On Shepard Dying: It was a major part of the game's marketing push. The teaser trailer listed out Shepard's accomplishment then put on screen front and center "Status: Killed In Action" while panning over badly damaged N7 armor. That you missed that is actually kinda neat. That opening must have been pretty awesome. But it wasn't intended to be a secret or anything.

Overall, I think it was a good opening, except it ties into so many other parts of the plot I hated. Mainly Separating me from my crew and Cerberus being a seemingly infinitely powerful organization that can even cure death. And not just any death. You didn't just freeze temporarily in space, you burnt up entering an atmosphere!

The point wasn't to give a good reason to switch up classes (didn't have to die in ME3 to do that) it was to separate Shepard from the Alliance and the Council because the story they wanted to tell was about Shepard again having no support. But that wasn't the story I wanted to hear.

The Council: I sacrificed the Shenyang, Emden, Jakarta, Cairo, Seoul, Cape Town, Warsaw, and Madrid to save them and that Turian councilor had the nerve to do his air quotes while talking about the Reapers. It was a complete switch from how grateful they were at the end of ME1. And it was, in my opinion, an insulting failure to base the story around the players' actions.

I was very much looking forward to having at least some official support in ME2. I'd been proven right about Saren and the Reapers and I did everything possible to uphold the council's philosophy of looking out for all the races instead of just looking out for humanity only to be told off, to have the entire Reaper attack disavowed, and to be ordered to do nothing but hunt down remaining Geth.

If they had kept the Reaper attack quiet but sent Shepard out in secret to try and figure out how to stop everyone in the galaxy from being killed I'd have loved it. I didn't expect to be leading a fleet. I did expect them to be nice about the whole thing. That they were written so dismissive and so naive was one of ME2's biggest sins. Everyone hates the ME3 endings, but I probably hate that first meeting with the Council in ME2 more.

The Collectors: I'm not really opposed to them. The Reapers keeping a few servants around in case something went wrong would have been fine. But what they were doing didn't make any sense. They were collecting specimens of other races in exchange for a bit of their technology? They were going to harvest Earth? In a ship that could be taken down by the tiny Normandy? Plus their end goal of building a new Reaper (shaped like a terminator??) was just very strange on so many levels.

Cerberus: Where they got their money was never explained. Who would actually invest so much in a anti-alien / Humans only group was never explained. But the money aspect is kinda beside the point. The thing that felt so wrong about them was that they were seemingly infinitely smart, infinitely informed, and infinitely capable. ME2 kicks off with nothing less than Cerberus curing death. It moves on to them somehow duplicating and enlarging the most advanced starship in the galaxy. The ship whose Mass Effect core alone could have paid for (was it 1,000 or 10,000?) Alliance fighters? They built a loyal, non-evil fully functioning AI. They alone knew what the Collectors were up to. They'd broken Turian military encryption. They had a standing army and navy capable of putting up a major fight against literally everyone from the Alliance to the Salarians and Turians. And, without outside help, they figured out how to control the Reapers.

I've always resisted labeling characters as Mary Sue's because people jump to that conclusion way too quickly, but Cerberus really was a Mary Sue. Or was close to it. Yeah, Shepard can kill their mooks one on one all day long, but the massive scope of capabilities and knowledge that Cerberus had so completely dwarfed that of all the other players in the galaxy that it was just crazy.

My Squad: I liked most of the new ME2 characters. I really liked Jack and Mordin and EDI and Samara (and Morinth). I liked Garrus becoming Archangel a lot because it fit with his ME1 personality of wanting to have the power to do things without C-SEC regulations getting in his way.

Miranda though... meh. Her "I'm so sad that I'm sooo pretty and powerful and perfect" thing got old fast. ME3 made it better by her dad being super evil but she never really stated that as a reason for wanting to get away from him. I just never found her compelling.

Now Liara... what they did to her was another thing I absolutely hated. The entire galaxy is one step away from being mind controlled and then murdered and she's too busy to get up out of her chair. Unless it's for a (legitimately awesome) side quest. Keep in mind I'm perfectly fine with what they did with Tali. Tali went back to the Quarian Fleet like we'd been told Quarians did after their pilgrimage. She'd gained a lot of respect and experience working with Shepard and was allowed to make use of that while working for (and with the support of) her people. She was still herself doing basically the things she had talked about wanting to do all along. But Liara? She went from being an archaeologist and researcher to being an information broker all justified with a single throw away line about something like: "digging up artifacts is a lot like digging up secrets." She was a core team member and they completely sidelined her. I think it was a terrible decision.

There was Wrex getting sidelined too, but again he went on to do what he had said he wanted to do. And he had an entire race to look after. And I cut the writers a little slack because you had to work really hard to save him in ME1 so they were in a tough spot having him be a part of ME2 or 3.

