xbox 360

Revisiting the Mass Effect Universe in Mass Effect: Legendary Edition

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I’ve enjoyed the Mass Effect series of games since the first game was released in 2007. Over the years I’ve played through all of the games (Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda) at least twice with several shorter revistations here and there. Most of the time I played them on Xbox 360 and Xbox One consoles, though I’ve also played Mass Effect 3 on Windows.

I’m a fan of many aspects of the games. They generally have very good writing and dialog and exceptional music and overall design. As a sci-fi fan, I’m also fond of the various references to other science fiction works (Alien, Bladerunner, Ender’s Game, Babylon 5 and so on).

Bioware decided to re-release the original three games, which include massive overhauls of the graphics, gameplay and many other characteristics, bringing the games up to a more modern gaming experience. Of course, I could not pass this up. I’ve played through these games in various ways and have experienced all of the high-tier endings.

I purchased my copy from GameStop (due to a strong desire to quickly acquire the game) but you can easily find the Xbox One version of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition on Amazon. Note that it is also available for PlayStation 4 and Windows 10.

I started out taking my time in Mass Effect to enjoy the updated graphics but after a while I decided to skip many of the side missions and focus on finishing the game more quickly. The other missions are worth the time, but I have played Mass Effect so many times that I was ready to jump on into Mass Effect 2, which many, myself included, regard as THE best Mass Effect game in the series.

I’m having a blast in ME2 right now. I’ve been focused on powering up early on (as I often do in Mass Effect games) playing in the normal mode as an Infiltrator. Sniper rilfes are a favorite of mine in the ME games so I tend to prioritize increasing any related skills. ME2 is also the game that really makes Incendiary Ammo a fun add-on.

I’ll likely take my time with ME2. It’s a large game with a number of side missions and many of the available choices will have a greater impact in ME3.

Is it worth it as a fan of the Mass Effect series? Absolutely! If you’re new to the series this may also be the best way to jump in.

Should you purchase an Xbox 360 without a hard drive?

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Before I go into the details I’ll state that I think it’s best to purchase an Xbox 360 with a hard drive if you’re a hardcore gamer. You certainly can use one without a hard drive but you’ll be restricted on what you can do with the system. You can purchase a drive at any time but you’ll probably end up spending about the same amount that you originally saved up front anyway.

Microsoft has offered an Xbox 360 model without a hard drive for a long time. They may have been available since the system was released but since it’s been several years now I don’t remember for certain (I think they originally only came with hard drives until Microsoft added the ability to store content on external, USB storage devices). Around the holidays these systems are usually heavily promoted. Typically, they come with some form of storage, most likely just a flash drive around 4GB in size.

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Mass Effect 3: Initial Impressions

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I received Mass Effect 3 via Amazon.com on the release date. I’ve only played about five hours. This is May. The game was released in March.

Something is wrong with this game. It’s not terrible, but it’s lost something that the first two games had. I can’t really put my finger on it but I can point out some of the things that I think are bad.

Note that I’m nowhere near completion yet. However, since some of the things I’ve seen are spoilers I’ll continue my rant after the jump…

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Fix for Xbox 360 Controller Battery Not Charging

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For a while I only had one Play-and-Charge kit for my Xbox 360, which worked fine considering I rarely had company over to play games. At one point the rechargeable battery went bad so I purchased two new Niko batteries from Amazon. Recently, both of these seemed to have gone bad and would no longer charge.

Having one battery go bad wasn’t unlikely. However, having three go bad in less than a year and knowing that previous batteries worked for a long time with no problems lead me to think that they weren’t actually bad.

Sure enough, after much searching, I found a solution written by user Nookie that provided a tip on how to recharge seemingly dead Xbox 360 rechargeable batteries. I tried this method with one battery and discovered that it worked. After one was working again I moved onto another and eventually realized that all three batteries were still good.

The gist of the tip is to plug the battery into the Play-and-Charge cable until the charge light goes off (or, early on, until it turns green). As soon as it changes just unplug the cable and then plug it back in. After a few subsequent connects and disconnects eventually you should find that the red light will stay on, indicating that it’s being charged.

So far, this seems to have worked. It looks like these batteries can be discharged to a point at which the recharge system doesn’t detect enough residual charge and just assumes the batteries are dead.

Source: [FIX] Xbox360 Controller + Play & Charge Cable Not Charging – Se7enSins Forums

Updated 05/23/2011: This trick does appear to have worked with the two Niko batteries. However, the original red 360 battery hasn’t held a charge for very long, yet. It may just be dead.

Updated 06/09/2012: I’m not certain, but this trick may have also worked qirh a PS3 controller that appeared to have a dead battery. It’s a bigger problem with the PS3 controller because the battery isn’t removable (at least not in the sense that an Xbox 360 controller battery is). With the PS3 controller I plugged it in, pressed the PS3 button, waited until the controller light turned a steady red, and then unplugged it after it started flashing, plugged it back in, and repeated the process several times. I have yet to actually use the controller but so far it appears to have started charging again.