Btw, I have more stuff to say about Mass Effect 2, but I'll let it wait until I'm done with my second replay, which I've failed to start so far.

More btw, I'm on the last month of my internship. So only 4 more weeks of real work assignments, good lunch, good coworkers, and so on. After that it's time to write my batchelor project. On the upside, this means I could be a full-fledged engineer around my 31st birthday. Better late than never, eh?

• The Good:
• Mood: It still feels like a Mass Effect game. It's a bit darker and edgier, but you're still playing Shephard, and the universe feels the same.
• Meeting old friends (and foes): So far I've run into several familiar faces, in order of appearance: Tali, Joker, Dr. Chakwass, Fist, Helena Blake and Garrus. Meeting Tali was cool, and meeting Garrus was actaully a bit heartwarming. I didn't feel we got to know him too well in the first game, but it defenitely feels like we're doing that this time around. And people like Fist and Helena Blake are of NPCs from missions in the first game, one was annoyed at seeing me, after I broke up his criminal organization, and the other was happy to be working as a social worker after I convinced her to give up her villainous life in the first game. Of course, it's possible to kill both of them in the first game as well.
• Dialogue is good: The dialogue wheels are back, and are combined with occasional split second decisions, like stabbing a technician in the back (literally) or destroying some kids gun to keep him out of trouble. It works, even if it means you have to be a bit more attentive during conversations.
• Customization: While it doesn't seem we get more armors other than the DLC stuff which all have non-removable helmets, the S7-armor that Shephard starts with is highly customizable. It has several locations that you can play around with, like chest plate, shoulder guards, helmet, greaves and bracers, and you can choose what color and texture it has more or less. You can also choose between four uniforms to wear when out of your armor, though I'd like a few more options there. Also, the captains cabin has a wall for ship models, and a picture of your love interest from Mass Effect. So I have a picture of Liara on my table. Aww.
• Galaxy Map: The galaxy map has a lot of improvements it seems, though you'll have to buy fuel to get from system to system, and scanning planets is a bit tedious. Less so than having to do so in the Mako from the first game though.
• Minigames: The Simon Says minigame from Mass Effect for decrypting and unlocking stuff is gone, replaced with two new and better systems. When opening locks you match nodes and connect them, when hacking, you look for code snippets, while avoiding the firewall. Both are on a timer which can be expanded with an upgrade, and it doesn't seem like there's a limit to how many times you can try to hack or unlock something. I like.
• Mission summary: The first game actually did have missions as well, but now you get a summary after each one. The summary is nice enough, and it seems like it's not actually given to Shephard, so much as it's relayed to The Illusive Man. This works surprisingly well for me.
The Bad:
• Dumbing down of RPG elements:
Levelling has been majorly simplified, with each ability only having four ranks, that get progressively more expensive to buy. You still control your allies' levelling though, and can still somewhat choose their weapons loadout, so it's not as bad as I'd heard.
• Limited ammo and reloading Ejecting heat sinks in combat:
  In a move to cater to the shooter-crowd, the game now uses disposable heat sinks that are replaced in combat to avoid overloading. The old heat managing system is gone, and once you run out of heat sinks, you can't fire the weapon in question. And you can't just let the weapon cool down either. I think I'd have preferred a retcon and limited magazines rather than the poor explanation they've used for going from effectively unlimited ammo to this system though.
• New cover system:
  This is something most people are probably happy with, but one of the mayor problems I have with the game. Mass Effect borrowed a lot of elements from IOI games like Freedom Fighters and Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Like taking cover by moving towards it and giving orders to your allies with a fairly simple system. Mass Effect 2 instead chose a much more popular system, that found in the game Gears Of War. The cover system in that game was one of the main reasons I gave up on it, as using the run button to go into cover feels counter-intuitive for me, and having to press it a few times to vault over cover is just annoying.
• Lack of weapon stats: There isn't a simple way to see how good each weapon is, other than trial and error. I currently have three assault rifles to choose from for example, one has a huge magazine, another has a small magazine but is very precise and heavy-hitting, and I've got a Collector rifle I haven't tried out yet. I'd like to be able to see simple things like an ammo count and accuracy/damage numbers at a glance rather than trial and error though.

