This is as big and dramatic as they come...and boy, this maybe Microsoft's last ace up it's sleeves.

After it's recent price cut in the US as well as their new Xbox interface with a new dashboard in the new Xbox Experience and Avatars, you'd think that knowing Microsoft, they'd do something big. Well, you'd be right but even for Microsoft, this is big.

On Wednesday September 25th from 7pm East Coast time in the US (Thats Midnight here), in a deal with G4TV, Microsoft will dramaticlly relaunch the Xbox 360 in a big way.

The rumor is so big, we've decided to break into a handy list, after the jump.

• Microsoft have bought up to 5 hour's TVtime from G4 to relaunch Xbox 360
• Anybody who has Live will be able to download the stream from Live (No, you didnt see things)
• New Xbox Experience to Launch on the Night
• You can run Sirus Radio through your 360 for a monthly fee with no extra hardware
• A new music service will be coming in the shape of either artist's music (Radiohead etc) for a price or some gaming music (Halo, Gears of War) for free
• A new channel, Lib, will be added to the Xbox Experience but it's not known what Lib is
• A preview of Grand Theft Auto IV: Episode One, Portal: Still Alive, a free Halo 3 map pack and a new Mass Effect expansion all to be released on Marketplace soon after the re-launch
• Assassins Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, a new shooter franchise from Rare, a new Conker and 2 new Halo games will be unveiled the same night (We assume this is Peter Jackson's Halo Project and Bungie's new Halo)
• All the games mentioned though have been given codenames (Apricot, Burden, Conker, Dramatis, Error, Fender, Gargoyle, Hiroshima, Ignorance, Jeremiah, Kyoto, London)
• 6 new Xbox Originals would be on the service exclusive to Gold Members on Xbox Live with Halo being free but it will only stand for memebers who have had their accounts for so long etc etc

Wow...

I will get this checked on throughout the afternoon but if this is true...incredible.

September 25th rumor. [VGChartz]

Oh Snap! Xbox Live is having a promotion called "Extended Play Download Days" going on. A lot of content has been marked down from price. Games like Mass Effect, Lost Odyssey, and even Oblivion have had some of their content marked down for this special. So I urge you to check out the link. I know I'll be picking up Mass Effect's "Bring Down The Sky" pack.

Rating: 9 Out of 10

Mass Effect is the newest game from the KOTOR company, Bioware Studios. This game is a great game because it has amazing graphics and audio (voice acting and music alike.) The storyline for this game is very well done and it pulls you in and always wondering what is going to happen. Dialogue options can leave you doing many different things in different situations while on your missions. This game is a very long game with tons of quests and side missions that will keep you busy for hours. However, there are some interface issues and the vehicle control could use some improvements. Overall, this is a very fun game and if you liked Knights of the Old Republic, you should try this game out.

Pros:

+ Powerful storyline draws you into a tense, politically charged universe

+ Dialogue options will keep you constantly engaged in your missions

+ Great visuals and superb voice acting

+ Biotic powers are fun to pull off in battle

Cons:

- Vehicle navigation and combat are weak

- A bunch of annoying interface issues

Mass Effect Cheat Codes

Mass Effect - Music File - M4 Part 2 (Faunts)

Whatever other well known reviewers say bout the game, giving it a measly above average grade, this game would stand the test of time. I simply can’t wait for the other two iterations (its a planned trilogy) whether it be a multiplatform game or not.

I’ve been reading a lot for the past few weeks with regard to the sex scene within the game - an utter overreaction by Fox Network and concerned ‘parents’. Videogames tagged as a medium of entertainment targeted at kids is so early 90s. Let me guess, groups calling for the crucifixion of Bioware and EA are the same bunch of people who desired Midway’s demise back in the early 90s when Mortal Kombat was released for the SNES and Genesis - a bit of an exaggeration, but hey, still the same argument.

Gamers can’t simply agree more with EA mentioning that compared to what Mass Effect visually presents on screen, FOX apathetically exhibit more of that through their various raunchy collection of TV series.

An AMD quad-core Phenom 9600 2.3Ghz CPU
Geforce 9800GTX 512MB Video Card
Corsair 650W Power Supply
Mushkin 4GB DDR2 1066 RAM
2 500GB WD sata HD's
19 inch Widescreen LCD
20x DVD-RW (black)
Cooler Master 534r Black Case w/ 2 Fans

And finally the most important part, and the part that has delayed the system...
Gigabyte GA-m750SLI Motherboard

Why delayed you ask? Well I got the system, put all together, plugged it in, and..... nothing. I had to rush off to school before I could test anything though. So I call my brother for some ideas, and the minute I get home I start testing the system.

I start with the PSU I disconnect all cables and do the ol' paper clip jump start trick. It works. Sweet.

