an entire book about a beverage that would be the first question I would want answered.

By the end this question is not answered, but honestly it’s not a big deal because the author answers it here.

Squeezed is more about the history, psychology, and business behind the orange juice industry. My favorite part of the book was the explanation of the creation of pasteurized juice and how food labels can be so deceiving.  Seriously who has a freaking clue how most food is made and how much garbage can be put into something that is labeled as healthy.

I could explain the book more so if you read the Q&A link and found some of what I’m talking about here interesting the book is for you. Another short read the text is slightly over 200 pages not including timeline, notes, and index. Recommended here’s an excerpt from the Q&A but takes content found in the book.

DEAS: What isn’t straightforward about orange juice?

HAMILTON: It’s a heavily processed product. It’s heavily engineered as well. In the process of pasteurizing, juice is heated and stripped of oxygen, a process called deaeration, so it doesn’t oxidize. Then it’s put in huge storage tanks where it can be kept for upwards of a year. It gets stripped of flavor-providing chemicals, which are volatile. When it’s ready for packaging, companies such as Tropicana hire flavor companies such as Firmenich to engineer flavor packs to make it taste fresh. People think not-from-concentrate is a fresher product, but it also sits in storage for quite a long time.

GROSS……but so good I love OJ so much in the mornings with toast and coffee.

For the last year a good portion of my time has been spent south of Grand Rapids in the Saugatuck/Douglas area. I’ve known about this book for some time as a coffee house (that is actually featured in a story in the book) I frequent has had copies for sale for some time. The book was listed as part of the summer reading program at the GRPL so there were copies in abundance. Figured it was about time…

At Least In The City Someone Would Hear Me Scream by Wade Rouse: The book reads like a cross between David Sedaris and a rural checklist. Clearly Wade Rouse is gay and is slightly candid with his relationship with his partner and along with the Michigan backdrop did bring some truly funny moments. There are a lot of pop culture references and relatable moments being a “Michigander” and a working stiff urbanite.

Many of Wade’s battles are some myself struggle with looking to the future. Currently I live in the slightly large town of Grand Rapids and finding desires to move to the slightly small town of Saugatuck. Wade’s starting lessons are larger then anything I would ever want but his ending goal I found similar.

The book is a quick read and highly recommended for anybody who is a fan of the Sedaris style of storytelling.

Recently I’ve been spending a lot more time reading.  In my adult life I’ve found my free time interests seem to be cyclical. For awhile I’ll go though periods where I’ll read a lot. Then I’ll switch over to watching a lot of film or catch up on TV programs. Up till now for about a year I was really heavy into PS3/360 gaming. My lack of enthusiam with this years E3 conference and future industry offerings along with my 360 failing again, I’ve switched back over to reading for the short term. For my next series of posts I wanted to put together some thoughts on what I’ve been reading.

Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemejer Hansson: I’ve always been interested in books about process or life improvement in regards to work time or personal finance management. My discovery with these type of books are it’s impossible to take these books as 100% “I’m going to live my life exactly like the text says”.

Any book like this I take a look at what I’m already doing and take pieces and try to implement what I find could into my life. The 4-Hour Work Week is a great example. My lifestyle and interests didn’t lead me to a path of disconnected entrepreneurial bliss but I did learn about how my time is much more valuable then I ever understood it was. Your Money or Your Life resonated similarly with me. The first step in the book was to learn to jot down ALL of your purchases to keep track of where your money is going daily. That is something my brain couldn’t comprehend but parts of that book I was able  to implement in my personal money management.

Rework I approached the same way as bits from the book I was able to learn from but clearly this book was not  written for my career path in mind. Rework is structured like a condensed visual manifesto of a series of rules and lessons the authors used as a backbone to start their small software development company. Many of the rules are retread of ideals I believe in (meetings are crap/commitment to customer service) to thoughts for the future (the proper way to mean your sorry/ef ASAP).

The book is a very short read coming in under 300 pages and I would say over half the pages being illistrations. This book is availble though the GRPL and I would say would be worth a purchase in trade back form. For people in management roles or the self employeed this book might be of higher value. I enjoyed the hard hitting writing style but some might not find the book interesting or up their alley but ultimately it comes recommended.