#that's what bioware's bread and butter always was

[lith-myathar]

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Star Wars Games For Mac

Star Wars Games For Mac

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Star Wars Games For Mac Free Download

Aspyr has been known for decades for its Apple ports of video games. But the Austin, Texas-based company has expanded it repertoire and today it is launching a classic Star Wars game for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Originally developed by TT Games Developed for Mac by Robosoft Technologies Published for Mac by Feral Interactive Limited Released on Mac in November 2010 Gameplay hints and walkthrough links Stuck? Maybe our gameplay hints will help you out of a tricky situation. Star Wars the Old Republic for mac is the same game that is supported for the PC, but is now compatible with Mac OS systems. The Old Republic was developed by Bioware in 2008 as a new generation MMORPG. Their have been millions of players registered since the dawn of the beginning of Swtor. ECOOPRO Gaming Headset for PS4 Xbox One PC, Stereo Gaming Headphones with Noise Cancelling Mic, Bass Surround, LED Light & Soft Memory Earmuffs for PC Mac Nintendo Switch (Camouflage) 3.8 out of 5 stars 478. Jun 30, 2019  The 100 Best Mac Games today Mac Gamer HQ picks its favorite Mac games from all genres, including worthy free alternatives. Star Wars: KOTOR 2: Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 2. Knights of the Old Republic games are some of the most famous RPGs of all time. KOTOR 2 is very similar to the original KOTOR. There’s definitely a.

5) Click ‘Search’ in the top left corner and type in Star Wars™ Galaxy of Heroes 6) Click on Star Wars™ Galaxy of Heroes in the Google Play Store 7) Click Install 8) Open Star Wars.

Elizabeth Howard, vice president of publishing at Aspyr, said in an interview with GamesBeat that this kind of title — the $10 version of Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast — is more representative of the kind of game that the company is publishing these days.

Aspyr is taking advantage of the fact that there are more game stores available for a wider variety of content than ever before. And there are more intellectual property owners that want to see their content move to the new platforms where the gamers are active. The basic model for Aspyr is to license games and then act as both publisher and developer for the new content.

I talked with Howard about the company’s aspirations and the outlook for both independent game publishers and developers in the current gaming landscape.

Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.

Above: Elizabeth Howard, vice president of publishing at Aspyr

GamesBeat: You have some Switch titles coming from the Jedi series?

Elizabeth Howard: Yeah. We have both Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy coming to Switch and PlayStation 4. Outcast is dropping later this month, and Academy comes out in the early part of next year, with a further investment in Academy as far as the multiplayer experience. We’re really pumped about bringing that to console players.

GamesBeat: How did you get that? Have you done any Star Wars titles before, or is this the first time?

Howard: Our relationship with LucasArts specifically goes back almost 20 years. We did the Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy titles for the Mac when they first released. My tenure at Aspyr goes back to doing them the first time. Our core business model is licensing games and then doing the development and publishing. We get the source code and do the engineering and take it to market.

That’s been a valuable asset, that we have this amazing library of content that we can reflect back on now. Almost a generation of gamers have grown up without a lot of these things we were able to touch the first time. We have access to this stuff now to bring to new audiences on new platforms.

It’s not our first time with Lucas, but I’m trying to reflect on whether this is our first time with Lucas as part of Disney. We did Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on iOS back in 2013. That came about as Lucas was being acquired by Disney, which was super exciting. It was quite the nailbiter. But we still managed to do it.

GamesBeat: How long ago now did you branch out from the Mac to other platforms?

Howard: This is our second version of that, I would say. We did multiplatform publishing in the early 2000s. We brought a couple of titles — back in the day we did Guitar Hero for PC, actually, and Tony Hawk. We did a few DS titles. We were the publisher of a game called Stubbs the Zombie on Xbox and PC.

With the rest of the economy, things got rough in about 2008 and 2009. We were still in the world of physical goods and limited distribution back then. It was a much more expensive game to play for a bootstrapped private company in Austin, Texas. We refocused on Mac and started exploiting our catalog digitally. That was the next growth phase for us.

Then, in about 2013, it was a matter of, how do we start stretching our capabilities in new ways? From both an engineering and a publishing perspective. We did titles like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, and a game that I loved back in the old days that we brought back called Fahrenheit. We did those for iOS. More recently we developed Civilization VI on Switch. We also, in the last couple years, have beefed up our publishing capabilities as the multiplatform partner for a number of independent titles, including Layers of Fear and Observer.

We’re seeing the culmination of the last five years of work, extending our development and publishing capabilities to allow us to do much bigger projects. The recent announcements are the first step in a much bigger direction for what you’ll see from us in the future.

Above: Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast debuts on September 24 for the Switch and PS4.

GamesBeat: How do you find those teams that can do this work? Is that part of your task, to find developers to remake some of these games on new platforms?

Howard: We’re in a pretty significant growth mode here. We’re at about 90 employees, and we have a significant engineering department. We’re now growing our art, design, UI/UX, and other creative and engineering departments in order to expand our internal capabilities. Then we work with a handful of trusted external developers as well.

But to answer your question, yes, our relationship with Disney in this particular case is, we are the publisher. We have an agreement where we’re figuring out the development and go to market process for these titles.

GamesBeat: You do a lot of this work in house, then? The porting work.

Howard: Right.

