RPG Tourist

  The Inside Story of Mass Effect 3's Endings, Finally Told - YouTube Bioware Writer Reveals the Truth for the Most Unsubtle Line in Mass Effect (fanbyte.com) Bioware creators shared some much appreciated insights in these interviews. I spouted off about Mass Effect 3's ending myself. It was purely subjective and relayed as I experienced it but I don't think the ending detracted that much from the overall quality of the series. I should have made that more clear. Most of my complaints about Bioware games are technical. I'm unhappy with the user interface or how obscure systems can be to the player. Stuff like that. I've always liked the writing and the effort creators go to engage players. I respect developers like Bioware for doing hard things and taking the flak for it. And I'll never turn down a new Dragon Age or Mass Effect.

Warning: Spoilers Because I avoided learning very much about Mass Effect 3’s ending controversy, I didn’t really know what to expect. Well for me it’s over now. Yikes. On the surface, 3 isn’t much different than the previous game but there are hints of the catastrophic direction Bioware was about to turn. They deliberately made progressing towards the final mission more difficult for exclusive single play. They addressed this with an extended DLC but I still got frustrated with gathering war assets and cheated. Regarding the Steam version performance issues, enough hate buckets have been tossed that EA has responded. There’s no solution yet but they claim to be investigating. As well they should considering their asking price. I started the game on normal difficulty but got frustrated with a boss, turned the difficulty down and tried using my Steam controller. That got me through the boss fight but made the fps drops all the more noticeable. I think it’s because I put...

There are a number of games that probably should be on this list that I haven’t played for some reason or another. The most notable are Civilization, Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2. Update August 23, 2020: Have now added Red Dead Redemption 2 and Mass Effect 3. Update November 30, 2021 Added Divinity Original Sin 2   Update June 1 2022 Added Final Fantasy XV Red Dead Redemption 2 I have completely rewritten this entry and moved Red Dead to number 1. Some distance from the Van der Linde gang has softened my views. I may have had more freedom to create a character and story with other games in this list but I am role playing the daylights out of Red Dead free roam. Horses as NPC companions are fantastic and I am completely free to invent personalities for them. After hours and hours, there is some repetition but the ambient dialogue and activity continues to amuse and amaze. There is so much going on that I do not understand how this game was optimized for cons...

A while back I mentioned the Mass Effect series. It’s been a while so my memory of the three games I played is hazy. I skipped Mass Effect 3 because it’s not available on Steam. I like the Star Trek vibe of the series. However, I was most excited to finally be able to import a save file into the next series installment. Not many games allow for this. This led me to race through the first game in anticipation of playing the second. I selected male Shepard for his classic military demeanour. Series one Shepard was mostly a boy scout eschewing romance and opting for the most diplomatic decisions. Harsh choices and an unanticipated story conclusion had an impact on his character going forward. Game two veers towards X-Files in space. I liked the game play improvements Bioware made but I did not understand the morality system at all. Events did not turn Shepard renegade but he was much more neutral and less selfless. This turned out to be a mistake and his disengaged attitude ...