PRESSURE PRESSURE PRESSURE

A part of my brain is beginning to loathe Mass Effect.

Don't get me wrong, the game is one of my all-time favorites, as evidenced by it making our 'best of the decade,' but I've been really pushing myself to play through it a fifth time in order to a) have a save that includes all the DLC & b) have a 'perfect' save to port into Mass Effect 2.

Part of this is brought on by the fact that I switched to mostly PC gaming a year ago, in an effort to collect all my favorite games on one system, and one that I could lug around with me. I dropped a couple grand on a mega-laptop that I've since dubbed 'the Deathbook,' both for its shear amount of power, but also for how fucking huge and heavy and unwieldy it is, and I've proceeded to slowly migrate as many of my favorite games as I could to its hard drive. Steam's awesome random sales helped that tremendously, and Mass Effect was one of those games I snagged for a few bucks. I then played through a new game on PC and it was glorious. Getting to see how AMAZING this game looked in full 1080p was beyond words. This, plus the upgrades to how much more you could command your squad mates and how much better the inventory system is made the switch a no-brainer. So, yeah, my fourth playthrough was driven by the 'new' experience. Now that I'm on my fifth playthrough, I'm having moments that are starting to feel a bit like a forced march.

One of the great ongoing jokes between Tony and me on the podcast is how many games I buy and either a) never play or b) never spend more than a day on or c) never finish. What is interesting, though, is that the time I should spend beating other games, I spend replaying games I love. There's a lesson in there somewhere, I swear.

Here's the thing, though. I'm a dad, a husband, an employee, and a student, so I think I've moved into a gaming space where it's more enjoyable for me to be able to play something familiar in quick spurts, as I sometimes have to just STOP to either tend to a kid emergency, or take a call, or follow the wife into the bedroom rather suddenly. If it's something I already know and love, I'm not too worried about disrupting the flow of the game.

Also, since Bioware has essentially cornered the market on my gaming time, I have brilliant RPGs that are insanely replayable. RPGs are just about the only genre I play anymore (though I am batting my eyelashes at Rebellion's upcoming Aliens vs. Predator), since I'm a story junkie, and they're somewhat analogous to that Nook I keep on the nightstand and from which I read a chapter each night.

Anyway, I've gotten WAY off track here.

I'm really considering just porting my original level-50 PC save over, but I'm concerned, since I know that the higher the level of your save, the more you're rewarded in the next game, and Pinnacle Station isn't in there. Yes, Pinnacle Station sucks balls, but I'm a fucking completist, so shut up.

I dunno. The more I write about it, the more I'm actually wanting to go back and play more Mass Effect.

Part of what brought this on is that I had my first-ever lock-up in the PC game, and I hadn't saved after 45 minutes of conversation on Noveria. Life really sucked at that moment.

I've had a few beers, though, and I think I'm ready to jump back in.

Quick question, though.

There are a few games I've really put myself under pressure to finish, and I think I may want to turn this into a podcast topic, so let me put this out there. What's the most pressure you've ever put yourself under to finish a game, and how was the experience?

Please share this post far and wide, and please comment, as we'd love to have some experiences to read on the podcast. I think this is an interesting topic, and one that could damn near fill a grad student's thesis, so let us know!

-Blaine