GamesBeat: In this case is it almost more like building it from the ground up, or does it still feel more like porting?

Howard: I feel like “porting” overly simplifies the work that goes into it. In the days we were doing Mac titles, that’s a more clear port, because it’s more A to B, PC to Mac. The work now to support the specific UI required for console, and then digging in on the additional features we might be able to bring to a particular experience — with the Switch titles we support rumble. With PS4 we support trophies. We’re doing whatever we can within the licensing limitations to improve the experience for that particular customer.

We brought Civilization VI to a number of other platforms. We brought it to iOS, including iPhone and iPad, and we also did Linux. We were the developer for Switch. That’s taking a keyboard and mouse experience and making it work really well on a touch platform, and then stretching that even further to hybridized touch and controller. We call it a sort of reimagining.

GamesBeat: Are there some rising platforms, from your point of view, and some that may be waning or going away?

Howard: From our perspective, broadly the future is multiplatform. Mac was once our bread and butter as a company, but I don’t imagine that being — I think last year was the first year that other platform revenues exceeded our Mac revenues. It seems like the Apple ecosystem is moving more in the direction of mobile, and we’re doubling down on the triple-A experience, which is more traditionally PC and console.

I am really excited to see the enthusiasm around Switch. I’ll be really curious to see how the market receives this. Certainly the announcement went well. It seems like there’s a bunch of consumer interest. But we’ll see how that shows up in purchasing. That will be fun to find out.

Above: The Aspyr team

GamesBeat: Is Switch a very crowded store, or does it still feel less so than some other storefronts out there?

Howard: The Switch store is less so than others. Certainly Steam has an immense catalog that can make it more challenging to battle your way through the content cloud. That being said, I also don’t know that the Switch digital store is quite as optimized as some of the more established platforms. We’ve always invested in bringing these big brands and triple-A experiences over. We’re able to benefit from the established market interest. For a short time, we’ll have one of the only Star Wars games on the Switch. That’s probably not a bad marketing strategy.

For things like Steam, platforms that are more competitive, we’re looking at unique ways to approach that market. We have an upcoming title that we’ll be announcing soon where we’re looking at a new way to approach monetization that will help with discoverability, as well as exciting customers as far as a new way to allow them to play games without having to pay for them up front, but without quite going down the road of free-to-play.

GamesBeat: What are you doing as far as original titles? Do you have titles coming through a different kind of process that are going to make it to the market soon?

Howard: I’d say right now our big focus, and where we see our growth and opportunity — I always like to talk about the unfair advantage. We’ve spent more than 20 years being triple-A brand and game stewards. Our future is, how do we make that even bigger and better? Growth for us is really around stewarding these beloved games and beloved gameplay. That’s where our strength is. We’re building a team that’s capable of doing that in even bigger ways. Instead of just a re-release, maybe a reimagining, a remake, a bigger undertaking with bigger brands.

Right now our focus is not on original, internal IP. We’ll continue to work with external developers as their publishing partner, taking games to market. But we’re really focused on our growth around these big brands.

GamesBeat: What sort of publishers are direct competitors for you?

Howard: It’s interesting, because we always have this debate. We’re a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Team17 have their own IP that they publish in addition to working as a publishing and development partner. The differentiator for us is we’re clearly focused for the most part, again, on triple-A. Even in the Mac days, we were still the Civ people and the Call of Duty people and the Borderlands people.

I think there’s still a market opportunity for licensed IP. There was a day, call it more than a decade ago, where there was a ton of licensed IP, and frankly not well-executed. Everybody was throwing a game to market in association with a movie launch. But if you look at the success of something like Spider-Man recently, when you’re able to connect brands with players in a polished way, it still works. Those kinds of games might be where we exercise more creativity.

GamesBeat: Do you have any interest in raising money? If there’s a growth plan a year from now or a couple of years from now, what do you expect to be like?

Howard: It’s a good question. Right now we’re not in the process of preparing for something like that. We’ve been a bootstrapped company since our inception. So far it hasn’t been a limiting factor. We think the kind of content we’re working on is valuable to strategic partners in the market right now, so potentially that means finding ways to continue to grow and fund games of significance without having to go that route. I might be coming back to you in a year with a totally different story, but right now we’re focused on this, and that sounds like a ton of work and effort. We don’t think we’re there yet.

Above: Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast for the Switch and PS4.

GamesBeat: It seems like there’s a lot of opportunity in the middle space of the industry. Not among the giant companies, but the companies that can really benefit from things like cross-play. That’s going to be more and more doable across a bunch of the platforms, the ability to take a hit game out into a wider market more easily. That seems to be a trend that helps companies that are in this middle space, which in the past seemed like they were under a lot of pressure.

Howard: I certainly feel like there’s an air of growth and opportunity in games. It’s obviously driven by the revenue growth we’ve seen over the last few years. That was my takeaway from going to GamesBeat and watching all those panelists, just the size of the impact. Gaming is growing globally in terms of humans playing games, and that leads to more opportunity.

To your point, crossplay is an awesome feature. What are opportunities for us to — I think our big differentiator is trying to find the best way to as much value as we can for the player with the games we touch, be it a remake or a reimagining or an indie publishing opportunity. Maybe spending a bit more time and energy on those kinds of features to really delight customers. There’s a lot of opportunity for all of us, and for Aspyr specifically as a 20-year veteran of shepherding big brands to new markets.

