Mass Effect: The K-Pop Space Diva Edition

So finally, I've cleaned up May Lee Shepard's text and re-uploaded it.  Read it here!

Mass Effect 3, Origin Cloud and Wine

So, I had installed Mass Effect 3 on my Windows Vista laptop and also on my Wine Linux box and I decided to use Origin cloud to sync up everything so I could play on the go on the laptop and at the Linux box when I'm around.  On Vista, it picked up my Mass Effect 3 saves from Wine, no problem.  Apparently, I had issues when I was syncing my saves back to the Wine box.  At first, I simply chalked it up to Wine's own deficiencies and moved on.  When I went around to copying my saves from the Vista laptop to my Wine box however, I noticed that all the files touched by Origin's cloud save on Wine had 000 file permissions.  I also checked that the files were of the same size as the Vista files I copied.

I infer that this means the cloud sync actually worked but only the file permissions were goofed up.  Next time, I will try to simply chmod this.  As an additional side note, cloud syncing on Wine only works when launching Mass Effect 3 since Origin in Wine cannot detect when the game is finished running to sync back the progress.  The only way around this is to exit Origin, then restart again.

Wine-ing About Everything

So, the past few weeks of using Wine was interesting to say the least.  I had not realized how big this post was going to be until it was all done, so I'm putting this all after the jump!

Mass Effect 2 and Screenshots

I wrapped up Mass Effect 1 yesterday and it was an interesting journey after playing Mass Effect 3 so many times and knowing much of the reveals.  I was going to move to playing Mass Effect 2 on my Linux box through Wine, but for some reason, it just wouldn't work.  I suspect it's because of Origin's activation thing that is tripping up, but after fighting with this for hours, I decided to install it right back on my old Vista laptop.

The next issue I had to fight with was the screenshot taking.  I used this forum thread to help.  To make things brief, what you need is to download the ME2CoalescedEditor and point it to your installed Mass Effect 2 path.  Then go to the BindingsManager, select the key to use (I used F12) at the bottom left panel, then select "Add New".  Type in 'Shot' (capitalizations don't matter, I think) on the command so it looks like:

Bindings=( Name="F12",Command="Shot")

Then, look for the BIOInput tab on the left side tabs and the following trees:

• SFXGameNodeConversation
• SFXGameNodeCinematics

Right click and then select Add Settings, then new single setting.  Paste the command above and then exit the editor (it automatically saves the changes).

There are two screenshot folders in Mass Effect 2.  The Bioware/Mass Effect 2/ScreenShots/ is always empty.  All screenshots go to Bioware/Mass Effect 2/BIOGame/Screenshots/.

Using Origin on Wine is BAD NEWS... maybe not?

It seems that most of the issues with this are due to the fiber optic line that broke causing internet issues and DLC authorization errors.  Make sure that all Origin executables on Windows is in your antivirus/firewall exception list.

I'll keep this brief. Over the past days, I had issues with Origin when playing Mass Effect 3 online where connectivity is just shot. I would get errors where Origin would complain not having internet connection.  Mass Effect 3 wouldn't go online either which caused DLC authorization errors.

As it turns out, I started logging into Origin using my Wine install and I noticed doing this would create connection issues on Origin. Once it all got sorted on Windows, using it was fine. So, I deleted Origin on my Wine install. Never again.

May Lee Shepard

Reposted here.

Having left the wikia community.  The profile is gone.  I may re-post it here some day.

I had fun doing this in the Mass Effect wikia.  Hope you enjoy this profile.

Mass Effect 3's Endings

Yes, I'm late to the party.  Chances are, people have moved on and many others were angry.  With limited exposure to the Mass Effect series, I looked into the original cut endings on Youtube and remembered how random it all looked and felt.  It just ended and there was little of anything in it.  It was so unsatisfying, but I also pointed out that without the actual journey, the ending would be likely meaningless.  BioWare eventually came out with the Extended Cut release and the endings there were much lengthier and more effectively rounded out the ending.  It was much better when compared to the original cut, but without the journey, it would be difficult to understand the experience.

Random Thoughts: Wii U and the Thomson Tablet

I find myself surprised at how addictive Mass Effect 3's multiplayer is.  The singleplayer story has been a great ride, but I had no plans on ever dabbling on the multiplayer part.  It seems to be very well designed in that it makes the game very hard to put down.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about New Super Mario Bros. U.

For a Mario game, I found myself slowly loathing the game the farther I got into the game.  The levels turn into a total drag to play and the Luigi Super Guide is just not a fun way of pushing the game forward when you've hit your limit.  Alas, my nephew loves the game, so I am forced to tolerate this drivel of a game.

Just got a new Android tablet called Thomson M6.  Here's some pics of the box.

Specifications

Thomson M6

It seems to be a Chinese OEM tablet released in Australia and New Zealand.  After all, how else can the NZ Herald Times app be preinstalled in this?  For a cheap 7" tablet, I found the fact it was dual core very attractive.  The tablet is plenty zippy and it also comes with Google Play Store.  Strangely, it didn't have Google Play Services which seems to be required for apps like Youtube.  You can install it via Play Store though so it shouldn't be much of an issue.

There are two main downsides to this tablet.  First is the screen.  The touch is just plain weird as it sometimes registers incorrect gestures.  Dragging icons seems to be very difficult on this tablet.  The LCD screen also suffers from colour loss when viewed from an angle.  Truly not one of its shining moments.  The second is the battery life which really sucks up fast.

Over all, it seems to be okay.  Doesn't hit all the bells, but for a cheap price tag, that is to be expected.

