@ralphdibny ah i see Dead space is the best of the trilogy in my opinion an excellent survival horror game still holds up today so not really sure why they are remaking it
@trev666 oh nice, I'm quite excited to play it as I missed out on it back in the day. One of my colleagues at work absolutely loves it and always speaks highly of its atmosphere and its use of blacks/darkness when playing in a dark room. He was playing on PC though so I hope the 360 version lives up to that!
Would be awesome if we get to play dead space then we finally get a game which I haven't played yet as the monthly game haha. Heard good stories about it so curious how it is
Allways heard good things by fans of the genre, unfortunately I am not one of them so easy skip. But will still be around to read everybody's oppinion.
Got Covid! Must have been really ill as I didn't even have the energy to play games for a couple of days in bed!!! That might be a first. lol. Thankfully must be on the mend as subjected myself to the frequent deaths contained in Demon's Souls on PS++ yesterday as pennance. Haven't played that since launch on PS3 around 2010. Gameplay and design still towers higher than I thought it would for a game that old. Add to that Bluepoint's wonderful remastered graphics and sound design and it's a real treat, especially with headphones. Absorbed and currently distracted away from ME2.
Back on topic. Mass Effect I always chose Kaiden on Virmire. I never really liked either character much to be honest. Compared to Garrus, Liara, Tali & Wrex, both Kaiden and Ashley were pretty dull - almost as if they were each half written by comparison, perhaps as one always had to die. Ultimately I found Kaiden's biotics to be more useful so it was the better option for the squad. Leadership's tough
I do think Ashley is a little misunderstood. "Space racist" is the term usually thrown around, i've used it before though more in jest. As @trev666 rightly said, she's xenophobic i.e. Fearful of strange new species and reluctant to trust them. Personally I always loved that Bioware included these sort of emotions in their characters. For many it is pretty normal human behaviour to be distrusting of new ideas and things, to find safety in our tribal groups. (very minor spoilers for ME2&3) I hear Ashley grows and gets a sort of redemption by the end of the trilogy, though I've not experienced that. Navigator Pressly was also xenophobic and didn't think having aliens onboard an Alliance vessel was a good idea. He has a nice moment in the Normandy Crash site mission where you find his datapad and by the time of his death he had changed his tune and said he'd gladly die for any one of the non-humans on the ship. He states his previous doubts about the other aliens onboard were written out of ignorance. It's a nice character arc and so very human.
I'm sure we can all look to things we felt 5, 10, 15 or more years ago and admit our views have changed and we have grown away from those less informed or even ignorant viewpoints, right? That's entirely normal. I feel it was really important to have these sort of difficult interactions for the universe to feel so real, to ignore them would have made it a less compelling experience. Sadly I worry if the game was made afresh today content like this may not even make the cut out of fear of offending someone, which would be a disservice. Talking about issues and seeing where we each are on them is important, and ultimately makes these worlds all the more real.
Hello all and welcome to Game Club's selection for July: Dead Space
Don't worry if you haven't finished Mass Effect or plan to move on to playing/discussing the rest of the series. You can keep discussing it in this new Mass Effect thread.
Dead Space looks to be a scarier trip through outer space than Mass Effect and I am quite looking forward to playing it myself!
Please use spoiler tags when discussing spoilerish moments of the game. You do so by typing your spoiler between spoiler tags like this: [spoiler]insert message here[ /spoiler] and removing the space between [ and /
Some HLTB Stats:
Main Story - 11 Hours
Main + Extras - 13 Hours
Completionist - 20 Hours
Tag list, please tag me and let me know if you want to be added or removed
Ok so now, votes for next month. There is quite a lot of you now so please make it easy for me to administrate.
Tag me in a post with your vote(s). (Just hit reply on one of my posts or write @ralphdibny)
Write your votes in bold (put two asterisks around it) and try and keep it separate from any paragraphs.
One line will do, "My vote is such and such a game(s)"
Feel free to make the post longer but try and keep the actual vote separate from the main body of the text and at the top of the post next to my tag @ralphdibny
The votes reset every month and start from Zero. Feel free to suggest new games and I will add them to the list and count your vote toward it!
Brutal Legend - 1 (dskactl,
Conker's Bad Fur Day/Live & Reloaded - 1 (balta
Crysis - 1 (akrpln,
Fable Anniversary -
It takes two -
Kameo: Elements of Power -
Maneater -
Marvel Avengers - 5 (r1spm, xmghtymtx, akrpln, amcl, jrvsmp
Ninja Gaiden Sigma -
Ori and the Will of the Wisps -
Perfect Dark -
Rage -
Sable -
Sniper Elite 5 - 2 (lvlra, tknrs85
Trek to Yomi - 2 (lkupmre, mghtynt
Tunic -
Undertale - 3 (balta, akrpln, clnkyld,
What Remains of Edith Finch - 1 (bnjo
Yoku's Island Express - 4 (balta, lkupmre, mghtynt, frsrG,
I've knocked a few games off that list but just vote for them if you want them added back and I will update this post....
I will link to this post in my signature so you can just click on my signature to get back to this post and see the list of games and current votes!
