Mass Effect 2: Electric Boogaloo

If you're not tired of reading my Mass Effect 2-related ramblings, this is the post for you!

Mass Effect 2

I last finished the original Mass Effect in January and recently started Mass Effect 2 again. This is the first time I've played these games in such close proximity and it's like warping to a parallel universe. This post will focus on the differences between the two games and how they affect the overall experience.

Niohlogisms

Dark Souls + Diablo + Okami = Nioh

OK, there's more to it than that. I finished the main story of Nioh on Monday night, so it's time to examine the game and tease out what it's trying to do and whether it succeeded.

Tropes vs Samus Aran

I recently finished replaying Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (henceforth MP3). For the uninitiated, the player character in the Metroid games is sci-fi bounty hunter Samus Aran. Notably among video game protagonists, Samus is a woman, which came as quite a surprise to those who played the original Metroid in 1986. The surprise was aided by the manual referring to her using male pronouns. More importantly, however, Samus spends almost the entire game clad from head to toe in robotic powered armor.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I've just finished Breath of the Wild, and it's time to post my thoughts.

The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.

Gavis Andalor has completed his journey through Morrowind, and what a journey it was.

Elder Scrolls Class Generators

Because I am a gigantic nerd, I wrote programs to randomly generate classes for Morrowind and Skyrim characters, in case anyone wanted to play these games but couldn't decide how.

Power! Unlimited Power!

As a power fantasy, Morrowind is vastly superior to Oblivion or Skyrim. (Not that Oblivion would be hard to top, given that the optimal strategy is to complete the game at level 1.) Ironically, lacking the polish present in the later games serves Morrowind well here. Instantly obliterating everything the game throws in the player's path isn't conducive to the steady drip-feed of dopamine that characterizes more modern game design.

The Big Time

Balmora. Capital of House Hlaalu in Vvardenfell. The first city that most people will see in Morrowind.

Fresh Off the Boat

Step 1: Try, against all odds, to obtain a Morrowind install that looks nice and isn't horribly bugged. I am using MGSO 3.0 and following this guide to mitigate its...issues. Most notably, Animated Containers wasn't properly tested in Tribunal and Bloodmoon, and the satchel charges and the Mortrag Glacier key simply don't show up. Less infuriating but still aggravating: the animation on the Heart of Lorkhan is broken, and there's no visual cue that you've destroyed it. You can watch Akulakhan collapse into the magma, but the Heart will just float there forever. I don't know whether the guide fixes that issue, since (obviously) you have to play through the whole main quest to see the bug.

Here we go!