There is nothing worse for a gamer than being done with a game and having nothing to fall back on.  With Mass Effect 3 finished until DLC comes out, nothing planed in SWTOR, and no new games out I can buy just to have something new, I decided to play every game I haven’t finished in my collection for as long as I could stand it.  Once I couldn’t stand the game anymore I’d record my “accomplishments.”  No good will come of this.

Because this concept isn't creepy at all

SNEAK KING:  I don’t even know when this game came out, but you could get it from Burger King with your fast food.  The plot is simple, sneak around and give people lunch.  Sounds funny at least.  Also a proof of concept for “Pedobear’s revenge.”
-Cost: $1.99
-Accomplishments:  I got the game started up, completed 1 mission at a “Rank C.”
-Achievements: 15pts
-Why I quit playing:  The camera controls are all on the right thumb stick and mapped where up is up, down is down, right is right, and left is  left.  Which I couldn’t figure out.  I like my camera controls to be inverted, and there is no option to do so.  Most of the game I spent looking down at the ground and frustrated.
-Time Played:  15mins
-Price per game play: $0.13 per min

Sokka must die

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER – THE BURNING EARTH:  This game came free in a pile of games.  Buy 1 get 2 free.  I had heard it was the easiest 1000 X-Box live points you could ever earn. It also has the longest name ever. A:TLA-TBE.  Typical beat em up game otherwise.
-Cost: Free
-Accomplishments:  I found out that I could take control of Sokka and have him jump to his death.
-Achievements: 700pts
-Why I quit playing: After the 3rd Sokka suicide I lost interest.
-Time Played: 25 mins
-Price per game play: $0.00 per min

This game is for women, and pedophiles

LOST ODYSSEY-  A very popular and well reviewed JRPG.  It is nothing special, turned base fights, great graphics, huge FMV cut scenes and amazing music.  Your typical JRPG.  This was one the wife picked up and beat.  I never bothered to play it but from what I saw and was told, it was impressive.
-Cost: $60
-Accomplishments:  Killed a huge robot thing, watched a long FMV
-Achievements: 0pts
-Why I quit playing:  from the time the game started, I watched 6 mins and 32 seconds of FMV, or loading screen.  By the time I got control of my character I was bored.
-Time played: 15 mins
-Price per Game play: $4.00 per min

If Lost Odyssy was for women and Petophiles, Prototype is for 14 year old boys who play rouges or are Homophobes. Or both.

PROTOTYPE : Open word game where you can run around a city and kill as many people as you feel like killing.  I had played this game before, liked it but never finished it.  Sadly my save had been nuked as I figured I’d never come back to finishes this game again.
-Cost: $60
-Accomplishments: Finished the intro. Slaughtered more people in this game then the rest combined. Heard the F word used in a sentence.
-Achievements: 0pts
-Why I quit playing:  I had already unlocked all the powers, it took way to long the first time. Knowing I’d have to do it all again, I quit when my powers were stripped.  And I sated my blood lust.
-Time played: 10 mins
-Price per game play: $6.00 per min

Very good, still overrated

BIOSHOCK:  Game of the year 2007, FPS with a cool game play element that lets you use superpowers.  Amazing story, cool environments.  A game I’ve never finished because it gets boring.
-Cost: $60
-Accomplishments: I made it into rapture, got a gun, shot some people, was threatened by Andrew Ryan.
-Achievements: 0pts
-Why I quit playing: I’ve played this game so many time, and now I’m starting to notice things I dislike about the game play.  The guns don’t act like guns, they feel huge and cartoon like.  The powers are cool but at first you can only use them a few times before you are totally out of ammo.  The games amazing environments end up being very hard to look at after about 20 mins of playing.
-Time played: 60 mins
-Price per game play: $1.00 per min

There has been a small amount of controversy around the ending of Mass Effect 3, but I’m here to say that Bioware has created a masterpiece.   As I finished the blue ending first I watched in shock waiting for something…anything to happen.  When I didn’t feel like that it payed off I went back and did red, and green with the same reaction.  At first I tried to make excuses for the ending, telling myself it was great.  Realizing that I was fooling myself I got mad, then depressed.  Parts of the end of the game made no sense, it left me with questions, so I started to think and read and I have changed my mind.  Mass Effect 3′s ending is brilliant.  If you don’t like the ending of ME3, stick with me on this.  The story is actually about the indoctrination of Commander Shepard.

