#especially after buying a $30 dlc lol

[lilyware]

reaching the end of phantom liberty and decided to look up the new ending cause I couldn't help myself and wanted to make the right decision (already knew I was gonna have to choose between reed and so mi) and man

kinda don't wanna finish this anymore lol i was really holding out hope for this new base game ending

[messydiabolical]

Mass Effect Qs: 1, 5, 16, 30, 36, 37, 45, 67, 76, 79, 95, 101

Thanks for the ask, you mean business! *cracks knuckles* okay let's do this (link to all the questions) 1) How did you get into Mass Effect? 2013: Spouse gifts me a copy of me1 on steam. I, according to steam, played 61 minutes and decided it wasn't for me and uninstalled it 😅 2021: I watch Jessie Gender do a letsplay and enjoy it a lot. I buy Legendary in a sale deal. I am hooked. 2013 me apparently wasn't ready lol (I've always struggled with non 1st person perspective games, it's probably what put me off).

5) Preferred alignment Overall paragon, though I do think some of the paragon responses are too washy/hand wavy when it comes to say, the council. I go with the in between option a lot in general dialogue. 16) MAKO: Die in a fire or best thing ever? I have to be in the mood for it, and when I am, I enjoy the MAKO a lot. Just vibing along. It helps that I play with mods. N7 MAKO for more speed, MAKO squadmate banter for more vibes, and charted worlds for easier map navigation. But even first playthrough vanilla, I liked the MAKO. I find thorough exploration satisfying.

rest of answers under cut as there are so many and this is getting long!

30) Favourite DLC mission? Mission is a toss up between Lair of the Shadow Broker (Feron my beloved) and Leviathan (probably the most fun overall gameplay wise, I like the detective aspect and the lab apartment is cool). Fave DLC is Thane's alternative outfit though. DLC of all time, all hail Thane's cool dad glasses.

36) Funniest moment in the game? Grunt falling past the Heurta lab window, Feron's sassy little "I'll try not to go anywhere" while strapped into the chair (the ultimate commited to the bit sarcasm king) and the sexually awakened salarian's email after recruiting Thane (funny and wholesome. You go you horny funky little guy, you and me both).

37) Creepiest moment in the games? The T-GES Mineral works employees on Mahavid in the Leviathan DLC telling you to leave, you don't belong here etc. Especially on first playthrough when you can't be sure if they might turn on you violently or not, and will you have to fight these poor brainwashed civilians? In a similar vein, the Reaper IFF mission with the vids showing the workers sharing memories and their growing confusion.

45) Best Villian in the series? The leviathan

67) Who would you cosplay if you could (no holds barred)? The biotic God would be fun

76) What are you hoping from ME4? That they take their time, are well invested and the staff treated respectfully so that they can produce something with love and care *crying thumbs up* I just hope they don't rush through some money grabbing shit show. Storywise the skies the limit, there's a whole universe to explore, have fun with it, do something new, respect the old, and heck if you can throw in more drell that'd be neat.

95) Do you mod your games? Heavily. My MAKO answer probably shows that lol. Herobrine24's modlist is a great base for modding I'm always checking it.

101) If you could meet Shepard, what would you say? Can I offer you an egg in these trying times? In seriousness I would just want to offer them some food and a nap.

[thesimolius-blog]

Mount & Blade 2 is coming to consoles, and it’s a really bad idea.

Mount & Blade Warband is definitely one of my favorite games on PC, because of it’s originality, the freedom it gives you to take on the northern kingdoms any way you wish, the simplicity of it’s combat system that actually ends up being quite interesting and satisfying... Needless to say, I’ve been keeping an eye on Mount & Blade II Bannerlord ever since it was announced. Unfortunately, there seems to be a problem I have only recently noticed. For some reason, M&B 2 is not only going to be available on PC, it’s also going to be released on Xbox One and the PS4. To any seasoned PC gamer and fan of the franchise, this is obviously a big problem.

Developing a game with consoles in mind can result in an idea with a lot of potential turning into a game full of limitations, features getting cut out or not even being approved due to the limitations of the outdated hardware of the consoles. Massive games like Arma 3, Minecraft, Word of Warcraft, Europa Universalis, and many others, would have never been able to see the light of day if they were to be developed for consoles. Keyboard and mouse are less restrictive than controllers, computer hardware is always ahead of whatever is being used by the current generation consoles, allowing for bigger games with more technologically innovative features. Consoles are so much more restrictive, they aren’t fit to innovate and don’t allow for bigger and better games to grow on and from them. If you make a game that is the same for both consoles and PC, chances are the PC version is going to turn out the worst of them, because of all the limitations that were put on the game by the consoles. It’s an even worse idea to take a PC exclusive game,  come up with a sequel, which should be bigger and better, and develop it with consoles in mind. And, oh look! Taleworlds ported Warband to the consoles and guess what happened...

