A weekend with Xbox and family

Welcome to another exciting blog about the previous weekend, starting with friday. Friday was my day off from work and i chose to spend the time at home, starting off continueing the game Mass Effect on XBox 360 Elite. Last blog mentioned the completion of Noveria...

This time the mission was set to Feros in order to track down Saren, the main Tyrian enemy of the galaxy. This mission was a huge one and not really easy. The first thing Shepard and his team had to do were to limit the possibilities for the Geth to destroy Feros. One part of the mission involved bringing water, food and supplies to the colonists of Feros, the other part involved infiltrating the Geth base at Feros driving the vechile while shooting our way through into some kind of a Research Camp. Inside there, Shepard and his team helped some of the employers there, as well as getting deeper information to Sarens' plans. One thing that was mentioned was a Thorium purge that activated the Geth ship. Shepard and his team managed to activate this purge and destroying the Geth ship that was dominating Feros. It was a glorious victory to destroy the Geth ship, but yet the mission was not quite over..

Something or someone was affecting the colonists with some kind of an infection. A thorium infection that turnt the colonists into some strange creatures. Instead of killing them, the colonists had to be dealt with by using an anti-thorium grenate at them that would knock them out, while dealing with the colonists who have already turnt into these creatures. They had to be killed. After dealing with these people and the Geth, Feros was connected again and safe for now on. Other missions were mostly assignments doing smaller jobs around in the galaxy.

The first assignment after Feros was to help Garren, a Turian alien part of the Shepard team, to find the doctor whom was doing illegal organ experiments, so thanks to Garrens' coordinations, Shepard managed to track down the doctor and dealt with him. Shepard tried to find a diplomatic solution by arresting him. Unfortunately, the doctor sacrified himself and died. One thing that was clear was that his experiments no longer were a threat..

Other small assigments allowed me to search another planets across the galaxy to find missing people, killing an alien beast which was popping up from the ground when driving around with the vechile, as well as finding important items. Shepard also tried to help his friend Wrex - an aggressive but friendly Krogan alien to find his familys' armor. Don't remember the name of the place but it was an icy planet. The pirates whom stole the armor, guarded it very well and proved to be quite a formidable enemy. After some time taking out the pirates by intensive teamwork, the team found the armor to be placed in a safe that demanded some heavy decryption. Unfortunately, the team was not yet skilled in decrypting things of a complicated level, so have to come back to that at a later date..

The same friday night i chose to pause for a day playing further on The Force Unleashed instead, in Tatooine, only to grow even stronger into the Force as a Sith Master. Love this game very much. To play as a bad-ass Sith Lord to hunt and track down the 2 droids holding secret information about the Death Star, dealing with Jawas, Tusken Raiders, Jabba The Hut and his gang, the bounty hunter Boba Fett, only to ultimately destroy one of the last Jedis - Obi-Wan Kenobi! Wow, that was so cool, and it was never boring to play it over and over!

Saturday was a more relaxing day to spend with my family. My mother and my only brother. Picking up my mother at her home before doing some shopping. She made something similar to an english Bed-and-breakfast meal with bacons, sausages and eggs. That was good, and drinking milk to it. After being there for an hour, the time had come to go shopping food. It was not much but enough to have for the weekend. Shortly after we drove home to the apartment I and my brother share together, with our mother of course being with us. We put the food, drinks and stuffs at place and spent some time watching TV and relaxing.

Later that night, i spent more time playing Mass Effect. This time i decide to find an Asari-doctor with the name Liora, whom had valuable information about Saren and the Prophian (think it was, unless it was spelled the wrong way). This mission was a bit long one. I came to a planet that reminded me about Mustafar in "Revenge Of The Sith" - a vulcanic world. Using the vechile, i had to drive around searching ruins of old factories. The Geth was trying to stop Shepard and his team from getting further. Being so skilled already, taking out a few of the Geth on the way proved to be a bit easy. While they were shooting, the vechile jumped up in the air a bit, easily avoiding the big rocket blasts, while firing and shooting a rocket at them, which did the job nicely. Found the first ruin of an old factory and from there, after taking out the Geth army guarding the place with the vechile with clever strategy and without having the vechicle destroyed, the team sweept the area and took everything that could be taken, even cleaning the factory for a few yet remaining Geth. Had to open the gate from the factory ruin so that the team could drive any further, until they found the second factory ruin where the same happened, ultimately activating the gate to get any further and dealing with a Geth soldier.