Get ready folks

Mass Effect 3 has three basic endings.  They all follow a similar path.  You, your team, and David Anderson charge a reaper to take a beam up to the citadel, Harbinger and others land to stop you.  As you are running you appear to get hit with the main laser from a reaper and pass out.  You wake up with your armor burnt off, you hear someone say no one made it to the beam.  With your last bit of strength you fight off three husks, get shot by the hardest marauder in the arm, blow his head off and walk into the beam of light.  On the citadel you are contacted right away by David Anderson, who has also made it.  He says he is in a different room similar to your room.  You start walking forward threw countless dead people, across a bridge, and into a central room.  Anderson radio’s you to tell you he is walking threw the same things, but he beats you to the center room and tries to access a console before his radio cuts out.

As you enter the room both you and Anderson lose control of your bodies, and the Illusive man shows up.  He can control you now, and you try and convince him he is indoctrinated.  He either shoots himself (Paragon) , you shoot him (Renegade), He shoots Anderson and then you shoot him (Renegade if you skip a Ren choice) or he shoots everyone (if you choose not to hit any Renegade choices).  No matter what you pick here, Anderson dies anyway, and you are lifted up into the Crucible to face your final choice.

You are greeted by a child, who looks a lot like the child you found in a vent back on earth, and you keep dreaming about.  The child says he is the the citadel/catalyst and he created the reapers to end chaos, however because of the Crucible we now have more choices. A blue ramp lets you control the reapers, like the Illusive Man wanted too;  A red ramp will let you destroy all synthetic life, including the Geth; and a green path, which will rewrite DNA and make everyone part synthetic and part organic.

If you pick Red, the reapers are killed, the Mass relays are destroyed, and you see Joker try and outrun the red laser fired into the Mass relays.  He crashes and out pops out Joker and the two members of your squad who came with you on your charge.  Then you see Shepard in stone ruins, he takes a breath.  Finally a touching scene where a man named Stargazer tells a child that “The Shepard” is a legend, and he can tell one more story.

This is the face of evil

So how does that lead anyone to think that the ending wasn’t all that it seems.  Lets examine this.

• The Child is actually an illusion created by the reapers

When you first meet the Child, he is in a vent.  You ask him to join you and he oddly states “You can’t help me”.  Then the child disappears completely, and you don’t see him again till he jumps into a shuttle which takes off and gets blown up.  As he gets into the shuttle, no one seems to notice him.  He then starts showing up in Shepard’s dreams to signify the lost and despair.  Finally, the child shows up and claims to be the Catalyst and creator of the reapers.  He tries to convince you that he is doing the right thing and if you spare the reapers in the Blue or Green endings, their will be peace.

The Child is the first sign of Shepard being indoctrinated.  No one ever sees this kid, and he represents guilt and loss.  He helps build Shepard’s want for peace, to lose no one else.  When you meet the real child, the Catalyst, you view him with awe.  And despite having been told all game that the reapers must die, and we can’t control them, the child offers peace in 2 ways.  The blue makes us think its a paragon choice when in fact, this just shows how distorted Shepard has become.

• Shepard’s conversation with the Illusive Man and David Anderson is in his own mind

You get shot by a laser, your armor is burned off, and you hear someone say no one made it to the beam.  This is all real, but once you step into the beam, you find out David Anderson is on the Citadel.  He says he is in a different room, but when you meet him again in the center chamber, there is only one way in, and you just used it.  If everyone was killed on the way to the beam how is Anderson there?

