Hostile Gamers

In The Beginning

You’re on a plane and it’s an ordinary day. You’re smoking a cigarette while looking at the present that was given to you from your mom and dad. There’s a note attached to the present with the words “Would You Kindly…” All of a sudden the plane crashes into the murky waters below, thus beginning the twisted story of Bioshock. Bioshock starts out kind of odd at first and you’re left wondering “What the F is going on.” You soon end up in the mysterious underwater world of Rapture.

Rapture
Bioshock takes place in a strange world called Rapture. Rapture is the equivalent to New York City in size and is completely submerged under water. The idea behind Rapture came from Andrew Ryan. He wanted to live in a world that was free of the political and social issues that occurred on the surface. Andrew Ryan created Rapture thinking that he could form some kind of Eden there. His Eden soon turned upside down when plasmids were introduced.

Plasmids, Eve, and ADAM
Plasmids started out as a great idea…that is until everyone in Rapture became addicted to them. Plasmids turned normal people into pumped up super freaks with deformed faces and bodies. When I first saw one of the spider splicers, I didn’t really know what to say. She was ugly as hell and had the mouth of a zombie prostitute.

Though the people of Rapture become mindless idiots because of plasmids, you do not meet the same fate by using them. You will be able to obtain plasmids such as, Inferno, Winter Blast, Electric Shock, and Insect Swarm. Plasmids help you throughout the game and become a very big help against tough big daddies and those annoying splicers. So make sure to get your plasmids today! As you advance through the game and you finally get your hands on some plasmids, you realize that you run out of juice to keep your plasmids flowing. In order to make sure you can stay a super beastly guy you have to keep your Eve bar full. Eve is usually found all over the place in little blue vials. If you look hard enough, you may just find some. One thing that I found most interesting about this game was the use of ADAM. ADAM is obtained from little sisters who take it from dead bodies. Sounds morbid and kind of gross, but just think of all the awesome stuff you can get when you lay your hands on some. When you get ADAM from little sisters you are able to use it at a Gene Bank. Gene Banks have multiple upgrades you can get such as plasmids or little perks that help you with hacking and other things like that. As you progress, your abilities and perks will make you indestructible! Not really, but you’ll be damn near close.

Big Daddies, Little Sisters, and Other Small Things
Okay, so big daddies turn out to be pretty badass. They have on this awesome armor and this crazy drill thing that looks like it would eff you up. So the bottom line is, you don’t want to mess with a big daddy. Well unfortunately, you have to get rid of the big daddies in order to get to the little sisters.


It takes a few million bullets and about twenty plasmid uses, but you eventually take the big daddy out. After the poor guy is dead you realize you have the little sister all to yourself. Here is where the life changing decision comes in. You can either be humane and chose to save her and get less ADAM or you can harvest her (which inevitably kills her) and get the max amount of ADAM. I could never hurt the cute little girls so I always saved them. One good thing about saving the little sisters is they leave you nice goodie bags by Gene Banks every so often. So whether you want to save the girls and get the goods or be a greedy bastard by harvesting her for all she’s worth is totally your choice. Continuing on, one thing I liked about this game was the gun usage. Now, I’m a first person shooter kind of girl. When games add different weapon choices such as pistols, shotguns, machine guns, grenade launchers, crossbows, wrenches and on top of that WEAPON UPGRADING, I’m all over it. I was like a kid in a candy store when I upgraded my weapons for the first time. I never knew which one I wanted to completely upgrade first.



The Pros and Cons of Bioshock
There are a lot of great aspects to this game including the eerie graphics and the amazing story line, all of which leave you wanting more.

The Pros

· Unique Environments

· Lots of Violence

· Awesome Storyline

· Great Weapon Choices

· Cool “Super Powers”

· Inescapable Atmospheres

· Brilliant Soundtrack

· Setting People On Fire

· Fire :)

The Cons

· Splicers Are Annoying at Times

· Hacking Is Retarded

· Security Cameras Are Gay And Just Want To Send Turret Things After You

· Researching Can Get In The Way

· 25 Hours of Gameplay Was Too Short For A Game This Amazing.