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Rating:Category:Perspective:Year released:Author:LucasArtsPublisher:LucasArtsEngine:Jedi

[www].se [ftp].se [mirror].us DarkForces1.2.sit_.bin (31.04 MB) For System 7.0 - 7.6 - Mac OS 9

[www].se [ftp].se [mirror].us darkforces.toast_.sit (105.51 MB) For System 7.0 - 7.6 - Mac OS 9

[www].se [ftp].se [mirror].us DF_Gold_Package.sit (1.21 MB) For System 7.0 - 7.6 - Mac OS 9

[www].se [ftp].se [mirror].us DF_user_missions.sit (14.62 MB) For System 7.0 - 7.6 - Mac OS 9

[www].se [ftp].se [mirror].us DarkForcesManualPC.pdf

Star Wars Games For Mac

Star Wars: Dark Forces is a 1995 first person shooter from LucasArts. It's a great game - similar to Marathon and the like.

Dark Forces puts you in the boots of mercenary for hire, Kyle Katarn. Initially charged with retrieving the Death Star plans from an Imperial base and delivering them to Princess Leia, Kyle subsequently is hired by the Rebel Alliance to seek out and destroy a new threat - an army of super, mechanized stormtroopers: the dark troopers. Dark Forces lets you explore numerous Star Wars worlds with total freedom, all while blasting an onslaught of enemies and achieving mission objectives.

Excerpt: — Macintosh Multimedia & Product Registry Volume 9, No.4 - 1996

3rd DL: — DF Gold, a suite of editing tools for the Macintosh version of Dark Forces. With thanks to compyislife for adding it to the archives. 4th DL: Is a collection of 60+ user made missions for Dark Forces + an instruction on how to convert PC missions to the Macintosh.

Compatibility

Star Wars Games For Mac Os X

Architecture: 68k PPC

Star Wars Games For Mac Free Download

Minimum Requirements: 68040 8 MB RAM 5 MB Hard Drive Space Mac OS 7.1

* Works under Mac OS 9.2.2

[empresstress13]

10 Questions! (Double, NO Quadruple Trouble!)

So I was tagged by both the magnificent @dreadhobo AND the fantastic @mommadreadwolf  AND the awesome @elfsplaining AND the splendid @adventuresinastrangeworld!

Rules:  Always post the rules, answer the questions given to you, then write 10 questions of your own, and tag some friends!

This got long so I’m putting it under the cut! 

Dreadhobo’s questions:

1. Coffee, hot chocolate or tea?

All of them! Although tea and coffee are probably above hot chocolate. I think I prefer tea a bit, but I drink significantly more coffee. . . .I probably bleed coffee. 

2. What food have you never eaten but would really like to try? 

hmmm. . . .I’m willing to try anything at least once! I’m not a fan of organ meats though . . . although @extravagantlies was telling me about these pancakes in Holland that I want to try now! I’m a huge carb fiend. 

3. What’s something people don’t worry about but really should?

Um. . . . I’m a complete worrier, so I’d be inclined to say everything? I can think of a lot to be worried about . . . .and I’m also not sure I trust my judgement on what people in general are commonly worried about. My view on that may be biased based off my own circle of acquaintances and that could lean one way or another. . . 

4. if you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?

. . . This is difficult for me. I’d kind of like to return to Japan or Norway, but I really, really want to visit New Zealand as well. I’ll go with New Zealand! 

5. What’s the funniest joke you know by heart? 

I’m not funny. Seriously can’t think of any jokes, most of what humor I have is based off of sarcasm or dry responses. 

6. Languages you wish you could speak? 

(ALL OF THEM) Gaelic, Korean, Welsh, ASL, Spanish, German, Czech, Arabic. . . 

7. What game have you spent the most hours playing? 

I’m not 100% sure because I have no way to check how many hours I played Neverwinter Nights or Diablo 2. I would guess overall the highest would be Neverwinter Nights. More recently Diablo 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition have pretty high counts, but I’d bet that NWN is still higher. 

8. Favourite video games? 

Dragon Age series, Diablo series, Neverwinter Nights, Civilization, KOTOR series. . . 

9. Best childhood memory? 

I have plenty of great childhood memories; “best” is difficult. I remember playing on the swing set with my grandmother, learning cards from my grandfather, being extremely close with my mom. Sitting outside on a blanket and cloud watching with her. Singing along to show tunes in the car. I remember watching Star Wars for the first time and becoming obsessed with Princess Leia. I remember when I realized that reading was fun. 

10. Favourite songs?

Cosmic Love by Florence + the Machine,   Bonny Swans by Loreena McKennitt,   20+∞Century Boys by Acid Black Cherry,   Midgard by Therion,   Wait For It from Hamilton,   Burn from Hamilton,   Organs from Of Monster and Men,   Empire by Shakira,   Between by Vienna Teng,   Numb by Marina and the Diamonds,   Never Look Away by Vienna Teng,   Starships by Nicki Minaj,   Koe by Amano Tsukiko,   Moutain Sound by Of Monsters and Men,   A Rose For The Dead by Theatre of Tragedy,   La Nuit M’appelle from 1789,   Konayuki by Remioromen,   Les Rois du Monde from Romeo & Juliette,   Home from Beauty & the Beast,   Take Me to the Riot by Stars,   Umbrella by Rihanna,   What You Own from Rent,   When I Grow Up from Matilda,   Moonfall from The Mystery of Edwin Drood,   Nemo by Nightwish . . . . and many, many more . . .. 

