Fallout 4: Far Harbor DLC Totally Worth It

I had been counting down to the Far Harbor DLC release. The more I read about it, the more excited I became. The concept was intriguing and the story sounded really cool. So of course I started playing as soon as it was downloaded. Far Harbor starts with you listening to the radio on a new channel for the Valentine detective agency on your pip-boy. You hear Valentine's assistant Ellie telling you to come to Diamond City for a chat because you have a new case. Pro-tip: Bring Nick Valentine with you for Far Harbor because there is a lot to the story that involves him.

Once you've chatted with Ellie, you learn that your new case involves a missing person. This is where Far Harbor truly begins. You and Nick team up doing a little investigating and find out that Far Harbor is an island and decide to follow the lead and travel there. Naturally in the world of Fallout 4 nothing is ever that simple and you find that there is actually more to the story than you thought and other mysterious reasons for you being there.

A beautiful view at the start of Far Harbor. 

As the story progresses, you discover that there are three factions trying to survive and competing for control of the island; the citizens of Far Harbor, the Children of Atom, and the Synth refugees of Acadia. There's a lot of complex and interesting situations that bring up big questions about who is really right and who is wrong while revealing flawlessly that sometimes there isn't a definitive answer because it's a matter of perspective. Far Harbor is huge with the main quests and there are plenty of side quests for each faction as well. Bethesda went all out with making each faction area look unique and it's beautifully done.

Entering Far Harbor.

The big thing about the island of Far Harbor is that literally everything on this island can kill you. You see, there's fog and it's not just your run of the mill cheerful fog. This is fog that is dangerous and creepy with all kinds of new nastier creatures wandering around in it ready to tear your face off. There's a more heightened sense of danger here and it definitely keeps you on your toes and a little paranoid too as you're convinced that every little sound is something horrible coming to get you. Man, it was so much fun!

Battling a Fog Crawler, one of the many  scary beasts hiding in the fog. 

There are all kinds of new toys to get for your character in Far Harbor as well; ranging from weapons to new power armor. You also get a new companion (keep Valentine with you though, trust me) to add to your team. Some of the items are rewards for doing quests and some are quest related like the Marine combat armor (which is the best armor in the game by the way) while others are loot from the various enemies you fight. Loot everything here because there is a ton of stuff for salvage, upgrading weapons, power armor, and more. While not as big as the Commonwealth, Far Harbor is far from small. There's a lot to see and do just with the side quests alone. Add the main quests and you have at least four hours or more of game play.

Vim! Power Armor

There was one thing in Far Harbor that bugged me a bit and that was the virtual environment puzzle that felt like a mix of Minecraft and Portal. For the most part they were simple and fairly repetitive, but then the last puzzle spiked suddenly in difficulty and was a long hour of frustration in trying to figure out what to do and having to constantly herd the little bugs retrieving data. I can honestly say that was the only part of the game I really did not like and I was relieved when it was over.

These puzzles were evil. 

Frustrating puzzles aside, I found that I loved every minute of Far Harbor. The atmosphere of it is great. The story is well thought out and explores some heavy territory with subjects like what it means to be Human or what it's like to be in a position of trying to make an impossible decision that affects everyone. The choices offered to you are interesting and each choice has a different outcome (there are 3 possible endings) making for a fantastic story all around. I enjoyed playing this so much that I felt the Far Harbor DLC is totally worth it. Check it out if you haven't already. You won't be sorry. Now, I'm going to try out this badass Marine combat armor!

Marine combat armor, only the best will do!

*Fallout 4: Far Harbor is playable on these platforms: PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4

Guild Wars 2: A Fun MMORPG With No Subscription Fee

I had played the first Guild Wars and liked it a lot. I had been eyeing Guild Wars 2, but never got around to playing it as I had Final Fantasy XIV and Neverwinter keeping me busy. A friend of mine had been playing it and told me that it was a lot of fun so I was curious about it. Then it went on sale and I thought why not? This is a good time to check it out. One of the big things I really liked is that once the game is purchased you can play it as much as you want and there is no subscription fee. You can also play it for free to check it out and get a feel for the game. With a free account, you get two character slots.  You also can't get one of the professions and you can't play any of the expansion content. You only get three bag slots and you can't do world transfers. With buying the game, you unlock everything. You get five character slots and 5 back slots.  Once you decide, you can create a character and pick which server will be your home world.

There are five races to choose from for your adventures in the world of Tyria. The Asura are like little goblin creatures and are inventors who mix alchemy and magic. The Charr are feline creatures who are fierce warriors. The Humans were once the dominant race, but are now struggling. There are many different cultures and the Humans are striving to survive. The Norn are giants and exceptional hunters who live in Dwarven ruins. The Sylvari are a race of botanical humanoids (yes, plant people) who are not born, but awaken beneath the Pale Tree with knowledge learned from their dreams.

