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[This article is a FAN-FICTION based on the MASS EFFECT 2 Universe – It contains plot spoilers if you didn’t play and beat those games]

After the destruction of the SSV Normandy, Commander Solaria Shepard was sent to inspect the remains of the great ship. Her mission was to visit the site of the downed vessel, and to choose a location for the appropriate placement of a bronze memorial.

One soldier, Navigator Charles Pressley, was slain when the Collectors attacked the SSV Normandy.

Upon inspecting the wreckage, Commander Shepard found Navigator Pressley’s datapads in less-than optimal condition. The data fragments recovered from these pads showed that Navigator Pressley had undergone an intense personal change as a result of his experience upon the SSV Normandy.

Below is Commander Solaria Shepard’s letter to Admiral Hackett regarding her findings…and her decision.

To Admiral Hackett:

The inspection of the SSV Normandy wreckage is complete.

Although sifting through my old ship has been a grim experience, it has also reminded me of the great men and women who served within the Normandy’s hull.

As I walked through what was left of the SSV Normandy’s CIC, I saw the bent and torn framework of the Navigation Area. Holographic emitters strewn across the ice and snow almost blocked my path, but I was able to find a datapad in the  wreckage.

The datapad belonged to Navigator Charles Pressley.

What I found on the datapad…I did not expect. During our first mission, Pressley stated his deep distrust for aliens and his apprehensions about being associated with a Turian specter. After our liaison was killed by Saren, he was equally apprehensive about working along side other non-humans on the Normandy.

Since Pressley was a veteran of the First Contact War, he had good reason to be guarded toward what was eventually a very mixed and diverse crew. But from reading his logs, I found that Pressley underwent a change in his perspective. After the crew of the SSV Normandy underwent mission after mission, fighting everything from Geth to Cerberus rogue agents to even Saren himself…Navigator Pressley saw something.

He saw how a crew could be forged by the work that they do…the missions they accomplish.

Eventually, Pressley stated that he felt honored to be part of the SSV Normandy’s crew, and his previously Xenophopic comments were replaced with words of respect and admiration for his shipmates…regardless of their genetic background.

Looking back, I see Pressley’s change as analogous to my own change and also the change in Humanities role in Council Space. I originally was apprehensive of the Council, and downright viewed Cerberus as a blight on the galaxy. But let’s face it, Cerberus didn’t just save my life…they took a lifeless husk of a woman and got her back into fighting form. That’s a debt I can never repay.

Likewise, humanity used to be an overpowered and under-disciplined fledgeling species that didn’t take a leadership role in the galaxy. Now, we’re full members of the community and we have a representative on the Council. I never thought I’d see that happen in a million years.

Navigator Pressley’s sacrifice is a guidepost for the core values that keep the Alliance what it is. He wasn’t just a soldier, he was a man who was courageous not only in the face of battle, but also in the face of his own prejudices and stereotypes.

With that said, I recommend that the SSV Normandy Memorial be located near the CIC’s Holographic Navigation Area.

– Commander Solaria Shepard

Sometimes failure is one of the best teachers a man can ask for. After beating the game, “Hexen” for the second time, I decided that I wanted an even greater challenge than this already demanding game series. So when I started to play the expansion pack, “Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel” I upped the difficulty level.

Since I play this FPS/rpg game (it’s really an FPS with minor rpg elements to be exact) as a “Cleric” the difficulty levels are based on names of people in the priesthood. The easiest difficulty level is “Altar Boy” and the hardest difficulty level is “Pope.” I recently beat the original Hexen on medium or “Priest” difficulty and now I wanted to beef up the challenge by playing on Medium Hard or “Cardinal” difficulty level.

Unfortunately for me, the Cardinal difficulty level was overwhelming. Not only are the puzzles in Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel tremendously harder than the ones in the original…the monsters are more powerful in terms of their hit points and they also respawn at a frustrating rate.

Even if you are taking the time to think about your next move, monsters will appear right behind you are begin to pound you into oblivion. It’s not a pretty sight and the game is so hard I began making my own maps in order to retrace my progress.

Eventually, I realized that I wasn’t going to pass the first stage because I had used all the ammo I could find…and also I wasn’t sure where the “fire masks” were in order to solve puzzles which spanned across teleportation portals. As you can probably guess, I took a slight break from the game.

A couple weeks ago, I decided to completely replay the game from the beginning. But this time I’d set the difficulty back to “Priest” or medium. But this time I re-entered the game world with the knowledge of where to go and the skills on what to do. Also, I read a FAQ online but it didn’t really help very much. But at least knowing that someone else was capable of passing a stage was inspiration enough for me to give the game a second shot.