Then comes pulling everything out, and seeing if the motherboard will work OUTSIDE of the case. ( this is done on a non-static surface like say, the box the motherboard came in, NOT the anti-static bag, as the outside of the bag can attract static energy) Get all necessary stuff out and plug everything in, and...

Bright flash, and smoke. What happened? Well, the motherboard was grounded when sitting inside the case. This can be a common problem, and that is why you build outside the case first to see if everything works, but I was in a hurry and skipped it. So that's why it didn't power up. Finally when the motherboard powered up it popped a capacitor that already had damage from the factory, I just energized it. So I rma'ed it because newegg is awesome like that. (thanks Aaron) But I expressed it because I am impatient :)  So I will fill you in how the system performs when I get the MOBO back. As for now the LCD is awesome( I plugged it into my laptop and it looks great.) The CPU works, memory, and PSU are fine. the HD's powered up for that split second of harmony, and the dvd writer is fine. So I just need to check the Videocard as I have not tested that.
I

also put an extra 80mm fan in the front of the case to help with the HD's. I am little worried because the Video card is huge and takes up a lot of room, so I thought more airflow could never hurt. The case has 2 120mm fans one in the back and one on the side. It also has a vent so I should be ok there.

My only plans thus far is to build this and see how it does. Play lots of Spore and Mass Effect, and Fallout 3 when it comes out. Then I will probably get a second video card for awesome gameplaying. My Mobo can handle both cards but I will probably have to get a bigger PSU.

I will post pics and a how-to when I get my motherboard. I will also post a 3dmark rating and a vista rating of everything when I install the OS. Also to come, review of Spore, Supreme Commander, Mass Effect, Fallout 3 and one more that I haven't decided on yet.

Mass Effect, from Bioware, is an absolutely incredible achievement.  It is rare that a videogame will come along and squeeze its way into my list of all-time faves, but this one manages that very task without so much as breaking a sweat!

I am a huge fan of Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic games on the original Xbox (and PC) and because of this I had been eagerly anticipating Mass Effect since...well...the start of time.  In fact, the only game that I have been anticipating more is Alan Wake from Remedy, the guys behind the Max Payne games!

I will try a different approach for this review, I don't normally list the Pros and Cons of something, but I shall give it a shot and see how I feel about it!

PROS
The main story is very well written and could be found in any major motion picture - think Star Wars and you won't go far wrong.  This game is complete with as many twists and turns as any of your fave films.
The characters are very well-rounded, they have their own interesting back-stories, but more importantly than this, they are truly believable which is all too rare in Videogames.
This game is absolutely stunning, from the beautiful graphics to the realistic animations, and what is most impressive is the fact that they achieved this level of detail in something so enormous in scale.
The time it takes for completion - There is nothing worse than playing a truly great game only to have it end just as you were really getting into it, in this respect Mass Effect will not fail you, on the first play-through I did as many side missions as I could find and it took me around 40 hours to complete.
Notice I said FIRST play-through.  When I finished the game I immediately started again, using the SAME character.  Loved the game and want to try a higher difficulty setting but don't want to face a complete uphill struggle?  No problem, you can start from the beginning again, and you can choose to carry over your character complete with their level, stats, cash, and abilities!  Go on, do things differently this time.
The side missions are also very well written and a few of them have quite a lot of detail.  If they were to package together the side missions in Mass Effect they would be worthy of an entire game! And a very decent one at that!
The voice acting in Mass Effect is probably the best I have ever heard in a videogame. I could rhyme off a great number of games which have attempted to deliver realistic voice acting and fell flat on their faces. Previous moments of "But they would not respond like that!" or "This sounds like a robot talking!" are long gone, although having said that, there ARE robots in the game...and they DO sound like robots.
The soundtrack, as with KOTOR, is breathtaking. It features all the subtle emotional undertones you might expect from a quality film production and even throws in some fast-paced adrenaline pumping music you would find in a good blockbuster.
This game will have the players feeling proper EMOTIONS, these emotions are not forced down their throats, it just happens quite naturally.  There are a few big decisions near the end of the game, and I found myself taking a risk which did not pay off, and I honestly felt quite emotional about the aftermath.
It has monkeys in it! Everything which features a monkey is much better for having it. Oh, you want evidence? Ok, think of the film King Kong, and now think of that film minus the big monkey, you see my point?  Not enough proof?  Ok, try this on for size, think of Planet of the Apes, then remove the apes, now, do you understand?

CONS
In the early stages of the game the team-mate AI is very erratic, this does clear up as the game progresses and they act as you would expect them to in combat situations, but there will be early moments of frustration as you witness your team-mate standing in the open and "dying" all too easily.  I say dying, but it is more like being KO'd, they get back to their feet at the end of the battle so it's not as major a problem as it could be.
Many of the side-missions involve visiting the surfaces of planets and exploring them with the use of the Mako all-terrain vehicle.  I personally did not find this to be a problem, I actually enjoyed using the Mako, but some of the terrain can be rough going and this, added to a few of the more repetitive side-missions, may take slightly more patience than the average person can handle.
Lastly, and this is a very minor issue, and as with the Mako I personally had little problem with this. The game has quite a few minor graphical glitches, although you will not find a situation where you witness one after another, they seem to mostly happen at random and so they may not even crop up that often.

