Last year I picked up Mass Effect and began playing it through for the second time around. In my first full playthrough of the game I had a female Commander Shepherd and played the game offline (not connected to Live). The second time I chose to go with the male Commander Shepherd, original version not the one where you can change his appearance. I took a few different ‘turns’ this time around but found playing the game a lot easier 2nd time around, and usually that’s the way for me I get a little antsy when playing a game for the first time and tend to hold back rather than go all out. Once I know how the game runs then I’m okay to pick it up a second time and have more confidence in playing it through.

This second run on Mass Effect, I played it through to the Ilos campaign where Shepherd and his crew had broken protocols (and the locking down of the Normandy) to escape from the Citadel and chase after Saren. This long weekend (Happy Aussie Day today!), I decided I’d better finish it as whatever happens in this game will affect what happens in Mass Effect 2 – due for release this Thursday here – so I went ahead and finished it. Surprisingly it went by a lot quicker than I’d expected 2nd time around, especially since the Citadel fight took me forever to complete first time around. Second time around I knew what I had to do and basically just moved Shepherd through the areas quickly, doing what needed to be done while allowing my AI companions to take care of my back. It really was kind of a shock to see that I could pass through it a heck of a lot quicker with just that small amount of knowledge!

This second time through I again played Paragon, I’m good by nature so its hard for me to go against my own instincts lol, though I must admit when I play a game where Demon’s are the ‘good guys’ its not so hard being ‘bad’ lol. Anyway this time around I also aimed at bringing Shepherd’s charm ability up to the top most level so it got me a few extra brownie points with negotiations.

Anyway, I’m really looking forward to Mass Effect 2 coming out this week. The only downside I see is that there is no Mako this time around. Some people say its because some Halo fans complained about it (??) others say they were glad it was gone but I kind of enjoyed roaming around in the Mako. I guess, however, I can see their point that the ‘roaming around’ part made it difficult to do when there wasn’t much to find on each planet that you could land on. Either way I’m still sad to see it not make a return in ME2 (maybe in ME3??)

The game is officially released here in Australian on Thursday, however EB Games are saying that they’re shipping it out from the 25th (yesterday) so I am wondering if the game is already in store? I may have to check it out tomorrow.

Another game I will be checking out and will pre-order next week is Final Fantasy XIII. When I went and picked up Darksiders, EB Games had it up for pre-order though there was no special edition or collector’s edition at that time. Today I just checked EBG’s website and they now have the Limited Collector’s Edition up. It basically contains the game, Soundtrack CD (selected selections), a book featuring artwork etc, 3 Art Prints and a collectible decal. If you pre-order the game through EBG, you also get a bonus FFXIII calendar. This is probably the first time that I’ve been ordering ’so many’ games at once it is kind of a shock to the purse but I can’t help it this time around and I’ll definitely be pre-ordering this game since I’m an FF maniac lol.