Mass Effect Redeption Comic Preview

As the months fly by we are fast approaching the release of Mass Effect 2. We are closer approaching the release of the first issue of the Mass Effect: Redemption comic book series. The series is being co-written by Mac Walters and Jack Johnson Miller and the first issue drops on January 6th of 2010. For now though Dark Horse Comics have released a preview of the first seven pages to Comic Book Resources. You can find the preview here.

It looks to be an interesting series that follows Dr. Liara T'Soni on a deadly mission through the Terminus Systems. It is a promised must read so I MUST READ it. Post thoughts in the comments.

Mass Effect Pinnacle Station DLC Released!

I had not made a post about this but Mass Effect has been expecting a piece of DLC since the Bring Down the Sky mission. Today along with the new avatar clothes and a new theme, the oft rumored Pinnacle Station DLC has finally been realeased!

At this point I honestly do not know what to say about it other than I am severely torn as to what to do right now. I just brought home Batman: Arkham Asylum last night but this is a fresh piece of ME DLC.

Advice, NOW, in the comments!

Bioware reveals new character for Mass Effect 2 - Grunt, "An irrationaly violent krogan"

So hot off of last week we also have this awesome awesome preview of another new character from Mass Effect 2.



Every time I think that this game slips into the back of my mind Bioware brings the game surging to my senses with a vengeance. Obviously, from the videos, everything about this game looks perfect but the trailers from the first game captured that aspect as well and we all know how that turned out.

What these new trailers have that ME1 trailers did not seem to have is a sense of urgency. This game feels like it is going to always be epic and grandiose and I have no doubt that it is going to feel like an unforgettable roller coaster ride.

Grunt looks cool enough though he may be a bit too similar to Wrex even though Grunt's head looks smaller and roundish. Grunt's voice is scratchy like Wrex's (looks like a species of smokers) but Grunt seems shorter in comparison to Wrex. If you have not already asked yourself the question, yes, I really am comparing the two.

I am curious to see if the selection of teammates that one can have in their party is much larger than the original's five party members.

But I suppose if none of that interests you, you could always go check out the Mass Effect clothing for your avatar.

Mass Effect is coming to the comic universe with Mass Effect: Redemption

I consider myself to be a casual fan of comic books so naturally when my favorite video game of this generation has a comic coming out based upon its universe it is natural for me to be ecstatic about it and thus find the need to let you know about it.

Mass Effect: Redemption will fill in some of the gaps between the first and the second game and will specifically follow Commander Shepard and Dr. Liara T'Soni after they become separated from the Normandy and its crew.

The first issue hits shelves January 6, 2010. Mark your calendars I am sure it will not be as disappointing as Mass Effect Galaxy was.

In addition to the Mass Effect comic news The Guild is also coming to comics - also by Dark Horse - and it plans to follow the Guildies on some of their in game adventures.

Mass Effect Galaxy Review

Let's quickly establish how big of a Mass Effect fanboy I am. I am a huge Mass Effect fanboy.

With that said I was surprised with the high production values that this game had. It looks like Bioware had their hands in this (okay maybe just one hand). The stylized cut scenes are worth playing the game for alone. The story is your basic, run of mill, "Batarians are trying to take down the Citadel," type of story and it is funny because the Batarian ambassador, who we are introduced to rather quickly, looks like a stuffed animal (but perhaps that was the point).

You then, quickly, get into the combat and realize that what you are playing is a high production value cell phone game. Everything has nice animations and it works well but it is the same rinse and repeat gameplay throughout the entire game.

The combat takes place in "combat scenes" where you must kill every enemy in order to pass through to the next one or to the next conversation. You typically get 3-5 combat screens before you get to your next conversation (I would honestly take a stab at it and say that there are probably only about 25-30 combat screens in the entire game).

The gameplay is not hard (it might take you five minutes to learn how to play) and I only died about 4 or 5 times throughout the game and that was just because I was seeing how far I could push Jacob.

All of this is not to say that I did not have fun while playing the combat scenes but I do not see myself playing this more than once more. It is missing the addictive driving point that most addictive cell phone games have and in the end the entire game might take you anywhere between 2-4 hours to complete [and 4 hours is being pretty generous].

Other than the cut scenes the other place where the game shines are the conversation pieces. Usually you are given between 3-5 different things to say and they all have varying responses (ala ME1). Your facial expression changes based on each selection and you can also avoid conflicts based on what you say (also akin to ME1). But like everything else in the game, it still feels watered down. You can threaten people or you can be their saving grace but in the end it is all for naught because there are no Paragon or Renegade attributes rewarded. Essentially you could tap through all of the conversation pieces, without changing anything you say, and you would end up with the same ending that I recieved.

