The game carries on from the original game and you can import your character. Beware though as Bioware have seriously fucked up this process on the Xbox 360 by hiding away the file you need so unless you have the original memory/hard drive you saved onto you will not be able to import your character even if you kept your save games. If you still have the original Mass Effect to hand you can play through the final battle again and cause the game to recreate this hidden file so you can import your character, otherwise you are screwed. How Bioware managed to make such a hash of this I don’t know. Luckily I managed to locate my original 20gb hard drive. After a semi-interactive opening sequence the game takes a 2 year game time break and sends you off on another mission to save the Galaxy. Naturally even Commander Shepard can’t save the galaxy all alone so your first task is to recruit a new team. Some characters from the original game return, mainly as NPCs but a few can be added to your team. Seems in Shepard’s 2 year absence they have carried on with their lives. As before you can go on side missions (which are thankfully more varied than Mass Effect), help out your companions and indulge in romance with your team members.

My Commander Shepard

Some of the changes that have improved the game play have sadly had negative consequences. Everything in the sequel seems that little bit smaller and less epic than the first. Partly due to the difference in the plot and partly because game areas have been reduced in size to minimise running backwards and forwards. It feels odd that the enhanced Normandy now feels bigger than some of the game locations and if it wasn’t for the some times spectacular background vistas the game would feel very small. Shoring up the combats seems to have made the game much easier and I would recommend laying at a level of difficulty one higher than you would usually play. The final battle alone is way to easy and feels a bit of an anti-climax after playing through the game. However the set-up for the Mass Effect 3 more than makes up for the lack of epic-ness of this title. It also seems a little short compared to similar recent titles like Dragon Age or Fallout 3. I blew though it the first time in 36 hours, I did the main plot, some side quests and all the team member missions. I still have some star systems unexplored so I doubt I have covered everything but still.

Mass Effect 2 is more polished than its predecessor but the side effects of this polish make it slightly less in some areas than the original. It all comes out in the wash though and I think the two titles are pretty much on a equal standing in the end. I look forward to a second play through and the DLC. I give 4 out of 5 just like I did Mass Effect. A very good game but not as good as Dragon Age: Origins. Bioware are still the kings of RPGs in my book.

Norman Osborn (formerly the Green Goblin) has managed to wangle himself the top job at S.H.I.E.L.D (which he renamed H.A.M.M.E.R), drove all the best Superheroes underground (Some literally, others figuratively) and replaced all the major Marvel Superhero teams with his own twisted versions (made up of Marvel’s shadier heroes and villians). Oh and used scavenged Ironman armour to make himself into the ‘Superhero’ Iron Patriot (complete with Gaudy Stars and Stripes paint job). He has decided that Thor and his fellow Asgardians are terrorists and has attempted to invade Asgard which currently floats above US soil (Loki kind of helped along with that line of thinking). Ares, the greek god of war, has just been torn in half (that makes him dead) by the mad, super-junkie the Sentry (he makes Superman look like a pansy) and Osborn has just ordered the Sentry to kill the wounded Thor (who just made Wolverine’s son a chared mess with Lightening). Still with me? Yes? Good! Right Osborn thinks he is still winning (despite already having his ass handed to him by a former S.H.I.E.L.D agent armed with a shoulder mounted missile launcher) and has to be warned by an underling to turn around.

Unfortunately (for him anyway) while Osborn has been happily involved in taking over everything the real Captain America (Who was kind of assassinated after opening a can of Whoop-ass on Iron-man during the Superhero Civil War) has recently returned from the dead and he is not a happy, star-spangled bunny. It looks like next issue the Iron Patriot isn’t going to be either.

The who Avatar hype machine is beyond insane. When it was people claiming how awesome it would be because James Cameron was Directing it was silly. When critics and other in the industry started buying into the hype it was surprising. When reviews started saying how awesome it was despite critics usually flaying alive any film with such a heavy focus on special effects over plot it was stupid. When people got abused by Avatards on internet forums for saying they enjoyed it but it wasn’t ‘all that’ it was pathetic fanboyism. When Avatar’s initially didn’t blow the box office away and we got headlines like “Avatar almost breaks records” it was ridiculous. And when people started naming their kids Pandora (presumably they will have a stalker named Adrian when they get older) and getting depressed because they couldn’t live in the CGI world Avatar had created it was simply sad. Now I am beginning to think money is involved.

Avatar is in the race for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Yes it should be a sure thing for just about every technical award going but best picture? Come on! I like Avatar, it is an amazing film to look at and it is entertaining in a superficial way but that in no way means it deserves to be recognised in this fashion. I’m no movie critic, I only watch films that I expect to enjoy. That is my prime reason for watching films but it does help when they are well written, acted and directed. However I am under no illusion that some of the films I enjoy are not great works of art and I don’t expect them to be recognised as such. Avatar is no great work of cinematic art. It isn’t the best Science Fiction film of the last year. It wasn’t even the best film for its month of release. How can it possibly be recognised as Best Picture? The upside of course is that should it win a high profile award then the Academy might get over its prejudice against genre films.

My theory is that this is about mass rationalisation. So many people have gone along with the hype and hysteria that the whole industry now feels Avatar needs a worthy accolade to justify said hype and hysteria. Technical awards and viewer voted awards are a given and expected so it has to be given an award of note. Otherwise too many people who pride themselves as being cinema connoisseurs will be outed as little more than simpletons impressed by anything shiny or whatever is cool.

Still it wouldn’t be the first time James Cameron got himself a bag load of Oscars for a tedious love story wrapped up in fancy special effects.

And here is everybody’s favourite Star Wars Prequel reviewer to highlight the good and the bad of Avatar:

Part 1:

Part 2