Continue reading EEDAR releases preliminary E3 interest stats

EEDAR releases preliminary E3 interest stats originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You Don't Know Jack is coming back originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading April NPD: Sam Fisher's grim month

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Marvel planning Flash game adaptations for download platforms originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 02:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Telltale Games does 40% of its business on consoles originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

OnLive launch titles 'in the teens,' 50-60 games by 2011 originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to return to the briney deeps of everyone’s favorite undersea dystopia so I can let my inner ADAM addicted tendencies go bonkers. With Bioshock 2 so close to release, the devils over at 2K have decided to goad me further by un-boxing one of those glorious Special Editions for all the world to drool over. Just look at all the amazing swag owners have in store:

• Vinyl Recording entitled “I am Rapture, Rapture Is Me” which has the entire Bioshock score
• “Sounds From the Lighthouse” CD featuring all Bioshock 2 tracks
• 168 page long “Deco Devolution” Art Book
• 3 high quality lithographs
• Copy of Bioshock 2 (but of course!)

Still, not even I will be willing to shell out the several thousand dollars required of the Bioshock 2 Uber Edition, although witnessing the chaos that ensues in the presence of the fully operational Big Daddy included in the package made watching all this Rapture related gear pass me a by a little less painful.

Heh, heh…sounds of anguish make me giggle.

Upon finishing one of the most amazing science fiction adventures in entertainment history back in 2007, I and countless other space faring fans found ourselves in a bit of an intergalactic pickle. Developer Bioware had painstakingly crafted an unbelievably deep universe that rivaled the likes of most Hollywood epics while ensnaring our attention with emotionally gripping characters and dialogue, a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure plot structure, and a sizeable role-playing system coupled with some decent third-person combat. Upon saving (or condemning) the galaxy to certain doom, we all faced a terrifying conundrum found nowhere within the game’s skillfully plotted dialogue trees;  now what do we do?

In response Bioware has listened to every glowing exaltation, every scathing criticism, countless discussions, wishes, annoyances, suggestions and requests in order  to deliver a game which somehow manages to not be thoughtless enough to try and merely out-do its predecessor  but to instead somehow fuse the two titles into an incredibly personal experience that illicits a level of investment and loyalty to virtual characters that I haven’t felt playing a game in quite some time.  Mass Effect 2 takes the decisions you made the first time around, your adventures, conquests, friendships, and even failures in order to give you the chance to pour it all into this utterly captivating adventure that takes you to the very edge of what video games as a medium are capable of. You aren’t just playing the game, you’re creating  it.  You are driving the plot with every bullet you shoot, every decision you make, every word you utter and every life you risk. People, comrades, are going to die in the course of your mission, sometimes needlessly and without even the dignity of having you there to witness it.  There is nothing you can do to save them, and the beauty is that even when there are no more options you always had a choice.

Mass Effect 2 is the gritty second chapter in what is planned to be a trilogy of adventures designed by illustrious developer Bioware, filled to the torpedo tubes with complex characters, gut wrenching betrayals, and sinister forces all wrapped up in a sense of ominous tension that is hard to shake even after your disk stops spinning. It’s not all doom and gloom on the good ship Normandy though as the developers havetaken note concerning virtually every issue anyone and their hyper-neurotic cousin had a problem with their first entry into the franchise, managing to craft a game almost entirely different from its predecessor but still retaining a familiarity that fans will feel at home with. Never before have I seen a game go under so much re-design under the guidance of outside opinion, with many of the issues addressed being ones I myself voiced over the  course of this game’s development cycle. While players will truly appreciate most of what Bioware has tweaked, in the end I believe that sometimes trying to cater too much to your audience may not always be the best of plans.

Let’s start with the story, seeing as how telling a good tale is really what these guys are all about.  If you haven’t played the first Mass Effect, I personally think you should  be declared legally insane seeing as how it was an incredible game. That being said, thanks to a handy prologue, in depth universal codex and clever storytelling, newbies shouldn’t be too lost within the established universe.  Conversely, veterans won’t suffer pointless backtracking while giggling with glee at the fact that most of your previous decisions from the last game will come back to help or haunt you in some truly surprising ways. It’s really amazing that before you even pop in the disk, Mass Effect players already have shaped their sequel by decisions made last time, meaning that Mass Effect 2 is an unparalleled personal experience which should encourage players both old and new to revisit the original title upon completing this new adventure.

Without spoiling too much, human SPECTRE (think James Bond’s “double-0″ program) Commander Shepard is off minding his own business and fighting the forces of evil when the new Big Bad shows up and forces our hero to fall of the face of the galaxy for a while.  This leads to the intergalactic community declaring the Commander  dead and quickly moving on to restore the status quo of pre-Geth invasion life while burying their heads in the sand concerning inevitable doom at the hands of sentient spaceships known as Reapers. After some help from the shady pro-human terrorist organization Cerberus (whom you blew the hell out of often in the first game), Shepard  is back in the saddle and off to recruit a new team of bad-asses with whom he plans to pull off a delightfully hopeless suicide mission. Make new and powerful friends while pissing of equally influential enemies, get back in touch with old pals and traipse across the universe saving (or ruining) the day all in the hopes of successfully making your way to the enemy stronghold and throwing your lives away for the good of humankind.  It’s like the Dirty Dozen but with tentacles and lasers.