Ending Thoughts: The game was fun enough to play and I'll get my five bucks worth out of it, if just for the reward that it gives you for Mass Effect 2, but overall it was disappointing. I didn't go into it expecting to be disappointed but at the very least there was some decent addition to the Batarian (albeit very short (maybe the length of one or two Sci-Fi book chapters)) backstory. Only the hardest of core Mass Effect fans need apply and still then you are stretching it pretty thin. I have read both books and played through the game 4 times and I still think that this game was bare bones (very pretty bare bones).

"Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt."

Bioware's Twitter hints at more ME1 DLC (finally)

If you did not know that I have an unhealthy obsession with Mass Effect by now (I just beat the game for a fourth time yesterday and already started a new character) then you:

1. Don't care.
2. Don't really read this blog or more specifically Mass Effect posts.
3. You are a new reader.

So naturally when some nameless company mentions on Twitter that a Mass Effect DLC announcement could be forthcoming in the next week I might be inclined to be excited. I was going to save another playthrough for later this year but it looks as though it might be coming later this week.

This is really a long rumored piece of content and I really hope it is worth all of the hype (does anyone remember when Bioware added a planet to KOTOR as DLC but never did anything with it, well this is feeling the same way). If it is this fight club thing that has been talking about, I do not know how I will feel about it. I do think that I will probably end up being disappointed but in the end I'll just have another excuse to play Mass Effect again sooner - which for me is never a bad thing.

Game Diary: June 22, 2009: Another Week

I promise you that the blog did not go anywhere. It is still here in grand fashion but I have not yet adjusted to my new work schedule so I have not been on my computer at all for the past week or so. The RSS feeds are stacking up and I need to find a way to catch up - pronto. This will be my third week with this schedule so with any fortitude on my part we should return to some semblance of a normal post schedule (at the very least one a day).


This week I - barely - worked on Mass Effect but I did finally manage to nab the Krogan and Sentinel Ally achievements which puts me at 955 (gamerscore) for the game so far. I am at the very end of the game so hopefully I can manage to nab the Assault Rifle Expert achievement. The reason I have not nabbed it earlier is because I was thinking that since I am not proficient in the weapon then why should I even try. Then someone at work told me that just because I am not proficient in it did not mean that I could not try for it. This is true apparently although I will not be that upset if I do not get the achievement on this playthrough.

The other game that I have been playing is Ghostbusters: The Video Game. Right before I started playing I prepped myself by watching the first movie for the gajillionth time. So far everything in the game feels so right from catching ghosts to the time relevant Doritos vending machines (the old bag, not the new ones). I plan on writing some sort of review when I finish so look out for that.

Game Diary: June 15, 2009: In Which the Author Accidentally Goes on Hiatus

This is quite possibly the longest silence that you have endured from me and as usual I apologize for neglecting you - the dear reader. Real life gets in the way.

The last bit of anything gaming related (be it news or actually playing) that took place for me was when I played Mass Effect last Tuesday. I know that I am going a week here and it looks like it will be a week because I have no plans time to play today. I have honestly not even had time to acknowledge the fact that I hadn't been playing. I did touch on 1 vs. 100 extended play sometime last week but nothing more than answering a few questions here and there. I'll get my full impressions up when I get the chance to play it live.

However, last Tuesday was still quite enjoyable. It was the longest stint of playing Mass Effect on the current playthrough. I finished up at least half of the side quests that the game throws at you and I am feeling sufficiently confident that just playing through the main story line at this point will be enough to net me the achievements for completing the majority of the game with Kaiden and Wrex. I have also been chatting up Kaiden seeing as I am playing through with a female character and I suppose that is going well despite the fact that he is always jealous of my happenings with Liara. Something about that blue skin... Ahem.

Still, after this playthrough, I will need a final one to net the remaining achievements for the game. It will be my first 100% gamerscore on a retail game and I figured it will do justice for my love of the game. I will have played through five times after all is said and done - whew. I will save my last playthrough for the end of this year/beginning of 2010 so as to be fresh for ME2.

I had the privilege of reading OXM's big story on Mass Effect 2 (and by "had the privilege" I mean I bought the magazine) and all in all the article was awesome but it was nothing more than just a big tease full of concept art and screen shots. I am happy that I will get to see what the space port Omega will look like (after reading Mass Effect: Accession) and I am also stoked that Cerberus will be playing a larger role in this game. I hope the Illusive Man is as bad-ass as he sounds/reads in the book.

