#mass effect tril

[wingsy-keeper-of-songs]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag

Lovingly borrowed from a great Mass Effect blog @whiskynorocks ya'll should go follow them they're rad as hell and have excellent taste

Been a fan since: I'd heard great things about the series since 3 came out but I never had the opportunity to play it until this year. I can safely say I'm pretty hooked.

Favorite game of the series: 2, without a doubt. There are things I loved about 1 and 3 but 2 stood out to me especially with the writing and how I developed my relationships with my crew. I wasn't thrilled about joining forces with Space Terrorists, but at least I was able to walk away from TIM at the end of it.

MaleShep or FemShep? FemShep, hands down. I do have a BroShep save, but he's not as...invested as FemShep is.

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer? Colonist or Earthborn for FemShep, Earthborn or Spacer for BroShep

Paragon or Renegade? Heavy on the Paragade. I usually try to go mostly Paragon, but there are some motherfuckers that need slapping

Biotics or Tech? I like Tech but I go Biotics more often than not

Favorite class: Oh Vanguard full stop. Give me a shotgun and biotic charge and I'm up on the front lines gunning down assholes like I was born for it

Favorite companion: Garrus, but also Tali, Wrex, Legion, Kasumi, Zaeed, Vega, and Liara when she didn't sell my body to terrorists

Least favorite companion: Miranda (strictly just due to ability, tbh), Ashley (I saved her a few times, I get that she has a lot of emotional baggage and the way that the Alliance treats her is extremely wrong, but I just can't like her ya'll. I'm sorry. I've tried.)

My squad selection: Who wants to third wheel with me and the Space Kitty? In all seriousness, it's usually Shep, Garrus, and Tali in 1 unless I switch Tali for Kaiden a few times. Or Wrex if I need more fire power lol. In 2, soon as I get Garrus, I tend to keep him around for everything save Tali's trial since I like to bring Legion to that just to be a troll. Mostly, it's just me and the Dream Team. Vega third wheeled a lot in 3, though lol

Favorite in-game romance: Shakarian for the long haul, baby. But Talibrations is also extremely adorable too. My BroShep is hella bi so he's romancing Kaiden after losing Ash in Virmire and he's Damaged™ so maybe Kaiden can fix him

Other pairings I like: Tali/Reeger (that dude was so in love with her it's amazing), EDI/Joker, Wrex/Bakura, Nyreen/Aria, Cortez/Vega

Favorite NPC: Anderson, Councilor Sparatus because he's a dick but he comes through for you in the end, Saren, Nihlus for the five seconds you get to know him, Kirrahe, Nyreen Kandros, Primarch Victus, Aria (she's very hot), the bartender in the Asari bar, Biotic God Volus, Padok Wikks

Favorite antagonist: SOVEREIGN. Hands down, he is the most terrifying thing you encounter in the games. He's just so other, so alien, and so...mechanical. His lines are delivered with this matter-of-fact contempt that is so perfect for a sentient machine. He has no motive other than he just Is. And I love that. Harbinger never shut up, but Sovereign knew when to start and end a conversation. He said his piece and he said nothing more. And that is exactly how you introduce an Eldritch Being.

Favorite mission: Noveria. I loved meeting Lorik, and how the whole thing spirals down from dirty business deals to all out creep-fest when you encounter the Rachni. And the Rachni Queen's voice acting was stellar. She was just sympathetic enough to warrant pause from outright killing her and terrifying enough to consider it.

Favorite loyalty mission: Its a tie in between Garrus and Kasumi. Garrus for how it ties into his relationship with Shepard and just how their death truly affected him and how it reflects on his character (I have only allowed him to shoot Sidonis once, and it was not a good feeling). And Kasumi because dressing Shepard up is always a good time and Kasumi is a sassy, classy lady who lost someone dear to her and giving her that closure she needs makes me happy for her. She deserves pretty things. She's also cute as hell.

Favorite DLC: Either Citadel, Omega (for Nyreen), or Overlord because David's story made me cry. I'm also autistic and the story was handled very well with Shepard being so furiously angry that the Paragon Interrupt was to pistol whip Gavin was very cathartic for me.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy? 100% Destroy. I do not and will not trust the Walmart-brand Alexa that is the Catalyst. That little asshole is dying with the rest of those genocidal machines.

Favorite weapon: The Talon Heavy Pistol. Baby can pack a punch.

Favorite place: I actually really love the beauty of the Ardat Yakshi monastery. I hate that the Reapers destroy it and turn it into someplace so nightmarish but it really was such a beautiful building and felt really peaceful beforehand.

A quote I like: "You exist because we allow it, and you will end because we demand it."