At this point you are talking to a fake Anderson who is your mind fighting against indoctrination.  The indoctrination is Illusive man.  The whole conversation is the reapers making one final attempt to take your mind and made you give up.  It also helps twist you up as a player, by the time you make it to the final choice, you are totally taken.  This is why the choices are backwards.  It is also why to live you MUST either get a man to kill him self, or pick 2 of the last 3 renegade options in the ending.

• The Joker Paradox

This isn’t really an explanation, but is does cast some doubt on the ending being all it seems.  The final part of the ending shows Joker running from the blast shot threw the mass relay.  He is trying to out run it fails and crashes.  Why is Joker running?  What is he running from?  Why did he take a jump gate?  When he crashes out comes the 2 squad mates you took with you to London.  So everyone died, but your squad and David Anderson lived threw the charge?  Your squad must have gotten in a shuttle, rejoined the Normandy, deserted the fleet before the battle was over and taken at lease one mass relay, all before you finished your conversation with Anderson and the Illusive man and before you fired the Crucible.

This all is odd.  Joker isn’t a coward, your squad wouldn’t run.  Also didn’t they die?  So assuming they did live, why did he run.  He couldn’t make it to the relay before the Crucible was activated, its just to far.

and people said Bioware was lazy

You don’t have to buy this theory, but it was left open like this for a reason.  I’d bet its more likely left open for people to question the theorizes about then to actually provide an explanation as to what really happened.  Mass Effect has finally become what it has tried to be since day one, Blade Runner.

Happy St. Patrick’s day!  Geoff and Ryan get together and talk about drinking, Assassin’s Creed, Mass Effect 3 and early calls for GOTY.  What we say will shock you.

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Episode 83: Hard Men, Doing Hard Sh!t [ 1:02:22 ] Download

Tyler and Ryan hook up to talk about Mass Effect 3 controversy.  We respond to Laziness accusations, Day one DLC anger, and concerns over the games romantic relationships.  We also talk about SWTOR guild merger and some Steve Jackson Games munchkin!

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Episode 82: Pretty Witty Gay Download

First of a special week where we do 2 Episodes!  Tonight Tyler and Ryan talk Mass Effect 3, a bit about AC3, and then SWTOR Patch notes.  But remember, Live sorta on Friday 8:00pm!

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Episode 81: Haters Gonna Hate Download

Top 3 RPG’s of all time Skyrim, Mass Effect, Chrono Trigger.  Now before anyone asks “What gives? You made a video back in 2008 where you said the top 3 were KOTOR, Mass Effect, and Final Fantasy 7″ understand that the original top ten was voted on by the 5 original members of Beyond8bit before it morphed into what it is today.  Of the 5 only 2 still work with the site, and 1 of the 2 to busy getting a degree, playing crappy MMORPGS to write blogs about, not playing SWTOR, being named Sexton Hardcastle, and bangin co-eds, to be as active with the site and its running as I’m sure he would like.   This makes the original list somewhat outdated and not 100% representative of my personal opinion.  The point however is I fracking love Mass Effect.  This game literately has 1000′s of choices that could effect the outcome of all 3 games!  My love for Mass Effect is so strong that I will avoid the topic if I am not wearing a boxer briefs and jeans.  If I’m wearing mess shorts I’ll change the subject to Final Fantasy 13 so I don’t embarrass anyone.  My Shepard (Tyrone Shepard) has made some interesting choices in the name of saving us all from the reapers.  Here is what I’m hoping to see happen.

There are many like him, but this one is mine.

• My Shepard is a Sole Survivor

It is one of the very first choices you make in ME 1 and I feel like it will actually be huge in ME3.  The ME3 Demo talks about how the losses of some of his squad mates has started to effect Shepard.  Well if you pick Sole Survivor in ME1 you already “…survived while all those around you fell” before ME1.  Since that Tyrone has lost Ashley and Tali (who he had developed feelings for, more on that later).  Start having everyone on Earth die, and Shepard is headed for a real physiological break.  Everyone around him, everyone he cares for dies.  If I have to make the choice between saving people I don’t know in large numbers or Liara, my Shepard has always been greater good first.  Poor Tyrone Shepard will be going on a rampage.

