Benie's General Blog

I got back into Minecraft last night. Been working on my level that angry helped create.
Been working on an underwater tunnel. Without my hacks, it was annoying. But I got it done.

I’ve discovered the Tree tool too. That plant I thought was just a bush. I plant it in a row by my tunnel entrance, and about 10 seconds later, one of them turns into a fucking tree!
Discovering this bush will turn into a tree, I planted it at random locations and watched them all turn into trees. No more manual tree-making for me!

Then I went to save my game. And I saw “Failed: Premium account required”. “What the hell?!?!” I said when I saw that. I thought I must’ve hit some limit… and I thought Minecraft was limitless; the only limit being your creativity.
So I tried removing the trees, thinking that they’re only for Prem players. Got them all removed, saved, again, failed…

Angered and felt like punching Notch in the face for screwing us.. yet again, I went to the forum and demanded answers. The lame excuse was, the database’s hard drive is too full. So to keep saving, we have to pay…

I first thought that this $15 was monthly, since he uses Paypal. But Facepunch’s Minecraft thread sorted it out for me.
You can still save, but now offline, to your hard drive. This is what I wanted. Also, the $15 is a one-time fee.
It also comes with a few perks. A custom skin and other changes, for serverside use. Access to Survival Mode. And half off of Minecraft when it goes pay, in the distant future.

Ugh… this is the 3rd time I attempted to type this. This damn keyboard is making me hit things I don’t want to, like the Enter key too soon, or causing me to refresh the page and erase everything I typed.

Anyway, for the 3rd time, I said I had beaten the game yesterday. Since being on planets Ilos and Virmire, the story has finally been jammed into my head. The story of the Protheans, and what happened to them.

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If you haven’t completed the game, DO NOT read below this line. Endgame Spoilers.

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They were slaughtered and wiped out of the galaxy by the Reapers 5,000 years ago. Everything that claimed was built by the Protheans, was a lie. The Reapers have outlived any sentient life form in our galaxy. The Mass Relays. The Citadel. It wasn’t built by them. The Reapers did it all. They invented FTL travel.
The Citadel alone has been hiding a dark secret for centuries. A Citadel Relay, said to be linked to another relay in Dark Space; the starless areas beyond our galaxy. The Citadel Council has denied any knowledge about this relay. Yet, I let them live and told the Alliance Fleet to take down Sovereign.

I learned that Saren wasn’t my enemy, while on Virmire. In a shocking twist of events, he was only a mere puppet, being controlled by Sovereign. Thankfully, I had the required Charm skill to convince him to commit suicide, to redeem himself for what he’s done. But Sovereign wasn’t done. He turned Saren against me as an android, which I surprisingly took down with the help of my squad, following Fishy’s advice to shotgun him to death.

I loved the fact it showed a cutscene of what was going on outside, of the Alliance Fleet attacking Sovereign, as me and my squad were battling Saren. And it showed that Joker means what he says by being the best pilot of the entire alliance fleet. He definitely earns that title after what I saw.

After Sovereign died, and so did Saren (again), I voted Captain Anderson to be part of the Citadel Council for the human race. I felt he deserved it after what he did, and what happened in his past.

And so we leave Commander Shepard, to continue on his journey. Sadly, I wouldn’t be a part of it.. no fucking freeplay! D:<

As for feeling like you are the person you play, I think Fallout 3 did a better job. There's several times where your character speaks for himself. But that's only in the cutscenes. In Fallout 3, you pretty much are the voice of your character. Except when you get hurt and shit.

But Mass Effect. There's no cliffhangers. I hate games with cliffhangers.

My original thoughts of the final battle were the following;
1. You're still on the Normandy. Your squad went to stop Saren while you're manning the main cannon and Joker is trying to fly around Sovereign so you can get a good shot at him, but Sovereign is attacking you. You can fail if you don't kill Sovereign fast enough and the Normandy blows up.
2. You're dropped off in the Mako, chasing Saren as he's heading for the Citadel Tower. Enemies everywhere. Time limit. If Saren reaches the tower before you, you fail.

Thank god neither of these ideas came true. The only time limit was getting to the Conduit on Ilos.