During my play-through I noticed an interesting trick: By combining the Disk of Repulsion items and the poison gas of the Fleschette bottles, I was able to push the green gas forward. The most outstanding part about this simple trick is that it is extremely effective against the shield-bearing centaur monsters.

The centaur monsters can block any damage when their shields are up. This makes them formidable and since they can block the poison from the “serpent staff” they are even more of a hassle. This is because the poison bolts from the serpent staff can bounce back at you and then poison you. It’s unpleasant. The best way to beat them is by using the fleschette bottles and then having the centaur monsters walk into the smoke. They yelp and writhe but best of all…they stay in one place. And even though they look like they’re kind of blocking, they’re taking damage. Unlike the mace enemies with two heads, the centaurs can’t walk through the gas once they hit it.

So when you misplace a fleschette smoke and you still want to take out centaurs in the area, you can use the Disks of Repulsion in order to push the gas towards your enemies. It can require some practice at first, but the trick is well worth it. Especially since sometimes fleschette’s are hard to find after a big battle and wasting one can be costly.

Also, here’s a map I made of the first stage of Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel. I hope it helps you navigate the area.

-Tyler

PS: Don’t worry about the transformer dude in the middle. That’s just a sticker I put on there to spice things up.

In 2008, a game came onto the scene that got everybody talking. It was called, “Crysis.” The graphics and gameplay was so advanced, that most people’s computers at the time could barely run the thing.

Now in 2013, I finally have a computer that can run this amazing game, and let me tell you, it is worth every penny and every second. I’m not going to give you any spoilers, but you need to know that this is not your run of the mill First Person Shooter game. The story is intriguing and the gameplay is compelling enough to make anyone want to charge through while eating a bunch of cheeseburgers. At one point you actually get to float inside a mountain and attain “anti-gravity.” I know, it sounds too good to be true. But this game has it all.

First off, Crysis is a science-fiction story set in the near future. You play as a specially trained soldier from the USA who is equipped with ridiculously formidable armor. The suits you and your teammates wear allows you to run at tremendous speeds, jump super-high, punch and withstand radiation like a thug, and also turn invisible. Not bad for a bunch of interlocking hexagonal plates which don’t take no for an answer.

The best part of the armor suit you wear is that all the special abilities linked with it…are connected by a single rechargeable energy source. So you don’t have to run around looking for armor powerups that allow you to jump. If you take too much damage in your default, “MAXIMUM ARMOR” mode, then you simply have to crouch in a corner somewhere and power up for a few seconds and you’ll be able to jump and take damage again.

The concept of linking your abilities into a chain of action is what makes Crysis in a league of its own. There was a time when there were three NK’s after me. I knew I was outgunned, so I turned invisible via the cloak, then crouched and quietly walked over and around a large boulder. Once I was out of their line of sight I quickly switched to the “MAXIMUM POWER” mode and did a super jump onto the boulder. Then I opened fire with a superior line of sight and also better elevation. The enemy soldiers had no idea where I was firing from and they were felled easily.

Another example of good times in Crysis is when I had to take out a Surface to Air Missile Site (SAM) which was on an island. The island only had one area of entrance. The entrance was a long, well-fortified bridge which was being guarded by a sniper tower. Since I knew the sniper tower was going to be a problem I simply used a rocket to take down the tower from the other side of the lake while hanging out on another island. While the enemies were regrouping, I decided to switch my suit to super speed mode and I swam directly toward the island. Instead of walking across the bridge I jumped over what would be the humanly impassable rockface of the island. Taking out the SAM site wasn’t necessarily easy, but softening up the guards with grenades and engaging the situation was a lot easier than if I tried to painstakingly snipe my way through the fortified bridge.

As you can see, Crysis is an extremely fun game from the gameplay perspective. But when you factor in how advanced the visuals are, you have an absolute gem of a game. For example, with my current computer, I can take advantage of delightful resolutions like 1920 x 1200. This makes the experience more like a simulated science-fiction film where you’re one of the stars…rather than a normal game. These games are getting so graphically advanced, I’d say we’re heading toward virtual reality…without needing 3D or any type of special goggles. All one needs to do is dim the lights and have a decent widescreen monitor…and the scene sets itself.

Overall, I’d recommend this game to anyone who loves science fiction games. If you’re looking for a standard “realistic” FPS, this may be a little over the top. The gameplay mechanics favor innovation, improvisation and battle imagination over traditional combat techniques. For someone who’s played a bunch of games in this genre, Crysis was a breath of fresh air. And since I got it on sale from STEAM it was an awesome find. The only way I could describe this game in a single sentence would be…”It’s the Street Fighter II: Rainbow Edition of FPS games~!”

-Tyler