Raithe

.. Oh I love it when you spend an hour working on time sensitive work, and then the document gets corrupted and crashes out word whenever you try to load it. Now back to the beginning. Although hopefully it will go faster since I've gone through the thought processes already.

Blasto 6 - Partners in Crime... http://uk.ign.com/vi...to-6-easter-egg 10 minutes of audio clips from Blasto 6...

And indeed, it looks like Emily Wong won't be seen in game for ME3 now... And of course the reviews are now out.. http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-mass-effect/727641 IGN ME3 Review Gamespot ME3 Review

and @RealDarthHater is tweeting a lot of stuff from the Guild Summit doohickey.

Happy Birthday! And on the not so jolly note, may the surgery go well..

Heh, and they redid the "Take Back Earth" trailer with FemShep ..

"You know, I had my doubts about the Council, but after years of ignoring your warnings they're finally willing to step up and tell you they just can't help."

Trying to pull various thoughts together to produce some moments of genius and develop some results and analysis... but I'm suffering from scattering of said thoughts. One of those mornings where every little noise or what have you interupts my thinking and sends odd elements spouting through my brain instead. Not sure why it's being such a pain to actually focus. ... It's like I'm pulling a walter mitty with the way things keep jolting my mind off in random directions.

If you're meaning the one that was on Tuchanka that seemed to spawn those "fire-bugs" in Grunt's loyalty test, that was a Harvester. Also seen in the background during a cutscene of landing on a planet during one of the.. N7 missions I think it was. The only appearance by the Rachni (if you had imported a save where you saved the Queen) was by a> the news reports about "mysterious ships that resemble the old rachni", and b> the asari messenger who talks to you on Illium.

I still haven't picked up Skyrim.. that's one that will probably end up in the "wait a year or two until its dirt cheap with a bunch of dlc included".. I think I allowed myself to get caught up in the last few months.. Deus Ex CE, TOR CE, and now the ME3 CE... Of course, apart from those and Saints Row the Third.. I haven't really picked up any games properly fresh in the whole of last year. Just a few cheapies via steam..

Oh yes, that's one isn't it. The Reapers have a "Husk modified version of Rachni" in ME3... is that actually because you saved the Rachni Queen and there are Rachni out there for the Reapers to find.. or is it going to happen regardless of whether you saved her or not? And there shall be a proper in-game encounter with the Harvester (big alien bug/snake with wings lifeform). After being purely part of concept art for ME1, and slipped in as background shots in ME2 (such as the sequence on Tuchanka for Grunt's loyalty mission), you'll finally face off against them. Although, again, it'll be a Reaper modified version...

And for the sad news of the weekend.. Ralph McQuarrie remembered Ralph McQuarrie Passes One of the conceptual designers/artists that helped shape a couple of generations... Although most will remember him for his connection to Star Wars.

Hm, just wrapping up Overlord and then onto Arrival to prep a third "variety" save for potential transfer to ME3. Although I'd remember the whole "dark matter" references on the Tali Recruit mission, I hadn't realised there were a couple of other "dark matter" nods in other parts of the game. Mordin makes a comment about researchers and dark matter in the early..third of the game. And I'm sure there was one or two others scattered around. Does make me ponder on whether that's something for ME3, or just things they're throwing in for other future games set in the ME Universe.... And will the Prothean artifact you gather in Firewalker turn out to be of any use? Inquiring minds want to know...

Been dabbling an extra run through of ME2 over the last week or so. An hour here, an hour there... Just have to finish off Overlord and then do Arrival. Just had to reaquaint myself with some of the background again to get it fresh in the mind, that and to have a third save to import with different choices just so I can see how much they might affect the finale.

Unfortunately, whilst I was out there long enough to listen to the full Invincible album (and onto some Inuyasha ost), smoking a nice santa clara to the nub... What was a totally clear night sky grew hazy and hid the stars. And yes, that was due to the weather, not the amount of port I was drinking.

Heh, for the random interest .. Mars close enough that you can see it glow red in the sky with the unaided eye... And so far the night sky is completely cloud free. I'm tempted to go out with a small bottle of port, a fine cigar, my ipod to listen to some Two Steps From Hell, and see if I can spot it....

Part of the trouble is, people in the emergency services have actually lost their jobs for ignoring health and safety. It's yeah, pretty damn ludicrous. And one of the reasons the mentioned "common sense" law was brought in. But the mix of health and safety regulations brought on by the various governments of the previous decades (and from Brussels and the EU), combined with civil lawsuits thrown at emergency responders for some downright silly reasons.. Can make folks extremely hesitant in situations like this. It's just crazy.

One issue I had in ME2 was the whole.. biotics and tech powers wouldn't work against enemies with different types of Shield / Armour. So you pretty much had to shoot down the shields or whatever first.. by which point, its normally just as quick to carry on shooting them rather then try a Power to finish them off.. Suddenly I can't target Shockwaves at an enemy because he has shields.... But, if he happens to be stood next to someone without shields, I can target that person..and the Shockwave mysteriously damages and throws the shielded guy as well..