Playing Sims 3 on Origin Offline

I'll keep this brief.  I lost my internet connectivity all morning and thought it was a good time to test Origin and Sims 3.  All that I've seen online suggests that Sims 3 will only work online due to Origin's insistence of logging in when running the game.  So when I ran Origin, it gave me a login window and a note that Origin was not available (due to the internet).  I logged in anyway, and then Origin went to my library but also setting the client to Offline mode.  I was able to launch Sims 3 and Mass Effect 2 like this without issues.

A small note on Mass Effect... you will not be able to connect to the Cerberus Network.  You will get an error message but you'll be able to load your save just fine.

F You EA...

Once upon a time, I chuckled over the news that Electronic Arts was named 'Worst Company' by Consumerist Readers for a second year in a row. Over blown? At the time, I would think so, yes. My first hand experience leads me to believe that there's more truth to this than I originally expected.

This all started with me downloading Mass Effect 2 on Origin Games. The game started without much issues but when I attempted to register the product code to BioWare's social community website, the code was rejected. Not much of a big deal, but I figured I could slip in a ticket to see if EA could lend some assistance while I plow through the game. Looking back, I probably should never have.

EA did come back with a response and after a few back and forth response and some verification questions answered, they supplied me with a new product code that BioWare's site happily accepted. What I did not realize was that they had added another copy of Mass Effect 2 in my Origin account. What's the big deal? Lots.

This new copy was wrecking havoc with the license activation in my laptop. When I launch the game, I am greeted with this "Invalid License Reason Code = Invalid Cipher (0x0006)". Well, isn't that nice?

I scoured the web for solutions. I also reopened my ticket with EA pertaining to this issue and the only thing they did was delete the ticket. Yes. Delete. Gone. Needless to say, I was infuriated by their actions and submitted another ticket. That one did not fare any better as EA just decided to close the ticket with an empty promise of coming back to me with 'expert' assistance.

I've found out that EA holds its license files at C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EA Services\License\*.dlf.  I've tried deleting the dlf file and repairing install but to no avail.  I also went through the trouble of redownloading the game which failed to make any difference.  Finally, I had a eureka moment when I realized I was doing all this hullabaloo with the new and faulty Mass Effect 2 copy.

I shut down Origin.  I deleted the dlf file.  Turned Origin back on and then used the old Mass Effect 2 game and repaired the install.  It threw a couple of errors a couple of times before finally working.  The game downloaded an additional 60 MB of which I have no idea what they are.  Then, the game started.

No thanks, EA.  Your help site is convoluted and crappy.  Your assistance broke more than fixed things.  I... FIXED my problem.

Some ramblings...

Just a few things.  The stock gallery in Android really sucks.  When I finally got a microSDHC and moved all my photos and videos, this stupid app kept re-scanning the card and inserting duplicate thumbnail entries for each picture and video there.  Talk about stupid stuff.  I learned a few things on the Acer Tablet Forum.  Putting in the .nomedia file in the folder means that the apps (at least ones I've checked) will ignore this and treat it like there's no media files in there.  Second, from Settings > App > All, I can select Gallery and tap on Disable to turn the damn app off.  Lastly, I installed QuickPic which proved to be so much better.

On Sims FreePlay, if you need your Sim to go to work with low hygiene for that 1 LP reward, just send the sim to kick his own trash can and clean up that mess repeatedly.  Kicking a friend's trash can means hurting the relationship.

Mass Effect Infiltrator should not have had any walking parts in the actual combat.

Mass Effect 3 Demo and Wine - Does not work

I did a few tricks with Origin and played around with the install. Wine can run Mass Effect 3, but unfortunately, Mass Effect 3 requires Origin to play and will always say Origin is not running and thus forcing Mass Effect 3 to close. You can get all the way to the EA logo video and to the main menu. The game also tries to download an update but it does not seem to work. Oh well.

Mass Effect 3 Demo and Wine

I did try it via Origin on Wine and the install doesn't work. As far as I can tell, the installer fails when it's trying to install nVIDIA Physx redistributable package even though I already have Physx installed. I'm not sure if installing games works on Origin via Wine since I copied my Sims 3 Teaser install from an XP box. I think that's going to be how I will try to get Mass Effect 3 working.

Mass Effect 2 Demo and Wine: Getting there...

Am I a stubborn guy or what? I read a little bit about the issues and possible fix when I saw this forum discussion and a possible mouse hack patch for an older version of Wine (1.1.x). Here is the original patch.

I poked through the dinput.dll code and figured I should be updating the patch. I am 100% sure WineHq will not be accepting mouse hacks into their source so I don't think it will be of any good to submit it (Let me know otherwise).

Here is the patch From Pastebin With Love.

Nothing changed...

I suppose my Xorg version is too old. Compiling this new wine version didn't do anything at all.

Backporting Wine with Xinput2

I had problems backporting wine (still 1.3.33) with xinput 2. It seems to be what is called the Xmd.h inclusion bug (conflicting datatype declarations) and after a bit of reading, I couldn't make sense why this wouldn't work now. After digging up and trying to run the make on winex11drv to see what was happening, it turns out it's missing the libXext package. I slipped that in and everything built just fine. Now to see how mouse support is going.

Mouse woes with Mass Effect 2

It's a pretty well-documented problem. I've read that Xinput2 should have the proper extensions for mouse tracking which is at the heart of this issue. DirectX uses relative mouse movements while Xorg supports only absolute mouse movements.

Hopefully by installing the update to libxi (and others) proper mouse support can finally happen. Playing Mass Effect 2 with the mouse glitch and manually recentering the mouse cursor is not fun.