Raithe

No matter what, you do have to love Mordin's "objection overruled" moment when getting the female Krogan.. The ending might go off the rails, but there's a lot of fun before it does that. And some quite amusing lines of dialogue. Edit: Hm, and apparently to get an ending where it's possible for Anderson to survive (or at least, not get shot during the sequence with the Illusive Man), according to IGN, if you have an Effective War Assets of 4,000+. I have to admit, I'm kind of curious why War Assets will have an effect during that sequence... unless it's to represent that Shep and Anderson are in better condition at that point?

I wouldn't say light side/ dark side thing. It was more if you consistently played Shep one way rather then bounce between the two approaches.. Seriously, it wasn't that hard to have everyone survive. You did the loyalty missions, you picked up the ship upgrades. And you made a couple of common sense choices in regards to a> who can hack/deal with tech - ie: Tali, Legion or Kasumi, b> which characters have experience in leading teams (Garrus or Miranda pretty much, possibly Jacob), and c>who actually has serious biotic powers (either Samara or Jack)..

Nepenthe, I think the c&c through the majority of the game is damn good. And the way it carries from the previous games. I can say I really enjoyed seeing all the variations as you play through it. My problem is that the ending invalidates every choice you've made. It's like there's a sudden switch and no follow through on anything you've done. The whole assault through London is okay, you get fallout from what war assets you managed to develop, and that final line of communication with characters/squad mates who've survived that far. But the moment they suddenly inflict the Harbringer assault, and go into slow motion, and lengthy cutscenes and every single choice you've made has no meaning from that point on. Also, the ending (regardless of which 3 buttons you press) pretty much throws all growth you've fostered in people out of the window. And there's no freaking closure to the story. If they'd only given some vague "over the next decade - this happened, so and so did this" in regards to people you went paragon/renegade etc with.. it would have had more meaning regardless of how silly the "Star Child" was.

That's why I say it's kind of a niche genre thing. John Carter of Mars was created by the same man who brought us Tarzan. Edgar Rice Burroughs. And it's pretty much pulp sci-fi , written back in that 1910-1920's era.

You could not only choose Morinth over Samara, you could let her talk you into sex later on your ship with her claiming that you were so powerful you'd survive. Yeah. Right. Hm, one thing that has me curious, The Rachni Queen issue, and Grunt. Is it possible for him to actually die on that mission or is he always going to survive? Or is there some weird decision/choice you made earlier that effects that? I mean, apparently Mirando only survives the Sanctuary if you mention KL to her during one of the earlier conversations with her.. (Although I haven't tried not mentioning him as an experiment yet...). Thane is dead regardless of your choices, I mean, either quietly off screen or in the process of saving the Salarian Council member.. Mordin pretty much pulls a Spock (or..well, other things). Kasumi fakes her death, but Shep realises it. Has anyone managed a different result there? I don't think its possible for Zaeed to die off in his short encounter... And even with everything going on, it seems pretty clear that Jacob is an automatically survive his extraction as well..

I don't think it's just the fact that what you choices you made have pretty much no effect on the way the ending plays out.. But the ending provides no actual closure. It just.. hangs there. Leaving you with no idea of what's actually happened to the world, the universe, the characters that you worked with. Depending on the way you've played this game (and the pervious two), you've effected the characters around you. Potentially you help EDI feel "alive" and understand organics, which is a huuuge leap forward on the whole organic/synthetic front. You've managed to pull Garrus either more towards paragon or reneage, and all of the other effects you've potentially had on civilisations and important people. It's the perfect setup for some sort of .. basic "glimpse of the future" of how it evolved, to show what your choices caused.. But nope. It all comes down to "three buttons" that have no relation to what you've done before. And then just.. fizzles.

How to tell who's a psychopath Well small steps in both psychology and use of language.. It'll be interesting to see whether that gets taken further and what sort or results occur when you have a wider pool of subjects..

And at that, it was the second highest earner of the weekend. But apparently, they were expecting it to pull in around $38.9 mill.. So the fact that it came it at just the $30 mill mark is apparently a severe failure.. Which makes me go "Huh??"

Yeah, I have to say Javik never really impressed me as a squad member, all of his powers were didn't seem to stand in good comparison to what I could do with other characters. As a Vanguard I already had Pull, and I hardly used that when it came down to it.. just on random occasions. As mentioned, Singularity works better and pretty much does the same thing as Lift Grenades..

Yeah. I mean, they threw in the reference to Dark Energy that the Crucible utilised, but that was just..throwaway technobabble. With the whole Haestrom's sun, and a couple of other references in ME2 - Was it Mordin who makes some mention of dark energy researchers disapearing? I really expected something more to come from that. When it comes down to it, I have no real problems with there being a whole.. dark ending and Shepards likely death. It fits in with the character (regardless of how you played him) that if it came down to it, he would willingly die to save Earth/The Council/His friends. What really bugs me is all of the little things in the background; EDI's potential growth that you can foster, the Geth evolution (potentially), Javik's emotional reawakening (well, sort of), and then boom, it's all pretty much invalidated and rendered null and void. It's the grand climax to the trilogy, and while your choices have had an effect on the final journey there, none of them actually effect the choice of endings. Or gives you a sense of where they go at the end of it. The journey was enjoyable, interesting, and for the most part cohesive and fun. The ending just seems to be.. odd. There's no real closure, or sense of where the people you left behind are going. Hell, if they'd done something like Fallout or Jade Empire's ending sequence where you got some clue as to how it effected your companions/alien races in the future.. That would have made more sense. To a greater or lesser degree, you invest in your companions. Bioware have played up the whole "you have a smaller squad so you can have a greater personal story/connection with them", and then just ends with that vague "lost on a mystery planet" sort of ending.