Momma Dread Wolf’s questions: 

1) What is the one thing guaranteed to make you smile?

Hugs! Hugs and cuddles from a loved one always make me smile. :) 

2) What did you want to be when you were little?

I wanted to be an actress on Broadway. 

3) What’s your guilty pleasure?

Probably eating why to many breads and other carbs? To an extent I suppose fandom is also a guilty pleasure? 

4) When did you first start getting into games?

I first started watching my dad and uncle play the original Diablo when I was about 4.

5) Any game (excluding DA), film or book that really moved you?

I’m super emotional so A LOT of movies and books move me. It’s not difficult at all. I even will get emotional when listening to songs and soundtracks y’all. Seriously, I was listening to Hamilton earlier and I started crying. Then I listened to Ragtime and started crying. Then Les Miz and started crying.

. . . .My first thought was all the great bloggers on here that I’d love to meet in person! XD I have a feeling that’s not what your meant though? Barack Obama maybe? Barak and Michelle Obama! 

7) Historical figure you admire?

I don’t know if admire is the right word but I’ve had a weird obsession with Eleanor of Aquitaine since I was in middle school. I do admire Josephine Baker quite a bit. 

8) You’ve been given a teleporter!! Where would you go??

Where wouldn’t I go?!? World vacations time! 

9) You can turn invisible!! What would you do?

hmmm. . . . Concerts, musicals, and plays probably! 

10) You’ve just discovered you have magic powers!! Like fireball and lightening strike! How would you react??

O.O . . . . .I mean on one had I think that’s cool! On the other hand . . . . .I’m worried? I feel like that could easily get out of hand. How do I control it? 

Adventures questions: 

1) What sort of pen do you prefer for writing? Ballpoint? Gel? Ink color(s)?

Usually black, blue, or purple ballpoint. 

2) What’s a question you’ve spent a lot to time thinking about your answer to, but have never been asked?

“Hey, how is Elrond related to all the Caliquendi Eldar royal houses AND the line of Thingol again?” “I’m so glad you asked. . . “

3) Bar soap or body wash?

Both! I have both in my shower AND I use both. 

4) Smells you 100% absolutely cannot stand?

Certain fermented smells. Fermented soy beans for one. Certain . . . .chemical sweet smells as well.

5) How many books do you have right now that you haven’t read yet?

At least 10? I can’t not buy something when I’m at a bookstore. It’s a problem.

6) You can hear your neighbor enjoying a session of the horizontal polka. Do you: a) Put headphones on and crank up the volume b) Blair “Let’s Get it On’” loud enough that your neighbor knows that you know c) Bang on the door and tell them they need to keep it down d) Leave an anonymous note for them to find in the morning?

Probably A and then D, but the note would probably be . . . .pretty lighthearted? Just to make sure that they know they were hear-able and that they know I’m requesting for them to tone it down a bit? 

7) What are your favorite shoes like? (pics?)

I don’t have pictures of them, but I have really fun over-the-knee black boots that I love! 

8) What is the best way to wake you up in the morning?

. . . Pray? I am not a morning person. 

9) Road trips or air travel?

I actually don’t mind either at all! 

10) Something you’re really picky about?

I hate cartilage in meat ( I know some people love cartilage/ connective tissue, but it really grosses me out! Sorry! You can have my helping if you like it!).

Elfsplaining’s Questions: 

1. Crunchy peanut butter or smooth?

It depends on what I’m doing with the peanut butter, but generally crunchy.

2. Are you a city person or a country person?

Small city! 

3. Do you have pets?

Not currently. :( 

4. What was the first video game you ever played?

I think it was Neverwinter Nights but it easily may have been Diablo 2? 

5. What is your favorite subject to study?

I really enjoy studying usually. Maybe history? 

6. Are you religious or spiritual?

I’m . . . . . . I was raised Catholic, still the vaguest of Catholic-”light”, somewhere between agnostic and something else. So spiritual? Yes. Still trying to figure out religion. 

7. What’s in your purse/backpack right now?

8. What’s your favorite kind of cookie?

ALL KINDS. ALL. 

9. Who was your first Bioware romance?

Alistair! 

10. What is your favorite instrument?

Well since I use to play the harp I feel I need to say that? Although I really like the nyckelharpa too.

My 10 questions:

1. If you could choose any city in the world to live in, where would you choose?

2. What are your favorite hobbies? 

3. What is your favorite word to use in writing? when speaking? 

4. If given the chance to see the future, would you want to? Why?

5. What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream? 

6. What is a skill you would like to pick up? Why?

7. Would you rather visit 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future? Why? 

8. What is your favorite food to make? 

9. When did you first become interested in video games? 

10. Most annoying video game boss? Why? 

If you would like, and have time, tagging: @thema-sal-shiral , @wardsarefunctioning , @buttsonthebeach, @ethadahlen, @circadian-rhythm, @l-a-v-e-l-l-a-n, @extravagantlies, @katalyna-rose, @dragynfox , @lycheejellytea , @deleriumofyou

[kaorei-endgame]

Have you gotten around to prey? If so, how does it compare to System Shock 2? Never played it, but I'm loving the hell out of Prey, more so than Dishonored or the Bioshock series.