Then you have nine professions to choose from among the three job classes for your character which give you a nice variety. In the soldier class there is: Guardian, Revenant, and Warrior. In the Adventurer class: Engineer, Ranger, and Thief. In the Scholar class: Elementalist, Mesmer, and Necromancer.  I personally decided to go with a female Sylvari ranger.

My Sylvari ranger, Pirotess Drakon. 

Once you finish the tutorial for your race, you'll be directed to a scout NPC who will give you information about quests in the surrounding area. Quests are marked by a heart shape known as renown hearts. The map comes in handy here and it's nice to see that it's easy to navigate. You can zoom out to get a bird's eye view of Tyria and you can move yourself via map marker to your quest location. Guild Wars 2 is really solo friendly, but it's also community friendly. There are what as known as Dynamic Events where you and fellow players can participate together to take down an enemy or help an NPC adventurer. It's a lot of fun and takes the tedium out of level grinding. 

A group event with a plant dragon. 

Each race has their own personal story also, so at certain levels there are story driven quests you can do. These add another layer to Guild Wars 2 that is very cool. The combat is well done and you can help other players or they can help you and everyone gets experience points for it. There's no griefing, no grind, and everyone gets rewarded equally when participating in a quest, event, or dungeon. It takes out a lot of the annoyances with many MMORPGs  and makes the game a lot of fun to play. There is Player vs Player and another mode to that called World vs World. A few of my friends have done those and said it can be fun with a guild and friends. I haven't checked it out yet because PVP isn't really thing, but I may tag along with some of my friends just to try it out at least once. 

My Sylvari doing a personal story quest. 

There are dungeons you can do too with a party, but you can also do a lot of solo quests if you wish. If your character dies in battle, fellow players can help revive you if they're around or you can respawn at a waypoint. There's a lot to see and explore in the world of Tyria; all of it quite beautiful. No two areas look alike, whether it's out in a desert full of undead or in a plant filled grove beneath the stars. I feel that Guild Wars 2 was a solid purchase because the game is a lot of fun and I always enjoy myself while playing. If you choose a free account or decide to buy the game; it's worth checking out. 

A beautiful view of the stars in a grove. 

*Guild Wars 2 is available to play on the following platforms: Microsoft Windows and OS X

Why I Struggled To Finish Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor

I'm a huge Tolkien fan. I grew up reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I read them often. I voraciously read The Silmarillion and The Legend of Sigrud and Gudrun. I still go back and read all of those books again from time to time, so I was pretty hopeful for the game. It looked pretty and it sounded very cool. Then I played the game and that's where all hope was lost.

Shadow of Mordor is set between the events of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. You play as a ranger named Talion who is responsible for guarding the Black Gate of Mordor. Certain story elements happen to Talion and he teams up with a wraith named Celebrimbor who is basically keeping him alive. While it's a little light on the story, it is an interesting concept and the open world of the game is quite stunning.

Talion taking down an Orc.

Talion and Celebrimbor's abilities do complement each other really well and you can switch easily back and forth between the two to use their powers. The menu system is pretty user friendly and easy to navigate. The save system is not so great and here is why. There is auto save and while that's not a big deal, it only auto saves after a major battle or story line battle. You have to fast travel to a forge in order to auto save the game before quitting. That's not exactly practical and a manual save would have been great for this game.

One feature that was very cool was being able to ride a Caragor. You have to position yourself so you can leap onto its back and dominate it via a little mini game with button prompts and then you have a docile Caragor who remains friendly even after you dismount it. You can ride around taking out your enemies and even command the Caragor to attack them as well. 

Crush your enemies while riding a Caragor!

The open world exploration is interesting and there is a lot to see and do with the main story and a variety of side quests. Celebrimbor has many abilities that are awesome such as shadow walking and being able to scan an Orc's mind to learn information about the various Orc captains and chieftains. It makes for interesting battles with the different abilities. You'd think that the game would be fun with all that great stuff, right? Wrong. It amazes me how much this game sucked the fun out of things when it had so much potential.

The wraith Celebrimbor scanning an Orc's mind.

One of the big things that frustrated me was the heal system. I understand planning out strategy and tactics for the game, but when it's executed poorly that's a problem. In order to heal you have to stop and cut a healing herb. Just one healing herb. It's a little difficult when you are running from a horde of Orcs to do this. It's not like you can yell, "Hey, time out I need to cut this herb so I can heal!" Stopping to cut a single herb for healing is rather silly. They should have made it so that you could at least carry a few healing herbs with you.

Then there is the Nemesis system. The way it works is certain Orcs (or Uruks as they're called) have unique names or titles, distinguishing traits, and a specific hierarchy. If one of these Orcs kill you, they power up and it's more difficult to kill them. You can exact your revenge on them of course, but there are certain ones that will return a few times to get revenge on you and they've learned your tactics so then you have an even more challenging fight. For me, that was an exercise in frustration. Having to fight the same enemy over and over again sucked the joy from the game, not to mention the only way to defeat those enemies is to power up yourself. This is done via unlocking runes to upgrade your weapons which can also be tedious. 