SUMMARY
As I mentioned at the start of this review, this game is an incredible achievement, one which should be experienced by anyone who:
Likes videogames.
Likes films.
Likes Sci-Fi in general.
Is an all-round decent, wise, and lovely person!
There is also talk of Mass Effect as being the first part in a trilogy of games...that second game can’t come soon enough for me.  To put this into context, I was dreaming of a sequel when I was only halfway through completing Mass Effect which shows how good this game is – I did not want it to end.

Oh, and one more thing, movie critic Roger Ebert has apparently elected himself as a one-man videogame-fighting machine. 
Ebert claims that videogames should not be considered as "art" because in his opinion, the choice that a player is given detracts from the overall view of the author - This is utter NONSENSE.  If anything, videogames have the potential to overtake films in the “art” stakes, simply BECAUSE they offer a level of interaction not found in film.

Ebert is an elitist, and what he fails to grasp is that his beloved medium of film was attacked on its introduction, and elitists at the time felt that films could never be accepted as a legitimate form of art!
As a medium, videogames are still in its infancy, to write them off with such flagrant disregard is an incredibly arrogant act, one which forced me to rethink my views on this otherwise thoughtful individual.

Make no mistake, Mass Effect IS art.

If "modern art" is an accepted form of art, then it baffles me that anyone has the audacity to suggest that videogames are not.  Present me with a great game with a lot of depth, and a pile of bricks, and I sure as hell know which one I would say is art!

It seems very simple. I'm a woman. I love women. I want to play as a woman. And yet, somehow, this is asking too much.

I look at games like Smash Brothers, or Mario Kart, and there's a huge roster of characters to pick from, but they're 90% male, and, as astute commenter Anneliese pointed out here,

The other (male) characters all have something to define and distinguish them from the crowd - a special feature no one else has that gives them a gameplay advantage. The female characters are defined by their femaleness.

And then in games where you don't have a choice of character, you're playing a guy. Since I'm very much a Nintendo gamer, in one-player games, I'm a guy...basically always. I'm Link or Mario or sometimes Luigi. Now, Nintendo does a good job of not enforcing hyper-masculinity for their characters (Link is downright pretty, and Mario, uh, collects rainbow-coloured stars and uses flower power to fight enemies) which makes a less off-putting environment for women, but other franchises suffer from the same guy-centrism without the balancing female-acceptance.

Unfortunately, I don't play first-person shooters (originally because I found the violence boring and pointless, but nowadays it's because my hands are too small to use an Xbox controller. No, really.) so I can't comment first-hand on gender issues in non-Nintendo games. But I've never seen my brothers play as a girl. Ever.

Until Mass Effect! Because, you see, there is a solution: let the players create their own characters. The story of Mass Effect looked interesting to me, so I settled myself in as guide-person to direct them to the coolest side-quests and watch it like I would a movie. We created a female character with some badass scars, named her Ripley, and had an awesome time with the game.

Allowing character customization also solves the problem of underrepresentation of people of colour, which I can't speak to personally but which is a serious issue. It's the perfect way to be inclusive without the risk of tokenism, since, by definition, the character can't be relegated to the sidelines as eye-candy (or whatever). Boring white guys can still play as boring white guys and won't have to be "threatened" by anything different, but everyone else will have the unusual opportunity to put themselves into the game world, and isn't that the point of video games?

It wouldn't work right away with some franchises-- I'm really amused at the idea of a customizable Mario-- but aren't we getting a little sick of seeing the same characters brought back from the dead again and again? It could breathe new life into some old franchises, to allow people to use their Miis as the main characters, for example. And it would force them to be a little more clever with their writing, coming up with a plot that works just as well for either gender.

A lot of original-storyline games are already doing this-- of the ones I own, Oblivion, Rock Band, and Mass Effect all had great character-building options-- but a lot inexplicably aren't, like Assassin's Creed and Halo. Character customization doesn't guarantee a perfect game-- cough, cough, FABLE, which forgot to allow you to be female-- but it gets us a lot closer and so I hope to see a lot more of it.

Por mi parte, como ya dije en posts anteriores y soy el editor (nohace falta aclarar) tengo un AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+/ 2 Gb.-800 Mhz. OCZ 5-5-15/ XFX Geforce 8600 GT 512 Mb OC (por mi nomas un poquito, Core de 540 a 611 Mhz.) 512 Mb/ Mother MSI K9AGM3-f (bueno, pero me gustaria el nuevo ASUS M3A78 jeje... graficos ATI HD 3200 Tecnologia Hibrida jaja muy bueno.