It’s super good! And it hit me at the right time, which means I played it during a mega depresso binge over like three or four days.

It felt to me like this could’ve been a follow-up to System Shock 2 in some alternate universe where Bioshock never happened. Bioshock pared things down way too much for my tastes. This was like a midpoint between System Shock 2 and Dishonored in terms of systems, inventory management, stuff like that. You better believe I got SUPER hype when I killed the first enemy in the demo and found a research item I’d need a skill upgrade to harvest. That’s my bread and butter!

Don’t know exactly how to say this without spoiling it, but the trick they pull in the very beginning hit me like seeing an action movie constructed entirely out of practical effects would in this modern era where everything is CG blood. The tomfoolery with the helicopter ride. Them pulling the rug out from under you, then proceeding to show you how they manufactured the twist entirely in-universe, without, like, map-changing trickery was beyond rad. They could’ve just spoofed the helicopter ride with map changes, but instead you can walk around in the lab where the twist is deployed and see how all the pieces fit together It made me think “oh, they really cared about how tactile feel of this universe.” Essentially, they created a practical magic trick in a medium where it’s 10000% easier just to make literal magic. It spoke volumes about the ethos they were going for, that they worked hard to make all the pieces line up on something that a lot of people wouldn’t really even bother to think about too hard, or even care about if they did.

That’s present everywhere. When you start fighting mind-controlled crew members later in the game, they’re all named NPCs. There’s no like “mind-controlled crew,” it’s “Roger.” If, as I’m now told, we’re calling these games “immersive sims,” then this is about as immersed in one of these games as I’ve been in a long time. The touches are omnipresent, and touches are what make games stick in my mind after I get some time away and the gameplay hooks start to dull. Really early in the game, the first time you run into a stronger enemy than the standard mimics, it’s a spooky ghost monster but the spooky ghost monster is named “Yuki Sato” and later you can go to Yuki Sato’s room and paw through her stuff. The level design is Space Station Bland at points, but I can almost forgive it because they clearly put the effort into creating one big, confined space. Unlike Bioshock, where everything is segregated playpens with no sense of place in the greater world, when you eventually get to go out into space and see how all the pieces fit together, it’s a cool moment of realization that all the pieces really do fit together. That’s a commitment you don’t often see, especially these days. Before like six people told me they’re called Immersive Sims, I would think of games like this as “Dioramas.” They hit the exact right level of craft and verisimilitude to keep me interested. Not too tiny and scripted like a Gears corridor shooter, not too big and procedurally generated gunk like a Far Cry open world. The goldilocks of exploration.

I’m also totally sick of audio logs and want a moratorium on them almost across the board. I’m basically 180 on them and think the whole idea’s stupid because their purpose is to give you something to engage your brain while you’re rooting around trashcans, but practically speaking you have to sit still when you’re listening to them because the human brain actually doesn’t multitask well and it’s stupid to play the odds that you won’t run into a monster or get distracted by a hard to reach bauble and have to listen to the whole thing over again.

…..but the ones here were pretty solid. For one, it felt like they hit more character building notes and far less Expository Worldbuilding Gunk that I tune out on immediately because I know I’m gonna forget it as soon as the game’s over anyway and I’d rather save that brain space for, like, a book. For two… well, I try not to make super declarative statements on this stuff because I don’t feel like it’s 100% my place, but when people were talking up and being excited about the presence of queer relationships in this game, I assumed it was the usual case of having to do a lot of Rounding Up like to, y’know, pretty much always have to do in video games. 

So I was surprised that they gave you a couple fairly fleshed out queer characters whose plot was more than “yea I’m gay, super gay, all-the-time gay wanna fight about it,” was interesting. While I can’t shake the feeling that they gave your character a girlfriend because you could be a guy or a girl and people (especially gamers) are gonna be less gross about–well not less gross about but less angry gross about–lesbians than they are gay dudes, still, having that relationship play a fairly central part in the game beyond “Who You Choose To Bang 2/3rds Of The Way Through A Bioware RPG,” can’t be all bad, even if seeing the practical strings guiding that decision does get you kind of down about the state of things (slash-the-world-at-large).

I was disappointed in that part where you go into the lab and there’s post-it notes that say “not a mimic” on every single flask and coffee mug in the room and they didn’t pull the obvious trick of making one of the “not a mimic” post-its itself a mimic. To me, that seems like an extremely rude missed opportunity.

Really, the primary disappointment was the tech trees. I didn’t find almost any of the powers exciting, and I’m still craving that Shock 2 model of only having 4 super upgrade slots and for the 20-odd powers you could fit in them. Most of those powers were bad or useless, like “get more health from food,” or some crap, but that wasn’t the point! Some of them were cool things like “equip another cybernetic implant,” which were a huge boost. As always, I want far fewer upgrades that have far greater impact on how I act in the world. To an extent, getting mimic abilities did a little of that, but it was mostly for traversal. It’s that Path of Least Resistance thing I sometimes talk about–I didn’t really see much point in spending a bunch of time in the power wheel toggling around between my ability to launch enemies up in the air or mind control them or zap them when the shotgun and recycling grenades could handle almost everything without a fuss.

