Title:

Summary
The prequel to the video game Mass Effect, this book deals with the events directly leading into the story of the game. David Anderson is tasked with finding our what happened to one of Humanity’s research stations. On the way he meets up with the Turian Specter Saren.

Notes
Here’s the second video game novel that I’ve read recently, the first being the Dragon Age: Origin novel. I’ve got some mixed feelings about this one. From the perspective of a novel designed to give out background information on the story of a video game, this novel excels. The story is interesting (for somebody who knows the events that happened in the game) and learning how Saren got to the point where he was in the game is cool.

As a stand alone novel, however, it falls a bit short. The story is presented well, but the characters never seem to develop their own voices. Especially the various aliens. In the game, each alien species has it’s own mannerisms and phrasing which help make them feel more diversified. This book, could have just as well been a bunch of humans wandering around talking to each other. Every character feels the exact same, and there’s very little actual character development over the course of the story.

It relays the events well, but doesn’t make me care about the characters.

Next Book
I’ve decided that I’m going to finally get around to reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman next. After I borrowed Neverwhere from Wassy a while back, I wanted to check out his other writings.

Related posts:

1. Massively Late Mass Effect Review
2. Book 5: Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne
3. Book 10: The Eye Of The World

As I had mentioned yesterday, I was close to finishing Mass Effect. As it turns out, I was really close as I completley finished the game last night.

Wow.

Mass Effect is an action based RPG for the XBox 360, set in a sci-fi space setting. You get command of a space ship and get to fly around, saving the galaxy. It's played in a third person perspective, and it feels very much like a shooter with stats and special skills. Something of a hybrid of the two genres that really works well.

The story is…awesome. It's produced by Bioware, a company that knows how to make a good story so I really shouldn't be surprised. The main campaign set pieces are so amazingly well done and scripted that you never quite know what to expect when you round the next corner. And just when you think they've thrown out something so cool that they can't top it…they do. The entire last section of the game was filled with these sorts of moments, one after the other in one of the most fun to play ending sequences I've had the pleasure of experiencing.

The game is very cinematic too. From the cutscenes to the music, to the slight hint of film grain on the screen…it feels like you're playing an interactive movie. Also little touches like displaying the dialog options a few seconds before the NPC that you're talking to is finished speaking, thereby eliminating any pauses in the conversation while the player chooses an option really help increase the movie-like feel. The voice acting is pretty good too, featuring the like of Seth Green and Marina Sirtis (Troi from Star Trek, The Next Generation)

I do have a couple complaints however. First, the side quests on the unexplored worlds are…boring. They're all pretty much the same with no twists, on generic maps with generic bad guys living on generic planets. And the rover you drive around in…VERY hard to control, and very hard to aim correctly when you're trying to shoot people. I had better luck running over bad guys than I did hitting them with the gun.

However, all that aside, it's a very good game and highly recommended if you missed out on it. I know it's a little old by now, but I'm just catching up here! I can't wait for the sequel to come out.

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Related posts:

1. Book 6: Mass Effect: Revelation
2. .hack//G.U. Volume 1: Rebirth Mini-Review
3. New Years Eve (Really, Really Late)

Ok, that's it. I'm tired of winter. When you wake up in the morning and it's -4F, it's time to take drastic measures. I quit winter! I'm done.

…

Ok, so that doesn't work real well…but man, I wish canada would keep it's cold air up there and not have to shove it down here every other week. It's their air, I'm more than happy to let them keep it up there where it feels safest.

There's been nothing much of interest to report over the past couple days. Work has been extremely hectic as our billing cycle and some reports that the upper management needed converged into the same time period and I had to do a lot of running around. As far as personal stuff goes, I've just been spending a lot of time working on my C++ programming and a little bit of time playing Mass Effect on my 360. I believe I'm almost done with Mass Effect, so expect a post with a really late review of that coming soonish.

Time marches onwards to the weekend, which I am looking forward to eagerly.

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Related posts:

1. Massively Late Mass Effect Review
2. Bah To School (With Bonus Personal Reflection)
3. Long Weekend Wrapup