Resumiendo voy dejando que estoy jugando ahora, que no quiere decir que no haya jugado otros grandes titulos ya terminados y otros en espera, el que quiera deja su PC, y que estilo y clase de juego, y/o cual cree que deberia recomentdar para que otros no gasten su tiempo y plata y algunos juegos que no valen la pena.

AHORA ESTOY JUGANDO (ACTUALMENTE INSTALADOS EN LA PC)

MASS EFFECT (PATCH 1.01a) (y dps vuelto a crackear jeje)

SPACE SIEGE ( los que esperan que sea dungeon siege... les digo... no ven que dice space?? jeje chiste. Vale la pena si ya jugaste otras cosas 1, divierte, no si lo tenes que comprar)

TIME SHIFT (siempre de vez en cuando instalo algun shooter, ahora le toco a este que lo tenia esperando. standard.

SPLINTER CELL ( Chaos theory, pq la verdad me fallo la otra ves el ultimo Double agent de skullptura, pero debi cometer algun error y no tener los drivers bien algo asi.

Pro Evolution soccer 08 ( el de ps3 en pc por supuesto ) esperando el 09 dentro de poco, para los que no se enteraron

DEVIL MAY CRY 4 ( MUY BUENO, MEDIO DIFICIL POR AHI LO ADMITO, PERO ASI TIENE Q SER. SI O SI CON JOYSTICK)

NBA LIVE 08 ( Muy bueno como siempre, y con la ayuda para ellos de que para PC no tienen competencia x ahora, hoy me entere de que sale en octubre NBA 2K9, lo jugue para ps2 habiendolo relegado siempre pensando que la saga live era mejor, cosa que creo hasta algun tiempo atras, desde el NBA 2K7, este ultimo es mejor... valia la aclaracion ).-

Medieval 2 TOTAL WAR ( LA verdad recien empiezo, te tiene que gustar o gustar nomas la onda de este, para los que no tienen ni idea voy a tratar de guiarlos, pero tienen que conocer algo: civilization, Rome, y tiene cosas del juego de mesa T.E.G. jeje un poco de todos estos, pero va unos pasos mas alla con grandes graficos y bastante profundo).-

The Witcher ( Muy bueno, maduro, realista, por supuesto mitologico, buenos personajes , linea historia, combate bien de cerca y claro, con combos por tiempo de presion del Clic del mouse, algunas cosas de Oblivion, pero con mas orientacion visual diria yo, repito esta muy bueno

Bueno comenten y dejen los suyos, todo, dudas de aprches, consejos ayudas, anquitudes, trabas , problemas, todo recomendaciones.-

Ciao

Only, this isn't really possible if you want to avoid people you don't know. Because it throws you in the easiest match it can find, to get the most people playing together. In theory, this is wonderful, because you have more people playing in any given match, and more people usually = more fun. But when you're elitists like us you don't want anyone beyond your closely vetted and preened group getting to partake in your games. So we tried various different things to no avail, ending in frustration and a blind websearch to see if we could figure out how to sort it out.

Obviously the first port of call was the game manual for the game itself, but, as became startling apparent when I hit page 4 of the manual, that this wasn't actually a game manual at all; it was a glorified PR stunt to read on the way home after buying the game, I'd presume. Beyond page 4 there is nothing about how to play the game, nothing about any of the game mode, there isn't even a multiplayer page. On actually playing the game itself, there are two pages at the beginning. And that's just controls. That's it. Everything after that is just a faux tourism book about Liberty City. It took me about 5 minutes of searching through forums to eventually find out the answer to my problem (for those of you similarly stumped, you open your phone in single player, select player match, then select custom match. From there, you max out the private slots and invite your friends in the game ready screen.). That's 5 minutes I shouldn't have had to waste when it's a simple enough thing to put in the manual.

Don't get me wrong, I love it when a game developer puts in a load of unnecessary information about the game world in the manual. It does serve as something to read on the way home, but please, put some information about the game in the damn thing. I'm happy if you have a cohesive tutorial ingame to help me with most of the stuff, but you can hardly have a multiplayer tutorial now, can you?

Of course this brings me into the wider point I'm trying to make; game manuals are becoming (seemingly) more and more unnecessary, and thus are becoming more stringent on information, to the extent where some games barely come with them at all. I remember growing up spending ages just looking through the Baldur's Gate 2 manual, marvelling at all the information stored in it's pages. There were (if I remember correctly, and I could be utterly wrong and riddled with nostalgia) even short stories there. I mean, that's how you riegn in a gamer! Not this minimilistic control layout and breif description of game modes that passes for a manual today.

