Vehicular Menace

It says quite a lot about my mental state that when someone offers me control of a vehicle in a video game with a gun attached my thought process is less "Oh, that's useful, a fast and safe way of getting from Point A to Point B, with the added safety of a gun which can be used to take down roadside enemies" and more along the lines of "Cool, now I can mow shit down."

Borderlands has got cars. Admittedly, they're sort of dune-buggy style cars that have entirely independent front wheels, but a car none the less. They also come with a choice of machine gun or rocket launcher, the latter of which has officially been designated "the nuts" at taking down... Pretty much anything. Despite this, I still find the best way to take down enemies is to just drive into them. Skag? Drive into it. Bandit? Drive into it. Rakk? Go off a jump, into it (I haven't done this, but it would be freaking sweet). The more I play of Borderlands, the more I like, and I haven't even left the first area yet. Great Crimbo present =)

Another thing that does what be havin' cars is Mass Effect. Well, not a car. It's an ATV with ridiculous suspension and jump jets. In a similar way to Borderlands, it gets you from Point A to Point B, and it's got a gun on it. However, it's more fun to run the Geth over. Admittedly, the Geth Armatures don't go down so you have to machine gun 'em a bit, but it's brilliant if you can slide the Mako just right and take out three rocket troopers. Alternatively, jump jetting onto their heads. Both of this work well.
Mass Effect is fun, but the combat is shockingly bad. I love the talking bits, and just navigating around the ship and the Citadel. The voice acting is absolutely spot-on, which is obviously of vital importance. It's just a shame that the combat is shockingly poor. I was having a great time, right up until the point I had to start shooting things. Then suddenly, it all fell apart. But I'm persevering. I have until Mass Effect 2 comes out to start liking it more, and get past the point I am at now. I'm thinking about pre-ordering the GAME Collectors Edition, with the exclusive stuff in it. Good times.

And that's me done for the evening. I've got to go pack my bags, because I'm off for little under a week, but I shall return Sunday evening to chat to you about... something. See y'all on the bridge!