Brief Hiatus

Hey Guys,

As you've probably noticed, I haven't posted any updates for a while. This is primarily due to a heavy workload and a lot of stuff going on IRL (in real life - for those of you who aren't familiar with the acronym).

I hope to resume writing sometime soon, but for now I'm still on a bit of a break.

In the mean time, here are some of the larger news stories to break while I have been away:

• Mass Effect 3 Extended cut DLC announced
• Bethesda announce a new game - Dishonored
• Dark Souls confirmed for a PC port!

There are a few more, less important stories to break but I think the above three have gamers the most excited / interested. I wish I could find time to write an in depth article for each news story, but finding time is tricky.

Expect regular posts sometime soon guys, I will return!

Thanks,

Joe

Bioware respond to Cupcake Craziness

If you remember, on Tuesday I wrote about the fans protesting Mass effect 3's ending in a rather unique fashion. Last night (for those of us in Europe), Bioware responded to the mad idea in, I must say, a rather humorous fashion. Bioware decided instead of going with the 3 options given to them, they would proceed to select their own fourth option in the form of donating them to charity. Ah, the irony.

The cupcakes actually look rather delicious.

I know there are quite a few fans out there who are angry with this decision, but you have to give credit where it's due. And those complaining about their decision are acting a bit hypocritical; I mean Bioware gave us 3 endings to ME3, we chose a fourth - complain and protest. Fans gave Bioware 3 options, they chose a fourth - donate to charity.

With so many hopping on the EA hate bandwagon and others acting like complete babies about the ending fiasco, they really are starting to make me get annoyed with the ME3 fan community. Saying a kind word about the ending or about EA or Bioware on the internet can get you floods of rage from angry forum users of late. Don't get me wrong, they're only a minority, the majority are forming well-produced and thought out criticism and providing accurate feedback regarding the ending.

But anyway, I digress... Just wanted to let you guys know about this as it definitely made me smile!

Up and Coming: SimCity

Happy Friday eve everyone! I'm going to be looking at something a little different today, rather than the usual Action RPG games I ramble on about. Today I'm going to be having a look into EA Maxis' next instalment in their much loved SimCity Series. 

Just looking at this screen cap makes
me want to play this game again.

Personally, the last SimCity I played was SimCity 3000 back when I was around 9, I remember getting it fairly close to the release date in 1999 and, boy, did I spent countless hours building up huge metropolis' only to plague them with earthquakes and other natural disasters (Space Junk was a barrel of laughs). But for some reason SimCity 4 flew under the radar. I think this may have been because at the time I was playing my consoles more frequently, but who knows?

So after looking at what SimCity (5) has to offer, I was rather impressed, along with heavy graphical improvements and the features from the older games will likely be included, there will be a lot more being implemented such as resource gathering playing an important part; Senior software engineer at EA Maxis Dan Moskowitz has stated, "If you've built up an entire city on the economic basis of extracting a certain resource, when that resource runs out your economy will collapse.".

Online play is another feature that is being added, which will allow you and your friends to build up a region of cities which sounds pretty awesome. But recent complaints have spawned from critics about this, why you ask? Well... to start up the game you will require an Internet connection. While for many of us having a stable, broadband, Internet connection seems like a standard amenity, many people without will not be able to play at all. Once the game has started, you won't get booted from the game, which I guess is some good news for those who use dial-up still, or have a very shaky connection. But still if your internet is down you can't play a local game...? That just doesn't make sense EA!

With a Simulation Engine called
'Glassbox' fans are expecting good things!

On the plus side however it has been announced by maxis that modding will be supported in this game, which is awesome for any PC game out there. If there are bugs, you can be pretty sure some modders out there will make a fix or a workaround. Also, the amount of fun cosmetic stuff the gaming community comes up with is astounding, so this was definitely a step in the right direction.