Then there's the fact that stealth and sneaking are your best friends in the game. I could see why many people commented that it felt like an Assassin's Creed game with all the stealth and hidden assassinations involved. However, Shadow of Mordor is very much its own game with all the flaws. The reason I say that stealth and sneaking are important to your survival is because if you are seen out in the open by one or more Orcs it's pretty much game over for you because they will swarm you and your only real solution is to run away or you'll be overwhelmed by the horde. There's definitely a learning curve with this and once I got the hang of it, I pretty much went full Solid Snake on all the Orcs taking them out from bushes or from above because it was a lot easier that way. 

All these factors really had me struggling to finish this game. It got so bad that I just plowed through the main story just to finish so I could write the Mother Gamer post and that was after my friend Daniel told me that the final boss was a DLC. That's right, you had to BUY the final boss DLC which is pardon my language total bullshit. This game was NOT fun for me at all and it's disappointing because it could have been a great game. I'm not the only one who felt that way. 

This is a direct quote from my good friend Daniel who had to suffer through this game also: As flawed as it was, it had so much potential. Management of the game seemed to hurt it more than design, but in the end a final product is a final product. The DLC issues are one of the examples where management used shady practices just to get more money. An ending is not a DLC. Secondly, I played on the Xbox 360. The fact that the game was cross generational was a poor choice. On last gen consoles, load times were abysmal taking up to 45 seconds to load the menu or the map. When each interrogation loads the menu, it led to horrible pacing. The load times often cut the first five to ten seconds of each cut scene out for me. Finally, there was a glitch where the audio would play a never ending tone. Only restarting it would turn it off.  Now, these technical issues are apparently not in the current gen versions and at least one of them was patched out after I finished it, but I was not able to truly enjoy the game. I finished it, but I powered through the story to cope with the issues and ignored the side missions. It had a lot of potential too. I was very disappointed. 

I agree with him. It is incredibly disappointing when you are excited to play a game and it does not live up to your expectations at all. I also agree with him about the management. There were so many things that were not handled well. One of the other big glaring things was the deal they had with YouTubers that they could get early access to the game ONLY if they gave the game positive reviews and did not mention any glitches, bugs, or technical problems. TotalBiscuit blew the whistle on these shenanigans and Jim Sterling of The Escapist managed to get a copy of the contract and analyze it thoroughly. It is ridiculous to me that they resorted to these ham fisted tactics. People would have played the game because while it's not a perfect game, it's not completely terrible either. The graphics are pretty, when the battles work out they're actually a lot of fun. This just screams a lack of confidence. If you're truly confident in your product, there's no reason to to do this. It's also caused people to start doubting positive gaming reviews now, wondering if they've been bought off through a shady contract for early access. That's not good at all. It makes me wonder how the hell this game won Game of the Year. I know that award isn't that big a deal, but it did not come across to me as a stellar game at all.  Games are supposed to be fun and while this may have been a fun game for others, it was gaming hell for me. I don't plan on playing this game again. Once was more than enough. 

You can check out Jim Sterling's video about Mordor Gate here: 

*Shadow of Mordor is playable on these platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, XboxOne, and Playstation 4 

Fallout 4 Automatron DLC: Now With More Robots!

I had been counting down to the release of the Automatron DLC for Fallout 4 because it looked awesome and appealed to my love of robots and giant robots. Automatron arrived and I was thrilled to try it out. The DLC cost ten dollars and you definitely get your money's worth and more.
Automatron starts with a distress signal on your Pipboy radio that leads you to Ada, a robot whose friends have been killed by a robot army led by the Mechanist. Ada becomes a new companion as you aid her in her quest to find the Mechanist and find out why the robots are attacking everyone in the Commonwealth.

Meeting Ada.

The Automatron DLC is a little under three hours of game play and there is a lot to see and do. The Commonwealth is now running rampant with killer robots and one of the ways to combat them is to upgrade your current robot companion Ada and build your own robot army. You can also upgrade your other robot companion Curie as well.  You do need the science and robotics perks for this in order to upgrade your robots to their shiny potential. All this can be done after you build your very own robot station and you can crank out all the robots your heart desires as long as you have all the necessary materials of course.

Build your own robot!

The story takes you to a couple of locations with robot ambushes and a couple of linear dungeons that are pretty cool where you can pick up all kinds of great loot. You even get an awesome weapon, the tesla rifle which takes out your enemies in epic fashion and is a lot of fun to use. There are a variety of robots trying to take you out and no two are alike. There's even a crazy robot with chainsaws and flamethrowers for arms. This is where your power armor and most powerful weapons come in handy. I used the heck out of my tesla rifle and missile launcher for a lot of these encounters.

Taking out a Robobrain, one of the many enemy robots in Automatron.