It was quite a drive, and closer to the tunnels, a Geth ship was flying above the team, releasing an army of 6 different Geths. With the vechicle driving, they proved to be no match for the team. Easily avoiding the blasts and taking them out nicely. Driving inside the tunnel, the team took another 2-3 Geths, and another 3 at the outside of the tunnel in the other side.

Now the team was getting close to the place where Liola would be. A bit more driving until the road was closed for further driving, the team had to leave the vechile and do some walking..

The Geth was lurking around and the team had to take yet another small army here and there until they reached what would look like a ruined, underground factory. Another Geth ship landed while the team tried to search the area, and was quickly attacked by yet another small Geth army. With no time to waste, Shepard and another 2 of the team managed to deal with them so that they could get into the underground factory. This another part of the mission was like a cool stealth-walking-shooting-enemies-scene walking around small corridors. A less stronger army of 3 Geths in the corridors tried to block the way for the team to find Liora, but they proved no match for the team. Shepard gunned at them with his shotgun, firing rockets at them while the other 2 of the team quickly shot them down with machine plasma-guns. Nice teamwork, in other words! The team found their first elevator which lead them further down, taking out another small army of Geth, then another elevator. This elevator was a bit malfunctioned, so the team had to jump down a bit to a lower platform without problems. Another Geth army was hiding around the rocks and the team had to deal with them.

They found Liora trapped into her own defence. She revealed herself and told the team they had to destroy the defence to save Liora the Asari-doctor. The team destroyed the last Geth army in the area so that they could destroy the laser that held the defence. The team got inside and managed to rescue Liora. Suddenly the team was attacked by a few Geth, with a Krogan soldier whom proved to be a tough opponent. Defeated at last, the team with Liora had to escape the place and flying away with the Normady starship. I got an archivement for this, which was cool! In Normady, Liora became part of the team and told everything she knew about Saren and his plans. Now the mission became a bit more clear. Shepard had to find the Conduit before Saren did, in different worlds. The next mission was going to be even harder..

It was now sunday, and after some vafles my mother made, i took this mission to Vimire. This planet was very similar to the unkown world which was part of the game "Knight Of The Old Republic - The Star Forge", the Rakadan planet that looked like a paradise. This was the same in Vimire, too. A world of sea, tropical plants and small mountains. In this world the team had to drive the vechile again. The world itself was very interesting. I had to prepare a Salarian army against Saren, because he was after the Conduit. Some of the visions Shepard had during the event at Eden Prime with the beacon helped him gain a better understanding about what was going on. Still the visions were not completely understood yet, but enough to understand what the mission at Vimire was about. 

While driving the team encountered many Geths on the way, but they were not hard to defeat with the vechicle avoiding the blasts, and firing the canon and rockets at them. The team found the first factory, and from there the team disconnected much of the Geths abilities to recruit more enforcements, as well as opening another gate to get further. More driving and killing Geth on the way, leading to a yet another factory. More stuffs had to be done to prevent the Geth from getting more enforcements. The team cleaned this second factory nicely from more Geth, opening another gate again. The team drove and shot more armies of Geth and finally came to the camp where the Salarians had their base. Found the commander of the base and had a talk with him about the situation.

The commander gave a shocking revelation that Saren tried to breed a Krogan army with the cure that would save the Krogan race from dying, Wrex from the Shepard team became furious and had the Salarians worried about what side he would take in the situation. Choosing the words carefully by being charismatic (got another archievement for that, really!), Shepard convinced Wrex that Saren didn't care anything for what races he would breed an army at and the fact that Saren had to be stopped at any cost! Wrex realized the truth in this and calmed himself down, begging Shepard to have Sarens' head when he was defeated. Shepard agreed on this and gave Wrex his promise to do anything to stop Saren. The Salariens were now also relieved that the situation with Wrex had been solved and were now ready to prepare themselves for the mission. The mission was to bring a part of the team to plant the Nuke bomb from the Normady, but to do that, Shepard and his team had to limit the Geths' possibilites to call for enforcements while destroying the AA canons so that Normady could fly in and plant the bomb. The base was a huge one and around the were many Geth to destroy. Inside a room the team found another Asari scientist whom told more about Sarens' plans and about the base. She gave the code to the elevator in front, before allowed to escape the place before activating the bomb. In the lab the team had to deal with experimented creatures and some geth soldiers. They proved a bit tough but not impossible to defeat. The team found many useful items on the way as well as blasting their way to the area where the bomb was to be planted. 