Likewise, the weapon upgrades were unspeakably dull. I was fine with them going with kind of a low-tech feel for the weapons, kind of like Half-Life, where the best you get is a shotgun and then a couple weird experimental science guns. It fit the theme. But I wish each weapon just had a couple of distinct, substantive upgrades (like I dunno, flaming shotgun shells or shotgun shells that shot alien bees) rather than the usual tepid “+1 to damage” and “+10% reload speed” that you just stack on without thinking about it. I just wish more games took the New Vegas approach of having individual accessories for each gun type, especially since those also applied aesthetic changes.

And the pacing’s weirdly back-loaded. I don’t know if that’s exactly something to complain about, but I played for like 20 hours essentially being alone with no one to talk to, like you do in these games sometimes, and then all of a sudden the next 10-15 hours are stuffed with NPCs and timed sidequests and stuff like that. I would’ve liked that to be spread out a little more just because my personal idiosyncrasies have me playing games like these at 120%++ in the initial hours (picking up every banana peel, reading every log twice, scouring the top of every bookshelf, unlocking every safe) that by the time they gave me more options to interact with the world, I’d burned myself out on most of it. I assume i’m far from the only person that does this, like I assume it’s pretty much the norm for the genre, so I wonder what the thought process was there–if it was anything beyond “we really want to keep the player isolated for as long as possible, because that’s what happens in these games.”

The twist itself, ehhh, you know. Once they hit you with that Trust No One vibe, you know the Trust No One x2 is coming at some point, so my initial guess on the ending right out of the gate was pretty much 80% correct when the credits rolled, but I didn’t feel bad for it. Because, like a magic trick, it’s about “how do all these actions line up??” rather than knowing the end result. Though I do think it was a bad call to give you a Bad End that’s accessible super early in the game and all but spells the final reveal out for you. The core conceit of the narrative (and the choices you make therein) not being based around “morality” but “empathy” hit a major chord with me. Even if I don’t think this is an end-all, be-all story, with video games, you kind of expect Nihilist and at best get Fatalistic. So to have Prey–a game about a Super Science Research Station Where Ethics Are Strictly Optional–poke and prod at compassion, and how it works, left me with a pleasant feeling. 

There’s this part where you go into a guy’s room and he’s got this gigantic, hand-crafted holographic diorama that, if you turn it off, there’s a chest behind it. I think I knew what I had to do to open it (it’s part of a similar secret earlier), but I couldn’t figure out how I had to do it, so I had to sit there and be like “do I wanna break this guy’s art to get his 60 credits or whatever?” And I don’t mean to be all Think Piece-y about it–because obviously I know people in video games are not real people–but I appreciate any time a game activates that fleeting instinct to be kind or preserve in me because I know there’s no permanence to anything I could do. Because like… I know people in books are not real people either, but I also get sad about them sometimes. To that end, recovering the composer’s symphonies was my favorite sidequest.

Prey got me at the right time. It’s got an aight sci-fi story, it’s got some fine trashcans to root around in, but what really invested me in it was the aesthetic choices and the cohesiveness of the world. I’d super ++++++ recommend it for anyone into Dishonored, Deus Ex, any of those games. Dishonored 2 had much better level and encounter design–Prey is a little too much on the Shock-style “random pipe zombie spawns to keep you on your toes at all times”–but the story/acting in it was kinda shit, so maybe it’s a wash. Anyway, if it’s within your budget of time/money, both are Capital G “Great++” games that you should get around to.

Tho I still super miss having to go around to the different science labs to correct the right minerals to research an enemy organ. Make a game where I have to pick up my Pb and Au to get that bonus damage to hybrids in 2017 (or beyond) and I’d be in heaven.

[discomfort-food]

Mass Effect Andromeda review/notes/whatever

So I just finished the main quest of MEA, the latest installment in my number one favorite game series of all time. Whew. There’s a lot being flung around the internet about it, and I know this probably will be little more than a drop in an ocean, but whatevs. My thoughts. 

There are spoilers, so don’t read this if you don’t want to be spoiled (duh).

First off, I played it on a PS4, so I can’t comment on performance on other systems. It ran fine, only had one crash/freeze, and that was right after I started playing and it was still installing stuff. There was some frame stuttering in heavy combat zones and in some areas, but I’m not picky about that stuff on consoles, plus it will likely get patched.

Also note, I am a huge BioWare fan, so my review will definitely be biased towards those who have played the Mass Effect and/or Dragon Age series. I have greatly enjoyed all the entries in these series, although I am aware of the many flaws in all of them. Also I’ll let you in on a probably unpopular opinion: my least favorite ME game is 2. Despite having my absolute favorite opening to a game, the rest of the plot just didn’t make much sense within the trilogy. Take that info and do what you want with it. I like 1 for the story, 2 for the character quests (that’s all the game is though) and 3 for the combat.

Okay! Finally to my thoughts on Andromeda. I broke them up into good stuff, bad stuff, and other stuff/random observations.

The Good!

- The scale and sense of exploration! I love space. I love the sense of exploration into the unknown. When I heard they were planning on taking the planet exploration concept from 1 and make it good, I was ecstatic. There aren’t nearly as many planets to explore as in 1, but they’re all interesting worlds with quests and things to explore, not just empty husks (ha). I do wish there were some more worlds that I was actually the first to discover and not have to worry about raiders or abandoned prefabs over the next hill.