Eventually the story leads you to the lair of the Mechanist and you get to loot all kinds of things here while fighting off killer robots. You finally get a showdown with the Mechanist towards the end and again, I was grateful for my power armor because the Mechanist sends wave after wave of robots to end you. It makes for an intense battle, but it is incredibly fun. After it's all over you get to have a chat with the Mechanist and you learn some revealing things about why the robots attacked and some interesting back story about the Mechanist. 

The Mechanist appears.

Once the main story of Automatron is finished not only do you get the Mechanist armor for yourself, you also get the Mechanist's Lair for your very own so you can build and upgrade even more robots of your very own. You can tinker to your heart's content and order is restored to the Commonwealth once more. Automatron while short, is fun to play and worth getting for the story and for all the great perks and items you get with it. Now, it's time for me to build more robots!

Get your own Mechanist armor set. This one's mine.

**The Automatron DLC is playable on these platforms: PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One

Backlog Gaming Review: Final Fantasy Type-0 HD Good Game, Not Great

Final Fantasy Type-0 HD was next in my backlog of games to play. I started out with relatively good hopes for the game. That dwindled as my play through progressed. The story starts out strong with the fighter cadets of Class Zero fighting in an epic battle with an enemy that they're at war with. The scenes are beautifully done and the music for the game is fantastic. There are of course, the adorable Moogles (as with most of the Final Fantasy games) to help Class Zero in their missions throughout the game.

Adorable Moogles just want to help. 

First, the good. The combat system is pretty close to perfect with a user menu that is easy to navigate. Considering that you have 14 characters to choose from for your party of 3, the secret training at the training arena area is a big help. When you are finished playing the game for the moment, you can select a character to participate in secret training and it returns to the main title menu and while you're busy doing other things that person can go up a few levels. It only lasts up to 24 hours however, but gaining a few level ups on a character from secret training is not too shabby. 

The fact that you can adjust the difficulty level of the game is a huge plus. You can play on easy if you wish so you can just enjoy the game or make it a challenge for yourself. The reserve system works really well. Out of the 14 characters, you can pick 3 to be in your party. The rest remain in reserve so that if one of your party members dies, you can swap them out easily. The Eidolons are incredibly cool looking, even after you consider the fact that a party member has to sacrifice themselves in order to summon one. 

Ifrit, one of the Eidolons.

The world outside the Academy is fairly vast. This is where your Chocobos come in. Calling a Chocobo is easy and the menu is simple and straightforward. You can also breed your Chocobos to make more Chocobos and you can also capture wild Chocobos roaming free on the world map. Each of your party members has different abilities and no two are alike making for a lot of interesting possibilities. You can't just mash buttons here, you do need to plan some strategy and tactics which makes for some fun and solid battles. 

Exploration is easy on your trusty Chocobo.

Now let's get to the bad. While there is some freedom to explore, Final Fantasy Type-0 is not as open as it could be. Yes, it's meant to be linear going from Mission A to Mission B and the like. That being said, you actually have a set amount of time to do things until the day of the mission. For example, if you go out and level grind, fighting monsters and other enemies when you go back to the Academy 2 hours have passed. This cancels out a lot of side quests and talking to other NPCs because time will pass. Some side quests you can do, but the rest are meant for a second play through or more of the game. It's a little frustrating because it means you can't fully go after ALL of the side quests like you want to because of time restraints. Maybe that works for other people, but for myself I don't have that kind of time or that kind of patience. Yes I have done multiple play throughs of other games, but the difference is I could get all the side quests done in one gaming play through and not pick and choose which ones I would do right then and which ones I would save for the next gaming session. With that constantly ticking timer at the bottom of the screen, it adds a lot of unnecessary pressure and detracts a bit from enjoying the game. 

That timer at the bottom of the screen is annoying.

The story or lack of one is rather confusing. There are a lot of proper nouns used along with some puzzling lingo (think a'la Final Fantasy XIII with that F'alcie and L'icie business) that will have you scratching your head wondering what the heck is going on. Basically the plot consists of: Commander Cid who is the commander of the Imperial Army is invading all the nations including the nation that Class Zero lives in. Class Zero goes on all these missions to basically stop him. There isn't enough time to really get to know all the characters so I found it hard to connect with them emotionally or even care about them. That's not a good sign.  The story itself is rather vague which is why you should definitely not play the game for the story because you'll just be disappointed. Play it for the combat system because that is where Final Fantasy Type-0 shines. The only drawback to that is how uneven some of the battles feel and yes, that includes playing the game on the easy setting. Sometimes the difficulty level of a battle will spike ridiculously high causing a lot of frustration especially when a mission is timed. 

The camera angles that are absolutely terrible. Nothing kills a gaming session for me than bad camera angles. The motion blur while not deal breaking can throw you off for a moment and you lose sight of the character you're controlling. There are also moments where the camera seems blurry and I have no idea why. Factor in that there are times when running down a narrow hallway you can't see because you can't turn the camera completely where it needs to be, then you have a problem. This was something that could have easily been addressed, but was not. 