A new dynamic simulation engine is also being incorporated into SimCity which sounds interesting, simmed units dynamically and randomly creating traffic jams whilst they actually travel around town or to work, now that's attention to detail! Especially considering that many people will be hoping to build cities with populations in the hundreds of thousands.

As for release date, all that has been stated is that it will be a 2013 release, so I guess we'll have to be patient for a year, but this game has definitely piqued my curiosity and will be a game I'd love to invest in when it gets released. But for now I will leave you with the announcement video, enjoy!

Mass Effect fans protest ME3 endings with cupcakes.

So a former WoW guildie, one of the co-authors of drunk tank informed me that there has been another method of protest against the Mass Effect 3 endings. I am rather glad she informed me of this as it is rather hilarious.

As a note THIS MAY GIVE AWAY SOME OF THE ENDING STRUCTURE OF MASS EFFECT THREE - You were warned.

Basically, the player who started the campaign has raised over $1000 in a matter of hours to fund the creation of 402 custom cupcakes (three distinct colours to match the three ending choices) to Biowares offices in Edmonton in Canada. The cupcakes will also bear the message "No matter what colour you choose, they all taste the same!" - A pun referring to the distinct lack of difference between the available endings in ME3.

Some more info:

The thread that started the campaign: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10658883

The site that collected the funds for the order: http://retakeme3cupcakes.chipin.com/retakeme3-cupcake-campaign

And the receipt of the order: http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/2883/invoice.jpg

I'm personally astounded by the power of the internet, over $1000 donated in mere hours. I'm also suprised by the resolve of these fans willing to show how they feel even after Bioware announced they will be working to make extra content available, Fans definitely want more, and they aren't afraid to make bold (and brilliant) statements such as this.

Dr. Ray Muzyka, Co-Founder of Bioware addresses ME3 players.

Dr. Ray Muzyka has today addressed the fanbase of the Mass Effect series regarding the ongoing controversy surrounding Mass Effect 3's ending. His statement has no confirmation whether or not the ending will be expanded upon or changed, but he does mention that more information will follow throughout April.

Make what you will of the article found here. I for one am somewhat indifferent as to whether more content or a better ending is released, if it is - great! If it isn't - I can live with that too. As I think I've said in a previous article, I just want more information on what happens to the squad and the rest galaxy after the dying moments of ME3.

Bitter After Taste - Unexpected endings.

BEFORE YOU READ, BE ADVISED MAJOR SPOILERS WILL BE IN THIS POST. YOU WERE WARNED.

So as most  people who keep an eye on the gaming community know, a lot of people were really disappointed with Mass Effect 3's ending. So much so that there has been a massive outcry from the community calling for a change in the ending, even raising $66,548 (£41,998) so far for charity in a petition for Alternate endings to be added. So what makes some game endings so hated?

Shepard's last adventure is a pretty entertaining ride.

For Mass Effect 3 at least it seems that fans were annoyed by a number of different things. And rather than write a garbled summary of what the majority of fans think - A player has compiled a good, easy to read list of what many think are wrong with the ending which you can find here.

I managed to play through ME3 this weekend and personally, I didn't think the ending was terrible. I Just thought it lacked substance, and left me with far too many questions as to what happens next, I like detailed epilogues at the end of games and Mass Effect 3's was all too brief, there was no description or anything showing what happened to everyone else after the war. Also, it seems the choices you make throughout the game have very little to no effect on the ending which seems rather different from the previous two titles. That being said, ME3 for me was a very enjoyable game, sure the ending was a bit of a let down but the journey to it was amazing.

I definitely felt a tad less manly after playing through
FFX-2, at lest there was a bit of virtual eye-candy.

There have been other games that have also let me down in terms of an ending, Final Fantasy 10 being one that springs to mind. However I think this let me down because I was expecting a happier ending for Tidus (main character). After the effort he puts in throughout the storyling to save not only Yuna (love interest) but Spira (the planet he's on) as well, I would have thought there would be a chance he wouldn't dissapear. I wouldn't call it a bad ending. I think it just took me by surprise.

