Post what's on your mind now

[Wing-0]

I finished Mass Effect 2 yesterday. I played the original Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 and the second as well on that console. Why would I be interested in playing it for a second time on the PS3? Well, my brother is a pain in the ass who doesn't let ANYONE touch the 360. Not even himself (insert whatever expression you want for making fun at a contradiction...). It's a great game. One of those I really wanted from the 360, but I wouldn't throw my money into the trashcan, seeing how unreliable the consoles are.

A friend of mine called me, told me he had bought the game and was offering it to me since I had given him my copy of Bayonetta and he didn't quite like the game. I said "Yay!" and went to pick it. My reaction is that the game looks better than the original version and it also includes many of the DLC content already on the disc, so one doesn't need to buy it, even if there is more DLC for sale. Nice. The most important missions that I didn't play the first time were two very long ones titled Lair of the Shadow Broker and Overlord. I liked them a lot. Especially the Shadow Brokers' since I got to have in my squad one of my former squadmates from Mass Effect 1 and because the length, difficulty and stages were excellent. Well designed, interesting and most of all, varied.

That's for the plus. There are a few complaints... One of the biggest ones I have is that to REALLY enjoy the game, I had to download 600 or so MB to install. In that, came a new character I didn't play on the 360, his stages, dialogues, text and who knows what else, probably other missions with a vehicle (which are fun in their own right), and also included the Mass Effect Genesis interactive comic Where's the bad in that? I had to download the WHOLE package before sitting my ass to play. With my currently limited access, the whole thing took more than two hours... ARGH...

Another thing is that the art for the ME Genesis comic is...

AWFUL...

Who chose that artist!? It looks more like art for a children's book, not for a game like this.

The BIG and final complaint I have is yet to come...

My BIG ASS complaint is that the game itself is BUGGED... YES! BUGGED! And worst of all, in the backstory comic!! How? In Mass Effect there was a moment in which you would lose a squadmate no matter what. You had to choose which to save, which to leave. I chose the one saved in the 360 version, recreating my actions. However, the game took the other character making him appear on screen and all. THEN, when I had to save three other characters, I chose to do so, but the game took it as if I had abandoned them to die. What!? Despite showing them on screen during the game as alive and well the NPCs complained I had abandoned them to die. Regarding the other character I had to abandon and pick the other, during the game several times both were mentioned as alive, despite the fact that only one can survive. Those are very serious issues with this game. They wouldn't be in a game where linearity is the norm, but for a game that relies heavily on choices of who lives, who dies, what you do here and there, it is a pivotal point. This port of Mass Effect 2 needs a fix. I think they will eventually do it, since the third is coming out this year for both platforms, so I'm not really worried. It's just weird to see the game fail in such a thing.

All that said, the game as a whole is tremendously good. The challenge is there, the fun things are too, just as well as the story, emotional moments and overall badassery of Commander Shepard in either gender.

Speaking of badassery, I have to comment that Jennifer Hale, the voice of the female Shepard does a more than stellar job. The character is believable and doesn't sound awkward even when going into different ethical roads. The male voice... does not reach that quality. The voice doesn't fit in several spots, like when doing a nice guy dialog but is really good when doing the asshole dialogues.

Do I recommend this game, despite the obvious fact the first one isn't coming out in the PS3? Yes. Definitely. There is a wealth of fun to be had in this too and the free inclusion of several originally DLC missions is a tremendous boost to the overall quality of the game. I can't wait for the third to come out.

[Tanith]

I think maybe WING-0 might like these images from NASA's WISE mission:

http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/gallery_images.html

All I can say is that these are the most gorgeous images I've ever seen. I'm almost in tears, really. The universe is vast.

VAST.

And we are lucky to be in it.

(Click on the thumbnails! Some of the images are really big.)

[Zucca]

I cannot access the URL you provided.

[Wing-0]

I have to say that I am insanely drooling over my keyboard after seeing such beautiful images.

[Zucca]

Bashing things up:
My script now creates nice and very simple directory and file listings into html documents. Settings are read from config file. Next step it to provide guide to dumb users (making it idiot proof) and adding a simple GUI. Later I'll go into creating thumbnails and extracting image info for jquery.
If I only knew how to write wxPython I'd write my script in that, or maybe in java so that windorks users could use it too. ;P

Oh well. There's always Cygwin.

[Tanith]

I cannot access the URL you provided.

That's because the USA doesn't share information with Finns.

(Kidding.)

I have no idea how to remedy that, since the url works for me, but here's an article about the pictures (that also contains some of the pictures):

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... ernet.html

That picture of Andromeda! *melts*

[Zucca]

It works now. \o/

[Wing-0]

Someone broke my brain...

With this...

http://www.nyan.cat/

EDIT:

I was thinking about the most recent time that Jehova's Witnesses came to our house. My brother was walking in front of me because we heard knocking at the door. He opened one door, closed it, opened the next then closed it. Trusting in our brotherly bond that I had his back. However, when he went to see who had come, he was faced with the GOOD NEWS that they were Jehova's Witnesses.

As they greeted him "Hello, young man! We come to deliver good news to you and are offering our free magazine Atalaya."
I was about to open the second door, but I stopped dead in my tracks. "Fuck this!" and closed the door in front of me, turned 180 degrees and returned to the PC where I was watching some random video in Youtube.

Several minutes later, came my brother... "YOU DAMN COWARD! YOU LEFT ME ALONE WITH THOSE JEHOVA'S WITNESSES!!"

My reaction was just "Well, who has you listening to them? You could have turned around and sent them to hell!"

"I'm not rude like you! I can't do that!"

"Well, sucks ass to be you! BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

"SCREW YOU!!" And that's how we got the march editions of Atalaya and Despertad (Wake Up in Engrish)... Oh, and I got a very angry brother... But that comes with the territory. =P

[carlsojos]

I was thinking about the most recent time that Jehova's Witnesses came to our house.

I had some religious guy come to my house. I don't think he was expecting the arguments I had about religion, because all he did was give the pamphlet and silently walk away.

[Zucca]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEesHVicuBE

*FACEPALM*

[carlsojos]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEesHVicuBE

*FACEPALM*

I can't believe it myself, but there really are people dumb enough to throw down their money for such a thing. What I want to know is how large difference between overhead and price is- I bet the profit margin is over 100%.

[Black Sword]

My next fanfic is going to be in the style of Albert Camus' The Stranger. I'm nervous because it's the first time I try such a thing. Here goes nothing...and in less than seven days, too.

[Dr_Odin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEesHVicuBE

*FACEPALM*

I can't believe it myself, but there really are people dumb enough to throw down their money for such a thing. What I want to know is how large difference between overhead and price is- I bet the profit margin is over 100%.

Dumb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81tCp2IjlxU

[Zucca]

I hope Kings is a good series, because I just downloaded the first and only season of it...

Yay. 1.5k trip broken.

[Zucca]