I really struggled to finish this game because of these issues. When a game becomes a chore to finish, it doesn't bode well for anyone involved. Final Fantasy Type-0 is a good game, but it's not a great one. I'm not even sure it was worth playing through once because the reward is not fulfilling and that's a damn shame because it could have been a terrific game, but it missed the mark for me. 

The game has amazing artwork like this, but I need more than pretty. 

*Final Fantasy Type-0 HD is playable on these platforms: PC, Playstation 4, and Xbox One

Adventures in Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

Since I finished the main story line of Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn, I have moved on to the next advancement in the story with Heavensward. This unlocks new areas, three new job classes, a new race, and flying mounts. That's right. In the Heavensward areas your Chocobo can fly and you can have other flying mounts as well.

A gorgeous cathedral in Heavensward.

Heavensward continues the story from where A Realm Reborn ended and introduces some new characters along with a flurry of side quests and main story driven quests. The level cap has also been increased to 60 which means some more level grinding on my bard, but Final Fantasy XIV is so enjoyable to play you find you don't mind at all. A big part of that is the fact that I play the game with my husband on the weekends and the fact that we belong to a really good Free Company with a lot of great people who are always willing to help out fellow players and truly feel like a community. If you're on the Famfrit server and you're looking for a great Free Company with laid back, nice people check out Flames of Paradise.

The environments in Heavensward are beautiful with colorful areas and awe inspiring buildings. The music for the different areas are quite pretty as well. There's a lot to do and see in Heavensward and while some of it is a lot of fun, there are some things that are rather tedious. One of the big things is the fact that you can not fly until you run around an area and find all the aether currents and attune to them. Each zone has 15 aether currents. Some are found by using your key item; a compass which you use to figure out how far away an aether current is. It's basically like playing the world's worst game of Hot and Cold and on top of that some of them are in bizarre places where you have to figure out exactly how to get them. There was one on top of a waterfall that took me a good ten minutes to find which was frustrating to say the least. The other aether currents are found by doing certain quests and the rest are rewards for doing dungeons. Once you have all the aether currents for that area, you can fly everywhere in the new areas in Heavensward and enjoy a fantastic aerial view. 

Rocking this whole flying thing on my Chocobo.

The new race that you can play as is called Au Ra (pronounced Ow-rah) and honestly, I think they're gorgeous. They have a very dragon-esque feel to them with horns, scales, and tails for both the male and female characters. Their lore and history is pretty interesting and you can choose which of the two clans your Au Ra hails from. I did create a second character and chose the Au Ra and when I'm not adventuring on my Elezen bard, Pirotess I run around adventuring on my Au Ra lancer, Raina.

My Au Ra lancer, Raina ready for some adventure.

The three new jobs you can unlock in Heavensward are Dark Knight, Machinist, and Astrologian. When you unlock the jobs, they start out at level 30 and do not require a base job class. Dark Knight essentially has been made into an MP based tank and you get to wield a great sword. It's a little different from what Dark Knight was before, but that's not necessarily a bad thing as it adds a different aspect to the job class. I am a bit disappointed that it's not a damage dealer (honestly I thought the scythes were cool), but I've played with a few solid Dark Knights who know what they're doing and handle the skills rather impressively.

Astrologian seems to be a healing class along the lines of White Mage with a bit of a spin on it. Your healing spells seem to revolve around your Star Globe and you can use buffs and debuffs using a variety of cards. For the few minutes that I tinkered around with it after unlocking it, it's definitely interesting and fun to play. I may mess around with it more once I have fully leveled bard.

Machinist like Bard and Black Mage is a ranged DPS job class, but instead of magic and arrows this uses firearms as the main weapon. You can even add attachments to your weapons to change the effects of attacks and you can also deploy turrets that add a support style role. Machinist shares more in common with Bard than with Black Mage and the two seem to complement each other really well. 

Unlocking Dark Knight in Heavensward.

It's been fun exploring Heavensward and it's a lot of fun to play. There's always something happening and with the addition of the new job classes it adds to the enjoyment of the game. It's worth checking out and it's a blast to play especially with friends and family. More adventures await!

*Dedicated to Mrs.Magik who became my friend on Final Fantasy XI Online, then became family and showed me that adventuring in Final Fantasy XIV is more fun together. I love you and miss you, my soul sister.

An adventure with Mrs.Magick and friends.

**Final Fantasy XIV is playable on these platforms: PC, Playstation 3, and Playstation 4

Mother Gamer Plays The Mass Effect Trilogy Part 3: Mass Effect 3

Author's Note: This is going to be a chock full of spoilers post, so if like me you have never played the Mass Effect games before don't read past this unless of course you don't care about spoilers. Enjoy!

