I've been pretty single-game focused for the last two months or so. Now that I think about it, probably since November and Assassin's Creed 2. Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2 have followed, and it has taken me awhile to finally find something that backed up my opinion of Mass Effect 2. I have pretty much only seen glowing reviews for ME2, talking about how "all the bad things from the first game are now gone", like managing an inventory or leveling skills was such a bad thing? Okay, maybe the interfaces weren't the best, but that's why its called "in hindsight". Right now, I'm probably around 75-80% of the way through ME2, with one big story mission left before embarking on the final mission, so I have a pretty good grip on the new mechanics. And this is that view.

First off, obviously, I really enjoyed Mass Effect. It was a very well made 3rd person shooter/RPG set in a future where humanity can travel across the Milky Way galaxy. I loved the setting, how well developed the galaxy was, the characters, dialogue, etc. Most of the complaints were at the inventory system (which wasn't that bad, except modifying the guns) and the Mako (which I really didn't mind, especially since it meant actual exploration). I was very eager for the sequel to come out. Skip ahead to a few weeks ago, and finally starting to play Mass Effect 2. Amazingly playing back to back BioWare games, I got the feeling that ME2 was rushed, and I still firmly believe that. Instead of trying to fix the inventory system or Mako and improve upon it, they are both completely eliminated. The multitude of skills/spells you could learn was shrunk down to a couple, and missions are literally missions, complete with "End Mission" results screens (with token EXP gain, as you don't gain EXP any other way). Its like they created the greatest 3rd person shooter ever. Because that is what Mass Effect 2 is. Its no longer an RPG, at least in the gameplay sense. It still has the great dialogue system that made Mass Effect a great game, but gone is the ability to actually build your characters. 1000 arbitrary XP is enough to "level up" so you gain 2 pts to put towards one of 4 skills for your party members, or 6 for Shephard.

Now supposedly the action has been greatly improved upon, but I haven't noticed it, aside from confusingly annoying design changes: from guns simply overheating with use (making perfect sense seeing its, you know, the future) to using "thermal clips", aka ammo; removing any indicators of teammates health/shields, only showing small pics of their heads along the bottom of the screen (healing medi-gel from first game relegated to, basically, phoenix downs now); and what shooter goes without the now standard regenerating health/shield system. So yeah, greatest 3rd person shooter ever?

I've put in close to 30 hours so far, and because of the narrative greatness of BioWare, I am still enjoying the game. However, I just can't get over the changes that have been made. The story is interesting, there's a lot of characters (maybe too many?), some intersting stories, not to mention the ability to import my ME1 Shephard. But the action feels much different now, more generic I'd say. Its like BioWare made their own Gears of War game but kept everything else. Of all the things I've read about it, I've only read two articles that speak of this. Pretty much everything else calls these changes improvements, and callout how bad the inventory system and combat was in the first game. Um, Mass Effect does have a pretty good GameRanking score, over 90%. Somehow Mass Effect 2s is almost 97%?!? I'm just baffled. Here are the those two links:

Courtesy of Penny Arcade - http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/26955/Analysis_Mass_Effect_2s_Surprising_Genre_Experiment.php

1up.com review of ME2 - http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3177714&p=4

I still have faith in Mass Effect 3, but it will be very interesting which direction BioWare takes with the game. I just feel the need to finish Mass Effect 2 so I don't have to look at it anymore. Whether I feel like keeping it alongside my copy of ME1, who knows.

Elsewhere, I still haven't started White Knight Chronicles, and I'm already debating on whether I should try Star Ocean: Last Hope. I think once I finish ME2, I can make that decision. Doesn't help that all my favorite TV shows are running again, and they're occupying pretty much everyday (Simpsons/Family Guy/American Dad Sundays, How I Met/24/Mythbusters Monday, LOST Tuesday, Psych Wednesday, Office/Burn Notice Thursday), and the NBA All Star game is this weekend, plus the Winter Olympics. And Heavy Rain is two weeks away, MLB 10 a week later, Final Fantasy XIII 4 weeks away, God of War 3 5 weeks. Gonna be pretty busy.