Now, we all know that IGN is not to be trusted, but for this time only, I found that their review of the console port of M&B Warband was just what we needed to look at to see how PC exclusive masterpieces are seen by the console community when said masterpieces somehow land on their potato boxes...

IGN called Warband on Xbox One “an unsharpened blade” criticizing it’s “outdated graphics and sometimes disappointing controls”. I could also quote a bunch of others critiques to the character models, map design and graphic quality, but there would be more pointless quotes in here than on a 14 year-old’s Facebook feed. Also, graphics are the most minor of problems this game has. Very few M&B fans will ever have serious complain about the graphics of the game, despite how bad they truly are. That’s because the gameplay of M&B easily compensates for the weak visuals.

 Although the amount of text in the game can be a bit annoying, IGN seems to attribute a lot more negative points to that than the average PC player, definitely demonstrating how console players just can’t be bothered with anything more complicated than “shoot bad guy, get ranks”.

They also notice the games lack of direction and high difficulty, specially when getting started. This is yet another characteristic sometimes found on great PC games. You will have to learn things, by yourself or with the help of guides. Once you do that, the game opens up and everything is wonderful. Also, if Dark Souls does it, i’ts cool, but if it’s poor old M&B, it’s not so cool. Interesting... 

They say issuing orders with the D-pad sucks and apparently there are multiple actions bound to the same button, of course. Also, as amazingly retarded as it sounds, it really seems like IGN focused more on analyzing the multiplayer than the singleplayer. They took their time to praise multiplayer gamemode variety, but seem to have completely ignored everything about the singleplayer. You can be a mercenary, a merchant, a merciless raider, you can become a lord, own territories and towns, create enterprises, rescue prisoners of war in return for renown and reputation, carry a banner, make your game harder by playing as a woman (lol)... So much to do in so many different ways. And the modding! Wow, the modding. There’s a mod called Clash of Kings which fully converts Warband into the Game of Thrones video game you’ve always wanted. It’s so good that you could buy Warband just for the mod and nobody would find it stupid. But, who cares, right? What we really want to know is: are the graphics xxX!NeXt*GeN!Xxx, and is the multiplayer 360NoScOpeYOLOsWaG enough.

“Graphics aren’t everything - but they’re something.“ - IGN

Part of this quote is correct. Part of this quote is meaningless.

“It already looked a decade old when it first came out on PC in 2010 (and received a review score of 8.1), and some minor updates to its Xbox One and PlayStation 4 release do little to make it look remotely modern.“ - IGN

As if the game wasn’t worthy of running on an Xbone or a Piss4 until it got “updated” to look more “modern”. What do you even mean with "updated” and “modern”? Does the game now run exclusively at 30 FPS on a 1280x720 resolution?... For cinematic purposes, of course.  Also, yes it got a 8.1 when it released on PC, and you gave it a 6.3 on consoles, even after “updates”. It’s almost as if the problem isn’t the game itself, but the crap boxes running it.

“And yet for all that, this remains a roleplaying game that does a better job of conveying the rags-to-riches journey than a game like Skyrim.“ - IGN

Mount & Blade Warband is an open-ended RTS/third-person action hybrid with RPG and simulation elements that allows you to participate in massive 200 vs 200 unit siege battles and open field battles. You can also get the Napoleonic War DLC and play out historically accurate battles with muskets and such... They compare this to Skyrim.

The best they ended up doing was praising the game’s living world and it’s “depth, replayability, and ambition“.  

“This is clearly a game designed for mouse and keyboard“ - IGN

Yet M&B Bannerdlord is somehow going to be on both PC and consoles. Deal with that, developers.

“Mount & Blade: Warband may not have a carefully guided plot or even reasonably attractive graphics, but it recreates the sensation of living in a medieval world like few other games by allowing freedom to decide your own approach to carving out your destiny in a dynamic world of rapidly changing alliances. Controls are awkward at best, making it tough to appreciate how good the combat is, but there's a lot of fun here, especially in the eight multiplayer modes for up to 32 players. As a veteran of the PC version, which I love, I feel bad not being able to recommend the console version more highly, but this port doesn’t fully allow Mount & Blade’s charm to shine through.“ 

As a “veteran of the PC version”, I don’t understand why you put so much stress on the game’s graphics and crappy controls, specially on the controls, since that’s obviously a controller issue and not a fault of the game. But seriously, how is Bannerlord supposed to be the sequel we all need if it’s going to have to deal with console parity now? That’s a freaking riddle right now, at least to me. I can’t see the game coming out and being a hit on all platforms. Either the console versions are going to be handicapped by default, or the PC version is gonna be handicapped by console parity. Pick your poison.

That’s my opinion on the matter. I hope you enjoyed this medium-sized read, and don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @theSimolius.