I just finished playing Mass Effect 3 and I took every aspect of the ending in especially since I downloaded the extended cut. By now, I'm familiar with the story and thanks to my imported save I saw my female paragon Shepard again this time on Earth and it seems she's been relieved from duty because of that whole working with Cerberus thing (I kept saying it was a bad idea!) and that was just for starters. At least Anderson was in her corner because he knows everything Shepard has done has been to protect everyone and that includes those ungrateful Council jerks on the Citadel. Then everything goes to crap with a Reaper invasion. Fun times! Anderson reinstated Shepard and there we were trying to survive and get out of there so everyone could be warned.

Reapers are such jerks. 

This introduces you to the gaming controls tutorial and apparently Shepard can jump and slide over things which is kind of fun. It's also nice to be able to adjust the game's difficulty settings easily in the user menu. This also introduces you to a new character, James Vega and I thought his voice sounded familiar. Turns out it was Freddie Prinze Jr. doing his voice (Iron Bull in Dragon Age Inquisition) and I thought that was interesting. There were moments of amusement as I found out that a friend's wife was playing and lamenting the fact that James Vega is not a romanceable character for Shepard and wished he was because as she put it, "He's really freaking hot!" Every time she had a chat with James, she would wonder again why the heck her Shepard couldn't romance him.  Yes, a female Shepard can playfully flirt with him and even have a sparring match with him where he gives the nickname Lola to her, but that's it. 

James Vega, not just eye candy for the boys and girls. 

Here's the thing. I didn't mind that Shepard couldn't romance him because after all the conversation options I had with him, I found I liked and respected the character. I liked him as a person and as a soldier. He was pretty well rounded and he actually felt like a good friend to my Shepard. He was an ally that Shepard could fully rely on and I liked the friendship between the two. Shepard meets her old friends also while doing various missions throughout the story such as Garrus, Liara, and Kaidan to name a few. I was a little disappointed that Zaeed and Kasumi were only available as war assets because I really liked their skills in Mass Effect 2 and it would have been nice to have them as part of my squad. You have to add to your effective military strength while you build a weapon known as the Crucible that is rumored to be a weapon that can defeat the Reapers. And how do you do that? By running around all over the galaxy doing missions of course!

There's even more to see and do in Mass Effect 3 with side missions especially with the DLC missions of Leviathan, Omega, and Citadel which I purchased and added. A lot of the side missions for the main story seem to be fetch this or that item which wasn't exactly thrilling for me. The fighting Cerberus side missions were relatively interesting and gave some cool weapons and weapons mods. The main story has a lot of great missions too, but I think my favorite ones were luring a Thresher Maw to eat a Reaper on Tuchanka with my Krogan pals Wrex and Grunt and kicking a Reaper's butt with Tali on Rannoch. 

Shepard showing a Reaper who's boss. 

There were sad points in the story as well with some emotional character deaths and I thought it was such a bummer because they all seemed to be Shepard's friends. Mordin was one that I felt awful about, but I understood. He felt he was the only one who could cure the Krogan's disease properly and that it was his responsibility so he sacrificed himself to save them. Then we had Legion and again, this was another death I understood because Legion wanted to help the Geth and get them their upgrade. Sadly, he had to sacrifice himself to do it. I had Tali with me for that one and she gave him some comfort about whether or not the Geth had a right to existence. It was very touching. When I got to Thane, I was already emotional because he was already dying because of his illness. I loved his character. He was a complex interesting person that had so much depth to him. He was Shepard's good friend and while he died protecting his friend from a complete buffoon of an assassin (more on that in a minute), I was not ready to say goodbye to him at all. I actually found myself weeping for Thane as I watched his death scene and while that seems silly; that's how well his character was written. I actually found myself caring about him and what happened to him and I was genuinely touched by the prayer he said for Shepard at the end. 

Oh Thane, you will be missed. 

Shepard is trying to save the galaxy and of course The Illusive Man shows up so many times with all his posturing nonsense. I was glad to see that Martin Sheen did the voice acting for him again however, because he plays a great villain. It seems he's a bigger and bolder flavor of crazy trying to convince Shepard that what he's doing is right and that he can totally control the Reapers; you know those giant killing machines that are imploding the universe upon itself. Right. He can control them. He never seems to get his hands dirty naturally and sends his minions to do it and that includes the ever annoying Kai Leng. He just didn't scream oh scary assassin to me. I mean, look at him. 

Batman called.... to laugh at  your ridiculous outfit. 

All he did was irritate the hell out of me and in a universe with assault rifles and laser pistols, I'm supposed to believe this guy runs around with just a sword? Then he doesn't even really do anything. He just dances around calling for Cerberus soldiers to attack your team on one mission and a gunship on another while yelling insults at Shepard that sound like a six year old wrote them. This guy is scary? Please. The fact that Thane, a dying Drell could kick his butt makes me think the Illusive Man was not getting his money's worth. It just showed me how badass Thane was and what a joke Kai Leng really is. One of the missions doesn't go so well for Shepard because of Kai Leng interfering and he actually sends an email that is essentially trolling Shepard again with insults that look and feel like they were written by a six year old child. I wasn't afraid of this guy. In fact, I wanted Shepard to throat punch him and whup his ass. They could have made him great and instead I felt like this guy was so not worth my time and the furthest thing from terrifying Cerberus assassin. Honestly, I cheered when I went with the renegade option and Shepard stabbed him telling him it was for Thane. It was a little for Shepard too because that guy was such a jerk. 

