Hey kids! A bit of housekeeping: the RSS feed is now fixed. So now you can subscribe to that instead of feverishly refreshing all day. (Right!)
Anyway: My Mass Effect 2 Collector’s Edition got Amazon Primed to my doorstep yesterday, and I managed to carve out a few (very late) hours to break it open and start it up.
So let’s get to the Brief But Exciting First Impressions, complete with blurry late-night box shots! (That sounds dirty!) Click “continue reading”, or push me off the balcony to earn Renegade points!
In order to talk about the unboxing, we must first talk about the box. On the left there is Mass Effect 2’s Standard Edition box. On the right is the very, very pretty Collector’s Edition box.
You should know this about me: I enjoy paying money for physical objects. It’s no wonder that games are transitioning to digital formats when the physical formats are usually nothing more than a physical representation of a transaction — like a receipt. I enjoy owning a thing that has been designed by a person. (I’m pretty sure I’m in the minority here in the FUTURE.)
But there’s a second reason I bought the Collector’s Edition: that is not my Shepard. (For those of you who don’t know, Mass Effect stars a heroic man/woman (man OR woman, not tranny (although I suppose you could use your imagination if that’s your thing)) named Shepard.)
Here’s what MY Shepard looks like:
Rawr, am I right? (What? Nothing. Look over there!) As you can see, she has absolutely nothing in common with the Default Shepard, who looks like a fielder for the Yankees. So I was pretty happy with the closeup shot of the Normandy that ostensibly covered the front of the CE box.
But NO!
Default Shepard Ambush! The classy Normandy shot is just on the disposable outer shell, and who glares up at me from the interior aluminum case but Default Shepard, looking as Default as ever! This makes me sad.
Anyway, the actual game is very pretty and fun and wonderful, as folks throughout the World of the Internet have already stated. Mass Effect 2’s gameplay systems are more streamlined (a good way to say “simplified”, sometimes) than its precursor, and the character animations in particular have stood out to me as much improved. I’m very happy to be back in the world of the Mass Effect Galaxy Map Music, as it is appropriate and beautiful — I honestly can’t think of any other game that has reattached me so strongly to the series as a whole.
Plus: the Normandy now has restrooms! I’m sure the crew is thankful for this thoughtful addition, though I’m sure they’d also appreciate stall doors and more comfortable toilets.