Last week wasn't terribly productive for me, for a variety of reasons. I am happy to report, however, that the Great Backlog War of 2012 rages on, and by all accounts, I'm winning. Just yesterday, I was able to knock both New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Trine off my list. This is a special victory for me since Trine has been sitting in my virtual pile of Steam games for at least two years. I now only have 29 games to get through before the end of the year, many of which I already have some measure of progress in. I should be finishing Arkham City any day now, and Alan Wake shouldn't be that far behind. (Unfortunately, Final Fantasy 2 may take some time. I'm currently stuck in a tower with a bunch of enemies who can turn my party members against each other. :( )
But going back to the two games I was able to finish yesterday, I really enjoyed both of them, although Trine became somewhat of a slog for me towards the end. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a great game, very reminiscent of Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES but with enough interesting elements to differentiate itself from the previous Mario platformers. There are several new items and enemies, and the bright visuals are quite good, for standard definition. The ending sequence was a lot of fun to play through, too. I won't give you any spoilers, but I will tell you that it continues the combination of old-school Mario with new-school gameplay. (My kids really got a kick out of it, too. :) )
Trine is one of those games that I really want to love, but that I only ended up liking. The visual style is gorgeous, with brightly colored environments and interestingly animated characters. The basic storyline is as follows: A thief, a warrior, and a wizard have their souls merged and intertwined by one of the kingdom's legendary mystical artifacts. At the same time, the kingdom itself is plunged into death, chaos, and darkness. It's up to our brave heroes to traverse the lands in search of a way to undo what has happened, both to the kingdom and to themselves. But will our adventurers accomplish their goal in time? Tune in next week to find out!
Yes, the writing is a bit hackneyed, but you won't be playing this game for the story. The beautiful world and intriguing game physics are what you're going to be interested in. Weight and momentum play a huge part in the environmental puzzles during the game, with the wizard conjuring metal crates and platforms to give you access to the world around you, the warrior lifting heavy objects and blocking giant spike-balls, and the thief grappling and swinging her way through the levels. There's very little to slow you down for long, since the puzzles are all fairly simple. (Not that this is a kid's game, by any stretch. The problems you face are just pretty straightforward.) It's a fun little title, but I'm not entirely sure it's worth the current $10 price tag. If you're into puzzle platformers with a dash of repetitive and somewhat frustrating combat, I'd recommend picking up this game, but only when it's on sale.
And now for something completely different!
Warning! The following section contains huge spoilers for Mass Effect 3. If you have not played the game, you may not want to read this section.
In my post a few weeks ago about Mass Effect 3, I mentioned that I wanted to give you all a big post regarding my feelings and theories about the ending of the game. With the Extended Cut DLC dropping tomorrow for US players, I figured now would be a good time to put my thoughts online.
If you've been paying attention to the gaming industry news for the past three months, you've likely seen at least a bit of the hate directed at Bioware for "ruining" the Mass Effect series with ME3's ending. There was even a lawsuit brought up in the UK accusing Bioware and EA of false advertising by saying that ME3 would show the outcomes of Shepard's (your) decisions throughout the series. (It was dismissed, thankfully, but you can see that there were obviously some strong feelings about this issue.)
Taken at face value, the choice between three differently colored explosions is very disappointing. I admit that if that's all there were at the end of the game, I would be very upset. If you'll remember from my previous ME3 post, though, you'll know that I'm not upset. In fact, I love the ending, and here's why: The Indoctrination Theory (slight language warning).
In case you don't have an hour and a half to watch that documentary I just linked to, I'll give you a quick breakdown of the IT. Indoctrination is the process the Reapers use to essentially brainwash organic beings into obeying them. The process can be quick and forceful, resulting in a mindless thrall who can only follow directions. Or it can be slow and subtle, allowing the subject to retain their own mind and initiative while the Reapers gently shape their perceptions and actions into a more Reaper-friendly form. The IT states that Commander Shepard has been undergoing the "slow and subtle" indoctrination process since the first game and that the closing scenes of ME3—which show Shepard "beaming up" to the Citadel and using the Crucible—are actually being played out in Shepard's mind while he lies unconscious on the battlefield. In this case, the last choice Shepard makes among Control, Destroy, and Synthesis are actually decisions regarding whether he lets the Reapers take control of him. (In case you didn't guess, Control and Synthesis are the options that result in Shepard falling fully under Reaper sway.)