There are romance options or continuing romance options. I stuck with Kaidan because I did like him and his feelings for Shepard were very sweet. I do have a bone to pick though. I had two saves one where Shepard was with a different love interest and one where Shepard didn't have anyone after Kaidan.  I played it both ways to see if what a friend told me was true. I'm annoyed to say that it was in fact true. With male Shepard there's no dialogue about cheating. Consider this. The love interest of Ashley/Kaidan breaks up with Shepard in Mass Effect 2 and with male Shepard Ashley lets it go if they were with someone else in Mass Effect 2. With Kaidan if female Shepard was with someone else you get the, "I understand why you cheated on me, but I forgive you." line. To quote Ross from Friends, "WE WERE ON A BREAK!" You mean to tell me they allowed male Shepard a free pass, but female Shepard basically gets slut shamed? 1. That's so messed up because it shows a blatant double standard. 2. When you basically tell someone that it's over and LEAVE, you don't get to dictate whether or not they hook up with or date someone else. It left a bad taste in my mouth and I really wondered which writer thought that was acceptable. Look, I get why Kaidan was so upset in Mass Effect 2. Someone he loved died and he thought they were dead until he sees them standing in front of him and they haven't let him know at all so of course it's a shock. Being upset and angry is totally the right response and an understandable one. However, he did break it off with Shepard and sent an email about how he grieved and how he still cares about them and maybe they can talk. Maybe. While yes, he stated that he cared about her they were not a couple and when Mass Effect 3 starts, they're not a couple. It really irritated me because Kaidan is actually pretty reasonable and this was an uncharacteristic jackass move on his part for which I blame the writer who put that in there. After that I loaded the other save (the one where Shepard was "faithful") and had quite a lovely and sweet romance with Kaidan. 

Kaidan's lucky my Shepard loved him.

The romance with EDI and Joker for me, was a bit creepy. That being said, I gave it a chance and spoke to both of them a lot about it and came to realize that I thought of EDI as a person not just an AI and Joker seemed to feel that way too. Eventually it seemed to be like a normal romantic relationship, but I felt kind of bad because I was determined I was going to destroy the Reapers and I figured that meant she might go away for a little while. The funniest and cutest one for me was Tali and Garrus. Shepard walking in on them kissing was hilarious because of their stammering and banter to each other. Those were a pleasant distraction and added to the story by showing what Shepard is fighting for, a variety of people who want the same things; peace and a way to win against the Reapers.

When I got to the Leviathan missions, I was pretty impressed with how much they added to the main story and to the lore about the Reapers. It did have a Lovecraftian vibe to it which I found interesting and when Shepard finally found them and got to communicate with them I thought it was great that you get to learn more about the Reapers and a bit about Leviathan as well. It was also very cool that my paragon level was high enough that Shepard convinced them to join the fight against the Reapers.

Leviathan is impressive.

I did the Omega DLC next and while it was fun to play there wasn't a lot to it other than helping Aria get her base of operations back. There are a few nifty weapons and items you can get here and there, but the big prize is having Aria and the three mercenary companies she got to work together as your war assets against the Reapers. It does show a slightly softer side to Aria as well, but nothing major really happens. It's a fun side mission to run through. 

The one I really liked besides Leviathan was Citadel. Shepard gets a cushy apartment courtesy of Anderson. You can decorate it any way you like which is neat. It's also huge, lots of space and plenty of rooms. I spent a good ten minutes just running around exploring it all. Then you get to do some missions while you're here. 

Shepard gets a housing upgrade.

I chose to do this before the big final fight because it had the whole gang together in a way. There's a whole adventure with an ex-Cerberus agent and a Shepard clone trying to kill you. That's right. There's a Shepard clone and it pulls a whole Highlander there can be only one situation on Shepard and friends. It's a little campy, but in a good way and it's a lot of fun to play. There are even moments of laughter with scenes of Joker yelling about the clone stealing his ship and Shepard wondering if she really sounds like that when the clone says something that sounds rather corny. You even get to have an epic firefight on the Normandy which adds to the fun. It all works out and Joker suggests Shepard throw a big party for everyone. You get emails from your various friends and you invite them up to your pad for some socializing or go out. I thought Zaeed fighting with an arcade crane machine to get a toy for a child was funny because he kept swearing up and down that it was rigged. He got it after one more try. You even get a date night with your love interest that's quite romantic. After all the meetups you can then throw your party. You can have a quiet party or go all out. I went with the go all out option because the way I saw it, this was one last hurrah and a way for everyone to blow off some steam and just have fun. It was fun and it was amusing to see a drunk Tali as well as seeing two drunk Krogan (Grunt and Wrex) headbutt each other while laughing. As the party wound down, I really liked that you get to take a group photo with everyone. It felt right and it really felt like everyone was saying goodbye before they had one last adventure together. 