Conclusion: Ultimately though, I had wanted to go back out with the crew I'd fought for and bonded with and search for some crazy way to beat the Reapers with the support of a something resembling a united galaxy behind me. Instead I got killed. Then time skipped forward a couple of years. Then had several people from the Council to some of my closest friends refuse to help me. And then... fought a building sized terminator. Oh, and they introduced the dumb concept of Thermal Clips. ME2 had much better gameplay and some great writing and character moments and one of the best final missions of any game ever, but it also got so so much wrong, in my opinion. And the things it got wrong, it got wrong at the expense of my choices and decisions all so it could railroad me in a direction I didn't want to go.

> [*]Having the Council be equally unfriendly and dismissive no matter your choice during Sovereign's attack felt like a betrayal.
They're politicians, dude. It was a betrayal, but not in the sense that I think you mean. The whole point is that they serve themselves first. They've got their heads in the sand, while you and your team are out there actually getting things done. I think it worked into the story perfectly. It was another way of showing that it was up to you to save the day!

> [*]The focus on the Collectors... a group I don't believe you'd even heard of in ME1... instead of the Reapers did feel very forced and out of sync.
Fair enough.

> [*]Cerberus changing from that silly group of scattered crappy evil scientists who mostly died when their little evil experiments went terribly wrong to an obviously evil SUPER MEGA POWER that could go toe to toe with the major governments and their militaries was mind boggling;y wrong.
> [*]Cerberus being able to build a new bigger and better Normandy completely ruined the fiction that the original was a top secret beyond cutting edge ship.
I disagree with this as well. I think both of these things works with the fiction: they are a shadowy organization backed by ridiculous wealth. Just because you didn't know everything about them in the first game doesn't mean that they weren't doing the same things. They don't advertise how powerful they are, because they don't need to. Security through obscurity.

> [*]And maybe worst of all, spreading my squadmates to the wind and sticking me with all these new people... even though each did end up having an interesting story... made me very unhappy. Me and my team were going to go back out there and save the galaxy. Uh... no... me and some different team will deal with some silly threat while most of my former squadmates tell me they are too busy to help. :/
Meh. I thought the ME2 team was awesome, particularly Mordin and Miranda. I really liked how some of the ME1 cast was used in the story, doing their own things--especially Liara.

How well are the cutscenes animated in terms of Shepard's lip sync and facial expressions?

I ask because I know you can pretty extensively customize the face.

Well for their time, but not on par with anything Naughty Dog has done. Still looks pretty good, but not great.

I ask because I know you can pretty extensively customize the face.

Yeah. I really REALLY didn't like some of the plot choices they made for ME2:

[*]"Killing" Shepard at the beginning felt far more like a dumb PR stunt than something that should have been in the story.
[*]Having the Council be equally unfriendly and dismissive no matter your choice during Sovereign's attack felt like a betrayal.
[*]The focus on the Collectors... a group I don't believe you'd even heard of in ME1... instead of the Reapers did feel very forced and out of sync.
[*]Cerberus changing from that silly group of scattered crappy evil scientists who mostly died when their little evil experiments went terribly wrong to an obviously evil SUPER MEGA POWER that could go toe to toe with the major governments and their militaries was mind boggling;y wrong.
[*]Cerberus being able to build a new bigger and better Normandy completely ruined the fiction that the original was a top secret beyond cutting edge ship.
[*]And maybe worst of all, spreading my squadmates to the wind and sticking me with all these new people... even though each did end up having an interesting story... made me very unhappy. Me and my team were going to go back out there and save the galaxy. Uh... no... me and some different team will deal with some silly threat while most of my former squadmates tell me they are too busy to help. :/

My perspective on the plot of the whole franchise is a bit lopsided, because I actually started with ME2. So some of the points that bothered you didn't bother me at all (because I had no previous concepts or context for anything that was going on), while some of these issues didn't hit me until playing ME3 (for me, the ME2 characters were my "original cast"... moving away from them was tough).

[*]"Killing" Shepard at the beginning felt far more like a dumb PR stunt than something that should have been in the story.
[*]Having the Council be equally unfriendly and dismissive no matter your choice during Sovereign's attack felt like a betrayal.
[*]The focus on the Collectors... a group I don't believe you'd even heard of in ME1... instead of the Reapers did feel very forced and out of sync.
[*]Cerberus changing from that silly group of scattered crappy evil scientists who mostly died when their little evil experiments went terribly wrong to an obviously evil SUPER MEGA POWER that could go toe to toe with the major governments and their militaries was mind boggling;y wrong.
[*]Cerberus being able to build a new bigger and better Normandy completely ruined the fiction that the original was a top secret beyond cutting edge ship.
[*]And maybe worst of all, spreading my squadmates to the wind and sticking me with all these new people... even though each did end up having an interesting story... made me very unhappy. Me and my team were going to go back out there and save the galaxy. Uh... no... me and some different team will deal with some silly threat while most of my former squadmates tell me they are too busy to help. :/

And then, like you said, the moment to moment gameplay, especially the part with the vent controls, changes it from "I have this chest high wall and am thus invincible" to "oh crap, I actually have to hurry and push up through these enemies!" Of course, it's not quite as amazing the next times through because you sorta figure out what does and doesn't work and what length of time you really have or don't have.

