I've been playing an awful lot of Assassins creed Multiplayer lately. One could almost say it's my latest obsession. I've developed this nasty habit of walking up to people in the middel of a crowd and suddenly puncturing various parts of their anatomy.
It's an incredibly fun experience.
When It's done right. What I have here is a brief guide to the groups of people on Assassins creed multiplayer who will Absolutely ruin your goddamn day.
The Sprinter.
On the scale of annoyance, the sprinter ranks pretty low. To be fair, what they do is more a sign of abject incompetence than anything else. What's scary is that you see these people running around with level 20-plus status. How, is beyond me, since the sprinter is characterised by running around in bloody circles, on the same route, apparently hoping that no-one will figure out what they're doing. Right up until the point someone stabs them in the Abdomen.
Defining characteristics: Running around like a headless chicken, in the vague hope that no-one else has ever played on the same map, ever.
How to deal with them: Stand in one place, then stab them in the face, while singing the 'chariots of fire' theme tune down the microphone.
The Mountaineer
The Mountaineer was apparently born on the snowy peaks of the Himalayas, hanging from a ledge. The Mountaineer scaled the face of Everest at the age of two, and dived off the top with a hang glider. Now, The Mountaineer has turned to his greatest challenge: Assassins Creed Multiplayer. But his strange upbringing has bred into him one horrifying fear - a complete and abject horror of ever being on street level. As a consequence of this debilitating phobia, he'll spend the entirety of every round up on the rooftops, surveying his supposed kingdom, daring you to climb into His Territory.
Defining characteristics: Constant use of the free running function, despite this leaving him completely exposed at all times. Occasionally in extreme cases, spending the entire round perched on top of a jump point pretending to be Batman.
How to deal with them: Stand at street level, select the hidden gun, target them, and shoot. Then listen to the rants over the Xbox voice channel.
The CODder.
Anyone whose ever been on XBox Live Know's the CODder. They barely need mentioning. They're the guys who think all games should work exactly like the Call Of Duty Franchise. If you beat them, you're cheating. IF they beat you, they're the greatest gamer who ever lived. One of these guys swore at me for a solid minute for "Stealing his Kill." Despite the fact that he was half a map away. And it wasn't his target.
Defining characteristics: The Incessant ability to NEVER SHUT THE FUCK UP. Constant uses of variants of the word's "Fag", "Homo", "Queer," and anything else they can use to try and make themselves look tough in the overwhelming evidence of their own repressed homosexuality.
How to deal with them: Shit, if I knew how to get rid of these bell-ends, I'd have told the world by now. For the moment, I'll settle for using the mute button. On a note one of these guys declared that people who use the female characters are "Kinda Homo."
----
So, there's a small sample of the wonderful people awaiting you in Assassins creed. Of course, like any multiplayer game, there are a ton of awesome people as well. You'll meet plenty of folks who play the game properly, and actually score a metric ton of points doing so. Honestly, I've never had so much fun being Poisoned, stabbed, shot, slammed, and thrown from rooftops onto my head. I'll see you in Wanted. But you won't see me until I stab you in the neck.
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Friday, 4 March 2011
Why I prefer Nerf Now to Ratfist.
Since my blog got a ton of hits last night from a two sentence review, I felt I should clarify something. I do not think Ratfist is a bad piece of work. I think it's a brilliantly drawn comic, with writing that just isn't my cup of tea.
A commenter yesterday seemed very offended that I dared to give Nerf Now a ton of praise in comparison to Ratfist. You want to know the reason why?
Because at 8:30 in the morning when I feel crappy and I'm building up to go to work, Nerf Now makes me smile in a way Ratfist doesnt.
Nuff said.
A commenter yesterday seemed very offended that I dared to give Nerf Now a ton of praise in comparison to Ratfist. You want to know the reason why?
Because at 8:30 in the morning when I feel crappy and I'm building up to go to work, Nerf Now makes me smile in a way Ratfist doesnt.
Nuff said.
