The League of Shadow

I recently finished the Xbox 360 title Mass Effect. This game is brought to you by the masters at Bioware. Gamer hint: if it says “Bioware” on the box and you like RPG’s go ahead and buy it, you’ll thank me later.

No need to review this game for quality. It is very good. No other review needed.

What I will do is compare it to another similar RPG from Bioware that was a smash hit, Knights of the Old Republic. If you haven’t played it, shame on you. KOTOR was a title for the Xbox/PC that was a RPG based in the Star Wars world 4000 years before the events in the movies. Other than Jedi, Sith, Lightsabers, force powers, and similar ships, this game is nothing like Star Wars.

Bioware must have struggled to put KOTOR out with the blessing of George Lucas. It was very gritty and nothing you would expect from a Star Wars Video Game. The second “Knights” was developed by Obsidian and in its own right fun, but crap compared to the first one. So as far as I am concerned it doesn’t exist.

The next Bioware project was Jade Empire. This was a totally different experience so we will skip that one.

On to Bioware’s current gem, Mass Effect. The best way to describe the feel of Mass Effect is, Knights of the Old Republic RPG elements, set in a HALO type space marine universe, with Ghost Recon type third person combat. Picture it… and we are moving on.

In Mass Effect you play the role of Commander Shepard (male or female). The human race is young in the traverse, only 26 years since Alien Contact. Your character will become the first Human Spectre (Council Cop that is above the law). This honor, until now, was only given to elite members of other species. You and your crew set off to hunt down a rouge agent bent on destroying the universe. You get to make your own choices, in which the game treats you differently depending on the route you take. I really like the “choose your own adventure” type RPGs. Remember those books?

Remember books?

In Knights of the Old Republic you played a jedi with amnesia where you had to put the story back together as you hunted down an evil sith lord, and unralvel the secrets of a expired Sith master named Revan.

So I will tell you now, I think Knights of the Old Republic was a much better game. Mass Effect is a great game, but KOTOR is one of the best games of all time, so it was up against stiff competition.

Part members: The party members in Mass Effect are more effective in battle than the members in KOTOR, but the AI still isn’t great. They will run in front of your fire, but they have shields so fuck um, right? There is much more depth to the characters story’s (as a whole) in Mass Effect.

It did seem though in KOTOR you could actually influence the characters around you to change in some way through the game, and not just open new dialog or receive funny responses. This made the conversations more engaging. Yes, in Mass Effect you will be chasin down the romance angle to get busy with a crew member and maybe see some alien booty. This still is not as fun as turning a seemingly perfect good guy to the dark side in Knights. Unless you’re a perv. (More Keely Hazell random pics soon)

So this is a push, as KOTOR makes you feel more like you make a difference, but Mass Effect has story lines that are less annoying and last through out the game.

Graphics: This isn’t a fair comparison because the games are released in different generations of consoles. However comparing them to other games in their own time, Mass Effect is light years ahead. KOTOR was a pretty game, but it was not anywhere near the best graphical game out on the Xbox at the time. Mass Effect however is a beautiful game compared the rest of the next gen games on the market. Mass Effect wins this one hands down.

Story: In my opinion just about any game every made will be compared and judged to KOTOR as far as story goes. Ever since playing Knights of the Old Republic, nothing has had a chance at being the best game for story. This still stands true.

Mass Effect has a deep well thought out story that drives the player to keep playing. KOTOR played more like a novel that you can’t put down trying solve the mystery or at least a piece of it, before you go to bed. That alone would put Knights over the top. But, the fantastic twist that happens in KOTOR, is fuckin awesome! No other description will cut it.

KOTOR also allowed for plain old good or bad, not goodie-goodie cop or tough cop, like Mass Effect. That made KOTOR feel totally different the second time you play it. Also you turned all white and veiny n’ shit, when you became evil enough on the path to the dark side, and people would tremble before you….so fun. Knights wins this one, against any game out there.