That said, just the fact that the whole suicide mission is as well paced and challenging as it is without being frustrating is an outstanding accomplishment. Just think if they'd done something like starting your squad out in a circular room with little cover, snipers aiming at you, and a powerful Krogan charging your position. Something like that would have been terrible! :p

Adventures of Batman and Robin (Genesis)

A run and gun with fabulous animation and backgrounds, which is extremely unforgiving and unfortunately at times visually and mechanically repetitive. The soundtrack is quite good.

I remember playing this at a neighbor's house a little. I probably never saw more than the first couple of levels. I remember that, at the time, it seemed like the most impressive graphics I had seen.

Crash Bandicoot (PSX)

The original plays well to the lack of Dual sticks on the Playstation at the time giving a challenging - at times brutal, set of obstacles to traverse. Wonderful, cartoonish graphics and animation make it a sight to behold in motion. The limitations imposed by the camera are unfortunate, but necessary at the time.

Never played the original, unfortunately. The only one I really played was Warped, which I think was the third Crash Bandicoot game? I did love that game at the time. Not sure if it would hold up now.

Destiny (PS4)

Hidden under the rotten layers of a manipulative player investment system, and a weak story campaign, is some of the most satisfying FPS mechanics ever created. The raids are some of the best co-operative experiences I’ve had in a video game ever.

I heard it was a bad game.

Deus Ex (Mac/PC)

Quite possibly the best RPG ever made. Even to this day, it features and unparalleled level of viable customization for your character. Each section is chock full of secrets, hidden areas, and alternate paths to give any type of player a way to complete the game. Exploration is rewarding for its own sake, and you have a huge amount of control over how the story progresses through your choices. Unfortunately neither the graphics nor the AI were up to standard - even at the time of release.

So, uh... I've only played Invisible War. I really had no idea what it was when I got it, it was one of two used games I picked up alongside a new copy of Halo 1 when I bought my original XBox. I really enjoyed it at the time. Having so many ways to do everything was new to me, and it was the first game I had seen that cast fairly realistic shadows based on the shape of objects and where the light source was. But I'm not sure what dedicated Deus Ex players think of it. My guess is not much, since I never hear it mentioned anymore.

Diablo 2 (Mac/PC)

Wonderful lush 2D graphics bring the world to life. The different classes give the game a ton of replay value, and the story and voice acting are well done. The investment system only hampers players who wish to play at the highest levels. Unfortunately frequent patching rendered character builds obsolete, and the mechanics were repetitive once you found your skills of choice.

Again, did not play this one. But I did play Diablo 1. A lot. Like, a LOT. I had a legit Demonspike Coat. :)

Gears of War (Xbox360)

Perhaps the game of the decade, Gears makes you feel fully immersed in war. Not being an invincible badass pays off, as every fight is for your life and cover is precious.

Oh, Gears 1. I'm seriously thinking about going back and re-playing this one. I was trying to explain to my younger brother recently what a HUGE impact Gears had on the gaming landscape. I think we forget now how different and impressive it seemed when it first came out.

Gex: Enter the Gecko (PSX)

While an early jump into 3D, and so necessarily unrefined, the humor and set pieces made the game stand out at the time, with a decent amount of alternate areas and secrets to explore.

I had this on my PS1. I think I got it used at the rental store (remember those?) or something. This is another one that I'm not sure would hold up, but at the time, I thought it was fantastic.

Gran Turismo 3 (PS2)

Beautiful graphics, tons of cars, nice soundtrack, realistic physics, and great tracks make this the best racing game in a long time.

Interesting pick. I always thought racing sims might be something you could appreciate, but I haven't heard you mention one up until now.

I never played 3, since I didn't have a PS2, but Gran Turismo 1 was one of the most pivotal things in my life, as far as what my interests became.

Prior to playing it, I wasn't really a "car" person. People who know me now would probably find that surprising, but I wasn't. I don't think I would have considered myself a "gamer" either. We'd had an NES, and I certainly played some games on it, but we never bought any new games (which I now understand was probably due to having no money - the NES and games were hand-me-downs), and I was into other things. The NES games were just something I did when I was bored, not a primary interest.