I'm sure there are other obeservations I can make about the game, but they'll have to wait. Can't wait to get to play some more though :)

On another note, I'll be starting to (possibly) take classes again from tomorrow, where I'm going to attend my first class on Artificial Intelligence and Multi-user Systems. I'm still doing my internship though, so I may need to work extra the rest of the week so I can take half a day off every Tuesday to go to classes. Also, I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to going to classes again or dreading it. One of the people responsible for the course is one of my favorite teachers at DTU though, so here's hoping I'll enjoy learning again. And hoping a Mass Effect 2 CE will be going my way before someone spoils the plot to me :)

• Microsoft Indexing Service (and Indexing Service Query Language)
• IIS (with classic ASP/VB script/xhtml)
• XML DOM (Xpath/XSL)
• XML databases (currently dropped, but used XQuery and XPath)
• Dynamic content (JavaScript)

On top of this, I'm working in a realistic environment (since it's an actual workplace with other developers), on a product that someone will actually use, and I have to use internal tools for stuff like documentation, test cases, issues, etc. as well. Well, I could do without the documentation, but I may as well get used to that part :P

It's not unlikely I'll use some of the new technology I've learned (namely XPath/XSL and JavaScript) on this site in the future of course.

• The Men Who Stare At Goats I watched this weirdly funny movie in New York in November. It's got quirky humor, jedi warriors, psych warfare (psychic and psychological), and is named for a person staring at a goat and stopping its heart.
• James Cameron's Avatar Three things: First, don't watch it for its plot. Second, do watch it in 3d. And last but not least, James Cameron is back. After not making any good movies for several years, he's back with the most intense action I've seen for years.
• Sherlock Holmes Don't let the trailers fool you: while the world's greatest detective is a bit more action oriented (and stubbled), it's not a braindead action fest. Holmes' methods are still based off his brillaint intellect and he behaves like a magnificent bastard, and Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are perfect in the roles. There'll most likely be a second movie to follow this, and I'm most defenitely going to watch it.

I was with some nice people this year, I didn't get too drunk, I have all of my appendages and eyes, and so on, so all in all a good celebration, with my only problem a possibly bent rib from a few weeks ago, and I couldn't feel that after getting a little to drink (or I forgot about it).

All in all, a good start of the year, for me at least. Here's hoping the rest of 2010 will treat us all nicely.

Also, watched Avatar in arguably the biggest/best cinema in the country in 3d. I'd expected the 3d to be gimmicky much like the 3d movies of yore. It wasn't. I think the film may have sold me on 3d movies in the future, it was that good. Sure, it had a formulaic plot, the acting wasn't outstanding, but the effects rocked the world and the action even more so, so it was defenitely worth the price of admission.
Despite having made Titanic, James Cameron still knows how to direct solid action. The not-so-actiony parts were quite good too though, and I disagree with Cracked.com that it was 90 minutes of boredom followed by 40 minutes of awesome. Well, the last 40 minutes certainly were awesome, but so was the first part of the movie, if in a different way. So there...

• Christmas dinner last Friday. Can't remember anything after the fish due to a massive blackout, which is apparantly due to massive amounts of schnapps (or snaps as it's spelled here). This was at work, so I may be taking some abuse from it. Good thing my body has a purge function though. It's disgusting at work, but it keeps me from getting alcohol poisoning, though again, opens up for abuse.
• Found a new MMO to play while waiting for SW:TOR. It's called Fallen Earth, it's set in a post-apocalyptic world, has massive crafting (in fact, if you want gear, that's the best way to get it), no fast travel (normally not a selling point for me, but works in this case), real-time first/third person shooter/melee battles (again, normally I prefer a turn-based approach but it works). There's a website if people really want to know about it.
• Still haven't completed Dragon Age: Origins. Busy with work, christmas preperations, Fallen Earth, sleeping, and so on. Also, like so many other good games, I've made several characters, the current one being a female city elf rogue. There's a social site too btw.
• Watching Avatar later today with people from work. From what I hear, the first 90 minutes are boring as fuck (or at least as Titanic, which I still haven't seen), but the last 40 minutes should make up for it and show that James Cameron is still one of the best action directors. We'll see in about 8-9 hours.
• Christmas is on Thursday (we give gifts on Christmas Eve not the day after) and I still haven't bought a single present. And my own wish list is apparantly lacking too, but what can you do. Anyways, this means I'll be enjoying the crowds of late shoppers again this year. *Doesn't like crowds*

Pics or it didn't happen I've got no pictures whatsoever, since I couldn't find the charger for my digital camera, but I discovered that you enjoy travelling a lot more when you're looking around you, using your peripheral vision and not looking at the tiny display on a camera. This goes double in NYC since you're at all times surrounded by majestic buildings on all sides, and even more so when going by ferry to Liberty Island as you get to bask in the view that is the Manhattan skyline, as well as standing in the shadow of the statue of Liberty, or in Central Park while still seeing the buildings just on the edge of the massive park.
And so on...

Anyway, the trip was amazing despite some familiar problems along the way, though I'm horribly jetlagged and haven't played Dragon Age: Origins for a week. So I need to get to it :)