Thursday, 3 March 2011
Grieving is okay, but don't exploit it for cheap fame + Webcomics!
Annoyance of the moment:
TNA's Jeremy Borash apparently tells a fan he hopes his whole family dies on twitter.
As you can see from Rajah.com's report, apparently the guy was very upset because his parent actually were dead.
A few points though:
Yes, JB is out of order if he did send this message. I don't deny that - it's an extraordinarily douchebaggy thing to do, even if he had no way of knowing the guys family were dead.
However, apparently JB saying this makes it okay for the dude to send obnoxious messages to Dixie Carter on Twitter (who, in my opinion, does a hell of a lot more to ingratiate herself to fans in the UK than WWE does). two wrongs do not make a right.
Mostly what annoys me though is this guy talking about how upset he is Whilst running straight to wrestling news sites to get himself some face time. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I lost my dad last year. If someone in TNA insulted my Dad, my first impulse would not be "I'll run to the new sites to tell people about this!" it would be "I'll make a formal complaint to This guys employer."
Of course the dude had ruled that out by being a little douchebag towards Dixie Carter in the first place, hadn't he.
Now, I'm not saying he isn't still hurting over the loss of his parents. I looked up his twitter accountand noticed that he lost them back in 2005 - I know that I'm still hurting eight months later just as much as I did back in August, because it doesn't really go away. frankly, I think this is why this annoy me - I certainly wouldn't use my Dad's death to get fifteen minutes of fame on wrestling news sites.
Now, a webcomics round-up!
Nerf Now: I love this webcomic, I really do. It's one of the few gaming comics thats stayed true to it's roots, the art is highly entertaining and the references are fun. Unlike Ctrl-Alt-Del for example it hasn;t just descended into the silly escapades of the authors own avatar - primarily because the TF2 characters are already silly. The author is a little bit of a PC-supremacist and seems to swing between amiable guy and the worst kind of gamer nerd. The comic, however is awesome.
As is Manly guys doing Manly things. The adventures of people working in an employment agency for overly-macho video game and movie characters. IT is as awesome as it sounds. Which is fucking very.
Ratfist, however, I could take or leave, to be honest. It's brilliantly drawn, but the writing does nothing for me, and I find the characters bloody irritating.
TNA's Jeremy Borash apparently tells a fan he hopes his whole family dies on twitter.
As you can see from Rajah.com's report, apparently the guy was very upset because his parent actually were dead.
A few points though:
Yes, JB is out of order if he did send this message. I don't deny that - it's an extraordinarily douchebaggy thing to do, even if he had no way of knowing the guys family were dead.
However, apparently JB saying this makes it okay for the dude to send obnoxious messages to Dixie Carter on Twitter (who, in my opinion, does a hell of a lot more to ingratiate herself to fans in the UK than WWE does). two wrongs do not make a right.
Mostly what annoys me though is this guy talking about how upset he is Whilst running straight to wrestling news sites to get himself some face time. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I lost my dad last year. If someone in TNA insulted my Dad, my first impulse would not be "I'll run to the new sites to tell people about this!" it would be "I'll make a formal complaint to This guys employer."
Of course the dude had ruled that out by being a little douchebag towards Dixie Carter in the first place, hadn't he.
Now, I'm not saying he isn't still hurting over the loss of his parents. I looked up his twitter accountand noticed that he lost them back in 2005 - I know that I'm still hurting eight months later just as much as I did back in August, because it doesn't really go away. frankly, I think this is why this annoy me - I certainly wouldn't use my Dad's death to get fifteen minutes of fame on wrestling news sites.
Now, a webcomics round-up!
Nerf Now: I love this webcomic, I really do. It's one of the few gaming comics thats stayed true to it's roots, the art is highly entertaining and the references are fun. Unlike Ctrl-Alt-Del for example it hasn;t just descended into the silly escapades of the authors own avatar - primarily because the TF2 characters are already silly. The author is a little bit of a PC-supremacist and seems to swing between amiable guy and the worst kind of gamer nerd. The comic, however is awesome.