Chances: 6/10

Did you watch Regis this morning?

• My Shepard is a Colonist

Born off world, Tyrone has only one tie to Earth, the military.  Since the first game Shepard has picked the good of the entire galaxy over the goods of Earth.  Now he is asked to go round up as many allies as he can to help save earth.  This goes one of two ways.  Either everyone remembers how Shepard and humanity has given up so much to save them time and time again, or all of Earth paints Shepard as a coward as he gallivants around the stars with aliens while humans die at home.  Not Shepard’s home mind you, he was born off world.  By the time Shepard makes it home, he could be seen as a traitor bringing an army of occupying aliens.  After Earth fights so hard to save it self from reapers, they turn on Shepard.  The Illusive man would clearly be a key player i this, which is bad for me because…..

Chances:  4/10

Winning

• My Shepard told Cerberus to pound sand

“Cerberus is a human-survivalist paramilitary group led by the enigmatic Illusive Man.”  I’ve sent the human fleet in to get its ass kicked to save the Destiny Ascension, I’ve destroyed a reaper that could have let humans protect themselves against the Reapers because it would be in Cerberus’ hands, I ran off with the Normandy, oh and I’ve told the Illusive Man off every chance I got.  We already know they are after Shepard no matter what you do, but I have a bad feeling the choices I have made are going to make it very easy for the Illusive man to take over Earth governments with popular opinion as he paints Shepard as an alien lover.

Chances: 8/10

And if this is wrong...actually it was kinda wrong.

• My Shepard let the Rachni Queen go

Before I get into this, you ever notice how much the Rachni Queen look like the Reapers?  Both of them have a hive mind, communicate telepathically, scared the hell out of the universe.

In ME1 I had the choice to exterminate the last Rachni Queen, who was the only chance to bring back a homicidal warrior race that nearly destroyed everything, or take her word for it that she had changed.  Clearly she wasn’t telling me anything I wanted to hear, she was trapped in a cage that had a button to kill her with fire instantly.  She would have no reason or motivation to lie.  Plus if I ever needed a race of homicidal warriors to have my back, they would owe me.  Well now is that time, I need a race of homicidal warrior so Rachni Queen, I’m coming to collect!

Chances: 1/10

This will not go well

• My Shepard has a complicated love life

Most people I know dated Ashley in the first game and then Miranda so they will have to reconcile that in ME3.  I tried to take this a step farther.  In ME1 Tyrone kept his options open.  I romanced Ashley and Liara for a while till I decited that short hair/tenticals hot enough for me to look past the whole “asexual” thing and sent Ashley to die on Virmire while I got to see how Asari, I can’t think of any funny innuendo for sex here.  Liara rode the beef pony.  Whatever.  In ME2 Liara had moved on so I did what seemed natural, I wooed Miranda, Jack, and Tali at the same time.  When it came time to choose I told Miranda I wasn’t into her like that, Jack just tells me to fuck off, and Tali and I choose to wait till after the mission, and promptly sent Tali to die.  When Shadow Broker came out I clearly re kindled things with Liara.  With any luck ME3 will be them all finding out about this.  Liara finds out about Tali from letters she wrote home, Miranda eludes to what we almost had to hurt the squad, Jack refuses to help me because I got her to open up but didn’t want her like that, and the memory of Ashley’s death makes Liara think I am only with her because she was left alive.

Chances: 0/10

I’m sure there are others, but that is what comes to mind.  If you have any choices you can’t wait to see play out, comment.  Or just go back to skimming blogs and hoping someone puts a cat video on Facebook.

Video-game music covers, Assassins Creed 3, Summer games and Law and Order.  Can you tell its just Tyler and Ryan?

