And then there was one...

So this past week had been light on gaming due to school and work. I also expect this coming week to be even more bare, but I'm sure I'll get something done to talk about.

Mass Effect:
I've been continuing my delve into Bioware's non-Star Wars space IP, and so far been continuing to enjoy it. Though I did finally get to use the Mako (it's an ATV for planet exploration) and it kinda sucks. The controls are too loose for my taste and it seems to randomly decided when to switch between reverse and forward when I'm trying to get unstuck from a wall. Plus the machine gun sucks, and since it doesn't tell you there's a cannon, I wasted a few hours pot-shotting enemies to little effect.

I am really enjoying the story so far, as well as the lore of the world. Bioware has done a splendid job creating a living world to explore and I find myself constantly checking the codex to see what new piece of history I've discovered. As both a history and sci-fi nut this excites all sort of pleasure nodes in my brain.

In this game Bioware introduced a new type of talk interface, something slightly different from previous rpgs of the same type. Instead of showing you exactly what your character can say, you are given several more general options. They tend to be simple ideas that your character can ask after and the actual words aren't presented until after you've chosen. So far I think it makes for a more immersive experience, since I can be more in tune with how the character will react instead of having to break down each line of dialogue for tone or hidden meaning. Only once or twice have I run into a choice that had my character saying something different than I expected.

Beatles Rock Band:

The other day I got a chance to play the newest Rock Band at a friend's place. All in all it's the same general gameplay, but with a rather focused music set. The only new thing I seemed to see were the ability to sing harmonies (which I stayed away from in an effort to keep people from killing me) and the very psychedelic backgrounds for each song, which looked very cool, but very grainy when not in HD. All in all it's a solid game, though I would suggest only Beatles diehards would truly enjoy it to its fullest.

Well that's all for me for this week, hope you enjoyed it.