"It's a Video Game" - My Time with Mass Effect: Legendary Edition Part 1

Since I've been pretty busy doing just about everything, I haven't had much time to post here. One reason for that is because I've been knees deep in the Mass Effect universe... again. I've been pretty much on ME since Andy's been born since I've been going through all three games. My replay's gone down well overall. While kicking Collector and Reaper butt is cool, the one place I had to revisit was the first Mass Effect game since it was revamped just a bit. So, I'll just talk about it a bit and show off some pics I made with the new photo mode.

Jumping back in this first game was fun. It felt like coming home, but the home had been refurbished and looked more modern. Things in the game are pretty much the same story-wise. I did skip that one mission that was DLC (Project X57) because I mainly wanted to focus on the missions and characters. Things do change when we get to the character creation. Thankfully, someone knew I'd be playing "Black Shepard" again because I actually have a fresh haircut! I didn't play FemShep, but I heard that she's gotten the same upgrades with looks.

The graphics look beautiful. The graphics for the game initially were good for its time, but Bioware really put their work into making the first outing look good. The gameplay is much more refined. Gunplay is much better here than it was in the original. Another thing that got a giant overall was the Mako. Yes, it still handles poorly at times, but taht's the fun part of the Mako. Aiming on that thing has also been upgraded, and you can actually hit things! As for any negatives, I have none. I could nitpick about maybe something new story-wise being added, but what we got here is awesome. Check it out.

This is Halloween! - "Bela Legosi's Dead"

For this next post, I thought I’d continue down the rabbit hole of the vampire. Maybe that Batman/Dracula movie would’ve suited better here, but it is what is. When it comes to the big monsters, vampires aren’t exactly on my list of favorites… well, Blade is, but the Daywalker is one bad brother. Also, Angel’s a good vampire… when he isn’t sometimes transforming into Angelus. Unfortunately, I have no Dark Shadows episodes for today, but these definitely fit with that gothic feel… well, three of them do. So, here a couple of recent watches, one of the first movies I watched on HBO Max, and one of the worst things I’ve watched in years.

This is Halloween! - More Sci-fi Horror Goodness (?) and Batman

Well, it’s another week before Halloween, and I got a few more spooky themed things to share. While my first three pick are recent viewings, my last pick is something I saw sometime ago on HBO Max. So, let’s start out with another homage of Aliens and the Shining!

Pandorum

Pandorum was released to little fanfare in 2009. I vaguely remember seeing something about this movie around that time, but I never saw it. The movie is about how what was left of humanity took to the stars to find a new home. Since it’s a long trip, most of the crew spends their time in hypersleep. The movie starts when two officers come out of hypersleep to find the ship’s active crew missing. While Officer Payton (Dennis Quaid) stays behind on the bridge, Officer Bower (Ben Foster) searches the ship for the crew and any other signs of life. Bower finds a lot more than he expected since cannibalistic creatures have taken root. Unfortunately, that’s the least of his problems since there’s this little space disorder called Pandorum that can make most men go mad.

So, this is what happened to Faora in the Phantom Zone! Yeah, that's Faora there!

I didn’t know what to expect with this one. While the ratings say otherwise, a lotta folk like this movie, and I can see why. It’s pretty bare-bones with the plot, but a lot of things do work here. The atmosphere of this derelict ship is good. The interior is pretty creepy. The creatures, or “The Hunters” look pretty scary. You don’t learn too much about them at first, but you get the idea that something happened to some of the humans on board. The cast was fine for the most part. Ben Foster, Antje Traue, and Dennis Quaid do a good job here.

This is Halloween! - Something New

I don’t do too much for Halloween on the blog. Yeah, I had my looks at the Universal Monsters, but after that, nada. Instead of going with some theme of certain horror movies, I’m just gonna watch some random scary stuff for the rest of the month. Some of these are ones that I’ve already seen like my first pick for the spooky time. Others are ones that I’ve never watched before like Flatliners, aka “The Movie that made Folk Believe Schumacher Could Direct a Batman Movie.” I might as well get the mixture of Alien, The Shining, and Hellraiser out of the way first though.

Random Thoughts On... Brian Michael Bendis's Run on the Superman Books Part 2

So, where was I? Oh yeah, I was about to talk about villains and controversy.

A Bit Mixed on the Villains

We get some returning villains and new villains here, but I’m mostly focusing on the newer villains. First up, it’s Rogol Zaar who I already said my piece on. He’s okay, and unfortunately, we don’t learn too much about him here. He’s still on his hate boner for all Kryptonians. We don’t even find out how he possibly destroyed Krypton. Next, there’s Symnar Utopica, an alien from a part of the galaxy that has an orange sun. His deal was that his people turned him into a weapon to possible combat Superman. He instead turns on them and tries to kill Superman too. He was a bit on the “meh” side. We do get a villain named that shows up during the Doctor Fate two-parter, but that villain was so forgettable.

Yes, Zod! Beat the lameness out of Zaar!