As is Manly guys doing Manly things. The adventures of people working in an employment agency for overly-macho video game and movie characters. IT is as awesome as it sounds. Which is fucking very.
Ratfist, however, I could take or leave, to be honest. It's brilliantly drawn, but the writing does nothing for me, and I find the characters bloody irritating.
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Fantasy Forays: Dagger-star
Time for a review!
Bex's Parents gave her a book a while back, and it sat on the bookshelf for a few weeks until, in a fit of not having anything else to read, I decided to give it a go.
Dagger-Star, by Elizabeth Vaughan, is billed as a "paranormal romance" rather than a fantasy, and it's best to keep that in mind if you decide to take a walk in it's universe, because despite it's action-fantasy stylings, this book is primarily a love story between the mercenary Red Gloves and the somewhat downtrodden Lord of Athelbryght, Josiah. I'm doing the spellings from memory here, so if you happen to come across this review on Google please forgive me.
Okay, I'm going to start with a simple statement. I was dissapointed with this book. Not in the sense that its bad, but in the sense that it simply wasn't developed enough for my tastes. From the outset, we're told of how much of the consummate warrior Red Gloves is. And yet, throughout the whole of the book we're very rarely shown this The action scenes, although well written, are incredibly brief, and that seems to be because Vaughan seems to be far more keen on hitting the proverbial fast-forward button to the next Romance/sex scene. The ultimate battle of the story is almost criminally short - by my reckoning, it spanned approximately one-and-a-half pages of the thre-hundred and twenty three page paperback and, I have to say, was not well written. There are other action scenes in the book, that are actually told from Red's perspective, and it baffles me as to why Vaughan chose to write that scene from Josiah's perspective - considering he was sat on a hill overlooking the battlefield and was completely uninvolved. As I said, the other actions scenes in the book are very well written, but the problem with this that Vaughan is clearly playing to her romance-seeking audience.
And it's a bloody shame, because, aside from the odd overly-repeated phrase ("Claimed his/her mouth with a kiss" was clearly one of those line the author came up with and got into the habit of using) The book is incredibly well written. the dialogue flows naturally, and the characters all have distinct personalities. Josiah and Red themselves are possibly two of the best developed protagonists I've ever read, and its only a pity that more wasn't done with them. The mystery of why Red never takes her gloves off genuinely kept me intrigued right up until the big reveal, and was well plotted when it finally came.
In my personal opinion, the problem with this book isn't Quality, it's quantity. It felt far too often that the story simply didn't have room to breathe, with is a pity because there was so much more that could have been done. The only face-to-face antagonist, Elanore, is in the book for a depressingly short time before getting her arse handed to her and the side characters hardly get a look in on any of the real meat of the story. At the risk of posting spoilers - because I acutally, in any way give the tiniest shit - Gloriana, the girl who takes the throne of Palins at the end of the story could have been given a lot more page time, rather than the next vividly described sex scene between Josiah and Red (And trust me, that isn't spoilers, the pair are at it like rabbits from about a quarter of the way through the book.)
The best way I can think of to address the problems I have with this book is to say that it should probably have been about a hundred pages longer, and those pages should have been devoted to telling the story outside of the Red/Josiah sphere of interaction. But it is a fun and compelling read, especially if you're a sucker for love stories.
Bex's Parents gave her a book a while back, and it sat on the bookshelf for a few weeks until, in a fit of not having anything else to read, I decided to give it a go.
Dagger-Star, by Elizabeth Vaughan, is billed as a "paranormal romance" rather than a fantasy, and it's best to keep that in mind if you decide to take a walk in it's universe, because despite it's action-fantasy stylings, this book is primarily a love story between the mercenary Red Gloves and the somewhat downtrodden Lord of Athelbryght, Josiah. I'm doing the spellings from memory here, so if you happen to come across this review on Google please forgive me.
