Review: Mass Effect 2

The first Mass Effect was a major turn off to me. Why was there so much hype around the sequel? In fact, the hype was so big, I decided to borrow my friend's copy of ME1 in order to have a save file ready to import to Mass Effect 2.

Mass Effect 2 continues the story of Alliance space marine, Commander Sheperd. In the first Mass Effect, he finds out that a race of hyper advance, sentient machines, The Reapers, will someday return from the void beyond the galaxy to wipe out all life as we know it. I steer away from mentioning story elements to spoil the game, but as soon as you boot the game up, Sheperd is killed in action five minutes into the opening cinematic. He's brought back to life however by the mysterious Cerberus group, a pro-human radical organization who truly believes in the threat of the Reapers unlike the majority of the population who dismiss them as a myth. Sheperd continues his quest under a tense truce with Cerberus knowing something bad is going down in the galaxy.

Let's talk - Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Spirit Tracks now stands as one of my favorite DS games with genuine integration of it's technology. Look at Pokemon and how it's popular. Yes, it is, but because the game itself is good. It doesn't really do anything to take advantage of the the hardware. It uses it for convenience, like selecting attacks, but that's about it.

2010: A new year to spend money on

A month into 2010 and it finally dawned on me that there are some very interesting games to look forward to. I don't really get this feeling halfway into the year. Sure I got Blazblue halfway, but that's a special case of the revival of the 2D fighter. Now moving completely into 2010 (along with an intimidating Mass Media Law class) I've realized all those demos I've played and previews I've read are about to come to fruition. These are the games I'm putting money down.

The excitement of HD, now on your classic memories!

via: iPlaywinner, SNK's Battle Coliseum for Xbox Live Arcade Gets HD Upgrade

The sprite on the left is the original one from one of SNK's older, swan song fighting crossover games, Battle Coliseum. On the right is the improvement we'll be seeing when it hits the digital distribution market. A very noticeable improvement, especially considering how popular Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is and it didn't get any significant HD improvement (though it got additional filter options to customize how noticeable its age was).

In case you didn't know, I just got an HD capable tv for Christmas, so all these HD improvements to older games is a great thing to look forward to.

One Prestige Later: favorite maps, load outs, and other random bits

Yes! Another MW2 post! Well, I haven't finished Spirit Tracks yet, so I'm holding off on that for a while. But I have finally prestiged, which is when you hit the level cap (in this case, 70) and decide, "I'm so good, I'll do the rest of the world a favor and reset all my stats and do it all over fresh!"