I think part of the trouble is that when you get down to it, it's an odd niche film. Its not grand sci-fi or fantasy. It's not a hard core drama or action. They haven't released it as a "summer blockbuster", and frankly none of the advertising I've seen for it have really nailed down what sort of story it is. If I hadn't read the original books, I'm not sure I'd have known what to make of the trailers. As it is, pulpy adventure sci-fi is a bit of an odd duck...

Now that I've actually finished a runthrough I'm tempted to go looking up the leaked stuff to find out what was there...

It's also kind of quirky the way they've shifted the "grenade skills" again. The leadup made some references to how they've brought back proper grenades, but eh. You only have access if you select/have access to the skills. And then having skills that are limited to a couple of uses per mission unless you find ammo for them.. I kept finding myself thinking "oh, this isn't serious enough to use my frag/inferno grenades just yet" and then realising I'd made it through to the end of a mission without actually using them.

Heh, with my Vanguard blipping around the battlefield, I found Liara and Garrus useful the majority of the time. Both with different sides of ammo-improving powers, and between Singularity/Warp from the one, and Overload/Concussion Shot from the other..

I have to admit, I forgot that I didn't have a "kelly" on board to feed my fish. So I was picking them up at the stores but not actually going up to my cabin to feed them.. then I suddenly noticed I had mass collection of dead fish floating in the tank.... Also, I'm a bit conflicted on the whole Reporter character. On the one hand, the idea of the embedded reporter is good, and the interviews are nicely handled. The potential effect it can have on War Assets and such. But the whole "quick and cheesy" romance aspect feels like its pretty much thrown in for the geek "i got to bank Chobot in the game" audience. Also, for all the news reports you can listen to as the game progresses, its a shame you never get to hear any of her actual reports... On another sidenote, I am tempted to go back and replay the Thessia mission with the Javik the Prothean on my squad. Just to see if there's any interesting additions/alterations to the dialogue and cutscenes there..

Having one of those odd days. Background headache and just feeling tired emotionally. Having that feel of having put in months of effort on various things, but apart from a few added stress points at home, it still seems that everything is still stuck at the same place it was this time last year. Pulling myself together with a cup of tea, and then slap back on the stiff upper lip and return to the fray.

Yeah, I caught this the other night. They've mashed up the original books a lot (to be expected given the language used), but they've pretty much nailed the spirit of the stories. Firmly running with that classic pulpy sci-fi. And of course, left with the possibility of room to maneuver for other films. I enjoyed it a hellava lot more then Clash of the Titans, so since that managed to grab a followon, here's hoping thsi does to.

I tried to save numerous times during the London part and couldn't. Even in the area where you have the final talk with your squad. I assumed it was BioWare being silly in its design decisions, but maybe it was a bug? I had the same thing, managed a couple of saves during the "get a big weapon to take out the airgun" part of it, but from then on out.. I had to rely on autosaves since it didn't seem to allow manual or quick saves. And really, no save during the "final talk" area? That just seems bizarre.

One thing that does puzzle me.. At various points through the finale sequence, I noticed the "save in progress" message in the bottom of the screen. So, the autosave kicking in. However, you can't actually access that save at any point... Or am I missing something there? Since the game makes yet another autosave when it "returns" you to the Normandy before you head for the finale run up....

Haywire - Directed by Steven Soderbergh, and the lead role played by Gina Carano - who actually brings off a fairly nice performance. The setup being that Carano is a former Marine, now working for a private consulting/security firm that does a lot of odd jobs for various government agencies gets set up after performing a "hostage rescue" mission in Barcelona. Actually fairly low-brow, almost a pulp noir feel to it. The first half of the movie is pretty much a series of flashbacks as she explains whats going on to a kid she ends up carjacking to get away from another killer. Has a couple of actioney/fight sequences but most of it revolves around character pieces of a few people talking. Surprising amount of names in it, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender and even Bill Paxton playing the father..

Eh, there's all sorts of dark/grim gritty sci-fi going on. I like to have some general fun space opera with moments of complexity that Babylon 5 gave us. There's no need for every single thing to be dark/gritty and pseudo-post apocalyptic.

I think one of the things that bugged me most was that there's pretty much no mention of it beyond that point. I mean sure, it gets overshadowed to a certain extent..

It's not just the Shockwave doesn't work on shields, it has a range now. So if they're not within about 10 meters of you it won't work. In fact, one of the power options you get at around rank 5 is to extend it to 15 meters or so. One thought that did crop up about the endings.. Actually, I have to say two moments actually had me feeling kind of angry at characters in the game.. And both pretty much came about because of the Thessia mission.

Well i wrapped it up and crawled my way to the finish line... Fairly enjoyable run, and then that ending.... yeah. I mean, if you take into account the 50% war readiness due to no mp, I had around 3,600 effective war assets. Got the three possibile choices.. and that was so Deus Ex'y it made me chuckle. As so many people have said, there are some very.. weird bits there. While a part of me kind of enjoys Buzz Aldrin's cameo there at the end as a nice nod to space travel, good gawd, he sounded wooded and actually kind of creepy. "My sweet" - Exactly how would you react to your grandad calling you that in exactly that tone of voice? But yes, throw in that whole "future DLC!" moment after the end credits, I do kind of wonder what they have planning, and just how much of a potential rewrite , ala FO3, could happen. Also, how long before they let things like "New Game+" add to the War Readiness values?