In the stairs, Shepard noticed another beacon and activated it. His vision now became more intense with a warning message of a massive destruction. Shepard and his team faced the Sovereign engine that is part of Sarens' starship, which controls other minds. Pressing Sovereign for information, Shepard was stunned to learn of its' power to mind-control others, even Saren! Not sure if it destroyed itself or just managed to shake the place, but it disappeared and the team kept moving to a big area with several AA-canons. After taking out the Geth from there, the team blowed the AA canons to pieces without hesitating! Shortly after they arrived at the place where the bomb was to be activated..

The team had to split and Shepard was faced with a dilemma, choosing Ashley to plant the bomb, while letting Kordian lead the flight attack. Shepard and another 2 of the huge team cleaned the rest of the base in upper level, only to be interrupted by a warning call from Joker controlling the Normady, with Kordian leading the flight attack. Normady was heavily under attack, and Shepard had to decide whom to protect. Shepard realized he had to get the bomb activated at any cost, which meant he had to protect Ashley and the Salarians, hoping that Kordian with the Normady would be okay and able to defeat the Geth from air..

Going down the elevator again out to the place where Ashley planted the bomb, Shepard and his another 2 of the team faced Ashly under heavy gunfire, and started blasting everything they had on the small strong Geth army. With some sneaking-and-firing-stategy working with success, the army was at last taken out and Ashley was ready to activate the bomb. Suddenly from nowhere, Saren jumps down from a hyper-platform he was riding, and attacked Shepard and his team, then they stopped firing and Saren revealed his plans and concers about the mission, and why he had to do what he got to do. Saren believed that he was to save the whole galaxy by breeding an army of Reapers and Krogan with the Geth, disobeiing the Council. Shepard was shocked, but tried to shake Saren into realizing the truth, hoping that he would end this peacefully. With no luck, Saren disappeared and the team returnt to the Normady starship only to learn that Kordian was killed during the mission. Shepard was not happy that he was responsible for the death of Kordian, but the team insisted that Shepard did the right thing and actually saved everybody he could, even that Kordian died.

It was a long play, really, and it was very interesting to get so deep into the game, but it was far from over. The rest of this sunday was spent with another mission convincing the Council that

Saren would attack Citadel, so Shepard and his team quickly flied to Citadel again. A big planet city with many stores and abilities, and where the Council took place. Shepard was furious of the Councils' way of dealing with Saren. Like they avoided the truth and hide behind Saren somehow. Some of the small missions in Citadel had Shepard to help a sisters's sister to return back to a safe job at the nightclub Flux, instead of infiltrating dangerous thugs in Clora Dent (is that the name of it?). Shepard managed to secure Ritas's sister Jennas' safety by making a deal with her manager to take care of a weapon delivery. Rita was happy to see Jenna back at Flux. Another small mission was to track a signal that came from the casino part of the nightclub, into the backside of the Embassis. Threatened with being blowed to hell by a mystic machine, Shepard didn't waste any time to destroy the machine before it could even activate the timer! Finally to the last part of the mission. The main mission was to talk to the admiral at the Flux. This part was sneaky. Normady had to fly to Llos planet undiscovered by having the admiral to sneak into the Embassadors' office and hack the security computer.

Well, that was all for now, so there might be more update on this later on in the week. The last hours of this sunday were spent for editing my photos and surfing Facebook and this blog.

Goodnight everybody :)

Økende blind vold i Norge..

Leser med skrekk og vantro at blind vold i Norge stadig øker. Tidlig i dag morges kunne jeg i både BA og VG lese om en østeuropeisk ung fyr i midten av 20-årene, som vissnok snakker grebokken norsk, hadde helt uprovosert gått løs på en bussjåfør i den tro at bussen skulle kjøre i fra ham, mens bussen egentlig skulle stoppe ved selve busstoppet noen få meter unna. Videoen lagt ut på BA og VGs nettside viser fyren sammen med en jente springer mot bussen idet bussen skal til å stoppe mot busstoppet i nærheten. Fyren virker hissig og hamrer løs på døra og peker. Bussjåføren forbereder seg ved å holde ene armen oppe for å gjøre seg klar til forsvar, åpner døren og fyren stormer mot bussjåføren idet bussjåføren prøver å dytte ham bort for å begrense skadene. Fyren liker det dårlig og slår til med full kraft, som man ser på videoen. Mens VG valgte å sensurere videoen, tok BA det skrittet å usensurere videoen helt lovlig og med full godkjenning fra politiet i håp om at vitner ville gjenkjenne gjerningsmannen og tipse politiet, noe de angivelig skal ha gjord nå og fyren kan vente seg en ganske streng straff. Den stakkars bussjåføren er for tiden sykmeldt som følge av slagene han fikk, selv om han ikke pådro seg noen alvorlige skader..