Okay, I'm going to start with a simple statement. I was dissapointed with this book. Not in the sense that its bad, but in the sense that it simply wasn't developed enough for my tastes. From the outset, we're told of how much of the consummate warrior Red Gloves is. And yet, throughout the whole of the book we're very rarely shown this The action scenes, although well written, are incredibly brief, and that seems to be because Vaughan seems to be far more keen on hitting the proverbial fast-forward button to the next Romance/sex scene. The ultimate battle of the story is almost criminally short - by my reckoning, it spanned approximately one-and-a-half pages of the thre-hundred and twenty three page paperback and, I have to say, was not well written. There are other action scenes in the book, that are actually told from Red's perspective, and it baffles me as to why Vaughan chose to write that scene from Josiah's perspective - considering he was sat on a hill overlooking the battlefield and was completely uninvolved. As I said, the other actions scenes in the book are very well written, but the problem with this that Vaughan is clearly playing to her romance-seeking audience.
And it's a bloody shame, because, aside from the odd overly-repeated phrase ("Claimed his/her mouth with a kiss" was clearly one of those line the author came up with and got into the habit of using) The book is incredibly well written. the dialogue flows naturally, and the characters all have distinct personalities. Josiah and Red themselves are possibly two of the best developed protagonists I've ever read, and its only a pity that more wasn't done with them. The mystery of why Red never takes her gloves off genuinely kept me intrigued right up until the big reveal, and was well plotted when it finally came.
In my personal opinion, the problem with this book isn't Quality, it's quantity. It felt far too often that the story simply didn't have room to breathe, with is a pity because there was so much more that could have been done. The only face-to-face antagonist, Elanore, is in the book for a depressingly short time before getting her arse handed to her and the side characters hardly get a look in on any of the real meat of the story. At the risk of posting spoilers - because I acutally, in any way give the tiniest shit - Gloriana, the girl who takes the throne of Palins at the end of the story could have been given a lot more page time, rather than the next vividly described sex scene between Josiah and Red (And trust me, that isn't spoilers, the pair are at it like rabbits from about a quarter of the way through the book.)
The best way I can think of to address the problems I have with this book is to say that it should probably have been about a hundred pages longer, and those pages should have been devoted to telling the story outside of the Red/Josiah sphere of interaction. But it is a fun and compelling read, especially if you're a sucker for love stories.
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Creative Commons Music: The Butcher's Ballroom
Well, It's been over a year since my last Creative Common's music review, so I figured I'd throw one up now, and what better one to review than an Album it's taken me almost eighteen months to listen to properly?
The Butcher's Ballroom By Sweden's Diablo Swing Orchestra has sat o at least two MP3 players I own over the past year, and it wasn't untl the last couple of days that I actually sat down and listened to it.
One question sprang immediately to my mind - "Why the hell havent I done this before?"
The Music that DSO brought to me blended a mix of swing, Jazz and Metal to give a fun folky mix that sounds like it would be completely at home on the soundtrack of a Horror movie. Actually, I take it back, this music is far too good for a Horror movie. It genuienly stands on its own as something unique and Eclectic - I@m not the biggest fan of Metal, but once I stopped and listened, Butcher's Ballroom gripped me by the eardrums and refused to let go.
There were, admittedly, some of the songs that caught my attention more than others - Infralove Didn't really tickle me all that much, but Was more than made up for by Balrog Boogie and Velvet Embracer. probably my favourite track though was Rag Doll Physics Which Blended two different Vocal styles into one brilliant whole.
The Band's Wikipedia Entry describes them as Avant-Garde Metal.
I find myself unable to argue with this description.
The Band's Site
---
Downlaod the Album on Jamendo
The Butcher's Ballroom By Sweden's Diablo Swing Orchestra has sat o at least two MP3 players I own over the past year, and it wasn't untl the last couple of days that I actually sat down and listened to it.
One question sprang immediately to my mind - "Why the hell havent I done this before?"