Yes, for one the whole space opera rpg. - Okay, the RPG side is fairly light compared to others, but it's a rather narrow genre. I've found a lot of elements I both enjoyed, and was kind of meh on in both ME1 and 2. But for the most part, both games were a lot of fun. I like a game that provides more then just a streamlined "go from point A to point B, shoot things, and we'll throw some cinematics in to tell a story around it.". So, having character development (via class and abilities you can choose), as well as dialogue options and elements within the quests that enable you to make choices that can change the results , and potentially effect how the ending turns out are definitely good points. I have to say, I found Halo very "try once and forget", it was elementry fun, but there was no real need to engage the mind. You could enjoy the story, but hell, you could remove the gameplay, and pretty much enjoy just the videos and get the same amount of fun. I think that's an element that turns me off a lot of the "pure shooters". You pretty much don't have to think, just engage twitch reflexes. The fact that you get drawn into the storylines of the Mass Effect universe, and have to pay attention to them to get in character and make the choices you do... Whether you want to get engaged with finding out more about your companions or not.. Finding out more about the universe and how things interrelate.. (even if there do seem small and wide plot holes). I think ME1 set the stage, it had its flaws (the elevators alone), but it didn't take itself too seriously, and had the potential to hook you in with the idea that follow up games would be affected by what you did, or didn't do within the game. ME2 had a lot of great character interaction, and the development of the companions was rather nifty. The central plot it was all hooked on however, was rather weak in comparison. It was more like it was there just to give you a reason for the companion elements.. But it gave you the development of your choices from the first game (some more then others), and even when it was just the case of a nodding email within the game, it added to the feel of the depth of universe you were playing in. ME3 has the potential to gather all those strands together, and drive it home. Thus, the hopeful optmism. o O (even it cautious skepticism does balance it out)

Some errands around the village - the sun has set, the air is being moved by the slightest of breezes, and a light fog slowly grows thicker as it winds its way up the trees and gives all street lights that hazy effect on the areas around.. Definitely the post-winter weather to listen to some David Arkenstone on my ipod as I wandered the streets..

Some errands around the village - the sun had set, the air had that slightest of breezes, and a light fog that grew thicker as it wound up the trees and gave all the street lights that hazy effect on all the area around.

The tech that Sovereign overrode, was the cybernetic implants that Sovereign had specifically implanted in Saren. So things he'd had built himself, for that specific purpose. If he could directly effect the Mass Relays and other big construction projects the Reapers had developed (ala the Citadel) he wouldn't have had any problem with getting into the Citadel in the first place.. At least to my mind. Going purely Devil's Advocate here.. Possibly, one of the reasoning is that if you're relying on other races to develop along Element Zero / Mass Effect technology, you can't leave obvious backdoors and such in the tech? Races might be using them for several millenia, and in that time will quite probably get some understanding of them. By focusing the backdoor in the Keepers, and thus the central node (which I don't think the other races had realised that the Citadel served that purpose), no-one can find the possible flaw in the Mass Relays (ie, that its possible to shut them down via the Citadel).

If I'm recalling correctly, the original Plan A was that the Keepers were hardwired to send the signal awakening the Reapers and bypass the security of whatever alien races had inhabited the Citadel. Thus allowing the Reapers to switch off the relays, cause the advanced civilisations to fall apart and generally isolate each system. - The whole, by leaving the Mass Relays, it stopped other civilisations bothering to develop other means of ftl travel and technology base. The Prothean researchers on Ilos managed to reprogram the Keepers to prevent all of that. Sovereigns big plan was to use the hidden relay to get into the Citadel directly and bypass the defenses that the Keepers wouldn't switch off. Then get Saren to reactivate the Reaper-Beacon and allow things to go back to Plan A as normal. - Which is what you, as Shepard, stop in ME1. The Collectors, under another Reaper's control, are a separate Plan C, geared towards analysing the various civilisations as they develop. Which is why they had the whole reputation as mysterious "slaver" types who would offer up advanced tech and the like for various mutants and odd creatures, besides randomly snatching up small groups of the various species on the galactic playboard. This allows the Reapers to identify the players when they return, and provide them with plenty of genetic data for them to use in various ways. - Most notably, selecting which species would be useful as tweaked servants, who might be able to resist indoctrination, and who would be most useful in the process of creating new broods of Reapers... When Shepard stops Sovereign, it made the Collectors (under Harbringer) take notice of humanity, and why they quickly killed Shepard so soon after Sovereign's death. Two years of studying humanity, and they decide that as the key group who managed to destroy a Reaper (and I'm assuming a bunch of other reasons - note, see Mordin's talk about the difference in Humanitys genetics compared to the majority of other races) the Humans make the best genetic soup for new Reapers. And lo and behold, Shepard wipes the floor with the Collectors and stops that beginning sequence of the Reapers Plan D. Then on a side note, Shepard also manages to destroy the oldest Mass Relay, and cause a delay in the Reapers Plan F arrival... So I'd say the Reapers will be assuming that since none of the other races have really had much of an effect on Reaper plans, the best bet would be to swiftly remove Humanity from the game board, and then things can get back to normal. They don't want to reduce the Citadel to ruins and rebuild it once more, and it might be too much hassle to get around its defenses (considering the Keepers no longer automatically let them do so). So they head directly for Earth in the attempt to rapidly kick the crud out of the uppity kids. Also causing general fear in other races and potentially doing various PsyOps effects....

That was part of why they wanted the Citadel. That's pretty much the main switchboard. Or something to that effect. Without having control of that, they can't shut the relays down en masse.

It's always interesting how different music set to the same visuals can put a totally different emotion spin to it.. It's got to be quite an art to get the right type for what you want to evoke..