God Bless BioWare; not only do they produce KILLER games, but they are becoming adept at keeping their IPs relavant with timely downloadable content, and good content at that.  So after the early game of the year discussion, I felt the itch to get my Mass Effect 2 groove on and try their DLC.  There are three packs available to you right now.  One is FREE (To Cerberus Network users), one is OK but provides something you will definitely want, and the third is quite simply one of the best DLC adventures I have ever had.  Let’s take a look. 

The first pack that you will want to get is the Firewalker pack.  This pack is FREE to Cerberus Network users and gives you the new Hamerhead fighting vehicle to explore planets with.  One of the omitions from Mass Effect 2 that I truly enjoyed was elimination of the Mako.  I found the Mako missions to be rather clunky and they changed the pace of the game in a way that I didn’t like.  People complained about the controls and how some parts of the map were difficult to reach, even with six wheels.  BioWare told us that they were working on a replacement for the Mako, and here it is. 

The Hammerhead is a hovercraft with one rather large cannon on the front.  It provides fast horizontal and limited vertical movement.  Learning how to navigate with the Hammerhead was pretty intuitive and the first few missions with it flew by rather quickly.  The pack itself gives you five additional vehicle missions and trophy that is viewable in your cabin.  It’s not a ton of content, but it is free and provides those who missed vehicle travel and combat something to play with.  Sadly, I’m not one of those people.  In fact, I LOVED not having to tool around in a vehicle getting from one place to another, it kept my Mass Effect 2 pacing right where I wanted it.  Regardless it seems the Hammerhead is here to stay so you better get used to piloting one.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s a fine vehicle and better than the Mako.  I just wish it had a better indicator when shields were failing.  I found myself in may close firefights with Geth Destroyers only to blow up realizing “hey I musta taken too much damage.”  Here’s a hint…THINK RANGED and you will do fine with the Hammerhead. 
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 How do you make an epic game even better?  Just ask BioWare as their latest installment in the Mass Effect trilogy takes everything you liked about the first game, and turns it up to eleven!  Like many folks I know, Mass Effect was one of the first games I ever finished that I immediately started a new play-through; I simply couldn’t get enough of the world of the Commander Shepard and the Normandy, and I was curious what a Renegade play through would feel like.  I was pleasantly surprised that simple changes in choices could have significant impacts on story and game play.  So when BioWare announced before E3 that they would be releasing Mass Effect 2, I was very excited.  I just didn’t anticipate just how good it was going to be.  

The first Mass Effect wasn’t without its faults.  The combat system was pretty clunky and I often wondered what my AI companions were up to.  There were also long sequences of traveling around in the Mako land vehicle looking for story arcs and getting chased by large worms (I hated those guys).  Happily, all of these things have either been upgraded or eliminated in this latest installment.  From a character modeling standpoint alone, we can see vast improvements in an already polished game. For example, in the original Mass Effect, Commander Shepard had twenty animations for cover.  In Mass Effect 2 there are over two hundred animations for cover; quite the difference.  

Gone are your long treks in the Mako, but they are replaced with a dynamic planet surveying option.  In the former, game collecting resources consisted of simply pressing the X button while in orbit of the planet, and there really wasn’t any compelling reason to do so.  In Mass Effect 2, the resources you collect help you research and upgrade your weapons and armor, so you’ll want to do it.  Instead of pressing the X button over a planet, you have to scan the planet manually and when your scanner bars rise, you launch a probe.  The better you are at scanning for resources, the more resources you will receive.  It’s one of many puzzle experiences that BioWare has intricately weaved into your game experience, and dare I say I found it quite fun!  

Also gone is the intricate and somewhat annoying inventory system.  In Mass Effect I would have to carefully kit out my team, deciding everything from heat syncs to ammunition type.  The kitting system is far simpler now and characters can swap out ammunition based on skill sets and not gun type.  Instead of only four weapon types, there are now nineteen weapon types that are divided into sub-types.  Guns no longer overheat, but ammunition is limited.  This inevitably means that I find myself switching guns for the situation as I watch my ammunition levels.  They removed the grenades from the first game and replaced them with new “heavy weapons” like rocket and grenade launchers.  Trust me, nothing feels better than blowing away a pack of Collectors with a grenade launcher.  
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The much anticipated Mass Effect 2 is being released this week and I’ve seen and heard a lot of buzz for the game across the Facebook/Twitter feeds and coworkers/friends. I am at an odd crossroads from where I stand with Mass Effect. In the original game from 2007, I made it about ten hours before I was drowning in an overflowing pool of primary quests, side quests, planet exploring and my horrible obsession to talk with everybody I run into.