The Music that DSO brought to me blended a mix of swing, Jazz and Metal to give a fun folky mix that sounds like it would be completely at home on the soundtrack of a Horror movie. Actually, I take it back, this music is far too good for a Horror movie. It genuienly stands on its own as something unique and Eclectic - I@m not the biggest fan of Metal, but once I stopped and listened, Butcher's Ballroom gripped me by the eardrums and refused to let go.
There were, admittedly, some of the songs that caught my attention more than others - Infralove Didn't really tickle me all that much, but Was more than made up for by Balrog Boogie and Velvet Embracer. probably my favourite track though was Rag Doll Physics Which Blended two different Vocal styles into one brilliant whole.
The Band's Wikipedia Entry describes them as Avant-Garde Metal.
I find myself unable to argue with this description.
The Band's Site
---
Downlaod the Album on Jamendo
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Force India Take a Bold new step.
There has always been a fairly regimented path into a formula one racing seat. Traditionally, a Formula One Driver has come up through the proverbial 'Lower League' Single seater Formula. At the moment, those leagues run approximately as:
Karting
Formula Renault
Formula 3/World Series by Renault/Formula 2
GP3
GP2.
as well as a wealth of other single seater series, like Formula Superleague, Formula Ford, Formula Nippon, and the American single seater series', Indycar Indy Lights etc. Theres never really been much crossover between the different driving series.
Whilst WRC and MotoGP champions Sebastian Loeb and Valentino Rossi have flirted with F1 tests, more often than not, those tests seemed like an indulgence rather than a genuine attempt to shift disciplines - even though Rossi set decently competitive times on his Ferrari test.
So, whilst other news sites are focusing on the fact that Paul Di Resta will be the third British driver on the grid, and that he's been the test Driver for Force India for the last year, I'm choosing to lookat something that I feel is a little bit more significant:
Force India just promoted a Touring Car driver to a potentialy Front-Running F1 seat. Lets face it, Force India have come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years. They came within inches of claiming thier first win at Spa in 2009, and but of Tonio Liuzzi's somewhat rusty performances in 2010, would probably have convincingly beaten Williams to 6th place in the Constructors title.
But lets be honest, Touring Car championships - even one as Aero Focussed as DTM - is a very different style of driving to Formula One. Whilst Di Resta has a good pedigree of Single Seater racing, he hasn't race a Open-Wheeled car in anger for four years.
What he has been doing is overtaking, fighting for leads and getting door to door in the kind of close racing that only a touring car driver can. Di Resta won the DTM title this year, finishing five points above fellow Brit - and Mclaren test driver - Gary Paffet. These two drivers are back by Mercedes and are learning a kind of driving that GP2 and any other single seater series simply can't teach - as David Coulthard has proven in his own DTM foray and how Johnny Herbert proved in his BTCC debut last year.
GP2 drivers are, supposedly, the future of Formula One - yet the drivers coming through those lower formulae are not necessarily good enough for the big leagues. Hulkenburg, Hamilton, and Timo Glock have done well, But other drivers such as the GP2 front runner Romain Grosjean, Lucas Di Grassi, Nelson Piquet Jnr, Vitaly Petrov (His performance at Abu Dhabi aside) and Karun Chandok, all of whom showed promise in GP2 were barely recognisable in the top tier. Conversely, Kamui Kobayashi, who was at best an also-ran in GP2 has been probably the most exciting F1 driver of 2010.
So, when Paul Di Resta sits in that Force India car on the grid in Bahrain he isn't just representing The British or his team. he's representing a potential new route into Formula one. And lets face it - a touring car driver needs to know how to fight for a position so maybe we'll see a few more fights on the grid come 13th March.
But for now, take a look at what you've got waiting for you:
Karting
Formula Renault
Formula 3/World Series by Renault/Formula 2
GP3
GP2.
as well as a wealth of other single seater series, like Formula Superleague, Formula Ford, Formula Nippon, and the American single seater series', Indycar Indy Lights etc. Theres never really been much crossover between the different driving series.
Whilst WRC and MotoGP champions Sebastian Loeb and Valentino Rossi have flirted with F1 tests, more often than not, those tests seemed like an indulgence rather than a genuine attempt to shift disciplines - even though Rossi set decently competitive times on his Ferrari test.