I'm about to grab a manual I can't remember much about from my shelf here and do a quick flick through to see if this argument holds up. I'm going to pick Mass Effect, because, as an RPG, there should be all the goodies I have come to expect from manuals in the past. Here goes.

To begin with, it's a little thicker than the GTA one, which is a good sign, although there is a lot of that tourism crap in the GTA one... anyway, on to opening it up. Ok, this is preliminarily good on the contents page, in that it has a lot of contents listed.. although, I think the fact that almost all of the things listed are on consecutive pages, and some even on the same page probably isn't a good thing.

One page on the Mass Effect universe, mostly consisting of a picture. Bad Bioware, bad!

Three pages on Character Creation, and while most of that is breif paragraphs outlining the classes you can choose, it's an improvement on page one.

Four pages on playing the game, covering everything from conversation and talents to combat and leveling up. I guess that's ok, but I'd have liked a little more detail.

Aha, I stand corrected. That was just a breif overview of playing the game, to be gone into much deeper detail over the course of the next ten or so pages. Excellent, four pages on just the combat, which, considering this is Mass Effect we're talking about, can only be a good thing.

I do so love it when a game manual has artist renderings of the weapons in the game. It gives you something to oogle at aswell as read about on the way home. It's funny, you obviously spend the most time reading a game manual in the time from purchase -> play, and perhaps during the first few minutes of the game itself. But how much help is it when something goes wrong? I'd wager this Mass Effect one would be rather helpful, but then I've never had any problems playing Mass Effect, so I don't know if that's true.

Ok, so going through the last few pages of the manual it does seem to lay out a rather cohesive plan of how to play the game, but then this almost serves as a good example of what the GTA manual was lacking without having everything the GTA manual did right. That being, helping immerse you in the world before you get to play in it. Half a page of text isn't really enough for something as big as Mass Effect, and it's actually rather surprising to see that little in an RPG manual. If anything, I'd have expected more info in the GTA manual and more fluff in the Mass Effect one. Either way, you don't really find the good heavy tomes of the past any more....

As you know, I have been playing Jade Empire.  Well, I have completed the game following the Way of the Open Palm.  There were some things with which I was disappointed.  The graphics are those of a last-generation game, as it is a last-generation game.  The dialogue trees aren't as intuitive as those in Mass Effect, and your character never actually says his or her lines.  Throughout the game, I used only two weapons.  There are also points where I was quite delighted.  The combat requires some skill, even later in the game.  The very best part of this game is the story.  Specifically, in the final third, it gets even better than the already great story-line of the first two thirds.

I recommended that you should check out Monkey: Journey to the West.  I stand behind my recommendation, but in case you're wondering why it isn't the usual Gorillaz fare, here is the Wikipedia description:

Monkey: Journey to the West is a stage adaptation of the 16th Century Chinese novel Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng'en. It was conceived and created by the Chinese actor and director Chen Shi-zheng, together with the British musician Damon Albarn and British artist Jamie Hewlett (the co-creators of the virtual band Gorillaz). However, the original idea came from Jean-Luc Choplin, head of the Chatelet Theatre in Paris.

Cordially,
Haiku

Astazi de dimineata m-am trezit pentru prima data, de ceva vreme, inpacat, pe deplin, cu mine. Dupa doua luni in care am luptat pentru a fi iubit, acceptat, dorit, astazi, m-am simtit pe deplin fericit cu propria identitate. Am coborat, mi-am luat Pepsi si cornuri cu ciocolata si culmea ca a venit si craiasa-fluture pe la mine, desi, intalnirea noastra era amanata pentru luni. O sa-ti povestesc despre fluturele mov care zboara in jurul zilelor mele, facandu-le atat de luminoase si de frumoase, intr-un alt blog.post. Nu despre asta vreau sa vorbesc acum.

Ma rog, am trecut cu greu peste ultima mea iubire (a durat vreo 2 luni sa accept ca totul se terminase si ca ma razboiam cu morile de vant) dar aceste doua luni mi-au adus aminte de primul meu ciclu de indragostit, atunci cand, nu la fel de aprig ca acum, am luptat pentru dragostea unei alte femei care m-a vrut, m-a avut si apoi s-a hotarat ca nu mai are chef de mine.

Desigur, de la aceasta idee a ciclurilor din propria viata am ajuns la Mass Effect care foloseste tema S.F. a ciclurilor fiintelor biologice care se dezvolta, evolueaza ce evolueaza iar apoi sunt distruse de propriile creaturi. Nu vreau sa-ti dau prea multe indicii despre tema centrala din Mass Effect pentru ca ti-as strica bucuria de a juca acest R.P.G./Action semnat BioWare.

