The plot of ME is the plot, with very different skin, of Revelation Space. Which is an incredible novel from the early '00s. Revelation Space has the same theory of faster-than-light travel (the Mass Effect), has the ultimate threat that they are trying to escape is the same one as in Mass Effect,

Aha, yep, I was thinking, 'the only possible trump card he can throw down here which always wins is the "comics are too spacious" argument'.

Get it in paper man; then 20 years from now you can sell if for, like, £200! That is if you want to sell. I love comics in digital, but paper is unparalleled for sensuality and niceness.

Yep; shoguns, clans, villages: all definitely right! I just used emperors/ officials as examples. Really, they could spy for anyone.

It's suggested in the article that they were always official, or at least 'freelance'; the farmer thing was just disguise. The article goes on about how they would disguise themselves plainclothed, like detectives or CIA, in order to spy. It could be in cities or on farms, etc. They just tended to do farmers more…

It's suggested here that they were simply equivalent to the CIA or a secret service, but probably not centralized to an organisation like the 'CIA'. Basically the organisation they work for would be the government or the army.

I definitely agree with this; it ties with the basic tenet in any work of art that an element of mystery is key to utmost pleasure. If you know everything about what is going on or how well you are going to do, the fun is severely diminished. It's decimated. This is the main reason I prefer action-based games; you…

Oh, also, don't talk out against 'scripted and linear'. It doesn't matter how linear, or not, a game is; it just matters how well designed it is. If a linear game is designed well enough, it doesn't feel linear.

Cool story. And she's pretty damn good, save that mistep at the very start.

Yeah AC1 had some serious, serious problems. Problems that, it seems, are only just getting addressed with ACIII.

That's a good call. I'd argue that Far Cry 2 was more immersive in it's environment than player actions. It was more cinematic-immersive than gameplay-immersive. In something like Deus Ex, you certainly have a lot of options on what to do and how to upgrade stuff, but in Far Cry 2, you don't have too many of those…

It's the PS3 that's the base problem; and after that it's how well the programmers work around it.

I really, really prefer AC: Brotherhood to ACII. Has a much better world, refined gameplay, more challenge and interactivity.

Yeah, if the reviews are anywhere above decent I'll get this one, too.

Those things are frustrating until you look at them differently; as challenges to get you more immersed in the world. For example, the respawning checkpoints; I found it very fun after a while to see them as shooting, driving, sneaking, or avoiding challenges. Whatever I felt like doing, I did it.

I've been thinking about replaying it, too. I think once you know what the best kit is, and have your strategies, it'll be worth going through on Hard mode.

Yeah, that's fair. I found it fun, once irritated with checkpoints, just to either drive through them quickly as a driving challenge, sneak past them as a stealth challenge, or find a cool alternate route (in the second half of the map - yeah there's a huge second half which is much better than the first- I found…

Hmmm, that's an interesting standpoint. Pretty good shout. I'd argue that the main difference here is that those games you mention have largely RPG DNA, whereas FarCry 2 is unabashedly action. So the non-linear playground isn't in terms of dialogue and plot/ event choices, but simply action set piece choices. Which…

Yeah man, I feel you. It's just that, once you have a little bit of training in how pronunciation actually works, it's easy to get really, quickly frustrated at people discussing it with no frame of reference :P

No worries bud, really glad to help.