This Rogue AI has its Head on Straight
HIGH The reveal at the end of the mission.
LOW Not being able to freely search for missing data logs.
WTF I never expected to see "platforming" in this game.
Tag: BioWare
Dragon Age: Origins — Awakening… afterthoughts
To start with, Dragon Age: Origins — Awakening was a pretty chunky amount of content for something called an "expansion". It may sound odd, but after going through it I kind of felt as though it might have worked better if it had been split up into its three main component parts and doled out one at a time, similar to the way Fallout 3 handled its five add-ons.
Mass Effect 2: Kasumi — Stolen Memory Review
Is that Princess Amidala in the Shadows?
HIGH Kasumi's backstab attack is incredibly deadly.
LOW Seven dollars feels a little steep for the amount of content.
WTF The firefight near the party doesn't cause any concern.
Dragon Age: Origins — Awakening Review
We Barely Knew Ye
HIGH: Oghren's joining ceremony.
LOW: The fact that it was all over at 16 hours.
WTF: Nobody seems to recognize me as an elf now. Even other elves.
Mass Effect 2: Firewalker Review
The Spiritual Successor to a Long-lost Friend
HIGH The return of a sorely-missed planetary vehicle option.
LOW No new Achievements.
WTF Why (oh why!) was this not integrated into the main game?
Mass Effect 2 and the lack of homosexuality in space
Although I've had more than my fill of talking about Mass Effect 2 since my extremely popular and well-regarded review hit Metacritic, I have to admit that I'm not quite ready to let the topic go. Getting right to the point, I've been thinking about the way homosexual relationships were removed for the most part, and what a disappointing choice that was.
GameCritics.com Podcast Episode 30: Mass Effect 2 and Sequels We Love/Hate
Brad's review was just the beginning; we debate the exhilarating highs and inexplicable lows of Mass Effect 2. Plus: Tim quits games, classic sequels we love, and statistics, statistics, statistics. With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike "The Outlier" Bracken, Richard Naik, and Tim Spaeth.
Download: Right click here and select "Save Target As…"
Subscribe: iTunes | Zune | RSS
Read: Transcript
Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.
Mass Effect 2 Second Opinion
I am the Very Model of a Scientist Salarian…
HIGH: Agonizing over choices during the endgame.
LOW: Planet scanning.
WTF: …I've studied species turian, asari, and batarian.
Mass Effect 2 Review
The Normandy's Back, but She's Taken Some Damage
HIGH Plenty of the same great writing and character work BioWare is known for.
LOW The collective lack of surprise at Shepard's resurrection.
WTF Do people really want to have sex with grotesque alien crewmates?
Mass Effect 2 done—Now back to my regularly scheduled life
Apologies for the lack of timely updates lately.
Since Mass Effect 2 came out, I've been burning the midnight oil to get it done in a decent amount of time… had to put a few things on hold and reshuffle priorities for the last week or so, but I completed the game tonight and will be getting my schedule back on track starting tomorrow.
Working on the review as we speak, but I will say that the second "half" of the adventure plays a hell of a lot stronger than the first. The end sequence is especially gripping, and finally brought back a lot of the emotional tension that I felt was missing from much of the game. It doesn't change the fact that I still feel as though the developers made a lot of WTF alterations to the game design, but it was very heartening to see that the team got their act together and delivered a real showstopper to close things out.
The Mass Effect magic isn't gone, the devs just take more than their sweet time getting around to it, and make the player work a little harder to find it.
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