Andromeda Initiative Starts Today

Today is November 7th, and you know what that means. Yes, that tomorrow is election today and you should go out and do your civic duty if you have not already done so. But it also means that it is N7 Day! And as such training for the Andromeda Initiative starts today. Are you brave enough to leave all you know behind to sleep for over a hundred years to find a new home for humanity? Do you have it in you to be a part of the our galaxy's first inter-universal expansion? And are you prepared for all the things that can go wrong on this trip? GREAT! Then head on over to the above site and start your training for the Andromeda Initiative.

Denver Comic Con Special - Raphael Sbarge on Mass Effect

So last week we were at Denver Comic Con. While we were there, Raphael Sbarge (Kaidan Alenko) was at the convention and gave a great panel on his experiences on the Mass Effect series.

He makes references to a few outside resources during the panel, so you can find those here.

This Weeks Geek - Blood From a Stone

Established series, they are the life blood of many industries. They give companies a reliable way to make a profit while they experiment with on different products. Without a good series many companies would have gone under long before their time. Done right a series can endear itself to generations and bring up fond memories in conversation. Too bad it is rarely done right. Investors want to know they will get a decent return on their investments. They will happily beat a series to death just to resurrect it and beat it again.
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Mass Effect 3 - Review

Anybody who knows me or has been reading any of my past Conversations with IrishPride articles, knows that I am absolutely enamored with the Mass Effect universe. Well, I just finished Mass Effect 3 and I come to you with a review of the final chapter. Does the conclusion of Commander Shepard's epic trilogy end with a big bang? (See what I did there with the big bang comment, it being a sci fi game and all, I know, I'm weird!)
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Mass Effect 3 - Review

The Holy Trinity...Anybody who knows me or has been reading any of my past Conversations with IrishPride articles, knows that I am absolutely enamored with the Mass Effect universe.  Well, I just finished Mass Effect 3 and I come to you with a review of the final chapter.  Does the conclusion of Commander Shepard's epic trilogy end with a big bang?  (See what I did there with the big bang comment, it being a sci fi game and all, I know, I'm weird!)

Conversations with IrishPride Episode 18

I'm So Excited and I Just Can't Hide It!!
 
Hello everybody and welcome to episode 18 of Conversations with IrishPride!  Today I am going to talk about how it has been a long time since I've been extremely excited for a game to be released.  Anyone that knows me or has kept up with my past episodes will know that I am talking about Mass Effect 3.
 
I am a huge Mass Effect fan.  The story is top notch, the gameplay and action is stellar and it has huge replay values, everything we gamers look for in a game.  I am absolutely enamored with the story of Mass Effect.  Never before in a video game have I been invested with the characters on screen.  The decisions that you make throughout the story actually has meaningful outcomes.  You care about your teammates and it's hard to see them get killed.  In preparation for Mass Effect 3, I decided to play though Mass Effect 2 yet again and there is one thing I learned about ME2... it's still a great game.
 Time to save the galaxy.
After putting 100+ hours into Mass Effect 2, I still enjoyed it as much as the first time.  It's rare for me to replay a video game, but I've done so with ME multiple times.  After beating ME2 and all the dlc available, I'm am even more excited to conclude Commander Shepherd's story.  I'm also a little sad knowing that it will be over soon.  BioWare did tell fans to hold onto their ME3 save files hinting at the possibility of a Mass Effect 4, but I don't want to give my hopes up.  It has been a long time since I was so excited for a video game release, even more so than ZeldaQueen was for Skyward Sword.  Luckily the wait is almost over.  Until then, I'm going to continue to play the fantastic multiplayer demo with Assimilator.
 
This is IrishPride signing off.  Is anyone else super excited for Mass Effect 3?

Conversations with IrishPride Episode 3

Insanity is Insane!
 
Hello everybody and welcome to episode 3 of Conversations with IrishPride where today I'm going to be talking about a game that I love, beat and now am playing it again and enjoying it just as much, maybe even more.  I talk non other than the one of the greatest games evah, Mass Effect 2.
 
About a week ago, I got the undeniable itch to play Mass Effect 2.  I, however, wanted to play the first Greatest game ever? I think so...one so I could change some story line issues I had with my main Commander Shephard.  My original Shephard that I beat Mass Effect 2 with the first time around was not exactly how I wanted him to finish in the original.  Wrex was dead (one of the coolest characters in the Mass Effect universe), had a relationship with Ashley (Tali wasn't an option in the original) and I didn't want to play Mass Effect 3 without Wrex being in the story nor did I want to have a crazy love triangle, not until my second playthrough of course :) 
 
As a result, I booted up Mass Effect and started out on my journey to fix my mistakes the first time around.  As I was playing; the more I realized how better Mass Effect 2 was and was really getting the itch to play it.  I didn't simply want to make a new character in Mass Effect 2, I wanted a Commander Shephard who made all the important decisions in the original transferred over to the sequel.  But, I didn't want to play the entire Mass Effect story to do this.  I thought I was in a bit of a pickle and figured I would bite the bullet and do a speed run of Mass Effect and have everything like I wanted and then transfer it over to ME2
 
Luckily, I didn't have to do this because I never realized that there is a dlc where Dark Horse created an interactive Mass Effect comic where you go through it and make all the important decisions of the original and it will impact the story in ME2 and later in ME3.  Huzzah!  I don't have to play the entire ME again and can have Wrex alive and have no open relationships to worry about. 
 Wrex. Yes, he is a badass.
Starting up ME2 I didn't know which class I wanted to play as this time around.  In my original completion, I was the soldier and enjoyed it immensely.  I wanted to try something new and I literally went through all the classes and still couldn't decide.  I almost selected the soldier class again, but went ahead and stuck with the infiltrator class (I do enjoy sniping), set the difficulty to Insanity (figured might as well beat it on the hardest difficulty) and started my new Shephard with the way I wanted to end it in the original ME. 
 
Boy, when there is a difficult setting that is called Insanity, it is truly insane.  But after I got the hang of things with my new class and how enemies act, I have found that the Insanity difficulty level is a much more enjoyable experience than Normal.  I have to actually stop and think about a strategy for those tricky encounters instead of just running in there and let my squad do what they want.  I have to tell my squad where I want them stationed and tell them what powers I want them to use and at what times, a very worthwhile experience.
 
So here we go again.  Getting hooked into a game I have already beat and am enjoying it even more than the first time.  I've already sunk 60+ hours into ME2 and have a feeling there are many more hours that are going to be devoted to it.  Besides, I still have to create a renegade player.
 
Well that does it for Episode 3 of Conversations with IrishPride.  Be on the look out for episode 4 coming in the near future.  Until then, my name is IrishPride and I'm addicted to Mass Effect.
 
~IrishPrideMe playing Mass Effect 2, I am an addict.

E3 in Less then a Week

So E3 is next week, and I really have not said much about it.  Some of you may think this means that I am not excited about it.  That is a lie, in truth I cannot wait for the biggest gaming convention in the states. In preparation for this people have asked me what I am looking forward to this year. My normal answer to this is everything, but giving it some thought I do have a small list.
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