My Mass Effect Review

You have been waiting for it, and finally, after a long playthrough, here it is:

My Mass Effect Review.

Mass Effect is an excellent game. No really, it is excellent.

But - there are always buts - it has its flaws. And those can't be neglected, even if I would personally like to do so. As with all reviews, there are two ways to review something: a more subjective way and one where you try to find as much objective things to tell about.

I, personally, am a hardcore RPG-player and thus tend to like most RPGs even if they are not so great. With that out of the way, let's start.

The version played was the German collectors edition.

The translation is generally good, even if there are some things I have to complain about:

• The manual tells me about a biotic power called 'Einzigartigkeit'...WTF? Singularity, yes, and there is a German word for it: 'Singularität'. Why not use it?
• The manual has several spelling mistakes in the credits. Not so big, but hey.
• When I leave the Normandy, a female voice tells me something like: 'Commander went abroad, the command is now with Navigator Presley'. Ok, that's fine. But when I come back, just before beeing decontaminated, that voice says exactly the same. Doesn't make much sense to me. Hello, I'm back?
  
• The combat chatter is mucho messed up. When I've killed the enemies in any, I repeat ANY given area, my companions will give me feedback - that's cool. But why is that feedback 90% of the time: 'AAAARgh', 'My turn! (Wrex's voice, even if he's not in the group)', 'Shields are down!! (even if that's not true)'? Come on. Mistakes of that kind are really not necessary.
• And on a side-note: when playing on a non-HD TV, you will have difficulties reading the text at times.
  

And on to the Gameplay. This is quite fluid, most of the time....until you get command of the Normandy.

• Why, why on Earth are the elevators to slow???
• The disc spinning like crazy in the drive searching for the right place is annoying too, but I can live with it.
• The texture pop-ups are also annoying, but it's been discussed and it's because of those poor guys who bought a core edition Xbox360 without a hard-drive. The Unreal Engine has nothing to do with it.

There are two major points concerning the Gameplay which are really pissing me off.

• The sidequests on the small planets. I have the strong feeling doing the same all over again on planets where the only difference is the texture. THIS IS NOT a good design.

• The deciphering mini-game. First, pressing buttons fast enough to get something done is not generally a bad idea - as long as its not overdone. It can build up tension, it can be something new...but not here. Salvage a drone? Button-Mashing sequence. Open a container? Button-Mashing sequence. Find an element in 4 rocks laying around? Button-Mashing sequence. And the list continues. It gets boring so incredibly fast....

And now that I think of it, there is more, not so bad, but still...

• You have the possibility to scan 'uncharted' worlds and asteroids and what not for your collectioning assignments. Not bad, but since I only have to use 'Y' to do so, I have a look at every planet and if 'Y' is greyed out I just zoom out again. Why bothering making a text for those planets? Why not leave them out alltogether? That doesn't make any sense. I bought a game to play. Repetitive things are always not good, especially in an RPG.
• The inventory. I don't even complain that there's only Armor, Weapons, and Mods...But I DO complain that the descriptions and names are completely useless for the most part (Duelist I - VIII, wow that's creative), and that the pictures are boxes. BOXES. I understand that weapons and such are usually sold in some kind of containers, but when I buy something IN A GAME I want to see it. Even in reality I assume that I could open the box? But No. Boxes. Yellow, red, grey.
• And the micro-management needed to sort out all the stuff you find...it's so incredibly tedious. Again, for a video game - there are better possibilities and this is not a good design.
• Also - why do my comrades only have to say something new after main missions? Yes I understand that it would have been difficult to give them things to say just in between. But it would have been nice nonetheless.

Which brings me to the parts where Mass Effect really shines.
The dialogues are marvelous. The story is really good, and the dialogue wheel is revolutionary.
It makes so much fun to just talk.
You will be playing the game in hope for another one of those sequences, with the most excellent camera work I have seen until now in any game. It's incredibly cinematic. The outcomes of your choices are also very well balanced while still surprising. That's fresh, that's green, this is what makes Mass Effect excellent. And this is what will make you play it again. The roles and the characters are very well developed, and the overall story is much better than what the book foreshadowed (the book was incredibly predictable, and full of clichéed characters, IMHO)
There's not so much character development, but still - Mass Effect tells a great story, which all RPG-Fans are probably going to enjoy.