Sa incepem cu inceputul. Personajul tau este ofiter pe o cea mai avansata, dpdv. tehnologic, nava umana si este testat pentru a ajunge Specter, un fel de agent de-asupralegii al Consiliului Galactic din care (Consiliu) oamenii nu faceau parte. Sistemul politic era simplu, un Consiliu cu cele mai avansate rase (3 in perioada in care actiunea se petrece) si alte zeci de rase care intrau sub jurisdictia acestui Consiliu. In afara spatiului controlat de Consiliu mai exista si un teritoriu cu diferite alte rase nedorite si ostile etc...

Ma rog, Bioware reuseste sa construiasca un univers S.F. complex dar nu original, bazand totul pe aceasta idee a ciclurilor deoarece, actuala forma de administrare se inradacinase pe o tehnologie gasita in spatiu si nicidecum inventata.

De acolo Shepard, personajul tau, trece printr-o groaza de peripetii specific R.P.G.iste pentru a ajunge sa salveze sau nu, fiintele biologice de la extinctie. Cam asta e povestea de inceput si sincer, daca ai auzit R.P.G. Bioware si nu te-a atras, cred ca nimic altceva n-o va face.

Acum, intrebarea care rasare in cap'sorul oricariu cunoscator este "Mass Effect, clona a KotOR?" Raspunsul este intre da si nu. Bioware pastreaza platforma si ideea generala KotOR cu echipa mare din care-ti poti alege 2 alte personaje pentru a te ajuta in misiune, minigame-uri logice dar mult mai putine ca in jocul S.W., nava spatiala cu care poti calatori in diferite locatii si in general, intreaga atmosfera este aceea din jocul insipirat din universul lucasian (waw, ce jmeker sunt... George Lucas - lucasian...).

Diferenta principala dintre KotOR si Mass Effect este forma in care se duc luptele. In Mass Effect, Bioware a optat pentru un Action mult mai palpitant decat T.B.S.ul KotOR, care atrage, desigur, un numar mai mare de jucatori. Pe langa asta, folosirea masinii de teren, universul jocului mult mai complex decat in oricare alt joc Bioware, povestea palpitanta desi nici ea originala, etc. fac din Mass Effect un KotOR cu multe adaosuri pozitive, pe care nu-l poti rata.

Asa cum Jade Empire (tot produs de BioWare) este un KotOR cu sabii laser + forta/Action, asa Mass Effect este un KotOR cu blastere + forta/Action, asa ca, mai mult ca sigur ca te va atrage daca esti, desigur, fan al genului R.P.G. si mai ales fan al genului R.P.G. impus de BioWare odata cu KotOR.

P.S. Despre grafica nici nu ma chinui sa discut pentru ca mereu, firma producatoare mai sus (tot) mentionata nu a dat publicului decat grafica la cel mai inalt nivel, grafica ce incanta organul vizual si te lasa, uneori, cu gura cascata si cu sechele vizuale (de ex. momentul in care mergi pe soseaua spatiala este unul demential sau acela al bataii spatiale din finalul jocului etc.)

Today Robyn and I watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Never Back Down.  Forgetting Sarah Marshall was another romantic comedy.  While it followed most of the formula for this sort of movie it did change things up a bit.  Which was a strange but welcome addition, due to unwillingness to spoil I will not be able to explain the difference.  Overall, other than seeing the main guy's penis five times, it was a funny and entertaining movie to watch.

Never Back Down was another good movie.  It's the type of movie that makes you feel the need to go to your nearest gym and start training for underground fighting.  It is about a student who used to play on his local football team but got transfered because his brother got a scholarship.  He was a trouble child that got into a lot of fights and after his transfer he slowly started changing.  Insert girl and you have the cliche nitch that this movie falls into.  But, as I am a sucker for inspirational "sports" movies and intense action movie, I was extremely susceptible to a  movie that combined the two.

In other news I was able to obtain my "free" X-Box 360 today.  I traded in some stuff to Gamestop to purchase Lost Odyssey (finally) and Mass Effect.  I know I have already played Mass Effect for the PC but in a just in case situation I have decided the 15 dollars the used game cost me was worth it.  I probably won't do a perfect game on the 360 anymore because while searching the net I found that Bioware has implied that the PC version of the game will come out soon after the 360 release because of the high fan base for the game on the PC.  

Lastly, Lost Odyssey is a game that I have been wanting to play since it came out.  Created by the founding father of the final fantasy series, Hironobu Sakaguchi, it is supposed to be one of the more traditional JRPG's on the 360 so far.  I will post a little bit on it as I play the game each night.  So far it hasn't really caught my eye as anything spectacular but neither did most of the Final Fantasy's within the first thirty minutes of playing.  Usually it takes a few hours of gameplay to really draw you in, so I will hope for that.

Sincerelly

Anei

First up is the word "knowledge".  Come to find out if you ask a gang member what their "knowledge" is they tell you who they are, where they been, wrapsheet, and particulars.  Interesting fact. 