This game really is too awesome to have that many cons. I would definitely give this game a 9.5 out of 10 (it would have gotten a perfect ten from me if it weren’t for all the ridiculous hacking). With that said, if you haven’t played Bioshock yet, you effing need to. If you’re ready to be thrown into an intoxicating, unique environment and you’re ready to kick some splicer ass, be sure to get your hands on a copy of Bioshock. This game is one that you definitely don’t want to miss.

-Ashlee

Mass Effect came out in November of 2007. It was a highly anticipated game and brought a lot of new concepts to the gaming table with its morality and conversation system.



The first thing you do in the game is create your own Commander Shepard. The character customization at the beginning of the game is pretty good, and you can search the internet for famous people who have been recreated using the Mass Effect character creation which is a pretty neat way to make your character. The amount of depth you can put into your character is great. You must remember that your character is in the military though, so you are going to have to stick to a military hair cut. Ladies included, as all the hair is shoulder length and shorter. There are some problems during the games conversations where the shading and character models are a bit off, but other than that the game has really solid graphics and cinematics. You can give your character a first name, but that’s really just for save file information, as everyone in the game will refer to you as Commander, Shepard, or Commander Shepard. You choose your character class and a background story for your character. The background stories really set up a good starting point for whether you are good, neutral, or evil. This leads you into the game and you’re ready to begin your mission to Eden Prime. You also get to meet the awesome character voiced by Seth Green, “Jeff ‘Joker’ Moreau”.

The controls in the game aren’t hard to get used to, but you will probably end up getting annoyed with your squad mates as well as the MAKO. Your squad will run out from behind cover at the most inopportune moments and leave you alone against an army of Geth. If you need to get away fast though, you have adrenaline when you are in combat which allows you to run by holding the A button and if you're behind an object you can use A to take cover. The MAKO is just kind of awkward to drive, and doesn't really add anything to the game that couldn't have been done with you just running around. The left stick moves you while the right stick aims you and turns you around, and the d-pad tells your teammates where to go or what to do. The right bumper opens up your guns list while the left bumper opens up your list of powers to be used. The powers are incredibly useful and they vary from class to class, so playing through with different classes is a good way to change the way the game with each different playthrough. When playing through the game, you’ll come across new guns and armor, as well as credits which is the games currency. Use credits to buy the elite spectre armor or new guns, omnitools, or upgrades.

The story of the game is where you’ll probably get into the game the most. It’s such an immersive story that will keep you wondering what’s going to happen next. Since all the characters have such detailed back stories and you make your own choices in the conversations, it really is up to you on how the game turns out and who is able to return in Mass Effect 2. The story follows Commander Shepard on his quest to bring a rogue Spectre, named Saren, to justice. This will lead you through the universe to stop Saren and the Reaper Sovereign from destroying all life as we know it. Over the course of your journey, you’ll gain many valuable allies who have different character classes and have different opinions on how to handle the many challenges you face in the course of the game. Characters will also be influenced by the way you choose to handle the situations that arise. Conversations between you and your teammates while out on missions will change based on who is in your current party and will make for some interesting dialogue. The two characters I loved to take with me the most were Wrex and Garrus. I felt like having a diverse team was the way for me to go so that’s what I went with. There really is no wrong or right squad choice, however.

While playing the game, be sure to check out your missions often for any minor assignments you get while riding in an elevator such as saving a space station or shutting down an insane alliance training station. These will help you level up and get you experience that you need to reach the max level of 60. You’ll also want to listen to the amazing music in the game and think about how you want your choices to carry over into Mass Effect 2.

For my time spent playing Mass Effect, I'm going to give it a 9.5/10. I loved the game, but it seems like some of the playability was hindered with the MAKO and your squad mates made you want to yell at your TV sometime. I would still suggest this game to anyone who has a 360, and if you have a PC capable of running this game, then you may enjoy it there as well.

-Jeff Toler