Why the wait?
So I had at least enough footage for 6 videos in Mass Effect when I realized that the Sentinel I was playing as just didn't cut it. Sentinel is not a bad class, but I found myself so reliant on biotics and on my shotgun that I thought, you know, I might as well switch to Vanguard, play better, have a more entertaining collection of videos, and give better advice. I wasn't playing the Sentinel the way it was meant to be played, but I know I can do that with the Vanguard. So I'm sorry if that is what you wanted to see, but it's not happening.
That partly explains the long hiatus since my preview video. The other reason is that I've actually been having somewhat catastrophic computer issues over the past two weeks, which I finally resolved a few days ago. Basically, my processor was overheating during recording and video editing, and my computer was performing emergency shut downs. Why? Because too much dust got in my CPU heatsink. That is now all taken care of.
A couple notes on Mass Effect:
This game looks like a shooter, with not quite as good shooting mechanics. Powers are excellent, and can be used on anything to their full effect (you can throw shielded enemies), but the cooldowns are long before aquiring the amp upgrades. I think the most challenging part of Mass Effect is learning to cope with cover that doesn't work. Once you learn how to sit behind cover without having shepard too far to the side and getting hit, or not crouching, your performance will really improve.
Insanity is not necessarily meant to be played with a new character. Insanity is really more for characters on their second playthrough. Having those extra powers would really help against enemies with high shields/health early on. That is the main separator in Mass Effect, as far as difficulties go. As you increase the difficulty, enemy health really increases. Shepard can still take the hits, but it takes a lot longer to kill everything, which becomes problematic when fighting close ranged enemies like husks.
Play this game for the story, not the gameplay. The gameplay is not bad, but it is nothing compared to the excitement of Mass Effect 2 or even Dragon Age. Buggy cover and long cooldowns really slow down the combat speed, which tends to encourage players like me to be more aggressive/die more often. In these videos, I'm going to try to strike a balance between smart/slow play and reckless/action packed play.
Questions for you:
How much of the Citadel would you like to see? I was considering skipping all of it in my videos, because lots of videos already exist on the quests their. I'd like to keep the guide as focused on gameplay as possible, but if you want to see the Roleplaying aspect, I can show that.
How much time would you like me to spend talking about equipment and inventory? I was planning on editing out the majority of it, but once again if you want me to talk about it I can try to integrate it. There are many already written resources on it, so I could simply source where I'm drawing my information from.
Thats all for Mass Effect for now. Leave a comment below if you'd like.
I agree with what you say about Mass Effect 1 gameplay. While not as good as some other shooters, it is by no means bad, and DEFINITELY worth a playthru for ME2. The story is so much richer with that first part of the story in your brain.
ReplyDeleteThe Citadel is a little slow, I think most people would prefer to see some action. That said, there are a couple of those action sequences on the Citadel that some people might be interested in seeing, but the talking is just a bit dull.
I'm interested in seeing what you can do with the Vanguard, though. That's a really powerful class and I'd like to see a skilled player like yourself take on insanity. That's a bit out of my league but I'm interested in seeing how one would handle it.
Big fan of this. I even bookmarked the blog. I beat ME1 three times myself on, twice on insanity. I will be happy to drop any nuggets of advice along the way if you fail to mention something.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest things in ME1, especially if you are coming from ME2 is the local/global cooldowns. I always tried to give my allies (and Shepard) as many activated abilities as possible as early as possible so they have maximum tools available in each battle. Since you can spam each ability one after the other. Conversely in ME2, you pretty much just want to use your cooldown time on your best ability all the time.
Also, oddly enough I never payed a biotic class, do boitics always work shields or not?
Oh, also make sure to either embed, or link to the youtube vids related to each blog post. It would make it easier for me to just RSS the blog and access all the vids.
ReplyDeleteActually I would be curious to see the fight in the dance club before fist. I struggled with this on all my classes on Hardcore.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually glad to see a Vanguard class. It is one that I have settled on for my next play through. Well actually I've been jumping back in forth between that and a Sentinal Femshep and a replay through with my 50 Soldier.
I'm eager to watch this series your doing on the ME 1, so don't loose interest!
Thanks again for taking the time to do these videos.
As Alex said if you will embed the video in your blog post that will be great as I mainly check my Google Reader most often. It is easier to check during my down time on breaks during the work day.
Great work!
Big fan as well, sad to see switch classes as i personally think the sentinel is one of the more superior & entertaining classes in me1 that many overlooked
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/9mPnq4
this style best mirrors the example i'm going for. having just 1 of each ability with the way cooldowns work in me1 allows u to do so much, its weakness is early on like u said so i understand the need to switch to more entertaining vids
As to answer your questions:
skip anything not gameplay related, we have the rest of youtube for that, but i do have an interest in which ammo setups you prefer more than i do armor, as in those are fairly obvious, so id prefer you skip it early but touch on it as it gets harder
as always looking forward to more
because it's as easy as pie to skip content, I think you should leave everything in the videos. Specifically reasoning on why you are leveling up certain skills, or why you are outfitting weapons a certain way. Anyone who doesn't like it can just skip that info using the youtube progress bar.
ReplyDeleteAs long as you don't mind uploading that many more vidoes. I think the "under the hood" info is much more informative than just you playing (THAT is what the rest of youtube is for).