[abangtech]

The DeanBeat: Why can’t EA do more games with its big budget?

For me, the most inspirational parts of Electronic Arts’ EA Play 2020 event had little to do with games that are coming shortly. EA CEO Andrew Wilson expressed support for Black Lives Matter and first responders — a refreshing message to hear from a games industry leader on the eve of Juneteenth. Meanwhile, head of studios Laura Miele showed off cool graphics demos for games heading to next-generation consoles.

If I had made the usual trek to Los Angeles for the event I saw virtually yesterday, I would have been disappointed. Fortunately, I only had to drag my sorry butt out of bed to the home office in my non-air-conditioned garage. With no physical Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) this year to get fans excited, the malaise appears to have spread to EA, which didn’t present anything that could really be described as earth-shattering.

EA showed a bunch of games that are in the works, but the event seemed more about what was missing. All told, the company talked about nine games, including four games that were already in the market and three that were made by other companies. That adds up to just two brand-new EA-made titles. That wasn’t much for a company that spends $1.5 billion on research and development and $700 million on marketing each year.

EA had already said it didn’t have a ton to show off this year, with only one previously unannounced game in the works. (Fans were disappointed EA didn’t show off UFC 4.) I wanted to get a glimpse of the next Battlefield game — and we did, sort of — but EA warned that game is really far off.

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The company is still performing well financially because it has live operations that keep fans spending money in titles like Madden NFL and FIFA. Call me grumpy, but I get bored hearing about staples that make so much money for EA it isn’t as motivated to create brand-new titles as it used to be.

To be fair

I know I should muster more enthusiasm, as I don’t want to come off as a hater. To be fair, there were new games that got people excited. I thought Star Wars: Squadrons looked beautiful, with amazing graphics and dogfights in space. But its $40 discounted price suggested it isn’t as major an effort as we would hope for a Star Wars game. And it looks like EA is hoping fans will consider the 5v5 multiplayer the heart of the game, with a single-player campaign just sort of attached. It almost felt like an expansion for Star Wars: Battlefront II’s combat flight sections — after big games like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Battlefront II, this one feels bite-sized.

Fans of the Skate franchise were rewarded for their faith as EA confirmed in its last segment that a new Skate game is in the works. It was heartwarming to see developers like Cuz Parry and Deran Chung get a chance to reveal the game they’re working on. But they also warned that it isn’t coming soon.

Apex Legends will be headed over to the Nintendo Switch, with full crossplay enabled. But I didn’t see anything about the gameplay updates that would get me to go back after enjoying the rival battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone. It felt like this moment caught the Apex Legends team between big announcements. This was after EA said in an earnings call that it was going to concentrate on Apex Legends as its shooter game for this year.

The most interesting part of the show (that wasn’t spoiled) was the EA Originals titles — the small titles from external developers like Hazelight’s It Takes Two, Zoink’s Lost in Random, and Final Strike Games’ Rocket Arena. As mentioned, these games were made by third-party developers.

Not enough surprises

Above: Maybe it’s Battlefield VI?

Image Credit: EA

GamesBeat’s Jeff Grubb gave us some great intelligence on what was coming, but we were still hoping for a few surprises. We prepped some stories on franchises that might be returning, like the rumored remake of the Mass Effect trilogy. But that failed to materialize. BioWare is busy fixing Anthem and is working on Dragon Age 4, but those titles weren’t mentioned. Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, a big virtual reality title from Respawn, didn’t get a mention either.

Miele’s short spiel on tech demos for the next generation offered a glimpse of what we think was a Dragon Age 4 image, as well as an exploding building that looked like it was from a Battlefield game, but she didn’t call them out. That seemed like the most unexciting way to announce new games I could imagine.

Perhaps most disappointing of all was that EA didn’t even have any mobile games to talk about. Those games don’t take as long to make, and they generate a lot of revenue from in-app purchases. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is a great example of a game that keeps on generating money. During this pandemic, it would have been great if EA had a game ready or decided to speed the release of a new mobile title to take advantage of the record engagement games are seeing. Nope. Didn’t happen. In fact, EA recently gave up on the Scrabble franchise, handing it over to Scopely rather than doing its own new version of the game.

Above: Bioware’s next-gen project.

Image Credit: EA

I can understand why there wasn’t much to show. Back in 2008, EA would release 60 games a year. Now it releases maybe six to eight games, as it’s taking its time and focusing on quality. It also generates far more revenue now ($5.5 billion in 2020 versus $3.6 billion in 2008) than it did back then. EA used to consistently lose money, and now it consistently makes billions in profits. So it is doing a lot right.