Gaming Diary May 30, 2009 - No Longer PC Exclusive

Since my "big" purchase of a brand new (well, not BRAND new, but new to me) Xbox 360 I have been completely immersed in the 360 gaming world. I've downloaded tons of game demos trying to get my hands, eyes and ears on as many games as possible. Some of the first games I picked up were Mass Effect, Madden '08 (for the girlfriend, not a big fan of sports games), Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Braid, Peggle and Left 4 Dead. I've played at least a little bit of all of them, with the exception of Madden.

Upon the urging of Nate, I tried out Mass Effect for a little bit. I didn't get all that far before I died. I'm still trying to adjust to the world of buttons and joysticks. The PC mouse and WASD combo is so easy compared to a console controller, but I'm getting used to it. I actually am starting to prefer it for some games. Anyway, I started up Mass Effect, but didn't get all that far. Same situation with Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. I like both games, but I'll definitely need to invest more time before I make a final decision on them. I have been investing a lot of time in Peggle, which I actually initially wasn't a big fan of. I checked out the Peggle demo on my PC and played it a few times on flight paths to WoW and it never did really grabbed me, but now playing it on the 360 is different. I'm totally drawn into it and have made it relatively far (well, at least for me) in a short period of time.

One game I haven't played much, but am loving is Braid. It's not even the gameplay yet that I love (as I really haven't gotten that far), it's the visuals and the music. The music reminds me a lot of Firefly. I would honestly just open up the game just to listen to the music. I'm not really sure what it is about it, but I just think it's beautiful. The game so far has been enjoyable, although it's probably going to wreck my brain a good amount. I tend to fail pretty hard at puzzle-type games and often resort to the good ol' internet to help me along. I'm going to try as best as I can to figure things out on my own, but we'll see how it goes.

The highlight of my 360 gaming experience thus far has to be Left 4 Dead. I got some campaign and survival gaming in last night with friends and absolutely loved it. The best part was, I even got my girlfriend (who tends to avoid gaming in general other then sports games) into the action. So much so that she said she wanted to play again today!

It was definitely worth the money to get the 360. It's providing a significantly more enjoyable multiplayer gaming then my PC ever did. It's difficult to find friends that PC game these days. I suppose we are sort of a dying breed of sorts, with the exception of PC exclusive games like World of Warcraft. Most gamers have become more involved in the console gaming community then the PC. It was awesome to be able to sit down and play with my friends, friends I don't typically get a chance to see all but a few times a year. Honestly, I think if Left 4 Dead was the only game I owned on the 360 it would still be worth the investment for the enjoyment I got out of it.

Now, I praise and praise and praise my new 360 gaming experience, HOWEVER, I still am at heart a PC gamer. I feel like the 360 will hold most of my casual gaming. Stuff that I'm not sitting down for hours for. Stuff I can just jump in and jump out of. I don't see my 360 ever being my "hardcore" gaming device. I still love my PC and still intend to use that as my main gaming "console." World of Warcraft will always have my heart and with Blizzard coming out with Starcraft II and Diablo III in the future I will definitely be investing a lot of time into my PC. I think the 360 will be my casual gaming and multiplayer gaming console while my PC will remain as my intense gaming and single player system. I currently own COD4 and COD5 for my PC with no intention of buying it for the 360. I'm not big into multiplayer on either of the games, but do love the single player aspects.

Other then 360 gaming throughout the last week I have been investing a bit of time into WoW. I got a few hours of WoW action in this morning. I'm currently level 61 working my way up to 62. Leveling is somewhat of a slow process for me since I really only play on the weekends. Today I ventured into Outland (a level 60-70 zone for the non-WoWing individuals) for the second time. My first time traveling to Outland was with the first character I ever made; Walker, a Tauren warrior. I didn't spend too much time in Outland then and honestly, it bored me a little, but I'm finding this time around to be more enjoyable. Blizzard has definitely made leveling significantly easier then the first time around. I anticipate at this pace I'll be making level 80 by sometime at the end of the summer. That's slow, I realize, but I just can't invest hours upon hours into the game like I could in college when I had significantly more free time. I'll probably just end up leveling a new character once I reach 80 anyway and then I'll just start the whole process all over again.

Oh, and I wrote all of this entry outside enjoying the beautiful weather with my laptop and headphones on. Oh to be a geek!