Combat: This one is close, but only to fan boys. Using Lightsabers (and hearing the cool sound effects) while blasting your way through Sandpeople and using the force to pick people up by their throats is fun as hell. That however, is all there is to it. The AI is horrible and you will most likely die multiple times from your Wookie team mate blowing your ass to bits with a thermal detonator.

Mass Effect takes some time getting used to and as far as other games go, the AI is pretty lame as well. But in this case it’s a lot better than KOTOR. The powers take time to raise to the point that they are impressive. The weapons upgrades are also fantastic but come later in the game. You really don’t get super kick ass until about 20 hours in. Mass Effect has much better combat for sure.

This game is an RPG and story driven, so those elements hold more weight than combat or graphics. While Mass Effect is a great game and maybe in the top 20 games I have ever played (and I have played many a game), Knights is still supreme.

Why did they let Obsidian make a fuckin mess of KOTOR 2. Help me HK-47 you’re my only hope.

How many toys today suck ass? I always find myself strolling through a toy isle from time to time to see what toys my kids are going to start asking for. Not only do the toys suck, but the toy line I loved as a kid was fucking desecrated by horrible later versions. Like this 1992 horrible “Duke” figure. Where is that camo going to hide him, in a tampon?

After the Transformers movie, I was curious to how good the new line of toys would be. They are pretty sweet, but that’s not what this entry is about. My eye caught a G.I. Joe figure named “Sgt. Stalker” in what looked to be the original type packaging, complete with the proper file card on the back. Let’s get in some history before I finished what I had found on the special shelf that day.

As a kid my greatest love in life was the G.I. Joe toy line. I had every figure, (not counting convention specials) including mail-ins from 1982 to 1989. I still remember I was allowed to get about 1-2 figures a month at the local K-Mart. I would have to totally lie to my mother and convince her that I did not have the generic Cobra Trooper. Of course I did, but I needed an army because after all, on the cartoon and in the comic there were a ton of solders. Who the hell wanted to fight 6 G.I. Joes vs. 3 Cobra? I needed a ton of Snake Eyes fodder to smoke before the showdown to come.

After 1989, 2 things happened that would stall my obsessed collecting. Middle school and mostly the toys started to suck. They really got horrible during the 91 series and continued to get worse until they looked crappier than the local drug store rip off version of G.I. Joe.

By the way if you want to visit a fantastic archive site for Joe toys go to www.yojoe.com. The site is not very pretty and loads really slow (especially from work) but has fantastic historical information and pictures.

Enter, 25th anniversary G.I. Joe figures. These are actually by far the best Joe figures I have seen (including the originals). These toys add additional movement at the wrists and feet. Also most of the straps and helmets on all these figures are removable.

The exceptions are few, but a couple figures look stupid. Lady Jay, Gold-head Destro (with leopard print, the battle armor one is sweet), and Serpentor come to mind as bad ones. I can’t believe they totally screwed up Serpentor that bad.

So far from research I have seen up to 5 waves of confirmed figures, releasing about 4 figures a wave. They already have out 3 five figure sets. One is a Joe set and 2 are Cobra sets. These sets are good too. Normally these types of sets will have about 1-2 of the actually toys you want. Here is the list of toys that come in each set. Joe Set: Snake-eyes, Duke, Agent Scarlett, Roadblock, and Gung-Ho. I think maybe Gung-Ho or Roadblock should have been switched out with Rock n Roll, but over all, its solid. Cobra set: Cobra Commander, Cobra Soldier, Storm Shadow, Baroness, and Destro. Very sweet.

They are also releasing comic 2-packs, with reproduction Joe comics with two of the featured characters in toy form. These things are also selling like hot cakes. I have yet to see more than 5 figures at a store, and never the same group at the same store within days of each other. The “Flint” toy in wave one seems to be the rare toy of the group and the most popular among the ebay and auction crowds.

This $5.99 toy, if you can find it, will fetch you 50-100 bucks the day you buy it. With these sales I would love for them to continue to release sets until they get all the favorites in there. Missing so far to my heart is, Tomax and Xamot, Dr. Mindbender, Major Blood, and of course Tunnel Rat.

Check out www.toynewsi.com for updated info. This is also where most of the pics came from. Thanks guys!