At some point, my parents were finally able to buy a game console - a PS1, about the time the Dreamcast was coming out. :) And for reasons I still can't fathom, the first game I got with it was Gran Turismo - as I said, I really wasn't a car person back then. But for some reason, it really clicked, despite my previous lack of interest. I think it was the instruction manual. The people who made that game were so proud of what they'd done, but very aware that most players wouldn't have encountered anything like it before. So they made this wonderful manual, which was so much more than just "this button performs this action." It had explanations of basic concepts of vehicle dynamics, the layouts of all the tracks, and it went really in depth on driving techniques, and how to approach a racing circuit properly. I read it all, and when I was actually able to apply it, it was a revelation. To this day, driving games are what I love the most. And I'm pretty sure this was the game that turned me into someone who plays games a lot.

Halo (Xbox)

Fantastic console first person shooter, with a great story, wonderful diversity to the AI and combat, and robust enough for a tremendous amount of experimentation within the mechanics. Multiplayer is a blast and the pistol rules.

The reason I'm here reading this.

Katamari Damacy (PS2)

Wonderful charm and insanity. Easy to control and understand. The game is on the easy side, and could have used challenge levels or a difficulty selector.

Played it a bit. Thought it was super cool, but lost interest pretty quickly. Still glad I played it, though.

The Last of Us (PS4)

Everything about this game is incredible, from the characters and story to the tense nature of the survival mechanics on harder difficulty levels. An incredible milestone for video games.

One of these day's I'll finish it. For some reason, I seem to be incredibly bad at the particular stealth mechanics in this game. I'm convinced that I missed something in a tutorial, because I always seem to get encounters slightly wrong. This makes it just a pain to keep going, even though I like the story. I should probably go back and restart it.

Mirror's Edge (Xbox360)

A great game for what it is. Short, but with enough to do that mastery is very rewarding.

I would add that, at least among the games I've played, the mechanics and atmosphere are completely unique. Something that should absolutely be experienced, IMO.

Myst (Mac/PC)

Fantastic Adventure game which utilized the technology, and limitations, at the time.

Played it a bit on an old PC. Didn't really understand what it was at the time. I'd really like to go back and try it again.

Portal (Mac/PC)

Portal beats out Portal 2 because it allows you experiment and be ‘wrong’. The annoyingly long tutorial is unfortunate, as the advanced chambers do not cover the opening areas. Still, quite a creative game.

Another game that absolutely everyone needs to experience, IMO.

Sim City 2000 (Mac/PC)

Fun as a kid, the simulation proved to be simple and exploitable eventually. It was still the journey that was fun.

I wish I could explain just how bad I am at SimCity.

Smash TV (Arcade)

Just pure chaos and carnage, with some cool alternate goals (pleasure dome). Not the most sophisticated game, but it’s a blast with two people.

This is one of the oldest games I remember playing, on an NES or SNES (don't remember which) at a friend's house. Probably the first thing I ever played that wasn't intended for my age group.

Starcraft: Brood War (Mac/PC)

The most exciting and skillful RTS games I have played. Tons of variety in play, and amazing balance. The single player campaign is likewise good, with a well delivered radio drama of a story.

I'm absolutely terrible at StarCraft and cheated my way through most of this game. But it was still a blast.

I am curious why it didn't make your list.

Because once you've played street fighter you realize that Mortal Kombat actually sucks and is a terrible fighting game.

Since when did a game sucking disqualify it from your list? *cough* VANQUISH *cough cough*

;p

Sometimes true genius isn't appreciated until some time passes!

I am curious why it didn't make your list.

Because once you've played street fighter you realize that Mortal Kombat actually sucks and is a terrible fighting game.

Since when did a game sucking disqualify it from your list? *cough* VANQUISH *cough cough*

;p

I am curious why it didn't make your list.

Because once you've played street fighter you realize that Mortal Kombat actually sucks and is a terrible fighting game.

The only other thing I would say about ME2 in particular is that it is one of the best examples of a game where the story & character development mesh together with the mechanical gameplay experience to create something larger than the sum of its parts. The way you spend the entire game tracking down crew members, building relationships with them, fighting along side them, and then you push into the final suicide mission with the weight of responsibility on your shoulders. The last ~2 hours were especially powerful for me. The combat was so intense, and the stakes felt so high on a personal level. I worried about each decision I made along the way (which crew members to assign to each task), which made me fight that much harder, which made me more nervous for my crew because the combat was so stressful... It's a perfect feedback loop between gameplay and narrative that very few games come close to achieving.

The last few hours of ME2 were amazing, in no small part because I was so worried about Thane, who I'd let down by failing his loyalty mission. If I'd had a perfect run, I don't think it would have been nearly as dramatic. One of the most ecstatic moments of my gaming life came when he and the rest of my crew lived.

ME3's multiplayer was surprisingly good.