Mass Effect 2 is an awesome game. I’ve yet to find anyone who’ll say to the contrary. Metacritic, friends, and my most trusted reviewers have all universally praised the game. But are we really grasping the impact it will have on the landscape of gaming?
While the game has many merits – gorgeous graphics, excellent writing, overhauled mechanics – there is one I believe should be raised above all others: Mass Effect 2 is one of, if not the first games that has actually made the original better, a point I believe Arthur Gies made on a recent episode of Rebel FM.
Bioware has a lot of tales
to tell, that's the distinct impression I'm getting from Dragon Age's Online
Producer Fernando Melo. From the bloody swords and also bloody sorcery of the
DA universe to Mass Effect's cinematic space operas, Bioware's reasserted itself
as the torchbearer for Western role-playing games, with a design aesthetic
built on narrative above all. To paraphrase an Internet meme: My stories, let
me tell you them.
This new one, Awakening, is
the first to pick up where Dragon Age: Origins ended. Apparently the death of
the Archdemon didn't spell the end of the Darkspawn, and as that little issue
leads to a whole new adventure, you pick up a new party of compatriots and work
to rebuild the Grey Wardens along the way.
While Bioware isn't
specifying how long that adventure might be exactly, the $40 price tag (hefty
for a downloadable expansion) suggests pretty damn long. An EA spokesperson
claims "it rivals the length of most full games on the market today."
I had a chance to talk with
Melo about the Awakening project, the series' over-the-top gore, the
expansion's romantic prospects (dim), and much more....
I’m sure everyone has heard about the new Sonic game, Sonic 4. The recently unveiled images and leaked video of the game may illicit strong memories of nostalgia—be it from the standpoint of an old school Sonic fan and Sega Genesis owner back in the day, or a more douche bag form of nostalgia shared amongst Mario and Super Nintendo elitists due to the Mario games belonging to an admittedly higher quality of stock.
On Thursday, February 4th, the League of Kickass Business People, held a networking event titled GET IN THE GAME: WHY GAMING ISN’T JUST FOR GAMERS ANYMORE where attendees would find out how gaming is revolutionizing their business and the world from a panel led by Vancouver’s gaming industry leaders. The event discussed how gaming trends were shaping everything from customer experiences to community building, leadership training to team collaboration, simplified interfaces to communicating complexities - and how gaming’s impact will accelerate in the next decade. As a marketer with a keen interest in the video game industry, it piqued my interest enough to attend.
To clarify: Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (D.I.C.E.) is an annual conference, and Digital Illusions CE (DICE) is the developer of Battlefield: Bad Company 2. Unfortunately, no news of any video game concerning a die or dice is out today.
A forum user named "MazingerDUDE" at the NeoGAF website has concluded that the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy 13 does not render in a high-definition resolution, instead only reaching 576p.
By now, y'all should know the rules for our weekly head-scratcher Guess Who. But if you don't remember, it's okay, because, well, I didn't expect you to. I mean, I know it's hard to remember to guess the mystery game character below based on their five seemingly random clues. Hell, that's like reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Who the hell remembers that? Exactly. Wait, what were we talking about again?
Guess Who
1. I know you didn't ask, but I'll tell: In the Navy is my favorite Village People song.
2. Not to brag or anything, but I've been known to lift people off their feet. Gotta hand it to me -- I'm rather charming.
3. Y'know, I've always wondered: Where does one get a license to kill anyway?
4. Lost is my favorite television show. I hope Jack and company get off the island. Or is it stay on it? Decisions, decisions!
5. My father tells me I was a good boy growing up. But my mom disagrees. I wonder who's right. Or wrong. Or...hell, who cares?
Reading reviews for Assassin's Creed II, it might seem odd that so many players loved the game despite their lukewarm indifference to the original Assassin's Creed. The truth is, however, that it's a vastly different game from its predecessor. And not just regarding gameplay; Ubisoft Montreal has successfully engineered a game where architecture, geography, art, smithery, and history play big roles. Thus, it has done what no other game has – at least, with such grace.
With so many characters from the old games in Super Street Fighter 4, I'm surprised it's not called Street Fighter: 20th High School Reunion. Well, not that surprised.
Video Blips:
• Check out the nine new fighters coming to Super Street Fighter 4. Most of them are from older games -- technically only Juri is new -- but you know what I mean. [GameVideos]
The crowds gather for a midnight release of Modern Warfare 2. Money changes hands for the most anticipated game of the year, they get home rip it out of the shrink wrap and pop the game in. Then click straight on the multi-player option.
In the electrical class I took in High School, one of the areas in the course of the year was programming a little robot machine thing to do what I wanted. We had to work on the computer and put in every single concievable step of the process and then turn it over to the machine. Inevitably something would go wrong, and we'd have to stare at our program until we figured out what we had entered incorrectly.
It doesn't sound fun, but I really enjoyed the troubleshooting process. And that's probably why I enjoyed light-Bot so much. It is pretty much the exact same thing, just a bit more streamlined and user-friendly. You are tasked with entering each and every thing the robot is to do when you press go.
You want to light up every blue square, but once you get the hang of things, that will get much harder. Eventually you'll run out of space in your command box, and you'll have to get clever to complete the task. It'll probably get frustrating, but with an online flash game you have the out that I never did in High School; walkthroughs.
Most of us Bitmobbers have gathered in the chat room Sumptuous Gentlemen's Brigade. 1. The name amuses me, and 2. we need a default Bitmob chatroom. Come join us!
Uh oh, Shoe is on the leaderboard now. Given how well he is known for 360 achievements, I think everyone above him is in for trouble. He's going to slash his way through us in no time.
You can find more of my writing on music, movies, and more -- as well as those of other contributors like Bitmob's own Chris "Cosmo" Ross, Chris Whitehead, and Ultan O'Connel -- at Cerebral Pop.
Mega Man is my hero. I would follow him to the ends of gaming hell (as long as it's classic Mega Man and none of that X, Zero, or Battle Network stuff). This trailer of a Mega Man FPS deathmatch mod for Skulltag -- itself a sourceport of Doom 2 -- made my head explode. I'm still picking up the pieces of eyes, ears, and what was once my nose that now litter my keyboard:
Editor's note: A friendly reminder to those of you looking to put off your TPS reports just a little bit longer: Bitmob High Score Challenge: Canabalt edition is in full effect! What are you waiting for? Head over to Kongregate, log in, and start jumping for your life. Let's see if we can beat Jeff's score at the last second again. -Brett
The first week of the Bitmob High Score Challenge ended rather terribly. My score sat at the top of the pile going into the home stretch. Then Matt Giguere decided to be an ass and beat me at the last second.
Where: Kongregate (It's also available on
iPhone and iPod Touch. Just tweet your scores and link to them in the
comments if you think they're high enough.)
What You'll Win: Validation. Training for the inevitable giant robot attack. Bragging rights.
How to Join: Please feel free to become a part of this. There
is no special initiation, club, or dues that have to be paid. We want
as many people participating as possible. Just get a Kongregate account
-- if you don't have one already -- and put your info in the comments.
Check out the final Dolphin Olympics 2 leaderboard and details on the upcoming George Constanza Classic featuring Frogger after the break.
On Thursday, February 4th, the 
Reading reviews for Assassin's Creed II, it might seem odd that so many players loved the game despite their lukewarm indifference to the original Assassin's Creed. The truth is, however, that it's a vastly different game from its predecessor. And not just regarding gameplay; Ubisoft Montreal has successfully engineered a game where architecture, geography, art, smithery, and history play big roles. Thus, it has done what no other game has – at least, with such grace. 