Mitt inntrykk som jeg sitter med her er at skal vi i anno 2009 akseptere noe slikt? Hva skjer med menneskeheten? Er vi blitt så selvdestruktive og tankeløse av natur at vi har glemt alt som har med følelser, fornuft, lov og orden å gjøre? Hvor ble det av hjernen til denne fyren som slo? Lot han den være hjemme, eller frøs han den uheldigvis ned i fryseboksen? Er det ikke slik at vi bør ta oss sammen, begynne å bli fornuftige og slutte å fokusere på oss selv og begynne å gjøre de rette tingene på rett måte? Innse at verden ikke utelukkende bare dreier seg om oss selv, men om så mange andre og andre ting?

Kan godt forstå at man gjerne blir frustrert når man ser eller føler at buss ikke kommer i tide, eller ser ut til å kjøre fra en. Det skjer gjerne og har sikkert skjedd, men i stedet for å ty til vold og forværre problemer både for seg selv og andre, ville det vært langt mer intelligent, modent og reflekterende å sitte seg ned alle sammen og finne til felles løsninger for alle parter gjennom gjensidig, rolig og grei kommunikasjon? Det skal faktisk ikke mye til..

Personlig aksepterer jeg overhodet ikke dette som skjedde, som skjedde bussjåføren. Det er helt uakseptabelt og det må ta slutt. Det hører ikke hjemme noen sted. Det er lite voksent og temmelig umodent. Sånt skaper utrygghet og slike ting vil føre til at et samfunn splittes totalt..

Noen andre som er enige? Skriv deres mening i kommentaren i bloggen...

Mass Effect - Noveria Mission Completed!

Yesterday, i played further on Mass Effect on Xbox 360 Elite in 1080p glory! After having done missions in Edon Prime tracking down Saren and the Geth, cleaning up in Citadel and doing some submissions in other sectors of the galaxy, doing some training in Pinnacle Station and also cleaning up a mission in the Asteroid X57 - Bringing Down The Sky, i decided to take on the next mission, at the Noveria sector..

This mission had me to track down a female Asari whom teamed up with Saren to make genetic weapons based on Geth-technology. A huge numbers of Geth soldiers and weapons. John Stephard and his team had to investigate a numbers of different tasks in the Noveria arena. Everything from small hidden smugglings and nasty favours, to break-in into an office to steal important informations only to be stopped by a corrupted security team. Blasting the way to freedom, these missions were easily solved through intensive teamwork and step-by-step strategies. Deeper into the Noveria the team learnt that there was a nasty accident at  Peak 15. By taking a vechile to Peak 15, after gaining a passcard to the garage when a boss and his secretary had a terrible settlement that ended in death of the two, the team had to search many parts of the narrow mountains to find out what happened around there and eliminating the Geth that appeared around trying to stop the team from reaching the facility.

Paving the way into the facility, Stephard and the team realized that it was not quiet inside the facility and prepared themselves for what would come. Inside the first part of the facility the team was again attacked by some different Geths. The team successfully took out these Geths quickly, searching the whole place, taking elevators and terminated the rest of the Geth in the facility. Inside the team reconnected the whole facility to be in working order again and got information of the Asari-woman to be found at the Rift Station by taking a tram over there.

At the Rift Station the team came over a bunch of employers who revealed what happened there and were attacked by some Rachini-aliens, an enemy of the Geth, as i take it. The team was able to save the employers and were told that the woman would be found in the Labs nearby. The information led to a trap revealed by a lab-scientist whom was stabbed from behind by a Rachini-alien. Minutes before his death, he was able to give enough information about the Rachini, the Asari-woman and how to ignite a nelon purge to get rid of the aliens in the lab. Searching the dead body of the scientist after information from Mira Virtual Machine, Stephard was able to get the code and managed to ignite the purge with his team. A small numbers of aliens blocked the way to the elevator while the team only had 120 seconds to leave the lab. Quickly taking out the aliens, the team got themselves into the elevator and got away to the upper levels in only 8 seconds left before the lab was destroyed! That was cool!