I’m now the proud owner of Mass Effect! Steam’s got a deal going on this weekend. 50% off on this game. Got it for $10.

So far, I like it. It’s interesting. It’s like being in some Sci-Fi movie like Star Wars, and playing Spore in one game. But let me explain why I feel why it reminds me of Spore.

Well. Everyone should know the story by now. You become a Specter after proving Seren is doing illegal activities, and then you get the Normandy after the captain steps down, meet the crew, and you head off. And you see this weird machine in space that gives a ship hyper warp drive by passing by it. Anyway, the Star Map is what I want to talk about.

So. I’ve made this chart, comparing Spore’s Space Stage, plus it’s latest EP, to Mass Effect once getting the Normandy under your control.

Mass Effect VS Spore;
-There are several clusters in our galaxy. Each of these has one or more star systems, except for the Citadel. This is why I’m not overwhelmed with the number of star systems you can go to.
-The SSV Normandy VI uses this object in space, known as a Mass Relay.. sorta like a space slingshot that charges ships for FTL (Faster Than Light) travel, allowing you to go to any one of these star systems, nomatter where you are in the galaxy. You can thank the Protheans for it, if they were still alive.
-You don’t colonize other planets, have to worry about your allied colonies being attacked by enemy colonies, or have pirate attacks… or deliver spice to other alien races.
-There is only a handful of alien creatures, and the sentient ones live in harmony due to the Citadel and the Council, keeping them together. Plus they can handle themselves out there.
-Joker, the ship’s nav genius, is able to land the ship at any planet that has a docking bay. If not, then a rover called the Mako is sent down to the planet surface, where you and your squad of two ride around in.
-Spore and Mass Effect both have our star system, Sol. But Mass Effect has all nine planets. Spore only has a couple. And sadly, you can’t land on Earth.
-The game’s Star Map shows every known cluster and Star System in our galaxy that you can access. Where in Spore, there’s no markers, or clusters. Just a shitload of star systems.
-The music when moving through space is much better than Spore’s depressing music.

But, who knows… maybe there’s an unknown, inaccessible star system in our galaxy, with a planet named “Drakkin”. Heh.
If anyone doesn’t know, Drakkin is my dragon’s homeworld in Spore.

The thing about this, just like GTA4, I’m having a hard time grasping the story, to understand it. It seems to either float over my head and when I try to grab it, it goes right through my fingers. Or when it goes in one ear, it goes out the other so fast my brain doesn’t have time to grab ahold of it.
I know Saren’s a bad guy. He’s killed alot of people and needs to be brought to justice, and you’re the only one that can stop him, since the Council can’t do it over fear of a lengthy war. And now you got this vision of how the Protheans died. Yet, you’re being told things so fast, my brain is like “…. what??”

I also fear this game’s main quest just seems too short. I still don’t know if this thing has freeplay after completing the game. What I fear the most, is what I stumbled upon when I was trying to look for a walkthrough for the side quests.
The final main quest, the Citadel is under attack by the Sovereign, Saren’s war ship. I fear I’ll not be ready, and it’ll be a ‘game over scenario’ if I fail to stop Seren.

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But what sucks about this game. You go to a star system, and of all of the planets circling its sun, there’s only one planet you can land on! All the others have too toxic or thin atmospheres to land on, or are gas giants. This sucks. I wanted to be able to run around on ANY planet. Well of course not the gas giants since there’s nothing there.

Also. Wow. I find it annoying and hilarious at the same time, how your character won’t say anything unless you tell him what to say. When seeing a boss, instead of your character saying something like “Ok, team. Lets just get this guy down and head back to the ship”, it gives you dialog options, expecting you to make a wise decision. The camera stares at your face, and it’s like life is paused until you choose something.
There was only.. only one time I’ve seen so far in this game, that Shepperd actually says something without the player choosing for him.

I also wish you had more options. Like the availability to talk to the Normandy while on a planet. For example; “Normandy. This is the rover. We’re ready to be picked up”. Or “Normandy.. this is your captain. Can you get us back to the ship, so I can sell my shit, and drop us down where you picked us up?”

Nevertheless, this is a fun game. Just needs more weapons. I guess I’ve been too used to the standard, traditional FPS’. But this is a 3PS(3rd Person Shooter) RPG.