- The characters! Characters are BioWare’s bread and butter, and Andromeda is no exception. All of my squad and crew are interesting and believable, and although I have my favorites, there wasn’t one of them that I found myself never wanting to take into combat. I’ll get into my thoughts on each of them later. I see people complaining about how there’s “only” six companions and compare it to 2′s hundred million. Well, sorry, but at least a third of 2′s companions were boring or unnecessary. Ryder’s squad all had excellent chemistry together, and constantly surprised me with their banter dialogue or conversations around the ship. Which brings me to my next point:

- The ship! The Tempest is beautiful, inside and out. There’s lots of nooks and crannies to explore and appreciate. Although it’s not as big as the Normandy SR-2, it doesn’t have any annoying, impossibly long elevators to take between decks. Your crew actually move around the ship and have conversations with each other from other rooms or over the comms. I do love that your quarters are absolutely bonkers compared to the five beds and a couch shared between the rest of your squad.

- Ryder, Ryder, Ryder.Ryder is a solid protagonist. The dialogue mechanic is much more natural than Shepard's paragon/renegade business, and I felt like I could put more of myself into her. Also, you don't have to worry about putting enough points into certain types of dialogue to get access to certain objects. Lexi keeps tabs on your general conversational tone, and other characters will react differently to you depending on how you have talked to them in the past. Plus, Ryder swears a lot more than Shepard, so that's pretty fucking cool.

- The combat! I’ll be honest; I play most video games for the story. I don’t mind combat in most games, but I rarely if ever bump the difficulty up past normal. The combat in Andromeda was quick and responsive. The last game I played was Witcher 3. Fucking amazing game, but I swear Geralt was drunk half the game due to how many times he got stuck in the landscape or stumbled or didn’t move in the way I expected. I’m not going to get much into it, pretty much the only universal positive point most reviews have about the game is its combat, go read one of those.

- Peebee. just. heart eyes. my beautiful blue gf. everything about her. swoon. Her and my smartass Ryder better tear up the galaxy in the sequel or I’ll riot.

- The actual cutscene animations. I’m talking about the full body motion capture shots, not the facial animations, I’ll get to those in a minute. They’re nicely done, and I didn’t really notice anything that stuck out or was reused like a lot of shots in the OT. There weren’t things like awkward hand waving during dialogue or the ol’ BioWare Turn And Walk Out of Frame.

- The armor design/clothing options. I really liked the way most of the armor looked on Ryder, definite improvement over the OT (no boob cups, yay!) Being able to choose the color was pretty neat too. Here’s my soft butch Ryder rocking NASA-levels of orange.

- my bro! I love him. It’s always neat when you have family members in an rpg and you aren’t conveniently an orphan. I freaked out when I got to play as him in that scene near the end! I hope our sibling will be on our ship with us in the sequel.

- post-ending content - you can do most of the stuff after the main quest is over without worrying about being locked out. Plus, your squad actually acknowledges that the main quest is over and don’t give you the silent treatment.

- Remnant design. Love it. It’s got that huge, unfathomable-ness to it. The first vault you unlock on Eos, wow. That’s the sci-fi I like.

The Bad

- The facial animations. Let’s just get this over with. They’re bad. Well, the upper half is bad. The bottom half of the faces are usually passable, and the teeth detail is actually pretty good. But the eyes. The eyes are the windows to the soul, and I just don’t understand why they are so lifeless. It’s not even like BioWare doesn’t know how to make eyes, they were fine in Inquisition. I don’t see why they couldn’t just port over those eye textures/shader? Everyone’s whites are blindingly bright, and their irises don’t reflect any light, making them look unnatural as fuck. The eyes are the first thing humans instinctively look at, and I don’t see why they didn’t prioritize that over other things. 

- The character creation. Yup, another one everyone knows about. So bad. I honestly don’t know what the fuck they were thinking. Inquisition’s CC was solid. Guys, nobody would have complained if you had just copied and pasted it. At least, not as many as there are now. Also, DON’T USE SARA’S DEFAULT FACE. Holy shit. Like, anatomically, her face is fine, but for whatever reason, they baked a small smile into her “resting face,” so she just looks fucking stupid in a serious scene. You all know that one. And what’s the point of having a default face anyhow if all the other faces are facescans anyway? Literally the only good thing I can say about the CC is if you want to play as a non-white Ryder, you actually have realistic-looking options this time.

- The kett. Boring. Cliche. Absolutely predictable. I figured the main grunt soldiers were Angaran pretty early on, their face shape and eyes are the same. I’m down with despicably evil characters, as long as they have some sort of motivation or charisma. Not the kett or the Archon. Just pure “I will eradicate your species because we are better” Typical antagonist who’s unhealthily obsessed with the protagonist to the point of his underlings pointing it out to him. I guess the only ok factor about the kett is their physical design? I hate their technology design though, it looks like something from a 90′s scifi show.

- Attack of the Asari Clones. Whyyyyyy do all of the asari, sans Peebee, have the same face??? It’s infuriating because you would think it’s such a simple thing. They have a fucking human face, they didn’t seem to have a problem making different human faces??? I also take issue with the other species not being different enough, (although this was a problem in the OT too, I guess Saren had a facial deformity for turians). They did brag about being able to have a higher variation in alien species in one of those boring “previews” of the devs sitting at their computers, so what happened??? All the Krogan have three facial models: female, wrex, or wrex with chin spikes (I guess Grunt had a facial deformity too).

