GAME: Mass Effect 2 - Continued...

After some trial and error, I finally figured out how to make Mass Effect 2 recognize my completed characters from Mass Effect. To summarize:

MASS EFFECT PLATINUM HITS EDITION - a poorly planned, poorly executed way of pulling people into the Mass Effect universe. Why? You could not properly play the second addon (ME PHE included the first addon free) without uninstalling the first addon and starting a brand new character.

This ended up being my problem.

Once I reinstalled the first addon ("Bring Down The Sky") and re-entered Mass Effect with one of my four completed characters, then COMPLETING the final scenarios, that character became visible in Mass Effect 2's import utility.

Frustrating, but at LEAST there is a not-too-insane workaround. Yay.

Now I can play the game the way it was meant to be... so far, it's pretty awesome.

Major BOOs go to:

1. Electronic Arts (EA): They have still to this very day, ignored my open service ticket on their support website, which I've updated about every other day. No acknowledgment that the ticket even exists!

2. BioWare Forum Moderators: I've been complaining about this since day 2 on their forums. I also contacted a moderator directly to get access to one forum which I had no posting access to - no replly.

Major YAYs go to:

1. Me. When I took the time to pull out my camera and photo-document everything I was trying, that pushed me to try EVERYTHING... and ended up giving me the solution.

2. Dani (my daughter): For being patient when I took the XBox from her to do my photo-documentary.

Time to save the universe.

Mass Effect 2 - Preliminary Review

It sucks.

Why?

Because it will not show, therefore load, any of the characters from Mass Effect 1 (a huge feature that those of us loyal to the game series looked forward to).

If I had been one of those to get the game at 12:01am, I'd be insanely pissed. Instead, I'm mildly pissed. I just can't *wait* to hear that "oh, you have THAT version of ME1, so there is a known issue, that we released the game with, just to piss you off".

Utter bull. I am NOT starting a game from scratch. I will sit on this box, and not play this game, until this is fixed... and will return it if it does not happen within a week (and then be told I can't because it's open).

I'm getting more pissed, so I'll stop typing now.

Mandi Making The Most Of It

Mandi is taking off this morning for a job opportunity with her grandfather. We went to Vince Carter's (a new restaurant by the basketball star of the same name - nice place, pretty good food.. they have some kinks to work out) as a farewell dinner with her last night. This morning, she and I went to Flapjacks for breakfast, and then visited Chick-fil-A one last time, before I gave her a final hug and went to work. I hate seeing her go, and yet I am happy for the opportunity that she's been given. And then.. she can come back home when she's done stretching her legs. :-/ Right? That's the plan, right?

Love you, Mandi. :-*

MOVIE: The Lovely Bones

I knew just about nothing about this movie or it's originating book. I figured it may end up being a kid-movie possibly. I was sort of confused by the time it was over on how to classify it...

1/3 of the movie is spent in limbo/ purgatory/ between heaven and hell... but in a teenage girls version of that place.

The rest of the movie, filmed with a distinct 1970's color scheme, is spent involved in an odd story involving a murderer, possible pedophile, who is made to look too much like the part (if someone looked and acted like that in real life, no one would ever trust or go near him, I mean, c'mon).

The story culminates in a mix of ironic (how the antagonist ends up) and sad-but-happy (I think? The dead lead actress moving on to heaven?) feelings. Perhaps if the movie had a real soundtrack (I have NO recall of any music, but I'm sure it was there - everyone knows that music makes the movie, right?), it might have been better. I can't say it was a *bad* movie. I can only say it wasn't a "good" movie. I'd suggest to people they not bother seeing it, personally. If it was some author's attempt to make a murder-mystery for teens.. well, I dunno. I'm not a teen anymore. Was this a successful book??

I just found myself thinking at the end: "okay, that was interesting". Was anyone else thinking that the safe should have been opened at some point and "bones" revealed? Maybe I was reading into the title too much. Oh well.

MOVIE: Daybreakers

I didn't expect a lot from this movie based on the commercials, and went to see it with Chris thinking it would be at least a nice diversion. I wasn't disappointed by it. It was not Oscar-material, but it did have a fairly unique storyline on the vampire mythology (especially on "how to cure someone" of being a vamp). The ending was sort of hokey, almost seemed like they didn't know *how* to end it, so they did the equivalent of a song trailing off at the end instead of clearly *ending*. The acting was nothing to write home about.. even Willem DeFoe was only so-so. All in all, it's a matinee show for sure... or wait-for-DVD material. Yawn.

Sick, Sicker, Sickest and then Me

We come back from a nice Caribbean cruise, and then...

Chris gets sick (flu). I get sick (flu). Amanda gets sick (apparent cold). Daniella gets sick (flu plus severe pharyngitis). Then, I start to notice my face is in constant pain (assumed to be sinuses, but no apparent infection). As of today, it appears I'm finally on the other side of the mountain heading toward normality (for me, at least). Yay.

Then there was the snow. In Daytona Beach, Florida. Did anyone hear any horns sounding off from the heavens while I was incapacitated? Sheesh.