Game Diary - May 28, 2009: Mass Effect... again.

For the past couple of days I have been on a strict regimen of Citadel space flights. You got it, I have been playing Mass Effect once again.

I started this playthrough about a month or so ago but in the past two days alone I have made significantly more progress than when I initially started playing the game for what I believe to be my fourth time.

It is as spectacular as I can remember and even on the fourth playthrough I am finding new dialogue tree options. I loaded the game onto my hard drive for less pop in and no loads while walking (not that these things really bothered me to begin with) and the difference is quite noticeable.

Kara purchased the game... finally, and I am eager to hear her thoughts. You should be as well.

My E3 Rumor & Speculation

When it comes to games expos I honestly am only ever really looking forward to the Xbox news. It is in my nature (it just gets me giddy inside); I have attached all of my caring to that console. I know that there will probably be decent enough iPhone and Ninendo DS announcements but I will not care about them until I hear them.

So having you understand that the only expectations that you are going to see here are 360 in nature I'll just get this show on the road. Naturally I assume that we are all going to see some things from Mass Effect 2, Halo 3: ODST, Modern Warfare 2, Brutal Legend, Dead Rising 2, Bad Company 2, maybe that Mass Effect iPhone game, etc.

What I really want to talk about is what we are not expecting. Could we see a bigger hard drive for the 360? It seems the most likely of any announcement. We have the ability to copy games to our hard drive and my and I am sure most other's Rock Band song collection is growing and that requires a lot of space. Let's not forget the video marketplace. With all of these things together it seems more than likely that we will see a bigger hard drive unveiled at E3.

Rumors have also been swirling again (like in a circle, get it?) on a motion controller so that could be something (albeit something I do not care about).

And last of my speculations: Could we see a slimmer 360 since we may see a slimmer PS3 this year? Who knows?

What kind of announcments are you anticipating?

Mass Effect: Jacob's Story - Color Me Interested

 

Joystiq recently broke this story about a Mass Effect iPhone game called Mass Effect: Jacob's Story. It was a tip from a Joystiq reader about a survey in relation to the game. This story makes me wish that I was the kind of news outlet that readers came to me with this kind of news. Obviously since this is a Mass Effect story I could not resist posting about this.

The reason that I considered not posting about it is because it is just that, an iPhone game. I have confidence in the iPhone as a gaming platform but I am skeptical on whether this game will be good as a good percentage of the games for the iPhone are crap. From what I can tell I am not sure if Bioware is developing this but as long as whomever is developing it does not take any unnecessary creative license with the Mass Effect universe everything will be fine. In the end it did not take much convincing; I am going to play this if and when it comes out.

This is what Joystiq reported about the reader survey:

The mobile game will feature top-down shooter combat and a stylized, cartoonish look. The survey notes that Jacob's Story will function as a predecessor to the upcoming Mass Effect 2, revealing some of the backstory of characters featured in the console game. The handheld adventure would be about two hours long and cost $2.99.

If the game does what this short quote says that it will do, it will be a nice experience to bridge the gap between Mass Effect 1 and 2. I am looking forward to it, I just wish there was a date on it.

A Cavalcade of Updates (Mass Effect, Bad Company 2)

When I sat down to write this post I only had an inkling of an idea on what I wanted to write about but, now that I have crawled through a minimal amount of my feeds, I have a few things that I would like to cram into this post.

First off, we will go with the most interesting part of the past few days of mine. I decided to pick up and play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare after my last post. I am at least halfway through according to the Mission Select screen and the game is more awesome than I remember. Every little thing is so detailed and I feel like I am in the thick of it at all times.  An interesting thing to note is that the headphones are a big help for finding helicopters that are circling around the building that you are in. The game is so obviously well-done and it really has me wondering what they are going to improve for the next one. You can officially count me excited.

Speaking on the subject of warfare the teaser trailer for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has made its way onto the internets via a GameTrailers WORLD EXCLUSIVE (exciting, no?). It really is quite the boring trailer but I am still excited for the game because the first one was a riot and the multiplayer was something different than I am used to. I had never really found interest in a Battlefield game before this one (Bad Company 1) and I feel than many people who primarily game on consoles felt the same way that I did (first Battlefield game exclusive on consoles = fun). The funniest, most interesting part of the trailer was a joke that I understood despite not actually playing the game that it referenced; "Specializing in warfare since 1942," was what the tag line at the end of the trailer read.