The best damn team in the galaxy.

After that it was time for the big finale. There are a lot of little moments that stand out such as Shepard having one last talk with Kaidan (my Shepard's love interest) and having a heart to heart with Tali. The conversation with Garrus was also rather touching. You get a moment to see your old friends and have that before the battle talk with all of them which adds to the finality of the story ending. The battle does go in different phases and it's quite intense as you fight wave after wave of Reaper creatures like Husks, Banshees, and Brutes. It gets pretty dicey and as the story progresses you can sense the desperation as the battle continues. 

Just when I thought we had won, things get incredibly worse and another Reaper comes and it's a mess. I felt bad that Shepard had to say goodbye to Kaidan, but she wanted him and her team safe so she sent them away. Things escalate from there and after a huge explosion Shepard's lying on the ground looking rough and severely injured. This is where I found myself getting so frustrated with the game. While I understand that Shepard was injured and moving slowly, having just a dinky pistol against Husks and a Marauder was incredibly annoying. It took me three tries before I got the hang of the shaky aiming and the slow as molasses slow motion of Shepard and managed to hit the center mass of their bodies so I could continue towards the ending. 

I finally got to have my conversation with the Illusive Man and boy had he changed a lot. It confirmed my suspicions that he had been indoctrinated and that he hadn't been in control for a long time. As my Shepard tried to convince him that this was not the way and controlling the Reapers was not good for anyone, I kept thinking why is this guy stupid? It wasn't blind stupidity, it was more along the lines of arrogant stupidity. For all his claims of he knew what was best for humanity, it sure didn't feel like it. At least I was able to save Anderson only to have him sitting there having one final conversation with Shepard telling her how proud he was of her and then he died anyway. I felt sad and angry at the same time. I genuinely liked and respected Anderson. I mean, this is a crap time to be Commander Shepard with the death toll among her friends climbing.

There was barely any time to mourn because we still had to unleash the Crucible. This is the part of Mass Effect 3 that had me scratching my head and wondering what the hell happened. While talking to the Catalyst you find you have this machine that has three options: synthesis, control, or destroy. Finding out that the Citadel is the catalyst is bizarre enough, but to have this machine that will defeat the Reapers with three options is a weird design flaw. Also, why did the Reapers not destroy the Crucible while it was being built? Considering how bad things got, they could have done it. It also bothered me that among the three options there was a similarity of a damned if you do and damned if you don't scenario. Synthesis makes everyone some odd hybrid of organic and machine while control makes Shepard give up their corporeal body. Destroy will take out the Reapers, but all synthetic life will be destroyed. These are terrible choices! I can't figure out if the writers got lazy and just wanted it to be over or if they had an epiphany that they had written themselves into a corner with the story and felt this was the best they could do. This is also where you effective military strength comes into play and has to be fairly high to get the best possible outcome with the ending. However, with the extended cut it gives you a little wiggle room.  

I really thought about it and while it truly sucked (Joker, I'm sorry about EDI) I went with destroy. I truly felt it wasn't right for these crazy AI monsters to decide who got to live and who got to die every cycle with no explanation for why it was happening. I was tired of this damn war and I was tired of my Shepard losing people she cared about because of a bunch of jerks who arrogantly thought they knew what was best for everyone in the universe. I was done listening to that little glowing blue Catalyst punk so I hit that red button hard. I sat back and watched all the lovely cut scenes and got to see what that choice wrought. The Reapers were destroyed and luckily Shepard's team survived. Granted, they crash landed on some forest laden planet but they seemed to be alright. I did like seeing that Kaidan refused to put Shepard's name on the memorial wall and then that moment at the end you see Shepard take a breath so I was more than a little ecstatic to see that my Shepard lived. After the credits I found myself smiling at the Stargazer telling stories of Shepard to a young child. 

I understand why people weren't happy with the ending to Mass Effect 3. It does make it seem like the choices you made in the previous Mass Effect didn't matter. I didn't hate the ending, but I think it could have been done differently. With the extended cut I found I liked it because it didn't take away hope and it had Shepard survive. The Crucible really seems to be the weak link here and I'm not sure why they had it in there if they weren't going to elaborate a little more on why it was created or why it had such awful option buttons placed into it. For the most part, I did enjoy the game because of how great the characters on Shepard's team were and because of the great villainy of the Illusive Man. Overall, I enjoyed playing it and had fun. 

So I did it. I played the entire Mass Effect Trilogy and I have to say I liked it a lot. It had all the science fiction bells and whistles I love, some solid story telling, and a great set of characters. It's absolutely worth playing through at least once, twice, or however many times you wish in order to get all the different story scenarios. 

*Mass Effect Trilogy is playable on these platforms: PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3