And this makes #300! Another milestone post, and another big list I have to offer. Over the years I keep referring to an FPS list, as I make it no secret my disdain for first person shooters. Still, there have been a few over the years that impress even me. They are very few in number though. In fact, during my research I was even surprised how few there were. The reasons why? Well I know one is actually the perspective. For whatever reason, I just don't like the first person view. Having played so many other 3rd person games, I like being able to look around the environment. Now I can still do that from a first person perspective, I just don't like it as much. Another pretty big reason is the shooting part. When it comes to shooters, I have no aim. None. People that pray n spray have better aim than I do. That may be an exageration, but I really can't aim very well at all. Combine that with my inherent gaming preferences, and the FPS is pretty far down on my list of game genres I would want to play.

Still, over the years a select few have broken down that barrier due to how good they were. I can say this, Halo is not on this list. Neither is Half Life, CounterStrike, or Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. For disclosures sake, here are the FPSs that have made my Games Beaten List:

-Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox)
-Cold Winter (PS2)
-TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (PS2)
-Call of Duty 2 (X360)
-Fallout 3 (PS3) (debatable since its an RPG, but its default is from 1st person perspective)
-Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
-Quantum of Solace (PS3)

That's it. Ten solid years of gaming, and 6 games is all there is? Yep. The list of other FPSs I've played is lengthier, but that's it for ones I actually finished.

Now, moving further, I did compile an actual list of FPS games I really liked, ones that would qualify for any list of favorite games. This is the FPS list I've been referring to. It wasn't until recently that I decided to actually work out what would comprise the FPS list, so there are a few that I haven't made my mind up on whether they officially make the list or not. Obviously I will probably have to come back to this list to revise, but right now, I think I have my official list. And this is it.

----------

The FPS List

- GoldenEye 007 (N64). I think this was the first FPS I ever played. Either that or it was one of the first. Either way, I don't think I've ever had more fun playing any other FPS. And I played it over 2 years after it was released. It was my only year at Mount Union College, and a bunch guys on my floor played it. Eventually I joined them, and it was a blast. We were all pretty equal skill wise, but the matches we had were just fun. Local multiplayer is still the best kind, and GoldenEye was the epitome of that for years, until Halo 1 took the title for awhile, so long as you had 4 Xboxes, 4 TVs, 16 controllers, 15 friends, and system links. GoldenEye stands apart as one of the best FPSs ever made, and it is game #1 on my FPS list.

- Perfect Dark (N64). GoldenEye's spiritual successor also earned the nod. I didn't have quite as many memorable multiplayer battles, but there were a few. Some of the other features of Perfect Dark set it apart though. The weapon firing range!? The multitude of Co-Op modes, plus the multiplayer bots!? Not to mention the same great gameplay we saw in GoldenEye. I never finished either game, as noted above, but I am eagerly anticipating Perfect Dark's arrival on XBLA where I can make a concerted effort to finish it. It was how polished PD was that made Perfect Dark Zero a disappointment to me. PDZ had none of the features that set PD apart from other FPSs, even today.

- Call of Duty 2 (X360). At the time of the Xbox 360 release, Kameo and Perfect Dark Zero were the two games I wanted. I had heard the original Call of Duty was good on PC, but as usual, I tried it but that didn't last long. So, when this was released, I thought nothing of it. Even with good word of mouth, I still didn't look too much into it. After playing through the demo while I was working at EB Games, I wasn't thoroughly impressed, but enough so that I eventually picked it up. I was not disappointed. The single player, which is what I prefer as I hate online multiplayer, was short but very good. The missions were good, and I really enjoyed playing through it. Chalk Call of Duty 2 up as the first FPS to make the "where did this game come from" list.

