Now Playing: Mass Effect (Xbox 360)

Still working my way across the Traverse, I have slowly become side tracked by side missions (go figure!) and wound up driving around, planet-side the last day or so. I found some space monkeys and tried really hard not to shoot any of them, I went to the Moon to deal with a rogue A.I. and admire Earth, and now I’m out in uncharted territory looking for Geth bases. This lead Maxx and I to a little e-mail chat about the Mako and how, even though it’s a nightmare to drive and it flops all over the place uncontrollably, I still like driving it.

There’s something about the way it bumbles around that just makes me giggle and running over Geth is pretty hilarious. There’s also something about the terrain of these generic and feature-less lands that reminds me of the crusty old 3DO game, Off-World Interceptor. Watching the video above, though, it’s apparent that the similarities begin and end in my youthful memories. I remember, now, that Off-World was one of the first 3D games where I felt I was really driving around some big open desert world. You pretty much died if you weren’t on track and picking up Fuel but every now and then I’d shoot off the path and peek around the landscape before I exploded. I feel a lot of that same excitement any time I touch down in Mass Effect. I know I should be going straight for the goal… but that Anomaly is just over that hill. And, and there’s probably some unmarked debris right over there. That looks like a good spot for it!

For real, as soon as I finish off these Geth bases I’m going back to story missions hardcore. I’ve gotta rocket through this game and move on to the sequel before all the good stuff gets spoiled!