I still fondly recall my time with Shepherd and Co. and want to beat it before eventually starting the sequel. However, an attempt to put some progress in finishing one quest several months ago resulted in me picking up several more side quests along the way and just throwing my hands up in the air two hours into that save without finishing a quest.

I did discover two items in the past several months to keep me immersed in the Mass Effect lore, and those are the two novels by Drew Karpyshyn: Revelation and Ascension. Usually I am not one for science fiction (I am just now remembering getting bored and giving up on a Star Trek book report several pages in during the 7^th grade), and was surprised I actually got into the game itself. Just as Bioware’s game reeled me in, as does the novels.Mass Effect

Revelation starts off detailing the origins of humanity’s discovery of Prothean technology that led to the First Contact War against species of the Citadel. Within pages I was instantly hooked because I could not remember for the life of me how much I learned of humanity’s Citadel origins in the game. Revelation does a fantastic job at filling me in about humanity’s place in the Citadel, and almost every other race I recall from the game such as the Protheans, Geth, Turians, Collectors, Krogans and many more.

Revelation primarily revolves around Commander David Anderson, a respected leader of humanity, attempting to track down and rescue Kahlee Sanders, a scientist gone AWOL and suspected for treason as her classified base on Sidon is assaulted and with all her comrades killed in the ensuing carnage. Anderson forms an uneasy alliance with the renowned Spectre, Saren in a attempt to rescue her and track down a mysterious Prothean Artifact another scientist at Sidon was obsessively researching on. Revelation unfolds almost like a stereotypical action movie, but there is something about Karpyshyn’s storytelling and taking in the roots of the Mass Effect lore in the process that makes this first book an addicting page-turner from beginning to end.
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Mr. Smathers sends us a brand new series of articles mashing up our two favorite genres: comics and videogames. Enjoy!

ARTICLE BY: Mr. Smathers

Here’s the thing: You liked Mass Effect. You know you did. Admit it. At its best it was an amazing game on par with the rest of 2007′s standouts. At its worst, it was a tasty shooter with some RPG garnish. Or a delicious RPG with some shooter on the side. But what made it so good? It wasn’t the shooter, and it wasn’t the RPG elements. It was the borderline retro sci-fi feel, the entertaining dialogue, intriguing characters, relationships that are more than a crutch for the plot, and visuals and sound that truly draw you in to the experience. This game has thick layers under the surface. Let us call it “the Mass Effect Effect” – that the game is greater than the sum of its parts, no matter how good those parts may be.

Fear Agent, a periodical from Dark Horse Comics, has this Mass Effect Effect. Written by Rick Remender and drawn by Tony Moore and Jerome Opena, every single issue unfolds with thought and precision, regardless of speed. This is more than a sci-fi book. It is a relationship book. It is a war book. It is a horror book. It is a revenge book. It is suspenseful and action-packed and hilarious and touching.

And you probably aren’t reading it.

The world of Heath Huston, the last of the Fear Agents, isn’t really a world. It’s more of a ship – aliens have annihilated all life on Earth and what is left of humanity is floating through the cosmos – and the ship’s name is Annie. And Annie talks. If you must, think of her as the wise
cracking Seth Green voiced Joker from Mass Effect. Only hotter. And Funnier. And a spaceship.

Like Mass Effect, Fear Agent is steeped in shades of gray. Its hero is always either drinking or drunk and more often than not his motives range somewhere between questionable and deplorable. Difficult choices are plentiful, with repercussions that are felt almost as deeply as dying without saving. The muddied tones extend to the aliens of Fear Agent as well. They look like aliens should: brains in jars, giant sentient piles of goo, eels the size of whales swimming through the air; but they too have choices to make. No shape shifters, humanoids, or little green men bent solely on the destruction of mankind need apply.

In Fear Agent, Remender, Moore, and Opena have created a reality so detailed it makes the outlandish well, downright landish. And like Mass Effect, it is all in the details. The art, inks, and colors combined with dialogue that is both witty and believable make each and every issue a riveting and immersive piece of work. Like a play session that leaves your palms sweating and your thumbs sore Fear Agent does not disappoint.