The main storyline is solid, suffering only slightly from that ill-fated sequelitis which ensures that while there are definitely good plot reveals here and there, the big issues are really going to start hopping once the climactic exploits of Mass Effect 3 rolls around. The strength here is in developing characters, something Bioware has already proven thoroughly capable of. While your focus will be in recruiting a sizeable contingent of skilled assassins, mercenaries, scientists and war criminals, you will also be surrounded by a galaxy full of captivating enemies, allies, and NPC’s who sometimes seem to deserve a game of their own.  While combat and story seem to be much more balanced this time around, the narrative still takes precedence thanks to a cast of deep characters who manage to grab you emotionally on countless different levels, thanks mostly to some of the best voice acting this side of Uncharted 2.

Dialogue is real and compelling as the patented conversation wheel still works gloriously with the simple Paragon/Renegade mechanics which are now complemented by the new interrupt triggers that can prove both awesome and annoying in equal parts. Popping up in the middle of cinematic dialogue scenes, the Paragon or Renegade interrupts allow Shepard to take control of the situation with either a heroic act or devilish flair. These definitely lead to some cool scenarios to be sure, but their quick appearances also don’t allow for you to be the least bit distracted by anything around you, something I find difficult in the midst of a multitask session or a good blink.

With the darker story comes a larger focus on combat with some tweaks to the gunplay that make for a much more intense and action packed experience than before. Along with a set of really great class specific moves and skills, players now have a lot more tactical control over the field thanks to enhanced weapons selection and power skill wheels, not to mention the new ability to individually direct squad members to specific parts of the battlefield. Using the power/gun wheels pauses play, allowing you to set up devastating combos and get incredibly strategic even when you’re neck deep in angry mercs gunning for you head. Riding the tough balance of hardcore diversity and approachable control, this is definitely not a heavy RPG with a little bit of shooter slapped on for good measure. Combat is visceral, violent,  and incredibly addictive, a welcome addition to the Mass Effect franchise.

Which brings us to the  RPG bits, which where I think Bioware went a bit too far in catering to their detractors.  Much of your character and squad customization has been scaled back or completely thrown by the wayside. While I don’t miss micromanaging the dozens of different bullet types and gun mods that I ferreted away over the course of my travels, I do miss the major loot stores that gave my team an edge in battle. Hacking and Bypassing terminals (while a lot more enjoyable and challenging this time around) yield only credits and occasionally EXP instead of  the armor, weaponry, or interesting side stories of before. Killing enemies doesn’t even earn you points any more, as all quests have been subdivided into missions with predetermined amounts of EXP divvied out upon completion. You can upgrade your weapons by finding or buying a moderate amount of upgrades in the battlefield, each in predetermined locations and all evolving along a relatively short skill tree. Speaking of skills, your character skill management is much more focused this time around with characters starting with only a handful of powers that can then be upgraded along one of two paths and a special move that only becomes unlocked once you’ve earned that character’s complete loyalty. The RPG elements are still there, but they feel a bit stunted in comparison to how far the combat has come. Here’s hoping they can balance the two out next time.

One huge improvement to the game is the state of side-quests. No longer do you fight your way through identical halls shooting random mercs for slightly ambiguous ends. Now you’re fighting through well thought out varieties of battlefield, still shooting occasional random mercenaries but often in the pursuit of a really cool sub-plot. Designed almost like episodes of Star Trek, each mission (called an N7 mission) is a self contained narrative that may or may not have implications on the bigger plot. Each is creative and unique, creating  complex challenges and providing a variety of mission structures akin to Assassin’s Creed 2 or GTA IV. One mission might have you taking back a missile base from terrorists, another battling a crazed A.I. and yet another exploring a foggy swamp where enormous monsters lumber out of the shadows as you find yourself separated from your squad. While these missions are a welcome change of pace from the tiresome MAKO treks across similar looking locales, I still felt a pang of loss for the freedom I felt defying gravity in my little mini-tank.

Other additions include a lack of elevators (now replaced by much more annoying load screens), no more grenades (hated them anyway), some new weapons sub-classes (SMG’s and Hand Cannon’s make me happy), Heavy Weapons (Big-Bada-Boom) and a new  mining mini-game which starts out clever and cool at first but quickly sinks into the depths of tedium and despair. You see, in order to upgrade your ship and weapons you will need minerals, and in order to find them you will have to scan countless planets, launch probes onto their surface and bring back all the rock.  I cannot even  begin to convey how mind-numbing it is, but at least it was a bit more rewarding than just reading pointless text like before.

Mass Effect 2 is an enormous game filled with way too much science fiction goodness for me to ramble on about here. Here’s what you need to know; the game is much more cinematic and capable of delivering even greater emotion and power than before, it looks fantastic, the combat has taken a big step forward while the RPG elements can use a little more work.  You’ll love carrying out every side mission, unlocking every gun, researching every upgrade and chatting up anything with vocal chords. The characters at play are thought provoking and surprisingly identifiable while the story is awe inspiring in scope while managing to deliver both a thrilling quest here and setting even bigger issues into play for next time. This is the title to beat for Game of the Year, plain and simple. This isn’t a game, it’s an experience, and one no human being should ever be robbed of. I’ve fallen head over heels for this game, and that’s with copious amounts of fan boy adoration and gamer skepticism playing merry havoc with my judgment.  No game is perfect, but I have to say this one comes pretty close.

The choice is yours.

Retro XBLA games must be repurchased for the Xbox Game Room originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 26 Jan 2010 22:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.