In another big area of the station, the team tried to tell the employers that they successfully destroyed the lab, but was betrayed and attacked in return. Feeling that they have no choice, they had to take down the employers and searching the rest of the station. The team found a lot of useful upgrades and became more skilled during the mission, talked to Mira to find out more and learnt more of the place and its' abilities, while sweeping the station for more Geth and thugs. Deeper into the station the team finally managed to track down the Asari-woman, which proved to be quite a formidable opponent using a unique weapon technology. With some clever skills and careful strategy to remain alive avoiding the deadly blast and taking the enemies one by one, the team successfully overpowered the Asari-woman and convinced here to reveal Sarens' plans and some important information about the Rachini-breeding and the weapon technology. At this part the Asari woman came to herself for a short while, only to be brainwashed by Sarens' voice in the head again. The team decided quickly to finish off the Asari-woman before being able to destroy the team with her skills, and remained close to take out the rest of the enemies in the room successfully. While defeated, the Asari woman slowly died and Stephard had a choice of either saving the Rachini race, promising freedom and peace in return, or to destroy the race. Stephard opted for the first choice and decide to save the race by freeing them, and was promised peace in return.

The team returned back to the Normady starship and had a meeting about what to do next. Stephard was contacted by the Counsil, which was not pleased of the fact that the Rachini race was saved and feared that they would attack again. Stephard convinced the Counsil that they would not attack again, and was only a victim of Sarens' brutal plan to breed a Geth army using genetic technology. The Counsil was at last relieved and wished Stephard good luck on his further mission. His next primary mission will be to find another woman who might have useful information on Sarens' whereabout and how to stop the Geth..

I might possible continue from this point, but firstly to do the submissions and some training in the Pinnacle Station before continueing with the main missions. That's all for now, folks!

Mass Effect i 1080p!!!

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Mass Effect er et stort rollespill som trolig er et av de beste spillene som noensinne er laget til Xbox 360. Jeg er så heldig å eie en Xbox 360 Elite, som er helt sort og har HDMI-kobling. Med Full HDTV er det mulig å spille spillet i hele 1920 x 1080p "progressive" modus!

Grafikken er virkelig en kapittel for seg selv, med kino-realistiske videosekvenser og animasjoner, for ikke å nevne den uovertrufne lyd og musikkvaliteten i spillet. De ekstra brettene "Bring Down The Sky" og "Pinnacle Station" gir spillet et rikere innhold og mer spenning, som man kan laste ned direkte fra XBox Game Marketsplace i Xbox Live-tjenesten!

Derimot er dette et spill som krever mye tålmodighet og som vil ta litt lang tid å fullføre. Spillet er ikke gjennomførbar på et par minutter til 2-3 timer. Det går iallefall minst flere uker før man har klart å fullføre spillet, avhengig av hvor mye tid man bruker per dag..

Nå har jeg da hørt at det jobbes på en Mass Effect 2, som trolig blir enda bedre og større, og skal være klar noen gang neste år, så det ser jeg virkelig frem til..

Hvem vet? Kanskje neste steg er spill i 2160p-modus, som er en del av den nye HDMI 1.4-standarden som vil entre markedet rundt 2010? Det gjenstår å se. Det skal bli spennende!

Inntil da får jeg bare si - Enjoy! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIFojY2Ceow

En vanlig søndag...

Her sitter jeg en vanlig søndag i mitt eget hjem. Middag med Thai Curry sauset kjøttdeig og spagetti er spist til middag og det var godt, og nå er jeg god og mett. For tiden oppholder jeg meg foran dataen og blar gjennom ulike sier og innslag. Prøver meg som blogger for første gang. Ja, det er noe nytt det også nå for tiden og tydeligvis veldig populært. Det vil ta tid før jeg klarer å sette meg helt inn i hva disse tingene går i, så det skal bli spennende å se etterhvert..

Ellers er ikke humøret helt på topp som det burde være. Vi beveger oss mot mørkere tider med kulde, senhøst som snart vil gå over til vinter og lange netter. Det er vel en del av livets syklus.

Enkelte personer kan virke sårende på en i måten de oppfører seg eller ved ren avvisning. Er i grunnen ikke fremmed for noe slikt, men er heller ikke den som godtar å bli tråkket på. Er en person som gir klar beskjed når jeg føler meg tråkket på..

Om en stund tror jeg at jeg vil spille på min XBox 360 Elite. Mass Effect syns å være et ganske så populær spill, og det er trolig et av de beste spillene som er utviklet for XBox 360. Grafikken er en kapittel for seg, likeså lyden og musikken, og i full HD-oppløsning, noe som er utrolig kjekt! Tør vi håpe på at XBox 360 vil støtte 2160p-modus når det entrer TV-markedet neste år? Det er lov å håpe :)

Da får dere ha en god søndag og finn på noe konstruktivt å gjøre :)