The documentary covers too many points for me to discuss in a blog post, but I will say that I agree with almost all of the supporting evidence shown in the video. Many people have accused Bioware of just being lazy with the game's ending, but there are many places where what we see required more work for the developer, not less. Adding in piles of oddly identical bodies in the beam-up zone and making sure that the transition effect when Shepard gets knocked by Harbinger exactly matches that used in his dream sequences are just two of those. The video speaks for itself, for the most part, so I'll just add my two cents to the discussion rather than rehashing everything already shown.
1) The Control Room: This is one area where I find a flaw in the documentary's logic. The video states that Shepard's confrontation with The Illusive Man and Admiral Anderson takes place inside the Citadel Tower and that the control room they're in looks nothing like the Tower as we've seen it before. But when you rewind to the cinematic showing the Crucible docking with the Citadel, you can see that the large orb on the Crucible comes in near the circular area at the base of the Tower, not the apex where we've met with the councilors and fought Saren. Also, when Shepard is taken to meet the Starchild by the magic elevator, he moves in an upward direction, relative to his starting position. When he meets the Starchild, he can see the Crucible above his vantage in the Citadel, implying that he's actually on the surface of that disc-shaped section on aft area of the Citadel. I know this is a nitpicky aspect, but it does remove the control room issue as a piece of supporting evidence for the IT. (I still believe the IT is where the story is going; this is just something that bugged me in the documentary.)
2) Where are the other children?: Many people have said many things about the Starchild in the IT debate, but I haven't seen anyone talk about how the Starchild is the only child we ever see in the entire trilogy. Granted, I could be mistaken on this issue, but I've been racking my brain for the past couple of weeks trying to remember whether there are any other children shown in the trilogy and I'm coming up empty. In the evacuation of Earth at the beginning of ME3, why aren't we seeing more children outside playing or being herded onto the departing shuttlecraft? You could make the argument that this is a military installation and that there would be far fewer children than in a regular city, and that thought does have some value. But when you look at the rest of the game, with Shepard spending quite a lot of time out of combat on the Citadel, we never see a single child other than the one Shepard is trying to save in Earth's evacuation or in his dreams. Why not? It could be argued that Bioware doesn't want to regularly show children in perilous situations or that this child is just added to the story for emotional impact. When taken in conjunction with the documentary's point that no one else seems to see the child that Shepard does, though, the fact that he's the only kid seen in the entirety of the series takes on more significance than just being an emotional hot-button.
I know these two little items don't add a whole lot to the debate, but I just wanted a chance to work through them on the page and sound my barbaric yawp in this ongoing discussion.
In talking about the IT with a friend online last week, he brought up the point that the whole theory might just be disappointed Mass Effect fans trying to find any possible reason for ME3 not to end the way it's shown, that they're just "grasping at straws" and would rather believe some made-up "theory" than to think the game ends as-is. While I won't say that it's completely impossible for Bioware to screw up the trilogy on the last entry, I'd hope that it's at least a near impossibility. And after looking at the evidence, I must say that I'm fully in support of the Indoctrination Theory, if only for one simple reason: If you choose Destroy and your EMS is high enough, you see that Shepard is alive at the end of the game. In ME2, there was the chance that Shepard could die completing the suicide mission and stopping the Collectors. Why would ME3 be any different, even if the "death" he experiences is only his transition into a Reaper thrall? And while the IT does leave us with more unanswered questions about the galaxy's fate, aren't unanswered questions more desirable than apparently shoddy storytelling?
As I mentioned earlier, the Extended Cut DLC will be available tomorrow, and this discussion may be moot after that point. I for one am excited (and maybe a little nervous) to see what Bioware has decided to "clarify" about Me3's ending. But at least the controversy should be put to rest.
Long live the Shepard.
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