Wednesday, January 27, 2010

my poor sick cat that was never sick and... Daduh DAHHH! Mass Effect 2!

Well, for those of you who know me, I have this cat named Waffle that is mutant like big and very friendly. (No, Mr. Mallard, he's not trying to eat you, he just likes you... a lot. Did I tell you we think he's gay? :P) He's about to turn the grand old age of 10 years old and recently he's had a little trouble with sickness, or so we thought.

I've had him to the vet 4 times, had him on meds for a month (which were expensive), had him leave little messy spots on my carpets, and have my germaphobe wife go into near fits over it and near demand me get rid of him. The wonderful veterinary individuals who call themselves "doctors" would look at him, listen to me, and tell me that he has an infection and to give him pills. No tests. Not even a thermometer to check his temperature. Last night I being him to his THIRD vet, and she takes blood and FINALLY tests him. The cat is not sick at all. NOT FUCKING SICK. He has food sensitivities. with more than $500 down the drain during a time where money is disappearing out of my account like it's going out of style because I just bought a house, I find out most of it was spent for nothing and he just has to eat special food. Food that costs 3 times what he was eating normally for nearly his entire cat life. Sigh.

(For those who do have a pet in need, do go see Babette Meister at the Paradise Animal Hospital... she's the one who finally said "lets take blood and deal with the issue". She was INCREDIBLY friendly and took care of my big fat meatball of a cat properly.:P)

So last night, after I get home from the vet and buying special cat food, I finally get to play Mass Effect 2. The game, as you one or two readers out there have noticed, that I've been waiting on for a while. I'm only about 4 hours in, so this is not a review. It's more a "first impressions" thing.

Possible spoilers alert.

The game starts out with something unusual. You die. Rather horrifically actually. Your ship is attacked by an unknown assailant and you die by falling into space, your space suit leaking air, and you burn up on entry into the atmosphere of some strange planet. You are the resurrected by a group you fought in the first game, the Cerberus. You meet the guy behind it, who seemingly has the DUMBEST name ever, the "Illusive Man". WTF.

Anyway, onto gameplay. The shooting portion of the game in the first was a little stiff so they've managed to loosen up the who deal of it in ME2. You now have to watch your ammo as you do not have unlimited bullets. Your HUD is a little different, which isn't better. It's a little hard to follow compared to the first game.

The graphics are far more clean with less breakup and they feel, for lack of a better term, more organic. The faces of the characters just seem to look a little better than the first game. Their movements do seem a little stiff like the first though.

You start by going to an attacked colony called Freedom's Progress to find out why people are disappearing. Then you basically can go wherever to recruit your team. First I went to a gritty, dark space port called Omega. I then went to the Citadel, the main hub in the first game. It's very different this time. I was hoping there'd be SOME similarities to the first game, but there weren't and it was covered up by saying it was "repaired after the attack"... referring to the final battle in ME1.

I could go on, but I'll save some for the next post. So far, I have to admit, I'm a little let down by the game. But I think that this is just because I was expecting more of the same from the first outing, where as this is a game that has vast improvements and in essence, is a different game all together. Once I get more of a handle on how to play properly, I'm sure I'll love it just as much as the first.

C

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