In terms of other news, Bioware did unveil thier level design videos for Mass Effect 2, but as you can see I am not giddy in excitement because they did not really show much of anything. Do not believe me? See for yourself.

The only other thing that I have to report is that I may be moving this blog over to WordPress soon because I feel that it is a site that offers more to an up and coming blog such as my own.

Game Developer's Conference 2009

It kicks off today so you can look forward to my excited rants about all kinds of games and features of said games.

What I am looking forward to the most is the panel of the level design of Bioware's Mass Effect 2. I am excited to see what they are doing differently this time to hopefully make each level area a more dynamic experience.

I know that Joystiq and MTV Multiplayer will be there and I am looking forward to their hands-on opinions of Bioshock 2 and, if it is being showed, Overlord 2.

This is all I have until the news really breaks so be on the edge of your seat and I will try and bring you all the news I can in the coming days.

Game Diary March 15, 2009

Late last night I stepped back onto the deck of the SS Normandy and it felt refreshing. It has been almost a year since I last saved the galaxy. This will be my fourth time through it and I am excited to be enlisted once again. I sincerely want all of the achievements for this game and I feel that the probability of that happening is more likely than not. I have wanted to jump back in since the Mass Effect 2 teaser and last night was the night.

Other than Mass Effect I have been playing Halo Wars still feeling equally neutered and equally powerful. I am surprised at myself because I have not yet completed the campaign but I do not feel compelled to rush it. I am savoring it and right now that is okay with me.

I wanted to play Halo 3 this week also but it never made into the drive. It should happen this week seeing how refreshing it was to play it recently.

Resident Evil 5 came out on Friday and while I want to play it, I am okay with not having the money for it right now. I want to spend my money on other things right now anyway. I want Peggle for Cindy (the wife) and I. I would also like to have the DLC for GTA IV. I would also like GTA: Chinatown Wars (DS) but that will also have to wait. Another thing that I do not need is the Premium Mass Effect Theme. I will get all of the above listed things before RE5 though.

P.S. - Kara should play Mass Effect for PC, its HUD and menu system looks fantastic and the game is f-tons of amazing.

Mass Effect 2 Teaser

I apologize for the YouTube quality of the video but you can go here or here to watch it in higher quality.

Okay so you've watched it.

"How do you feel?"

Great, I know. I think know I squealed a little when I saw this. I am not ashamed to admit it. I think I need to play Mass Effect again. Oh lordy, I need to catch my breath.

Naturally I think more about a post before I well, post it but this merits something different altogether. I knew it was coming but now I am stoked. Well hopefully the whole multiplatform thing does not mean that this is coming out later rather than sooner.

Maybe that DLC that I wanted is also coming sooner rather than later.

Okay I just remembered I need to breathe... and sleep. Goodnight all.

Mass Effect 2 Goes Multiplatform

Update: There is newer news that says that ME2 will come out on only PC and 360 to begin with. They are still not ruling out a PS3 version but there is also nothing to say that there will be. Check here for more deets.


Commander Shepard: FALL BACK! EVERYONE FALL BACK!

Liara: Shepard, there are too many Geth, what do we do?

Shepard: We call in reinforcements...

...and that is precisely what EA will have Bioware doing. All consoles will support Mass Effect 2 or vice versa. I suppose the Geth are really a bigger threat than we imagined... or maybe it is something else that treads into spoiler territory.


I have been thinking about this news item for almost a week now and I feel both excited, at the prospect of a new ME game, and shameful, for wanting it to remain on the 360 and PC alone.

I suppose a realistic hope would be improvements on all of the original's shortcomings. I hope they fix the texture pop in, the load times (specifically the elevators), and the handful of glitches that plagued the original. While nothing ruined the game for me (I played it through four times) it would be nice to have those shortcomings fixed.

Again I know that is ridiculous to get upset over platform exclusivity but I am and I know that I do not have a good reason for it. More people will get to experience the series but I do wonder if many PS3 owners will be picking this up or not. A better question still is how many who played the original on the 360 are going to go out and purchase this game for their PS3?

This brings me to the conclusion that the original might come to the PS3. I do not know how probable this is seeing as it was still a Microsoft Games Studio game. Microsoft may still have exclusive rights to the first one but for how long? Just keep this possibility in the back of your mind so as not to be surprised later.

In the meantime we can all fantasize about new "level design" (you know, instead of the same old rooms with different things in them) and adventures with Shepard and Company.

Now if only this Mass Effect 1 section on the Marketplace would update with some new DLC.

[Via Joystiq]