Games Played: Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, The Sims 4, Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing
Games Finished: Mass Effect
I loved Mass Effect with a defiant passion. I loved the Mako. I loved the Normandy. I loved cuddling up to Kaiden (Garrus not being a romance option in ME 1). I loved hopping through the galaxy. The graphics were pretty freaking good for its age, and the gameplay addictive. The storyline was solid, and kept me playing just to see the fallout.
I didn’t love how shallow the interactions felt: a lot of conversations just repeated every time you talked to someone (Joker, I’m looking at you — by the third time we chatted I got sick of pretending I didn’t know you were sick). It broke my heart to chose someone to die towards the end, but I don’t begrudge the game that. Sometimes you gotta make the shitty choices when you’re the boss. It’s like choosing who to leave behind in the Fade in DA:I, and let me tell you if you haven’t played that game, make Alistar be the king. Having to chose between Alistar and Hawke was gut-wrenching. Anyway. This game verdict: 8, edging towards 9.
I picked up ME 2 immediately after finishing ME 1 and listen. LISTEN, game makers. Stop changing control systems between games. Oh, you hit E to interact in ME? Well guess what, that now orders your squad mate out into the middle of nowhere where you accidentally had your mouse pointed. Sorry, they’re dead now, you monster. I had this same issue with Bioshock 1 & 2, and we won’t even talk about how flat footed Infinite left me, what with being a completely different playstyle.
I haven’t gotten very far in — just played long enough to have the alliance declare me alive, the council accuse me of being a traitor, Anderson to tell me he won’t tell me where Kaiden is (dick), and Archangel revealed to be Garrus. Which is lucky because I spent the entire run-up to Archangel chanting “Please be Garrus, please be Garrus, please — oh thank god.” Because Garrus is awesome and I’m immediately kicking Miranda out of my crew in favor of him.
Also played this week: more Sims 4, where I’m still raising generation 4 (now teenagers). They both got solid-ish traits and lifetime rewards and while I’m pulling to have a female heir (my first female child so far!) I’d be happy with either. I imported a couple of families with lots of children so they could all grow up together in one happy gang and go skinny dipping at the pool and have dances at the bonfire. So idyllic, these kids.
I’m plugging away at FF:RK, annoyed to find I’m not as far as I’d hoped. The satisfaction is waning a bit, but it’s still technically enjoyable, so I won’t complain too much. Leveling is getting harder, and I need to take heavy advantage of weekly bonus dungeons and events just to keep up. On the other hand, I just recruited Yuna and so that’s awesome. (And Jecht, who will never make it to any party of mine, ever).
I found & charged my DS, putting in about half an hour on Harvest Moon and a few hours into Animal Crossing. I like both for the slow, steady nature of them, and mixed in with other games I doubt I’ll get too burned out on either. Low stakes, gentle games for when my brain can’t take anything remotely difficult.
No drawing this week because I got 2 hours of sleep (10 – 12) last night and I’m barely hanging on to conscious thought. Perhaps I’ll ninja one in later!
The Actual Worst 