However a couple of years after a sequel was released giving players a chance to continue Yuna's story in Spira. Personally I bought it and played through purely for the story. The game itself was no where near as entertaining as it's predecessor and had a 'Teen Girl' feel to it as your levelling system was pretty much dressing up the 3 female (and only available) characters for different abilities, with a happy and colorful world and cutesy cut-scenes. I only powered through to see if it was possible to change Tidus' fate (and you could for an 100% clear or 'perfect' ending). While it was nice to see that ending, I felt that FFX-2 was a very disappointing sequel.

Fallout 3 was another one that had a peculiar finish to it. Resulting in your player (apparently) dying from radiation or sacrificing another to do it in his stead. However, during the storyline you acquire a super mutant follower which could have done the task without death but it wasn't an available option. Many fans were rather disappointed by the death of their player, so Bethesda released DLC that gave closure to what happened after your character after this scene. That's right, they bought your player back from the dead. And many fans happily paid for the DLC.

Broken Steel allowed you to continue the story after that which was released with the vanilla version.

So this made me think that DLC's and unexpected sequels are a great (albeit somewhat underhanded) way for gaming companies to squeeze some extra cash from you, and with games that you invested a lot of time in, many players won't even think twice about spending £10 to find out if their beloved character has a future. To be honest I won't be surprised at all if extra ending related DLC is released for Mass Effect 3 - and personally, I'd probably buy it in the vein hope Shepard is ok. It seems that most players tend to want their characters to survive, and it's only really in games with endings that your character dies or disappears that gamers seem to get their feathers ruffled about.

I don't get that annoyed about sad endings, but I honestly much prefer the scenario where my hero saves the world and gets to see the fruits of his labours in a new happy future. So what about you guys? Do you get annoyed when your character dies a hero? or are you happy he managed to complete his task? what is your Ideal ending?

Release Day DLC?

Gaming faux pas or playtime for the privileged? With EA/Biowares recent decision to add some pretty gnarly DLC to ME3's collectors edition or available for separate purchase on the day of release, many gamers are outraged by this decision.

For those of you who aren't sure about what I'm talking about here, I'll try to summarise:
On the release day of Mass Effect 3, downloadable content available at an extra cost or with the collectors edition (which is of course more expensive than the standard version) was made purchaseable, which includes a new squad member and new looks for all the existing members - nice features but also in the opinion of many gamers story changing features.

Source: Metacritic

As you can see on the image the right, whilst achieving a good critical review by those in the industry, ME3 - more specifically EA/Biowaare has clearly pissed off the gaming community by pulling this stunt for more cash.

And that is what it is, and had the community not been so outraged, it would have been a successful business strategy. EA knew that the gaming community that have invested in their previous ME titles would most likely opt to buy the DLC, however I don't think they expected the sheer amount of rage that has been expressed since the release of both ME3 and ME3: From Ashes DLC which has caused an outcry from many gaming critics and even resulted in many trying to boycott the game.

People, myself included, expect content that is completed by the games official release date to be included in the standard game, with a couple of neat features (but nothing game changing) in the collectors edition. EA have definitely screwed up here, had they given a few months before releasing it, gamers would have been none the wiser and invested in it with no argument, but their radical plan to do it on release was just stupid and whilst they have likely made a lot of money through ME3 and the DLC, I think it's a safe bet to say that they probably didn't make anywhere near as much as they had hoped.

I have to say though, I do agree with Nintendo's philosophy on DLC, they want their released games to offer the gamer 'the complete package' and that's something that many producers should think, but with the willingness of gamers to purchase DLC it seems as if you are missing a trick if you don't jump on the boat. Personally I have rarely bought DLC and most of the time it has been in an 'Ultimate Edition' bundle with the game itself.

I miss the times when you bought a game, then half a year later the expansion pack came out...