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Episode 80: Mansaughter 2 Download

Today I’m going to talk about Wakfu.  It’s a Strategy MMORPG made by French company Amanka.  The game reminds me of games such as Final Fantasy Tactics.  With it’s artistic stylization and unique approach to a truly player driven world Amanka has made a gem that once fully polished will really shine in the never ending MMORPG industry.

Wakfu at it’s core is a strategy game.  Your actions in combat dictate your success.  Everything from the amount of spaces you move to your facing could ultimately be the difference between victory or defeat in future turns.  Combat abilities use three types of resources Movement Points, Action Points, and Wakfu Points.  Every ability pulls from one of these resources.  Movement Points and Action Points are returned to you every time it is your turn, but Wakfu points have a limited number per battle.  Once used they do not regenerate until the battle is over.  Wakfu Points are used for your more powerful abilities which is why they are a limited resource.

The game currently contains 12 classes and a maximum of 100 levels.  Each class is unique in play-style and feel.  You have everything from your standard warrior who beats things over the head to more unique Enutrof who’s Dweller pet will help you find underground mines that amplify your dmg.  The game also has two other classes which are currently slated to be released in the future.   Each class has three different element trees you can choose from.  These trees have different abilities that make your choice in picking them unique.  For example a Water Enu is all about increasing your chance at getting more loot from mobs while an Earth Enu will merge with it’s Dweller to make himself literally a beast in combat.

When you level up you are given 5 stat points and 5 ability points.  The Stat points can be put into the many different options while ability points are used on your classes special abilities that only make you stronger.  Your abilities level as you use them.  After combat is over you gain experience not only to progress your level, but also your abilities.  This means that specializing in an element tree and then even more so on a few abilities is far more rewarding then being a jack-of-all.  Honestly even leveling feels strategic as the points you place into your stats/special abilities are permanent and cannot be respecced for in the future.

The world of the Twelve is broken into four major island nations and one central neutral nation.  It also has minor islands which are the contention of the games PvP due to the unique resources they have.  Each nation is unique in both feel and the mobs it has to offer.  As a new player you are forced to decide which of these four nations you will join as each one has it’s own political body that rules over it.

Politics in the game are completely player driven.  Every two weeks elections go up for Governor and although the Governor can re-run for as many turns as they wish it is the players votes who decide who gets into office.  As a Governor you have the power to apply rules to your nation, set the tax rate, pick your cabinet, declare alliances/war with other nations, and of course wear a crown.  Each nation is broken into multiple territory which are run by an NPC, but the nation itself is run by the players.

Territories have specific mobs/plants that are unique to them and must be maintained by the players.  For example a resource like an Ash tree could potentially go extinct if it’s was hacked down until none were left.  This risk of extinction really drives the idea of a player driven world because for example poachers from another nation might come into yours and try to mess with your ecosystem.  To curb the risk of extinction players can harvest seeds of the resource and plant them to repopulate the territory.  This includes for monsters who each have their own type of seeds.

Another unique aspect of the game is that monsters do not drop the games currency Kama.  Kama must be made by iron ore veins.  Ores are the only resource in the game that naturally re-spawns on it’s own.  Because Kama are made by the players this means currency is somewhat rare and extremely valuable.  This has promoted a trade bartering system and also one where items can be found for a relatively low cost.

Currently the game is pay to play, although you can play for free in the neutral nation up to level 15 with very limited restrictions.  The game cost is around $6 which is very reasonable for the game and what it has to offer currently and will offer in the future.  Amanka is dedicated not only to it’s game, but also the community.  Having taken suggestions and successfully run Wakfu’s predecessor Dofus for several years Amanka has made a strong name for itself even if it’s one not well known.

Overall the game is enjoyable and easy to learn to play.  It has something for everyone and with it’s unique style of strategy combat not often found in an MMO it is a game that should be tried by everyone who loves the genre, because why not it’s free.