So, whilst other news sites are focusing on the fact that Paul Di Resta will be the third British driver on the grid, and that he's been the test Driver for Force India for the last year, I'm choosing to lookat something that I feel is a little bit more significant:
Force India just promoted a Touring Car driver to a potentialy Front-Running F1 seat. Lets face it, Force India have come on leaps and bounds over the last couple of years. They came within inches of claiming thier first win at Spa in 2009, and but of Tonio Liuzzi's somewhat rusty performances in 2010, would probably have convincingly beaten Williams to 6th place in the Constructors title.
But lets be honest, Touring Car championships - even one as Aero Focussed as DTM - is a very different style of driving to Formula One. Whilst Di Resta has a good pedigree of Single Seater racing, he hasn't race a Open-Wheeled car in anger for four years.
What he has been doing is overtaking, fighting for leads and getting door to door in the kind of close racing that only a touring car driver can. Di Resta won the DTM title this year, finishing five points above fellow Brit - and Mclaren test driver - Gary Paffet. These two drivers are back by Mercedes and are learning a kind of driving that GP2 and any other single seater series simply can't teach - as David Coulthard has proven in his own DTM foray and how Johnny Herbert proved in his BTCC debut last year.
GP2 drivers are, supposedly, the future of Formula One - yet the drivers coming through those lower formulae are not necessarily good enough for the big leagues. Hulkenburg, Hamilton, and Timo Glock have done well, But other drivers such as the GP2 front runner Romain Grosjean, Lucas Di Grassi, Nelson Piquet Jnr, Vitaly Petrov (His performance at Abu Dhabi aside) and Karun Chandok, all of whom showed promise in GP2 were barely recognisable in the top tier. Conversely, Kamui Kobayashi, who was at best an also-ran in GP2 has been probably the most exciting F1 driver of 2010.
So, when Paul Di Resta sits in that Force India car on the grid in Bahrain he isn't just representing The British or his team. he's representing a potential new route into Formula one. And lets face it - a touring car driver needs to know how to fight for a position so maybe we'll see a few more fights on the grid come 13th March.
But for now, take a look at what you've got waiting for you:
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Mass Effective...
I got Mass Effect 2 off my wife for christmas, and after having completed it on saturday night, I started thinking which one of the two games is actually better. Mass Effect is a truly great franchise - a sci-fi opera that is firmly building towards being one of Bioware's great acheivements.
I absolutely loved the first game. the combination of third person action and RPG spanning an entire universe was something that made me love the entire universe and it's characters. The whole series is also wonderfully ambiguous, with a firm way to play the way you want.
But which of the two games is actually better?
Well, the second game ups the action stakes. The tactical system is half arsed in the extreme, with the characters you direct to stay in a position rarely bothering to actually fucking stay there but they certainly fight well. Half the time I found myself hanging back in a support position, allowing the other two members of the party to move forward and assault the enemy. Ironically, when they were out of my control, they often tended to move better tactically and fight back enemies I hadn't even spotted yet.
In the first game, the characters tended to duck straight into cover, and just pop-up shoot at enemies. I suspect this was because of the ammo method in the first game -the weapons had infinite ammo, but tended to 'overheat', which robbed you of being able to fire for a few seconds. The tactics tended to be "pop up, short burst, short bust, overheat, duck back to cover" until you'd killed the enemies. You could use grenades to liven up the proceedings, but it was much slower paced.
In the second game, you can put a LOT more ammo down - but the ammo is limited. Rather than overheating, the guns have "Thermal Clip", that can only take so many shots before it has to be ejected. This makes the gunplay a lot more intense, and forces you to at least occasionally switch weapons. The further firepower supplied by the heavy weapons also gives you a lot more bang for your buck.
The first game used a traditional XP and Levelling RPG system, whereas the second game doles out the level points at regular intervals, forcing you think carefully about the powers and persk you choose. It works, but I did find myself missing the levelling up you get from occasional skirmishes.