I really want a pair of Heely's to roll around in my office.  I know they are kiddy, but really it would be cool.  We have some really long hallways and to "heel" down them would be sweet.  True they are kinda childish, but really who doesn't think it would be cool.  Anybody?  Anybody?  Screw you guys, it would be sweet.

Anyway, I just bought Mass Effect for the 360.  Got it on sale.  I really wanted Too Human but due to a lack in fundage couldn't afford a full priced title.  I really needed something after the letdown of Soul Calibur IV.  I doubt I'll ever play that crap again and EBGames only want to give me $30 bucks for it.  Screw that noise.  It cost me $60 dude.

I did pick up a few DVDs for cheap and am watching some of those.  I watched Birds of Prey and honestly it was a lot better than I actually remember it.  Good show.  The new music is ok too (except for the final fight, it needed t.a.t.u. in there).  Got and watched Fastlane too.  Great show as well and the music wasn't a huge deal except for the theme song and it was missing "I Wanna Be Sedated" by The Ramones in one of the episodes.  The other missing music wasn't a big deal.

Shwayze had an album drop on Tuesday and it is just really good.  Rap, acoustic, folk, and good ol' California Pop mixed in is a great combination.  Highly recommend everyone go and buy.  NOW!!!

Hawthorne Heights new album "Fragile Future" came out too and it is just ok.  They lost quite a bit when their other vocalist/guitarist died.  The problem is that they still write the songs as if he is still alive and singing with them.  The problem that is created is that the music is just a really whiny guy singing and a ton of blank spots where there should be screaming.  No contrast in music that really needs it.  The songs though are actually well done, and well written.  Just the delivery and a musician is only as good as the delivery.

Final thought is that the Sidekick LX actually has a screen protector on it out of the box.  Thank you Sharp/T-Mob.

That about does it.  I'm tired and really want to go home.  Watch Burn Notice and Flashpoint on tonight.  Both really good shows.

End Transmission

Also:

Enjoy!!

Still the games are a wee bit too similar for me. In many ways MEs biotic powers are the force by another name. The interfaces are incredibly similar also. Like KOTOR we view events from over the main character Shepard's shoulder and like KOTOR we explore the game world in a group of three. We can assign roles to our allies - send them forth as cannon fodder if you want or have them hang back and pound the enemy from a distance.  When we engage in dialogue we are presented with a range of options which expand even further based on our personality choices in the game. So far this is all similar to KOTOR. There is even a gambling mini game which is like sabaac from Star Wars.

Combat is at times confusing and frustrating, especially in the early days of playing. We're presented with four options: pistol, assault rifle, shotgun and sniper rifle and through the allocation of points gained through experience we can advance our skills.  Eventually you adjust to the various weapons and you'll chose your favourite but I found there just wasn't any incentive to swap between the various types.

The thing that stands the games out from each other is the depth. It's like they did a bionic rebuild on KOTOR. The game is beautiful and with a far greater level of depth then KOTOR. The next gen platform allows them to make the game look stunning and it does - the cinematics are some of the best I've ever seen and the animations of the characters are at times incredible. We literally have a whole galaxy to explore and the story takes us throughout it.

But the game's sheer depth is also to its detriment. There are too many worlds and they are not diverse enough. I simply couldn't bring myself to explore every solar system to find the lesser items needed. Towards the end I found myself confining myself to the main quest, I just didn't want to land on another desolate world and battle a few baddies on it for a treasure or two.

They also have included romance options and while they do have importance in the overall story, I found them a tad lame. I just didn't believe the relationships we were supposed to be interested in - at times they seemed ludicrous. The relationships were flawed ambition on the part of the creators and I couldn't help but compare them to the effective and meaningful relationships in GTA. What Nico experiences towards the end of GTA:IV is a much more effective and moving experience.

What makes ME stand out is its brilliant story. For the most part the writing is excellent and the voice acting is superb. I'm eagerly looking forward to the sequel (whenever it arrives)

8 out of 10

Mass Effect is actually one of the best RPG you can find, but you could get some problems running it. First time I launched the client I got an error:

“General Protection Fault!

History: Address = 0x111a731d (filename not found) [in C:\Program Files\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe]
Address 0x111a731d (filename not found) [in C:\Program Files\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe”

Or something very similar. So what’s the problem? Basically, you can get this message in 2 situations:

1 – first time you run the executable;

2 – when running the games, in some particular points, like specific conversations.

I was in case 1, so I checked my video card drivers, checked my audio card drivers, processes located in memory and so forth. Nothing, the game wouldn’t start. What to do so? Pray? Naaa, there are more important things to pray to. Instead, there is a solution and is terribly simple!

The only thing you have to do is: click with right mouse button on MassEffect.exe and select “Run as administrator”. No way guys, the game will start. If your drivers are up to date and you meet the minimum requisites, the game will start.

You can also disable UAC (User Access Control) as alternative. That’s the point.