PS: And Mass Effect needs to get an Award for beeing one of those rare games where a relationship is well (not perfect - well) depicted. The small erotic scenes are gracefully directed, very well done. To show a relation in a game is a very difficult task with lots of mistakes that can easily be done, narrowing it down to pure sex or using stupid clichees all over. Not here. Mass Effect shows the romances in a perfect way. I mean it.

Melpomene + Thalia rating: 9.0/10 (9.0 out of 10)
If you are NOT an RPG-fan, it could be more something like:
Melpomene + Thalia rating: 7.5/10 (7.5 out of 10)

Mass Effect GT review

Here's the review embedded. Sry that it's too large for da frame, but hey, it's ME!!!!

Mass Effect Launch Trailer

Awesome. Say what you want, this is definitively a

10 out of 10

in every aspect.

the Truth...

...is spoken by Weird Al.




...more to come:)

Tenacious D and the pick of Destiny

Welcome to the first review!
So today I'm going to talk you through "Tenacious D and the pick of Destiny".
Wow. What a name! And where to start!

So, what we have here, is a very nice little flick about the famous - or perhaps 'obnoxious' might be the more appropriate word- band formed by Jack Black and Kyle Gass.

It's definitively a comedy, playing largely on absurdities (as we know them from former Jack Black movies) and obscenities. I like obscenities, you see, it's always hilarious to 'shock' the audience with vulgarities which apparently have no limits.

This concept works very well throughout the movie, and it's also - apart from beeing a comedy - a music movie.
This part mostly focuses on some kind of weird melange between classic/glam hard rock and acoustic guitar impromptus. I like them.

So, in this movie, JB (Jack Black) has the dream of becoming the best Rockmusician EVER.

To achieve this task, he sets out to find Hollywood, and once arrived, teams up with KG (Kyle Gass). This latter individual does not see the high conception behind JBs plan and tries to 'train' him (very funny scenes indeed). But despite rigorous (penis-based) training sessions both of them fail to have a huge success.

Accidentally they discover that all really successful bands possessed the POD (Pick of Destiny).

So they seek the said pick, which can be found in a Rock and Roll museum, where they break in, and get the pod.

So the story doesn't give much, but what makes this movie really nice (apart from the fun you'd expect from a comedy) are basically three things:

A) The overall acting is far better than most of the acting I've seen this year.

B) There are some cool cameo appearances, including Meat Loaf, Ronnie James Dio (as himself) and Ben Stiller. (And Tim Robbins as the stranger.)

C) The transitions between the chapters. Those are based on the Raider-Waite Tarot and ressemble a lot the old transitions the Monty Pythons troupe used.

The music is also nice. The movie has enough drive to get you through some of the more lengthy passages (which are also there).

There's just one flaw, but that one is major.

Anyone remember Wayne's World? Any movie-comedy flick is going to be related to those masterpieces. And Wayne's World OWNS Tenacious D. Especially considering the cameo appearances, and the music.

But anyway, I personally had a blast watching it, I've waited for years for such a movie. So go and rent it:)

Hope you liked that review. Cya soon:)
IMDB - Link: Yes
DVD available: Yes
Melpomene/Thalia rating: 7.5/10 (7.5 out of 10)

Sorry

Hi there!
Sorry - I planned on posting here the first review (on Die Hard 4, like everyone lately)...
But unfortunately I'm still busy with working out the wiki for the University of Bayreuth, writing documentation , coaching the guys and so on.

So according to my current schedule I didn't have the time to go to the movies to see Mr. Willis kicking ass.

This basically means that I'll probably start with the Die Hard trilogy (had planned to do them anyway...).

Or else, the Terminator series, Rambo and the blue light, Death Trance, Pathfinder (OMFG) - it's not too late for you to decide!

Just tell me what review you'd like to read first while I'm doing my Computer-based juju thingy.

On a side note - hop over here and have a look at my latest creation concerning project 'Decisions' and drop me a line!

Farewell traveler. May your path be ...'fruity'.