Sleep deprivation and the consequences therein

 

So here’s a question for you. Why is it that humans are born without useable teeth? Why must we bear the process of them boring through several layers of tissue before we can use them? The whole concept sounds incredibly painful my daughter clearly agrees. I’m sure my wife finds the process incredibly necessary in order to avoid tissue damage on her end but it does nothing for my sleep habits. Anyway, this post has a high probability of incoherence as a result of three nights of very little sleep. According to this nifty app on my phone I’ve gotten a combined total of five hours of sleep over the last two nights.

Mass Effect 3

Obviously this has been a long time coming.  The Mass Effect series is not just a universe in which three games are set.  It is basically one enormous continuing game.  Bioware told us from the start that decisions made in the first game would be carrying over to both two and three.  So now Mass Effect 3 is finally here.  With the expectations of two whole games weighing down on it, Bioware set themselves up to end the series in a spectacular fashion.  More than anything in the series, it’s the characters that captivated me.  Yes, I care about the fate of the universe, but I care even more so about the fate of Shepard, Tali, Liara, Garrus, Wrex, Grunt, Jack, and all the other squad mates that helped me throughout.  Except for James, I didn’t really care what happened to him.

Dragon Age 2: Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

I was a fan of the first Dragon Age game.  The characters were memorable, the story and world gleamed with that Bioware quality they always put into such things, and the combat encouraged actual tactics.  However, the old school style of just choosing exactly what you want to say in conversations via big blocks of text left something to be desired, especially after Bioware’s OTHER nerdgasm, Mass Effect, used a fully voiced main character.    Dragon Age definitely has a place in my gaming heart though which made me very excited to for Dragon Age 2.  After playing the game, I found it difficult to truly decide if Dragon Age 2 was a great game or something slightly less.  Some of the character interactions and plot points are as incredible as anything Bioware has done to this point, but for every “woah!” moment there seems to be a “meh” to balance it out.  I enjoyed my 40 plus hours with game immensely, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it could have been better.

What is the best game IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE?!

And now for something completely different!  The debate over the best game ever will never be settled of course, but it is always a fun discussion.  All three of us faceplanters take to the interwebs to discuss the matter.  Elrood (THAT IS ME HI I’M WRITING THIS INTRO LOL) will start, with Tophat then Enosh responding, then back to Elrood again, then another round until the question is settled or we’re all not friends anymore.  Onward!

Mass Effect: a novel idea

So, I made a mistake. I’ll be the first to admit it.
I completely forgot to check out the second Mass Effect novel before I played the second game. I have a feeling it seriously hampered my ability to enjoy it.
Ascension is sort of an odd book. It doesn’t really pick up the main Mass Effect storyline where Revelation left off, but then again, that’s what the game was for. But it also doesn’t pick up where the first game left off.

Mass Effect 2: Import your bad decisions today!

Okay, lets face it.  People were anticipating the release of Mass Effect 2 like trolls sitting under a bridge waiting for billy goats to messily devour.  It was fabled to be like a god among video games, ready to be released by Bioware at any point to descend to our poor mortal realm to turn all the water in the world into wine for some reason.  And for good reason!  The first Mass Effect was one of the best RPGs to appear on the Xbox 360 thus far, answering burning questions, like if an epic scale role playing game can exist in the depths of space, if there is, indeed life in the galaxy, and if maybe, just maybe we can get our freak on with a weird snake-headed blue chick.

Anyway, there’s numerous, countless decisions you can make over the course of Mass Effect one and two, so it seemed fair that, like the game, this review will have multiple endings, with contributions from all of the Faceplant staff.