In the net you can read all kind of rubbish, like:

“don’t do anything when installing the game. Go to watch TV”

“open your case”

“format and reinstall Windows”

And similar thing. Only a big waste of time, trust me.

“Damn, what I have to do if this problems occurs while I’m playing?!?”. Fortunately, for now, I haven’t got any sort of problems. But I read there are some solutions you can give a try... firstly, have you updated your video card drivers? If so, and you are still in problems, you could try a backdate of them. I heard 169.21 drivers work very well.

Otherwise, try ending your background tasks to free some system resources. This can also prevent conflicts between the game and other programs. If you have others solutions, let us know.

I haven't done much in the way of media these past two days because I have been sick.  Pretty much, I've been playing Mass Effect.  I was able to pick it up by trading in a few of my Playstation 3 games into Gamestop.  Anyways, This game quickly rose to the top of my favorite game list when I was confronted with decision's and able to actually affect the story.  You can be the ruthless renegade, the wholesome paragon, or any combination in between.  Probably the best thing about the game is its attention to detail.  They have a codex with voiced over details about the aliens, places, and technology of the universe.  The characters are realistic, all with their own prejudice, fascinations, and quips.  This is probably my favorite game out so far and I am greatly looking forward to Mass Effect 2.

Sincerely,

Anei

Mass Effect did get me thinking about the lack of originality the human race is having. Independent thinking has alway been for the radicals and not for the mainstream of society. These radicals make things mainstream when someone of importance takes notice and likes it.

Without getting into a long and boring humanity or psych debate I will get to the very simple point of my thought process. I started to think of about the encounter I recently had in the game with a worm alien that shot green goo at me. The planet I was on was a desert type of place and this sand worm moved through the ground underneath.

How many times in a video game have you had to fight the evil sand worm that shoots some sort of goo at you? I know I've done it plenty. So then I started to think about what else we know of that goes underground. Two things I can think of off the top of my head are gophers and moles. Now these two things don't seem to scary but you can obviously make them that way. Even if you don't use an animal we associate with subterranean you can make something up that's different.

This is a very small example of what I mean when I think about the lack of originality we have as a race. I know I'm tired of watching movies that are all bang, bang, boom, boobs and then some ending that makes no sense at all. If it's not that type it's a comedy that's trying so hard to be funny that it's just down right stupid, but it probably has lots of boobs and foul language to make up for it. The last type is the SAW type of movie (which I did enjoy the series, yes, all four of them) where it's so much about the gore and violence that there's a complete lack of substance to the film.

Obviously I only hit on two topics, very vaguely, that I feel lack a whole lot of originality. I would just like to see a bit more from designers really putting in their own personal feel then worrying about what sells. So many great things are made when you take an idea and run with it, even if you're the only one willing to make it succeed.

Played another juicy round of TF2 yesterday of a damn good server with a low ping. Got 6 Dominations in a 2Fort run and 2 Intel caps. Just one more round playing with all classes and I'll get "Head of the Class" achievement. Booya!

Take that you nasty spy!

Falando para a Eurogamer, Dan Tudge, da BioWare, confirmou que Dragon Age: Origins irá para os consoles "em um futuro breve". Não sabemos, por enquanto, em quais consoles (somente um ou mais). Vamos aguardar, no entanto.

Para quem não conhece, a BioWare é famosa por seus grandes RPGs. Baldur's Gate, Jade Empire, Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic e Mass Effect obtiveram notas bastante altas em seus primeiros jogos. Dragon Age: Origins, de acordo com a empresa, será um sucessor espiritual de Baldur's Gate, utilizando uma nova engine, batizada de "Eclipse". O jogo sai em 2009.

Yesterday, I watched What Happens In Vegas Stays and The Bank Job.  What Happens in Vegas is a romantic comedy and was actually able to draw Robyn from her computer to watch it.  Like other romantic comedies it was embarrassing to watch but kept me on the edge of my seat.  The movie followed the usual formula for such movies, but was still a fun watch.  The Bank Job was a different paced movie.  As a British film it was harder to understand for most people (Robyn) with no experience hearing the accent.  Based off a true story it was a little different from the usual bank robbery movie.  Its star was Jason Statham and like all movies he's in it was action packed.  Overall, it was fun to watch and the best movie I can use to compare it to would be Snatch.

On the gaming side of life I was finally able to pick up a copy of Mass Effect.  I am extremely impressed with this game.  I think this game is the most fun I've had on my PC for a while.  The story line is more original than most, the battle system is simple and true to the RPG nature of the game.  The character creation screen is the type you spend at least 15 minutes on to create a character with sliding bars for each feature.  Overall I think this is the best game to come to the PC for a long while.  I know it was ported from the X-Box 360 but I still recommend picking it up if you haven't already played it.

Sincerely,

Anei