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.

Feature Analysis - Easter Eggs & References

Hey guys, sorry about the delay in content. Had a busy few days. 

Today I want to talk to you about Easter Eggs. I know Easter is coming up, by try not to link what I'm saying to chocolatey treats. You all probably know what I'm talking about but for those who don't - Easter Eggs in Games are messages, features or jokes the fans can relate to intentionally left by developers and they can be in the form of pretty much anything. They can be in game Items, locations, NPC Dialogue the list goes on.

Finding things like this always brings a smile to my face.

Many people have different opinions on what they consider an Easter Egg, some people consider Glitches and Cheats to be Easter eggs. But I prefer to think of them as little notes, references and personal touches left behind by the developers that are very hard to find. For example if you look to the right, we have an Image that fans of Bioware games will understand. The Image from Mass Effect 2 shows an Ogre from another one of their successful games - Dragon Age: Origins. People who had not played that game would be none the wiser when stumbling upon this, even Kasumi (an in game character in ME2) states 'I don't know what this is'.

There are also brilliant references to pop culture in many games, I mean just look at this list containing the currently known easter eggs in Skyrim, I'll admit, some are so subtle you think the person who discovered it is clutching at straws but others make you think "now that you mention it...". Bethesda pack their games full of these references, both the Fallout and Elder Scrolls series are full of them.

Rockstar games, the developers of the Grand Theft Auto series tend to have a more obvious method of letting players know that they've found an Easter egg. In GTA:III there is a sign on a wall you shouldn't be able to access saying 'You shouldn't be able to get here!', In Vice City, you can find a room with a chocolate Easter egg in the middle with 'Happy Easter' engraved on it and below is my personal favourite from San Andreas.

D'oh Rockstar, you so silly...

Easter eggs for me are always a welcome find, more often than not they're something that will make you smile, and its always nice to see the developers put that tiny bit more of effort in to give the fans another thing to talk about in their game and a way to make their fans happy.

If you fancy having a browse and seeing what Easter eggs are out there, eeggs.com has a compiled list of thousands of video game Easter eggdiscoveries. So what Easter eggs have you guys discovered? 

Screenshot of the Week - Misty Mass Effect Monster

When playing through ME2, this guy was just standing there in the mist... creepy.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Beta now Live

You heard it folks, the first phase of the Beta for the upcoming expansion for World of Warcraft has been announced as live on WoW's US website. I'm not sure how these things usually work, but i'm guessing this is an indication EU servers will also be getting access to the beta very soon, if not immediately.

MoP has boasted a new continent, a multitude of new features and an overhaul of old talent systems.

According to the official website, this first live beta only focus' on the starting zones of the new race - Pandaren, and you will have the ability to play through the zone and level a Pandaren from 1-10. As with usual betas for WoW, content will be released in a staggered manner as and when Blizzard feel it's ready for public testing and feedback. 

Blizzard have taken a new approach this time on who is invited to the beta. Firstly, the purchase of an annual pass not only secured you a copy of Diablo III (release date May 15th) but also a beta invite, meaning a lot of people who would usually not bother opting in have actually been given the chance to test the up and coming content. For more information and FAQ on the beta opt in, check this link. 

Mists of Pandaria seems like it will be full of great features and content, but will it be enough to bring millions of ex-subscribers (myself included) back to the game, well, only time will tell.

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.

Dark Souls set for PC release?

Well, some breaking news today, news that I am hoping to be true.

While nothing has been confirmed yet, it seems very likely a PC port is coming.

Namco Bandai Games & From Software's action RPG title may be getting a PC port very soon. The rumours spread today after an image was spotted in Australia's PC powerplay magazine (below) and the twitter account of Rich Bantegui - Namco Bandai Games' community manager (above).

Fans of the game immediately identified this was
from the difficult title.

The lure of Dark Souls for many gamers is that it is a very hard game, reminiscent of 'old school nintendo' style difficulty, something that many games tend to avoid by providing a multitude of different difficulty settings. The game recieved excellent reviews and is very popular among the console gaming community, which is why I am looking forward to seeing it come to the PC.

Suited for more hardcore players, you will most likely find yourself dying a lot more than winning in this game. something I've been looking for in a game for a while. Whilst I do like to play the easy going games, more often than not I prefer to play my first play through on a difficulty above normal. 

So this is another piece of news I'll be keeping an eye one as it progresses, I really do hope the PC port goes ahead, another Action RPG title is always welcome in my gaming library.

Man, it does look awesome, too.

Feature Analysis - Autosave

'Ohh this dungeon is creepy' *Clink* *SLAM* *SPLAT* - Dead.

'I can kill this boss... oh f*** he's tough' *Boom* - Dead

'Oh damn it, game froze, I'll have to crash it'

These situations are annoying enough without ending up half an hours worth of game time backwards purely because you forgot to save or because the game offers no decent auto-save feature. It's likely something every gamer has experienced at least once or twice and many gamers probably have this happen to them more times than they'd like to admit and it's a hell of a pain.

After playing a few different games recently I've noticed the multiple different methods games implement auto-save features. Some are a pain, some are brilliant and some don't even have it! so I'm going to have a look at those I prefer and why.

Firstly Bethesda's system in their RPG's. This system saves the game when entering a new area, it doesn't matter how far in the area you are it will just save at the start of it. While this is a nice method on an easy difficulty, when playing on a harder setting this can be a huge pain. You can spend a good half hour progressing through a cave/vault/barrow barely surviving and then something you aren't prepared for hops out and kills you,  effectively wiping the last 30 minutes of progress. Like I said on an easy setting this is great (because to be honest it's quite tricky to die on easy in both Fallout & Skyrim in my opinion), but when playing on Very hard/Master you need to get in the habit of quicksaving... like every couple of minutes. Fun eh?

Shepard's Game just crashed. He hasn't been quicksaving.

The second system that bugged the hell out of me was Mass Effect 1's auto-save system. To me the points where this would save seemed completely random. Sometimes it would save at certain defining points in the story and at others it wouldn't. Occasionally it would save when entering a new area, but again, other times it wouldn't. I probably lost around 2 hours on my first playthrough purely because I wasn't quicksaving as often as I could and didn't realise how far back the previous auto-save was. However in Mass effect 2 & 3 this issue was resolved with frequent autosaves which was a very pleasant surprise. 

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning also includes a nice and frequent autosave system similar to the frequency in Mass Effect 2, however due to dying rarely in that game (I only played it on normal so far) it's hard to tell if the saves were frequent or I just didn't notice a bad disparity due to a lack of deaths.

One of these was always
a welcome sight in FFVII

Many older games don't even bother with auto-saves and even go as far as only having designated save points... that's right final fantasy, I'm looking at you. Now I'm not sure if this is still the cas in FFXIII and FFXIII-2, but in all the older titles, you are required to visit a save point to save. This isn't as annoying as you would think, purely because it is such an established mechanic in Final Fantasy, and your play eventually compensates for it, e.g. making sure you are stocked up on potions and your group is healed, taking breaks when you get to save points etc.

Many genres of games don't implement autosave whatsoever, RTS games such as Battle for Middle Earth rarely include such a feature in their single player campaigns however death isn't as sudden in these types of games and you can predict when saving is necessary, I guess it would also be hard to define when a good point to save would be in these types of games. Some RTS games do include it but to me it seems like an unnecessary feature in this genre.

In my opinion Autosaves should be included in Action RPG's and FPS games, and they should be frequent. they are only really needed in games where death can be sudden an unexpected, Turn based and many Japanese RPG's will usually put a save point before dangerous bosses anyway. It's good to get into the habit of quicksaving frequently or just saving but with many games I could go without the tedium.