If you’ve noticed, there’s been a distinct lack of posts on this blog.
My reasons are simple and predictable.
I’ve been playing too much Mass Effect.
Last week was pretty much dedicated to the first person action shooter. I got a ‘bee in my bonnet’ and wanted to finish the main quest of the game purely because I wanted to play the DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker so that I could reconcile with my lover from the first game Liara. Unlike most, I didn’t fall into the temptation of other lovers for this game purely because I couldn’t help but feel that the choice of partners for Female Shepard was somewhat limited in Mass Effect 2 (A reptile and a toad – and I dare anybody to describe them otherwise). The Male Shepard clearly had all the fun in this game (Miranda, hello…) so I decided to stick with my old love and be done with it.
It doesn’t often happen that I find myself so engrossed in a game which has lead me to realize that I’ve mentally moved this one up to that bar of greats in my mind, those games that I use to measure every other game that I play against. And, I have to admit that I like it a lot more than I did Fallout 3. I won’t lie and say that Fallout still holds a very dear place in my heart but Mass Effect is so good. Graphics aside, the storyline, the dialogue, the interpersonal relations with your crew and the magnitude of the world that Bioware created has blown me out of the sky in a very big Normandy 1 kind of way. The suicide mission was engrossing and the potential for how it played out almost endless.
I played a smart game, gaining the loyalty of all the key members of my crew first. I favoured Samara, Miranda Lawson, Dr. Mordin Solus, Tali and occasionally Legion and Garrus in my squad. Jack irritated the hell out of me (she has a terrible history I know but unfortunately that terrible history also made her INCREDIBLY rude). For my suicide squad I used mainly Miranda and Mordin Solus (purely because he thought that I was hitting on him in conversation and politely blew me off, what other person in the galaxy had the guts to do that to Commander Shepard?!). I knew the value of loyalty in Mass Effect and made a point of choosing only members whose loyalty I had. In my first play through, I managed to get the ‘no one left behind’ medal. Easy as pie. The galaxy was saved from the Collectors, I killed a Reaper and Miranda Lawson saved my life, something I’m sure gave her one hell of a kick.
I was so enraptured by the game that when I wasn’t playing it, I was writing Fan Fiction (a story named Three focused on my Shepard’s past) to get rid of the brain itch this story line gave me. It was invigorating, not just the game playing but writing as well. I’ve had a bit of a slump in my creativity of late so big was my surprise when I managed to dish out more than 8000 words in less than four days.
I’ve completed the suicide mission and Lair of the Shadow Broker (all in one night). Kissed and made up with Liara T’soni and had the satisfaction of seeing another Spectre of the Council fall from grace. Not bad for a day’s work!
The new Mass Effect will be released in March 2012. It feels like an INCREDIBLY long wait. This is really one of the best games that I’ve played in my life.
Hopefully life on the blog will return to normal now…
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