Cosmo's Reviews » mass effect 2

Mass Effect 2 is here…

Cosmo — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 03:25:50 +0000

And as usual, we’re treated with Bioware RPG goodness. I don’t really have enough time these days to play as much as i’d want, but i think i can definitely spare a few nights for ME2. The first thing you see about it is that it went a lot more action and a bit less RPG…I’m not talking about dialogue or choices, but about the removal of the inventory system and upgrades per se as we were treated to in ME1. While i do agree it’s a nice change from micromanaging the inventory, i think it went a bit too far. You can still upgrade weapons, in a permanent-stat-boost kinda way, and you do have a bit different armor pieces to choose from now, but still. Another small nitpick, is the fact that you can customize your look now. I thought this was a pretty nice feature but they mucked it up a bit later on when you actually find armor pieces upgrades that you actually have to have on you. So now my Neon Saida is wearing some ugly funky “10% more damage from headshots” headset and some nasty-ass leggings.

Another nice addition are the heavy weapons. They actually seem to fit as a “pull it out when you REALLY need it” kind of thing, since ammo is a bit scarce and upgrading them is expensive. As such, i use it only when i need it, which so far, was never, aside from the tutorial. I’m playing on Veteran and i can’t say i’m having too hard of a time with it. Hope it picks up more later on.

Also, in the vein of more action, we get reloads back, gave away the concept of overheating, and introduced ammo. Which.. i am not exactly that fond of. If you remove inventory clogging, why put in ammo clogging? I mean, if i use ammo from 3 guns, i have to pick up ammo from the group with each of the guns in my hand, to make the clip i pick up go into that gun’s reserve. A bit of a shot in the foot but i can live with that. (Ignore that, ammo is given to all weapons when you pick it up, which promotes using more then one gun).. though i do miss my limitless ammo.

One of the best features is the improved star map. You can now actually move around with your ship, scan planets, drop probes manually and so on and so forth. Mix this with a diversity of hacking minigames and you end up with a lot less ’same old same old’ that you got in the first game.

As for level designs, while unique so far.. so far.. i am baffled that i don’t have access to a map while in ‘dungeon’ areas. Just in towns. What? Why? Especially since you now have 2-3 doors to go through and you often end up backtracking simply because you went the ‘right’ way and you wanted to explore some more.

Wow.. i’m making this a review again.. anyhows, i’ll end it saying i like the dialogues, i like the animations, i like the way the story is played along, Collectors aside.. and i think this will be a fun weekend.

News Roundup 16/10/09 – Aliens vs. Predator trailer reveals … ALIENS!

News Roundup 16/10/09 – Aliens vs. Predator trailer reveals … ALIENS!

Cosmo — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:11:11 +0000

Aliens vs Predator trailer, Mass Effect 2 out January 26th, Modern Warfare 2 customizability, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed dated.

Aliens vs. Predator, Aliens trailer

The property has been slowly rotting away with bad movies over the course of the last few years. Gearbox Software’s Alens: Colonial Marines was to revitalize the genre, but Sega has put them on the slow track. In the meantime, we’re getting a ‘remake’/'reboot’ of the classic, made by Rebellion. I trust the guys will do a great job, the IP always appealed to the medium and it’s sorta hard to get wrong a game with bad ass hunter-aliens, manly guys with assault rifles and just pure freaky aliens.

Mass Effect 2 up for grabs January 26th

Leading the spring magalaunch of games is seemingly Mass Effect 2. ME is not new to ‘odd’ launch times, the previous Mass Effect coming out in April. Also the preorder bonuses, for those that preorder from Gamestop, have been listed, the Terminus Armor and the M-90 Blackstorm. More about them in the link. If you preorder from somewhere else you’ll get the inferior Inferno Armor which is a weaker Terminus Armor. Hate these kinds of deals. >.>

Modern Warfare 2 will cater to the hardcore gamer and offer “amazing” customizability

