Don't bother calling me at work on Wednesday

So, my review of Mass Effect 2 will be up the same time this post goes live. You can read the review (which is good because it bumps up the page views) and I basically say it's an awesome, awesome game. I've been hearing about this game from Arone (you'll recognize him from the game's QA credits) for about a year and every tidbit I've heard was really exciting.

The last time he and I spoke (before I had finished the game) Arone said this is the first game he's looking forward to play after it's published and I honestly didn't believe him. The man has spent countless hours testing this game and he still wants to play it? When we went to CES, we spent an hour talking to Jesse, an associate producer on the game. He confessed he was on his fourth playthrough. Again: really?

After 22 hours, I can say these guys are right. I booked this Wednesday off and Daorcey was skeptical that I would want to play the game for 12 hours more. I'm even more excited for Wednesday even after all the hours I've put in for the review.

We, meaning all Canadians, should be proud that we have such a great game development studio in Canada--even if it's in Edmonton. (Cheap shot, I know.) BioWare could have just made the same game with new areas and some new guns, but they didn't. Daorcey and I could go on and on about the things that bugged us. I practically nagged Arone to fix one minor detail (which fought for and it did get changed--awesome). And they fixed pretty much everything that was wrong with the first game. How's that for customer service? It's an odd feeling to beat a game and feel pride in your country rather than thinking how awesome it was (which it was too).

For those that gripe that Canada doesn't make kick ass action games, they should play Mass Effect 1 and 2. There is so much action and story, that it's much better than most Hollywood movies.

Anyways, since my review says that in about 1900 words plus a bunch of photos, here is a tidbit I couldn't put in the review because it didn't apply (for now).

In my brief time with the game, I found some Canadiana. I'm sure I'll find more soon.

• On a prison planet, I encountered a prisoner in a cell. Talked to him and nothing amazing happened. Go onto the next cell and there's another prisoner and no dialogue happens there. But I notice the prisoner's designation--Prisoner 403. Thinking there's something to this I go back to the previous prisoner and he's Prisoner 780. Yeah, they used the Alberta area codes.
• There's a set of armor called Blood Dragon. The description of the armor says it's based on the armor of the Edmonton Blood Dragons team. Whether it's hockey or football, it's unclear. Cute.