Star Trek Online Officially Goes on Sale Today

That’s right, STO is officially open to the masses! Along with the influx of new players, I’m expecting to see no fewer than a couple dozen queries of “Where’s Sulu?” and about thrice the number of World of Warcraft references in zone chat tonight.

To all of you who pre-ordered the game online, I hope you found it in your mailbox waiting for you today! Myself, I braved the cold and picked up my order at my local EB Games and I now hold a brand spanking new copy of STO in my hand. For a minute there at the store, I actually contemplated buying the Collector’s Edition. What can I say? Being a visual artist, I’m a sucker when it comes to art books and my interest is always piqued when a game includes them in their CE’s. But to be honest, there’s not much else in the box that makes me really want to get it. A die cast wearable badge? No thanks, doesn’t go with anything in my wardrobe. It would have been a done deal if they had thrown in a game soundtrack, but I can’t justify spending an extra $30 dollars on the CE as it is now. Regular edition will do just fine for me.

That said, I’m all fired up and raring to go. I even have a back-up plan in case we get a repeat of the first days of headstart–episodes of Star Trek – The Original Series sitting on my hard drive to keep me in the mood in the event of emergency shutdowns and endless server queues!

New Kingsmouth Trailer for “The Secret World”

Gamespot had an exclusive premiere of a new trailer for The Secret World this past weekend, and since I’m actively following the development of this game I thought I’d share it here.

The trailer hints at a major “incident” that has occurred at the town of Kingsmouth, the first location to be revealed in the game (in case you haven’t seen it already, here’s a link to the town’s website, pre-incident). It also reveals “first actual gameplay footage”, but a word of advice–take that with a grain of salt. In point of fact, this video is nowhere near as tantalizing as some of the other trailers we’ve seen for the game, and as teasers go, it’s not exactly awe-inspiring. Still, it’s feeding the hype and I’m not any less excited for this game.

Funcom, for the love of God, please do not screw this one up!

Thoughts on Mass Effect 2 Companions Pt. 2

My Mass Effect 2 journey continues. Three more companion quests down means three more satisfied teammates and a slightly more loyal crew than before! Shepard can sleep a little bit easier now.

Jack

If Shepard was the head of a dysfunctional family, Jack would be the rebellious and out-of-control teenage daughter, the type you see ending up in Teenager Boot Camp on the Maury Povich show. Sometimes I just want to grab her by the shoulders, give her a good shake, and tell her to grow the hell up. I’m not a fan of badass for the sake of being badass (see my thoughts on Zaeed), and I was somewhat disappointed that Jack’s character seemed to be heading dangerously close in that direction. It’s hard for me to like “psychotic” type characters because there’s often no rhyme or rhythm to their motivations and thus no room for them to grow. More often than not, they either a) remain static, or b) end up doing a 180 on their personalities when shown “the error of their evil ways” and I’m not sure either of those options are particularly desirable when it comes to what I want to see for Jack.

Tali’Zorah

For the first time, I’m starting to understand the intrigue that all my male friends seem to have for this character and I don’t mean in the I’m-wondering-what-kind-of-sexed-up-wildcat-she-is-under-that-suit kind of way, though I admit there’s something very irresistible about the mystery. Tali has the advantage of being in the first Mass Effect, so we know more about her than many of the others. Like Garrus, she’s changed a bit, no longer the young Quarian on her pilgrimage now, but an older woman taking on more responsibilities for her people. I really like the way her character has evolved, though she remains the fiercely loyal companion I had come to know and love from the first game. Her personal quest literally had me holding back tears at some points, and it’s amazing how a character whose face you don’t ever get to see can manage to make a connection like that.

Samara

Though it might not seem like it on the surface, Samara is really quite a badass–the kind of badass I do like: poignant, yet not overdone. I’m still ambivalent towards her character, however. Like Shepard’s other recruits, Samara has her own personal demons to deal with, plus she hasn’t exactly had the most pleasant life (just once, I’d like to see a happy and well-adjusted companion on the Normandy) so maybe I’ve just become desensitized to all that. Like I said, ambivalent. I could have done with or without her in the game or on my team. Since there are no spoilers here, I guess I’ll just say that it could have been worse.

Click here to see Part 1 or go on to Part 3!