Boy, time's two

Wow is it almost 6 weeks already?!

Almost 6 weeks since our lives were made even happier with a second child and second son.

Really doesn’t feel like it until you look around and realise you’ve missed a couple of friend’s birthdays and the summers almost over, totally understandable but apologies to those who have been missed!

We’re doing really well, both boys are as healthy as can be and whilst Ruaraidh hasn’t quite learned what ‘gentle’ means he clearly loves his little brother, he’s even been known to give him a couple kisses which is immensely cute to say the least.

Struan’s even managed it all the way over to Kirkcaldy which we didn’t do until about now for Ruaraidh, he’s met one of his Grand Aunties, the one he inherited his Yoda ears from, his cousins are queuing up for a shot of a cuddle, very funny to see them having little arguments about who had a shot last and how long J

Unfortunately like life in general you get ups and downs, our only down at the moment apart from the afore mentioned lack of sociability is Ruaraidh’s fractured bed time, the little bundle of joy hasn’t went to sleep till after 11pm on quite a few occasions, we can only hope this is some kind of phase because if it keeps going someone is going to have to plug is into a caffeine drip!

As I thought it’s going to be hard to make sure Ruaraidh still feels like he’s getting the same attention as he’s used to, but that will become a little easier when Struan gets a bit more movement and he sees him as more of a little person than an interference to his play plans, which does happen on occasion just now.

Just hoping the rain will sod off at some point so he can get to play out the back more, he’s loving his slide and trike, even if he still tries to use the neighbours boys scooter whenever he sees it, typical toddler behaviour but still very funny, he’s a little charmer and has got the next door neighbours playing peek a boo with him when the weathers good enough, shame that the younger kids in the block don’t come out to play more often, but I suppose that’s the curse of living in a block of flats, they all live on the higher levels and don’t quite see the back court as a play area as much as we do.

All the fun little developments of Struan are great to watch when I get a chance to, he’s a wee smiler, very cute, more than likely he’s going to be another charmer like his big brother, and he certainly lives up to his name when it comes to nappy time and that sure keeps us on our toes!

Back again when I’ve had more sleep/conscious thoughts, have a good one folks J

Mass Effect 3 - The end, eventually...

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So we’ve reached an impasse.

I’ve absolutely loved playing Mass Effect 3 let me say that right now, they’ve done another fine job with the storyline.  Heavy hitting choices, grand scope, funny buddy interactions, and all fantastic stuff, kept me hooked all the way.

New characters are well fleshed out and seeing what’s happened in the characters lives from ME2 in some ways surprising, some ways bitter sweet, I’ll let you play the game and you decide but overall really happy with what they’ve done there.

Combat is improved since ME2 & I’ve been won over by the melee weapon idea which I was pretty sceptical about during the run up to the game release.  I used to be the long range fighter with the occasional close quarters only when needed.

I actually found myself getting my squad to provide covering fire whilst I used Tactical Cloak + Shotgun to get in close with sprint, hit them with the shotgun to drop their shields and finish them with the heavy melee attack against three or four enemies.

For those who know how I tend to play FPS games this is a fairly major attitude shift, but serious amounts of fun & an adrenaline rush as you’re in close quarter combat with multiple enemies whilst your squad mates shoot around you.

The missions structure is pretty good overall, with a bit of practice I found the Cerberus heavies easier to take down, as long as I planned where to hit and who to put where.  I even got to the stage with the sniper rifle where I was getting on with the ‘postal slot’ achievement, which is where you shoot a Cerberus Guardian, who attacks with a heavy shield, through their line of sight slot.

Even though I’ve not been able to dedicate long sessions to the game it’s been structured in such a way that I’ve been able to get close to end game with completion of a lot of the side quests and a fairly hefty War Fleet.

This is where we come to the impasse.

Without ruining what the potential multiple endings are there is a widely discussed & even publicised on the BBC website issue with how the ending is structured.  How the game pans out is basically worked out on a percentage scale of your overall readiness, which is worked out using multiple factors, not like before based on in mission achievement, more of a long road way.

However, to get the ‘best’ ending, which is always what I strive for after all, you either have to ‘Gem Hunt’ the galaxy for War Fleet assets in single player, or play Multiplayer which increases your readiness.  So it pretty much boils down to how many points you have in the ‘bank’.

If you do the hunt, you’re pretty much wandering the galaxy scanning planets till you get what you need, yawn!  However because your readiness can’t go above 50% without playing multiplayer it’s your only choice in single player.

If you instead do multiplayer to increase the percentage readiness, all fine, but there’s a kick in the tail, as soon as you sign up to play multiplayer there is a ticker in the background that drops your readiness by 1% every x hours, 6 hours from what I remember.

Given my status as a parent with a toddler and a bay on the way I really can’t see playing multiplayer enough to get away from the minus ticker.

So do I a) do the galaxy hunt which will be boring and tedious, but will mean no minus so can be done over time

Or

b) Start multiplayer at a time I’m certain I can do it in a night and do the final mission as soon as I’ve got the points needed, how likely is that do we think given I have problems doing a N4SW race J

Either way it’s going to leave a little bit of a bitter taste in my mouth in which was otherwise a fantastic game experience, I tend to treat my games these days like a book and it’s feeling like a great book with a crappy ending at the moment, I’m sure when I finally see the end game I’ll love it, here’s hoping!