- The rest of the romances? I enjoyed Peebee’s romance but from what I read about the rest of them, unfortunately I think she got the “default sex appeal romance” treatment that Liara had in the OT; an unequal amount of scenes/effort into her romance because that’s who straight men will go for.

- dialogue constantly cutting out/ending because of another dialogue line.  Oh sweet, I’m getting some good party bant-HEY PATHFINDER IT’S A LITTLE BIT WARM OUTSIDE ON THIS DESERT PLANET, THOUGHT YOU SHOULD KNOW. hopefully this gets patched.

- the inventory. There’s no sorting of anything, just alphabetically. It would be awesome if my crafting materials were in one section and my weapons, armor, mods, etc, were in their own. nope. also there’s no storage locker anywhere so have fun carrying all of that.

The Other

- There are a lot of unsolved/open-ended plot lines. The origin/rest of the Kett, the Remnant/Jardann and the Angara, Ryder’s mom, the Benefactor and Jien Garson’s murder. The Quarian ark mentioned in the epilogue will probably be DLC. I’m hoping this means a sequel is definite, but we’ll have to see how the negative press affects sales.

- I’m kind of neutral on the angara. Jaal is awesome, but the rest of the angara are just kind of boring. I like their whole family dynamic thing, but meh. I also don’t really dig the female designs, I think it’s the eyebrow ridge thing? They’re too different from the males.

- I wish there was more “first contact” stuff. During the marketing of the game, they emphasized how much the Milky Way species were the aliens. It didn’t feel much that way to me. The first meeting between Ryder and the Angara was cool, with them all crowding around to see. It sounded like this was the first time they had known about us? But immediately after Aya suddenly there are angara everywhere and integrating with our society?

- They tried going straight for the Citadel DLC tone without having three full games to back it up. I like joking around and lightheartedness, and I can definitely understand going for a lighter tone than the original trilogy, but I really feel like they saw the positive reception of Citadel, and just tried to force the mood to be the same way. We had the whole trilogy to build up relationships with the crew before we could unwind in Citadel, and they missed that. It’s like eating dessert first.

- Whyyy did they ruin Allegra Clarke’s awesome voice on Kesh? 

- Gay turians are pretty cool

- Why did I have to specify Shepard’s gender? All the Shepard references I found (do the SAM memories questline) didn’t mention Shepard’s gender. Unless I missed something?

- Can I wear my under-armor(?) around non-combat zones outside the Tempest?

Seriously, nobody would walk around Kadara in a hoodie and sweats or a fashionable scarf. As far as I know I only get to wear this during the final mission.

The Squad (most to least favorite)

Peebee. My love. Write off anyone who says she’s just Sera from Inquisition. I don’t think they played either game. And her dad’s an Elcor??? I need to know more. I liked how they didn’t even try to make her a Liara clone.

Vetra Oh my god. First time in a Bioware game I actually had trouble deciding who to romance. She’s just so… competent. I will climb that tree next playthrough for sure. She’s the team’s Cool Mom.

Jaal I honestly thought he would be way different. Angsty like Thane or arrogant like Javik, but nah, he was such a bro. His voice and dry humor quickly took him off my shit list. I guess he gets together with Peebee if you don’t romance either of them, and I’m ok with that.

Kallo pure cinnamon roll, too good, too pure.

Lexi even though she broke my Ryder’s heart, I still love her. Mostly because I love Natalie Dormer. I hope she comes back if there’s a sequel.

Suvi Her banter with Kallo was good. And the first time you can flirt with her as Sara was absolute gold. As soon as she brought up religion though, I peaced out.

Drack Guys, he’s old. And he’s a krogan. Did we mention that he’s really old? He’s funny, because he’s a krogan. Krogan just like to shoot stuff. Drack does too, but he’s old so he’s really good at it. I didn’t not like Drack, and he honestly has some of the funniest dialogue, but he’s basically Wrex if people constantly mentioned how old he was. Also I guess I was supposed to know he has a bunch of prosthetics? He’s literally cocooned in armor 24/7 so that plot point didn’t have as much impact as I think they were going for. I hope if they ever make another Krogan squadmate in the future they’ll try to make a new character.

Cora oh my god girl shut up about the Asari. She’s the team’s Awkward Mom. Basically Cassandra. Totally reads Fifty Shades of Grey.

Liam His loyalty mission was actually one of my favorites, but I just didn’t like his character. For a crisis specialist, he wasn’t very good in a crisis. Probably my favorite Generic Starter Male Human squadmate though.

Gil I’m sorry that he’s the only option gay male players get.

The End

Shit, that went on way longer than I’d intended. In conclusion, I would rate Andromeda a 7.5 out of 10. It needed a lot more polish before release, and I don’t understand the reasoning behind giving your most popular franchise to a team that has yet to make a full game. Still, it’s got good bones, and it was a nice clean break from the baggage of the OT. Hopefully they release some good patches and quality DLC, then I could see me bumping my score up to an 8. I hope the game will be looked back on like DA2 is now, people have realized it’s a decent game despite it’s serious flaws.