But games cost a lot more to make now — maybe $80 million to $150 million, before marketing costs. They take years to make. And next-generation game budgets are likely to get worse, if history has taught us anything. It felt like EA was either cooking its games for a long time or had decided long ago that 2020 was going to be a bad year to introduce big games, as it is the last year of a long console cycle. I don’t think that’s true, but the dearth of games coming out — at a time when gamers are hungrier than ever for new games — makes me wonder. I feel let down, as if the extraordinary amount of money pouring into the company has been generating less creative magic.

Back to the finest part

Above: EA’s next-generation graphics tech.

Image Credit: EA

Just to show this isn’t all whining, I’d like to go back to the messages from Miele and Wilson. Miele said the generational shift is an opportunity to push technology beyond today’s boundaries. She briefly showed images like the one above that reveal what games will look like on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X by next year. She called out images from worlds being created by EA’s Criterion, BioWare, DICE, and Motive studios as just a tiny sliver of what’s coming. She didn’t say much about them, but the images spoke for themselves. Good stuff is coming, even for impatient people like me.

And Wilson opened the show by thanking first responders, medical staff, and EA’s own employees for working at home and getting things done. He recognized billions of gamers for using games to come together during lockdown, calling gaming the greatest form of entertainment on Earth. EA also showed a video that demonstrated the Sims could be used to foster understanding and stamp out hate.

Wilson emphatically declared that Black Lives Matter and now is the time to drive meaningful change. He pledged that EA would not rest on this long-term commitment and would continue to build strong representation into its games, making its communities fun, inclusive, and positive places to play. He said EA would also make its company more diverse and reiterated his message that games bring us together. They can make our lives better. They can teach us. They can provide escape and self-expression.

Amen to that. Now just give us more games.

Source

The post The DeanBeat: Why can’t EA do more games with its big budget? appeared first on abangtech.

from abangtech https://abangtech.com/the-deanbeat-why-cant-ea-do-more-games-with-its-big-budget/

[its-lifestyle]

Ahead of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ (IPBES) expected release of the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services on May 6, 2019, we take a look at what Nature does for us.

On our plate

One of the main unseen roles played by Nature comes in the form of pollinating insects.

As much as three-quarters of all food produced globally relies on insects to pollinate the crop – an industry upon which 1.4 billion people rely for income, according to one study.

Yet, faced with global temperature increases caused by manmade emissions and poisoned by blanket pesticide use, insects are dying en masse.

This has a cascading effect up the food chain – birds, lizards and frogs that eat bugs are also dying out.

In just 30 years, Europe has lost 80% of its insect population, leading to the disappearance of some 400 million birds.

In addition, the erosion of coral reefs due to warming seas imperils as much as 30% of all marine species, including the fish that half a billion people rely on to feed themselves.

In the medicine cabinet

Around half of the active ingredients in commercial medicines derive from plants or animals.

Starfishes, sea urchins and periwinkles are just three of the myriad species known to have anti-cancer properties, while molecules from marine worms have proven crucial in preserving skin grafts.

But the health benefits of simply living near Nature – reducing allergies and alleviating chronic physical and mental conditions – might outweigh those provided by any drug.

One American study of 100,000 people over eight years showed those who lived within 250 metres of a green space were 12% less likely to die than those who didn’t.

Four billion people rely primarily on natural medicines for their healthcare, and 70% of drugs used for cancer are natural or bio-inspired, according to an IPBES report.

Cleaning water and airPlants and microorganisms play a vital role in providing humans with clean water for drinking and crop production, sucking out dangerous particles from rainfall and sanitising groundwater.

According to biologist Gilles Boeuf, “no waste treatment plant can ever be as good as a living swamp” for clean water production.

Forests and oceans absorb around half of all manmade greenhouse gas emissions annually, offsetting the worst excesses of global warming and providing us with clean air to breathe.

But as emissions continue to rise and the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit their highest in three million years, scientists warn that Earth’s natural carbon dioxide absorption ability may not be able to keep pace.

Plants are also a powerful filter against air pollution in cities.

A recent study in Shanghai, China, showed that its green spaces were capable of capturing 10% of dangerous fine particles.

Another study from 2008, showed a fully-grown tree can sequester as much as 20 kilogrammes of particulate matter.

Our wallets

Much research has tried to evaluate the worth in monetary terms of the services rendered to us by Nature.

One estimate puts Nature’s worth at US$125 trillion (RM517 tril) each year, corresponding to roughly half of global GDP.

Insect pollination alone is worth US$200bil (RM827bil) per annum.

One study from 2010 put the cost of biodiversity loss at between US$1.35-3.1tril (RM5.58-12.8tril) annually. – AFP Relaxnews

from Food – Star2.com http://bit.ly/2V0yzGR