For August, my vote goes for marvels avenger. @Lavalera, I'm playing sniper elite 5 now and it's surprised me by how complex the level design is (in a good way). I'm murdering most nazis I come across but there's clearly opportunities for very stealthy playthroughs. It's got some good hitman vibes!
For mass effect, I saved Ashley, Kaiden was just so milk-toast I had zero interest in saving him. Neither were my love interest, my femshep and Liara hooked up for my playthrough of the trilogy. With regards to spoilers and choices towards the end of the game, what happened for everyone with Wrex and how many people opted to save the council? .
@ralphdibny Appreciated as ever. I'm on holiday in August so it's unlikely I'll take part next month so will abstain from the vote.
Dead Space is a great choice, truly wonderful game. Enjoy everyone. However I don't think i'm going to take part this month either as i've completed Dead Space five or six times already - I have both 1000GS on Xbox and the Platinum on PlayStation.
For anyone who's played it before I can thoroughly recommend the plasma-cutter only run - there's an achievement for it - it's is a LOT of fun, dismembering necromorphs with surgical precision switches up the strategy a little and never gets old.
If I find some time I might just do a quick playthrough, to see how it holds up, but honestly that seems unlikely with ME2&3 to finish and PS++ just launched (fully absorbed in Demon's Souls right now). Regardless I can probably chime in with some Dead Space chatter. Love these games. Really looking forward to the remake in January, but first it's spiritual successor The Callisto Protocol in December (if they hit their dates).
@R1spam My Shepard was a halo wearing, people pleasing, paragon so he Convinced Wrex that Saren's Krogan were slaves, convinced Saren to turn on Soverign and shoot himself and then saved the council. I recommended Anderson over Udina, despite knowing Anderson isn't a good politician, he is a better man
Mass effect 1 mini review - tried to keep spoilers to a minimum.
Huge caveat. I played all three games when they originally came out, and they are some of my favourite memories in gaming. So I'm well aware I have rose tinted glasses for these characters, their stories and these worlds, but i'll share my biased views.
I'd love to hear what others, especially people playing for the first time, thought.
When I first started re-playing Mass effect almost all my initial thoughts were mostly of disappointment. There was so much that had aged poorly, even with the significant remaster. E.g.
Cover and shooting mechanics were clunky and poor
Powers were weaker than I remembered, and didn't combo or grab enemies in cover like in ME2 & 3
Facial animation, especially on humans, was wooden and jarring (especially coming off LiS: TC)
Most interiors on planet missions were exactly the same cut and pasted structure.
The Citadel which seemed like a HUGE place was in my head was reduced to a few rooms to explore.
It wasn't always clear you had finished a mission, no clear UI visual. Had to double check the quest log.
UI for weapon mods was awful
Woeful ABXY (hacking) mini-games to do anything in this universe
No quick resume. Arghhhh! when did I become so dependant!
More lens flares than a Micheal Bay & JJ Abrams crossover.
So much to dislike... honestly there was a point a few hours in that I was thinking of putting it down, lest it taint my wonderful memories... i'm glad I didn't. The more I played, the more I loved, and the more I could overlook all the technical and aging aspects of the game. Here's what I loved most:
Worldbuilding, and the lore. The universe seems so real, with in depth history of races, battles & more.
Choice - Freedom to make many different choices. Noveria in particular has many different solutions of how to get to your Mako. That part can be completed in a few minutes or a few hours. That's just one example.
Music. Lovely sci-fi soundscape and synth on planets but ramps up with heroic/adventure pieces at key moments
Story. It's a great story, well told, regardless of your choices. I also didn't realise how much I had forgotten. I remembered the main story beats Saren & Soverign. I remembered the main characters and world events, Wrex & the genophage, Ashley and Kaidan and so many of these details. But I was surprised how much I had forgotten. The Thorian, Matriach Benezia, the (last?) Rachni, Vigil the VI on Ilos. Details matter, and this universe is full of them.
Characters felt fleshed out and real, each has their quirks and foibles. Tali, Garrus, Liara and Wrex in particular all stood out, and even Ashley worked as a character. She was forthright, stubborn and opinionated, just as you would expect of a soldier.
Voice acting is mostly exemplary for a game of this size made at the time, always enjoyed getting another gravelly message from Admiral Hackett.
Lastly there's a wonderful tempo at the end, a real crescendo, through the last missions on Virmire with hard decisions to make, Ilos which busts open the wider plot, and then back on the Citadel for a wonderful finale. It's wonderfully bombastic, cinematic and really sticks the landing.
Conclusion
This game has flaws, these are only clearer with age. Yet, to me at least, none of that matters and once into the flow of the game none of these things affected my enjoyment. These worlds, these characters and their histories are irreplaceable.
@R1spam yeah I played sniper elite 4 for a while a year ago and it was very interesting because as you said there are so many ways to play it just like a hitman game. I held off playing it yet since I saw it as a good candidate for a months game. So I'm hoping we can play it by then and otherwise I'll start it in between somewhere myself later on
Dead Space, nice! I’ll play through this one with you guys. This was the first survival horror game I ever played, wife got it for me back in 2008. My son had just been born and he was doing a lot of sleeping so this my go-to game for at least a few weeks. Good times.
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