On the other hand you didn't really get much incidental fighting outside of missions. Mass Effect was a lot more sprawling than it's sequel with the ability to take a wheeled vehicle - the Mako - down to a lot of the planets and roll around blowing the living shit out of stuff. Of course, one of my freinds pointed out that while Mass effect feels bigger and more open, most of the worlds are pretty much carbon copies of each other with texture changes. The illusion of freedom tended to fall apart whenever you actually went into a building, since they all had exactly the same layout with a few crates moved around. On top of that, the side missions did tend to go be essentially "Go here, shoot this."
Mass Effect 2 is a much tighter game. all of the missions have firm places within the universe and all have a plot that revolves around more than gunning down everything in a ten mile radius.
It's hard to compare the stories, since ME2's story is an extension of ME1's. But I have to say in Saren, the renegade Spectre, Mass Effect has a more compelling antagonist. Mass Effect 2 focus's far more on the wider story of Commander Shephard against the Collectors. You have the Harbringer, the voice of the Reapers - the series' overall megavillains - but other than that theres no-one to directly focus on as a villain.
So, which one is better?
Simple. The one where the refining of the formula finally pays off.
Mass effect 3.
I absolutely loved the first game. the combination of third person action and RPG spanning an entire universe was something that made me love the entire universe and it's characters. The whole series is also wonderfully ambiguous, with a firm way to play the way you want.
But which of the two games is actually better?
Well, the second game ups the action stakes. The tactical system is half arsed in the extreme, with the characters you direct to stay in a position rarely bothering to actually fucking stay there but they certainly fight well. Half the time I found myself hanging back in a support position, allowing the other two members of the party to move forward and assault the enemy. Ironically, when they were out of my control, they often tended to move better tactically and fight back enemies I hadn't even spotted yet.
In the first game, the characters tended to duck straight into cover, and just pop-up shoot at enemies. I suspect this was because of the ammo method in the first game -the weapons had infinite ammo, but tended to 'overheat', which robbed you of being able to fire for a few seconds. The tactics tended to be "pop up, short burst, short bust, overheat, duck back to cover" until you'd killed the enemies. You could use grenades to liven up the proceedings, but it was much slower paced.
In the second game, you can put a LOT more ammo down - but the ammo is limited. Rather than overheating, the guns have "Thermal Clip", that can only take so many shots before it has to be ejected. This makes the gunplay a lot more intense, and forces you to at least occasionally switch weapons. The further firepower supplied by the heavy weapons also gives you a lot more bang for your buck.
The first game used a traditional XP and Levelling RPG system, whereas the second game doles out the level points at regular intervals, forcing you think carefully about the powers and persk you choose. It works, but I did find myself missing the levelling up you get from occasional skirmishes.
On the other hand you didn't really get much incidental fighting outside of missions. Mass Effect was a lot more sprawling than it's sequel with the ability to take a wheeled vehicle - the Mako - down to a lot of the planets and roll around blowing the living shit out of stuff. Of course, one of my freinds pointed out that while Mass effect feels bigger and more open, most of the worlds are pretty much carbon copies of each other with texture changes. The illusion of freedom tended to fall apart whenever you actually went into a building, since they all had exactly the same layout with a few crates moved around. On top of that, the side missions did tend to go be essentially "Go here, shoot this."
Mass Effect 2 is a much tighter game. all of the missions have firm places within the universe and all have a plot that revolves around more than gunning down everything in a ten mile radius.
It's hard to compare the stories, since ME2's story is an extension of ME1's. But I have to say in Saren, the renegade Spectre, Mass Effect has a more compelling antagonist. Mass Effect 2 focus's far more on the wider story of Commander Shephard against the Collectors. You have the Harbringer, the voice of the Reapers - the series' overall megavillains - but other than that theres no-one to directly focus on as a villain.
So, which one is better?
Simple. The one where the refining of the formula finally pays off.
Mass effect 3.
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