Mass Effect Playthrough: Part One

I have been playing through Mass Effect lately.  My intention was to stop on my blog from time to time and talk about the funny things I was involved with (assassinated canines while my real targets fled, etc) but I am finding it hard to do with Mass Effect.  I've never played the first game all the way through - I am only about three missions in now and already farther than I ever have been before - and I'm having trouble finding those funny moments in the game.

Okay, so I can complain a little about driving my Rover around and how impossible to navigate that thing is.  Or I can talk about how frustrating it can be trying to move past some of my own allies when they decide that the place they need to stand is the spot right in front of me and I can't get around them.

But it's not really funny to talk about the actual game that much.  In Assassin's Creed I could talk about how frustrated or angry I was with the characters and wanted to just jump off the edge of the skyscrapers.  But that doesn't happen in Mass Effect.  The characters are much more interesting, even in the shorter time I've been working with them.

Besides, there's less humor involved when I say things like, "I chose to murder the entire colony of people that were being mind-controlled by plants."  No one laughs when you pull that one out at a party.

Mass Effect Replay

With the DLC Citadel released recently, I've been thinking a lot about the Mass Effect line.  I played through the second one with all of its DLC - it still stands as my favorite game I've touched.  The third one was good as well, though it didn't reach the heights of the second one.  I played through it once (compared with the three times for the second one) and was satisfied with it.  I never got any of the DLC.  I tried going through the first game, but I never got very far before I ended up turning to other things.

So when Citadel was announced, I decided I should go ahead and give the game another run-through.  No doubt it'll take a while to play through all three games, but I'm looking forward to it.  There's a lot I've never seen - most of the first game, and any of the DLC from the third game - so I'm hoping there are still enough surprises in store.

I'll try to keep a log going of how the game turns out for me.

Oh, and for those who liked my Assassin's Creed 3 log, sorry that one kinda hit a sharp stop.  The game never really gelled for me.  I enjoyed some of it, but I had really been waiting for one specific encounter between two characters, and when it happened, I was left completely unsatisfied and lost interest in continuing.  I may go back to it one day - I feel like I'm over halfway through - but it won't be for a while.

Wild West Exodus: First Thoughts

There's a new miniature game being creating up on Kickstarter now (grab it quick - it's gone before too long) called Wild West Exodus that has gathered my attention.  I had heard about it a few times from various sources and finally decided to take a look at it myself over the weekend.  At this point I like what I'm seeing, but I'm having trouble deciding how much I'll like it in the long run, especially given that Malifaux is still kicking strong.

First, there are the pros.

I like the models.  Most of them, anyway.  I've heard some people dislike them, but overall I'm quite impressed with most of them.  I don't like any of the cavalry models, but the rest of them look really nice.  When I look at a group of Long Ranged Hired Hands and each of the models is distinct, it reminds me of back in the day with Warmachine when their Long Gunners were all just three different sculpts and I find I prefer the WWX ones.

The factions look interesting.  In fact, assuming that the Lawmen unlock, of the starting five factions, there's only one that does not appeal to me ascetically.  Compare that with Malifaux when I got into it where there were no full factions I liked, and only one that interested me enough to pick up early on and I'd say WWX comes out ahead.  In fact, my problem right now is that I don't know which faction I want to pick up.

There are the Outlaws.  These ones look pretty interesting, but both Dan and Slaz are looking into picking up these guys, so rather than having everyone face the same faction all around, I'm just dropping them from my consideration entirely.

Which is fine, because there's also the Union army.  I made fun of Long Gunners a little back there, but I actually really like the idea of these riflemen.  They seem like an elite-warrior type of faction, heavy in armor and shooting.  And honestly, who doesn't want to play Abe Lincoln?  (See what I did there?  Honest?  Abe Lincoln?  Oh, I'm awesome.)

I started doing some more research and found the styles that the different armies play.  The one that sounds most like it would fit my playstyle is the Warrior Nation - the Native American shape-shifting group.  They're fast and they're all about melee attacks.  They sound like they could be a lot of fun too.

Then there are the Lawmen.  Not much is known about them yet since they haven't been unlocked yet except they're led by Wyatt Earp and they have robots in their group.  When we first started talking about the game before I knew what the factions were, I said I wanted to play the Lawdog faction, whichever one that was.  So I'm looking forward to hearing more about the Lawmen.

The only faction that doesn't interest me at all is the Enlightened - the mad scientists who seem to bring the dead back to life.  They just don't look interesting, sound interesting, or... well...  I dunno.  But they don't interest me.

Right now I'm aiming for the Union, though the Lawmen will need some serious consideration, and the Warrior Nation keeps cropping up as a possibility.  I've got time to decide though.

When I think about the game compared with Malifaux, though, I do run into some parts I don't like.  It seems like the game is a little bigger in scale than Malifaux.  Where in Malifaux I can hit the table with six or seven guys in a normal sized game, I think I need more in the 11-13 range for a similarly-sized game in WWE.  Also, where Malifaux's complexity seemed to come from the different abilities on the models, I think WWE's is coming from the rules themselves.  I'm not sure how I would feel about that.

Regardless, it has earned a few test games.  I've printed out the rules and I'm ready to give the game a swing.  I'm also looking forward to listening to the interview that the Gamers Lounge is lining up with Romeo, one of the creators of the game, which should be coming out very soon.  Keep an eye out for it (shameless plug).

I'm hoping I like this game a lot.  If I do, I'll look forward to getting it on the table come September, and then Malifaux may have some serious competition.