I’ve seen how you can customize your character in game, but really, calling this amazing or incredibile, is far from the truth. Sure you can customize weapons with 2-3 mods, put perks on and pick killstreak setups, but really… Don’t even think to compare this to the level of customizability you get in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. In that game you could not only pimp up your guns, but select different pieces of armor, which shoulder to have shoulder pads on, what type of camouflage to use for each pieace and on top of that, you also had an unlock system very much like Call of Duty, but entirely more complex. You also had a lot optionals you could put in, which were like the Perks in CoD, and reall, you could make a lot of stuff happen. So while i’ll still dig MW2, they really should be analyzing the competition more and while i get marketing schemes, try to atleast don’t make it sound so unprecedented. Rant-mode off.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed coming to PC’s 23′rd October

It’s odd that i’ve missed a lot of news related to The Force Unleashed, and seeing how we’re just a week away from launch it’s just now that i caught whiff of it. Also, the fact that it requires 24 GB of HDD space is mind-numbing.

News Roundup 12/10/09 – Dragon Age: Origins, Sacred Ashes mind-numbing-legendary-trailer

Cosmo — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:07:08 +0000

Massive Dragon Age:Origins, Sacred Ashes Trailer, also 20 minutes of gameplay of it, new details about Mass Effect 2 come out, interview with Jay Wilson about the Monk class in Diablo 2 and Spec Ops mode in Modern Warfare 2

Dragon Age: Origins, Sacred Ashes Trailer

Just when you thought Dragon Age Origins couldn’t impress you anymore, and you were getting numb to the TONS of videos coming out, they come out with this. While it doesn’t really tell anything about the game, it is an impressive CGI work. Reminds me of an old trailer for Guild Wars in the same vein. Awesome combat sequences, some manly narration, and ending it all with overpowered mages. Really, if you’d have heroes capable of that ammount of destruction at a whim, why have anything else? ;p

20 minutes of gameplay from Dragon Age:Origins

Ignoring the geeky-but-amusing-as-hell dialogue, it shows a lot of what i like to see to see in gameplay videos… menus. I love pausing and checking each little icon out, and reading text you can only see via free-framing.They also explaining stuff you can’t read off the features on the box. A real interesting vid showing a game i’ll probably love to death. Check it out.

Hands on with Mass Effect 2, by IGN

Nothing really new, but it fleshes out some factoids about why is Shepard ‘dead’, what his allies are like and the general scope of the game. Worth reading.

Interview with Jay Wilson at diii.net, about the Monk

A few tidbits, nothing really big here, just some stuff about the design of the Monk and relates to the items he can use.

News – Today’s Roundup 27/09/09

Cosmo — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:59:31 +0000

Today we got a slew of interesting news. Gamesradar gets a hands on on Diablo 3, Alpha Protocol is possibilly delayed till 2010, a new Planetside is currently being developed and we get another Mass Effect 2 ally-reveal .

Diablo 3 Hands on

2011 can’t come fast enough to be honest, but we got Torchlight until then to feed our hack and slash needs. Still, there’s much work to be done on Diablo 3, they havent even begun to get down the new rune system, not to mention a good deal of content. We’ll await patiently like good little gamers.

Alpha Protocol /maybe/ delayed till 2010

Our spy RPG, with absolutely no Mass Effect influences, will most likely be delayed from October 2009 till Summer 2010. Aside from the whole Obsidian/Bioware thing, i’m more ticked about the leaked Sony product evaluator. You have some quotes in the article, but i suggest you get the full one. To be honest, the last thing we need are easy games and hybrids. I was looking forward to it myself, if only to store and keep me ocupied during off-game times.

Planetside 2!

Planetside 1 was pretty much the grand-daddy of all the Battlefield games. It featured complex capturing mechanics, ongoing factional warfare, and it was one of the first ‘real’ successful blending of MMO/RPG/FPS. Sadly, after all this time, it feels incredibly dates and very clunky compared to small wonders like the recently-launched Section 8. So the news of a new Planetside in the works is just awesome. I’d love me some micro-transaction-funded free to play MMOFPS.

Mass Effect 2 reveals Subject Zero

And this time, it’s a feminist/woman-first type of gal.