- TimeSplitters: Future Perfect (PS2). The other spiritual successor to GoldenEye. TimeSplitters was made by a group of individuals that made GoldenEye, so alot of the gameplay elements were in tact. The multiplayer was incredibly customizable, and a blast. Future Perfect is the third game in the series, and the first to have an actual single player. The first two had single player, but they were just levels without much of a story. Future Perfect's story was simply absurd, involving time travel and interacting with your characters future and past self. Simply put, it was hilarious. Plus it was fun. And it had the great multiplayer TimeSplitters was known for. Shame that there may not be a TimeSplitters 4, but Future Perfect was a great entry.

Those are the official ones, these are ones that may or may not join them:

- Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3). For one reason, because it was made by Insomniac Games, makers of my favorite franchise, Ratchet & Clank. It was a good FPS anyway, with some interesting weapons as well. But the fact it was made by Insomniac is why it nearly makes it. Although I will say that I liked the alternate history storyline, making Resistance 2 on my list of games to play at some point.

- Quantum of Solace (PS3). Also for one main reason, its 007. But also because I had a Best Buy coupon that allowed me to get the collector's edition of the game for only $10. Still, I was surprised to find a pretty good FPS here, despite my hesitations. It changed a number of sequences from both Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace, but they weren't changes like those in From Russia With Love, so I was able to enjoy it.

- Borderlands (X360). This one I need to finish. Basically an FPS Diablo game, its fun. Plus it has two player local multiplayer which is awesome. I didn't expect anything from it until I saw good reviews and heard good word of mouth, so I picked up a used copy. After playing multiplayer initially, I really liked it. So long as you like the Diablo system of picking up quests and going through tons of weapons, there's fun to be had.

There you have it. That is the FPS list. Those are the ones I was able to look past the genre and enjoy the title. It doesn't happen often, but I am always impressed when one does come along.

----------

In other news, I finished Dragon Age: Origins last night, after one last difficult boss fight against the final boss, the Archdemon. Having not played Demon's Souls yet, I can say that Dragon Age was probably the toughest RPG I've ever played. Once I got good tactics setup though, I really enjoyed it. My review can be read here. And now, off to do ...... something else I guess.

My how about 20 hours of gameplay in a 2-3 day span will change your mind about a game. After my last post, I was not in very good shape in Dragon Age. I had my tactics in place, but I just had trouble in bigger fights. Well on Sunday, I proceeded to winning the four fights that were giving me fits. I took down Kolgrim in the Sacred Ashes quest, after 2-3 previous attempts. I then proceeded to take out the high dragon boss on my first try, with only my mage left alive. Then managed to finish the random battle against like 7-8 melee skeletons and a spell casting rage demon. After that I managed to take down dragon Flemeth! And since then, I haven't run into too many fights that caused me the fits that those ones did. Also unfortunate I just realized yesterday that on Normal, there is no friendly fire. For some reason I thought there was, so I held off on casting my AoE spells. Not anymore.

Just before work I finished up the last Warden treaty quest, closing up the Dwarf Orzammar quest chain. I really want to use some of the other party members, but I have a very good thing going with Alistair as the tank, Leliana for ranged DPS (had Ohgren for the Orzammar quests in this role as melee DPS), Wynne as primary healer, and my mage as off-healer/DPS. For the last part of the quest, I tried swapping Wynne for Shale, but in the first fight, I realized how great it was having dual healers. I have good tactics set for Wynne who keeps the party's health up so I can cast spells, but I can also heal in a pinch. Plus if something goes wrong, I have access to two revivals then. My original plan was to potentially take Wynne out and use my character as the healer, but I like casting offensive spells too much.

Since Sunday I pretty much have played nothing but Dragon Age and my opinion of it has changed dramatically. Something I was thinking of kinda rings true here, and that is that I just needed to learn the battle system. That has pretty much turned out to be true. Another thought was that I needed to decide how I wanted to play. As a warrior, I wasn't sure, so I didn't know where to do with my party members. Didn't help on that save I didn't go for party members right away. So when I went back to my mage, I went to get Wynne first, to act as the healer. And from there, I kept Alistar in to be the tank, and I was able to slot myself into a logical spot, as a DPS healer. Not sure I'd want to replay it in the future, but my appreciation for it has changed for the better, and at least now, I can at least see myself wanting to play it again, which is a good sign.